The Ledger

8.10 Ritual

This episode (8.10) deals with the African cultural practice of female genital mutilation and is extremely difficult to watch at times. The victim in the episode was arranging to have his niece undergo this procedure, and then one of her relatives killed him to prevent it.

The episode begins with a tow truck driver preparing to haul away a BMW. He notices a body concealed behind a short wall nearby. Briscoe and Curtis investigate. They find some notes about a flight on him, which leads them to his hotel, and they learn his name is "Joe" Moussad. They begin to have mild suspicions that he might be involved in terrorism.

Down at the precinct, the detectives pass a woman as they approach Van Buren's office. They ask who she was, and AVB explains it's her lawyer, and that she's suing the department becaused they passed her over for a promotion. She took the captain's test, and they gave it to a white woman, even though AVB had more seniority. This lawsuit is mentioned many times in subsequent episodes.

Once that's cleared up, they discuss finding residue of baking soda in the hotel room, and some odd movements of Moussad. They explicitly mention their concerns about terrorism. Forensics tells them that the baking soda can be used as a "stabilizing agent" in bomb-making.

They somehow get a lead on another related hotel room, and raid it looking for a man named Nasser who was mentioned in a message on Moussad's answering machine. They learn that Nasser was headed to the Statue of Liberty. They get all concerned he's going to blow it up, so they race over there and find him in line. He's carrying a medical bag, and when they knock it out of his hands, medical equipment (not a bomb) spills out.

They take Dr Nasser in for questioning and he basically stonewalls them until he can talk to a representative from the Egyptian consulate. ADA Jamie Ross shows up and says since he says he was in the US to do medical work on Massoud but entered on a tourist visa, they can hand him over to INS for immigration violations.

An Arabic-speaking police officer translates the answering machine tape for them. It's Massoud's sister talking about Nasser, arranging some kind of meeting. Another message is from Massoud's girlfriend. They go and talk to her and she says his family probably killed him. They were always trying to get money from him, she says.

They bring in Massoud's sister for questioning, and her husband, Mr Martin. They try to bluff him by saying they have a record of his leaving a parking garage around the time of the murder, but he calls their bluff and says those magneting cards don't have identifying information on them. The sister's teenage daughter (Massoud's niece) is also at the station. She's gets a minute alone with AVB and says her mother fought with Massoud and left the house after Massoud, so she might have killed him. In other words, she's trying to make it look like her mom did the crime.

McCoy and Ross determine that Nasser's story about Massoud having a bad heart is bogus, and Nasser isn't a heart doctor. They also note he was carrying surgical instruments, not something you'd need as a cardiologist.

The Egyptian consulate's representative is stonewalling Ross in her efforts to learn about Nasser, so she gets his car towed because he owed $30,000 in parking tickets. He begins to cooperate.

They talk to Massoud's sister's neighbors to learn more about the Martin family. The old lady neighbord says she hears them fighting a lot, and that Mrs Martin is very strict about her daughter's upbringing and flipped out once when she tried to wear makeup. She also says she saw Mr Martin returning home late the night of the murder.

Ross learns that Nasser is an ob-gyn doctor. She talks to another doctor who sponsored his visit to the US for a seminar a while back. That doctor says that over in Egypt, Nasser performs female genital mutilation on young girls. This is a process whereby the girl's clitoris is cut off to "ensure" chastity. There is a very graphic description of the operation.

The DAs figure it all out and determine that Massoud was arranging for Dr Nasser to do this to his niece, apparently with the consent of his sister, but against the wishes of Mr Martin.

They talk to Mr Martin and offer him Man I, for which he would plead extreme emotional disturbance and get 7.5 years. He refuses, and says he wants to go to trial. Ross wants McCoy to be even more lenient.

They take it to a grand jury where Mr Martin testifies about what was being planned for his daughter, and he admits to the killing. The grand jury returns and indictment for Man I, but he again refuses a plea bargain.

Meanwhile, Ross is working to secure the safety of the girl. She works pro bono to get the girl into the custody of her paternal grandparents. There is a hearing on the matter at family court, and there is more graphic testimony about gential mutilation.

McCoy struggles with his obligation to take the case against Martin to trial, and Schiff basically tells-him-without-telling-him that he can purposely lose the case.

Back at family court, Ross confronts the girl's grandmother who seems to be behind the whole push to operate on the girl. The old woman says a lot of stuff about how Americans don't understand, and finally the girl's mother stands up to her own mother and says she won't let this be done to her daughter, since she knows from personal experience how terrible it is.

The Martins meet in the family conference room, and they come up with a deal: Mrs Martin cedes custody of her daughter, and Mr Martin pleads to Man I and gets 7 years. They agree to this.

Casting note: Mr Martin's attorney is played by Steve Landesberg, who played Dietrich on Barney Miller.

Posted by adm at August 31, 2004 10:23 AM

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