I ordered a replacement part which I hope will solve the problem, but if it doesn't, I'm in trouble.
The episode begins with a mom arriving home with groceries. She calls out to her family, and finds her son, Sean, in the back, listening to music. She finds the dad out back in the alleyway. He's dead. The cops arrive and look around, and then the mother's daughter, Maureen, shows up and freaks out. Cerreta and Logan investigate, and Stone and Kincaid prosecute.
The neighbors say they heard an argument, but assumed it was another tenant. Back at the precinct, everyone agrees the details don't add up. Forensics (Medill?) determines that the victim's blood is on glass fragments that previously appeared to have been created by a burglar breaking in to the alley way. This evidence doesn't support that idea. They talk to the daughter's juvenile counselor, who says she's a mixed up girl and hangs out with a shady boyfriend, Mitchell Lewis. They talk to Mitchell and Maureen. Then they talk to Sean and his girlfriend, Sandy Resnick.
Back at the precinct, they have Chinese food and discuss the case. "None of this plays," they say, still trying to figure it out.
They talk to the real estate company that the dad, who was the building's superintendent, worked for. The guy there says the dad often had broken bones. They begin to suspect he may have been beaten by his son at certain times prior to his death.
They talk to a neighbor about the night of the murder. She says she heard the argument and then half an hour later heard the glass break. It's clear the son is the chief suspect now. They review the crime scene with forensics and find that the body had been dragged from the basement to the alley, leaving a blood trail along the way. The trail had been cleaned up but they can see it with UV light.
They talk to the victim's wife's brother, Sean's uncle, who says he saw Sean almost hit his dad once. Sean is interrogated, gets a lawyer ("Roger Easton") and is arrested (29'). Stone and the defense attorney talk. Sean's mom admits that Sean beat his dad, but says the Dad beat Sean too. Kincaid is skeptical of this story. Schiff tells Stone to make a deal depending on what Olivet has to say about Sean.
Olivet interviews Sean and concludes he's a sociopath. She also thinks the mom lied: Sean wasn't abused. Kincaid meets with Maureen who says their dad didn't abuse them. They have a big family meeting with Stone and the mom still defends the son, even though it's at the expense of her daughter.
Sean goes on trial (45'). Maureen testifies, Sean testifies, and the verdict comes back: guilty of Murder 2.
Casting notes: Maureen is played by the red-haired girl on Six Feet Under.
The episode begins with a couple riding in a Checker cab discussing marital issues. The cab screeches to a halt, and the cabbie gets out and sees a body in the street, which he nearly ran over. It appears that the victim may have jumped from a bridge overhead. Cerreta and Logan arrive, and ID the victim as James Vogel, a city councilor. He didn't jump, however: he's been beaten and stabbed.
They visit ME Rodgers who has various pictures of the victim's body. They visit his office and review his financial records. They see he recently made a deposit of $50,000. They talk to his dad (played by the actor from the episode Sundown), who denies knowing anything substantive. They also notice payments to a place called "Mullin's," which appears to be some kind of upscale club for gay people. Why a closeted, high-profile city councilor would visit such a place is beyond me, but whatever. The host there says Vogel was gay and planning to come out. They learn that Outworld magazine was planning to out him anyway.
They talk to the editor of Outworld, Mr Barkley, who says he has information that confirms Vogel was gay. They begin to believe that Vogel was being blackmailed by someone who knew he was gay. They talk to his dad again who denies knowing anything about this. They learn that Vogel had an apparent boyfriend named Harold whom he has several letters from. They learn that Harold is Harold Dwyer, a convict just released from a state penitentiary. Sounds like a suspect!
They visit Dwyer's other prison penpals, who are also gay. One of them was threatened by a third party: pay up or I'll release your letters, and everyone will know you're gay. They check the prison phone logs to see who Dwyer was in touch with. Mostly, it was his lawyer, Mr Colson. They talk to Colson, who denies everything, of course, but Logan sweettalks his mail clerk (in a really extraordinary scene), and gets learns the name of the courier service Colson apparently used to pick up payments from the other blackmailed parties.
Meanwhile, the NYPD brass is trying to cover up the fact that Vogel was gay. But the investigation continues, and they intercept a package the courier was delivering to Colson. It contained a lot of money. The question Colson, and he gets an attorney of his own, recurring character Carla Bowman.
The ADAs meet with Barkley to get him to incriminate Colson and Dwyer. He refuses, but they threaten to connect him to the murder and blackmail charges. They obtain the letters. We learn that Vogel's father was powerful back in the day, and supported Schiff in his first campaign for DA.
They talk to another blackmailed penpal. Luckily, he taped the exortion phone calls. Colson can clearly be heard on the tapes, we learn. Colson and Dwyer are arraigned. (36')
Judge Strelzick agrees to seal the court so that the identity of a witness will not be known. This person, a former baseball player, tells the judge his story. Barkley gets a lawyer, too, Helen Barkley, a big first amendment advocate. She wants the court opened to the press. The judge says OK.
The baseball player doesn't want to testify. At Stone's silent urging, he leaves the state, and this allows the tapes he made to be admissible evidence. They make a deal with Colson to roll on Dwyer. He says Vogel's dad knew about the extortion.
They talk to Vogel's dad to get him to testify, but he refuses. Stone points out that he is essentially protecting his own son's killers. Schiff and Vogel meet to discuss this. Vogel says that 16 years ago, he essentially made Schiff DA. Schiff says, "Your shame put the knife into Dwyer's hand."
At trial (56'), Vogel's dad testifies, reluctantly. He fingers Dwyer. The verdict comes back: Dwyer is guilty. Keep in mind, however, that there was absolutely no physical evidence whatsoever connecting Dywer to the murder.
Character background: we learn Schiff was helped along in his quest to become DA 16 years earlier by Vogel. Schiff also says that at one point his father wanted him to be a doctor.
The episode begins with two men going in to work at a butchery. They are surprised to find someone is already there. They walk around and find their boss, the victim, Billy Cooper, 56 years old. He's been shot. Cops on the scene give the detectives their interpretation of how the crime went down, and Briscoe and Logan repeatedly point out mistakes in their theories. They note that he has a young wife.
The visit the wife who is crying a lot. Her name is Irina and she speaks with a Russian accent. It is the eve of her 2nd anniversary with her husband. They talk to Cooper's business parner, Phil Guardino, who tells them he owned a gun, and this was the gun that killed him. Van Buren and the detectives talk, and Briscoe thinks the wife did it, but Logan is skeptical, as he often is of initial suspects. They review the victim's financial records and dtermine that Irina is a sort of mail order bride. Cooper picked her from a catalog, but went to Russia to meet her. When the bride broker asks Briscoe if he's ever been married, he says, "2 priors, no conviction." The broker tells them that if the two had gotten divorced within 2 years of their marriage, then she would not be able to get her citizenship.
They talk to another customer of the broker, and his wife knows Irina. They find that Irina works at a clinical lab. They visit the lab and learn that Irina has a 6-year-old son back in Russia. They re-interview Irina. She made plans to keep him at the office that night, and go out the following night. She has Broadway tickets to prove it. Logan is still skeptical of her guilt, but admits she might be involved somehow.
They visit a Korean deli where Irina says she purchased pastries that night. A Korean employee there says he spotted Irina with another guy -- a guy who was not Mr Cooper. They search Irina's and find a receipt for an abortion procedure. They determine that a guy working at her lab, Mr Nunez, is her boyfriend.
Forensics is able to determine that talc similar to that used on the clinic's lab gloves was found on the weapon. Briscoe theorizes that Cooper found out about the affair and wanted to send her back to Russia, so she killed him. He says, "This broad's had a taste of Zabar's. There's no way she's going to go back to waiting in line for day-old borscht." They arrest Irina and Nunez (31').
At arraignment, they have separate lawyers. Recurring character Judge Torledsky handles the arraignment. The DAs meet with Schiff, and he says they need to prove a connection between Nunez and Irina. They meet with Irina at Rikers, but they don't get anything from her.
The trial of both defendants begins (42'). The victim is more or less demonized during the trial, and Schiff says if the jury hears any more about Cooper, the jury will wish they killed him themselves. Morrison, Irina's lawyer, attacks the Korean witnesses credibility by trying to show that cross-racial identification is often inaccurate. He tries to get a bunch of Latino guys to stand up in the courtroom for some kind of demonstration, but the judge doesn't allow it. He then tries to get an expert to testify on the subject, but he never alerted Stone about this witness. The judge implicitly accuses Morrison of lying. The expert takes the stand, and Stone gently destroys his relevance to this case.
Still, things aren't going well, and when the DAs meet, Schiff says, "Quick...lock the doors. Someone might walk in here with a case we can win."
After much effort, they try to make a deal so Irina will roll on Nunez. Both defendants meet with the ADAs at Rikers. Nunez yells at Irina not to confess, but to accuse only him. She finally does. She says she thinks she was pregnant with Nunez's child. Cooper didn't want kids, and he certainly didn't want Nunez's kid, so he forced her to get an abortion. He says she was threatened with deportation. Nunez confesses to actually committing the murder.
Irina is played by Russian actress Natalya Negoda, who created a stir in pre-Glasnost Russia when she appeared partially nude in a slightly racy Soviet film, Little Vera. The role landed her on the cover of Playboy in May, 1989, but didn't lead to a lot of other Western roles. This is unfortunate, because her performance in this episode is very, very good.
The episode was directed by Dann Florek, who played Captain Cragen on the show for several seasons, but not this one.
The episode begins, as many early episodes do, with two cops discussing the mundanities of life while on patrol. They hear an alarm, and a man comes running out of a townhouse. He tells them his parents have been shot. He is their son, Greg Jarman. The detectives enter the house, and find the dead parents. Profaci is already at the scene. They find the father's gun collection. It appears one of the weapons from this collection is the murder weapon. Greevey jokes, "The family that kils together..."
Greg Jarman is questioned while sitting in a police vehicle, and his older brother Nick Jarman arrives. Nick keeps saying, "She wasn't supposed to be home." Back at the station house, they interview the brothers separately. The detectives stategize onhow to proceed. Captain Cragen mentions the Menendez case. They check the brothers' alibi but it is inconclusive. Ballistics says the gun matches. They try to come up with theories to explain the crime.
They talk to their housekeeper, played by that old actress who looks like Jessica Tandy, and she doesn't say much for now. They talk to Jarman's business partner, who says Jarman was tough but no one wanted to kill him. Greevey likes the kids for the murder, but Logan is skeptical. They talk again to the business partner, Mr Petrovich, who tells that that Jarman broke one of his son's jaws. He also says Jarman was a mentor to him. Petrovich's alibi is that he was out to dinner with another Russian immigrant couple. They talk to this couple, and subtitles(!) tell us they are being less than direct with the detectives.
They talk to the family doctor who tells them that it appeared the father broke Nick's jaw. They talk again to the housekeeper who is more forthcoming this time around, and says that Mr Jarman regularly beat his kids until Nick objected and fought back. This stopped the beating until one time when Jarman went after Greg, and Nick stepped in.
The detectives go through Mr Jarma's mail, and find a letter from Greg's college detailing his progress at school. They talk to someone at the college who says he met with Mr Jarman and Greg one time, and Jarman was mad over his son's weak performance at school. He says Jarman slapped him right there in front of him.
Stone tells the detectives to arrest the boys, which they do. They find them playing racquetball. (31')
The ADAs and detectives meet. Logan still insists they are innocent. They listen to a 911 tape of Greg calling it in, and he sounds pretty upset. Schiff tells them to eliminate all possible suspects, including Petrovich.
They begin to invesitgate Petrovich, and learn that if the kids get convicted of the murder, Petrovich will inherit all of the printing business he co-owned with Jarman. They also learn that Petrovich may be connected to Russian mobsters.
They talk to Jack Epstein, an ADA in Brooklyn who is expert on the Russian mob. He directs them to "the People's Bank of Brighton," which is a front for mob operations. They learn Petrovich has connections to this bank. They theorize that Jarman took out a loan from the mob after his regular bank's debts were bought by this bank.
They want to go after Petrovich, but Schiff predicts he'll walk. They go back to the Jarmon kids and ask for help. They learn that the ammunition used in the killing was brought to the house...this shows pre-planning. They get a witness who says that Petrovich's alibi witness bought this ammunition. Petrovich is arrested off camera, and is represented by a lawyer named Schwap. The judge, a recurring character, entertains a motion about holding a material witness related to the case. They visit Rikers to try to break the alibi witnesses, but they won't.
At trial (53'), stone makes a deal with the alibi witnesses' lawyer to give them immunity "in New York County" for anything they did related to this crime in exchange for this testimony. Their idiot lawyer falls for it, and they give Stone the testimony he needs. He then has them arrested for prosecution in Brooklyn, which is Queens County. Whoops.
The alibi witness, Orsinsky, testifies about the mob's involvement in the crime, and the verdict comes back: Petrovich is guilty of Murder 2.
The episode is notable in part because of the use of the subtitles. If you think about it, using the subtitles violates one of the basic rules of typical L&O narration: don't tell the audience something the investigators don't know. The subtitles clue us, but not Logan and Greevey, that something is strange about their story.
The episode begins, as many early episodes do, with a couple of cops discussing the mundanities of life. They are near a church fair, and a couple of shady characters are shooting water guns into a clown's mouth, winning multiple prizes. They exit the fair. Moments later, shots ring out. A crowd gathers and we see that the victim is one of the dealers. Roll credits. (This teaser is unusual because no detectives respond to the scene.)
When the show resumes, Logan and Greevey are at the scene. They roll the victim, and discover he had a gun on him, which the intial crime scene team missed -- so they don't if the gun was in his waistband or if it he dropped it. The gun hasn't been fired. Furthermore, they learn the victim, Jose Urbano, was shot in the groin.
They check in with ballistics, who tells them that he was shot by a Glock. They talk to Urbano's parole officer, who points them to his sister, who directs them to Hector Cartagena, his former jailmate. They raid Cartagena's apartment, and interrogate him. Things look bad for Cartagena, and Greevey tells Cartagena, "Your ass is grass, hombre," mispronouncing "hombre" the way you'd expect him to.
They talk to a witness, a carting company operator, who says he can't quite be sure what he saw. A woman named Alicia was seen talking to Urbano earlier that night. This leads to her parish priest, Father Torres, who is defensive of Alicia. They learn from ballistics that Anna Rivers, Alicia's grandmother, owns a Glock. Alicia becomes a suspect.
They visit a Latin salsa club of sorts, and Anna tells them the gun was stolen. They also learn that Alicia's sister, Lucy, is in the hospital, having been beaten and possibly raped. They begin to suspect that Urbano raped Lucy, and Alicia found out and sough revenge. But Lucy denies Urbano was her attacker. Meanwhile, Lucy's boyfriend, Nicky, also becomes a suspect.
They confront Father Torres in the church, and Logan is angry with him because he thinks Torres knows more than he is saying. Ballistics then tells them that the gun used to kill Urbano matches one used at a shooting in Anna's club. Robinette tells the detectives to act now and see what happens. They arrest Alicia (29').
At her arraignment before Judge Elaine Durren (recurring actress, but not a recurring character), she is represented by recurring character Shambala Green. Schiff is concerned with Green's involvement in the case, because he fears that given her way with juries, "she'll milk 'em til they moo." Robinette meets with the grandmother and tells her that Shambala is a legal aid attorney, and legal aid loses 2/3 of its cases. He wants her to roll on her granddaughter so they can work out a deal. Everyone meets, and grandma rolls on Nicky, saying that Urbano raped Lucy. Green is representing both Nicky and Alicia, and this appears to be a conflict for Alicia, who might wish to testify against him, since she's still charged with the crime. Judge Markham dismisses the case against Alicia.
Stone and Green discuss the case. Schiff is skeptical and, as usual, tells them "make a deal." Robinette tells them that Green has resigned from the case, and a new lawyer, Mr Burton, is coming up from Dallas, Texas, to represent Nicky. Burton shows up (later, in a cowboy hat and a bolo tie) and tells them that Latino culture calls for revenge when someone goes after your woman like that. He also says he's never lost a case.
At Nicky's trial for Murder 2 (44'), there is much tenstion between the New York and the Texas ways of doing things. The priest gets on the stand, and says that Nicky was going to kill Urbana. Logan testifies re the victim's gun. Greevey then learns that Nicky was a drug dealer, and maybe this had to do with business, not romantic revenge. This twist seems unnecessary and tacked on. They get a kid who will testify that Nicky is a dealer, but the judge won't allow it.
The jury goes out to deliberate, and Schiff says "I told you so" to Stone. The verdict comes back: not guilty. Stone lost.
Casting notes: The priest is played by recognizable character actor Paul Calderon, who has appeared on the show several times. The carting company operator was the main character in the episode about the guy who is black but pretends to be white.
The episodes title refers to those who share the secret of what happened that night. "The Secret Sharer" is also the title of a short Joseph Conrad book about a man who kills a mutinous sailor.
The episode begins inside the scene at the surprise party. When she doesn't show up, the flamboyant host, Mr Holland, goes to her apartment to find her. There are professional photos of a model on the walls. He finds her with her head bashed in. Briscoe and Curtis respond to the scene. The victim's name is Christine Sandler, and Briscoe remember her from her modeling days. It looks like she hit her head on the table and there is blood on the underside of it. They find seizure medication in her apartment, so maybe a seizure was to blame. Her son Doug shows up and is understandably upset.
They learn that Sandler used to have a cocaine habit, but has been clean for 4 years. Mr Holland says that Doug was not a good son. They talk to Doug's father, Jimmy Burke, who looks like Billy Idol, and who is a sort of washed up rock star. He has an alibi, though: he was out recording a jingle for a mattress company. His alibi is uneven, however, as the timing of it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. They talk to his groupie girlfriend, who says he left her at 2.30 pm, and they know he didn't arrive at his mattress gig until 4.
Burke is questioned again. He says Doug asked the victim for money on behalf of Burke. The short forensics guy Ellis tells them that Burke's blood doesn't match that found at the scene, but whoever left it is a blood relative of the victim's. That makes it look like Doug is the suspect, doesn't it?
Doug is questioned. This leads them to the vic's bookkeeper, who points out a check that was written to someone, but the endorsement on the back of the check is illegible. They visit Sonya, the bank telller who cashed the check, and she seems nervous. They learn that the victim's mother has Alzheimer's disease and lived at a convalescent home. They visit the home and find out that Sonya has been visiting her there! Now that's strange! They talk to the vic's mom who is completely out of it.
They talk to Sonya on the street and she tells them that the victim is her secret mother! Now it looks like Sonya killed her. They trick Sonya into giving them a blood sample, and learn that on the day of the murder, she left work, and returned with a different purse than the one she entered with.
They question her co-worker, Grant Silverman, who she was seen talking to and handing the purse to. They are able to get a search warrant for her apartment but not for Silverman's. They need the bloody blouse they assume was in that purse. Sonya is arrested at the bank (35'), as is Silverman.
Both suspects are questioned. Silverman is talking to Briscoe and seems about to roll when Sonya, in another room, mentions that Silverman is not only her boyfriend but also her lawyer. A moment later, Silverman tells Briscoe about the bloody blouse. Hm, that's thorny.
The ADAs want to get Sonya's birth records released. Judge Yee suppresses Silverman's statement, since it is considered privileged. Ross meets with the detectives and go through the suspects' mail. They learn that Silverman had been pursuing a matter with the relatives of another dead person, a rich guy named Harold Lanser, who was worth $250 million. They get a biopsy sample from him, and it appears he may be Sonya's secret father. His will says he leaves his fortune to "my children," so Sonya could conceivably get a stake of that.
At trial (48'), Sonya fights the charges of murder. Lanser's lawyer says he needed an affidavit from the victim describing her sexual encounter with Lanser. Only then could he give Sonya the money. This might have been what Sonya was after from her mom. Sonya testifies, and she mentions in passing that as her attorney, Silverman would earn 1/3 of whatever she got from her petition of Lanser's estate. So he looks more like a prime suspect. McCoy really goes after Sonya on the stand, though, and breaks her down. The defense lawyer asks the judge to intervene, saying, "Your honor, this is cruel."
The DAs hav a conference and discuss the possibility that Silverman is behind the whole thing. They make a deal for his testimony: he'll only be charged with a misdemeanor. Ross doesn't like it and says McCoy is "buying" his testimony. Silverman accepts the deal and rolls on Sonya.
McCoy and Sonya's defense attorney, Marjorie, meet. She says Sonya will take a deal. Sonya says her mom, the victim, was a hooker when she was 18. She says that she, Sonya, was envious of the half-brother. She went to get what she deserved -- the affidavit -- but her mom wouldn't give it to her, so she hit her and killed her.
In the epilogue, we learn that Sonya is indeed Lanser's child. Silverman will earn his $17 million. McCoy says he's going to send a transcript of the proceedings to the victim's son, so they can use it in a civil trial to get money for the victim's death. Schiff ends the episode with the word, "Lawyers...." and a sigh.
The episode begins with some women yelling after a shooting in the park near the river. Cops chase after the gunman, who throws his gun into the river just before they tackle him. Cut to a diving crew trying to recover the gun. Instead, they find a 1968 VW bus submerged in the water. A crane lifts the van out of the water, and when they open the door, a skull rolls out. Briscoe and Curtis are on the scene by now, and they also find a piece of blue plastic and the rest of the skeleton. The victim has been shot in the head.
Back at the precinct, they talk about where the bus may have rolled into the water from. Curtis says no one really knows, and says it could have been New Jersey, Spuyten Duyvil, or any number of other places.
They talk to the medical examiner (not Rodgers -- the other lady) who tells them the victim might be a skier, based on the fracture in his leg. She says he's a 6-ft-tall man. The forensics on the car yields a VIN, so that's a pretty good place to start. They talk to the last guy who was on record as owning it. He says he swapped it in 1968 for a Mercedes? Who would make a deal like that? His rebellious rich girlfriend, that's who. They track her down, and she's now still wicked rich and living in a giant townhouse, but when they talk to her, she's preparing a benefit for a liberal cause. Her name is Diana Wells and she says she swapped her Mercedes for the van to piss off her parents, and later gave the van to her "first Jewish lover," a guy named David B-something. They go through the records of Kensington College (her school), and narrow it down to David Bernstein. They talk to his brother Seth who says David disappeared when Seth was a young boy and David was in college. He and his family never learned what happened to him. They talk to the detective who is supposedly working David's missing persons case now, and he has no memory of it and only a one-page file. They talk to Kenneth Stratton, who at the time was an activist/student leader who led the occupation of the administration buildings at Kensington. Stratton says he saw cops beating up David. Briscoe gives Curtis a look that implies they think the cops may have "disappeared" David, which makes them nervous.
They talk to David's friend Peter who says David was pretty militant as an activist and even drenched a war memorial in pig's blood. They talk to his girlfriend at the time, a black woman named Tracy Howard, who says she figured David just ran off with a nice Jewish girl. She leads them to the security guard at the campus parking garage that night, an old guy named Grady. They talk to a guy who was a courier back then, and is now a chef, and he points them to another guard who is supposed to be Grady's alibi. He says he was out playing cards elsewhere on campus that night and can't vouch for Grady. They reinterview Grady, and he's all cranky, as is his middle-aged son.
They review news footage of the protests and note that the security guards are wearing plastic name badges -- the plastic appears to match what they found in the van. Looks like a clue!
They talk to Grady yet again, and he tells them how he was pissed off at the protesters because he just learned that day that his other son had gone MIA in Vietnam.
Carmichael talks to the widow of a reporter who was working that day. The reporter had noted that the security guards had guns, and she wants to find out who told him this. The ADAs talk to another female activist who says that David had money and paid for things the movement needed, but they never knew where this money was coming from. They check with Seth, David's brother, who points them to a storage facility. The find pay stubs for a certain amount of money -- and amount Briscoe immediately recognizes as the weekly salary for a rookie cop that year. It looks like David Bernstein was an undercover cop who infiltrated the student movement!
They try and get confirmation of this from the NYPD, but the clerk clams up. Carmichael eventually learns that David was attached to something called "Special Squad 3," an undercover intelligence branch of the department. But she can't get detailed records released.
They talk to another guy who served on Special Squad 3 with David. He says he went to a meeting of 8 "radicals" and 5 of the guys attending the meeting were fellow undercover officers. He says he took directions from his sargeant. AC talks to the sargeant and he says he saw Grady driving off with David's van, but he didn't investigate. The ADAs meet with the police dept. brass to get the records released, but they refuse. AC says police have a right to do what is necessary to prevent terrorism, but McC disagrees.
AC wants a deal for Grady, and she offers one: Man I. During the meeting, McCoy accidentally-on-purpose mentions the secret police records, so as to whet the appetite of Grady's lawyer. AC gets mad, but McCoy says he wants those files, and he'll even team up with Grady's defense to get them.
Grady's son wants a deal, but McCoy won't allow it. He wants the attorney to push for the release of the files with him. They meet with the police brass again and the department's attorney (played by Roy Thinnes). AC doesn't get what McC is doing, and he predictably tells her, "You don't know anything about the 60s," just like he did in that other episode, White Rabbit, where the fugitive mom from the payroll robbery turns up in New Jersey.
Schiff tells McCoy to go after the records, and to find Bernstein's "handler," the police officer who handled Bernstein's undercover operation. The police know where this guy, Sgt Macmillan, is, but they won't turn him over. A judge forces them too.
At a pre-trial hearing, Macmillan testifies. He says that the police department tried to get the civilian activist Stratton to join up with the violent Black Panthers, but Stratton refused. Bernstein was the guy who was supposed to make this happen. In other words, Bernstein was given assignments that would make the student movement look bad. The department even set him up with the pig's blood and told him to splash the monument. They even tried to get Macmillan to frame the Black Panthers for Bernstein's disappearance, but he told them it wouldn't work.
In any case, McCoy gets what he wants. Judge Pongracic orders the files opened, and Grady gets a deal, Man 2, 1-3 years. He confesses.
Thematically, note how both the Grady family and the Bernstein family have similar situations: a son disappears, and a brother is left trying to hold the remaining family together.
I'm not sure what the title "Ramparts" refers to in this context, and don't feel like looking it up right now. A rampart is a barrier, so I guess it might refer to the barrier the NYPD erects to keep people from finding out about their dirty past.
The episode begins with a superintendent and an exterminator approaching a woman's apartment. Hearing no answer, they enter, and see a badly injured, but somewhat conscious woman on the floor. Her name is Cecilia. Briscoe and Green investigate, eventually handing off to McCoy and Carmichael for a zealous prosecution.
Briscoe and Green head over to the hospital, where the victim is in a coma. It appears her attacker injected her with Demerol, a painkiller which, unfortunately, she suffered an allergic reaction to. They interview her co-workers at a travel agency. They learn that her sister, Julia, died recently. She has an ex-husband, but he is quickly eliminated as a suspect. They learn she was at the Mayflower Hotel, where she dropped off a package for a gust. They trace her to the Hotel Swanson, where she was at the bar with a man in a suit. At her apartment, the detectives find many business cards and call the numbers on the cards. One leads to Kenneth Taylor, the former press secretary for a state agency. They question him, and Green is extremely skeptical of him.
Back at the precinct, they learn the rape kit came back negative. They check her phone LUDs and find that she frequently called the 116th Precinct in Queens. They talk to a detective there who says that he was investigating the death of Cecilia's sister, Julia, and Cecilia would frequently call to check the status. The Queens det says Cecilia always thought Julia's boyfriend was to blame. Guess who that is? Yep, Kenneth Taylor.
They question Taylor at the precinct. He has a bad temper and blows up at them. They question another co-worker of the victim who says she thinks Cecilia's family must have a curse on it: her parents died in a car accident, Julia disappeared, and Cecilia has now been brutally attacked.
Back at the precinct, Van Buren is on the phone with "the computer company from hell" who has messed up her son's computer (she refers to this company in a later episode, too.) They learn that Taylor had a DUI arrest right around Cecilia's former neighborhood in Albany, and that he moved to NYC shortly after she did. It looks like he was stalking her. Also, they learn he's on painkillers, perhaps Demerol. They arrest him (off camera) and question him. Green takes notes in a pronounced way during the interview, which seems to rattle Taylor. Mid-interview, Van Buren enters and says that his DNA was found in semen at the scene. Even so, Taylor insists he is innocent.
He is eager to tell his story to the grand jury, and McCoy allows it. Taylor says Cecilia hurt herself to frame him. He also says he was with women from an escort service, and Cecilia must have gotten the semen from them. This seems unlikely, and McCoy is skeptical. He gets the indictment he seeks.
Carmichael is less skeptical and attempts to track down these escorts. It takes some effort, but she finds one who basically says that Cecilia arranged for her to have an encounter and take used condom from Taylor.
In the meantime, McCoy is going foward with his prosecution, aggressively, and Taylor's defense attorney, recurring character Mr Garnett, gets his butt kicked by McCoy on a variety of motions related to trail evidence. Realizing he's got no hope at trial, Garnett tries to get Taylor to accept a plea deal: 12.5 years plus all of Cecilia's medical expenses. He reluctantly agrees, but insists he's innocent. Carmichael is upset with McCoy for not telling them about the escorts.
McCoy learns of some additional property that Taylor had not previously reported: a barn upstate. He orders it to be searched for Cecilia's sister's body. They find it there, in a canvas bag just like the one used on Taylor's brother's boat. In fact, they learn through forensics it is the exact same bag as the one used on that boat.
At trial, Garnett argues that Cecilia killed Julia, and the judge allows it, despite her previous rulings that she wouldn't and McCoy's objections. Garnett delivers his summation in which he refers to evidence that was not introduced at trial, which he's not allowed to do. This visibly upsets McCoy, and he retaliates in his own closing statement [mp3], in which he ignores the judge's orders to stop explaining his belief that Cecilia attacked herself in a desperate bid to show that Taylor killed her sister. The judge puts McCoy in contempt and declares a mistrial.
McCoy visits Cecilia in the hospital. Carmichael arrives and tells him that, just like Taylor said, Cecilia may have killed her sister, too: two of the sister's hairs were found in the trunk of Cecilia's car, which she sold right after her sister disappeared.
The episode begins at a diner where a blonde college-aged girl sits down and talks to the folksy counter man, ordering a coffee and reading a chemistry text book. She gets a phone call and leaves. Moments later, there are screeches and screams, and she's been run over. The victim is Emily Milius, aged 17, and she's been run over by a Saturn. She's in Washington Heights (the neighborhood north of Harlem), but she goes to a private school in a different neighborhood.
Milius's panicky mom identifies her, and so they continue their investigation at her school. Her droll friend Blair says that Milius did Ecstasy ("X"), and other friends reveal she had a friend named Todd Block. They talk to the victim's rich parents, and her dad, apparently some kind of big shot CFO of a pharmaceutical company, reveals druing a private conversation in the park that he is a whistleblower at his company and was afraid for the safety of himself and his family.
The Saturn is found, and Borak gives some good forensic information on the car. They track the owner down to a Mrs Payton, who says her son Danny had the car. They visit Danny and find him dead in bed, in a cold room. Was Danny hired to make this hit or what?
They talk to Danny's mom again. They learn he had a job at a gas station, and that he did drugs. ME Rodgers examines Danny's bodie and says he was stabbed to death, but his tox screen came out negative. The stab wounds had hesitation marks. Van Buren talks to Emily's mom down at the precinct, and as they're talking she sees Danny's mom who has been brought into custody. (In case you're wondering, this moment is handled about 1000 times less effectively than a similar moment was treated in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets that was filmed about 10 years earlier.)
Anyway, it's beginning to look like Danny's mom killed Danny. They question her aggressively, with Briscoe and Van Buren good-cop/bad-copping her until she gives it up and confesses, though without being Mirandized. (27')
She retains defense counsel Kay Hartley, who shows up late for court and not formally dressed, daying it was casual day at Whitman Worth, her firm. It is revealed that Harley knows Serena Southerlyn from Law School. Southerlyn says that Hartley was a snob, which sounds like the pot calling the kettle black to me. What Hartley is doing defending this person is beyond me, anwyay, since she's not a criminal attorney and she's handling a murder case, but that is partially explained later, I guess. Anyway, you know Hartley is going to move to suppress the confession, since her client wasn't Mirandized.
Hartley and Southerlyn meet in Central Park. Hartley says that Danny's mom, Mrs Payton, is mentally ill. Then Hartley reveals that Danny's dad is her uncle, so her client is her aunt! Hartley asks Southerlyn to obtain Payton's medical records. She wants to get Payton declared crazy, but Payton doesn't want that to happen. So Hartley pretends to repesent her aunt in a hearing to determine whether Payton can act as her own guardian. It is a scene of total bullshit.
A doctor tells them that Danny was schizophrenic, but not abusive. Hartley argues that -- listen to this -- Payton killed Danny as a "defense of a 3rd party" because she knew that Danny would kill again. Well, the only reason she was able to get this defense in is that Southerlyn screwed up in fighting for those records. In other words, Serena got played. They have a big cat fight about it, and Hartley reveals that this case is going to make her a partner at her firm. (A pro bono case of a low-class, low-profile murderer makes you a partner at a corporate firm?? Give me a break.)
Anyway, at trial (42), Van Buren testifies about the circumstances of the interrogation, which is pretty rare for the show. Hartley suggests that Danny was responsible for several other unsolved cases, including some guy who got kicked to death. Branch tells SS to make a deal, but SS and McCoy keep trying to prosecute the case. McCoy concludes that Danny has killed at least two other people, which means he accepts the notion that Danny kicked that guy to death, even though there is no evidence to suggest that he actually did. This is nonsense.
Surprise! Southerlyn learns that Hartley lied to her yet again. She had said Danny stole the keys to the Saturn, when in fact he didn't. Also, Hartley didn't tells Mrs Payton about the plea offer. In his closing, McCoy mentions his own child, and the verdict comes back guilty.
This episode is such a pile of crap it's not even worth discussing. Every time you see the creators of the show talk about how realistic the show is, think back to this episode and scoff.
