In the criminal justice system
the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups,
the police who investigate crime
and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
Let's go! Let's go!
Okay, get all the wheels, Poppi!
What about under the hood, man?
I'm on it, man! Just get all the wheels!
Damn! There's a guy in here.
Back away from the vehicle! Move it!
Keep your hands on your head!
Hey, Danny! There's someone in here!
Hey, man, that guy was... Shut up!
Hey, Mike, what you got?
White male, 50s, no wallet, no ID.
One shot in the sternum. Found a spent.38 slug in the back seat
and wearing an empty holster on his belt.
Let me guess. No gun?
Searching the area now.
You run prints?
Should hear any minute.
What about these two mutts who were boosting the car?
They're clean on this one,
but their van is full of swag.
Is this still a hooker stroll?
Twenty-four hours a day.
Could have something to do with his johnson being out.
Oh, thanks. I might not have put that together.
What about the car?
Well, the car's registered to a Bernum Woods Corporation
on Queens Boulevard.
Bernum Woods.
They make a nice golf club. Titanium.
I don't play.
Yeah. Well, if you did, you couldn't afford those.
How long's he been here?
Ten, twelve hours.
We got a hit on his prints.
Gilbert Keene.
Hey, Lennie, this guy's a retired cop.
I met Gilly playing golf.
He was still on the force then.
After he retired, I asked him to come
to work for me as chief of security.
Your friend Gilly was found in an area frequented by prostitutes.
Did he go in for that sort of thing?
I don't know. He never said anything about it.
Do you know of any family we can contact?
No.
I'm the closest thing he's got.
The slug came from a Colt.
Keene had a Colt registered in his name.
What about the prints? No hits.
Maybe our hooker's new in town.
You think it's a hooker rip-off?
Reads like it. But I can't see an ex-cop
letting himself get popped with his own gun.
Hey, a guy getting his knob polished,
I could believe anything.
Check with the regulars for any new faces on the block.
We think a working girl took this guy out.
Maybe during a rip-off.
I don't know nothing about no girls
ripping off no johns. It's bad for the trade.
Well, maybe it was a new girl,
didn't know the rules?
Look, anybody who helps us out
gets a free walk next time they're collared.
Well, I seen a new girl down the block.
Little farm girl.
Dirty blonde, sugar-faced thing.
This sugar-faced thing have a name?
Goes by Iris.
I seen her today at the deli on 10th Avenue.
Right. Thanks.
And my name's Mona. You won't forget?
Hey, you want a date?
That's what I'm here for.
Well, what kind of party are you into?
You think maybe you could arrange
a little double-team action?
Oh, I think I can arrange anything you like.
Hey, is that Iris still working around here?
Well, it's your lucky day. She's right over here.
Hey, Iris, the guy wants you and me.
How you doing, Iris?
Hey! We party before?
Damn. They're cops.
Take a hike. Let's go.
Please don't arrest me. No.
We don't want to arrest you,
we just want to talk to you. Come on.
How did you get the wallet and the pager, Iris?
I found them. Where?
I don't remember.
You know who this stuff belongs to?
No.
A john who was murdered. In his car.
Where you from, Iris?
Minnesota? West Virginia?
Ohio.
It's probably a lot worse here than you thought, huh?
Guys roughing you up, not paying you.
This guy rough you up, Iris?
Look, if you tell us what happened,
we can make things a lot easier for you.
If you don't tell us, we're gonna have to go to the D.A.
We're gonna have to tell him what we know,
Which is that you had the victim's property.
And if we find your prints in that car,
I can tell you right now,
you'll be charged with murder.
And you'll be convicted.
He was already dead. I didn't kill him. I swear to God.
I looked in his jacket and I found his wallet and pager.
Iris tests negative for powder residue,
and she wasn't wearing the same lipstick as our perp was.
We took a sample off the victim.
The brand's called Porfini.
The shade's Caribbean Sunset.
Twenty-six bucks a tube.
Five stores in the city carry it.
Thanks, Teresa.
The techs down the hall
checked the alpha memory on Keene's pager.
One interesting call. "Jane, 911."
You follow up on it?
Yeah. Profaci went over Keene's LUDs. No call to any Jane.
Maybe his good buddy Bernum knows who Jane is.
Yeah, we got one Jane who works in R&D.
Jane Tennick. She's a clerk.
What kind of relationship did she and Keene have?
None that I know of.
She's only been here about six months.
I page people all the time,
but that one, no, nothing comes to mind.
Well, we're gonna check on every call
Gilbert Keene made last week.
Now, if one of those calls was to you, right after that page,
it's not gonna look too good.
Does that jog your memory?
This is a murder investigation, Miss Tennick.
Believe me, you do not want to be jerking us around on this.
I did page Keene.
But it had nothing to do with his death.
I don't know anything about that.
Look, Gilly Keene was a jerk.
He was blackmailing me.
Really? How?
I had taken a set of golf clubs from the building,
an older set, for my father,
when he came to visit me.
Keene found out about it.
What did he say?
He said that if he told Bernum,
Bernum would fire me on the spot.
He also threatened to press charges,
turn me over to his cop buddies.
The ones who do his background checks.
"Or," he says, "I can forget everything."
Keep this a secret and not tell Bernum.
If I slept with him once.
And I did.
Then he wanted me again.
And if he wanted to keep doing it,
I would have to go along.
So what was the page about?
I was gonna tell him it was over.
I didn't care if he told Bernum or went to the police.
I would deal with it.
And what'd he say about that? Nothing.
I spoke to him around 10:00 in the morning
and he didn't have time to talk about it.
Where were you Wednesday, noon?
I was here, in the canteen,
having lunch with 10 other people.
Tennick's alibi checked out.
We ready to rule out Iris?
Maybe she washed all the powder residue off.
She'll be in the system another couple of days,
but I don't think she has it in her.
You said Tennick mentioned some old cop buddies?
Yeah. She said he was using them to check things out.
So go check them out. We are.
There's a wake for Keene over at Craven's.
This is between us. Off the record.
He'd ask me to check some license plates,
throw him a few numbers. Do a BCI check.
Hey, Captain, no business.
Briscoe, this is strictly for Keene. To Gilly Keene!
To Gilly Keene!
You talk to him recently?
About a week ago, yeah.
He called and asked me to check
on this bogus credit card charge.
What was that about?
Well, he said it was important.
Somebody was making unauthorized purchases.
You find out who it was?
I found out the name of the vendor.
It was like a jewel. Topaz Enterprises. That's all I remember.
Did Keene go in for hookers?
There's a broad in the 47
who used to give him a freebie.
And that's it?
He didn't like to play by the rules.
That's why he lost his job.
I don't know about any bogus credit card charges.
Maybe Gilly found something on his own.
And Topaz Enterprises doesn't ring a bell, huh?
I've never heard of it.
Nothing in Keene's file on Topaz.
How many employees are authorized
to use a corporate credit card?
About 10.
But how do you know this fraud he was investigating
wasn't on his personal card?
Well, we'll get into that, but in the meantime,
if you could get us a list
of the card users, the authorized ones,
and the corporate credit card statements for the last few months.
You think you could do that, Mr. Bernum?
Yeah. Sure.
I thought you never heard of Topaz Enterprises.
I haven't.
Well, you got six $500 charges last month,
four the month before, and four the month before that.
Unless it's some supplier that changed their name.
Who used corporate card number two?
That was Gilly Keene. I gave it to him
to use during his investigations.
Hey, only one of us needs to push a button, all right?
Okay, fine. You do it.
You don't have to wait to hear all the options.
I caught the case, okay?
So I'll push the button when I want to.
Ha! A live person. Hello.
You have two New York police detectives on the line.
Yeah. I got the name of a vendor, Topaz Enterprises.
I need a phone number and an address and a name.
No, we don't have time to send you a letter on our stationary.
Would a subpoena to your boss help?
P.O. Box 176, 1700 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains.
Thank you.
176. They must come in to collect the mail.
These places are designed for privacy.
Box holders enter from the outside with their own key.
We never see them come or go.
I have nothing to do with them except collect the rent.
Well, who pays the rent for 176?
176, pays once a year with a money order. Mailed in.
For all I know, Elvis is renting that box.
Would you happen to have any copies of Elvis' money orders?
The mailbox was registered to Mary Jones.
Another clever alias.
You don't need an ID to get a money order.
Yeah. All right. Thanks, Charlie. Take care.
Mary Jones' money order for the rent on that box
came from the Bryant Avenue Post Office in Mount Kisco.
Mount Kisco? Wait a minute.
Keene's LUD showed some calls to Mount Kisco.
Yeah, here we go. January 14. 9:42 a.m.
That's the day before the murder.
I know Gilbert Keene. He's a client.
He phoned here a couple of days ago.
Do you recall what that was about?
I talked to him.
We arranged a time to go look at some carpet samples.
We were doing some work for his company.
These gentlemen are police officers from the city.
Ah. Hillary Colson. I'm Sondra's partner.
When did you go look at samples?
Last Tuesday.
I took the train in and we drove around in his car.
How about Wednesday?
Wednesday.
We went into the city.
Sondra and I, we took a day off.
Went to Bloomingdale's, Barneys.
How long you been in business?
Eighteen months. Need any decorating?
No job too small.
Well, my partner's thinking about getting a new place.
He might need some help.
Yeah, you don't have a card, do you?
Maybe a brochure?
Yes, we do.
Give us a call. We have lots of ideas.
So, what do you think?
I think they're lying. They met with
the security chief to discuss decorating?
I just hope we can get prints off of this.
So, Lennie, that stuff about me needing help decorating,
that was just to get her to hand me a brochure, right?
Because you know I know how to put together a room.
Hillary's prints were all over the car,
steering wheel, steering column, both door handles.
And the front of Keene's seat.
She was looking at carpet samples with Gilly Keene.
You think they're fronting Topaz?
I think they're both call girls.
And I think those $500 charges
were for services rendered.
$500 for a quickie in the front seat?
She must have some technique.
Hey, if we can prove they're pros
we can sweat them a little.
The credit card company gave us
the names of some other Topaz clients.
I gotta tell you guys, this is making me very uncomfortable.
Relax. We're not Vice.
First of all, if I do admit to using the services...
It doesn't go any further than this room.
Yeah, well, some people think it's, you know, not right.
What? Knowing what you're gonna get up front?
I call that practical.
See, you and me think alike.
You recognize either of these women?
That's Amber. Unbelievable. And that's Cathy.
I get a chubby just thinking about her.
Do you know where they went?
Yeah, I think they went to a basketball game at the middle school.
What are they? Cheerleaders?
Their kids are playing.
Ryan!
Go in and get it!
Suburban mommy hookers.
I wonder what the tabloids would pay for the exclusive on this?
You want to pop them in front of their kids?
Hey, we got two radio cars waiting outside.
You want to go tell them that we felt sorry for the perps?
Detectives? What are you doing here?
We're in the middle of a game.
Ladies, I'm afraid you're gonna have to come with us.
Why?
We're placing you under arrest.
If you walk out with us quietly,
we won't have to cuff you. Nobody will know.
Honey, what's going on?
If you just step outside with us,
we can explain everything.
Let's go. You're not taking my wife anywhere!
Back off.
Your wife is under arrest.
For what? Prostitution.
The lipstick in Hillary's purse
matched what we found on Keene.
We'll try and get Sondra to roll first.
Go in to Hillary with more ammunition.
Two kids. Volunteer at the hospital.
Co-chair of Citizens for a Cleaner Mount Kisco.
I wouldn't think you'd want a prostitution conviction on that resume.
I told you.
I just want to plead guilty, pay my fine,
and move somewhere several thousand miles away.
We can save you the trouble.
We can probably get the charges dropped.
How? - Your friend Hillary was involved
in something a lot more serious
than turning tricks between PTA meetings.
We think she killed a man.
Do you know anything about that?
No.
You weren't with Hillary last Wednesday, were you?
Yes. I was.
Look, Sondra, I can understand
you want to be loyal to your friend,
but if we find out you're lying,
you're getting yourself in real trouble.
Then we're not just talking prostitution.
We're talking obstruction of justice.
So, you think about whether it's smarter to be a loyal friend
or to tell the truth and stay out of jail.
The fact that my client's associate
has admitted guilt is completely irrelevant.
Hillary is innocent.
So when Sondra testifies about the call girl operation
you two had going together, that'll all be lies?
Let's try this case in court.
Hey, the prostitution's a no-brainer, Hillary.
The other thing is where you can help yourself.
What other thing?
A homicide.
Gilbert Keene was shot last week.
He called Hillary the day before the murder.
So a call was made? What does that prove?
He was found in his car.
Her prints were all over it.
I took him to look at carpet samples.
Well, you left a lipstick sample on him.
You know what we're talking about Hillary.
Don't say anything.
No, the time to talk is now.
'Cause if you wait too long,
you're not gonna be able to help yourself.
We're done.
No, we're not.
Hillary Colson, you're under arrest
for the murder of Gilbert Keene.
Would you please stand up.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used
against you in a court of law.
What's next? Camp Fire Girls selling crack?
We know Hillary was hooking,
we know she was in Keene's car,
we know she serviced him. We just don't know why she killed him.
What does the partner say?
We offered her a walk.
She's still pleading guilty
and backing Hillary's alibi.
They were shopping together on the day of the murder
in big department stores.
They paid cash and threw away their receipts.
Sound a tad rehearsed?
Talk to Hillary's husband.
Maybe he's not as good an actor.
I shouldn't even be talking to you.
Why?
Because you're not prosecuting my wife. You're persecuting her.
I think if you really believed that, you wouldn't talk.
Oh, she won't be in jail for long.
If we weren't mortgaged up to our eyeballs, she'd be out by now.
I'm gonna borrow from my pension fund and then...
And then what?
She'll be back home. You think it'll be like old times?
She didn't do anything.
Sondra confessed.
She admitted they were prostitutes.
Why would she make something like that up?
Your wife was turning tricks.
I'd be calling a divorce lawyer.
What did she tell you?
She told me she didn't do anything.
You still care for her.
Of course.
Your wife is obviously very confused.
She sacrificed a loving husband and two children.
We're still a family.
Maybe you and the kids are.
That could change, too.
What do you mean?
If your wife is convicted of murder, she's going to jail.
If you're convicted of obstruction of justice, you're going to jail, too.
That puts the kids in a foster home, Mr. Colson.
You can't do that!
We can and we will.
I didn't know. How is that obstruction?
What did she tell you?
She didn't tell me anything.
I went over Keene's credit card bills again.
Almost every time there's a Topaz charge,
there's a charge the same day for the Barrington Arms Hotel.
The love nest. Could be.
The last charge was made three weeks before the murder.
Maybe they changed hotels?
It's not on the credit card bills.
Maybe they had a falling out
and stopped seeing each other.
I'll go over to the Barrington Arms
and see if anybody saw them there.
Jamie?
Is something wrong?
When we're talking to a possible witness,
when we're talking to anyone,
I don't appreciate you misrepresenting the truth
for the sake of a case.
What are you talking about?
You told Louis Colson we could charge him with obstruction of justice
and have his kids taken away.
If he testifies falsely.
It's coercing a witness, and even if it couldn't get me censured,
I wouldn't do it.
I wouldn't threaten a parent with removal of his children.
Before I posed the threat,
did you believe that he was hiding something?
Yes.
And how about now?
I believe he's being honest.
I don't think he knew anything.
I agree with you, but I had to find out.
It was cruel.
Mr. Keene is definitely a regular.
One-night stays in our junior suites
every week through three weeks ago.
Nothing since then. You're sure you don't know him?
You've never seen him before?
Look at the picture.
I'm sorry and I'm surprised.
I think I should've remembered.
We try to meet all of our repeat customers.
But he probably checked in and out at unusual times.
Jose, do you know this man?
No, doesn't ring a bell.
But I'm not too good with faces.
He was a regular. Always on the 10th floor.
Always ordered champagne and caviar.
Tips, I remember. Guy probably doesn't tip too good.
What about her?
Oh, yeah, her I remember.
But she comes with a different guy.
Who?
I don't know the name. He's a good tipper.
What does he look like?
Brown hair, tan.
He wears shirts colored like ice cream, you know, yellow, pink.
The hotel staff identified you
as the man they saw with Hillary.
You're an intelligent man, Mr. Bernum.
What would you think?
You're keeping company with a woman
accused of killing your employee,
yet you don't even mention that relationship.
You deny knowing what Topaz Enterprises is. You lied to us.
I didn't know what Topaz was. I never see the bills.
I'm feeling charitable. I'm gonna give you a mulligan.
But if your next shot isn't on the fairway, you're going to jail.
I had nothing to do with Gilly's death. I swear it.
And I can't believe that Cathy did either.
I mean, Hillary. I knew her as Cathy.
Why was she with Keene?
I had asked him...
It seems so ridiculous now. I had asked him to find her.
But the morning of his death,
he told me he hadn't yet.
Why did you want him to find her?
A few weeks ago,
Hillary told me that she didn't want to see me anymore.
Well, you gotta understand,
the two hours we spent together
were the highlight of my week.
I wanted to spend more time with her.
I wanted to travel with her, but she said no.
But I had to see her. I couldn't help myself.
And then she just disappeared. I couldn't reach her.
So I told Gilly to find her.
I finally met the woman I always wanted.
Smart, funny, sophisticated.
And she ends up being a suburban housewife.
Just like the one you have at home.
We have evidence which puts you in Keene's car,
in close physical contact.
We've been over this, McCoy.
They were looking at carpet samples.
Sondra will testify that Fox Hill Decor
never provided any decorating services
to the Bernum Woods Company.
Four Topaz clients will testify
that Hillary provided sex in exchange for money.
And they're all alive. She didn't kill them. And she didn't kill Keene.
Why on earth would she?
Now we have that piece of the puzzle.
Mac Bernum told us everything.
Quite a romantic, isn't he?
Bernum's going to testify, too.
About his becoming obsessed with you.
About how you disappeared
when he pressured you to become his girlfriend,
and about sending Gilly Keene out to find you.
Who did Keene threaten to tell? Bernum?
Your husband?
Can I get back to you? We need to talk.
I'd like to be a fly on the wall.
They're gonna ask for man one.
They wish. No way we're going less than 15.
The blackmail can be a mitigating factor.
It's the motive, not the defense.
They're gonna be blowing a lot of smoke at us. We play tough.
We're holding all the cards.
Jack, there's a notice of substitution on the way.
Colson fired Metzler. Lanie Stieglitz is riding to the rescue.
The Betty Friedan militia? What the hell's she up to?
I'm surprised, Lanie. I didn't know prostitutes
were in your hall of heroines.
Lady Justice had my name on this one, Jack.
The sexual exploitation of women. Hi, dear.
I'm gonna kick your backside all over that courtroom.
I don't want to deprive you of your fun,
but this doesn't have to go to a courtroom.
Ooh. A plea? What is that?
Good manners, or is the old man twisting your arm?
It's generosity.
We're offering your client murder two, 20-to-life.
Why don't we all listen to her story?
And then we can talk a little bit more about generosity.
Okay, Hillary.
Keene called me. He said he got my pager number
from some friends of his and could we meet.
We met at the Oak Bar at The Plaza.
He seemed nice enough, and we decided to leave.
He said the manager at The Carlyle was a friend of his.
We could get a suite.
I usually refused to get in a car with any client.
But he had a nice car, and we were only going a few blocks.
So, soon as I got in the car,
he told me he worked for Bernum.
And knew about me. He showed me his gun
and drove over to the West Side Highway.
He told me I had two choices.
I could go back and become Mac's girlfriend, or I could service him,
free of charge, whenever he wanted.
I said I wouldn't do either,
and I tried to get out of the car.
He grabbed me by my wrist
and said he was deciding for me.
He put his hand on his gun,
said I was his girlfriend, starting now,
and if I didn't do what he wanted, he would go to my husband.
That's when he grabbed me by my hair.
I tried to pull away and he shoved my head down.
I...
I grabbed his gun and I shot him.
If it was self-defense,
why didn't you go to the police and tell them what happened?
My life would have been exposed to everyone.
I told my husband.
He agreed with me.
You could have gone to the police
after you told your husband.
He said they wouldn't believe me.
I swear to you, I was just protecting myself.
I thought Keene was going to kill me.
She had two good reasons to kill him.
He was raping her and he might expose her secret.
One gets her acquitted. The other gets her 25-years-to-life. Thanks.
And I think this claim of rape is a crock.
So she just dropped her lipstick on him?
There was sexual contact.
She's a prostitute. Don't they do that for a living?
She can't be raped because she's a prostitute?
No. She just isn't credible, that's all.
She just as likely used sex
to put Keene at ease before shooting him.
Lucky for you, the defense has the burden of proving rape.
Well, don't pop the champagne yet.
She's a sympathetic defendant with two small children.
The victim wasn't exactly a saint.
If she were my client, I'd have a field day.
With no evidence to support rape except her word?
He drove her to an out-of-the-way place. He had rape on his mind.
She got into his car willingly. She had murder on hers.
One fact, two sharp edges.
You're gonna need an extra-large box of Band-Aids.
It's still murder two. But we'll drop the minimum to 15.
Peel off the testosterone patch, Miss Ross.
You're thinking under the influence.
You can sing "I am woman" loud as you want,
but it's not gonna do your client any good.
She has no witnesses and no physical evidence at all
to suggest that the sex was anything but consensual.
Except that Gilbert Keene
makes Mike Tyson look like Little Lord Fauntleroy, maybe.
If I were you, I wouldn't bet the farm on the character issue.
My money's on the husband. He'll corroborate her story.
Man one, 10-to-20.
I want the charges dismissed.
You can't be serious.
Jack, you're already on the run.
Hillary was afraid Bernum would find out who she really was.
And show up on her doorstep one day
while the Cub Scouts were meeting at her house.
And that her husband and everybody else in Mount Kisco
would find out about her other life.
And what precautions did Miss Colson take to prevent that?
You're under oath, Miss Benton.
What precautions did Hillary take?
She changed her pager number.
What else did she do to stop Mac Bernum from finding out who she was?
She was afraid Bernum would follow her,
so she started taking different routes home.
She changed the name she went by.
She even begged me to move the store and the post office box.
And she was right.
I'm sorry, Hil.
No further questions.
Miss Benton,
men paid you a small fortune
to do things you might not otherwise do, isn't that right?
No. I did things I wanted to do.
I just got paid to do them.
Were you ever asked to do anything you didn't want to do?
Yes.
And if you refused, what happened?
Once, a man threatened me with a knife.
He ordered me to do what he asked.
I had no choice.
Did you tell my client about that incident?
Objection. Relevance.
I'll allow it, subject to connection.
Answer the question.
Yes. I told Hillary. It frightened her.
And did Hillary take any special precautions from then on?
She started to carry pepper spray with her
and she would never meet new clients in their homes.
Only in neutral places, like hotels.
She was bright, charming, never depressed or unwilling to please.
And very proper. She was every man's dream.
But you didn't pay her to be charming and bright.
You paid her for her willingness to please.
Is that right? That's right.
What happened once you let your feelings for the defendant be known?
She quit returning my phone calls.
She changed her phone number.
She dropped off the map.
What did you do?
I asked my security man, Gilbert Keene, to look for her.
He never told me he found her.
If he had, what would you have done?
I would've gone to see her.
But he never had the chance to tell you, did he?
No.
You were Mr. Keene's best friend. What was he like?
He was generous to a fault.
A totally dependable, honest man.
I trusted him with everything.
Thank you.
When you let your true feelings for my client be known,
did she become alarmed?
She said she didn't want a relationship like that.
Did she become violent?
No.
Did she say she'd kill you if you tracked her down?
No. She just vanished. That's all.
That's all. Thanks.
Mr. Keene said that he would have me fired or arrested
if I didn't do what he wanted.
Which was what, Miss Tennick?
What did he want from you?
He wanted sex, whether I liked it or not.
No more questions.
Ms. Tennick,
did Mr. Keene ever threaten physical violence
if you didn't have sex with him?
No, but I didn't think that I had a choice.
I didn't want to get fired.
And after you had sex with him,
did you report it as rape?
No, but...
Because you weren't raped.
You were blackmailed, isn't that right?
It was sexual harassment. It's illegal.
Well, isn't stealing from your employer also illegal?
Objection!
Withdrawn. No further questions.
I worked with Gilly Keene for five years
in the neighborhood stabilization unit.
Arresting prostitutes?
Yes.
Mmm-hmm.
Isn't it a fact that a known prostitute named Debbi Devine
filed a civilian complaint
against Officer Keene in 1978,
alleging she was arrested after she refused
to have intercourse with him?
That was dismissed.
Mmm-hmm.
Didn't a prostitute named Lisa Morales
file a similar complaint against Officer Keene
in 1981?
Doesn't cost 10 cents to file one of those things.
Was anyone else in your unit
the subject of a disciplinary proceeding
initiated by a prostitute?
Not that I know of.
Thank you.
Did any of those complaints allege
that Officer Keene used violence?
No, they did not.
Do you know why the complaints
against Officer Keene were dismissed?
Yeah, the CCRB didn't find any evidence to back up the charges.
Thank you.
The late Gilly Keene's not sitting too well
with some of our female jurors.
Juror number five is nodding her head in all the wrong places.
One seminar with a jury consultant and she's an expert.
Two seminars and six years of voir dire.
Any other observations?
Lay off trying to make Keene out to be a boy scout.
He wasn't.
And it's not playing.
Right. Good.
Who's their next witness?
Louis Colson.
The cuckold husband?
The jury might be sympathetic.
A poor man wronged, two motherless kids,
a wife who says she was a victim.
Who turns tricks in her spare time.
He's gotta be angry about it.
Use it.
Hillary told me about Keene,
about how he raped her.
About why she was in his car.
I was floored.
And in spite of everything,
you're here, testifying on her behalf?
I'll never understand the way she acted.
I mean, the prostitution.
But I believe she told me the truth
about what happened in that car.
Thanks.
I'm a little confused, Mr. Colson.
Your wife comes to you in tears
and tells you that she just killed a man who raped her,
and you tell her not to go to the police?
I was afraid they wouldn't believe her.
You must have known that they would track her down?
The only thing I know for certain
is that she killed that bastard in self-defense.
You must really love your wife.
She's betrayed you in the most egregious way imaginable,
and you're still willing to lie for her, aren't you?
I am not lying.
I was protecting myself and my children from the shame.
We have been humiliated.
Your wife humiliated you, didn't she?
How do you feel about her having sex with strangers, for money,
right under your nose? Objection!
Don't you think about what she did
with all those other men?
Sustained, Mr. McCoy.
Did you really think that your life could go back to normal?
I didn't think about that.
No! You didn't think about it
because she didn't tell you about it
until after she was arrested.
Isn't that right? No!
She never told you
that she had killed Gilbert Keene in self-defense.
Isn't that right?
No! It happened exactly the way I said.
Then you lied to the police
when you told them that you knew nothing.
You lied to me when you told me in your office.
Didn't you say to me, "My wife didn't tell me anything"?
Which is it, Mr. Colson?
Were you lying then, or are you lying now?
He showed me his gun,
grabbed me by my hair and forced my head down.
I was so frightened. I panicked.
I grabbed his gun and shot him.
Why didn't you go straight to the police?
I guess at that moment I realized that they'd look at me
not as a housewife from Mount Kisco, but as a whore.
I didn't want to do that to my family.
You had a pretty nice life, didn't you?
Yes. A devoted husband, two wonderful children, a business,
a wonderful home.
And despite all that, you decided to become a prostitute.
Why? The excitement? The sex?
It wasn't the sex. I guess it was exciting.
And I guess a man paying $500 or $1,000
to be with me made me feel desirable.
I enjoyed that.
So all of a sudden you found it frightening
to have your head in a strange man's lap.
Is that your testimony? Objection.
Sustained.
I'll re-phrase.
How many strangers have paid you to have sex with them?
Answer the question, Mrs. Colson.
Seventy, 80 men.
And yet the thought of having sex with one more strange man
was so repulsive that you had to kill him?
I was panicked. He was raping me.
Didn't you carry a can of pepper spray in your purse?
A lot of women carry it.
Why didn't you use it instead of Mr. Keene's gun?
He had me by the hair, Mr. McCoy.
The pepper spray was in my purse.
You're a professional sex provider. You're experienced.
This was a routine sex act,
and yet you expect us to believe
that it was so terrifying that you had to use lethal force to stop it?
You can believe whatever you want.
I know what he did to me.
He threatened to take away your nice home in Mount Kisco,
your nice family, your comfortable lifestyle.
That's what terrified you, wasn't it?
No!
You love your kids, you love your suburban life.
You would kill to protect all that.
That's why you killed Gilbert Keene!
Objection. Damn it! He's testifying!
Withdrawn. I have no more questions.
It's not often that Big Brother
has to listen to your opinion.
It happens every four years.
And it happens when you have the privilege of sitting in this box.
Hillary Colson shopped at GapKids,
she goes to PTA meetings,
she's also a prostitute.
I don't like it any more than you do. It disgusts me.
I don't approve of serial adultery.
She's endangered the lives of every member of her family
in a pathetic search for what?
Novelty?
To fill a void in her life, maybe?
I don't know, but I do know this.
If this were a referendum on prostitution,
I would say, "Throw her in jail and forget about the key."
But it's not.
That's not why she's on trial.
She is on trial because she said no to an ex-police officer
armed with a Colt revolver and the will to use it.
An ex-police officer.
Hmm.
A bully who used sex to dominate women.
She said no and she meant it.
The Bill of Rights does not only apply
to the June Cleavers of this country.
Acquit my client and you say to Big Brother that any woman,
regardless of her character,
has got the right to say no
and has got the right to back it up!
I'm not asking you to agree with prostitution.
But I am begging you
to disagree with rape.
Ms. Stieglitz is right, this isn't a referendum on prostitution.
It isn't a referendum on rape.
You're here to render a verdict
on her client's credibility.
She says she was raped.
What's her evidence?
"Keene was a bully. My husband believes me, so should you."
In the meantime, she suffered no injuries,
she destroyed evidence, she lied to the police.
It was only when she was backed into a corner that she cried rape.
That she wrapped herself
in the right of self-defense,
but she wasn't defending her virtue.
She didn't shoot Gilbert Keene
to keep from performing an act
that she had willingly performed on dozens of other men.
She killed him to protect a secret.
You've all seen what lengths she went to to avoid Mac Bernum,
to hide her identity.
Who can blame her?
She didn't want to lose her husband,
her family, her comfortable home.
Those things she would kill for.
But those things do not justify the taking of a life.
The threat of deadly physical force does, or rape does,
or kidnapping or robbery.
But none of those things happened in that car.
What happened in that car was a cold and calculated thing.
A woman killed her blackmailer, not her rapist.
That's who Gilbert Keene was, that's how he got sex.
He didn't rape those other women. He blackmailed them.
I don't want you to convict her
because she's a prostitute.
I'm asking you to convict her
because her story is a lie.
Mr. Foreman, has the jury reached a verdict?
Yes, Your Honor, we have.
Will the defendant please rise.
On the sole count of the indictment,
murder in the second degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant, Hillary Colson, guilty.
Lanie Stieglitz filed her appeal.
She's hoping they'll erect a statue for her on 12th Avenue.
Even prostitutes deserve a patron saint.
Makes me wonder if they convicted her because we made our case
or because she's a prostitute.
They convicted her. I don't care why.