NARRATOR: 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.
I'm not signing over nothing for that boy.
Rondell will be in Rikers Island
a year before he gets a trial.
Good. He needs watching.
I'll watch him close now.
Mmm-hmm.
Gray hair don't make me stupid.
See what the man says.
Hello? Hello? Anybody here?
Man's said all he's gonna say.
Manny Ehrlich. One to the head.
Putting in a Saturday night for his family.
Putting the skells we arrest back on the street.
Listen. OFFICER: Yeah?
Call their security company, find out who the other desk belongs to
and wake him up. All right?
Rey, look at this. Pineapple Street. Brooklyn Heights.
Guy was doing all right.
BRISCOE: Mmm-hmm.
You mind? Looks like they popped the hinges.
Doesn't look like they got to the safe.
Yeah. Maybe that was the problem.
Whoa! Wait a minute. You through with Mr. Ehrlich here?
Uh-huh.
(CHUCKLES)
Round's still live.
Dead-on at the client's chair.
The bail-bonds business.
Manny. My poor Manny.
Mrs. Ehrlich...
JENNA: Mom.
(BOTH CRYING)
She's been up all night.
My dad usually calls when he's gonna be late.
Mrs. Ehrlich.
It's important that we get the information as soon as possible.
It'll be okay, Mom.
I think she took something. You might as well talk to me.
Was it unusual for your dad to work on a Saturday night?
He never did, but a man called around dinnertime.
BRISCOE: Do you know what the call was about?
They were back and forth with phone calls.
Then my dad said he had to go in.
Manny said it could be a nice piece of business.
JENNA: It'll be okay, Mom.
Perp used a .38, close range. Ballistics says the slug was pretty beat up.
Any prints at the scene?
Too many. Half the ones we've run have felony sheets.
Let me guess. The other half are their mothers.
You make it a robbery?
We talked to his partner. Nobody got into the safe,
but we found a jimmied-open lockbox.
He was at home doing business over the phone.
Somebody called him into his office.
They're closed on Saturday nights.
We're waiting on the IUDs.
Sounds like a setup.
These bondsmen are in the loan business.
You know, a client jumps bail
they go after the house, the family jewels,
anything they can get their hands on.
Makes for some happy relatives.
Well, go through Ehrlich's files, see who skipped bail.
Talk to the assigned A.D.A.s.
Maybe they could point you in the right direction.
Oscar Liriano? He was a narcotics case.
He jumped bail.
Yeah. About three weeks ago.
What was he looking at?
Possession three. Twelve-and-a-half-to-25.
What do you guys want with him?
A bail bondsman was murdered.
The guy with the office behind the courthouse?
You think Liriano is the perp?
We're looking at all of Ehrlich's clients
who jumped bail in the last two years.
They all came back to court before their bonds were forfeited.
All except Liriano.
He still has a week to surrender.
Yeah, right.
What did he put up to secure his bond?
CURTIS: His mother put up her restaurant.
You think he killed Ehrlich so his mom wouldn't lose the restaurant?
Could be. You got any ideas where we might find him?
Sorry, guys. It was a cookie-cutter buy-and-bust.
I have 50 Oscar Lirianos.
Let me know how it pans out.
(CURTIS SPEAKING SPANISH)
That looks delicious, Mrs. Liriano.
You know, I can't find a good cut of oxtail in my neighborhood.
I buy at Espino's every morning on 14th.
You don't come here to talk about my food. Oscar's in Santo Domingo.
Yeah, well, Oscar's about to have a problem with his bail.
He told me not to worry about that.
He doesn't come back to court, you'll lose your restaurant.
I tell a man from Mr. Ehrlich's office, Oscar come back very soon.
Maybe he's already back. Mr. Ehrlich was shot two nights ago.
He's dead.
(EXCLAIMING IN SPANISH)
Is that how Oscar solved your problem with Mr. Ehrlich?
No! No! My boy make a little trouble, but he never do that!
Mrs. Liriano, if you're helping to hide your son,
you're gonna be in trouble, too.
I work very hard.
All I want to do is sell my food and pay my bills.
I wonder who she talked to from Ehrlich's office.
These bail bonds guys use bounty hunters.
Don't waste your energy. I'll have Liriano back in your custody any day.
A week at the most.
Well, his mother claims he's in the Dominican Republic.
His mother? (LAUGHS) She's a great cook, bad liar.
Well, how do you know she's lying?
I've got over 30 hours invested on this.
If you guys collar him, I'm in the hole.
Hey, you're in the hole already.
The guy who pays your fee took one in the head.
Manny? When?
Over the weekend.
Damn. Nobody told me. Nice guy, Manny.
I've been sitting on Liriano's girlfriend.
Name, address, phone number.
Josette Vega. What makes you think she's in touch with Liriano?
Every night she comes down to the corner pay phone,
9:00 p.m., like clockwork.
Sometimes she dials out, sometimes it rings.
Were you on her last Saturday?
She stood around for a while, dialed out a couple times.
As far as I can tell, they never connected.
Thanks.
Well, we could put a tap on the pay phone.
9:00? I got a better idea.
(PHONE RINGING)
JOSETTE: Yeah? Yeah. CURTIS: Josette Vega, please?
This is Dr. Curtis from the emergency room at Saint Vincent's.
What happened?
We have a Marta Liriano. Now, she was struck by a bus this morning
in front of Espino's on 14th Street.
Oh, my God.
She's unconscious.
We need permission from her next of kin for surgery.
Will she be okay?
Well, not unless we can go in and take a look at her kidneys.
Let me go call her son.
Bogey at 12:00.
What do you got? I'll get him.
Hey, buddy, how you doing? Hey!
How you doing? Remember me from Hanratty's last night?
What are you doing? Remember, I was the guy
drinking a Sea Breeze and you said you liked my hat.
What hat? Looked like Frank Sinatra.
Look, mister, you got me confused with somebody else.
I'm gonna show you where I got the hat, man.
Look, you nutcase! You made me lose my phone.
Well, don't you want the hat?
It's Josette.
Oscar's mother got hit by a bus. She's in bad shape.
MAN: Are you serious?
JOSETTE: A doctor called me right from the hospital.
They need Oscar to give permission for surgery.
MAN: He said he'd be back in half an hour.
How long is he staying here, anyway?
You got it?
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
(SPEAKING SPANISH)
(LIRIANO SPEAKING SPANISH)
Do it.
Police!
Get down on the ground! (PEOPLE CLAMORING)
Get down on your knees!
Down on the ground!
Look, I was gonna come in!
Yeah, we'll save you the token.
I gotta get to the hospital. My mother's hurt real bad.
Oh, yeah? Say hello to Dr. Curtis.
She's so stupid. Stand up.
They're biting me!
What are you looking at, huh?
Nothing.
You looking at that bag?
Huh? Does this belong to you?
LIRIANO: Maybe. I'll take that as a yes.
Mind if I take a look inside?
I say no, you're gonna look anyway.
Where's your gun? What gun?
The .38 you used to tap Manny Ehrlich.
Rey! Citibank opened up a branch here.
Look, that's my money. Look, I want to call my lawyer.
(BRISCOE LAUGHING)
.38. This yours, too?
I'm Arvin Baker, the attorney on Mr. Liriano's drug case.
It's a pleasure.
You mind telling me why homicide detectives
are executing bench warrants on drug cases?
They think I shot Manny. Who's Manny?
Manny Ehrlich, his bail bondsman.
You gonna let them put a body on me?
Just shut up, Oscar.
Or maybe your girlfriend with the big mouth can fill us in.
Why would Oscar kill that man? CURTIS: He jumped bail.
His mother was gonna lose her restaurant.
You got it all wrong.
He was gonna turn himself in, okay?
So his mother wouldn't lose the loncheria.
He's playing you, Josette.
He was gonna turn himself in.
Soon as he paid the money to his lawyer, Mr. Baker.
What money?
$50,000.
We were gonna give him half on Saturday. Mr. Baker never showed up.
Come on, Josette. You don't have 50 grand.
We got half. Call my bank if you don't believe me.
Oscar couldn't turn himself in
until he got all the money for Mr. Baker.
If he couldn't afford a lawyer, the court would give him one.
Free. He didn't want a free lawyer.
We were supposed to get married.
Mr. Baker said if we paid the money,
he'd make sure Oscar didn't blow trial.
Mr. Baker was going to fix the case, okay?
So Josette was telling the truth.
She had 24 grand in her account.
She withdrew it on Saturday morning.
And Liriano was gonna pay it to Baker on Saturday to fix his case?
Well, Liriano had $24,000 in his bag when we picked him up.
The IUDs from Ehrlich's home phone on Saturday.
Three calls to Arvin Baker.
Baker was Ehrlich's late appointment?
Baker didn't show up to collect the money from Liriano on Saturday.
Yeah. Maybe he was too busy shooting Ehrlich.
It's a theory.
We'll hold Liriano on the warrant while you figure it out.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Four cops with their heads together.
You got a murder charge or not?
Not yet, Mr. Baker, but you'll be the first to know.
ROSS: Arvin Baker? Never heard of him.
The defendant's girlfriend says he was gonna make the case go away for 50 grand.
What kind of case?
Drugs. A street-level hand-to-hand.
For no-name counsel, that rates a $10,000 fee tops.
Maybe he's just trying to take his client for a ride.
All we know is we got a lot of pieces that don't fit.
We got a lawyer and a bail bondsman
exchanging phone calls on a Saturday night.
Next thing you know, the bondsman's dead.
And the same lawyer's squeezing 50 grand from his client.
It's all gotta be connected.
Pin down Baker's whereabouts. I'll see what I can turn up.
He's lived here about a year. Between you and me, guy's got an attitude.
We're interested in last Saturday night.
Lets his girlfriend's mutt urinate right here on the canopy posts.
Then I gotta hose it down.
Fascinating. Saturday night.
The girlfriend comes by with the lap-rat, Mr. Baker's not home.
What time was that?
I make it around 9:00.
'Course, it's my fault he doesn't leave her a key.
She stews for a while in the lobby.
Mr. Baker comes in a half-hour later.
Guy's name is Manny Ehrlich. He ever come by?
Yeah. Mr. Baker left him an envelope a few times.
ROSS: These are Baker's criminal cases over the past two years.
Thirty-five, 40 names. Business can't be that bad.
His conviction rates are a lot lower than average.
Maybe all his clients are innocent.
Or he's fixing cases, like Josette said.
Read me the names of Baker's clients who had bonds out with Ehrlich.
Gregory Billups.
Never indicted. Charges dismissed.
CURTIS: Geraldine Smithson.
Charges dismissed on a speedy trial motion.
Corey Black.
Charges reduced. Probation.
Ehrlich's referrals come with satisfaction guaranteed.
Except for Delmore Walton. He's doing 6-to-12 upstate.
Maybe he couldn't meet Baker's price.
I'll ask him.
Nice of you to bring me the smokes.
Join me?
Thanks, I don't.
I need to ask you some questions about Arvin Baker.
Why don't you slip off that jacket?
I'm a little chilly.
Here I am thinking it's hot.
Well, think again. Maybe I can find some other way to help you.
Letter to the parole board.
I can do that.
Okay.
Now, what can I tell you about my crooked-ass lawyer?
You can tell me why you call him that.
Baker said he was gonna sell me a walk-away.
Let me make sure I understand you, Mr. Walton.
Arvin Baker offered to fix your case?
Yeah. I paid him 25K.
But you're here.
The man ripped me off.
This got anything to do with Manny Ehrlich contacting my brother?
What did he want?
He was asking about my agreement with Baker.
Ehrlich's trying to shake him down.
Why do you say that?
Ehrlich told me if I told him what I just told you,
he'd get me a refund on that cheap bastard.
Ehrlich's dead.
(SIGHS)
My luck.
Hey! ROSS: Hi.
So, where have you been hiding out?
You know the routine. Punch in, punch out, get home for Katie.
You should come to Gallagher's some Friday after work.
There's someone you should meet.
Oh! Give it up, Charlie.
How are Lisa and the kids?
Great. So who've you got on Oscar Liriano?
I'm supervising the investigation.
I had him first on the drug indictment.
It's McCoy's call.
You owe me on the Camacho case.
Don't ace me out this time.
I'll do my best.
Baker solicited bribes from his clients.
Ehrlich found out and wanted a piece of the action.
I'm pretty sure it got him killed and Baker's the shooter.
Can we do any better than pretty sure?
There's no physical evidence linking Baker to the murder.
What about his criminal cases?
Are you only pretty sure that they were fixed?
Baker's results are just too miraculous to draw any other conclusion.
If it's true, he had to have help from somebody on the inside.
At least a dozen ways a defense lawyer can beat a case.
Baker used most of them.
I checked our database to find a common thread.
Judges, cops, A.D.A.s, nothing jumped out.
Might even be a clerk.
Murder is one thing, but corruption in the system, I want names.
Well, Liriano's the first domino.
If we can get him to flip on Baker...
Can't go anywhere near Liriano as long as Baker represents him.
Well, find some way to make the dominoes fall.
We could set a trap for Baker.
Baker thinks we're investigating Liriano for Ehrlich's murder.
If we go ahead and charge Liriano...
You just said that Baker killed Ehrlich.
Our prosecution of Liriano would be a ruse.
A sting to gather information against Baker and trace the corruption.
A phony prosecution?
The Feds have used this.
We ask the courts to assign a lawyer
to represent Liriano behind the scenes,
a shadow counsel, and we ask Liriano to play along.
He pays the bribe, we follow the money to Baker's inside connection.
It could work, Adam.
Don't convince me, convince a judge.
The Liriano case traces back to Charlie Harmon. I'll bring him in the loop.
No. You ride this case.
ROSS: If we do anything out of the ordinary, Baker will sniff it out.
Harmon's never handled a homicide.
I'll second chair.
I'll fill him in on what we're doing.
ADAM: No.
Until we know who's involved, we keep Mr. Harmon in the dark.
The warrant against Mr. Liriano is vacated. This matter was marked ready?
Yes, Judge.
JUDGE: Then the defendant is remanded. May 1st.
This one's ours, fellas.
You guys again?
Oscar Liriano,
you're under arrest for the murder of Manny Ehrlich.
What? Nice and loose this time.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You propose to charge Mr. Liriano,
although you know he is innocent,
and have me appoint a lawyer to advise him in secret,
and then go forward with a bogus prosecution
without telling the assigned judge.
All subject to Mr. Liriano's approval.
Isn't this going to require the police to fabricate testimony?
JACK: If it gets that far.
We will have to dummy-up a ballistics report which says Liriano's gun
is a probable match for the murder weapon.
Adam Schiff must be getting senile.
Do you have any precedent for this scheme?
It was used in federal court. And there's People v. Stewart.
If you think I am gonna sit here holding a live hand grenade,
you're very much mistaken.
If it blows up, blame me.
Cases are being fixed in this courthouse.
I'll assign David Baez from the Hispanic Defense Project
as Mr. Liriano's shadow counsel.
I just hope the Court of Appeals
doesn't have all our heads on a platter.
You people are crazy. Let them finish, Mr. Liriano.
No, you let them finish! Mr. Baker's my lawyer.
JACK: Baker can't help you anymore.
You want to walk on the drug case, that's what we're offering.
And it won't cost you 50 grand.
This some new way to get framed on a murder rap?
The murder prosecution is phony, Mr. Liriano.
They're only doing it to investigate Mr. Baker.
You want to talk to the judge?
Look, suppose I front for you. How long I'm in here for?
Three months tops.
Or you can do 10 years on your drug case.
Everybody's gonna think I capped the guy.
You can explain it when it's over.
Or you don't explain it.
Yeah. I like that.
Tanya Gross made Deputy Bureau Chief. She was class of '87.
Special projects, a dumping ground for has-beens.
Well, maybe I'd have an office with a door. And the bump would be nice.
For those of us who care about such things.
I got one of these. Mine's all blue.
Sophie has a virtual pet now.
This from the man who wouldn't take an exam
without h is G u m by wristwatch.
Thanks for coming through with McCoy.
It's no big deal.
How do you think Baker will counter our ballistics evidence?
This'll never go to trial.
Liriano will plead out if Baker can't get the gun tossed.
It's nice when your first murder's a slam dunk.
Sometimes the ones that look easy bite you in the ass.
Motion to suppress Liriano's gun.
Baker's attacking the police search of Liriano's gym bag.
Liriano phoned Baker yesterday
to ask him about the arrangement.
Baker quoted a figure.
How much?
$90,000.
He jacked up the price.
Two cases.
Or he got greedier.
JACK: I want this on tape.
Have Liriano sign a consent to bug the counsel room at Rikers.
Tell him to ask Baker for a face-to-face.
We'll need an order from Judge Goldman to show Corrections.
It's imperative that he get Baker to spell out the details.
I don't want this coming back looking like a retainer meeting.
I'll tell him.
Baker filed his suppression motion.
If the gun's suppressed, he'll move to get the indictment dismissed.
Who's the judge?
Allen Denham.
He's presided over six of Baker's cases.
Let's keep an eye on him.
So why'd it go to 90?
This ain't Macy's, Oscar. You have two cases now,
one of which is for murder.
So let me ask you something, Mr. Baker.
If I get you this money, how can I be sure you get the results?
That's my problem.
Papa, it's a lot of money.
If it's gonna be a problem...
I have a friend. Okay? He'll take care of everything.
We're talking a walk?
You'll be out in two weeks.
Tops. Free and clear.
All right.
You come by my mother's restaurant.
That's all I can stomach.
There's more.
Baker picked up the bribe money and went to Merchants Bank.
JACK: He put it in a safe deposit.
The police searched it later and found 200 grand,
along with Liriano's 90.
Any idea who Baker's friend is?
We're looking at Judge Denham.
Terrific.
Liriano doesn't answer the door right away, so ESU breaks us in.
When you're on the stand, make sure you say you identified yourselves.
Right.
So, we go in.
Liriano's sitting on the couch, talking on the phone.
Now, while Rey's hooking him up,
I notice he keeps glancing over at this gym bag...
When you say glanced, how many times?
Two or three, but it was more the way he was doing it.
So, is the bag close enough to grab?
It'd be a dive from where he was.
Still in the grab-able area.
So anyway, Rey's got him handcuffed.
Now, he tells me it's his bag.
Well, as soon as I picked it up, I felt...
The suspect is cuffed before you picked up the bag?
Let me rephrase that. I'd say he was in the process of being cuffed.
Don't embellish, Detective.
I don't mind a little embellishing.
Well, my cops don't testi-lie.
It's his case.
Okay, so I walked over to the bag,
I gave it a nudge with my foot,
and it opened up a little bit,
and that's when I saw the cash.
So, the cash wasn't in plain view?
BRISCOE: What do you want here?
Not exactly.
Okay, 9:30 tomorrow, part 24.
BRISCOE: Right.
You know, Liriano's gun is the only thing
that puts him at the murder scene.
Thanks to your waffling cop, it's probably gonna get suppressed.
So play on the fact that things transpired in a matter of seconds.
Well, you know, I play it straight, Jamie.
This is a murder trial, not some $10 hand-to-hand.
You don't blow it on semantics.
Why you fighting me on this?
I just don't want to see it get tossed
because the police did their job.
It's your first homicide.
Well, thank you.
Where's Katie tonight?
Neal took her to the Liberty game.
Those look like narcotics jackets.
Just some background investigation I've been putting off.
The closed Baker dismissals I ordered from archives.
Anything interesting?
Something that didn't turn up on our database.
Charlie Harmon's name is somewhere on every one of these.
He was in the complaint room, he answered the speedy trial motion.
Could be a coincidence.
He was assigned to special narcotics from Brooklyn 10 years ago.
He's handled thousands of cases.
When we were prepping Briscoe for the hearing,
Charlie was coaching him to be a defense witness.
Maybe he was just reminding Briscoe not to overcompensate.
You or I would have smoothed over the rough edges.
Charlie was prepping him to fail.
Go home, Jamie.
The hearing's tomorrow. You're not gonna prove anything in here.
I was hoping to prove I'm wrong about Charlie.
My money's still on Judge Denham.
As the suspect was being restrained by my partner,
he looked over at a gym bag at the foot of the bed.
What did you do?
BRISCOE: I asked him if it was his bag and if I could look inside it.
He didn't object, so I opened it up,
and first I found the money and then the gun.
Nothing further.
Detective, you say my client gave you permission to look inside his bag
even though he knew there was a gun inside.
I don't know what he knew, but he didn't object when I asked him.
BAKER: Didn't he tell you, "if I say no, you'll just look anyway"?
Something like that.
And when you first noticed the gym bag, where was Mr. Liriano?
BRISCOE: With my partner.
Handcuffed and being guarded by Detective Curtis?
BRISCOE: Yes.
BAKER: So Mr. Liriano couldn't possibly
have grabbed the weapon from the bag?
I guess not.
Nothing further.
You may step down, Detective. Any more witnesses, Mr. Harmon?
The People rest.
BAKER: Your Honor, the police had no legitimate reason
to conduct a warrantless search of my client's bag.
No explicit consent, no threat to the officers' safety.
The police were investigating a homicide. The defendant was in hiding.
They had every reason to assume there was evidence in the bag.
But they arrested Mr. Liriano on a bench warrant from the drug case
before they uncovered any evidence against him on the homicide.
If Detective Briscoe had a hunch there was evidence in that bag,
he should have obtained a search warrant.
Rebuttal, Mr. Harmon?
We've made our argument.
DENHAM: Very well.
All evidence seized in the gym bag,
including the gun, is suppressed.
Your Honor, I'm moving to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Liriano.
The People cannot connect him to the murder
without the evidence from the gym bag.
Mr. Harmon? Going once, Mr. Harmon.
I move to recall Detective Briscoe.
Judge, he can't do that.
He can if I say he can. Step up, Detective.
You're still under oath.
Detective, the night Mr. Ehrlich was murdered,
was there any evidence a robbery had taken place?
Well, let's see. His desk had been rifled through,
and we found a lockbox on the floor,
the kind of thing you keep money in.
It was jimmied? The hinges were broken?
BRISCOE: Right, and there was some loose change.
HARMON: Indicating what to you?
BRISCOE: The box had been pried open and that some cash had been removed.
When you arrested Mr. Liriano,
what drew your attention to his gym bag?
Like I said, he looked at it.
But when you looked at the bag up close, did you notice anything?
Detective?
Yes. I saw a roll of bills inside it.
HARMON: Where?
BRISCOE: Right on top.
So when you saw a roll of money
in Mr. Liriano's bag, what did you think?
I thought it might be the money
from the robbery of Manny Ehrlich.
HARMON: I ask you to reconsider, Your Honor.
The officer saw what he thought was the proceeds from a robbery.
It justifies the search.
He's right, Mr. Baker.
I'm reversing my decision, suppression is denied.
First I thought Harmon was gonna tank it.
Then I didn't know what he was doing.
Hello? Jamie? We won.
Did we? Take me to the property clerk.
Intake of the property was the day after the murder.
Cop or D.A. is the only one authorized to sign out.
Well, who signed this out?
Nobody. This baby hasn't left the shelf since the day she came in.
Let's have a look.
Well, there's my sign and seal, and there's Latent's.
All right, I need to see it.
Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. You're not supposed to unseal it
till it goes to court.
Cut it.
Harmon. You son of a bitch.
He knew about the broken hinges on Ehrlich's lockbox.
So he did his homework. JACK: It wasn't in the police reports, Adam.
ROSS: And Harmon never looked for himself.
There's only one way he could've known.
We thought we had a crooked D.A. Now we have a murderer.
Well, that's certainly one way to pad your statistics.
A lawyer beats too many cases, have him arrested.
We don't mind losing the old-fashioned way.
It's gonna be a problem...
I have a friend. Okay? He'll take care of everything.
Are we talking a walk?
You'll be out in two weeks. Tops.
That was my sales pitch. It's easy to take that out of context.
Maybe we took these out of context, too.
You taking the money.
You entering the bank.
Sol like my fees in cash.
Greg Billups, Geraldine Smithson, Igor Navarez, Corey Black.
JACK: Delmore Walton's ready to testify against you.
So, what are you offering?
Depends what you have to say.
It was Harmon's idea.
Do you think I would approach an A.D.A. with something like that?
So what happened with Liriano's hearing?
Harmon got cold feet. Something about you put him off.
JACK: Any other lawyers bribing Harmon?
Not that I know of, no.
It could help you with the murder charges.
I was nowhere near that bail bonds office.
Well, let's hear it.
Manny Ehrlich and I had a little something going.
He'd send me a case, I'd show my appreciation.
He'd had no idea what I had going with Harmon.
Manny sniffed it out. He called me that Saturday night,
told me he wanted a full share of all the pay-offs
if it was a case that he referred.
And Harmon went to negotiate.
The next morning I read about Manny in The Daily News.
We can't convict Harmon of murder
on accomplice testimony alone.
We need corroboration.
We can't just wait for it to drop in our laps.
If Harmon finds out Baker's in the Tombs,
he might run. We should pick him up tonight.
You know his kids. We can arrest him when he shows up for work.
Miss Ross is right. The sooner we get him talking to us,
the quicker I find out how much this infects my office.
I'll go with Briscoe and Curtis.
I'll be home late tonight, okay?
I have some work to do with these men.
All right, time to go.
Lisa. Call Ed Richter.
Hey, hugs! Come on. Hugs. Come on.
See you.
You couldn't wait till tomorrow? You're despicable.
Charlie didn't leave us a choice.
You're making a mistake.
Arvin Baker confessed to your case-fixing venture.
The corruption ties you into Ehrlich's murder.
Jamie. How long have you known me?
You killed Ehrlich to keep him from talking.
Murder one. RICHTER: It's a reach.
We can talk about second-degree
if he briefs us on every case he fixed.
What's the recommendation?
JACK: 25-to-life.
I'll throw in the corruption charges.
RICHTER: That's a big number, Jack. All you have is Baker.
The Liriano case was a sting.
Harmon hung himself on the hinges of Manny Ehrlich's lockbox.
Jamie, you... You sat there. You set me up.
Your key evidence is based on a phony prosecution?
You have a serious problem. We're moving to suppress.
Mr. McCoy's tactics are unacceptable, Your Honor.
He fraudulently prosecuted Mr. Liriano
for a murder he didn't commit.
There was no fraud. Mr. Liriano agreed to participate.
We obtained judicial approval.
From?
Judge Goldman.
Goldman. I should have guessed.
Were the other judges on this bogus case aware of what was going on?
No, they were not.
So we were your personal dupes.
We had no idea where we were gonna find the corruption.
The integrity of the investigation had to be protected.
RICHTER: Integrity, Your Honor? A fake hearing?
Phony police reports?
It was Mr. Richter's client,
Assistant District Attorney Charles Harmon, who was undermining the system.
Mr. McCoy, wasn't there some other avenue of investigation?
Lawyers were fixing cases. This was the only avenue available.
I've heard enough.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The prosecution's goal to root out corruption might be laudable,
but the D.A.'s investigation violated the integrity of the judicial process.
Shame on you, Mr. McCoy, and shame on Judge Goldman.
The duty of judges is to assure that our proceedings are conducted
with total candor and impartiality.
To that end, I'm suppressing all evidence against Charles Harmon
obtained in this sham prosecution. In my chambers.
What the hell were you thinking?
I was doing my job.
By making us all look like idiots?
If you try anything like this again,
I'll make Jack McCoy my personal cause.
I had binding precedent for this type of investigation.
I don't give a damn what you do.
Don't you speak to me like that.
Well, don't call me back here and try to intimidate me.
KAYLIN: Mr. McCoy, I've been on the bench for 22 years.
This institution is more important
than your ego and your ambition.
I'm sorry if I offended your sense of fair play. This isn't a civics lesson.
Someone was selling justice in this courthouse.
Those civics lessons are what separate us from the Neanderthals,
something you fail to grasp. Now get out.
RICHTER: Kaylin suppressed your corroborating evidence, Jack.
I still have an appeal.
Fifty-fifty. Look, you can cut your losses.
Give us man one to cover all charges.
Minimum time.
ROSS: Three to six years for a murder?
Come on, Miss Ross. They argued, there was a struggle.
This was an execution.
I'm gonna make it easy for you, Jamie.
You make the deal, and we keep the lid on the corruption.
What do we keep a lid on?
Hundreds of convicted felons making motions
claiming the A.D.A. who prosecuted them is crooked.
There's no evidence of that. All we turned up were Baker's cases.
How many defendants have I put away? Huh?
I can make myself available to any one of these potential litigants.
It's Adam Schiff's worst nightmare.
Harmon can gridlock this office for the next five years.
It's a bluff, Adam.
If there were other fixes besides the Baker cases,
they would have surfaced by now.
It's how many cases he says he fixed.
Can we accept his ultimatum without making it look like a cover-up?
Probably not.
We can't give in to blackmail.
I won't go down like the Titanic. You have one week.
You come up with something to prove murder or take their offer.
Credit card receipts.
Forensic accountants have been through Harmon's records.
No unusual spending or infusions of cash.
Believe me, he's got it stashed somewhere.
We did find two jars full of pennies. Business cards.
"Dodo the Clown."
His son's birthday party. Katie and I were there.
I just love going through other people's junk.
"Antilles Travel Agency." Think he was planning a little getaway?
138th Street?
Harlem? What was he doing up there?
Read the fine print. "Remittances to the Caribbean."
Offshore accounts.
Did you ever wire money for a man named Charlie Harmon?
No. I would have remembered a white gentleman.
Arvin Baker?
Sorry.
Well, thank you.
I always cooperate with the D.A.
You've been involved with a case before?
Last year. The district attorney subpoenaed my records
of a wire transaction on a drug case.
Do you remember the case?
Geraldine... Geraldine somebody. Geraldine Smithson?
Yes, that's it, that's it. They told me it was settled.
Who told you?
The same lady who came to pick up the papers. I never get them back.
She told me they had gotten lost.
This lady, what did she look like?
About your age, not as tall.
She had blonde hair. And glasses. C'est bon. Glasses.
I'll never accept that he did what you say.
You know what he was involved with.
How would I?
You went to a travel agency in Harlem.
You picked up documents that Charlie needed to bury.
Who told you that?
It turned up during our investigation.
And we'll turn up more, now that we know where to look.
How long is he going away for?
You should be thinking about yourself.
You could be charged as an accomplice.
Me? What about my kids?
You cooperate with us, I'm pretty sure I can keep you out of it.
Jamie, please don't do this to us. Charlie is not evil.
Lisa! Charlie's gone! If you could see him with the kids...
Save what you have. Save your family.
I can't believe this.
Charlie killed somebody.
There's a 13-year-old girl in Brooklyn without a father.
I knew there was a little extra coming in.
Charlie wasn't complaining about the mortgage like he usually does,
or worrying about the kids' college.
(CRYING) I was afraid to ask about the money.
Then Charlie wanted me to do things.
He said I was the only one he could trust.
I helped him out a few times, like he wanted.
(SIGHS)
What else could I do, Jamie?
He's my husband.
JACK: Murder two, 25-to-life It's a final offer.
(SCOFFS) You brought us back here to sing the same old song?
Tell Schiff he better get some more bodies down at the appeals bureau.
Tell your wife to hire a good lawyer.
You're charging her? With what?
She did your dirty work at the travel agency.
The indictment's presented and voted.
Bribery as an accessory. Conspiracy to commit murder.
She didn't know anything.
You picked the rules. I'm just upping the ante.
It's a bluff, isn't it?
You plead to murder two, plus nine counts of bribery.
If you make any false allegations
about cases you claim you fixed,
I will personally file the indictment and have Lisa arrested.
She'll have grandchildren by the time she gets out of Bedford Hills.
How could you do this? How could you?
RICHTER: Don't say a word, Charlie.
Is that what you want, Jamie? To destroy my family?
You did that on your own.
HARMON: I tried to make a decent life for them.
By killing somebody?
It went too far. I am sorry about that.
Try to understand, Jamie.
It's not in the job description.
It's all just a hobby for you.
Rich ex-husband, big bank account. Charlie.
No! You're a dilettante, Jamie.
You never had to sweat out a paycheck.
You don't give a damn that a drug dealer's car
costs more than a D.A. could make in a year.
So you became a corrupt D.A.?
I took profits from drug dealers!
You took advantage of desperate people.
What you're doing to Lisa, that's so different?
You really don't know? You could have come to me, Charlie.
(SIGHS)
I'll call Judge Kaylin and tell him we have a deal?
JACK: If he hadn't cracked,
were you gonna follow through with Lisa Harmon?
I have the right to remain silent.
You didn't do anything wrong.
Why do I feel like I did?
Charlie Harmon doesn't deserve your sympathy.
He's just another name on another indictment.
Maybe that's the problem.
I'm taking the rest of the day. I'll see you tomorrow.