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.
My father makes such a big deal out of it.
Come on, a trip to Aruba for your birthday?
Yeah, but he calls everyday for another "Thanks, Daddy."
I mean, it's not like he's giving me a kidney or something.
Party animals. It's grind time.
Shift starts in five.
No way they dragged their buns out early.
Oh, my God.
No, no! Aloma?
Call in a code blue!
Victoria Hemmings, 21.
Multiple deep stab wounds.
Narrow-bladed weapon.
Okay.
Looks like he hit her near the door
and kept on workir her.
Yeah. Then she crawled, tryir to make it to the bed.
The roommate was found in the kitchen.
What's the word on her?
Chopped up her plumbing, but missed the pump.
She's just barely hangir on.
Wheeler, you dust all that?
Bloody smudges. He wore gloves.
I don't get it.
One girl's dead, the other one's dyir.
This guy's pickir through clothing.
What's he after?
All that glitters.
Check her left hand.
Ring finger's missing
along with whatever was with it.
Jilted fiancé?
And what? She wouldn't return the ring?
We all went to Gino's on 22nd and 7th for dinner.
What time did you get back?
Around 2:30.
After dinner we went to a club in the Village.
You meet anybody?
A couple of guys tried hitting on us,
but we left alone.
What about them, boyfriends, fiancés?
Aloma goes out with a Columbia med student.
Vicky hasn't seen anyone lately.
Do you know if anybody gave her a ring?
Just the cameo ring her grandmother gave her.
She always wore it.
I don't want any cameras in the building.
Yes, sir.
Can you hang out? We're gonna want to talk to you again.
The media's already comparir this to Richard Speck.
Oh, Speck was sloppy. Our boy wore gloves.
They both liked the ladies.
Did you get evidence of sexual assault?
Some of the knife work on our girl Vicky
had nothir to do with killir her.
We've found something in the stairwell.
We lost some because they got walked over,
but there's a partial footprint with traces of blood here,
and down by the exit door.
See, there's the back entrance to Hudson Presbyterian.
Now this has got to be a shortcut for the nurses.
Yeah, or hospital employees.
If he works there, he might have a key.
If he didn't, maybe he used this.
What do you think?
He props it here.
Miller.
Nurses come out on the way to the night shift,
and then...
But he doesn't know when.
So he's got to wait and watch.
It's got to be the bushes.
He was here.
Footprint?
Sweet tooth.
If he's here long enough to get the munchies,
how come security didn't see him?
On a night like last night,
I doubt they ranged much beyond the smell of fresh coffee.
I've got potted plants being stolen out of the main lobby.
Armed junkies threatening trauma surgeons.
Right-to-lifers chainir themselves to the handrails.
So no one patrols the grounds or the nurses' dorm?
Damn right, we patrol them.
My guards patrol every inch of this facility.
How often? How many people?
That comes down to manpower
and I'm dealing with cutbacks.
Well, how often do the nurses' dorms get checked?
Two patrols, one between 11:00 and 12:00,
the other between 4:00 and 5:00 a. m.
And nobody's seen anything or anyone?
They've seen everything in that building.
Those ladies work long, hard hours
and when it comes time to let go,
they let go pretty hard.
We talking drugs?
It happens, but rarely.
What about any previous break-ins?
That's why I added the 4:00 to 5:00 a. m. Patrol.
Three days ago.
I was over there to check on my patrolmen,
and there was some guy on the third floor
pulling doorknobs to see if anything opened.
I chased him. But, uh,
I got angina.
You get any kind of a look at him?
White guy, mid-20s, average build.
McCrea.
Yeah. Logan?
Yeah. For you.
Thanks. Hello. Yeah.
We'll be right up.
Doc says she can talk.
Vicky was watching TV.
I went to sleep.
I thought I was having a dream
or it was noise from the TV.
She was crying and he was...
That's all right, Aloma. Take your time.
And you woke up when he attacked Vicky?
She was trying to get back to her bed.
And he was on her back.
He was...
I tried to shout,
but I didn't make any sound.
Like in a nightmare.
He saw me.
He came at me, but I couldn't move.
And he...
Aloma, can you tell us what he looked like?
He had light skin.
He wasrt black or Hispanic.
He grabbed me.
He was very strong.
Could it be someone you knew?
Uh, maybe somebody who worked here?
We worked the same shifts.
Knew the same people,
except when Vicky worked at the clinic.
What clinic?
Bethune Methadone Treatment Center
in Brooklyn.
She was there for two months, training in drug rehab.
44 nurses, 16 orderlies,
and two supervisors live in there.
So did he pick the room or was he just pullir doors?
I go for he knocked.
Lt'd make more sense if he knew her.
I don't totally buy it.
I mean, a nursing residence,
it's like a mother lode for your basic perv.
A perv who ransacks, robs, and cuts off a finger?
A lot of psychos keep souvenirs.
Maybe for him it was about underwear.
Or uniforms.
Remember about a month back in Brooklyn?
No, what?
The nurse who got stabbed.
So, Lennie, you dropped anchor at two-seven, uh?
Hey, you know what they say, Torelli, any port in a storm.
You know about him?
Oh, that depends.
Hey, hey, give me a break, will you?
After I traded in the Chivas bottle
for the Grecian Formula, I became a saint.
Tell us about this Mary Davis, huh?
Uh, 28-year-old nurse, stabbed in her apartment.
On nursing residence?
No.
She had her own place. Here. The work-up.
No forced entry.
Cheap locks.
Maybe he was good with a hairpin.
What about Manattan?
I think maybe our guy used the same hairpin.
What was your guy after?
Feedir that thing between his legs.
He also stole some money and jewelry.
What's the present status?
Guys, I'm duckir calls from the captain.
Every lead, dead end.
Hey, Bethune Methadone Treatment Center?
She worked there. She taught the nurses.
One of our victims was in training there.
Oh, yeah?
I worked the patient list for a week.
I don't think there's anything there.
Trainee nurses are put through every phase of the program.
Administration and record keeping,
blood and urine testing, counseling,
supervising intake.
The law states the methadone
must be ingested on the premises.
So both Vicky and Mary
could have come in contact with...
Hundreds of people.
Can we get a list of names?
We're swimmir in molasses.
What? They all have priors?
No, not all. About 264 out of 270.
If we interviewed, like, five a day,
maybe we'd catch a break by next Christmas.
Well, maybe the problem is that we're lookir at program junkies.
Yeah. Junkies on methadone don't need to steal.
Unless they dropped out of the program.
Then they need money for drugs.
Bethune's drop-out rate, in the last three months:
We're lookir at 50 distinguished citizens.
Eliminate everybody but white males
between 20 and 30,
maybe we got a number we can manage.
Me and another guy figured out a way to stash meth
and then sell it on the street.
It was good until some nurse tested me positive
and busted me out of the program.
What nurse?
Uh, I don't read name tags.
Is this gonna take long? Man, my ears are ringir.
I should get somethir to eat.
Try chewir your nails.
Night before last, where were you?
Coleman Square.
Alone?
In the square, I'm never alone.
We're gonna need names.
No problemo.
I can account for my time, man.
I keep good company.
Yeah, like your dealer is good company, right?
I took my dealer down on a plea.
He's in Ossining keeping house for King Kong.
I'm clean. I'm in a program.
Make that "were" in a program.
You dropped out of Bethune.
Gee. So it's true.
You people really care.
You wanna see how much we care?
They opened a program in the Bronx,
near where I live.
I'm registered.
Check it out.
Count on it.
But I'm touched by your concern.
They picked up two more junkies from your list.
Who do you want first?
Have them send in Crawford.
You got it.
Go ahead, say it.
Are we on the wrong horse?
I mean, a junkie needs a fix, what does he do?
You mean he mugs somebody on the street.
I just told Profaci to release your junkies.
Brooklyn called.
They got a suspect and a confession.
I picked him as a possible on the Mary Davis case
because of his past sexual assaults.
But nothir really connected.
Then after you guys were here,
I brought him back.
He gave the same alibi for your killing
as he had for Mary Davis.
He had been to the movies.
I took my time. He came around.
Did you tape his statement?
Yeah and the Miranda,
and his refusal of counsel.
What about a murder weapon?
They found a boning knife in his room.
It was washed clean.
But they're checkir the handle for latent blood.
Why did you kill Victoria Hemmings?
She was a nurse.
Nurses make a lot of money.
So you killed her to rob her?
Yeah. I robbed her.
How did you know Vicky Hemmings?
She was a friend of Mary.
How'd you know Mary Davis?
I knew her from the house.
Which house?
Where I live.
Davy lives in a halfway house.
Mary Davis administered drugs there.
What kind of halfway house?
Well, it's just a place I live, okay?
He lives with special people.
I don't need to be there.
I'm not some melonead or Dowrs dummy.
There's nothir in your DD-five's about this kid being retarded.
What was I supposed to do?
Deliver up Albert Einstein?
Brian, is there any work-up on him?
I've got his records from the halfway house.
His IQ is over 80.
Well in the ballpark for his ability to stand trial.
Captain wants me at a press conference in 10 minutes.
We'd like to take him to Manattan.
We're arraigning on Mary Davis in the morning.
Take him for a line-up the day after.
Our witness is touch and go in intensive care.
There's a good possibility she may not make it to a line-up.
Also, we'd like to walk him through the crime scene.
See if he links up with our evidence.
Make sure you have him back in the morning.
Now, Aloma, when he comes in, you take your time.
If you want him to turn around
or you want him to come closer, you just tell me, hmm?
I'm afraid.
No, no. We're both right here,
and he's not gonna be able to see you.
There's nothir to be afraid of.
All right. Hold it, right there.
Now, I want you to turn around, slowly.
I think it was him.
It happened so fast.
Yeah. It was him.
Okay,
let's start with how you got in.
The door was open. She left it open.
What's this about?
Just tell us what happened here.
I stabbed a nurse, there.
That's all?
The other girl was there, in the bed.
Okay.
All right. Now, show me how you opened it.
I used a little piece of wood.
About this big.
When the nurses came out, it kept the door open.
Where'd you learn that, Davy?
In a book. A detective book.
That's where I waited. In the bushes.
You want a candy bar?
No. I don't want candy.
It's bad for my teeth.
The night you killed the nurses,
how'd you get here?
I took the G Line from Classon Avenue
to Atlantic Avenue. Down two flights
to the A, C, to Fulton.
Then, uh, the Number 4 train.
Hey, are you guys messir with my head?
Nobody's messing with your head.
Well, then stop testing me.
What the hell are you lookir at?
Bitches! Hey! Damn bitches!
All right, all right, all right!
Stop looking at me!
Take it easy!
So he says he doesn't eat candy. So what?
You pump a nickel into him,
he'll spit out any damn thing you want.
I'm more impressed with the fact that those two nurses
practically had him foaming at the mouth.
Well, he's unstable.
We pushed him, something blew.
I got a niece. She's retarded.
Ask her in the wrong voice to clear the table,
and she starts frisbeeing the dishes.
Look, fellows, I just want to stop wringing my hands on this.
Doesrt he have prior sexual assaults?
Well, what Brooklyn is calling sexual assault,
his yellows show as indecent exposure
and sexual misconduct.
All right. He got plead down. So what?
What does that mean?
Well, I'll tell you what it means.
It means, you put him in a cell, you get in your car,
and you find out what he actually did.
He's lived here two years now.
Ever since his father died.
He's done relatively well.
Relative to what?
He has a problem dealing with rage.
But he's done well on a combination
of drug therapy and counseling.
What about Mary Davis?
Did she handle his drug therapy?
She administered to all our people.
"Gibert's Practical Homicide Investigation. "
Graphic pictures of carved up corpses.
A nice light read.
And he was fascinated by police work.
That's from a detective school.
Correspondence course.
He was proud of that.
How'd he get along with the other people here?
He was working at it.
But it was hard. He felt superior.
How about women? Was he interested?
Retardation of the mind
does not necessarily affect the hormones.
Davy was easily excited.
Well, he was arrested twice for sexual assault.
Well, the incident here was simply him exposing himself
to the office personnel.
He claimed it was a joke.
The other happened when he still lived with his mother.
Did he ever talk about that one?
He said all he did was kiss a neighborhood girl.
Kissing doesn't get people arrested.
It can if you're retarded.
The girl's parents filed a rape charge.
I guess the police believed Davy.
It was reduced to a sexual misconduct.
I buy the confession.
I mean, I buy the fact that he's not too dumb to kill,
and he's crazy enough to do it.
Any leads to give you reason to doubt he did it?
Not really, we had a connection to both crimes through a methadone clinic.
We were talkir to junkies when the kid confessed.
All I'm asking is there any reason to sit on our hands?
Brooklyn wants him back for arraignment.
Thanks.
The Feds examined the murder weapon
in the wooden handle,
minute traces of human blood. Type A.
Same as Vicky Hemmings.
And my whole family.
And they're workir up a DNA.
Okay, then let's arraign him for Hemmings.
This is as far as it goes, Davy.
I won't see you again?
These officers will take you to the courthouse.
Hey, you know, those girls were bad.
They deserved to die.
"Docket number 484193.
"The People v. David Scott Zifrin.
"The charges are murder in the second degree
"attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree,
and robbery in the first degree."
Your Honor, my client pleads not guilty.
At this time, I request a 730 exam
to determine Mr. Zifrirs competency to stand trial.
The People take no position, as long as the examination
is performed by our own psychologist.
Can I look forward to such munificence
on the subject of bail?
The People request bail of $200,000.
Your Honor, Mr. Zifrirs never been away
from the supervision of either his mother or the Gasmer house.
This defendant confessed to heinous crimes.
The fact that he's here proves the supervision was inadequate.
I don't think the State's out of line here, Ms. Green.
That isn't the point, Your Honor.
Davy Zifrin would be lost in jail.
You can leave him a trail of breadcrumbs.
Bail is set at $200,000.
Clin... Uh, Clinton. Uh, Bill Clinton.
Bush. George Bush.
George Washington.
Okay, that's good enough.
Now I want you to count down from 20 by subtracting three.
For example, 20 minus three is 17.
17 minus three is?
Is 12, 10, 4, 1.
That's easy.
All right.
Let's talk about your trial.
Do you know what a trial is?
I read all about trials.
It's where they decide if I did something bad.
Do you know what bad thing you're accused of doing?
I killed the nurses.
Do you know what Ms. Greers job is?
She's supposed to get me out of trouble.
How about the prosecutor's job?
He's supposed to get me in trouble.
You sound like you went to law school.
Yeah. I went there.
Davy?
You know you didn't go to law school.
So? You don't think I'm smart enough?
Ted Bundy went to law school.
My tests put his IQ at about 78.
His reading and comprehension are about fourth grade level.
Is he competent?
Yes.
And after his show-and-tell about the law,
I can't see how Shambala Green could argue mental defect.
What about the books?
His fascination with police work.
How do you square that with his crimes?
Uh, you commit murder, you get a lot of attention
from the local police.
I think Davy resents being thought of as retarded.
And someone like that would do almost anything to show how intelligent he is,
especially to authority figures.
He murdered two nurses to prove himself?
It's certainly possible.
Look how eager he was to take credit for the crime.
His attorney's not so eager.
An omnibus motion from Green,
including one to suppress the confession.
A Brooklyn court has already denied
Ms. Greers motion to suppress.
The judge there was satisfied
that Mr. Zifrin was properly Mirandized.
That decision only addressed the statement
made about the Brooklyn murder.
After he made that statement,
he was left alone to stew in an interrogation room
for two-and-a-half hours
before Det. Torelli returned
to take his statement about Manattan.
Miranda warnings do not carry an expiration date.
Once given, they're good for as long as Mr. Zifrirs being questioned.
According to the transcript, after Det. Torelli returned,
Davy asked him if he needed a lawyer.
Det. Torelli told him he didn't think so.
We have established Mr. Zifrirs competency.
He's fully capable of asserting his own rights.
Mr. Stone, please.
Davy, when you were with, uh, Det. Torelli in Brooklyn,
did you tell him you wanted to talk to a lawyer?
No. He... he said, "You don't need a lawyer.
Not when you kill somebody like them."
"Somebody like them." What does that mean?
Mary. She was bad.
She did drugs.
What can I say?
Davy's question should have been a clear indication
he had no idea what was going on.
His statements to Det. Torelli are out.
Your Honor, I have other motions
covering all the statements made
to detectives Briscoe and Logan.
Including those made during a walk-through
of the crime scene.
Your Honor, I can assure you
that the detectives Briscoe and Logan were acting in good faith.
Put away the whip, Ben. The pony's dead.
I'm granting Ms. Greers motions.
I called the D.A. In Brooklyn,
they didn't seem all that concerned.
Why should they be?
Torelli didn't louse up their confession.
They'll get a conviction on Mary Davis' killing.
And we'll end up looking like amateurs
because we couldn't sink a 2-foot putt.
If Davy Zifrin does time for one of his crimes,
a little crow won't give me indigestion.
Yeah, but it might be enough to gag
Vicky Hemmings' parents.
If those geniuses in Brooklyn drop the ball,
I want Zifrin to end up in a Manattan court,
instead of his own bed.
Uh, our best evidence used to be his statements
to Briscoe and Logan.
But now the blood on the knife
is a match and the DNA is inconclusive.
Davy said Mary Davis was a drug user.
But there was nothing about it in the police report.
They did find two empty percodan bottles in Vicky Hemmings' apartment.
Now, if both those girls were users,
and it was not common knowledge, how did Davy know that?
I don't know. But the way he found out
could suggest another way of connecting him to them.
Her training was over. Nobody fired her.
The normal period is three months.
She was gone after two.
She found a better job.
Better how? No locks on the supply room?
Okay, so she was dealing a few pills on the side.
You have the guy.
What does it matter?
It matters you lied to us.
Is that because you were in business together?
No.
But I know what it would look like to the licensing board.
All I did was keep my mouth shut. That's it.
Long as Vicky didn't deal out of the apartment,
I didn't care.
Do you know any of her customers?
No.
She had a beeper.
That's how they got in touch.
Except for one guy. He called her at home.
Do you know his name?
Marty. Marty Lake.
Marty's already facing one count of felony possession,
he's not about to cop to any more.
Maybe he'd like to trade up to two counts of murder?
And we pulled his LUDs.
He wore out the buttons calling Hemmings and Davis.
You must think I'm pretty stupid
to kill a couple of nurses.
Uh, it doesn't take a college degree
to sit in your chair, sir.
You hear about the golden goose?
Those little eggs
don't walk out of the hospital on their own.
I'm listening.
The guy you're after?
He turned me on to Hemmings and Davis.
He knew them from the meth program.
So did hundreds of others.
If you'll let me finish.
A week after Hemmings got killed,
this guy called me.
He had a couple of hundred units of script drugs to sell.
Not his usual M.O., but the price was right.
The drugs, he said, were from the stash
Hemmings kept in her crib.
He did her and he did Davis,
all by himself.
I could get the same story down the hall.
I'm not makir this up.
He tried to sell me a ring.
The kind with a face it,
like a cameo.
He said for an extra $5,
he'd give me the finger it came with.
This is one whacked-out dude.
I need a name.
You'll get a name soon as when the charges pending against my client
have been dismissed.
Brooklyrs out of my jurisdiction.
I can talk to Kings County D.A.
Nah, no, no.
We already knocked on that door, thank you.
The D.A. Knows this?
A Det. Torelli does.
First thing out of my mouth after they booked me.
But here I sit.
Nothing was released to the media
about the mutilation.
Only the killer could know that.
It doesn't make sense.
Torelli should've followed the lead.
If this pans out,
how does he explain arresting Davy?
But he got a confession out of him.
I think he knew how to work him.
The police report.
Davy's sexual misconduct charge six years ago.
Arresting officer: Patrolman Brian Torelli.
According to this,
it was Torelli who suggested reducing the charge.
This is a profile case.
Every perp in Central Booking is offering up leads.
On our side of the river,
we don't dismiss any credible lead.
Lake is a five-time loser.
He's looking at 10 years, minimum.
So he hears gossip at Central Booking about missing fingers,
then he comes up with a story that nobody can corroborate.
For all we know, he's setting up
some poor slob that stiffed him.
That'd make two people who've been set up.
That's a serious charge, Ben.
And putting an innocent man in jail isn't?
Why did you pick him up in the first place?
You had no evidence.
His alibi stunk.
He knew Mary Davis,
he had priors.
I had plenty of reason to bring him in.
So you took him for a heart-to-heart
with his old friend Officer Torelli.
How long did it take you
to coach him for his confession?
What the hell do you know about this, huh?
The man is a ticking bomb.
You didn't think so six years ago.
I felt sorry for him, okay? My fault.
Maybe the nurses would still be alive today.
Frank, I want you to give Marty Lake
a deal in return for his testimony.
My chief investigator tells me Lake has nothing to say,
why should I let a known drug dealer go free?
We both know eventually he'll cut a deal to avoid trial.
Why don't we get somethir out of it?
What? You mean, like helping you save face?
Ben, this side of the river got David Zifrirs confession
admitted into evidence.
You brought me nothing remotely exculpatory.
I have my case. I'm proceeding to trial.
He has the mind of a 7-year-old, Adam.
He needs to prove himself.
Anyone who knows that can manipulate him.
Yeah. So Torelli walked him right smack into a murder charge?
Yeah, he had a chance to break two high-profile murder cases,
and when Manattan homicide got involved,
he had even more reason to come up with a quick suspect.
Mmm-hmm.
And Davy Zifrin happened to be a convenient stooge?
Yeah.
Well, that won't play
without a credible stand-in for Zifrin.
Yeah. But the only person who can provide that won't do so
unless he gets a nod from Frank Lazar.
All right.
You're just gonna have to work around him.
Maybe you can find a familiar face among Lake's pals.
I have Briscoe and Logan on the case
but they can't thin out that haystack
without Brooklyrs cooperation.
Welcome to Frank Lazar's hit list.
You've been subpoenaed by Shambala Green to appear in Brooklyn.
As a witness for Davy Zifrin.
Oh.
So I can tell the jury about Marty Lake.
She know you talked to him?
It's exculpatory, Adam, I had to disclose it.
I never thought she'd subpoena me.
Well, talk her out of it.
The interests this office shares
with the Kings County district attorney
takes precedence over any one case.
You know, the boy was railroaded, Ben. I can't prove it,
and every time I bring it up, he gets all pumped up.
He gets insulted if I even suggest he didn't do it.
I just need you to repeat what Lake told you.
It's hearsay.
Statement against interest.
Lake revealed his involvement in a drug enterprise.
Look, Ben, you wouldn't have told me about Lake
unless you thought Davy was innocent.
My opinion is not evidence.
You're better off with Lake on the stand.
I've already tried talking to his lawyer.
It seems unless somebody pays the piper,
the piper plans to take the Fifth.
And why use a tin flute when you get a trumpet, right?
The fact that the Executive Assistant District Attorney
might make a better impression on the jury
never crossed my mind.
Girl Scout's honor.
Sure.
According to Mr. Lake, this individual told him
that he had killed Mary Davis
and another individual in Manattan,
and that he did it in order to steal the drugs.
Did Mr. Lake identify this individual?
No. He wanted his own drug charges dismissed
in exchange for that information.
I told him that only the district attorney
in Kings County could do that,
and he said that he'd already spoken to the Brooklyn police.
What, if any, action did you then take
with regards to what Mr. Lake told you?
I met with Mr. Lazar and Det. Torelli,
and I asked Mr. Lazar
to, uh, arrange a plea bargain with Mr. Lake.
Are you aware of any consequences
resulting from this conversation?
None. Mr. Lake is still in the Brooklyn House of Detention,
and the individual he spoke of is still not identified.
Thank you, Mr. Stone.
Your witness.
Mr. Stone.
Did there come a time when David Zifrin was arrested
and charged with a crime in New York county?
Objection, Your Honor.
Approach.
Your Honor, Mr. Lazar is trying
to introduce evidence from another crime
not within the scope of this trial.
If I'm to challenge the credibility of this witness,
I must be allowed some latitude.
Long as you keep both feet on this side of the line, Mr. Lazar.
The objectives of the prosecutor
do not outweigh the rights of this defendant.
The witness will answer the question.
Yes, he was charged.
Was a statement taken from David Zifrin
in connection with this crime?
Yes.
Do you plan to introduce Mr. Zifrirs statement at trial?
No.
Is that because the statement was suppressed by a Manattan court?
Yes. Because of a procedural impropriety
by the Brooklyn Police Department.
Move to strike. Unresponsive.
The jury will disregard the witness's last remark.
Mr. Stone,
what's the present status of your case against Mr. Zifrin?
The charges are still pending.
Isn't it fair to characterize your prosecution of Mr. Zifrin
is essentially stalled in its tracks due to your inability to make a case?
No. Charges are still pending.
Mr. Stone,
was your conversation with Mr. Lake
part of an effort to jump-start that case?
I renew my objection, Your Honor.
Enough, Mr. Lazar. Move on to something else.
Finally, Mr. Stone,
are you really testifying in Mr. Zifrirs behalf
or are you simply looking for a scapegoat
for your own incompetence?
Your Honor...
My motives are irrelevant, sir.
I'm under oath.
Looks like Frank Lazar won the beauty contest.
David Zifrin, guilty on all counts.
Maybe we should have used a bigger stick on Marty Lake.
Yeah. A magic wand would be more useful.
Without it, there's no way
we can make narcotics charges disappear in Brooklyn.
The special narcotics prosecutor might.
Jerry Silbo?
In his mandate,
he can take over jurisdiction on any drug charge in the five boroughs.
You want him to step in to release Marty Lake?
Yeah.
I doubt that's in his mandate.
We'll see.
I put Marty Lake back on the street.
What for? So he can resume his service to the community?
As bad as Lake's crimes are, they pale by comparison to these murders.
Ben, unless this advances my department's prosecutorial interests...
Jerry, this is not about servicing anyone's body count.
Well, my obligation is to keep scum like Marty Lake off the street.
And to protect the rights of the innocent.
We took the same oath, Jerry.
Do you have any idea of what kind of crap
I'd get into if I went along with this?
You can always duck. I'll take the hit.
If you've got a bullet-proof vest, Ben,
then I hope you plan to sleep in it.
That's the dude.
James Lee Pawl.
Jimmy Pawl. What I told you.
Now can I leave?
First you testify and then you'll leave.
Oh.
I just talked to Adam.
Frank Lazar's on his way to his office.
Who the hell do you think you are?
God's own avenging angel?
You had no business pulling a suspect out of my jurisdiction.
You could've saved me the trouble.
But it's clear that you and I have a different understanding
of the duties of the office of the D.A.
My duties are to the people of Kings County.
I doubt they'd appreciate you poaching cases out of their backyard.
What they might not appreciate is how,
with willful disregard,
you sent an innocent man to prison.
Stone,
I'm gonna tie a tin can to your tail.
When the public hears
how you abused your powers to free a dope dealer...
Hold it, sir.
You bring in the media, they're gonna get both sides of the story:
Malicious prosecution,
failure to disclose, professional misconduct.
Unless you want a real fight on your hands,
stay out of camera range.
Yeah, I know. But I can't, you know.
I ain't got no time for it.
Move.
Probable cause. You got no probable cause.
You're under arrest because you're probably guilty.
What is this?
My... my medicine. I got headaches.
Yeah?
That's a lot of headache for a pinead.
Come on.
You want him to cop to Victoria Hemmings
and Mary Davis?
As accommodating as Jimmy is,
he's not gonna clear your desk for you.
He should've taken a broom to his own closet.
Six bottles of Percodan,
one ski jacket with blood stains on the sleeve,
one pair of running shoes wear a pattern
matching the prints found in Hemmings' apartment.
Not to mention a conviction in Florida
for cutting up a girl.
What got into you, Jimmy?
You thought she'd look better with a glass eye?
Talk, talk, talk. It doesn't put him in Brooklyn
or near Mary Davis.
According to Marty Lake,
he's already talked his way across the bridge.
You give Jimmy enough dope,
he'll talk his way to a grassy knoll in Dallas.
No one dreamed up this evidence in his apartment.
It earns him 25-to-life for killing Hemmings.
Add to that assault one, robbery one,
six counts of criminal possession.
50 years before he even takes a peek at a parole board.
But if he pleads to two counts murder two,
for Hemmings and Mary Davis
with concurrent terms, he's out in 25.
As far as I can see, your ability to make a deal
ends somewhere in the middle of the East River.
You can't even plead on Brooklyn.
Why don't you let me worry about jurisdiction.
Mr. Pawl, I am the only person
standing between you and Ossining state prison.
Unless that's where you want to receive the last rites,
I suggest you take my offer very seriously.
You want me that bad for Nurse Davis,
you better dig deeper.
Man one on both counts, to serve concurrently.
He's out in 15.
15 years is too lenient, but if Jimmy Pawl pleads guilty
to murdering Mary Davis then Zifrin gets off the hook.
The issue is moot anyway.
You don't have jurisdiction over the Brooklyn murder.
You can't offer Pawl as much as a breath mint.
Yeah, but since the underlying crime involves narcotics,
Jerry Silbo can take over jurisdiction
under Article 5B and hand it to us.
Oh, why? Have you talked to him?
Yeah. But he's gun-shy.
He took enough of a beating doing me a favor over Marty Lake.
Marty Lake? Yeah.
Marty Lake is a choir boy.
You plead out a monster like Jimmy Pawl,
you might run into a few baseball bats yourself.
Davy Zifrin is on day four of a 25-year sentence.
My popularity doesn't seem so important.
Adam, you talk to Jerry Silbo.
Even if you think that Jimmy Pawl deserves a reduced sentence
for brutally murdering two women,
don't think that Davy Zifrin
will be instantly carried to freedom
on the wings of angels.
I'm familiar with the appeals process.
Well, then you must also be familiar
with the latest pronouncements
from Rehnquist and Scolia:
Innocence is no bar to upholding a conviction.
We have to give Davy Zifrin a chance
to put that to the test.
I'll call Silbo.
But you'll have to do better than 15 years.
So before my client agrees to any manslaughter plea
involving Brooklyn or Manattan...
I'm not here to discuss a manslaughter plea, Ms. Goldman.
Please sit down.
I have your client dead to rights
on murder two in the death of Vicky Hemmings.
And I also have jurisdiction over the murder of Mary Davis.
And I'm fully prepared to prosecute him for that crime.
With what? Your boyish charm?
We traced the lot numbers of the Percodan bottles in his apartment.
Two of those bottles were traced directly to Mary Davis' hospital.
Circumstantial.
After the jury takes a look,
and I mean a good look at your client,
they're not gonna care about what's circumstantial.
So what are you offering?
As much as I think that your client
should spend the rest of his life in jail,
my original offer is still on the table.
Murder two, two counts,
sentences to be served concurrently.
Take it or leave it.
That's 25, minimum. I can't do 25.
Do as much as you can.
You don't believe I did it.
Because you don't think I'd know how.
But you're wrong.
We know you didn't kill that girl, Davy.
You don't know anything about me.
I know that you're smart enough to see
that things have changed since you confessed.
I don't care.
I keep my word.
Keep your word?
To who?
To my friend who helped me.
You mean, Det. Torelli?
When there was trouble
because I touched that girl,
I did exactly what he said
and everything was okay.
Did Det. Torelli tell you to say
that you killed the nurses?
He said people remembered me from before.
They'd say it was my fault again.
And you believed him?
He was gonna help me. To get it straight.
He showed me photographs
and secret things only the police could see.
He made you say things that werert true, Davy.
He said they'd blame me anyway
because of the way I am.
But if I'd learned everything,
if I could remember,
then people would say I was really smart.
One fifty-seven.
Date of birth?
November 27.
What are you guys doing here?
Det. Torelli, this is Lt. Jorgensen,
Internal Affairs.
What's goir on, Lennie?
Brian Torelli, you're under arrest
for subornation of perjury, obstruction of justice.
You're nuts.
Hey, Lennie, guy's got it all wrong.
I'm lookir at what's wrong.
You have the right to remain silent,
and refuse to answer questions.
Do you understand?