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.
(GUN FIRING ON TV)
Honey, come to bed. We have to get up early.
Shh! In a minute.
WOMAN: Help! Help!
(WOMAN SCREAMING)
(TV TURNS OFF)
WOMAN: Leave me alone! Get away from me!
(WOMAN SCREAMING)
(LOUD THUDDING)
BENNETT: Found this gold chain right here, broken.
Probably what caused the ligature marks on her neck.
Lucky for her it broke.
So what did the paramedics say about her chances?
I wasn't here when they took her out.
You could call the hospital. They took her to Hudson Terrace.
All I heard was her shouting for somebody to leave her alone,
then she comes crashing down the stairs.
I come right out, and I don't see anybody up there.
How do I know it wasn't you?
My wife was with me. She's inside, you can ask her.
I will. You hear anything?
All I heard was an army of cops, and paramedics invading my building.
Thanks for your help.
Did she have a husband? A boyfriend?
Not that I know of.
Do you know of anybody else in the building
who might want to throw her down the stairs?
(SIGHING) It's a small building. I got six units.
Three of 'em got old ladies in 'em,
one's the guy you just talked to, and one's mine.
Anybody with you tonight?
Yeah, the shrew I married.
Now, if I was gonna toss anybody down the stairs...
Yeah. Yeah. This is Mr. Golavski, he owns the building.
He's bending over backwards to cooperate.
Victim's in surgery, it'll be a while till we can talk to her.
Can you let us into her apartment?
Yeah. Sure.
How would somebody get into this building?
With a key, or if somebody buzzed them in.
This guy here was Johnny-on-the-spot. He didn't see anybody.
So how did the assailant get out?
The roof door's unlocked.
You can only get out that door.
You wanna get back in, you gotta have a key.
So all we have to do is find the invisible man,
and see if he's got roof tar on his shoes.
CURTIS: This her? GOLAVSKI: Yeah.
Woman who looks like this usually has a boyfriend.
What would I know? She just moved in a couple weeks ago.
She work?
I don't rent to deadbeats.
She's a nurse, St. Mark's Hospital.
Where'd she live before?
I don't know.
You could check her application.
She didn't fill one out.
Oh! How much did she grease you?
I own the building. I can run it how I want.
You wanna know where she was before, ask her.
I will, if she lives.
Close the door when you leave.
Lennie, e-mail.
They're all signed "Giovanni."
Phone sex has been replaced by e-mail sex? Who knew?
People don't usually print out their e-mail.
Is she out of danger yet?
Doctors say they won't know till the swelling goes down.
The dates run from last March to a few weeks ago.
Do we have any idea who Giovanni is?
Well, she lodged complaints with her online company when the e-mail started.
They say they're trying to track him down, but no luck.
She's changed her e-mail address half a dozen times.
The messages just keep coming.
"Slip into your blue satin nightgown
"and wait for me on your new queen-sized Sleepeze mattress.
"Does it squeak when your naked hips
"bounce up and down on it while you're..." Ooh!
There's a blue satin nightgown in her closet,
and her mattress is a Sleepeze.
He knows what kind of toothpaste she uses, soap, floor wax, you name it.
Yeah, and he's thought up new uses for all of them.
It just gets more and more intense as it goes.
Any real threats, like "I'm coming to push you down the stairs"?
No.
Let's find out who he is anyway.
Changing her e-mail address didn't do any good,
but it wasn't until she started getting
phone calls that she moved the first time.
The first time?
She keeps having to move, and the guy keeps finding her.
You know what he said in his phone calls?
He told her to stop trying to avoid him, or he'd kill her.
I told her to go to the police.
And did she?
They said there was nothing they could do.
We put her on the day shift
so she wouldn't have to be out at night.
She moved again, he found her again.
He threatened to come here, and take out as many people as he could.
When was that?
About two weeks ago.
Did he ever show up?
Well, nobody shot up the place yet.
The administration took some new security precautions.
Maybe he got scared off.
She have any idea who he is?
Poor Andrea.
Having to look over your shoulder all the time,
that's no way to live.
No, I don't know a damn thing about her.
She wouldn't even leave a forwarding address when she moved out of here.
What'd you do with her security deposit?
Put my kid through Harvard.
So how long was she here?
Three or four months.
Here's her mail I couldn't forward.
The security deposit's on top.
Anything else? Maybe later.
Hey, check the return address.
"Detective Lloyd Fraker, NYPD, 31st precinct."
He tried to kill her. Man! She okay?
CURTIS: Don't know yet.
So I guess that guy at Rikers got out.
At least you know who to hang it on, right?
What guy at Rikers?
We talking about the same thing?
Andrea Blake, cyber-stalker, inmate.
We're with you on the first two.
Okay, she comes by a while ago,
shows me a stack of e-mail from some creep who calls himself
Casanova, or Don Juan, or something like that.
She got this letter that really spooked the hell out of her.
What letter?
Told her I was sorry, there was nothing I could do.
What did you write to her about?
I was just following up, seeing if she had any new info.
"This is to inform you that Peter Morgan, an inmate at Rikers Island,
"filed a request with the Board of Elections for your current address.
"The Freedom of Information Act requires that we comply with such requests.
"Accordingly, we have provided Mr. Morgan with your address."
Is this a great country or what?
Did you talk to this guy at Rikers? Morgan?
Hey, I got a load of real cases.
I told her she might want to think about moving again,
and this time, don't register to vote.
What about it?
BRISCOE: Why did you want Andrea Blake's current address?
Guy named Lowery asked me to sign some letter he'd written.
This looks like it.
You're an accommodating fellow, aren't you?
For a carton of cigarettes in this hellhole,
I'd accommodate Mike Tyson.
Is Lowery still here?
Got out early last week.
So why'd he want her address?
I didn't ask him, 'cause I didn't care.
Hi. Can you tell us where Russell Lowery is?
If you'll settle for a guess, the Night Crawler.
It's a bar down the street, toward Amsterdam.
You can't miss it.
Oh, when you find him, could you send him back wherever he came from?
Why is that?
(SIGHING) I went out with him once.
The man's an octopus with, like, zero grasp of what "no" means.
Now he won't leave me alone.
You know off-hand if he owns a computer?
He used to. He put a notice up downstairs trying to sell it.
You know why he wanted to get rid of it?
Said he was gonna be gone for a while. Some cruise.
Yeah, around Rikers Island.
Sometimes when you meet a woman, you just know immediately.
It's karma, fate, destiny.
Far as we can tell, it's pretty much every woman you see.
(CHUCKLING) I like to spread my bounty.
Andrea Blake.
Karma. We met at a bar, we clicked.
When was that?
I don't know. Three, four months ago.
Someplace on Eighth Avenue, I don't remember the name.
She gave me her number.
Then why did you need the Freedom of Information Act
to track her down?
Wrong number.
She must've accidentally transposed some of the digits.
Yeah. Being with you probably made her dizzy.
I have that effect on women.
It's a gift.
So why did you have somebody else sign the letter?
Pete. I felt sorry for him.
I figured this was a way I could slip him some smokes
without hurting his pride, you know?
You ever live in the same building as Andrea Blake?
No. I'd have noticed her.
YOU got a job?
Used to.
Free Radicals. It's this club teenagers go to,
slam into each other. They call it dancing.
I stamped their hands when they went in. Got fired when I got busted.
How about before that?
Before that, I was living in Pennsylvania.
So what'd you do about Andrea Blake when you got out of Rikers?
You went to the address you got from the Board of Elections?
I was going to, but I met somebody else.
Really? You went to all that trouble to find her, then you just dropped it?
I have a very short attention span.
There, it's in the e-mail.
"I like to spread my bounty, and that's not all I like to spread."
Know a judge who'll issue a search warrant based on this?
Well, that's why we called you.
We want to hang onto him while we investigate.
What makes you think it's him?
Well, he went to a lot of trouble to track down the victim,
and he recently got rid of his computer.
But the guy who bought it installed an eight-gig hard drive,
threw out the old one. No way to trace what Lowery did.
It's not a crime to sell a computer.
What was Lowery in Rikers for?
Raging hormones.
He grabbed a woman on Riverside.
Wouldn't let go of her arm while he told her what he wanted to do to her.
Well, the judge released him conditionally.
If he screws up, he goes back to Rikers.
This woman who lives in his building?
What, the one who called him the octopus?
If you can get her to make a harassment complaint...
She seemed pretty interested in getting rid of him.
Probably won't hold, but it's worth a try.
(PHONE RINGING)
Van Buren.
Okay, thanks. My men are on their way.
The victim's awake. Take Lowery's mug shot with you.
I went out to throw my garbage down the chute,
and somebody grabbed me from behind.
We didn't find any garbage.
I'm... I'm sorry, I...
It was after I dumped the garbage,
and I was on my way back to my apartment.
Did he say anything?
I don't remember the exact words.
He said that he was Giovanni.
(SOBBING) See, last year I started getting this e-mail...
We found it.
Anyway, he started saying what he was going to do to me,
like in the e-mail.
And I screamed, and I struggled, and I shouted, and...
Anyway, I guess he got mad, and he threw me down the stairs.
How do you think Giovanni knew all about you?
What soap you use, stuff like that?
I don't know.
It's like somebody was watching me all the time.
And you don't know what it's like.
You don't know who it is like,
is it a neighbor, is it somebody you work with?
This guy says he met you in a bar on Eighth Avenue a few months ago.
I don't go to bars.
BRISCOE: Not ever?
I don't like the atmosphere. Why go?
You make it sound like my daughter did something wrong.
No, no. We have to check.
BLAKE: How can this be Giovanni?
I don't know this man, how can he know so much about me?
Okay, if it's not him, who's your candidate?
You have no idea how much time I have spent on this,
and the only name that I have ever been able to come up with
was Louis Dutton.
Who is he?
He lived in my building where I was when the e-mail first started.
CURTIS: Why him?
I would be at the supermarket, and he'd be there.
I would be at the dry cleaner,
and he would be in line right behind me.
Did you tell Detective Fraker about him?
He said that he would look into it,
but I never heard anything.
I mean, first the e-mail, and now the phone calls,
and now he tries to kill me. Please help me.
Please, make him stop!
Let me know if we can reciprocate. Thanks.
Philadelphia PD says Lowery was incarcerated
at the Rawling Correctional Facility in Brownsville
from January to September of last year.
What for? Computer fraud.
He was hacking into people's bank accounts, and helping himself.
So he knows how to send e-mail.
Cons got computers?
The officer I spoke to didn't know, but said he doubted it.
Rawling is a private prison run for profit.
What'd you do with Lowery?
He's back at Rikers on a harassment complaint from one of his neighbors.
Any other suspects? One.
Louis Dutton. No record.
Find out if we want to change that.
Louis Dutton? Yeah.
We're investigating a complaint.
Where were you two nights ago around 1:00 a.m.?
First, unless you can connect me with the objective of your investigation,
you have no right to question my whereabouts.
Oh, good, a constitutional scholar. Do you know Andrea Blake?
And second, I'm under no obligation
to answer your questions under any circumstances.
Maybe he'd like to repeat all this down at the precinct.
Third, I'm not going anywhere with you
unless you arrest me, and I'm waiting to hear what the charge would be.
That's a nice camera you got in there.
What size lens is that, 500 millimeter?
And a scenic view.
BRISCOE: Yeah. You get a nice close-up of the pigeon crap
on the windowsill across the way.
Or the person who lives in that apartment.
You're wasting my time.
And here's a tip, you're wasting yours, too.
SEBASTIAN: Yeah, I remember Andrea Blake.
Nice lady, friendly, good tipper.
Which apartment she live in? WOMAN: Sebastian.
TH-.
7H? Would that be across the airshaft from Louis Dutton in TB?
Yeah. Who's in there now?
A 19-year-old girl from Toadsuck, Arkansas,
who thinks she's gonna be the new Betty Buckley.
Yeah, I'm not making that up. Toadsuck, Arkansas.
You know if Dutton has his own darkroom equipment?
I don't know. He gets a lot of mail from a photo lab.
Yeah. You remember the name of the place?
Sure. Imagine Photo Lab. I think it's on Third Avenue.
Who processes these? The guys in the back.
Didn't anybody think to notify the police?
I know it looks like he's invading people's privacy...
Looks like?
These people obviously have no idea they're being photographed.
Nude women in their own apartments, shots up women's dresses.
No, no. He always sends signed releases with the film.
We keep 'em on file.
(CHUCKLES)
Did you ever notice the handwriting's the same on all these signatures?
What does he do with these?
Look up this address
on the net.
PROFACI: This guy takes pictures of naked women.
They don't know he's doing it, and this is what he does with them?
CURTIS: He puts himself in the pictures, and has virtual sex.
Is that him? Yeah.
He should keep his clothes on.
Candid Camera for the '90s?
Louis Dutton's website.
Baronmuchhumpin.com.
(SCOFFS) Who's the girl?
The new Betty Buckley.
That's the apartment Andrea Blake lived in when the e-mail started.
Dutton live there at the time? Yep.
In this one picture, I can see a box of Wheaties,
a can of Pledge, a Dominos pizza box.
Yeah. You look through that window long enough,
you'll see everything she owns, and every brand name she uses.
Mmm. Get a search warrant.
And tell the new Betty Buckley to close her blinds.
CURTIS: We're seizing your computer, your camera,
and 16 rolls of exposed, but unprocessed film.
This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Yeah. Well, the judge didn't think so.
Rey. You got a lot of pictures of Andrea Blake here.
But she's got her clothes on in all of them.
Must've been quite a disappointment, huh?
CURTIS: And we're arresting you.
Now, I know you're a stickler, so,
violation of penal law 235.21, and 240.20 sub 7,
that's disseminating indecent material to minors,
and creating a physically offensive condition by any act
which serves no legitimate purpose.
240.20 sub 7 is unconstitutionally vague,
and will never survive an appeal.
You probably already know you have the right to remain silent.
Why don't you use it?
The last I heard, bad taste is not a crime.
If it was, Louis here would be facing life.
It's bad enough I have to listen to these Neanderthals denigrate my art,
don't you do it, too.
Bouncing breasts are art?
Troglodyte.
Where were you at 1:00 a.m. last Saturday?
What does that have to do with the charge?
We're investigating him for attempted murder.
They're railroading me.
They're desperate to shut down my website.
Don't say anything.
Give me some details.
Well, somebody shoved Andrea Blake down a flight of stairs.
Where were you last Saturday night?
Does the name Giovanni mean anything to you?
You have no right to pry into any area of my life.
Look, we have your computer.
If there's any evidence on the hard drive, we're gonna find it.
Evidence of what? I have no idea what you're talking about.
You're fishing. End of discussion.
You can make bail after the arraignment. And keep your mouth shut.
Mr. Sanchez is leaving.
Mr. Dutton will be enjoying our hospitality.
(SIGHING) Maybe we could take a picture of Dutton
over to Miss Blake's current address.
See if anybody noticed him hanging around.
Is there one of him with his clothes on?
I vote for a mug shot.
You ever see this guy hanging around?
If I say I've seen him, will you leave me
and my building out of this mess?
You're a real ray of sunshine, aren't you?
You guys have brought me nothing but trouble.
Now I got to fumigate. I never seen so many cockroaches.
Well, you run a roach motel, that's your problem.
You seen this guy or not?
I run a clean building.
It's that girl, that Andrea Blake.
It's her stinking, rotten garbage sitting there the whole time
with the heat on while she was gone.
She's back?
Her and her roach colony.
I never seen this guy.
She told us she took her garbage out.
I don't understand why you had me come down here.
You're just asking me more questions about Louis Dutton.
We're trying to find out if he's linked to the e-mail
you say somebody sent you.
I say?
What's this all about?
Well, you told us you took out the garbage
the night you were attacked, right?
I took out half of it.
There's only one trash can in your kitchen.
You let your garbage pile up?
Sometimes.
Your place is so clean you could eat off the floor.
Miss Blake, you're a nurse, right?
So you know about people coming in
with phony ailments, looking for attention.
Oh, God, you don't believe me.
We get the same thing sometimes.
People making up stories about being victimized,
confessing to crimes they didn't commit,
saying they witnessed an incident they didn't.
This is a nightmare. He is real.
He tormented me with the phone calls and the e-mail.
He tried to kill me. You have to listen.
Miss Blake, there's absolutely no evidence
that anybody pushed you down those stairs.
Now, we think you started getting e-mail that scared you.
You went to the police,
they told you they couldn't do anything until there was a crime committed,
so you faked a crime.
He's real.
You threw yourself down those stairs, didn't you?
He is out there. Please!
Look, we really do want to help you, but you got to tell us the truth.
The truth is he tried to kill me! I am dead unless you help me!
And you don't even believe that I need help.
We believe you about the e-mail.
If it was Dutton, he won't be doing it again.
He's going to kill me.
Look, these guys that hide behind computer screens,
they usually aren't even dangerous.
It's like obscene phone calls.
Your guy'd probably faint if he had to be in the same room with you.
So she filed a false police report.
Yeah. But we don't want to charge her.
How do you want to proceed on those other charges against Dutton?
Should we spring him? No. Leave him where he is.
What about the other one, Lowery? The octopus.
Oh, he's out. The judge took one look at our charge and released him.
Miss Ross?
The hospital where Miss Blake works...
Thanks. I got a request from their attorney for the police report,
and the disposition on the alleged attack.
Why?
She cost them a lot of money in added security.
If she made the story up, they'll probably sue her to recover their costs.
And fire her.
Would that surprise you?
What's the guy's name? Her lawyer?
I'll take care of it. Thanks.
BRISCOE: So I asked 'em, "Was it the same old problem?"
They said, "Yeah, he wanted to have sex twice a day,
"she wanted to have it twice a year."
So what'd you do?
I wrote 'em a summons which said,
"You must have sex once a week, and only once a week."
And they bought it?
BRISCOE: Yeah. I'm the police!
(ALL CHUCKLING)
Beaten and stabbed, broken neck.
At least she can't say "I told you so."
(SIGHS)
BLAKE: (ON TAPE) It's Giovanni! It's the man in the picture!
OPERATOR: Ma'am, can you hear me?
He's on the fire escape! (GLASS SHATTERING)
Oh, my God! He's coming in!
Ma'am, can you get out of the apartment?
Please help me! Get away from me!
(BLAKE SCREAMING)
What does she mean, "The man in the picture"?
We showed her Lowery's mug shot.
ROSS: What about Dutton?
She knew him, she would've just said, "It's Dutton."
We checked on him anyway. He's still at Rikers.
This is all we have?
Let's get a search warrant for Lowery's apartment.
Try Judge Livingston, he has lower standards.
How did you get this?
You got nothing to connect me to the murder, I didn't do it.
You better hope so, 'cause if I find out you did,
I'm gonna push your face through the back of your head.
You heard that.
Say what? You'll have to speak up.
You'll see I like classical music.
I'm particularly fond of Mozart.
Hey, Lennie, look at this, and this.
How many recordings of Don Giovanni do you own?
All but two. I don't think it's a crime.
Briscoe and Curtis searched Lowery's apartment.
They found 25 recordings of Don Giovanni.
They deduced he's an opera fan.
That's helpful.
Have you read the file? Yeah.
Lowery was in prison in Pennsylvania when the e-mail started.
If he's Giovanni then he must've had access to an online computer.
Have they checked that out? No.
How sure are they about Lowery?
They dropped the ball, somebody got killed.
They're sure, and they want him.
Send them to Pennsylvania.
Our philosophy is, you keep 'em busy, they won't make any trouble.
Lowery was one of our best workers.
Doing what? (DOOR BUZZING)
Well, we have contracts with several companies.
Lowery worked for Homebody.
What's Homebody?
It's a catalog company.
These men are taking orders from customers.
Can they send e-mail from these computers?
No. Only the supervisor.
(INMATES CHATTERING)
WILSON: I'm not a prisoner. I work for Homebody.
We specialize in mid-range home furnishings.
Your callers know they're talking to prisoners?
Computers are set up so the worker never sees the information.
He's inputting your credit card number,
but all he's seeing is a row of X's.
I knew one con could memorize 70 digits from hearing 'em once.
We screen them carefully before we hire them.
Russell Lowery, he an example of your careful screening?
A hacker who's in prison for computer crime.
Russell Lowery? Ring a bell?
Sure, I think I remember him.
You let him use your computer, didn't you?
How'd you work it?
Did he tell you that? He's a liar.
He's a better liar than you are.
I have the only key. Nobody gets in here but me.
I ordered a desk for Katie from Homebody last year.
I gave my name, address, phone, and credit card numbers to a convict?
Yeah. The prisoners make $350 an hour.
They get to keep half of it.
The rest goes into a victim's restitution fund.
Now, we don't know how much the prison makes out of the contract,
nobody will tell us.
But we went back over Andrea Blake's records.
Now, she ordered an end table from Homebody, about a month before the e-mail started.
She calls to order some stuff, she gets Lowery.
She used to be outgoing, friendly.
They chat, she triggers something in him.
Once he had her credit card number,
he could find out anything he wanted to know about her.
CURTIS: He logs onto the Internet.
BRISCOE: You let your fingers do the stalking.
The databases give him e-mail address,
social security number, bank accounts, credit report,
everything she ever ordered by phone.
Yeah. But who orders toothpaste and soap over the phone?
I mean, this guy knew what brand of frozen waffles she ate.
She had a supermarket discount card.
You mean every time they scan my discount card at the market...
Everything you buy goes into their computer under your name.
Even if they don't sell the data to other companies, a hacker can find it.
Like Lowery did.
We're getting ahead of ourselves here.
We haven't tied him to Andrea Blake.
The only way we can do that is this supervisor
who says Lowery never used his computer.
He was lying.
All right.
Let's see if we can prove any of this.
Get a subpoena for Homebody's Pennsylvania phone records,
and a subpoena for this supervisor.
And arrest Russell Lowery.
Not guilty.
Your Honor, the case against Mr. Lowery
is a figment of the District Attorney's imagination.
Then the trial should be mercifully short, Counselor.
Miss Ross, People on bail?
The People request the defendant be remanded without bail.
Your Honor, the prosecution's entire case is based on my client's love of opera.
Our case is, he stalked and killed the victim.
Given the seriousness of the charge, bail is denied.
The defendant is remanded. Next case.
BAILIFF: "Docket number 026797..."
I hope we have more than Mozart to take to trial.
The Brownsville D.A. issue the subpoenas yet?
The prison's the big employer in the area.
The D.A.'s giving me the runaround.
I've got nothing to threaten them with.
The catalog company's based here. Threaten them.
This is up to the local authorities in Brownsville, Miss Ross.
And Mr. Wilson is a free individual,
I can't force him to do anything.
I'm sure you must have some influence.
How do you think the public would react
if they found out they were giving their credit card numbers to criminals?
Every precaution is taken.
The arrangement actually benefits the customers
by keeping the costs down.
And the prisoners learn a marketable skill.
And you don't care that your policies have resulted in a murder?
No. I see no reason to think that's true.
You may change your mind when you're facing charges of obstruction of justice.
If you think you can make that stick.
I don't think I can.
But I do know how this will play out on the Six O'Clock News.
I like talking to reporters.
They're so eager.
I'll bring your proposal to the attention of my superiors.
Who makes the best workers? Murderers? Rapists?
Child molesters?
(DOOR CLOSING)
I told the police I have the only key.
I can't help your case. Why would you want me to testify?
The police don't believe you.
Neither do I.
If you had given your key to an inmate,
would you lose your job?
(SCOFFS) Of course I would.
So you're between a rock and a hard place here, aren't you?
I would be if I'd given anybody the key.
Are you aware somebody used your computer
to send obscene and harassing e-mail
to a young woman who was subsequently murdered?
That's what I was told.
Where were you on the night of February 2nd? That was a Friday.
At my cabin in the Poconos.
Alone?
Yes. Did anybody see you?
You're making it sound like I killed her.
The phone records prove the e-mail was sent from your computer.
I guess so.
Well, if you're the only one with access to the computer,
then you must've sent the e-mail.
I'm ready to amend the indictment
against Mr. Lowery to include you as an accomplice, unless you tell me the truth.
Did Russell Lowery have access to your computer at Rawling prison?
Mr. Wilson?
Yeah.
Should we tell Homebody Wilson's been siphoning money from the company?
Lowery found evidence, and used it to blackmail Wilson.
Poetic justice.
The defense is moving to suppress the 911 tape.
BLAKE: (ON TAPE) Get away from me!
(BLAKE SCREAMING)
The victim, in a state of panic,
is describing a man breaking into her apartment.
She identifies the intruder as "Giovanni."
And you're seeking to introduce this as an identification
of the defendant, Mr. Lowery?
Yes, sir. Miss Blake had previously seen Mr. Lowery's mug shot.
The police believed that he was the Giovanni who was stalking her.
So what if the police believed it?
Miss Blake couldn't ID the photo.
The police never told Miss Blake the real name of the man in the picture.
To her he was Giovanni.
So when she identified her murderer by that name,
it was as if she had said, "Russell Lowery is killing me."
The problem is the tape is hearsay.
This is a clear exception to the hearsay rule.
Her statements are admissible as excited utterances.
This does seem to be an exception, Mr. Minetti.
The victim had no earthly reason to lie.
I see no bar to admitting the tape.
Mr. McCoy is leaving out one salient point, sir.
Two weeks before she died,
Miss Blake fabricated an attack on herself,
and told the police that Giovanni did it.
Is that true, Mr. McCoy?
The police reports are attached to my papers, Judge.
She threw herself down a flight of stairs?
And she destroyed her own veracity by making the false accusation.
The police concluded that she was desperate.
No one would take her plight seriously.
Everywhere she turned for help,
she was sent away with a pat on the head and a "Don't worry about it."
But she falsely accused Mr. Lowery?
She didn't know Mr. Lowery.
She accused Giovanni.
It was only later that she was able to link the two,
as she clearly did on the 911 tape,
at a time when, as Your Honor says, she had no earthly reason to lie.
Unfortunately, Mr. McCoy, the young woman is not here
to clarify her state of mind.
All we know is, she lied once,
so we can no longer make a presumption of credibility.
The tape is inadmissible.
MINETTI: Thank you, Judge.
I don't understand.
It's a technicality, Mrs. Blake.
The accused has the right to cross-examine his accuser,
and in this case, he can't.
Do you hear yourself?
This person gets away with killing my daughter because he killed her.
They really brainwash you people in law school, don't they?
The protections are there for everyone.
Sometimes it makes it harder for us to get a conviction.
Andrea worked with Nurses Without Borders.
She worked on her vacations,
she worked to save children all around the world.
But you don't give a damn about that, do you?
All you care about is protecting the so-called rights
of a maniac who killed her.
(SIGHING)
Why didn't anybody protect her rights?
We're not giving up, Mrs. Blake.
If you can't use the only evidence you have,
what exactly are you planning to do?
I don't disagree with her.
Sometimes we're so intent on a grain of sand,
we lose sight of the beach.
Without the 911 tape, can you convince a jury
that Lowery was the man coming through the window?
There was no skin under her fingernails,
and nobody's blood but hers at the scene.
Whatever he did with his clothes and the knife,
the police haven't found them.
We can prove he's Giovanni, he's the cyber-stalker, that's about it.
The tape was the only piece of evidence
which identified Lowery as the killer.
Without the connection, there is no case.
I hear some judge threw out the tape.
We're waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Which is?
Motion to dismiss. Which we're gonna lose.
The tape's out 'cause she lied about the first attack?
Yes.
I don't think she lied.
I think the guy pushed her down the stairs.
Did it occur to you to mention this sooner?
I didn't know there was gonna be a problem.
Do you have anything besides an opinion based on hindsight?
BRISCOE: Twenty-eight years experience.
Why'd you change your mind?
You saw the crime scene photos and you have to ask me that?
We made a mistake and she paid for it.
You understand the implications?
Yeah, the defense has a police report
that says the opposite of what I'm saying.
Minetti will tear you to shreds on the stand, I can't stop it.
I can make the case.
Under oath?
You set it up. I'll be there.
We're indicting Lowery for attempted murder.
For the incident on the stairs?
I'm not sending Briscoe to the lions without backup.
What about the police report?
You heard the man.
The police made a mistake.
And there were injuries other than the ones from the fall.
Miss Blake's neck was scratched, bleeding from where she'd been choked.
Is there anything else to support your conclusion, Detective?
The gold necklace used to choke her was totally mangled.
Now, if you were gonna do that to yourself,
you'd use a piece of cheap costume jewelry,
not something that costs 300 bucks.
My goodness, isn't this convenient for the prosecution's case?
How am I supposed to answer that?
Why don't you give us your opinion, Detective Briscoe?
That seems to be all you have to offer.
Can we have less sarcasm, and more elucidation, Mr. Minetti?
Detective Briscoe, did you really change your mind,
or did you, in your zeal to convict my client,
decide to commit perjury?
JACK: Your Honor.
I'd like to hear the answer, Mr. McCoy.
I reinterpreted the evidence based on subsequent events.
"Reinterpreted"?
Is that the way you talk, Detective Briscoe?
Have you been coached?
Your Honor, Detective Briscoe approached the D.A.'s office, he was not coached.
You're accusing a police detective of lying under oath,
and two Assistant D.A.s of suborning perjury.
Do you have anything to back up your charges?
Yeah. His opinion.
All right. That'll do, Detective Briscoe.
Move on, Mr. Minetti.
Detective Briscoe, didn't the landlord state
that there was no way for an intruder to enter the building?
I went back to the building, and rang several buzzers at random.
An old lady buzzed me in. She thought I was the pizza she ordered.
Did she buzz anyone in on the night of the first incident? Did anybody?
Nobody admitted it.
So the answer to that question is no.
The answer is, he got in the building somehow.
No. Not if the attack was faked.
Didn't Miss Blake acknowledge by her behavior that she made this story up?
No.
The official police report says she did. I quote,
"When he asked Miss Blake if she made up the story,
"she burst into tears."
Who wouldn't? She was terrified.
And there we were accusing her instead of helping her.
By ..we'.. you mean yourself,
and your partner, Detective Curtis?
Yes.
Does Detective Curtis concur with your revised conclusion?
As far as I know.
Let's have a yes or no, Detective.
Sure he does.
She didn't stab herself six times and break her own neck.
Nor did my client do that, Judge.
Mr. McCoy,
you've amended the indictment to include the attempted murder charge?
Yes.
MINETTI: Judge, that's a blatant attempt
to give credence to Detective Briscoe's flip-flop.
All right, Mr. Minetti, that's enough.
You can bring this up again in front of the jury.
I'm going to let them decide the victim's credibility.
Tape's back in.
Where the hell do you get off pulling a stunt like this?
They were gonna dismiss the charges.
So you lie to a judge? I didn't lie.
I'm looking at the transcript, Lennie. You're an inch away from perjury!
More like a foot, foot and a half.
I am not laughing.
How dare you go behind my back on something like this?
We owe this girl something.
We called her a liar and we sent her straight into Lowery's arms.
Well, I don't think she lied, and that's what I said.
And thanks to you, Lowery's gonna walk.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? I stopped him from walking.
What, for a couple of minutes?
His lawyer just subpoenaed me to testify at the trial.
For the defense!
Fine. So back me up.
One of my detectives lying under oath is more than enough.
Thank you.
That's it!
I don't like being submarined.
I got a right to my opinion.
No. What you got is a lot of nerve, Lennie,
making it sound like I agree with you, partner.
It never occurred to me that you wouldn't, partner.
What, you wanna see this scum bounce?
I want to see him strapped down with a needle in his arm,
but I'm not gonna perjure myself to make it happen!
(SCOFFS)
Curtis is standing by the original report.
Briscoe said Curtis agreed with him.
Another mistake?
St Mark's Hospital wanted a copy of the police report after the first incident.
They were gonna fire Blake if she made it up.
And? Curtis said he'd handle it.
And?
She didn't get fired.
I make notes of all my meetings, Miss Ross.
I'll make notes of this one right after you leave.
Here it is.
"Detective Curtis, re: Andrea Blake."
Did you ask him for a copy of the police report?
Yes. As I told you,
if Andrea Blake had made up these stalking stories,
we would have fired her,
and probably sued her for the cost of the extra security measures.
Did Detective Curtis give you the report? No.
He said the report would be available in litigation,
but he didn't think we had cause to sue her.
Did he say why?
He said she was being stalked, and she did have reason to fear for her safety.
Did he mention her tumble down the stairs?
He told me the police had no incontrovertible evidence
to show she made it up.
Is Detective Briscoe telling us the truth?
All he said was he changed his opinion.
After the tape was suppressed.
We'll never know when he changed his mind.
I've got to go with what we've got.
What you've got is two cops making us look like morons.
Who are both trying to do the right thing.
Their good intentions could cost us a conviction.
Offer Lowery a plea.
I did. Minetti turned it down.
Then do something else.
I only have one move left.
Hang Rey Curtis out to dry.
MINETTI: Detective Curtis, when you investigated
what the prosecution calls the attempted murder,
what evidence did you find that my client had ever been in Miss Blake's building?
None.
Did you find any evidence that my client had pushed Miss Blake down the stairs?
No.
Did you find any evidence that anybody pushed Miss Blake down the stairs?
Well, the situation lent itself to various interpretations.
I see. Your Honor, defense's number eight.
Is this your report of the incident, Detective Curtis?
Yes. And you concluded that
Andrea Blake faked the attack in the building?
I did.
Do you still stand by your report?
Yes, I do.
Thank you, Detective Curtis. Nothing further, Judge.
Did your investigation conclude
that Miss Blake was being stalked by a man using the name Giovanni?
Yes. Did your investigation
conclude that Russell Lowery and Giovanni were the same person?
Yes.
Did your investigation conclude
that Miss Blake was in lethal, and immediate danger from her stalker?
Not at first.
At what point did you reach that conclusion, Detective?
When you saw her lying dead on the ground
of multiple stab wounds, and a broken neck?
Did you make a mistake
that cost the victim her life?
Look, the police investigate crimes.
Once we concluded there was no attempted murder,
there was nothing to investigate.
No. You concluded that no crime had been committed,
and that she faced no serious threat from Mr. Lowery?
Yes.
But you told her employer that she was in danger from Giovanni?
Yes.
Did you lie?
Look, I felt sorry for her.
I didn't think that she should get fired from her job.
Is that a yes? You lied?
Yes.
Are you lying now?
No.
I'm finished with this witness.
Will the defendant please rise?
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?
FOREWOMAN: Yes, Your Honor.
On the charge of attempted murder, how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
On the charge of murder in the second degree, how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
I hope he stays in prison for a long time.
We'll be asking for life without parole.
Perhaps that's not much comfort.
It helps.
Beautiful day, huh?
No hard feelings, Rey.
I'm glad Lowery went down.
You okay?
I'm okay with what I did.
I just hope you're okay, Lennie.