Law & Order Episode: Marathon

This long running television series was set and filmed in the Manhattan section of New York City. The first half of each episode typically was devoted to the police effort to make an arrest or arrests for the murder that had been committed. The second half of the episodes centered around the trial and legal case against the defendant or defendants, but there were variations at times.  

 

This episode was first broadcast in November 1999.

Comment: This series was absolutely phenomenal, in my opinion. The scripts often attempted to show and explain to Americans their own system of justice, which is often not easy to understand. When we lose someone close to us to criminal behavior, we are emotional about it; by that, I mean we're not only sad, WE'RE MAD AS HELL! The law, over time, has tried to remove emotion from decisions, which is not always possible (if ever). If we lose someone and the perpetrator "seems" obvious, we want them tried and punished, pure and simple, but the law requires that things be done "by the book;" and that means, that the perpetrator is eligible for all the rights afforded to all of us. (I'm not saying the system always works this way, but usually that is the intention.) That means that law enforcement is supposed to use and obey how evidence is gathered in a case. If we are on the victim's side of a case, we and our emotions want the perpetrator convicted, and we don't want them getting off for technicalities. But the rights of those perpetrators are also the same rights that can potentially protect US, if we are wrongly accused of some crime. It is far more complicated than many people realize. When I was teenager, one night there were a few of us walking along the street when the police stopped us. They were looking for a bunch of teenagers for some property damage, and one of the teens was described as having blond hair and wearing a red or maroon paisley shirt. I had blond hair and I was wearing a maroon paisley shirt (Hey, it was popular back then! haha) I'm not sure, but I think they took our names, but they didn't arrest us, mainly because one of the neighbors saw the police with us, and she spoke up and told them she knew my mother. Well, somewhat later, the police came around and told us they had found the guys they were looking for, and that indeed, one had blond hair and was wearing a maroon paisley shirt, just slightly different from the one I was wearing (I told you they were popular!). It taught me how things can happen by sheer coincidence, and I and the others were lucky this didn't take a different turn. All because I had good taste in shirts. hahaha When the police told us about the guys, we knew them, and the guy who had the blond hair and maroon paisley shirt that night, died just a few years ago. 

 

 

Episode Cast:

 

Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe

Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green

Sam Waterston as Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy

Angie Harmon as Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael 

S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren

Steven Hill as District Attorney Adam Schiff

Larry Clarke as Detective LaMotte

Guillermo Diaz as Bobby Sabo

Gloria Irizarry as Hilda (Bobby's grandmother) 

Russell Hornsby as Danny Ruiz

Loren Velez as Ms. Torres (Bobby Sabo's attorney)

Michael Irby as Diego Garza

Maximiliano Hernandez as Victor Sabo

Richard Barboza as Flaco Ochoa

Michael Ryan Segal as Roger (pizza shop worker/gun seller to Bobby Sabo)

David Rosenbaum as Judge Berman (the judge in the seized gun case)

E. Katherine Kerr as Judge Holtz (judge in Sabo's case)

 

The episode opens with a female police officer trying to calm flaring tempers over a parking space. Shots rings out nearby and the officer draws her gun and runs toward where the shots came from. She finds a woman lying on the street, the apparent victim of the gunfire. She radios in to report what's happened and to get medical aid for the woman. Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green arrive a little later, but the woman is dead. They find the woman has a wallet with a couple hundred dollars and a purse that is ripped, as seemingly the shooter tried to take her purse. (Just for the record, the murdered woman's name is Eva Harrison.) The officer who first responded tells them there are witnesses and that the shooter is "a Hispanic kid on a silver mountain bike." The fact that this is a murder and attempted robbery in broad daylight turns up the heat on the police to get the murderer. 

 

One young witness was fascinated by the mountain bike and he tells the detectives the make of the bike and that the bike costs $800 (this episode is from 1999 which makes the $800 equivalent to more than $1300 in 2022). A female witness can't really describe the man on the bike, and a German couple visiting the United States also can't agree upon a description of the shooter. The silver mountain bike is the one thing the witnesses agree upon. The detectives talk with a young girl at a playground not far from the crime scene about the mountain bike, and she makes a deal: $20 and she'll give them information about the bike, and Lennie makes the deal, which also includes the name, Danny Ruiz, and the residence building of the guy she has seen with the mountain bike. The two detectives go to the apartment building to find Ruiz, where the management only has the tenants by last name. An older man security guard accompanies them and when Lenny says they've already checked on five tenants with the last name Ruiz, the guard says, "We can't keep track of 'em, they multiply like roaches," a remark which irritates Detective Green. They finally locate Danny Ruiz's apartment, and he turns out to be a black Latino, but they are looking for a white Latino, and he denies having a silver mountain bike, but Green finds the bike in another room. Ruiz says he found it behind the building, and Green says the killer may have ditched it, and Briscoe makes a remark. "And then blend in with the rest of the roaches." Green is again bothered by such language.

 

The bike is covered with finger prints of one Bobby Sabo, who has been arrested before for purse snatching, so the detectives go off to arrest Sabo at his grandmother's apartment, but Sabo runs up the stairs to the roof and gets away, as the police had not covered the roof as a possible escape route for the suspect. Briscoe is worn out from running up the stairs to the roof. A little later, the detectives find out that Sabo's cousin, Victor, has taken Bobby to the bus station and they go there. Briscoe sees Bobby go into the restroom and he follows with his gun drawn and Bobby is arrested, and no gun is found, but not before Bobby shakes his genitals at Briscoe. Bobby makes a remark how he ran past Briscoe "like he was my grandma." The problem gets worse, as the one female witness can't identify Bobby in a lineup, and the German couple has returned to Germany. Bobby Sabo is freed. The detectives lean on Bobby's cousin, Victor, and he tells them Bobby had been staying with a guy out on parole named Diego. The police go to Diego's apartment, but they find no gun. They decide to go back to Victor, who had given Bobby the ride to the bus station in his girlfriend's car. Inside the car they find a 25 caliber pistol, which was the same type gun used to kill the woman during the attempted purse snatching. Bobby's fingerprints are on the gun and the detectives and other police officers go to arrest Bobby at a basketball court. As Briscoe handcuffs Bobby, Green and other police move the other guys at the basketball court out of the way. With Sabo in handcuffs, Briscoe tells Green, "Our boy here just confessed." 

 

At the precinct, Bobby, with his attorney present, faces questions from Briscoe and Green, but he denies the gun is his, and when Briscoe says it doesn't matter, because Bobby confessed on the basketball court, Bobby denies that too, and he claims that the police are trying to frame him. Bobby asks Lieutenant Van Buren, "Are you just going to stand there and let this cracker frame me?" (Note: In American English, especially regionally in the state of Georgia and parts of nearby Florida, calling a person a "cracker" has usually meant "a Southern white person (often poor)," but in some regions, it has also been used for "a white policeman." While the word spread outside of Georgia and the South, my guess is, due to its limited usage, many Americans likely don't really understand the terminology in this context. "Cracker" has had a number of varied meanings over time; of course, with by far the most common in the U.S. being, "a crispy type of biscuit or wafer.") Back to the story: It becomes more obvious that this kid's attitude and his luck in getting off the hook is messing with Briscoe's mind. Privately, Van Buren asks Green if he heard the confession, and he admits he did not hear it. Briscoe hands his written report to Green to check over before filing it in the case, and Green simply asks Lennie how he got the confession so fast. This prompts a sensitive Briscoe to say that after all of his years on the police force, he has a right not to be second-guessed. Van Buren tells the detectives to see what the ballistics show about the retrieved gun. The ballistics show the gun was not the gun used to kill the woman. Briscoe sighs, as they just can't nail Bobby.   

 

The Borough Detective Commander has Van Buren, Briscoe and Green in his office and raises hell with them because the case is still open. When the subject of the confession comes up, Van Buren tells the commander that only Lennie Briscoe heard it and there is no corroboration, although she says she believes Briscoe. Afterwards, Briscoe and Green have some words with each other, as Lennie feels Green questioned whether there was a confession. Lennie angrily walks away. Later, as Green prepares to leave for the day, Briscoe mentions that Bobby's gun was found in a "Pizza Land" bag, and that there are twelve such places in Manhattan, the indication being that maybe they can find the right pizza shop and find someone who might know Bobby and who might know something about how Bobby ended up with a different gun than the one he used to shoot the woman on the street (Note: To hopefully make this a little clearer: how did Bobby get the gun that he then put into the pizza bag and left in the car, which was then found by the police, and what happened to the gun he used to murder the woman?). Green decides to stay at work and the scene shifts to one of the pizza shops where one of the employees identifies Bobby from his mugshot. He then points out another employee, Roger, who recently had some "business dealing" with Sabo in the shop restroom. When Roger is questioned, the detectives find out that he sold Bobby the gun the police found, and that Bobby had dealt his own (original) gun "to a Dominican dude" (that's how Bobby got the money to buy the other gun). Roger tells them he doesn't know the guy's name, but he does tell them where the guy hangs out. The detectives go there and observe the guys until Lennie says, "There's our guy ... he's carrying heavy on the right side." Green is reluctant, but Briscoe gets out of the car and goes to the guy, and Green follows. The guy, named Flaco, asks what it's all about, and Briscoe says it's about the gun he's carrying in his pocket. Flaco asks, "What, you got, x-ray eyes or something?" Briscoe answers, "Yeah, I've got x-ray eyes," and Green checks Flaco's pocket and pulls out a 25 caliber gun. Lennie, always ready with a smart ass remark, says, "Too bad Flaco, you had to run into Superman today." Flaco is arrested and taken in, and it's found he also has a warrant for a misdemeanor, carrying a 30 day sentence. The gun is tested and this gun is found to be the weapon that killed the woman on the street. The detectives tell Flaco they don't think he's the killer, but Flaco won't immediately tell them from whom he got the gun. After some back and forth, Flaco gives them Bobby's name. The detectives go to arrest Bobby again, and predictably, Bobby gives them attitude and tells them "You're just making my lawsuit fatter." Briscoe replies, "Keep talking smart ass, we've got your gun." 

 

The scene shifts to the District Attorney's office, where Jack McCoy tells DA Adam Schiff they finally have a more solid case to prosecute and that Sabo has been indicted. When Adam looks at the evidence and Flaco's arrest record, he's not as convinced of how solid the ground is. McCoy assures him they have made a deal with Flaco to testify against Bobby Sabo, but then in comes Abbie Carmichael with news that Flaco is moving to suppress the gun, based upon the Fourth Amendment (about unreasonable searches and seizures). So much for the deal. A judge agrees that Briscoe's "hunch" that Flaco was carrying a gun was not sufficient reason to search him. The detectives follow up with Flaco in jail, where he is serving the 30 day sentence for the misdemeanor charge, but he refuses to testify against Bobby Sabo, leading an angry Briscoe to grab Flaco and pin him to the wall. Green intervenes to calm the situation, which later leads Lennie to tell Green to never lay a hand on him again. McCoy and Carmichael now only have the confession Lennie says he heard, and McCoy is at least somewhat unsure if Lennie is telling the truth. 

 

The scene shifts to the courtroom, where Briscoe tells the court what happened when Sabo made his confession, which was in reply to Briscoe saying to him then, "You little bastard, I'm arresting you for the murder of Eva Harrison," to which he testifies that Sabo replied, "I gave that white bitch what she deserved." Sabo's attorney questions Lennie about why no one else heard this statement from Sabo and she then tells how a judge ruled about illegally seized evidence and that her client had eluded the police earlier, seeming to make Briscoe angry, as pressure about the case increased on the detective. She makes the point about the gun being illegally seized showed how far Briscoe would go to get her client, but Briscoe responds that his work file is clean, and that the case is not about him, but about Bobby Sabo. Now Sabo takes the stand and proceeds to tell the court he feels Briscoe has a grudge against him, and he denies ever having said what Briscoe testified he said about the murdered woman, Eva Harrison. Sabo's cocky attitude continues when McCoy questions him, but he affirms his denial about the confession. The judge tells them that Briscoe obviously has bad feelings toward Sabo, and this makes her question Briscoe's motives on the confession statement, but she gives the prosecution 24 hours to deliver more evidence, or she will dismiss the charge against Bobby Sabo.                                

 

Back at the precinct, Briscoe and Green get into another argument, with Green saying that Lennie's screw ups had hurt the case, and Briscoe coming back about some of Green's actions having come into question in his time as his partner. Green throws up Lennie's earlier statement in the case about "blending in with the other roaches," and Briscoe denies having meant it to be derogatory. Lieutenant Van Buren stops the argument and takes Briscoe into her office where he indicates he feels they think he's getting too old, but Van Buren tells him she has no such thoughts. Briscoe calms down and goes back out to Green and politely asks for the court transcript of the testimony. During testimony, Sabo stated that he had a pair of brand new shoes. Briscoe now wonders where these shoes are, so he and Green head back to Diego Garza's apartment, where Bobby had been staying. They find the shoes and forensics finds blood stains matching the dead woman's DNA, as well as Sabo's thumb print on the shoes. Sabo and his attorney are confronted with the evidence and McCoy says, "There are no suppression issues this time, your client's run out of miracles." Sabo consults with his attorney and she offers information Sabo has on a rapist running loose, this information in exchange for a 6 to 12 year sentence in the murder case. If the deal is agreed to by Adam Schiff, Sabo will have to admit to the murder in court, and he almost gleefully agrees. McCoy says there is one more thing, he tells Sabo that he went one-on-one with Detective Briscoe and beat him. He wants to know what Sabo did say when Briscoe arrested him that one day. Sabo says, he told him, "I gave that bitch what she deserved." The deal is presented to Adam Schiff who must agree to it, and Carmichael objects to it, but Schiff wants the rapist apprehended, so he okays the deal. Van Buren gets word of the deal and calls Briscoe and Green into her office to tell them, and that the rapist has been arrested. She also tells them that Sabo admitted he made the confession to Lennie earlier in the case.    

 

 

Photo is of the 2012 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment "Law & Order, Tenth Season" DVD box set

 

WORD HISTORY:

Marathon-This word and its modern meaning is from the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece in 1896, where a long distance race was part of the games; however, the distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195km) didn't become the set distance until the 1920s. The race name comes from the Greek town of that name near Athens, where in 490 B.C.E. the Greeks defeated invading Persians. The story is, Greek messenger Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to bring news of the victory. The town's name means "fennel," or "field of fennel," but the word's actual origin is unknown, although seemingly from a non Indo European source in the Mediterranean area. The word has broadened in meaning beyond the Olympics to "any long race," with figurative uses for any "long lasting event," and the ending of the word is often tacked onto other words to show they are meant to last for long periods. Example: "telethon."