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."  

Law & Order Episode: Blood Libel

This episode originally aired in January 1996. This long running television series was set (and filmed) in the Manhattan area of New York City.

Episode Main Cast:

Jerry Orbach as Detective Lenny Briscoe

Benjamin Bratt as Detective Rey (Reynaldo) Curtis

S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren

Sam Waterston as Executive Asst DA Jack McCoy

Jill Hennessy as Asst DA Claire Kincaid

Steven Hill as DA Adam Schiff

Jack Vinson as Matt Hastings

Chris Cooper as defense attorney Roy Payne

Santiago Douglas as Eddie Camarillo 

Lee Wilkof as school principal Dr. Sabloff 

A female art teacher, Sarah Aronson, is found strangled in her high school art room after hours. Detectives Briscoe and Curtis talk with her husband and associates and check into the possibility of the woman having had a boyfriend on the side, but they find no indication of any affair by Mrs. Aronson; however, Mr. Aronson does mention some phone calls to their home, but that when answered, the person hung up. When they talk with the school's principal, the detectives indicate that there was no evidence of a break-in, so the killer had to have a key and knew how to disable the school's alarm system, as no alarm sounded. The detectives also talk with another female teacher, a close friend of Mrs. Aronson, and she tells them Aronson had had some problems with a male math teacher. This information eventually leads to the detectives discovering that the math teacher, Richard Kovax, had been selling grades to some of the students, and that Mrs. Aronson had found out and she confronted him about it. Kovax promised Mrs. Aronson he would stop selling grades, but when he refused to accept anymore payments from students, he also told the students it was due to Mrs. Aronson. (You can now see that this could make Mrs. Aronson a target for any student desperate for a decent math grade to have a chance to get into a good university, but don't let your imagination run too far off just yet, as the real crux of the story will start shortly.) 

 

Lab tests of the blood found at the murder scene show that the murderer was caucasian and male, but also predisposed to diabetes. The teacher Kovax again denies he killed Mrs. Aronson (the school principal, Dr. Sabloff tells one detective he saw Kovax leave the school about an hour before the estimated time of Aronson's murder), but Kovax does tell the detectives Aronson had told him she was getting anonymous threatening notes left on her desk. The detectives get into Mrs. Aronson's locker at the school, where she kept gym clothes for when she played volleyball at the school. They find an envelope with the written threats to Mrs. Aronson with antisemitic expressions like "Jew bitch," "Hitler was right" and "mud people." One of the threats contains a violent drawing with a swastika, but it's not just any drawing, it's been done by someone with at least some artistic talent. (Is this symbolic of Hitler's art talent; that is, better than the average person, but not good enough to get through art school?) The detectives and an art expert look at drawings made by Mrs. Aronson's art students and they find a drawing of similar art characteristics from a student named Edward Camarillo. When the detectives question Camarillo, he gives them lots of attitude and he denies having made the drawing in the threatening message to Mrs. Aronson or his having had anything to do with her death, adding that he was working in his father's shoe repair store the evening of the murder, which is later verified by customers of the shoe repair shop. The detectives let Camarillo go, but they check the high school yearbook and find he and three other boys, all on the wrestling team, have three unexplained letters under their school pictures. At first they think it might be some kind of wrestling team lingo. Lt. van Buren and the two detectives write out the letters and they finally figure out the letters spell "KILL ALL KIKES" when assembled alphabetically by each boy's last name.* They question the three other boys, all of whom say it was just joking, but one, Matt Hastings, also defends it as "free speech," to which one of the detectives tells him that death threats aren't included in "free speech." The detectives let the principal know about the boys and their "letters." When the principal hears that Hastings is one of the boys, he tells the detectives that he had recently come to the school in the evening and saw Hastings leaving the school, which meant he had a key. He questioned Hastings about it, and he said one of the teachers had given him a key so he could work on a school project. The principal later asked that teacher if the story was true, but she denied it. The principal assumed the teacher was lying to avoid any repercussions for having given a student a key, but the principal let matters go, because Hastings is one of the top students in the school and the class president. 

 

When the detectives talk with Jack McCoy and Claire Kincaid in the DA's office, McCoy suggests getting the school to get a urine test from the members of the wrestling team, then see if the lab determines that Hastings has diabetes. Kincaid explains that schools are permitted to have athletes undergo urine tests for drugs and without a warrant. When the team is tested, the detectives ask for the specimen number for Hasting's sample and then later they go to the doctor in charge and they learn Hasting does indeed have diabetes, but that he and his family probably don't know it. He explains that when a student's urine test shows positive for alcohol, they run a further test to see if the alcohol was from drinking, or if it was produced within the person's body, as can happen with a high sugar level in people with diabetes. Hastings' test showed the latter. The detectives arrest Matt Hastings. With Hastings in custody the police get his fingerprints and they match to fingerprints on one of the notes left on Mrs. Aronson's desk, to which Hastings says he was just trying to frighten her about stopping Mr. Kovax from selling grades. They also match his blood to blood at the crime scene. Hastings' attorney moves to suppress the urine test, saying that while the law allowed for such tests to identify drug users, it wasn't intended to be allowed for murder investigations. The fact that the detectives specifically asked for Hastings' specimen number also showed this was not about drug use, and the judge suppresses the urine test and thus, overturns the whole case, because it was the urine test that prompted Hastings' arrest and this brought about the blood match and the fingerprint match to the threatening note, both of which are thrown out. Hastings is free ... at the moment. 

 

McCoy and Kincaid meet with DA Adam Schiff to determine where to go with the case. Kincaid says the police found white supremacy and racist literature in Hastings' room at his home, along with "white power" music, and she reads some of the nasty, or should I say Nazi, lyrics to the other two. Since the boy's father vouched for his son being home on the night of Aronson's murder, Schiff tells them to check the father's own alibi. Claire Kincaid talks with the boy's mother who was working on the night of the murder, but she says they were both home when she got home from work and that she trusts her husband and her son, "He's not like what they say in the papers. Those people think we're all anitsemites." Kincaid asks, "Those people?" And the mother says, "You know very well what I'm talking about." The mother goes on to say, "Look at that school. How do you think he feels? He's a minority." (Note: While I didn't hear it mentioned earlier in the script, but it might have been, this comment seems to indicate that the high school has a large number of Jewish students. Wow! And in New York City, who would have 'thunk' it? Now ideally none of this should matter, but we're talking about antisemitism, racism and hate here, not "A day at Disneyland." Also interesting, earlier the principal tells the detective that Hastings was elected class president. Hm, I wonder what percentage of the Jewish vote he got?) The mother writes off the yearbook message as her son "just trying to get a rise out of people." When Kincaid mentions the racist lierature found in his room, the mother says, "Matt reads a lot," and she insists her son doesn't have a problem with Jews, and that he dated a Jewish girl. This takes Kincaid to Hastings' former girlfriend who tells how he flattered her with comments about Jews being smart and such, but also that he was using her to build his image, and that he blamed Jewish students for spreading lies about him. She also mentions that she believes Hastings got the basis of his beliefs at home, and that his father once asked her about a family named "Abramson," as if all Jews somehow know each other. She says the father said the Abramsons cheated him out of his printing business and that it was their fault he didn't have enough money to send his son to prep school. Kincaid asks about Eddie Camarillo and the girl says that he and Hastings are good friend and that they would get into the school on weekends to lift weights. When Kincaid asks how they got through the locked door and the alarm system on weekends, she says that Eddie had a key made at his father's store.

 

Now the detectives bring in Eddie Camarillo again and tell him they know about the key and that was how Hastings got out of the school after killing Mrs. Aronson, but Camarillo denies he had a key. McCoy tells him he's an accessory to murder and Rey Curtis, who is part Peruvian and fluent in Spanish, tells him that when Hastings talks about "the mud people," he means both Eddie and himself. This brings Camarillo to say, "My people come from pure Spanish blood, white, Christian blood." (Damn! Now we know blood has religious identifiers. I think he needs to have a blood test.) Eddie tells them that Mrs. Aronson recognized his artwork on the one threatening note and confronted him about it and gave 'them' the chance to turn themselves in. (Interestingly, he says she called 'him' in, but then that she gave 'them' the chance to turn themselves in; so, he obviously told her that Hastings was in on it.) Hastings said he would lose his scholarship and that he wanted to talk with Aronson, so Eddie supplied the key, but, "I never thought he was going to hurt her." McCoy sends the detectives to arrest Hastings. 

 

Hastings' defense attorney comes to the DA's office and introduces them to the attorney who will handle Hastings' defense, Roy Payne, an attorney known as a Klan lawyer; "Klan," as in "Ku Klux Klan." He bluntly says he will present a case that says his client is being framed as part of a conspiracy to protect the "real killer," the teacher, Mr. Kovax, who is Jewish. In court Payne lays out for the judge his theory that a succession of Jewish people were involved in investigating or providing evidence against Hastings. When McCoy objects, the judge says that while the theory is offensive, he'll weigh whether the evidence Payne offers is valid before letting the jury hear it. Afterward Payne tells McCoy and Kincaid that it's a golden age of conspiracy theories, that such theories help people make sense of an irrational world and that if they go out on the street and ask 12 people what they think about Jews, "All I need is one" (for those unaware, the jury must be unanimous to convict). During jury selection, Payne asks one man if he's Jewish, but when McCoy objects, the judge has a private conference with McCoy and Payne and Payne says his client has a right to know if any Jewish jurors can set aside their bias. The judge has another "Susan Collins moment," and says it's all very odious, but bias is relevant, so he'll allow Payne's question. (For those unaware, Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, is noted for saying how troubled she is by Donald Trump's statements or actions, only to then support him. She voted not to convict Trump at his impeachment trial, saying that she was certain he had learned his lesson, a statement which quickly circled the toilet bowl and was flushed along with other doo doo.) Later, Adam Schiff tells McCoy and Kincaid that they aren't trying an antisemite, but rather a murderer who killed Aronson because she was about to stop him from getting a Princeton scholarship, "He would have killed here if her name was McGinty; make sure the jury knows it."

 

At the trial the technician from the lab tells how Hastings' blood sample after his arrest matched the blood found at the crime scene stored in the lab. Payne makes sure to repeat the technician's name, "Rosen," and the technician answers Payne's question about who brought in the blood sample as "Detective Briscoe." ("Rosen" is a fairly common Jewish name, although his family might have been from the North Pole for all we know, but the point is made that Payne is emphasizing the technician's background is likely Jewish.) Payne follows with a question as to the blood from the crime scene being "kept under lock and key 24 hours a day," but the technician says "not when someone is in the lab working." This brings Payne to ask if it was, therefore, possible that Detective Briscoe could have swapped Hastings' blood taken after his arrest for the blood at the crime scene. The technician asnswers, "Anything's possible." Now Detective Curtis takes the stand and testifies that he accompanied Detective Briscoe to the lab with Hastings' blood sample and witnessed Briscoe turning the sample over to Mr. Rosen and signing the required form. Payne asks if Curtis was always with Briscoe in the lab, "joined at the hip," he asks? Curtis says he made a one minute call to report in to the precinct, which Payne says, "So there was a minute when you and Detective Briscoe were separated?" Curtis answers, "Yes." Payne then asks if earlier in the investigation that Curtis was completely convinced that Kovax was truly cleared as a suspect and Curtis says, "Not entirely," explaining that Kovax "had a motive and a window of opportunity to commit the crime." Payne askes if the two detectives discussed the case and then proceeded to look for other suspects, to which Curtis answers, "Yes." Payne asks if Curtis was overruled by his senior partner, which prompts McCoy to object and brings a withdrawal of the question by Payne. He then asks Curtis if he knows if Briscoe is Jewish and Curtis says, "I don't know, I never bothered to ask him." 

 

With the school's principal, Dr. Sabloff, on the stand, Payne goes over how Mr. Kovax was not just a teacher, but also a big fundraiser for the school, which Dr. Sabloff admits he likely mentioned when being asked by Detective Briscoe about Kovax in a phone call. Sabloff says he also learned from Briscoe that Kovax was a murder suspect during the call. Payne then spins this into further conspiracy by saying that Sabloff then conspired with Briscoe to cover for Kovax and that it all came down to implicating Hastings in the murder because Hastings' yearbook message "so inflamed" Sabloff as a Jew. Sabloff says, "Jews don't conspire with each other to protect Jewish criminals, it's ridiculous." Payne then cites the case of Jonathan Pollard, an American intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s. While McCoy objects and the judge stops Payne's rant, the information Payne wanted out before the jury can't be un-heard. (As I noted, Pollard was a Jewish-American, born in Texas, convicted of providing secret information to Israel. The case received much publicity in the mid 1980s, but when this episode of "Law & Order" was filmed, the case had been back in the news, as Israel had recently granted Pollard citizenship. Payne is trying to inflame anti-Jewish sentiment in any of the jurors. Remember Payne's earlier statement, "ask 12 people what they think about Jews; I only need one.") McCoy then asks Sabloff if he conspired with anyone about the case, to which he says, "No," and he further notes that Kovax was fired for selling grades. But is this enough? 

 

Briscoe is naturally upset that he's being used by Payne as part of a conspiracy, but McCoy refuses Briscoe's request to be put on the stand. Briscoe then tells McCoy and Kincaid that his father was Jewish, but his mother wasn't and that he was raised Catholic. (By the way, this was actor Jerry Orbach's own history: Jewish father, Catholic mother, raised Catholic.)  

 

Hastings takes the stand and Payne has him explain that he's tried to get along with the Jewish students, and that he even dated a Jewish girl, but the Jewish students told lies about him and the two broke up. And "they" kept him from becoming the captain of the wrestling team, instead choosing a Jewish captain for the team. "You see, I don't have a problem with Jews, they have a problem with me." (Then I think there needs to be a recount on that class president election. Somebody manipulated the ballots. Let's see... the Post Office? No wait, they didn't have mail in voting in schools. Obama did it! Well wait, he wasn't known back in those days. Hey, whichever hand of Detective Briscoe that's not Jewish did it. Yep, gotta be.) Hastings answers McCoy's question about the yearbook message as being a joke that was not his idea, that the other guys thought it up and he just went along. McCoy then asks about the threatening notes to Mrs. Aronson and Hastings says one of the other guys thought that up. McCoy asks him if Aronson's knowledge of him buying grades made him worry about his (Princeton) scholarship, but Hastings says he never thought about it. McCoy tells of a few of the Jewish students preparing to go to Ivy League schools, and wonders if Hastings was fearful of where he'd end up, and saying further, there wouldn't be anyone to blame this time, because Hastings bought grades and had sent death threats. Hastings insists he's being framed, but McCoy asks who is doing the framing. McCoy then suggests that maybe it's the same Jewish family who 'stole' his father's business. McCoy goes on that it was Hastings' own stupidity that put him into this whole situation, not Sarah Aronson, but this prompts Hastings to scream, "It was her fault. That kike was going to ruin my life." McCoy says, "As in the kikes you joked about killing?" 

 

Later the jury foreman tells the judge the jury is hopelessly deadlocked and the judge declares a mistrial. A new trial date will be scheduled. Hastings and parents celebrate, but later McCoy tells Adam Schiff that Hastings' original attorney is now willing to discuss a plea, because Payne got the publicity he sought and he's now hitting the "Klan lecture circuit," he won't be available for another trial. Kincaid informs them that one of the jurors said in an interview that the vote was 11 to 1 to convict. When McCoy asks, "I wonder which one?" Kincaid says, "Whoever it is, they blended right in," bringing Schiff to say, "What else is new? ... Next case."                

       

* The history of the term "kike" is uncertain, but perhaps the most accepted explanation is that Jews who immigrated into the United States from Tsarist Russia in the late 1800s and early 1900s signed immigration forms with an "O," not the traditional "X," which they misinterpreted to be a Christian symbol, as "X" does represent "chi" in the Greek alphabet, and thus is the first letter in the Greek for "Christ." It is most commonly represented in English with "Xmas," instead of the proper English form "Christmas." In Yiddish, the "O" was/is called a "kikel/kaykl," and it was so common, the immigration officials began calling Jewish immigrants by that name, which then was shortened to "kike." It is a derogatory term and I use it here only because it is central to the story.   

 

Photo is of the 2008 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment "Law & Order Sixth Year" DVD box set

WORD HISTORY:

Libel-This word is distantly related to "leaf," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "lodge," a word English borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, and it is more closely related to "library," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. It goes back to Indo European "leubh," which meant, "to peel off, to strip away or to break off a plant covering," which produced the noun "lubhro," meaning, "leaf, (tree) bark, rind." This gave Italic "lufro," with the same meaning. This gave Latin "liber," meaning "parchment, paper;" thus also, "written materials;" thus, "book." Its diminutive form, "libellus," meant "booklet, pamphlet, petition, written accusation." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "libelle," also meaning, "booklet," but also legalistically, "a written claim, a written charge (accusation) against someone." English borrowed the word circa 1300, originally with the meaning, "a brief written summary or declaration," but its legalistic meaning in civil law, "written statement of accusation against someone," provided the basis for the more modern meaning which developed in the early 1600s, "a false defamatory statement about someone," and its legalistic sense of "written false statement likely to do harm to a person's reputation and thus damage their life, earnings and well being." The verb developed from the noun in the 1400s, initially meaning, "to have written accusation(s) made against someone," with the "make false written accusation" meaning coming along in the 1600s with that meaning in the noun. The adjective "libelous" (UK English: "libellous") is also from the 1600s and meaning, "having to do with harming a person's reputation with defamatory accusation(s)."    

Law & Order Episode, Seaon 7: Past Imperfect

"Law & Order" was a crime drama series originally broadcast on NBC from 1990 until 2010. This episode always intrigued me. I've had lots of dealings with lawyers over the years, because of work, and one of those attorneys had a dry, but funny way of saying things, although at times the dry remarks were skewering to others, and this episode always makes me think of him. Whether he's ever seen this episode, I have no idea, but I can imagine him chuckling a little about the last scene in this episode. Many of the episodes of this great series required viewers to pay attention, because there could be twists and turns in the plot and this episode is no exception. 

Main cast for this episode:

Sam Waterston: Executive Assistant District Attorney  Jack McCoy
Steven Hill: District Attorney Adam Schiff
Carey Lowell: Assistant District Attorney Jamie Ross
S. Epatha Merkerson: Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
Jerry Orbach: Detective Lennie Briscoe
Benjamin Bratt: Detective Rey Curtis
René Augesen: Sonja Harlan
Bray Poor: Grant Silverman
David McCallum: Craig Holland
Adam Kaufman: Douglas Burke
Katherine Borowitz: Defense Attorney Marjorie Larson
Kitty Chen: Judge Elizabeth Yee

A birthday party put together by Craig Holland for friend and neighbor Chrissy Sandler turns ugly when Holland finds Chrissy dead in her apartment. The dead woman's son, Douglas, shows up for the party, but he becomes a suspect, as he has had a somewhat rocky relationship with his mother and tests confirm some blood found in Chrissy's apartment is from a blood relative. The medical examiner also finds evidence of violence on the body and the police begin to question people about Chrissy's death. The dead woman is a former model who had had drug problems in the past, and when the police go over her financial records, they find a check for $2500 made out to "cash," with an illegible endorsement signature and no forms of identification noted by the bank teller who cashed the check. This takes the police to the bank where the check was cashed. The bank teller, Sonja Harlan, receives praise from her superior, but also a scolding for not having noted the identification used to cash the check. She claims she must have seen identification, but that she simply forgot to write it down. The police are essentially satisfied and they decide to head over into New Jersey to see Chrissy's mother, who is in a nursing home there and suffering with Alzheimer disease. The elderly lady has good days and bad days, but during her talk, she mentions that her daughter came to visit her fairly recently, although the nurse doesn't believe it to be accurate. So Briscoe and Curtis ask to see the sign in log for visitors. They find a visit to the lady from Sonja Harlan, the bank teller!

The police return to New York City and stop Ms. Harlan as she leaves work. They want to know why she would visit an elderly woman in a nursing home. After some back and forth with the police, she tells them, "She's my mother." Harlan tells the police she didn't disclose the information about her mother, because her mother had given birth to her out of wedlock, and that she (the mother) gave her up for adoption when her mother was 18; "It's not something she was proud of." All of this prompts the police to check on Harlan's movements on the day Chrissy was killed. The bank cameras show Sonja leaving for lunch wearing a white blouse, but then returning later wearing a different blouse and carrying a purse, which she hands off to Grant Silverman, the bank loan officer, and as Lennie Briscoe puts it about Silverman's relationship to Ms. Harlan, "The rumor around the coffee machine is, he's been stamping her bank book for the past few months." (They came up with some clever lines in this series... hahaha) Another video shows Silverman leaving the bank with the purse a little later, and the police theorize that it contains Sonja's white blouse, with her mother's blood on it. Chrissy's neighbor Craig Holland tells the police Chrissy had a purse like the one Ms. Harlan appears with in the bank video, and that the purse is missing from Chrissie's apartment. After obtaining a search warrant for Harlan's apartment (a judge refuses to grant a search warrant for Silverman's home), the police find one of the mother's blouses in Harlan's closet. They arrest Sonja Harlan and take Grant Silverman in for questioning. Silverman tells the police Sonja told him the purse had gym clothes in it. Down the hall, Harlan is under questioning, and she tells the police her mother gave her the purse. Then, when she struggles with her answers, she asks for her lawyer. When the police ask for her attorney's number, she tells them, "You've got him down the hall." In the meantime, Silverman, feeling the pressure, admits that he looked in the purse and that it contained a blouse covered in blood, and that Sonja told him her mother had an accident. When the police questioning Harlan leave her and go to Silverman to ask if he's Sonja's attorney, he says he "represents" Harlan. Sonja Harlan hires a top defense attorney, Marjorie Larson, and she moves to invoke attorney-client privilege regarding Silverman's statement about the blood covered blouse and anything Harlan had told him about what happened to her mother. Judge Yee, the trial judge, agrees and Silverman's testimony is out.*

The police go through Harlan's records from the search of her home and they find that she and Silverman had been checking into the fairly recent death of a wealthy man, Harold Lancer, who was worth $250 million when he died at an area hospital. They also find that Silverman did indeed act as Sonja's attorney, as he wrote the hospital where Harold Lancer died from cancer about Lancer's tissue biopsy. Jamie Ross goes to the hospital where she finds out that the hospital kept a tissue sample from Harold Lancer for cancer research and that Silverman had been in contact with the hospital about that tissue sample. It turns out, Chrissy had told Sonja that she was Harold Lancer's "love child." Then Silverman contacted the law firm representing Lancer's estate about getting Lancer's tissue sample tested, as Lancer had been cremated, and this was now the only means to see if Lancer was Sonja's father. Lancer's will named his heirs as his "wife and his children," but it didn't specify the children by name.** Silverman told the lawyers representing Lancer's estate that if a paternity test proved that Harold Lancer was Sonja's father, that Sonja would pursue a case for a full share of Lancer's estate. The thing is, Sonja needed her mother's cooperation to attest that Lancer was the father to establish a basis for the paternity test. Jack McCoy decides to go to trial with the evidence they have.

At the trial, the main attorney for the Lancer estate testifies about Silverman's contact with him, and about how Harlan, if proven to be Lancer's child, would be entitled to $53 million, as a valid claimant to the estate. Sonja Harlan takes the stand and testifies how it was much easier to trace who her mother was (she and Silverman found a birth record), and then once she found her mother, her mother told Harlan who her father was. Harlan tells the court that her mother was the one who suggested that Sonja pursue legal action to claim part of Lancer's estate, and that this would be a partial remedy for her life in foster homes and "all I've been through." She also testifies that her mother knew she had to sign papers saying that Lancer was Sonja's father, but that her mother wanted to first break the news to her son, but that her mother would have signed the papers if "someone hadn't killed her." McCoy points out that Mr. Silverman likely told Sonja that there was a kind of time limit for her to succeed in her claim, because once the will had gone through probate and the estate had been divided among Lancer's family, it would be extremely difficult for Harlan to make a claim. McCoy presses her as to why her mother hadn't signed the papers after a couple of weeks had passed. Sonja again says that her mother wanted to tell her son about everything first, and that the whole thing was up to her mother. McCoy then asks her if she was willing to walk away from $53 million, and she answers by noting that Silverman, as her attorney, would get a third of the money, and that she would have given her mother some of the money. McCoy theorizes that her mother wanted more money than Sonja was willing to pay her, so she wouldn't sign the paper and that Harlan became angry and killed her mother. Sonja replies that her mother loved her, but McCoy says that wasn't true, that her mother saw Sonja as an accident, and that she only really loved her son (he was the son by her former husband, a rock band star).

During discussions of the case at the DA's office, Jack McCoy decides to try to get Silverman to break over by challenging the "attorney-client privilege" ruling, by asserting that Silverman was an accomplice to his client, Sonja Harlan. McCoy has Silverman arrested and he then meets with Silverman and his lawyer. He lays out the case that Silverman knew Sonja was going to make her mother sign the papers one way or another, but that he did nothing to intercede to prevent violence, and then, once the mother was dead, he helped to dispose of evidence (the bloody blouse). McCoy says it's at least attempted grand larceny. Then McCoy lays out the benefit to Silverman if he testifies that he helped dispose of evidence and also testifies to what Harlan had told him about her mother's death ... that based on the DA's theory of the case, Harold Lancer was Sonja Harlan's father. If Harlan is convicted based on that theory, New York State will accept that as true, which will provide the basis for the paternity test, and if the test proves Lancer was her father, Harlan will get $53 million, with Silverman getting $17 million of that amount. McCoy says further, he would accept a plea of misdemeanor attempted grand larceny and recommend five years probation for Silverman. As Silverman consults with his lawyer, Jamie tells McCoy that he's buying Silverman's testimony, to which McCoy answers, "I just motivated him to tell the truth." Silverman accepts the offer and tells MCoy that Sonja's mother didn't know how she was "when she doesn't get her way...She had so much hate inside her. Her mother should have just signed the damn papers."

McCoy and Jamie meet with Harlan and Marjorie Larson. Larson tries arguing that everything Silverman has now admitted is still privileged, but McCoy answers that Silverman stopped being her attorney once he helped Harlan destroy evidence and he alludes to Judge Yee agreeing with him. He offers 12 1/2 to 25 years as the sentence, and it is accepted by Harlan. She then tells them her mother wouldn't sign the papers, because she admitted that she was a call girl when she got pregnant by Lancer. Her mother was afraid everyone would find out, especially her son, and that even the possibility of all that money wouldn't change her mind. Sonja implies how frustrating it all was, that her mother told her about her father and all of that money, but then she wouldn't help her get the money. Then she says how it was her mother's birthday and the party her neighbor was having, but her mother wanted her (Sonja) to leave, but that her son was invited to the party, "that's who she wanted, him, not me ... That bitch," she calls her mother. Even her attorney cringes.

In the final scene at some later, unspecified date at the DA's office, Jamie tells McCoy and Adam Schiff that the paternity test proved Harlan to be Lancer's daughter, so she will get the $53 million and Silverman will collect his $17 million. Jamie comments, "No wonder everybody hates the legal profession." A bit agitated McCoy tells Jamie to make sure that Chrissy's son gets a copy of Sonja's full confession (allocution in court), so that he'll be able to collect from Harlan and Silverman "when he sues them for his mother's wrongful death." Adam smiles and says...."Lawyers!"       

* I'm not an attorney to agree or disagree with the judgment, but the DA's office argues that if Mr. Silverman were representing Sonja Harlan, he would have told the police that and kept his mouth shut. Marjorie Larson, Harlan's defense attorney, argues that Sonja Harlan believed that Silverman was her attorney, and that this belief is the only thing that counted. It is that argument that Judge Yee accepts.

** To me, this is the weak part of the script, as it's hard to believe that a multimillionaire would have such a loosely worded will, and not an ironclad will written by a top law firm and reviewed by several attorneys of that law firm, although anything is possible.

Photo is of the 2010 DVD set for Season 7 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment 

WORD HISTORY:
Fragrant-This word goes back to Indo European "bhragh," which meant, "to smell, to give off an odor or scent." This gave Italic "fragro," meaning, "to give off a sweet smell, to smell of something" (the beginning Indo European "b" became "f" in Italic). This gave Latin the verb "fragrare," with the same general meaning, and its participle form was "fragrans," meaning, "giving off a sweet smell, smelling of something." English borrowed the word from Latin as "fragrant" in the 1400s.

Law & Order Episode: Jeopardy

A wealthy widow helps a cash strapped judge get a large loan at a super low interest rate. The problem is, he is the sitting judge in a case involving the woman's son, who is on trial for murdering 3 people, including his own brother. On top of that, the judge and District Attorney Adam Schiff are long time friends.

The story opens with shots being fired inside the office of a computer magazine publisher. The police respond and find 2 employees and their boss shot to death. The boss is Edward Nicodos, part of a family that owns a food distribution company. The detectives go to Mrs Elaine Nicodos, played by Sada Thompson, and her son, Peter, played by Peter Frechette. Mrs. Nicodos is a widow and VERY wealthy, and the mother of Peter and Edward. The detectives find that Mrs. Nicodos gave her son Edward the money to start the magazine, which is struggling,* and Peter insists his brother's magazine is separate from the family food business. As they investigate further, the detectives find out the secretary to Peter Nicodos kept a gun in her desk and that Peter had given approval for her to keep the gun on the premesis, so he knew the gun was there, but further, Peter had a key to her desk. They also learn the secretary has filed a report that the gun is now missing, and that the gun is the same type used as the murder weapon.

Detectives Briscoe and Curtis, played by Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt, respectively, later learn that Eddie's magazine did a negative review of a video game and that the game designer filed a lawsuit against the magazine AND against the Nicodos food business, claiming the businesses were linked. The detectives find out from the game designer's lawyer about a payment of $10,000 a month from the Nicodos food business going to a shell corporation, Gaston Inc, and the theory is it's really a payment going to Eddie's business; thus the lawsuit connecting Eddie's magazine to the family food business. When the detectives go to the address listed for Gaston Inc, they find that Peter Nicodos has a mistress living there, Celia Gaston, played by Brettanya Friese. She tells them that she saw Peter the night Eddie was killed, and that he told her they had to break up, because Eddie had told the attorney for the game designer about their relationship and he threatened to make the relationship public, unless Peter settled the lawsuit with the game designer. Ms. Gaston also says Peter left her as angry as she had ever seen him about Eddie. The detectives also take some clothing of Peter's from the woman's closet, as there had been some clothing fibers found on one of the victims in the killings. The clothing proves to be negative, but the lab technician does find cat hairs on Peter's clothing, and cat hairs were also found at the murder scene (Ms. Gaston has a cat). The technician says it will take him a couple of weeks to determine if the hairs match (the hairs match, but it took longer than anticipated, which will come into play). In the meantime the police arrest Peter Nicodos for the three murders.

In front of the judge who will preside at the trial, Judge Edgar Hynes, played by Louis Zorich, Peter's attorney asks the judge to bar Ms. Gaston from testifying, as her testimony is hearsay. The judge agrees, and Executive District Attorney Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston, tells the judge that she can testify as to Peter's mood and anger, because she directly witnessed it. The defense attorney, Mr. Rothenberg, played by Jeffrey DeMunn, argues that Peter was angry at his brother over not attending a memorial service for their father, and that this could be misconstrued by the jury. The judge bars Ms. Gaston's testimony completely. When McCoy tells DA Adam Schiff, played by Steven Hill, about how Judge Hynes gutted much of their case, Schiff sort of smiles and tells McCoy that he's known Edgar Hynes for 35 years and that he was not a "bleeding heart" years before, and not likely to be one in the present. McCoy decides to proceed with the trial based on the evidence they have. At the trial, the lab technician is testifying, and Rothenberg asks to speak to the judge. He argues that he only received the evidence about the matching cat hairs 2 days before trial and that his whole strategy was based upon the belief that the prosecution didn't have this evidence. He asks that the lab technician's report and testimony be excluded, and the judge grants it. McCoy is angry, as he had even offered to delay the trial to give the defense time to prepare their case. Detective Curtis testifies about some evidence, and McCoy rests the prosecution's case. Rothenberg asks for dismissal of the charges, because the prosecution failed to prove the prima facie case, and the judge agrees; the charges against Peter Nicodos are dismissed. Elaine Nicodos smiles as her son is now free.

McCoy tells Adam Schiff how Judge Hynes sided with the defense on everything, and while Adam is skeptical about McCoy's case against Peter Nicodos, he goes to meet his long time friend Edgar Hynes over drinks. Hynes defends his handling of the case, and as he gets up to leave, Adam asks about the judge's wife, and mentions that they might all be able to get together for a trip on the judge's boat. Hynes tells Adam that his wife filed for divorce and that he had to sell the boat. Later, a very troubled Adam tells McCoy to look into Judge Hynes. They find that Judge Hynes specifically requested the Nicodos trial and that he had received a $600,000 second mortgage with a super low interest rate (saving him $300,000 interest), even though he had little equity in the house, and had loads of debt. They find out from the bank that Elaine Nicodos had interceded with the bank on the judge's behalf, and that she made it clear that if the judge didn't receive preferential treatment from the bank, she would take her many millions of dollars to another bank.

The police bring in Judge Hynes and Adam Schiff interrupts the questioning, sending everyone from the interrogation room, including the judge's attorney. Hynes tries defending himself, but Adam bluntly tells him that he personally authorized the arrest warrant for Hynes. The judge admits that the divorce had financially crippled him and that Elaine Nicodos offered to help him with the loan. A badly shaken Judge Hynes begs Adam for help, but Adam tells him he will go to prison, as after all, he was willing to let a killer of three people go free. Later, McCoy meets with Elaine Nicodos and Mr. Rothenberg. McCoy explains to Elaine that her bribery of the judge is a serious charge, but she says she doesn't care, because it saved her remaining son, and that McCoy can't do anything to him now. But McCoy tells them he's going to have Peter arrested and that he's reinstating the murder charge. Rothenberg fumes at McCoy about "double jeopardy," ** but McCoy tells him, he isn't worried about it.

McCoy and Rothenberg go before a judge hearing their arguments about "double jeopardy." McCoy successfully argues that "double jeopardy" doesn't apply, because the defendant was never in jeopardy, as "the judge was bribed, the fix was in." Peter and Elaine Nicodos and Mr. Rothenberg meet with McCoy, who offers Peter a minimum sentence of 25 years before he can be considered for parole, which brings a scoff from Rothenberg, who prepares to leave with Peter. Then McCoy tells them he will prosecute Elaine Nicodos, which can get her a 25 year sentence, but that he'll take 12 years for her (she's older, so you can infer that this is like a life sentence). Peter tells McCoy he'll plead guilty and serve the 25 year sentence, if McCoy drops the charges against his mother. McCoy accepts. Later, as McCoy, Claire Kincaid (played by Jill Hennessy) and Adam discuss the case, Adam takes a brief phone call. When he hangs up, he tells the other two that Judge Hynes was found on the beach with a gunshot to the head. Kincaid was just about to have a drink, Scotch I think, and Adam tells her to "Bring that over here."

* The "Law & Order" series was noted for tying stories to the times, and this episode includes this element about Edward Nicodos starting a computer magazine. While that wouldn't cause anyone to even blink an eye now, when this episode was filmed in the mid 1990s, such things were not common, and this use of the Internet for a magazine published exclusively online was relatively daring, and the fact that the magazine is struggling shows how society had not yet adjusted to the new technology; a pretty accurate depiction by the writers of this episode. Printed newspapers and magazines sold by mail, home delivery or newsstands were still very much the way publications were marketed. 

** In the legal system, "double jeopardy" prevents people accused, or even convicted, of a crime from being charged and put on trial more than once for the same crime. Randy is charged with stealing a cookie from a vending machine, but he is acquitted. Law enforcement then discovers there is a video of Randy actually stealing the cookie. Randy can't be charged again. I guess that's how the cookie crumbles... Damn that cookie was good! Further, if Randy were actually convicted and got a sentence of 30 days in jail, but the prosecution felt that was too lenient, the prosecutor can't retry Randy for the same stolen cookie in an effort to get a 90 day sentence.
  
Photo is from the 2008 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment Law & Order Sixth Year DVD box set

 WORD HISTORY: 
Joke-This word is related to the first part of the word "jeopardy," a word borrowed by English from French. It goes back to Indo European "yek," which meant, "to speak, to utter." This gave its Italic offspring "joko/ioko," meaning, "something said, an utterance," but also, "something said in jest." This gave Latin "iocus," meaning, "a joke, amusing entertainment." This was borrowed by English in the 1600s (mid 1600s? alternate spelling "joque?"), meaning, "something said to provide amusement, especially something said to bring about laughter." Later, by extension, the meaning included, "something or someone not to be taken seriously (often, but not always, meant disparagingly)."   

Law & Order Episode: We Like Mike

This episode originally aired in April 1997 on the NBC television network 

One Sunday morning, Mike Bodak, played by Frank John Hughes, stops to help another man, Matthew Sherman, change a tire. As Bodak walks away to clean his hands at a nearby doughnut shop, he passes a guy on the sidewalk; a Hispanic guy with a dragon tattoo on his hand. A few minutes later Sherman is found dead by his sister. He has been shot in the chest. Detectives Briscoe, played by Jerry Orbach, and Curtis, played by Benjamin Bratt, investigate the murder, aided in a supervisory role by Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, played by S. Epatha Merkerson. After getting some info, they track down Bodak, who is at his wedding rehearsal, and question him. Bodak works a couple of jobs, with his main job being a bellhop at a big hotel. Later, after checking out Bodak's story, they find he wasn't completely honest with them about the time he left work the day of the murder and about a large tip he received from a visiting Saudi prince, so they suspect him of killing Sherman. When the detectives go to Bodak's apartment, he admits that he left work early to go to another job answering calls at a bookie's,* and that he was naturally afraid to tell them about the job. Then they find Matthew Sherman's blood on Mike's jacket. They arrest Bodak at his wedding. During further questioning, he tells them about seeing the Hispanic man with the tattoo, "and he looked kinda scary," which prompts Briscoe to say, "Hey, this is New York, everybody looks scary."** The detectives find Bodak's description of the man is similar to a description of a man who robbed a woman in the same neighborhood, so Mike's story takes on credibility.

After checking around about the Hispanic man, the detectives learn his name is Ricky Garcia, played by Benny Nieves, and that he's been arrested for shoplifting. The plan is to have the lady who was robbed look at a lineup with Garcia in it to see if she can identify him. Garcia is released early and the lady is mistakenly brought to the courthouse where Garcia is being released. She sees Garcia and tells the detectives. They arrest Garcia. This leads them to Garcia's apartment (they have a warrant), where he lives with his brother. They find a pistol and a sock with blood on it, and the brother, played by Fernando López, has Matthew Sherman's wallet on him. When Ricky Garcia is confronted with the evidence, he confesses to the murder, in writing. The case now goes to the District Attorney's office (District Attorney Adam Schiff played by Steven Hill, Executive Assistant DA Jack McCoy played by Sam Waterston and Assistant DA Jamie Ross played by Carey Lowell). It all looks so easy... too easy.

With Garcia's confession, Bodak is released from jail with the apologies of the DA's office, but he naturally still has bitter feelings. Garcia's attorney, a Mr. Shuman, played by Casey Siemaszko, challenges the circumstances of the identification of Garcia by the lady in the courthouse.*** The judge agrees (judge played by Ron Frazier), and the attorney presses on by telling the judge that without the tainted identification, there would have been no search of his client's apartment, and therefore, no gun or bloody sock found. Again the judge agrees, which leaves the DA with only the wallet taken from Garcia's brother. The attorney isn't done, however, and he successfully argues that the wallet alone is not enough to hold his client in jail. The judge agrees and dismisses the charges. Garcia is freed. Now the DA needs Mike Bodak to identify Garcia as the man he saw on the street just prior to Matthew Sherman's murder. When Jamie Ross talks with Bodak, he is more than a little reluctant to get involved, but she tells him in a great way, "(You're) a decent guy who got screwed, but when a decent guy has the opportunity to put a killer behind bars, he stands up." Bodak's basic sense of decency brings him to agree to see if he can identify Garcia from a number of photos. He immediately picks out Garcia, who is then arrested again. His attorney's attempts to get him released fails this time, but the judge refuses to allow the gun (which was identified as the murder weapon) and the bloody sock back in for a trial. Now Bodak drops from sight and communication. Jamie Ross goes to his apartment where his bed has been slashed and where he has received a threatening phone call regarding his identification of Ricky Garcia. Mike wants to stay out of the whole thing, but again, Jamie appeals to his sense of decency and duty by telling him that without his testimony, Garcia will get away with murder.

The police tape and trace a threatening phone call to Mike Bodak that comes from Garcia's brother's workplace. They arrest the brother. Jack McCoy talks with Mike and the father (played by John Doman) of Mike's fiancée, who keeps pressuring Mike to stay out of the case. Still, Mike's decency makes him commit to testifying. Ah, don't breathe easily yet! The trial starts and Jamie comes in to tell McCoy that Bodak can't testify, because he's been arrested while working at a bookie's. The judge grants a recess and Jack McCoy goes to the Bronx**** to make arrangements for Mike Bodak to testify in the Garcia trial, as Bodak was arrested in the Bronx. The problem becomes, Bodak's attorney, played by Stuart Burney, doesn't want Mike to testify, because he's fearful Mike could incriminate himself by having to admit to working at a bookie's, operated by an underworld figure. The Bronx will likely want Bodak's testimony against this operator. Mike tells McCoy, "I don't understand. All I did was help a guy change a tire." As the old saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished." This young man is in a furnace room and the furnace is about to get much hotter.

Mike chooses to testify and he identifies Ricky Garcia. Now Garcia's attorney asks him about his work for the bookie. The attorney casts doubt on Mike's story that he stopped to help Matthew Sherman and that maybe he stopped to collect a gambling debt for the bookie. The attorney asks Bodak to say exactly what he does for the bookie, but Mike's attorney signals that he should not answer, and Mike invokes his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself. Now the defense attorney asks that Mike's testimony be thrown out, because he can't just selectively answer some questions, but not others. After a brief recess, the judge asks Mike if he will answer the defense attorney's question, but Mike again invokes the Fifth Amendment. As he leaves the stand, the judge tells the jury to completely disregard Mike's testimony and Mike is flabbergasted by the fact that he saw Garcia walking towards Matthew Sherman on the morning of the murder is not being allowed to be considered by the jury. The defense attorney also asks for a dismissal of the charges. McCoy tells Mike that this is it, that he must make a choice, but Mike's own attorney is telling him not to testify further. Mike goes back to the stand and he tells what he did at the bookie's. He then tells the jury that it doesn't matter what they think of him, but that it doesn't change the fact that he saw Garcia. As Mike leaves the stand, Ricky Garcia is squirming in his seat. The jury convicts Garcia. The Bronx district attorney drops the charges against Bodak and Adam Schiff says how important it is to have a decent person like Mike Bodak to help make the criminal justice system work.

Just a comment or two. The one troubling part of the script is how no one heard the shot or shots that killed Matthew Sherman, including Mike Bodak, who had just left Sherman. Otherwise, the script is good and it shows that Mike Bodak isn't a perfect person; after all, he did work for the bookie, a choice he made on his own, but none of us is without our flaws, and the writers didn't make Bodak a totally unblemished character with the aura of an angel.     


* For those unaware, a "bookie" is a place that takes and pays bets for all sorts of activities, although most typically for sporting events. Properly the term is "bookmaker," but "bookie" has long been used in every day speech. They are illegal in many places and they have long been associated with organized crime, which will come into play in this story.

** "Law & Order" was known for some of its sarcastic humor and interesting characters. This episode has both, as the doughnut shop owner is hilarious, but so is the lady neighbor of Bodak's fiancée, and Detective Briscoe gets in his own couple of smarta-- lines that should bring a chuckle; not that I would know anything about smarta-- lines (typed with the most innocent look I could muster).

*** While I'm not a lawyer, the issue about police lineups to have eyewitnesses identify suspects is to have a fair process, with no indication of who the actual suspect is among those in the lineup, who are supposed to be "similar" in appearance. The issue in this episode of "Law & Order" seems to be that the witness was brought to the courthouse by mistake, and then she saw the suspect in the courthouse with his attorney, thus possibly prejudicing her to identify Ricky Garcia. While she actually pointed out Garcia completely independently of the police, the defense attorney was able to convince the judge later that the identification was not fair to the accused, and the judge used the term "tainted" in reference to the identification.    

**** The Bronx is one of the boroughs of New York City. It has its own district attorney; thus, Bodak is out of McCoy's jurisdiction in Manhattan, another borough of New York.   

Photo is of the 2010 DVD set for Season 7 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

WORD HISTORY:
Aura-This word is related to "air," a word borrowed by English from French, which got it from Latin, which got it from Greek, which got it from Indo European. It goes back to Indo European "awer," which had a notion of "raise, rise." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "aer," which then produced Greek "aura," meaning, "wind, breeze, moving air." This was borrowed by Latin as "aura," meaning, "air, breath of air, wind." It was borrowed by English circa 1400 with the meaning, "soft breeze," but the sense of "atmosphere" also came to be present, and then used figuratively for "the feeling or sense of atmosphere around, and coming from, some being" (first half of the 1700s?).      

Law & Order Episode, Season 8: Thrill

NBC's "Law & Order" had some disturbing episodes; after all, the cases involved murder. This episode was more disturbing than usual, and I've never forgotten it. Even though the episode displayed a disclaimer about the story being fictional, there is little or no question that it is loosely "based" upon the real "thrill killings" of two men delivering pizza to a remote address that took place in New Jersey just a few months before the "Law & Order" episode. The murders in New Jersey drew national attention. 

Two young guys, Joey Timon and Dale Kershaw, played by Rob McElhenney and Michael Maronna, respectively, call in an order for fried chicken for delivery to a vacant commercial address on a little used street one evening. A 20 year old delivery man, Matt Wheeler, played by Bryan Greenberg, brings the order and he is shot and killed; his money and valuables are not taken, and the police find the address for the delivery is a vacant business place. The murdered man's parents, played by James Handy and Suzanne Costallos, are naturally devastated. The police detectives, played by Jerry Orbach,* Benjamin Bratt and S. Epatha Merkerson, track down the two young guys and they eventually arrest both of them. A female friend of the two men is interviewed by the police and she says the two had talked about wanting to kill someone, just to see how it feels! The legal question becomes, "Which one pulled the trigger?" A witness saw one man chasing the delivery vehicle and shooting, but he can't identify which man it was; so, the authorities can't prove conclusively that both men were present at the driver's murder, nor can they prove which man it was who was seen chasing the vehicle. This leads the separate defense attorneys for the two prisoners to develop a strategy to blame the other guy, figuring that will get their own client off. Executive assistant district attorney Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston, gets a court order allowing the district attorney's office (DA) to record phone calls for the guys in jail. To guarantee that only their calls are recorded, they have them put in isolation, where even visitors are separated from the prisoners by glass, having to talk to the prisoners by phone. Timon's uncle, played by Jan Munroe, comes to visit him and the prisoner tells him how scared he is. The uncle tells him he has to take responsibility for his actions and the nephew tells him he shot the delivery man, but he does not implicate Kershaw, and in fact, he never even mentions his name. The uncle tells his nephew that God forgives him. The DA's office is happy, because they now have an admission, but Timon's attorney files to have the recording suppressed, as the uncle is a priest, and they claim the nephew made the confession to his uncle not as his uncle, but as a priest. The Catholic archdiocese goes to court to have the tape suppressed and destroyed. After some wrangling, the judge won't allow the tape to be used against Timon, but he will allow it to be used for Kershaw, because it supports his claim of innocence (remember, during the admission of guilt, Timon never mentioned Kershaw's name). The dead man and his family are Catholic, and the parents can't understand how the Church is helping to protect a murderer.** 

Kershaw's attorney asks the judge to have two separate trials so he can use the tape for his client's defense. Timon's attorney naturally objects, but the judge grants separate trials. The defense attorneys believe there was only one shooter, so only one defendant can be guilty. If one defendant is convicted, the other will go free. Sooooo, McCoy decides to start the two trials simultaneously and argue that both men are guilty of firing the bullet that killed Matt Wheeler! As McCoy's boss, Adam Schiff, played by Steven Hill,*** asks, "You're familiar with the laws of physics?" The judge allows the simultaneous trials, with the second trial to be conducted by assistant district attorney Jamie Ross, played by Carey Lowell. With the recent developments, Timon wants to make a deal with McCoy, and he agrees to testify in court and tell what happened when Matt Wheeler was killed. In return he gets 20 years to life imprisonment and the promise of incarceration in a prison near enough for his mother and uncle to visit him.

In court, Timon tells that he fired first, but that Matt Wheeler pulled away. Kershaw grabbed the gun and chased after the delivery man shooting him. The two pulled the dying young man from his car and stood and watched him die. The Wheelers sit and hear how their son was murdered. Kershaw is convicted and given 30 years to life imprisonment. The Wheelers are allowed to speak. A distraught Mr. Wheeler says that his life has stopped with the murder of his son. He turns to Kershaw seething with anger, but his words won't come out. He takes his seat. Mrs. Wheeler says she agrees with the Church, that Kershaw and Timon deserve God's love and protection, and that she hopes God will watch over them "in that terrible place you are going." As McCoy and Ross leave the courthouse, McCoy asks Ross if she could forgive the two men as Mrs. Wheeler did, and she answers, "No." McCoy agrees that he couldn't forgive them either, but he then asks, "What does that say about us?"  

* Jerry Orbach was a long time actor, primarily on stage and on television. He starred in "Law & Order" as Detective Lenny Briscoe from 1991 until 2004. He died from cancer near the end of 2004.

** "Law & Order" tried to show us in many episodes how our laws do not always work perfectly, but that most of them try to give us protections against too much government power at any level of government. If we suffer at the hands of crime, as the parents lost their son in the story, we're hurt, angry and distraught. We want the guilty to pay and we want them to pay regardless of any rights they may have. That's understandable, very serious emotions are involved, but in the end, the hope is for cooler heads to prevail and to mete out justice according to the law. It isn't easy and the system is not perfect, and don't forget, in spite of the protections that have been assembled since the country's founding for those accused or suspected of crimes, people end up arrested and convicted of crimes they did not commit. The percentage of such failures seems to be small, BUT how about we convict you of something you didn't do. Remember, for much of history (including still today), people were sent to prisons or even executed because that was the wish of nobles or dictators, and those so sentenced had no recourse to have such punishments even reviewed, let alone have the punishments reversed.

*** Steven Hill was a long time actor and starred in "Law & Order" as District Attorney Adam Schiff from 1990 until 2000. He passed away in the summer of 2016 at the age of 94.

 Photo is of the 2015 DVD set for Season 8 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

WORD HISTORY:
Order-The ultimate origin of this word is unclear, although I'm presently persuaded that it is a distant relative of "arm," ^ as well as a number of other words. This takes "order" back to the Indo European root "ar," which meant, "to fit together." This gave Italic the root "ord/ored," meaning, "to arrange, to make an arrangement (of items)." This spawned Latin "ordo," meaning, "a pattern, a row, a series." Its accusative form, "ordinem," gave Latin-based Old French "ordene," which then became "ordre," meaning, "an arrangement (items put into a regular series), a law, regulation or discipline;" thus also, "people devoted to a religious way of life or discipline" (a religious order of adherents, but later expanded in meaning to include, "group of dedicated military forces, usually with some connection to religion"). English borrowed the word in the first half of the 1200s seemingly with two spellings, "ordre" and "order," with the latter then prevailing. The verb was derived from the noun in the 1200s. The word has taken on expanded meanings over time.

 ^ "Arm" meaning the body part and also meaning 'weapon,' both from the same original source, but with different overall histories. If correct, "order" would also be related to words like "armament," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from that language, to "armada," a Latin-derived word borrowed from Spanish, to "armor" and to "ordinance," both Latin-derived words borrowed from French, with "ordinance" having strong influence and reinforcement from Latin itself.