Accused (2023) s01e06 Episode Script

All rise.
Court is now in session,
Judge Vogel presiding.
Appearances, please.
Erin Basile for the people.
Okay, wait.
Ms. Lowe?
Your Honor, I'm introducing myself.
In this court, you'll speak English.
Hello, my family and my people.
I am called Dezbaa Lowe.
I am my mother's clan, Big Water,
and my father's clan, Towering House.
And in this way, I am a Navajo woman.
I am appearing on
behalf of the Defendants,
Chase Etsitty,
Shandiin Desmond and Naataanii Desmond.
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down!
Shut it down!
Cops, go home!
Naataanii. Over there.
That way.
- Back up!
- Am I touching you?!
I said back up!
I said, am I touching you?!
Chase!
Shandiin.
Shandiin!
- Shandiin
- Hey.
It's all right. It's all right.
Let me look at you. Are you all right?
- Yeah, yeah, you?
- I'm all right.
- Chase!
- No, no, no.
Chase.
Get up. You all right?
Is that all you got, huh?
Hey, hey, stop.
You're bleeding.
Yeah, me and half the people here.
Get off of me, bro.
They're the ones who attacked us.
Maybe if you stepped back like they
asked, it wouldn't have happened.
We're trying to stop a uranium
mine from poisoning our people.
Antagonizing the cops won't help.
Did you see Derrick out there?
Nah, got separated.
Derrick?
Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm fine.
When I didn't see you in here,
I was really hoping you got away.
Yeah, well, it's hard to run
when they have you in a chokehold.
You've only been back a week
and I already got you arrested.
Hey.
So much for that peaceful protest.
Hands off our land!
Hands off our land!
Hands off our land!
Hands off our land!
Hands off our land!
Hands off our land!
Hands off our land!
Hands off our land! Hands off our land!
Hands off our land!
Trespassing.
Disorderly conduct.
- I'm grateful it's just a misdemeanor.
- Grateful?
They teargassed us, beat us, and
threw us in a dog kennel for 12 hours.
- For nothing.
- It's light work.
Quick catch and release. C'mon,
let's find a ride back to the mine,
- get back at it.
- Chill, Chase. We just got out of jail.
So?
So, your way of doing things is
the reason why we all got arrested.
Oh, my way? What?
You think our ancestors walked
around in circles with poster boards?
No. They were warriors, all right?
They fought back to protect our people.
So you're gonna fight?
How exactly are you
planning on doing that?
I'm gonna do whatever it takes
to make sure that nobody has to watch
their little sister
get sick like I had to.
My father still won't admit that
it's the uranium that made her sick.
All right. The uranium
that he's been blasting
out of the ground for 20 years.
He still believes the
government's lies, man.
We're gonna expose those lies.
- Yeah, you're gonna expose the lies.
- You
Chase, you just need to be patient.
I'm tired of being patient.
While you're printing out
t-shirts, ad writing your Facebooks
and moonlighting for tribal council,
I'm gonna be riding into battle.
Wait.
There's another way.
If the government won't
do the right thing,
I may have a way to shut down the mine.
How?
I'll show you.
That's where all the
uranium ore gets processed.
If we shut this down, the
mine goes down with it.
They built it right after World War II.
All the electrical systems,
the cabling, controls, they're junk.
And they all converge in one place,
that building there.
It's a single room,
filled with all this old tech
that they don't even make anymore.
We bust that up, the
whole mill shuts down.
You know, all that old
equipment it's irreplaceable.
And how do you know all this?
Yeah, a few years off the rez
and suddenly you're a genius?
My dad and my uncle worked here.
They hated it.
Knew it was poisoning the people.
When I would play cards
with them as a kid,
all they ever talked
about was how easy it was
to take down the whole thing.
They planned it out, every detail.
Wrote it all down.
Just never did anything about it.
There's still security.
Not much.
Especially not on the weekends,
when the mill doesn't operate.
All we would need is a security
guard's key card to get us in.
You know, I see those security guys
at the bar like, every Friday night.
I work the door and they get
loaded on beers an whiskey,
play pool. Like clockwork.
- We could do like prom night.
- Prom night?
Your little sister never told you?
She lifted some keys
off a group of guys.
Took us for a cruise.
Shandiin, you stole a car?
Well, I borrowed it.
But those security guards,
all buzzed up, gambling,
they're easy targets.
If I can take a car, I can
take a badge, no problem.
We're not busting up a chemical mill.
Let me talk to the tribal council first.
- For what?
- Maybe they can file a lawsuit.
- They've sued the mine once before.
- 20 years ago.
It did nothing.
Well, maybe with the arrests,
it's worth another shot.
Yeah, well, while you do that
- We'll check out the bar.
- I'm with them, bro.
Ms. Lowe, I got your
motion for change of venue.
I'm prepared to argue that now.
No need. I'm denying it.
- Your Honor.
- Stop calling him "Your Honor."
All of the accused are
members of the Navajo Nation
and the alleged crime took
place within its jurisdiction.
In cross jurisdiction
boundaries, Ms. Lowe.
In addition to that,
Major Crimes committed on tribal lands
- are tried in federal court.
- Yes, I'm aware.
I still consider murder a Major Crime.
Your Honor, we move for the
dismissal of the murder charges.
And that is definitely denied.
- Ms. Lowe.
- Yes?
Sit down.
This is all my fault.
Don't say that.
It's the truth.
And I'm sorry. I should
have listened to you.
Excuse me.
- Sorry, I'm late.
- It's all good.
Yeah, I just wanted a chance
to check things out over here.
- You see anyone you like?
- Yeah.
See Shrek over there at the table?
His access badge is
clipped on his jacket
and his jacket's hanging
on the chair behind him.
And he's about
four gin and tonics in,
plus he's trying to run the table,
so he's focused elsewhere.
So same ol' same ol'? You pass I shoot?
Like old times.
Yeah, old times.
Like when you took off to
college to be a basketball star
and you didn't get a
hold of me for months?
Or the times where you came
back to town for holidays
and you didn't even bother to stop by?
What about that little
girlfriend you lied to me about?
Okay, I get it, all right.
Um, you're not happy I'm back.
I haven't decided yet.
Why did you come back?
I told you.
Yeah, I know what you told me.
You read about my brother and the
mine and you said you wanted to help.
My people needed me.
Yeah, that's why you jumped on a plane
and left behind your
fabulous life in the city.
After barely even talking
to anyone for five years.
And who said it's so fabulous?
Oh yeah!
The cusp!
- The cusp of victory, my friends!
- Showtime.
I'll get it.
This ball, in that pocket.
Ah, got a lot of
confidence to call a pocket.
Yeah.
Good luck.
Luck has nothin' to do with it.
Oh, yeah!
Let it rain green,
boys. Let it rain green.
Nice shot.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hold up.
Darrell, right?
Uh, Derrick. Do I know you?
Yeah.
Coach Martin introduced us at UNLV.
Yeah, I watched you play.
You dropped 20. It was a big game.
Yeah. Right, right.
Yeah, I remember you now.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Well, it's good to see ya.
Yeah, you too. Yeah, great. For sure.
So what are you, uh
what are you up to?
Uh, look, we're actually
late for something so, um
Oh yeah, no trouble.
I don't want to hold you up, just uh
funny seeing you here.
Hey, give my best to coach!
Yeah, you got it.
Um who the hell was that?
I have no idea.
Oh, when I heard stop, I
thought we were done for sure.
My heart's beating so fast.
Hey, uh, I'll meet you back there.
You're not coming?
You didn't seem too
sure about me earlier.
I told you.
I haven't decided.
I just have a few things
I need to take care of.
Right, there's always the things.
I just mean that I'm
gonna come over later.
Drive safe.
Derrick, get in the car.
Bailiff, for the record.
Defendant Etsitty, I hope
I'm pronouncing that right,
Defendant Etsitty has
returned from our morning break
wearing a T-shirt I find
disrespectful to the process.
Are you trying to get us convicted?
As I've made it clear, Navajo will
not be spoken in these chambers.
We're in the process of covering it.
Are the people ready to
call your first witness?
We are Your Honor.
Bailiff, when you're done
there, please bring in the Jury.
Yes, Your Honor.
You like workin' for the white man?
She's just doing her job.
She's not the enemy, Chase.
We're surrounded by traitors.
What are you doing?
You asked me for a meeting.
So you just show up in
public, with this stupid story?
Relax. Your little girlfriend
didn't suspect anything.
I can't do this anymore.
That's why I needed to talk to you.
All you said is I had
to gather information.
I said that's how we start.
Yeah, you didn't say anything
about setting up my friends.
You keep changing the rules on me.
Okay.
We'll call the whole thing off.
Yeah, abandon all the hard
work we've done together.
And I'll take you in so
you can start spending
the 20-year sentence I suspended for ya.
But before we do that, I
maybe I should remind you about
you crying like a little baby.
How you couldn't take
one more day of lockup,
and "Oh, I'd do anything
to get out of there."
You remember?
Yeah.
Good.
'Cause for a moment there
it seemed like you forgot.
Uh
I'm not killing anyone.
I'm not asking you to.
But I'm impressed you went there.
Nah, it's firearm
enhancements for sentencing.
All right?
You don't have to use it.
You just have to make sure
everybody else knows it's there.
Now take it and get
the hell out of my car.
Hey.
It's late.
I thought maybe you weren't coming.
I really need to talk
to you about this plan.
You can talk to all of us.
Where you been?
Just around.
We've been trying to reach you.
Uh, my phone's off, sorry.
- What's going on?
- What do you think?
Thank you.
This plan to take down the mill,
is it real?
'Cause you have to admit,
it's a little strange,
you show up and
suddenly we're saboteurs.
It's just an idea,
so if it doesn't
happen, it's fine by me.
It's not fine by me.
I'll go to that mine
by myself if I have to.
Same here.
And I told my brother
about the keycard, so
We can't keep letting this happen to us.
It's our home.
And we gotta do what we can to
protect it, our people, and each other.
So let's go shut it down.
So what's the plan?
It's this way.
Oh, man, this thing's broken again?
We gotta call maintenance. Let's go.
Could you introduce
yourself to the jury please?
My name is Samuel Donner.
I'm a security guard
at the Orange Rock Uranium
Mill on the Reservation.
And on the weekend of October
14, were you working there?
Yeah. There were five
of us on duty that day.
That doesn't sound like a lot.
They don't run the mill on weekends,
so there's just a few of us
there keeping an eye on the place.
And on that day, October 14,
did you see the Defendants there?
Oh yeah.
I saw them.
In fact, I more than just saw them.
Go.
Chase, the bag.
What's going on? What are we doing?
I told my sister to keep a lookout.
No, we should stay together.
We should keep moving.
Go.
- Card.
- Card.
I got it.
Whoa.
This is the mothership.
All right, it says we're
looking for a blue box.
Derrick!
Hey, Derrick.
Uh, yeah, yeah. Blue box, right here.
That power box on top is
what we need to get into to.
Naataanii, help me out with this?
- Move the thing.
- Yeah, I got it.
Oh no!
Hey, it's Naataanii.
Sorry I missed your call.
Let's go, man.
There's a bunch of wires in here.
That's what we're looking for, right?
According to this, yeah.
Oh God
which one do I cut? Like all of 'em?
We're looking for the
yellow wires to cut.
- Okay.
- Am I reading this right?
Derrick, you good?
Derrick?
You okay?
Naataanii, open the door!
Open the door!
The the cops are here.
- What?
- They're coming to the same door that we came in through.
- We have to get out. Now!
- Damn.
- Come on, let's go.
- Which wires?
- Chase! Now. C'mon.
- Let's go!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
Which way is out?
The opposite direction
from where we came.
The three of them
basically ran into you.
- Yeah.
- And what did you do?
What we're trained to do.
Summon backup with this call button.
And were you aware of a law enforcement
action in progress at the time?
No, ma'am. No one had
bothered to tell us.
Now when you're on duty,
are you issued a firearm?
They give us pepper spray.
Can you tell the jury
what happened next?
Did you hear what I said?
What are you doing here?
Yo! I said what are you doing here?!
Get back!
Stop! Stay where you are.
Derrick, what are you doing with that?
- Protection.
- Are you crazy?
Did you know he had that?
We're trapped.
Go, go, go.
- You maced me.
- You're lucky I wasn't armed.
Shut up! You're lucky
I'm mostly nonviolent.
Hey, we need to talk just us.
After we took that key card at the bar,
some guy stopped Derrick
and talked to him about seeing
him play ball in college,
it's like they knew each other.
But Derrick said he didn't
know who that guy was,
but I just saw that same guy
outside wearing an FBI jacket.
You think Derrick set us up?
It's my fault, you warned us.
- I should have listened to you.
- Shh.
Be careful.
- Hey, what the hell?
- The cops knew we were coming.
Yeah, 'cause we probably
tripped an alarm.
Because someone told them we're coming.
Who was the guy at the bar, Derrick?
What guy?
Stop lying to my sister.
Give me your phone.
- Are you serious?
- Give me your phone!
Are you serious right now?
- I said give it to me.
- What is wrong with you?
I said give it to me, Derrick!
You know what? You're
really trippin' this time.
Don't you test me, Derrick.
You're a dead man.
- Aaah!
- You hear me?
At that point,
did Derrick admit he was
working with the police?
Not verbally. No.
So he didn't confess.
I think when he tried to pull a
runner, that was confession enough.
Now while all of this is
happening, you're where?
On the floor. With my hands tied.
And you could see the defendants?
- Yeah.
- And hear what they said?
I don't know if I heard everything.
But I definitely heard enough.
- Are you a cop?
- No.
Then why are you doing this?
He's an informant.
A government puppet.
I seen guys like you before.
Makes sense now why you came back.
Sure as hell wasn't to help your people.
Shandiin.
You know betraying me, that's
that's nothing new.
But my brother?
Chase?
All the people that'll get
poisoned because of you
who'll get sick and die.
You know what your dad would
do if he were still alive, um?
And he knew and see what you'd done?
He'd disown you.
You leave him out of this.
Or did the FBI give you that too, huh?
Fake memories of your dad and your uncle
plotting to take the mill down.
How easy it would be, if
only they had the nerve?
Shut up! Just shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Shut up! Everything
you said has been a lie.
Naataanii Desmond?
Yeah.
The only way out of there is past us,
which I know you're not foolish
enough to think is a possibility.
We have hostages, including
your informant, Derrick.
I swear we'll kill him.
I'll give you three
minutes to talk it over
with your friends before we come in.
- His cover's blown.
- Yeah, I heard.
Time's tickin' till we go in.
What if they kill your guy first?
We can't use him anymore anyway.
- How much did they pay you?
- Nothing.
Is that what our lives are worth to you?
You have no idea. None of you do.
Right, while all you sit
here all high and mighty,
but I'm the only one
who tried to make something of
myself out in the real world.
Is that what you call this?
Making something of yourself?
No, you all stayed.
Same house, same job.
Didn't try to do anything different.
And you think leaving is
hard, that's your excuse?
It's buried here.
We're the reason you have a
place to even come back to.
And you set us up!
You
Yeah.
I got in trouble in Vegas.
Flunked outta school,
lost my scholarship
And I needed the money.
This guy, he had a plan and
all I had to do was drive
And I ended up facing 20 years.
So they offered me a deal.
So you sold us out to save yourself.
I was in prison for three
months and I couldn't take it.
I would have died in there.
And where do you think
we're all gonna go now?
I'm sorry, okay? Please.
You have always been this way.
Taking the easy way out,
taking things that weren't yours,
using people and then throwing them
away once you're done with them.
You're right.
- I forgot.
- Do it already.
If you won't do it, I will.
Naataanii!
What are you doing?
Killing him would be
letting him off too easy.
Your punishment is to make things right.
Old Way.
You're going to face The People
and you're gonna admit to them
that you've caused all of this.
You're gonna sit with
everyone you've harmed
and you're gonna tell them
how and why you betrayed them
until they will decide
when to forgive you.
That's how we're gonna
make things right.
Let's go home.
We're surrendering.
Nice and slow.
We're surrendering.
Hands where I can seem them.
Hands up.
Let me see those hands.
All right.
All right, that's enough right there.
I said freeze.
Cover us.
Drop the weapon!
- No!!
- Down.
- Down on the ground!
- On the ground now!
Suspect down!
You killed him!
You killed him!
When Derrick Nez came out
of the processing room,
ostensibly to surrender,
did you see him carrying a weapon?
Yes.
That's a lie.
It's the same gun he
used to take me hostage.
And would you have seen that gun
if it had been left behind by the
defendants, as they've claimed?
- Absolutely.
- He's lying!
Counselor, control your client.
That's a lie!
The gun was right in
the middle of the floor.
- Bailiff! Remove them all.
- It was right in front of him!
- He's lying.
- He is. He's telling the truth. We didn't do anything.
Say it was in front of you
or Derrick died for nothing.
Please. We didn't do anything.
You have to believe us.
We didn't do anything.
We left the gun so
no one would get hurt!
I'd like a word with him.
- I'll get his attorney.
- Ah, that won't be necessary.
It's the law.
We'll just be a second and
you'll be right outside.
Do you even understand what's
going to happen to you three?
You took a guard hostage at gunpoint.
The judge out there
couldn't hate you more.
And someone died.
Because of you.
Well, thanks to the felony murder rule,
that gets blamed on you.
Doesn't matter if you
didn't pull the trigger.
White man's justice.
It's a bitch, right?
You said you wanted
to help your people
Well, why don't you start by
helping your baby sister
and your loud mouth buddy?
Because there is no one
standing between any of
you and life without parole.
No one but me.
All you gotta do is gather information.
Let me know what you hear from
your uh your activist friends.
You want me to be a snitch like Derrick.
Call it what you want.
But it's the only way any
of you gets out of this mess.
How much did you pay him?
- Derrick?
- The security guard on the stand.
How much did you pay
him to lie about the gun?
You think I had to pay someone
to throw over a worthless
piece of crap like Derrick?
Or any one of you?
He did it for nothing.
I didn't even have to ask.
So, do we have a deal?
He's all yours.
The security guard on the stand.
How much did you pay
him to lie about the gun?
You think I had to pay someone
to throw over a worthless
piece of crap like Derrick?
Or any one of you?
He did it for nothing.
I didn't even have to ask.
Based on the bombshell recording,
the Justice Department is
investigating the mining company's
alleged collusion with the FBI
the against Indigenous activists
whose efforts to shutter the mine
have been repeatedly rejected.
Pending a full
environmental impact review,
the Justice Department has ordered
the immediate closure
of all mining operations.
Additionally, the Attorney General
has charged an unnamed FBI agent
with illegal coercion of informants
against Indigenous groups.
- Hey.
- Oh, hey.
I'm sorry it had to happen like this.
Maybe it's the only way
it could have happened.
Derrick was in so much pain before.
But he's at peace now.
I think he would've been happy
to have helped his people.