Law & Order (1990) s02e06 Episode Script
Misconception
Narrator: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups the police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
So my brother-in-law moves into Hell's Kitchen Man: The doctor? The genius.
Quarter mill on 46th Street.
He says he's a pioneer.
Hope he's got a gun.
I'm just happy for the overtime.
We do all the work, they make all the bucks.
Come on, I called a cab.
I'll drop you.
Charging it to a client.
You live in Queens where're you gonna drop me? We'll swing over to your place No, that's okay, I'm just gonna take a subway.
It's the only exercise I get.
- You sure? - Sure, I do it all the time.
Okay.
Where to, lady? Gooden's pitching.
The kid should see it.
She's never heard of negotiation? You swap days.
Nope by the book, every other weekend.
I gotta call my damn lawyer to take my kid to the frickin' zoo.
Dispatch: Corner of Water and Vesey, in the alley.
- Jesus.
- Central K, we have a female down.
Need ambulance on corner of Water and Vesey.
Dispatch: Roger, 27.
Call came in at 1:17.
We were down the corner.
- A mugging? - Too hysterical to talk.
- Where's the caller? - Joined the silent majority.
Probably used the payphone around the corner.
Found it down the block.
License says her name is Amy Newhouse.
I got 10 bucks says she's taken self defense at the 92nd Street Y.
I wish they'd teach these people it's not worth the fight.
Well, I doubt this one put up much of a fight.
- What makes you say that? - She's preggo.
Out to here.
Tough town.
you see everything.
- Did you see Amy Newhouse? - Yeah, I admitted her around 2:00 a.
m.
Roughed up, nothing's broken.
Scratches, scrapes, bruises.
It's a first for this rotation it looks like the patient'll be just fine.
Paramedic said she was pregnant.
Yeah, maybe five, six months.
Well? Some women sneeze too hard it causes a miscarriage.
Others, they run a triathlon and everything's hunky-dory.
What's that, a medical term? Partial abruption of the fetus the placenta starts to separate from the uterine wall.
We've got her hooked up to fetal monitors.
All we can do is wait and see.
You catch the guy? Nope.
Belongs in a cage.
Talk about your sociopaths.
This guy kicks her two, maybe three times right in the belly.
- Can you tell us where we can find her? - Yeah, upstairs.
612, South.
I only had $20.
Credit cards? I don't have any.
Amy, can you remember anything about this man? How tall he might have been or something he might have said? Cerreta: It's okay.
It's all right.
He grabbed me from behind.
I never even saw him.
He took my bag.
The next thing, I was on the ground.
My baby, my He took your bag and then he kicked you? What were you doing out at that hour? My my boss kept me late.
I work for a law firm Wood, Carlton & Troy.
Has anybody contacted your husband? I'm not married.
The father? Chris.
He's at work.
He's a cabbie.
You know, I would have given that man my money.
- What about the baby? - So far so good.
New York was Amy's idea.
She saw "Working Girl" one too many times.
You think that bunch of lawyers gives a damn about her, keeping her there till all hours? She always walk to the subway that late? She's a secretary of some hotshot partner.
Jerk thinks he owns her.
A million times I asked her what she needed that job for, but she wanted the overtime.
Maybe now we can go back to Wisconsin.
Look, I've got to get to the hospital.
She's gonna be okay.
The baby is a question mark.
Great, so for 20 bucks we might have a murder.
He already had her bag.
He didn't need to kick her.
And this city is known for its mental health? Or maybe somebody had something else in mind.
Like, for instance? Like causing a miscarriage.
That's a hell of a way to get your jollies.
Well, run the MO through the assault files.
Could be this started closer to home.
All right, talk to the neighbors.
See if you can get a read on the boyfriend.
Ah, I'm sorry my hearing, you know.
The best thing about getting old is you only have to do it once.
That Amy? Oh, she's a doll! She brings me the papers every day.
The stairs, you know.
They're such a nice, young couple.
And now a baby! So Chris was happy about the baby? He thought he was too young.
I was his age when I was already expecting my third.
- Mrs.
Fisher, listen.
- Hmm.
Did you ever hear anything you know, strange coming from their apartment? Well, since Sam died, I only turn these on for guests.
Are you kiddin'? The walls are like toilet paper.
This isn't exactly Gramercy Park.
Did you ever hear anything out of the ordinary? Put it this way, every time he's in the mood, I know about it.
Couple of horny toads.
Oughta be a law.
- Any violence? - Yeah, sure.
The guy blew his top every now and again.
Did you ever see Chris actually hit Amy? Last spring she had a cast on her arm.
And you think Chris caused that? She said she fell.
Who am I to say otherwise? In my opinion, the guy's a dip.
A fare wanted to go to Forest Hills, he took him to Forest Lawn.
- You kept him on.
- Almost a year.
Honest beats smart anytime.
Was Chris on duty Tuesday night? Graveyard, How much trouble could he get into after midnight? Can you tell me where he was around 1:00? Somewhere on the LIE.
Picked up a fare at 79th and Columbus, took him out to Kennedy.
another 40 comin' home.
He was in the wrong borough at the time of the attack.
So much for Ken popping Barbie.
That's no alibi.
Hey, summer of '82, I hacked part-time to pay tuition.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, I'd get lonely.
I'd park my cab in front of Janey Meyer's house, leave the meter running, go inside, take care of business, pay the fare myself.
Which would amount to what, about $2, $3? Like going to Jersey and back.
Let's go talk to the girl.
Back home we had the real thing 120 pounds.
His name was Regis.
He shouldn't have spent the money, but that's Chris.
So Chris was happy about the baby? Mmm, it's all he talked about.
All he wants out of life is a wife and half a dozen kids.
Amy, we know about your broken arm last spring.
You want to tell us how you got it? I fell down.
In the middle of a fight? No, I told you that Amy, there's no reason to protect Chris if he did this to you.
What do you think, Chris is an animal? He wouldn't hurt me or his baby.
Look, he hit her once, he'd hit her again.
This much is clear.
She is lying about the broken arm.
You think he wanted to nix the kid? Wait a minute, wait a minute wife beatings are spontaneous.
Are you saying he actually drove crosstown then waited outside her office in order to pop her? All right, a theory.
Chris wasn't as happy about fatherhood as Amy would have us believe.
She wouldn't get an abortion, so it was a do-it-yourself job.
Okay, so he loses his temper now and then.
But beat her enough so she'll lose the baby? Anyway you look at it, the wheel stops at the boyfriend.
He's got buttons, push 'em.
I know how it is, Chris.
She ticks you off, so maybe you lose your temper.
It happens all the time.
Maybe I hit her once, but that was a long time ago, before she got pregnant.
I'd like to believe you, but whoever did this to Amy had one thing in mind.
You think I would hurt my baby? Hey, I know how tough it is raising a family.
You're broke, you're young the last thing you need We'd get by.
Chris, if you speak up now, maybe the DA will listen.
The DA? Yeah.
- Amy's pressing charges? - Nobody's under arrest.
She knows I couldn't have done this I love her.
I love the baby.
Amy had a miscarriage.
Oh God! If the fetus was less than 24 weeks old, there's no homicide, and all we've got is assault.
- You've got to be kidding me.
- That's the statute.
That's great, so a bunch of lawyers decide if you're alive enough to be murdered.
Better yet, it could vary state to state.
Wonderful good thing they weren't traveling cross-country when he beat her.
It would have been like tic-tac-toe here we charge you, here we don't.
What do you want me to tell you, the law always makes sense? Our is not to question why we just pick up the garbage.
Fellas, just try to find out how far along this girl was.
Without the trauma, she would have had a healthy boy.
Can you tell us if the fetus was 24 weeks old? The BPD is 5.
8 centimeters.
Femur length's 4.
4.
My opinion? Probably about 25 weeks.
In other words, there's no way to tell for sure.
Did you check with her regular OB? She says she didn't have one.
Look, I don't know what to tell you.
We take amnios, we run sonograms, but the best way is the old way counting backwards.
Amy, the DA does not like hostile witnesses.
There's always a chance that he's gonna charge you with obstruction.
You don't want to go to jail for Chris, do you? Okay Chris did hit me once.
But it was a long time ago.
He he found out I was cheating.
With whom? My boss.
Your current boss, Mr.
Alcott? It was his baby.
Chris didn't know that.
Chris thought he was the father.
Was Mr.
Alcott in the office on Tuesday night? Yeah, he left 10 minutes before I did.
I'm sorry about the mess.
It's been 15-hour days since November with the take-over.
Amy said that you were with her the night of the attack.
Yeah.
I heard about the baby.
Look, I I feel responsible.
I kept her here late that night.
We had to be at the printer at 8:00 a.
m.
- I had the temp send her flowers.
- Cerreta: Mm-hmm.
What time did you leave? Oh, it must have been about a quarter of 1:00.
I asked her to finish typing an opinion letter and fax it to our clients in Houston.
And then she I just told her she could go home.
I knew she liked to walk, but at that hour - You see anybody hanging around outside the building? - No, sorry.
- Grabbed a cab, went up to my club.
- At one in the morning? I live in Mamaroneck.
If I were to go home, I'd just have to hop right back on the train and come back to the city.
I always stay at the club when I'm forced to work late.
- Is that often? - Law isn't 9:00 to 5:00.
So your relationship with Amy was purely professional, right? My wife was summa at Bryn Mawr.
Amy is a sweet young girl.
She's not my type.
Cerreta: So this is the place for the other woman, huh? Man: Members have their own rules.
Wives, they take to the Yale Club, the Knickerbocker.
But here, it's strictly extracurricular.
What about Mr.
Alcott? Nice guy, drinks Johnny Black, straight up.
Does he drink it alone? Look last year I picked up an extra 10 grand in stock tips in a down market.
A big part of the job is keeping quiet.
Yeah, right.
I can get very long-winded when I pull people in for questioning.
Sometimes it can go into the middle of the evening.
And then, if I don't happen to tell my partner what I asked you, that could, I don't know, go what? - At least another day.
- Oh yeah.
All right.
Off the record yeah, Alcott has a good time now and then.
Ah-ha.
With her? Yeah, Ms.
Meyers and tonic.
Tuesday night, was he here? Came in around 1:00.
I'm supposed to close the place up, but what the hell he's a regular.
Belted down a couple, hit the rooms upstairs.
Chris isn't my type a little rough around the edges.
But Amy must have seen something in him.
They get along? Used to be pretty rocky.
But when Amy got pregnant, Chris was all lovey-dovey.
What about her boss, Alcott? Well, a lawyer.
Enough said.
Amy told us she was seeing him.
She said that the baby was his.
Set up an appointment for her at some fancy Park Avenue OB-G YN.
He was gonna pay for the whole thing and then send her on a cruise off to St.
Thomas real sport.
But she didn't want an abortion, right? She didn't want to go through with it.
Alcott exploded.
The door was closed, but you could hear him down the hall.
What now, the security guard saw us together? Actually, it was the bartender at your club.
I told you, when I work late at the office, I spend the night at the club.
Sometimes Amy brings me papers from the office.
I bought her a drink that doesn't mean we're lovers and it doesn't mean that I beat her up.
She says she was carrying your baby.
She's very convincing.
Yeah? My daughter swears there's a tooth fairy, but that doesn't make it so.
I have clients waiting, if you don't mind.
Of course he denied it.
I've been a legal secretary for four years they're all risk-adverse.
Logan: You ever ask him to submit to a blood test? He never questioned that it was his baby.
At this point, he denies ever having slept with you.
Unfortunately, it comes down to your word against his.
How appropriate.
He loved to dictate.
The law wasn't the only thing on his mind.
I thought I might need it sometime for protection.
Alcott's voice: With the marital deduction trust, the after-tax savings to the next generation will be 280,000.
I love to see you naked in the shower Slut.
God, she's the one who wanted me to make that tape, you know.
She asked me to do it said it made her hot.
It doesn't sound like she's the only one.
Come on, it was a Christmas party.
It was the first one I had been to in years.
I had too much to drink.
- And she was your present? - All right, all right, so I slept with her.
It's been five or six months.
- And once she got pregnant? - I put on the brakes once she got pregnant.
- I begged her to get an abortion.
- So it was your baby.
She said she'd stopped sleeping with her boyfriend.
- You believed that? - It's a I can't afford a paternity suit.
I said I'd help her out financially.
I could live with that.
True or false? Your life is much easier if she miscarries.
Now hold on now.
No, no.
The boyfriend knew that she was sleeping around.
He probably did it.
She's lucky he didn't have a shotgun.
Yes Chris knew it was David's baby.
Yeah, so how did he react when he found out? He was mad, but he didn't hit me.
He didn't do this.
Hey, listen, you've been jerkin' us around since day one.
Look Chris thought this baby would make us rich.
He said Alcott would have to pay for his mistake.
Are you telling us that you blackmailed Alcott? I didn't want to do it at first, but Chris said I was entitled.
And did he pay? $2,000.
We figured it was like a security blanket, in case he tried to fire me.
But then Chris kept saying that this baby was our meal ticket, and he was sure that Alcott would pay big money to keep us quiet.
I didn't say anything before, because Will we have to go to jail? They're a couple of hayseeds who thought they'd squeeze Alcott for the big bucks.
Okay, Alcott had a lot to lose money, wife and kids, partnership.
- And the other secretary - Beverly Kern.
- Said he has one hell of a temper.
Alcott left the office knowing that Amy would be down in a few minutes.
He knew her route home, he waited in the alley, and bingo.
- Witnesses? - One reported the attack, disappeared.
So you've got motive and opportunity.
It's all circumstantial.
Come on, Paul, the guy's a lawyer.
He's gonna be talkin' deal before we slap the cuffs on him.
- I'd hock the house on it! - Assault's a possibility.
Murder may still be a stretch with a 24-week statute.
I'm game if you are.
Go.
Excuse me, you just can't walk in without an appointment! David Alcott, you are under arrest for the murder of the unborn son of Amy Newhouse.
You have the right to remain silent.
If you choose to not exercise that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney Bailiff: Docket number 1422 People versus David M.
Alcott.
The charges are murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree.
How does the defendant plead? This is absurd, Your Honor.
These charges This is not a boardroom, Mr.
Alcott.
Mr.
Manley, does your client plan to enter a plea? Not guilty, Your Honor.
- Applications? - $250,000 bail, Your Honor.
- What?! - That is unconscionable! My client is an esteemed member of the bar.
Aren't we all, Mr.
Manley? It would be court-sanctioned extortion, Your Honor.
The People's case hardly rises to the level of frivolity.
Your regard for our judicial system is admirable.
The bail is set at $100,000.
No way is it murder I just talked with Alcott.
- You can read minds? - No, but I can read a calendar.
The first time they slept together? The Christmas party.
That's 20 weeks before the attack.
Good theory, only she says they started sleeping together in early December.
Who do you think the jury's gonna believe? Come on! No witnesses, no evidence.
Even assault is a stretch.
Do everyone a favor.
Menacing.
Under the carpet, quick and easy.
No time.
- A "B" misdemeanor? - Yeah.
Try man one he attacked her with intent.
- He is innocent, Paul.
- Come on, Jer He has a family, a reputation Fine, tell his family they get visiting days.
I need Chris and Amy to convict Alcott, so why not plead him down to petty larceny? Probation.
On extortion? They already admitted to blackmailing him.
They're kids, Adam.
A jury'll acquit on sympathy alone.
Even with them it's rough sailing.
No physical evidence, only eye witness vanished.
Alcott's going to walk into that courtroom with a suitcase full of respect.
- That's no defense.
- It's reasonable doubt.
Maybe if you want to make a case for assault, but murder? The statute says 24 weeks.
Manley's got an expert.
He's got his expert, I've got mine.
Yeah, you pay 'em enough, they'll say anything.
Chris worked nights, I worked days.
I was lonely.
David didn't force me I wanted to go.
When did you first start sleeping with Mr.
Alcott? I don't know we started working late on a takeover deal.
It must have been early December.
And how long had this been going on? Maybe a month until I got pregnant.
Stone: What happened when you got pregnant? He told me I had to get an abortion.
He told me it was the right thing.
What was your response to that? I couldn't do it.
And how did Mr.
Alcott react to that? Amy: He threatened to fire me, but I told him that I would go to the EEOC.
In other words, you thought you would blackmail the defendant? He owed us.
He got her pregnant he should pay.
How much should he pay? He gave us 2,000.
I told Amy to ask for 10.
Stone: And what if he refused? We'd go to his wife, and then we'd sue the partnership for sex discrimination.
- He threw her out of his office.
- And what did you do? I went to see him myself.
I said the price went up to 20,000.
He said it would be a cold day in hell before some white trash screwed up his life.
He wouldn't give a nickel.
Mishon: I measured the biparietal diameter and the femur lengths of the fetus.
Indicating what, Doctor? - That the fetus was 25 weeks old.
- Thank you.
There are several ways of determining the age of a fetus.
Isn't that true, Dr.
Mishon? BPD measurements can be taken inter-uterally by sonogram or in a post-rejection autopsy of the fetus.
And when did you take these measurements, Doctor? In an autopsy that certainly is the more accurate of the methods.
Ah.
And what is the margin of error for post-rejection BPD measurements? Well, that can vary with equipment, and What is the accepted margin of error? Plus or minus two to three weeks.
So, Ms.
Newhouse's fetus could have been Isn't that correct? Yes.
Thank you, Doctor.
Your Honor, considering the fact that not even the prosecution's expert can say with confidence that the fetus in question is at least 24 weeks of age, I move that the charge of murder in the second degree be dismissed immediately.
Your Honor, Dr.
Mishon has testified In my chambers, gentleman.
Mr.
Stone knows full well that he should not have brought those charges.
It's obvious he's only trying to back in to the lesser-charged felony.
You should have raised this issue in pre-trial motions.
Oh, be serious, Ben.
I can parade a dozen experts through that courtroom.
You only tacked on murder to outrage the jury.
Now they'd convict him for killing JFK for Godsakes.
The age of the fetus is a question of fact for the jury.
No, Mr.
Stone, it's a question of law for me.
The defendant's motion is granted.
There's nothing we can do? The statute is clear, but medical science unfortunately is not.
You mean, if it happened two weeks later, he'd go to jail? The assault charges weren't dismissed.
He could still serve five-to-15.
Five years for a life? We heard the heartbeat.
We felt the kicks.
I'm sorry, Amy.
Manley's smart.
You get an assault conviction and he claims that any evidence relating to the loss of the fetus was improper.
That's why he didn't object to the charge prior to trial.
If it's a mistrial, Alcott walks away untouched.
Yes? Thank you.
Not quite untouched.
Chris and Amy just filed a $10-million lawsuit against Alcott.
Retained counsel Jacob Bloom.
- The king of torts? - The prince of darkness.
The woman miscarried.
We're talking major league suffering.
Not to mention the lifetime earnings potential of a healthy, white male.
You win the criminal side, cuts my work in half.
I'm rooting for you.
Mr.
Alcott is bucking for a mistrial.
This kind of publicity won't hurt his cause.
You've got no limitations problem.
You could have waited.
Is this jealousy I'm hearing? It's nausea.
Ambulance chasing always brings that out in me.
Ooh, you better check your playbill, Mr.
Robinette.
Your friends came to me the day after she got out of the hospital.
I had a helluva time convincing her to wait for the criminal case to begin.
I'll say that was a pretty short period of mourning.
My secretary's cat died, she took a week off from work.
Million dollar damages.
It's the American dream, I guess, but some people'll make it anyway they can.
There's always the chance that she's suing on principle.
What do we know about Amy Newhouse, anyway? Some firms have switched to HMOs, but we still stand by your basic health coverage.
- So check-ups aren't covered? - Not unless they find something wrong.
Here we go Amy Newhouse put in a claim February 3rd.
Company reimbursed her on the 18th.
- There was something wrong? - For most people, pregnancy is a blessing.
Insurance companies call it a disability.
Do you have her doctor's name? Bernard Gluck, Amy Newhouse.
Healthy young girl.
Everything was fine.
On February 3, you told her she was pregnant? No, that was just a check-up.
I told her she was pregnant back in December, the 19th.
That boyfriend of hers he nearly jumped for joy.
I haven't seen her since.
How's she doing? Not too well.
Alcott's voice: Letter re: Barsky Family Trust.
As per my prior communication, the tax savings will benefit two generations without running afoul of the generation skipping tax.
Last night was spectacular.
You were right, it was worth the wait.
Better than I ever imagined.
First sight of you naked So what? We admitted he had the affair.
It sounds to me like you dictated that letter the day after your first night with Amy.
- There is a point to this? - It was dated the 23rd of December.
The day after the Christmas party.
How many times do I have to tell you I told you she was lying! So there is no way the baby was 24 weeks.
You made me jump through hoops for nothing.
Save the theatrics, Jerry.
The murder charges were dismissed.
The point is, her doctor says she was already pregnant on the 19th of December.
That little I want this case dropped immediately and I want a public apology.
So the baby couldn't have been mine.
They knew all along that Chris was the father.
They set Alcott up for blackmail.
That doesn't affect his guilt.
What's important is that he thought the baby was his.
The creeps they manipulate this office, the police, Alcott, right from the start.
- They're liars doesn't make 'em killers.
Maybe the blackmail is a camouflage.
Maybe their ultimate goal is a civil suit.
There may be more to Chris than we originally thought.
He practiced law in Wisconsin.
And now he's driving a cab? Disbarred in '89.
What are you gonna do, Ben? Well, straightforward's not gonna work with 'em.
We've gotta hit 'em from behind.
If the light at the end of that tunnel is a civil suit, why not seal up the tunnel? Judge Burton owes you a favor.
Call one in.
Get me a continuance.
What the hell is his wife's name? Sally? Your husband may be guilty of many things, Mrs.
Alcott, but we're not convinced one of them is attacking a pregnant woman.
You're not required to help them, Marti.
No, you're not.
But I'm sure your attorney has told you that cause has no bearing on the property distribution.
In books, Mr.
Robinette.
In real life, it goes a long way.
You'll get your divorce.
You'll get his money.
But the penalties for adultery do not include 25 years behind bars.
Maybe they should.
Maybe then they would keep their pants on.
David will pay for this, Mr.
Robinette.
Fine.
If he goes to jail, Chris and Amy's civil suit against him is a sure winner.
And in that case, there'll be a lot less to divide up after the divorce.
What are you proposing? I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that Mrs.
Alcott has commenced a divorce proceeding against her husband.
Chris: And you want Amy to testify? As a matter of fact, no.
I want you to drop the civil suit.
Why in the world would we - For a million dollars, that's why.
- We're suing for 10 million.
First of all, let me assure you that Mr.
Alcott's net worth is barely $2 million, half of which I'm claiming for Mrs.
Alcott in her divorce.
Fraudulent conveyance.
We'll recapture the funds.
Very good, Chris.
But I want you to know that I can tie up his assets for years pending the divorce settlement.
I've already got a restraining order on his bank accounts, his partnership draw is being garnished, and tomorrow we start on pendente lite maintenance and child support.
I wouldn't mess with me if I were you, Chris.
By the time you see a dime, it won't be worth a nickel.
- And what's in it for you? - Mrs.
Alcott will drop the divorce proceedings And I'll let the son of a bitch rot in jail while I spend whatever money he has left.
Cowan: Take a million now drop the civil suit, and everybody's happy.
Amy's voice: It was hardly worth the trouble.
- So much for suing on principle.
- These two are unbelievable.
Cowan's voice: I can have a check for you tomorrow.
Amy's voice: Let's just take the money and get out of here.
The grieving mother.
Does that constitute proof? Couldn't they say they got over it quickly? First of all, Chris was the father, not Alcott.
Chris and Amy knew that, but made Alcott think it was his.
- In order to blackmail him.
- In order to file a civil suit.
They weren't going for singles.
These people were going for the long ball, extra bases.
Staging this whole thing that's a helluva couple.
So this whole thing was a scam? - The beating, the affair? - My guess, Chris was the anonymous caller.
And we need you to break his alibi.
You're the ex-cabbie.
Gimme the book.
Yeah, sure, for insurance purpose, we check the odometer of every cab when it comes in, when it goes out.
Every cab, every day, huh? You screw up the insurance, they take away your medallion like that.
Cab 34, be my guest.
Guess what? He's only half as smart as we thought.
The kid paid off the meter, but he didn't know that they check the mileage every day.
The only way he trekked out to Kennedy airport is if they moved it to Times Square.
The odometer's - And so is his alibi.
- Read 'em their rights.
We've already plead them out on blackmail.
Experts cannot establish the age of the fetus, so murder's out of the question, too.
Is this true or false? Amy and Chris intended to cause a miscarriage.
True, only what they did wasn't a crime.
But they didn't know that.
Famous law school hypothetical: I shoot a bullet into the heart of a man who appears to be sleeping.
Only he wasn't sleeping, he was dead.
- Am I guilty? - Not of murder? But I didn't know he was already dead.
I thought I was committing a crime.
Chris and Amy thought they were committing a crime.
So they had a guilty mind.
- If not for murder, for - Attempted murder.
Learn from your past mistakes, Stone.
The fetus wasn't legally alive, ergo you can't make it legally dead, ergo you can't convict on murder.
No one's disagreeing with you, Ms.
Bayliss, but if you read the indictment, your clients are being charged with attempted murder.
Same difference.
I don't think so.
A man buys a pound of sugar thinking it's heroin.
We all know it's no crime to buy a pound of sugar.
But, Ms.
Bayliss, in every jurisdiction in the country the man is convicted of attempted possession of illegal narcotics.
Yes, Mr.
Stone, but if your man knew for a fact it was sugar, he's as free as a bird.
Amy: I hate to spoil your fun, Mr.
Stone, but I assure you, after three years of law school, Chris knows how to read a murder statute.
And I certainly knew how long I'd been pregnant.
She sat there and admitted she killed her own baby.
I swear, her pulse didn't rise above 60.
They knew both the age of the fetus and the law.
- No murder, no attempt.
- They have proof? She did have an OB confirm the home pregnancy test, plus our young hero Chris' statement that he knew the statute.
Are you trying to tell me that a woman that smart would willingly sacrifice her body? That's hard to believe.
Bad and brains are not mutually exclusive.
Maybe she was abused, but she was part of this thing from the start.
If she couldn't form the intent, if she was acting under Chris' will You saw her that baby was no more important to her than a watch, something she could hock for a quick buck.
We've got to go forward with this.
You fire an unloaded gun at me, it's attempt.
You know that the gun is not loaded, that's nothing.
To be acquitted, I'd have to prove I knew the gun wasn't loaded.
Chris and Amy will have to prove they knew they weren't committing a crime and take the stand.
Credibility is a question for the jury.
Exactly I open up the slightest hole in their story, I give the jury the opportunity, they'll do the right thing.
You want a jury to ignore the evidence? No, Chris and Amy want the jury to look at the law.
I'll get the jury to look at Chris and Amy.
Adam: The law's supposed to be a shield, not a sword.
They're despicable, yes.
But by letter of the law, they're not guilty.
The legislature could never have conceived of anything like this.
But wrong should not win by technicalities.
You know that yourself.
Get these bastards off the street.
Chris: We knew that if everything went wrong and Amy miscarried we couldn't be tried for murder.
We knew that Amy'd been pregnant for less than 24 weeks.
But you're not charged with murder, Chris, you're charged with attempt.
It's a joke.
You think we would go through all this and not be sure? - I knew it wasn't a crime.
- How's that? Three years, University of Wisconsin School of Law, two years practicing in Fond du Lac.
Thank you.
As an attorney, you are aware that the definition of murder - varies from state to state.
- Chris: Sure.
So that what constitutes murder in Wisconsin may be different in New York? - That's right.
- Did you ever attend law school in New York? - No, but I - Yes or no, sir.
No.
But now you claim to know the law in New York.
I can read, Mr.
Stone.
Well, then, maybe you can tell us, Mr.
Baylor, what happened to your license to practice law? - Objection irrelevant.
- What's the credibility, Your Honor? Answer the question.
It was revoked.
You mean, you were disbarred? Sir?! I made a terrible mistake, but we didn't break any laws.
But you testified that Chris intentionally hit you.
You said it was all part of your plan.
We never meant to hurt it.
I am so sorry about the baby.
I wish I could take it back.
And what about Mr.
Alcott? Does he deserve any sympathy? I take it you don't care for him? He cheated on his wife.
He cheats the government for a living.
He deserves whatever happens to him.
Amy have you been examined by a doctor recently? Yes.
Bayliss: And what did he say? As a result of the kicks, there was severe damage to my uterine wall.
Which means? I'll never have another child.
- Objection relevance.
- Sustained.
Thank you, Amy.
Ms.
Newhouse you testified that you didn't intend to have a miscarriage yet you meticulously planned the attack to assure that the fetus would be under 24 weeks of age.
Chris said it was a fail-safe, just in case something went wrong.
Can you tell us why Chris was disbarred in the state of Wisconsin? Answer the question, please.
Subornation of perjury.
Stone: Do you know what that means? He encouraged a witness to lie on the stand.
Do you think Chris could be at it again? - Objection! - Sustained.
Ms.
Newhouse, do you know what it means if you can't prove that you and Chris knew the law prior to committing the acts that resulted in the death of your baby? Objection! The witness is not an attorney, Your Honor.
She's not competent to determine this.
On the contrary, Your Honor, Ms.
Newhouse's entire defense is based upon the fact that she knew the law.
She cannot now argue that she is incompetent to testify as to its meaning.
Answer the question, young lady.
What would it mean, Ms.
Newhouse, if you didn't know the law? - We would be guilty.
- Of what? Of attempted murder.
Of trying to kill your own baby.
We committed no crime.
Nobody got hurt.
Stone: No crime? I mean, what do you call the plan that Christopher Baylor and Amy Newhouse concocted? They lured her own employer, David Alcott, into having an affair with her.
They convinced him that their own pregnancy was his.
And then they did the unimaginable they staged an attack, an attack in which Christopher Baylor savagely kicked the mother of his own child in the belly.
And they say it's no crime? They killed their own child for greed.
No crime? The only possible way that this is not a crime is that if you can manage to convince yourself that that couple had specific knowledge of an obscure penal code.
I, however, believe that if you review the evidence you will find that when they came up with this heinous plan, they were unaware of the 24-week statute and they are guilty of the crime that was in their hearts all along the crime of attempted murder.
Have you reached a verdict? We have, Your Honor.
We find the defendants Amy Newhouse and Christopher Baylor guilty of attempt to commit murder in the second degree.
- Motion to set aside the verdict? - Denied.
Gillion should have set aside the verdict.
The only basis was horror.
The public is all over us when a known criminal walks on a technicality.
I flipped the coin.
I let the people use a technicality to convict.
I'm sure they'll appeal.
The jury disbelieved their testimony.
Last time I looked that is not reviewable upon appeal.
But they were telling the truth.
I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it, and I don't think the jurors will either.
- There's another bit of justice.
- What's that? She'll never reproduce.
These are their stories.
So my brother-in-law moves into Hell's Kitchen Man: The doctor? The genius.
Quarter mill on 46th Street.
He says he's a pioneer.
Hope he's got a gun.
I'm just happy for the overtime.
We do all the work, they make all the bucks.
Come on, I called a cab.
I'll drop you.
Charging it to a client.
You live in Queens where're you gonna drop me? We'll swing over to your place No, that's okay, I'm just gonna take a subway.
It's the only exercise I get.
- You sure? - Sure, I do it all the time.
Okay.
Where to, lady? Gooden's pitching.
The kid should see it.
She's never heard of negotiation? You swap days.
Nope by the book, every other weekend.
I gotta call my damn lawyer to take my kid to the frickin' zoo.
Dispatch: Corner of Water and Vesey, in the alley.
- Jesus.
- Central K, we have a female down.
Need ambulance on corner of Water and Vesey.
Dispatch: Roger, 27.
Call came in at 1:17.
We were down the corner.
- A mugging? - Too hysterical to talk.
- Where's the caller? - Joined the silent majority.
Probably used the payphone around the corner.
Found it down the block.
License says her name is Amy Newhouse.
I got 10 bucks says she's taken self defense at the 92nd Street Y.
I wish they'd teach these people it's not worth the fight.
Well, I doubt this one put up much of a fight.
- What makes you say that? - She's preggo.
Out to here.
Tough town.
you see everything.
- Did you see Amy Newhouse? - Yeah, I admitted her around 2:00 a.
m.
Roughed up, nothing's broken.
Scratches, scrapes, bruises.
It's a first for this rotation it looks like the patient'll be just fine.
Paramedic said she was pregnant.
Yeah, maybe five, six months.
Well? Some women sneeze too hard it causes a miscarriage.
Others, they run a triathlon and everything's hunky-dory.
What's that, a medical term? Partial abruption of the fetus the placenta starts to separate from the uterine wall.
We've got her hooked up to fetal monitors.
All we can do is wait and see.
You catch the guy? Nope.
Belongs in a cage.
Talk about your sociopaths.
This guy kicks her two, maybe three times right in the belly.
- Can you tell us where we can find her? - Yeah, upstairs.
612, South.
I only had $20.
Credit cards? I don't have any.
Amy, can you remember anything about this man? How tall he might have been or something he might have said? Cerreta: It's okay.
It's all right.
He grabbed me from behind.
I never even saw him.
He took my bag.
The next thing, I was on the ground.
My baby, my He took your bag and then he kicked you? What were you doing out at that hour? My my boss kept me late.
I work for a law firm Wood, Carlton & Troy.
Has anybody contacted your husband? I'm not married.
The father? Chris.
He's at work.
He's a cabbie.
You know, I would have given that man my money.
- What about the baby? - So far so good.
New York was Amy's idea.
She saw "Working Girl" one too many times.
You think that bunch of lawyers gives a damn about her, keeping her there till all hours? She always walk to the subway that late? She's a secretary of some hotshot partner.
Jerk thinks he owns her.
A million times I asked her what she needed that job for, but she wanted the overtime.
Maybe now we can go back to Wisconsin.
Look, I've got to get to the hospital.
She's gonna be okay.
The baby is a question mark.
Great, so for 20 bucks we might have a murder.
He already had her bag.
He didn't need to kick her.
And this city is known for its mental health? Or maybe somebody had something else in mind.
Like, for instance? Like causing a miscarriage.
That's a hell of a way to get your jollies.
Well, run the MO through the assault files.
Could be this started closer to home.
All right, talk to the neighbors.
See if you can get a read on the boyfriend.
Ah, I'm sorry my hearing, you know.
The best thing about getting old is you only have to do it once.
That Amy? Oh, she's a doll! She brings me the papers every day.
The stairs, you know.
They're such a nice, young couple.
And now a baby! So Chris was happy about the baby? He thought he was too young.
I was his age when I was already expecting my third.
- Mrs.
Fisher, listen.
- Hmm.
Did you ever hear anything you know, strange coming from their apartment? Well, since Sam died, I only turn these on for guests.
Are you kiddin'? The walls are like toilet paper.
This isn't exactly Gramercy Park.
Did you ever hear anything out of the ordinary? Put it this way, every time he's in the mood, I know about it.
Couple of horny toads.
Oughta be a law.
- Any violence? - Yeah, sure.
The guy blew his top every now and again.
Did you ever see Chris actually hit Amy? Last spring she had a cast on her arm.
And you think Chris caused that? She said she fell.
Who am I to say otherwise? In my opinion, the guy's a dip.
A fare wanted to go to Forest Hills, he took him to Forest Lawn.
- You kept him on.
- Almost a year.
Honest beats smart anytime.
Was Chris on duty Tuesday night? Graveyard, How much trouble could he get into after midnight? Can you tell me where he was around 1:00? Somewhere on the LIE.
Picked up a fare at 79th and Columbus, took him out to Kennedy.
another 40 comin' home.
He was in the wrong borough at the time of the attack.
So much for Ken popping Barbie.
That's no alibi.
Hey, summer of '82, I hacked part-time to pay tuition.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, I'd get lonely.
I'd park my cab in front of Janey Meyer's house, leave the meter running, go inside, take care of business, pay the fare myself.
Which would amount to what, about $2, $3? Like going to Jersey and back.
Let's go talk to the girl.
Back home we had the real thing 120 pounds.
His name was Regis.
He shouldn't have spent the money, but that's Chris.
So Chris was happy about the baby? Mmm, it's all he talked about.
All he wants out of life is a wife and half a dozen kids.
Amy, we know about your broken arm last spring.
You want to tell us how you got it? I fell down.
In the middle of a fight? No, I told you that Amy, there's no reason to protect Chris if he did this to you.
What do you think, Chris is an animal? He wouldn't hurt me or his baby.
Look, he hit her once, he'd hit her again.
This much is clear.
She is lying about the broken arm.
You think he wanted to nix the kid? Wait a minute, wait a minute wife beatings are spontaneous.
Are you saying he actually drove crosstown then waited outside her office in order to pop her? All right, a theory.
Chris wasn't as happy about fatherhood as Amy would have us believe.
She wouldn't get an abortion, so it was a do-it-yourself job.
Okay, so he loses his temper now and then.
But beat her enough so she'll lose the baby? Anyway you look at it, the wheel stops at the boyfriend.
He's got buttons, push 'em.
I know how it is, Chris.
She ticks you off, so maybe you lose your temper.
It happens all the time.
Maybe I hit her once, but that was a long time ago, before she got pregnant.
I'd like to believe you, but whoever did this to Amy had one thing in mind.
You think I would hurt my baby? Hey, I know how tough it is raising a family.
You're broke, you're young the last thing you need We'd get by.
Chris, if you speak up now, maybe the DA will listen.
The DA? Yeah.
- Amy's pressing charges? - Nobody's under arrest.
She knows I couldn't have done this I love her.
I love the baby.
Amy had a miscarriage.
Oh God! If the fetus was less than 24 weeks old, there's no homicide, and all we've got is assault.
- You've got to be kidding me.
- That's the statute.
That's great, so a bunch of lawyers decide if you're alive enough to be murdered.
Better yet, it could vary state to state.
Wonderful good thing they weren't traveling cross-country when he beat her.
It would have been like tic-tac-toe here we charge you, here we don't.
What do you want me to tell you, the law always makes sense? Our is not to question why we just pick up the garbage.
Fellas, just try to find out how far along this girl was.
Without the trauma, she would have had a healthy boy.
Can you tell us if the fetus was 24 weeks old? The BPD is 5.
8 centimeters.
Femur length's 4.
4.
My opinion? Probably about 25 weeks.
In other words, there's no way to tell for sure.
Did you check with her regular OB? She says she didn't have one.
Look, I don't know what to tell you.
We take amnios, we run sonograms, but the best way is the old way counting backwards.
Amy, the DA does not like hostile witnesses.
There's always a chance that he's gonna charge you with obstruction.
You don't want to go to jail for Chris, do you? Okay Chris did hit me once.
But it was a long time ago.
He he found out I was cheating.
With whom? My boss.
Your current boss, Mr.
Alcott? It was his baby.
Chris didn't know that.
Chris thought he was the father.
Was Mr.
Alcott in the office on Tuesday night? Yeah, he left 10 minutes before I did.
I'm sorry about the mess.
It's been 15-hour days since November with the take-over.
Amy said that you were with her the night of the attack.
Yeah.
I heard about the baby.
Look, I I feel responsible.
I kept her here late that night.
We had to be at the printer at 8:00 a.
m.
- I had the temp send her flowers.
- Cerreta: Mm-hmm.
What time did you leave? Oh, it must have been about a quarter of 1:00.
I asked her to finish typing an opinion letter and fax it to our clients in Houston.
And then she I just told her she could go home.
I knew she liked to walk, but at that hour - You see anybody hanging around outside the building? - No, sorry.
- Grabbed a cab, went up to my club.
- At one in the morning? I live in Mamaroneck.
If I were to go home, I'd just have to hop right back on the train and come back to the city.
I always stay at the club when I'm forced to work late.
- Is that often? - Law isn't 9:00 to 5:00.
So your relationship with Amy was purely professional, right? My wife was summa at Bryn Mawr.
Amy is a sweet young girl.
She's not my type.
Cerreta: So this is the place for the other woman, huh? Man: Members have their own rules.
Wives, they take to the Yale Club, the Knickerbocker.
But here, it's strictly extracurricular.
What about Mr.
Alcott? Nice guy, drinks Johnny Black, straight up.
Does he drink it alone? Look last year I picked up an extra 10 grand in stock tips in a down market.
A big part of the job is keeping quiet.
Yeah, right.
I can get very long-winded when I pull people in for questioning.
Sometimes it can go into the middle of the evening.
And then, if I don't happen to tell my partner what I asked you, that could, I don't know, go what? - At least another day.
- Oh yeah.
All right.
Off the record yeah, Alcott has a good time now and then.
Ah-ha.
With her? Yeah, Ms.
Meyers and tonic.
Tuesday night, was he here? Came in around 1:00.
I'm supposed to close the place up, but what the hell he's a regular.
Belted down a couple, hit the rooms upstairs.
Chris isn't my type a little rough around the edges.
But Amy must have seen something in him.
They get along? Used to be pretty rocky.
But when Amy got pregnant, Chris was all lovey-dovey.
What about her boss, Alcott? Well, a lawyer.
Enough said.
Amy told us she was seeing him.
She said that the baby was his.
Set up an appointment for her at some fancy Park Avenue OB-G YN.
He was gonna pay for the whole thing and then send her on a cruise off to St.
Thomas real sport.
But she didn't want an abortion, right? She didn't want to go through with it.
Alcott exploded.
The door was closed, but you could hear him down the hall.
What now, the security guard saw us together? Actually, it was the bartender at your club.
I told you, when I work late at the office, I spend the night at the club.
Sometimes Amy brings me papers from the office.
I bought her a drink that doesn't mean we're lovers and it doesn't mean that I beat her up.
She says she was carrying your baby.
She's very convincing.
Yeah? My daughter swears there's a tooth fairy, but that doesn't make it so.
I have clients waiting, if you don't mind.
Of course he denied it.
I've been a legal secretary for four years they're all risk-adverse.
Logan: You ever ask him to submit to a blood test? He never questioned that it was his baby.
At this point, he denies ever having slept with you.
Unfortunately, it comes down to your word against his.
How appropriate.
He loved to dictate.
The law wasn't the only thing on his mind.
I thought I might need it sometime for protection.
Alcott's voice: With the marital deduction trust, the after-tax savings to the next generation will be 280,000.
I love to see you naked in the shower Slut.
God, she's the one who wanted me to make that tape, you know.
She asked me to do it said it made her hot.
It doesn't sound like she's the only one.
Come on, it was a Christmas party.
It was the first one I had been to in years.
I had too much to drink.
- And she was your present? - All right, all right, so I slept with her.
It's been five or six months.
- And once she got pregnant? - I put on the brakes once she got pregnant.
- I begged her to get an abortion.
- So it was your baby.
She said she'd stopped sleeping with her boyfriend.
- You believed that? - It's a I can't afford a paternity suit.
I said I'd help her out financially.
I could live with that.
True or false? Your life is much easier if she miscarries.
Now hold on now.
No, no.
The boyfriend knew that she was sleeping around.
He probably did it.
She's lucky he didn't have a shotgun.
Yes Chris knew it was David's baby.
Yeah, so how did he react when he found out? He was mad, but he didn't hit me.
He didn't do this.
Hey, listen, you've been jerkin' us around since day one.
Look Chris thought this baby would make us rich.
He said Alcott would have to pay for his mistake.
Are you telling us that you blackmailed Alcott? I didn't want to do it at first, but Chris said I was entitled.
And did he pay? $2,000.
We figured it was like a security blanket, in case he tried to fire me.
But then Chris kept saying that this baby was our meal ticket, and he was sure that Alcott would pay big money to keep us quiet.
I didn't say anything before, because Will we have to go to jail? They're a couple of hayseeds who thought they'd squeeze Alcott for the big bucks.
Okay, Alcott had a lot to lose money, wife and kids, partnership.
- And the other secretary - Beverly Kern.
- Said he has one hell of a temper.
Alcott left the office knowing that Amy would be down in a few minutes.
He knew her route home, he waited in the alley, and bingo.
- Witnesses? - One reported the attack, disappeared.
So you've got motive and opportunity.
It's all circumstantial.
Come on, Paul, the guy's a lawyer.
He's gonna be talkin' deal before we slap the cuffs on him.
- I'd hock the house on it! - Assault's a possibility.
Murder may still be a stretch with a 24-week statute.
I'm game if you are.
Go.
Excuse me, you just can't walk in without an appointment! David Alcott, you are under arrest for the murder of the unborn son of Amy Newhouse.
You have the right to remain silent.
If you choose to not exercise that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney Bailiff: Docket number 1422 People versus David M.
Alcott.
The charges are murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree.
How does the defendant plead? This is absurd, Your Honor.
These charges This is not a boardroom, Mr.
Alcott.
Mr.
Manley, does your client plan to enter a plea? Not guilty, Your Honor.
- Applications? - $250,000 bail, Your Honor.
- What?! - That is unconscionable! My client is an esteemed member of the bar.
Aren't we all, Mr.
Manley? It would be court-sanctioned extortion, Your Honor.
The People's case hardly rises to the level of frivolity.
Your regard for our judicial system is admirable.
The bail is set at $100,000.
No way is it murder I just talked with Alcott.
- You can read minds? - No, but I can read a calendar.
The first time they slept together? The Christmas party.
That's 20 weeks before the attack.
Good theory, only she says they started sleeping together in early December.
Who do you think the jury's gonna believe? Come on! No witnesses, no evidence.
Even assault is a stretch.
Do everyone a favor.
Menacing.
Under the carpet, quick and easy.
No time.
- A "B" misdemeanor? - Yeah.
Try man one he attacked her with intent.
- He is innocent, Paul.
- Come on, Jer He has a family, a reputation Fine, tell his family they get visiting days.
I need Chris and Amy to convict Alcott, so why not plead him down to petty larceny? Probation.
On extortion? They already admitted to blackmailing him.
They're kids, Adam.
A jury'll acquit on sympathy alone.
Even with them it's rough sailing.
No physical evidence, only eye witness vanished.
Alcott's going to walk into that courtroom with a suitcase full of respect.
- That's no defense.
- It's reasonable doubt.
Maybe if you want to make a case for assault, but murder? The statute says 24 weeks.
Manley's got an expert.
He's got his expert, I've got mine.
Yeah, you pay 'em enough, they'll say anything.
Chris worked nights, I worked days.
I was lonely.
David didn't force me I wanted to go.
When did you first start sleeping with Mr.
Alcott? I don't know we started working late on a takeover deal.
It must have been early December.
And how long had this been going on? Maybe a month until I got pregnant.
Stone: What happened when you got pregnant? He told me I had to get an abortion.
He told me it was the right thing.
What was your response to that? I couldn't do it.
And how did Mr.
Alcott react to that? Amy: He threatened to fire me, but I told him that I would go to the EEOC.
In other words, you thought you would blackmail the defendant? He owed us.
He got her pregnant he should pay.
How much should he pay? He gave us 2,000.
I told Amy to ask for 10.
Stone: And what if he refused? We'd go to his wife, and then we'd sue the partnership for sex discrimination.
- He threw her out of his office.
- And what did you do? I went to see him myself.
I said the price went up to 20,000.
He said it would be a cold day in hell before some white trash screwed up his life.
He wouldn't give a nickel.
Mishon: I measured the biparietal diameter and the femur lengths of the fetus.
Indicating what, Doctor? - That the fetus was 25 weeks old.
- Thank you.
There are several ways of determining the age of a fetus.
Isn't that true, Dr.
Mishon? BPD measurements can be taken inter-uterally by sonogram or in a post-rejection autopsy of the fetus.
And when did you take these measurements, Doctor? In an autopsy that certainly is the more accurate of the methods.
Ah.
And what is the margin of error for post-rejection BPD measurements? Well, that can vary with equipment, and What is the accepted margin of error? Plus or minus two to three weeks.
So, Ms.
Newhouse's fetus could have been Isn't that correct? Yes.
Thank you, Doctor.
Your Honor, considering the fact that not even the prosecution's expert can say with confidence that the fetus in question is at least 24 weeks of age, I move that the charge of murder in the second degree be dismissed immediately.
Your Honor, Dr.
Mishon has testified In my chambers, gentleman.
Mr.
Stone knows full well that he should not have brought those charges.
It's obvious he's only trying to back in to the lesser-charged felony.
You should have raised this issue in pre-trial motions.
Oh, be serious, Ben.
I can parade a dozen experts through that courtroom.
You only tacked on murder to outrage the jury.
Now they'd convict him for killing JFK for Godsakes.
The age of the fetus is a question of fact for the jury.
No, Mr.
Stone, it's a question of law for me.
The defendant's motion is granted.
There's nothing we can do? The statute is clear, but medical science unfortunately is not.
You mean, if it happened two weeks later, he'd go to jail? The assault charges weren't dismissed.
He could still serve five-to-15.
Five years for a life? We heard the heartbeat.
We felt the kicks.
I'm sorry, Amy.
Manley's smart.
You get an assault conviction and he claims that any evidence relating to the loss of the fetus was improper.
That's why he didn't object to the charge prior to trial.
If it's a mistrial, Alcott walks away untouched.
Yes? Thank you.
Not quite untouched.
Chris and Amy just filed a $10-million lawsuit against Alcott.
Retained counsel Jacob Bloom.
- The king of torts? - The prince of darkness.
The woman miscarried.
We're talking major league suffering.
Not to mention the lifetime earnings potential of a healthy, white male.
You win the criminal side, cuts my work in half.
I'm rooting for you.
Mr.
Alcott is bucking for a mistrial.
This kind of publicity won't hurt his cause.
You've got no limitations problem.
You could have waited.
Is this jealousy I'm hearing? It's nausea.
Ambulance chasing always brings that out in me.
Ooh, you better check your playbill, Mr.
Robinette.
Your friends came to me the day after she got out of the hospital.
I had a helluva time convincing her to wait for the criminal case to begin.
I'll say that was a pretty short period of mourning.
My secretary's cat died, she took a week off from work.
Million dollar damages.
It's the American dream, I guess, but some people'll make it anyway they can.
There's always the chance that she's suing on principle.
What do we know about Amy Newhouse, anyway? Some firms have switched to HMOs, but we still stand by your basic health coverage.
- So check-ups aren't covered? - Not unless they find something wrong.
Here we go Amy Newhouse put in a claim February 3rd.
Company reimbursed her on the 18th.
- There was something wrong? - For most people, pregnancy is a blessing.
Insurance companies call it a disability.
Do you have her doctor's name? Bernard Gluck, Amy Newhouse.
Healthy young girl.
Everything was fine.
On February 3, you told her she was pregnant? No, that was just a check-up.
I told her she was pregnant back in December, the 19th.
That boyfriend of hers he nearly jumped for joy.
I haven't seen her since.
How's she doing? Not too well.
Alcott's voice: Letter re: Barsky Family Trust.
As per my prior communication, the tax savings will benefit two generations without running afoul of the generation skipping tax.
Last night was spectacular.
You were right, it was worth the wait.
Better than I ever imagined.
First sight of you naked So what? We admitted he had the affair.
It sounds to me like you dictated that letter the day after your first night with Amy.
- There is a point to this? - It was dated the 23rd of December.
The day after the Christmas party.
How many times do I have to tell you I told you she was lying! So there is no way the baby was 24 weeks.
You made me jump through hoops for nothing.
Save the theatrics, Jerry.
The murder charges were dismissed.
The point is, her doctor says she was already pregnant on the 19th of December.
That little I want this case dropped immediately and I want a public apology.
So the baby couldn't have been mine.
They knew all along that Chris was the father.
They set Alcott up for blackmail.
That doesn't affect his guilt.
What's important is that he thought the baby was his.
The creeps they manipulate this office, the police, Alcott, right from the start.
- They're liars doesn't make 'em killers.
Maybe the blackmail is a camouflage.
Maybe their ultimate goal is a civil suit.
There may be more to Chris than we originally thought.
He practiced law in Wisconsin.
And now he's driving a cab? Disbarred in '89.
What are you gonna do, Ben? Well, straightforward's not gonna work with 'em.
We've gotta hit 'em from behind.
If the light at the end of that tunnel is a civil suit, why not seal up the tunnel? Judge Burton owes you a favor.
Call one in.
Get me a continuance.
What the hell is his wife's name? Sally? Your husband may be guilty of many things, Mrs.
Alcott, but we're not convinced one of them is attacking a pregnant woman.
You're not required to help them, Marti.
No, you're not.
But I'm sure your attorney has told you that cause has no bearing on the property distribution.
In books, Mr.
Robinette.
In real life, it goes a long way.
You'll get your divorce.
You'll get his money.
But the penalties for adultery do not include 25 years behind bars.
Maybe they should.
Maybe then they would keep their pants on.
David will pay for this, Mr.
Robinette.
Fine.
If he goes to jail, Chris and Amy's civil suit against him is a sure winner.
And in that case, there'll be a lot less to divide up after the divorce.
What are you proposing? I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that Mrs.
Alcott has commenced a divorce proceeding against her husband.
Chris: And you want Amy to testify? As a matter of fact, no.
I want you to drop the civil suit.
Why in the world would we - For a million dollars, that's why.
- We're suing for 10 million.
First of all, let me assure you that Mr.
Alcott's net worth is barely $2 million, half of which I'm claiming for Mrs.
Alcott in her divorce.
Fraudulent conveyance.
We'll recapture the funds.
Very good, Chris.
But I want you to know that I can tie up his assets for years pending the divorce settlement.
I've already got a restraining order on his bank accounts, his partnership draw is being garnished, and tomorrow we start on pendente lite maintenance and child support.
I wouldn't mess with me if I were you, Chris.
By the time you see a dime, it won't be worth a nickel.
- And what's in it for you? - Mrs.
Alcott will drop the divorce proceedings And I'll let the son of a bitch rot in jail while I spend whatever money he has left.
Cowan: Take a million now drop the civil suit, and everybody's happy.
Amy's voice: It was hardly worth the trouble.
- So much for suing on principle.
- These two are unbelievable.
Cowan's voice: I can have a check for you tomorrow.
Amy's voice: Let's just take the money and get out of here.
The grieving mother.
Does that constitute proof? Couldn't they say they got over it quickly? First of all, Chris was the father, not Alcott.
Chris and Amy knew that, but made Alcott think it was his.
- In order to blackmail him.
- In order to file a civil suit.
They weren't going for singles.
These people were going for the long ball, extra bases.
Staging this whole thing that's a helluva couple.
So this whole thing was a scam? - The beating, the affair? - My guess, Chris was the anonymous caller.
And we need you to break his alibi.
You're the ex-cabbie.
Gimme the book.
Yeah, sure, for insurance purpose, we check the odometer of every cab when it comes in, when it goes out.
Every cab, every day, huh? You screw up the insurance, they take away your medallion like that.
Cab 34, be my guest.
Guess what? He's only half as smart as we thought.
The kid paid off the meter, but he didn't know that they check the mileage every day.
The only way he trekked out to Kennedy airport is if they moved it to Times Square.
The odometer's - And so is his alibi.
- Read 'em their rights.
We've already plead them out on blackmail.
Experts cannot establish the age of the fetus, so murder's out of the question, too.
Is this true or false? Amy and Chris intended to cause a miscarriage.
True, only what they did wasn't a crime.
But they didn't know that.
Famous law school hypothetical: I shoot a bullet into the heart of a man who appears to be sleeping.
Only he wasn't sleeping, he was dead.
- Am I guilty? - Not of murder? But I didn't know he was already dead.
I thought I was committing a crime.
Chris and Amy thought they were committing a crime.
So they had a guilty mind.
- If not for murder, for - Attempted murder.
Learn from your past mistakes, Stone.
The fetus wasn't legally alive, ergo you can't make it legally dead, ergo you can't convict on murder.
No one's disagreeing with you, Ms.
Bayliss, but if you read the indictment, your clients are being charged with attempted murder.
Same difference.
I don't think so.
A man buys a pound of sugar thinking it's heroin.
We all know it's no crime to buy a pound of sugar.
But, Ms.
Bayliss, in every jurisdiction in the country the man is convicted of attempted possession of illegal narcotics.
Yes, Mr.
Stone, but if your man knew for a fact it was sugar, he's as free as a bird.
Amy: I hate to spoil your fun, Mr.
Stone, but I assure you, after three years of law school, Chris knows how to read a murder statute.
And I certainly knew how long I'd been pregnant.
She sat there and admitted she killed her own baby.
I swear, her pulse didn't rise above 60.
They knew both the age of the fetus and the law.
- No murder, no attempt.
- They have proof? She did have an OB confirm the home pregnancy test, plus our young hero Chris' statement that he knew the statute.
Are you trying to tell me that a woman that smart would willingly sacrifice her body? That's hard to believe.
Bad and brains are not mutually exclusive.
Maybe she was abused, but she was part of this thing from the start.
If she couldn't form the intent, if she was acting under Chris' will You saw her that baby was no more important to her than a watch, something she could hock for a quick buck.
We've got to go forward with this.
You fire an unloaded gun at me, it's attempt.
You know that the gun is not loaded, that's nothing.
To be acquitted, I'd have to prove I knew the gun wasn't loaded.
Chris and Amy will have to prove they knew they weren't committing a crime and take the stand.
Credibility is a question for the jury.
Exactly I open up the slightest hole in their story, I give the jury the opportunity, they'll do the right thing.
You want a jury to ignore the evidence? No, Chris and Amy want the jury to look at the law.
I'll get the jury to look at Chris and Amy.
Adam: The law's supposed to be a shield, not a sword.
They're despicable, yes.
But by letter of the law, they're not guilty.
The legislature could never have conceived of anything like this.
But wrong should not win by technicalities.
You know that yourself.
Get these bastards off the street.
Chris: We knew that if everything went wrong and Amy miscarried we couldn't be tried for murder.
We knew that Amy'd been pregnant for less than 24 weeks.
But you're not charged with murder, Chris, you're charged with attempt.
It's a joke.
You think we would go through all this and not be sure? - I knew it wasn't a crime.
- How's that? Three years, University of Wisconsin School of Law, two years practicing in Fond du Lac.
Thank you.
As an attorney, you are aware that the definition of murder - varies from state to state.
- Chris: Sure.
So that what constitutes murder in Wisconsin may be different in New York? - That's right.
- Did you ever attend law school in New York? - No, but I - Yes or no, sir.
No.
But now you claim to know the law in New York.
I can read, Mr.
Stone.
Well, then, maybe you can tell us, Mr.
Baylor, what happened to your license to practice law? - Objection irrelevant.
- What's the credibility, Your Honor? Answer the question.
It was revoked.
You mean, you were disbarred? Sir?! I made a terrible mistake, but we didn't break any laws.
But you testified that Chris intentionally hit you.
You said it was all part of your plan.
We never meant to hurt it.
I am so sorry about the baby.
I wish I could take it back.
And what about Mr.
Alcott? Does he deserve any sympathy? I take it you don't care for him? He cheated on his wife.
He cheats the government for a living.
He deserves whatever happens to him.
Amy have you been examined by a doctor recently? Yes.
Bayliss: And what did he say? As a result of the kicks, there was severe damage to my uterine wall.
Which means? I'll never have another child.
- Objection relevance.
- Sustained.
Thank you, Amy.
Ms.
Newhouse you testified that you didn't intend to have a miscarriage yet you meticulously planned the attack to assure that the fetus would be under 24 weeks of age.
Chris said it was a fail-safe, just in case something went wrong.
Can you tell us why Chris was disbarred in the state of Wisconsin? Answer the question, please.
Subornation of perjury.
Stone: Do you know what that means? He encouraged a witness to lie on the stand.
Do you think Chris could be at it again? - Objection! - Sustained.
Ms.
Newhouse, do you know what it means if you can't prove that you and Chris knew the law prior to committing the acts that resulted in the death of your baby? Objection! The witness is not an attorney, Your Honor.
She's not competent to determine this.
On the contrary, Your Honor, Ms.
Newhouse's entire defense is based upon the fact that she knew the law.
She cannot now argue that she is incompetent to testify as to its meaning.
Answer the question, young lady.
What would it mean, Ms.
Newhouse, if you didn't know the law? - We would be guilty.
- Of what? Of attempted murder.
Of trying to kill your own baby.
We committed no crime.
Nobody got hurt.
Stone: No crime? I mean, what do you call the plan that Christopher Baylor and Amy Newhouse concocted? They lured her own employer, David Alcott, into having an affair with her.
They convinced him that their own pregnancy was his.
And then they did the unimaginable they staged an attack, an attack in which Christopher Baylor savagely kicked the mother of his own child in the belly.
And they say it's no crime? They killed their own child for greed.
No crime? The only possible way that this is not a crime is that if you can manage to convince yourself that that couple had specific knowledge of an obscure penal code.
I, however, believe that if you review the evidence you will find that when they came up with this heinous plan, they were unaware of the 24-week statute and they are guilty of the crime that was in their hearts all along the crime of attempted murder.
Have you reached a verdict? We have, Your Honor.
We find the defendants Amy Newhouse and Christopher Baylor guilty of attempt to commit murder in the second degree.
- Motion to set aside the verdict? - Denied.
Gillion should have set aside the verdict.
The only basis was horror.
The public is all over us when a known criminal walks on a technicality.
I flipped the coin.
I let the people use a technicality to convict.
I'm sure they'll appeal.
The jury disbelieved their testimony.
Last time I looked that is not reviewable upon appeal.
But they were telling the truth.
I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it, and I don't think the jurors will either.
- There's another bit of justice.
- What's that? She'll never reproduce.