Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) s02e06 Episode Script
Malignant
Although inspired in part by a true incident, the following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.
In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
Joel.
Yeah.
This is Rick.
He's taking over your route on Monday.
Yeah, sure, how are you doing? Rick's gonna ride along with you today.
I thought we were doing that tomorrow.
Tomorrow Rick's got his physical.
You pay attention.
Joel knows all the shortcuts.
I'm not worried, all right? It's gonna be what it's gonna be.
Hey.
Luke! Wait.
What? I want you at work at 2:00.
Dude, we're good.
Mr.
Halliwell likes to check the shipment himself.
If he's not here to sign for it, you don't deliver it, got that? Uh-huh.
You can put those over there.
Tepper.
His last name was Tepper.
No, I don't know him.
Why're you turning? Shortcut.
Geez! / Hey, what's the matter with you? What's the matter with you, assface? Rick, let it go.
This little punk thinks he owns the streets.
Excuse me.
Keys.
Rick, they just want the drugs.
We stay cool, we're gonna be okay.
Shut up! You talk, I waste him.
Hurry up! These, too.
Go.
Go, go, go.
Okay.
Okay.
We're gonna be okay.
Hey! You talked.
Law & Order CI Witnesses saw three males, late teens, early twenties.
One on a skateboard, and one on a bike, one driving a van, dark grey, dark blue or black, take your pick.
No one grabbed the plate numbers.
The shots came from this side.
Which one was standing here? The bicycle guy.
He was covering the passenger, probably shot him first.
Maybe the passenger was the bigger handful.
Or a bigger question mark than the driver.
Their last delivery was at Houston and Pitt.
The next one was on the Bowery at Prince.
He had no business being on this street.
Unless the driver had his own delivery schedule.
Maybe Joel was showing the new guy a shortcut.
Joel couldn't sit still in traffic for more than 10 seconds.
He was always looking for a shortcut.
Did he know he was gonna have a passenger today? No.
It was a last-minute thing.
So what's the damage here? Well, all I can see that's missing are four boxes of somatropin.
Somatropin.
That's human growth hormone.
Athletes use it to bulk up.
That's not a legal use of the product.
How much were the four boxes worth? A little over half a million dollars.
Now, the boxes were ordered by four different pharmacies.
It's interesting how they all turned up on the same day.
That's because they were all ordered on the same day last week.
By four different pharmacies? That's a little too interesting.
Could Joel have faked these orders? No.
The company has safeguards.
The orders have to come directly from a licensed pharmacist.
Maybe Joel had a helper in one of these pharmacies.
Halliwell's Pharmacy Friday, June 14 Xavier's worked for me for three years.
I know his wife, his children.
He's a good person.
You know anybody else who has access to your order forms? No.
Could I see this phony order? I actually placed this order for somatropin.
It's not a forgery.
You just remembered you ordered it? Well, I had a flood back here last month.
Defective fire sprinklers.
Had to replace a lot of my stock.
Now seeing the paperwork reminded me of the somatropin.
I'm sorry for the confusion.
Was there anything else? - No.
Thanks for your help.
- Sure.
Well, Mr.
Halliwell, I just wanna make sure that I'm reading this right.
It says here somatropin is contraindicated for people with diabetes.
What happens if they take somatropin? Well, without a doctor's supervision, you run the risk of diabetic coma.
That's what I thought.
Thank you.
We need to call some hospitals.
We've had four young males with severe diabetic episodes in the last 48 hours.
We still don't know what triggered them.
You might wanna try and look for somatropin.
Are any of the kids still here? Only one, Ryan Hendrickson.
His friends brought him in seven hours ago.
He'd already slipped into a coma.
We've stabilized him, but we haven't determined how much damage there's been.
Are his friends still here? His parents are in the waiting area.
And there's a young woman.
She was with him when they brought him in.
Dr.
Johnson, please call extension 2198.
Miss DeSantis? Can we speak to you over here? We need to find out what happened to Ryan.
His diabetes messed him up.
He took something just before, right? Something he wasn't supposed to? Melinda, we think Ryan took a growth hormone called somatropin to help him build up his muscles.
That's why he's in a coma.
We need to know where he got it, so other kids don't end up in the bed next to him.
Ryan injected this stuff he got from this guy Lane.
Lane Ruddock.
Lane said Ryan needed to get bigger and stronger.
Why? Was Ryan doing sports? He wrestles.
On a team at school? It's not a school thing.
Come on! Dude, if you gotta clothesline him, sell it.
Don't just stand there, move into him! And, Jace, you have got to sell getting hit.
Grab your throat like you got a badger stuck in there.
Come on, give me the face of pain.
Sell it.
You Lane Ruddock? What, the neighbors again? Look, we got a right to wrestle, okay? It's safer than hockey.
What do you mean, this? We don't have a problem with this.
In fact, I've always wanted to try it.
Come on.
Come on.
Climb in with me? It's okay.
Look, what're you people doing here? You know what's that move You know, the one where you take the other guy, you spin him over the top of your head? - What, the flying helicopter? - Flying helicopter.
And then you plant him head down on the mat, it's so extreme.
You know, I'm surprised more guys don't end up like, well, your buddy Ryan, in a coma, on a respirator.
What? Hey, look, I had nothing to do with it.
Detectives.
Who are they? Those are our buddies.
They're searching your parents' house.
We found one box.
Two-third's full.
The somatropin, where are the other three boxes? Hey, buddy, you better answer her question, or you're going smackdown for two murders all by yourself.
I didn't kill nobody, okay? I swear.
Those guys, they fronted me one box.
That was it.
It was just one box.
Excuse me.
Could you get that box for me, up on top? Thank you very much.
Drop the box.
What's going on? What're you doing to my son? Arresting him.
Seems he went into the pharmacy business for himself.
We have Lane Ruddock.
We have the box of stolen somatropin you sold him.
We have an eyewitness who puts your van at the crime scene.
- Am I forgetting something? - The sneaker.
We have a sneaker print in your van that matches a sneaker print in the cargo area of the truck.
That's it for now.
We'll have an update once we grab up your accomplices.
You know, I don't wanna tell you anything you already know, Luke, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you have here to tell us your story.
Now this opportunity has the shelf life of, like, one, maybe two hours.
By then, we'll have all your buddies in custody.
Oh, the tales they will tell.
None of them with a happy ending.
- An hour, Luke.
- Two at the most.
Hang on a second.
Do I have your permission to talk to them about it? My client's ready to cooperate.
He had no prior knowledge of any plan to kill the drivers.
He wasn't even aware his accomplices were armed.
He didn't come forward before because Because he was afraid for his life.
We know all the disclaimers by heart.
What does he have to say? Nothing, until the DA signs off on the agreement, which is as follows: Twenty years in a medium-security facility in return for his testimony and his plea to second-degree robbery and four counts of forgery.
Four counts of forgery? Four boxes, four forged order forms, four counts.
Do I need to repeat anything? No.
We'll be right back.
That's a deal I can live with.
What? The kid's copping to forging four order forms.
One of the pharmacists, Halliwell, he told us his order was legit, it wasn't forged.
One of them's lying.
My bet, it's not this kid.
Just got the good word.
His accomplices are in custody.
Two weapons recovered.
One's the same caliber as the slugs from the victims.
The kid's stuck to his story.
He dummied up four orders of growth hormone, including the order from Halliwell's Pharmacy.
If Halliwell didn't order this stuff, why tell you he did? Because if he told us the truth that the order was faked, he knew we'd be back.
He knew he'd have to testify, he knew he'd be under more scrutiny than he wanted.
What do you think he's hiding? Halliwell's Pharmacy Monday, June 17 Mr.
Cardenas, is Mr.
Halliwell here? No.
You just missed him.
Oh, rats.
So, maybe you can help us with some information about this flood, with the sprinkler system.
You should wait for Mr.
Halliwell.
It's not that complicated.
The flood was just back there where you keep all the prescriptions? Yes.
Well, the sprinkler system runs through the whole store.
Why wasn't the whole place flooded? Well, Mr.
Halliwell said that the back sprinklers are on a different waterline than the front.
Excuse me, but Don't worry, he does this all the time.
Were you here when the sprinklers went off? No.
It happened overnight.
Mr.
Halliwell was already mopping up when I got in on Saturday morning.
Do you know why they went off? Well, he said it was 'cause they hadn't had the scheduled maintenance done on them.
Something about, you know, insurance not paying.
Was there a lot of damage? Well, yeah, the whole back was wet.
We lost a lot of inventory.
How much? Well, I don't know.
Mr.
Halliwell took care of that.
He's the one who keeps track of the inventory? For the prescription medicines, yeah.
Thank you.
And who fills out the prescription mostly, you or Mr.
Halliwell? I count out the pills.
And I do the ointments.
Mr.
Halliwell does the fluids, IV drips, cancer meds.
It's very toxic stuff.
Hey, what are you doing.
You're gonna set that off.
It's not going off because there's no water.
Your boss disconnected the front sprinklers from the water line so when he set off the sprinkler system, only the back of the store got wet.
Mr.
Halliwell did it on purpose? Why? Why don't you just tell us what you saw that Saturday morning? Just that everything back there was all wet, that's all.
Where were the drugs? I don't know.
He told me to take the rest of the day off.
When I got back on Monday morning, everything was back on the shelves.
I got my file on Halliwell over here.
He put in a big order six weeks ago, I know that.
You sure you don't want any cake? It's really good.
No, thank you.
Sorry to pull you away from your birthday party.
Every year I tell my assistant, "Please, no parties.
" But, hey, what can you do? - Just smile and eat cake.
- Yeah.
So what did Halliwell order? Oh Doxorubicin, gemcitabine, dactinomycin, ifosfamide, BCNU.
What kind of drugs are those? Chemotherapy drugs.
Cancer.
- Did he order any other drugs? - No.
Oh, he said a fire sprinkler went off, and his supply of chemo drugs got contaminated.
Just the chemo? That's what he said.
Well, our records show he bought almost $180,000 worth of drugs from you.
Mmm-hmm.
Is that considered a large purchase? Well, it's triple the amount he bought from us in the previous quarter.
- $60,000.
- Mmm-hmm.
Why such a big jump? Well, I did my homework.
I put together that he sold four times more chemo drugs than he was buying from me.
I was losing business to a competitor.
A competitor? Do you know who? Well, he wouldn't tell me.
When did you have this conversation with him? About two months ago.
You know, on second thought, I think I'll have a piece of cake.
Be right back.
This competitor he's worried about? There isn't any.
He's Halliwell's only supplier.
So Halliwell's doing a neat trick, turning 60 grand worth of cancer drugs into over $200,000 in sales.
His customers might not think it's so neat.
Jim, I'm sure you realize that commitments were made based on the one you made to us.
And I intend to live up to it.
I'm glad to hear that.
I never expected any less from you.
I just need to renegotiate the terms.
The amount of the gift every month, it's just too much.
How much would you be comfortable with? I need to cut it by half.
I really need some relief here.
I'll see what I can do.
People consider you someone they can count on, Jim.
You don't wanna risk disappointing them.
How did you people get my name? From the state Medicaid.
You and your wife have your prescriptions filled at Halliwell's Pharmacy? It's just me now.
My wife passed away two months ago.
We're very sorry.
Mr.
Lowell, if you don't mind our asking, what did she die of? Claudine died of ovarian cancer.
She was diagnosed two years ago last March.
She had surgery and Then she went on chemo.
Here.
Smell this.
It's a brandy wine.
We planted them three months ago.
That was the last day she was outside.
What was your wife's prognosis when she was diagnosed? They said that she could beat it, she was in the early stages.
And there was no sign of improvement during the two years? No.
The cancer just spread.
It got worse.
The suffering, the pain and the nausea.
What did her doctor say? "Every cancer is different.
" That's what he said.
Then he'd go and write another prescription.
You didn't happen to keep any of them? No.
What would I do with that stuff? I mean, it didn't do us any good when Claudine was alive.
Two years from diagnosis to death, with a survivable cancer, a full course of chemotherapy.
And her doctor's giving her good odds.
Yeah, odds don't mean anything when the medication you're taking might as well be water.
That's Halliwell's neat trick.
He's diluting the drugs.
We talked to the families of eight of Halliwell's customers who died of cancer.
They all said the same thing.
There was no improvement, the medications weren't helping, the cancers just got worse.
How long has he been at it? We checked the drug company's records and Halliwell's sales records.
He's been selling more cancer drugs than he's been buying for at least four years.
We could be talking about thousands of diluted prescriptions.
And hundreds of deaths that might've been prevented.
What about the drugs Halliwell is dispensing now? They're at full potency.
His conscience finally got to him.
More likely the drug company salesman did, when he told Halliwell he noticed the discrepancy between his sales and his purchases.
That's why he had the flood.
Making a case against him solely on the basis of sales records will turn into the battle of the bean counters.
We need physical, medical proof he diluted those prescriptions.
None of Halliwell's customers thought of saving a sample of their old prescriptions.
The dead ones might've.
Since I needed soft tissue for the tests, I only looked at people who died in the last six months.
Of those, I identified 14 cancer patients who statistically should still be alive if they'd received the right dosage of chemotherapy.
Nine families gave me permission to exhume the bodies.
Only nine? Well, you must have some bedside manner.
There's a reason I work with dead people.
After putting their livers under the microscope, here's what I have.
Five had very low concentrations of chemo drugs, had they been getting the dosage they were prescribed.
And the four other victims? Well, the results on three were inconclusive for a variety of reasons.
On the other hand, number nine showed an unusually high concentration of the drugs doxorubicin and ifosfamide.
This number nine actually have a name? Apartment of Frank Lowell Wednesday, June 19 The medical examiner just told me they wanted to do some tests on Claudine, to see how the medicine she was taking affected her cancer.
I said if it's gonna help somebody else, sure, go right ahead.
You don't want anybody going through what she did.
No, ma'am.
You were frustrated and angry the drugs weren't working.
Yeah.
It must've been discouraging for the both of you.
Anyone in your position You might, at some point, think that death was inevitable.
Mr.
Lowell, there's no easy way to say this.
We think we know why the drugs weren't working.
We believe Mr.
Halliwell was diluting them for profit.
Your wife never got the full dosage, Mr.
Lowell, or the full benefit of the chemotherapy.
You thought we were gonna say something else, didn't you? That we found out that your wife died of a massive dose of cancer drugs.
Doxorubicin and ifosfamide.
Maybe that the pain was unbearable, the drugs weren't working.
You had no way of knowing that Mr.
Halliwell was diluting them.
So, you thought that you would do the one thing that would stop Claudine's agony.
So you and your wife, you made a decision.
And you used the rest of the medicine that she had left and injected it in her IV.
Oh, God.
Oh, my God.
I killed her I killed her for nothing.
Oh, God.
You know I hate hypotheticals.
If there's a factual basis to your question, then let's deal with those facts.
Like, hypothetically, if one of the nine exhumed bodies died as a result of an assisted suicide, then, yes, that's murder.
And, yes, I'd be duty-bound to prosecute it.
Well, then, forget we brought it up at all.
It's not that easy.
If we use the other eight exhumations against Halliwell, there is no legal way to hide the results of the ninth, from me or anyone else.
Like you, I'd hate to put some poor widower in jail, but once the cat's out of the bag, I have no choice.
Well, then we don't use the exhumations at all.
Those exhumations are good evidence against Mr.
Halliwell and I will be using them.
So we can't convict Halliwell without sending Lowell to jail.
Apparently not.
If it weren't for him, Lowell and his wife would never have even considered suicide in the first place.
Carver says he has no choice.
Let's give him one.
Let's give him better evidence against Halliwell.
Look, I was noticing here.
Some of the pharmacy's customers have the same address.
- The Brightest Star Home.
- Sounds like a nursing home.
It's up in Westchester.
Halliwell's home turf.
He's even ripping off his neighbors.
That's what's interesting.
According to the Medicaid records, Mr.
Halliwell was practically giving the meds away to these people.
Brightest Star Nursing Home Westchester, New York Wednesday, June 19 Mr.
Halliwell has been filling our prescriptions for our residents for many years.
At less than cost.
That's our arrangement with him.
An arrangement.
Does he have a financial interest in the home? No.
I see there's a Reverend Mills, heads the board of your trustees.
Are you owned by a religious group? We are a nondenominational residence.
But you're owned by a religious group.
The Church of the Sacred Redeemer.
Are you a member of the church? I'm an elder.
And Mr.
Halliwell? He's an elder also.
So supplying drugs to the residents here, that's his gift to the church.
And this arrangement, that's a pledge he made? A very generous pledge, yes.
A couple thousand dollars prescriptions a month doesn't sound very generous, especially from a church elder.
There's more to it than that, right? Jim Halliwell has pledged $1.
5 million toward a recreation center.
When did he make this pledge? Four years ago.
His generosity to the church has set a terrific example.
I see it's inspired your employees.
These charities they're involved in, AIDS babies, the indigent sick.
One of the employees collects clothing and other items from the residents.
Yes, once they've passed away, whatever the family doesn't want.
Whatever's in the room, whatever would normally get thrown away.
Yes.
Could we meet this employee, you know, to give him a, you know, "attaboy"? Kenny'll be home from school next week.
He still doesn't know what he's gonna do with his degree.
So, I would really appreciate if you'd talk to him, give him some career guidance.
Well, that would be fine.
Just have him give me a call.
Good stuff.
Thank you, Jim.
- Penny.
- See you on Sunday, Reverend.
That's quite a compliment, sending you his son for advice.
The Reverend told our committee he's diverting funds from the volunteers' bazaar to the planning group for the recreation center.
Why is that? He said some people weren't living up to their pledges.
He told me to talk to you about it.
Oh, for heaven's sake.
What's going on, Jim? Business has been off, and I told him I had to cut back on our monthly giving.
We can't.
We made a commitment.
Well, it's not forever.
We're not the only ones.
Other people have had to cut back.
Other people buy pews.
We're building a recreation center.
What kind of example are we setting? Well, we can make it up to them in other ways.
We can volunteer more time at the church.
We don't just go to church with these people, Jim.
We're on the PTA with them, the chamber of commerce.
You want everyone to know we're pleading poverty? We're not poor.
Jim, people respect us.
They look up to us.
They like us, our kids.
We can't back out.
I only take what the families let me and I give it to homeless groups, shelters for runaways, battered women.
What else besides clothes? Old purses, unopened toiletries.
- Clock radios.
- Sure, yeah.
Small appliances, kitchenware, everything gets used.
What about over-the-counter medications, like aspirin? Sure, vitamins, cold medicines.
Prescriptions? No.
No, we have to throw those away.
That's expensive stuff.
I mean, all this is nice, but those medications can save people's lives.
You see first hand how people suffer just because they can't afford the right medications.
Like doxorubicin, and interferon, and aldesleukin.
- I know what you mean.
- You do? When someone dies at the home, of cancer, the drugs that they have left, they just get tossed away, doing no one any good? I mean, aren't you a little tempted to slip them in your pocket, and make sure they get to the people who really need them? That's against regulations.
But it crosses your mind.
How about Mrs.
Barlowe who passed away three days ago? They told us she was taking aldesleukin, for renal cancer.
That's a treatment for AIDS, isn't it? And you just threw it in the trash? Yes.
Then it would've been in the dumpster when we checked.
You see, we did a little dumpster diving.
It's pretty nasty.
But we didn't find any of Mrs.
Barlowe's medications.
Well, look, maybe society thinks what I'm doing is illegal But it's not immoral.
How old are these prescriptions? Some of them might've been filled a couple of months ago.
I thought these drugs could help people.
Not these drugs.
We were able to recover eight more chemo prescriptions that came from the rest home.
Of the 23 we had tested, half were diluted.
The labels are partially scraped off, but they're still identifiable as coming from Halliwell's Pharmacy.
It's a fine piece of detective work, but I can't use it.
The medications have been through too many hands.
I couldn't prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, Halliwell's the one who diluted them.
I'm sorry.
The exhumations are still our best evidence.
Good news, Charlie.
Well, these might not convince a jury but they might convince someone else.
This is an incredible story.
Well, you have the lab report right in front of you.
And as you can see, the vials still have Mr.
Halliwell's label.
But there's nothing wrong with the medication Mr.
Halliwell is dispensing now? Apparently not.
Then I don't understand how I can help you.
We believe Mr.
Halliwell diluted the drugs to pay off the $1.
5 million pledge he made to your church.
You know, you two make a very good team.
Look, if Jim had given me any hint that this pledge was a hardship, I never would've accepted it.
But so far, he's kept up his end of the bargain.
How's he been doing the last six weeks? Well, he's been wanting to cut back.
He told me business hasn't been good.
I bet.
I'm sure you're both terrific detectives, but I can't reconcile the Jim Halliwell you describe with the one that I know.
Jim and his wife Penny are both pillars of the community.
How long have they been pillars of the community? I really couldn't say.
It's something you grow into.
Can you say when he became a church elder? When was that, about four years ago? That sounds about right.
I can't help noticing, Detective, the way you pull together all these different elements.
Good stuff.
It's good stuff.
Reverend, what I can't help noticing, is that's about the third time you've complimented us.
Is that how you got Jim Halliwell to pony up a 1.
5 million bucks? Ultimately, the gift has to come from the heart, but a little encouragement goes a long way.
And making him a church elder went all the way to the bank.
Those kinds of things are important to Jim.
Jim and Penny are very involved in the community.
They're well-regarded, and they take justifiable pride in that.
They wouldn't wanna disappoint their neighbors.
They'd be ashamed.
Well, you know, Detective, shame is a very underrated emotion.
In the big city, it's very easy to go unnoticed by others.
So your conscience becomes your only witness.
And for most of us, that's not enough.
And I'm sure every Sunday you play that card for all it's worth.
Thank you very much for talking to us.
One more thing.
Assisted suicide.
What's your church's position? It's contrary to God's Law.
A sin.
Thank you.
I filled the syringe with the chemo medicine, all the way up to the top, and then I injected it into her IV, and then I filled the syringe again all the way up with the rest of the medicine.
What happened after you injected the drugs? She was feeling worse, her breathing became hard, and she kind of, like, seized up.
Yeah, she stayed like that, in a coma for two days.
It took her two days to die.
How did you get the idea to use the cancer drugs? Well, when Claudine first started using the chemo, the doctor told her to be careful, because the medicine is a poison.
If you use too much, you could die.
You never discussed what you were doing with anybody? No.
Did you buy extra medicine from Mr.
Halliwell to make sure you had enough? No.
Claudine and I, we didn't want anyone knowing what we were doing.
We just did what we had to do, you know, just Just the two of us.
Mr.
Lowell, it took Mrs.
Lowell two days to die? Yeah.
Two days.
I can't imagine what he went through, waiting for her to die.
That must've been the worst hour of his life.
Hour? He said two days.
Well, I'm pretty sure I heard him say an hour.
Maybe I need a prescription for my hearing.
Reverend.
Jim, I'm really glad you're back onboard.
It'll make all the difference.
Thank you, Reverend.
Hey, Jim? Can we have a word? Hello.
Aren't you gonna introduce us? Penny, this is Detective I forgot your name.
I'm Robert Goren, and this is Detective Alex Eames.
- My wife Penny.
- Nice to meet you.
What it's about is one of your customers, Frank Lowell.
Maybe you don't remember him.
No, I know who he is.
Then you know his wife Claudine died.
Of ovarian cancer, yes.
Actually, that's not what killed her.
Mr.
Lowell admitted to us it was an assisted suicide.
He pumped her full of doxorubicin and ifosfamide.
I'm sorry to hear that.
But it's really none of my business.
Well, no, apparently, it is your business.
Mr.
Lowell made a statement.
He said he came to you.
He told you his wife was getting worse, she was in constant pain, and he asked you to give him something to take her out of her misery.
You told him to give her all the cancer medication that she had left, in one big shot.
That's not true.
It's right here in the statement.
You told him how to kill his wife.
That's assisting a suicide.
Well, that's ridiculous.
I didn't do anything wrong.
Nothing wrong? Excuse me, Reverend, didn't you tell us assisting a suicide is a sin? Well, yes, but Well, there you go.
It's a sin.
But it's all lies.
I never talked to this man about suicide.
Come on, Penny.
Oh, that's it, run away.
You better get yourself a lawyer 'cause the next time you see us, we'll be arresting you for murder.
This is crazy.
I never murdered anyone.
Jim wouldn't help anybody commit suicide.
"He told me to give Claudine all the drugs at once.
"That's what I did.
"An hour later, Claudine was dead.
" That's what Frank Lowell told us.
He's lying.
You keep saying that.
No, he is lying, and I can prove it.
How? There's a fact in here you can prove isn't true? Show me this untrue fact.
Is it on this page or She didn't die in an hour.
She couldn't have.
Why is that? The drugs wouldn't have worked that fast.
We know how much doxorubicin and ifosfamide she had left.
Our experts said it was enough to kill her in an hour.
It's impossible.
Listen, I've been a pharmacist for over 20 years.
I know what I'm talking about.
Well, how long? Two hours? Twelve? One day? I don't know.
But there's no way she died in an hour.
Well, I'm sure we'd all like to know why that is.
I'd just be speculating.
There's no way that she would die in one hour.
I mean, that's not speculating, that's certainty.
There was something wrong with her drugs, wasn't there? No.
You diluted her drugs, didn't you? No.
That's why you knew she wouldn't die in one hour.
You wanna know how long it took her? You know how long it took for the poisons to eat away at her heart, and her lungs? Two days.
Two days.
It was a mistake.
It was an honest mistake.
An honest mistake he made for four years.
You even diluted the drugs that you sent to the old age home.
- No.
- Jim, They found the vials.
They showed them to me.
Tell them why you did it, Jim.
Go ahead.
Tell them you did it to pay off the $1.
5 million pledge.
Go ahead.
Who knows, they might forgive you.
I'm sorry.
I just didn't wanna let you down.
Please forgive me.
- You're under arrest, Mr.
Halliwell.
- Please forgive me! Penny! The final tally was He pleaded to one count of fraud and tampering for every patient affected.
We agreed to a sentence of 15 years to life.
His chance to be the pillar of a whole new community.
In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
Joel.
Yeah.
This is Rick.
He's taking over your route on Monday.
Yeah, sure, how are you doing? Rick's gonna ride along with you today.
I thought we were doing that tomorrow.
Tomorrow Rick's got his physical.
You pay attention.
Joel knows all the shortcuts.
I'm not worried, all right? It's gonna be what it's gonna be.
Hey.
Luke! Wait.
What? I want you at work at 2:00.
Dude, we're good.
Mr.
Halliwell likes to check the shipment himself.
If he's not here to sign for it, you don't deliver it, got that? Uh-huh.
You can put those over there.
Tepper.
His last name was Tepper.
No, I don't know him.
Why're you turning? Shortcut.
Geez! / Hey, what's the matter with you? What's the matter with you, assface? Rick, let it go.
This little punk thinks he owns the streets.
Excuse me.
Keys.
Rick, they just want the drugs.
We stay cool, we're gonna be okay.
Shut up! You talk, I waste him.
Hurry up! These, too.
Go.
Go, go, go.
Okay.
Okay.
We're gonna be okay.
Hey! You talked.
Law & Order CI Witnesses saw three males, late teens, early twenties.
One on a skateboard, and one on a bike, one driving a van, dark grey, dark blue or black, take your pick.
No one grabbed the plate numbers.
The shots came from this side.
Which one was standing here? The bicycle guy.
He was covering the passenger, probably shot him first.
Maybe the passenger was the bigger handful.
Or a bigger question mark than the driver.
Their last delivery was at Houston and Pitt.
The next one was on the Bowery at Prince.
He had no business being on this street.
Unless the driver had his own delivery schedule.
Maybe Joel was showing the new guy a shortcut.
Joel couldn't sit still in traffic for more than 10 seconds.
He was always looking for a shortcut.
Did he know he was gonna have a passenger today? No.
It was a last-minute thing.
So what's the damage here? Well, all I can see that's missing are four boxes of somatropin.
Somatropin.
That's human growth hormone.
Athletes use it to bulk up.
That's not a legal use of the product.
How much were the four boxes worth? A little over half a million dollars.
Now, the boxes were ordered by four different pharmacies.
It's interesting how they all turned up on the same day.
That's because they were all ordered on the same day last week.
By four different pharmacies? That's a little too interesting.
Could Joel have faked these orders? No.
The company has safeguards.
The orders have to come directly from a licensed pharmacist.
Maybe Joel had a helper in one of these pharmacies.
Halliwell's Pharmacy Friday, June 14 Xavier's worked for me for three years.
I know his wife, his children.
He's a good person.
You know anybody else who has access to your order forms? No.
Could I see this phony order? I actually placed this order for somatropin.
It's not a forgery.
You just remembered you ordered it? Well, I had a flood back here last month.
Defective fire sprinklers.
Had to replace a lot of my stock.
Now seeing the paperwork reminded me of the somatropin.
I'm sorry for the confusion.
Was there anything else? - No.
Thanks for your help.
- Sure.
Well, Mr.
Halliwell, I just wanna make sure that I'm reading this right.
It says here somatropin is contraindicated for people with diabetes.
What happens if they take somatropin? Well, without a doctor's supervision, you run the risk of diabetic coma.
That's what I thought.
Thank you.
We need to call some hospitals.
We've had four young males with severe diabetic episodes in the last 48 hours.
We still don't know what triggered them.
You might wanna try and look for somatropin.
Are any of the kids still here? Only one, Ryan Hendrickson.
His friends brought him in seven hours ago.
He'd already slipped into a coma.
We've stabilized him, but we haven't determined how much damage there's been.
Are his friends still here? His parents are in the waiting area.
And there's a young woman.
She was with him when they brought him in.
Dr.
Johnson, please call extension 2198.
Miss DeSantis? Can we speak to you over here? We need to find out what happened to Ryan.
His diabetes messed him up.
He took something just before, right? Something he wasn't supposed to? Melinda, we think Ryan took a growth hormone called somatropin to help him build up his muscles.
That's why he's in a coma.
We need to know where he got it, so other kids don't end up in the bed next to him.
Ryan injected this stuff he got from this guy Lane.
Lane Ruddock.
Lane said Ryan needed to get bigger and stronger.
Why? Was Ryan doing sports? He wrestles.
On a team at school? It's not a school thing.
Come on! Dude, if you gotta clothesline him, sell it.
Don't just stand there, move into him! And, Jace, you have got to sell getting hit.
Grab your throat like you got a badger stuck in there.
Come on, give me the face of pain.
Sell it.
You Lane Ruddock? What, the neighbors again? Look, we got a right to wrestle, okay? It's safer than hockey.
What do you mean, this? We don't have a problem with this.
In fact, I've always wanted to try it.
Come on.
Come on.
Climb in with me? It's okay.
Look, what're you people doing here? You know what's that move You know, the one where you take the other guy, you spin him over the top of your head? - What, the flying helicopter? - Flying helicopter.
And then you plant him head down on the mat, it's so extreme.
You know, I'm surprised more guys don't end up like, well, your buddy Ryan, in a coma, on a respirator.
What? Hey, look, I had nothing to do with it.
Detectives.
Who are they? Those are our buddies.
They're searching your parents' house.
We found one box.
Two-third's full.
The somatropin, where are the other three boxes? Hey, buddy, you better answer her question, or you're going smackdown for two murders all by yourself.
I didn't kill nobody, okay? I swear.
Those guys, they fronted me one box.
That was it.
It was just one box.
Excuse me.
Could you get that box for me, up on top? Thank you very much.
Drop the box.
What's going on? What're you doing to my son? Arresting him.
Seems he went into the pharmacy business for himself.
We have Lane Ruddock.
We have the box of stolen somatropin you sold him.
We have an eyewitness who puts your van at the crime scene.
- Am I forgetting something? - The sneaker.
We have a sneaker print in your van that matches a sneaker print in the cargo area of the truck.
That's it for now.
We'll have an update once we grab up your accomplices.
You know, I don't wanna tell you anything you already know, Luke, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you have here to tell us your story.
Now this opportunity has the shelf life of, like, one, maybe two hours.
By then, we'll have all your buddies in custody.
Oh, the tales they will tell.
None of them with a happy ending.
- An hour, Luke.
- Two at the most.
Hang on a second.
Do I have your permission to talk to them about it? My client's ready to cooperate.
He had no prior knowledge of any plan to kill the drivers.
He wasn't even aware his accomplices were armed.
He didn't come forward before because Because he was afraid for his life.
We know all the disclaimers by heart.
What does he have to say? Nothing, until the DA signs off on the agreement, which is as follows: Twenty years in a medium-security facility in return for his testimony and his plea to second-degree robbery and four counts of forgery.
Four counts of forgery? Four boxes, four forged order forms, four counts.
Do I need to repeat anything? No.
We'll be right back.
That's a deal I can live with.
What? The kid's copping to forging four order forms.
One of the pharmacists, Halliwell, he told us his order was legit, it wasn't forged.
One of them's lying.
My bet, it's not this kid.
Just got the good word.
His accomplices are in custody.
Two weapons recovered.
One's the same caliber as the slugs from the victims.
The kid's stuck to his story.
He dummied up four orders of growth hormone, including the order from Halliwell's Pharmacy.
If Halliwell didn't order this stuff, why tell you he did? Because if he told us the truth that the order was faked, he knew we'd be back.
He knew he'd have to testify, he knew he'd be under more scrutiny than he wanted.
What do you think he's hiding? Halliwell's Pharmacy Monday, June 17 Mr.
Cardenas, is Mr.
Halliwell here? No.
You just missed him.
Oh, rats.
So, maybe you can help us with some information about this flood, with the sprinkler system.
You should wait for Mr.
Halliwell.
It's not that complicated.
The flood was just back there where you keep all the prescriptions? Yes.
Well, the sprinkler system runs through the whole store.
Why wasn't the whole place flooded? Well, Mr.
Halliwell said that the back sprinklers are on a different waterline than the front.
Excuse me, but Don't worry, he does this all the time.
Were you here when the sprinklers went off? No.
It happened overnight.
Mr.
Halliwell was already mopping up when I got in on Saturday morning.
Do you know why they went off? Well, he said it was 'cause they hadn't had the scheduled maintenance done on them.
Something about, you know, insurance not paying.
Was there a lot of damage? Well, yeah, the whole back was wet.
We lost a lot of inventory.
How much? Well, I don't know.
Mr.
Halliwell took care of that.
He's the one who keeps track of the inventory? For the prescription medicines, yeah.
Thank you.
And who fills out the prescription mostly, you or Mr.
Halliwell? I count out the pills.
And I do the ointments.
Mr.
Halliwell does the fluids, IV drips, cancer meds.
It's very toxic stuff.
Hey, what are you doing.
You're gonna set that off.
It's not going off because there's no water.
Your boss disconnected the front sprinklers from the water line so when he set off the sprinkler system, only the back of the store got wet.
Mr.
Halliwell did it on purpose? Why? Why don't you just tell us what you saw that Saturday morning? Just that everything back there was all wet, that's all.
Where were the drugs? I don't know.
He told me to take the rest of the day off.
When I got back on Monday morning, everything was back on the shelves.
I got my file on Halliwell over here.
He put in a big order six weeks ago, I know that.
You sure you don't want any cake? It's really good.
No, thank you.
Sorry to pull you away from your birthday party.
Every year I tell my assistant, "Please, no parties.
" But, hey, what can you do? - Just smile and eat cake.
- Yeah.
So what did Halliwell order? Oh Doxorubicin, gemcitabine, dactinomycin, ifosfamide, BCNU.
What kind of drugs are those? Chemotherapy drugs.
Cancer.
- Did he order any other drugs? - No.
Oh, he said a fire sprinkler went off, and his supply of chemo drugs got contaminated.
Just the chemo? That's what he said.
Well, our records show he bought almost $180,000 worth of drugs from you.
Mmm-hmm.
Is that considered a large purchase? Well, it's triple the amount he bought from us in the previous quarter.
- $60,000.
- Mmm-hmm.
Why such a big jump? Well, I did my homework.
I put together that he sold four times more chemo drugs than he was buying from me.
I was losing business to a competitor.
A competitor? Do you know who? Well, he wouldn't tell me.
When did you have this conversation with him? About two months ago.
You know, on second thought, I think I'll have a piece of cake.
Be right back.
This competitor he's worried about? There isn't any.
He's Halliwell's only supplier.
So Halliwell's doing a neat trick, turning 60 grand worth of cancer drugs into over $200,000 in sales.
His customers might not think it's so neat.
Jim, I'm sure you realize that commitments were made based on the one you made to us.
And I intend to live up to it.
I'm glad to hear that.
I never expected any less from you.
I just need to renegotiate the terms.
The amount of the gift every month, it's just too much.
How much would you be comfortable with? I need to cut it by half.
I really need some relief here.
I'll see what I can do.
People consider you someone they can count on, Jim.
You don't wanna risk disappointing them.
How did you people get my name? From the state Medicaid.
You and your wife have your prescriptions filled at Halliwell's Pharmacy? It's just me now.
My wife passed away two months ago.
We're very sorry.
Mr.
Lowell, if you don't mind our asking, what did she die of? Claudine died of ovarian cancer.
She was diagnosed two years ago last March.
She had surgery and Then she went on chemo.
Here.
Smell this.
It's a brandy wine.
We planted them three months ago.
That was the last day she was outside.
What was your wife's prognosis when she was diagnosed? They said that she could beat it, she was in the early stages.
And there was no sign of improvement during the two years? No.
The cancer just spread.
It got worse.
The suffering, the pain and the nausea.
What did her doctor say? "Every cancer is different.
" That's what he said.
Then he'd go and write another prescription.
You didn't happen to keep any of them? No.
What would I do with that stuff? I mean, it didn't do us any good when Claudine was alive.
Two years from diagnosis to death, with a survivable cancer, a full course of chemotherapy.
And her doctor's giving her good odds.
Yeah, odds don't mean anything when the medication you're taking might as well be water.
That's Halliwell's neat trick.
He's diluting the drugs.
We talked to the families of eight of Halliwell's customers who died of cancer.
They all said the same thing.
There was no improvement, the medications weren't helping, the cancers just got worse.
How long has he been at it? We checked the drug company's records and Halliwell's sales records.
He's been selling more cancer drugs than he's been buying for at least four years.
We could be talking about thousands of diluted prescriptions.
And hundreds of deaths that might've been prevented.
What about the drugs Halliwell is dispensing now? They're at full potency.
His conscience finally got to him.
More likely the drug company salesman did, when he told Halliwell he noticed the discrepancy between his sales and his purchases.
That's why he had the flood.
Making a case against him solely on the basis of sales records will turn into the battle of the bean counters.
We need physical, medical proof he diluted those prescriptions.
None of Halliwell's customers thought of saving a sample of their old prescriptions.
The dead ones might've.
Since I needed soft tissue for the tests, I only looked at people who died in the last six months.
Of those, I identified 14 cancer patients who statistically should still be alive if they'd received the right dosage of chemotherapy.
Nine families gave me permission to exhume the bodies.
Only nine? Well, you must have some bedside manner.
There's a reason I work with dead people.
After putting their livers under the microscope, here's what I have.
Five had very low concentrations of chemo drugs, had they been getting the dosage they were prescribed.
And the four other victims? Well, the results on three were inconclusive for a variety of reasons.
On the other hand, number nine showed an unusually high concentration of the drugs doxorubicin and ifosfamide.
This number nine actually have a name? Apartment of Frank Lowell Wednesday, June 19 The medical examiner just told me they wanted to do some tests on Claudine, to see how the medicine she was taking affected her cancer.
I said if it's gonna help somebody else, sure, go right ahead.
You don't want anybody going through what she did.
No, ma'am.
You were frustrated and angry the drugs weren't working.
Yeah.
It must've been discouraging for the both of you.
Anyone in your position You might, at some point, think that death was inevitable.
Mr.
Lowell, there's no easy way to say this.
We think we know why the drugs weren't working.
We believe Mr.
Halliwell was diluting them for profit.
Your wife never got the full dosage, Mr.
Lowell, or the full benefit of the chemotherapy.
You thought we were gonna say something else, didn't you? That we found out that your wife died of a massive dose of cancer drugs.
Doxorubicin and ifosfamide.
Maybe that the pain was unbearable, the drugs weren't working.
You had no way of knowing that Mr.
Halliwell was diluting them.
So, you thought that you would do the one thing that would stop Claudine's agony.
So you and your wife, you made a decision.
And you used the rest of the medicine that she had left and injected it in her IV.
Oh, God.
Oh, my God.
I killed her I killed her for nothing.
Oh, God.
You know I hate hypotheticals.
If there's a factual basis to your question, then let's deal with those facts.
Like, hypothetically, if one of the nine exhumed bodies died as a result of an assisted suicide, then, yes, that's murder.
And, yes, I'd be duty-bound to prosecute it.
Well, then, forget we brought it up at all.
It's not that easy.
If we use the other eight exhumations against Halliwell, there is no legal way to hide the results of the ninth, from me or anyone else.
Like you, I'd hate to put some poor widower in jail, but once the cat's out of the bag, I have no choice.
Well, then we don't use the exhumations at all.
Those exhumations are good evidence against Mr.
Halliwell and I will be using them.
So we can't convict Halliwell without sending Lowell to jail.
Apparently not.
If it weren't for him, Lowell and his wife would never have even considered suicide in the first place.
Carver says he has no choice.
Let's give him one.
Let's give him better evidence against Halliwell.
Look, I was noticing here.
Some of the pharmacy's customers have the same address.
- The Brightest Star Home.
- Sounds like a nursing home.
It's up in Westchester.
Halliwell's home turf.
He's even ripping off his neighbors.
That's what's interesting.
According to the Medicaid records, Mr.
Halliwell was practically giving the meds away to these people.
Brightest Star Nursing Home Westchester, New York Wednesday, June 19 Mr.
Halliwell has been filling our prescriptions for our residents for many years.
At less than cost.
That's our arrangement with him.
An arrangement.
Does he have a financial interest in the home? No.
I see there's a Reverend Mills, heads the board of your trustees.
Are you owned by a religious group? We are a nondenominational residence.
But you're owned by a religious group.
The Church of the Sacred Redeemer.
Are you a member of the church? I'm an elder.
And Mr.
Halliwell? He's an elder also.
So supplying drugs to the residents here, that's his gift to the church.
And this arrangement, that's a pledge he made? A very generous pledge, yes.
A couple thousand dollars prescriptions a month doesn't sound very generous, especially from a church elder.
There's more to it than that, right? Jim Halliwell has pledged $1.
5 million toward a recreation center.
When did he make this pledge? Four years ago.
His generosity to the church has set a terrific example.
I see it's inspired your employees.
These charities they're involved in, AIDS babies, the indigent sick.
One of the employees collects clothing and other items from the residents.
Yes, once they've passed away, whatever the family doesn't want.
Whatever's in the room, whatever would normally get thrown away.
Yes.
Could we meet this employee, you know, to give him a, you know, "attaboy"? Kenny'll be home from school next week.
He still doesn't know what he's gonna do with his degree.
So, I would really appreciate if you'd talk to him, give him some career guidance.
Well, that would be fine.
Just have him give me a call.
Good stuff.
Thank you, Jim.
- Penny.
- See you on Sunday, Reverend.
That's quite a compliment, sending you his son for advice.
The Reverend told our committee he's diverting funds from the volunteers' bazaar to the planning group for the recreation center.
Why is that? He said some people weren't living up to their pledges.
He told me to talk to you about it.
Oh, for heaven's sake.
What's going on, Jim? Business has been off, and I told him I had to cut back on our monthly giving.
We can't.
We made a commitment.
Well, it's not forever.
We're not the only ones.
Other people have had to cut back.
Other people buy pews.
We're building a recreation center.
What kind of example are we setting? Well, we can make it up to them in other ways.
We can volunteer more time at the church.
We don't just go to church with these people, Jim.
We're on the PTA with them, the chamber of commerce.
You want everyone to know we're pleading poverty? We're not poor.
Jim, people respect us.
They look up to us.
They like us, our kids.
We can't back out.
I only take what the families let me and I give it to homeless groups, shelters for runaways, battered women.
What else besides clothes? Old purses, unopened toiletries.
- Clock radios.
- Sure, yeah.
Small appliances, kitchenware, everything gets used.
What about over-the-counter medications, like aspirin? Sure, vitamins, cold medicines.
Prescriptions? No.
No, we have to throw those away.
That's expensive stuff.
I mean, all this is nice, but those medications can save people's lives.
You see first hand how people suffer just because they can't afford the right medications.
Like doxorubicin, and interferon, and aldesleukin.
- I know what you mean.
- You do? When someone dies at the home, of cancer, the drugs that they have left, they just get tossed away, doing no one any good? I mean, aren't you a little tempted to slip them in your pocket, and make sure they get to the people who really need them? That's against regulations.
But it crosses your mind.
How about Mrs.
Barlowe who passed away three days ago? They told us she was taking aldesleukin, for renal cancer.
That's a treatment for AIDS, isn't it? And you just threw it in the trash? Yes.
Then it would've been in the dumpster when we checked.
You see, we did a little dumpster diving.
It's pretty nasty.
But we didn't find any of Mrs.
Barlowe's medications.
Well, look, maybe society thinks what I'm doing is illegal But it's not immoral.
How old are these prescriptions? Some of them might've been filled a couple of months ago.
I thought these drugs could help people.
Not these drugs.
We were able to recover eight more chemo prescriptions that came from the rest home.
Of the 23 we had tested, half were diluted.
The labels are partially scraped off, but they're still identifiable as coming from Halliwell's Pharmacy.
It's a fine piece of detective work, but I can't use it.
The medications have been through too many hands.
I couldn't prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, Halliwell's the one who diluted them.
I'm sorry.
The exhumations are still our best evidence.
Good news, Charlie.
Well, these might not convince a jury but they might convince someone else.
This is an incredible story.
Well, you have the lab report right in front of you.
And as you can see, the vials still have Mr.
Halliwell's label.
But there's nothing wrong with the medication Mr.
Halliwell is dispensing now? Apparently not.
Then I don't understand how I can help you.
We believe Mr.
Halliwell diluted the drugs to pay off the $1.
5 million pledge he made to your church.
You know, you two make a very good team.
Look, if Jim had given me any hint that this pledge was a hardship, I never would've accepted it.
But so far, he's kept up his end of the bargain.
How's he been doing the last six weeks? Well, he's been wanting to cut back.
He told me business hasn't been good.
I bet.
I'm sure you're both terrific detectives, but I can't reconcile the Jim Halliwell you describe with the one that I know.
Jim and his wife Penny are both pillars of the community.
How long have they been pillars of the community? I really couldn't say.
It's something you grow into.
Can you say when he became a church elder? When was that, about four years ago? That sounds about right.
I can't help noticing, Detective, the way you pull together all these different elements.
Good stuff.
It's good stuff.
Reverend, what I can't help noticing, is that's about the third time you've complimented us.
Is that how you got Jim Halliwell to pony up a 1.
5 million bucks? Ultimately, the gift has to come from the heart, but a little encouragement goes a long way.
And making him a church elder went all the way to the bank.
Those kinds of things are important to Jim.
Jim and Penny are very involved in the community.
They're well-regarded, and they take justifiable pride in that.
They wouldn't wanna disappoint their neighbors.
They'd be ashamed.
Well, you know, Detective, shame is a very underrated emotion.
In the big city, it's very easy to go unnoticed by others.
So your conscience becomes your only witness.
And for most of us, that's not enough.
And I'm sure every Sunday you play that card for all it's worth.
Thank you very much for talking to us.
One more thing.
Assisted suicide.
What's your church's position? It's contrary to God's Law.
A sin.
Thank you.
I filled the syringe with the chemo medicine, all the way up to the top, and then I injected it into her IV, and then I filled the syringe again all the way up with the rest of the medicine.
What happened after you injected the drugs? She was feeling worse, her breathing became hard, and she kind of, like, seized up.
Yeah, she stayed like that, in a coma for two days.
It took her two days to die.
How did you get the idea to use the cancer drugs? Well, when Claudine first started using the chemo, the doctor told her to be careful, because the medicine is a poison.
If you use too much, you could die.
You never discussed what you were doing with anybody? No.
Did you buy extra medicine from Mr.
Halliwell to make sure you had enough? No.
Claudine and I, we didn't want anyone knowing what we were doing.
We just did what we had to do, you know, just Just the two of us.
Mr.
Lowell, it took Mrs.
Lowell two days to die? Yeah.
Two days.
I can't imagine what he went through, waiting for her to die.
That must've been the worst hour of his life.
Hour? He said two days.
Well, I'm pretty sure I heard him say an hour.
Maybe I need a prescription for my hearing.
Reverend.
Jim, I'm really glad you're back onboard.
It'll make all the difference.
Thank you, Reverend.
Hey, Jim? Can we have a word? Hello.
Aren't you gonna introduce us? Penny, this is Detective I forgot your name.
I'm Robert Goren, and this is Detective Alex Eames.
- My wife Penny.
- Nice to meet you.
What it's about is one of your customers, Frank Lowell.
Maybe you don't remember him.
No, I know who he is.
Then you know his wife Claudine died.
Of ovarian cancer, yes.
Actually, that's not what killed her.
Mr.
Lowell admitted to us it was an assisted suicide.
He pumped her full of doxorubicin and ifosfamide.
I'm sorry to hear that.
But it's really none of my business.
Well, no, apparently, it is your business.
Mr.
Lowell made a statement.
He said he came to you.
He told you his wife was getting worse, she was in constant pain, and he asked you to give him something to take her out of her misery.
You told him to give her all the cancer medication that she had left, in one big shot.
That's not true.
It's right here in the statement.
You told him how to kill his wife.
That's assisting a suicide.
Well, that's ridiculous.
I didn't do anything wrong.
Nothing wrong? Excuse me, Reverend, didn't you tell us assisting a suicide is a sin? Well, yes, but Well, there you go.
It's a sin.
But it's all lies.
I never talked to this man about suicide.
Come on, Penny.
Oh, that's it, run away.
You better get yourself a lawyer 'cause the next time you see us, we'll be arresting you for murder.
This is crazy.
I never murdered anyone.
Jim wouldn't help anybody commit suicide.
"He told me to give Claudine all the drugs at once.
"That's what I did.
"An hour later, Claudine was dead.
" That's what Frank Lowell told us.
He's lying.
You keep saying that.
No, he is lying, and I can prove it.
How? There's a fact in here you can prove isn't true? Show me this untrue fact.
Is it on this page or She didn't die in an hour.
She couldn't have.
Why is that? The drugs wouldn't have worked that fast.
We know how much doxorubicin and ifosfamide she had left.
Our experts said it was enough to kill her in an hour.
It's impossible.
Listen, I've been a pharmacist for over 20 years.
I know what I'm talking about.
Well, how long? Two hours? Twelve? One day? I don't know.
But there's no way she died in an hour.
Well, I'm sure we'd all like to know why that is.
I'd just be speculating.
There's no way that she would die in one hour.
I mean, that's not speculating, that's certainty.
There was something wrong with her drugs, wasn't there? No.
You diluted her drugs, didn't you? No.
That's why you knew she wouldn't die in one hour.
You wanna know how long it took her? You know how long it took for the poisons to eat away at her heart, and her lungs? Two days.
Two days.
It was a mistake.
It was an honest mistake.
An honest mistake he made for four years.
You even diluted the drugs that you sent to the old age home.
- No.
- Jim, They found the vials.
They showed them to me.
Tell them why you did it, Jim.
Go ahead.
Tell them you did it to pay off the $1.
5 million pledge.
Go ahead.
Who knows, they might forgive you.
I'm sorry.
I just didn't wanna let you down.
Please forgive me.
- You're under arrest, Mr.
Halliwell.
- Please forgive me! Penny! The final tally was He pleaded to one count of fraud and tampering for every patient affected.
We agreed to a sentence of 15 years to life.
His chance to be the pillar of a whole new community.