Law & Order (1990) s03e01 Episode Script
Skin Deep
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.
Whatever it costs, my kids are going to Catholic school.
You're a Baptist.
I don't care.
Those nuns know how to build character.
Here you go, sweetheart.
You're sure that's very light, no sugar? That's what you told me.
It has to be very light.
You let go, it'll float in the air.
Oh, man.
Sometimes I want to forget I'm married, I swear.
You just like her 'cause her features are white.
Oh, yeah.
That's why I like you so much.
Oh! Anything with your coffee, gentlemen? dd Mr.
Decker? Hello.
Mr.
Decker? Mr.
Decker? Looks like an invited guest.
The door was open, there was no sign of forced entry.
My dad said, "Be a cop, look what you miss out on.
" This must be what he meant.
They didn't look like that in my high school yearbook, that's for sure.
They didn't sell your high school yearbook in Times Square.
What've we got, a rare scissors collector? Photographic supplies.
They're just like the ones in the body.
Listen, when you're done with this, I want it, okay? Nice work.
Think she needed any help getting dressed? I think you don't make a detective's salary for being a photographer's assistant.
When you're through looking at that body, would you mind taking a look at this one? The girl who found him was on her way to have her picture taken.
This guy told her that she was gonna be on a magazine cover.
He was supposed to work tonight, huh? In his pajamas? Call it in.
He made all the girls bring him coffee.
"Very light.
" Could've saved bucks, he bought his own pot.
Wasrt his money, was it? I was working at Bloomingdale's, you know, spraying cologne at people coming off the escalator? Mr.
Decker gave me his card before I could spray him.
He said I had good cheekbones.
Makes you Number 467, honey.
He had girls in and out all hours, all lookers, some of them two, three times a day.
The man had very clean fingernails.
Of course developing fluid, do it every time.
Or a good manicurist.
No one gets manicures any more.
You catch hepatitis.
Isn't here.
Plenty of prints in the loft.
Twelve usable sets other than the victim's.
I sent 'em all out.
None of them turned up a record.
Maybe you noticed we found a pair of scissors.
Good thumb and index finger at the top of the blade.
Great.
Now all we need is a suspect.
Look for a Black Widow Spider.
Don't they kill their mates after sex? Your victim had semen and vaginal secretions in his Doctor Dentors.
Okay.
We find a woman, can you make a match? The DNA in vaginal secretions? When there's exfoliated epithelial cells, which there happen to be.
Figure the guy pulls his pj's on right after and just before he was killed.
The samples werert even dry.
You got a very well-mannered killer here.
Waited till he got dressed.
I'm sure he was grateful.
So where does that get us? A lovers' quarrel? After sex? Most people, you fight and then have sex.
He's not married.
So what is this? The girlfriend leaves, he falls asleep, a burglar wakes him? And stabs him in the middle of the loft, in the back.
No struggle.
I suppose that means you have a better idea? He had four appointments on his calendar.
Julian Decker, huh! What a loss.
Then you werert involved with him? However you mean that, the answer is no.
I had as little to do with Julian as possible.
And believe me, I'd have preferred less.
Do you know who was involved with him? This city is full of women with dreadful taste.
But you're not one of them.
He could smile the chrome off a fender.
I just didn't want him around my girls.
All right.
So, you werert working with him.
But why were you his last appointment yesterday? In his book, not mine.
He barged in around 5:00.
Wanted me to recommend him for work.
I asked him to leave.
He did.
Hey, some girls must've found him attractive.
You'll find my girls on the covers of Vogue, Detective.
You'll find Juliars in catalogue lingerie ads.
Some girls were interested in him.
But not mine.
Miss Norman? Gone for three weeks, Barbados.
Saturday morning, first class.
She took six suitcases.
I got her sunscreen before she left.
Number 15, unscented.
You fold her underwear, too? I like to be close to my tenants.
I wonder why.
Didrt that calendar have a red line through Clarissa Normars name? It was won'th checking.
The other two are downtown.
The 11:00 is East 16th, off Park Avenue South.
Angela Brant.
I was making the rounds, looking for work.
Julian didn't have any.
Which he told me after I bought him breakfast.
It seems Mr.
Decker liked to take advantage of people, huh? Doesrt everybody? Look, I'll never have to buy him coffee again, but I will miss the work.
How old would you say she is? Maybe 30.
Try 16.
They do her hair and make-up, she looks 30.
I'm 38, I haven't looked 30 since I was 20.
It's easy to take advantage of me.
I wouldn't peg you as that vulnerable, Miss Brant.
I was a model when I was a kid.
In my senior year in high school, I made five times what my father did in his hardware store.
All the big agencies wanted me.
Celeste Foxx herself came around.
Problem is, it doesn't last.
You're still working.
I have a daughter in private school.
I'll be doing catalogues from the grave.
Sounds like you needed Mr.
Decker a lot.
Not enough to sleep with him.
You know who did? I told you, I didn't work for him that much.
Now, if that's all, I'm late for aerobics.
Uh, just one more thing, Miss Brant.
Can you tell us where you were from, uh, let's say, 6:00 to about 8:00 last night? What? Hi, kids.
Hi.
What's going on? I have to go out.
We can discuss it later.
Why don't you go hang out in your room for a while, okay? Okay.
Okay.
I admitted I didn't like him.
Can we finish this some other time? Could you just tell us where you were last night? I had dinner with my ex-husband.
Got home around 9:00.
Jeffrey Brant.
He's a banker.
Until when? Okay.
Well, thank you, Mr.
Brant.
The ex-husband says that he was with her from 6:00 until some time past 8:00.
It's an alibi, unless she got to the phone before we did.
Next up, Betty Ann Can'ter, West 24th.
Want to bet she didn't like him either? Look on the bright side.
If we do this all week, you'll never have to buy Playboy again.
What are you saying? I treat all women like objects? More specific.
Like furniture.
This one, I promise, I won't even look at her.
What do you want me to do? Cry? I'll send a check to the Dead Photographers' fund.
You did work for him, Miss Can'ter.
You don't have a bed, you sleep in the gutter.
I get into shape, I'm out of catalogues and back in magazines.
You don't look like you're falling apart.
You should've seen me at 19, sugar.
Miss Southern Alabama Cotton Queen.
Without liftir a finger.
Cover of Mademoiselle.
Studio 54 till dawn.
Julian said that I was finished.
Well, Lauren Huttors past 40.
She works.
I'm still a Size 6.
You'll pardon me, but if this is what you get when you're out of work Oh, yeah.
Well, used to be owned by me and Citibank.
Now, just the bank, and they're sellir it.
Poor Julian, may he rest in hell.
Who do you think killed him? We think he had a girlfriend.
Oh.
I see.
Last night? I was on a revolving pedestal pointir at the kind of yacht I used to cruise on.
Boat show, the Meadowlands.
Better than what a lot of girls end up doir.
You mean to supplement their income.
What do you think you do when this goes, and these are all you have left? Thank you.
She was on a yacht display from 3:00 till 10:00.
She didn't get dizzy? No, she got a break from 5:00 to 7:00.
The guy doesn't know where she was.
All right.
Well, that's a half-hour through the tunnel, and a half-hour back.
That gives her just enough time.
Not unless she can fly.
I went to see the in-laws, one of the tubes was closed in the Lincoln.
Two hours just to get there.
Round-trip in two hours? No way.
We got no girlfriend.
We don't even know who could've been there.
All we got is a sleazeball who was begging for work.
Who says the one he had sex with is the one who killed him? Wait a minute.
Am I missing something here? This guy was begging for work? He even made the girls buy him coffee.
Expensive camera equipment, This guy must've been one heck of a beggar.
Find out how he paid for his life, maybe we find out the reason it's over.
Not much in the loft.
What, there were boxes of receipts.
And four-year-old tax returns.
Signed by a CPA? Mr.
Decker.
He reported $68,000 gross income last year.
According to his travel records, his trips to the islands cost at least half that.
Those were photo shoots.
That's a legitimate business deduction.
And his food, and his mortgage, and his clothes, and his equipment, and Uncle Sam, all came out of the rest of it? Well, I only know what he reported.
I don't know a thing about his other income.
If there was any other income.
You like to go to the islands, too, Mr.
O'Hara? Me? No, my skin can't take the sun.
That's good, 'cause if you signed those tax returns knowing he had other income, you're gonna be out of the sun a long time.
Okay, look.
Models have a short life span.
Julian found them other work.
Remember the guy in the diner? Said girls were going in and out of there two, three times a day.
What were they doing, Mr.
O'Hara? Getting their graduation photos taken? Okay.
A lot of guys who'll pay big bucks to see a girl from the swimsuit issue without her swimsuit.
So that the guy could slip into something more comfortable.
Everybody's a consenting adult.
No harm, no foul, right? This guy was not only a photographer, he was a pimp.
Yeah, and where does that get you? A john did it? One of his girls? We don't know any of his johns.
Or his girls.
Well, you'd better start with all the models he photographed.
Check their bank accounts.
The cotton queen.
She talked about what the other girls did when their faces went.
She didn't mean they got rich boyfriends.
Rich boyfriends by the hour.
But she didn't know Decker was a pimp.
Or she didn't want to tell us.
Sure he asked me to do it.
$2,500 a week on my back instead of $500 on my feet.
Well, it must've been tempting.
Maybe to you.
But, honey, I don't think you'd survive.
In my experience, cops just can't perform that often.
So, you never turned a trick, huh? Those beauty contests, some cracker judge would put his hands on my ass and offer me more money than I'd ever seen to be his date.
I didn't do it then, I don't do it now.
That doesn't mean I have any cause to look down on those who do.
That's real democratic of you.
Well, it's a free country.
At least I don't drink from the taxpayer's trough, like some people.
Did Mr.
Decker try to put pressure on you? Oh, every time I was there.
He'd be at his little computer, addir up the money the girls would bring.
But I told him, "Honey, you can type till your fingers fall off.
I work vertical or not at all.
" We found files on Decker's hard drive, one for each month.
They go back two years.
Trouble is, they have passwords.
Well, can't you break the code? Randomly I wouldn't find the right algorithm till next summer.
FBI computers could do it.
Six weeks.
Six weeks.
Oh, no problem.
Right, Phil? Our case won't go cold.
What's on the files? We were hoping hookers.
What would he call them? Hookers.
Wiseass.
You know the guy's birthday? November 15, 1959.
Okay, the initials must be hookers with dates and dollar amounts.
The names and addresses must be the johns.
H.
D.
Gets anywhere from $750 to $1,000.
She presses your pants when she's done.
I have a feeling it's more specialized than that.
R.
L.
Mostly $200 a shot, but she doesn't work Wednesdays.
Choir practice.
A.
B.
$150 to $300.
J.
S.
, about the same.
A.
B.
? His second appointment of the day.
What, Angela what's her name? Brant.
East 16th.
A.
B.
Could there be more than one? She said she was with her husband, right? He confirmed it.
Still, it's won'th a shot.
Allan Rohmer.
874, Third Avenue.
Every Monday at 6:00.
Late Monday afternoon? I was probably casting a commercial.
You use the couch? Only in movies from the '50s, Detective.
In advertising we barely have time to sharpen the pencils.
What did you have time for Monday night, let's say around 6:00? Is this a hobby with you or are you looking to change professions? I was casting an airline commercial.
I needed stewardesses.
Oh, yeah? Well, fly me.
My initials are A.
B.
Do you look for stewardesses every Monday, Mr.
Rohmer? Look, I, I saw all that in the Post about Decker, but what has this got to do with Angela? Was Miss Brant here? Yes.
She was very nervous.
She was all worked up.
But you don't think Angela Whoa, whoa, whoa.
What was she nervous about? Look, she's a lovely lady.
I like her a lot.
I didn't ask.
She sharpen your pencil? She asked if we could skip it, she wasrt in the mood.
She was only here maybe 20 minutes.
So, you're tellir me she makes a stop on Third Avenue, cries on his shoulder, races downtown, has sex with Decker and then kills him? Well, this was a hooker and her pimp.
Maybe she wanted to change the deal.
Maybe he wanted to change it.
Maybe she couldn't get over the slaughter in Yugoslavia.
Well, first she said she was with her ex-husband.
Then it turns out she's at the ad agency.
She's breaking the law, Mike.
What do you want her to say? "Oh, that's right, Officer, I was out turning tricks.
" Now, when did the husband say he was with her? He said 6:00 to 8:00.
"Hello, dear.
If you don't want your name in the papers "when the cops get there, tell them we had dinner at 6:00, not 7:00.
" So she's a liar.
It doesn't mean she's a killer.
I'd like to toss her apartment anyway.
Just to see if Decker's blood shows up.
What are you gonna do for a warrant? She has an alibi.
Get a print on her.
You may get a match on the scissors.
We already ran her.
No priors, no civil service.
Well, wait a minute.
Phil, you remember we were leavir, she was in a big rush to go to what, an aerobics class? So? So, she didn't leave with a bag.
Maybe she's got a locker at the health club.
Excuse me.
You don't have probable cause for an apartment, you don't have it for a gym locker.
What? The outside of a locker? There's no expectation of privacy.
How much privacy can you expect in a locker room? Are you sure this is legal? We have your permission.
That makes it legal.
What if I didn't give permission? Then we've to go and get a warrant, come back tomorrow and close you down for a whole day, instead of just your locker room for an hour.
Got a pretty good thumb and index finger.
Let's hope they're a match.
Let's hope they're hers.
Hey, Phil.
You know the warrant you told that healthclub guy you'd get? Exactly what probable cause did you have in mind? A senile judge.
First prize, gentlemen.
Which of you gets the Styrofoam dice for the windshield? What do you got? Latent said the prints from the locker match the prints on the scissors from Decker's back.
How about that for probable cause? I told you I saw Julian that morning.
You didn't go back later? I was with my ex-husband.
For dinner.
I told you that, too.
Yeah, you told me your ex was a banker.
That's right.
Not an ad exec on Third Avenue.
I didn't want you to know about that.
My daughter was there.
It's not something I'm proud of.
And I did see my husband for dinner.
Phil! Well, if there's blood on anything, I don't see it.
Decker had sex with somebody.
You think she got up and went home without getting dressed? What can I tell you? Her prints are on the murder weapon.
She admits she was in the loft that morning.
The underwear, Paul.
The vaginal secretions match what they found in Decker's pajamas.
She could've had sex with him in the morning, too.
No, she couldn't.
The sample from the pajamas was fresh.
How fresh? What do you want, a videotape of her boffir the guy and then stickir the scissors in his back? How fresh? No more than two hours.
It puts her there when he was killed.
She's a hooker, Paul.
She slept with her pimp, she got very angry, and she stabbed him.
Call Eyewitness News.
We've never seen anything like this in New York City before.
Okay.
Pick her up.
Next case, "docket number 64931.
"People v.
Angela Brant.
The charge is murder in the second degree.
" Miss Green.
Delightful to see you.
You grace my courtroom so rarely.
Certainly not by choice, Your Honor.
Tell your client it's time to say the magic words.
Not guilty.
Your Honor, with a case this strong, the People see a substantial flight risk.
We request $250,000.
The defendant has custody of her daughter, Your Honor.
High bail would be a serious hardship.
She should've thought of her child before she became a prostitute.
Did it ever occur to Your Honor that some women become prostitutes in order to support their children? How stupid of me.
God forbid you should get a regular job.
And let me point out, Miss Green, for your next visit, that's a table, not a soapbox.
Bail is $150,000.
Short date.
In honor of motherhood.
Murder two? You couldn't convict her of bad manners.
Depraved indifference to human life.
A scissors in the back, I think that qualifies.
I had sex with him.
It doesn't prove I killed him.
Miss Brant, you lied about being there, you lied about your alibi, and even your lawyer will tell you that if you lie enough, juries tend to be suspicious.
Oh, I forgot that section of the penal law.
Twenty-five years for lying.
Did she lie about her income, too? Or are you changing your standards at legal aid? Oh, no, no, no, no.
She's just flatbacking until she can liquidate a major position at IBM.
She's going to pay us back.
Meanwhile.
The fingerprints? Meaningless.
And there's a little rumor going around that your DNA match to my client is less than perfect.
You shouldn't even be going to trial.
If we had perfect cases, we wouldn't need juries.
And less than perfect certainly doesn't change my job description.
I'll tell the jury she's on trial because prostitutes are easy targets.
She was used by her johns, abused by her pimp, and desperate to support her daughter.
What am I hearing? A prostitute's manifesto? Hookers of the world unite, kill your oppressors? I'm not ashamed of who I am.
I don't need his contempt.
Angela, wait.
Look-it.
Julian Decker was primeval slime and killing him was like using penicillin to kill the clap.
Miss Brant, I'm not sure your resume entitles you to that judgment.
Right.
You want to do this, Stone? I'll clean your clock.
When I'm through, you won't even care what time it is.
She practically admitted killing him and dared us to convict.
And maybe you'll lose.
Who said hookers were dumb? Dumb enough not to wash her underwear.
And dumb enough to leave prints.
You have no motive.
She has an alibi.
Shambala Green says pity the poor prostitute, she's supporting her child, and by the way, everybody hated him, my client didn't do it.
You get no conviction.
We can put her there at the time of the murder.
With our excellent lab results.
What, you think Green can get this suppressed? Brant's DNA is an 80 percent match to the vaginal secretions in the pajamas.
Her ex-husband says he was with her.
Okay, it's not a walk in the park.
Yes, it is.
You're gonna get mugged.
Break the womars alibi.
Well, what did the husband say? Delia's restaurant, in the Village, having dinner.
Let's see if somebody remembers if they were there.
The cashier remembered Angela.
He saw her picture in the papers.
God bless the fourth estate.
Does he remember when they left? Well, she and her ex-husband had an argument.
Stalked out just after they ordered.
Long before 8:00.
He could've been with her the rest of the night.
Yeah, if they patched it up quick.
The cashier was at the window.
Says they walked off in opposite directions.
Let's go find out what the husband remembers.
Angela always says that.
Like I work on Wall Street.
I'm a loan officer.
She likes the sound of "banker.
" Look, uh, I don't really remember when we finished dinner.
You don't remember.
The cashier remembers the shouting started before the entrée.
We had a disagreement, okay? Angela wanted more child support.
When you argue about child support, do you usually stalk out of the restaurant? She said Decker was gouging her on her fees.
You knew she was a prostitute? Yeah, I knew about Angela.
But my daughter didn't, and I didn't want her to.
You also told the police you were with her from 6:00 to 8:00.
In court, that's called perjury.
I got a wife, two kids besides Tracy.
Does everybody have to be dragged into this? Then, let's say, let's say I wasrt with her.
Can we just leave it at that? Let's say you'll testify, or you'll be reading a contempt citation.
She called.
She was in a panic.
She said the cops had just been there.
She asked me to say I was with her.
She got into a cab.
Around 7:00 at the latest.
I knew Angela to say hello.
I used to see her at Juliars.
Mr.
Decker's.
Did she ever share her feelings about Mr.
Decker with you? Objection.
Calls for hearsay.
Offered for the defendant's state of mind, Your Honor.
Overruled.
Go on, Miss Can'ter.
Angela said she wanted to warn me about him.
She was having some trouble with her bills, her daughter is in private school.
Mr.
Decker loaned her some money and told her that she could make it up on a shoot.
When she didn't get any work, he told her that she could make it up on her back.
And what was the defendant's reaction to that? Well, she was angry.
She told me she felt trapped.
She had to pay him and she needed more money.
Thank you.
Your witness.
When did this happen? Miss Brant feeling that she'd been trapped by Mr.
Decker? Uh, six, seven months ago.
So she was angry seven months ago.
Did you ever hear Miss Brant threaten to kill Mr.
Decker? No.
She never said a thing like that.
What were your feelings toward Mr.
Decker? Well, like a lot of people, I Actually I'd say I hated Julian Decker and I hope he rots in hell.
Thank you.
No further questions.
I didn't ask Angela if she'd killed him.
I mean, it was on the phone, and I really didn't want to know.
Did Miss Brant tell you about her conversation with the police? She thought they'd call me.
She wanted me to say that I was with her until 8:00.
She said that if I told the truth, we'd all get our names in the papers.
It'd be bad for me, my wife, my kids, our daughter Tracy.
All of us.
Thank you.
No further questions.
You and your ex-wife hardly spoke, Mr.
Brant.
Why was that? The way Angela lives.
It doesn't fit the life I have now.
What about your life six years ago? We didn't have one.
We were divorced.
I meant the custody suit over your daughter Tracy.
The suit you lost.
I didn't lose.
I withdrew.
You told the police you were with your ex-wife that night.
Now you say you werert.
Now, in fact, isn't your entire testimony today a lie? Werert you with Angela Brant the night Julian Decker was killed? Objection.
Asked and answered.
Sustained.
Would you prefer to see your ex-wife convicted if it meant getting custody of your daughter? Objection.
In fact, won't you do just about anything to get custody of your daughter? She's badgering the witness.
Miss Green, that's enough.
Withdrawn.
No further questions.
A custody case? I can't even think of a better reason to lie.
That was six years ago, Adam.
He has a new wife, new kids.
He wouldn't want custody.
Is that what a jury thinks? As a reason to put your wife in jail, custody of a child is the ultimate motive.
Who prepped the husband? I did.
He never mentioned it.
Bring in the rest of your witnesses.
Go over their testimony.
No more surprises.
Thank you.
Miss Green has just filed a motion to suppress your DNA evidence.
Should've been pre-trial.
Judge Baum will ignore it.
No court in the country rejects DNA.
Until this afternoon.
Judge Lucas, down the hall from Judge Baum.
Rejected our DNA tests in the Gelman murder.
You better hope that Judge Baum doesn't play bridge with Judge Lucas.
This is absurd.
She should've made this motion weeks ago.
Judge Lucas just changed the picture.
The DNA sample in the Gelman case was contaminated.
Ours isn't.
Could we look at the law, please? The standard is Frye v.
United States.
"The evidence must have gained general acceptance in the field in which it belongs.
" We don't have general acceptance.
Six months ago the National Academy of Sciences said DNA tests are questionable.
They said the labs were questionable, not the tests.
Juries treat science like God.
Especially from police experts.
Pardon me, I do the lecturing here.
You tested the vaginal secretions against the defendant's DNA.
You got an 80 percent match.
The sample was fresh, why isn't the match perfect? Nothing's perfect.
What is that, philosophy or law? This evidence should be admissible.
But I'm no expert.
The scientists can't agree.
Your Honor, with all due respect I hope you'll respect me in the morning.
But I'm going to have to rule the DNA is not admissible.
You want to put the defendant at the murder scene, Ben, find another way to do it.
Judge Baum is an idiot.
Stuff envelopes for the county leader, you, too, can ascend to the bench.
No DNA.
If we don't put her there at the time of the murder, the jury'll be out in five minutes.
You'll never get to the jury.
We're looking at a dismissal.
Who saw your victim last? The modeling agency, Foxx.
Did Decker say anything to put Angela with him later that day? Did we ask? We werert planning on calling her as a witness.
Let's ask her.
Personally.
If he was seeing Angela, he wouldn't have told me.
Frankly, I'm surprised.
She's a little old for Julian.
Sounds like you almost feel sorry for her.
I almost do.
I'm sorrier for her daughter.
She wants to be just like Angela.
Brought in her own portfolio, taken by Decker.
She doesn't have her mother's legs.
Podgy.
Bad legs.
The daughter? She had her pictures taken by Decker? Tracy said her mother encouraged her.
A little hard to believe.
Who would know? Tracy's friends, maybe.
Her school, Miss Harker's.
I went there myself.
On career day, six girls handed me their portfolios.
How much does something like that cost? $1,500 minimum.
Even from Decker.
It makes one wonder why he did Tracy's.
Tracy always bragged about her older boyfriend.
The fashion photographer.
Tracy was gonna be a star.
The next Cindy Crawford.
Just like her mother.
Tracy's pretty, she could be a model.
If they shot her from the waist up.
Those legs! She could do fingernail ads.
If a big fashion photographer came on to me, I'd be interested.
Did Tracy's mother know about this boyfriend? They had a fight on the sidewalk, right outside.
Mrs.
Brant found her portfolio.
Mrs.
Brant thought something else was going on.
Do you know what she meant? They were in love.
And we're 15, not 12.
The mother knew about Decker and her daughter? Yeah, it's motive.
But it doesn't put Brant in the loft that night.
The kids never heard Decker's name or saw the daughter with him.
It's all hearsay.
What's the problem? Put the daughter on the stand.
Whatever she knows, she'll lie.
It gives us leverage on Brant, might get us a deal.
So get a subpoena for the daughter to testify.
Her testimony isn't relevant.
You'll never get it in.
Last time I looked, motive was relevant.
This is a homicide, even Judge Baum won't keep her off the stand.
Do you know what this will do to my daughter? I don't think it's a lot worse than what you did.
Man two, three to nine.
What does that mean? It means they're desperate.
Miss Green is wrong.
It means three to nine years in jail.
We're not interested.
Maybe I am.
Come on, Angela, let's go.
It's not won'th it.
I've ruined my life, I don't want to ruin Tracy's, too.
Angela, trust me, Tracy will never take the stand.
You're misleading your client.
You're misleading yourself.
I'll see you at the hearing.
This meets no standard of relevance.
It's a fishing expedition.
The defendant was angry about her daughter's involvement with the victim.
It goes to motive.
Motive? It's a theory.
Last week she killed him over money.
Now it's her daughter.
Next week it'll be whatever new motive you dream up over lunch at the University Club.
Ben, the standard is whether the testimony is relevant or collateral.
You don't know if it's relevant and neither do I.
Thank you.
Don't buy me an apple yet, Miss Green.
I'll question the girl in chambers and then make a decision.
Relevance aside, Your Honor, the girl's in trauma.
She's seeing a psychiatrist.
An interview at this point is Fine, I'll order a psychiatric exam.
By my psychiatrist.
With me present.
For you, Miss Green, anything.
This court orders a psychiatric exam of Tracy Brant with defense counsel present.
I was with my mom.
It It was a catalogue shoot.
Julian saw me, he liked me.
He said I had great coloring, better than Mom's.
I had a chance even if she didn't.
Did your mom know that you were sleeping with Julian? She found some pictures he took.
I didn't have any clothes on.
What did your mom do? She told me not to see him again.
She said I'd end up as a prostitute.
She had no right to say that.
You continued to see Julian.
I had to.
I needed him.
Was Julian the first man you'd had sex with? He was experienced.
He made me feel safe.
Do you think your mom killed him because of you? Out of bounds, Doc.
Don't answer that, Tracy.
Tracy, how did your mom feel about you being a model? She said it was a bad life.
But it was just too hard for her.
She didn't want it bad enough.
She wasrt dedicated.
But I am.
It's what everybody wants.
My friends.
To have everybody think you're beautiful.
Fifteen years old, she seemed fairly self-possessed to me.
Too self-possessed.
Did you hear her? A scared child afraid of her mother one minute.
A tough kid, contemptuous of her mother the next.
You saying she shouldn't testify? There's something missing with this girl.
Tracy Brant's life was bound up in this man.
Everything she wanted, Julian Decker would get it for her.
If her mother killed him, she should be enraged.
She's not.
It's strange.
You know what's stranger? She dared us to convict.
She almost admitted killing him.
Our case gets weaker, she wants to plead.
Some mothers will do anything to protect a child.
You're saying the daughter killed Decker? I'm saying it's a possibility.
The DNA was a match with Angela.
And where does a daughter get her DNA from, anyway? The cops searched the apartment.
Why was the underwear still there, why didn't Brant get rid of it? Because she didn't know it mattered until they found it.
Let's get a blood sample on the daughter.
Did anybody even consider the possibility? Adam, we all made the same assumption.
We thought the underwear was the mother's.
When did we turn this office over to the Marx Brothers? First, nobody checks out this husband's custody suit and now it turns out that nobody checked whose bloomers were whose.
You're going for a record here.
So what's the theory? Mother walks in, finds the daughter, stabs Decker in front of her.
That it? Liz thinks it's possible that the daughter did it.
Where was the mother? I think she was with the ex-husband.
The husband testified she wasrt with him.
Cerreta and Logan asked Brant where she was.
She didn't know the daughter killed Decker.
She tells the truth.
Says she was with her ex.
He backs her up.
Not in court.
But try this.
He changed his mind after she told him to.
She wanted to look guilty.
He tells the truth the first time, then lies on the stand.
Both lying.
Protecting the kid.
Good.
DNA match on the daughter.
Irrefutable.
100 percent.
Okay.
Only way this works now is to put husband and wife together at the time of the killing.
Can you prove that? It's called perjury, Mr.
Brant.
You might want to call your lawyer.
You can't prove anything.
You don't know where Angela was.
I think we do.
We also know where your daughter was.
We're going to indict Tracy for murder, Mr.
Brant.
She'll be arraigned, she'll be surrounded by reporters.
Unless you'd like to make this easier.
Oh, you mean easier for you.
For your daughter.
And if there's any hope of leniency, you'd better talk now.
Oh, God.
I did what Angela told me.
I met her for dinner.
She knew about Tracy and Decker.
She wanted my help.
I didn't know what to do.
How late were you together? She walked away, she was mad.
I started to leave.
I felt guilty, I went back.
We went to the bar on the corner.
We were there till 9:00.
So you told the police the truth.
Yeah.
Angela called after they searched her apartment.
She said if they asked again, I should tell them I lied.
That I wasrt with her.
She was willing to go to jail.
Anything to save Tracy.
You don't have a case on either of them.
We're dismissing on Mrs.
Brant and arresting her daughter.
You can't prove Tracy did it.
With what your husband told us this morning, I think we can.
She didn't understand that you couldn't have everything.
That life wasrt like that.
How do you tell a child? I have no authority to deal for Tracy, Ben.
But I know that the girl's had a lot of problems.
I understand, but she also killed a man.
When you know what he did to her, you won't be thinking Sentence her as a juvenile.
Convince me.
You have a daughter, Ben.
You know 15 is not an adult.
She's not responsible.
Would you excuse us, please? You knew.
She never told me, I never asked.
Until she wanted a deal.
I knew she had to be either stupid or a martyr.
She was not stupid.
I'll get the case assignment.
Talk to the girl.
I know I'm pretty.
I'm just not that good with boys.
Oh, they're gross.
Just never wanted to go out with them.
Um but Julian took me to clubs.
I mean, I went to the opening of Arena.
He introduced me to everybody.
Tracy, tell Mr.
Stone what Julian promised you.
He was grooming me.
He said we'd always be together, and I was going to be a big model.
What happened that night, Tracy? We made love.
And then he told me to leave and never come back again.
It was my mom's fault.
She told him that if he didn't stop seeing me, she wouldn't Angela said she'd quit working for him.
She threatened to have him arrested.
Decker told Tracy that her mother was won'th more to him as a prostitute, than she ever would be as a model.
I didn't mean to do it.
After what he said about Mom, he made fun of me.
He said I wasrt pretty enough.
My legs were too heavy.
He just turned his back on me.
He just walked away.
Three years.
Spofford.
With treatment.
She thought if her picture was on a magazine cover, her life would be perfect.
Aborigines think if you take their picture, you capture their soul.
Maybe they're right.
These are their stories.
Whatever it costs, my kids are going to Catholic school.
You're a Baptist.
I don't care.
Those nuns know how to build character.
Here you go, sweetheart.
You're sure that's very light, no sugar? That's what you told me.
It has to be very light.
You let go, it'll float in the air.
Oh, man.
Sometimes I want to forget I'm married, I swear.
You just like her 'cause her features are white.
Oh, yeah.
That's why I like you so much.
Oh! Anything with your coffee, gentlemen? dd Mr.
Decker? Hello.
Mr.
Decker? Mr.
Decker? Looks like an invited guest.
The door was open, there was no sign of forced entry.
My dad said, "Be a cop, look what you miss out on.
" This must be what he meant.
They didn't look like that in my high school yearbook, that's for sure.
They didn't sell your high school yearbook in Times Square.
What've we got, a rare scissors collector? Photographic supplies.
They're just like the ones in the body.
Listen, when you're done with this, I want it, okay? Nice work.
Think she needed any help getting dressed? I think you don't make a detective's salary for being a photographer's assistant.
When you're through looking at that body, would you mind taking a look at this one? The girl who found him was on her way to have her picture taken.
This guy told her that she was gonna be on a magazine cover.
He was supposed to work tonight, huh? In his pajamas? Call it in.
He made all the girls bring him coffee.
"Very light.
" Could've saved bucks, he bought his own pot.
Wasrt his money, was it? I was working at Bloomingdale's, you know, spraying cologne at people coming off the escalator? Mr.
Decker gave me his card before I could spray him.
He said I had good cheekbones.
Makes you Number 467, honey.
He had girls in and out all hours, all lookers, some of them two, three times a day.
The man had very clean fingernails.
Of course developing fluid, do it every time.
Or a good manicurist.
No one gets manicures any more.
You catch hepatitis.
Isn't here.
Plenty of prints in the loft.
Twelve usable sets other than the victim's.
I sent 'em all out.
None of them turned up a record.
Maybe you noticed we found a pair of scissors.
Good thumb and index finger at the top of the blade.
Great.
Now all we need is a suspect.
Look for a Black Widow Spider.
Don't they kill their mates after sex? Your victim had semen and vaginal secretions in his Doctor Dentors.
Okay.
We find a woman, can you make a match? The DNA in vaginal secretions? When there's exfoliated epithelial cells, which there happen to be.
Figure the guy pulls his pj's on right after and just before he was killed.
The samples werert even dry.
You got a very well-mannered killer here.
Waited till he got dressed.
I'm sure he was grateful.
So where does that get us? A lovers' quarrel? After sex? Most people, you fight and then have sex.
He's not married.
So what is this? The girlfriend leaves, he falls asleep, a burglar wakes him? And stabs him in the middle of the loft, in the back.
No struggle.
I suppose that means you have a better idea? He had four appointments on his calendar.
Julian Decker, huh! What a loss.
Then you werert involved with him? However you mean that, the answer is no.
I had as little to do with Julian as possible.
And believe me, I'd have preferred less.
Do you know who was involved with him? This city is full of women with dreadful taste.
But you're not one of them.
He could smile the chrome off a fender.
I just didn't want him around my girls.
All right.
So, you werert working with him.
But why were you his last appointment yesterday? In his book, not mine.
He barged in around 5:00.
Wanted me to recommend him for work.
I asked him to leave.
He did.
Hey, some girls must've found him attractive.
You'll find my girls on the covers of Vogue, Detective.
You'll find Juliars in catalogue lingerie ads.
Some girls were interested in him.
But not mine.
Miss Norman? Gone for three weeks, Barbados.
Saturday morning, first class.
She took six suitcases.
I got her sunscreen before she left.
Number 15, unscented.
You fold her underwear, too? I like to be close to my tenants.
I wonder why.
Didrt that calendar have a red line through Clarissa Normars name? It was won'th checking.
The other two are downtown.
The 11:00 is East 16th, off Park Avenue South.
Angela Brant.
I was making the rounds, looking for work.
Julian didn't have any.
Which he told me after I bought him breakfast.
It seems Mr.
Decker liked to take advantage of people, huh? Doesrt everybody? Look, I'll never have to buy him coffee again, but I will miss the work.
How old would you say she is? Maybe 30.
Try 16.
They do her hair and make-up, she looks 30.
I'm 38, I haven't looked 30 since I was 20.
It's easy to take advantage of me.
I wouldn't peg you as that vulnerable, Miss Brant.
I was a model when I was a kid.
In my senior year in high school, I made five times what my father did in his hardware store.
All the big agencies wanted me.
Celeste Foxx herself came around.
Problem is, it doesn't last.
You're still working.
I have a daughter in private school.
I'll be doing catalogues from the grave.
Sounds like you needed Mr.
Decker a lot.
Not enough to sleep with him.
You know who did? I told you, I didn't work for him that much.
Now, if that's all, I'm late for aerobics.
Uh, just one more thing, Miss Brant.
Can you tell us where you were from, uh, let's say, 6:00 to about 8:00 last night? What? Hi, kids.
Hi.
What's going on? I have to go out.
We can discuss it later.
Why don't you go hang out in your room for a while, okay? Okay.
Okay.
I admitted I didn't like him.
Can we finish this some other time? Could you just tell us where you were last night? I had dinner with my ex-husband.
Got home around 9:00.
Jeffrey Brant.
He's a banker.
Until when? Okay.
Well, thank you, Mr.
Brant.
The ex-husband says that he was with her from 6:00 until some time past 8:00.
It's an alibi, unless she got to the phone before we did.
Next up, Betty Ann Can'ter, West 24th.
Want to bet she didn't like him either? Look on the bright side.
If we do this all week, you'll never have to buy Playboy again.
What are you saying? I treat all women like objects? More specific.
Like furniture.
This one, I promise, I won't even look at her.
What do you want me to do? Cry? I'll send a check to the Dead Photographers' fund.
You did work for him, Miss Can'ter.
You don't have a bed, you sleep in the gutter.
I get into shape, I'm out of catalogues and back in magazines.
You don't look like you're falling apart.
You should've seen me at 19, sugar.
Miss Southern Alabama Cotton Queen.
Without liftir a finger.
Cover of Mademoiselle.
Studio 54 till dawn.
Julian said that I was finished.
Well, Lauren Huttors past 40.
She works.
I'm still a Size 6.
You'll pardon me, but if this is what you get when you're out of work Oh, yeah.
Well, used to be owned by me and Citibank.
Now, just the bank, and they're sellir it.
Poor Julian, may he rest in hell.
Who do you think killed him? We think he had a girlfriend.
Oh.
I see.
Last night? I was on a revolving pedestal pointir at the kind of yacht I used to cruise on.
Boat show, the Meadowlands.
Better than what a lot of girls end up doir.
You mean to supplement their income.
What do you think you do when this goes, and these are all you have left? Thank you.
She was on a yacht display from 3:00 till 10:00.
She didn't get dizzy? No, she got a break from 5:00 to 7:00.
The guy doesn't know where she was.
All right.
Well, that's a half-hour through the tunnel, and a half-hour back.
That gives her just enough time.
Not unless she can fly.
I went to see the in-laws, one of the tubes was closed in the Lincoln.
Two hours just to get there.
Round-trip in two hours? No way.
We got no girlfriend.
We don't even know who could've been there.
All we got is a sleazeball who was begging for work.
Who says the one he had sex with is the one who killed him? Wait a minute.
Am I missing something here? This guy was begging for work? He even made the girls buy him coffee.
Expensive camera equipment, This guy must've been one heck of a beggar.
Find out how he paid for his life, maybe we find out the reason it's over.
Not much in the loft.
What, there were boxes of receipts.
And four-year-old tax returns.
Signed by a CPA? Mr.
Decker.
He reported $68,000 gross income last year.
According to his travel records, his trips to the islands cost at least half that.
Those were photo shoots.
That's a legitimate business deduction.
And his food, and his mortgage, and his clothes, and his equipment, and Uncle Sam, all came out of the rest of it? Well, I only know what he reported.
I don't know a thing about his other income.
If there was any other income.
You like to go to the islands, too, Mr.
O'Hara? Me? No, my skin can't take the sun.
That's good, 'cause if you signed those tax returns knowing he had other income, you're gonna be out of the sun a long time.
Okay, look.
Models have a short life span.
Julian found them other work.
Remember the guy in the diner? Said girls were going in and out of there two, three times a day.
What were they doing, Mr.
O'Hara? Getting their graduation photos taken? Okay.
A lot of guys who'll pay big bucks to see a girl from the swimsuit issue without her swimsuit.
So that the guy could slip into something more comfortable.
Everybody's a consenting adult.
No harm, no foul, right? This guy was not only a photographer, he was a pimp.
Yeah, and where does that get you? A john did it? One of his girls? We don't know any of his johns.
Or his girls.
Well, you'd better start with all the models he photographed.
Check their bank accounts.
The cotton queen.
She talked about what the other girls did when their faces went.
She didn't mean they got rich boyfriends.
Rich boyfriends by the hour.
But she didn't know Decker was a pimp.
Or she didn't want to tell us.
Sure he asked me to do it.
$2,500 a week on my back instead of $500 on my feet.
Well, it must've been tempting.
Maybe to you.
But, honey, I don't think you'd survive.
In my experience, cops just can't perform that often.
So, you never turned a trick, huh? Those beauty contests, some cracker judge would put his hands on my ass and offer me more money than I'd ever seen to be his date.
I didn't do it then, I don't do it now.
That doesn't mean I have any cause to look down on those who do.
That's real democratic of you.
Well, it's a free country.
At least I don't drink from the taxpayer's trough, like some people.
Did Mr.
Decker try to put pressure on you? Oh, every time I was there.
He'd be at his little computer, addir up the money the girls would bring.
But I told him, "Honey, you can type till your fingers fall off.
I work vertical or not at all.
" We found files on Decker's hard drive, one for each month.
They go back two years.
Trouble is, they have passwords.
Well, can't you break the code? Randomly I wouldn't find the right algorithm till next summer.
FBI computers could do it.
Six weeks.
Six weeks.
Oh, no problem.
Right, Phil? Our case won't go cold.
What's on the files? We were hoping hookers.
What would he call them? Hookers.
Wiseass.
You know the guy's birthday? November 15, 1959.
Okay, the initials must be hookers with dates and dollar amounts.
The names and addresses must be the johns.
H.
D.
Gets anywhere from $750 to $1,000.
She presses your pants when she's done.
I have a feeling it's more specialized than that.
R.
L.
Mostly $200 a shot, but she doesn't work Wednesdays.
Choir practice.
A.
B.
$150 to $300.
J.
S.
, about the same.
A.
B.
? His second appointment of the day.
What, Angela what's her name? Brant.
East 16th.
A.
B.
Could there be more than one? She said she was with her husband, right? He confirmed it.
Still, it's won'th a shot.
Allan Rohmer.
874, Third Avenue.
Every Monday at 6:00.
Late Monday afternoon? I was probably casting a commercial.
You use the couch? Only in movies from the '50s, Detective.
In advertising we barely have time to sharpen the pencils.
What did you have time for Monday night, let's say around 6:00? Is this a hobby with you or are you looking to change professions? I was casting an airline commercial.
I needed stewardesses.
Oh, yeah? Well, fly me.
My initials are A.
B.
Do you look for stewardesses every Monday, Mr.
Rohmer? Look, I, I saw all that in the Post about Decker, but what has this got to do with Angela? Was Miss Brant here? Yes.
She was very nervous.
She was all worked up.
But you don't think Angela Whoa, whoa, whoa.
What was she nervous about? Look, she's a lovely lady.
I like her a lot.
I didn't ask.
She sharpen your pencil? She asked if we could skip it, she wasrt in the mood.
She was only here maybe 20 minutes.
So, you're tellir me she makes a stop on Third Avenue, cries on his shoulder, races downtown, has sex with Decker and then kills him? Well, this was a hooker and her pimp.
Maybe she wanted to change the deal.
Maybe he wanted to change it.
Maybe she couldn't get over the slaughter in Yugoslavia.
Well, first she said she was with her ex-husband.
Then it turns out she's at the ad agency.
She's breaking the law, Mike.
What do you want her to say? "Oh, that's right, Officer, I was out turning tricks.
" Now, when did the husband say he was with her? He said 6:00 to 8:00.
"Hello, dear.
If you don't want your name in the papers "when the cops get there, tell them we had dinner at 6:00, not 7:00.
" So she's a liar.
It doesn't mean she's a killer.
I'd like to toss her apartment anyway.
Just to see if Decker's blood shows up.
What are you gonna do for a warrant? She has an alibi.
Get a print on her.
You may get a match on the scissors.
We already ran her.
No priors, no civil service.
Well, wait a minute.
Phil, you remember we were leavir, she was in a big rush to go to what, an aerobics class? So? So, she didn't leave with a bag.
Maybe she's got a locker at the health club.
Excuse me.
You don't have probable cause for an apartment, you don't have it for a gym locker.
What? The outside of a locker? There's no expectation of privacy.
How much privacy can you expect in a locker room? Are you sure this is legal? We have your permission.
That makes it legal.
What if I didn't give permission? Then we've to go and get a warrant, come back tomorrow and close you down for a whole day, instead of just your locker room for an hour.
Got a pretty good thumb and index finger.
Let's hope they're a match.
Let's hope they're hers.
Hey, Phil.
You know the warrant you told that healthclub guy you'd get? Exactly what probable cause did you have in mind? A senile judge.
First prize, gentlemen.
Which of you gets the Styrofoam dice for the windshield? What do you got? Latent said the prints from the locker match the prints on the scissors from Decker's back.
How about that for probable cause? I told you I saw Julian that morning.
You didn't go back later? I was with my ex-husband.
For dinner.
I told you that, too.
Yeah, you told me your ex was a banker.
That's right.
Not an ad exec on Third Avenue.
I didn't want you to know about that.
My daughter was there.
It's not something I'm proud of.
And I did see my husband for dinner.
Phil! Well, if there's blood on anything, I don't see it.
Decker had sex with somebody.
You think she got up and went home without getting dressed? What can I tell you? Her prints are on the murder weapon.
She admits she was in the loft that morning.
The underwear, Paul.
The vaginal secretions match what they found in Decker's pajamas.
She could've had sex with him in the morning, too.
No, she couldn't.
The sample from the pajamas was fresh.
How fresh? What do you want, a videotape of her boffir the guy and then stickir the scissors in his back? How fresh? No more than two hours.
It puts her there when he was killed.
She's a hooker, Paul.
She slept with her pimp, she got very angry, and she stabbed him.
Call Eyewitness News.
We've never seen anything like this in New York City before.
Okay.
Pick her up.
Next case, "docket number 64931.
"People v.
Angela Brant.
The charge is murder in the second degree.
" Miss Green.
Delightful to see you.
You grace my courtroom so rarely.
Certainly not by choice, Your Honor.
Tell your client it's time to say the magic words.
Not guilty.
Your Honor, with a case this strong, the People see a substantial flight risk.
We request $250,000.
The defendant has custody of her daughter, Your Honor.
High bail would be a serious hardship.
She should've thought of her child before she became a prostitute.
Did it ever occur to Your Honor that some women become prostitutes in order to support their children? How stupid of me.
God forbid you should get a regular job.
And let me point out, Miss Green, for your next visit, that's a table, not a soapbox.
Bail is $150,000.
Short date.
In honor of motherhood.
Murder two? You couldn't convict her of bad manners.
Depraved indifference to human life.
A scissors in the back, I think that qualifies.
I had sex with him.
It doesn't prove I killed him.
Miss Brant, you lied about being there, you lied about your alibi, and even your lawyer will tell you that if you lie enough, juries tend to be suspicious.
Oh, I forgot that section of the penal law.
Twenty-five years for lying.
Did she lie about her income, too? Or are you changing your standards at legal aid? Oh, no, no, no, no.
She's just flatbacking until she can liquidate a major position at IBM.
She's going to pay us back.
Meanwhile.
The fingerprints? Meaningless.
And there's a little rumor going around that your DNA match to my client is less than perfect.
You shouldn't even be going to trial.
If we had perfect cases, we wouldn't need juries.
And less than perfect certainly doesn't change my job description.
I'll tell the jury she's on trial because prostitutes are easy targets.
She was used by her johns, abused by her pimp, and desperate to support her daughter.
What am I hearing? A prostitute's manifesto? Hookers of the world unite, kill your oppressors? I'm not ashamed of who I am.
I don't need his contempt.
Angela, wait.
Look-it.
Julian Decker was primeval slime and killing him was like using penicillin to kill the clap.
Miss Brant, I'm not sure your resume entitles you to that judgment.
Right.
You want to do this, Stone? I'll clean your clock.
When I'm through, you won't even care what time it is.
She practically admitted killing him and dared us to convict.
And maybe you'll lose.
Who said hookers were dumb? Dumb enough not to wash her underwear.
And dumb enough to leave prints.
You have no motive.
She has an alibi.
Shambala Green says pity the poor prostitute, she's supporting her child, and by the way, everybody hated him, my client didn't do it.
You get no conviction.
We can put her there at the time of the murder.
With our excellent lab results.
What, you think Green can get this suppressed? Brant's DNA is an 80 percent match to the vaginal secretions in the pajamas.
Her ex-husband says he was with her.
Okay, it's not a walk in the park.
Yes, it is.
You're gonna get mugged.
Break the womars alibi.
Well, what did the husband say? Delia's restaurant, in the Village, having dinner.
Let's see if somebody remembers if they were there.
The cashier remembered Angela.
He saw her picture in the papers.
God bless the fourth estate.
Does he remember when they left? Well, she and her ex-husband had an argument.
Stalked out just after they ordered.
Long before 8:00.
He could've been with her the rest of the night.
Yeah, if they patched it up quick.
The cashier was at the window.
Says they walked off in opposite directions.
Let's go find out what the husband remembers.
Angela always says that.
Like I work on Wall Street.
I'm a loan officer.
She likes the sound of "banker.
" Look, uh, I don't really remember when we finished dinner.
You don't remember.
The cashier remembers the shouting started before the entrée.
We had a disagreement, okay? Angela wanted more child support.
When you argue about child support, do you usually stalk out of the restaurant? She said Decker was gouging her on her fees.
You knew she was a prostitute? Yeah, I knew about Angela.
But my daughter didn't, and I didn't want her to.
You also told the police you were with her from 6:00 to 8:00.
In court, that's called perjury.
I got a wife, two kids besides Tracy.
Does everybody have to be dragged into this? Then, let's say, let's say I wasrt with her.
Can we just leave it at that? Let's say you'll testify, or you'll be reading a contempt citation.
She called.
She was in a panic.
She said the cops had just been there.
She asked me to say I was with her.
She got into a cab.
Around 7:00 at the latest.
I knew Angela to say hello.
I used to see her at Juliars.
Mr.
Decker's.
Did she ever share her feelings about Mr.
Decker with you? Objection.
Calls for hearsay.
Offered for the defendant's state of mind, Your Honor.
Overruled.
Go on, Miss Can'ter.
Angela said she wanted to warn me about him.
She was having some trouble with her bills, her daughter is in private school.
Mr.
Decker loaned her some money and told her that she could make it up on a shoot.
When she didn't get any work, he told her that she could make it up on her back.
And what was the defendant's reaction to that? Well, she was angry.
She told me she felt trapped.
She had to pay him and she needed more money.
Thank you.
Your witness.
When did this happen? Miss Brant feeling that she'd been trapped by Mr.
Decker? Uh, six, seven months ago.
So she was angry seven months ago.
Did you ever hear Miss Brant threaten to kill Mr.
Decker? No.
She never said a thing like that.
What were your feelings toward Mr.
Decker? Well, like a lot of people, I Actually I'd say I hated Julian Decker and I hope he rots in hell.
Thank you.
No further questions.
I didn't ask Angela if she'd killed him.
I mean, it was on the phone, and I really didn't want to know.
Did Miss Brant tell you about her conversation with the police? She thought they'd call me.
She wanted me to say that I was with her until 8:00.
She said that if I told the truth, we'd all get our names in the papers.
It'd be bad for me, my wife, my kids, our daughter Tracy.
All of us.
Thank you.
No further questions.
You and your ex-wife hardly spoke, Mr.
Brant.
Why was that? The way Angela lives.
It doesn't fit the life I have now.
What about your life six years ago? We didn't have one.
We were divorced.
I meant the custody suit over your daughter Tracy.
The suit you lost.
I didn't lose.
I withdrew.
You told the police you were with your ex-wife that night.
Now you say you werert.
Now, in fact, isn't your entire testimony today a lie? Werert you with Angela Brant the night Julian Decker was killed? Objection.
Asked and answered.
Sustained.
Would you prefer to see your ex-wife convicted if it meant getting custody of your daughter? Objection.
In fact, won't you do just about anything to get custody of your daughter? She's badgering the witness.
Miss Green, that's enough.
Withdrawn.
No further questions.
A custody case? I can't even think of a better reason to lie.
That was six years ago, Adam.
He has a new wife, new kids.
He wouldn't want custody.
Is that what a jury thinks? As a reason to put your wife in jail, custody of a child is the ultimate motive.
Who prepped the husband? I did.
He never mentioned it.
Bring in the rest of your witnesses.
Go over their testimony.
No more surprises.
Thank you.
Miss Green has just filed a motion to suppress your DNA evidence.
Should've been pre-trial.
Judge Baum will ignore it.
No court in the country rejects DNA.
Until this afternoon.
Judge Lucas, down the hall from Judge Baum.
Rejected our DNA tests in the Gelman murder.
You better hope that Judge Baum doesn't play bridge with Judge Lucas.
This is absurd.
She should've made this motion weeks ago.
Judge Lucas just changed the picture.
The DNA sample in the Gelman case was contaminated.
Ours isn't.
Could we look at the law, please? The standard is Frye v.
United States.
"The evidence must have gained general acceptance in the field in which it belongs.
" We don't have general acceptance.
Six months ago the National Academy of Sciences said DNA tests are questionable.
They said the labs were questionable, not the tests.
Juries treat science like God.
Especially from police experts.
Pardon me, I do the lecturing here.
You tested the vaginal secretions against the defendant's DNA.
You got an 80 percent match.
The sample was fresh, why isn't the match perfect? Nothing's perfect.
What is that, philosophy or law? This evidence should be admissible.
But I'm no expert.
The scientists can't agree.
Your Honor, with all due respect I hope you'll respect me in the morning.
But I'm going to have to rule the DNA is not admissible.
You want to put the defendant at the murder scene, Ben, find another way to do it.
Judge Baum is an idiot.
Stuff envelopes for the county leader, you, too, can ascend to the bench.
No DNA.
If we don't put her there at the time of the murder, the jury'll be out in five minutes.
You'll never get to the jury.
We're looking at a dismissal.
Who saw your victim last? The modeling agency, Foxx.
Did Decker say anything to put Angela with him later that day? Did we ask? We werert planning on calling her as a witness.
Let's ask her.
Personally.
If he was seeing Angela, he wouldn't have told me.
Frankly, I'm surprised.
She's a little old for Julian.
Sounds like you almost feel sorry for her.
I almost do.
I'm sorrier for her daughter.
She wants to be just like Angela.
Brought in her own portfolio, taken by Decker.
She doesn't have her mother's legs.
Podgy.
Bad legs.
The daughter? She had her pictures taken by Decker? Tracy said her mother encouraged her.
A little hard to believe.
Who would know? Tracy's friends, maybe.
Her school, Miss Harker's.
I went there myself.
On career day, six girls handed me their portfolios.
How much does something like that cost? $1,500 minimum.
Even from Decker.
It makes one wonder why he did Tracy's.
Tracy always bragged about her older boyfriend.
The fashion photographer.
Tracy was gonna be a star.
The next Cindy Crawford.
Just like her mother.
Tracy's pretty, she could be a model.
If they shot her from the waist up.
Those legs! She could do fingernail ads.
If a big fashion photographer came on to me, I'd be interested.
Did Tracy's mother know about this boyfriend? They had a fight on the sidewalk, right outside.
Mrs.
Brant found her portfolio.
Mrs.
Brant thought something else was going on.
Do you know what she meant? They were in love.
And we're 15, not 12.
The mother knew about Decker and her daughter? Yeah, it's motive.
But it doesn't put Brant in the loft that night.
The kids never heard Decker's name or saw the daughter with him.
It's all hearsay.
What's the problem? Put the daughter on the stand.
Whatever she knows, she'll lie.
It gives us leverage on Brant, might get us a deal.
So get a subpoena for the daughter to testify.
Her testimony isn't relevant.
You'll never get it in.
Last time I looked, motive was relevant.
This is a homicide, even Judge Baum won't keep her off the stand.
Do you know what this will do to my daughter? I don't think it's a lot worse than what you did.
Man two, three to nine.
What does that mean? It means they're desperate.
Miss Green is wrong.
It means three to nine years in jail.
We're not interested.
Maybe I am.
Come on, Angela, let's go.
It's not won'th it.
I've ruined my life, I don't want to ruin Tracy's, too.
Angela, trust me, Tracy will never take the stand.
You're misleading your client.
You're misleading yourself.
I'll see you at the hearing.
This meets no standard of relevance.
It's a fishing expedition.
The defendant was angry about her daughter's involvement with the victim.
It goes to motive.
Motive? It's a theory.
Last week she killed him over money.
Now it's her daughter.
Next week it'll be whatever new motive you dream up over lunch at the University Club.
Ben, the standard is whether the testimony is relevant or collateral.
You don't know if it's relevant and neither do I.
Thank you.
Don't buy me an apple yet, Miss Green.
I'll question the girl in chambers and then make a decision.
Relevance aside, Your Honor, the girl's in trauma.
She's seeing a psychiatrist.
An interview at this point is Fine, I'll order a psychiatric exam.
By my psychiatrist.
With me present.
For you, Miss Green, anything.
This court orders a psychiatric exam of Tracy Brant with defense counsel present.
I was with my mom.
It It was a catalogue shoot.
Julian saw me, he liked me.
He said I had great coloring, better than Mom's.
I had a chance even if she didn't.
Did your mom know that you were sleeping with Julian? She found some pictures he took.
I didn't have any clothes on.
What did your mom do? She told me not to see him again.
She said I'd end up as a prostitute.
She had no right to say that.
You continued to see Julian.
I had to.
I needed him.
Was Julian the first man you'd had sex with? He was experienced.
He made me feel safe.
Do you think your mom killed him because of you? Out of bounds, Doc.
Don't answer that, Tracy.
Tracy, how did your mom feel about you being a model? She said it was a bad life.
But it was just too hard for her.
She didn't want it bad enough.
She wasrt dedicated.
But I am.
It's what everybody wants.
My friends.
To have everybody think you're beautiful.
Fifteen years old, she seemed fairly self-possessed to me.
Too self-possessed.
Did you hear her? A scared child afraid of her mother one minute.
A tough kid, contemptuous of her mother the next.
You saying she shouldn't testify? There's something missing with this girl.
Tracy Brant's life was bound up in this man.
Everything she wanted, Julian Decker would get it for her.
If her mother killed him, she should be enraged.
She's not.
It's strange.
You know what's stranger? She dared us to convict.
She almost admitted killing him.
Our case gets weaker, she wants to plead.
Some mothers will do anything to protect a child.
You're saying the daughter killed Decker? I'm saying it's a possibility.
The DNA was a match with Angela.
And where does a daughter get her DNA from, anyway? The cops searched the apartment.
Why was the underwear still there, why didn't Brant get rid of it? Because she didn't know it mattered until they found it.
Let's get a blood sample on the daughter.
Did anybody even consider the possibility? Adam, we all made the same assumption.
We thought the underwear was the mother's.
When did we turn this office over to the Marx Brothers? First, nobody checks out this husband's custody suit and now it turns out that nobody checked whose bloomers were whose.
You're going for a record here.
So what's the theory? Mother walks in, finds the daughter, stabs Decker in front of her.
That it? Liz thinks it's possible that the daughter did it.
Where was the mother? I think she was with the ex-husband.
The husband testified she wasrt with him.
Cerreta and Logan asked Brant where she was.
She didn't know the daughter killed Decker.
She tells the truth.
Says she was with her ex.
He backs her up.
Not in court.
But try this.
He changed his mind after she told him to.
She wanted to look guilty.
He tells the truth the first time, then lies on the stand.
Both lying.
Protecting the kid.
Good.
DNA match on the daughter.
Irrefutable.
100 percent.
Okay.
Only way this works now is to put husband and wife together at the time of the killing.
Can you prove that? It's called perjury, Mr.
Brant.
You might want to call your lawyer.
You can't prove anything.
You don't know where Angela was.
I think we do.
We also know where your daughter was.
We're going to indict Tracy for murder, Mr.
Brant.
She'll be arraigned, she'll be surrounded by reporters.
Unless you'd like to make this easier.
Oh, you mean easier for you.
For your daughter.
And if there's any hope of leniency, you'd better talk now.
Oh, God.
I did what Angela told me.
I met her for dinner.
She knew about Tracy and Decker.
She wanted my help.
I didn't know what to do.
How late were you together? She walked away, she was mad.
I started to leave.
I felt guilty, I went back.
We went to the bar on the corner.
We were there till 9:00.
So you told the police the truth.
Yeah.
Angela called after they searched her apartment.
She said if they asked again, I should tell them I lied.
That I wasrt with her.
She was willing to go to jail.
Anything to save Tracy.
You don't have a case on either of them.
We're dismissing on Mrs.
Brant and arresting her daughter.
You can't prove Tracy did it.
With what your husband told us this morning, I think we can.
She didn't understand that you couldn't have everything.
That life wasrt like that.
How do you tell a child? I have no authority to deal for Tracy, Ben.
But I know that the girl's had a lot of problems.
I understand, but she also killed a man.
When you know what he did to her, you won't be thinking Sentence her as a juvenile.
Convince me.
You have a daughter, Ben.
You know 15 is not an adult.
She's not responsible.
Would you excuse us, please? You knew.
She never told me, I never asked.
Until she wanted a deal.
I knew she had to be either stupid or a martyr.
She was not stupid.
I'll get the case assignment.
Talk to the girl.
I know I'm pretty.
I'm just not that good with boys.
Oh, they're gross.
Just never wanted to go out with them.
Um but Julian took me to clubs.
I mean, I went to the opening of Arena.
He introduced me to everybody.
Tracy, tell Mr.
Stone what Julian promised you.
He was grooming me.
He said we'd always be together, and I was going to be a big model.
What happened that night, Tracy? We made love.
And then he told me to leave and never come back again.
It was my mom's fault.
She told him that if he didn't stop seeing me, she wouldn't Angela said she'd quit working for him.
She threatened to have him arrested.
Decker told Tracy that her mother was won'th more to him as a prostitute, than she ever would be as a model.
I didn't mean to do it.
After what he said about Mom, he made fun of me.
He said I wasrt pretty enough.
My legs were too heavy.
He just turned his back on me.
He just walked away.
Three years.
Spofford.
With treatment.
She thought if her picture was on a magazine cover, her life would be perfect.
Aborigines think if you take their picture, you capture their soul.
Maybe they're right.