Law & Order (1990) s03e05 Episode Script
Wedded Bliss
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.
Hey, you're scaring my dinner away! Go play somewhere else! What do you think he was fishing for? In the Hudson? I don't want to breathe near it, let alone eat from it.
Well, what have we got? A floater.
Female.
Weighted with concrete blocks.
Must have been more, they fell off.
Handcuffed behind her back.
You thinkir a cop? Forget it.
Cuffs are Grenadiers, not our brand.
Been in the water maybe eight weeks.
Hispanic, Italian.
Lamp cord around her neck.
Probably strangled, then dumped.
Steinmetz, you've seen your share of floaters.
How old do you think she is? Post-mortem decomposition, tough call.
My guess? She never saw sweet 16.
I don't need this.
That kid's the same age as Linda.
You know Lopez in the one-nine? No.
He's a good cop.
He had a case.
Male Hispanic teenager.
Floater, East River.
Strangled, electric cord, handcuffed.
He said all he could think about was the kid was so small he didn't fill half the body bag.
Concrete blocks? Fire bricks.
They never got an ID.
This ain't a pro.
Our friends in silk suits weight them so they never come up.
Which leads us where? Oh, boy! Oh, boy! A kid that age, doesn't she have parents? Cousins? I mean, somebody who's gonna notice that she's missing? The ME says she's probably Hispanic.
Eleven girls were reported missing.
Seven have already turned up.
The other four don't match in terms of hair or color of eyes.
So, what do you think? I mean, I know what we do with our handcuffs, but obviously, some people have other uses.
Well, it's hard to tell if she was raped.
I talked to Sex Crimes.
They have ropes, dog leashes, but no homicides with handcuffs.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
I'll call if we need more.
Thank you.
Grenadier ships Big market with the fringe crowd.
Survival catalogues, adventure stores, you know, Ollie North country.
Direct sales to cops in California, Montana, and Missouri.
Why don't I think this was a cop from Missoula? Wouldrt find him if it was.
The lot number on the ones we got, 9,000 pair.
We got a serial perv.
And from what the FBI says, they don't leave breadcrumbs.
Forensics.
Uh, they got a, you know, uh She studies bodies and faces.
An anthropologist.
So? So wouldn't it be nice to have an ID on the girl? Last month, they identified a body from a picture.
Matched up a face and a skull.
What if they reverse that? Start with the skull and work out.
Make us a face.
Oh, I think I saw that movie.
Well, see it again.
The march of technology, Phil.
Sometimes it works.
And the boy from the other case, where's he buried? Potter's field.
Get an order, have him exhumed.
Maybe we can get a face on him, too.
Is it possible? Who said the accidents of the possible were the future of the probable? Was it Einstein? I don't think we're the ones to ask.
This is the boy you had exhumed.
I took all the aspects of the facial structure.
Based on my measurements, my sketch artist has worked up a face.
Now I'm refining it.
How close is that going to be to what he looked like? You'll know when somebody identifies him.
I'm working on the girl.
Dr.
Sacks.
It's for you.
Missing Persons.
You asked for floaters 14 to 17, strangled.
Don't tell me you found another one.
Almost.
Male, 49, Caucasian, found belly down in the Hudson off the Spuyten Duyvil.
Uh, strangled with his own necktie.
Ira Bender.
Missing six weeks, inspector for the Apparel Industry Task Force.
Investigated sweatshops.
He surfaced last month.
We get water.
We get strangled.
But not often, and never together.
Who's the lead detective? Markson, two-seven.
Yeah, I called.
He's expecting you.
Hmm.
Thank you.
Bender? Oh, yeah.
We're talking Mack Truck.
This guy made me look like an anorexic.
First I thought he was just bloated from the river.
Hey, look, it's a dead-end case.
Forget it.
He was investigating sweatshops.
Maybe he tried to close somebody down? What, an inspector? He couldn't close a closet.
You can give a summons.
The garment business, you know, it's still 1930.
You got 5,000 sweatshops, you got 50,000 immigrants at sewing machines.
Most of these places, they got eight, nine people, lots of them kids.
They get paid crap if they get paid at all, and nobody complains, because they're all illegal anyway.
And the Feds, they don't even inspect with less than 10 workers.
But the city does.
Yeah, so give them a summons.
Child labor, locked windows, you know.
They tear it up, they move to a new hellhole.
It's like a floating crap game.
What about Ira Bender? The day he disappeared, six stops.
He shows up at all six, not one summons and even if he gave one, who'd kill him for a $600 fine? Thanks.
Two Hispanic teenagers.
You got better candidates for a sweatshop? I'll grant you, but the inspector makes no sense.
If anybody really cared about people working for slave wages, it would've stopped.
They got half the city scared about parking tickets.
You read the ME's report on the girl? Scars, cuts on her fingers.
Same as the boy when they found him.
They didn't get that making fruit salad.
They were cutting fabric.
All right, let's see what Forensics has on the girl's face.
Move the left eye in about 2 cm.
Good.
Print it.
I think the girl's more accurate than the boy.
With the picture of her face, we had more to work with.
Here they are.
So, what do you think? Puerto Rican, Dominican? From the nose and the cheekbones, I'd say more likely Mezzo-American.
Mexican.
Ira Bender.
Remember his last stop the day he disappeared? The Bronx.
Tremont in the Bronx.
Our newest immigrant paradise.
Mexicans.
They could be anybody, these kids.
You sure they don't resemble somebody you've seen? Where's the nearest high school? What country you in, man? Nobody go to school.
Where do the kids hang out? The club.
El Tampequeño.
Ask for Rudy.
He teaches them how to play.
I said, do you recognize them? I don't see too good.
Oh, you blind? I'll smack that hairdo right off your head! Mike! Mike! Amigos, what's the problem? What can we do for you? Rudy Armandariz.
It's my place.
Hey, you said Rudy left.
He wasrt coming back.
Hector, tough guy, huh? Be nice, huh? We don't see cops too much, you know.
Just Immigration.
Hey, we gonna make friends, I'm sorry, you don't make top of the list.
How do you know we're not Immigration? With those shoes? La miga, they get paid a little better, I think.
Beers for our friends.
No, no, no, no, thanks.
Have you seen these kids? Ah, kids! They think New York is gold in the streets.
They come here to make money, send it home.
Better they stay in Mexico.
Prostitution, drugs, then they disappear.
Does that mean yes or no? We don't know those kids.
You could've broken that kid's arm.
He threatened me with that pool cue.
This case is pushing my buttons.
The next button it could push is the one at the Civilian Review Board.
You see 'em? You recognize 'em? He speak English.
What? What? Come on.
I know Eduardo and María, his cousin.
You know, on the street.
I haven't seen them.
They have family? In Acuña.
They worked making dresses so they could bring their brothers and sisters here.
Where did they make the dresses? Okay? I'm finished now? Yeah.
Gracias, okay.
Well, this is progress, huh? Those kids worked here.
Ira Bender was investigating a sweatshop in this building before he disappeared.
You want to think about a warrant? You need a warrant for this? Well, I guess we're not really breaking in.
Phil! So, what are you saying to me? They had people here who were slaves? Handcuffs.
And they werert playing cops and robbers.
In Texas, with migrant workers, maybe.
But here So this Insp.
Bender, he's looking around, he walks in on this.
They ain't gonna buy him off with a few dresses for his wife.
A belt buckle and a zipper.
Tough to trace, but this clothing label.
"Wedded Bliss Fashions.
The finest wedding gowns in the world.
" This is one of ours, yes.
Brides, bridesmaids, flower girls.
Thank God people are getting married again.
Must take a lot of work to make one of these, eh? Every stitch made for a lifetime.
And made in America.
At Third-World wages.
Oh, I don't know that's the case at all.
You work in a sweatshop, you don't get to wear one of these at the altar.
I admit.
I get a rush order, I use contractors.
Piecework, veils.
I go with the lowest bid.
Something wrong with that? Depends on the working conditions, sir.
Be realistic.
We're competing with Singapore.
Do contractors use immigrants? I'm sure they do.
That suit on your back, you know who sewed it? You sure whoever sewed the buttons got minimum wage? We are interested in the name of the contractor who sewed this label.
Ever hear of the Hot Goods Statute? It forbids the shipping across state lines of any product made in violation of federal labor laws.
In this case we're also talking murder and kidnapping.
My God, I wouldn't think This one, it would be Royalty Fashions.
Used to be in the Bronx, Manattan now.
Ave.
D, Alphabet City.
They like working here.
We have milk for the child, and we save the mother money on a babysitter.
If it wasrt for us, they'd be on the street, starving or selling crack.
We treat 'em like our family, like our kids.
And it pays off.
They work hard.
They're wonderful people, devoted to their children.
I'm touched.
I didn't know there were people like you in the world.
How much do you pay them? We pay them by the piece.
If they work fast, they make $7 an hour.
It's better than the $4 a day they'd make in Nogales.
And it's twice the minimum wage.
That was your last address? That was two places ago.
Several contractors have used it.
The place wasrt in good condition.
There were break-ins, rats.
Have these kids ever worked for you? Oh.
They look much too young, don't they, Ellis? No.
We've been inspected.
We have fire extinguishers.
The windows are never locked.
We're just trying to make a living.
The girl we found in the river, María Carranza, we got a DNA match with blood from the mattress on Tremont.
And the flower vendor, the kid? From his description, there is no doubt that those kids worked for the Drakes.
Can we prove who these kids are? Because we're not gettir fingerprints from Mexico.
They don't exist.
I just don't get this.
I mean, why chain them up? They're not makir that much anyway.
Oh, you got seven or eight immigrants making $250 a week.
You handcuff 'em, they are saving $100,000 a year.
And that is the difference between being in business and not.
Those green cards, one of 'em had to be bought.
And one of those kids is not old enough to go to high school.
So call Social Welfare.
You got nothing specific.
They'll get there in a month? Maybe they're underage.
Maybe they're illegal.
Maybes will not get you a warrant.
Doesrt the Drakes' yellow sheet give us a little bit of leeway here? Do you see murder and kidnapping here? Health and safety, non-payment of wages, endangering the welfare of a child.
The state took their books, closed them down a dozen times.
Drove 'em out of business.
Endangerment.
What's that, a Class A misdemeanor? That must've shook 'em up for 30 seconds.
Well, our case couldn't shake dirt from a dust mop.
Name a judge, I'll call him.
As long as I can hang up before he starts screaming we interrupted his dinner.
Okay, let's call the State.
I want to look at the Drakes' books.
They ordered Bing Crosby's Christmas Album.
The CD.
"Third notice, East Orange Savings and Loan.
" Behind on the mortgage.
What are we lookir for, anyway? A check for handcuffs? How about a check to the State Liquor Authority? For a permit.
I didn't notice an open bar at the sweatshop.
Do you think they own a nightclub on the side? Let's find out who got the permit.
The liquor license.
Sí.
Uh, Mr.
And Mrs Drake.
Uh-huh.
They are like mother and father, and they take Rudy in and he works for them and they buy him a present.
This boy and girl also worked for the Drakes.
Amigos.
Oh.
You here so often, take a membership.
Get a game free.
Yeah, well, last time we were here, you didn't recognize those kids.
What about your wife? Does your husband always speak for you? Lina, oblige the gentlemen.
No.
You get into Manattan much, Mr.
Armandariz? Bar, pool tables.
You know, I don't make what a cop makes.
Special night out, we hit a few clubs, you know, we go dancing.
You like to play around in the clubs on Ave.
D? My friends, Ellis and Betty, do you know them? Generous people.
I come from Nogales.
I cut clothes as a boy.
They help me work my way up.
They took care of me.
You got a liquor license.
You get paid a lot more than most kids.
I worked harder.
dd Anything else we can do for you? Our amigo has two juvenile arrests, one with a knife.
Guarding a sweatshop, he stabbed an inspector.
Mug shot? Get us a picture? Thanks.
The sweatshop, was it Royalty Fashions? Royalty Ready-to-Wear.
Ellis and Betty Drake.
So they took Rudy off the streets to save him, huh? He was their goon.
If we could tie him to the cuffs.
Yeah.
Well, they could have bought 'em anywhere.
Twenty-two more shops.
You want to do 'em all? He could have bought 'em through the mail.
Or maybe closer to home.
The Bronx? The Drakes, East Orange.
They sell police equipment in Jersey, don't they? New York cops.
I sell to you guys all the time.
How many of your customers aren't cops or security guards? I get the weirdoes.
They want to dress up in blue or fatigues.
Ankle irons.
Keep the wife chained to the stove.
I don't know.
Not my idea of weekend fun.
So, what can I sell you? How about ID? He's not familiar.
This isn't a Mexican neighborhood.
You wouldn't forget him.
Neighborhood's gone bad, but Mexicans, not that bad.
No, it got bad when you moved in.
My Jersey law's just a little rusty, but the way I remember it, you need a job reference for police supplies.
I hope you have records for everybody you sold Grenadiers to.
You're on the wrong side of the river.
How fast can we get a state trooper here, Phil? We're about eight to ten minutes from the parkway.
Maybe I remember him.
I thought he was a PR.
He looked at cattle prods.
Yeah, I think I sold him some cuffs.
He bought the cuffs! A dozen pair! Handcuffs with the same lot number.
Which happened to be attached to a bed with the same blood as the dead girl.
They can put the kids in the sweatshop.
They got a witness who saw the Drakes.
You can put the kids and the Drakes there.
You can't prove the Drakes killed them.
They bought Rudy a liquor license.
They're paying him for something! What do you want? More dead kids? All right, that's enough, Mike.
This one's got everybody a little upset, Paul.
Hey, you guys put a stakeout on somebody named Armandariz? They said you wanted to know.
He just parked on Ave.
D.
We have no witnesses, no convincing Forensics.
I take this to the grand jury, I have more holes than the Internal Revenue Code.
Paul, Rudy Armandariz, 16 years old, he stabs an inspector.
What the hell you think he's gonna do if Ira Bender stumbled into that backroom? And if those Mexicans are still working on Ave.
D, they won't be tomorrow.
Okay.
Where are they? Where are the Mexican kids who were working here? People come and go.
They probably went home.
Uh, where's your friend, Mr.
Armandariz? Downstairs? Okay, let's go! You're under arrest for the murder of Eduardo and María Carranza.
You have the right to remain silent.
Cover me on the street! Halt, Armandariz, hold it! Get away from Don't even think about it! You think that window's bulletproof, huh? You like to get 'em around the neck, don't you, huh? That way you can feel 'em die.
Mike! Did you rape the girl before you killed her? How about the boy, huh? Mike! Mike! Mike! Rudy Armandariz, you're under arrest for murder.
Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
Do you understand that? "Docket number 52782.
"The People v.
Rudy Armandariz, Ellis Drake, and Betty Drake.
"Three counts murder, second degree, two counts kidnapping, first degree.
" Everybody's pleading guilty, right? Not guilty, Your Honor.
Not guilty.
Your Honor, Mr.
Armandariz has repeatedly visited Mexico.
The risk of flight is substantial.
We request that he be held without bail.
For Mr.
And Mrs.
Drake, $250,000 each defendant.
Mr.
Armandariz owns a business that needs his attention, Your Honor.
The risk of flight Is humongous, Counselor.
The charge is murder, not spitting on the subway.
No bail.
Mr.
Dunlap.
Your Honor, my clients are innocent victims of a career criminal and an ungrateful orphan they tried to help.
They took him off the street, set him up in business, bought him a house as a wedding present.
Oh, this isn't about slave labor.
It's about a dysfunctional family.
Why don't we send it to Family Court? Family values week is over.
The People's request is granted.
And, Mr.
Dunlap, no bond.
All cash.
Beautiful, Charlie.
He made slaves of them, then he kills them? Did you have to take this case? Where's the congregation, Rev.
Stone? The sermon can't be for me.
How did you end up with this? Your office is on Park Ave.
Does Armandariz even know the zip code? He reads the Post.
He knows I give people of color a good defense.
Especially when you try and plead white people against him.
If that's a preamble to a speech on the racist system, can we roll it over till tomorrow? Man two, one count, two years.
He testifies against the Drakes.
Man one, three counts.
I want him deep into old age when he gets out.
With your case? It's not circumstantial, it's atmospheric.
Man two, two counts.
For handcuffing people to beds and killing them.
May I explain to you why you won't win on the cuffs? Rudy's video rentals.
One of his favorites shows a woman handcuffed to a bed.
His wife will testify that's why he bought 'em.
That'll convince a jury.
A dozen pair? The jury may find it's disgusting.
They don't dish out Slavery.
I woke up this morning, I thought it was the 20th century.
In some places.
The mayor's appointing a commission.
Yeah, they'll debate it for six months, issue a report.
It will disappear before anyone reads it.
People chained to their beds.
Why don't they take a few dollars from street cleaning and hire more inspectors? In politics, two choices: Do nothing, do something.
Nothing has fewer risks.
I hope we have a case.
A lot of ifs and maybes.
The big problem is, I have to prove a crime that nobody wants to believe happened.
A good couple with a small business.
Who wants to think they have Dachau in the back room? It's just too horrifying.
Porn movies with handcuffs.
Doesrt even beat possession by the devil.
It's the big lie, Adam.
Repeat it often enough, it's the truth.
Charlie Meadow will sell the hell out of pornography.
And you'll sell the hell out of those kids being connected with all three defendants.
Why can't you use the Drakes? Dunlap wants to plead, but his clients won't discuss it.
Wort discuss they're accessories.
Yes, they didn't strangle those kids, they didn't dump an inspector in the river.
But they also didn't make bail.
And they're in Rikers, hoping they don't get their throats slit.
I'd sure want to discuss a plea.
Dunlap said the Drakes were victims of Armandariz.
It's a good tactic, but his clients didn't like it.
They're scared of Rudy.
Make 'em scared of you.
If you're convicted, Mrs.
Drake, you'll die in prison.
I'm gonna die in my own bed at home.
With my dear husband next to me.
Mrs.
Drake, we don't believe that you killed Ira Bender or those children.
But if you try to save Mr.
Armandariz, you'll go down with him.
Betty, he's offering 12 years.
You're facing 75-to-life.
I'm no lawyer.
You guys would sell your mother for a day at the races.
We don't testify against a boy we brought up like our own son.
Mr.
Drake? I asked them to plead, Ben.
They don't understand the odds on conviction.
Sophisticated they're not.
That's right.
This lady gets a cold, she wants to go to Lourdes.
I'll see you in court.
It's a good deal.
Why won't they take it? Well, we're missing something.
Do the Drakes have visitors? Just him.
The lawyer.
At the end of every day have the visitor's list sent downstairs.
I want it faxed to my office.
Right.
Ellis Drake's brother, Fred, has been there six times.
To see his brother? Only Ellis, not Betty.
I talked to Fred's bookkeeper.
Fred and Ellis were partners, garment business.
But the partnering wasrt very brotherly.
And Fred definitely wasrt crazy about his sister-in-law.
See how crazy he is about his brother goir to prison.
I'm not stupid.
I'm not making it easier to convict my brother.
If your brother's a pawn of Armandariz, we'd like to help him.
Oh, sure you would.
And I always put money in the meter.
More coffee, gentlemen? Thank you.
If your brother doesn't cooperate, you'll be visiting him upstate the rest of his life.
Money was tight.
This kid Rudy, sweeping the floors, says he can get Mexicans cheaper than Chinese.
Suddenly this psycho is running the company.
Ellis won't turn on Rudy.
And your sister-in-law? Oh, sweet Betty? Yeah, she's like a mother to Rudy.
Only most mothers are not that loving.
She do some cooking? Home cooking.
She didn't even have the decency to do it behind Ellis's back.
I begged Ellis, sell that son of a bitch out.
He said if it didn't work, he would have a little trouble breathing underwater.
You want to use Armandariz's wife? We need a witness.
And if Ellis's brother knew that Rudy was in bed with Betty, you'd think Rudy's wife would know.
And if she didn't, you'll be glad to tell her.
And that's enough to turn her against her husband? Jealousy and anger.
What about loyalty and fear? How are you gonna handle spousal privilege? Spousal privilege has limits.
And maybe she won't have to testify.
Maybe she'll lead us to those missing kids.
Busy signal at the Armandariz house.
Phone company says off the hook.
The Drakes are scared.
She's probably hiding under the bed.
Go out to East Orange, take a run at her.
I work at the club.
The wedding gowns, I never saw that.
The Drakes paid for your liquor license, bought this house.
Your husband was having intimate relations with Mrs.
Drake.
This is true? You say, "Marry him.
" For the Church.
You say God will strike me down.
You wanted his bed, you marry him.
I told you, be respectable.
The girl, and the boy, the ones you found.
Rudy? Ask your granddaughter.
I don't know.
I wanted to stop Rudy.
They tried to escape, and he caught them.
He said that they would go to the police.
He had to kill them.
He had to kill them.
Spouses testifying against spouses.
I don't like it under any circumstances.
The privilege in this case rests with Lina Armandariz, not her husband.
Judge, what country is he practicing in? No court in New York, trial or appellate, encroaches on the sanctity of marriage.
He can't compel her to testify.
It's not about compelling.
It's about allowing her to testify.
And if she witnessed a criminal act uninvited, and was not a participant, her husband has no privilege.
Thank you, Ben.
I know the law.
Suppose I whisper to my wife in bed: "I hate my brother.
I bought a gun.
I wanna kill him.
" The next day she sees me do it.
Is her witnessing the crime a result of marital intimacy? If it is, then I have privilege.
But, in this case, we don't know what Lina Armandariz heard on the marital bed.
Mrs.
Armandariz said she was there by coincidence.
I'm deeply surprised.
I'm sure you didn't put words in her mouth.
Mr.
Meadow, you're in the gutter.
You want to insult his intelligence, fine.
You will not accuse him in my chambers of suborning perjury.
I don't know, Ben.
There's another exception, Your Honor.
A spouse who witnesses the planning of a crime can testify.
Mrs.
Armandariz knew that her husband planned to kill those kids.
Talk about a hole you could drive an army through.
I think he's got the right army.
Judge, you can't accept You bet I can.
If that child wasrt dead when she got there, the wife sure saw a crime planned.
This court rules the husband has no privilege.
The wife wants to testify, it's her choice.
It, uh, happened a couple of months ago.
Maybe, I think, last June.
Did you witness a struggle between your husband and Eduardo Carranza? Yes, I did.
Did your husband say that he would have to kill Eduardo Carranza to prevent another attempt at escape? No.
What did you say? No, he never say that.
Uh, Rudy let María and Eduardo go back to Mexico.
Mrs.
Armandariz, this isn't what you told me.
Did your husband threaten you? Off the record.
Mrs.
Armandariz, you're making a mistake.
What do you think he'll do to you anyway when he gets out of jail? You are under oath.
You are committing perjury.
Rudy never killed anybody.
I don't know what happened to the children.
You had to lose your temper.
She lied, Adam.
She denied everything.
With that husband, who can blame her? Compared to what he can do, you're threatening to take away her hairdresser.
I'll get a perjury indictment based on a deposition.
Good.
When you go to trial, invite a couple of law students to provide the laughter.
Why I thought this was winnable.
I assumed we'd have some kind of witness.
Without one, we're gonna lose.
Rudy, Mr.
Armandariz, he asked kids to work in the sweatshop.
Did you personally hear him ask María and Eduardo Carranza if they wanted jobs sewing wedding gowns? Yes, he asked them in the club.
Did there come a time when you looked for María and Eduardo because you hadrt seen them in the neighborhood? I had a letter from Eduardo's mother.
She didn't hear from him.
I went to the sweatshop, the factory.
The boss told me Eduardo and María went home to Mexico.
Is that man in the courtroom today? That man, there.
Let the record indicate he's pointing at the defendant, Ellis Drake.
The record will so indicate.
Thank you.
No further questions.
Mr.
Lopez, did you ever go inside this sweatshop during the time when María and Eduardo were supposedly working there? No, I didn't.
Well, then you never actually saw them in there with Mr.
Drake, did you? No.
How well did you know Eduardo and María? Just around the neighborhood.
In point of fact, they might have gone back to Mexico without your knowing.
No, they would have said goodbye.
Really? To a casual acquaintance? Even if they left in a hurry? Blood on the mattress found in the tenement matches DNA from María Carranza's body with 90% accuracy.
What accounts for a less than perfect match? The body was submerged in water for several weeks.
Tissue damage made a perfect match impossible.
Well, thank you.
Your witness.
Is that a good match, in your experience? Yes, it is.
Is that so? How many other people would that blood sample match? Several thousand.
A hundred thousand? Possibly.
So that might not be María Carranza's blood at all.
In fact, you don't even know if that's María Carranza's body, do you? She did work there.
The picture was identified.
The odds of someone else with so close a match Are what, Mr.
Medill? Are you an expert in population demographics or forensics? Never mind.
No further questions.
Each hit by itself doesn't hurt us, but you add 'em up Suppose we charge Rudy's wife, say I'll testify.
Accessory to murder.
She admitted she was there.
To an assistant district attorney.
You want to take that to a grand jury? Call Frank Dunlap.
Let's go out to Rikers.
Did you look at Ellis Drake? He turns right, his wife burns him.
He turns left, he's staring at the bottom of the Hudson.
By now, maybe he's more angry than scared.
He would've broken by now.
You can't light a fire without tinder.
Put Rudy in the room.
We might not have to strike the match.
The boy pointed at you, Mr.
Drake.
If they want to convict anyone, it's not your wife or sonny boy.
Time out.
We agreed, no separate deals.
You think we'd turn against each other? We're family here.
Well, cut the family number, Mrs.
Drake.
We all know who's playing musical beds.
Hey, I got music in me.
What does that prove? Stop it! Shut up! It's bad enough you were doing it! She begged for it, man.
She screamed for it.
Mr.
Drake, manslaughter one, two counts.
You only do nine years.
Hold on, you can't do that.
Guard! We're offering you a deal.
You testify against your wife and Mr.
Armandariz.
I'm leaving.
You've to stop.
You can't talk in front of my client.
Fine.
Guard, take Mr.
Armandariz to his cell.
Ben, Ben, this is unethical.
You had to sleep with him.
The money wasrt enough.
Ellis, keep your mouth shut.
Bought him a house, rubbed my face in it! You pathetic wimp! That's what I am? Him You couldn't stop! I'll do it.
I'm going to jail, and you're going with me.
He got these Mexican kids.
We promised to pay them by the piece.
End of the week, Rudy said don't pay them.
They can't complain.
Did there come a time when Mr.
Armandariz suggested other ways of making money? Well, he found these metal beds in a vacant lot.
He said he could just tie the kids up.
He did it with handcuffs.
Tell the court what happened when Mr.
Ira Bender came to inspect your factory.
He wanted to see the backroom.
He opened the door.
Rudy was inside.
He got him around the neck.
He handcuffed him, pulled his tie up.
And he killed him.
And what happened to María and Eduardo Carranza? We were trying to move them and they tried to get away.
Rudy killed them in front of the others.
He said nobody would try to escape again.
Thank you, sir.
Mr.
Drake, you testified that you and your wife and Mr.
Armandariz turned these people into slaves.
Did you really do that? It doesn't seem like something I could've done, but I did.
Why are you testifying today? We deserve to be punished.
All of us do.
Is that the reason? Or is it your agreement with the district attorney for a reduced sentence? Nine years instead of 75.
The sentence doesn't matter.
It would matter to me.
Tell us, Mr.
Drake, was your wife sexually involved with Mr.
Armandariz? That's not the reason, either.
But she was.
And you were jealous.
Were you also angry? What was the effect of that humiliation? Is it reason enough to implicate your wife and her lover in crimes that you committed? You alone? I never killed those children.
Oh, well, you could only enslave them.
Did you pay for Mr.
Armandariz's liquor license? Did you buy him a house? Only because Betty insisted.
Is that why? Or were you buying his silence to cover up your crimes? No, that's crazy.
Tell us, Mr.
Drake, why should we believe that Mr.
Armandariz killed those children? Why shouldn't we believe you did it? It's not a good theory? If I was on that jury, I'd believe Meadow.
So he bought him a house.
Come on.
They know Ellis Drake was terrified.
They also know he got a deal.
You want to take another run at Armandariz's wife? She's more afraid of him than us.
Who's she more afraid of than him? You see her grandmother in court today? If my grandmother had a look like that, she could fry eggs with it.
Maybe she's not afraid of anybody.
I tried, believe me, but Lina is afraid.
I know she was wrong, too.
What could she do? Do you know if the Drakes or Mr.
Armandariz own any other property? A nightclub, maybe somewhere else.
I don't know.
The other people who worked at the sweatshop, if your granddaughter could tell us what happened.
Not Lina, not now.
If I never said marry him He pretends to love her.
He called me.
Told me to come be with her.
But she can't live in that house now.
I'll take her to my place.
Mrs.
Andon, where did you say you're planning to take Lina? To my house in Brooklyn.
You have a house in Brooklyn? When did Mr.
Armandariz ask you to take care of her? After the police came to the club.
He asked you to leave your house and go to Jersey? He sent a boy from the pool hall to cut the grass, get the mail, he said.
Call Cerreta and Logan.
He wanted my house.
There's two of 'em.
More underneath.
I'll re-indict.
We'll add seven counts of murder two.
Bodies are at the mother-in-law's house.
You had circumstantial, you have more circumstantial.
Seven bodies? That's a lot of circumstance.
Ellis Drake is already guilty.
They could throw it all on him.
Yes.
We're discussing it now.
I'll get back to you.
Brooklyn D.
A.
Wants the case.
The crime started in Manattan.
The bodies were found in Brooklyn.
Their case is no stronger than ours.
Thank you.
I was about to say that myself.
We could lose it all.
Make a deal with Rudy and the wife.
Bluff 'em, I don't care how.
Make a deal.
My client is receptive.
Mine's willing, with the right circumstances.
Both of your clients face 10 counts.
Ten times 25, that's 250 years.
We'll take one count, murder two.
They both do 25.
Or we show the pictures of the backyard to the jury.
I don't think they'll believe Ellis Drake did that all by himself.
You'll never prove my client dug that grave.
Or mine.
With Lina's grandmother on the stand, I'll take my chance.
You'll have the plea papers today.
Cons don't like people who do kids.
Rudy may not live to get parole.
I think he'll manage.
Bar Association dinner next month.
Adam's getting an award.
I bought a new tuxedo.
I have to wonder who made it.
These are their stories.
Hey, you're scaring my dinner away! Go play somewhere else! What do you think he was fishing for? In the Hudson? I don't want to breathe near it, let alone eat from it.
Well, what have we got? A floater.
Female.
Weighted with concrete blocks.
Must have been more, they fell off.
Handcuffed behind her back.
You thinkir a cop? Forget it.
Cuffs are Grenadiers, not our brand.
Been in the water maybe eight weeks.
Hispanic, Italian.
Lamp cord around her neck.
Probably strangled, then dumped.
Steinmetz, you've seen your share of floaters.
How old do you think she is? Post-mortem decomposition, tough call.
My guess? She never saw sweet 16.
I don't need this.
That kid's the same age as Linda.
You know Lopez in the one-nine? No.
He's a good cop.
He had a case.
Male Hispanic teenager.
Floater, East River.
Strangled, electric cord, handcuffed.
He said all he could think about was the kid was so small he didn't fill half the body bag.
Concrete blocks? Fire bricks.
They never got an ID.
This ain't a pro.
Our friends in silk suits weight them so they never come up.
Which leads us where? Oh, boy! Oh, boy! A kid that age, doesn't she have parents? Cousins? I mean, somebody who's gonna notice that she's missing? The ME says she's probably Hispanic.
Eleven girls were reported missing.
Seven have already turned up.
The other four don't match in terms of hair or color of eyes.
So, what do you think? I mean, I know what we do with our handcuffs, but obviously, some people have other uses.
Well, it's hard to tell if she was raped.
I talked to Sex Crimes.
They have ropes, dog leashes, but no homicides with handcuffs.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
I'll call if we need more.
Thank you.
Grenadier ships Big market with the fringe crowd.
Survival catalogues, adventure stores, you know, Ollie North country.
Direct sales to cops in California, Montana, and Missouri.
Why don't I think this was a cop from Missoula? Wouldrt find him if it was.
The lot number on the ones we got, 9,000 pair.
We got a serial perv.
And from what the FBI says, they don't leave breadcrumbs.
Forensics.
Uh, they got a, you know, uh She studies bodies and faces.
An anthropologist.
So? So wouldn't it be nice to have an ID on the girl? Last month, they identified a body from a picture.
Matched up a face and a skull.
What if they reverse that? Start with the skull and work out.
Make us a face.
Oh, I think I saw that movie.
Well, see it again.
The march of technology, Phil.
Sometimes it works.
And the boy from the other case, where's he buried? Potter's field.
Get an order, have him exhumed.
Maybe we can get a face on him, too.
Is it possible? Who said the accidents of the possible were the future of the probable? Was it Einstein? I don't think we're the ones to ask.
This is the boy you had exhumed.
I took all the aspects of the facial structure.
Based on my measurements, my sketch artist has worked up a face.
Now I'm refining it.
How close is that going to be to what he looked like? You'll know when somebody identifies him.
I'm working on the girl.
Dr.
Sacks.
It's for you.
Missing Persons.
You asked for floaters 14 to 17, strangled.
Don't tell me you found another one.
Almost.
Male, 49, Caucasian, found belly down in the Hudson off the Spuyten Duyvil.
Uh, strangled with his own necktie.
Ira Bender.
Missing six weeks, inspector for the Apparel Industry Task Force.
Investigated sweatshops.
He surfaced last month.
We get water.
We get strangled.
But not often, and never together.
Who's the lead detective? Markson, two-seven.
Yeah, I called.
He's expecting you.
Hmm.
Thank you.
Bender? Oh, yeah.
We're talking Mack Truck.
This guy made me look like an anorexic.
First I thought he was just bloated from the river.
Hey, look, it's a dead-end case.
Forget it.
He was investigating sweatshops.
Maybe he tried to close somebody down? What, an inspector? He couldn't close a closet.
You can give a summons.
The garment business, you know, it's still 1930.
You got 5,000 sweatshops, you got 50,000 immigrants at sewing machines.
Most of these places, they got eight, nine people, lots of them kids.
They get paid crap if they get paid at all, and nobody complains, because they're all illegal anyway.
And the Feds, they don't even inspect with less than 10 workers.
But the city does.
Yeah, so give them a summons.
Child labor, locked windows, you know.
They tear it up, they move to a new hellhole.
It's like a floating crap game.
What about Ira Bender? The day he disappeared, six stops.
He shows up at all six, not one summons and even if he gave one, who'd kill him for a $600 fine? Thanks.
Two Hispanic teenagers.
You got better candidates for a sweatshop? I'll grant you, but the inspector makes no sense.
If anybody really cared about people working for slave wages, it would've stopped.
They got half the city scared about parking tickets.
You read the ME's report on the girl? Scars, cuts on her fingers.
Same as the boy when they found him.
They didn't get that making fruit salad.
They were cutting fabric.
All right, let's see what Forensics has on the girl's face.
Move the left eye in about 2 cm.
Good.
Print it.
I think the girl's more accurate than the boy.
With the picture of her face, we had more to work with.
Here they are.
So, what do you think? Puerto Rican, Dominican? From the nose and the cheekbones, I'd say more likely Mezzo-American.
Mexican.
Ira Bender.
Remember his last stop the day he disappeared? The Bronx.
Tremont in the Bronx.
Our newest immigrant paradise.
Mexicans.
They could be anybody, these kids.
You sure they don't resemble somebody you've seen? Where's the nearest high school? What country you in, man? Nobody go to school.
Where do the kids hang out? The club.
El Tampequeño.
Ask for Rudy.
He teaches them how to play.
I said, do you recognize them? I don't see too good.
Oh, you blind? I'll smack that hairdo right off your head! Mike! Mike! Amigos, what's the problem? What can we do for you? Rudy Armandariz.
It's my place.
Hey, you said Rudy left.
He wasrt coming back.
Hector, tough guy, huh? Be nice, huh? We don't see cops too much, you know.
Just Immigration.
Hey, we gonna make friends, I'm sorry, you don't make top of the list.
How do you know we're not Immigration? With those shoes? La miga, they get paid a little better, I think.
Beers for our friends.
No, no, no, no, thanks.
Have you seen these kids? Ah, kids! They think New York is gold in the streets.
They come here to make money, send it home.
Better they stay in Mexico.
Prostitution, drugs, then they disappear.
Does that mean yes or no? We don't know those kids.
You could've broken that kid's arm.
He threatened me with that pool cue.
This case is pushing my buttons.
The next button it could push is the one at the Civilian Review Board.
You see 'em? You recognize 'em? He speak English.
What? What? Come on.
I know Eduardo and María, his cousin.
You know, on the street.
I haven't seen them.
They have family? In Acuña.
They worked making dresses so they could bring their brothers and sisters here.
Where did they make the dresses? Okay? I'm finished now? Yeah.
Gracias, okay.
Well, this is progress, huh? Those kids worked here.
Ira Bender was investigating a sweatshop in this building before he disappeared.
You want to think about a warrant? You need a warrant for this? Well, I guess we're not really breaking in.
Phil! So, what are you saying to me? They had people here who were slaves? Handcuffs.
And they werert playing cops and robbers.
In Texas, with migrant workers, maybe.
But here So this Insp.
Bender, he's looking around, he walks in on this.
They ain't gonna buy him off with a few dresses for his wife.
A belt buckle and a zipper.
Tough to trace, but this clothing label.
"Wedded Bliss Fashions.
The finest wedding gowns in the world.
" This is one of ours, yes.
Brides, bridesmaids, flower girls.
Thank God people are getting married again.
Must take a lot of work to make one of these, eh? Every stitch made for a lifetime.
And made in America.
At Third-World wages.
Oh, I don't know that's the case at all.
You work in a sweatshop, you don't get to wear one of these at the altar.
I admit.
I get a rush order, I use contractors.
Piecework, veils.
I go with the lowest bid.
Something wrong with that? Depends on the working conditions, sir.
Be realistic.
We're competing with Singapore.
Do contractors use immigrants? I'm sure they do.
That suit on your back, you know who sewed it? You sure whoever sewed the buttons got minimum wage? We are interested in the name of the contractor who sewed this label.
Ever hear of the Hot Goods Statute? It forbids the shipping across state lines of any product made in violation of federal labor laws.
In this case we're also talking murder and kidnapping.
My God, I wouldn't think This one, it would be Royalty Fashions.
Used to be in the Bronx, Manattan now.
Ave.
D, Alphabet City.
They like working here.
We have milk for the child, and we save the mother money on a babysitter.
If it wasrt for us, they'd be on the street, starving or selling crack.
We treat 'em like our family, like our kids.
And it pays off.
They work hard.
They're wonderful people, devoted to their children.
I'm touched.
I didn't know there were people like you in the world.
How much do you pay them? We pay them by the piece.
If they work fast, they make $7 an hour.
It's better than the $4 a day they'd make in Nogales.
And it's twice the minimum wage.
That was your last address? That was two places ago.
Several contractors have used it.
The place wasrt in good condition.
There were break-ins, rats.
Have these kids ever worked for you? Oh.
They look much too young, don't they, Ellis? No.
We've been inspected.
We have fire extinguishers.
The windows are never locked.
We're just trying to make a living.
The girl we found in the river, María Carranza, we got a DNA match with blood from the mattress on Tremont.
And the flower vendor, the kid? From his description, there is no doubt that those kids worked for the Drakes.
Can we prove who these kids are? Because we're not gettir fingerprints from Mexico.
They don't exist.
I just don't get this.
I mean, why chain them up? They're not makir that much anyway.
Oh, you got seven or eight immigrants making $250 a week.
You handcuff 'em, they are saving $100,000 a year.
And that is the difference between being in business and not.
Those green cards, one of 'em had to be bought.
And one of those kids is not old enough to go to high school.
So call Social Welfare.
You got nothing specific.
They'll get there in a month? Maybe they're underage.
Maybe they're illegal.
Maybes will not get you a warrant.
Doesrt the Drakes' yellow sheet give us a little bit of leeway here? Do you see murder and kidnapping here? Health and safety, non-payment of wages, endangering the welfare of a child.
The state took their books, closed them down a dozen times.
Drove 'em out of business.
Endangerment.
What's that, a Class A misdemeanor? That must've shook 'em up for 30 seconds.
Well, our case couldn't shake dirt from a dust mop.
Name a judge, I'll call him.
As long as I can hang up before he starts screaming we interrupted his dinner.
Okay, let's call the State.
I want to look at the Drakes' books.
They ordered Bing Crosby's Christmas Album.
The CD.
"Third notice, East Orange Savings and Loan.
" Behind on the mortgage.
What are we lookir for, anyway? A check for handcuffs? How about a check to the State Liquor Authority? For a permit.
I didn't notice an open bar at the sweatshop.
Do you think they own a nightclub on the side? Let's find out who got the permit.
The liquor license.
Sí.
Uh, Mr.
And Mrs Drake.
Uh-huh.
They are like mother and father, and they take Rudy in and he works for them and they buy him a present.
This boy and girl also worked for the Drakes.
Amigos.
Oh.
You here so often, take a membership.
Get a game free.
Yeah, well, last time we were here, you didn't recognize those kids.
What about your wife? Does your husband always speak for you? Lina, oblige the gentlemen.
No.
You get into Manattan much, Mr.
Armandariz? Bar, pool tables.
You know, I don't make what a cop makes.
Special night out, we hit a few clubs, you know, we go dancing.
You like to play around in the clubs on Ave.
D? My friends, Ellis and Betty, do you know them? Generous people.
I come from Nogales.
I cut clothes as a boy.
They help me work my way up.
They took care of me.
You got a liquor license.
You get paid a lot more than most kids.
I worked harder.
dd Anything else we can do for you? Our amigo has two juvenile arrests, one with a knife.
Guarding a sweatshop, he stabbed an inspector.
Mug shot? Get us a picture? Thanks.
The sweatshop, was it Royalty Fashions? Royalty Ready-to-Wear.
Ellis and Betty Drake.
So they took Rudy off the streets to save him, huh? He was their goon.
If we could tie him to the cuffs.
Yeah.
Well, they could have bought 'em anywhere.
Twenty-two more shops.
You want to do 'em all? He could have bought 'em through the mail.
Or maybe closer to home.
The Bronx? The Drakes, East Orange.
They sell police equipment in Jersey, don't they? New York cops.
I sell to you guys all the time.
How many of your customers aren't cops or security guards? I get the weirdoes.
They want to dress up in blue or fatigues.
Ankle irons.
Keep the wife chained to the stove.
I don't know.
Not my idea of weekend fun.
So, what can I sell you? How about ID? He's not familiar.
This isn't a Mexican neighborhood.
You wouldn't forget him.
Neighborhood's gone bad, but Mexicans, not that bad.
No, it got bad when you moved in.
My Jersey law's just a little rusty, but the way I remember it, you need a job reference for police supplies.
I hope you have records for everybody you sold Grenadiers to.
You're on the wrong side of the river.
How fast can we get a state trooper here, Phil? We're about eight to ten minutes from the parkway.
Maybe I remember him.
I thought he was a PR.
He looked at cattle prods.
Yeah, I think I sold him some cuffs.
He bought the cuffs! A dozen pair! Handcuffs with the same lot number.
Which happened to be attached to a bed with the same blood as the dead girl.
They can put the kids in the sweatshop.
They got a witness who saw the Drakes.
You can put the kids and the Drakes there.
You can't prove the Drakes killed them.
They bought Rudy a liquor license.
They're paying him for something! What do you want? More dead kids? All right, that's enough, Mike.
This one's got everybody a little upset, Paul.
Hey, you guys put a stakeout on somebody named Armandariz? They said you wanted to know.
He just parked on Ave.
D.
We have no witnesses, no convincing Forensics.
I take this to the grand jury, I have more holes than the Internal Revenue Code.
Paul, Rudy Armandariz, 16 years old, he stabs an inspector.
What the hell you think he's gonna do if Ira Bender stumbled into that backroom? And if those Mexicans are still working on Ave.
D, they won't be tomorrow.
Okay.
Where are they? Where are the Mexican kids who were working here? People come and go.
They probably went home.
Uh, where's your friend, Mr.
Armandariz? Downstairs? Okay, let's go! You're under arrest for the murder of Eduardo and María Carranza.
You have the right to remain silent.
Cover me on the street! Halt, Armandariz, hold it! Get away from Don't even think about it! You think that window's bulletproof, huh? You like to get 'em around the neck, don't you, huh? That way you can feel 'em die.
Mike! Did you rape the girl before you killed her? How about the boy, huh? Mike! Mike! Mike! Rudy Armandariz, you're under arrest for murder.
Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
Do you understand that? "Docket number 52782.
"The People v.
Rudy Armandariz, Ellis Drake, and Betty Drake.
"Three counts murder, second degree, two counts kidnapping, first degree.
" Everybody's pleading guilty, right? Not guilty, Your Honor.
Not guilty.
Your Honor, Mr.
Armandariz has repeatedly visited Mexico.
The risk of flight is substantial.
We request that he be held without bail.
For Mr.
And Mrs.
Drake, $250,000 each defendant.
Mr.
Armandariz owns a business that needs his attention, Your Honor.
The risk of flight Is humongous, Counselor.
The charge is murder, not spitting on the subway.
No bail.
Mr.
Dunlap.
Your Honor, my clients are innocent victims of a career criminal and an ungrateful orphan they tried to help.
They took him off the street, set him up in business, bought him a house as a wedding present.
Oh, this isn't about slave labor.
It's about a dysfunctional family.
Why don't we send it to Family Court? Family values week is over.
The People's request is granted.
And, Mr.
Dunlap, no bond.
All cash.
Beautiful, Charlie.
He made slaves of them, then he kills them? Did you have to take this case? Where's the congregation, Rev.
Stone? The sermon can't be for me.
How did you end up with this? Your office is on Park Ave.
Does Armandariz even know the zip code? He reads the Post.
He knows I give people of color a good defense.
Especially when you try and plead white people against him.
If that's a preamble to a speech on the racist system, can we roll it over till tomorrow? Man two, one count, two years.
He testifies against the Drakes.
Man one, three counts.
I want him deep into old age when he gets out.
With your case? It's not circumstantial, it's atmospheric.
Man two, two counts.
For handcuffing people to beds and killing them.
May I explain to you why you won't win on the cuffs? Rudy's video rentals.
One of his favorites shows a woman handcuffed to a bed.
His wife will testify that's why he bought 'em.
That'll convince a jury.
A dozen pair? The jury may find it's disgusting.
They don't dish out Slavery.
I woke up this morning, I thought it was the 20th century.
In some places.
The mayor's appointing a commission.
Yeah, they'll debate it for six months, issue a report.
It will disappear before anyone reads it.
People chained to their beds.
Why don't they take a few dollars from street cleaning and hire more inspectors? In politics, two choices: Do nothing, do something.
Nothing has fewer risks.
I hope we have a case.
A lot of ifs and maybes.
The big problem is, I have to prove a crime that nobody wants to believe happened.
A good couple with a small business.
Who wants to think they have Dachau in the back room? It's just too horrifying.
Porn movies with handcuffs.
Doesrt even beat possession by the devil.
It's the big lie, Adam.
Repeat it often enough, it's the truth.
Charlie Meadow will sell the hell out of pornography.
And you'll sell the hell out of those kids being connected with all three defendants.
Why can't you use the Drakes? Dunlap wants to plead, but his clients won't discuss it.
Wort discuss they're accessories.
Yes, they didn't strangle those kids, they didn't dump an inspector in the river.
But they also didn't make bail.
And they're in Rikers, hoping they don't get their throats slit.
I'd sure want to discuss a plea.
Dunlap said the Drakes were victims of Armandariz.
It's a good tactic, but his clients didn't like it.
They're scared of Rudy.
Make 'em scared of you.
If you're convicted, Mrs.
Drake, you'll die in prison.
I'm gonna die in my own bed at home.
With my dear husband next to me.
Mrs.
Drake, we don't believe that you killed Ira Bender or those children.
But if you try to save Mr.
Armandariz, you'll go down with him.
Betty, he's offering 12 years.
You're facing 75-to-life.
I'm no lawyer.
You guys would sell your mother for a day at the races.
We don't testify against a boy we brought up like our own son.
Mr.
Drake? I asked them to plead, Ben.
They don't understand the odds on conviction.
Sophisticated they're not.
That's right.
This lady gets a cold, she wants to go to Lourdes.
I'll see you in court.
It's a good deal.
Why won't they take it? Well, we're missing something.
Do the Drakes have visitors? Just him.
The lawyer.
At the end of every day have the visitor's list sent downstairs.
I want it faxed to my office.
Right.
Ellis Drake's brother, Fred, has been there six times.
To see his brother? Only Ellis, not Betty.
I talked to Fred's bookkeeper.
Fred and Ellis were partners, garment business.
But the partnering wasrt very brotherly.
And Fred definitely wasrt crazy about his sister-in-law.
See how crazy he is about his brother goir to prison.
I'm not stupid.
I'm not making it easier to convict my brother.
If your brother's a pawn of Armandariz, we'd like to help him.
Oh, sure you would.
And I always put money in the meter.
More coffee, gentlemen? Thank you.
If your brother doesn't cooperate, you'll be visiting him upstate the rest of his life.
Money was tight.
This kid Rudy, sweeping the floors, says he can get Mexicans cheaper than Chinese.
Suddenly this psycho is running the company.
Ellis won't turn on Rudy.
And your sister-in-law? Oh, sweet Betty? Yeah, she's like a mother to Rudy.
Only most mothers are not that loving.
She do some cooking? Home cooking.
She didn't even have the decency to do it behind Ellis's back.
I begged Ellis, sell that son of a bitch out.
He said if it didn't work, he would have a little trouble breathing underwater.
You want to use Armandariz's wife? We need a witness.
And if Ellis's brother knew that Rudy was in bed with Betty, you'd think Rudy's wife would know.
And if she didn't, you'll be glad to tell her.
And that's enough to turn her against her husband? Jealousy and anger.
What about loyalty and fear? How are you gonna handle spousal privilege? Spousal privilege has limits.
And maybe she won't have to testify.
Maybe she'll lead us to those missing kids.
Busy signal at the Armandariz house.
Phone company says off the hook.
The Drakes are scared.
She's probably hiding under the bed.
Go out to East Orange, take a run at her.
I work at the club.
The wedding gowns, I never saw that.
The Drakes paid for your liquor license, bought this house.
Your husband was having intimate relations with Mrs.
Drake.
This is true? You say, "Marry him.
" For the Church.
You say God will strike me down.
You wanted his bed, you marry him.
I told you, be respectable.
The girl, and the boy, the ones you found.
Rudy? Ask your granddaughter.
I don't know.
I wanted to stop Rudy.
They tried to escape, and he caught them.
He said that they would go to the police.
He had to kill them.
He had to kill them.
Spouses testifying against spouses.
I don't like it under any circumstances.
The privilege in this case rests with Lina Armandariz, not her husband.
Judge, what country is he practicing in? No court in New York, trial or appellate, encroaches on the sanctity of marriage.
He can't compel her to testify.
It's not about compelling.
It's about allowing her to testify.
And if she witnessed a criminal act uninvited, and was not a participant, her husband has no privilege.
Thank you, Ben.
I know the law.
Suppose I whisper to my wife in bed: "I hate my brother.
I bought a gun.
I wanna kill him.
" The next day she sees me do it.
Is her witnessing the crime a result of marital intimacy? If it is, then I have privilege.
But, in this case, we don't know what Lina Armandariz heard on the marital bed.
Mrs.
Armandariz said she was there by coincidence.
I'm deeply surprised.
I'm sure you didn't put words in her mouth.
Mr.
Meadow, you're in the gutter.
You want to insult his intelligence, fine.
You will not accuse him in my chambers of suborning perjury.
I don't know, Ben.
There's another exception, Your Honor.
A spouse who witnesses the planning of a crime can testify.
Mrs.
Armandariz knew that her husband planned to kill those kids.
Talk about a hole you could drive an army through.
I think he's got the right army.
Judge, you can't accept You bet I can.
If that child wasrt dead when she got there, the wife sure saw a crime planned.
This court rules the husband has no privilege.
The wife wants to testify, it's her choice.
It, uh, happened a couple of months ago.
Maybe, I think, last June.
Did you witness a struggle between your husband and Eduardo Carranza? Yes, I did.
Did your husband say that he would have to kill Eduardo Carranza to prevent another attempt at escape? No.
What did you say? No, he never say that.
Uh, Rudy let María and Eduardo go back to Mexico.
Mrs.
Armandariz, this isn't what you told me.
Did your husband threaten you? Off the record.
Mrs.
Armandariz, you're making a mistake.
What do you think he'll do to you anyway when he gets out of jail? You are under oath.
You are committing perjury.
Rudy never killed anybody.
I don't know what happened to the children.
You had to lose your temper.
She lied, Adam.
She denied everything.
With that husband, who can blame her? Compared to what he can do, you're threatening to take away her hairdresser.
I'll get a perjury indictment based on a deposition.
Good.
When you go to trial, invite a couple of law students to provide the laughter.
Why I thought this was winnable.
I assumed we'd have some kind of witness.
Without one, we're gonna lose.
Rudy, Mr.
Armandariz, he asked kids to work in the sweatshop.
Did you personally hear him ask María and Eduardo Carranza if they wanted jobs sewing wedding gowns? Yes, he asked them in the club.
Did there come a time when you looked for María and Eduardo because you hadrt seen them in the neighborhood? I had a letter from Eduardo's mother.
She didn't hear from him.
I went to the sweatshop, the factory.
The boss told me Eduardo and María went home to Mexico.
Is that man in the courtroom today? That man, there.
Let the record indicate he's pointing at the defendant, Ellis Drake.
The record will so indicate.
Thank you.
No further questions.
Mr.
Lopez, did you ever go inside this sweatshop during the time when María and Eduardo were supposedly working there? No, I didn't.
Well, then you never actually saw them in there with Mr.
Drake, did you? No.
How well did you know Eduardo and María? Just around the neighborhood.
In point of fact, they might have gone back to Mexico without your knowing.
No, they would have said goodbye.
Really? To a casual acquaintance? Even if they left in a hurry? Blood on the mattress found in the tenement matches DNA from María Carranza's body with 90% accuracy.
What accounts for a less than perfect match? The body was submerged in water for several weeks.
Tissue damage made a perfect match impossible.
Well, thank you.
Your witness.
Is that a good match, in your experience? Yes, it is.
Is that so? How many other people would that blood sample match? Several thousand.
A hundred thousand? Possibly.
So that might not be María Carranza's blood at all.
In fact, you don't even know if that's María Carranza's body, do you? She did work there.
The picture was identified.
The odds of someone else with so close a match Are what, Mr.
Medill? Are you an expert in population demographics or forensics? Never mind.
No further questions.
Each hit by itself doesn't hurt us, but you add 'em up Suppose we charge Rudy's wife, say I'll testify.
Accessory to murder.
She admitted she was there.
To an assistant district attorney.
You want to take that to a grand jury? Call Frank Dunlap.
Let's go out to Rikers.
Did you look at Ellis Drake? He turns right, his wife burns him.
He turns left, he's staring at the bottom of the Hudson.
By now, maybe he's more angry than scared.
He would've broken by now.
You can't light a fire without tinder.
Put Rudy in the room.
We might not have to strike the match.
The boy pointed at you, Mr.
Drake.
If they want to convict anyone, it's not your wife or sonny boy.
Time out.
We agreed, no separate deals.
You think we'd turn against each other? We're family here.
Well, cut the family number, Mrs.
Drake.
We all know who's playing musical beds.
Hey, I got music in me.
What does that prove? Stop it! Shut up! It's bad enough you were doing it! She begged for it, man.
She screamed for it.
Mr.
Drake, manslaughter one, two counts.
You only do nine years.
Hold on, you can't do that.
Guard! We're offering you a deal.
You testify against your wife and Mr.
Armandariz.
I'm leaving.
You've to stop.
You can't talk in front of my client.
Fine.
Guard, take Mr.
Armandariz to his cell.
Ben, Ben, this is unethical.
You had to sleep with him.
The money wasrt enough.
Ellis, keep your mouth shut.
Bought him a house, rubbed my face in it! You pathetic wimp! That's what I am? Him You couldn't stop! I'll do it.
I'm going to jail, and you're going with me.
He got these Mexican kids.
We promised to pay them by the piece.
End of the week, Rudy said don't pay them.
They can't complain.
Did there come a time when Mr.
Armandariz suggested other ways of making money? Well, he found these metal beds in a vacant lot.
He said he could just tie the kids up.
He did it with handcuffs.
Tell the court what happened when Mr.
Ira Bender came to inspect your factory.
He wanted to see the backroom.
He opened the door.
Rudy was inside.
He got him around the neck.
He handcuffed him, pulled his tie up.
And he killed him.
And what happened to María and Eduardo Carranza? We were trying to move them and they tried to get away.
Rudy killed them in front of the others.
He said nobody would try to escape again.
Thank you, sir.
Mr.
Drake, you testified that you and your wife and Mr.
Armandariz turned these people into slaves.
Did you really do that? It doesn't seem like something I could've done, but I did.
Why are you testifying today? We deserve to be punished.
All of us do.
Is that the reason? Or is it your agreement with the district attorney for a reduced sentence? Nine years instead of 75.
The sentence doesn't matter.
It would matter to me.
Tell us, Mr.
Drake, was your wife sexually involved with Mr.
Armandariz? That's not the reason, either.
But she was.
And you were jealous.
Were you also angry? What was the effect of that humiliation? Is it reason enough to implicate your wife and her lover in crimes that you committed? You alone? I never killed those children.
Oh, well, you could only enslave them.
Did you pay for Mr.
Armandariz's liquor license? Did you buy him a house? Only because Betty insisted.
Is that why? Or were you buying his silence to cover up your crimes? No, that's crazy.
Tell us, Mr.
Drake, why should we believe that Mr.
Armandariz killed those children? Why shouldn't we believe you did it? It's not a good theory? If I was on that jury, I'd believe Meadow.
So he bought him a house.
Come on.
They know Ellis Drake was terrified.
They also know he got a deal.
You want to take another run at Armandariz's wife? She's more afraid of him than us.
Who's she more afraid of than him? You see her grandmother in court today? If my grandmother had a look like that, she could fry eggs with it.
Maybe she's not afraid of anybody.
I tried, believe me, but Lina is afraid.
I know she was wrong, too.
What could she do? Do you know if the Drakes or Mr.
Armandariz own any other property? A nightclub, maybe somewhere else.
I don't know.
The other people who worked at the sweatshop, if your granddaughter could tell us what happened.
Not Lina, not now.
If I never said marry him He pretends to love her.
He called me.
Told me to come be with her.
But she can't live in that house now.
I'll take her to my place.
Mrs.
Andon, where did you say you're planning to take Lina? To my house in Brooklyn.
You have a house in Brooklyn? When did Mr.
Armandariz ask you to take care of her? After the police came to the club.
He asked you to leave your house and go to Jersey? He sent a boy from the pool hall to cut the grass, get the mail, he said.
Call Cerreta and Logan.
He wanted my house.
There's two of 'em.
More underneath.
I'll re-indict.
We'll add seven counts of murder two.
Bodies are at the mother-in-law's house.
You had circumstantial, you have more circumstantial.
Seven bodies? That's a lot of circumstance.
Ellis Drake is already guilty.
They could throw it all on him.
Yes.
We're discussing it now.
I'll get back to you.
Brooklyn D.
A.
Wants the case.
The crime started in Manattan.
The bodies were found in Brooklyn.
Their case is no stronger than ours.
Thank you.
I was about to say that myself.
We could lose it all.
Make a deal with Rudy and the wife.
Bluff 'em, I don't care how.
Make a deal.
My client is receptive.
Mine's willing, with the right circumstances.
Both of your clients face 10 counts.
Ten times 25, that's 250 years.
We'll take one count, murder two.
They both do 25.
Or we show the pictures of the backyard to the jury.
I don't think they'll believe Ellis Drake did that all by himself.
You'll never prove my client dug that grave.
Or mine.
With Lina's grandmother on the stand, I'll take my chance.
You'll have the plea papers today.
Cons don't like people who do kids.
Rudy may not live to get parole.
I think he'll manage.
Bar Association dinner next month.
Adam's getting an award.
I bought a new tuxedo.
I have to wonder who made it.