Rizzoli and Isles s04e11 Episode Script

It's a pleasure to have you high-school mock trialers in my courtroom.
And so we begin in the matter of the state vs.
Fontaine.
Good evening.
My name is Ashley Harper, and I represent the state.
In plain, simple language, this was an act of violence motivated by sheer greed.
We will prove that Robert Fontaine armed himself with a semiautomatic pistol and entered Estate Diamonds jewelry store.
- Judge Harper? - Mom?! Oh, my God! Mom?! - Kathleen? - Oh, my God! Someone call 911! Ashley.
Ashley, let me help her.
What's wrong with her? - What's wrong with her?! - Kathleen? - Can you hear me? - Please, Mr.
Thorson, help her! Kathleen! Oh, God.
No.
Oh, please, no.
N-no, Ma.
I want regular.
But no, you can't have caffeinated beverages - this late in the day, Jane.
- Okay, Maura says I can't drink it.
So, can I have an I.
V.
drip, please? No, but you can try one of these instead my new espresso brownies.
Business is booming! Angela, you should really be offering some healthy snacks.
I do.
They just don't sell.
Maura, come on.
Don't be so virtuous.
- Hmm? - Oh, my.
See? Look, I sold 45 brownies yesterday.
And I've been averaging an extra $100 a week.
I'm glad you're saving for retirement, Ma.
Yeah, me, too.
Excuse me, girls.
- Did you see her face? - I think she's hiding something.
Hey, Ma.
I want you to meet Mark, my lawyer.
- How do you do? - Mom.
- You look so familiar.
- Yeah, well, I'm kind of famous.
- Or infamous.
- You've seen my commercials.
"Mark the shark.
" Call me.
Call me.
Call me.
You.
- You're the man.
- Boom.
Ladies.
Do not tell me you hired that man as your lawyer.
Okay, I won't tell you, even though you seem to know already.
"Shark" is from the German word "schurke," - which means "greedy parasite.
" - Hear that? "Parasite.
" Why didn't you go with Frost's lawyer?! He's an expert at personal-injury claims.
Mark says there's too many people suing the Storrow Center.
Can you believe even people who weren't squished - in that garage want money? - Okay, well, thank God you and T.
J.
and Detective Frost weren't squished.
Yeah.
I got to go tell Lydia Mark's about to get me a settlement.
- You two together? - No, but we will be once she knows I can support her and T.
J.
- Oh, my God.
- What is it? Judge Harper just died in the courthouse.
Oh, no! I-I've testified in front of her.
- You knew her? - Yeah.
She was one of the good guys.
Judge Harper's courtroom was on the second floor.
- What was she doing up here? - She was a mock-trial advisor.
Well, that explains all the kids in suits.
I did mock trial.
I always wanted to be the bad guy, - but they made me the prosecutor.
- That's very impressive.
It's highly competitive.
I never made the team.
- That's not possible.
- The advisor said I was "wordy.
" You? I knew her husband.
He was a brilliant defense attorney.
Died a few years ago.
Makes this all the more tragic.
Oh, God.
Don't tell me that's her daughter.
Afraid it is.
Oh, no! Was she here when her mother collapsed? Yeah.
How did you know she collapsed? Subdermal bleeding on both knees.
- Okay, what do we have? - She adjourned her own courtroom at 5:00, and she checked in students when they arrived here at 5:10.
Left at 5:25, didn't come back until after the competition started.
- Where did she go? - Nobody knows.
- But she left her briefcase here.
- Okay, let's have CSRU collect that.
- We'll go through it later.
- She has a broken rib.
- Did someone give her CPR? - Yeah.
Uh, Roger Thorson, the other mock-trial advisor.
From what he said, it sounds like she went into convulsions.
Convulsions So if it was a seizure, are we looking at natural causes? Well, convulsions are a neurological response to many stimuli physiological, pharmacological, idiopathic.
So, maybe? - Hey.
Frankie's been assigned to this? - Yeah, I asked for more help till we can rule out homicide.
I'm gonna go finish interviewing Roger and the daughter.
- Okay.
- Hmm.
There's a wet, tacky substance on her palm.
- Appears to be paint.
- It's institutional beige.
I'd describe it as more of a taupe or a sand color, perhaps even a muted coral with a hint of abalone shell.
- Am I being wordy? - A little.
4x11 - Judge, Jury and Executioner - Hey.
What do you need? - Um there's paint on the victim's hand.
Can you find out which area of the courthouse was being painted today? - Any idea where to start? - Wherever she was coming from.
- Well, let's split up.
I'll look, too.
- All right.
Thanks.
Be right back.
Roger's telling me that he and Judge Harper are old friends.
- They went to law school together.
- Yeah, we had lunch today to prepare for the competition.
I can't believe she's gone.
Ashley did your mom have any medical conditions that you know about? No.
My mom was really healthy.
Do you know why she wasn't in the courtroom when you started the competition? - No.
- I didn't even see her leave.
I asked Judge Manning if we could wait for her, but he he said he'd take away points if I didn't start.
It's okay.
Is there, uh, someone that can take care of her? There's her grandma that lives with them.
- I'll take her home.
- Come on, sweetie.
It's Frost.
Hey, Frost.
Put you on speaker.
Frankie found what looks like a left palm print on the Northeast stairwell between the second and third floors.
That's the stairwell closest to this courtroom.
- Anything else? - Her purse is on the landing.
Can you show me? - Where's her wallet? - Right here.
Full of cash and credit cards.
- So it wasn't robbery.
- Hmm.
Sergeant Korsak, do you have your magnifying glass? Thank you.
What is it? I was examining her neck.
And I noticed blood.
There's a tiny puncture wound at the base of the skull.
Could be from a hypodermic needle.
- Someone injected her? - Look at this.
- Appears to be a scratch.
- Yeah.
From a hypodermic needle.
So she fought off someone in the stairwell who managed to kill her anyway.
I need to know what was in the syringe that killed her, Maura.
And I can't tell you.
You know how this works.
How is it that we can put a Rover on Mars, but the damn crime lab can't find a toxin unless we tell them what to look for? NASA lost control of that Rover.
And science is hard.
You know, they can't test for everything.
I need to narrow it down.
There are hundreds of thousands of drugs.
- Yes, I know.
- Well, whatever was in that syringe sent her into convulsions, so that should narrow it down.
Are you questioning my process? No.
Yes.
Okay, we don't know what caused the convulsions.
It could be anything from drugs to household cleaning products, - pesticides, a chemical.
- Okay, okay.
I'm not questioning.
You'll figure it out.
Did you do the nail scrapings yet? Yes.
Nothing under the fingernails.
But this scratch on her hand is from the same gauge needle as the injection.
- And she has well-developed gastrocnemii.
- Calf muscles? - How did you know? - Well, you pointed, and she has the legs of a runner.
Yeah, she has an old injury fracture of the left patella.
- See the pins? - Yeah.
What does that tell us? I don't know yet.
You know she put her husband through law school - when she was a paralegal? - Yeah, she was an extraordinary woman.
And now her kid is an orphan.
This makes me sick.
- We'll get it, Jane.
- I hope so.
- It's just not right.
- It's never right.
She's got 10 or 15 cases on her docket every day.
Drugs, guns, murder.
That's your average day for a felony-trial judge.
- Did you go through her briefcase? - Yeah.
Mainly research, case law, notes.
She was well-organized.
This one's marked "extensions," but it's empty.
Maybe she was reviewing extended sentences.
She leaves her chambers on the second floor and arrives on the sixth floor at 5:10, talks to her students, then leaves the courtroom at 5:25, but stumbles back in and dies at 5:36.
Wait, how do you know it was 5:36.
The kid who played the court clerk hit the time clock - when Ashley stopped her opening statement.
- Okay, so, we found her stuff in the stairwell, which says to me she was going back to her office.
She was a runner.
So how long would it take her to run down and back up four flights of stairs? - Frost? - Okay.
Well, this might be something.
She was assigned a high-profile prescription-drug case.
- The defendant was a prominent Doctor.
- What, he was selling drugs? Yeah.
To the two-six gang.
But his attorney filed a substitution-of-judge motion today.
So the Doctor didn't want Judge Harper to hear his case.
Well, why would he? She was tough on professionals who commit crimes.
- Yeah.
And she refused to recuse herself.
- So maybe the Doctor thought the only way to get Judge Harper off the case was to kill her.
A Doctor could cook up a lethal injection.
Yeah.
- For what? - To run up four flights of stairs.
Above and beyond the call of duty, Detective.
So why was the judge gone for 11 minutes? Did she stop and talk to someone in the stairwell? - Maybe she knew her killer.
- That would explain why the only defensive wound is the scratch with the needle on her hand.
She reacted too late, after she'd been injected.
Where are we on those security cameras? - The whole building's covered except the stairwells.
- All right.
Go through it all.
We need an exact list of every person that was in the courthouse today.
- I'll help you.
- Thanks, Frankie.
Jane, did you hear what Tommy did? - Does it involve a shark? - Yeah.
What an idiot.
Frost, maybe you can talk to him.
I tried.
He called me after he saw "Mark the shark's" ad.
If he'd just chill, he'd eventually get six figures, - at least that's what my guy says.
- Sounds about right for having to be trapped inside a collapsed building for eight hours.
- You guys could have died.
- I still have residual pain in my wrist.
- And Tommy had a head injury.
- Yeah.
That's, uh, Judge Harper's law clerk.
I had her come in.
- I see why.
She's hot.
- Hmm.
It's part of the investigation.
And she's too smart for you, anyway.
You have me confused with my brother.
- Let me do the interview with you.
- No.
You heard Jane.
I want you to go through all the security footage from the courthouse, make a list of all the people that entered and exited.
Check the court dockets, too.
Come on, Frost.
I'm gonna try to find where the Doctor was when Judge Harper was being attacked.
We noticed she had an S.
O.
J.
motion on her docket.
Did she pass on the legal sufficiency, or did she assign the recusal to another Judge? - How do you know all that? Are you a lawyer? - No, but he played one in high school.
Oh, you did mock trial.
Me, too.
Judge Harper didn't recuse herself, so the Doctor had to go before another judge for a final ruling.
- That motion was denied late this afternoon.
- Like I said, killing Judge Harper's a way to get your case reassigned.
I can't believe anyone would want to kill her.
That Doctor was the exception.
There were plenty of defendants that wanted to be assigned to her courtroom.
- Why is that? - She believed in rehabilitation and tried to assign defendants to prison programs that could help them turn their lives around.
Any attorneys or defendants on her other cases - that were squawking about her? - Just the routine stuff.
- Any grievances filed against her? - You'd have to check with the CJC.
- Commission on judicial conduct.
- Thank you, counselor.
When's the last time you saw Judge Harper? Right before 5:30.
She ran back into her office to grab - something she'd forgotten.
- What was it? I didn't ask.
She was rushing to get back to her daughter's competition.
- When did you leave the courthouse? - Around 5:30.
Oh, come on.
I loved my boss.
She was one of the few judges that made it possible for women to advance in law.
Did Judge Harper ever take the stairs? Always.
She was a fitness nut.
Any health problems you know of? Being a Judge is stressful.
Sometimes she'd complain of dizziness, fatigue.
A few times, she Tell us what you know, Ms.
Barlow.
This is how you can help her.
A few times, it seemed like she was slurring her speech.
Like she'd been drinking? Yes.
So you dissected the Judge's liver.
You're sure she wasn't a drinker? Uh, yes.
Her liver was near perfect.
No sign of alcohol abuse.
You ordered the Satan special? "Seitan.
" It's a wheat protein used as a meat substitute.
Okay, I get it.
It's it's theme night.
- What? - We're investigating a mock trial.
- You ordered mock meat.
- It is very nutritious.
They dissolve the starch to an insoluble gluten - and then cook this elastic mass.
- Can't wait to dig in.
Oh, uh, the extended panel results came back.
- What? Why didn't you tell me? - 'Cause you were busy accusing me of ordering you food from the underworld.
I love seitan.
Okay, tell me.
She tested positive for the presence of amphetamines.
- Judge Harper? - Yeah.
It could be a false-positive.
Many drugs share similar metabolites, but I will have to test every one with a similar chemical makeup.
- Again with the testing.
- You know, you could be one of the most impatient human beings I know.
But you're not sure? Maybe you should test it.
- You're wrecking my appetite.
- No! Maybe that's the insoluble gluten mass that you ordered? Got your mail.
Oh, thanks, Tommy.
Do you mind putting it on the desk? - What's in the bag? - Oh, cans and bottles for recycling.
Garbage bags are breeding grounds for bacterial and fungal pathogens, including salmonella, e.
Coli 0157, shigella dysentery, legionella, listeria monocytogenes She's not gonna stop talking unless you take outside.
- Aeromonas hydrophila - Well, I never got sick.
There's 20 bucks worth of cans and bottles in there.
Look at her.
Her head's about to explode.
- Staphylococci aureus.
- Look, Maura.
See? Cool, Jane.
Is Ma back yet? No.
Cavanaugh took her out to dinner.
- Tommy, would you like some food? - Uh Yeah, I-I don't eat that.
All right, well, since you're here, can we talk about your lawsuit? No.
We can't.
It's my life, Jane.
I know it's your l - what about T.
J.
? - What about him? Look, Mark says he can get me the money now.
Frost's guy says it's gonna be at least another year.
- I need it now.
- I think it's shortsighted and stupid.
You can't see me as anything other - than a stupid screw-up, can you? - What? Tommy, come on! - Tommy! - Tommy, stay and have some tea.
No, I just came by to drop off the cans and bottles for Ma.
- W-why are you bringing garbage to Ma? - Because she needs my help, and she doesn't see me as a screw-up.
That's why.
I really shouldn't be that hard on him.
He has such a big heart.
And you aren't listening.
You're going through your mail.
Oh.
Um, I just like sorting and organizing.
I know.
What? It's from the I.
R.
S.
I think it's an audit.
What are you worried about? You break out into hives if you lie.
I mean, if you cheat on your taxes, you're probably gonna get leprosy.
It's not for me.
It's for your mother.
What? What are you doing? Mail tampering is a crime.
Oh, my God.
She owes $27,000 in back taxes.
What? How is that possible? - She doesn't even make that in a year.
- My father.
He probably cheated on their taxes.
No wonder she's been trying to make extra money.
Tommy probably knows.
That's why he's recycling bottles and cans for her.
Well, why does she tell Tommy and not me and Frankie? What? What is that face? What? Tommy doesn't judge.
So, while you two were with the hot law clerk, we were going through 4 million hours of security footage.
Frankie, cue up the show.
We found Dr.
Simmons, A.
K.
A.
Dr.
Oxycontin, coming and going.
Well, that's him and his attorney entering the courthouse yesterday at 9:05 A.
M.
And That's Dr.
Simmons and the same attorney leaving at 5:02 P.
M.
Right after their motion for a new Judge was denied.
Yep.
And Judge Harper was ambushed in the stairwell around 5:30, so the Doctor didn't do it, unless he paid someone to do it for him.
Maybe we run a list of everyone at the courthouse against anyone with ties to the two-six gang that Dr.
Simmons was selling to.
- That's who he'd hire, right? - Makes sense.
I'll be right there.
- What do you want to do about Ma? - Nothing.
Maura's right.
We do judge.
And Ma doesn't want us to know.
You shouldn't have opened up her mail.
- I wanted to help, Frankie.
- She doesn't want our help.
- It just makes me so sad.
- Me, too, Janie.
Not a single two-six gang member or known associate was in that courthouse yesterday.
- A gang-free day? - Two-six, anyway.
I checked.
- Where's Jane? - She and Frankie went to grab coffee.
- What's up? - We have a cause of death.
Judge Harper died of methylphenidate overdose.
- Translation? - She had toxic levels of ritalin in her system.
- Who the hell kills someone with ritalin? - No one, apparently.
I ran it against all solved and unsolved homicides nothing.
Well, it's a common enough drug.
It's used to treat ADHD.
Yeah, the drug unit is always busting college kids who abuse it.
- Helps them stay up and study.
- Maybe it's one of the kids on the mock-trial team.
That's what I've been thinking.
I'm trying to get into the mock-trial website, but damn.
These kids are smart these days.
Come on.
Let me in.
But wouldn't that smart teenager realize that we'd eventually trace the drug? Plenty of M.
E.
's wouldn't have caught that.
You said mock trial was competitive? One kid I knew put his fist through a wall when he got cast as an understudy, tried to put his fist through my face when he heard I got his role.
- Yeah! - What? I just beat an 128-bit encryption.
MockYourAdvisors.
Com? Wow, look at all these complaints about Judge Harper.
Frost, scroll down.
Look at the quote from "Max" "I'm sick of Ashley and her tiger mom.
I say we give Judge Harper this sentence Death by lethal injection.
" I hope writing death threats was worth it, Max.
You're all are being very literal, - and you have no right to search my locker.
- We don't? The supreme court decided the need to maintain order outweighs the privacy interests in students in New Jersey vs.
T.
L.
O.
, if, and only if, you have articulable facts.
- You want "articulable facts"? - I think he does, Detective Frost.
The comments you made constitute threats sufficient to justify the search.
The supreme court also stated that if the manner in which the search is conducted is reasonably related to the objective, it's allowed.
Wrong.
I don't see a warrant, and I'm not giving consent.
Oh, that's okay.
We've not only met the reasonable suspicion standard but also the higher one probable cause.
That's sufficient to satisfy your 4th amendment concerns.
- Very nice, Detective Rizzoli.
- Thank you, Detective Frost.
- Your locker is messy, Max.
- Whatever.
Look.
I'll admit I was pissed at Judge Harper.
I am much more qualified than Ashley, but my mom isn't the advisor.
So you threatened Judge Harper with a lethal injection, - and then you killed her.
- Right.
I'm not stupid enough to kill a Judge.
Besides murder one looks kind of crappy on a transcript.
Ritalin.
A drug offense looks pretty crappy, too.
It's not illegal to take ritalin.
It is if you don't have a prescription.
Do you got one? - I want to cut a deal.
- Now we're talking.
I'll give up my dealer if you'll agree not to charge me for an electronically communicated threat.
Well, what if we want to charge you for murder, as well? I'm the backup prosecutor.
I never even left the courtroom.
Want my dealer or not? I didn't sell ritalin to anybody.
I just gave a couple pills to a friend.
At least, I thought Max was a friend.
I need to know where you got the ritalin, Ashley.
Ashley was diagnosed with ADHD when she was 11.
Her pediatrician prescribed it to help her concentrate.
So how long have you been taking it? - I don't anymore.
- My daughter was worried that Ashley was retreating from her life because she was embarrassed about the medication.
- So she let her stop taking it.
- How long ago was that? About seven months.
Right, honey? Yeah.
So if you'd stopped taking the ritalin, where did you get the pills to give to Max? I found a bottle in mom's medicine cabinet.
- Ashley! - A lot of kids take ritalin.
You know how huge the workload is senior year, on top of college applications and mock trial? Okay I took some pills for me, and I gave some to Max.
What a jerk.
Thank you for telling me the truth.
Why would somebody kill my mom? I don't know yet, but I want you to know that it is very important to me to find out.
Thank you.
I knew your mom.
She was a good person.
I'm so sorry for your loss, Ashley.
And yours, Mrs.
Phillips.
Hey, Dr.
Isles.
I'm just reading a law reviewarticle Judge Harper and Roger Thorson wrote when they were at BCU "Rehabilitation instead of retribution.
" - She was amazing.
- Thinking about the road not taken? What's the matter with your wrist? I've had intermittent tingling and stingers ever since I broke it in the parking-garage collapse.
- What did your Doctor say? - He sent me to a neurologist.
- She said there wasn't any nerve damage.
- Well, that's good.
- So why am I still having pain? - I have a thought.
Let me try something, but no guarantees.
I'm ready to try anything.
Except needles, because I don't I don't like needles.
This won't hurt.
I promise.
Okay.
The large intestines, L.
I.
of 11, on the affected side near to the left elbow.
- Ooh, what are you doing to him? - Shh.
Acupuncture is supposed to be performed in a calm environment.
With all of your masks of death staring at him? They're tribal ritual masks.
- You don't find them soothing? - Um - Not really.
- Huh.
Mm! Should you be doing that? - I'm certified.
- In acupuncture? I got a perfect score on the N.
C.
C.
A.
O.
M.
exam in acupuncture and on the foundations of traditional Chinese medicine - and the clean needle technique.
- All right, I'm not busting you.
- I'm just asking.
- Oh.
All right, give me an update on Judge Harper.
Something interesting came back on her hair sample.
She'd been taking ritalin for at least six months - prior to her death.
- Did she have ADHD like her daughter? Well, there was no evidence of that in her medical history, and no Doctor seems to have prescribed it for her.
- Hmm.
- I-I don't mean to be a bad patient, but I've stopped feeling calm.
Okay.
The last one.
Try not to move.
- Why was she taking ritalin? - I don't know.
But there were significant levels - of inert excipients in her blood.
- Pill binders? Yes.
Which wouldn't be present if taken orally.
So you're saying the killer injected her - with dissolved pills? - Yes.
Look, Jane, whoever did this had to have known she took ritalin and tried to make it look accidental.
These are Judge Harper's medical records from law school.
I was curious about her dizzy spells since they weren't alcohol-related.
The injury to her patella occurred between her second and third year - I wonder how she fractured it.
- She was a runner.
Maybe she fell.
No, I don't think so.
She told the treating Doctor that she didn't remember falling.
He ordered a lumbar puncture.
Aha! Her hypocretin levels were low.
Aha! Why are we saying "aha"? Well, it correlates with the HLA gene test I ordered.
- Aha! - Aha! Judge Harper fell because she blacked out.
She suffered from narcolepsy.
- That's why she was taking ritalin.
- Yes.
Okay, wait.
Why wasn't it in her medical records, and why didn't she have her own prescription? Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Judge Harper clerked for Judge Juliet Coker when she was in law school.
- Excuse me.
- Yeah.
Judge Coker was tossed from the bench when someone found out she was taking medication for bipolar disorder and leaked it.
Well, if she was taking medication, why was she removed? Was there evidence that her condition affected her judgment? No.
No, it wasn't about her condition.
She was a rising star.
The boys' club wouldn't have liked that.
- They used it to get rid of her.
- So Judge Harper saw firsthand what happens when your competitors know your weaknesses and your medical history.
Which is why she kept her narcolepsy a secret.
Somebody knew.
Oh, I can't today, Angela.
I dipped into Zorba's baklava at lunch.
I just tried to make my monthly electronic payment to the I.
R.
S.
Frank Sr.
's back taxes? They told me that I have a zero balance.
- You think Frank paid it off? - No.
My sources tell me he's completely broke.
Was it you? I promised you I would not interfere, and I didn't.
Well, then, maybe it was a clerical mistake.
When they find it, are they gonna throw me in jail? I'm gonna have to tell them it's gonna take me I might know someone I can call, find out what's up.
Really? Thanks.
- Hey, Ma.
- Hi, honey.
- Everything okay? - Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
I was just trying to give a brownie to Sergeant Korsak.
But he'd rather have some carrots instead.
No charge.
- Thanks.
- Yeah.
I found something in Judge Harper's phone records a guy named Dustin Williams who's been calling her every day for weeks.
Frost, can you check Frankie's list, see if Dustin Williams was in the courthouse yesterday? Yeah, but wait.
How would he know that she took ritalin? Did you check to see if he filed a formal complaint against her? - He did.
- Dustin Williams is on the list and didn't leave the courthouse until 5:45 P.
M.
You filed a formal complaint against Judge Harper.
- To get justice for my son.
- Joey Williams is your son? - That's right.
- He was convicted of burglary.
Judge Harper sentenced him to up to three years at Starbridge.
- Why there? - Ask Judge Harper.
She's dead.
She said since Joey was 17 and a first-time offender, it would be a good place to turn his life around.
She put him with scum! You seem pretty angry, Mr.
Williams.
Angry enough to kill a Judge who sentenced your son? - I didn't kill anybody.
- Then what were you doing at the courthouse yesterday? Trying to get what I'm entitled to copies of Joey's case file, so I could sue that hellhole of a prison.
Joey didn't much like it there.
- They extended his sentence.
- They added four years.
- What did he do? - Nothing! They said he attacked someone, but that wasn't Joey.
He was scared out of his mind.
I begged Judge Harper to get him out of there.
Is that why you kept calling her? She said she believed he didn't deserve that extension.
She said she'd look into it.
- Did she? - She didn't do a damn thing.
It's because of her my son's dead.
- When did he die? - Last week.
Prison gave me some bullshit story about kidney failure, but Joey never had any problem with his kidneys.
- And you blame Judge Harper for that? - Hell yeah.
She put him in there.
I bet she was taking kickbacks.
You go ahead, arrest me.
Charge me with her murder.
I'll confess, as long as you look into my son's death.
Judge's financials are clear.
I knew she wasn't taking kickbacks.
She wasn't that kind of person.
Dad's alibi checks out.
Clerk's office said he showed up at 4:30 and refused to leave without his son's file.
- Court security hauled him out at 5:45.
- Judge Harper believed in rehabilitation.
Is that why she sent Joey to Starbridge? Can you pull up their website? Got it.
Nice prison a library, classrooms, basketball court, computer room.
- It's minimum security.
- Yeah.
Mostly first-time offenders.
An 18% recidivism rate? That's low.
Starbridge should run all the prisons if they can turn 82% of their inmates into solid citizens.
Frost, pull up Starbridge's financials.
They showed record profits in the last two quarters.
Must be a big place.
Every prison gets paid by the prisoner.
Let's look at anyone Judge Harper sentenced there.
Every one of them was a first-time offender.
Jane, they all had their sentences extended.
For the same thing.
Look.
It says "behavior violations.
" Same as Joey Williams.
The extensions file in her briefcase She was checking into Joey's extended sentence, and somebody took the contents of that file.
I have Joey Williams' autopsy reports from Starbridge.
I checked it against all of his medical records.
He has a blood condition benign familial erythrocytosis.
What's that mean? Well, his red-blood-cell count was consistently elevated, but his autopsy CBC blood test showed no signs of elevation.
- That's not possible.
- Yeah, it is.
It wasn't Joey's blood.
Judge Harper had a daughter that was 17.
She cared about teenagers.
Joey was 17.
She was looking into Starbridge.
We need to go there.
It's a private prison.
They're not just gonna let you poke around.
They might.
If they think we're all on the same side.
- Do you know this Dustin Williams guy? - Better than I'd like to.
Us, too he's been raising holy hell at the station.
He's even asked Dr.
Isles here to exhume his son's body - to do another autopsy.
- He's like a bad penny, that one.
We need got to him off our back.
Yeah.
So just give us the 25-cent tour, and we will sign off on this thing - and finally be rid of that nut ball.
- Nothing would make me happier.
Fantastic.
"Starbridge: Do your time, cross the bridge to a better life.
" We try to make a difference.
That's why we only take minimum-security offenders.
- How do you manage such a low recidivism rate? - We have a lot to offer Classes to get your high-school G.
E.
D.
, college courses, counseling, fitness center.
- We've got it all.
- Mm.
Uh, we would love to see where you house the prisoners.
Oh, that's off limits, even to the good guys.
- Sorry.
- No problem.
Jane, are you all right? Oh.
No.
Oh, no.
Uh, you know, she has terrible dysmenorrhea.
Do you have ladies' room? Uh, there's only one.
It's it's all the way - on the other side of the facility.
- I need that one! Oh, I-I'm gonna I'm gonna come with you, Detective.
Excuse us.
Jane Did ever have a female partner? - No.
- Pbht.
- What a pain in the ass.
- You're telling me.
- Where did you get that card? - Borrowed it.
This is making me very itchy.
I'll get you some benadryl.
All right, come on.
We got to figure out what happened to Joey.
Go.
There's four people to a one-man cell.
- Are those gang tattoos? - Yeah, hard-core gangbangers.
They're not first-time offenders.
And this definitely isn't minimum security.
"Monday and Friday"? Well, how could a prison offer inmates access to medical care - for only six hours a week? - Dig deep.
Find his records.
Staphylococcus bacteria must be teeming in here, - along with e.
Coli.
- Don't start again.
Here it is.
Here it is.
Joseph Williams' medical records.
Frost? - Hit me.
- Get into the bureau of prisons database.
Okay.
Pull up a listing of all Starbridge inmates.
What are you looking for? Sort for longest to shortest sentences, and then start reading.
Okay.
"Murder one, murder one, second-degree murder.
" A lot of those.
"Assault with a deadly weapon.
" Lots of those.
- And lots of rapes.
- Does that sound like a place to send a 17-year-old first-time burglar? I'm surprised the kid lasted as long as he did.
Jane Joey Williams didn't die of kidney failure.
- You sure? - Well, I'd prefer to do an autopsy.
I'd prefer to be in Hawaii.
What does it say in his report? Okay, look, what Starbridge reported to the state conflicts with his chart.
He had elevated blood CO2 levels.
That's consistent with suffocation, not kidney failure.
It would be in Starbridge's interest to cover up a prison murder to keep their contract with the state.
Judge Harper must have pressed Starbridge after Joey's death.
- I think we just found motive.
- Jane, there's ritalin here.
It's Korsak.
Warden's on high alert, looking for us Frost, did you find Judge Harper - on yesterday's courthouse footage? - I wasn't looking for her, but I can.
- Okay.
Jane, let's go.
- Okay.
Track her.
I want to know everyone that she talked to yesterday.
Okay.
Korsak is texting me.
Now, come on.
We need to get out of here.
Frost, I got to go.
Bye.
Oh, man.
I thought I was gonna have to visit you at Starbridge.
Oh.
We should have called.
How did you get away from the warden? - You don't want to know.
- Yeah, I do.
- I said I needed a tampon.
- Worked like a charm.
I've found something, Jane.
Judge Harper and Roger Thorson had coffee together.
Yeah, uh, they went over the mock trial.
He told us about it.
But something happened between them.
Watch.
That's quite a disagreement.
Zoom in on that file folder.
It's the "extensions" folder.
So she was talking about Joey's sentence extension.
Why are they arguing? Wait, frost, stop.
Go back.
What's on that paper she's showing him? It's a complaint to the office of bar counsel.
Judge Harper wanted someone disbarred.
Who? Hit "play.
" Well, whatever he said made her rip up that complaint.
What do we know about Roger Thorson? They were friends, went to law school together.
They even co-wrote articles for the law review.
He's a corporate attorney now.
- Does he have any connection to Starbridge? - Checking.
- His firm represents them.
- Who else does he represent? No one.
Okay.
So, he gave Judge Harper the sales job on Starbridge.
That's why she was sentencing first-time offenders there.
She thought they were on the same side.
The law review article you were reading "Rehabilitation instead of retribution.
" She learned too late that Roger had sold out.
Tens of millions of dollars at stake with a private prison.
Wait, it it wasn't just about the money.
She was threatening to get him disbarred with the complaint that she tore up.
He'd lose everything.
Keep watching.
Look what he's doing now.
Emptying the "extensions" folder.
And taking a manila envelope.
The law clerk said the judge came back for something.
Permission slips! That's why she left the courtroom.
Well, you're not allowed to start the competition until you've turned in all the kids' permission slips.
Let's get a warrant.
Detectives, approach, please.
Thank you, your honor.
Are those the permission slips? Any news? The kids are just about to come in - to finish the mock-trial competition.
- Yeah, I have some news, Roger, starting with the permission slips that you took from Judge Harper's briefcase.
I'm sorry? - She left them in the courtroom.
- No.
You convinced her that she left them in her office.
That way you could start the competition.
Everyone was watching Ashley.
No one noticed you slip out, and you waited for Judge Harper in the stairwell, and then you injected her with ritalin.
You're out of your mind! I tried to save her.
I gave her CPR.
Yeah, you had to think fast.
What if she had been able to talk, Roger? That must have shocked the hell out of you when she made it back here.
You knew about her narcolepsy diagnosis, knew she took ritalin.
- This is obscene.
- Yes, it is.
We executed a search warrant at your house.
We found paint from the stairwell and fibers from the judge's dress - on the suit you were wearing.
- Of course you did! I was trying to start her heart.
She was my friend.
And you made sure you touched her in case you were ever a suspect.
- That's not true! - No? Since when did CPR require a syringe filled with ritalin? What syringe? Oh, the supposed murder weapon? Do you have that? Did you did you recover it when you tore apart my house? I'm sure you disposed of it.
Luckily, you carried that syringe out of the courthouse in your suit pocket.
We found traces of ritalin and her blood on your clothes.
Hey! Hi, Vince.
My friend at the I.
R.
S.
confirms it.
Your debt is paid off.
Oh, I feel like I just got my life back! He's not supposed to be drinking.
- It's a soda.
- Oh.
Hey, everyone, next round's on me! You, too, Jane.
And, of course, you, too, Maura.
- What are you doing, Tommy? - I'm celebrating.
My case against the Storrow Center settled.
- Oh, Tommy! - Tommy, hey.
Listen maybe it's best that you don't spend your money like this.
Ma, I want you to stop worrying, okay, about me, and now you can stop worrying about, you know, your financial issues.
Tommy, you didn't.
- Didn't what? - You paid off her debt? - You paid off the I.
R.
S.
? - $27,000? How do you two know?! - Vince? - Don't look at me.
I didn't say a word.
Uh well we No.
I.
I wa - It was just a long story - I told them.
Look, you shouldn't have to do everything on your own.
They wanted to help, just like me.
Oh, come here, Tommy.
Thank you.
Ma, I can't breathe.
Listen I'm gonna pay you every penny, son.
I promise with interest.
- Ma, look.
I owe you plenty.
- No, I Wow.
I'm proud of you, Tommy.
You're the man that Pop never was.
You don't have to get all mushy on me, Jane.
Well, I can if I want to! Oh, I love you so much.
I love you.
And listen, okay.
You are not allowed to do this on your own, all right? - Frankie and I will split it with you.
- Thanks, Jane.
Well, listen, since we're all hugging here, - can I hug Maura, too? - You bet.
- Hands where I can see them.
- What? What about you, Korsak? You want a hug? - Come on! Give me a hug! - All right!