Law & Order (1990) s06e09 Episode Script
Blood Libel
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.
Frank and Count Basie at The Sands.
That'll set the mood.
Then what are you going to do? Yeah.
Hot oil? That sounds good.
Yeah, that'll definitely get little Johnny's attention.
Wait, wait.
Advanced Studies.
Hello again, Mr.
Aronson.
I was just on my way out.
No, I wouldn't leave if your wife was still here, but she's not.
Okay, okay.
I got your number.
I'll take a quick look, I'll call you back.
Bye-bye.
Hello, Jackie? Listen, there's something I got to do, okay, baby? I'll be right back.
Keep the coffee percolating.
Bye.
Mrs.
Aronson? Mrs.
Aronson? Mrs.
Aronson! The school custodian, Johnny Cobb, says he found her about 9:30.
Any other witnesses? Nobody else was in the building.
The front doors were locked, the alarm was set.
I saw her around 7:00, she was grading papers, she told me she was leaving soon.
And the first time her husband called, you checked the classroom? That was just a little after 9:00.
I walked by the room, the lights were out, so I didn't look in.
I called him back, I told him she wasn't here.
But the second time, you looked in.
The second time I tried the door, it was open.
She always locks up after herself.
She often work late? Yeah.
Damn shame, you know, a young woman like that, she's a good person.
Yeah, they usually are, Mr.
Cobb.
Thank you.
Thought you were going to call in sick.
Can't afford to give up the sick days before Christmas.
Okay, so when I get your cold, is your wife going to make me chicken soup? Say hello to Sarah Aronson, 28, taught art and art history, and according to Detective Bailey, she's been history for about two hours.
Give or take.
Strangled with the strap from her handbag.
Perp left behind cash, cards, the whole caboodle.
Well, maybe he got what he came for.
It must have been the lmmaculate Conception.
Panties are intact, no fluids anywhere.
Yeah, unless you count all that red stuff.
No wounds on her I can see, blood's got to be the perp's.
Anything she might've used as a weapon? Yeah, we found a piece of chalk.
Bag her as soon as you're ready.
Did you take art in high school, Rey? Physics.
An art teacher, who'd she ever hurt? Yeah, an algebra teacher, I could understand.
This was Sarah's third year at Advanced Studies.
She was involved in every aspect of school life.
Coached girls volleyball, headed the community outreach group.
Do you have any idea who could have done this? Some neighborhood scum.
We had a couple of break-ins last year.
They stole some computers, vandalized classrooms.
Your people did a quick inventory, nothing was stolen, nothing was vandalized.
And there's no sign of any break-in.
I can't believe anyone here would do this.
Two thousand high school kids, and every one of them's an angel? We recruit our students from among the highest achievers in the city.
They take a battery of tests to get here, these aren't hoodlums.
Well, Dr.
Sabloff, somebody got out without setting off the alarm.
How many people have a key to disarm it? Faculty, some of the staff.
Look, you're barking up the wrong tree here.
Whoever did this could have taken Sarah's key to get out.
Sarah told me she was having dinner with another teacher, Lana Halstead.
She was supposed to be home around 9:00.
When can I bring her back? I've got to arrange the funeral before the Sabbath.
We'll tell the coroner to try to speed it up.
Mr.
Aronson, if your wife was having dinner with a friend, then why did you call the school? Well, when Sarah wasn't home by She said that Sarah never showed up.
She thought maybe she was still grading papers at the school.
And what did you think? Mr.
Aronson, is it possible that she was seeing somebody? No.
No.
But something was going on.
For two weeks now, there were calls, lots of hang-ups.
Once a man called, asked for Sarah, and they wouldn't leave a message.
Well, what did she say about these calls? She just thought I was making a big deal about nothing.
Can you think of anyone who could have made these calls? No.
Sarah and I were supposed to have dinner together, I was not covering for her.
Ms.
Halstead, you might think you're helping your friend here.
I am not lying.
Sarah was not the type to have an affair.
My experience is it's an equal-opportunity character flaw.
Sarah and I were close.
If she were seeing somebody, I'm sure that I would know.
Well, her husband said they got some strange phone calls, at least one of them from a man.
Ms.
Halstead? She hinted that she was having a problem with one of the other teachers.
This problem have a name? Richard Kovax, Advanced Math.
He was her mentor, her first year here.
Is that all he was? Well, maybe not in Richard's imagination.
Richard's been with the school for 18 years, and anytime they need money for some kind of special project, he's the one they send to speak to these foundations.
So that kind of thing breeds a certain amount of arrogance.
I got along very well with Sarah.
I liked her.
If she had a problem with that, she never told me.
Then why would she want to talk about you with Ms.
Halstead? Beats me.
I may not be God's gift to women, but I'm not surprised I'm a topic among the female staff here.
Well, we got the impression that your animal magnetism wasn't on the agenda.
Look, Sarah was an exciting intellectual and a fine artist in her own right.
I showed her a little more attention.
If she mistook that for something deeper Or more sinister? Did you ever call her at home, Richard? Don't bother saying no, 'cause we have other ways of finding out.
I might've called her last week to discuss the outreach program.
And last night around 7:30? I was at the Morningside Gym, warming up for my session with my trainer.
I was there till just after 10:00.
He has a regular time, Uh-huh.
And what time did you get here Wednesday? the whirlpool to work on my knee.
I didn't see Richard till about 7:50.
He was warming up on the treadmill.
Did you notice any cuts or bruises on him? No, but he usually wears a sweatshirt.
See, he had a bypass about two years ago, he really doesn't want people to see the scar.
How about his mood? Anything unusual that night? No, same as it's been for the last couple of weeks.
Lousy.
He had the Christmas blues a few weeks early, huh? Well, you ask me, he got the three strikes from his girlfriend.
They used to come in together, but she called me about two weeks ago, wanted to change her time.
Two weeks ago, right around the same time Aronson started getting the phone calls.
You get that girlfriend's number, we're going to need it, all right? I'm not exactly shocked you're here.
I knew sooner or later it would catch up to Richard, I just didn't expect it would be this fast.
What would catch up to him? The second coming of Classanova.
Believe me, I thought of calling the police myself.
So what happened? Did he run off with her to Vegas? You're saying he was involved with one of his students? I was at his place on Sunday, a couple of weeks ago.
He went out to get the paper.
The phone rang, I heard the message on the machine.
It sounded like a young girl.
What was the message? She was sorry she'd gotten him in trouble.
She said it wasn't her fault, she tried keeping it a secret, but something about a Mrs.
Aronson, and the girl left her name.
Mattie.
What did Kovax say about it? He told me I was jumping to conclusions.
Right.
I know I didn't phone my high school teachers at home on Sunday mornings.
I got my things and left.
My money's on the girlfriend.
She wouldn't have walked unless there was something to it.
Oh, yeah? Well, take it from the old bull, women can walk because you leave the cap off the toothpaste.
Besides, this Mattie could be 90 years old.
I got the work-up on the blood from the scene.
The perp's male, most likely Caucasian.
So far that's me.
Well, you better cut out your morning donut.
The PCR tests indicate our perp's predisposed to diabetes.
Well, if Kovax had a bypass, maybe that wasn't his only health problem.
Yeah, I'm still here.
Yeah, go ahead.
Right.
Can you give me the address? Okay, thank you very much.
Kovax has a Mattie Braverman in his 11th grade class.
Lennie, what kind of trouble does a grown man get in over a 16-year-old? Come on.
Well, let's ask him.
Uh-uh.
Ask the girl first, might save us some apologies.
The love life of a 16-year-old girl? Sounds like your department.
Have a seat, Mattie.
I told your mother it wouldn't take long.
I don't mind looking at some photos, but I really doubt I'll recognize anybody.
I really didn't notice who was hanging around the school last Wednesday.
I didn't bring you down here to look at mug shots, but I do want to know about your relationship with Richard Kovax.
He's just my teacher, what do you mean? You called him at home.
One of his friends heard your message.
I don't even know his number.
Mattie, we can look at your phone records.
We can prove you made the call, so don't lie or I promise you, you will be in serious trouble.
All right, I better get your mother.
This is a murder investigation, and you're a material witness.
The less you cooperate, the worse it gets.
Wait.
Don't bring my mother in here.
The call wasn't about what you think.
I wasn't sleeping with Mr.
Kovax.
Then what was the call about? Mrs.
Aronson was my advisor.
She called me in a couple of weeks ago because I was getting A's in Advanced Math.
She knew I wasn't a math genius.
Last year, I was getting C's and D's.
She wanted to know what the deal was.
And what did you tell her? She was like you.
She thought I was slutting Mr.
Kovax for good grades.
She said she was gonna go to the administration.
I said it wasn't true.
I was buying grades from Mr.
Kovax.
Excuse me? I was giving him $300 a semester.
I had to, to bring up my GPA, or forget about Vassar.
I'm not the only one, you know.
I can name at least six other students in my class.
She said she was going to speak to Mr.
Kovax.
I've been Teacher of the Year, five years running.
I know how to motivate these kids.
You know how to pick their pockets.
We talked to some of Mattie's friends, they all tell the same story.
Seven kids, three bills each a semester, that's over $4,000 a year, not counting the kids we don't know about.
I think I should talk to a lawyer.
You say the word, we'll let you make a call right after we book you for bribe-receiving and murder.
That's absolutely crazy.
I left that school at 6:30.
Dr.
Sabloff saw me leave, ask him.
We did.
That just means you came back later.
You're dead meat, Richard.
You left your blood all over that classroom.
What'd she do, smack you in the nose while you were strangling her? Look, I'm an O negative.
You check, it can't be my blood.
Thanks for your cooperation, Richard.
It's my duty to inform you that your blood type matches the type found at the scene.
But that's impossible.
Stand up, Mr.
Kovax.
Wait, would you let me explain? What, you don't want a lawyer anymore? No, I want to clear this up.
Sarah found out what I was doing, but I made a deal with her, I stopped taking the money.
And did you stop taking their money? Yes.
I told the students the deal was off, and I told them why.
You told them that Sarah Aronson was the one who pulled the plug? Maybe I shouldn't have.
A few days ago, Sarah told me she'd gotten threats, anonymous notes left on her desk.
She wanted to know who was responsible.
I told her I didn't know.
I teach seven classes, it could have been any one of 30 kids, but I swear to God, I didn't kill her.
Well, we believe you, Mr.
Kovax.
Turns out, we got everything mixed up.
Your blood type doesn't match, after all.
She kept a locker in here to change for volleyball practice.
This one's yours, Lennie.
I did her desk.
Great.
Smelly socks.
I can't wait.
This one, number 12.
Hmm.
This is cute.
"Open your big mouth, Jew bitch, and you'll die.
" "Hitler was right, burn with the rest of the mud people.
" I met Mrs.
Aronson last year.
She brought her students to the Met to see our collection of da Vinci drawings.
She had some very talented young artists in her group, very strong on technique.
As for subject matter, well, the sooner they stop listening to heavy metal, the better.
Well, what about the kid who was listening to Deutschland über alles? Is he one of hers? Well, this drawing was done in freehand calligraphy, meaning each figure was outlined with one continuous line.
Definitely inspired by Japanese sumi-e painting.
Very much like this one.
What's particularly interesting are the folds in this dress and this.
See how the shadows are suggested by the thickness of the line? The same hand drew both of these.
Edward Camarillo.
Yeah, I drew an angel for a school project.
Is that some kind of violation of church and state? I'll show you a violation.
This is your work, Eddie, your special style.
Are you asking me a question? Everything in here's a question, wiseass.
Look, I didn't draw this, okay? Somebody ripped me off.
And I never sweated Mrs.
A.
Oh! Even when she squirted on your parade? Yeah, Richard Kovax told us you were buying grades from him.
Kovax is lying.
I earned my grades in math.
Oh, yeah? How about a little pop quiz, Eddie? Let's see, you're 18.
Why don't we add 25 to that, 'cause that's the going rate for murder.
You better watch who you're cracking off to, you little punk.
Now, we match your prints to the prints on this drawing, it's over.
So you talk now, or you're going to be grabbing your ankles for some real tough guys down in Sing Sing.
Look, I didn't do this stuff, I swear, okay? And I don't know who did.
A lot of people were pissed off at Mrs.
A.
And I didn't kill her, you can ask my pops.
I was working in his store that night.
The old man owns a shoe repair place up on Amsterdam, kid works the counter till 8:00.
Checked with some of the customers, he was there.
We showed his folks the drawing he sent Aronson.
It didn't go over in a big way.
Got to admit it's a little out of character.
His mother lent us his high-school year book.
Junior Honors Graphic Design, American History Medal, Dean's List, Media Center and a letter in wrestling.
Doesn't impress me as much as his alibi.
Hey, Rey? This favorite quote of his, L-A-L, what is that, something in español? I never heard of it.
Look at this kid, Ashton.
His quote's K-l-L.
He's on the wrestling team, too.
Wait a minute.
Here's somebody with a K-E-S.
Niels, another wrestler.
Same as this one, Hastings.
He's got L-K-I.
Give me those letters again.
L-K-I, K-E-S, K-l-L and L-A-L.
A secret code for wrestlers? Maybe we get Vanna White in here.
Could be all one message.
Try in alphabetical order by the kids' names.
First one is Ashton.
He's got K-l-L.
Yeah, then there's Camarillo, L-A-L.
Next.
Matt Hastings, L-K-I.
Hey, it was a joke, just to see if the geeks at the yearbook were awake.
Well, we were wide awake.
We know all about your deal with Kovax.
Yeah, and we know about the notes Aronson got.
Were those supposed to be a joke, too? Look, we're sorry she's dead, but we don't know what you're talking about.
Right.
We're all sorry.
We have to take a shower before our next class.
Is that okay? Sure, make sure you scrub real hard.
We weren't out to hurt anybody, besides it's free speech, it's protected.
That doesn't cover death threats, Matt.
I'm talking about the yearbook, I never threatened anybody.
Oh, yeah.
"Kill all kikes.
" I guess you meant that in a nice way.
Look, it was a joke.
Ezra Pound made fun of the Jews.
And Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises.
Why do you think he gave the fool the name of Cohn? Just because I made fun of them, so what? Can I go now, please? They thought this was funny? Yeah, Hastings gave us a comparative lit course on their sense of humor.
According to Richard Kovax, all four were buying grades from him.
Camarillo has an alibi for the night of the murder, but we think the other three are viable suspects.
I didn't think it was relevant before, but I came by the school one evening a month ago.
I saw Matt Hastings coming out the front door.
He told me he was working on a chemistry project.
He said he'd gotten the key for the alarm from Ms.
Miller.
You checked this out with her? She denied giving him the key.
So the kid was lying.
I didn't think so at the time.
I assumed she was covering up to avoid being reprimanded.
You took a student's word over hers? Not just any student.
Matt Hastings was in the top one percentile, he was class president last year.
There was talk of making him valedictorian.
I never suspected this.
We did handsprings for the judge.
He still wouldn't sign off on a search warrant.
You lifted fingerprints from the notes? Doesn't help.
None of these kids has ever been printed.
In other words, we're stuck.
We've got the blood at the scene, but we can't force Hastings to give us a sample.
The M.
E.
Found a predisposition to diabetes.
Diabetes can be detected by looking for high sugar in urine.
We still need a warrant to make this punk pee in a cup.
The school doesn't.
Hastings is a wrestler.
We ask them to conduct a drug test of the wrestling team.
And that gets us around it? The Supreme Court said so in the Vernonia ruling a few months ago.
That allows the testing of high school athletes without a warrant.
Hastings, Matthew.
That's him.
Let me see the number on that one.
As our lawyer, this should make you very uncomfortable.
These children have rights.
Board of Education gave it their blessing.
This is strictly by the book.
Well, we ran a full screen on all the students.
As high schools go, this one's very clean.
Only two positives.
One for THC and one for alcohol.
We're looking for sugar.
Sugar? My mother warned me, one day the sugar police would show up.
Yeah, well, we finally got here.
So, did you find any? Actually, whenever we get a positive read for alcohol, we run another test to determine if the source is external.
As in a glass of wine? Correct.
Otherwise, the source could be internal.
If there's yeast in the urine and an abundance of sugar, presto, body works like a still.
Here we go.
The dip-stick is number 16.
"Presence of alcohol due to an abnormal high-sugar count.
" Kid's a diabetic, and I bet he doesn't know it.
Number 16.
Matt Hastings.
Tell me what he did, I have a right to know! You stay out of the way, Mr.
Hastings.
Matt, be careful! Stand up.
Put your hands up.
All right, turn that crap off.
Matt Hastings, you're under arrest for the murder of Sarah Aronson.
You have the right to remain silent.
Dad! Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You know, Jack, I half expected to look out your window and see Tiananmen Square.
Here, we don't put people, much less children, behind bars for their thoughts.
He's a political prisoner? Alice, please, Bill Kunstler is spinning in his grave.
You had a suspect.
In fact, you had two, Kovax and Camarillo.
Why go after my client? Simple.
He expressed a point of view you didn't like.
His crime wasn't about his point of view.
It was about pumping up his grades, and Sarah Aronson got in the way.
So I'd have to work a little harder, big deal.
The only reason I paid Kovax is I got lazy.
Matt No, really.
Check my math scores for the past three years.
A's and A minuses, same as all my courses.
That's enough.
Mr.
McCoy, Matt didn't kill anybody.
He was at home with me.
If he were my son, Mr.
Hastings, I'd probably say the same thing.
Now, if he tells me others were involved, I might convince a judge to go easy on him.
Did I ask for a handout? You should.
We found his fingerprints on one of the notes.
I was just trying to scare her off.
We matched his blood to the blood on the scene, and his principal told us he has a key to the school.
He knows I borrowed it from Ms.
Miller.
She told him you didn't.
If you're going to kill people, you shouldn't advertise the fact in your yearbook.
A dumb prank, that's all it was.
Not half as egregious as violating the Fourth Amendment, which you did when you stuck a jar of his fluids under a microscope.
Motion to suppress the drug-test results, trampling on the rights of a minor.
How low can you get? In Vernonia, the Supreme Court allowed drug testing to combat illegal drug use in public schools.
It did not intend the test as a subterfuge to identify murder suspects.
This was a properly conducted search for illegal drugs.
They were looking for drugs, but they came up with diabetes? The predisposition for diabetes was in plain view, Your Honor.
Under a microscope.
The defendant tested positive for alcohol.
The lab ran a routine test to find the source of the alcohol.
That's how they found he had a high-sugar level.
Sounds like plain view to me, Ms.
Marsdale.
Your Honor, the Vernonia ruling sanctioned random testing.
There was nothing random about this test.
I refer to Exhibit C of the moving affidavits, the statement by the lab technician who conducted the tests.
When the samples were collected, the officers singled out which individual they were interested in, namely, my client.
You dispute this, Mr.
McCoy? The officers simply asked for the identification number of Mr.
Hastings' specimen.
There was no intent to corrupt the testing procedure.
I don't care about their intent.
You pushed the envelope too far, Mr.
McCoy.
I'm granting the motion.
The test results are out.
Your Honor, since the results led to my client being charged and to further evidence being collected, may I Yes, it's all out.
The charges are dismissed.
These officers.
A couple of Chatty Cathys.
They were looking at the bottom of the bag, Adam.
The drug test was all we had to go with.
Still have the threats, still have motive.
Build the house again.
Right.
The yearbook and the threats might have been juvenile hyperbole, but not what the police found in his room.
Issues of Aryan Times magazine, racist literature downloaded from the Internet, White Power music.
Let me guess.
Wagner.
Yeah, you won't be hearing this at the Met.
"Jew Boy, better start running, "rat-faced bastard, our time is coming.
" I'm shocked we have things like this in a free society.
This kid have an alibi? Home with his father.
What's his father's alibi? I was doing home care in Kew Gardens that night.
I came back just before 11:00.
Joe was watching the news and Matt was in his room, on the computer.
And your daughter, where was she? Carlie had a sleepover at a friend's house.
But you're sure Matt was home all night? Yes, my husband told me, and I know my own son.
He's nothing like they say in the papers.
Those people think we're all anti-Semites.
Those people? You know very well what I'm talking about, Ms.
Kincaid.
It's clear what your son was talking about in the yearbook.
He was just trying to get a rise out of people.
I mean, look at that school.
How do you think he feels? He's a minority.
What about the hate literature found in his room? Who was that aimed at? Matt reads a lot.
It's just a curiosity.
He doesn't have a problem with Jews.
For God's sake, he was seeing a Jewish girl.
Do I think he's an anti-Semite? When he was with me, Matt admired Jews.
He was always going on how intelligent we were.
The first couple of months, it was kind of flattering.
And then? Then some of the stuff he told other people got back to me.
Like, how he was just with me because he thought it was good for his image.
You're smart and attractive.
It could have been some male chest-thumping.
It wasn't that.
It was because I was Jewish.
He thought it would help him get over with the other Jewish kids at school.
So that was important to him? Well, yeah.
It is if you want to become class president and a bunch of other stuff that looks good on a college application, and it worked.
Last month, he got early admission to Princeton, full scholarship.
Thanks to you.
Is that why you guys broke up? Yeah.
Of course, he denied using me.
He blamed all the other Jewish kids for telling lies about him.
He said that they were just jealous.
It was just so typical of him, you know.
He never took responsibility for anything.
Loren, you never answered my first question.
Is he an anti-Semite, or is it like his mom says, it's just an act? No, it's no act.
I mean, I know where he gets it from, it's his parents.
Like, one time his dad started asking about this family, the Abramsons.
Like, all us Jews were supposed to know each other or something.
He said that they cheated him out of his printing business, and that it was their fault he couldn't afford to send Matt to prep school.
It was just stupid.
Even though I know how Matt feels about Jewish people, I just can't believe he could have killed Mrs.
Aronson.
Niels and Ashton, I mean, I could totally imagine them doing it.
Those guys are scary.
What about Eddie Camarillo? He just follows Matt around.
I mean, they've been friends since freshman year.
They do crazy stuff together.
They used to break into the school on Saturdays to lift weights and stuff.
How'd they get past the alarm system? Well, Eddie had a key made on the machine at his dad's store.
You gave him the key, Eddie.
That's how he got out, after he killed Mrs.
Aronson.
That's not true.
I don't have a key.
Our witness says you do.
That makes you an accomplice to murder.
And whatever plans you had for the next 20 years, you better put them on hold.
Now you serve up Matt Hastings, your future gets a little brighter.
I can't.
I'm down with him.
Hey.
Be down with this.
When Hastings talks about the mud people, who you think that is? That's you, Eddie.
That's you and me.
We're the mud people.
You're wrong.
My people come from pure Spanish blood, white Christian blood.
Come on.
After they're done with the Jews, the blacks, the Asians, the Arabs, who's next? Sooner or later, the mailman comes to your gate, hermano.
Mrs.
Aronson recognized my drawing.
She called me in.
She said she'd give us a chance to turn ourselves in.
Matt said he'd lose his scholarship.
He said he was going to talk to her.
So I gave him my key.
I never thought he was going to hurt her.
Pick him up.
I'll never doubt the law of averages again.
Arrest someone often enough and sooner or later, it'll stick.
It had more to do with the law of inevitability.
Once we had Camarillo's testimony, Judge Busey had no choice but to re-admit all the other evidence.
But I'm a gracious winner, Alice.
If you want to discuss a plea, I'm all ears.
Sorry to get your testosterone bubbling, Jack, but this is just a courtesy call.
Roy Payne, Jack McCoy, Claire Kincaid.
Roy will be heading the defense.
Roy Payne? You recruited a Klan lawyer.
I don't belong to the Klan, Mr.
McCoy.
Wrote a few briefs in support of their march in Skokie, that's all.
Lt'll take more than briefs to get this boy out of the woods.
Well, I doubt it.
Our client's the innocent victim of a pernicious conspiracy to frame him and protect the real murderer.
And who would that be? Richard Kovax.
The Jews got together to protect him, and I'll prove it.
If a judge will stop laughing long enough to let you.
We're completely within our rights, Your Honor.
Moreover, as defense counsel, we have an absolute duty to our client to present an alternate theory to the crime, if one exists.
A credible theory, not paranoid fantasies.
They can't offer a shred of evidence to support this claim.
Well, we have evidence, Your Honor.
A Jewish detective led the investigation.
A Jewish teacher was inexplicably dismissed as a prime suspect.
Another Jewish teacher lied to implicate my client.
A Jewish forensic technician allowed evidence to be contaminated.
I get the idea, Mr.
Payne.
Your Honor, it's obvious this defense serves only one purpose, to confuse and inflame the jury.
It's offensive.
Yes, it is, Mr.
McCoy, but your objection is premature.
I'll weigh their evidence before it's presented to the jury.
If they can't give me an offer of proof, then you'll have your remedies.
Jury selection will begin tomorrow morning.
It's the golden age of conspiracy theories, Mr.
McCoy.
People love them.
They help them make sense of an irrational world.
It's theories like yours that make it irrational.
You know you have nothing to back it up.
I've got reasonable doubt.
You go outside with me right now, we'll ask 12 people on the street what they think about Jews, and all I need's one.
Mr.
Carson, have you ever used a racial epithet to describe a Jewish person? Maybe, but never to somebody's face.
I respect the Jewish people.
Thank you.
We're done, Your Honor.
Do you have any Jewish friends, Mr.
Carson? No, but my landlord is Jewish.
And Mr.
Baron? Have you ever been the victim of a racially-motivated attack? No, I haven't.
Thank God.
Amen, Mr.
Baron.
Just one more thing.
By any chance, are you Jewish? Objection, Your Honor! In my chambers.
He has no business asking the question.
A juror cannot be excluded because of his race or religion.
He can if he's biased.
My client has a right to know if Jewish jurors can set aside their bias.
I simply want to put them under heightened scrutiny.
Mr.
Payne simply wants to exclude them.
That's unconstitutional, even for peremptory challenges.
If I find some unbiased Jews, then by all means they're welcome to stay.
Anyway, this issue won't come up very often.
Most of them are smart enough to avoid jury duty in the first place.
Mr.
Payne, that is enough.
Mr.
McCoy, as odious as I find Mr.
Payne's position, bias is a relevant factor in jury selection.
I'll allow his questions.
Payne's already in the win column.
He's made the justice system complicit in his client's bigotry.
You mean his own.
Only difference between Payne and Hastings is a law degree.
Turn back the clock, he'd be drafting the house rules at Auschwitz.
Get off the soapbox.
You're trying a murderer, not an anti-Semite.
He's a lot of both.
Well, I couldn't care less.
I don't want this turning into a farce about who said the K word.
Hastings said it, and I believe he meant it.
He was probably saying it when he killed her.
The woman who was lowering the boom on his Princeton scholarship.
He would have killed her if her name was McGinty.
Make sure the jury knows it.
When we performed the RFLP tests on the blood swatches taken from the scene and the blood taken from the defendant, we found that genetic codes in both samples matched.
What are the odds that the blood you found came from someone else? With this precise match? One in a million.
Mr.
Rosen, was the RFLP test first performed on the blood swatches from the crime scene before or after my client had been arrested? I'll have to check.
I'm looking at the dates.
It was after he was arrested, once a blood sample was collected from him at Central Booking Station.
Who brought the blood sample to your lab? Detective Briscoe signed the evidence sheet.
And were the blood swatches from the crime scene kept in your lab, under lock and key, No, not when someone's there working.
Then is it possible Detective Briscoe could have had access to the blood swatches from the crime scene before you performed the RFLP test? Anything's possible.
Thank you, Mr.
Rosen.
No more questions.
After we collected the blood sample from the defendant, I accompanied Detective Briscoe to the lab.
He signed the evidence sheet and gave the sample to the lab technician, Mr.
Rosen.
Thank you, Detective.
Detective Curtis, when you accompanied Detective Briscoe to the lab, were you with him the whole time? Yes.
You didn't go to the washroom? Didn't make a phone call? You were literally joined at the hip to Detective Briscoe.
Is that your testimony? No, I called our precinct from the lab to report our location.
That took about a minute.
So there was a moment at the lab when you and Detective Briscoe were separated.
True? Yes.
All right, following your interrogation of Richard Kovax at the precinct, were you convinced he was no longer a suspect in this crime? No, not entirely.
Why is that? He had a good motive, and he had a window of opportunity to commit the crime.
Did you have a conversation with Detective Briscoe about Mr.
Kovax? Yes.
And following this conversation, did you then start looking for other suspects? Yes.
So is it fair to say you were overruled by your senior partner? Objection! Withdrawn.
Just one last question.
To your knowledge, is Detective Briscoe Jewish? I don't know.
I never bothered asking.
Mr.
Kovax spoke to a number of foundations on behalf of the school.
He had a knack for it.
In your opinion, how much money did he raise for the school? I'm not sure I can give you an estimate.
Permission to treat as hostile.
Go ahead.
Dr.
Sabloff, isn't it true, in the past 10 years, your school's received nearly $3,000,000 from the foundations Mr.
Kovax visited? That's a fair estimate.
Teacher of the Year, top fund-raiser, a very valuable asset to your school, isn't he? Yes, he was.
Did you communicate as much to Detective Briscoe? I suppose I did.
Did there come a time when he called you to inquire about the whereabouts of Mr.
Kovax on the night of the murder? Yes, I remember that call.
And that's when you learned your top fund-raiser was a murder suspect.
Yes, from Detective Briscoe.
Look, isn't that when you concocted this alibi that you saw Mr.
Kovax leave the school an hour before the murder? It wasn't a concoction, it was the truth.
And then, a short time later, didn't you suddenly remember my client had a key to the school? I didn't suddenly remember anything.
Well, you didn't mention it the first time you talked to the police, did you? Because I couldn't imagine that one of my students was involved.
But you could, once you and Detective Briscoe saw my client's message in the yearbook, isn't that right? Well, yes.
As a Jew, your passions were so inflamed by that message, you made up a lie to implicate my client, isn't that true? No, that's absurd.
Just as you lied when you and Detective Briscoe cooked up an alibi for Richard Kovax.
Absolutely not.
Jews don't conspire with each another to protect Jewish criminals.
It's ridiculous.
Oh, is it? Dr.
Sabloff, are you familiar with Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew convicted of spying on our government for the state of Israel? Objection! Relevance! Are you aware there are massive campaigns by American Jewish organizations to free him? Your Honor! Objection sustained.
Mr.
Payne, find another line of questioning.
I have no more questions for this witness, Your Honor.
Dr.
Sabloff, did you conspire with anyone or lie to the police to falsely implicate the defendant? No.
Is Mr.
Kovax still raising money for your school? No, he was fired as soon as we discovered he was selling grades.
Hey, Counselor! Yeah? Just out of curiosity, when can I expect the cavalry? Detective, I know it's unpleasant, but this can't be the first time that a defense attorney's questioned your credibility.
You mean being accused of planting evidence? No, after 25 years on the force, that I'm used to.
What I resent is the implication that anything, besides my badge, dictates the way I do my job.
Put me on the stand, I want to set the record straight.
No, I'm not making you the issue.
Hey, 12 people in there already think I am.
I repeat, Detective, this trial's not about you.
I'm sorry.
Sure.
Oh, by the way, this whole Jewish conspiracy? Yes, my father was, my mother isn't, and I was raised Catholic, but like you say, it's not about me.
At first it didn't bother me most of the kids were Jewish.
We were all there to learn and get into good colleges.
We were equals, but they didn't see it that way.
Yeah.
Can you explain that, Matt? They called me a goy.
It was a put-down because I was Christian.
They always acted like they knew more than I did.
They were never interested in my opinions about anything.
It wasn't just the students.
By all rights, I should have been the captain of the wrestling team.
Who did they pick? Stan Shatenstein.
Did you make an effort to get along with them? Yes.
Last year, I went out with a Jewish girl.
Loren Nadel.
I liked her.
I thought she liked me.
Then she broke up with me because of what some Jewish kids told her about me.
See, I don't have a problem with Jews.
They have a problem with me.
Thank you, Matt.
Matt.
I'd like you to read out loud from People's Exhibit 29.
"Kill all kikes.
" Can you explain what you meant when you put that message in your yearbook? Nothing.
It was a joke.
It wasn't even my idea.
Whose idea was it? Rick Niels and Randy Ashton.
I just went along.
So you're not to blame, is that what you're saying? Yes.
And what about the death threats? Ashton's idea.
Also not your fault.
That's right.
And what about the scholarship to Princeton? Who gets credit for that? Objection.
Withdrawn.
When you learned Sarah Aronson knew you had sent the death threats, what went through your mind? Nothing.
I didn't know.
Weren't you worried about losing your scholarship? No.
Didn't you think you'd wind up in some community college? That would never happen.
Do you know where Michael Tobis is going next year? No.
He's going to Brown.
Do you know where John Pesner is going? I heard he got accepted to Harvard.
How about Gary Chaikin? Yale.
So most of the Jews in your class were going to lvy League schools.
Isn't that right? Yes.
And where did you think you'd be? I don't know.
Well, you wouldn't be at Princeton, would you? I didn't think about that.
And this time, you couldn't blame anybody else, could you? Not your friends, not Sarah Aronson, not some Jewish conspiracy.
You! Your fault.
You bought grades.
You sent death threats.
No! In fact, it's your fault that you're on trial for murder today, isn't it? No, I'm being framed! By who? The same Jews that stole your father's business away? Objection.
In fact, it's your stupidity that got you into this trouble, isn't that right? Mr.
McCoy Sarah Aronson doesn't have a damn thing to do with it.
She's not responsible for your failure.
No! It was her fault! That kike was going to ruin my life! As in the kikes you joked about killing.
No.
No further questions.
I've sent you back four times to continue deliberations.
I'm inclined to do it again.
Are you absolutely sure you're unable to reach a verdict? Yes, Your Honor, we are.
Would any further deliberations break this deadlock? No, Your Honor.
I have no choice but to declare a mistrial.
The jury's dismissed.
Counsel has until next Monday to agree to a new trial date.
I spoke to Alice Marsdale.
She's willing to discuss a plea.
Payne's not available for another trial.
He got his headlines, he's hitting the Klan lecture circuit.
CNN interviewed one of the jurors.
The vote was 11 to one to convict.
One hold-out.
I wonder which one.
Well, whoever it is, they blended right in.
What else is new? Next case.
These are their stories.
Frank and Count Basie at The Sands.
That'll set the mood.
Then what are you going to do? Yeah.
Hot oil? That sounds good.
Yeah, that'll definitely get little Johnny's attention.
Wait, wait.
Advanced Studies.
Hello again, Mr.
Aronson.
I was just on my way out.
No, I wouldn't leave if your wife was still here, but she's not.
Okay, okay.
I got your number.
I'll take a quick look, I'll call you back.
Bye-bye.
Hello, Jackie? Listen, there's something I got to do, okay, baby? I'll be right back.
Keep the coffee percolating.
Bye.
Mrs.
Aronson? Mrs.
Aronson? Mrs.
Aronson! The school custodian, Johnny Cobb, says he found her about 9:30.
Any other witnesses? Nobody else was in the building.
The front doors were locked, the alarm was set.
I saw her around 7:00, she was grading papers, she told me she was leaving soon.
And the first time her husband called, you checked the classroom? That was just a little after 9:00.
I walked by the room, the lights were out, so I didn't look in.
I called him back, I told him she wasn't here.
But the second time, you looked in.
The second time I tried the door, it was open.
She always locks up after herself.
She often work late? Yeah.
Damn shame, you know, a young woman like that, she's a good person.
Yeah, they usually are, Mr.
Cobb.
Thank you.
Thought you were going to call in sick.
Can't afford to give up the sick days before Christmas.
Okay, so when I get your cold, is your wife going to make me chicken soup? Say hello to Sarah Aronson, 28, taught art and art history, and according to Detective Bailey, she's been history for about two hours.
Give or take.
Strangled with the strap from her handbag.
Perp left behind cash, cards, the whole caboodle.
Well, maybe he got what he came for.
It must have been the lmmaculate Conception.
Panties are intact, no fluids anywhere.
Yeah, unless you count all that red stuff.
No wounds on her I can see, blood's got to be the perp's.
Anything she might've used as a weapon? Yeah, we found a piece of chalk.
Bag her as soon as you're ready.
Did you take art in high school, Rey? Physics.
An art teacher, who'd she ever hurt? Yeah, an algebra teacher, I could understand.
This was Sarah's third year at Advanced Studies.
She was involved in every aspect of school life.
Coached girls volleyball, headed the community outreach group.
Do you have any idea who could have done this? Some neighborhood scum.
We had a couple of break-ins last year.
They stole some computers, vandalized classrooms.
Your people did a quick inventory, nothing was stolen, nothing was vandalized.
And there's no sign of any break-in.
I can't believe anyone here would do this.
Two thousand high school kids, and every one of them's an angel? We recruit our students from among the highest achievers in the city.
They take a battery of tests to get here, these aren't hoodlums.
Well, Dr.
Sabloff, somebody got out without setting off the alarm.
How many people have a key to disarm it? Faculty, some of the staff.
Look, you're barking up the wrong tree here.
Whoever did this could have taken Sarah's key to get out.
Sarah told me she was having dinner with another teacher, Lana Halstead.
She was supposed to be home around 9:00.
When can I bring her back? I've got to arrange the funeral before the Sabbath.
We'll tell the coroner to try to speed it up.
Mr.
Aronson, if your wife was having dinner with a friend, then why did you call the school? Well, when Sarah wasn't home by She said that Sarah never showed up.
She thought maybe she was still grading papers at the school.
And what did you think? Mr.
Aronson, is it possible that she was seeing somebody? No.
No.
But something was going on.
For two weeks now, there were calls, lots of hang-ups.
Once a man called, asked for Sarah, and they wouldn't leave a message.
Well, what did she say about these calls? She just thought I was making a big deal about nothing.
Can you think of anyone who could have made these calls? No.
Sarah and I were supposed to have dinner together, I was not covering for her.
Ms.
Halstead, you might think you're helping your friend here.
I am not lying.
Sarah was not the type to have an affair.
My experience is it's an equal-opportunity character flaw.
Sarah and I were close.
If she were seeing somebody, I'm sure that I would know.
Well, her husband said they got some strange phone calls, at least one of them from a man.
Ms.
Halstead? She hinted that she was having a problem with one of the other teachers.
This problem have a name? Richard Kovax, Advanced Math.
He was her mentor, her first year here.
Is that all he was? Well, maybe not in Richard's imagination.
Richard's been with the school for 18 years, and anytime they need money for some kind of special project, he's the one they send to speak to these foundations.
So that kind of thing breeds a certain amount of arrogance.
I got along very well with Sarah.
I liked her.
If she had a problem with that, she never told me.
Then why would she want to talk about you with Ms.
Halstead? Beats me.
I may not be God's gift to women, but I'm not surprised I'm a topic among the female staff here.
Well, we got the impression that your animal magnetism wasn't on the agenda.
Look, Sarah was an exciting intellectual and a fine artist in her own right.
I showed her a little more attention.
If she mistook that for something deeper Or more sinister? Did you ever call her at home, Richard? Don't bother saying no, 'cause we have other ways of finding out.
I might've called her last week to discuss the outreach program.
And last night around 7:30? I was at the Morningside Gym, warming up for my session with my trainer.
I was there till just after 10:00.
He has a regular time, Uh-huh.
And what time did you get here Wednesday? the whirlpool to work on my knee.
I didn't see Richard till about 7:50.
He was warming up on the treadmill.
Did you notice any cuts or bruises on him? No, but he usually wears a sweatshirt.
See, he had a bypass about two years ago, he really doesn't want people to see the scar.
How about his mood? Anything unusual that night? No, same as it's been for the last couple of weeks.
Lousy.
He had the Christmas blues a few weeks early, huh? Well, you ask me, he got the three strikes from his girlfriend.
They used to come in together, but she called me about two weeks ago, wanted to change her time.
Two weeks ago, right around the same time Aronson started getting the phone calls.
You get that girlfriend's number, we're going to need it, all right? I'm not exactly shocked you're here.
I knew sooner or later it would catch up to Richard, I just didn't expect it would be this fast.
What would catch up to him? The second coming of Classanova.
Believe me, I thought of calling the police myself.
So what happened? Did he run off with her to Vegas? You're saying he was involved with one of his students? I was at his place on Sunday, a couple of weeks ago.
He went out to get the paper.
The phone rang, I heard the message on the machine.
It sounded like a young girl.
What was the message? She was sorry she'd gotten him in trouble.
She said it wasn't her fault, she tried keeping it a secret, but something about a Mrs.
Aronson, and the girl left her name.
Mattie.
What did Kovax say about it? He told me I was jumping to conclusions.
Right.
I know I didn't phone my high school teachers at home on Sunday mornings.
I got my things and left.
My money's on the girlfriend.
She wouldn't have walked unless there was something to it.
Oh, yeah? Well, take it from the old bull, women can walk because you leave the cap off the toothpaste.
Besides, this Mattie could be 90 years old.
I got the work-up on the blood from the scene.
The perp's male, most likely Caucasian.
So far that's me.
Well, you better cut out your morning donut.
The PCR tests indicate our perp's predisposed to diabetes.
Well, if Kovax had a bypass, maybe that wasn't his only health problem.
Yeah, I'm still here.
Yeah, go ahead.
Right.
Can you give me the address? Okay, thank you very much.
Kovax has a Mattie Braverman in his 11th grade class.
Lennie, what kind of trouble does a grown man get in over a 16-year-old? Come on.
Well, let's ask him.
Uh-uh.
Ask the girl first, might save us some apologies.
The love life of a 16-year-old girl? Sounds like your department.
Have a seat, Mattie.
I told your mother it wouldn't take long.
I don't mind looking at some photos, but I really doubt I'll recognize anybody.
I really didn't notice who was hanging around the school last Wednesday.
I didn't bring you down here to look at mug shots, but I do want to know about your relationship with Richard Kovax.
He's just my teacher, what do you mean? You called him at home.
One of his friends heard your message.
I don't even know his number.
Mattie, we can look at your phone records.
We can prove you made the call, so don't lie or I promise you, you will be in serious trouble.
All right, I better get your mother.
This is a murder investigation, and you're a material witness.
The less you cooperate, the worse it gets.
Wait.
Don't bring my mother in here.
The call wasn't about what you think.
I wasn't sleeping with Mr.
Kovax.
Then what was the call about? Mrs.
Aronson was my advisor.
She called me in a couple of weeks ago because I was getting A's in Advanced Math.
She knew I wasn't a math genius.
Last year, I was getting C's and D's.
She wanted to know what the deal was.
And what did you tell her? She was like you.
She thought I was slutting Mr.
Kovax for good grades.
She said she was gonna go to the administration.
I said it wasn't true.
I was buying grades from Mr.
Kovax.
Excuse me? I was giving him $300 a semester.
I had to, to bring up my GPA, or forget about Vassar.
I'm not the only one, you know.
I can name at least six other students in my class.
She said she was going to speak to Mr.
Kovax.
I've been Teacher of the Year, five years running.
I know how to motivate these kids.
You know how to pick their pockets.
We talked to some of Mattie's friends, they all tell the same story.
Seven kids, three bills each a semester, that's over $4,000 a year, not counting the kids we don't know about.
I think I should talk to a lawyer.
You say the word, we'll let you make a call right after we book you for bribe-receiving and murder.
That's absolutely crazy.
I left that school at 6:30.
Dr.
Sabloff saw me leave, ask him.
We did.
That just means you came back later.
You're dead meat, Richard.
You left your blood all over that classroom.
What'd she do, smack you in the nose while you were strangling her? Look, I'm an O negative.
You check, it can't be my blood.
Thanks for your cooperation, Richard.
It's my duty to inform you that your blood type matches the type found at the scene.
But that's impossible.
Stand up, Mr.
Kovax.
Wait, would you let me explain? What, you don't want a lawyer anymore? No, I want to clear this up.
Sarah found out what I was doing, but I made a deal with her, I stopped taking the money.
And did you stop taking their money? Yes.
I told the students the deal was off, and I told them why.
You told them that Sarah Aronson was the one who pulled the plug? Maybe I shouldn't have.
A few days ago, Sarah told me she'd gotten threats, anonymous notes left on her desk.
She wanted to know who was responsible.
I told her I didn't know.
I teach seven classes, it could have been any one of 30 kids, but I swear to God, I didn't kill her.
Well, we believe you, Mr.
Kovax.
Turns out, we got everything mixed up.
Your blood type doesn't match, after all.
She kept a locker in here to change for volleyball practice.
This one's yours, Lennie.
I did her desk.
Great.
Smelly socks.
I can't wait.
This one, number 12.
Hmm.
This is cute.
"Open your big mouth, Jew bitch, and you'll die.
" "Hitler was right, burn with the rest of the mud people.
" I met Mrs.
Aronson last year.
She brought her students to the Met to see our collection of da Vinci drawings.
She had some very talented young artists in her group, very strong on technique.
As for subject matter, well, the sooner they stop listening to heavy metal, the better.
Well, what about the kid who was listening to Deutschland über alles? Is he one of hers? Well, this drawing was done in freehand calligraphy, meaning each figure was outlined with one continuous line.
Definitely inspired by Japanese sumi-e painting.
Very much like this one.
What's particularly interesting are the folds in this dress and this.
See how the shadows are suggested by the thickness of the line? The same hand drew both of these.
Edward Camarillo.
Yeah, I drew an angel for a school project.
Is that some kind of violation of church and state? I'll show you a violation.
This is your work, Eddie, your special style.
Are you asking me a question? Everything in here's a question, wiseass.
Look, I didn't draw this, okay? Somebody ripped me off.
And I never sweated Mrs.
A.
Oh! Even when she squirted on your parade? Yeah, Richard Kovax told us you were buying grades from him.
Kovax is lying.
I earned my grades in math.
Oh, yeah? How about a little pop quiz, Eddie? Let's see, you're 18.
Why don't we add 25 to that, 'cause that's the going rate for murder.
You better watch who you're cracking off to, you little punk.
Now, we match your prints to the prints on this drawing, it's over.
So you talk now, or you're going to be grabbing your ankles for some real tough guys down in Sing Sing.
Look, I didn't do this stuff, I swear, okay? And I don't know who did.
A lot of people were pissed off at Mrs.
A.
And I didn't kill her, you can ask my pops.
I was working in his store that night.
The old man owns a shoe repair place up on Amsterdam, kid works the counter till 8:00.
Checked with some of the customers, he was there.
We showed his folks the drawing he sent Aronson.
It didn't go over in a big way.
Got to admit it's a little out of character.
His mother lent us his high-school year book.
Junior Honors Graphic Design, American History Medal, Dean's List, Media Center and a letter in wrestling.
Doesn't impress me as much as his alibi.
Hey, Rey? This favorite quote of his, L-A-L, what is that, something in español? I never heard of it.
Look at this kid, Ashton.
His quote's K-l-L.
He's on the wrestling team, too.
Wait a minute.
Here's somebody with a K-E-S.
Niels, another wrestler.
Same as this one, Hastings.
He's got L-K-I.
Give me those letters again.
L-K-I, K-E-S, K-l-L and L-A-L.
A secret code for wrestlers? Maybe we get Vanna White in here.
Could be all one message.
Try in alphabetical order by the kids' names.
First one is Ashton.
He's got K-l-L.
Yeah, then there's Camarillo, L-A-L.
Next.
Matt Hastings, L-K-I.
Hey, it was a joke, just to see if the geeks at the yearbook were awake.
Well, we were wide awake.
We know all about your deal with Kovax.
Yeah, and we know about the notes Aronson got.
Were those supposed to be a joke, too? Look, we're sorry she's dead, but we don't know what you're talking about.
Right.
We're all sorry.
We have to take a shower before our next class.
Is that okay? Sure, make sure you scrub real hard.
We weren't out to hurt anybody, besides it's free speech, it's protected.
That doesn't cover death threats, Matt.
I'm talking about the yearbook, I never threatened anybody.
Oh, yeah.
"Kill all kikes.
" I guess you meant that in a nice way.
Look, it was a joke.
Ezra Pound made fun of the Jews.
And Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises.
Why do you think he gave the fool the name of Cohn? Just because I made fun of them, so what? Can I go now, please? They thought this was funny? Yeah, Hastings gave us a comparative lit course on their sense of humor.
According to Richard Kovax, all four were buying grades from him.
Camarillo has an alibi for the night of the murder, but we think the other three are viable suspects.
I didn't think it was relevant before, but I came by the school one evening a month ago.
I saw Matt Hastings coming out the front door.
He told me he was working on a chemistry project.
He said he'd gotten the key for the alarm from Ms.
Miller.
You checked this out with her? She denied giving him the key.
So the kid was lying.
I didn't think so at the time.
I assumed she was covering up to avoid being reprimanded.
You took a student's word over hers? Not just any student.
Matt Hastings was in the top one percentile, he was class president last year.
There was talk of making him valedictorian.
I never suspected this.
We did handsprings for the judge.
He still wouldn't sign off on a search warrant.
You lifted fingerprints from the notes? Doesn't help.
None of these kids has ever been printed.
In other words, we're stuck.
We've got the blood at the scene, but we can't force Hastings to give us a sample.
The M.
E.
Found a predisposition to diabetes.
Diabetes can be detected by looking for high sugar in urine.
We still need a warrant to make this punk pee in a cup.
The school doesn't.
Hastings is a wrestler.
We ask them to conduct a drug test of the wrestling team.
And that gets us around it? The Supreme Court said so in the Vernonia ruling a few months ago.
That allows the testing of high school athletes without a warrant.
Hastings, Matthew.
That's him.
Let me see the number on that one.
As our lawyer, this should make you very uncomfortable.
These children have rights.
Board of Education gave it their blessing.
This is strictly by the book.
Well, we ran a full screen on all the students.
As high schools go, this one's very clean.
Only two positives.
One for THC and one for alcohol.
We're looking for sugar.
Sugar? My mother warned me, one day the sugar police would show up.
Yeah, well, we finally got here.
So, did you find any? Actually, whenever we get a positive read for alcohol, we run another test to determine if the source is external.
As in a glass of wine? Correct.
Otherwise, the source could be internal.
If there's yeast in the urine and an abundance of sugar, presto, body works like a still.
Here we go.
The dip-stick is number 16.
"Presence of alcohol due to an abnormal high-sugar count.
" Kid's a diabetic, and I bet he doesn't know it.
Number 16.
Matt Hastings.
Tell me what he did, I have a right to know! You stay out of the way, Mr.
Hastings.
Matt, be careful! Stand up.
Put your hands up.
All right, turn that crap off.
Matt Hastings, you're under arrest for the murder of Sarah Aronson.
You have the right to remain silent.
Dad! Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You know, Jack, I half expected to look out your window and see Tiananmen Square.
Here, we don't put people, much less children, behind bars for their thoughts.
He's a political prisoner? Alice, please, Bill Kunstler is spinning in his grave.
You had a suspect.
In fact, you had two, Kovax and Camarillo.
Why go after my client? Simple.
He expressed a point of view you didn't like.
His crime wasn't about his point of view.
It was about pumping up his grades, and Sarah Aronson got in the way.
So I'd have to work a little harder, big deal.
The only reason I paid Kovax is I got lazy.
Matt No, really.
Check my math scores for the past three years.
A's and A minuses, same as all my courses.
That's enough.
Mr.
McCoy, Matt didn't kill anybody.
He was at home with me.
If he were my son, Mr.
Hastings, I'd probably say the same thing.
Now, if he tells me others were involved, I might convince a judge to go easy on him.
Did I ask for a handout? You should.
We found his fingerprints on one of the notes.
I was just trying to scare her off.
We matched his blood to the blood on the scene, and his principal told us he has a key to the school.
He knows I borrowed it from Ms.
Miller.
She told him you didn't.
If you're going to kill people, you shouldn't advertise the fact in your yearbook.
A dumb prank, that's all it was.
Not half as egregious as violating the Fourth Amendment, which you did when you stuck a jar of his fluids under a microscope.
Motion to suppress the drug-test results, trampling on the rights of a minor.
How low can you get? In Vernonia, the Supreme Court allowed drug testing to combat illegal drug use in public schools.
It did not intend the test as a subterfuge to identify murder suspects.
This was a properly conducted search for illegal drugs.
They were looking for drugs, but they came up with diabetes? The predisposition for diabetes was in plain view, Your Honor.
Under a microscope.
The defendant tested positive for alcohol.
The lab ran a routine test to find the source of the alcohol.
That's how they found he had a high-sugar level.
Sounds like plain view to me, Ms.
Marsdale.
Your Honor, the Vernonia ruling sanctioned random testing.
There was nothing random about this test.
I refer to Exhibit C of the moving affidavits, the statement by the lab technician who conducted the tests.
When the samples were collected, the officers singled out which individual they were interested in, namely, my client.
You dispute this, Mr.
McCoy? The officers simply asked for the identification number of Mr.
Hastings' specimen.
There was no intent to corrupt the testing procedure.
I don't care about their intent.
You pushed the envelope too far, Mr.
McCoy.
I'm granting the motion.
The test results are out.
Your Honor, since the results led to my client being charged and to further evidence being collected, may I Yes, it's all out.
The charges are dismissed.
These officers.
A couple of Chatty Cathys.
They were looking at the bottom of the bag, Adam.
The drug test was all we had to go with.
Still have the threats, still have motive.
Build the house again.
Right.
The yearbook and the threats might have been juvenile hyperbole, but not what the police found in his room.
Issues of Aryan Times magazine, racist literature downloaded from the Internet, White Power music.
Let me guess.
Wagner.
Yeah, you won't be hearing this at the Met.
"Jew Boy, better start running, "rat-faced bastard, our time is coming.
" I'm shocked we have things like this in a free society.
This kid have an alibi? Home with his father.
What's his father's alibi? I was doing home care in Kew Gardens that night.
I came back just before 11:00.
Joe was watching the news and Matt was in his room, on the computer.
And your daughter, where was she? Carlie had a sleepover at a friend's house.
But you're sure Matt was home all night? Yes, my husband told me, and I know my own son.
He's nothing like they say in the papers.
Those people think we're all anti-Semites.
Those people? You know very well what I'm talking about, Ms.
Kincaid.
It's clear what your son was talking about in the yearbook.
He was just trying to get a rise out of people.
I mean, look at that school.
How do you think he feels? He's a minority.
What about the hate literature found in his room? Who was that aimed at? Matt reads a lot.
It's just a curiosity.
He doesn't have a problem with Jews.
For God's sake, he was seeing a Jewish girl.
Do I think he's an anti-Semite? When he was with me, Matt admired Jews.
He was always going on how intelligent we were.
The first couple of months, it was kind of flattering.
And then? Then some of the stuff he told other people got back to me.
Like, how he was just with me because he thought it was good for his image.
You're smart and attractive.
It could have been some male chest-thumping.
It wasn't that.
It was because I was Jewish.
He thought it would help him get over with the other Jewish kids at school.
So that was important to him? Well, yeah.
It is if you want to become class president and a bunch of other stuff that looks good on a college application, and it worked.
Last month, he got early admission to Princeton, full scholarship.
Thanks to you.
Is that why you guys broke up? Yeah.
Of course, he denied using me.
He blamed all the other Jewish kids for telling lies about him.
He said that they were just jealous.
It was just so typical of him, you know.
He never took responsibility for anything.
Loren, you never answered my first question.
Is he an anti-Semite, or is it like his mom says, it's just an act? No, it's no act.
I mean, I know where he gets it from, it's his parents.
Like, one time his dad started asking about this family, the Abramsons.
Like, all us Jews were supposed to know each other or something.
He said that they cheated him out of his printing business, and that it was their fault he couldn't afford to send Matt to prep school.
It was just stupid.
Even though I know how Matt feels about Jewish people, I just can't believe he could have killed Mrs.
Aronson.
Niels and Ashton, I mean, I could totally imagine them doing it.
Those guys are scary.
What about Eddie Camarillo? He just follows Matt around.
I mean, they've been friends since freshman year.
They do crazy stuff together.
They used to break into the school on Saturdays to lift weights and stuff.
How'd they get past the alarm system? Well, Eddie had a key made on the machine at his dad's store.
You gave him the key, Eddie.
That's how he got out, after he killed Mrs.
Aronson.
That's not true.
I don't have a key.
Our witness says you do.
That makes you an accomplice to murder.
And whatever plans you had for the next 20 years, you better put them on hold.
Now you serve up Matt Hastings, your future gets a little brighter.
I can't.
I'm down with him.
Hey.
Be down with this.
When Hastings talks about the mud people, who you think that is? That's you, Eddie.
That's you and me.
We're the mud people.
You're wrong.
My people come from pure Spanish blood, white Christian blood.
Come on.
After they're done with the Jews, the blacks, the Asians, the Arabs, who's next? Sooner or later, the mailman comes to your gate, hermano.
Mrs.
Aronson recognized my drawing.
She called me in.
She said she'd give us a chance to turn ourselves in.
Matt said he'd lose his scholarship.
He said he was going to talk to her.
So I gave him my key.
I never thought he was going to hurt her.
Pick him up.
I'll never doubt the law of averages again.
Arrest someone often enough and sooner or later, it'll stick.
It had more to do with the law of inevitability.
Once we had Camarillo's testimony, Judge Busey had no choice but to re-admit all the other evidence.
But I'm a gracious winner, Alice.
If you want to discuss a plea, I'm all ears.
Sorry to get your testosterone bubbling, Jack, but this is just a courtesy call.
Roy Payne, Jack McCoy, Claire Kincaid.
Roy will be heading the defense.
Roy Payne? You recruited a Klan lawyer.
I don't belong to the Klan, Mr.
McCoy.
Wrote a few briefs in support of their march in Skokie, that's all.
Lt'll take more than briefs to get this boy out of the woods.
Well, I doubt it.
Our client's the innocent victim of a pernicious conspiracy to frame him and protect the real murderer.
And who would that be? Richard Kovax.
The Jews got together to protect him, and I'll prove it.
If a judge will stop laughing long enough to let you.
We're completely within our rights, Your Honor.
Moreover, as defense counsel, we have an absolute duty to our client to present an alternate theory to the crime, if one exists.
A credible theory, not paranoid fantasies.
They can't offer a shred of evidence to support this claim.
Well, we have evidence, Your Honor.
A Jewish detective led the investigation.
A Jewish teacher was inexplicably dismissed as a prime suspect.
Another Jewish teacher lied to implicate my client.
A Jewish forensic technician allowed evidence to be contaminated.
I get the idea, Mr.
Payne.
Your Honor, it's obvious this defense serves only one purpose, to confuse and inflame the jury.
It's offensive.
Yes, it is, Mr.
McCoy, but your objection is premature.
I'll weigh their evidence before it's presented to the jury.
If they can't give me an offer of proof, then you'll have your remedies.
Jury selection will begin tomorrow morning.
It's the golden age of conspiracy theories, Mr.
McCoy.
People love them.
They help them make sense of an irrational world.
It's theories like yours that make it irrational.
You know you have nothing to back it up.
I've got reasonable doubt.
You go outside with me right now, we'll ask 12 people on the street what they think about Jews, and all I need's one.
Mr.
Carson, have you ever used a racial epithet to describe a Jewish person? Maybe, but never to somebody's face.
I respect the Jewish people.
Thank you.
We're done, Your Honor.
Do you have any Jewish friends, Mr.
Carson? No, but my landlord is Jewish.
And Mr.
Baron? Have you ever been the victim of a racially-motivated attack? No, I haven't.
Thank God.
Amen, Mr.
Baron.
Just one more thing.
By any chance, are you Jewish? Objection, Your Honor! In my chambers.
He has no business asking the question.
A juror cannot be excluded because of his race or religion.
He can if he's biased.
My client has a right to know if Jewish jurors can set aside their bias.
I simply want to put them under heightened scrutiny.
Mr.
Payne simply wants to exclude them.
That's unconstitutional, even for peremptory challenges.
If I find some unbiased Jews, then by all means they're welcome to stay.
Anyway, this issue won't come up very often.
Most of them are smart enough to avoid jury duty in the first place.
Mr.
Payne, that is enough.
Mr.
McCoy, as odious as I find Mr.
Payne's position, bias is a relevant factor in jury selection.
I'll allow his questions.
Payne's already in the win column.
He's made the justice system complicit in his client's bigotry.
You mean his own.
Only difference between Payne and Hastings is a law degree.
Turn back the clock, he'd be drafting the house rules at Auschwitz.
Get off the soapbox.
You're trying a murderer, not an anti-Semite.
He's a lot of both.
Well, I couldn't care less.
I don't want this turning into a farce about who said the K word.
Hastings said it, and I believe he meant it.
He was probably saying it when he killed her.
The woman who was lowering the boom on his Princeton scholarship.
He would have killed her if her name was McGinty.
Make sure the jury knows it.
When we performed the RFLP tests on the blood swatches taken from the scene and the blood taken from the defendant, we found that genetic codes in both samples matched.
What are the odds that the blood you found came from someone else? With this precise match? One in a million.
Mr.
Rosen, was the RFLP test first performed on the blood swatches from the crime scene before or after my client had been arrested? I'll have to check.
I'm looking at the dates.
It was after he was arrested, once a blood sample was collected from him at Central Booking Station.
Who brought the blood sample to your lab? Detective Briscoe signed the evidence sheet.
And were the blood swatches from the crime scene kept in your lab, under lock and key, No, not when someone's there working.
Then is it possible Detective Briscoe could have had access to the blood swatches from the crime scene before you performed the RFLP test? Anything's possible.
Thank you, Mr.
Rosen.
No more questions.
After we collected the blood sample from the defendant, I accompanied Detective Briscoe to the lab.
He signed the evidence sheet and gave the sample to the lab technician, Mr.
Rosen.
Thank you, Detective.
Detective Curtis, when you accompanied Detective Briscoe to the lab, were you with him the whole time? Yes.
You didn't go to the washroom? Didn't make a phone call? You were literally joined at the hip to Detective Briscoe.
Is that your testimony? No, I called our precinct from the lab to report our location.
That took about a minute.
So there was a moment at the lab when you and Detective Briscoe were separated.
True? Yes.
All right, following your interrogation of Richard Kovax at the precinct, were you convinced he was no longer a suspect in this crime? No, not entirely.
Why is that? He had a good motive, and he had a window of opportunity to commit the crime.
Did you have a conversation with Detective Briscoe about Mr.
Kovax? Yes.
And following this conversation, did you then start looking for other suspects? Yes.
So is it fair to say you were overruled by your senior partner? Objection! Withdrawn.
Just one last question.
To your knowledge, is Detective Briscoe Jewish? I don't know.
I never bothered asking.
Mr.
Kovax spoke to a number of foundations on behalf of the school.
He had a knack for it.
In your opinion, how much money did he raise for the school? I'm not sure I can give you an estimate.
Permission to treat as hostile.
Go ahead.
Dr.
Sabloff, isn't it true, in the past 10 years, your school's received nearly $3,000,000 from the foundations Mr.
Kovax visited? That's a fair estimate.
Teacher of the Year, top fund-raiser, a very valuable asset to your school, isn't he? Yes, he was.
Did you communicate as much to Detective Briscoe? I suppose I did.
Did there come a time when he called you to inquire about the whereabouts of Mr.
Kovax on the night of the murder? Yes, I remember that call.
And that's when you learned your top fund-raiser was a murder suspect.
Yes, from Detective Briscoe.
Look, isn't that when you concocted this alibi that you saw Mr.
Kovax leave the school an hour before the murder? It wasn't a concoction, it was the truth.
And then, a short time later, didn't you suddenly remember my client had a key to the school? I didn't suddenly remember anything.
Well, you didn't mention it the first time you talked to the police, did you? Because I couldn't imagine that one of my students was involved.
But you could, once you and Detective Briscoe saw my client's message in the yearbook, isn't that right? Well, yes.
As a Jew, your passions were so inflamed by that message, you made up a lie to implicate my client, isn't that true? No, that's absurd.
Just as you lied when you and Detective Briscoe cooked up an alibi for Richard Kovax.
Absolutely not.
Jews don't conspire with each another to protect Jewish criminals.
It's ridiculous.
Oh, is it? Dr.
Sabloff, are you familiar with Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew convicted of spying on our government for the state of Israel? Objection! Relevance! Are you aware there are massive campaigns by American Jewish organizations to free him? Your Honor! Objection sustained.
Mr.
Payne, find another line of questioning.
I have no more questions for this witness, Your Honor.
Dr.
Sabloff, did you conspire with anyone or lie to the police to falsely implicate the defendant? No.
Is Mr.
Kovax still raising money for your school? No, he was fired as soon as we discovered he was selling grades.
Hey, Counselor! Yeah? Just out of curiosity, when can I expect the cavalry? Detective, I know it's unpleasant, but this can't be the first time that a defense attorney's questioned your credibility.
You mean being accused of planting evidence? No, after 25 years on the force, that I'm used to.
What I resent is the implication that anything, besides my badge, dictates the way I do my job.
Put me on the stand, I want to set the record straight.
No, I'm not making you the issue.
Hey, 12 people in there already think I am.
I repeat, Detective, this trial's not about you.
I'm sorry.
Sure.
Oh, by the way, this whole Jewish conspiracy? Yes, my father was, my mother isn't, and I was raised Catholic, but like you say, it's not about me.
At first it didn't bother me most of the kids were Jewish.
We were all there to learn and get into good colleges.
We were equals, but they didn't see it that way.
Yeah.
Can you explain that, Matt? They called me a goy.
It was a put-down because I was Christian.
They always acted like they knew more than I did.
They were never interested in my opinions about anything.
It wasn't just the students.
By all rights, I should have been the captain of the wrestling team.
Who did they pick? Stan Shatenstein.
Did you make an effort to get along with them? Yes.
Last year, I went out with a Jewish girl.
Loren Nadel.
I liked her.
I thought she liked me.
Then she broke up with me because of what some Jewish kids told her about me.
See, I don't have a problem with Jews.
They have a problem with me.
Thank you, Matt.
Matt.
I'd like you to read out loud from People's Exhibit 29.
"Kill all kikes.
" Can you explain what you meant when you put that message in your yearbook? Nothing.
It was a joke.
It wasn't even my idea.
Whose idea was it? Rick Niels and Randy Ashton.
I just went along.
So you're not to blame, is that what you're saying? Yes.
And what about the death threats? Ashton's idea.
Also not your fault.
That's right.
And what about the scholarship to Princeton? Who gets credit for that? Objection.
Withdrawn.
When you learned Sarah Aronson knew you had sent the death threats, what went through your mind? Nothing.
I didn't know.
Weren't you worried about losing your scholarship? No.
Didn't you think you'd wind up in some community college? That would never happen.
Do you know where Michael Tobis is going next year? No.
He's going to Brown.
Do you know where John Pesner is going? I heard he got accepted to Harvard.
How about Gary Chaikin? Yale.
So most of the Jews in your class were going to lvy League schools.
Isn't that right? Yes.
And where did you think you'd be? I don't know.
Well, you wouldn't be at Princeton, would you? I didn't think about that.
And this time, you couldn't blame anybody else, could you? Not your friends, not Sarah Aronson, not some Jewish conspiracy.
You! Your fault.
You bought grades.
You sent death threats.
No! In fact, it's your fault that you're on trial for murder today, isn't it? No, I'm being framed! By who? The same Jews that stole your father's business away? Objection.
In fact, it's your stupidity that got you into this trouble, isn't that right? Mr.
McCoy Sarah Aronson doesn't have a damn thing to do with it.
She's not responsible for your failure.
No! It was her fault! That kike was going to ruin my life! As in the kikes you joked about killing.
No.
No further questions.
I've sent you back four times to continue deliberations.
I'm inclined to do it again.
Are you absolutely sure you're unable to reach a verdict? Yes, Your Honor, we are.
Would any further deliberations break this deadlock? No, Your Honor.
I have no choice but to declare a mistrial.
The jury's dismissed.
Counsel has until next Monday to agree to a new trial date.
I spoke to Alice Marsdale.
She's willing to discuss a plea.
Payne's not available for another trial.
He got his headlines, he's hitting the Klan lecture circuit.
CNN interviewed one of the jurors.
The vote was 11 to one to convict.
One hold-out.
I wonder which one.
Well, whoever it is, they blended right in.
What else is new? Next case.