Law & Order (1990) s10e01 Episode Script
Gunshow
NARRATOR: 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.
We weren't flapping in the wind or anything.
We were lying on our stomachs.
Looked to us like you were lying on her stomach.
That was totally innocent.
Hey, look, pal, in this heat, I don't know how you could do it in the place.
But you were, and it's gonna cost you This really chews.
(MACHINE GUN SHOTS) Shots! (PEOPLE SCREAMING) What's going on? What's going on? Back there! He's shooting everybody! This is Park Ten! We have shots fired.
Man with gun behind the Conservatory.
(SHOTS CONTINUE) Don't stop! Keep moving! (SCREAMING CONTINUES) This is Park Ten! We got people down! I see 15, 20! We're behind the Conservatory.
We're gonna need EMS down here, big time! (PEOPLE CRYING) Witnesses saw a male, white, mid to late 20s, average height and weight.
T-shirt, shorts, sunglasses, blue baseball cap.
The fastest way out of the park is the Vanderbilt Gate.
You got people covering that area? Yes, sir.
Canvassing Fifth Avenue.
First shots came from over there.
Guy just moved through the crowd.
Emptied a clip, reloaded from a black knapsack.
We got 11 people down.
Wounded are at Mt.
Sinai.
(SIGHS) So, what do you want to do first? Maybe the guy's A.
C.
Went on the fritz.
You think? Oh, God! (SOBBING) Oh, no! No, no! Oh, my baby! Let's go.
Come on.
Let's go talk to some witnesses.
I got three kinds of patients down here.
Hysterical, unconscious and expired.
You want to talk to someone, try X-ray.
Second floor.
Eddie, the elevator's over here.
Stairs are faster.
Hey, Loo.
What's the count? I heard 11 on the radio.
BRISCOE: Yeah.
Plus four here.
Fifteen dead? And 12 wounded.
We're going upstairs to talk to one of the survivors.
ED: Ms.
Drake, I'm Detective Green.
This is Detective Briscoe and Lieutenant Van Buren.
Can you talk to us about what happened? Yes, I think so.
How you feeling? Lucky.
There was this girl lying to me in the field, Claudia Shue.
I was sitting with her group.
What group is that? DRAKE: We're pre-med at Hudson.
I heard these pops and Laura fell over, then Claudia.
There was this guy coming towards us.
I got up to run, but my leg just gave out.
This guy, what did he look like? He was white, I barely saw him.
I kept my head down, I played dead.
He walked right past me, shooting and muttering stuff.
VAN BUREN: Muttering what? "Damn bitches.
" He just kept saying that.
"Damn bitches.
" The weapon's a nine mil SMG fired at full auto.
We're looking for a converted Ingram or Rolf.
Most of the dead and wounded are women? All but two.
And there were plenty of men to shoot at.
Seventeen of the female victims were pre-med students at Hudson.
They were the first ones shot, right here.
So the guy trolled the park for women to shoot.
Is there a sketch? BRISCOE: Yeah.
But it looks like half the people in this room.
I got a call from the Daily News.
They want to run it on the front page.
Media calls get routed to Public Affairs.
It was a personal contact.
I hope you didn't make any promises you can't keep.
Questions? No.
But I think we ought to release the sketch.
It's too generic.
Well, that could work to our advantage.
If the guy has a false sense of security, he might make a mistake.
He might make one if he thinks there's going to be a knock on his door any minute.
Any other groups of women in the area.
There was a soccer game in the East Meadow.
Yeah, and a bunch of flower-sniffers from the Conservatory.
But he chose these pre-med students.
Let's find out who knew they were meeting in the park.
It was an orientation to discuss gender issues in med school.
There was a flyer about it in the lobby.
ED: You have a copy of it? Yeah, sure.
It's okay.
Take your time.
How long was this posted? A couple of weeks.
This says that the orientation was by the pool on the west side.
How'd they end up clear across the park? Oh, there were people playing Frisbee so we had to find someplace else.
Oh, you were with them? Yes.
We had to walk across the park before we found someplace quiet.
We'd already wasted half an hour, and I had to leave for a meeting.
(PHONE RINGS) I have to get that.
All these parents have been calling.
If the shooter followed the girls from the west side, there's a chance he left that way.
And a chance we were looking on the wrong side of the park.
I'll break the news to the Lieutenant.
This is Mr.
Gilbert Gooba.
N'Goueba.
Gilbert N'Goueba, from the lvory Coast.
ED: From Abidjan? Yes.
You know Abidjan? The Paris of Africa.
My father worked there.
You told the officers you saw something yesterday? Yes.
I saw a white man in short pants run out of the park.
He had blood on his short pants.
He went to the subway.
BRISCOE: Did you get a look at his face? Not very good.
He had big sunglasses and a baseball hat.
Was he carrying anything, like a bag or a knapsack? No, no.
If he had a bag, I see it.
He must've ditched it in the park.
Thanks.
Hey, Old Spice, what did the Loo tell you about me? Nothing.
Did she tell you I don't like nicknames? Yeah? Yeah.
Lennie'll do.
The old man used to wear Old Spice.
POLICEMAN: Detectives, a black knapsack, right? Rolf nine mil.
There's still three full clips in here.
All right, cordon off the area and radio CSU.
Tell 'em we got a pick-up for the lab.
Right.
I'll take it in.
Get 'em to hump right on it.
Hey, Ed, it's after 7:00.
You know Shrier's not gonna look at it tonight.
Sure, she will.
(DOOR OPENS) The weapon, the bag, and the clips were clean for fingerprints.
And this is why you paged me at 6:00 a.
m.
? The guy tried to burn the serial off, but the lab recovered it.
The gun manufacturer said the weapon was sold four months ago to a wholesaler in Pennsylvania.
The caller ID on your page showed a 609 area code.
Where were you, Atlantic City? Uh-huh.
Went down there last night to play some poker.
Oh, yeah? How'd you do? I started up a Cadillac.
I finished down a Rolex.
A stainless steel Rolex.
(DOOR OPENS) Okay, I did a proctoscopy on our little patient.
You see these straight lines along the inside of the barrel? BRISCOE: Yeah.
What are they, scratches? After shooting up the park, your suspect rammed a metal file down the barrel to distort the rifling.
Means the best I can do is a 50% match to the slugs of the victims.
This guy put some thought into it.
He used fingerprint-resistant grips, converted the piece from a semi to a full auto.
BRISCOE: Real handyman, huh? Well, once you buy the conversion kit all you need is a screwdriver, a file and a soldering gun.
Twenty minutes, you're ready to make history.
Fifty Rolf Nines came in back in March.
Piece you're looking for, it went out two months ago to a firearms dealer in Reading.
A licensed dealer? Of course.
By the law, I can only sell to a federally licensed dealer.
We need the store's address.
He doesn't have a store.
Nowhere does it say I can only sell to a dealer with a store.
So where does he sell his guns? Out of a Good Humor truck? This is my store.
I sell through the classifieds on the Internet.
And this is my dealer's license.
And where are the guns? In there.
Do you remember selling this gun? Rolf Nine.
That's the serial number? Look, guys, technically you're out of your jurisdiction.
I don't have talk to you.
Maybe you tell me what's so important about this merchandise.
This merchandise was used to kill 15 innocent people.
Oh.
Wait, this is the Central Park thing? Oh, shoot.
"Oh, shoot"? By law, when I sell a gun, I'm supposed to ship it to a licensed dealer where they buyer lives, so the buyer can pick it up and fill out the paperwork.
But you didn't do that.
This guy said he was housebound in a wheelchair.
And since his shipping address matched his address on his credit card, I You shipped it right to him? Man, that license is coming off the wall.
Hey, relax.
Read the federal statute.
It's barely a traffic ticket.
So you want the guy's name, or what? Lee Coats.
New York City.
Purchased a month ago.
Police! Search warrant! Go, go, go! Somebody open a window.
ED: Well, she's at least a couple of days past the expiry date.
Looks like a heart attack.
LAMOTTE: Hey, Lennie.
Hello.
Excuse me.
Who are you? I'm Mrs.
Felder.
I live across the hall.
Oh, my.
Do you know who this is? Yes, it's Lee.
Lee Coats.
Short for Leanne.
Yes.
This is terrible.
She live here with anyone? No.
She just got out of the hospital two weeks ago.
What hospital? Hudson Presbyterian.
She had a pacemaker put in.
She was there for nearly a month.
The gun was shipped while the old lady was in the hospital.
Shipping company made two trips to her apartment.
Nobody was home the first time, so they left a signature card.
The next day, the card was signed, so they left the package.
A neighbor? Nobody who fits the description.
Now Hudson Presbyterian is the teaching hospital for Hudson.
The victims were all pre-med at Hudson.
A hospital employee? Who had access to her credit cards.
Somebody in Admitting.
Good place to start.
Oh, by the way, did you happen to read the news this morning? It's pretty much a rehash of departmental press releases.
But the funny thing, the only name they mentioned was yours, Detective Green.
Maybe 'cause it was easy to spell.
This lady had Medicare, Blue Cross, CNA.
I didn't need a credit card.
First thing my doctor wants to see is a specimen of my money.
Why are there two admitting forms in here with two different dates? Oh, I filled out this one when the paramedics brought her in.
She didn't have her insurance cards with her, so I couldn't punch in the information.
She'd lost her purse.
But you had all the information by the time you filled out the second form? They must have found her purse.
Who's "they"? Ask security.
Found her purse in the ambulance the next day.
Must've fallen off the stretcher.
Just like that.
Yeah.
Things got a little crazy.
She flatlined in the middle of the run.
Old lady's got nine lives.
Eight.
You don't mind, we need to talk to your partner at the time.
Dennis Trope? He's on disability.
What kind of disability? Something with his nerves.
Well, is he ever coming back to work? I've been holding some stuff he left in his locker.
He was supposed to come pick it up.
"Don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and lives.
" Hilarious.
We got a couple of lady paramedics working here.
Dennis had a problem with that.
I don't know his comings and goings.
Is that his? You can't look in those.
Just check the warrant, Mrs.
Trope.
What's all this about? It's about the shootings in Central Park.
The one all those girls got killed? Oh, no, no.
Not Dennis.
Basic research.
I got medical books in here.
Dennis is gonna be a great doctor.
He's almost been accepted at Hudson, but they give preference to women.
Mmm-hmm.
Look, ma'am, it'll work out better for Dennis if you tell us where he is.
But I don't know where he is.
What, he didn't call asking about this? Disability check.
So is he coming or are you meeting him? You know we got trigger-happy people on the force.
If we have to go find him, he's likely to get himself shot.
Is that what you want? MRS.
TROPE: That's him, over there.
He's got a gun! MRS.
TROPE: Dennis, no! Don't do that.
Don't do that.
Stay away from me! (GUN SHOT) (DENNIS SCREAMING) MRS.
TROPE: Oh, my God! DENNIS: Oh, God, I'm dying! ED: You ain't dying, man! It's just a scratch.
You get nothing until I get a statement from you about those girls you shot! I want help! You gotta take me to a hospital! You want to go to a hospital? Say the magic words.
Say the magic words! No, stop! It hurts! Say the magic words! "I shot the women.
" No, please, stop him! Get him away from my son! All right.
All right, Ed, lay off of him.
Eddie, come on, come on.
Let him go.
Your son's getting medical treatment, Mrs.
Trope.
I don't know when you can talk to him.
Well, I'm getting a lawyer.
The other detective, the black one, he brutalized my Dennis.
You better keep your hands off him.
What did Green do to Mr.
Trope? He tried to get a statement, that's all.
Just a little energetic police work.
I hope this doesn't turn into another complaint.
Another? Green has two complaints for excessive force.
Review Board gave him probation.
Trope has a restraining order against him from a Lisa Fiori issued last February, which explains why he used the old lady to buy the piece.
How'd the eyewitnesses do? They couldn't pick Trope out of a photo array.
Forensics processed his clothing, his belongings.
No powder residue, no blood splatters.
So except for a couple of remarkable coincidences, we can't tie him to the gun or the killing.
He ask for a lawyer yet? Uh-uh.
Well, we don't have much time before his mother comes back with one.
I pulled some old Children's Services files on him.
There was abuse in the family.
I got his employee file from the city, and I got his Hudson med school application.
I'm ready for him.
All roads lead to you, Dennis.
From the gun, to the old lady, to the hospital, to the ambulance, to you.
I didn't kill anybody.
Oh, no? You know who's on juries nowadays? Women.
Right, Eddie? Most of 'em got nothing better to do than hang around and report for jury duty.
Once they hear your take on women's rights, they'll cut your kiwis off and hand 'em to you on a stick.
You really want those bitches deciding if you live or die? You really wanna give 'em that last bit of power? I mean they already got both hands on the steering wheel.
They're driving buses, directing traffic, working construction.
Who the hell invited them to the party anyway? They should be at home watching over their kids.
Detective Green.
Yes, ma'am.
I got it right here.
I'm sorry I didn't get it to you sooner.
I've been in this house a month.
There isn't a day that bitch doesn't ride my ass.
Lennie, Detective Briscoe, he was in line for the job.
He had the seniority.
They made her Lieutenant.
I bet it's the same where you work.
You know what? It belittles us.
It disrespects us.
Isn't that what you felt? But we don't sit around and mope, do we? Take you.
You tried to move up the ladder, to get into med school.
And they even denied you that opportunity, didn't they? Yep.
It's a terrible thing they did to you.
They should have been helping you, Dennis.
Taking care of you.
That's what women are for.
To look out for you.
But they let you down.
They always have, haven't they? I saw your Children's Services file.
Your old man beat on you.
He beat your mother.
I know what that's like.
Your mother was supposed to look out for you, to protect you.
She just let it happen, didn't she? She didn't protect her baby and now, these women get a crack at killing you.
Dennis, you are in a deep hole right now, man.
There's only one way out.
You tell us what you did.
There's no trial, no jury, no death penalty.
Please, man, please.
Don't them do this to you.
Don't let them win.
You tried hard to be a good man and did they give you the respect you deserve? (CRYING) Those bitch doctors at the hospital What about them, Dennis? What did they do? They said that I should apply to nursing school.
See? They humiliated you.
But in the park, you set everything right, didn't you? Yeah.
You put them back in their place.
Yes.
And that's why you shot them, right? Yes.
We need to hear you say it, Dennis.
That's why I shot them.
It's all right, it's all right.
You're gonna be all right, Dennis.
We just need your help with one more thing to make this work.
The clothes you wore.
You got some blood on them.
You threw 'em away.
Where'd you put them? In a bag on the train tracks on 36th.
(DOOR OPENS) Mr.
Trope, this is Mr.
Powell, a lawyer hired by your mother to represent you.
I want to talk to my client alone.
Take your time.
We need to amend the charges to include fifteen counts of murder.
You did good, Dennis.
You win.
They told his mother he was getting medical treatment.
Instead, they interrogated him even though they'd been told a lawyer was being hired.
Hired when? That day? The next day? The right to counsel doesn't attach until an attorney is actually Mr.
McCoy, this is a mess.
Mr.
Trope's statement doesn't have much probative value anyway.
I'm going to suppress it.
Your Honor, this wasn't some bodega robbery.
Mr.
Trope sprayed Central Park with automatic gunfire.
He was out to kill every woman he encountered.
He faces the death penalty.
If anything, the police should be held to a higher standard.
The statement led the police to some clothing.
I want that out too, judge.
That clothing had blood splatters from five of the victims on it.
Fruit of the poisonous tree.
I'm sorry.
Motion granted.
Do we know where Trope got the conversion kit for his weapon? Not yet.
But even if we did, it won't solve our big problem.
We have small problems? Well, since the rifling was scratched up, ballistics can only give us a 50% match-up from the weapon to the slugs.
That's reasonable doubt.
Don't we have rocket scientists on the payroll? Well, they say they can recreate the rifling on a computer but they need technical data from the gun-maker, Rolf Firearms.
Okay.
Well, the company's ignored all of our requests so far.
We weren't ignoring your request.
As a matter of fact, we had a meeting with our lawyers about it.
CARMICHAEL: And what did you all decide? Much as we'd like to cooperate, it would force us to reveal trade secrets that would damage our ability to remain competitive.
Trade secrets? Mr.
Weber, you make guns, not soda pop.
You're asking us for the specs to our manufacturing equipment.
I don't understand.
If it was my product that was used to kill 15 people, I'd sure as hell feel it was my civic duty to help convict the person who pulled the trigger.
Being good corporate citizens also means we have a responsibility to our employees to keep this company in business.
Okay.
We'll go the hard way then.
You can expect a subpoena on your desk by tomorrow morning.
My lawyers tell me subpoenas from New York don't travel well.
I'm sorry you came all the way up to Connecticut for nothing.
It's not trade secrets, it's lawsuits.
We're asking them to help prove their gun killed 15 people.
So they'd rather spend a half a million dollars fighting a subpoena? It's like the bastards are asking for it.
BRISCOE: Fifteen dead pre-med students.
What's that worth these days? Gotta be Bill Gates ballpark.
I mean, a family in California got 5 billion dollars for an exploding gas tank.
I'd be happy if Mr.
Trope got a five dollar injection.
He made a toll call to Newburgh in June, about a week after he bought the gun.
What's in Newburgh? Besides deer ticks? Hello? Automated information line for the Newburgh Arena.
Wait a minute.
I just saw an ad in one of these.
Yeah.
"Show-gun Gun Show, June 10th, Newburgh Arena.
"Chinese AKs, German machine pistols.
"Thousands of guns, barrels of fun.
" So I had a booth at Newburgh.
I take a booth at a show every weekend.
Since I'm not getting rich on my stock options No, you're doing it the all-American way.
Selling conversion kits for assault weapons.
I don't sell kits.
I sell instruction sheets, which is legal under the First Amendment.
And on the other end of the table, you sell recoil springs and a guide plate for a 30-round clip.
You say guide plate, I say a piece ofjunk metal.
At 50 dollars a pop? Mr.
Lydell, we just want to know if you sold a kit for a Rolf Nine that weekend.
I had one customer, bought one set of instructions, one set of hardware.
Good.
Now, you're gonna look at one set of pictures.
Big demand for your kits? Mostly as it relates to the Rolf Nine.
It's the easiest to convert.
CARMICHAEL: Thanks to you.
You want to put me out of business? Make the gun tamper-proof? Just redesign the slide bolt.
It'll cost you all of This is him.
It doesn't address our core problem.
We still have to prove we have the right gun.
You call the manufacturer again? They filed a motion to quash the subpoena this morning.
Do you feel lucky? I won't offer Trope a deal.
Well, as a matter of law, can you prove that you have the murder weapon? 'Cause the jury might want to acquit, rather than send an innocent man to death row.
That subpoena hasn't been quashed yet.
Yes, that's why now might be the time to make your best deal with Trope.
You're taking the death penalty off the table with the city screaming for blood? The victims' families need closure, not blood.
My client's a healthy young man.
Life without parole, that could be fifty, sixty years.
He could always take up smoking.
Going once.
Going twice.
I was reading the Law Journal on the bus.
I noticed this motion hearing in the criminal court calendar listing? Rolf Firearms v.
New York.
Judge Flint presiding.
I called Flint's clerk.
Seems you have an evidentiary problem.
My problem is I've got too much evidence.
The only evidence that matters is the gun, which you can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt is the murder weapon.
You're willing to bet your client's life on that? You must have quite a pair of crystal balls.
We'd go all sentences to be concurrent.
It's a lot of closure.
Mr.
Trope, in accordance with your plea agreement with the District Attorney, I sentence you to a term of not less than 25 years and not more than your natural life, to be served at a facility to be determined by the Department of Corrections.
Wait.
This son-of-a-bitch could be out in 25 years? Your Honor, this isn't right.
He killed my girl! Order! Officers, clear the gallery.
McCoy, you Why are you just sitting there? (GAVEL POUNDS) It isn't right! My girl's dead! He killed my girl! It isn't right! (ALL CHATTERING) Those families deserve better.
They deserve to get their daughters back.
JACK: They're entitled to an eye for an eye.
We couldn't deliver, because Rolf Firearms got in the way.
The least we can do now is give them the sense that their kids didn't die for no purpose.
What are you talking about? Rolf makes a product that any clever can turn into a weapon of mass destruction.
I'm appalled.
Write them a letter.
If they don't know it already, Adam, they should.
Last year, were committed in the state using a Rolf Nine.
All but six of them had been modified for automatic fire.
CARMICHAEL: And that's their fault? What are those, grand jury slips? Yes.
What are you charging them with? Fifteen counts of criminally negligent homicide? It's unprecedented.
Mr.
Weber makes a legal product.
Mr.
McCoy, if the admitted killer tampered with their product, then why blame Mr.
Weber and his company? Because the evidence their product posed an unjustifiable risk was right in front of them, and they failed to look.
New York has strict gun laws which aren't being enforced.
Her client's business practices help criminals circumvent our laws.
The weapons used to commit crimes in New York were traced back to wholesalers in states with far more lenient gun laws.
Records show that Rolf shipped weapons to those states far in excess of the local demand.
My client was filling legitimate orders.
They never ask who's buying their guns or what they're doing with them.
One look at the statistics, those guns are finding their way back to New York in the hands of criminals.
Your Honor, Rolf Firearms is a Connecticut company.
They don't sell, manufacture, transport, or advertise their product in New York State.
There is no jurisdictional nexus for these charges.
The victims were killed here.
They're dead, because the design of Mr.
Weber's gun made it attractive to Mr.
Trope.
And his marketing practices as good as put it in Mr.
Trope's hands.
Mr.
McCoy, you're trying to use my court to make social policy.
I won't stand for it.
And my interpretation of the statute doesn't permit it.
You don't have the authority to bring these charges.
Motion to dismiss is granted.
Judge Wright.
Thirty years, I've seen him eat the same pork chop for lunch at Forlini's.
I'm filing an appeal.
Man of La Mancha? You read the op-eds, Adam.
The public wants us to do something.
JACK: The fact that Rolf Firearms' products are used in the State of New York, the jury gives us jurisdiction over the corporation and its officers.
That all the criminal acts except the murders took place outside the state is immaterial.
Thank you, Mr.
McCoy.
Mr.
McCoy wants to punish my client for exercising his rights under the Second Amendment.
As long as the Supreme Court upholds the right to bear arms, the manufacture of those arms The Supreme Court does recognize the state's right to regulate firearms.
Well, that's the point.
Mr.
Weber makes firearms that can legally be sold in New York State.
He engages in business practices that are legal under New York law.
Mr.
McCoy's problem is with the law.
Let him seek redress in the legislature, not the courts.
Thank you, counselor.
Your point is well taken.
Mr.
McCoy, in the remaining time.
Criminal negligence is not a legal activity.
While adhering only to the letter of the law, Mr.
Weber ignores the fact that his product is the preferred choice of bank robbers, gang members and mass murderers.
It does sound like you want to make social policy.
The courts have always been agents of social change.
The legislative process, especially as it relates to this issue, has been corrupted by well-funded special interest groups.
So I urge you to let a jury, to let 12 ordinary citizens, impartial and answerable only to their consciences, decide on the evidence where the criminal liability rests.
In their infinite wisdom, the Appellate Court has overturned my ruling, and remanded this case for trial.
I've given a lot of thought to this matter.
Particularly the People's burden of proof.
Now here's what the ground rules are going to be.
Mr.
McCoy, the People must prove that the firearm as manufactured was hazardous per se.
Your Honor Now, be quiet.
Unless you can show that Mr.
Trope used the weapon as it was intended to be used by Rolf Firearms, I will entertain a motion to dismiss at the conclusion of the People's case.
That's an impossible standard, Your Honor.
Trial date to be set in two weeks.
Mechanical engineers, industry analysts, marketing specialists.
Riveting witness list.
Once the victims' families take the stand.
Yes, you have them, and the other side has Judge Wright.
He has set the bar higher than you can jump with a pogo stick.
Jack wants the jury to make a finding of emotion, not of fact.
This isn't a trial, this is gun control by other means.
When they can sell guns on the talking Internet, talking about control is a joke.
So this is your answer? Putting gun-makers in jail? I'd like to start by putting Rolf Firearms out of business.
CARMICHAEL: Responsible adults can own firearms without the entire country sinking into criminal anarchy.
What's the point? Maybe when the Redcoats were coming over Bunker Hill.
How about somebody six-foot-five coming through my door? The people have a right to defend themselves.
And cops shouldn't have to worry about running into Rambo every time they pull over a car.
Before you settle this spat with a duel, find a way to win your case or drop it.
Rolf never put restrictions on us.
We can sell it to any retailer.
It doesn't matter whether he has a store, or a booth at a gun show.
As long as he has a federal license.
Did they ever question why their guns were in such high demand in your area? Well, I got a call last year from somebody at Rolf asking me about sales volume in retail outlets.
What was he, a sales rep? He was in marketing.
A director of marketing.
Guy by the name of Victor Colby.
He said he was doing a survey for Rolf.
He's not on their employment rolls.
Unless Rolf Firearms gives me permission, there isn't much I can tell you about my work there.
Just name, rank and serial number.
You signed a non-disclosure agreement when you left? Yes.
We all did.
They laid off a third of the sales department.
They laid you off? After 16 years? And you won't talk to us about a marketing survey? I can't.
Did they offer you a financial incentive to keep your mouth shut? You're going to have to leave.
I'm sure you know what killed these people.
Any help you can give us.
It's an internal memo about the survey.
The company concluded that making the Rolf Nine tamper-proof would reduce sales by almost 40%.
It was cheaper to settle any lawsuits than to change the design.
With this, we can meet Judge Wright's standard of proof.
They know their gun's easy to modify.
It's their whole marketing strategy.
Trope used the gun the way they intended it to be used.
First thing tomorrow, we re-file the indictment.
Murder two, depraved indifference.
Fifteen counts.
Mr.
Colby signed a legally binding agreement with Rolf Firearms.
If he chooses to testify, her clients can seek their remedies in civil court.
You can't keep him off the stand, Ms.
Swann.
Motion denied.
Now, what about this memo? It's a privileged communication.
Written by the vice president of marketing, and addressed to Mr.
Weber? Where's the privilege? It was CC'd to the company's in-house counsel.
It's a communication between a client, the corporation and its officers, and an attorney.
Memo's privileged.
Motion granted.
We fund safety education programs, we participate in an industry-wide effort to develop smart gun technology.
And yet, tragically, innocent people still get killed by criminals using your gun.
Yes.
We deeply regret that.
We know the very nature of what we do imposes on us a grave responsibility.
The idea that we passively encourage criminal conduct just to make a profit is repugnant.
It never happened.
You knew your guns were being sold unlawfully to criminals.
We have no control over that.
If a liquor store sells beer to an adult who turns around and sells it to a minor, is the brewer responsible? He is, if he makes bubble-gum flavored beer.
This is the slide bolt for a Rolf Nine.
The part that's being modified for automatic fire.
This is where the design flaw is, isn't it? The design is not flawed.
The gun is simply vulnerable to tampering, like all firearms.
If it's vulnerable, why didn't you correct it? Suppose we did.
We shut down production, we redesign the gun, we retool the factory.
Six months from now, some other bright kid finds another way to tamper with the gun.
Do we change the design again, just to keep pace with the criminal mind? But the real problem is sales, isn't it? No, the real problem is no one's enforcing the laws.
The laws.
Mr.
Weber, didn't you contribute to a special interest group that lobbied Congress to pass the so-called Gun Owners' Rights Bill that weakened gun control laws? We have a right to participate in the political process.
You not only armed Dennis Trope, you undermined the very laws that were supposed to protect us from him, didn't you? No.
No, that's not true.
Look, none of this is our fault.
No more questions.
Your Honor, the defense rests.
Mr.
McCoy, rebuttal witnesses? Yes, Your Honor.
The People call Dennis Trope.
Those high school kids out west had semi-automatics, but there were two of them.
To do what I wanted to do alone, I was going to need to convert a semi-auto to a full-auto, and the easiest one, I found out, was the Rolf Nine.
Is this the one you bought through the Internet? DENNIS: Yes.
The literature said it had a tendency to jam, but, it worked like a pro for me.
After you got this weapon, what did you do? I bought a conversion kit at a gun show for Show us how you converted this weapon.
The bolt comes with a little hump right here.
That keeps the gun from firing on automatic.
I filed it down.
How long did that take? Ten minutes.
Then I changed the recoil spring.
That took five minutes.
And then, I soldered the new guide plate on the magazine feed right here.
How much time, all told? Half an hour.
No more questions.
Let me make sure I understand.
You wanted to kill as many women as possible in the shortest amount of time? Yes.
And the Rolf Nine, as you bought it, wasn't adequate to the task? No.
No more questions.
Gun-makers are among the most heavily regulated groups in this country, with an army of people watching over them.
But despite all that, this fell through the cracks.
Fifteen people were killed.
Now, Mr.
McCoy wants you to believe there's a straight line between their shattered bodies and my client's factory.
There isn't.
There's just Dennis Trope.
He was the one who broke the law when he bought the gun, modified it, and fired it into that crowd.
Horrifyingly simple.
So, why doesn't Mr.
McCoy get it? Responsible gun ownership is an American tradition, protected by the constitution.
But many people would like to get rid of guns.
Well, we all know Cain didn't need a gun to kill his brother.
As long as there are Dennis Tropes in this world, they will find a way to kill innocent people, whether it's with a gun or a few hundred pounds of fertilizer.
But you can't blame the fertilizer company any more than the gun-maker for that.
You put the blame where it belongs.
That's another American tradition.
Gun ownership is not an American tradition.
That's a myth, like George Washington's cherry tree.
Most Americans, going back to colonial times, did not own a gun.
Didn't even know how to shoot one.
That's still true today.
You heard expert testimony that redesigning the slide bolt of a Rolf Nine would add 27 dollars and 64 cents to the manufacturing cost of a weapon that sells for 900 dollars.
Mr.
Weber knew that his gun was being bought for the purpose of being converted to an automatic weapon.
His refusal to change the design is tantamount to admitting that its intended use was as an automatic weapon.
Reasonable people can disagree about the Second Amendment.
But this can't be.
What the framers of the constitution had in mind.
Of course, you must hold Dennis Trope responsible.
He pulled the trigger.
But remember, because of Mr.
Weber's refusal to change the design of his gun, instead of firing this many bullets, in the 30 seconds that he pulled the trigger, Dennis Trope was able to fire this many.
(SOBBING) Madam Foreperson, as to each of the fifteen counts of the indictment, murder in the second degree, has the jury reached a unanimous verdict? Yes, we have, Your Honor.
We find the defendant guilty.
(ALL CHATTERING) JUDGE: Order! Order! (GAVEL POUNDS) Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I thank you for your service.
You are excused.
Don't pack it up just yet, Linda.
I'm finding, as a matter of law, the People failed to meet the standard of proof I set at the beginning of trial.
The People did not establish that the weapon was hazardous per se, nor that the main actor in the homicides used the weapon as it was intended to be used by Mr.
Weber.
Therefore, I am setting aside the jury verdict, and issuing a directed verdict of not guilty.
The defendant is free to go.
Objection! Order! Order! I'm filing notice of the People's intent to appeal! This is outside the scope of your authority! Mr.
McCoy, I'm not going to sanction a verdict that can't possible be sustained on appeal.
This conviction isn't based on any proven facts.
It's based on the jury's outrage at Mr.
Weber's irresponsible and inexcusable conduct.
You want to end the violence, the bloodletting.
So do I, Mr.
McCoy.
In my 30 years on the bench, I've seen every permutation of it, and it sickens me when somebody profits from it.
But tempted though I may be, putting Mr.
Weber in jail won't end the carnage.
Until we cure what ails the human heart, we won't make a dent in the body count.
In the meantime, no matter how profound our grief, our indignation, I can't let you use this court to raise a lynch mob.
I won't allow you to exploit the same base passions Mr.
Weber counts on to beef up his bottom line.
It's not about being right, Mr.
McCoy.
It's about doing right.
Now, we're adjourned.
(GAVEL POUNDS)
These are their stories.
We weren't flapping in the wind or anything.
We were lying on our stomachs.
Looked to us like you were lying on her stomach.
That was totally innocent.
Hey, look, pal, in this heat, I don't know how you could do it in the place.
But you were, and it's gonna cost you This really chews.
(MACHINE GUN SHOTS) Shots! (PEOPLE SCREAMING) What's going on? What's going on? Back there! He's shooting everybody! This is Park Ten! We have shots fired.
Man with gun behind the Conservatory.
(SHOTS CONTINUE) Don't stop! Keep moving! (SCREAMING CONTINUES) This is Park Ten! We got people down! I see 15, 20! We're behind the Conservatory.
We're gonna need EMS down here, big time! (PEOPLE CRYING) Witnesses saw a male, white, mid to late 20s, average height and weight.
T-shirt, shorts, sunglasses, blue baseball cap.
The fastest way out of the park is the Vanderbilt Gate.
You got people covering that area? Yes, sir.
Canvassing Fifth Avenue.
First shots came from over there.
Guy just moved through the crowd.
Emptied a clip, reloaded from a black knapsack.
We got 11 people down.
Wounded are at Mt.
Sinai.
(SIGHS) So, what do you want to do first? Maybe the guy's A.
C.
Went on the fritz.
You think? Oh, God! (SOBBING) Oh, no! No, no! Oh, my baby! Let's go.
Come on.
Let's go talk to some witnesses.
I got three kinds of patients down here.
Hysterical, unconscious and expired.
You want to talk to someone, try X-ray.
Second floor.
Eddie, the elevator's over here.
Stairs are faster.
Hey, Loo.
What's the count? I heard 11 on the radio.
BRISCOE: Yeah.
Plus four here.
Fifteen dead? And 12 wounded.
We're going upstairs to talk to one of the survivors.
ED: Ms.
Drake, I'm Detective Green.
This is Detective Briscoe and Lieutenant Van Buren.
Can you talk to us about what happened? Yes, I think so.
How you feeling? Lucky.
There was this girl lying to me in the field, Claudia Shue.
I was sitting with her group.
What group is that? DRAKE: We're pre-med at Hudson.
I heard these pops and Laura fell over, then Claudia.
There was this guy coming towards us.
I got up to run, but my leg just gave out.
This guy, what did he look like? He was white, I barely saw him.
I kept my head down, I played dead.
He walked right past me, shooting and muttering stuff.
VAN BUREN: Muttering what? "Damn bitches.
" He just kept saying that.
"Damn bitches.
" The weapon's a nine mil SMG fired at full auto.
We're looking for a converted Ingram or Rolf.
Most of the dead and wounded are women? All but two.
And there were plenty of men to shoot at.
Seventeen of the female victims were pre-med students at Hudson.
They were the first ones shot, right here.
So the guy trolled the park for women to shoot.
Is there a sketch? BRISCOE: Yeah.
But it looks like half the people in this room.
I got a call from the Daily News.
They want to run it on the front page.
Media calls get routed to Public Affairs.
It was a personal contact.
I hope you didn't make any promises you can't keep.
Questions? No.
But I think we ought to release the sketch.
It's too generic.
Well, that could work to our advantage.
If the guy has a false sense of security, he might make a mistake.
He might make one if he thinks there's going to be a knock on his door any minute.
Any other groups of women in the area.
There was a soccer game in the East Meadow.
Yeah, and a bunch of flower-sniffers from the Conservatory.
But he chose these pre-med students.
Let's find out who knew they were meeting in the park.
It was an orientation to discuss gender issues in med school.
There was a flyer about it in the lobby.
ED: You have a copy of it? Yeah, sure.
It's okay.
Take your time.
How long was this posted? A couple of weeks.
This says that the orientation was by the pool on the west side.
How'd they end up clear across the park? Oh, there were people playing Frisbee so we had to find someplace else.
Oh, you were with them? Yes.
We had to walk across the park before we found someplace quiet.
We'd already wasted half an hour, and I had to leave for a meeting.
(PHONE RINGS) I have to get that.
All these parents have been calling.
If the shooter followed the girls from the west side, there's a chance he left that way.
And a chance we were looking on the wrong side of the park.
I'll break the news to the Lieutenant.
This is Mr.
Gilbert Gooba.
N'Goueba.
Gilbert N'Goueba, from the lvory Coast.
ED: From Abidjan? Yes.
You know Abidjan? The Paris of Africa.
My father worked there.
You told the officers you saw something yesterday? Yes.
I saw a white man in short pants run out of the park.
He had blood on his short pants.
He went to the subway.
BRISCOE: Did you get a look at his face? Not very good.
He had big sunglasses and a baseball hat.
Was he carrying anything, like a bag or a knapsack? No, no.
If he had a bag, I see it.
He must've ditched it in the park.
Thanks.
Hey, Old Spice, what did the Loo tell you about me? Nothing.
Did she tell you I don't like nicknames? Yeah? Yeah.
Lennie'll do.
The old man used to wear Old Spice.
POLICEMAN: Detectives, a black knapsack, right? Rolf nine mil.
There's still three full clips in here.
All right, cordon off the area and radio CSU.
Tell 'em we got a pick-up for the lab.
Right.
I'll take it in.
Get 'em to hump right on it.
Hey, Ed, it's after 7:00.
You know Shrier's not gonna look at it tonight.
Sure, she will.
(DOOR OPENS) The weapon, the bag, and the clips were clean for fingerprints.
And this is why you paged me at 6:00 a.
m.
? The guy tried to burn the serial off, but the lab recovered it.
The gun manufacturer said the weapon was sold four months ago to a wholesaler in Pennsylvania.
The caller ID on your page showed a 609 area code.
Where were you, Atlantic City? Uh-huh.
Went down there last night to play some poker.
Oh, yeah? How'd you do? I started up a Cadillac.
I finished down a Rolex.
A stainless steel Rolex.
(DOOR OPENS) Okay, I did a proctoscopy on our little patient.
You see these straight lines along the inside of the barrel? BRISCOE: Yeah.
What are they, scratches? After shooting up the park, your suspect rammed a metal file down the barrel to distort the rifling.
Means the best I can do is a 50% match to the slugs of the victims.
This guy put some thought into it.
He used fingerprint-resistant grips, converted the piece from a semi to a full auto.
BRISCOE: Real handyman, huh? Well, once you buy the conversion kit all you need is a screwdriver, a file and a soldering gun.
Twenty minutes, you're ready to make history.
Fifty Rolf Nines came in back in March.
Piece you're looking for, it went out two months ago to a firearms dealer in Reading.
A licensed dealer? Of course.
By the law, I can only sell to a federally licensed dealer.
We need the store's address.
He doesn't have a store.
Nowhere does it say I can only sell to a dealer with a store.
So where does he sell his guns? Out of a Good Humor truck? This is my store.
I sell through the classifieds on the Internet.
And this is my dealer's license.
And where are the guns? In there.
Do you remember selling this gun? Rolf Nine.
That's the serial number? Look, guys, technically you're out of your jurisdiction.
I don't have talk to you.
Maybe you tell me what's so important about this merchandise.
This merchandise was used to kill 15 innocent people.
Oh.
Wait, this is the Central Park thing? Oh, shoot.
"Oh, shoot"? By law, when I sell a gun, I'm supposed to ship it to a licensed dealer where they buyer lives, so the buyer can pick it up and fill out the paperwork.
But you didn't do that.
This guy said he was housebound in a wheelchair.
And since his shipping address matched his address on his credit card, I You shipped it right to him? Man, that license is coming off the wall.
Hey, relax.
Read the federal statute.
It's barely a traffic ticket.
So you want the guy's name, or what? Lee Coats.
New York City.
Purchased a month ago.
Police! Search warrant! Go, go, go! Somebody open a window.
ED: Well, she's at least a couple of days past the expiry date.
Looks like a heart attack.
LAMOTTE: Hey, Lennie.
Hello.
Excuse me.
Who are you? I'm Mrs.
Felder.
I live across the hall.
Oh, my.
Do you know who this is? Yes, it's Lee.
Lee Coats.
Short for Leanne.
Yes.
This is terrible.
She live here with anyone? No.
She just got out of the hospital two weeks ago.
What hospital? Hudson Presbyterian.
She had a pacemaker put in.
She was there for nearly a month.
The gun was shipped while the old lady was in the hospital.
Shipping company made two trips to her apartment.
Nobody was home the first time, so they left a signature card.
The next day, the card was signed, so they left the package.
A neighbor? Nobody who fits the description.
Now Hudson Presbyterian is the teaching hospital for Hudson.
The victims were all pre-med at Hudson.
A hospital employee? Who had access to her credit cards.
Somebody in Admitting.
Good place to start.
Oh, by the way, did you happen to read the news this morning? It's pretty much a rehash of departmental press releases.
But the funny thing, the only name they mentioned was yours, Detective Green.
Maybe 'cause it was easy to spell.
This lady had Medicare, Blue Cross, CNA.
I didn't need a credit card.
First thing my doctor wants to see is a specimen of my money.
Why are there two admitting forms in here with two different dates? Oh, I filled out this one when the paramedics brought her in.
She didn't have her insurance cards with her, so I couldn't punch in the information.
She'd lost her purse.
But you had all the information by the time you filled out the second form? They must have found her purse.
Who's "they"? Ask security.
Found her purse in the ambulance the next day.
Must've fallen off the stretcher.
Just like that.
Yeah.
Things got a little crazy.
She flatlined in the middle of the run.
Old lady's got nine lives.
Eight.
You don't mind, we need to talk to your partner at the time.
Dennis Trope? He's on disability.
What kind of disability? Something with his nerves.
Well, is he ever coming back to work? I've been holding some stuff he left in his locker.
He was supposed to come pick it up.
"Don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and lives.
" Hilarious.
We got a couple of lady paramedics working here.
Dennis had a problem with that.
I don't know his comings and goings.
Is that his? You can't look in those.
Just check the warrant, Mrs.
Trope.
What's all this about? It's about the shootings in Central Park.
The one all those girls got killed? Oh, no, no.
Not Dennis.
Basic research.
I got medical books in here.
Dennis is gonna be a great doctor.
He's almost been accepted at Hudson, but they give preference to women.
Mmm-hmm.
Look, ma'am, it'll work out better for Dennis if you tell us where he is.
But I don't know where he is.
What, he didn't call asking about this? Disability check.
So is he coming or are you meeting him? You know we got trigger-happy people on the force.
If we have to go find him, he's likely to get himself shot.
Is that what you want? MRS.
TROPE: That's him, over there.
He's got a gun! MRS.
TROPE: Dennis, no! Don't do that.
Don't do that.
Stay away from me! (GUN SHOT) (DENNIS SCREAMING) MRS.
TROPE: Oh, my God! DENNIS: Oh, God, I'm dying! ED: You ain't dying, man! It's just a scratch.
You get nothing until I get a statement from you about those girls you shot! I want help! You gotta take me to a hospital! You want to go to a hospital? Say the magic words.
Say the magic words! No, stop! It hurts! Say the magic words! "I shot the women.
" No, please, stop him! Get him away from my son! All right.
All right, Ed, lay off of him.
Eddie, come on, come on.
Let him go.
Your son's getting medical treatment, Mrs.
Trope.
I don't know when you can talk to him.
Well, I'm getting a lawyer.
The other detective, the black one, he brutalized my Dennis.
You better keep your hands off him.
What did Green do to Mr.
Trope? He tried to get a statement, that's all.
Just a little energetic police work.
I hope this doesn't turn into another complaint.
Another? Green has two complaints for excessive force.
Review Board gave him probation.
Trope has a restraining order against him from a Lisa Fiori issued last February, which explains why he used the old lady to buy the piece.
How'd the eyewitnesses do? They couldn't pick Trope out of a photo array.
Forensics processed his clothing, his belongings.
No powder residue, no blood splatters.
So except for a couple of remarkable coincidences, we can't tie him to the gun or the killing.
He ask for a lawyer yet? Uh-uh.
Well, we don't have much time before his mother comes back with one.
I pulled some old Children's Services files on him.
There was abuse in the family.
I got his employee file from the city, and I got his Hudson med school application.
I'm ready for him.
All roads lead to you, Dennis.
From the gun, to the old lady, to the hospital, to the ambulance, to you.
I didn't kill anybody.
Oh, no? You know who's on juries nowadays? Women.
Right, Eddie? Most of 'em got nothing better to do than hang around and report for jury duty.
Once they hear your take on women's rights, they'll cut your kiwis off and hand 'em to you on a stick.
You really want those bitches deciding if you live or die? You really wanna give 'em that last bit of power? I mean they already got both hands on the steering wheel.
They're driving buses, directing traffic, working construction.
Who the hell invited them to the party anyway? They should be at home watching over their kids.
Detective Green.
Yes, ma'am.
I got it right here.
I'm sorry I didn't get it to you sooner.
I've been in this house a month.
There isn't a day that bitch doesn't ride my ass.
Lennie, Detective Briscoe, he was in line for the job.
He had the seniority.
They made her Lieutenant.
I bet it's the same where you work.
You know what? It belittles us.
It disrespects us.
Isn't that what you felt? But we don't sit around and mope, do we? Take you.
You tried to move up the ladder, to get into med school.
And they even denied you that opportunity, didn't they? Yep.
It's a terrible thing they did to you.
They should have been helping you, Dennis.
Taking care of you.
That's what women are for.
To look out for you.
But they let you down.
They always have, haven't they? I saw your Children's Services file.
Your old man beat on you.
He beat your mother.
I know what that's like.
Your mother was supposed to look out for you, to protect you.
She just let it happen, didn't she? She didn't protect her baby and now, these women get a crack at killing you.
Dennis, you are in a deep hole right now, man.
There's only one way out.
You tell us what you did.
There's no trial, no jury, no death penalty.
Please, man, please.
Don't them do this to you.
Don't let them win.
You tried hard to be a good man and did they give you the respect you deserve? (CRYING) Those bitch doctors at the hospital What about them, Dennis? What did they do? They said that I should apply to nursing school.
See? They humiliated you.
But in the park, you set everything right, didn't you? Yeah.
You put them back in their place.
Yes.
And that's why you shot them, right? Yes.
We need to hear you say it, Dennis.
That's why I shot them.
It's all right, it's all right.
You're gonna be all right, Dennis.
We just need your help with one more thing to make this work.
The clothes you wore.
You got some blood on them.
You threw 'em away.
Where'd you put them? In a bag on the train tracks on 36th.
(DOOR OPENS) Mr.
Trope, this is Mr.
Powell, a lawyer hired by your mother to represent you.
I want to talk to my client alone.
Take your time.
We need to amend the charges to include fifteen counts of murder.
You did good, Dennis.
You win.
They told his mother he was getting medical treatment.
Instead, they interrogated him even though they'd been told a lawyer was being hired.
Hired when? That day? The next day? The right to counsel doesn't attach until an attorney is actually Mr.
McCoy, this is a mess.
Mr.
Trope's statement doesn't have much probative value anyway.
I'm going to suppress it.
Your Honor, this wasn't some bodega robbery.
Mr.
Trope sprayed Central Park with automatic gunfire.
He was out to kill every woman he encountered.
He faces the death penalty.
If anything, the police should be held to a higher standard.
The statement led the police to some clothing.
I want that out too, judge.
That clothing had blood splatters from five of the victims on it.
Fruit of the poisonous tree.
I'm sorry.
Motion granted.
Do we know where Trope got the conversion kit for his weapon? Not yet.
But even if we did, it won't solve our big problem.
We have small problems? Well, since the rifling was scratched up, ballistics can only give us a 50% match-up from the weapon to the slugs.
That's reasonable doubt.
Don't we have rocket scientists on the payroll? Well, they say they can recreate the rifling on a computer but they need technical data from the gun-maker, Rolf Firearms.
Okay.
Well, the company's ignored all of our requests so far.
We weren't ignoring your request.
As a matter of fact, we had a meeting with our lawyers about it.
CARMICHAEL: And what did you all decide? Much as we'd like to cooperate, it would force us to reveal trade secrets that would damage our ability to remain competitive.
Trade secrets? Mr.
Weber, you make guns, not soda pop.
You're asking us for the specs to our manufacturing equipment.
I don't understand.
If it was my product that was used to kill 15 people, I'd sure as hell feel it was my civic duty to help convict the person who pulled the trigger.
Being good corporate citizens also means we have a responsibility to our employees to keep this company in business.
Okay.
We'll go the hard way then.
You can expect a subpoena on your desk by tomorrow morning.
My lawyers tell me subpoenas from New York don't travel well.
I'm sorry you came all the way up to Connecticut for nothing.
It's not trade secrets, it's lawsuits.
We're asking them to help prove their gun killed 15 people.
So they'd rather spend a half a million dollars fighting a subpoena? It's like the bastards are asking for it.
BRISCOE: Fifteen dead pre-med students.
What's that worth these days? Gotta be Bill Gates ballpark.
I mean, a family in California got 5 billion dollars for an exploding gas tank.
I'd be happy if Mr.
Trope got a five dollar injection.
He made a toll call to Newburgh in June, about a week after he bought the gun.
What's in Newburgh? Besides deer ticks? Hello? Automated information line for the Newburgh Arena.
Wait a minute.
I just saw an ad in one of these.
Yeah.
"Show-gun Gun Show, June 10th, Newburgh Arena.
"Chinese AKs, German machine pistols.
"Thousands of guns, barrels of fun.
" So I had a booth at Newburgh.
I take a booth at a show every weekend.
Since I'm not getting rich on my stock options No, you're doing it the all-American way.
Selling conversion kits for assault weapons.
I don't sell kits.
I sell instruction sheets, which is legal under the First Amendment.
And on the other end of the table, you sell recoil springs and a guide plate for a 30-round clip.
You say guide plate, I say a piece ofjunk metal.
At 50 dollars a pop? Mr.
Lydell, we just want to know if you sold a kit for a Rolf Nine that weekend.
I had one customer, bought one set of instructions, one set of hardware.
Good.
Now, you're gonna look at one set of pictures.
Big demand for your kits? Mostly as it relates to the Rolf Nine.
It's the easiest to convert.
CARMICHAEL: Thanks to you.
You want to put me out of business? Make the gun tamper-proof? Just redesign the slide bolt.
It'll cost you all of This is him.
It doesn't address our core problem.
We still have to prove we have the right gun.
You call the manufacturer again? They filed a motion to quash the subpoena this morning.
Do you feel lucky? I won't offer Trope a deal.
Well, as a matter of law, can you prove that you have the murder weapon? 'Cause the jury might want to acquit, rather than send an innocent man to death row.
That subpoena hasn't been quashed yet.
Yes, that's why now might be the time to make your best deal with Trope.
You're taking the death penalty off the table with the city screaming for blood? The victims' families need closure, not blood.
My client's a healthy young man.
Life without parole, that could be fifty, sixty years.
He could always take up smoking.
Going once.
Going twice.
I was reading the Law Journal on the bus.
I noticed this motion hearing in the criminal court calendar listing? Rolf Firearms v.
New York.
Judge Flint presiding.
I called Flint's clerk.
Seems you have an evidentiary problem.
My problem is I've got too much evidence.
The only evidence that matters is the gun, which you can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt is the murder weapon.
You're willing to bet your client's life on that? You must have quite a pair of crystal balls.
We'd go all sentences to be concurrent.
It's a lot of closure.
Mr.
Trope, in accordance with your plea agreement with the District Attorney, I sentence you to a term of not less than 25 years and not more than your natural life, to be served at a facility to be determined by the Department of Corrections.
Wait.
This son-of-a-bitch could be out in 25 years? Your Honor, this isn't right.
He killed my girl! Order! Officers, clear the gallery.
McCoy, you Why are you just sitting there? (GAVEL POUNDS) It isn't right! My girl's dead! He killed my girl! It isn't right! (ALL CHATTERING) Those families deserve better.
They deserve to get their daughters back.
JACK: They're entitled to an eye for an eye.
We couldn't deliver, because Rolf Firearms got in the way.
The least we can do now is give them the sense that their kids didn't die for no purpose.
What are you talking about? Rolf makes a product that any clever can turn into a weapon of mass destruction.
I'm appalled.
Write them a letter.
If they don't know it already, Adam, they should.
Last year, were committed in the state using a Rolf Nine.
All but six of them had been modified for automatic fire.
CARMICHAEL: And that's their fault? What are those, grand jury slips? Yes.
What are you charging them with? Fifteen counts of criminally negligent homicide? It's unprecedented.
Mr.
Weber makes a legal product.
Mr.
McCoy, if the admitted killer tampered with their product, then why blame Mr.
Weber and his company? Because the evidence their product posed an unjustifiable risk was right in front of them, and they failed to look.
New York has strict gun laws which aren't being enforced.
Her client's business practices help criminals circumvent our laws.
The weapons used to commit crimes in New York were traced back to wholesalers in states with far more lenient gun laws.
Records show that Rolf shipped weapons to those states far in excess of the local demand.
My client was filling legitimate orders.
They never ask who's buying their guns or what they're doing with them.
One look at the statistics, those guns are finding their way back to New York in the hands of criminals.
Your Honor, Rolf Firearms is a Connecticut company.
They don't sell, manufacture, transport, or advertise their product in New York State.
There is no jurisdictional nexus for these charges.
The victims were killed here.
They're dead, because the design of Mr.
Weber's gun made it attractive to Mr.
Trope.
And his marketing practices as good as put it in Mr.
Trope's hands.
Mr.
McCoy, you're trying to use my court to make social policy.
I won't stand for it.
And my interpretation of the statute doesn't permit it.
You don't have the authority to bring these charges.
Motion to dismiss is granted.
Judge Wright.
Thirty years, I've seen him eat the same pork chop for lunch at Forlini's.
I'm filing an appeal.
Man of La Mancha? You read the op-eds, Adam.
The public wants us to do something.
JACK: The fact that Rolf Firearms' products are used in the State of New York, the jury gives us jurisdiction over the corporation and its officers.
That all the criminal acts except the murders took place outside the state is immaterial.
Thank you, Mr.
McCoy.
Mr.
McCoy wants to punish my client for exercising his rights under the Second Amendment.
As long as the Supreme Court upholds the right to bear arms, the manufacture of those arms The Supreme Court does recognize the state's right to regulate firearms.
Well, that's the point.
Mr.
Weber makes firearms that can legally be sold in New York State.
He engages in business practices that are legal under New York law.
Mr.
McCoy's problem is with the law.
Let him seek redress in the legislature, not the courts.
Thank you, counselor.
Your point is well taken.
Mr.
McCoy, in the remaining time.
Criminal negligence is not a legal activity.
While adhering only to the letter of the law, Mr.
Weber ignores the fact that his product is the preferred choice of bank robbers, gang members and mass murderers.
It does sound like you want to make social policy.
The courts have always been agents of social change.
The legislative process, especially as it relates to this issue, has been corrupted by well-funded special interest groups.
So I urge you to let a jury, to let 12 ordinary citizens, impartial and answerable only to their consciences, decide on the evidence where the criminal liability rests.
In their infinite wisdom, the Appellate Court has overturned my ruling, and remanded this case for trial.
I've given a lot of thought to this matter.
Particularly the People's burden of proof.
Now here's what the ground rules are going to be.
Mr.
McCoy, the People must prove that the firearm as manufactured was hazardous per se.
Your Honor Now, be quiet.
Unless you can show that Mr.
Trope used the weapon as it was intended to be used by Rolf Firearms, I will entertain a motion to dismiss at the conclusion of the People's case.
That's an impossible standard, Your Honor.
Trial date to be set in two weeks.
Mechanical engineers, industry analysts, marketing specialists.
Riveting witness list.
Once the victims' families take the stand.
Yes, you have them, and the other side has Judge Wright.
He has set the bar higher than you can jump with a pogo stick.
Jack wants the jury to make a finding of emotion, not of fact.
This isn't a trial, this is gun control by other means.
When they can sell guns on the talking Internet, talking about control is a joke.
So this is your answer? Putting gun-makers in jail? I'd like to start by putting Rolf Firearms out of business.
CARMICHAEL: Responsible adults can own firearms without the entire country sinking into criminal anarchy.
What's the point? Maybe when the Redcoats were coming over Bunker Hill.
How about somebody six-foot-five coming through my door? The people have a right to defend themselves.
And cops shouldn't have to worry about running into Rambo every time they pull over a car.
Before you settle this spat with a duel, find a way to win your case or drop it.
Rolf never put restrictions on us.
We can sell it to any retailer.
It doesn't matter whether he has a store, or a booth at a gun show.
As long as he has a federal license.
Did they ever question why their guns were in such high demand in your area? Well, I got a call last year from somebody at Rolf asking me about sales volume in retail outlets.
What was he, a sales rep? He was in marketing.
A director of marketing.
Guy by the name of Victor Colby.
He said he was doing a survey for Rolf.
He's not on their employment rolls.
Unless Rolf Firearms gives me permission, there isn't much I can tell you about my work there.
Just name, rank and serial number.
You signed a non-disclosure agreement when you left? Yes.
We all did.
They laid off a third of the sales department.
They laid you off? After 16 years? And you won't talk to us about a marketing survey? I can't.
Did they offer you a financial incentive to keep your mouth shut? You're going to have to leave.
I'm sure you know what killed these people.
Any help you can give us.
It's an internal memo about the survey.
The company concluded that making the Rolf Nine tamper-proof would reduce sales by almost 40%.
It was cheaper to settle any lawsuits than to change the design.
With this, we can meet Judge Wright's standard of proof.
They know their gun's easy to modify.
It's their whole marketing strategy.
Trope used the gun the way they intended it to be used.
First thing tomorrow, we re-file the indictment.
Murder two, depraved indifference.
Fifteen counts.
Mr.
Colby signed a legally binding agreement with Rolf Firearms.
If he chooses to testify, her clients can seek their remedies in civil court.
You can't keep him off the stand, Ms.
Swann.
Motion denied.
Now, what about this memo? It's a privileged communication.
Written by the vice president of marketing, and addressed to Mr.
Weber? Where's the privilege? It was CC'd to the company's in-house counsel.
It's a communication between a client, the corporation and its officers, and an attorney.
Memo's privileged.
Motion granted.
We fund safety education programs, we participate in an industry-wide effort to develop smart gun technology.
And yet, tragically, innocent people still get killed by criminals using your gun.
Yes.
We deeply regret that.
We know the very nature of what we do imposes on us a grave responsibility.
The idea that we passively encourage criminal conduct just to make a profit is repugnant.
It never happened.
You knew your guns were being sold unlawfully to criminals.
We have no control over that.
If a liquor store sells beer to an adult who turns around and sells it to a minor, is the brewer responsible? He is, if he makes bubble-gum flavored beer.
This is the slide bolt for a Rolf Nine.
The part that's being modified for automatic fire.
This is where the design flaw is, isn't it? The design is not flawed.
The gun is simply vulnerable to tampering, like all firearms.
If it's vulnerable, why didn't you correct it? Suppose we did.
We shut down production, we redesign the gun, we retool the factory.
Six months from now, some other bright kid finds another way to tamper with the gun.
Do we change the design again, just to keep pace with the criminal mind? But the real problem is sales, isn't it? No, the real problem is no one's enforcing the laws.
The laws.
Mr.
Weber, didn't you contribute to a special interest group that lobbied Congress to pass the so-called Gun Owners' Rights Bill that weakened gun control laws? We have a right to participate in the political process.
You not only armed Dennis Trope, you undermined the very laws that were supposed to protect us from him, didn't you? No.
No, that's not true.
Look, none of this is our fault.
No more questions.
Your Honor, the defense rests.
Mr.
McCoy, rebuttal witnesses? Yes, Your Honor.
The People call Dennis Trope.
Those high school kids out west had semi-automatics, but there were two of them.
To do what I wanted to do alone, I was going to need to convert a semi-auto to a full-auto, and the easiest one, I found out, was the Rolf Nine.
Is this the one you bought through the Internet? DENNIS: Yes.
The literature said it had a tendency to jam, but, it worked like a pro for me.
After you got this weapon, what did you do? I bought a conversion kit at a gun show for Show us how you converted this weapon.
The bolt comes with a little hump right here.
That keeps the gun from firing on automatic.
I filed it down.
How long did that take? Ten minutes.
Then I changed the recoil spring.
That took five minutes.
And then, I soldered the new guide plate on the magazine feed right here.
How much time, all told? Half an hour.
No more questions.
Let me make sure I understand.
You wanted to kill as many women as possible in the shortest amount of time? Yes.
And the Rolf Nine, as you bought it, wasn't adequate to the task? No.
No more questions.
Gun-makers are among the most heavily regulated groups in this country, with an army of people watching over them.
But despite all that, this fell through the cracks.
Fifteen people were killed.
Now, Mr.
McCoy wants you to believe there's a straight line between their shattered bodies and my client's factory.
There isn't.
There's just Dennis Trope.
He was the one who broke the law when he bought the gun, modified it, and fired it into that crowd.
Horrifyingly simple.
So, why doesn't Mr.
McCoy get it? Responsible gun ownership is an American tradition, protected by the constitution.
But many people would like to get rid of guns.
Well, we all know Cain didn't need a gun to kill his brother.
As long as there are Dennis Tropes in this world, they will find a way to kill innocent people, whether it's with a gun or a few hundred pounds of fertilizer.
But you can't blame the fertilizer company any more than the gun-maker for that.
You put the blame where it belongs.
That's another American tradition.
Gun ownership is not an American tradition.
That's a myth, like George Washington's cherry tree.
Most Americans, going back to colonial times, did not own a gun.
Didn't even know how to shoot one.
That's still true today.
You heard expert testimony that redesigning the slide bolt of a Rolf Nine would add 27 dollars and 64 cents to the manufacturing cost of a weapon that sells for 900 dollars.
Mr.
Weber knew that his gun was being bought for the purpose of being converted to an automatic weapon.
His refusal to change the design is tantamount to admitting that its intended use was as an automatic weapon.
Reasonable people can disagree about the Second Amendment.
But this can't be.
What the framers of the constitution had in mind.
Of course, you must hold Dennis Trope responsible.
He pulled the trigger.
But remember, because of Mr.
Weber's refusal to change the design of his gun, instead of firing this many bullets, in the 30 seconds that he pulled the trigger, Dennis Trope was able to fire this many.
(SOBBING) Madam Foreperson, as to each of the fifteen counts of the indictment, murder in the second degree, has the jury reached a unanimous verdict? Yes, we have, Your Honor.
We find the defendant guilty.
(ALL CHATTERING) JUDGE: Order! Order! (GAVEL POUNDS) Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I thank you for your service.
You are excused.
Don't pack it up just yet, Linda.
I'm finding, as a matter of law, the People failed to meet the standard of proof I set at the beginning of trial.
The People did not establish that the weapon was hazardous per se, nor that the main actor in the homicides used the weapon as it was intended to be used by Mr.
Weber.
Therefore, I am setting aside the jury verdict, and issuing a directed verdict of not guilty.
The defendant is free to go.
Objection! Order! Order! I'm filing notice of the People's intent to appeal! This is outside the scope of your authority! Mr.
McCoy, I'm not going to sanction a verdict that can't possible be sustained on appeal.
This conviction isn't based on any proven facts.
It's based on the jury's outrage at Mr.
Weber's irresponsible and inexcusable conduct.
You want to end the violence, the bloodletting.
So do I, Mr.
McCoy.
In my 30 years on the bench, I've seen every permutation of it, and it sickens me when somebody profits from it.
But tempted though I may be, putting Mr.
Weber in jail won't end the carnage.
Until we cure what ails the human heart, we won't make a dent in the body count.
In the meantime, no matter how profound our grief, our indignation, I can't let you use this court to raise a lynch mob.
I won't allow you to exploit the same base passions Mr.
Weber counts on to beef up his bottom line.
It's not about being right, Mr.
McCoy.
It's about doing right.
Now, we're adjourned.
(GAVEL POUNDS)