Law & Order (1990) s10e11 Episode Script
Collision
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.
I ran into your mother at Christophe's this morning.
How was she? She told me your cousin Bruce invited her out to the island for the weekend.
She said it would be nice to spend some time with her family.
Subtle.
We should have her over for dinner.
Sure.
How about next week.
Aren't you in London all next week? She just wants to see the kids anyway.
WOMAN: (SCREAMING IN DISTANCE) Leave me alone! Did you hear that? What? Sounded like someone yelling.
WOMAN: Stop it! Get away from me! Well that's coming from the park.
It sounds like a woman.
Hello? I have an emergency.
Burt, it stopped.
Couple in an apartment across the street heard some screaming and called 911.
Concerned citizens.
Must be new in town.
When was this? Dispatch logged the call at 9:08 and sent a car.
Our guys found that.
Blood looks fresh.
BRISCOE: Yeah.
So do the clothes.
Bloomies, Loehman's.
Nice rags for a paper suitcase.
Old guy walking his dog.
Came through 15 minutes before the screaming.
Says he saw a woman sitting on the bench over there.
Sitting alone? Yeah, alone.
Couldn't say how old or what she was wearing.
Maybe you should've asked the dog.
Hey, can I use your flashlight? (CHATTER OVER POLICE RADIO) (SIRENS WAILING IN BACKGROUND) He didn't happen to mention if she was wearing glasses did he? Yeah, he said she was.
Well, she isn't now.
So, we've got a bag of clothes, some blood, two witnesses who may have heard screams from 10 floors up, and a dog lover who saw a woman on a bench.
You want us to throw this back to the 31? Unless you've got a block of free time I don't know about.
Latent pulled some prints off the glasses.
Karen Brewster, female Caucasian, What's she in the system for? Misdemeanor loitering, picked up during one of his honor's neighborhood sweeps a couple of years back.
She gave an address in Brooklyn.
What'd the lieutenant have to say? She said run with it.
Karen hasn't lived at home for over a year.
Has she done something wrong? ED: We don't mean to alarm you, but, are these your daughter's glasses? Oh my God, yes.
Is that blood? Yes.
We found them in Riverside Park.
Karen Is she hurt? We don't know.
When's the last time you saw her? TERESA: About five weeks ago.
Ron was in the hospital.
A small stroke.
Karen came to see him.
It was awful.
She pushed my doctor.
Knocked him down.
Why'd she do that? She said the voices told her the doctors were trying to kill her father.
Schizophrenia, Karen was diagnosed, her second year in college.
Mrs.
Brewster, has she called? Been in touch? TERESA: No, have you checked her apartment? No.
Where? West 16th.
I called her this morning, but there wasn't any answer.
Watch your head.
What is all this stuff? HDTV protectors.
She read this article about digital television, and got worried the signals might fry her brain.
A little late, if you ask me.
Mind if I open a window? Yeah, you can try.
ED: Newspapers from a couple of months ago.
Junk mail from Labor Day discounts.
She hasn't been here in a while? I told you.
Her parents slip me few bucks to keep an eye on her.
You know, they pay the rent too.
They tell you that? She was doing fine till a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen her in maybe a month.
Sounds like the Brewster's were getting their money's worth.
I'm not seeing a phone book.
Well, first you gotta have a phone.
I found it in the trash.
She disconnected it.
She thought the CIA might use it to uh, listen in on her.
Hey, Ed, you see a padlock around here anyplace? No.
It's a key for a Pratt padlock.
Has she got a storage locker? Nope.
Maybe her doctor knows what the key's for.
Dunning letters from a collection agency.
She didn't pay her medical bills.
I told the agency not to bother her.
Even if Karen had the money, it wouldn't occur to her to pay me, no matter how many letters they sent.
Do you know if she had any friends, or anybody who was bothering her? I wouldn't know.
In any event I can't discuss what she's told me.
Hey, give us a hand here, Doc.
The woman was attacked last night and now we can't find her anywhere.
Can you point us in the right direction? I don't know anything about her present circumstances.
I stopped treating her six months ago.
Okay, how about telling us why? After her father retired, his employer's insurance plan dropped her.
She couldn't afford to stay in treatment.
And I couldn't afford to treat her for free.
Somebody in her condition, she'd be taking a lot of meds, right? Yes, or course.
Why? We didn't find any in her apartment.
You wouldn't.
She never let them out of her sight.
She didn't trust anyone.
Somebody was writing her scripts.
Medical histories are confidential, Detective.
Look, we know this woman filled some prescriptions written by one of your doctors at a drugstore in her neighborhood.
Now she's missing and we need to find her.
Karen Brewster.
Sorry, Medicaid outpatient for six months, admitted twice.
Discharged the last time 16 days ago.
She had prescriptions for Clozapine, Haloperidol and Biaxin.
What're those? The first two are for schizophrenia.
And Biaxin is an antibiotic.
An antibiotic? I can't Hey, if we've got a sick woman wandering around, isn't that a public health hazard? (SIGHS) She was admitted for pneumonia.
What? You better talk to Security.
MAN: She was sharing a room with three other ladies.
One of them heard her call out in the middle of the night.
And thought she saw somebody run out of the room.
What'd Ms.
Brewster say? She said it was the CIA.
There was a rip in her gown.
She looked pretty shook up.
So what'd you do? Took a report, sent a copy to the 13.
What happened to Ms.
Brewster? She stayed around for a couple of weeks till she got better and then was discharged.
Don't psych patients sometimes get bumped to a halfway house? Yeah, city health rule.
Residential living center.
Yeah, can you find out if Ms.
Brewster was ever a resident? WOMAN: Karen Brewster, sure.
She's been in and out of here three or four times this past year or so.
Is she okay? We don't know.
When was the last time you saw her? Um.
Friday night.
She took off after dinner.
She usually stays a few weeks.
This time, it was just couple of days.
Seems she's been bouncing around a lot these last couple of months.
Well, she had a lot bouncing around in that poor brain of hers.
I hope she's okay.
We're starting to get the picture somebody might've been stalking her.
Oh, well that explains that.
Couple of months ago, she came to me and asked me how she might avoid getting pregnant.
She was naive in that area.
Wait, she had a boyfriend? I asked her.
She said somebody in her condition couldn't have a boyfriend.
She was worried about getting raped.
Any woman living on the street has to be worried, all the time.
That girl you're looking for, she bought a knife off me on Friday.
Gave him 50 bucks cash.
I don't have to pay taxes on that now do I 'cause Nah, we'll get you a waiver from the IRS.
She say what she needed the knife for? On account of the CIA.
I'm not the only one they're after.
After you sold her the knife, what'd she do? She caught a cab around the corner by the falafel stand.
Did she say where she was going? No.
But she used to talk about having a house on the beach.
She said she liked to sit on the shore and feed the gulls.
Yes.
That's her.
I keep the windows open, but the cab still smells from her.
If Mr.
Mayor didn't make it a law I never would pick up such a person.
Where did you drop her off? and Riverside Park.
Thanks for your help.
A guy like that runs out of gas north of 110th Street.
Riverside Park.
We've come full circle.
There's the marina on 79th.
Karen's beach house.
It's a Pratt.
Should have kept that key.
ED: Nah, you don't need a key for a Pratt, watch this.
Looks like the CIA beat us to her.
The M.
E.
Says she was strangled, couldn't tell if it was before or after she had sex.
Rape? Probably.
There's evidence of assault, fluids, bruising around her pelvis.
And the body was covered with a man's coat.
Any injuries to explain the blood in the park? It wasn't her blood.
She's A negative.
His blood.
She fought him off once.
He followed her to the container.
Any markings on his coat? No.
But we found a pawn ticket near her.
For a man's watch.
Green's calling all the pawn shops in the area.
How industrious.
Yes sir, thank you.
The ticket number matches a watch stolen last Thursday.
Get the details.
And Detective, it's lucky for you this turned into something.
BRISCOE: That's gotta hurt.
Same coat.
He's our guy.
We'll want a copy of that.
You rent it for two nights, get the third night free.
You don't seem too upset over the loss.
A 20-year-old Bulova? I couldn't care less, except I'm still picking glass off the floor.
Did he leave a name and address? Before or after he put his elbow through my display case? When he pawned the watch in the first place.
Oh, he didn't pawn it.
Crazy woman did.
Karen Brewster.
Yeah.
Day before.
Gave her 50 bucks for it.
She said it used to be her father's.
I hope she doesn't come back for it.
BRISCOE: I wouldn't worry about it.
Thanks.
Some guys, they stalk a woman, they steal her undies out of the laundry basket.
This guy's more practical.
Now he can tell when it's dinner time at the shelter.
Harvey.
Wouldn't give me his last name.
Mass and mulligatawny, Tuesday nights.
You're sure? When a grown man throws a tantrum in the middle of services I remember him.
He's violent? Disruptive.
A lot of the people we care for have psychiatric problems.
When their medication runs out, so does their grip on reality.
Harvey talks to himself, he sings, he cries.
It's always a show.
Any idea where he's appearing tonight? I haven't seen him for a couple of months.
Does he have any friends? People steered clear of him.
You might try the welfare for work program.
Anybody who stays here more than one night has to sign up, excuse me.
Smash and grab must be a sideline.
You guys should've stopped by last week.
Harvey put in eight hours.
Doing what? Holding a flag.
Forty-five bucks, Harvey got a last name? Well he told them to make out the check to Harvey Morton.
But he told me it wasn't his real name.
You know where he is today? No.
How about when he'll be back? If these guys had regular work habits they wouldn't be on the street.
Harvey came in with a crew from St.
Mary's a couple months ago.
Every other week, he turns up for a shift.
Any idea where he does his banking? With me.
I don't charge him commission like the check cashing place.
Hey, we gotta get a line on this guy.
Places he hung out, people he knew.
He likes donuts.
Oh, really? Yeah, every time we're in Queens, Harvey makes a big deal about the Donut Shack near the 59th Street bridge.
He says they got the best crullers in the city.
He was right.
Look, I'm off in 15 minutes and I still got a couple of dozen trays to rack.
Could we maybe do this another time? Sure, at our place in the city.
Your choice, bunky.
All right, lemme see it again.
Okay, I know this guy.
He comes in sometimes for coffee and a cruller.
Recently? Last time I think was a couple of Monday's ago.
ED: He live in the area? You don't need ID to buy donuts.
He ever come in with anybody? No.
People who come in at four in the morning usually aren't the social type.
He ever say what he was doing here at 4:00 a.
m.
? No.
Now can I go back to work? Your boy probably just climbed off the bus.
What bus? Across the street.
that's where they drop them off.
The daily dump of human refuse from Rikers.
Bower, Harvey Gilbert, AKA Harvey Morton.
Multiple misdemeanor arrests, processed in, processed out.
Most of his time he spends warming a bed in the psych ward.
What's his malfunction? Well the shrinks have him diagnosed as bi-polar disorder with psychotic features.
So he serves his time, and you let him go? With bus fare and a two day supply of medication.
Big surprise somebody got killed.
Well, he has no record of serious violence.
Disorderly conduct, public urination, a few scuffles, trespassing, pleaded for time served.
The usual merry go round.
When was the last time he got off? Two weeks ago.
Bower was released with a dozen other citizens who've paid their debt to society.
You think it was Harvey? ED: The evidence puts him at the scene.
With his psychiatric history, prison record He wouldn't hurt anyone.
The problem is, there's a bulletin out for his arrest.
Every cop in the city is looking for him.
Too many of your people like to shoot first.
BRISCOE: I don't know about that, but these things don't always work out the way we want them to.
What do you want us to do? Do you know where he is? I won't let him get killed.
If we help you, we have to do it our way.
Which way is that? We want to talk to him first.
And we want his doctor there.
His psychiatrist? No.
Dr.
Sitwell.
His pediatrician.
(CRYING) Where is he? Where he's been hiding all week, the garage.
He's in there with his parents and his pediatrician.
His parents say he's the only doctor he trusts.
You should see the doctor.
He's gotta be 100.
We gave the parents a cell phone.
They'll call us when he's ready to come out.
Who called the cavalry? Local precinct insisted.
Well, what's the worst case scenario here? This is the worst case scenario.
(MOBILE PHONE RINGING) Yes, all right, just make sure he follows the instructions we gave you.
They're coming out.
I want everybody to stay back.
I don't want anything to startle this man.
Mr.
Bower, can you please move toward the detectives.
Mr.
Bower, hold your hands out so the detectives can put on the handcuffs on.
Come on, Harvey, put out your hands, like we talked about.
What's that in his pocket? It's just a wrench.
Take it out of his pocket.
Uh, no.
He's not going to use it.
He just feels safe with it.
(LOUD CLATTERING) Get out! Go! Get out! MR.
BOWER: Harvey, wait! Harvey! HARVEY: Get away! Go! Keep back.
Take it easy, man.
Take it easy.
VAN BUREN: Harvey! Please, Mrs.
Bower! Don't touch her! (GUN FIRES) Hold fire! Hold fire! MRS.
BOWER: No! No! No! No! Looks like he caught it in the shoulder.
MR.
BOWER: Harvey! Let me see him! Call paramedics.
Who fired? MRS.
BOWER: (CRYING) No! I want to know who fired! You fired? Yes, ma'am.
Hand over your weapon.
Sergeant, call your precinct.
Officer involved shooting.
You better call your PBA.
The man was armed with a wrench, for Pete's sake.
It looked like he was attacking the lieutenant.
Witnesses say he was protecting his parents.
It was a confused situation.
If I had to do it over again You're damn right.
The peaceful surrender of a deranged man.
Stroke of genius.
The police had no choice.
The parents dictated the terms of the surrender.
Thank heavens his pediatrician was there to give him a lollipop after they shot him.
You sure you have the right man? He has knife cuts on his hands, from when he attacked Karen Brewster in the park.
It's his blood on her glasses, his semen, his coat covering her.
Make sure that gets into the press release.
I don't want to leave his lawyer a toe to stand on.
It shouldn't be too hard to blitz the defense.
Get a quick plea.
JACK: Brutal rape, murder.
Unless he pleads to murder one, I'm not interested.
First things first.
Anyone talk to this gentleman yet? My detectives are at the hospital waiting to get his statement.
See if you can get it without killing him.
BRISCOE: Come on, Harvey.
You remember Karen Brewster.
You stole her watch from the pawn shop.
You attacked her in the park.
You raped her.
You strangled her.
Harvey, all you have to do is tell us in your own words what we already know.
Hey, shut 'em up.
Press the damn button and shut 'em up.
No.
No.
No, they're your babies, you shut 'em up.
Harvey.
Come on.
I know you know what we're saying.
So tell us the truth.
And we'll go away.
It's always the same damn program.
Don't you people have any imagination? I don't care.
You can't have it.
He's all yours.
(SINGING) Kiss my big one, baby.
You got all the joysticks you need, hell, No, I don't care, you can't have it.
Be our guest.
Hello Mr.
Bower.
I'm Jack McCoy, from the District Attorney's I'm not listening to it.
Boots, boots, boots, marching across Africa.
Yeah, sure, babe, just land one right on my rectus tucus yeah.
What do you want? Hello.
I guess my invitation got lost in the mail.
Excuse me, please.
Mr.
Bower, my name is Danielle Melnick.
And your parents have hired me to be your lawyer.
Sure smells good.
Gotta be careful.
Oh yeah, gotta be careful.
Mmm-hmm.
What exactly are you charging him with? Murder one, for the rape and homicide.
A capital charge? We'll take remand to the state hospital in exchange for dismissal of old charges.
You're joking.
No.
Oh, and we'll agree not to sue for police brutality and for the violation of his civil rights.
Now you are joking.
Jack look at him.
You can throw the whole play book at him, the verdict's going to be the same.
Not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
Please, just think about it.
In the meantime I'm going to, uh, talk to my client.
When they brought him in, he told me that he'd been hit by a blow dart from an assassin hired by Bill Gates.
Why would he think that? Steve Jobs told him.
Now he said that Mr.
Gates has computers hidden in every room in the city and he communicates with him directly.
Why Mr.
Gates? Why anybody? He thinks Mr.
Gates wants to steal his penis.
Textbook psychosis.
Visual and auditory hallucinations, persecutory delusions, poor impulse control.
It sounds like a textbook.
How long did you speak with Mr.
Bower? As much as with any of my patients.
In minutes? Half an hour when we processed him in.
And then I observed him throughout his incarceration.
I see he was assigned to a work detail in the general population.
Is that normal for inmates in the psych ward? Well, if they're properly medicated and under close supervision, yes.
I'd like to talk to some of the inmates who worked with him.
I don't know from crazy, but the guy had a lot of imaginary friends.
But was he able to do his job? Sure.
Not much to folding laundry.
Did he ever mention a woman by the name of Karen Brewster? Well there was a lady, he said he was keeping his eye on.
Said he'd kill anybody that went near her.
I believed him.
Why's that? I seen him go nuts.
When? We were by the dryers once, and these four brothers came by.
Young punks looking for a fight.
Harvey sees them and he starts yelling, jumps up on the table.
Yelling what? About the government, big computers.
Then he started tearing his shirt off.
One look at that crazy bastard, and the punks moved on.
And then what did Harvey do? He calmed down.
Got off the table like nothin happened.
What do you think? He was in Bellevue before they brought him here.
They got the genuine article over there.
I signed him in at 2:20 p.
m.
What was wrong with him? Should I be talking to you about this? Mr.
Bower waived his right to medical confidentiality when he raised the defense of mental disease.
Oh, he was mentally diseased, all right.
Manic psychosis.
He came in for a voluntary committal.
You've seen a lot of these cases in your career? I can triage a psych case.
Even a first year medical student would have recognized the behavior pattern.
Hallucinations, delusions, poor impulse control.
Yeah, I've heard the tune.
What got him transferred to Rikers? He broke into the supply room.
And when we confronted him, he went off on a psychotic tirade.
You mind if I take a look? Nah, that's all right.
You admitted him at 2:20 p.
m.
Correct.
This says Bower arrived at the E.
R.
Earlier that day at 8:45 a.
m.
He was seen by Dr.
Naim and refused admission.
I guess he came back.
He must have wanted a second opinion.
When I was a boy, my uncle in Tehran talked to the moon.
But he only talked to the moon when my grandfather told him he must leave and find work.
Bower was faking? Well, exaggerating.
What we do is as much art as science.
So nothing is perfect, except what is false.
His symptoms were too perfect? In my opinion.
I told him as much when I examined him.
He was, uh, quite angry.
What did he do? He left.
He came back a few hours later when you were off duty.
He was a very determined man.
He told me I must admit him.
Said he said he had a friend inside he had to see.
(LAUGHS) Maybe he is crazy after all.
You'd have to be to want to be in this place.
CARMICHAEL: Check the dates.
The day after Karen Brewster was admitted to Bellevue for pneumonia, Bower faked symptoms, got himself committed to the psych ward.
Two nights later, she was attacked in her bed.
Crazy like a fox.
How long has he been doing his act? Until I talk to him, I don't know if it is an act.
But, according to his medical history, his psychosis seems to act up mostly in the winter months.
Whenever he needs a warm place to sleep.
When are you talking to him? I'm seeing him tomorrow.
Then I'm filing a motion to preclude and insanity defense.
Tell me about the voices, Harv.
How old were you when they started? My parents call me Harvey.
My name is Harvey.
Harv, Harvey, whatever floats your boat.
So, the voices? Uh, I've I've always heard them.
Even when you were a little boy? Yes, but they were different voices then.
Nothing about it in your family medical records.
Some minor problems in school.
Poor communication skills, no friends, mediocre grades.
I guess the voices interfered with your studying.
Yes.
I see you've been treated for depression since your teens.
Pretty severe, too.
But there's nothing about voices until you moved out of your parents house (STAMMERING) I didn't tell them about the voices.
They would have put me away.
But now you don't mind being put away? You hear the voices now, Harvey? Yeah.
Well, you shouldn't.
In addition to anti-depressants, you've been taking Clozapine.
That's supposed to take care of the voices.
I've been hearing other things, um, bells.
That's a new one.
Why'd you kill Karen? He told me to.
The voice.
You mean Bill Gates? Mmm-hmm.
Why? I don't know.
He just He just said to.
Every other psychotic I ever talked to said the voices always told them why.
He just made me do it.
I had no choice.
Gotta be a reason.
Was she bad, Harvey? No.
She was a, uh A good person.
She was, uh, beautiful.
If she wasn't bad, then she didn't deserve to die, right? I dunno.
Stands to reason, she had a right to live.
I guess.
So, what the voices told you to do, that was wrong.
I suppose.
So, do you deserve to be punished Harvey? I guess so.
What do you mean "guess"? If Karen was good and beautiful then she should still be alive and her killer punished.
Yes or no, Harvey? (SPEAKING GIBBERISH) SKODA: Mr.
Bower's doctors claim he killed Ms.
Brewster while suffering a psychotic episode.
They also suggest psychotic episodes explain most of Mr.
Bower's behavior.
But his doctors are not prepared to testify to that? There's a fine line between theory and diagnosis.
Are psychotic episodes of this kind common in bi-polar disorder? They can be.
The problem is, in Mr.
Bower's case, they're just too convenient.
He got them whenever the temperature dipped below 40, when Ms.
Karen Brewster was admitted to Bellevue.
When he stole her watch, when he attacked her in the park.
When he killed her.
Mr.
Bower has been in and out of state institutions for 11 years.
His case file runs over 1000 pages.
Clearly there's something wrong with him.
Are you saying he doesn't suffer from any mental disorder? No.
My diagnosis is that he suffers a bi-polar disorder with psychotic features.
Would this disorder prevent him from appreciating the consequences of his actions? No.
Prevent him from telling right from wrong? No.
I believe Mr.
Bower killed Ms.
Brewster because he was obsessed with her, and she wasn't with him.
Pure and simple.
Doctor, how can you be so sure? He attacked her in the park, pursued, raped, and ultimately killed her.
Any one of these actions might be the result of a psychotic episode, but taken together Ms.
Brewster's murder required a concentrated, focused effort beyond the ability of someone suffering a psychotic attack.
He even had the presence of mind to lock the container when he was done.
So that her body wouldn't be discovered.
That doesn't prove he understood what he was doing.
After he killed her, he covered her with his coat.
In poker, that's called a tell.
He felt remorse.
Guilt.
No voice told him to do that.
Just his conscience.
Your Honor, now he's reading tea leaves.
That may be, Ms.
Melnick.
But I read your client's medical history.
I don't see how you can establish the elements of this defense.
If it pleases the court, Your Honor, every doctor who has examined my client has found that he has a mental disease.
He has had no meaningful treatment.
Ms.
Melnick.
They give him $1.
50 and a handful of pills and they drop him off in front of some donut shop.
JUDGE: Enough.
I sympathize with your client's problems.
But they cannot become the concern of this court.
If he intends to take the stand, I'll reconsider my ruling.
Until then, the defense of mental disease or defect is barred.
The guards found five days worth of pills under his mattress.
He'd stopped taking them.
What kind of pills? Anti-depressants, neuroleptics, everything we were giving him.
How long's he been like this? About a day.
And he'll stay this way until he's back on his medication.
CARMICHAEL: Is this for real? With his type of disorder you take away his meds, this is what you get.
And what you get is someone that's not competent to stand trial.
The hell he isn't.
Put him back on his medication.
Yeah you do that and you'll be in contempt.
I'm applying for a TRO barring you from medicating my client against his will.
You want him like this? It's what he wants.
And then I'm filing for a permanent injunction prohibiting this trial from proceeding.
Look, McCoy.
My client may be legally sane, but it doesn't mean he's not crazy.
You want to force feed drugs to a mental patient until he's sane enough to be tried and executed.
I don't care how it's playing out in the media.
I'm not going to let a rapist-murderer make an end run around the Penal Law.
Why not leave him where he is the way he is? So he gets the benefit of an insanity plea without the inconvenience of a trial.
Only as long as he's out of circulation.
If and when he starts taking his medication again, we put him on trial.
And until then, the criminal justice system is held hostage.
I'm not comfortable with the idea of our just shoving pills down a man's throat.
I'm surprised, Abbie.
If he ran away to another state, we'd extradite him.
The fact that he's escaped into his own mind, shouldn't put him beyond our reach.
Bower's a con man.
You do what you have to do.
I'll man the phones.
MELNICK: It's Gulag justice, Your Honor.
The Supreme Court held that psychotropic drugs cannot be compelled against an individual's freely chosen preferences.
Mills v.
Rogers.
I have here affidavits from the ACLU.
Your Honor, the People simply want her client to resume taking medication he's taken most of his life.
Medication that nauseates him, makes him dizzy.
Depresses his libido.
Please, Your Honor, the mind represents the core of our human identity.
The State has no right to invade it.
We're not looking to disturb the core of Mr.
Bower's identity.
But, Your Honor, Mr.
Bower has a history of manipulating the mental health system for his own purposes.
He's trying to do it again now, to escape punishment.
So he can spend the rest of his days curled up in a ball in a state psych ward? Not much of an escape, Your Honor.
Maybe to him it looks better than death row.
He is where he belongs.
He's ill.
All the more reason to medicate him.
Unless he's a threat to himself or others, you can't do it.
Can't? Must not.
To preserve Mr.
Bower's individual rights, and the health of the body politic.
Your Honor, your decision will ripple through society.
It will also ripple through the criminal justice system.
If any defendant can escape prosecution, by stopping his medication, or by drugging himself, we're out of business, Your Honor.
The right to be free from intrusions into one's mind, seems an indisputable proposition.
In almost every case where the Supreme Court has been confronted by such an invasion, it has come down on the side of restraint.
And for compelling reason.
That being said, in light of Mr.
Bower's transparent efforts to circumvent the processes of this court, the action the People are seeking is not unreasonable.
The defendant would not be subjected to medication to punish or control him, but simply to enable him to assist counsel in the preparation of his own defense.
In effect, medicating him will enhance, not curtail, his rights.
The People's request is granted.
The Defendant is ordered to resume medication voluntarily or otherwise.
(JUDGE BANGS GAVEL) (GRUNTING) Jack.
Man one, he serves the max, it's my final offer.
Then your client better get over his fear of needles.
Listen, before you go anywhere near a death sentence, you have to prove rape.
You alleging his semen beamed into her vagina? Did you read what he told your shrink? Karen Brewster was a good person, she was beautiful.
Sounds like love to me.
Sounds like a crock.
He killed her.
I don't know about the death, but the sex was consensual.
And you go prove it wasn't.
You heard her.
She might take murder two.
Not from me.
If it was anybody else, but a mentally deranged homeless guy? A woman on Madison Avenue had a brick shoved through her skull by a homeless guy.
Last year, two people were pushed in front of a subway trains by homeless guys.
If your hippie friends could hear you now.
My hippie friends ride the subway to work.
I don't want them sharing a platform with Harvey Bower.
If you look at Bower's record, you can't help but get the feeling, if someone had been on the ball, Bower would've gotten the help he needs, and Karen Brewster'd still be alive.
You're right, the system failed them both, miserably.
And now we're left to clean up the mess.
Permanently.
And thanks to Mr.
Bower, we now have to get into Karen Brewster's sex life.
According to the police, the people who knew her thought she was inexperienced in that department.
We'll have to do better than that.
Yes, of course Karen had boyfriends in high school.
But by the time she went to college and her illness took hold and How about recently? She knew that that kind of relationship wasn't in the cards for her.
Why, does it matter? The defense is claiming that she wasn't raped.
That she willingly had sex with Mr.
Bower before he killed her.
That animal said that? After what he did to her.
I can't believe it.
No.
She wouldn't.
Mentally ill or not, she was a woman.
It must've been very lonely for her.
Sometimes I was able to talk to her about these things.
Karen agreed, she couldn't run the risk of getting pregnant.
We both knew what a burden it would be.
My husband says it's too bad they didn't shoot that man dead in the street.
I want him to pay, Ms.
Carmichael.
Karen didn't have a happy life, but he had no right.
Karen had siblings? No.
She liked to look at pictures of me and Ron when we were kids.
I don't know why.
That's her there.
She won first prize in a tennis tournament.
Is this your husband? No.
I don't know who that is.
It's Harvey.
He won some archery prize at summer camp.
Where did you find this? It was in Karen Brewster's apartment, on the wall next to her dresser.
Do you have any idea how it got there? No.
Mr.
Bower We don't know anything about this.
We shouldn't even be talking to you.
I want to see the right thing done here.
Why should we trust you? Now please, leave.
When Bower was in Rikers the last time, the records show that Karen was staying in the homeless shelter in Long Island City.
Same as the other three times Bower was in Rikers in the past year.
Practically around the corner.
She moved to that shelter to be close to him.
And when she was in Bellevue for pneumonia, he had himself admitted to be close to her.
And the rest of the time, they were where, in her apartment? Nobody ever saw him there.
They might've stayed away, so her parents wouldn't find out about the relationship.
So much for your stalking theory.
Puts the rape in question, maybe, not the killing.
He killed a woman who was in love with him.
Puts his whole mental state in question.
Time to take your winnings and run.
Well, it's a step in the right direction.
It's the end of the road.
Wait a minute, you've practically admitted that you misconstrued his relationship with Ms.
Brewster.
We didn't misconstrue his hand prints around her neck.
If he wants to keep playing games, we can do it in front of a jury.
Right.
We'll talk it over and we'll get back to you.
But if you're not going to keep an open mind I'll take it.
MELNICK: What? I, uh, I killed her.
Everybody knows it.
I should go to jail.
Mr.
Bower.
Do I have to sign something? Not yet.
I'll explain it to you later.
You'll have to tell a judge exactly what you did.
I didn't rape her.
JACK: I want it all on the record.
I loved her.
I wouldn't hurt her that way.
MELNICK: He admits the murder.
What does it matter if he says he raped her or not? It matters to her parents.
JACK: And to the parole board.
I didn't do that to her.
Then why did you kill her? Until you answer that question to our satisfaction Mr.
Bower, there'll be no deal.
Thank you for agreeing to see us.
I don't know what your son's lawyer told you, but until he's ready to explain his actions to us I told Ms.
Carmichael, Harvey and his lawyer don't know we called you.
Mr.
McCoy, the things they've written, about Harvey in the papers, that he's some kind of monster, they're just not true.
I don't pay attention to the papers, Mr.
Bower.
But an innocent woman was raped and killed.
Your son may be ill, but he has to be held accountable.
But he loved her.
You know that.
She had his picture.
You knew they had a relationship.
Did he tell you about her? Just that there was a girl, and that they loved each other.
I know he cared about her.
He couldn't have meant to hurt her.
All he has to do is tell us the truth.
Otherwise Please, Mr.
McCoy, whatever he did, he can't forgive himself.
Phil, show them.
We found these in the garage after they arrested Harvey.
We asked Dr.
Sitwell what they were.
He said they were Haloperidol for people like Harvey.
He said Harvey must've been hoarding his prescriptions.
Harvey was going to kill himself because of what happened to Karen.
Would a monster do that, Mr.
McCoy? Mrs.
Bower Mr.
McCoy, please.
(CRYING) Please have pity on our son.
I'll look into it.
I don't get this guy.
He loves her, but he kills her.
He'd rather risk a death sentence than admit he raped her.
And now this.
One small problem, those aren't his pills.
According to his medical records, he's never been prescribed Haloperidol.
Check Karen Brewster's records.
What's going on here? Come in and sit down.
I've just been telling Mr.
And Mrs.
Brewster how we've been struggling to come up with a fair sentence for your client.
Please, sit down.
You know where we stand, Mr.
McCoy.
Yes, I do.
MELNICK: Jack, if you brought us in here only to work us over How about you just listen.
Mr.
Bower's parents, found these pills among Harvey's things after he was arrested.
They're an anti-psychotic drug, Haloperidol.
Your daughter got them, in the weeks before she died from different doctors.
It's three times the fatal dosage.
Why would she do that? I think Mr.
Bower knows why.
A week after your stroke.
Karen was admitted to Bellevue with pneumonia.
Mr.
Bower was arrested there after he tried to see her.
A couple of weeks later, when she was discharged, Mr.
Bower was in jail.
So she was alone.
That's when she got these pills.
Mr.
Bower must have found them after he got out of Rikers.
You took them away from her, didn't you, Harvey? Karen pawned your watch, and used the money to buy a knife.
She then went to Riverside Park where we believe she intended to harm herself.
Harvey took the knife away from her.
Probably how he got the cuts on his hands.
The rest, we need to hear from you, Mr.
Bower.
CARMICHAEL: You've kept her secret long enough.
No.
Jack, can't we just dispose of this now? I can't let him allocute to a lie.
Please tell us.
Please.
I can't.
I promised her.
Please, Harvey.
We can forgive you.
She was scared of being left alone.
Becoming the crazy old woman in a cardboard box howling at the moon.
She didn't want you to know.
She said it was nobody's fault.
(STAMMERS) She asked me to do it.
She said that if I loved her.
(CRYING) I loved her.
She loved me.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Harvey Bower pleaded to man one.
He'll serve 6-to-18 in a prison psych ward.
Karen Brewster's parents? They signed off on it.
Bower's family dropped the lawsuit against the police.
Who would've thought, of all the things wrong with their kids, the worst thing that could've happened is that they fell in love.
And the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
I ran into your mother at Christophe's this morning.
How was she? She told me your cousin Bruce invited her out to the island for the weekend.
She said it would be nice to spend some time with her family.
Subtle.
We should have her over for dinner.
Sure.
How about next week.
Aren't you in London all next week? She just wants to see the kids anyway.
WOMAN: (SCREAMING IN DISTANCE) Leave me alone! Did you hear that? What? Sounded like someone yelling.
WOMAN: Stop it! Get away from me! Well that's coming from the park.
It sounds like a woman.
Hello? I have an emergency.
Burt, it stopped.
Couple in an apartment across the street heard some screaming and called 911.
Concerned citizens.
Must be new in town.
When was this? Dispatch logged the call at 9:08 and sent a car.
Our guys found that.
Blood looks fresh.
BRISCOE: Yeah.
So do the clothes.
Bloomies, Loehman's.
Nice rags for a paper suitcase.
Old guy walking his dog.
Came through 15 minutes before the screaming.
Says he saw a woman sitting on the bench over there.
Sitting alone? Yeah, alone.
Couldn't say how old or what she was wearing.
Maybe you should've asked the dog.
Hey, can I use your flashlight? (CHATTER OVER POLICE RADIO) (SIRENS WAILING IN BACKGROUND) He didn't happen to mention if she was wearing glasses did he? Yeah, he said she was.
Well, she isn't now.
So, we've got a bag of clothes, some blood, two witnesses who may have heard screams from 10 floors up, and a dog lover who saw a woman on a bench.
You want us to throw this back to the 31? Unless you've got a block of free time I don't know about.
Latent pulled some prints off the glasses.
Karen Brewster, female Caucasian, What's she in the system for? Misdemeanor loitering, picked up during one of his honor's neighborhood sweeps a couple of years back.
She gave an address in Brooklyn.
What'd the lieutenant have to say? She said run with it.
Karen hasn't lived at home for over a year.
Has she done something wrong? ED: We don't mean to alarm you, but, are these your daughter's glasses? Oh my God, yes.
Is that blood? Yes.
We found them in Riverside Park.
Karen Is she hurt? We don't know.
When's the last time you saw her? TERESA: About five weeks ago.
Ron was in the hospital.
A small stroke.
Karen came to see him.
It was awful.
She pushed my doctor.
Knocked him down.
Why'd she do that? She said the voices told her the doctors were trying to kill her father.
Schizophrenia, Karen was diagnosed, her second year in college.
Mrs.
Brewster, has she called? Been in touch? TERESA: No, have you checked her apartment? No.
Where? West 16th.
I called her this morning, but there wasn't any answer.
Watch your head.
What is all this stuff? HDTV protectors.
She read this article about digital television, and got worried the signals might fry her brain.
A little late, if you ask me.
Mind if I open a window? Yeah, you can try.
ED: Newspapers from a couple of months ago.
Junk mail from Labor Day discounts.
She hasn't been here in a while? I told you.
Her parents slip me few bucks to keep an eye on her.
You know, they pay the rent too.
They tell you that? She was doing fine till a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen her in maybe a month.
Sounds like the Brewster's were getting their money's worth.
I'm not seeing a phone book.
Well, first you gotta have a phone.
I found it in the trash.
She disconnected it.
She thought the CIA might use it to uh, listen in on her.
Hey, Ed, you see a padlock around here anyplace? No.
It's a key for a Pratt padlock.
Has she got a storage locker? Nope.
Maybe her doctor knows what the key's for.
Dunning letters from a collection agency.
She didn't pay her medical bills.
I told the agency not to bother her.
Even if Karen had the money, it wouldn't occur to her to pay me, no matter how many letters they sent.
Do you know if she had any friends, or anybody who was bothering her? I wouldn't know.
In any event I can't discuss what she's told me.
Hey, give us a hand here, Doc.
The woman was attacked last night and now we can't find her anywhere.
Can you point us in the right direction? I don't know anything about her present circumstances.
I stopped treating her six months ago.
Okay, how about telling us why? After her father retired, his employer's insurance plan dropped her.
She couldn't afford to stay in treatment.
And I couldn't afford to treat her for free.
Somebody in her condition, she'd be taking a lot of meds, right? Yes, or course.
Why? We didn't find any in her apartment.
You wouldn't.
She never let them out of her sight.
She didn't trust anyone.
Somebody was writing her scripts.
Medical histories are confidential, Detective.
Look, we know this woman filled some prescriptions written by one of your doctors at a drugstore in her neighborhood.
Now she's missing and we need to find her.
Karen Brewster.
Sorry, Medicaid outpatient for six months, admitted twice.
Discharged the last time 16 days ago.
She had prescriptions for Clozapine, Haloperidol and Biaxin.
What're those? The first two are for schizophrenia.
And Biaxin is an antibiotic.
An antibiotic? I can't Hey, if we've got a sick woman wandering around, isn't that a public health hazard? (SIGHS) She was admitted for pneumonia.
What? You better talk to Security.
MAN: She was sharing a room with three other ladies.
One of them heard her call out in the middle of the night.
And thought she saw somebody run out of the room.
What'd Ms.
Brewster say? She said it was the CIA.
There was a rip in her gown.
She looked pretty shook up.
So what'd you do? Took a report, sent a copy to the 13.
What happened to Ms.
Brewster? She stayed around for a couple of weeks till she got better and then was discharged.
Don't psych patients sometimes get bumped to a halfway house? Yeah, city health rule.
Residential living center.
Yeah, can you find out if Ms.
Brewster was ever a resident? WOMAN: Karen Brewster, sure.
She's been in and out of here three or four times this past year or so.
Is she okay? We don't know.
When was the last time you saw her? Um.
Friday night.
She took off after dinner.
She usually stays a few weeks.
This time, it was just couple of days.
Seems she's been bouncing around a lot these last couple of months.
Well, she had a lot bouncing around in that poor brain of hers.
I hope she's okay.
We're starting to get the picture somebody might've been stalking her.
Oh, well that explains that.
Couple of months ago, she came to me and asked me how she might avoid getting pregnant.
She was naive in that area.
Wait, she had a boyfriend? I asked her.
She said somebody in her condition couldn't have a boyfriend.
She was worried about getting raped.
Any woman living on the street has to be worried, all the time.
That girl you're looking for, she bought a knife off me on Friday.
Gave him 50 bucks cash.
I don't have to pay taxes on that now do I 'cause Nah, we'll get you a waiver from the IRS.
She say what she needed the knife for? On account of the CIA.
I'm not the only one they're after.
After you sold her the knife, what'd she do? She caught a cab around the corner by the falafel stand.
Did she say where she was going? No.
But she used to talk about having a house on the beach.
She said she liked to sit on the shore and feed the gulls.
Yes.
That's her.
I keep the windows open, but the cab still smells from her.
If Mr.
Mayor didn't make it a law I never would pick up such a person.
Where did you drop her off? and Riverside Park.
Thanks for your help.
A guy like that runs out of gas north of 110th Street.
Riverside Park.
We've come full circle.
There's the marina on 79th.
Karen's beach house.
It's a Pratt.
Should have kept that key.
ED: Nah, you don't need a key for a Pratt, watch this.
Looks like the CIA beat us to her.
The M.
E.
Says she was strangled, couldn't tell if it was before or after she had sex.
Rape? Probably.
There's evidence of assault, fluids, bruising around her pelvis.
And the body was covered with a man's coat.
Any injuries to explain the blood in the park? It wasn't her blood.
She's A negative.
His blood.
She fought him off once.
He followed her to the container.
Any markings on his coat? No.
But we found a pawn ticket near her.
For a man's watch.
Green's calling all the pawn shops in the area.
How industrious.
Yes sir, thank you.
The ticket number matches a watch stolen last Thursday.
Get the details.
And Detective, it's lucky for you this turned into something.
BRISCOE: That's gotta hurt.
Same coat.
He's our guy.
We'll want a copy of that.
You rent it for two nights, get the third night free.
You don't seem too upset over the loss.
A 20-year-old Bulova? I couldn't care less, except I'm still picking glass off the floor.
Did he leave a name and address? Before or after he put his elbow through my display case? When he pawned the watch in the first place.
Oh, he didn't pawn it.
Crazy woman did.
Karen Brewster.
Yeah.
Day before.
Gave her 50 bucks for it.
She said it used to be her father's.
I hope she doesn't come back for it.
BRISCOE: I wouldn't worry about it.
Thanks.
Some guys, they stalk a woman, they steal her undies out of the laundry basket.
This guy's more practical.
Now he can tell when it's dinner time at the shelter.
Harvey.
Wouldn't give me his last name.
Mass and mulligatawny, Tuesday nights.
You're sure? When a grown man throws a tantrum in the middle of services I remember him.
He's violent? Disruptive.
A lot of the people we care for have psychiatric problems.
When their medication runs out, so does their grip on reality.
Harvey talks to himself, he sings, he cries.
It's always a show.
Any idea where he's appearing tonight? I haven't seen him for a couple of months.
Does he have any friends? People steered clear of him.
You might try the welfare for work program.
Anybody who stays here more than one night has to sign up, excuse me.
Smash and grab must be a sideline.
You guys should've stopped by last week.
Harvey put in eight hours.
Doing what? Holding a flag.
Forty-five bucks, Harvey got a last name? Well he told them to make out the check to Harvey Morton.
But he told me it wasn't his real name.
You know where he is today? No.
How about when he'll be back? If these guys had regular work habits they wouldn't be on the street.
Harvey came in with a crew from St.
Mary's a couple months ago.
Every other week, he turns up for a shift.
Any idea where he does his banking? With me.
I don't charge him commission like the check cashing place.
Hey, we gotta get a line on this guy.
Places he hung out, people he knew.
He likes donuts.
Oh, really? Yeah, every time we're in Queens, Harvey makes a big deal about the Donut Shack near the 59th Street bridge.
He says they got the best crullers in the city.
He was right.
Look, I'm off in 15 minutes and I still got a couple of dozen trays to rack.
Could we maybe do this another time? Sure, at our place in the city.
Your choice, bunky.
All right, lemme see it again.
Okay, I know this guy.
He comes in sometimes for coffee and a cruller.
Recently? Last time I think was a couple of Monday's ago.
ED: He live in the area? You don't need ID to buy donuts.
He ever come in with anybody? No.
People who come in at four in the morning usually aren't the social type.
He ever say what he was doing here at 4:00 a.
m.
? No.
Now can I go back to work? Your boy probably just climbed off the bus.
What bus? Across the street.
that's where they drop them off.
The daily dump of human refuse from Rikers.
Bower, Harvey Gilbert, AKA Harvey Morton.
Multiple misdemeanor arrests, processed in, processed out.
Most of his time he spends warming a bed in the psych ward.
What's his malfunction? Well the shrinks have him diagnosed as bi-polar disorder with psychotic features.
So he serves his time, and you let him go? With bus fare and a two day supply of medication.
Big surprise somebody got killed.
Well, he has no record of serious violence.
Disorderly conduct, public urination, a few scuffles, trespassing, pleaded for time served.
The usual merry go round.
When was the last time he got off? Two weeks ago.
Bower was released with a dozen other citizens who've paid their debt to society.
You think it was Harvey? ED: The evidence puts him at the scene.
With his psychiatric history, prison record He wouldn't hurt anyone.
The problem is, there's a bulletin out for his arrest.
Every cop in the city is looking for him.
Too many of your people like to shoot first.
BRISCOE: I don't know about that, but these things don't always work out the way we want them to.
What do you want us to do? Do you know where he is? I won't let him get killed.
If we help you, we have to do it our way.
Which way is that? We want to talk to him first.
And we want his doctor there.
His psychiatrist? No.
Dr.
Sitwell.
His pediatrician.
(CRYING) Where is he? Where he's been hiding all week, the garage.
He's in there with his parents and his pediatrician.
His parents say he's the only doctor he trusts.
You should see the doctor.
He's gotta be 100.
We gave the parents a cell phone.
They'll call us when he's ready to come out.
Who called the cavalry? Local precinct insisted.
Well, what's the worst case scenario here? This is the worst case scenario.
(MOBILE PHONE RINGING) Yes, all right, just make sure he follows the instructions we gave you.
They're coming out.
I want everybody to stay back.
I don't want anything to startle this man.
Mr.
Bower, can you please move toward the detectives.
Mr.
Bower, hold your hands out so the detectives can put on the handcuffs on.
Come on, Harvey, put out your hands, like we talked about.
What's that in his pocket? It's just a wrench.
Take it out of his pocket.
Uh, no.
He's not going to use it.
He just feels safe with it.
(LOUD CLATTERING) Get out! Go! Get out! MR.
BOWER: Harvey, wait! Harvey! HARVEY: Get away! Go! Keep back.
Take it easy, man.
Take it easy.
VAN BUREN: Harvey! Please, Mrs.
Bower! Don't touch her! (GUN FIRES) Hold fire! Hold fire! MRS.
BOWER: No! No! No! No! Looks like he caught it in the shoulder.
MR.
BOWER: Harvey! Let me see him! Call paramedics.
Who fired? MRS.
BOWER: (CRYING) No! I want to know who fired! You fired? Yes, ma'am.
Hand over your weapon.
Sergeant, call your precinct.
Officer involved shooting.
You better call your PBA.
The man was armed with a wrench, for Pete's sake.
It looked like he was attacking the lieutenant.
Witnesses say he was protecting his parents.
It was a confused situation.
If I had to do it over again You're damn right.
The peaceful surrender of a deranged man.
Stroke of genius.
The police had no choice.
The parents dictated the terms of the surrender.
Thank heavens his pediatrician was there to give him a lollipop after they shot him.
You sure you have the right man? He has knife cuts on his hands, from when he attacked Karen Brewster in the park.
It's his blood on her glasses, his semen, his coat covering her.
Make sure that gets into the press release.
I don't want to leave his lawyer a toe to stand on.
It shouldn't be too hard to blitz the defense.
Get a quick plea.
JACK: Brutal rape, murder.
Unless he pleads to murder one, I'm not interested.
First things first.
Anyone talk to this gentleman yet? My detectives are at the hospital waiting to get his statement.
See if you can get it without killing him.
BRISCOE: Come on, Harvey.
You remember Karen Brewster.
You stole her watch from the pawn shop.
You attacked her in the park.
You raped her.
You strangled her.
Harvey, all you have to do is tell us in your own words what we already know.
Hey, shut 'em up.
Press the damn button and shut 'em up.
No.
No.
No, they're your babies, you shut 'em up.
Harvey.
Come on.
I know you know what we're saying.
So tell us the truth.
And we'll go away.
It's always the same damn program.
Don't you people have any imagination? I don't care.
You can't have it.
He's all yours.
(SINGING) Kiss my big one, baby.
You got all the joysticks you need, hell, No, I don't care, you can't have it.
Be our guest.
Hello Mr.
Bower.
I'm Jack McCoy, from the District Attorney's I'm not listening to it.
Boots, boots, boots, marching across Africa.
Yeah, sure, babe, just land one right on my rectus tucus yeah.
What do you want? Hello.
I guess my invitation got lost in the mail.
Excuse me, please.
Mr.
Bower, my name is Danielle Melnick.
And your parents have hired me to be your lawyer.
Sure smells good.
Gotta be careful.
Oh yeah, gotta be careful.
Mmm-hmm.
What exactly are you charging him with? Murder one, for the rape and homicide.
A capital charge? We'll take remand to the state hospital in exchange for dismissal of old charges.
You're joking.
No.
Oh, and we'll agree not to sue for police brutality and for the violation of his civil rights.
Now you are joking.
Jack look at him.
You can throw the whole play book at him, the verdict's going to be the same.
Not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
Please, just think about it.
In the meantime I'm going to, uh, talk to my client.
When they brought him in, he told me that he'd been hit by a blow dart from an assassin hired by Bill Gates.
Why would he think that? Steve Jobs told him.
Now he said that Mr.
Gates has computers hidden in every room in the city and he communicates with him directly.
Why Mr.
Gates? Why anybody? He thinks Mr.
Gates wants to steal his penis.
Textbook psychosis.
Visual and auditory hallucinations, persecutory delusions, poor impulse control.
It sounds like a textbook.
How long did you speak with Mr.
Bower? As much as with any of my patients.
In minutes? Half an hour when we processed him in.
And then I observed him throughout his incarceration.
I see he was assigned to a work detail in the general population.
Is that normal for inmates in the psych ward? Well, if they're properly medicated and under close supervision, yes.
I'd like to talk to some of the inmates who worked with him.
I don't know from crazy, but the guy had a lot of imaginary friends.
But was he able to do his job? Sure.
Not much to folding laundry.
Did he ever mention a woman by the name of Karen Brewster? Well there was a lady, he said he was keeping his eye on.
Said he'd kill anybody that went near her.
I believed him.
Why's that? I seen him go nuts.
When? We were by the dryers once, and these four brothers came by.
Young punks looking for a fight.
Harvey sees them and he starts yelling, jumps up on the table.
Yelling what? About the government, big computers.
Then he started tearing his shirt off.
One look at that crazy bastard, and the punks moved on.
And then what did Harvey do? He calmed down.
Got off the table like nothin happened.
What do you think? He was in Bellevue before they brought him here.
They got the genuine article over there.
I signed him in at 2:20 p.
m.
What was wrong with him? Should I be talking to you about this? Mr.
Bower waived his right to medical confidentiality when he raised the defense of mental disease.
Oh, he was mentally diseased, all right.
Manic psychosis.
He came in for a voluntary committal.
You've seen a lot of these cases in your career? I can triage a psych case.
Even a first year medical student would have recognized the behavior pattern.
Hallucinations, delusions, poor impulse control.
Yeah, I've heard the tune.
What got him transferred to Rikers? He broke into the supply room.
And when we confronted him, he went off on a psychotic tirade.
You mind if I take a look? Nah, that's all right.
You admitted him at 2:20 p.
m.
Correct.
This says Bower arrived at the E.
R.
Earlier that day at 8:45 a.
m.
He was seen by Dr.
Naim and refused admission.
I guess he came back.
He must have wanted a second opinion.
When I was a boy, my uncle in Tehran talked to the moon.
But he only talked to the moon when my grandfather told him he must leave and find work.
Bower was faking? Well, exaggerating.
What we do is as much art as science.
So nothing is perfect, except what is false.
His symptoms were too perfect? In my opinion.
I told him as much when I examined him.
He was, uh, quite angry.
What did he do? He left.
He came back a few hours later when you were off duty.
He was a very determined man.
He told me I must admit him.
Said he said he had a friend inside he had to see.
(LAUGHS) Maybe he is crazy after all.
You'd have to be to want to be in this place.
CARMICHAEL: Check the dates.
The day after Karen Brewster was admitted to Bellevue for pneumonia, Bower faked symptoms, got himself committed to the psych ward.
Two nights later, she was attacked in her bed.
Crazy like a fox.
How long has he been doing his act? Until I talk to him, I don't know if it is an act.
But, according to his medical history, his psychosis seems to act up mostly in the winter months.
Whenever he needs a warm place to sleep.
When are you talking to him? I'm seeing him tomorrow.
Then I'm filing a motion to preclude and insanity defense.
Tell me about the voices, Harv.
How old were you when they started? My parents call me Harvey.
My name is Harvey.
Harv, Harvey, whatever floats your boat.
So, the voices? Uh, I've I've always heard them.
Even when you were a little boy? Yes, but they were different voices then.
Nothing about it in your family medical records.
Some minor problems in school.
Poor communication skills, no friends, mediocre grades.
I guess the voices interfered with your studying.
Yes.
I see you've been treated for depression since your teens.
Pretty severe, too.
But there's nothing about voices until you moved out of your parents house (STAMMERING) I didn't tell them about the voices.
They would have put me away.
But now you don't mind being put away? You hear the voices now, Harvey? Yeah.
Well, you shouldn't.
In addition to anti-depressants, you've been taking Clozapine.
That's supposed to take care of the voices.
I've been hearing other things, um, bells.
That's a new one.
Why'd you kill Karen? He told me to.
The voice.
You mean Bill Gates? Mmm-hmm.
Why? I don't know.
He just He just said to.
Every other psychotic I ever talked to said the voices always told them why.
He just made me do it.
I had no choice.
Gotta be a reason.
Was she bad, Harvey? No.
She was a, uh A good person.
She was, uh, beautiful.
If she wasn't bad, then she didn't deserve to die, right? I dunno.
Stands to reason, she had a right to live.
I guess.
So, what the voices told you to do, that was wrong.
I suppose.
So, do you deserve to be punished Harvey? I guess so.
What do you mean "guess"? If Karen was good and beautiful then she should still be alive and her killer punished.
Yes or no, Harvey? (SPEAKING GIBBERISH) SKODA: Mr.
Bower's doctors claim he killed Ms.
Brewster while suffering a psychotic episode.
They also suggest psychotic episodes explain most of Mr.
Bower's behavior.
But his doctors are not prepared to testify to that? There's a fine line between theory and diagnosis.
Are psychotic episodes of this kind common in bi-polar disorder? They can be.
The problem is, in Mr.
Bower's case, they're just too convenient.
He got them whenever the temperature dipped below 40, when Ms.
Karen Brewster was admitted to Bellevue.
When he stole her watch, when he attacked her in the park.
When he killed her.
Mr.
Bower has been in and out of state institutions for 11 years.
His case file runs over 1000 pages.
Clearly there's something wrong with him.
Are you saying he doesn't suffer from any mental disorder? No.
My diagnosis is that he suffers a bi-polar disorder with psychotic features.
Would this disorder prevent him from appreciating the consequences of his actions? No.
Prevent him from telling right from wrong? No.
I believe Mr.
Bower killed Ms.
Brewster because he was obsessed with her, and she wasn't with him.
Pure and simple.
Doctor, how can you be so sure? He attacked her in the park, pursued, raped, and ultimately killed her.
Any one of these actions might be the result of a psychotic episode, but taken together Ms.
Brewster's murder required a concentrated, focused effort beyond the ability of someone suffering a psychotic attack.
He even had the presence of mind to lock the container when he was done.
So that her body wouldn't be discovered.
That doesn't prove he understood what he was doing.
After he killed her, he covered her with his coat.
In poker, that's called a tell.
He felt remorse.
Guilt.
No voice told him to do that.
Just his conscience.
Your Honor, now he's reading tea leaves.
That may be, Ms.
Melnick.
But I read your client's medical history.
I don't see how you can establish the elements of this defense.
If it pleases the court, Your Honor, every doctor who has examined my client has found that he has a mental disease.
He has had no meaningful treatment.
Ms.
Melnick.
They give him $1.
50 and a handful of pills and they drop him off in front of some donut shop.
JUDGE: Enough.
I sympathize with your client's problems.
But they cannot become the concern of this court.
If he intends to take the stand, I'll reconsider my ruling.
Until then, the defense of mental disease or defect is barred.
The guards found five days worth of pills under his mattress.
He'd stopped taking them.
What kind of pills? Anti-depressants, neuroleptics, everything we were giving him.
How long's he been like this? About a day.
And he'll stay this way until he's back on his medication.
CARMICHAEL: Is this for real? With his type of disorder you take away his meds, this is what you get.
And what you get is someone that's not competent to stand trial.
The hell he isn't.
Put him back on his medication.
Yeah you do that and you'll be in contempt.
I'm applying for a TRO barring you from medicating my client against his will.
You want him like this? It's what he wants.
And then I'm filing for a permanent injunction prohibiting this trial from proceeding.
Look, McCoy.
My client may be legally sane, but it doesn't mean he's not crazy.
You want to force feed drugs to a mental patient until he's sane enough to be tried and executed.
I don't care how it's playing out in the media.
I'm not going to let a rapist-murderer make an end run around the Penal Law.
Why not leave him where he is the way he is? So he gets the benefit of an insanity plea without the inconvenience of a trial.
Only as long as he's out of circulation.
If and when he starts taking his medication again, we put him on trial.
And until then, the criminal justice system is held hostage.
I'm not comfortable with the idea of our just shoving pills down a man's throat.
I'm surprised, Abbie.
If he ran away to another state, we'd extradite him.
The fact that he's escaped into his own mind, shouldn't put him beyond our reach.
Bower's a con man.
You do what you have to do.
I'll man the phones.
MELNICK: It's Gulag justice, Your Honor.
The Supreme Court held that psychotropic drugs cannot be compelled against an individual's freely chosen preferences.
Mills v.
Rogers.
I have here affidavits from the ACLU.
Your Honor, the People simply want her client to resume taking medication he's taken most of his life.
Medication that nauseates him, makes him dizzy.
Depresses his libido.
Please, Your Honor, the mind represents the core of our human identity.
The State has no right to invade it.
We're not looking to disturb the core of Mr.
Bower's identity.
But, Your Honor, Mr.
Bower has a history of manipulating the mental health system for his own purposes.
He's trying to do it again now, to escape punishment.
So he can spend the rest of his days curled up in a ball in a state psych ward? Not much of an escape, Your Honor.
Maybe to him it looks better than death row.
He is where he belongs.
He's ill.
All the more reason to medicate him.
Unless he's a threat to himself or others, you can't do it.
Can't? Must not.
To preserve Mr.
Bower's individual rights, and the health of the body politic.
Your Honor, your decision will ripple through society.
It will also ripple through the criminal justice system.
If any defendant can escape prosecution, by stopping his medication, or by drugging himself, we're out of business, Your Honor.
The right to be free from intrusions into one's mind, seems an indisputable proposition.
In almost every case where the Supreme Court has been confronted by such an invasion, it has come down on the side of restraint.
And for compelling reason.
That being said, in light of Mr.
Bower's transparent efforts to circumvent the processes of this court, the action the People are seeking is not unreasonable.
The defendant would not be subjected to medication to punish or control him, but simply to enable him to assist counsel in the preparation of his own defense.
In effect, medicating him will enhance, not curtail, his rights.
The People's request is granted.
The Defendant is ordered to resume medication voluntarily or otherwise.
(JUDGE BANGS GAVEL) (GRUNTING) Jack.
Man one, he serves the max, it's my final offer.
Then your client better get over his fear of needles.
Listen, before you go anywhere near a death sentence, you have to prove rape.
You alleging his semen beamed into her vagina? Did you read what he told your shrink? Karen Brewster was a good person, she was beautiful.
Sounds like love to me.
Sounds like a crock.
He killed her.
I don't know about the death, but the sex was consensual.
And you go prove it wasn't.
You heard her.
She might take murder two.
Not from me.
If it was anybody else, but a mentally deranged homeless guy? A woman on Madison Avenue had a brick shoved through her skull by a homeless guy.
Last year, two people were pushed in front of a subway trains by homeless guys.
If your hippie friends could hear you now.
My hippie friends ride the subway to work.
I don't want them sharing a platform with Harvey Bower.
If you look at Bower's record, you can't help but get the feeling, if someone had been on the ball, Bower would've gotten the help he needs, and Karen Brewster'd still be alive.
You're right, the system failed them both, miserably.
And now we're left to clean up the mess.
Permanently.
And thanks to Mr.
Bower, we now have to get into Karen Brewster's sex life.
According to the police, the people who knew her thought she was inexperienced in that department.
We'll have to do better than that.
Yes, of course Karen had boyfriends in high school.
But by the time she went to college and her illness took hold and How about recently? She knew that that kind of relationship wasn't in the cards for her.
Why, does it matter? The defense is claiming that she wasn't raped.
That she willingly had sex with Mr.
Bower before he killed her.
That animal said that? After what he did to her.
I can't believe it.
No.
She wouldn't.
Mentally ill or not, she was a woman.
It must've been very lonely for her.
Sometimes I was able to talk to her about these things.
Karen agreed, she couldn't run the risk of getting pregnant.
We both knew what a burden it would be.
My husband says it's too bad they didn't shoot that man dead in the street.
I want him to pay, Ms.
Carmichael.
Karen didn't have a happy life, but he had no right.
Karen had siblings? No.
She liked to look at pictures of me and Ron when we were kids.
I don't know why.
That's her there.
She won first prize in a tennis tournament.
Is this your husband? No.
I don't know who that is.
It's Harvey.
He won some archery prize at summer camp.
Where did you find this? It was in Karen Brewster's apartment, on the wall next to her dresser.
Do you have any idea how it got there? No.
Mr.
Bower We don't know anything about this.
We shouldn't even be talking to you.
I want to see the right thing done here.
Why should we trust you? Now please, leave.
When Bower was in Rikers the last time, the records show that Karen was staying in the homeless shelter in Long Island City.
Same as the other three times Bower was in Rikers in the past year.
Practically around the corner.
She moved to that shelter to be close to him.
And when she was in Bellevue for pneumonia, he had himself admitted to be close to her.
And the rest of the time, they were where, in her apartment? Nobody ever saw him there.
They might've stayed away, so her parents wouldn't find out about the relationship.
So much for your stalking theory.
Puts the rape in question, maybe, not the killing.
He killed a woman who was in love with him.
Puts his whole mental state in question.
Time to take your winnings and run.
Well, it's a step in the right direction.
It's the end of the road.
Wait a minute, you've practically admitted that you misconstrued his relationship with Ms.
Brewster.
We didn't misconstrue his hand prints around her neck.
If he wants to keep playing games, we can do it in front of a jury.
Right.
We'll talk it over and we'll get back to you.
But if you're not going to keep an open mind I'll take it.
MELNICK: What? I, uh, I killed her.
Everybody knows it.
I should go to jail.
Mr.
Bower.
Do I have to sign something? Not yet.
I'll explain it to you later.
You'll have to tell a judge exactly what you did.
I didn't rape her.
JACK: I want it all on the record.
I loved her.
I wouldn't hurt her that way.
MELNICK: He admits the murder.
What does it matter if he says he raped her or not? It matters to her parents.
JACK: And to the parole board.
I didn't do that to her.
Then why did you kill her? Until you answer that question to our satisfaction Mr.
Bower, there'll be no deal.
Thank you for agreeing to see us.
I don't know what your son's lawyer told you, but until he's ready to explain his actions to us I told Ms.
Carmichael, Harvey and his lawyer don't know we called you.
Mr.
McCoy, the things they've written, about Harvey in the papers, that he's some kind of monster, they're just not true.
I don't pay attention to the papers, Mr.
Bower.
But an innocent woman was raped and killed.
Your son may be ill, but he has to be held accountable.
But he loved her.
You know that.
She had his picture.
You knew they had a relationship.
Did he tell you about her? Just that there was a girl, and that they loved each other.
I know he cared about her.
He couldn't have meant to hurt her.
All he has to do is tell us the truth.
Otherwise Please, Mr.
McCoy, whatever he did, he can't forgive himself.
Phil, show them.
We found these in the garage after they arrested Harvey.
We asked Dr.
Sitwell what they were.
He said they were Haloperidol for people like Harvey.
He said Harvey must've been hoarding his prescriptions.
Harvey was going to kill himself because of what happened to Karen.
Would a monster do that, Mr.
McCoy? Mrs.
Bower Mr.
McCoy, please.
(CRYING) Please have pity on our son.
I'll look into it.
I don't get this guy.
He loves her, but he kills her.
He'd rather risk a death sentence than admit he raped her.
And now this.
One small problem, those aren't his pills.
According to his medical records, he's never been prescribed Haloperidol.
Check Karen Brewster's records.
What's going on here? Come in and sit down.
I've just been telling Mr.
And Mrs.
Brewster how we've been struggling to come up with a fair sentence for your client.
Please, sit down.
You know where we stand, Mr.
McCoy.
Yes, I do.
MELNICK: Jack, if you brought us in here only to work us over How about you just listen.
Mr.
Bower's parents, found these pills among Harvey's things after he was arrested.
They're an anti-psychotic drug, Haloperidol.
Your daughter got them, in the weeks before she died from different doctors.
It's three times the fatal dosage.
Why would she do that? I think Mr.
Bower knows why.
A week after your stroke.
Karen was admitted to Bellevue with pneumonia.
Mr.
Bower was arrested there after he tried to see her.
A couple of weeks later, when she was discharged, Mr.
Bower was in jail.
So she was alone.
That's when she got these pills.
Mr.
Bower must have found them after he got out of Rikers.
You took them away from her, didn't you, Harvey? Karen pawned your watch, and used the money to buy a knife.
She then went to Riverside Park where we believe she intended to harm herself.
Harvey took the knife away from her.
Probably how he got the cuts on his hands.
The rest, we need to hear from you, Mr.
Bower.
CARMICHAEL: You've kept her secret long enough.
No.
Jack, can't we just dispose of this now? I can't let him allocute to a lie.
Please tell us.
Please.
I can't.
I promised her.
Please, Harvey.
We can forgive you.
She was scared of being left alone.
Becoming the crazy old woman in a cardboard box howling at the moon.
She didn't want you to know.
She said it was nobody's fault.
(STAMMERS) She asked me to do it.
She said that if I loved her.
(CRYING) I loved her.
She loved me.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Harvey Bower pleaded to man one.
He'll serve 6-to-18 in a prison psych ward.
Karen Brewster's parents? They signed off on it.
Bower's family dropped the lawsuit against the police.
Who would've thought, of all the things wrong with their kids, the worst thing that could've happened is that they fell in love.