Law & Order (1990) s14e21 Episode Script

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.
He's got it in for me is all I'm sayin; He don't got it in for you.
He's startin' to make me look bad to Hector.
Hector's smart enough to see that Alex is just talkin' trash.
All due respect to Hector, I got my doubts.
Just once I'd like to come in here without some jerkweed causing a dustup.
Yeah, this stuff s gettin' old.
Whoa! This guy's hurt bad.
Get some help.
Somebody call 911.
! Thirty-five years my family owns this place.
Plenty of fights, but nobody ever got killed.
You see what happened? I hear shouts.
I look over.
I see one guy swing a bottle, and the other guy goes down.
The guy who was swinging, what did he look like? Kind of average.
Height, weight, age? Middle-aged.
Brown hair.
An inch or two shy of six feet, maybe.
You know, average.
Any of you seen this average dude in here before? Nope.
First-timers, the two of them.
The other guy, the one who got his head cracked? I could swear I seen him somewhere before.
Me too.
But not in here? Nah.
Anybody see how it started? L- I-It was like all of a sudden, out of the blue.
This one guy starts bashing the other guy's head in.
I tried to tackle him, but That's how you got the eye? He was a lot stronger than he looked.
All right.
Be sure to give your home number to the officer.
So, what do we got? Depressed skull fracture.
Glass shards in the wound.
Victim was struck with a blunt object.
Yeah, a liquor bottle.
Your murder weapon.
Or what's left of it.
Maybe Latent can get a print anyway.
Have C.
S.
U.
Gather as much of that as they can.
You'd be better off with all the king's horses and all the king's men.
Brendan Donner.
I thought he looked familiar.
Not to me.
I'm drawin' a blank.
Who is he? Public Enemy Number One, at least in this city.
League Championship Series this dude goes for a foul ball.
Cost us the game and the pennant.
We're talking about baseball? Yeah.
Instead ofbeing the third out, the batter draws a walk.
Next guy up hits a two-run homer, and it's wait till next year, again.
- Looks like somebody was pissed off about waitin'.
- Wait a minute.
You're telling me this guy got killed 'cause he reached for a foul ball? And the suspect list is the Greater New York phone book.
I can't believe somebody killed him over a stupid game.
We're not sure yet that that's why your husband was murdered, Mrs.
Donner.
But it's a pretty good bet, right? I mean, what other reason could there be? People treated Brendan like he was Osama Bin Laden.
As if any one of them wouldn't have tried to catch that damn ball.
Did you take any of those threats more seriously than others? I mean, is there anyone in particular we should be looking at? Just half of New York.
Poor Brendan.
He was obsessed.
He read every letter, surfed the Internet, uh, watched all the talk shows.
I'm telling you something.
That game ruined our lives.
We'd like to look through your husband's things, if we could.
Well, we separated four months ago.
He moved out.
Said there was no reason why I should take the brunt for what he did.
Sorry.
We're gonna need to get into his new place.
The papers should publish separate listings for the soon-to-be divorced.
Available, crappy studio apartment with view of air shaft.
Emphasis on shaft.
Also excellent for sleepless nights and drinking binges.
And reading your hate mail.
"DearJagoff, I've been replaying the game in my mind, and I still don't know what the hell you were thinking, you dumb-ass son of a bitch.
" - Oh, that's quality bedtime reading.
- His wife said he was obsessed.
There's no forwarding labels on these.
They were sent here.
Wonder how they got his new address so quick.
Hmm.
Maybe he can tell us.
"Special AgentJeffrey Bowerman, F.
B.
I.
" Donner was gettin'death threats from all over the country.
People mailin' him dead rats, dog crap, you name it.
When you care enough to send the very worst.
The worst was the envelope full of white powder.
Ah, we were wondering why the F.
B.
I.
Was involved in this.
Standard procedure for all cases involving a suspected biological contaminant.
Which this wasn't.
Baking soda isn't lethal.
Oh, you never met my ex-wife.
We went ahead and seized all the letters, cards and packages anyway, cataloged 'em.
Wow.
A lot of people with too much time on their hands, huh? We've got audio too.
I tapped Donner's phonejust to be safe.
For a case like this? I felt sorry for him.
Wanted to go the extra mile, help the guy out.
You bet the other team.
Made out like a bandit.
Donner may have been a schmuck to you guys, but he was a hero to us.
Sketch artist came up with a composite of our suspect.
Could be anybody.
How are you doing? I'm reading Donner's hate mail.
Ed's listening to it.
Anything interesting? Ah, they either want to dump him in the East River, throw him off a building or run him over with a car not much originality.
What would you have done to him? Who, me? Oh, please.
I remember how mad you were after that game.
And I don't recall any tears from "Who, me" when the tabloids published Donner's address and phone number.
Okay.
Maybe that was a little bit over the line.
But the idiot did earn himself a little grief.
- He tried to catch a ball.
- Which was still in play! Any real New York fan would've kept his hands in his pockets.
Hey, I got something.
This is from two weeks ago.
You think I don't know where you live, Donner? You better be watching your back, Donner, 'cause one day soon I'm comin'up behind you and bash your thick head until you're dead, you moron.
- The F.
B.
I.
Traced that call to a Ted Enwright.
- Sounds promising.
And the genius called from his home phone.
We lost half our pitchers to free agency.
Then there's that whole steroid thing.
Who knows how that's gonna play out? Nah, let's face it.
Last year was our best shot, and Donner blew it.
So, after stewing about this all winter, you decided it was time for some payback.
All I did was get drunk one night and make a phone call.
And a couple nights later, Donner gets drunk, and he gets his head smashed in, as you promised.
- Come on.
That was just talk.
- How did you get his phone number? I read it in the papers.
No, his new number.
On the Net.
Everything's on the Net.
Come on.
It's all up on that Web site: Www.
getdonner.
com.
You've got to be kidding me.
We don't have that much imagination.
Six months after the fact, this Web site still gets 30,000 hits a day.
Most of this stuff is harmless, you know, stupid Donner jokes and whatnot.
But check it out.
They have a message board.
"Hey fellow Donner haters.
"Think I just saw Donner shoving his stuff in the back of a moving van.
Guess his old lady hates him as much as the rest of us.
" Now, this entry started a landslide.
People started writin' in whenever they saw Donner on the street or in the subway.
They call it "Donner Watch.
" Which is how they knew where to keep sending all the hate mail.
I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I'm actually startin' to feel real sorry for this dude.
Hey, we were one out away from the World Series.
Yo.
All right.
All right, we'll be there.
It's the crime lab.
They got prints.
If I were you guys, I'd steer clear of Latent for a while.
Why? They don't see the challenge in lifting prints off a broken bottle? Any prints shattered along with the glass, so they're fragmented like a jigsaw puzzle.
You guys like jigsaw puzzles? I love jigsaw puzzles.
Wanna know how I solved this one? That is why we're here.
I bought a bottle of the same brand of scotch, filled it with plaster, then broke it, leaving a perfect mold.
Then I took the glass from the crime scene and glued it on that mold putting each piece in its proper place.
- Voila.
- Just like a jigsaw puzzle.
With the bottle now reconstituted You could lift the prints.
Two sets.
I ran them through B.
C.
I.
The first belong to a Rooney, James.
The bartender.
And owner.
His prints are on file from when he applied for a liquor license.
What about the second set? B.
C.
I.
Kicked back a Grimes, Walter.
Walter Grimes? Mm-hmm.
Here's the best part.
Yeah.
Convicted of murder, second degree, in the killing of a young girl.
Drew 25 to life at Green Haven.
Yeah.
How'd you know? He reads the front page of the Times.
Walter Grimes was released from prison three months ago.
"Walter Grimes, born Poughkeepsie, 1964.
Arrested '83.
Convicted '84.
Second-degree murder.
" Victim was Leeanne Testa, 15.
Stabbed to death.
Ayear ago, when Grimes finally got a court order to test the D.
N.
A.
, it turned out the blood that the cops found on the knife in his apartment wasn't Leeanne Testa's.
- Property still had the evidence? - M.
E.
's office.
This is pre-D.
N.
A.
They tested it for serology.
After the trial, it went to the medical examiner's and never made it back to the police lab.
It's lucky for Grimes.
Police lab would've destroyed it after he got convicted.
So, Grimes didn't kill Testa.
Good for him.
Question is, did he kill Brendan Donner? Grimes's prints are a 12-point match to the ones on that liquor bottle.
There are eight people in that bar who I.
D.
'd him from a photo array.
They all saw him bash Donner's skull in.
I'll get an arrest warrant.
We have any idea where Mr.
Grimes is now? Department of Corrections can't compel him to give an address because he was exonerated and not paroled.
Grimes a jailhouse lawyer, or did he have some help? Rodney Fallon the New York Exoneration Project.
Well, I'm sure Mr.
Fallon keeps in touch with his success stories.
So far, the New York Exoneration Project has gotten almost 50 innocent people released, and we're looking at hundreds of other cases.
And I'll bet each and every one of'em didn't do it.
Obviously they're not all innocent.
But if even a single one is, don't you think it's our obligation to see to it they don't spend a minute longer in jail? I bet you can count the number of guys in jail who are genuinely innocent on one hand.
You know how many felonies the average criminal commits before he gets caught, let alone convicted? I'm well aware of the police statistics.
It's about the same as the number of times you speed on the thruway without getting a ticket.
So what you're saying, Detective, we shouldn't try to exonerate defendants who were wrongly convicted? Yeah, sure we should try.
But just don't tell me they're all innocent.
Gentlemen, can we talk about Walter Grimes, please? An outright travesty of justice.
His lawyer was a 25-year-old Legal Aid attorney trying his third case.
Well, he caught a bad break.
That alone should've got him a new trial.
D.
N.
A.
Proved he didn't kill Leeanne Testa.
Which won't happen this time.
Look, we may not have D.
N.
A.
, but we got your client's fingerprints on the bottle he used to fracture Brendan Donner's skull.
We don't know what happened that night.
Maybe Walter was defending himself.
- Why don't we ask him ourselves? - Yeah, where can we find him? We got a warrant for his arrest.
I'd rather you didn't speak to Walter if I'm not present.
What, are you still his lawyer? If you have a warrant, I am.
Then you know that you have an obligation to surrender your client.
I know what my obligations are.
Then you won't mind giving us his address.
Open up! Hey, you hear that? I don't hear nothin'.
Yeah, it sounded like a plaintive cry for help coming from this apartment.
Open the door.
If you say so.
Mr.
Grimes? He ain't here.
Hey, Ed, you always leave your phone book out? Only if I've been using it.
Yeah.
There's an old P.
I.
Trick.
If you had it open to a certain page, it bends the spine.
It'll open there.
Hotels.
Some cheaper than others.
Where do we start? At the bottom and work our way up, I guess.
Oh, yeah.
I remember this guy.
He was here.
Uh, was? Checked out earlier today.
About 4:00 this afternoon.
Six hours ago.
Now that's a hell of a coincidence.
No wonder Fallon gave up Grimes's address so easy.
Yeah, he knew Grimes wasn't gonna be home.
He drops a dime to his favorite client as soon as we're out the door.
Lawyers.
This is me being surprised.
You asked me where Walter lived.
I gave you his primary address.
Hey, man don't get smart with us! I wouldn't dream of it.
You couldn't keep up.
All right.
Let's all just take it down a notch.
Mr.
Fallon, this is way past zealous representation here.
I can't tell you where he went.
It's arguably privileged information.
Well, consider it negotiating a fugitive's peaceful surrender.
- I'll get him to come in.
- Not a chance.
I have no idea what he's capable of if he feels threatened.
L- I can do this.
He trusts me.
All right.
You've got two hours.
Either we're going to arrest him for murder or you for hindering prosecution.
He'll be here.
I promise.
Tell me you didn't just agree to what I think you just agreed to.
Please.
I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.
How long's Fallon been in there? Forty-five minutes.
That's long enough to either talk Grimes down or book him a flight to Brazil.
That's right.
Let's go.
Someone, help.
! Mr.
Fallon, looks like you put up a hell of a fight.
Yeah.
Where's your client? And the first words out of your mouth better not be "privileged.
" He's not here! I can see that.
So where is he? You said you weren't going to interfere.
You said you were gonna bring Grimes in.
Looks like we both failed on our promises.
I tried to convince him to surrender to the authorities for his own good, but he was in no mood to go back to prison.
How long has he been gone? About 10 minutes.
Did he say where he was going? And don't forget what we said about that word "privilege.
" He took my wallet.
Said he needed to get to his cousin's in Providence.
Hey! Police! Don't move! Grimes, hold it right there! Stop right there! Grimes! Take it easy.
- All right.
- I'm not going back there! I'll die before I go back there.
Just let the lady go.
- Keep away from me.
- Let's talk this over.
Look, no gun.
Okay? Look, I know you were innocent before.
I just want to talk to you.
Let the lady go, please.
All right? Just let her go and we can talk.
It's over, man.
Let her go, Grimes.
Now.
I can't go back there.
I can't.
Judge Hinkle didn't think twice about remanding Grimes.
After holding a woman hostage, I should hope not.
Rodney Fallon.
Pleasure.
I don't think Mr.
Grimes is eligible for the Exoneration Project's services this time, Mr.
Fallon.
Well, I don't see why he wouldn't be.
Walter is innocent.
Then can he explain his fingerprints on the murder weapon and the eyewitnesses at the bar? Or his behavior when he saw two N.
Y.
P.
D.
Detectives? Taking a hostage isn't exactly consistent with innocence.
Well, that depends on how you define innocence.
I define an innocent person as someone who didn't commit the crime.
Or someone whom the law recognizes should not be held responsible for his actions.
A defendant can't be convicted if he didn't act with mens rea criminal intent.
He brained a man with a liquor bottle.
Walter Grimes was convicted of a crime he didn't commit.
If he hadn't gone to prison for he never would have attacked Brendan Donner.
What are you saying? Prison made him do it? It certainly changed him.
Profoundly.
He absolutely wasn't the same man when he came out.
I'm sorry the system failed you, Mr.
Grimes, but a wrongful conviction does not earn anyone a free pass on murder.
You're sorry? How about before rushing tojudgment again, you at least have your shrink evaluate him? There's no reason to be anxious.
We're just having a conversation.
I ain't anxious.
What makes you think I'm anxious? Do you know why you're here? My lawyer says because of what happened to me in prison.
I lose control.
What do you think? I spent 20 years in prison for something that I didn't do! I don't have control over nothin'! How can I lose what I don't have? You're talking about Leeanne Testa's murder.
Of course that's what I'm talkin' about.
The police said I killed that girl.
I'd never even met her.
They found a bloody knife in your apartment with your fingerprints on it.
They planted that knife.
The police? Yeah, the police.
I had an alibi.
They didn't believe me.
But this time, you did kill someone.
You killed Brendan Donner.
He laid hands on me.
And that justified killing him? I bumped into him, by accident.
But this guy, he gets all freaky on me.
In my face, tellin' me the whole world's against him.
And you thought hitting him with a bottle was an appropriate response? I didn't think about it.
He grabbed me.
A guy comes at you, you don't think twice.
You just put him down.
You stop to think about what to do, you're dead.
Walter Grimes is legally sane.
But? But I'm sure his lawyer can find experts who will say that his experience in prison so programmed him that he lacked the ability to appreciate that his conduct was wrong.
It turned him into a killer? Well, they'll argue that he couldn't differentiate between his old environment and his new one.
He couldn't tell the difference between Rooney's Tavern and the exercise yard at Green Haven? Exactly.
The defense will get a gaggle of psychiatrists to say that Grimes lacked the ability to curtail a lethal instinct developed by two decades in prison.
I'd feel sorry for a man who lost that much of his life on a wrongful conviction.
If Fallon gets this in front of a jury, you could have a problem.
You're moving to preclude this defense, Mr.
McCoy? Your Honor, it's ridiculous.
Under Mr.
Fallon's theory, every ex-con would have a defense for murder.
But we're not talking about men who were criminals before going to prison.
We're talking about a man who was completely innocent before being sent to Green Haven, and was profoundly and irrevocably changed and not for the better by the experience.
And prison erased his sense of right and wrong? In a manner of speaking, yes.
It maimed him.
It dehumanized him.
It replaced traditional notions of right and wrong with a kill-or-be-killed reflex that led, tragically, to Brendan Donner's death.
That doesn't meet the New York standard, Your Honor.
Either Mr.
Grimes didn't know what he was doing was wrong, or he didn't understand the nature of his behavior.
Simply reacting to a perceived threat because he thought he was in a hostile environment doesn't cut it.
He wasn't in prison.
He was in a bar, Your Honor.
He completely overreacted.
Exactly.
Walter Grimes completely overreacted because of how his prison experience shaped him.
You have an expert who will back your theory, Mr.
Fallon? I've got five of them, Your Honor.
Fax their C.
V.
's over to me.
If they're credible, I'm inclined to let this go to a jury.
You don't think that there might be something to Grimes's defense? People adapt to their environment, in or out of prison.
He knew where he was and how he was supposed to act.
How do we know he wasn't a bad apple before rotting in prison for 20 years? Fallon's already conceded this defense only applies if Grimes was a law-abiding citizen before being shipped off to Green Haven.
Leeanne Testa's murder was his first arrest.
How old was he at that time? Nineteen.
If he had committed any prior crimes, they might have been as a juvenile.
And those records would be sealed.
I'm sure that under the circumstances you could convince a judge to unseal those records, if there are any.
What prosecutor wouldn't love a peek at a defendant's juvie record? But if I unsealed it in every case, the seal would have no meaning.
This isn't a typical case.
Mr.
Grimes's defense puts his juvenile record directly at issue.
He claims he had no criminal tendencies before he went to prison.
So, you want to look at his juvenile record, assuming that he has one, to determine if that's true.
I'll tell you what.
I'll review the file in camera.
If I find anything relevant, I'll make it available to you.
Agreed? Thank you, Your Honor.
Jackpot.
Grimes fits the textbook definition of a bad seed.
Arrests for school ground assault, menacing, auto stripping, possession of stolen property.
But no convictions.
The system kept cutting him loose.
The closest he ever came was a liquor store robbery when he was 15.
He threatened the owner with a gun.
Why did the A.
D.
A.
Kick it? I don't know.
But it makes one thing pretty clear.
Even if Grimes didn't kill Leeanne Testa He was hardly an innocent man.
Sure, I remember.
Guy sticks a gun in my face, I'm gonna forget that? According to his juvenile records, the police arrested a young man named Walter Grimes.
You're talking about that white kid, right? He would've been about 15 at the time.
He didn't do it.
As far as I know, they never caught the kid that did.
But the police arrested him.
I told the officer Daniels, his name was Daniels I told Daniels the little pachuco who held me up was Hispanic.
Daniels didn't believe me.
But I saw what I saw.
Are you sure? Sure, I'm sure.
How come Officer Daniels didn't believe you? How come he arrested Walter Grimes? You're gonna have to ask him.
You're talking about a case that was, like, 25 years ago.
I know cops who remember every suspect they ever interrogated.
Walter Grimes? Yeah, that's right.
Real punk.
Absolute white trash.
Is this about that guy he killed in a bar? That's right.
See, that's what you get when you let a guy like Grimes loose on society.
He was exonerated.
Whatever.
I'm looking into all of his priors.
If Grimes did this liquor store robbery, it would actually help the case that we're prosecuting.
But the store owner says that he didn't.
What can I tell you? The old guy was wrong.
But Grimes is white.
The store owner said that the robber was Latino.
Look, the old man was so scared, he pissed himself.
All he saw was the gun, if that.
Grimes's the guy who held him up.
I have no doubt.
Except your gut isn't admissible, Detective.
Which is why the D.
A.
Kicked the robbery charge.
Grimes did it.
And it wasn't his first stickup either.
That kid was born to go to jail.
Have a good day.
So, we know Grimes wasn't the choirboy his lawyer's been saying he was, but we can't prove it? That's what it looks like.
What about the knife? The one found at Grimes's apartment? D.
N.
A.
Confirmed that the blood on it wasn't Leeanne Testa's.
But it was someone's.
Let's see if we can find out whose.
I'll have Briscoe and Green contact the primary on the Testa case.
We got an anonymous tip about the Testa case.
Judge signed the search warrant.
Off an anonymous tip? Back in '84, we had a couple political appointees they let us take a few more procedural shortcuts than they do now.
Ah, the Reagan years.
Anyway, I went in with my partner and a team of five blues.
We searched from ceiling to cellar.
Yeah, you found the knife.
Wrapped in a dishrag.
It was hidden under a loose floorboard in his closet.
But the blood on the knife wasn't Leeanne Testa's.
Hell of a thing.
This Fallon guy Yeah, the Exoneration Project.
Got a court order, did family D.
N.
A.
Against the knife, proved it wasn't Testa's.
Grimes always said that the knife was planted.
Well, of course he'd say that.
Who knows? He probably killed somebody else.
Yeah, that's why we need to run that knife past forensics, see if it matches any open cases.
Well, after Fallon had it tested, it went back to the M.
E.
's office.
Ought to still be there.
So, that day, when you found the knife in Grimes's apartment, anything strike you as fishy? Well, I didn't actually find it.
Some uniform, got his shield a few years back.
Reynolds, Daniels, something like that.
Not Kenny Daniels? Yeah, Kenny Daniels.
That's it.
You know him? We were at the same house for a while, the 29.
I ain't seen him in years.
He the kind of cop that would plant evidence? Not the Kenny Daniels I knew.
He was a stickler.
By the book.
He drove me crazy.
Thought I was a cowboy.
He'd always say "dot your i's, cross your t's.
" People change.
This is great, Ed.
What is it, uh, eight or 10 years since I seen you? Not even a phone call.
Now you're on my doorstep making accusations? Just questions, Kenny.
Not accusations, just questions.
These the sort of questions I should have my P.
B.
A.
Delegate present for? Look, I spoke to the D.
A.
's office.
You arrested Grimes for a liquor store robbery that the owner swears up and down that the kid didn't commit.
Mr.
Magoo? That old man was so blind, he couldn't tell his ass from his elbow.
Grimes did the robbery, Ed.
Trust me.
Okay.
But then you find a knife that puts the same guy away for a murder that he absolutely did not commit.
He goes to jail for 20 years.
What? What is it, man? You couldn't get him on the liquor store robbery, so you framed him for Leeanne Testa's murder? Liquor store had nothing to do with it.
How do you think Grimes's prints got on that knife? What, do you think I'm some kind of magician? I don't know, man.
You tell me.
Her name was Julie Sayer.
She was 16, going on 12.
You know, innocent.
The knife I found in Grimes's apartment it was his, all right, but he didn't use it on Leeanne Testa.
He used it on Julie Sayer.
He slit her throat with it.
There was no D.
N.
A.
Testing back then.
Same type "O" positive.
So, everyone assumed it was Leeanne's blood.
Well, if Grimes killed Julie Sayer, why didn't you collar him for that? I did.
Grimes was a creep.
I had witnesses who put him with the girl that morning.
I brought him in.
He started runnin' his mouth, talkin' trash.
He even took a swing at me.
You didn't beat the dude down, did you? Only time I ever lost it like that.
All I could see was that dead girl lying there with her throat cut.
- Did Grimes give it up? - Yeah, he told me how he killed Julie.
Told me how he hid the knife in a storm drain.
Told me exactly where to find it.
But what, the bust wasn't any good? Lieu took one look at him, one look at my knuckles.
He told me I had to kick him loose.
He told you to 86 the arrest.
Try to find another way to make the case.
But if the confession was inadmissible then The knife was too.
There wasn't gonna be any justice forJulie Sayer.
I let Grimes go, fished the knife out of the storm drain saved it for a rainy day.
Then Leeanne Testa gets stabbed.
Wound patterns were consistent with Grimes's knife.
Blood type the same as Julie's.
Pieces fell into place.
You call in an anonymous tip and then you "find" the knife in Grimes's apartment? Why not? Grimes was guilty.
He was a murderer! He was gonna walk on the murder ofJulie Sayer.
He was gonna walk because of me! It was eating me up, Ed.
I had to make it right.
I had to balance the scales.
At least he didn't frame an innocent man.
No, he framed a guilty one.
The way he sees it, he kept Grimes from falling through the cracks in the system.
Well, somebody should tell him not to do the system any more favors.
Regardless of his motivation, this is the worst kind of police misconduct.
Now, any appellate court would find that this shocks the conscience, and so should we.
- Agreed, but he's all we've got.
- Where's this lieutenant of his now? In the cemetery.
He died of a heart attack six years ago.
So no one but Daniels can say that Grimes killed Julie Sayer.
No, but if we could prove he did, Fallon's defense strategy on the Donner murder goes out the window.
Grimes was a murderer before he was ever shipped off to Green Haven.
All right.
We'll try him on the Sayer murder first.
Only Grimes's confession is no more admissible today than it was 20 years ago.
But today, D.
N.
A.
Analysis will confirm that the blood on the knife is Julie Sayer's.
You know what Fallon's gonna say about that.
People versus Walter Grimes.
Murder in the second degree.
- How do you plead, Mr.
Grimes? - My client pleads not guilty, Your Honor.
People on bail? The People seek remand.
Mr.
Grimes is accused of murdering a teenage girl, stabbing her to death.
Your Honor, this crime took place more than 20 years ago.
Mr.
Grimes is also a suspect in a recent bar killing.
Let the State try him on that charge then.
We intend to.
Their physical evidence in this matter, Your Honor, the murder ofJulie Sayer, the State has already used to convict my client of another crime for which he's subsequently been exonerated.
- Is this true, Miss Southerlyn? - That same D.
N.
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Evidence, Your Honor, now accurately identifies which victim Mr.
Grimes killed.
Their star witness is the officer who planted the knife and framed my client in the first case.
Enough.
Someone else can sort through the evidentiary issues, thank God.
Since the People seem to have an ongoing interest in Mr.
Grimes's whereabouts after this matter is concluded, I'm gonna remand the defendant.
- Your Honor - That's it.
Sorry, Mr.
Fallon.
Better luck next time.
Next case.
The knife was planted in my client's apartment.
By a police officer.
The chain of custody remained intact.
This is outrageous.
I can't believe you can stand there and say that to me with a straight face.
You're forgetting how that officer found the knife in the storm drain in the first place.
Your client told him where it was.
He beat it out of him.
An improperly obtained confession.
The knife is poisonous fruit.
You're assuming that the police wouldn't have found it without Grimes's confession.
They canvassed all over the city.
They would have never found it.
And you know it.
Let's see what a judge thinks.
In the meantime, consider this your notice of our lab work.
We exhumed her body and extracted D.
N.
A.
From her bones.
The blood on the knife was Julie Sayer's.
D.
N.
A.
's a double-edged sword, counselor.
D.
N.
A.
's persuasive only if it's admissible.
My motion to suppress the knife.
- Is he right? - About the D.
N.
A.
? About the search.
Fallon just said the police looked high and low for the knife.
That's right.
Let's get the case's primary on the phone.
Julie Sayer was 16, pretty.
On the front page of the Post for weeks.
Bet your ass we tore the city apart.
Do you remember searching on 190th Street between Audubon and Amsterdam? Where it happened.
We turned that neighborhood upside down.
Storm drains? We searched them all.
From Washington Heights to Inwood.
Would you be willing to sign an affidavit? What? That we searched the storm drains? Every one in the area.
With a flashlight and a fine-tooth comb.
And didn't find a thing.
First, the People concede that Detective Daniels, who was then Officer Daniels questioned my client without counsel present in clear violation of his Sixth Amendment rights.
Then they concede he assaulted my client to obtain a confession in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights, used that illegal confession to seize the knife in violation of my client's Fourth Amendment rights.
And, as if that wasn't enough, they freely admit he then planted the knife to frame my client for a crime he didn't commit, in violation of, at the very least, his 14th Amendment rights.
Are there any amendments the People haven't violated? Now, in what has to be the single greatest demonstration of legal chutzpah in the history of jurisprudence, he contends the knife shouldn't be suppressed.
Mr.
McCoy, is this true? Every word, Your Honor.
Then how can you argue in support of the knife's admission? Because of the "inevitable discovery" doctrine, the knife is admissible if the police would have eventually discovered it without the impropriety.
How is that possible? They only found the knife because Officer Daniels planted it in my client's home.
You said it yourself: The police canvassed the area where the knife was originally hidden.
I have an affidavit from DetectiveJohnson, the primary on the case, who searched the storm drain where Grimes had hidden the knife.
- But it wasn't there to be found.
- Because Officer Daniels had already removed it.
Under inevitable discovery the issue is, what would have happened but for Officer Daniels's wrongful conduct? The knife would have been in that storm drain for DetectiveJohnson to find.
Exactly.
Oh, this is outrageous.
You're basically saying that Daniels's illegal conduct makes the knife admissible.
It isn't that I don't see the irony, but the evidence is admissible.
He's got you, Mr.
Fallon.
Look, Mr.
Grimes's confession remains inadmissible, but the knife comes in.
Don't pop those champagne corks yet.
No amount of fancy footwork is gonna change the fact that your sponsoring witness is Kenny Daniels.
I hate using him, but what choice do we have? A cop who admits he framed a guilty man for another crime which he didn't commit.
In service of the greater good.
That's what you'll tell the jury.
What Fallon will tell them is that Daniels is a vigilante with an ax to grind.
Which is exactly what we need to prepare him for.
If I hadn't done what I did, Grimes was gonna walk.
Why are you making me out to be the bad guy? Because you crossed the line, Detective.
And because that's what Rodney Fallon will do when you take the stand.
He's not the first shyster I've taken on.
I can handle him.
Let's hope he's the only one whose client's been framed by you.
Okay.
I deserve that.
Grimes killed Julie Sayer.
He admitted it.
And because I screwed up, he was gonna walk.
That's a mistake I couldn't live with, and I'm not gonna apologize for fixin' it! If you don't, he may walk on Julie's murder a second time.
If the jury sees you as some kind of a vigilante with no qualms about framing someone or planting evidence, they won't listen to a word you say! I screwed up 20 years ago.
But by making it right, it's the best thing I've ever done.
You really want me to say I feel sorry when I don't? You're a police officer.
And you put yourself above the law.
I can't believe you have no regrets about that.
Yeah, I have some regrets, that I gave him a beating and I screwed up the case.
What, do you want me to lie? I want you to acknowledge what it is I know you must be feeling! And that's what? Guilt.
Guilt about what? Guilt at having been so arrogant as to put yourself above the law! Planting the knife was wrong.
What I did was wrong.
I was trying to do right, but now I see the ends didn't justify the means.
I'm sure you understand people may view whatever testimony you'd offer against Walter Grimes with a certain amount of skepticism.
I made one mistake 20 years ago.
Since then? I've told the truth and played by the rules.
Have you? Yes.
"One mistake.
" You admit you framed my client for the murder of Leeanne Testa.
I admit to framing him for one murder because he committed another, the one he's on trial for here.
You don't get to bejudge andjury this time, Mr.
Daniels.
He confessed to me that he killed Julie Sayer.
A confession you beat out of him.
Which mistake do you regret, beating my client, or planting evidence against him? Both.
So that's two mistakes.
Tell me, is there anyone who can corroborate your story? Just your client.
My client maintains his innocence.
Which means we're left with your word.
Then you're left with my word, and I'm telling the truth.
But I don't believe you.
You've been obsessed with getting my client for decades, since he was a kid, haven't you? No.
- You arrested him for a liquor store robbery that was committed by someone else.
- I stand by that arrest.
Even though the owner said the robber was Latino.
And then, on another occasion, you assaulted Mr.
Grimes.
He was a suspect.
He attacked me, counselor, and I defended myself.
He was in your custody and you beat him bloody.
- Like I said, I regret that.
- Then you framed him for Leeanne Testa's murder.
And I've got nothin' to gain by admittin' it.
In fact, I'm throwing away my career and my pension Your career and pension mean nothing to you, do they? Not compared to your vendetta against Walter Grimes.
Enjoy the show? You held up okay.
What're you doing here? It's my case.
I thought maybe you came to gloat.
Why would I do that? We're friends.
I thought we were.
Don't try to turn this around on me, Kenny.
You put yourself in this circus.
D.
A.
's could've made their case on that barroom fight without dredging this up and dragging me into the middle of it.
We had no choice.
You did.
You could've let it go, Ed.
You don't want justice forJulie Sayer? I already had justice forJulie Sayer.
I don't know what I ever did to him, but he's had it in for me since I was a kid.
He was the cop on the beat in our neighborhood, and he always hated me.
He's had it in for me since day one.
Detective Daniels seems to think you were an incorrigible criminal who should be taken off the street.
Look, I never said I was a saint.
But the things he said I did, I didn't do.
But in respect toJulie Sayer's murder, your fingerprints are on the knife along with her blood.
It's It's my knife.
I never denied that.
Of course it's gonna have my prints on it.
And Julie Sayer's blood? Daniels is police, right? He could get as much of her blood as he wanted.
There's nothin'this guy won't do to burn me.
Nothin; You sound paranoid, Mr.
Grimes.
It ain't paranoia if someone's really out to get you.
This Daniels is.
Yet you admit you don't know why.
- You'd have to ask him.
- No, I'm asking you.
I don't know.
Maybe he's crazy.
So you're saying Detective Daniels somehow manufactured the bloody knife evidence in this case? Come on.
He framed me before.
I spent 20 years in prison for killing a person I never even laid eyes on.
That's irrelevant, Mr.
Grimes.
Twenty years of my life is irrelevant? Your fingerprints are on the knife.
Julie Sayer's blood is on the knife.
How did all that get there? Objection! - Daniels put it there.
- How did Detective Daniels get your knife? It is not incumbent upon the defendant to prove how Detective Daniels did anything.
He's making all these assertions.
He must have some idea.
I don't know how! He framed me, okay? I never killed anybody! You didn't kill Brendan Donner three months after being released from prison Objection, Your Honor! Objection! By smashing his head in with a liquor bottle? This is outrageous.
Accusing him of murder? The defendant denied it.
I have every right to attack his credibility.
He hasn't been convicted in that case.
He hasn't even been tried.
But he did raise a "not responsible" defense.
Which is an admission that he killed Brendan Donner.
And if the defendant denies that, I'll put Dr.
Olivet on the stand to impeach him.
You goaded him into that denial so you could bring in the other case to poison the minds of the jury.
They call that cross-examination, Mr.
Fallon.
Sorry, counsel.
Your client opened the door and put out the welcome mat.
If I were you, I'd talk to Mr.
McCoy about a plea.
Forget it, McCoy.
I'll argue that Grimes killed Donner because Daniels's vendetta against him turned him into a murderer.
You don't have to posture, Mr.
Fallon.
Your client's not here.
I don't have to posture because I still have Kenny Daniels to vilify.
Which means nothing unless you can paint Grimes as the victim here.
A victim is exactly what he is.
A victim of police misconduct.
A victim of the entire criminal justice system.
The jury's not here either, so let's not pretend we don't know the crimes your client committed as a juvenile.
Let's not pretend he didn't killJulie Sayer.
And let's not pretend Daniels wasn't out there playing judge and jury.
Detective Daniels is not on trial here.
Grimes is.
And Grimes is the one who slit a woman's throat.
Grimes is the one who crushed a man's head.
You seem to forget that.
But I'm going to make sure the jury remembers.
They're going to want someone to pay.
Trust me, it won't be Kenny Daniels.
Twenty years in prison almost killed Walter Grimes.
I'll give him credit for those 20 years.
If he allocutes.
I killed Julie Sayer.
I knew her from around.
I had the hots for her.
But she Doesn't matter why I did it.
I just I followed her one night.
I grabbed her.
She said no.
I stabbed her.
That's it.
There's nothing more to say.
Mr.
Grimes, since you're pleading guilty to murder in the second degree with a sentence of 25 years to life, and since the terms of your plea agreement are that in exchange for this allocution you are to be given credit for the your remaining sentence on the murder ofJulie Sayer is five years.
I understand, Your Honor.
And the parties have also reached a plea with respect to the murder of Brendan Donner? We have.
The defendant has waived his right to trial and will plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
I'm accepting the defendant's plea and imposing a sentence of seven and a half to 15 years to be served consecutively with the aforementioned five.
I don't need company.
Maybe I do.
Irish, rocks on the side.
He pled out.
All's well that ends well.
So, how's it end for you? I've been encouraged to take an early retirement.
I'm sorry.
Don't be.
I did what I had to do.