Law & Order Special Victims Unit s26e19 Episode Script

1
In the criminal justice system
sexually based offenses are
considered especially heinous.
In New York City, the
dedicated detectives
who investigate these vicious felonies
are members of an elite squad
known as the Special Victims Unit.
These are their stories.
We were able to ID our burn victim.
It was a cop.
Maria Recinos.
You knew her?
She really overcame a lot.
The murder is connected
to another one
that happened two years ago.
- And Homicide never closed it?
- No.
It was my case.
Maria was undercover,
staying at that shelter
when those young women
went missing.
Don't you think
that's a little dangerous,
especially for a rookie?
I kept a close eye on her.
Mr. Pinto, we found your DNA
on a young woman
named Ana Machado.
Pinto's alibi checks out.
Real killer
tried to frame him.
We're gonna find
whoever did this.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, I understand.
Yes, Chief, I understand.
Mm-hmm.
[SCOFFS]
1PP is all over me.
If it makes you feel any better,
the eighth floor just
smacked me and Price
with a three-hour lecture
on media preparedness.
This is, uh,
turning up to be
quite a big press case.
Three murders of
women from shelters
Including a young cop at
the beginning of her career.
Never should have
put in a word for her.
Liv, don't beat yourself up
any more than your bosses already are.
TARU confirmed Miguel Pinto's alibi.
The photo and the videos?
Guy was in Staten Island.
Which puts him an hour
and a half away at the time
of Ana Machado's murder.
OK, so we know that
he's not good for it.
Despite his DNA on her?
Working theory from Brady's team
is that somebody framed him.
With seminal fluid?
- How the hell did they get it?
- That's for you to find out,
and me to cleanse from my mind.
I gotta go update Price.
Lieutenant Brady, Lieutenant Gomez.
Hi.
Thanks for the invite.
Yeah.
We were kicking around this
fact pattern
- on the way over.
- And?
We're in the same investigative
cul-de-sac you are.
Yeah, so let's try to make a U-turn.
So what do we know?
We're looking for a pattern killer
targeting marginalized
women, until Maria.
He probably didn't know she was a cop.
OK, well, what we do
know is that our last victim,
Ana Machado, told
Maria that she was raped.
And Maria went into the
warehouse looking for the perp
and became a victim herself.
So you were her boss.
She didn't mention that
she was going in there?
She was undercover.
We only had check-ins
every three days or so.
OK, well, besides from
the immigration status,
the only common denominator
here that I see is geography.
What about the Catholic shelter?
Father Alberto's place?
I don't know. Maybe
he knows something.
Look, he's a nice
guy, but he wouldn't be
the first priest with a secret.
All of our vics seemed to trust him.
All right, let's go talk to him.
I'll have someone put eyes on him.
OK.
What?
Rosa Ortega's mom is in my office,
and I have to tell her once again
that we have no idea
who killed her kid.
Gomez and I will handle it.
You know, you didn't have
to come with me, Captain.
I wanted to.
What, for Maria's sake?
Look, you don't have to
be Catholic to feel guilty.
Maria told me the story
of how you two met.
Yeah, the 911 call.
She said you never once
- got off the phone with her.
- Yeah.
- You were her lifeline.
- Well
I was, until I wasn't.
I was her supervisor.
How do you think I feel?
Tried to get her off the
case. She didn't listen.
Well, she was in her 20s.
Did you listen to your
boss when you were 20?
- Nope.
- Me neither.
- Wow.
- What is all this?
Yeah, ICE did a pretty good
job ripping this place apart.
I don't think this
looks like an ICE raid.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Father Alberto?
♪
Father Alberto?
Father Alberto?
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
We just want to talk.
I got him.
SVU Portable to Central.
We're in pursuit of a
suspect in the Catholic church
on the corner of 159 and Broadway.
Gomez!
It's a Latin male.
He's wearing jeans,
a sweater, and a clerical collar.
Gomez?
- Gomez!
- He's got my gun!
[GRUNTING]
Put the gun down!
I can't!
I said put the gun down now!
- [GUNSHOT]
- I'm hit, I'm hit!
Drop it!
Drop the gun now!
- Drop it!
- [GROANS]
[GUNSHOT]
[GASPING]
♪
[GROANS]
Hang in there.
You hang in there, Paul, OK?
- OK.
- [GROANING]
SVU to Central.
I got a 10-13, officer down.
Suspect is down too.
I need an ambulance,
and I need additional units.
- I know.
- [GROANS]
Hang in there.
- [GROANS]
- Come on.
Hang in there, Gomez.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
[PANTING] My gun.
Did you bag it?
Please tell me you bagged it.
Don't worry about that.
Force Investigation
is all over it, OK?
- OK.
- GSW to the shoulder.
He's in good hands, Captain.
tube starting.
Trauma team is on its way.
I want this guy hooked
up to a monitor now.
Captain, you all right?
- Yeah.
- What the hell happened?
So we went there
to question the priest
and he just took off running.
And then he went for
the lieutenant's gun,
so, Gomez grabbed his
ankle piece and
And he fired.
Did the priest make it?
Died in the ambulance.
All right, so
Let me go back to the
crime scene and help FID.
Yeah, the only thing
you need to worry about,
Benson, is waiting
here for your union rep.
Gomez was shot.
It's all over the radio.
The guy killed a priest.
Fin, we went there to talk to him.
You think the Father may
have something to do with
- all these murders?
- Why else would he run,
if he didn't?
Miguel Pinto may know.
The guy that we thought
killed Ana Machado?
Somebody had to plant the semen.
For all we know, Father
Alberto went to visit Pinto in jail
and stole his secret sock.
Grab Velasco and go talk to Miguel.
Where you headed?
I'm going to get out of
these bloody clothes.
I thought you were supposed
to wait on your union rep.
They know where to find me.
[SIGHS]
- Heard what happened to Gomez.
- Are you OK?
Yeah, ish. I mean
Do you think that
that priest is dirty?
What's his part in all this?
Listen, we can't ask him,
but we have to prove the connection.
Just got off the phone with the lab.
They pulled some
DNA from Maria's body.
After she was burned?
Some kind of new technique.
You want me to pull the car around?
I would love that, but,
IAB
just texted me and they
They want to talk to me.
How can we make
your life easier, Captain?
Well, for starters, I
need you to re-question
- the women at the shelter.
- That's going to be kind of hard
after the shelter got raided.
And half of them are probably
on ICE Air flights as we speak.
Well, track as many as you can down,
because they may be
the only way to tie him to this crime.
They seemed scared
the first time around.
Well, I think that
might be different now
that Father Alberto is dead.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
You know, I
I heard, what happened
to Father Alberto.
Mm.
Did he really do what they're saying?
Well, right now all we know
is that he took a cop's gun,
and he shot him.
He took care of me when
I first got to New York.
If he's a bad guy [SCOFFS]
I don't know who to trust anymore.
There was a girl a few years ago.
I saw her hugging Father Alberto.
Anything inappropriate?
It was late at night.
She was in his room.
I saw through the window.
It looked like she was crying.
You have a way to reach this girl?
She left the shelter.
A name?
Anything would be helpful.
There's so many women
that come in and out of here.
I
No, I'm sorry.
[TENSE MUSIC]
It's a little late for
breakfast, isn't it, Miguel?
Yo, why are you even here?
It's starting to feel like harassment.
This isn't personal.
But, we did find your
DNA on a murder victim.
And I already told you guys,
I never even met that girl.
You know this guy?
- No.
- You sure?
Maybe he paid you a visit in jail?
Never seen him before.
And anyways, why the hell
would a priest set me up?
That's what we're
trying to figure out.
You need to think.
Maybe you had sex with one
of those women in the shelter?
No.
But
My cousin sent some
whore over to celebrate
me getting paroled.
- You wore a condom, right?
- Yeah.
So what'd you do with
it after you got done?
Put it in the bathroom garbage.
She happen to go into the
bathroom before she left?
Yeah.
Captain Benson, you were
at the scene of the shooting.
Walk us through what happened.
So Lieutenant Gomez and I
went up to the Catholic church
on 159th to interrogate
Father Alberto,
and as soon as he saw
us, he took off running.
So Lieutenant Gomez chased after him.
I called in the pursuit, and,
I found both men down in the catacombs
struggling over control
of the weapon, um
Lieutenant Gomez's Glock 17.
Whose hand was on the trigger?
Um
Both of the men had
their hands on the weapon.
Do you recall if either said anything
as they fought for
control of the weapon?
To each other?
To you?
Well, I engaged with
Father Alberto directly.
I said to drop the weapon.
Did he reply?
[TENSE MUSIC]
He said, "I can't."
What do you think he meant by that?
♪
Captain Benson?
♪
How'd it go at IAB?
Did you find any dirt
on Father Alberto?
Anything at all?
He might have had something going on
with one of the girls at his shelter.
Would that make you run from the cops?
Would that make you grab
a cop's gun and shoot him?
No, but then again, I'm not a priest.
What are you thinking?
I'm thinking that the
church was pretty banged up
when Gomez and I
got there, and it just
It couldn't have been
just from an ICE raid.
You think someone threatened him?
What's in the bag?
A Hail Mary.
So you were able to
obtain sperm cells?
Using differential extraction.
Deep tissue recovery.
Part of her cervix was still intact.
So whoever killed
Maria also raped her?
I can't say whether
the sex was consensual.
And unfortunately, she can't tell us.
Well, then, the evidence
will have to speak for her.
What is that?
- It's my jacket.
- Your jacket?
Covered with Paul Gomez's blood?
- Um
- You can't put
a cop's
blood into the system
without consulting with 1PP.
OK, Jess, I need you to hear me out.
OK, I need you to give me
the professional courtesy
of talking about it before you do it.
Listen, there's something deeply off
about Father Alberto's shooting.
How? He pulled the trigger first.
But Gomez's hand,
was on top of the priest's hand,
when the gun went off.
So you think Gomez shot himself?
I think that it's a possibility.
What do you think is more likely
that mental contortion, or the fact
that you might be suffering
from temporary case blindness?
OK, because of Maria?
No, because you witnessed a shooting.
All I know
Is the fear
That I saw in Father Alberto's eyes.
I'm telling you.
OK.
OK.
But if you're wrong
You're going to have
to talk to the brass
about why we compared the blood
of a decorated NYPD lieutenant
to a semen sample found in
the corpse of his subordinate.
I understand, and sometimes
you have to ask for forgiveness
instead of permission.
I'm going to take that as a yes.
OK.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Hey.
I didn't know we had
a meeting scheduled.
- We didn't.
- But we do need to talk.
- Yeah.
- All right.
Well, uh, now that
we're all caffeinated,
what
What's this about?
The semen found on Maria's
body was a match
to Paul Gomez.
I'm sorry, since when was
Paul Gomez a suspect?
I don't remember
submitting a warrant for this.
- Do you?
- We didn't seize the DNA.
Not exactly.
Well, how did you obtain it?
From my jacket.
What, from the shooting?
That's a little macabre,
but it's admissible nonetheless.
What does this
What does this prove?
I mean, really?
Other than Gomez and Maria had sex.
We are looking for a pattern killer
who has a penchant for
raping socially invisible women.
This is the first step in
demonstrating that pattern.
OK. What's the second?
I'm going to ask Rosa's
mother to exhume her body.
All right, um
Let's go down this rabbit hole.
If you're right, and I'm
not saying that you are
It-it also means that Gomez,
a decorated lieutenant,
framed Miguel Pinto for Ana
Machado's murder and rape.
How do you tie him to that?
- We can't right now.
- But the guy's got a long reach.
Look
I think that he sent somebody
to threaten Father Alberto
the morning that he shot him.
And if he can do that,
that means he's got help,
- and he's organized.
- Look, he's been
right next to us
this whole time, right there,
watching us investigate.
I would not put it past
him to plant evidence.
So you're alleging
obstruction of justice,
tampering with evidence
Uh, misconduct in
public office, conspiracy,
not to mention the rapes and murders.
The question is, how do we prove it?
So Miguel, told Fin and Velasco
that his cousin hired
a sex worker for him.
And we think she took the condom
out of the wastebasket when she left.
So Brady and I put in a
call to Miguel's cousin.
He swears that he did
not hire a sex worker.
And you think Gomez did?
I think that if you give
us an electronic warrant
for Paul Gomez's phone,
that we can prove that.
What do you think?
A case this size,
involving a cop, no less?
We've got to loop Baxter in.
Gossip travels at the speed
of sound in police circles.
- Who else knows?
- Just us.
Good.
See if you can get Gomez talking.
Don't push too hard.
It'd be nice to get an
admission before he lawyers up.
You know, you didn't have to do this.
Come on, we were we
were worried about you.
Yeah. How you feeling?
Good.
Ready to get out of here.
IAB came by yesterday.
I'm assuming if you're here,
- they spoke to you?
- Yeah.
Yeah, it's pretty straightforward.
That's what they said. [CLEARS THROAT]
I think they're going
to rule it a clean shoot.
Best possible outcome.
[SIGHS]
Did you make any headway
linking Father Alberto
to these crimes?
Yeah, we're getting pretty close.
What did you find?
New DNA evidence.
Oh.
From?
Maria Recinos' body.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
Even though it was burned?
Well, technology, right?
- It's amazing these days.
- Yeah.
We're going to do our
best to link it to the Father's.
[CHUCKLES]
[REMOTE CLICKING]
Everything all right?
Yeah, I'm just in a lot of pain.
Mm.
Mr. Gomez, you buzzed?
Yeah, my shoulder's on fire.
I'll up your dose.
And it's time to clear your drain.
All right.
Can I go to the bathroom first?
- You don't mind?
- No, no, please.
Hey, thank you for the flowers.
Yeah.
What do you think?
I'd love to know who he's calling.
♪
[BELL RINGING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Hey, guys.
Hey, where's Noah?
He was just here.
Noah.
Hey, who you talking to?
I don't know.
This guy was trying to
tell me to go into his car.
- I wasn't going to, though.
- What?
Get over there.
Hey.
Hey, open the window.
- [ENGINE STARTS]
- Who the hell are you,
and what are you
doing talking to my son.
Wait, wait!
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Come on, let's go.
You think Gomez sent
someone to hurt your son?
Who else would do it?
To what end?
To get me to back off the case.
Where is Noah now?
He's at our apartment with two unis.
OK. What do you need from us?
I need permission
from you to pick him up,
so my son can go to
school tomorrow in peace.
As much as we would all like that,
unfortunately, we're still waiting
- on the electronic warrant.
- What is taking so long?
I know you don't want to hear this,
but it may be time for you to
think about recusing yourself
Recuse myself
- from this case?
- Liv, this case is already delicate
for a variety of reasons.
Gomez has been a cop for 20 years.
And a smart one at that.
If he's been able to
get away with all this
He knows that manipulating you
into getting emotional
will tip the scales
- in his favor.
- Yes, and it doesn't take
a genius to know,
that a threat to my son,
would do just that.
Right.
Carisi, what do you think?
Now that Noah is involved,
it's going to affect the case.
- Oh, my God.
- [PHONE BUZZES]
- I can't
- Excuse me.
OK.
So what is the minimum, that you need,
to pick him up by the end of the day?
Eyewitnesses who can
put him at the scene.
Physical evidence
that the defense can't
- paint as merely consensual
- OK, OK.
Olivia.
[SIGHS]
I want you to know that
I am on your side here.
Paul Gomez is a man who
swore to protect and serve,
and he did the exact opposite,
and you are not the only one
who is infuriated by that.
Hey, good news.
Electronic warrant just came through.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Here we go.
The call that Miguel
made from the hospital,
is to a lawyer named Rita Calhoun.
Sounds like you know her.
I certainly do.
We have history.
So we bring him flowers
and he calls a lawyer?
If that's not an admission
of guilt, I don't know what is.
Also, there is a 12-minute
call to a woman
a woman named Charisse Johnson,
the night before Ana Machado
was murdered.
Was Miguel Pinto already out of jail?
By a couple of days.
Well, I think we found the sex worker
that helped set him up.
We certainly did.
I'll follow up with Fin.
[SIGHS]
Hey, how are you doing
on the, uh, ICE Air logs?
Well, we managed to track down
a few women that were deported,
and with any luck, one of
them can identify the woman
who was hugging Father Alberto.
And Price told me what happened.
Someone threatened your son?
Yeah, did he also tell you
that he asked me to recuse myself?
He might have mentioned it.
What would you do?
Are you asking me
as a cop or as a mom?
Can you separate those two?
Well, I think you have two choices.
You can either throw
yourself into your work,
or throw Gomez out a window.
How'd you get my number?
You know this guy?
'Cause he knows you.
I might have gave him a massage.
Look, Charisse, you're not in trouble.
We're SVU, we're not Vice.
We just want to know who hired you.
And what you did with the condom
when you took it out of the trash.
You recognize any of these guys?
[TENSE MUSIC]
What do I get if I cooperate?
You get to stay in business.
Before you were deported,
you were staying in a
shelter run by Father Alberto
here in Manhattan?
That's right.
A woman we spoke
to said you might know
the identity of a close
friend of Rosa Ortega's.
You're talking about Cassie.
We've been trying
to follow up with her.
Yeah, I heard she just disappeared.
Do you know Cassie's
last name or an address?
No, but
I think I might have a photo of her.
♪
Wait.
Just a moment.
♪
Would this help?
♪
There she is.
Cassie Reyes.
So she did disappear
To a new life.
♪
I'm not even going to
ask how you found me.
I left that shelter a few months back,
and it was hell on earth.
Well, you seem to have made
a very nice life for yourself.
And we do not want to interrupt it,
but we are investigating Paul Gomez
for rape and murder.
We heard you were
tight with Rosa Ortega.
I saw her the morning she disappeared,
and then after that
Nothing.
I
I assumed Gomez had killed her.
Can you tell us more about that?
He'd been raping her.
Me too,
threatening us if we said no.
And the morning that Rosa disappeared,
she was going to go
report Gomez to the cops.
And you think he found out?
I mean, the guy has a
bunch of street-level dealers
paying him to look the other way.
He has eyes and ears everywhere,
and one of them must
have tipped him off.
It took me a while, to get clean,
but I'm glad I did, because
then I wouldn't have met Sean.
We just got engaged.
Congratulations.
You said that you, um
You left the shelter a few months ago?
Yeah.
Did you know her?
Sofia.
Yeah, I know her, but not well.
I mean, she was the one
who gave me the number
to the rehab that I got clean at
and helped change my life.
So, um, her real name is Maria Recinos,
and she was a friend of mine,
and, uh, she was
She was working undercover.
[SIGHS] She
She's a cop?
And we think Gomez killed her too.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
Um, she's
She's dead?
♪
When did this happen?
A week ago.
But listen, we are
putting a case together
against Paul Gomez,
for killing Maria and Rosa.
Will you be willing to testify?
[SIGHS] No.
No one in my life now
knows about my past.
I mean, Sean's the love of my life.
I don't want him to know
that I was a drug addict,
that I let a man rape me
so I wouldn't get arrested.
I owe Maria,
but if I testify,
I'll lose everything.
♪
She's a crucial witness.
Not only can she
connect Rosa to Gomez,
she was raped by the guy herself.
Righ, but she's also newly sober,
so let's try not to destroy that.
Price might have a different opinion.
There are other witnesses,
so one of them will just have
to be enough to get it done.
ME Wagner will confirm
a seminal DNA match
to Paul Gomez on both
the bodies of Maria Recinos
and Rosa Ortega.
The exhumation of her body paid off.
What about Ana Machado's case?
Charisse Johnson will testify
she delivered a used condom
from Miguel Pinto to Gomez.
Which he used to plant
evidence on Ana's body.
And Grace Brionés, from the shelter,
can put Paul and Maria together
at the time of Maria's murder.
OK, so we have two witnesses plus DNA,
which Gomez will likely
say was consensual.
Well, we actually do
have a third witness
that could testify to
the repeated rapes
of herself and Rosa Ortega.
- I'm interested.
- Hold on.
She's not willing to testify.
Why not?
Because she has changed
her life and moved on.
We'll try to avoid it for now.
No promises.
So you guys have
enough for an indictment.
- What about going to trial?
- I'm good.
- Same here.
- All right.
Pick him up.
OK.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Thanks for coming to get me, sis.
Are you sure you're ready to leave?
Maybe you should have
listened to your doctors.
- I'm fine.
- [POLICE SIREN WAILS]
Lieutenant Gomez.
Sorry, I got no flowers
for you this time.
Paul, what's this about?
You're under arrest.
Stop it, you're hurting him!
This is for Maria, and Rosa.
- Oh, my God.
- Jocelyn,
call my lawyer, all right?
- Rita Calhoun.
- OK.
- Can you do that for me?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Paul, what's this about?
♪
I received an anonymous
call about a murder,
and when I arrived on the scene,
I discovered that the
body had been burned,
beyond recognition.
And I later learned that
it was a young woman,
named Maria Recinos,
who had been working undercover
for the defendant, Paul Gomez.
Were you able to identify
the anonymous caller?
She was a woman at
the shelter, Ana Machado,
and Maria had given her my number.
Why your number?
Because Maria trusted me.
So Ana was cooperating
with the investigation?
Eventually, yes.
At the beginning, she was hesitant.
She was quite afraid of the police,
for reasons that are now obvious.
- Objection.
- Sustained.
And then she agreed to be interviewed.
But you were not able to complete
- that interview?
- No.
I, stepped out of the room,
and Ana fled the precinct.
She was frightened by
something or someone.
And later, we found that she
had been choked to death.
Was the defendant, Paul Gomez,
at the precinct that day?
He was.
He was supposedly working
on business that was
related to the case.
And I spoke to him,
and he denied seeing Ana,
which I now know was a lie.
Thank you.
Nothing further.
Captain Benson, you
have no direct knowledge
that Anna Machado saw
Paul Gomez that day, do you?
- No.
- In fact, you have
no direct knowledge that my client
committed any of the crimes
that he is accused of, do you?
Well, I wasn't an eyewitness,
but, after being a police
investigator for over 25 years,
the circumstantial evidence
was too compelling to ignore.
You had a personal relationship
with Maria Recinos, didn't you?
You could say that.
You recommended that she
be promoted to undercover?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Yes.
You were devastated by her death?
I was.
So, isn't it possible, Captain Benson,
that your personal
relationship in this case
made you biased against my client?
- Objection.
- I'll allow.
I was deeply saddened,
by Maria's murder,
and angered by it,
as I have been about
many cases before.
- Thank you.
- But I have never
let my emotions interfere
with my police work.
Quite the opposite.
♪
I did an outcall job for a
client named Miguel Pinto.
But you thought it was Miguel's
cousin who hired you, correct?
Yeah, over the phone.
What were his instructions?
To show him a good time,
and to make sure Miguel used a condom,
and to take it with me when I left.
And then what?
I didn't expect it, but
the dude was waiting
for me across the street.
He asked for the condom
before I got in my QuikRide.
And is the man who
took that condom from you
in this courtroom today?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's him right there.
Paul Gomez.
Thank you.
Ms. Johnson, you just
admitted on the stand
that you're a prostitute.
Yeah, so?
And the DA's office
agreed not to prosecute you
for that in exchange
for your testimony today.
Yeah, but I'm telling the truth.
Thank you.
Nothing further.
I was walking my baby back home.
I saw Maria Recinos
go into a warehouse.
And then what happened?
Five minutes later, Lieutenant Gomez
followed her inside.
Why didn't you report
this to the police?
I didn't want to be next.
Thank you.
Are you aware that you're
under oath, Ms. Brionés?
Yes.
Are you aware that lying
on the stand is a crime?
Yes.
That could possibly
lead to your arrest
and possible deportation?
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
Yes.
Then I am going to
give you one last chance.
Are you sure,
it was my client you saw
following Maria Recinos
into that warehouse?
♪
No, to be
To be honest, I'm not 100% sure.
- Uh, Your Honor
- Your Honor, I need a
a moment with my witness.
Gentlemen, approach the bench.
♪
So our witness is
completely compromised.
She was obviously intimidated.
We are in serious
danger of losing this case.
- We still have Cassie Reyes.
- Look, we talked about that.
That was before we
were facing a mistrial,
or a motion to dismiss.
I'm not going to ruin her life.
That is what a subpoena
- was invented for.
- All right.
She's been brutalized by the
system enough, don't you think?
I don't like it any more than you do,
but this case is too important
to just leave to chance.
You want it to be her choice,
you have till the end of the day.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
God, what do you want?
You know the answer to that.
I already told you, I can't testify.
It may not be up to you, Cassie.
If you don't agree, then the
DA is going to subpoena you.
I am an ex-drug addict.
I was high half the
time I was in that shelter.
But you're not now.
And this
This is the version
of you that we need.
[SOBBING] No, they're going to
They're going to talk about my past.
Listen, men like Gomez,
they want you to stay invisible.
- That's what protects them.
- [SOBS]
You've got to get up
there and show them
that you're not as invisible
as he thinks you are.
We're not asking
you to do this for us.
We're asking you to do
this for Rosa and Maria.
[WHIMPERS]
And I know what they would want.
They would want you to choose justice,
not fear.
[SOBS]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
♪
Ooh-wee.
You might not know me,
but I know you.
And not in a vague kind of way.
What the hell are you talking about?
Your name is Mueller Hayes.
You joined the Academy in '95,
spent your first year on patrol.
Speeding tickets for your friends
quickly disappear, a
little cash for courtesy.
Nothing major.
Nothing worth making a fuss over.
But, I see the patterns in
your life, even if you don't.
Fast forward a few years
and, well, here you are, huh?
[GRUNTING]
Got your head smashed
up against the cold tile
under the weight of
all your bad decisions
and a 600 FICO score,
which is why Paul Gomez owns you.
[GRUNTING]
You and I, we're just going
to cut through the noise.
If you ever go anywhere
near my friend or her son again,
I won't take you down.
I'll take you apart.
[PANTING]
Tell Gomez to watch his back.
I was living at the
shelter for a while,
because I was a drug addict,
at rock bottom.
I felt like I had no options in life.
- Did you know Rosa Ortega?
- Yes.
We were friends.
Your Honor, again,
this witness is not on
the prosecution's list.
I've already allowed this testimony.
You'll have your chance to cross.
Mr. Carisi, you may continue.
Ms. Reyes, when was the
last time you talked to Rosa?
The morning she was killed.
She said she was
going to go to the police
about Paul Gomez raping her.
And how was Rosa's affect
the last time you spoke?
She was scared,
and I know why.
Because Paul Gomez
did the same thing to me.
He said that if I didn't
have sex with him,
he'd arrest me.
And you did as he ordered?
Yes.
Did you call the police?
Did you tell anyone?
No, not until now.
And what changed your mind?
Because he
Killed two women I know,
Rosa Ortega, and Maria Recinos.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Thank you, Ms. Reyes.
Ms. Reyes, you have no knowledge
of my client being
directly responsible
for Rosa Ortega's murder, do you?
You didn't see blood on his hands or,
a can of gasoline in his possession?
- No.
- And you had
no knowledge
that Maria Recinos
had been murdered, did you?
- Not at first.
- Until the detectives here told you?
That's correct, yes.
By your own admission
you were a drug addict.
- Yes.
- And my client
had probable cause to arrest you
- Yes.
- But
Let it go when you were
willing to have sex with him.
- Objection.
- Watch yourself, Counselor.
He
He threatened me,
along with every other
woman in that place.
He created a hell that I escaped from.
- Your Honor
- You asked the question, Counselor.
I was silent for years,
but not anymore.
Coming here today
may cost me my new life,
but it is worth it,
to put Paul Gomez in prison.
♪
Members of the jury,
have you reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
What say you?
On the charge of rape
and murder in the first
of Rosa Ortega,
we find the defendant guilty.
On the charge of rape
and murder in the first
of Ana Machado,
guilty.
On the charge of rape
and murder in the first
of Maria Recinos,
we find the defendant guilty.
[CROWD MURMURING]
Members of the jury,
the court thanks you for your service.
♪
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
Hey.
Oh, Cassie, I'm so glad that you came.
This is my fiancé, Sean.
It's nice to meet you, Captain.
It's nice to meet you, too.
Cassie's been talking a lot about you.
Oh. [CHUCKLES]
I'll meet you in a minute, OK?
OK.
♪
How do you feel?
I feel known.
Maybe even for the first time.
Mm.
♪
You really fought for those women.
So did you.
It looks like Cassie's going to be OK.
Yeah.
Are you?
I am
Now.
♪
♪