Law & Order (1990) s17e15 Episode Script
Melting Pot
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.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) Please tell me it's boxers.
(sums) Which way does the pointy one move? Check.
Drop 'em, dude.
I resign.
Give it up Or you can get these on your way home.
Hey, quit screwing around, Amanda.
Come on.
Ooh! Ooh! Amanda, seriously, look.
About time.
Any idea what it's like being stuck in here with a swinger? You're supposed to be the professional.
You got a time of death? or take an hour.
Now do your thing, please, so I can get her down.
Name's Erin Garrett.
She's the actress in some of these posters.
She used some kind of nylon lashing.
Okay, you can take her down.
Any forced entry? The door was closed, but unlocked.
No sign of a struggle here.
This play like a straight up suicide to you? I don't know.
She leave a note? Nope.
Well, looks like her acting career was doing all right.
Yeah, well, so was Marilyn Monroe's.
(CAMERA CLICKING) She was a very nice lady.
I never would have thought.
We noticed she didn't have a bed in her apartment.
She lives somewhere else.
Rented this place about two years ago to use for an office.
Said she couldn't get any work done at home.
Do you know that address? I can get it for you.
Do you know if she had any visitors today? Nobody I saw.
She pretty much kept to herself.
Except when her babysitter brought her kids to visit.
Kids? How old? Little, like one, three.
This is really gonna be rough on her husband, huh? She wasn't wearing awedding ring, are you sure she was married? Oh, yeah.
Landlord made him co-sign the lease.
I I don't understand.
It doesn't make sense.
Mr.
Faulkner, was your wife experiencing any problems, any personal setbacks? No, Erin was happy.
Nothin' stressed her out, even when things weren't goin' her way.
Like her acting career? Look, she knew she was never gonna be Julia Roberts.
She decided she wanted to write and direct, and that's why she took that office.
To focus on that.
How about you, any problems on your end? No, not really.
What do you do? I co-own a framing shop in Chelsea.
We do a lot of work for the galleries.
Forgive me, but I need to ask about your marriage.
I'm telling you, everything was fine between us, I don't know how to make you understand this, but Erin would have never done this to herself.
Lemme show you somethin'.
I took this last week in Central Park.
That's Emily and Theo.
Does this look like a woman who wanted to die? RODGERS: This was a healthy, active woman.
No overt physical problems or latent pathologies.
No evidence of sexual assault.
T ox screen'? (SCOFFS) Clean as yours, Detective.
So the cause of death was neck compression from the hanging? Technically, yes.
But? The noose is what killed her.
But I found a small cranial fracture that was impossible to detect at the crime scene.
And that is a subdural hematoma.
Hell of a lot bigger than you'd see in a hanging victim.
So somebody hit her in the head first? She was unconscious before she was hanged.
What if she had received medical attention after she was hit? She'd have been good as new after a few days in the hospital.
This was a murder staged as a suicide.
Any suspects? Well, the husband says everything was copasetic.
But she wasn't wearing awedding ring, and neither was he.
Well, not everybody does.
Especially if they're screwing around.
You're not buyin' the one big happy family? No one is as happy as her husband makes them out to be.
But he was the one that kept insisting she wouldn't kill herself.
Well, start looking at their insurance policies and financials.
Jonas Faulkner had a charge on his credit card to this hotel about two months ago in the amount of $3900.
He booked a room here for 13 nights.
ED: Did he check in with luggage? Mr.
Faulkner prepaid for the room, but he wasn't the guest.
The woman who was with him was the one staying here.
Uh, what did she look like? Mmm, mid-20s, 5'10", long, blonde hair.
Do you have her name? I think so.
She charged a few incidentals to her own credit card.
Diana Rawlings.
Uh, her billing address is Saratoga Springs.
And you said she was with him? You know, they were together.
Whenever I was at work, he was, like, back and forth to her room.
DIANA: I teach third grade here.
Uh, it was a Winter break.
I went to the City for the holidays, at the Downtown Grand.
Alone? That's right.
ED: Do you know someone named Jonas Faulkner? He's my half-brother.
Is this about Erin? Uh, that's right.
Wait, you must have Oh, my brother treated me to that room for Christmas so I could spend time in New York with Theo and Emily.
Please excuse us for not knowing.
We're very sorry about your sister-in-law.
But Jonas and Erin, they were okay? Definitely.
I would have known if there was a problem.
Can you think of any reason somebody would want to hurt Erin? Erin wrote and directed a short film about sexual repression of women in the Muslim world.
It's called Fire Under the Veil.
She just found out that it got accepted into the NoHo Film Festival.
I can understand why some people might find that subject matter offensive.
Erin told me there were some powerful images in the film.
I know she downplayed it to Jonas.
ED: Why would she do that? I think she was afraid that he'd make her pull it from the Festival.
That he'd be scared for her and the kids.
Can we see this film? Ask her producers, Woodmore Films.
Erin became obsessed about the girls in Saudi Arabia who were beaten back into a burning school because they weren't wearing proper Islamic dress.
She wrote an amazing script, and we decided to produce her film.
The movie was about the fire? Only tangentially.
It's fictional.
Much more a meditation than a narrative.
But it's dedicated to the girls who were killed.
You start questioning people's religious beliefs, and somebody's bound to get offended.
That's what drew me to the project.
The fact that some scenes are provocative, disturbing.
Give us a "for instance.
" A young Muslim woman masturbating while a mullah sings from the Koran in the voiceover.
Wow.
People have seen this? Not yet, but they will when the film premieres at the Festival in the Spring.
Who has seen it? Me and my partner, John, Erin's film Editor, Marcy Stanton, and the guys at the video house working on Post-Production.
Mike and Ali.
We've kept a tight lid on it for obvious reasons.
And who are Mike and Ali? The Sound Mixers over there.
I worked on Fire Under the Veil.
Why is that police business? I guess you don't read the news.
The filmmaker was found dead yesterday.
What does that have to do with me? You didn't have a problem with some of the things in her movie? What kind of problem? Well, we heard there were some offensive images we could see how that might upset you.
Look, they pay me to mix audio, I'm not a movie critic.
But you had to watch that garbage.
Even worse, you contributed to putting her message out there.
I went to college to be a sound engineer, okay? I came to this country to work on films! That insult your religion? Look, you have no right to question me about my religious beliefs! Okay? That's in your Bill of Rights! ED: Okay, calm down! Where were you yesterday afternoon, Mr.
Mohammed? Look, why must I be the only person in this facility to answer these questions? Because I'm the only Muslim here? No, because you're one of the few people that have actually seen the film.
We sent three copies of this movie to the Film Festival! Maybe they put it all over the Internet! When a film is submitted for consideration, there are only two people who see it.
Me and my Assistant Programmer.
Well, what about all these people? They're volunteers.
They don't see the films until they play at the Festival.
Well, what if one of them becomes curious about a submission? Our volunteers aren't the problem.
It's the distributors who buy at the Festival.
They'd like nothing more than to get a sneak peek at what we're programming.
So we keep one copy of each film, and it's kept under lock and key.
Well, the Post-Production house we just came from, said they sent over three copies of Fire Under the Veil.
They did.
But every master they delivered had so many digital hits and sound synch problems, it was unscreenable.
I called Erin Garret last week to tell her the people she was using over there must be incompetent.
Can we borrow one of these masters? Sure.
The Department didn't have the right equipment to analyze the H.
D.
digitape that you gave me, so I had to buy editing software and borrow a deck from a friend who does digital duplication for a Visual Effects Supervisor.
Beck, is this explanation gonna be longer than the movie? (LAUGHING) No, I'm sorry, this is cool.
Uh, basically, the woman at the Film Festival was right.
This thing is unwatchable.
ED: How'd it happen? Uh, the video pixilation was caused by activating one of the filtering enhancements in the ProTools editing suite.
And the audio problems were created when the Five-One mix was rendered with a customized plug-in to defeat the Dolby E-coding.
Oh, I I just think that the Sound Engineers screwed up the movie.
I told you, I don't care about her ignorant movie! Really? Look, she probably pixilated the master herself.
That film was made by an amateur.
Oh, because I thought you weren't a movie critic, Ali.
I said that I don't makejudgments about the projects I work on.
Even when they depict a woman pleasuring herself while a holy man reads from the Koran? Look, can you give me some space? You're invading my space.
Let's talk about where you were that morning.
Which you didn't answer the first time we talked to you.
Your boss says you came to work late.
I couldn't start work until the video editors laid off the project I was assigned to! So I was home all morning.
Alone? Yes! Scan my MetroCard if you don't believe me! I I got on the G Train in Astoria a little before 2:00.
Why are you touching me? ED: Hey, hey! Just lookin' for your MetroCard.
(DOOR OPENING) Can I see you for a second? Sit down.
You need to see this before you make our Muslim friend any more uncomfortable.
The lab found wall plaster particles on Erin's sweater and that nylon strap used in the hanging.
There was construction goin' on in that building.
Start looking in that direction.
I really hope I didn't cross any lines in there.
Oh, listen, I'm sure Mr.
Mohammed is used to being a scapegoat by now.
Erin said, with all the banging upstairs, she couldn't get any work done.
When did this start? Uh, a couple of weeks ago when they started workin' on the apartment directly above her.
Does this have something to do with her getting killed? It's possible.
But my sister said you were asking about Erin's movie.
Yeah, we're looking at all the angles.
The only reason Erin rented that space was so she could have a quiet place to write.
Do you know if she talked to anyone on the construction crew about the noise? I know she called the company that was doing the work.
The work we're doin' in Eight-C is a total gut renovation.
We're rippin' out walls, flooring, fixtures.
There's no way to do that without makin' a racket.
Any complaints from the building residents? We try to do all the loud stuff when people are at work.
Well, some people work at home.
It's the nature of the beast.
Did any of the guys on your crew talk to Erin Garrett about the noise? We communicate with the Super, he's supposed to deal with his tenants.
Did any of the tenants talk to you, Mr.
Easton? Not that I remember.
Did we get any noise complaints on 85, Leonard? Nobody called here.
What can I tell ya? Is there any reason that any of your crew members would have needed access to the apartment below? You think one of my guys did this? It's a simple question.
Not on this job.
Look, if anything else comes to mind, give us a call, all right? Thank you.
What are we doing with Ali Mohammed? Well, he's got a hell of a motive.
ED: There's no physical evidence.
Well, we'll drop the murder and charge him with destruction of property.
What about the construction angle? Erin Garrett had issues with the noise they were makin', but the head of the company said she never complained.
The husband's telling us one thing, this Easton guy is telling us something else.
So we're goin' over to talk to the construction crew.
Good.
Yeah, this is the third apartment we've done in this building, and I haven't heard a peep from nobody.
What about the guys in your crew? Ah, they would've told me if somebody complained.
All right, we're gonna need the names and the addresses of everybody that worked with you on Tuesday.
(SIGHING) I can give you the names, but the addresses, you're gonna have to get from Carl.
All right.
Let me see, there's, uh, there's Mike Stanopolous and Ronnie Boatwright.
That's it? I just saw three or four dudes go upstairs! Oh, the Spanish guys? I just know them by their first names.
But the office would have their information? Uh, no, I doubt it.
These are guys we just pick up from job-to-job.
Well, so how do you communicate with them? How do they get paid? Look, I'm not lookin' for any trouble behind this.
The trouble is gonna start when you stop answering questions.
(SIGHING) Okay, I speak some Italian, so they get the gist and we pay them cash on Friday afternoon.
Thafsit How's your Spanish? It's okay, but I'm hoping somebody's bilingual.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Hello? Hello? We must have spooked 'em when we came in downstairs.
Maybe they left through the service entrance.
Should we be calling Immigration or something? And say what? You know what, maybe somebody else on Erin's floor had problems with the noise.
Mmm-hmm.
Uh, the racket's mostly on Erin's side of the hall.
If it gets too loud, I just go to the med school library to study.
Were you here on Tuesday morning? Until about 10:00.
And was the construction work particularly loud that day? Not really.
But that was the day they cut off the water.
What do you mean? Um, Erin knocked on my door to ask if it was just her apartment.
She and I decided to go downstairs, find out what was going on.
When we got to the basement, one of the workers was doing something to the plumbing.
We asked him how long the water would be off.
Was it a cordial conversation? Sure, he was just a kid.
He said he'd check with his boss and then knock on Erin's door to let her know when the water was coming back.
What'd this kid look like? Um, 18, 19.
Thick, wavy hair, about my height, Latino.
You think these guys are coming back? They don't come to work, they don't get paid.
Duck out the back every time you see a cop walk by? What away to live.
I guess some people have no choice.
I guess.
I just hope we're not makin' the same mistake twice.
Here we go.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) I I speak English.
Okay.
We're lookin' for a dude that was working with you on Tuesday.
Who? He's about this tall, he was working in the basement on the plumbing.
Oh, we don't know him.
He only came one day.
This your whole crew? Yeah.
ED: Whose bag is that? I'll take the whole crew to Federal Plaza if you don't tell me whose bag that is.
That's Julio's bag.
ED: ls Julio the one that was working in the basement on Tuesday? Yes.
Ed.
Same as in the hanging.
Do you know where Julio is? (MAN SPEAKING SPANISH) (CONTINUES SPEAKING SPANISH) (ALL CHATTERING) Against the wall, now! Why did you run, Julio? CASSADY: Twice.
You know.
No, I don't know.
Tell us.
Sit down.
I have no papers.
CASSADY: We work for the City, not Immigration.
Police is police.
(SIGHING) Do you have any family here? No.
In Colombia.
Right.
And you're working hard so you can send money back to your family? Yes, to my mother.
Okay.
That woman on the seventh floor? She's a mother.
What woman? The one who complained about the water.
The one whose apartment you went to that morning! Look, here's the problem.
Her family wants to give her a Christian burial, but they can't.
Why? Because she was hanged.
And they believe it was a suicide.
That's a sin.
Now we think you hung her.
No.
We have the strap she was hanged with, it was the same as the one we found in your van.
I didn't do this to her.
Julio We can't help you if you lie.
Now that woman that was with her in the basement? She said she saw you coming out of that apartment! Yes, I was in her apartment, but I didn't hang this lady! Okay, good.
Just tell us what happened.
(BREATHING HEAVILY) I went to tell her that there would be no more water soon.
She gets very angry.
And she start saying things to me! What kind of things? She said that if she didn't get water, she was to call the police.
I ask her, "Please, don't!" Did you ever touch her? To try to stop her to use the telephone.
And she fight back against me! And she fell down and hit her head.
I tried to help her! But she was not moving! You thought she was dead.
Yes.
Is that when you got the idea to string her up with that nylon strap, put that chair next to her.
No, I just left her there.
Julio, you have to tell us everything so that her family can have some peace.
No, please! Don't say that.
Don't make me say that.
"Docket number 07115 âPeople v.
Julio Rodriguez, "murder in the second degree, "burglary in the second degree.
" Plea, Ms.
Shannon? Not guilty.
JUDGE: People? The defendant assaulted the victim and staged it as a suicide.
This is a highly deceptive individual who resides here illegally.
Let's cut to the chase.
He couldn't make $500.
And I see there's an Immigration hold on Mr.
Rodriguez.
He's remanded.
I'd like to request a suicide watch.
Is that a joke, Ms.
Shannon? My client is quite inconsolable.
I don't want to take any chances.
So order it.
(GAVEL POUNDS) JACK: Murder two, Is that the best you can do? Not a day lower.
I'm sorry about this! I just want to go back to Colombia.
And you will, after you serve 20 years in the State Correctional Facility.
Doesn't his remorse count for something? Yes.
We're not asking for consec time.
It's still too much time, Mr.
McCoy! You're forcing me to take this to trial.
He'll do twice as much time.
You have no defense.
It just so happens that I've come up with one.
And it ain't half bad.
They're asserting duress as an affirmative defense.
The motion claims that Julio is the sole support to his mother and five younger siblings in Colombia.
How is that duress? Well, the money that he sends them from his job keeps them alive.
Had Erin Garrett's call to the police led to his deportation, they would starve.
The statute that lays out the duress defense requires coercion by means of unlawful force, like holding a gun to somebody's head.
They're grasping at straws.
I'm not so sure.
You think there's ajudge on the bench who'd allow this in? Well, most people who live and work here illegally, do it out of desperation.
Their wages are a matter of survival for their impoverished families back home.
And my heart goes out to them.
But it doesn't come close to establishing an affirmative defense! All I'm saying is that I understand the pressure this kid was under.
My father supported us for 10 years by changing bedpans at a nursing home, because his Spanish medical license didn't get reciprocity here.
Rodriguez knowingly violated the law by illegally entering to start with.
And you wouldn't do the same for your starving family? Just about everybody agrees that our immigration policy is flawed, but I'm not going to let this defendant use a cockamamie defense to climb on a soapbox.
We'll move to preclude.
JULIO: When I was 14, my father was killed by the Cocaineros in our village.
Me and one of my brothers had to leave our school to work in the coca fields.
SHANNON: Did you make enough money to support your family? Yes.
But then the government came with airplanes and put a spray on the plants.
The plants died, and there was no more work.
So what did you do? I was afraid to go back home.
But a man told me that I could come to New York, that there were many jobs there, if I could work hard.
Let me call your attention to February 7th.
Did you have a confrontation with Erin Garrett in a building you worked in? I didn't want to fight with this lady.
But she was very angry.
She said I cannot turn off her water.
She said she go to call the police.
How did you feel when she said that? I thought about my brothers and sisters And my mother.
And what would happen to them if we had no money.
And you know, the lady go to pick up the telephone So I must stop her.
Thank you.
And if you did stop her, what made you think she'd change her mind? I don't know Maybe then I could talk to her.
So how did you stop her? I I grabbed her.
Then she was fighting back against me.
I tried to hold her and she went back and hit her head.
Then what, Mr.
Rodriguez? I went to see if she was still alive.
But she was not moving.
That's when you got the idea to go down to your truck and get the nylon strap? No, sir, I just go.
So you still deny you hanged Erin Garrett from a sprinkler pipe and staged it as a suicide? I did not do this! Did you ever try to help this woman? No.
Because there was a man on the steps.
A man? Where? He was going on floor 7.
Are you saying you saw a man on Erin Garrett's floor? Yes.
But I thought maybe he was from the police, so I go back to my work.
And what did this man look like? I could only see his back.
And why didn't you tell the detectives about this when they arrested you? Because I was scared To say that the police were here.
And I did not tell them what I did.
I don't like surprises, Lieutenant! And I have better things to do than to hold your hand through a defendant's hearing testimony! Why didn't you get this out of Rodriguez during his interrogation? Did you ever consider he's lying to wiggle out of the murder charge? He's denied the hanging from the beginning.
Look, it's one thing to say you shoved someone.
It's a big leap to say you strung 'em up! Or your people didn't push Rodriguez hard enough.
So what? We should have broken out the water-board? After all, Rodriguez is here illegally! It was a sloppy interrogation! My people worked Rodriguez appropriately! If you don't like it, call the Chief of D's.
Anything else? CSU never worked up the stairwell in Erin Garrett's building.
They need to now.
And you should talk to Julio's boss.
If everything's riding on this kid's credibility, I'd like to know exactly who we're dealing with! Julio has worked for me for about two years.
On and off.
Only positive thing I can say about him is that he shows up for work when he's supposed to.
That's not much of a recommendation.
Why on and off, Mr.
Easton? Look, I don't wanna prejudice the kid, but tools kept going missing wherever Julio was working.
If you suspected him of stealing, why keep him on? Because I couldn't prove it was him.
Plus he's got two cousins that have been with me for years.
They begged me to keep him on.
They told me they were gonna have a talk with him and if anything else disappeared, they'd pay me back.
Did Julio ever have a confrontation with anyone at work before? Not that I know of.
But it wouldn't surprise me.
I always thought that kid had a short fuse.
Why? It's nothing specific, it's just the way he carries himself.
A lot of these Spanish kids are prone to that kind of thing.
I know it's a stereotype, but hey, stereotypes come from somewhere, right? Well, according to Easton, Julio's a hot-blooded Latino with a penchant for pilfering.
Racism aside, he does admit going after Erin Garrett.
Even so, it doesn't comport with what I saw in the courtroom.
Looks can be deceiving.
Lieutenant wanted me to run these over to you.
There were fingerprint hits in Erin's stairwell that can't be excluded.
Fingerprints that could have been made yesterday or a year ago.
That's true.
But this is someone who was a person of interest before we honed in on Rodriguez.
Ali Mohammed.
He's a sound engineer.
He tried to sabotage Erin's movie.
He denied he was ever in her building.
Well, now we know that was a lie.
Now he has motive and opportunity.
It's possible we're prosecuting the wrong guy.
Get up.
What is it now? I I told them I'll pay for this woman's two digitapes.
You're gonna pay for more than that.
You're under arrest for the murder of Erin Garrett.
You have the right to remain silent.
If you forego that right, anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney.
Erin Garrett had a website for her film.
Iwent through the site's e-mail.
This movie defames the Prophet and insults Muslims all over the world.
It came from Ali Mohammed's workstation.
He also had several hits on fundamentalist websites.
But Julio Rodriguez admits assaulting the victim.
But not to the murder.
I think Ali came up the stairwell, found her lying on the ground, took some lashing left behind by the construction crew.
Because he was offended by the movie? Salman Rushdie was targeted by fundamentalists because he wrote a novel.
Theo van Gogh was murdered by a fanatic because he made a blasphemous film.
This isn't about some lingering empathy for Rodriguez? Are you suggesting my background is affecting myjudgment? I'm suggesting that we look at the facts, not hunches or headlines.
The construction foreman saw Ali in Erin's building that morning.
He picked his photo out of an array.
Well, that's something.
He strung her up for retribution.
Or to try and kill her movie.
We've got viable cases against both of them.
Which, I might point out, are mutually exclusive situations.
Both these men can't be guilty.
Motions to dismiss.
One for each defendant.
SHANNON: The People initially charged my client with this murder.
After realizing their case was falling apart, they arrested somebody else! It's time to dismiss this case against Mr.
Rodriguez.
Judge, it's my client's case that should be dismissed.
If Mr.
McCoy intends to prove that Rodriguez was the one who hanged the victim, what is Ali Mohammed doing here? Then what was he doing in her building that day, Mr.
Greer? He went to persuade Ms.
Garrett to withdraw her movie from the Festival.
When he got to her door, he couldn't go through with it, so he left.
And if that was true, why didn't he just tell the police that? Are you alleging these men acted in concert, Mr.
McCoy? We have no proof of that.
Then how do you justify both of these prosecutions? There's no legal authority I'm aware of that says I can't pursue inconsistent theories.
Then I'm the authority.
I'm giving you 48 hours to convene a Grand Jury.
It's time to pick a horse.
You should be talkin' to Rodriguez! We believe his story, not Mr.
Mohammed's.
But I'm here with a gift.
Man one, nine years.
My client didn't kill anyone.
Then we'll try the case.
That was easy.
No.
No trial.
So what you were telling me about this, Ali, that wasn't true? It was true.
I hated this woman, but I didn't hang her.
Then why plead guilty, Mr.
Mohammed? What chance do I have in an American court? This woman made a movie which was blasphemy to my faith.
And your jury will convict me because of my religious beliefs! I'm not gonna let that happen to you.
Maybe they'll say I'm aterrorist and send me to Guantanamo.
No.
Let me stay in prison for nine years and then I will go home.
GREER: You sure you wanna do this? Yes.
Jack? I can't accept his plea! He denies his guilt! I don't understand this country! (sum-nus) Did we just go from two defendants to zero? As far as I'm concerned, that was an interesting piece of political theater.
Well, unless Ali is right about American juries, we need to beef up our case against him.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR) MARK: Carl had to run over to Brooklyn.
Hmm, that's too bad.
I'm Mark, his office manager.
Something I can help you with? Yeah, uh, I had some questions about something we found at the crime scene.
It's nylon lashing, like this.
What's it used for? All-purpose rigging.
If we have to secure some lumber, sheetrock, haul a couple ladders up some stairs.
So you just would Keep it in your truck, right? Oh, no, they'd be lyin' around, all over the job.
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Do you know when Mr.
Easton will be back in? Tough to say.
He's not really in the office too much.
He goes from job to job, always trying to keep an eye on everything.
Was he at the Tribeca worksite the day that woman was hanged? I can find out.
Yeah.
Looks like he was there most of the morning.
Thank you.
Jackllspoke with the Office Manager and the foreman who were at 85, Leonard, and I think we can prove that Ali had access to nylon lashing left in the building's stairwell by Easton's crew.
Something bothering you? It's just that any given time, Easton has five or six crews on jobs working all over the City.
So? Well, he always puts a couple union guys on everyjob to make him look good, but most of his workers are illegals.
I ran some of the numbers, and his practice of using undocumented labor nets him at least a million dollars ayear.
He'd have a lot to lose if somebody were to complain.
We're way past the exploited immigrant angle, Connie.
Yeah, but Easton was at the construction site on the morning of the murder.
Are you saying Easton hanged Erin Garrett? I'm saying that I used to think this was about an immigrant chasing the dollar, but maybe it's just good old-fashioned American greed.
Maybe Julio Rodriguez knows more than he's telling.
Connie said my client was off the hook on the murder charge.
That can change.
Why did you never tell anyone that Carl Easton was at the crime scene? You were honest about everything else, why not that? I didn't see Mr.
Easton there.
I don't believe you.
I'm reinstating the murder charge.
SHANNON: What do you think this is? A game show where you can change your mind every two minutes? Your client is the one who's running a game here.
I can't say anything against Mr.
Easton.
I wouldn't worry about your job, Mr.
Rodriguez, you'll never work there again, I promise you.
Or is this about your two cousins who work for Easton? Is that why you're protecting him? No.
You can put the charge on me.
It's okay.
It's not okay with me! But this is all my fault.
I need some time to talk to my client.
This meeting is over.
Tell me you are not serious about reinstating against Rodriguez.
He puts himself in the apartment, he admits to fighting with the victim.
So use the assault charge as leverage, not a homicide.
You know he didn't commit.
Assault gets us nowhere.
I need the biggest stick I can get my hands on.
Okay.
Let's target Rodriguez.
I know you didn't just do a 180.
Judge Delahunt ordered us to convene a Grand Jury.
You call Easton as your first witness, let's see how deep he'll put himself into it.
Now that's pushing the envelope.
(SCOFFS) What do we have to lose? CARL: I knew Rodriguez might be a problem right after I hired him.
In what way, Mr.
Easton? You could tell the kid was a hothead.
And then I found out he had problems with women.
What kind of problems? Well, I got these two gals that do lighting consultations for me.
Julio was rude to them.
He had this macho attitude, you know? And yet you kept him on one of your crews? After what happened over there, I'm I'm sorry I did.
Now you also were at Erin Garrett's building on the morning of the murder, weren't you? I don't remember.
VVeH,thetravellog that your Office Manager keeps, indicates that you were there.
That's not always accurate.
Were you ever on the seventh floor that day? Our job was on the eight floor.
Did you have keys to the construction van parked outside the building? What does this have to do with Julio? In fairness to the accused, I'd like the Grand Jury to know who had access to the nylon lashing that the police found in your van.
Anybody on my crew.
Including you? (SCOFFS) You know, I'm not gonna answer any more questions without a lawyer.
I couldn't even pin him down to being in the building.
So we'll get him in a room with his lawyer and turn up the heat.
They know we have nothing but speculation.
We need Rodriguez.
It's not gonna happen.
He's willing to take the fall to save his cousins.
Call Immigration.
Let's propose a raid on the company.
We can put Easton Construction out of business.
But what about the people who depend on that work for their livelihood? The only way I can get Rodriguez to cooperate is to take his cousins out of play.
So we're gonna use these men and their families as pawns? Easton is the big picture, Connie.
In more ways than one.
Cure the disease by killing the patient.
You can't have it both ways.
Easton killed Erin Garrett.
If he goes down, there's bound to be collateral damage.
All right.
You might be right, but I'm not gonna be the one to make that phone call.
SHANNON: I won't to allow Julio to plead to murder.
If that's what he wants, the court will have to relieve me and appoint another lawyer.
I don't think that will be necessary.
Yesterday afternoon, all Easton's construction sites were raided.
Eduardo and Ramon Rodriguez were taken into federal custody.
They're awaiting their deportation hearings.
Why do you do this to them? They didn't do nothing! I'm sorry, Mr.
Rodriguez, it's the only way I can getjustice for Erin Garrett! What do you want from him? The full story this time.
What about my family? Julio Julio.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) (SPEAKING SPANISH) (SPEAKING SPANISH) After I pushed the lady, I got very worried.
So I found Mr.
Easton.
I told him what I did.
He told me to take him up there to see.
So we went there.
What happened? I showed him the lady.
She was still on the floor.
He told me to go back to my work.
But he stayed in her apartment.
Was that the last time you saw him? No.
Later he told me to come down to the street.
We sat together in the van.
He was very angry.
He told me I did a very bad thing, but he took care of my problem.
And he told me if I ever say this to anybody, he will fire my cousins.
And every Latino in his company.
Calling my client to testify without immunity was a cheap trick.
How'd I know he'd become a suspect? Please.
We won't be using any of his testimony against him.
Against me? That's right, Mr.
Easton.
Julio Rodriguez is testifying this afternoon that he left you alone with Erin Garrett in her studio when she was still alive.
And I'll be asking the Grand Jury to indict you for murder.
I don't believe this.
You might get an indictment.
You'll never get a conviction.
Do you wanna roll the dice, Mr.
Easton? Why would I kill her? To protect your profit center in illegal workers.
Over half of your employees are underpaid, undocumented aliens.
Look, maybe I cut a few corners.
But it's still my word against the word of this This illegal Spanish kid! And who do you think the jury's gonna believe? A kid who busts his ass 60 hours a week to send $75 to his mother? Or a man who flouts the law and parlays his desperation into a small fortune? If you're convicted of staging Erin Garrett's suicide, I promise you'll do 40-to-life.
I'm offering you 15.
I have a family.
A wife and kids! So did Erin Garrett.
If you're found guilty after trial, we'll also institute forfeiture proceedings against your property as fruits of criminal activity.
Your co-op in Manhattan, your house in Westhampton Can we have a moment? They can do that? (MEN CHATTERING) Ten years.
No property forfeiture.
The deal is 15-to-life! If I didn't hire these people, what else were they gonna do? How else were they gonnasuppofl their families? That might be a defense in a labor violation, not a murder! Fifteen years, or atrial, Mr.
Easton.
(sum-nus) Ali had his card pulled for tampering with Erin's movie.
He's on his way to Pakistan.
And Julio to Colombia.
And Easton Construction filed with the Attorney General's office for dissolution.
You're a one-man border patrol, Jack.
You give me way too much credit.
I don't think so.
You cleaned house.
Not really.
You're forgetting Erin Garrett had a Jamaican nanny.
These are their stories.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) Please tell me it's boxers.
(sums) Which way does the pointy one move? Check.
Drop 'em, dude.
I resign.
Give it up Or you can get these on your way home.
Hey, quit screwing around, Amanda.
Come on.
Ooh! Ooh! Amanda, seriously, look.
About time.
Any idea what it's like being stuck in here with a swinger? You're supposed to be the professional.
You got a time of death? or take an hour.
Now do your thing, please, so I can get her down.
Name's Erin Garrett.
She's the actress in some of these posters.
She used some kind of nylon lashing.
Okay, you can take her down.
Any forced entry? The door was closed, but unlocked.
No sign of a struggle here.
This play like a straight up suicide to you? I don't know.
She leave a note? Nope.
Well, looks like her acting career was doing all right.
Yeah, well, so was Marilyn Monroe's.
(CAMERA CLICKING) She was a very nice lady.
I never would have thought.
We noticed she didn't have a bed in her apartment.
She lives somewhere else.
Rented this place about two years ago to use for an office.
Said she couldn't get any work done at home.
Do you know that address? I can get it for you.
Do you know if she had any visitors today? Nobody I saw.
She pretty much kept to herself.
Except when her babysitter brought her kids to visit.
Kids? How old? Little, like one, three.
This is really gonna be rough on her husband, huh? She wasn't wearing awedding ring, are you sure she was married? Oh, yeah.
Landlord made him co-sign the lease.
I I don't understand.
It doesn't make sense.
Mr.
Faulkner, was your wife experiencing any problems, any personal setbacks? No, Erin was happy.
Nothin' stressed her out, even when things weren't goin' her way.
Like her acting career? Look, she knew she was never gonna be Julia Roberts.
She decided she wanted to write and direct, and that's why she took that office.
To focus on that.
How about you, any problems on your end? No, not really.
What do you do? I co-own a framing shop in Chelsea.
We do a lot of work for the galleries.
Forgive me, but I need to ask about your marriage.
I'm telling you, everything was fine between us, I don't know how to make you understand this, but Erin would have never done this to herself.
Lemme show you somethin'.
I took this last week in Central Park.
That's Emily and Theo.
Does this look like a woman who wanted to die? RODGERS: This was a healthy, active woman.
No overt physical problems or latent pathologies.
No evidence of sexual assault.
T ox screen'? (SCOFFS) Clean as yours, Detective.
So the cause of death was neck compression from the hanging? Technically, yes.
But? The noose is what killed her.
But I found a small cranial fracture that was impossible to detect at the crime scene.
And that is a subdural hematoma.
Hell of a lot bigger than you'd see in a hanging victim.
So somebody hit her in the head first? She was unconscious before she was hanged.
What if she had received medical attention after she was hit? She'd have been good as new after a few days in the hospital.
This was a murder staged as a suicide.
Any suspects? Well, the husband says everything was copasetic.
But she wasn't wearing awedding ring, and neither was he.
Well, not everybody does.
Especially if they're screwing around.
You're not buyin' the one big happy family? No one is as happy as her husband makes them out to be.
But he was the one that kept insisting she wouldn't kill herself.
Well, start looking at their insurance policies and financials.
Jonas Faulkner had a charge on his credit card to this hotel about two months ago in the amount of $3900.
He booked a room here for 13 nights.
ED: Did he check in with luggage? Mr.
Faulkner prepaid for the room, but he wasn't the guest.
The woman who was with him was the one staying here.
Uh, what did she look like? Mmm, mid-20s, 5'10", long, blonde hair.
Do you have her name? I think so.
She charged a few incidentals to her own credit card.
Diana Rawlings.
Uh, her billing address is Saratoga Springs.
And you said she was with him? You know, they were together.
Whenever I was at work, he was, like, back and forth to her room.
DIANA: I teach third grade here.
Uh, it was a Winter break.
I went to the City for the holidays, at the Downtown Grand.
Alone? That's right.
ED: Do you know someone named Jonas Faulkner? He's my half-brother.
Is this about Erin? Uh, that's right.
Wait, you must have Oh, my brother treated me to that room for Christmas so I could spend time in New York with Theo and Emily.
Please excuse us for not knowing.
We're very sorry about your sister-in-law.
But Jonas and Erin, they were okay? Definitely.
I would have known if there was a problem.
Can you think of any reason somebody would want to hurt Erin? Erin wrote and directed a short film about sexual repression of women in the Muslim world.
It's called Fire Under the Veil.
She just found out that it got accepted into the NoHo Film Festival.
I can understand why some people might find that subject matter offensive.
Erin told me there were some powerful images in the film.
I know she downplayed it to Jonas.
ED: Why would she do that? I think she was afraid that he'd make her pull it from the Festival.
That he'd be scared for her and the kids.
Can we see this film? Ask her producers, Woodmore Films.
Erin became obsessed about the girls in Saudi Arabia who were beaten back into a burning school because they weren't wearing proper Islamic dress.
She wrote an amazing script, and we decided to produce her film.
The movie was about the fire? Only tangentially.
It's fictional.
Much more a meditation than a narrative.
But it's dedicated to the girls who were killed.
You start questioning people's religious beliefs, and somebody's bound to get offended.
That's what drew me to the project.
The fact that some scenes are provocative, disturbing.
Give us a "for instance.
" A young Muslim woman masturbating while a mullah sings from the Koran in the voiceover.
Wow.
People have seen this? Not yet, but they will when the film premieres at the Festival in the Spring.
Who has seen it? Me and my partner, John, Erin's film Editor, Marcy Stanton, and the guys at the video house working on Post-Production.
Mike and Ali.
We've kept a tight lid on it for obvious reasons.
And who are Mike and Ali? The Sound Mixers over there.
I worked on Fire Under the Veil.
Why is that police business? I guess you don't read the news.
The filmmaker was found dead yesterday.
What does that have to do with me? You didn't have a problem with some of the things in her movie? What kind of problem? Well, we heard there were some offensive images we could see how that might upset you.
Look, they pay me to mix audio, I'm not a movie critic.
But you had to watch that garbage.
Even worse, you contributed to putting her message out there.
I went to college to be a sound engineer, okay? I came to this country to work on films! That insult your religion? Look, you have no right to question me about my religious beliefs! Okay? That's in your Bill of Rights! ED: Okay, calm down! Where were you yesterday afternoon, Mr.
Mohammed? Look, why must I be the only person in this facility to answer these questions? Because I'm the only Muslim here? No, because you're one of the few people that have actually seen the film.
We sent three copies of this movie to the Film Festival! Maybe they put it all over the Internet! When a film is submitted for consideration, there are only two people who see it.
Me and my Assistant Programmer.
Well, what about all these people? They're volunteers.
They don't see the films until they play at the Festival.
Well, what if one of them becomes curious about a submission? Our volunteers aren't the problem.
It's the distributors who buy at the Festival.
They'd like nothing more than to get a sneak peek at what we're programming.
So we keep one copy of each film, and it's kept under lock and key.
Well, the Post-Production house we just came from, said they sent over three copies of Fire Under the Veil.
They did.
But every master they delivered had so many digital hits and sound synch problems, it was unscreenable.
I called Erin Garret last week to tell her the people she was using over there must be incompetent.
Can we borrow one of these masters? Sure.
The Department didn't have the right equipment to analyze the H.
D.
digitape that you gave me, so I had to buy editing software and borrow a deck from a friend who does digital duplication for a Visual Effects Supervisor.
Beck, is this explanation gonna be longer than the movie? (LAUGHING) No, I'm sorry, this is cool.
Uh, basically, the woman at the Film Festival was right.
This thing is unwatchable.
ED: How'd it happen? Uh, the video pixilation was caused by activating one of the filtering enhancements in the ProTools editing suite.
And the audio problems were created when the Five-One mix was rendered with a customized plug-in to defeat the Dolby E-coding.
Oh, I I just think that the Sound Engineers screwed up the movie.
I told you, I don't care about her ignorant movie! Really? Look, she probably pixilated the master herself.
That film was made by an amateur.
Oh, because I thought you weren't a movie critic, Ali.
I said that I don't makejudgments about the projects I work on.
Even when they depict a woman pleasuring herself while a holy man reads from the Koran? Look, can you give me some space? You're invading my space.
Let's talk about where you were that morning.
Which you didn't answer the first time we talked to you.
Your boss says you came to work late.
I couldn't start work until the video editors laid off the project I was assigned to! So I was home all morning.
Alone? Yes! Scan my MetroCard if you don't believe me! I I got on the G Train in Astoria a little before 2:00.
Why are you touching me? ED: Hey, hey! Just lookin' for your MetroCard.
(DOOR OPENING) Can I see you for a second? Sit down.
You need to see this before you make our Muslim friend any more uncomfortable.
The lab found wall plaster particles on Erin's sweater and that nylon strap used in the hanging.
There was construction goin' on in that building.
Start looking in that direction.
I really hope I didn't cross any lines in there.
Oh, listen, I'm sure Mr.
Mohammed is used to being a scapegoat by now.
Erin said, with all the banging upstairs, she couldn't get any work done.
When did this start? Uh, a couple of weeks ago when they started workin' on the apartment directly above her.
Does this have something to do with her getting killed? It's possible.
But my sister said you were asking about Erin's movie.
Yeah, we're looking at all the angles.
The only reason Erin rented that space was so she could have a quiet place to write.
Do you know if she talked to anyone on the construction crew about the noise? I know she called the company that was doing the work.
The work we're doin' in Eight-C is a total gut renovation.
We're rippin' out walls, flooring, fixtures.
There's no way to do that without makin' a racket.
Any complaints from the building residents? We try to do all the loud stuff when people are at work.
Well, some people work at home.
It's the nature of the beast.
Did any of the guys on your crew talk to Erin Garrett about the noise? We communicate with the Super, he's supposed to deal with his tenants.
Did any of the tenants talk to you, Mr.
Easton? Not that I remember.
Did we get any noise complaints on 85, Leonard? Nobody called here.
What can I tell ya? Is there any reason that any of your crew members would have needed access to the apartment below? You think one of my guys did this? It's a simple question.
Not on this job.
Look, if anything else comes to mind, give us a call, all right? Thank you.
What are we doing with Ali Mohammed? Well, he's got a hell of a motive.
ED: There's no physical evidence.
Well, we'll drop the murder and charge him with destruction of property.
What about the construction angle? Erin Garrett had issues with the noise they were makin', but the head of the company said she never complained.
The husband's telling us one thing, this Easton guy is telling us something else.
So we're goin' over to talk to the construction crew.
Good.
Yeah, this is the third apartment we've done in this building, and I haven't heard a peep from nobody.
What about the guys in your crew? Ah, they would've told me if somebody complained.
All right, we're gonna need the names and the addresses of everybody that worked with you on Tuesday.
(SIGHING) I can give you the names, but the addresses, you're gonna have to get from Carl.
All right.
Let me see, there's, uh, there's Mike Stanopolous and Ronnie Boatwright.
That's it? I just saw three or four dudes go upstairs! Oh, the Spanish guys? I just know them by their first names.
But the office would have their information? Uh, no, I doubt it.
These are guys we just pick up from job-to-job.
Well, so how do you communicate with them? How do they get paid? Look, I'm not lookin' for any trouble behind this.
The trouble is gonna start when you stop answering questions.
(SIGHING) Okay, I speak some Italian, so they get the gist and we pay them cash on Friday afternoon.
Thafsit How's your Spanish? It's okay, but I'm hoping somebody's bilingual.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) Hello? Hello? We must have spooked 'em when we came in downstairs.
Maybe they left through the service entrance.
Should we be calling Immigration or something? And say what? You know what, maybe somebody else on Erin's floor had problems with the noise.
Mmm-hmm.
Uh, the racket's mostly on Erin's side of the hall.
If it gets too loud, I just go to the med school library to study.
Were you here on Tuesday morning? Until about 10:00.
And was the construction work particularly loud that day? Not really.
But that was the day they cut off the water.
What do you mean? Um, Erin knocked on my door to ask if it was just her apartment.
She and I decided to go downstairs, find out what was going on.
When we got to the basement, one of the workers was doing something to the plumbing.
We asked him how long the water would be off.
Was it a cordial conversation? Sure, he was just a kid.
He said he'd check with his boss and then knock on Erin's door to let her know when the water was coming back.
What'd this kid look like? Um, 18, 19.
Thick, wavy hair, about my height, Latino.
You think these guys are coming back? They don't come to work, they don't get paid.
Duck out the back every time you see a cop walk by? What away to live.
I guess some people have no choice.
I guess.
I just hope we're not makin' the same mistake twice.
Here we go.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) I I speak English.
Okay.
We're lookin' for a dude that was working with you on Tuesday.
Who? He's about this tall, he was working in the basement on the plumbing.
Oh, we don't know him.
He only came one day.
This your whole crew? Yeah.
ED: Whose bag is that? I'll take the whole crew to Federal Plaza if you don't tell me whose bag that is.
That's Julio's bag.
ED: ls Julio the one that was working in the basement on Tuesday? Yes.
Ed.
Same as in the hanging.
Do you know where Julio is? (MAN SPEAKING SPANISH) (CONTINUES SPEAKING SPANISH) (ALL CHATTERING) Against the wall, now! Why did you run, Julio? CASSADY: Twice.
You know.
No, I don't know.
Tell us.
Sit down.
I have no papers.
CASSADY: We work for the City, not Immigration.
Police is police.
(SIGHING) Do you have any family here? No.
In Colombia.
Right.
And you're working hard so you can send money back to your family? Yes, to my mother.
Okay.
That woman on the seventh floor? She's a mother.
What woman? The one who complained about the water.
The one whose apartment you went to that morning! Look, here's the problem.
Her family wants to give her a Christian burial, but they can't.
Why? Because she was hanged.
And they believe it was a suicide.
That's a sin.
Now we think you hung her.
No.
We have the strap she was hanged with, it was the same as the one we found in your van.
I didn't do this to her.
Julio We can't help you if you lie.
Now that woman that was with her in the basement? She said she saw you coming out of that apartment! Yes, I was in her apartment, but I didn't hang this lady! Okay, good.
Just tell us what happened.
(BREATHING HEAVILY) I went to tell her that there would be no more water soon.
She gets very angry.
And she start saying things to me! What kind of things? She said that if she didn't get water, she was to call the police.
I ask her, "Please, don't!" Did you ever touch her? To try to stop her to use the telephone.
And she fight back against me! And she fell down and hit her head.
I tried to help her! But she was not moving! You thought she was dead.
Yes.
Is that when you got the idea to string her up with that nylon strap, put that chair next to her.
No, I just left her there.
Julio, you have to tell us everything so that her family can have some peace.
No, please! Don't say that.
Don't make me say that.
"Docket number 07115 âPeople v.
Julio Rodriguez, "murder in the second degree, "burglary in the second degree.
" Plea, Ms.
Shannon? Not guilty.
JUDGE: People? The defendant assaulted the victim and staged it as a suicide.
This is a highly deceptive individual who resides here illegally.
Let's cut to the chase.
He couldn't make $500.
And I see there's an Immigration hold on Mr.
Rodriguez.
He's remanded.
I'd like to request a suicide watch.
Is that a joke, Ms.
Shannon? My client is quite inconsolable.
I don't want to take any chances.
So order it.
(GAVEL POUNDS) JACK: Murder two, Is that the best you can do? Not a day lower.
I'm sorry about this! I just want to go back to Colombia.
And you will, after you serve 20 years in the State Correctional Facility.
Doesn't his remorse count for something? Yes.
We're not asking for consec time.
It's still too much time, Mr.
McCoy! You're forcing me to take this to trial.
He'll do twice as much time.
You have no defense.
It just so happens that I've come up with one.
And it ain't half bad.
They're asserting duress as an affirmative defense.
The motion claims that Julio is the sole support to his mother and five younger siblings in Colombia.
How is that duress? Well, the money that he sends them from his job keeps them alive.
Had Erin Garrett's call to the police led to his deportation, they would starve.
The statute that lays out the duress defense requires coercion by means of unlawful force, like holding a gun to somebody's head.
They're grasping at straws.
I'm not so sure.
You think there's ajudge on the bench who'd allow this in? Well, most people who live and work here illegally, do it out of desperation.
Their wages are a matter of survival for their impoverished families back home.
And my heart goes out to them.
But it doesn't come close to establishing an affirmative defense! All I'm saying is that I understand the pressure this kid was under.
My father supported us for 10 years by changing bedpans at a nursing home, because his Spanish medical license didn't get reciprocity here.
Rodriguez knowingly violated the law by illegally entering to start with.
And you wouldn't do the same for your starving family? Just about everybody agrees that our immigration policy is flawed, but I'm not going to let this defendant use a cockamamie defense to climb on a soapbox.
We'll move to preclude.
JULIO: When I was 14, my father was killed by the Cocaineros in our village.
Me and one of my brothers had to leave our school to work in the coca fields.
SHANNON: Did you make enough money to support your family? Yes.
But then the government came with airplanes and put a spray on the plants.
The plants died, and there was no more work.
So what did you do? I was afraid to go back home.
But a man told me that I could come to New York, that there were many jobs there, if I could work hard.
Let me call your attention to February 7th.
Did you have a confrontation with Erin Garrett in a building you worked in? I didn't want to fight with this lady.
But she was very angry.
She said I cannot turn off her water.
She said she go to call the police.
How did you feel when she said that? I thought about my brothers and sisters And my mother.
And what would happen to them if we had no money.
And you know, the lady go to pick up the telephone So I must stop her.
Thank you.
And if you did stop her, what made you think she'd change her mind? I don't know Maybe then I could talk to her.
So how did you stop her? I I grabbed her.
Then she was fighting back against me.
I tried to hold her and she went back and hit her head.
Then what, Mr.
Rodriguez? I went to see if she was still alive.
But she was not moving.
That's when you got the idea to go down to your truck and get the nylon strap? No, sir, I just go.
So you still deny you hanged Erin Garrett from a sprinkler pipe and staged it as a suicide? I did not do this! Did you ever try to help this woman? No.
Because there was a man on the steps.
A man? Where? He was going on floor 7.
Are you saying you saw a man on Erin Garrett's floor? Yes.
But I thought maybe he was from the police, so I go back to my work.
And what did this man look like? I could only see his back.
And why didn't you tell the detectives about this when they arrested you? Because I was scared To say that the police were here.
And I did not tell them what I did.
I don't like surprises, Lieutenant! And I have better things to do than to hold your hand through a defendant's hearing testimony! Why didn't you get this out of Rodriguez during his interrogation? Did you ever consider he's lying to wiggle out of the murder charge? He's denied the hanging from the beginning.
Look, it's one thing to say you shoved someone.
It's a big leap to say you strung 'em up! Or your people didn't push Rodriguez hard enough.
So what? We should have broken out the water-board? After all, Rodriguez is here illegally! It was a sloppy interrogation! My people worked Rodriguez appropriately! If you don't like it, call the Chief of D's.
Anything else? CSU never worked up the stairwell in Erin Garrett's building.
They need to now.
And you should talk to Julio's boss.
If everything's riding on this kid's credibility, I'd like to know exactly who we're dealing with! Julio has worked for me for about two years.
On and off.
Only positive thing I can say about him is that he shows up for work when he's supposed to.
That's not much of a recommendation.
Why on and off, Mr.
Easton? Look, I don't wanna prejudice the kid, but tools kept going missing wherever Julio was working.
If you suspected him of stealing, why keep him on? Because I couldn't prove it was him.
Plus he's got two cousins that have been with me for years.
They begged me to keep him on.
They told me they were gonna have a talk with him and if anything else disappeared, they'd pay me back.
Did Julio ever have a confrontation with anyone at work before? Not that I know of.
But it wouldn't surprise me.
I always thought that kid had a short fuse.
Why? It's nothing specific, it's just the way he carries himself.
A lot of these Spanish kids are prone to that kind of thing.
I know it's a stereotype, but hey, stereotypes come from somewhere, right? Well, according to Easton, Julio's a hot-blooded Latino with a penchant for pilfering.
Racism aside, he does admit going after Erin Garrett.
Even so, it doesn't comport with what I saw in the courtroom.
Looks can be deceiving.
Lieutenant wanted me to run these over to you.
There were fingerprint hits in Erin's stairwell that can't be excluded.
Fingerprints that could have been made yesterday or a year ago.
That's true.
But this is someone who was a person of interest before we honed in on Rodriguez.
Ali Mohammed.
He's a sound engineer.
He tried to sabotage Erin's movie.
He denied he was ever in her building.
Well, now we know that was a lie.
Now he has motive and opportunity.
It's possible we're prosecuting the wrong guy.
Get up.
What is it now? I I told them I'll pay for this woman's two digitapes.
You're gonna pay for more than that.
You're under arrest for the murder of Erin Garrett.
You have the right to remain silent.
If you forego that right, anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney.
Erin Garrett had a website for her film.
Iwent through the site's e-mail.
This movie defames the Prophet and insults Muslims all over the world.
It came from Ali Mohammed's workstation.
He also had several hits on fundamentalist websites.
But Julio Rodriguez admits assaulting the victim.
But not to the murder.
I think Ali came up the stairwell, found her lying on the ground, took some lashing left behind by the construction crew.
Because he was offended by the movie? Salman Rushdie was targeted by fundamentalists because he wrote a novel.
Theo van Gogh was murdered by a fanatic because he made a blasphemous film.
This isn't about some lingering empathy for Rodriguez? Are you suggesting my background is affecting myjudgment? I'm suggesting that we look at the facts, not hunches or headlines.
The construction foreman saw Ali in Erin's building that morning.
He picked his photo out of an array.
Well, that's something.
He strung her up for retribution.
Or to try and kill her movie.
We've got viable cases against both of them.
Which, I might point out, are mutually exclusive situations.
Both these men can't be guilty.
Motions to dismiss.
One for each defendant.
SHANNON: The People initially charged my client with this murder.
After realizing their case was falling apart, they arrested somebody else! It's time to dismiss this case against Mr.
Rodriguez.
Judge, it's my client's case that should be dismissed.
If Mr.
McCoy intends to prove that Rodriguez was the one who hanged the victim, what is Ali Mohammed doing here? Then what was he doing in her building that day, Mr.
Greer? He went to persuade Ms.
Garrett to withdraw her movie from the Festival.
When he got to her door, he couldn't go through with it, so he left.
And if that was true, why didn't he just tell the police that? Are you alleging these men acted in concert, Mr.
McCoy? We have no proof of that.
Then how do you justify both of these prosecutions? There's no legal authority I'm aware of that says I can't pursue inconsistent theories.
Then I'm the authority.
I'm giving you 48 hours to convene a Grand Jury.
It's time to pick a horse.
You should be talkin' to Rodriguez! We believe his story, not Mr.
Mohammed's.
But I'm here with a gift.
Man one, nine years.
My client didn't kill anyone.
Then we'll try the case.
That was easy.
No.
No trial.
So what you were telling me about this, Ali, that wasn't true? It was true.
I hated this woman, but I didn't hang her.
Then why plead guilty, Mr.
Mohammed? What chance do I have in an American court? This woman made a movie which was blasphemy to my faith.
And your jury will convict me because of my religious beliefs! I'm not gonna let that happen to you.
Maybe they'll say I'm aterrorist and send me to Guantanamo.
No.
Let me stay in prison for nine years and then I will go home.
GREER: You sure you wanna do this? Yes.
Jack? I can't accept his plea! He denies his guilt! I don't understand this country! (sum-nus) Did we just go from two defendants to zero? As far as I'm concerned, that was an interesting piece of political theater.
Well, unless Ali is right about American juries, we need to beef up our case against him.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR) MARK: Carl had to run over to Brooklyn.
Hmm, that's too bad.
I'm Mark, his office manager.
Something I can help you with? Yeah, uh, I had some questions about something we found at the crime scene.
It's nylon lashing, like this.
What's it used for? All-purpose rigging.
If we have to secure some lumber, sheetrock, haul a couple ladders up some stairs.
So you just would Keep it in your truck, right? Oh, no, they'd be lyin' around, all over the job.
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Do you know when Mr.
Easton will be back in? Tough to say.
He's not really in the office too much.
He goes from job to job, always trying to keep an eye on everything.
Was he at the Tribeca worksite the day that woman was hanged? I can find out.
Yeah.
Looks like he was there most of the morning.
Thank you.
Jackllspoke with the Office Manager and the foreman who were at 85, Leonard, and I think we can prove that Ali had access to nylon lashing left in the building's stairwell by Easton's crew.
Something bothering you? It's just that any given time, Easton has five or six crews on jobs working all over the City.
So? Well, he always puts a couple union guys on everyjob to make him look good, but most of his workers are illegals.
I ran some of the numbers, and his practice of using undocumented labor nets him at least a million dollars ayear.
He'd have a lot to lose if somebody were to complain.
We're way past the exploited immigrant angle, Connie.
Yeah, but Easton was at the construction site on the morning of the murder.
Are you saying Easton hanged Erin Garrett? I'm saying that I used to think this was about an immigrant chasing the dollar, but maybe it's just good old-fashioned American greed.
Maybe Julio Rodriguez knows more than he's telling.
Connie said my client was off the hook on the murder charge.
That can change.
Why did you never tell anyone that Carl Easton was at the crime scene? You were honest about everything else, why not that? I didn't see Mr.
Easton there.
I don't believe you.
I'm reinstating the murder charge.
SHANNON: What do you think this is? A game show where you can change your mind every two minutes? Your client is the one who's running a game here.
I can't say anything against Mr.
Easton.
I wouldn't worry about your job, Mr.
Rodriguez, you'll never work there again, I promise you.
Or is this about your two cousins who work for Easton? Is that why you're protecting him? No.
You can put the charge on me.
It's okay.
It's not okay with me! But this is all my fault.
I need some time to talk to my client.
This meeting is over.
Tell me you are not serious about reinstating against Rodriguez.
He puts himself in the apartment, he admits to fighting with the victim.
So use the assault charge as leverage, not a homicide.
You know he didn't commit.
Assault gets us nowhere.
I need the biggest stick I can get my hands on.
Okay.
Let's target Rodriguez.
I know you didn't just do a 180.
Judge Delahunt ordered us to convene a Grand Jury.
You call Easton as your first witness, let's see how deep he'll put himself into it.
Now that's pushing the envelope.
(SCOFFS) What do we have to lose? CARL: I knew Rodriguez might be a problem right after I hired him.
In what way, Mr.
Easton? You could tell the kid was a hothead.
And then I found out he had problems with women.
What kind of problems? Well, I got these two gals that do lighting consultations for me.
Julio was rude to them.
He had this macho attitude, you know? And yet you kept him on one of your crews? After what happened over there, I'm I'm sorry I did.
Now you also were at Erin Garrett's building on the morning of the murder, weren't you? I don't remember.
VVeH,thetravellog that your Office Manager keeps, indicates that you were there.
That's not always accurate.
Were you ever on the seventh floor that day? Our job was on the eight floor.
Did you have keys to the construction van parked outside the building? What does this have to do with Julio? In fairness to the accused, I'd like the Grand Jury to know who had access to the nylon lashing that the police found in your van.
Anybody on my crew.
Including you? (SCOFFS) You know, I'm not gonna answer any more questions without a lawyer.
I couldn't even pin him down to being in the building.
So we'll get him in a room with his lawyer and turn up the heat.
They know we have nothing but speculation.
We need Rodriguez.
It's not gonna happen.
He's willing to take the fall to save his cousins.
Call Immigration.
Let's propose a raid on the company.
We can put Easton Construction out of business.
But what about the people who depend on that work for their livelihood? The only way I can get Rodriguez to cooperate is to take his cousins out of play.
So we're gonna use these men and their families as pawns? Easton is the big picture, Connie.
In more ways than one.
Cure the disease by killing the patient.
You can't have it both ways.
Easton killed Erin Garrett.
If he goes down, there's bound to be collateral damage.
All right.
You might be right, but I'm not gonna be the one to make that phone call.
SHANNON: I won't to allow Julio to plead to murder.
If that's what he wants, the court will have to relieve me and appoint another lawyer.
I don't think that will be necessary.
Yesterday afternoon, all Easton's construction sites were raided.
Eduardo and Ramon Rodriguez were taken into federal custody.
They're awaiting their deportation hearings.
Why do you do this to them? They didn't do nothing! I'm sorry, Mr.
Rodriguez, it's the only way I can getjustice for Erin Garrett! What do you want from him? The full story this time.
What about my family? Julio Julio.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) (SPEAKING SPANISH) (SPEAKING SPANISH) After I pushed the lady, I got very worried.
So I found Mr.
Easton.
I told him what I did.
He told me to take him up there to see.
So we went there.
What happened? I showed him the lady.
She was still on the floor.
He told me to go back to my work.
But he stayed in her apartment.
Was that the last time you saw him? No.
Later he told me to come down to the street.
We sat together in the van.
He was very angry.
He told me I did a very bad thing, but he took care of my problem.
And he told me if I ever say this to anybody, he will fire my cousins.
And every Latino in his company.
Calling my client to testify without immunity was a cheap trick.
How'd I know he'd become a suspect? Please.
We won't be using any of his testimony against him.
Against me? That's right, Mr.
Easton.
Julio Rodriguez is testifying this afternoon that he left you alone with Erin Garrett in her studio when she was still alive.
And I'll be asking the Grand Jury to indict you for murder.
I don't believe this.
You might get an indictment.
You'll never get a conviction.
Do you wanna roll the dice, Mr.
Easton? Why would I kill her? To protect your profit center in illegal workers.
Over half of your employees are underpaid, undocumented aliens.
Look, maybe I cut a few corners.
But it's still my word against the word of this This illegal Spanish kid! And who do you think the jury's gonna believe? A kid who busts his ass 60 hours a week to send $75 to his mother? Or a man who flouts the law and parlays his desperation into a small fortune? If you're convicted of staging Erin Garrett's suicide, I promise you'll do 40-to-life.
I'm offering you 15.
I have a family.
A wife and kids! So did Erin Garrett.
If you're found guilty after trial, we'll also institute forfeiture proceedings against your property as fruits of criminal activity.
Your co-op in Manhattan, your house in Westhampton Can we have a moment? They can do that? (MEN CHATTERING) Ten years.
No property forfeiture.
The deal is 15-to-life! If I didn't hire these people, what else were they gonna do? How else were they gonnasuppofl their families? That might be a defense in a labor violation, not a murder! Fifteen years, or atrial, Mr.
Easton.
(sum-nus) Ali had his card pulled for tampering with Erin's movie.
He's on his way to Pakistan.
And Julio to Colombia.
And Easton Construction filed with the Attorney General's office for dissolution.
You're a one-man border patrol, Jack.
You give me way too much credit.
I don't think so.
You cleaned house.
Not really.
You're forgetting Erin Garrett had a Jamaican nanny.