Law & Order (1990) s19e20 Episode Script
Exchange
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.
Careful, the grease is still hot.
That's good.
That's good.
All clear.
Quick, they're going to see us.
Hold the door open, Charlie.
Lovely flowers, Charlie.
Ta.
Oh.
He said it was about midnight I need to talk to somebody.
Hold on.
I need to talk to somebody! Now! Right now! This is Charlie 19, we need a bus ASAP, corner of Ninth and Avenue D.
You gotta help them! Help who? Where? My apartment.
Help them! Police.
Hello? NYPD.
Hello? It's clear.
Those are some crispy french-fries.
Whoa.
Smells like it's coming from here.
Yeah.
And there's smoke.
Hello? Police! Oh.
Another one.
Yeah, Central, this is Detective Lupo.
We got two DOAs, one male, one female.
Definitely getting off the fried foods now.
Colin and, uh, Geraldine were exchange students from England.
They, uh They went to, uh, Cortland Tech.
I mean, they're good kids, they're scientists.
They get along with the guy in 2-A, Charlie Headlind? I never saw a problem.
Charlie's a mouse.
You know, he's a little off in the head.
How off? He's bipolar and, uh, paranoid tendencies.
I mean, that's what he told me.
He moved in here from some halfway house.
How'd these two get along with the rest of your tenants? You know, I got a couple of complaints about, uh, the grease.
I mean, Colin and Geri Geraldine, they kept buckets of grease in the hallway.
Grease? You mean like cooking oil? They collected it from diners, and used it to run their van.
They're scientists.
Mmm-hmm.
Yeah, okay.
Hey, Lupes.
Check this out.
Here, and here, looks like stab wounds, right? And he probably did the boy first, then, went to work on the girl.
Then, used the grease to set them on fire.
All within the realm of possibilities for a bipolar guy with paranoid tendencies.
Yeah.
Charlie must've caught fire when he lit them up.
I'd like to ask him what he thinks of the irony of that.
Probably not much.
Charlie died 15 minutes ago.
Our English friends were stabbed to death, and set on fire, post-mortem.
Single-edge blade, went in pretty deep, probably ye olde kitchen knife.
He was stabbed twice in the chest.
She was stabbed once in each breast and four times in the pubic area.
Oh.
Somebody's got issues.
How about Charlie, the friendly neighbor? Oh, cause of death is an inhalation injury.
Smoke? No, superheated air, maybe even a raw flame.
Huh.
So, he had to be standing right over the fire.
Was there any grease or blood on his hands and arms? No, no residue.
He stabs two people eight times and doesn't get blood on his hands? Mmm-hmm.
And the burns, just on his hands and his face.
There was a towel near the body, right? Oh, I see where you're going with this.
The fire was hot enough to burn those bodies along with the building, and Mr.
Headlind here put it out.
He might have heard the commotion from his place.
By the time he got to the party, the perp was gone.
And Charlie died trying to save two people he didn't know were already dead.
The perp had issues with Geraldine.
Yeah, sexual issues.
I say we start with Geek Central.
It's a tragic loss.
Colin and Geri were Ph.
D.
Candidates but already they were making major contributions to the field of alternative energy.
Everyone wanted a piece of them.
I assume you mean in a nice way.
Yes.
The Department of Energy reached out to them, oil companies were making offers.
But Colin and Geri wanted to retain their independence.
It says here that, uh, Mr.
Tilbrook got the okay to extend for a second year here.
But Ms.
Sarfield, her application was pending.
Problem? Just an issue that needed clearing up.
Last summer, Geri was hired to do an energy audit of public schools in the Bronx.
One of her assistants filed a sexual harassment complaint against her.
Geri denied it.
Our online student paper broke the story.
Yeah, I got all the documentation here somewhere.
A copy of the harassment complaint the assistant filed with the City Commission on Human Rights, copy of his paystubs Yeah, here it is.
The story is totally legit.
Where did you get this material? Uh, it was sent to me anonymously.
But you confirmed it, right? I confirmed there was a complaint filed and that this guy worked for Geraldine Sarfield.
"On two occasions, Geraldine grabbed my crotch "and said she'd never tasted American Prime Beef.
" You talked to this assistant? I tried.
The guy's been up in the Arctic Ocean counting icebergs for the last six weeks.
All right, Woodward and Bernstein, so you published this stuff even though you never talked to the guy who made the complaint? I had evidence of other inappropriate behavior by Geraldine Sarfield.
Okay, like what, for instance? Well, everybody says how she was so into her fiancé Colin.
Well, I found a Faceplace page she kept under another name.
"Geri Knickers.
" Yeah, that's her.
And here, just for starters, read this entry in her blog.
"C.
Worked late again last night.
"So I rang up Pete and met him for a drink.
"Long story short, we got a room and had a spectacular tumble.
" Tumble, that's what the Brits call knocking boots.
Yeah, we figured that.
We'll take it from here.
You know, I can't help thinking, Big Oil tried to buy these kids off so they could bury their alternative energy technology.
And the kids said no, and maybe Big Oil decided to bury the kids instead.
You really believe that? Maybe if you read something besides the sports section.
What's the matter, Lupes, Jenny close up the kitchen on you? Shut up.
Listen to this.
"C.
Left early to go to the lab.
"Feeling a little randy, so I rang up Sturge, "and told him to come fetch his reward for repainting our flat.
" Their landlord, his name was Sturgis, right? So, Sturge, you ever visit with Geri when she was home alone? Visit? Yeah.
You mean, uh You know Yeah.
That's exactly what we mean.
No, never.
I mean, I'm a happily married guy.
Where'd you get that idea? Geri's blog.
"Feeling a little randy, so I rang up Sturge, "and told him to come fetch his reward for repainting our flat.
" You know, I I heard a rumor, stupid rumor about me and her and the paint job, but We checked, Sturge, the paint job in Geri's place is new.
Geri and Colin's place.
The City said I had to paint it, and I, uh, I got a letter from the Housing Department.
The landlord confirmed that it's his tax ID number and corporate name.
Everything's right about it, except the City doesn't have a record of mailing it.
And this would be the first time the Housing Department misplaced paperwork? It's not just that.
The sexual harassment beef? We got through to Geraldine's former assistant up in the Arctic Ocean.
He said he never filed a complaint, because there was no harassment.
This is getting interesting.
The tech boys sent up a report on Geraldine's Faceplace page.
So far, they've determined that Geraldine never accessed the page from her home computer, or the one at her office.
Not only that, the bikini shot Photoshopped.
Then all her affairs? Probably made up.
Someone went through a lot of effort to make this girl out to be a skank.
A smear campaign.
This isn't a college prank.
This person has access to City Housing records, City tax records, City payroll records.
A City employee.
It's bad enough you can't fight City Hall.
This person is using City Hall to fight Geraldine.
Fight her to the death.
You think it's someone in the Taxation department? Uh, it's more likely than someone in the Parks Department.
Sweetheart, there's at least 2,000 city employees who could put together all this information.
We'll start with the ones here.
You have a subpoena? You know, the union would cross me off their Christmas list if I gave you names without a subpoena.
We'll be back.
They love messing with our heads.
Hmm.
Uh, guess whose computer navigated the most often to Geraldine's page.
Charlie Headlind.
Yeah, and his computer also visited the student paper website to read the sexual harassment article.
You see him putting together this smear campaign? Nothing in his background showed he had the chops or the connections to pull it off.
Plus we practically eliminated him as the killer.
What if this was a show for Charlie's benefit, to convince him Geraldine was promiscuous? Maybe somebody was trying to stop him from getting mixed up with her.
Like who, his mother? Or a seriously jealous girlfriend.
Just men's clothes and shoes.
Yeah, no extra toothbrush, deodorant, perfume, nothing.
Hey, check that out back there.
Whoa.
Mmm.
Signed with a heart.
A valentine from Charlie's girlfriend.
A girlfriend who didn't come forward after he died, who hasn't called us to see if we've arrested anybody.
Look at these brush strokes, they're violent, wild, out of control.
Yeah, the newspapers in the collage.
They're articles from last year's primaries.
Yeah.
Last year Charlie was in a halfway house.
Maybe it was co-ed.
Another brick wall.
Since painting is a part of the therapy here, it's all confidential.
The same goes for who Charlie's girlfriend might've been.
I like your painting.
You do? I do.
I think it's really good.
Yeah, I think you have your taste in your ass.
We need to talk to the person who painted this.
You know who did it? No.
But there's one like it over there, bottom shelf on the left.
What's that? "Wendy T.
" Mmm-hmm.
You think the City Tax Department would hire somebody with a serious mental disease? It would explain a few things about the tax code.
Excuse me, we're looking for the Supervisor, Ms.
Voles.
Oh, she usually takes her tea right about now.
Try the employee lounge.
Thanks.
Actually, maybe you can help us.
We're looking for an employee here by the name of Wendy? Wendy? Yeah, last name starts with a "T".
No, sorry.
The lounge is down to the left, at the end.
Thanks.
Detectives.
Ms.
Voles.
I've been chasing you.
Are you looking for me? We have a name.
Wendy.
We have a few Wendys working here.
Her last name starts with a "T".
Wendy Teal? I thought I just saw you talking to her.
The redhead? Excuse me.
Anything? No.
You? No.
One of the girls saw Wendy leave with her coat and purse.
I don't get it, she is a highly-qualified CPA.
Okay, we're going to need her home address.
I don't have it.
If this about a damn subpoena No, no, no.
Wendy moved two weeks ago.
I think she moved in with her parents.
Why's that? She said she'd be sleeping in her mother's bed.
Yeah, all right.
Thanks.
Uh-huh.
Bye.
Her mother died three months ago, the apartment was vacated a month after that.
Thank you.
Okay, Wendy must've been staying somewhere up in Queens.
The trace on the Metrocard she bought with a credit card has her taking the 7 train at Elmhurst Avenue every morning.
Lupes.
Two months ago, she filed a criminal complaint against her brother.
She wanted him arrested for burglary and for trespassing at their mother's place.
Hmm.
Thanksgiving dinner at the Teals' house, must've been a lot of fun.
You sure you don't want one of these? Crispy The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.
Let it fall rather, though the fork invade the region of my heart I haven't seen my sister since she tried to have me arrested.
What'd she do now, rob a liquor store in the nude? Laugh much? Your sister has severe mental problems.
You have no idea how time-consuming, not to mention emotionally draining it is to constantly be picking up after her.
Eric, it's called "King Lear", not "Queen Lear"! Man up! Uh, actually, Mr.
Teal, all we really need is your sister's current address.
Don't have one.
If you had to guess.
Look, I've had to dial back on my primary caretaker role.
My wife and I just had a baby.
He's amazing.
Everything I thought I knew, out the window.
The last time you spoke with your sister, did she mention she had a boyfriend named Charlie? She's got a boyfriend? Lucky guy.
Why don't you just ask him for the address where's she's living? We would, but he died Tuesday night.
Tuesday night? I got a call Tuesday night from a doctor over at Westside Hospital.
They were holding Wendy for a psych eval.
He said she was raving manic, that only happens when she goes off her meds.
She'd taken off by the time I got down there.
Let me guess.
She had something to do with her boyfriend's death? We need to talk to her about that, and about two murdered British students across the hall from her boyfriend.
Whoa.
I read about that.
Yeah, so maybe now you'd like to think a little harder about where your sister's living.
She told her co-worker that she would be sleeping in your mother's old bed.
That's not possible.
That's That's what she wanted to have me arrested for.
It was all misplaced grief.
Your mother's furniture, what did you do with it? I put it in storage, in Queens.
Near the Elmhurst stop of the number Seven train? Wendy Teal? Don't hurt me.
We're not going to hurt you.
Let me see your hands.
We're the police.
We just want to talk to you.
You wanna come with us? Somewhere warm? Yeah, sure, somewhere warm.
Give me your hand.
Hands behind your back.
Lupes, check this out, ye olde kitchen knife.
Docket Number 55939, "People v.
Wendy Teal, Two Counts Second Degree Murder.
" Defendant pleads? Not guilty, Judge.
The People request remand.
Ms.
Teal has no fixed address, she's mentally ill, and she's a threat to the community.
Your Honor, her brother is here today, and requests that she be released to him.
He'll ensure that she is properly medicated, that she will appear I don't need anybody to ensure that I'm properly medicated.
As Your Honor can see, Ms.
Teal is not in control of her emotions.
Your Honor, Mr.
Teal has long experience caretaking for his sister.
Defendant will be confined to her brother's home and will wear a monitoring device.
Bail's $250,000.
Ms.
Rubirosa, I'm Dennis Teal.
Yeah, I I hope you know what you're taking on.
I know it in spades.
But she is my kid sister.
I'm hoping you might make a deal.
A trial would just humiliate her.
Dennis It's okay.
What're you doing? Wendy, Wendy, Wendy.
You don't discuss my case with him.
Wendy, I'll handle this.
I don't care if he hired you, he's not the client.
If you want to discuss my case, you talk to my lawyer.
Sorry about that.
I assume that you'll be giving notice of an insanity defense.
Nope.
I'll be in touch about a plea.
My client is willing to plead to the two counts of second degree murder.
In return, you'll agree to a sentence of 20-to-life, and you won't oppose parole.
Twenty-to-life? Have you explained to your client that even if she took her chances at trial, the most she'd get is 25-to-life? Assuming she gets parole.
Before we go any further, I'd like Ms.
Teal to tell us what happened that night.
Okay.
I was off my meds.
My mind was racing and I was having these awful thoughts about the British girl who lived across from Charlie.
I thought she was trying to steal him away from me.
I tried to discourage Charlie, but Charlie was weak.
And when I went to his place that night, I saw he had flowers.
I I thought for her.
I took the flowers to her apartment, I brought a knife to cut up the flowers And things got out of control.
Do you remember stabbing Geraldine? Yes.
I I killed Colin first when he answered the door.
Then, Geraldine came into the room, and I killed her, too.
I was so angry.
Then I set them on fire, and I ran away.
I I'm sorry.
I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway.
Where did you go? The emergency room.
I knew I needed a shot, that I was out of control.
My client was manic, but she knew what she was doing.
And now, this is what she wants.
We'll get back to you.
It's not just the lawyer pushing for a deal, it's the brother, too.
She admitted killing two people, she knew right from wrong and she wants to take a plea.
Who are we to say no? What if she was legally insane when she committed the crime? And what if after sitting in jail for a while she decides she's not quite as sorry as she is right now? Do we want to risk a reversal on appeal? I can tell you what everyone else in the E.
R.
Saw.
She was, uh, disheveled, barefoot, wearing only a bra and filthy sweatpants, talking a mile a minute What was she saying? The recurring themes? She's the little girl no one wanted, she needs her sweetie bear She said that she was off her meds.
Could you tell how long it'd been? That's an area I can't It relates to her fitness to stand trial.
She had a four-month-old old prescription with three unused refills.
Once she finished the original prescription, she never refilled it.
Three months without her meds? She was in a full-fledged psychotic episode.
And that's why you held her for observation.
I didn't do that.
Soon as she stabilized, she checked herself out.
But that's what you told her brother, that you were keeping her for observation.
No.
I told him on the phone that she'd already left the hospital.
That's not what he told us.
He said that by the time he got here, she was already gone.
If he was here, I didn't see him.
Uh, can you direct me to security? Sure.
Okay.
There's Wendy.
That driver just abandoned her there? You can't make out the license plate.
Well, there's this instead.
Eastside Day Academy.
It's where Dennis Teal teaches drama.
And he has a black '97 Honda registered to his name.
I gather Mr.
Teal told the police a different story from what we're seeing.
He told them the hospital called to inform him that his sister, who he hadn't seen in months, was in their emergency room.
He ran to her rescue.
He was protecting her.
Well, now, he's pushing for a deal that'll send her to prison for 20 years.
He's being a realist.
I read her statement.
She said she knew what she was doing, there's no basis for an insanity defense.
Am I right? Connie felt we should dot our "I's".
Consider them dotted.
Make the deal.
No, but her brother was the one that Connie, we should all be so lucky to have a sibling who puts their neck out for us.
Well, I'll pass on Dennis Teal's martyr act.
Cold.
Let's just draw up the plea agreement.
Mike, Wendy told us when she was doing the murders, she knew it was wrong.
But according to the E.
R.
Doctor, she didn't express remorse or even talk about having done something bad, despite the fact that she was full-on manic and running off at the mouth.
Do we really need to dot this "l"? I want to know what she talked about with her brother before he dumped her at the hospital.
I only went down to the hospital because I thought Wendy was there.
Really? Well, that's Wendy, and that's your car, and that's a time stamp two hours before the doctor called you.
I thought she'd been raped.
Then, she said she'd hurt some people.
Why didn't you call the police? I know it sounds crazy, but I blame myself for what happened to her.
I'd been avoiding her ever since she tried to have me arrested.
When I saw her like that I was ashamed.
What exactly did she tell you? She just kept saying how she'd done a bad thing.
I asked her where her clothes were, she said she'd gotten blood on them.
At that point, I didn't need to know the details.
I told her I was going to take her to the hospital and she could get her medication.
Then you dumped her at the E.
R.
And took off.
Empathize much? I panicked.
Between Wendy and my late mother, and the new baby, everything landed on my shoulders.
I'm trying to take care of my sister.
Even though she acts like she doesn't want to live in my home, even though she won't take her meds and drinks like a fish I've got to try.
Mr.
Teal, you realize she's violating the terms of her bail? Well, what am I going to do, force her to take her pills? I don't want to make her angry.
Oh, there's my ride.
Well, I know one brick we can take off his shoulders.
Remaining on her medication was a condition of Ms.
Teal's parole.
Instead, she's been self-medicating with alcohol.
What's the evidence to support Mr.
Cutter's outrageous allegation? A statement by the defendant's brother.
Oh, you son of a bitch! Order.
How can you do this? You don't care! Ms.
Teal You have no soul.
That's enough, young lady.
Bail is a privilege, not a right.
You have abused that privilege.
I'm revoking your bail.
You heartless bastard! Ms.
Teal I'm not garbage! You can't throw me out! Escort Ms.
Teal from the courtroom.
No! I want my sweetie bear! Ms.
Teal, please! Mom promised me! I want it! Mom, I want my sweetie bear! The very fact that she got rid of her bloody clothes indicates a consciousness of guilt and argues against legal insanity.
We've dotted every "l", Connie.
It's time to get that plea agreement on paper.
Tell me what you make of this.
It's an attachment to her medical file.
It says there was a medical trust for Wendy.
A medical trust to do what? Her mom set it up and appointed Dennis to supervise Wendy's psychiatric care.
He can't be held responsible if she refuses.
Well, it's pretty hard to take your meds if you don't have them in the first place.
He hadn't filled her prescriptions in three months.
A.
D.
A.
Rubirosa.
Uh, yes.
Thank you.
Thanks for calling.
Wendy just hanged herself at Rikers.
I don't know about you, Mike, but I'm beginning to think this is exactly what Dennis Teal wanted all along.
The payphone's there for the prisoners to use.
She said she wanted to call her lawyer.
She was out of the guard's sight less than seven minutes.
This is all your fault, you and your pal.
I wanted to take care of her.
Oh, really? Then why did you let her go without her medication for three months? We read the medical trust.
Serves me right for trying to be a good son, a good brother.
Thank you for meddling in our family! That guy likes to feel sorry for himself.
Mmm-hmm.
I got you the sister's burglary complaint.
She listed everything in her mother's apartment.
"Sweetie Bear, small bronze object, "complainant reports it's priceless.
" You know, in the E.
R.
And in the courtroom, she kept saying she wanted her sweetie bear, that her mom had promised it to her.
And here she is, saying her brother stole it, whatever it is.
Is her mom's stuff still in that locker? Hey, does this look like a bear to you? That must be Wendy.
That's an awfully sweet looking bear.
Yeah, and expensive.
It looks Chinese.
I'm just saying Chinese bronze.
It dates back to the Western Han Dynasty, circa 200 BC.
Wendy's grandfather traveled to Asia for a paper company, and he probably bought it on one of his trips.
A 2,000 year old antique must have more than sentimental value.
I found out that it's up for auction next month in London, for a conservative estimate of $300,000.
What, that same bear? Mmm-hmm.
And I tracked down the seller, Dennis Teal.
Check out the address he gave the London auction house.
26 Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, London.
Colin and Geraldine's vacant apartment in London.
Dennis Teal stole the bear from his mother's estate with the full intent of selling it and keeping all the proceeds for himself.
He knew that Wendy would find out, so he stopped filling her prescriptions, knowing that she would either end up dead or locked up.
Either way, he gets access to her assets, including proceeds from their mother's estate.
And in the meantime, he finds out about the British students living across from Wendy's boyfriend, and he uses their London address for the auction to hide his tracks from Wendy.
Bottom line is he drove his sister crazy to steal her share of a rare and precious art object.
I think she's nailed Mr.
Teal.
Mmm-hmm.
And us.
If you feel like saying "I told you so," by all means, go ahead.
I'd rather say "gotcha" to Dennis Teal.
Well, we can start by charging him for Geraldine and Colin's murder.
Wendy had a history of suicide attempts and violence during psychotic episodes.
Dennis knew it.
Nonetheless, with depraved indifference, he withheld medication from her.
Good.
Now go sell that to a jury.
I'd just finished nursing my mother through her final illness.
And I'd just become a father for the first time.
My wife and I were strapped for cash, so I'd been tutoring, which made me less available for Ellen and the baby.
Wendy was always my responsibility, but she couldn't be my first priority anymore.
Did you deliberately fail to get her prescriptions filled? Of course not.
I thought she could handle filling them herself.
I was wrong.
I dropped the ball, I'm sorry.
Did her behavior give you reason to think she wasn't taking her medication? No.
If I'd noticed her behavior changing, I would have done something, but she seemed fine.
How about the night that you dropped her off at the emergency room? Of course she was manic, but she told me that she'd gotten angry at the British girl, and she'd done something terrible, she needed my help.
She told me that she'd gotten rid of her bloody clothes, she told me that there was a knife, but she forgot where she put it.
Wendy was coherent and aware of what had happened.
If she was so rational, why did you rush her to the emergency room to get anti-psychotic medication? Like I said, she was manic, rational but manic.
And when she told me she'd gone off her meds, I was worried she'd hurt herself.
Then, Dennis, why did the E.
R.
Doctor diagnose your sister as being in a full-fledged psychotic episode? I can't answer that.
She didn't tell her that she did a terrible thing, that she hurt people.
I'd warned my sister not to say anything about what she did.
You coached her? In a way, yes, to protect her.
You coached her to say, "She's the little girl no one wanted, "that she needed her sweetie bear.
" That's what she told the doctor.
Of course, I didn't coach her to say that.
Look, I know that when you made your plea deal with her, she told you that she knew what she did was wrong.
That's after she'd been under house arrest in your home for a week, after you'd had time to coach her to say the words that would send her to prison.
I resent that.
Isn't that where you wanted her to go, to prison for 20 years, instead of a psychiatric hospital where she might get better? No, that's not true.
Wasn't that your plan all along, to get her out of the way, so that you could sell this valuable antique this bear, your sister's "sweetie bear", without her knowledge? No, I would not steal from my sister.
Then why did you try to sell it overseas, using a false address? Wendy knew all about that.
It was her idea.
She said there'd be some kind of tax advantage.
That we wouldn't have to pay estate taxes.
What did I know? She was the CPA in the family.
So you're saying that your psychotic bipolar sister came up with this scheme? Yes.
She's the one who gave me the address in London.
Maybe I was naive.
I should have asked questions.
Mr.
Teal, you are unbelievable.
Objection.
Mr.
Cutter has evidently run out of pertinent questions.
Sustained.
When push came to shove, Dennis Teal threw his sister under a bus, and made her out to be some tax-evading cheat.
He just handed the jury reasonable doubt on a silver platter.
A side issue.
Your whole theory of the crime was a stretch to begin with.
Maybe a stretch to prove, but that's what happened.
Sometimes justice is only about what you can prove.
Then, let's change the theory of the crime to something we can prove.
Dennis conspired with Wendy to sell the antique overseas and avoid estate taxes.
When Geraldine and Colin found out they were using their address, Wendy killed them.
Except by definition, you can't conspire with a psychotic person, there's no meeting of the minds.
Except, Dennis and his lawyer just spent the better part of the day arguing that Wendy was rational.
Fine, then, let's steer into the skid.
You want to paint Wendy Teal as a conspirator and a cold-blooded killer when you have evidence to the contrary? This isn't a con you're running on a defendant in some back room.
You're in open court, in front of a jury.
Either Wendy was a victim of her brother's manipulation, or she was a tax-cheating co-conspirator.
Not both.
I am not going to apologize for doing what needs to be done to put this monster behind bars.
A trial is a truth-seeking process, not a vehicle for you to obscure the truth to win a conviction at all costs.
You have a greater duty than that.
I want to see him behind bars, too.
The People have not shown my client's failure to fill Wendy's prescriptions caused a psychotic break or caused her to commit the murders.
Dennis was a good brother, but he couldn't be with his sister every hour of every day.
Nobody could.
What she did was tragic, but it was not his fault.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in my opening statement, I told you that I would establish that Mr.
Teal intentionally caused his sister to experience a psychotic break, fully aware of her potential for violence, and that Wendy killed the two victims while in that psychotic state.
As you just heard, the defense suggests that I failed to meet my burden of proof.
The defense is correct.
I did.
But what the evidence elicited at this trial does prove beyond any reasonable doubt is that Dennis Teal conspired with his sister to commit tax fraud by selling a valuable heirloom overseas.
We know this because the defendant admitted it here under oath.
We also know that they used the victims' London address to perpetrate their fraud.
And we know that Wendy killed the victims.
Now, even though the People are under no obligation to prove motive, it's reasonable to infer that the victims were killed when they discovered their address was being used for a tax fraud.
Objection.
Overruled.
But Your Honor, he can't I said overruled, now sit down.
Mr.
Cutter, continue.
Thank you, Your Honor.
Now, it doesn't matter if Wendy acted with or without her brother's consent.
As he admitted, they conspired together, and he is liable for any acts she committed in furtherance of their crime.
In the eyes of the law, you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound.
That's why you have to find Dennis Teal guilty of both murders.
Your Honor, I want his whole summation stricken.
He cannot suddenly offer a completely different theory of a crime from what he has prosecuted in this courtroom for the last two weeks.
I haven't changed a single element of the crime.
I simply incorporated a new fact offered by Ms.
Grubman's own client, that he conspired with his sister.
Ms.
Grubman, you're bound by the testimony of your own client.
Mr.
Cutter is within his rights to put that testimony in a new light.
But his whole premise is absurd.
Wendy is an unmedicated bipolar psychotic.
It's black letter law that you cannot enter into a conspiracy with someone who is mentally incompetent.
I agree.
Except "If I'd noticed her behavior changing, "I'd have done something, but she seemed fine.
"She was manic, rational but manic.
"She was coherent and aware of what had happened.
" The defendant's own words in this courtroom not 24 hours ago.
And what better witness to Wendy's mental state than her caring, long-suffering big brother? Ms.
Grubman, your objection is overruled.
Mr.
Cutter's summation will stand.
I will now charge the jury and send them to deliberations.
You work all your life trying to make people happy, trying to keep your sister from flying off the deep end, mediating, walking on eggshells, trying not to upset, and then this happens.
Not that I blame Wendy, she couldn't help herself.
If it was just me, I could take this, but my wife Ellen, and the baby, this is so unfair to them.
And then this one, take the stand, she says, testify about Wendy's state of mind.
What do I know about it? I'm no expert, I'm no psychiatrist, I'm just a drama teacher.
Jesus! You're an infant, Mr.
Teal.
Do you think your life sucks now? Wait 'til you see where you wake up tomorrow.
And unlike your sister's condition, this will be a nightmare of your own making.
The offer is the same one you urged your sister to take, 20-to-life.
No.
I may not have gone to law school, but I know Dennis, it'll be worse if we wait for a verdict.
Bluff much? Send us the paperwork.
He took 20-to-life.
I heard.
I'm not sure congratulations are in order.
We avenged Wendy Teal.
By assassinating her character and tarnishing yours?
These are their stories.
Careful, the grease is still hot.
That's good.
That's good.
All clear.
Quick, they're going to see us.
Hold the door open, Charlie.
Lovely flowers, Charlie.
Ta.
Oh.
He said it was about midnight I need to talk to somebody.
Hold on.
I need to talk to somebody! Now! Right now! This is Charlie 19, we need a bus ASAP, corner of Ninth and Avenue D.
You gotta help them! Help who? Where? My apartment.
Help them! Police.
Hello? NYPD.
Hello? It's clear.
Those are some crispy french-fries.
Whoa.
Smells like it's coming from here.
Yeah.
And there's smoke.
Hello? Police! Oh.
Another one.
Yeah, Central, this is Detective Lupo.
We got two DOAs, one male, one female.
Definitely getting off the fried foods now.
Colin and, uh, Geraldine were exchange students from England.
They, uh They went to, uh, Cortland Tech.
I mean, they're good kids, they're scientists.
They get along with the guy in 2-A, Charlie Headlind? I never saw a problem.
Charlie's a mouse.
You know, he's a little off in the head.
How off? He's bipolar and, uh, paranoid tendencies.
I mean, that's what he told me.
He moved in here from some halfway house.
How'd these two get along with the rest of your tenants? You know, I got a couple of complaints about, uh, the grease.
I mean, Colin and Geri Geraldine, they kept buckets of grease in the hallway.
Grease? You mean like cooking oil? They collected it from diners, and used it to run their van.
They're scientists.
Mmm-hmm.
Yeah, okay.
Hey, Lupes.
Check this out.
Here, and here, looks like stab wounds, right? And he probably did the boy first, then, went to work on the girl.
Then, used the grease to set them on fire.
All within the realm of possibilities for a bipolar guy with paranoid tendencies.
Yeah.
Charlie must've caught fire when he lit them up.
I'd like to ask him what he thinks of the irony of that.
Probably not much.
Charlie died 15 minutes ago.
Our English friends were stabbed to death, and set on fire, post-mortem.
Single-edge blade, went in pretty deep, probably ye olde kitchen knife.
He was stabbed twice in the chest.
She was stabbed once in each breast and four times in the pubic area.
Oh.
Somebody's got issues.
How about Charlie, the friendly neighbor? Oh, cause of death is an inhalation injury.
Smoke? No, superheated air, maybe even a raw flame.
Huh.
So, he had to be standing right over the fire.
Was there any grease or blood on his hands and arms? No, no residue.
He stabs two people eight times and doesn't get blood on his hands? Mmm-hmm.
And the burns, just on his hands and his face.
There was a towel near the body, right? Oh, I see where you're going with this.
The fire was hot enough to burn those bodies along with the building, and Mr.
Headlind here put it out.
He might have heard the commotion from his place.
By the time he got to the party, the perp was gone.
And Charlie died trying to save two people he didn't know were already dead.
The perp had issues with Geraldine.
Yeah, sexual issues.
I say we start with Geek Central.
It's a tragic loss.
Colin and Geri were Ph.
D.
Candidates but already they were making major contributions to the field of alternative energy.
Everyone wanted a piece of them.
I assume you mean in a nice way.
Yes.
The Department of Energy reached out to them, oil companies were making offers.
But Colin and Geri wanted to retain their independence.
It says here that, uh, Mr.
Tilbrook got the okay to extend for a second year here.
But Ms.
Sarfield, her application was pending.
Problem? Just an issue that needed clearing up.
Last summer, Geri was hired to do an energy audit of public schools in the Bronx.
One of her assistants filed a sexual harassment complaint against her.
Geri denied it.
Our online student paper broke the story.
Yeah, I got all the documentation here somewhere.
A copy of the harassment complaint the assistant filed with the City Commission on Human Rights, copy of his paystubs Yeah, here it is.
The story is totally legit.
Where did you get this material? Uh, it was sent to me anonymously.
But you confirmed it, right? I confirmed there was a complaint filed and that this guy worked for Geraldine Sarfield.
"On two occasions, Geraldine grabbed my crotch "and said she'd never tasted American Prime Beef.
" You talked to this assistant? I tried.
The guy's been up in the Arctic Ocean counting icebergs for the last six weeks.
All right, Woodward and Bernstein, so you published this stuff even though you never talked to the guy who made the complaint? I had evidence of other inappropriate behavior by Geraldine Sarfield.
Okay, like what, for instance? Well, everybody says how she was so into her fiancé Colin.
Well, I found a Faceplace page she kept under another name.
"Geri Knickers.
" Yeah, that's her.
And here, just for starters, read this entry in her blog.
"C.
Worked late again last night.
"So I rang up Pete and met him for a drink.
"Long story short, we got a room and had a spectacular tumble.
" Tumble, that's what the Brits call knocking boots.
Yeah, we figured that.
We'll take it from here.
You know, I can't help thinking, Big Oil tried to buy these kids off so they could bury their alternative energy technology.
And the kids said no, and maybe Big Oil decided to bury the kids instead.
You really believe that? Maybe if you read something besides the sports section.
What's the matter, Lupes, Jenny close up the kitchen on you? Shut up.
Listen to this.
"C.
Left early to go to the lab.
"Feeling a little randy, so I rang up Sturge, "and told him to come fetch his reward for repainting our flat.
" Their landlord, his name was Sturgis, right? So, Sturge, you ever visit with Geri when she was home alone? Visit? Yeah.
You mean, uh You know Yeah.
That's exactly what we mean.
No, never.
I mean, I'm a happily married guy.
Where'd you get that idea? Geri's blog.
"Feeling a little randy, so I rang up Sturge, "and told him to come fetch his reward for repainting our flat.
" You know, I I heard a rumor, stupid rumor about me and her and the paint job, but We checked, Sturge, the paint job in Geri's place is new.
Geri and Colin's place.
The City said I had to paint it, and I, uh, I got a letter from the Housing Department.
The landlord confirmed that it's his tax ID number and corporate name.
Everything's right about it, except the City doesn't have a record of mailing it.
And this would be the first time the Housing Department misplaced paperwork? It's not just that.
The sexual harassment beef? We got through to Geraldine's former assistant up in the Arctic Ocean.
He said he never filed a complaint, because there was no harassment.
This is getting interesting.
The tech boys sent up a report on Geraldine's Faceplace page.
So far, they've determined that Geraldine never accessed the page from her home computer, or the one at her office.
Not only that, the bikini shot Photoshopped.
Then all her affairs? Probably made up.
Someone went through a lot of effort to make this girl out to be a skank.
A smear campaign.
This isn't a college prank.
This person has access to City Housing records, City tax records, City payroll records.
A City employee.
It's bad enough you can't fight City Hall.
This person is using City Hall to fight Geraldine.
Fight her to the death.
You think it's someone in the Taxation department? Uh, it's more likely than someone in the Parks Department.
Sweetheart, there's at least 2,000 city employees who could put together all this information.
We'll start with the ones here.
You have a subpoena? You know, the union would cross me off their Christmas list if I gave you names without a subpoena.
We'll be back.
They love messing with our heads.
Hmm.
Uh, guess whose computer navigated the most often to Geraldine's page.
Charlie Headlind.
Yeah, and his computer also visited the student paper website to read the sexual harassment article.
You see him putting together this smear campaign? Nothing in his background showed he had the chops or the connections to pull it off.
Plus we practically eliminated him as the killer.
What if this was a show for Charlie's benefit, to convince him Geraldine was promiscuous? Maybe somebody was trying to stop him from getting mixed up with her.
Like who, his mother? Or a seriously jealous girlfriend.
Just men's clothes and shoes.
Yeah, no extra toothbrush, deodorant, perfume, nothing.
Hey, check that out back there.
Whoa.
Mmm.
Signed with a heart.
A valentine from Charlie's girlfriend.
A girlfriend who didn't come forward after he died, who hasn't called us to see if we've arrested anybody.
Look at these brush strokes, they're violent, wild, out of control.
Yeah, the newspapers in the collage.
They're articles from last year's primaries.
Yeah.
Last year Charlie was in a halfway house.
Maybe it was co-ed.
Another brick wall.
Since painting is a part of the therapy here, it's all confidential.
The same goes for who Charlie's girlfriend might've been.
I like your painting.
You do? I do.
I think it's really good.
Yeah, I think you have your taste in your ass.
We need to talk to the person who painted this.
You know who did it? No.
But there's one like it over there, bottom shelf on the left.
What's that? "Wendy T.
" Mmm-hmm.
You think the City Tax Department would hire somebody with a serious mental disease? It would explain a few things about the tax code.
Excuse me, we're looking for the Supervisor, Ms.
Voles.
Oh, she usually takes her tea right about now.
Try the employee lounge.
Thanks.
Actually, maybe you can help us.
We're looking for an employee here by the name of Wendy? Wendy? Yeah, last name starts with a "T".
No, sorry.
The lounge is down to the left, at the end.
Thanks.
Detectives.
Ms.
Voles.
I've been chasing you.
Are you looking for me? We have a name.
Wendy.
We have a few Wendys working here.
Her last name starts with a "T".
Wendy Teal? I thought I just saw you talking to her.
The redhead? Excuse me.
Anything? No.
You? No.
One of the girls saw Wendy leave with her coat and purse.
I don't get it, she is a highly-qualified CPA.
Okay, we're going to need her home address.
I don't have it.
If this about a damn subpoena No, no, no.
Wendy moved two weeks ago.
I think she moved in with her parents.
Why's that? She said she'd be sleeping in her mother's bed.
Yeah, all right.
Thanks.
Uh-huh.
Bye.
Her mother died three months ago, the apartment was vacated a month after that.
Thank you.
Okay, Wendy must've been staying somewhere up in Queens.
The trace on the Metrocard she bought with a credit card has her taking the 7 train at Elmhurst Avenue every morning.
Lupes.
Two months ago, she filed a criminal complaint against her brother.
She wanted him arrested for burglary and for trespassing at their mother's place.
Hmm.
Thanksgiving dinner at the Teals' house, must've been a lot of fun.
You sure you don't want one of these? Crispy The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.
Let it fall rather, though the fork invade the region of my heart I haven't seen my sister since she tried to have me arrested.
What'd she do now, rob a liquor store in the nude? Laugh much? Your sister has severe mental problems.
You have no idea how time-consuming, not to mention emotionally draining it is to constantly be picking up after her.
Eric, it's called "King Lear", not "Queen Lear"! Man up! Uh, actually, Mr.
Teal, all we really need is your sister's current address.
Don't have one.
If you had to guess.
Look, I've had to dial back on my primary caretaker role.
My wife and I just had a baby.
He's amazing.
Everything I thought I knew, out the window.
The last time you spoke with your sister, did she mention she had a boyfriend named Charlie? She's got a boyfriend? Lucky guy.
Why don't you just ask him for the address where's she's living? We would, but he died Tuesday night.
Tuesday night? I got a call Tuesday night from a doctor over at Westside Hospital.
They were holding Wendy for a psych eval.
He said she was raving manic, that only happens when she goes off her meds.
She'd taken off by the time I got down there.
Let me guess.
She had something to do with her boyfriend's death? We need to talk to her about that, and about two murdered British students across the hall from her boyfriend.
Whoa.
I read about that.
Yeah, so maybe now you'd like to think a little harder about where your sister's living.
She told her co-worker that she would be sleeping in your mother's old bed.
That's not possible.
That's That's what she wanted to have me arrested for.
It was all misplaced grief.
Your mother's furniture, what did you do with it? I put it in storage, in Queens.
Near the Elmhurst stop of the number Seven train? Wendy Teal? Don't hurt me.
We're not going to hurt you.
Let me see your hands.
We're the police.
We just want to talk to you.
You wanna come with us? Somewhere warm? Yeah, sure, somewhere warm.
Give me your hand.
Hands behind your back.
Lupes, check this out, ye olde kitchen knife.
Docket Number 55939, "People v.
Wendy Teal, Two Counts Second Degree Murder.
" Defendant pleads? Not guilty, Judge.
The People request remand.
Ms.
Teal has no fixed address, she's mentally ill, and she's a threat to the community.
Your Honor, her brother is here today, and requests that she be released to him.
He'll ensure that she is properly medicated, that she will appear I don't need anybody to ensure that I'm properly medicated.
As Your Honor can see, Ms.
Teal is not in control of her emotions.
Your Honor, Mr.
Teal has long experience caretaking for his sister.
Defendant will be confined to her brother's home and will wear a monitoring device.
Bail's $250,000.
Ms.
Rubirosa, I'm Dennis Teal.
Yeah, I I hope you know what you're taking on.
I know it in spades.
But she is my kid sister.
I'm hoping you might make a deal.
A trial would just humiliate her.
Dennis It's okay.
What're you doing? Wendy, Wendy, Wendy.
You don't discuss my case with him.
Wendy, I'll handle this.
I don't care if he hired you, he's not the client.
If you want to discuss my case, you talk to my lawyer.
Sorry about that.
I assume that you'll be giving notice of an insanity defense.
Nope.
I'll be in touch about a plea.
My client is willing to plead to the two counts of second degree murder.
In return, you'll agree to a sentence of 20-to-life, and you won't oppose parole.
Twenty-to-life? Have you explained to your client that even if she took her chances at trial, the most she'd get is 25-to-life? Assuming she gets parole.
Before we go any further, I'd like Ms.
Teal to tell us what happened that night.
Okay.
I was off my meds.
My mind was racing and I was having these awful thoughts about the British girl who lived across from Charlie.
I thought she was trying to steal him away from me.
I tried to discourage Charlie, but Charlie was weak.
And when I went to his place that night, I saw he had flowers.
I I thought for her.
I took the flowers to her apartment, I brought a knife to cut up the flowers And things got out of control.
Do you remember stabbing Geraldine? Yes.
I I killed Colin first when he answered the door.
Then, Geraldine came into the room, and I killed her, too.
I was so angry.
Then I set them on fire, and I ran away.
I I'm sorry.
I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway.
Where did you go? The emergency room.
I knew I needed a shot, that I was out of control.
My client was manic, but she knew what she was doing.
And now, this is what she wants.
We'll get back to you.
It's not just the lawyer pushing for a deal, it's the brother, too.
She admitted killing two people, she knew right from wrong and she wants to take a plea.
Who are we to say no? What if she was legally insane when she committed the crime? And what if after sitting in jail for a while she decides she's not quite as sorry as she is right now? Do we want to risk a reversal on appeal? I can tell you what everyone else in the E.
R.
Saw.
She was, uh, disheveled, barefoot, wearing only a bra and filthy sweatpants, talking a mile a minute What was she saying? The recurring themes? She's the little girl no one wanted, she needs her sweetie bear She said that she was off her meds.
Could you tell how long it'd been? That's an area I can't It relates to her fitness to stand trial.
She had a four-month-old old prescription with three unused refills.
Once she finished the original prescription, she never refilled it.
Three months without her meds? She was in a full-fledged psychotic episode.
And that's why you held her for observation.
I didn't do that.
Soon as she stabilized, she checked herself out.
But that's what you told her brother, that you were keeping her for observation.
No.
I told him on the phone that she'd already left the hospital.
That's not what he told us.
He said that by the time he got here, she was already gone.
If he was here, I didn't see him.
Uh, can you direct me to security? Sure.
Okay.
There's Wendy.
That driver just abandoned her there? You can't make out the license plate.
Well, there's this instead.
Eastside Day Academy.
It's where Dennis Teal teaches drama.
And he has a black '97 Honda registered to his name.
I gather Mr.
Teal told the police a different story from what we're seeing.
He told them the hospital called to inform him that his sister, who he hadn't seen in months, was in their emergency room.
He ran to her rescue.
He was protecting her.
Well, now, he's pushing for a deal that'll send her to prison for 20 years.
He's being a realist.
I read her statement.
She said she knew what she was doing, there's no basis for an insanity defense.
Am I right? Connie felt we should dot our "I's".
Consider them dotted.
Make the deal.
No, but her brother was the one that Connie, we should all be so lucky to have a sibling who puts their neck out for us.
Well, I'll pass on Dennis Teal's martyr act.
Cold.
Let's just draw up the plea agreement.
Mike, Wendy told us when she was doing the murders, she knew it was wrong.
But according to the E.
R.
Doctor, she didn't express remorse or even talk about having done something bad, despite the fact that she was full-on manic and running off at the mouth.
Do we really need to dot this "l"? I want to know what she talked about with her brother before he dumped her at the hospital.
I only went down to the hospital because I thought Wendy was there.
Really? Well, that's Wendy, and that's your car, and that's a time stamp two hours before the doctor called you.
I thought she'd been raped.
Then, she said she'd hurt some people.
Why didn't you call the police? I know it sounds crazy, but I blame myself for what happened to her.
I'd been avoiding her ever since she tried to have me arrested.
When I saw her like that I was ashamed.
What exactly did she tell you? She just kept saying how she'd done a bad thing.
I asked her where her clothes were, she said she'd gotten blood on them.
At that point, I didn't need to know the details.
I told her I was going to take her to the hospital and she could get her medication.
Then you dumped her at the E.
R.
And took off.
Empathize much? I panicked.
Between Wendy and my late mother, and the new baby, everything landed on my shoulders.
I'm trying to take care of my sister.
Even though she acts like she doesn't want to live in my home, even though she won't take her meds and drinks like a fish I've got to try.
Mr.
Teal, you realize she's violating the terms of her bail? Well, what am I going to do, force her to take her pills? I don't want to make her angry.
Oh, there's my ride.
Well, I know one brick we can take off his shoulders.
Remaining on her medication was a condition of Ms.
Teal's parole.
Instead, she's been self-medicating with alcohol.
What's the evidence to support Mr.
Cutter's outrageous allegation? A statement by the defendant's brother.
Oh, you son of a bitch! Order.
How can you do this? You don't care! Ms.
Teal You have no soul.
That's enough, young lady.
Bail is a privilege, not a right.
You have abused that privilege.
I'm revoking your bail.
You heartless bastard! Ms.
Teal I'm not garbage! You can't throw me out! Escort Ms.
Teal from the courtroom.
No! I want my sweetie bear! Ms.
Teal, please! Mom promised me! I want it! Mom, I want my sweetie bear! The very fact that she got rid of her bloody clothes indicates a consciousness of guilt and argues against legal insanity.
We've dotted every "l", Connie.
It's time to get that plea agreement on paper.
Tell me what you make of this.
It's an attachment to her medical file.
It says there was a medical trust for Wendy.
A medical trust to do what? Her mom set it up and appointed Dennis to supervise Wendy's psychiatric care.
He can't be held responsible if she refuses.
Well, it's pretty hard to take your meds if you don't have them in the first place.
He hadn't filled her prescriptions in three months.
A.
D.
A.
Rubirosa.
Uh, yes.
Thank you.
Thanks for calling.
Wendy just hanged herself at Rikers.
I don't know about you, Mike, but I'm beginning to think this is exactly what Dennis Teal wanted all along.
The payphone's there for the prisoners to use.
She said she wanted to call her lawyer.
She was out of the guard's sight less than seven minutes.
This is all your fault, you and your pal.
I wanted to take care of her.
Oh, really? Then why did you let her go without her medication for three months? We read the medical trust.
Serves me right for trying to be a good son, a good brother.
Thank you for meddling in our family! That guy likes to feel sorry for himself.
Mmm-hmm.
I got you the sister's burglary complaint.
She listed everything in her mother's apartment.
"Sweetie Bear, small bronze object, "complainant reports it's priceless.
" You know, in the E.
R.
And in the courtroom, she kept saying she wanted her sweetie bear, that her mom had promised it to her.
And here she is, saying her brother stole it, whatever it is.
Is her mom's stuff still in that locker? Hey, does this look like a bear to you? That must be Wendy.
That's an awfully sweet looking bear.
Yeah, and expensive.
It looks Chinese.
I'm just saying Chinese bronze.
It dates back to the Western Han Dynasty, circa 200 BC.
Wendy's grandfather traveled to Asia for a paper company, and he probably bought it on one of his trips.
A 2,000 year old antique must have more than sentimental value.
I found out that it's up for auction next month in London, for a conservative estimate of $300,000.
What, that same bear? Mmm-hmm.
And I tracked down the seller, Dennis Teal.
Check out the address he gave the London auction house.
26 Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, London.
Colin and Geraldine's vacant apartment in London.
Dennis Teal stole the bear from his mother's estate with the full intent of selling it and keeping all the proceeds for himself.
He knew that Wendy would find out, so he stopped filling her prescriptions, knowing that she would either end up dead or locked up.
Either way, he gets access to her assets, including proceeds from their mother's estate.
And in the meantime, he finds out about the British students living across from Wendy's boyfriend, and he uses their London address for the auction to hide his tracks from Wendy.
Bottom line is he drove his sister crazy to steal her share of a rare and precious art object.
I think she's nailed Mr.
Teal.
Mmm-hmm.
And us.
If you feel like saying "I told you so," by all means, go ahead.
I'd rather say "gotcha" to Dennis Teal.
Well, we can start by charging him for Geraldine and Colin's murder.
Wendy had a history of suicide attempts and violence during psychotic episodes.
Dennis knew it.
Nonetheless, with depraved indifference, he withheld medication from her.
Good.
Now go sell that to a jury.
I'd just finished nursing my mother through her final illness.
And I'd just become a father for the first time.
My wife and I were strapped for cash, so I'd been tutoring, which made me less available for Ellen and the baby.
Wendy was always my responsibility, but she couldn't be my first priority anymore.
Did you deliberately fail to get her prescriptions filled? Of course not.
I thought she could handle filling them herself.
I was wrong.
I dropped the ball, I'm sorry.
Did her behavior give you reason to think she wasn't taking her medication? No.
If I'd noticed her behavior changing, I would have done something, but she seemed fine.
How about the night that you dropped her off at the emergency room? Of course she was manic, but she told me that she'd gotten angry at the British girl, and she'd done something terrible, she needed my help.
She told me that she'd gotten rid of her bloody clothes, she told me that there was a knife, but she forgot where she put it.
Wendy was coherent and aware of what had happened.
If she was so rational, why did you rush her to the emergency room to get anti-psychotic medication? Like I said, she was manic, rational but manic.
And when she told me she'd gone off her meds, I was worried she'd hurt herself.
Then, Dennis, why did the E.
R.
Doctor diagnose your sister as being in a full-fledged psychotic episode? I can't answer that.
She didn't tell her that she did a terrible thing, that she hurt people.
I'd warned my sister not to say anything about what she did.
You coached her? In a way, yes, to protect her.
You coached her to say, "She's the little girl no one wanted, "that she needed her sweetie bear.
" That's what she told the doctor.
Of course, I didn't coach her to say that.
Look, I know that when you made your plea deal with her, she told you that she knew what she did was wrong.
That's after she'd been under house arrest in your home for a week, after you'd had time to coach her to say the words that would send her to prison.
I resent that.
Isn't that where you wanted her to go, to prison for 20 years, instead of a psychiatric hospital where she might get better? No, that's not true.
Wasn't that your plan all along, to get her out of the way, so that you could sell this valuable antique this bear, your sister's "sweetie bear", without her knowledge? No, I would not steal from my sister.
Then why did you try to sell it overseas, using a false address? Wendy knew all about that.
It was her idea.
She said there'd be some kind of tax advantage.
That we wouldn't have to pay estate taxes.
What did I know? She was the CPA in the family.
So you're saying that your psychotic bipolar sister came up with this scheme? Yes.
She's the one who gave me the address in London.
Maybe I was naive.
I should have asked questions.
Mr.
Teal, you are unbelievable.
Objection.
Mr.
Cutter has evidently run out of pertinent questions.
Sustained.
When push came to shove, Dennis Teal threw his sister under a bus, and made her out to be some tax-evading cheat.
He just handed the jury reasonable doubt on a silver platter.
A side issue.
Your whole theory of the crime was a stretch to begin with.
Maybe a stretch to prove, but that's what happened.
Sometimes justice is only about what you can prove.
Then, let's change the theory of the crime to something we can prove.
Dennis conspired with Wendy to sell the antique overseas and avoid estate taxes.
When Geraldine and Colin found out they were using their address, Wendy killed them.
Except by definition, you can't conspire with a psychotic person, there's no meeting of the minds.
Except, Dennis and his lawyer just spent the better part of the day arguing that Wendy was rational.
Fine, then, let's steer into the skid.
You want to paint Wendy Teal as a conspirator and a cold-blooded killer when you have evidence to the contrary? This isn't a con you're running on a defendant in some back room.
You're in open court, in front of a jury.
Either Wendy was a victim of her brother's manipulation, or she was a tax-cheating co-conspirator.
Not both.
I am not going to apologize for doing what needs to be done to put this monster behind bars.
A trial is a truth-seeking process, not a vehicle for you to obscure the truth to win a conviction at all costs.
You have a greater duty than that.
I want to see him behind bars, too.
The People have not shown my client's failure to fill Wendy's prescriptions caused a psychotic break or caused her to commit the murders.
Dennis was a good brother, but he couldn't be with his sister every hour of every day.
Nobody could.
What she did was tragic, but it was not his fault.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in my opening statement, I told you that I would establish that Mr.
Teal intentionally caused his sister to experience a psychotic break, fully aware of her potential for violence, and that Wendy killed the two victims while in that psychotic state.
As you just heard, the defense suggests that I failed to meet my burden of proof.
The defense is correct.
I did.
But what the evidence elicited at this trial does prove beyond any reasonable doubt is that Dennis Teal conspired with his sister to commit tax fraud by selling a valuable heirloom overseas.
We know this because the defendant admitted it here under oath.
We also know that they used the victims' London address to perpetrate their fraud.
And we know that Wendy killed the victims.
Now, even though the People are under no obligation to prove motive, it's reasonable to infer that the victims were killed when they discovered their address was being used for a tax fraud.
Objection.
Overruled.
But Your Honor, he can't I said overruled, now sit down.
Mr.
Cutter, continue.
Thank you, Your Honor.
Now, it doesn't matter if Wendy acted with or without her brother's consent.
As he admitted, they conspired together, and he is liable for any acts she committed in furtherance of their crime.
In the eyes of the law, you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound.
That's why you have to find Dennis Teal guilty of both murders.
Your Honor, I want his whole summation stricken.
He cannot suddenly offer a completely different theory of a crime from what he has prosecuted in this courtroom for the last two weeks.
I haven't changed a single element of the crime.
I simply incorporated a new fact offered by Ms.
Grubman's own client, that he conspired with his sister.
Ms.
Grubman, you're bound by the testimony of your own client.
Mr.
Cutter is within his rights to put that testimony in a new light.
But his whole premise is absurd.
Wendy is an unmedicated bipolar psychotic.
It's black letter law that you cannot enter into a conspiracy with someone who is mentally incompetent.
I agree.
Except "If I'd noticed her behavior changing, "I'd have done something, but she seemed fine.
"She was manic, rational but manic.
"She was coherent and aware of what had happened.
" The defendant's own words in this courtroom not 24 hours ago.
And what better witness to Wendy's mental state than her caring, long-suffering big brother? Ms.
Grubman, your objection is overruled.
Mr.
Cutter's summation will stand.
I will now charge the jury and send them to deliberations.
You work all your life trying to make people happy, trying to keep your sister from flying off the deep end, mediating, walking on eggshells, trying not to upset, and then this happens.
Not that I blame Wendy, she couldn't help herself.
If it was just me, I could take this, but my wife Ellen, and the baby, this is so unfair to them.
And then this one, take the stand, she says, testify about Wendy's state of mind.
What do I know about it? I'm no expert, I'm no psychiatrist, I'm just a drama teacher.
Jesus! You're an infant, Mr.
Teal.
Do you think your life sucks now? Wait 'til you see where you wake up tomorrow.
And unlike your sister's condition, this will be a nightmare of your own making.
The offer is the same one you urged your sister to take, 20-to-life.
No.
I may not have gone to law school, but I know Dennis, it'll be worse if we wait for a verdict.
Bluff much? Send us the paperwork.
He took 20-to-life.
I heard.
I'm not sure congratulations are in order.
We avenged Wendy Teal.
By assassinating her character and tarnishing yours?