LAW & ORDER {LAW AND ORDER}: EVIL BREEDS (TV)
Summary
The first of two programs on this asset. One in this series of dramas that deals with the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of criminals. The first half of each episode concerns the police procedure that leads to the arrest of a suspect, while the second half covers the efforts of the district attorney to prosecute the case. In this episode, 78-year-old Leah Glaser is found murdered in her home, and the detectives initially suspect a push-in robbery, especially after hearing neighbor Stan Wallace describe how his telescope was taken in a similar incident. Green and Briscoe find that the same home health aide, Pauline Morris, cared for Stan, Leah and several other robbery victims, and when Stan's telescope is found in her home, they trace the robbery to Pauline's ex-con fiancé Joe and his sidekick Johnny, though they both firmly deny murdering anyone. Leah's daughter Rebekkah arrives from Israel and explains that her mother was in a concentration camp during World War II and became involved with an oral history project about the Holocaust, and Green and Briscoe find that she was also planning to testify against an accused Nazi, Stefan Anders, whom she recognized from the camp, in an effort to get him deported.
Leah's prized locket is quickly found in Anders' home, and photographic evidence definitively proves that he worked in the camp, though he denies killing her and protests that he was merely an "escort" for the prisoners, not a murderer. His lawyer, Jensen, files a motion to prevent the prosecution from characterizing Anders as a Nazi during the trial, suggesting that he intends to use a Holocaust-denier argument. McCoy is disgusted, though Branch guesses that it is merely a stalling tactic, and DNA evidence soon places Anders at the crime scene, though the fingerprints do not match, suggesting that he had an accomplice. Wondering how Anders is affording a pricey defense attorney, the detectives find that he has received financial aid from his many Neo-Nazi supporters, including record producer Kyle Mellors, whose label specializes in racist music material. Mellors states that he is funding Anders' case simply for the publicity, but his fingerprints soon place him at Leah's apartment. Mellors then claims that her death was an accident and Anders was uninvolved, but McCoy declares that he will prosecute them both for murder.
During the trial, Jensen argues that Anders' and Mellors' DNA is only outside of Leah's apartment, not inside, and Mellors' co-worker claims that their label produces controversial music for the sole purpose of making money, though McCoy points out that it deliberately seeks to incite violent hate crimes, such as Leah's murder. Anders again claims that he was merely a soldier during the war and that Leah had confused him with another Nazi guard, arguing that he had no motive to kill her, as her death only accelerated his deportation. Despite Jensen's protests, McCoy screens Leah's videotaped testimony for the Shoah project for the jury, and she emotionally describes a polite yet "cold" guard who ruthlessly executed six women, including her own sister, and states that it was Anders himself. Anders and Mellors are both found guilty, and McCoy muses that the verdict seems to apply to both Leah's death as well as Anders' much-older crimes. Commercials deleted.
(For credits and synopsis for the second program on this asset, "Can I Get a Witness?", see ACCNUM 127077.)
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 30, 2003 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:43:20
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:88563
- GENRE: Drama, police/detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/detective; Drama, legal
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1990-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Peter Jankowski … Executive Producer
- Jeffrey Hayes … Executive Producer
- Matthew Penn … Executive Producer
- Dick Wolf … Executive Producer, Created by
- Arthur W. Forney … Co-Executive Producer
- Richard Sweren … Co-Executive Producer
- Wendy Battles … Co-Executive Producer
- Eric Overmeyer … Co-Executive Producer
- Roz Weinman … Co-Executive Producer
- William N. Fordes … Supervising Producer
- Gary Karr … Supervising Producer
- Kati Johnston … Producer
- Mark Guggenheim … Producer
- Lorenzo Carcaterra … Producer
- Aaron Zelman … Producer
- Kathy O'Connell … Associate Producer
- Janis Diamond … Consulting Producer
- Constantine Makris … Director
- Noah Baylin … Writer
- Barry Schindel … Writer
- Mike Post … Music by
- Jerry Orbach … Cast, Detective Lennie Briscoe
- Jesse L. Martin … Cast, Detective Ed Green
- S. Epatha Merkerson … Cast, Lt. Anita Van Buren
- Sam Waterston … Cast, Jack McCoy
- Elisabeth Röhm … Cast, A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn
- Fred Dalton Thompson … Cast, Arthur Branch
- George Bartenieff … Cast, Stefan Anders
- Logan Marshall-Green … Cast, Kyle Mellors
- Will Chase … Cast, Mellors' Co-Owner
- Jordan Charney … Cast, Judge Donald Karan
- Patrick Collins … Cast, Dennis Mendenhall
- William Atherton … Cast, Dan Jensen
- Al Freeman Jr. … Cast, Stan Wallace
- Maryann Urbano … Cast, Rebekkah Meisner
- Jon Krupp … Cast, Graham Wilson
- J. Tucker Smith … Cast, Alec Brenner
- Daniel Cantor … Cast, David Levinson
- Walt McPherson … Cast, Douglas Ashby
- Brenda Thomas Denmark … Cast, Leslie Nelson
- Santo Fazio … Cast, Joe Vasquez
- Mary Jo Mecca … Cast, Pauline Morris
- Shirl Bernheim … Cast, Leah Glaser
- Eunice Wong … Cast, Denise Lu
- Jonathan Tindle … Cast, Thomas Anders
- George Feaster … Cast, Johnny Kagan
- Angela Forrest … Cast, Clerk
- Patricia R. Floyd … Cast, Melanie Gardner
- Tom Aulino … Cast, Hospital Administrator
- Jimmy Palumbo … Cast, Husband
- Lois Robbins … Cast, Laurie
- Kola Ogundiran … Cast, West African Delivery Guy
- Joe Wachowski … Cast, Guitarist
- Richard E. Hirschfeld … Cast, Assistant M.E. Brody
- Keong Sim … Cast, Chinese Delivery Man
- William H. Burns … Cast, Uniform Cop
- Maureen Flynn … Cast, Jury Foreperson