Law & Order "Turn the Page" 2/1/2024 (spoilers)
From
Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to
All on Mon Feb 5 06:41:24 2024
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I truly despised this episode and didn't want to think about it any more
to write it up, but I'm doing so anyway.
A blonde is stalked and murdered. Her hair and makeup don't seem quite appropriate. She's in her late 20s but looked more like a 20 year old
going to a party. Well, she did go to a certain kind of party.
The method of murder was, shall me say, overkill. They kept emphasizing
that her hyoid bone was smashed, plus the cervical vertebrae (I think
that's the top one just at the connection to the brain stem), and a
third feature.
Now, I could have sworn from episodes of Quincy M.E. and plenty of other
shows that the bone is connected to your Adam's Apple and sort of floats
a bit, connected to muscle but not to ligaments connecting to other
bones. It's important to note at autopsy because if it's destroyed,
that's clear evidence of death by hanging or strangulation, some sort of ligature around the neck. They always look for this.
At trial, Price confused the hell out of me by saying it's behind the
mandible (well, part of it is) and pointing to the side of his neck,
rather than the front middle at the top of the Adam's Apple. Some other
bone I hadn't heard of that's critical to determining cause of death? He
got the anatomy somewhat wrong, and claimed it was difficult to crush.
That's just not consistent with what I've learned from years of watching
tv.
I'm not sure how the cervical vertebrae was smashed. That's like
whacking someone hard on the back of the neck, but he did this after
death, I think. I couldn't follow what the guy actually did. It just
seemed pointless as the victim was dead.
Yee looks in the database and comes up with exactly the same kind of
overkill on four other victims. Riley worked one of the cases!
Then, without giving Shaw any background details of the case, Riley
starts asking questions of the former boyfriend that they'd been
treating as a suspect but decided he wasn't a suspect in the other
deaths. (He was ruled out with hand waiving.) Also, his DNA wasn't a
match for the trace evidence on her body. (We never saw them obtain a
search warrant.)
Ok, so the questions Riley asks are whether she was a prostitute (he
said sex worker, which aren't always prostitutes). Shaw is livid and
tries to stop him, but finally gets the boyfriend to admit that she
attends this free love club and enjoys hooking up.
That explains the hair and makeup.
Shaw backs off, but then we get to The Very Special Lesson: Shaw starts
blaming Riley for how the murders of the four prostitutes weren't solved because they were black. Again: Riley worked just one of the murders and
wasn't aware of the others. He got suspended from duty during this
period and the case was reassigned and never closed. He insisted to Shaw
that he worked hard on the case as he would any case. Shaw gave him a condescending "Good to know".
They go to the sex club to serve a supoena for all their video and
records. How did they get Erin Reagan to ask a judge for a supoena? The
club wasn't the crime scene and there was no suspicion that a crime of
any kind had taken place there. I've never understood what rules apply
to obtaining supeonas at evidence gathering stage when sensitive or confidential records may contain the evidence the police need.
They find their prime suspect who turns out to be someone Riley had
interviewed but hadn't considered as a suspect.
The setup for the massive stoopid begins. Halevi indicts on the one
murder. She also tells the judge about the four earlier murders that
they might indict on later in order to keep him in pre-trial
confinement. She's not allowed to use undicted crimes as an argument
to hold the defendant during the bond hearing!
Again, Price is in court but not at the prosecution table. Why?
He doesn't have time to watch his junior get indictments. They get
accosted by the father of one of the prostitutes; I don't think it's
from Riley's case.
In the meeting with Jack, Maroun starts arguing that they have to indict
on the other murders. They have a SERIOUS discussion, for the first time
ever, about how a case cannot be tried given the lack of evidence. Jack
orders them to proceed on the indictment for the one murder and not the
others. This must be a substitute Jack who is unaware of how many
episodes he's greenlit Price to proceed to trial with zero evidence.
Then we get to one of the worst courtroom scenes I've ever seen. The
defense cross examines the manager of the sex club and gets her describe
the "comfortable" dungeon for S&M play.
(Hey idiot writers, the dom makes the sub UNCOMFORTABLE else it's not S&M.)
She implies that the injuries took place in the club.
Price once again sits in stunned silence. Defense is once again allowed
to make shit up. If ANY of the three fatal injuries had occured during
S&M "play", the victim would have been dead.
That would be the nature of a fatal injury.
She couldn't have been on the street walking away from the club.
This convinces Price that he's got to bring up "evidence" of the four
earlier murders. In chambers, the defense argues prejudicial.
Well, duh.
The judge allows it.
Dixon, and not Yee, takes the stand to introduce the four earlier
murders. But the defense calls Riley as a rebuttal witness! Wait. What?
Riley explains on the stand that he had interviewed the defendant but
didn't consider him to be a suspect at the time. Defense then insists
that Riley CLEARED him as a suspect; Price objects (doesn't state a
proper objection). Sustained.
Price decides he's going to impeach Riley. Jack is horrified but allows
it. Price then has a discussion with Dixon and gives her no choice but
to turn over Riley's disiplinary file.
Ok. Dixon wouldn't have that. That would be Internal Affairs or the
civilian disciplinary board, but not Dixon.
We get the story on Riley's suspension. It's a variation on Mike Logan's
story, except Riley didn't punch his own boss (that would be Dixon) but
her boss, who had made rude comments to her. Riley was probably drunk,
and had been drinking, sometimes on the job, as his father was dying.
Dixon liked that he was her white knight.
On the stand, Price tries to make it seem like Riley was drunk at the
time he interviewed the defendant which is why he didn't consider him to
be a suspect at the time.
I can't see how this didn't do anything for the state's case but it
would have confused the jury.
Riley is not upset at Price for impeaching him. Instead, he brings in
three photographs of three different victims wearing jewelry found in
the defendant's home that he'd kept as trophies.
Price asks, "Is this what I think it is?"
Somehow Riley just found these photographs through the miracle of PLOT.
Price doesn't have to introduce it as evidence. I doubt he'd even
introduced the jewelry as evidence during prosecution as he had no
ability to connect it to any of the previous victims. Again, no
indictment on these deaths.
Oh, the defendant was on the stand at one point to rebut the
connectionto the earlier victims (this part made no sense). The father
of one of the victims started screaming in court. I thought there should
have been some discussion as to whether a mistrial had occured but it's
glossed over.
Price ends up using the photographs of the three victims wearing jewelry
pieces -- again, none of this is part of Price's case -- in his closing argument.
This episode got nothing at all right.
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