Episode 18/8: Illegal

Fan Review by Mari

CAUTION: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!

An immigration rally in Central Park sets the stage for the deadly shooting of a young El Salvadoran woman, who crawls from the park to an alley before she dies of her abdominal wound.

Green and Lupo manage to track down the decedent's sister, Inez, who tells them that the demonstration started out okay, but soon got rowdy, and like any public gathering, was affected by trouble-makers who were not there to demonstrate their political beliefs, but to cause havok and riot, throwing bottles and rocks at attending police. But who and what is responsible for the fatal shooting?

Maria, the victim, had a camera in her cellphone, and a tattooed gangbanger is caught roughing her up. When the detectives confront him, he shows them a graze bullet wound on his thigh, and asserts he wasn't the one doing any shooting, the cops were.

The bullet is found embedded in a tree, and is found to be from a Glock-19, which many NYPD officers carry, and the blood found on it is Maria's.

As soon as it gets out that it might be a cop-involved shooting, the Chief of D and the other honchos waltz in to tell McCoy what is what for this investigation, and attempt to have Lt. Van Buren, Green and Lupo excluded from continuing trying to piece the puzzle together. IAB wants to take over everything, but McCoy refuses to oust Van Buren and her team, and also refuses to be intimidated by NYPD or IAB.

It is here that we find out a little more about the character Lupo. He's reluctant to take part in the case further because he has a blemished past: losing his partner to a shooting while he was hungover in the car. Does that mean he had a problem with alcoholism? Or was it just a bad morning after a good party? Who knows? Maybe we'll know more later. I know I've said that I hope they stay sparing of character stuff, but in Lupo's case, my curiosity about his life is pretty high. By the way, I haven't seen Sis-In-Law Jenny in a while! I admit I'm curious about that too. I still balk at the thought of Green having the hots for her, but now it seems that she's just an attractive woman and he's a normal guy who checked her ass once or twice, nothing more. Ever since it was revealed that Jenny broke Lupes' heart (recent interview with Sisto) I have been crazy-curious!

But enough about that for now. Van Buren won't be intimidated by IAB either, and replenishes Lupo's courage. She's a good boss.

McCoy has more than the Chief and IAB to contend with it turns out. One of his most respected ADAs, Josh Lathem (guest star John Pankow) takes the case, and seems intent on undermining everything McCoy is trying to get accomplished with the cop-shooting investigation.

A local news video reveals a cop on camera with what looks like a real gun, not the beanbag and tear gas guns that the police are supposed to use in peaceful protests that go amok. Green and Lupo find that the cop on camera is not exactly a cop, but rather one of the auxilary (I never have known how to spell this word, just in case it's misspelled!) police, a "wannabe" who probably aspires to get into the academy one day. When he admits to owning a Glock, the wannabe, a young man whose parents are Bosnian refugees, is arrested for the fatal shooting.

Meanwhile, instead of concentrating on doing his job correctly, Lathem berates Van Buren for allowing Lupo on the case with his "past". It's all a ploy to avoid doing what he should be doing. Connie Rubirosa gets disgusted when Lathem puts their one witness, the kid with the gang tattoo, on the stand, and instead of gathering the valuable testimony that will bring the facts of the shooting to light, wrings HIS past, all irrelevant to the case, out of him. Lathem claims he was "speaking to the character and credibility of the witness" for everyone's benefit and for the good of this case. And of course, the Bosnian auxilary officer, Rodchenko, is not indicted by the jury. Lathem...what a conniving little snot. Why he's so in love with the police is beyond me, but it's pretty clear. He doesn't want to help anyone prosecute a cop, even an auxilary one.

McCoy is disgusted with Lathem's crap too, and boots him not only off the case, but out of the office, and for good reason. Lathem shoots his mouth off about McCoy's "leftist liberal agenda" but come on...the asswipe has his own agenda and is a liar if he says it isn't so.

Michael Cutter replaces Lathem, and the investigation is resumed, hoping for an indictment this time. With the help of a couple of old-time audio experts who cracked some famed cases, it is revealed that Rodchenko was actually ordered to fire into the rowdy crowd of demonstrators. The police have to be subpoenaed in order to gain their cooperation now, and quite a lot of surprises are revealed once Rodchenko is back on the stand.

That's all I'll say. It's a good and surprising episode. Lathem is a character worthy of booing and hissing, and big cheers for McCoy, Van Buren and Cutter.