Miscarriage
I have been seeing the new A&E drama "100 Centre
Street." While some may have some reservations, I feel this show at least
has some promise.
In the first episode of "100 Centre Street," there was a section,
which grabbed my attention and got me thinking of a great L&O ep idea. To
make things sweeter, I will be adding a lot of the main characters from Centre
Street. They won't be playing their usual roles, but would still be rather
interesting.
To make this quick, I will divide this into three sections. Feel free to add
some more detail if you wish. Here we go then.
Parts 1&2 will be the usual "Law" part whereby it begins in Van
Buren's office. She was grilled by the city brass to get the crime rate down
and to be on the lookout for violent felonies. A call comes into the squad
room. Lennie and Ed are told to investigate a brutal robbery of a Korean store
owner. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to go on and the owner can't ID
the perp. During this first half, Lennie and Ed conduct their usual
investigation and follow some leads. They were told there was a suspicious
person who would commit robberies and beatings, but couldn't really be proven.
Worse yet, this perp doesn't have a record since he has been elusive to catch.
But after some breaks, Lennie and Ed catch their man for robbing a stereo shop.
This isn't what the brass wanted, but crimes are crimes and perhaps he could be
linked to the more brutal list of beatings and assaults.
Part 3-The case is brought to trial. The perp is arraigned by Abby as usual
before LaTayna Richardson (Attila the Hun). The attorney representing the perp
is no other than Ramon. Attalla remands the person to Rikers after having
another spout with Ramon.
Jack meets with Nora to see who should try this case. Abby wants to volunteer,
but she is swamped with a caseload already. So Jack reluctantly gives the case
to Bobby Esposito. Remember the actors playing these people in "100 Centre
Street" would be different characters. The presiding judge in the trial is
played by Alan Arkin, whose character is like the "Let em go Joe"
judge.
Bobby's character is that of a greenhorn, a person who has had no experience at
all. Ramon goes to Arkin's character asking for some bail. Since Bobby is
unprepared, he confuses the perp with a person on trial for misdemeanors. Being
all alone, Bobby is overwhelmed by Ramon's passionate speech and the judge's
attitude. The perp is given bail in the small amount of $1,000. His father
posts bail and the perp flees.
When Jack hears of this, he is upset, but not necessarily with Bobby. He is
furious with Judge Joe for again being too liberal on the bench. Nora is
thinking about going after him, like she did with Judge Wright, but then says
no since the election is coming up.
Later that night in Jack's office, he gets a call from Lennie. It turns out
that a police officer, trying to quiet down a domestic dispute the perp had
with a girlfriend got a gun and shot the officer. When Van Buren, Lennie, and
Ed get to the scene, Jack rushes by to tell them Judge Joe was shot dead at his
apartment by a partner of the dead officer.
Part 4-It turns out the police officer who shot the judge who allowed the perp
to shoot the other officer was a nephew of Lennie's female friend from
"Corruption." Seems like a lot. To make matters worse, the judge
presiding this case is none other than Judge Hellman from
"Corruption."
When the trial begins, Lennie is there to see what happens. As Judge Hellman
enters the chambers and everyone rises, Lennie refuses. Judge Hellman threatens
him with contempt. Lennie just storms out of the courthouse.
The trial of the officer killing the judge turns into an insanity defense when
he claims that he lost control since he was facing family problems at home and
could always depend on his partner to ease the tension. The officer defendant
claims that since the criminal justice system is out of control and nothing can
be done, he had to take matter into his own hands.
After some negotiations, Jack accepts a plea on the officer for man 1
diminished capacity and 15 years. He walks out of his office and sees Lennie.
Lennie and Jack try to make sense of what's happened and then go their separate
ways. In the final scene though, they are seen together at the joint funeral of
the dead officer and dead judge hosted by the city. Mayor Guiliani has a cameo
role. BTW, nothing is further mentioned about the perp who killed the officer
in the first place.
Re-capping the guest stars:
Mayor Guiliani as himself
Lennie's female friend from "Corruption"-Caroline Kava.
Arraignment Judge of the Perp-LaTanya Richardson.
Trial Judge of the Perp-Alan Arkin.
Trial Judge of the Officer-Josef Sommer as Judge Hellman.
ADA who handled the perp's case-Joseph Lyle Taylor.
Legal Aid for the perp-The actor who plays Ramon Martinez.
Attorney for the Police officer who shot the judge-William Daniels.
Police Officer who shot the judge-Bobby Canavaele from "Third Watch."
Dan Lauria also comes in as the chief.
The title of the ep is "Miscarriage."
I hope you haven't been confused by this. But I wanted to put in some
"Centre Street" in "L&O." This might even be a
2-parter.
Hank74