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.
Those ticket agents. A $4.50 service charge
and they stick us way in the back.
Well, at least the music was wonderful.
I thought the strings were a bit shrill.
And the adagio?
Hmm. That tuna fish I threw out,
would you... would you put it out into the hall?
Mmm-hmm.
And open a window
so that we both don't die of the stench.
Hello, Doris. Why wouldn't I know who it was?
I can't go to the corner store without you calling.
Lincoln Center. Mozart.
Frankly, Masur was not in very good shape,
arriving when he did.
I was very disappointed.
However, I'd love to meet...
Lisa. Mmm-hmm.
Is your aunt still up? Mmm-hmm.
She forgot to sign her rent check again.
I'll take it in to her.
Except I thought
he was a little off every once in a while.
Looks like she caught it
heading for the side entrance.
Something wrong with the front door?
Courtyard's all the way around.
Neighbors say it's safer this way.
Most nights.
Kathleen Susan McKenna. $30 and change.
University student ID.
She can forget about her midterms.
Found a scarf just down the alley.
Ligature marks are consistent with the neck wound.
You check this wall? Blood. Tissue.
I have a feeling it's the victim's.
Got it. Witnesses over there.
Thanks.
I'm Det. Logan, this is Det. Briscoe.
You ladies saw something?
If you're expecting a description,
you can forget it.
With my cataracts, I can barely see you.
Was it some transient?
Kathleen McKenna. Know her?
Kathy? Oh, no.
She lived on the third floor. A lovely girl.
Well, maybe you remember something now?
Well, I... I remember voices, but, uh, disconnected.
I couldn't tell who.
When I opened the window I saw a man and woman
at the end of the alley, signir.
Signing?
Oh, It must have been her. Kathy McKenna was deaf.
My late husband was blind. Shrapnel in Korea.
After he died,
I decided to rent to the handicapped.
As a gesture, you know? Mmm-hmm.
And what kind of tenant was Miss McKenna?
She moved in about a year ago.
Never a problem.
Okay, Miss Chandler. Uh, if we need you,
we'll give you a call. Thank you very much.
Landlady's a wash. She paid her rent.
I'm surprised she found the time.
Wow! Popular girl, huh?
Detective, we've got a Ben Freed out here.
He says he's the boyfriend.
He's been told.
Yeah. Send him in.
This is all my fault.
Take it easy.
We were supposed to go out last night.
I should have been with her.
Well, what happened? Did she break the date?
She had to see somebody. She didn't say who.
God, I told her a thousand times.
At night, take a cab.
A thousand times.
Sounds like she was your steady.
We'd been going out a couple of months.
All my friends said the same thing.
"She's deaf. Don't rush into anything."
But we loved each other. We had plans.
After she broke the date, you make a new plan?
The library.
L... I was studying for exams until closing.
God.
No jewelry taken, no money.
Forensics checking out blood and tissue samples.
But I wouldn't hold my breath.
Your basic crime of passion.
Person or persons unknown.
Probably singular.
We got a witness says she saw a man and a woman
signing near the alley right before it went down.
Well, what about the boyfriend, he sign?
He said he was just learning.
Calls it one of the world's great romances.
Well, he bought that she was seeing a friend,
so maybe it was.
After just two months?
Nobody is that secure. You call the library?
Yeah, last night. Freed checked out
Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer and Nexus.
The lonely guy's reading list.
Fellows, there's a Mr. And Mrs. McKenna here.
That's Kathy's cousin, Eugene.
I took that
while he was visiting from Tacoma last summer.
This is Ben Freed.
Kathy was seeing him.
She talked about him all the time.
That one. That's Paul Crandall.
He's deaf, too.
Kathy and Paul used to see a lot of each other
when she first moved to the city.
But they werert that serious.
Most of these, I'm sure they're just pals.
If somebody was giving her trouble,
would she have told you?
I'd hope so.
Kathy was independent.
We brought her up that way.
She even talked about getting a cochlear implant.
She was told she was a good candidate for it.
It's a device inserted behind the ear.
If it worked, it would have
allowed her to hear sound, vibrations.
We took her to specialists.
"Put her in a deaf school."
"Don't put her in a deaf school."
We just wanted her to be happy.
If you want to identify these other photos,
you should talk to Corrine Sussman.
Kathy used to room with her at university.
Sure, Kathy had boyfriends.
The problem was with her hearing,
not the rest of her.
Well, uh, last time you noticed,
uh, who was leading the pack?
Ben. Those two were positively chemical.
As in combustible?
They'd argue. Who doesn't?
Kathy had a mind of her own.
God, it's so sad.
I can't believe I'm already referring to her in the past tense.
What about Paul Crandall?
How past tense was he?
Oh, Paul was the kind of guy you go out with once
because you feel sorry for him
and then it's "how do you get rid of him?"
He wanted her strictly to himself.
I remember once they were going to a lecture
and Kathy asked if I wanted to come along.
Paul freaked. He said it was for the deaf.
Like I'd contaminate the place.
Kathy let him have it.
So Kathy was more open-minded?
You know that Audrey Hepburn film, Sabrina?
It was Kathy's favorite.
She wanted to be just like the character in the movie.
"In the world and of the world."
What about when Paul and her werert attending lectures?
You mean, did she sleep with him?
In Paul's dreams, maybe.
No, Paul was a relic from Kathy's days at the institute.
The institute?
The Bryce Institute for the Deaf.
It's where they met.
I'm sorry. I have a midterm, okay?
Any luck with that address, Miss...
Any luck with that address, Miss Hendricks?
I don't have Paul's address.
He moves around a lot.
But I know he works at the garage
on West Street at 25th.
Dr. Bryce got him the job.
I'm sorry, Dr. Bryce.
These detectives are here about Kathy McKenna.
Hello, Doctor. Have you got a minute?
Of course. Just come in here.
I heard about Kathy this morning.
It's tragic. I, uh...
Especially under the circumstances.
What circumstances?
Well, last night,
I was with Jacob and Sonya Brinkman.
They pledged the money to expand
a program we have for deaf preschoolers.
The idea of the program originally was Kathy's
so I was going to put her in charge of it
after her graduation in June.
Well, I started to call her from the Brinkmans'
to give her the good news
but it was almost midnight.
Did you know anything about her personal life?
Like who she was involved with?
I'd met some of the men she'd dated.
Like Ben Freed?
Right, the... the hearing man, yes.
Well, those relationships are always difficult.
Paul Crandall more her type?
Oh, no, no. Not Paul.
You don't suspect Paul, do you?
We're talking to everybody she knew.
Paul's a very sweet boy, but he's very shy.
I don't think he's had much experience with women.
How much do you need to kill one?
Paul's one weird kid.
One hell of a mechanic.
That deaf school teaches them real good.
I tell you.
Did you ever see him with a girl?
She was deaf. Blonde.
Yeah. Yeah. They were in here a couple of weeks ago.
Got him pretty upset, too.
Kicked his toolbox
halfway across the garage after she left.
Maybe they patched things up.
Come on, man.
One of these guys got a babe waiting outside
they're out of here
by the time that clock strikes 5:00.
Paul was pulling 12, 15-hour shifts
and begging for more.
Which one of these was his?
See that Ford up on the perch?
He's supposed to be under it.
Is there any chance he took a break?
No, he got a call about a half hour ago on his beeper.
A deaf person with a beeper?
Yeah, you know,
the kind that vibrates inside your pocket.
He hasn't been back since.
Push the button.
It makes a light flash inside.
You know, Mike, I got this refrigerator.
The light keeps going out.
For the life of me,
I can't get the landlord to fix it.
I get it. I get it.
Today's newspaper.
I guess he wanted to make the morning edition.
Lennie.
Hm?
Wow. Everything but her baby pictures.
"Stop cochlear implants at NYU."
Cochlear implants.
Wasrt that the operation Kathy's parents were talking about?
Yeah. We got into a discussion about that once.
I said it sounded like a good idea.
He said it was like turning a black person white.
That make sense to you?
Ah, I guess it does to these guys.
L.O.U.D., 36 Greene Street.
Richard Fiorello, executive director.
Doctors play Frankenstein
with people's auditory nerves,
and that's okay.
But if some girl gets mugged,
it's "blame the deaf."
Kathy McKenna was deaf.
Kathy? You want to feel sorry for Kathy?
Feel sorry that someone convinced Kathy
that being deaf was something to be ashamed of.
Ask him if Paul got as worked up as him about this.
After Kathy broke up with Paul for a hearing man,
Paul couldn't think straight.
So you told him what to think?
Like last night?
I didn't see Paul last night.
Oh, come on, he's that sort of a guy.
Paul gets in some kind of trouble,
he comes to you.
Get out or I'll get our lawyer.
All right, get his attention.
Sometimes people hide for the wrong reasons
and they create the wrong impression.
That's why it's better
to just come out and clear the air.
Before the real trouble begins.
They're watchir us from the window.
Give it a minute.
I think he's in there. Lot of attitude, huh?
Hey, you know where they're coming from.
It's a whole different world.
Yeah. Well, these guys turned it into a cult.
Kathy wanted out,
Crandall wasrt about to let her.
Hey!
Hey, watch it.
Paul wants to know, is he under arrest?
Just some questions.
If he's got the answers, it'll be very simple.
I think the kid's been busted.
Hey, I want to believe you, Paul, I really do.
But unless you can give us some answers,
I have to assume the worst.
Or maybe he's just shy.
Or maybe he doesn't like the questions.
Like where was he last night around 11:00?
I worked at the garage until 6:00.
I took the bus to Richard's.
We played cards until midnight.
Two-handed poker?
Gina played, too.
You didn't see Kathy?
Fellows.
Fiorello's girlfriend called Dr. Bryce.
Does Paul need an attorney? I can get one down here.
He's not under arrest.
Then I want to be in there. He trusts me.
Go ahead.
Kathy and I
were in the same speech-therapy class at the institute.
The other students laughed at me.
I was a charity case.
L... I got Paul a scholarship.
You know how kids can be.
Kathy never laughed. We had a bond.
You bond with her lately?
I haven't seen Kathy in weeks.
So why the disappearing act?
I read about Kathy in the newspapers
and then, uh, Miss Hendricks telephoned me at the garage
to tell me you were looking for me.
And I got scared.
How did you feel
when Kathy started dating Ben Freed, Paul?
I mean, she drops you for a hearing guy. That must have hurt.
That's ridiculous. Paul's deaf.
Stop treating him like a psychopath.
I'm asking him the question.
I accepted it.
I knew that she'd be coming back.
Paul, she was getting a cochlear implant.
She was getting her hearing back.
You and your deaf buddies were history.
You think I'd kill her for that?
Somebody did this to her, Paul.
That's it. I'm putting an end to this!
No, I didn't kill Kathy. I didn't kill!
Forensics found no blood or skin under her nails
and the scarf she was strangled with
was from Doyal's.
Oh, good. So we get his coat, check for fibers.
No. The guy wore a leather coat from Goodwill.
We checked it. It was clean.
Crandall's LUDs. They just came in.
Thanks, Tony.
Uh-huh. This sound familiar? 555-8686?
Kathy McKenna's number.
This guy was calling her any more often,
he'd need a WATS line.
6:05, 7:10, he was calling her every night.
Makes you wonder what she said to him to shut him up.
He was pretty quiet the rest of the night.
Just one call, at 11:30 in the Village.
Oh, let me guess. Greene Street.
Fiorello? The guy who flipped you off with both hands?
The same guy Crandall was supposed to be
playing cards with at 11:30.
You know that phone for the deaf
that we got downstairs, the one you type on?
That spits out a printout, doesn't it?
Crandall had one like that in his apartment,
but I didn't see any printouts.
And when he talked with Kathy McKenna,
you think it was a one-sided conversation?
Those geniuses from CSU classified Kathy's TDD
as a "telephone answering machine."
I don't even want to know
what ended up under "kitchen appliances."
I don't get it. In the last week,
Crandall must have called at least 20 times.
Yeah. It's just our luck. She was a neat freak.
Ma'am, whers the last time they picked up the garbage?
Mr. Broda hasn't taken the garbage bin out
since last Friday.
How many apartments in this building?
30.
And they all have to eat eggs?
How about this guy?
It's all doughnuts and stroke magazines.
Yeah, well he's depressed, stays home a lot.
Damn. Hold it.
Find something?
Electric bill. "Kathleen... Kathleen S. McKenna."
Keep digging.
Pay dirt.
How you tell who's who on these things?
The caller's in caps.
Kathy's end is lowercase.
We've pieced three of these together.
Two of them are definitely from Crandall.
He IDs himself at the top.
And the third?
Partially damaged.
We can't confirm it's from Crandall,
but it does fit the pattern of his calls.
Caller:
"At least give me a chance to talk you out of this."
Kathy:
"Nothing to talk about."
Caller:
"You want an easy way out, but you owe me."
Kathy: "It always comes to that."
Caller: "Damn right."
Now here she types in "SK, SK."
That's code for "I'm getting off."
Caller: "You hang up, you bitch,
I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
The call before is from Kathy's mother.
She talks about going shopping tomorrow, Thursday.
So this call was on the Wednesday
that she was killed.
Right. Crandall calls her in the afternoon.
He begs her to take him back.
He threatens her. She hangs up.
He waits for her outside her place.
She still blows him off.
He kills her at 11:10,
he panics, and he runs home.
At 11:30 he calls Fiorello. "My God, I've killed Kathy."
Arrest him.
Paul Crandall, you're under arrest
for the murder of Kathy McKenna.
Read this.
In all my years of representing the disadvantaged
I have never seen such a spectacle.
As if Paul's deafness wasrt enough of a handicap,
you hobble him with a public arrest.
Mr. Crandall,
maybe you'd like to compare the bruises on your feelings
with the ones you left on Kathy McKenna's neck.
You have arraigned my client, you haven't convicted him.
There's nothing in that folder of yours
that connects him to this murder.
Which lie do you want to start with?
The one about the card game?
You don't like his alibi?
That's fine. Let's clear that up right now.
I lied because I was scared.
I saw Kathy that night.
I met her at the B and C Cafe in the Village.
We got into a taxi
and we went back to her place.
When I left,
she was standing on the sidewalk.
She was still alive.
It's more heart-warming than the first version.
But it leads to the same place,
a small room upstate.
The waitress at the cafe will testify
that their conversation
seemed rational and under control.
She understands sign language?
She's not blind, Mr. Robinette.
She understands body language.
And I also read English, young man,
including the printouts of Kathy McKenna's phone.
The threats are unmistakable.
And impossible to attribute to my client.
The best you can do today is man one.
Aim your 20l20s
at the big letters on the wall.
No direct evidence, no case.
I'll look for your letter of dismissal in the mail, gentlemen.
Kathy was my friend and a colleague.
And I'm devastated by her death.
But I have an obligation
that goes beyond my personal feelings.
An obligation to the future of my institute.
I don't want the public thinking of Paul Crandall
every time they read about the work we're doing.
Are you suggesting leniency for him?
Do you have any idea what the effect of a trial like this will be?
People use any excuse
to keep their checkbook in their pocket.
This isn't about signing checks.
It's about a girl being murdered.
You didn't know Kathy.
In time, she could've become dean of Gallaudet.
Her dedication was on the same level as my own
and I know if she were alive,
she would agree with my priorities.
We appreciate your concerns, Mr. Bryce.
We'll add them to the mix.
Thank you, Mr. Stone. Mr. Robinette.
First Rollins, then Bryce,
both sticking their fingers on the pity button.
Once their violins get in tune,
Crandall could get a jury to hum along.
He can't make them forget he's no more disabled than Kathy McKenna.
They won't see her deafness. They'll only see Crandall's.
That's all they'll care about, unless of course we can prove
that those are his words on the printout.
American Sign Language is a spatial-visual medium
with its own, uh, syntax.
Uh, to a hearing person, a word-for-word translation
of ASL sounds like broken English.
Uh, "I go to the store" comes out "Go store I."
They do any better on the typewriter?
Well, the deaf learn English grammar in school.
Uh, in formal settings they write as well as anyone.
But on the phone they relax.
Like everybody else.
But their grammatical mistakes are more subtle
and they acquire individual characteristics.
What about the 3:21 printout? Is it his?
Right, uh, the death threat.
Uh, I'm not surprised nobody picked up on it.
"At least give me a chance."
Pretty generic.
Except that there's no sign in ASL for "at."
It's not a word they'd commonly use.
Uh, same with "you want an easy way out."
The deaf don't differentiate between "a" and "an."
Prof. Durnars convinced
it was written by a hearing person.
Because of two words?
Crandall wrote pamphlets for his organization.
He's no stranger to English syntax.
If he didn't use "at" and "an"
in any of the other printouts,
I doubt he'd start in the heat of argument.
Ben Freed, Kathy's boyfriend said he was at the library
the night she was killed.
Briscoe and Logan werert able to pin down the time he left.
He killed her? Why? She stood him up?
Well, Kathy's roommate said
the relationship was combustible.
You add jealousy, anything's possible.
You mean she broke a date with him.
He waits for her. He sees her with Crandall.
Freed concludes
she didn't deserve to live without him.
You can't be serious.
I was in love with her, for God's sake.
All the more reason to be disappointed
when you saw her with Crandall.
I told you, I didn't know.
She loved me.
We were going to California together.
We were applying to USC. I have the forms.
Here.
It's to their MSW program.
She even signed it.
The deadline was two days after she died.
She changed her mind?
No. She was waiting
for a letter of recommendation from Gordan Bryce.
Bryce knew she was moving to California?
She'd been to see him about it, uh, three weeks ago.
Her parents confirmed Kathy was thinking
about going to graduate school with Freed.
The only hold-up
was a letter of recommendation from Bryce.
Bryce told us that Kathy would be working for him next year.
Well, maybe he thought
his claim on her should take precedence.
Bryce told the police
that he was with, uh, Jacob Brinkman
until 12:00 the night Kathy was killed.
Talk to Brinkman.
I doubt he keeps his eyes closed
when he gives away his money.
Sonya and I have a lot of affection for Gordon.
He's a little tough to take sometimes.
But thanks to him,
our son Jared has been able to live
something like a normal life.
Hard to take how?
He has a special kind of dedication.
If he smells a nickel in your pocket,
he'll get in your face
till he gets you to sign it over to his institute.
The night of the murder,
what time did he leave your house?
I'd have to ask Sonya.
We went to bed before 12:00.
You're sure?
11:30 p. m. Every night, I take digitoxin.
Bad heart.
Did Mr. Bryce say where he was going?
I don't know.
Mr. Robinette, Gordon may be a single-minded pain in the ass
but he didn't kill anybody, least of all Kathy McKenna.
You knew her?
We had dinner with Gordon and Kathy
a number of times.
She was more than his protégé?
I am not going to define his relationship with her.
He obviously liked her.
She probably was more in tune
with his goals than his first wife, Judith.
I was going up the stairs in the quad.
Gordors the only one who stopped to help.
I was easy pickings.
They can make crutches for everything
except your self-esteem.
Gordon got me off the crutches
and into feeling pretty good about myself.
So far, it doesn't sound like grounds for divorce.
I wanted a marriage.
Gordon wanted a cause.
He wanted to get everybody off crutches.
It made him feel important.
I just couldn't compete with an institute
full of needy people.
Being needed is not a bad thing.
Gordon needs to be needed.
That's his life work.
And he expected me to be right there
toiling alongside him, every minute of the day.
After 15 years, I called a lawyer.
How'd he take it?
Not well.
Disagree with Gordon on anything,
and it's a betrayal.
Have you ever seen this girl?
Yeah. I ran into them at the park a year ago.
He said she was committed.
To him or to the institute?
That would have to be the same thing.
The death threats were made by a hearing person.
Gordon Bryce routinely uses TDD phones.
We checked the LUDs from the institute.
They were three calls made to Kathy the day she was killed.
Fine, indict Gordon Bryce.
If he doesn't work out,
there's always the nun in Calcutta.
Bryce's wife told us that he doesn't take rejection kindly.
So if he takes Kathy McKenna under his wing
and he nurtures her, he's not about to cut her loose
and let her run off to California.
You cannot go forward
unless you place him at the scene.
Well, she was strangled with a scarf.
There could be fibers on his gloves, maybe even on his coat.
There might even be bloodstains.
Suspicion isn't probable cause
for a search warrant.
Without a warrant,
we can't even eliminate him as a suspect.
Who's on warrants today?
Judge Chabot, the policemars friend.
Okay.
You want to search the mars home and his office?
Wherever he hangs his hat, Judge.
There's nothing in the application
that directly links Mr. Bryce to the crime.
But the actions listed in the affidavits
show consciousness of guilt, Your Honor.
Judge, detectives Briscoe and Logan have applied for
and been granted hundreds of search warrants.
They know probable cause when they see it.
So do I, Mr. Robinette.
I'm ducking my wife's calls today.
Doesrt mean I plan to kill her.
Much as I would like to.
Your Honor...
Strike that last part, Maggie.
You should learn to relax, Mr. Robinette.
Just because I do 20 of these a day,
doesn't mean we can't have a little fun.
Is this your signature, Detective?
Yes, sir.
Raise your right hand.
Do you swear the contents of your affidavit
are true to the best of your knowledge?
I do.
Forensics pulled six fibers from Bryce's gloves,
eight from his coat.
Color and diameter match Kathy's scarf.
That's not good enough for Adam.
Those fibers on Bryce's coat could have gotten there
when Kathy went to see him about her application.
Hard to explain this away.
The gloves found at Bryce's house,
minute traces of blood on the left one.
Now they're still running a DNA,
but the blood type is the same as Kathy's.
Well, I'd like to see Arthur Gold argue
that Kathy got a paper cut from her application.
Arthur Gold? Bryce retained counsel?
Yeah, Gold called this morning
to see how serious we are about Bryce.
I'm gonna tell him that Briscoe and Logan
are on their way over
to Bryce's office with my answer.
And tell Crandall's attorney we're dismissing
the charges against his client.
Arthur Gold, please.
Until I read your indictment,
I thought that minimalism was dead, Ben.
One abstraction teetering on another.
It might get you a wall at MOMA,
I can't see it getting raves from a New York jury.
Uh, fortunately, Arthur,
forensic science isn't a matter of taste.
Strange how something so random
calls itself a science.
Now how many people did Kathy McKenna brush up against
on the subway or on the street?
But fibers from her scarf make them all killers?
It would if they had her blood on their gloves.
Inconclusive DNA.
Blood type B negative?
I'm B negative. So is Gordors housekeeper.
You can pile it up as high as you like,
it won't change the smell.
Your client stepped in it when he lied
about the time he left the Brinkmans'.
Jacob and Sonya are lovely people.
They helped Gordon make bail.
I'm sure their memory will be more specific
by the time they take the stand.
Mr. Bryce, why are you so confident
that these people will perjure themselves for you?
They won't have to.
It was closer to 10:30 when I left.
I took a taxi to Marcia Hendricks' apartment.
She's my executive assistant.
We had institute business to discuss.
I left some time after midnight.
What did you have to discuss
that couldn't wait until the next morning?
I had a $200,000 check
from Jacob Brinkman in my pocket.
Now Marcia had taken
the bank-deposit stamp home with her.
I wanted that check stamped soon as soon as possible,
for security reasons.
Whatever the reason he was at Miss Hendricks' home,
that's where he was.
Just to get the ball rolling, Ben.
Demand for bill of particulars,
motion to reopen the grand jury,
motion for change of venue.
Have a nice weekend.
Bryce shows up at his secretary's house
in the middle of the night with a check for $200,000?
Maybe they have something more to cover up
than his involvement in a murder.
Yeah. They're up to their elbows in the cookie jar.
Well, a good look at the institute's books should help.
501 s. Not-for-profit, tax-exempt.
You want to make a killing,
buy the lease on their copy machines.
Copies to the IRS, copies to the state,
copies to the AG.
Hamburgers should be so well-regulated.
They would be if they were tax-deductible.
Has the IRS ever been through here?
Ever since United Way got taken to the cleaners,
the Feds have clamped down.
The institute was audited a year ago.
Not a penny out of place.
When a donation comes in, how soon before it makes its way
into the institute's account?
Within 48 hours.
Even at 3%, every dime of interest counts.
And these statements are current?
The most recent ones came in last week.
Why, is something wrong with the arithmetic?
It's short a $200,000 check.
I called Brinkman.
The check never showed up in the institute's books
'cause it was made out to the Jared Foundation,
named after Brinkmars son.
Did you check the records
with the Attorney General's office?
The Jared Foundation was incorporated this year,
with Gordan Bryce as president
and Kathy McKenna as vice-president.
But the articles of incorporation
were amended a week after Kathy's murder.
Guess who's the new vice-president?
Marcia Hendricks.
Nice bump for a secretary.
Well, we'll see if Miss Hendricks
will join us for coffee.
I have been with Gordon Bryce
since the day the institute opened its doors.
I earned that promotion.
Miss Hendricks, what you earn
is a place in line at the Rikers cafeteria.
That's the prize you get
for finding Mr. Bryce an alibi.
I'm not lying. He was there at 11:00.
You spend your evenings staring at clocks?
I read captions on TV.
The news just started when Gordon arrived.
And when he left?
I didn't see the time. It was morning.
He told us he left long before that.
Gordon wouldn't say that we were intimate.
He does not want to embarrass me.
He is a gentleman.
A gentleman does not smash the head
of a 21-year-old girl into a brick wall.
You are wrong about Gordon.
He gave everything to the institute.
You just want to destroy it all.
Miss Hendricks, if that is the story you want to stay with
I'm sure Mr. Bryce
can refer you to a good attorney.
Ben, a minute.
Now, I'm just dipping my toes in the water here.
Gordon Bryce and I would like
to explore alternatives to trial.
Alternatives?
He doesn't want to become
the Jim Bakker of the Bryce Institute.
He doesn't want to take it down with him.
I'm surprised you didn't guarantee him an acquittal.
He thinks by then it'll be too late.
He wants it off the front page now
no matter what the sacrifice to him personally.
What happened, Arthur? Did his check bounce?
I can't see you letting an innocent client
ride to prison on a principle.
Of course he's innocent.
We're talking damage control.
Now, he'll plead to man two.
He serves 18 months.
Community service for the balance.
That's the sacrifice he's willing to make.
Tell Bryce no deal.
He should've thought of damage control
before he laid his hands on Kathy McKenna.
You want to play king of the mountain
with Arthur Gold, do it on your own time.
When he offers you a plea,
sit down, discuss it with him.
We squeezed Marcia Hendricks, out pops Arthur Gold.
Obviously, Bryce doesn't think
that Hendricks can go another round without cracking.
Maybe he doesn't want to put her through the ordeal.
Chivalry didn't end with Camelot.
It's more likely that he's afraid
she'll put him away for a lot longer than 18 months.
By not corroborating his alibi.
Arthur Gold can make his case without her.
Not if she has direct evidence to implicate Bryce.
You'll need more than "open sesame"
to get her to talk.
I think I can convince a grand jury
that woman had a lot to gain from McKenna's death.
This is completely out of line.
The power to charge a grand jury
does not mean you can use it to commit blackmail.
As opposed to your client,
I am not in it for personal gain.
Miss Hendricks,
Kathy McKenna was your rival,
professionally and romantically.
You had every reason to cover up her murder.
You can barely prove obstruction,
let alone conspiracy.
The jury will draw their own conclusions, sir.
Marcia, when you hold on to a drowning man,
he drags you under.
No charges. Immunity.
Gordon never came to my apartment.
You mean after he killed Kathy?
I couldn't let him go to jail.
Without Gordon, there would be no institute.
And in return for lying for him,
he promoted you?
I didn't need to lie.
I can do that job.
I would've been good at it.
Miss Hendricks, how did you know that he killed Kathy?
I know what Gordon said
to Kathy that day on the phone.
You saw him at the phone?
Then how do you know what he said?
Marcia, you must tell them everything.
I kept the printout from the TDD.
She kept transcripts of every conversation
that Bryce had with Kathy from his office.
Nearly three years' won'th.
Including the threats
we found in Kathy's apartment.
Remind me to bypass the switchboard.
What was she planning to do?
To have them bound in leather?
Obviously, he was obsessed with keeping her in his fold.
Well, he wasrt the only one with an obsession.
Yeah. Well, it nearly paid off for Marcia.
Arthur Gold wants to make sure it won't for us.
Motion to suppress.
Motion to...
Arthur's true to form.
Three words, Your Honor. Expectation of privacy.
And without it,
we might as well be zoo animals
living our lives on public display.
Uh, Your Honor, in Wisconsin v. Rewolinski,
a suspect called his wife
on the police department's own telephone for the deaf.
Now, that individual's expectation of privacy
was greater than Mr. Bryce's.
Yet the Supreme Court of Wisconsin
allowed those transcripts at trial.
I tend to agree.
Anyone fool enough to make incriminating statements
on a police statiors telephone
deserves what he gets.
But Mr. Bryce was calling
from the sanctity of his own office.
He had every right to expect that no one would eavesdrop.
Least of all a jealous employee.
Who acted on her own behalf
and no matter how reprehensible those actions,
their result isn't subject to suppression.
What's reprehensible is the state taking advantage
of someone's disability
to violate a defendant's rights.
Because they rely on TDD devices,
should the deaf be more vulnerable
to state-sanctioned invasions of privacy?
The evidence isn't being used against Ms. McKenna,
but against Mr. Bryce.
Whose only disability is a callous disregard for human life.
Your Honor, that's gratuitous.
I was thinking the same thing about your motion.
It's denied.
In any event, Your Honor,
the transcripts are irrelevant.
For all anyone knows,
they were manufactured by Marcia Hendricks
to blackmail my client.
And that is an issue of fact to be determined at trial, Your Honor.
Point, set, match, Mr. Gold. Goodbye.
Ben, if you're not prepared to meet us halfway,
we'll be more than happy to take our chances with a jury.
Gordors reputation still has some mileage.
Not with Marcia Hendricks writing his bio.
Oh, the jury will think
she's a desperate woman seeking revenge.
They may even suspect her of killing McKenna herself.
With your client's gloves?
Man one.
That's 81l3- to-25.
Considering the savagery of his crime,
it's a gift. Ben...
Stop it, Arthur.
I accept the offer.
Gordon.
I accept the offer.
All right. But we reserve the right
to seek sentence reduction down the line.
Mr. Bryce, as you probably know from your attorney,
the condition of a plea bargain
is that you recite the facts of your crime.
Whatever it takes to spare the institute.
Gordon.
And unless your admission of guilt is unambiguous,
there can be no plea bargain, sir.
Kath...
I taught her to speak.
I taught her to present herself.
She couldn't even order a meal in a restaurant.
Mr. Bryce, please. You're talking about her
as if she were a trained seal.
No.
That woman shared with me.
Everything.
She was there for my institute.
She convinced me
that our work really mattered to her.
Are you blaming her, sir?
You don't know what it took
to pull that childrers program together.
I was after people for funds
till they hated the sight of me.
And then, one day,
she's off to California with that hearing man.
Nothing that I did mattered.
All I was good for
was some stupid letter of recommendation.
I picked up her scarf.
I wanted her to stay.
I don't know what happened.
I should be able to get the sentence reduced
without breaking a sweat.
It is just a matter of packing the parole hearing
with character witnesses.
I'll be there too, Arthur, with photos of Kathy McKenna.
Will you get off your high horse, Ben?
What has the man got to do to prove his sincerity?
Go to Africa like Albert Schweitzer?
For Schweitzer, helping people was a calling.
For Bryce, it was a means to an end.
No good deed comes free and clear, Ben.
The man gets the job done.
Now I'd love to stand here and discuss altruism with you,
but I'm late for a luncheon.
Charity fundraiser at The Plaza.
There's still some tickets available.
$500 a plate.
And every penny of it tax-deductible.