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.
Two coffees. One black with sugar, one extra cream, no sugar.
You got something on your cheek.
Right there. Looks like lipstick.
Good for you. Yeah, sure.
You sure you don't want any donuts, Officer?
Are you a comedian?
Hey, Danny.
Oh, geez. Danny. Oh, geez.
Danny! Danny!
Eight Charlie. 10-13. We got a cop down!
Hudson and Duane!
Probably a. 38. No casings. Slugs still in the body.
Two in the chest. How close?
Within two feet.
So he sees the guy comin', he gets out of his car and gets shot?
Yeah, looks like it.
Weapon's still holstered.
Pelham and his partner over there were staking out that building
to serve an arrest warrant on Terry Mays.
Wanted for armed robbery and attempted murder.
He lives there?
His girlfriend does. Lois Henick, on the third floor.
We set up a perimeter as soon as the call came in.
Anybody see it go down?
A homeless. Said he heard the shots.
Saw somebody with a dark parka and a hood running away.
What's the situation?
Two cops workin' the Warrant Squad.
Suspect's girlfriend lives in there.
The Sarge here's got a perimeter around the place.
So what are you waiting for? Search warrant.
You go in. I'll get the warrant.
- Police! Freeze! - What the hell is this?
Where's Terry? I don't know. I haven't seen him.
Who else was here tonight?
Nobody. I live alone.
Yeah? You always leave the seat up when you're done?
Yeah. I was cleaning it. What about these? You taking in laundry?
That's right, don't talk to us.
You're lucky you caught us in a good mood, Lois. Let's go.
Pelham transferred to the Warrants Squad two weeks ago.
Single. No kids. Small blessings.
Anything from the girl's apartment?
Her address book in her kitchen.
We got people runnin' down the names.
Nothing in her LUDs. She called her mother every day.
Oh, that'll get her six months off.
Known associates?
We got eight teams out beating the bushes.
Well, Mays had to have been stuck in his girlfriend's place since...
When did Warrants start their surveillance?
Six days ago.
Let's find out who might have visited him.
We had three teams on Mays. Different vehicles, staggered shifts.
Anybody who drove up or went into that building, we got their tag numbers.
He ever mention any problems?
Like some old collar doggin' him?
Bookie problems? Anything like that?
No. No, he never mentioned anything like that.
It was just...
"How about those Knicks?" you know?
Who knew where you guys were gonna be last night?
Nobody.
I don't hand out the assignments till the start of the shift.
Did you or Pelham call anybody?
Tell 'em where you were gonna be?
No.
If I'd just stayed in the car...
Yeah, maybe we'd have two dead cops instead of one.
Don't worry, we'll catch this mutt.
Your car was parked outside the building yesterday afternoon.
Uh, yeah, I brought Dad his groceries.
He's 90. I left right after dinner.
You know the woman who lives in apartment 3-D? Lois Henick?
No. But that's the apartment right above Dad's.
I heard some yelling up there just before I left.
A man.
Oh, yeah? What was he yelling about?
I couldn't hear.
I'm very sorry about that police officer. Thanks for your help.
Nine more to go.
Yeah, that's my plate. Somethin' happen to my car?
It was double parked outside
763 Hudson Street yesterday afternoon.
Hudson Street? I don't think so.
You absolutely sure? About quarter past two?
Oh yeah, I was visiting somebody.
Who? That's just it. Nobody, actually.
What is this, some kind of riddle?
Last weekend, I was at a club in the East Village.
I met this girl. She gave me her number.
Then I dropped her off at that building.
Then what? You stopped in for a matinee?
Uh, actually, no. I called her, and got the Boys' Club.
So I went to look for her. I checked all the mailboxes. Her name wasn't there.
Well, according to the police who were watching the building,
your car was parked there 40 minutes. You a slow reader?
Listen, Mr. Morris, you really picked the wrong day to lie to the police.
Look,
the kid wouldn't hurt anybody.
What kid?
My brother.
He's got a record.
I lent him the car.
Blank credit cards, blank bank cards.
And these drivers licenses. Names but no photos.
We called these people. You think they ever heard of Jeff Morris?
Just hold on a minute.
You've got an army of cops serving a warrant for an E felony,
and a Lieutenant doing the interrogation.
This isn't about check kiting, is it?
It's about Terry Mays.
Wanted for killing a cop.
Whoa, I... I don't know anything about killing a cop.
You drove your brother's car to the building where Mays was holed up,
the same day he killed the cop.
He cooperates, he's back sleeping on his own couch tomorrow night.
He gives us any flack,
he's got rotating bunkmates for the next six years.
Mays called me last Sunday.
Said I had to come to his girl's place.
What kind of ID did you sell him?
Jersey license and matching credit card.
Both clean.
You're lookin' for Mark Wainwright,
a 38-year-old dentist from Newark.
Well, you gotta hand it to the guy.
He's tryin' to dress like a dentist.
Credit card company's got him buying a pair of khakis
and a blue Oxford shirt at a Banana Republic in Queens.
We told the credit card company to let the charges go through.
Curtis.
All right, thanks.
LaGuardia. 5:35 to Richmond.
Hey, that fool bodega owner pulled a knife on me.
How many times we gotta tell you? You want to talk to us,
sign the paper.
I don't need a lawyer. It was self-defense.
Yeah, you're so innocent?
Then how come you hid out at your old lady's for a week.
What are you talkin' about?
She told us the whole story. Nah, Lois wouldn't do that.
Your fingerprints were there. Your underwear was there,
with a nice fresh presidential DNA sample.
All right, so I was there. So what?
And then you weren't.
And the only thing that changed was there was a dead cop,
with two bullets in him. Oh, hey, hey, I had nothin' to do that.
Oh, now you know what we're talkin' about, right?
Yeah. Yeah, 'cause I saw it go down from the window.
One of the cops in the car left.
Then this guy goes strollin' over to the car,
the cop in the car rolls down the window,
the guy pulls out a piece, and... Bam! Bam!
He books outta there.
The cop gets outta the car, he makes it about two feet.
That's when you split? Yeah.
Yeah, I figured the supreme being was holdin' open a door for me.
Yeah, well, Terry, I wouldn't count on the supreme being helping' you out this time.
Hey, honest to God, I saw the guy.
He had on a black parka with a hood.
Okay, so the first time through,
Forensics got a bloody fingerprint on the steering column.
They figured it came off Bowers when he went for the radio.
Well, they gave it a second look, matched it to Pelham.
So Pelham was shot in the car.
Just like Mays said.
Still doesn't mean he didn't do it.
Well, I don't see him walkin' right up to the car,
while Pelham sits there doing nothing.
Wouldn't be the first time a cop fell asleep on surveillance.
Shots were reported at 12:02.
Pelham's radio log says his last report was at 11:59.
He wasn't asleep.
Who knew where Pelham was?
Far as we know, just the sergeant that gave out the assignments.
Well, you know what this means.
Get some people. Work the neighborhood again.
Guy wearing a black parka? That's it?
With a hood.
I don't know.
There's an all-night coffee shop down the block.
Maybe the counterman saw something.
He didn't. This guy was probably hangin' out for a while. Around midnight.
Well, we did have a guest leave about that time, but he wasn't in a black parka.
Maybe he saw something. Did you get his name?
No.
He came in about a half an hour before, went upstairs to the rooms,
then he came back down.
Can we see the register?
Sure, we can get that.
He was a big guy, wearing a brown leather jacket.
Was he wearing a hat?
Yeah, a watch cap.
He asked me where he could buy a cup of coffee.
Look, why even bother denying it?
Your wife's name was on the ledger.
She paid for the hotel room with her credit card.
Yeah, you're off snakin' the drain while your partner bleeds out on the pavement.
Look, guys, guys, I swear if I knew, I would... Why didn't you say something?
Why didn't you just tell us? You know how this is gonna look?
Too late for that, pal. Maybe if you'd have stuck some ice down your jock instead.
It's not like that.
My wife works days.
I've been pulling nights for nearly a month.
That ain't no life. You've done this before?
Yeah. Last few nights.
I get an assignment, I find the nearest hotel, I call Alicia.
You call anyone else?
Did Pelham call anybody? No.
The only person I told was Alicia.
I swear.
We are so sorry.
We knew it was wrong, but...
Pete and I haven't had much time together, and...
We're tryin' to have another baby.
What we want to know, Mrs. Bowers, is if you told anyone about this?
No.
It was just our secret.
What did you do with your son?
I dropped him off at my mom's, then I went to the hotel.
Did your mom know where you were going? No.
I swear, I didn't tell anybody about meeting Pete.
Maybe Pelham did.
I don't understand these questions.
We heard from the guys at Danny's old precinct.
They told us you got the bastard that killed our son.
Well, it's turning out to be a little more complicated than that.
Well, he wasn't in trouble with anybody.
He didn't gamble.
He didn't owe a dime to anybody.
He was just a decent kid.
When was the last time you talked to him?
The Sunday before.
He came over for dinner.
Did he talk about his work with the Warrant Squad,
or about his partner, Peter Bowers?
He just said he was enjoying his work.
Was there anybody he talked to on a regular basis?
Well, there was his old partner at the 31, Charlie Nash.
Any girlfriends?
Uh, Marissa Hastings. She's a police officer.
How was that going?
Danny said he broke up with her just before he got transferred.
She was divorced. She has two children.
She just wasn't right for him.
We didn't break up. We were just taking some time off,
to figure out what we wanted out of the relationship.
You two were still talking? Yes.
So what? You talk on Tuesday?
Last time I talked to him was Saturday.
Who called who?
He called me.
Where are you guys goin' with this?
Tuesday night, where were you?
I worked 2:00 to 10:00. I picked up a pizza and went home.
Who else was there?
The babysitter. My kids were already asleep.
What are you guys thinking?
Hey, we're open to any possibility.
If you can verify you were home the rest of the evening...
Well, as a matter of fact, I can't.
I didn't call anybody. Nobody called me.
This is bull.
Next time you want to talk to me, you do it in front of my PBA lawyer.
Danny started goin' out with her last summer.
It sounded hot and heavy for a while,
and then he stopped talkin' about her.
You were his partner for two years.
Yeah, Danny was old school, you know.
If he didn't have anything good to say about a girl...
Well, Hastings said that they were taking some time off from each other.
But his parents said that he broke up with her.
Ah, that one sounds right. How do you figure?
Well, she was a handful.
Couple of times Danny showed up with scratches on the side of his neck.
He say where he got 'em?
He said her cat scratched him.
Had to be a pretty big cat. Was he seein' anybody else?
Ah, I don't know. Hastings might've thought he was.
She always kept tabs on him.
What does that mean? The desk sergeant, McAllen,
he took a bunch of calls from her.
Thanks. All right.
Maybe I exaggerated.
She called a few times.
And what did she want?
Ah, the usual female crap.
Oh? What's that? I forget.
Have I seen Pelham? What time's he clocking out?
Is he back in the house yet?
Same crap I get from my wife.
Did Pelham know she was checkin' up on him?
Yeah. He'd just, you know, shake his head.
Did you keep a log of Hastings' calls? Yeah.
Ballpark, how often did she call?
Enough that we were on a first name basis. And the last time?
About a week and a half before he was killed.
After they broke up.
Thanks.
Yeah, all right, La Motte. Thanks.
Okay, so the babysitter confirmed that Hastings got home just after 10:30.
She was preoccupied and in a hurry to get the sitter out of the house.
The kids were asleep.
She could've left 'em alone for the time it took
to go downtown and take care of Pelham.
Lennie, I hate to state the obvious,
but we are talkin' about a cop.
Yeah, and inside the uniform there's a real live person with two kids,
who's not gettin' any younger. Pelham ditched her,
she was possessive to begin with, and she had hurt him before.
Yeah, yeah. But at the end of the day, she's still a cop.
Exactly. Which means if Pelham told her about his partner's nightly conjugal visits,
she'd know how to find Pelham. How do you figure?
Mrs. Bowers paid for the hotel with a credit card.
Tuesday, January 13th, Alicia Bowers.
Yes, we got an inquiry about a card at about 10:00 p. m.
From who?
NYPD.
Inquiry came by fax. We faxed back our response.
Which was?
That her credit card had just been used to book a room at the Ogden Hotel in Manhattan.
Do you have that fax? Yes.
Fax is a nice touch. No prints. No personal contact.
How do you check to see if it's a legitimate inquiry?
Official NYPD letterhead. It's good enough for us.
What's goin' on? We're from Internal Affairs, Officer.
You're under arrest for the murder of Daniel Pelham.
I'm taking your weapon. But I didn't do it.
The night Pelham was killed, somebody tracked down his partner using a fax machine.
This fax machine. I can't believe this.
That makes two of us.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can be used against you. You have the right to an attorney.
Hastings has two civilian complaints in her file in the last six months.
Both for verbal abuse. One on a suspect, one on a witness.
She have a short fuse?
She has a problem establishing her authority.
Maybe if she were 6'2",
she wouldn't feel the need to raise her voice.
How about this?
"Officer Hastings shows reluctance to secure suspects,
"including weapons inspections of their person. "
What's that about?
It's about letting her male partner do the dirty work.
She got five days for dereliction.
Did Pelham ever complain to Internal Affairs about her?
That she assaulted him or was stalking him?
I don't have anything on file like that.
We got reports she spends a lot of time in the gym with her fellow female officers.
Your point?
Maybe she's got a problem with men.
Thank you for dropping by, Lieutenant.
Careful you don't get carpet burns on your knuckles.
I used to hear the same crap when I was on the track team at U.T.
That's too bad.
Was this woman unbalanced?
There's no evidence of it.
Is there evidence of anything? A murder weapon?
Ballistics haven't matched the slugs to Hastings' weapon.
No, but she has no alibi, she had access to the fax machine,
she'd assaulted Pelham before. That's an assumption.
Granted.
But she was keeping tabs on him, even after they'd split up.
A policewoman scorned. Makes for a heck of a recruitment poster.
When are you presenting to the grand jury?
I want to talk to her partner first.
See what fury Hastings was capable of.
Those complaints were blown out of proportion.
The witness she verbally abused,
tried to climb into our patrol car and stick an umbrella into a handcuffed suspect.
IA pegged her as some kind of castrating lesbo Nazi.
Yeah, right. 'Cause she don't run like a girl.
And if she did, they'd say she's too soft for the job.
A lot of these clowns, anybody don't pee standin' up,
they got a problem with.
We have a report she scratched up Pelham's face.
If she did that,
I'm sure she didn't mean it.
What did she tell you about Pelham? They were seein' each other.
That's all I know.
You must have some idea how she felt about him.
Look, Ms. Carmichael,
Hastings and I didn't bare our souls in some big hot tub every day.
We talked about our kids. About the job.
Period.
Far as anything else,
I never saw her raise her hand in anger at anyone.
Okay?
I got permission from Pelham's parents to pull his medical files.
Fingernails to a. 38 too big a leap?
It'd help convince me if she inflicted some other damage in between.
Assuming he'd report it.
Anything in the autopsy?
There was a healed cut on his upper back, origin unknown.
I'm not finding any paperwork on it.
Did you check for medical insurance payments?
I have that file here somewhere.
Thanks.
Okay, flu shot, sinusitis.
Here.
A payment for medical service to Corona Methodist Hospital Trauma Center,
no details, for $1200.
That's no runny nose.
January 6th, Officer Daniel Pelham.
Nasty laceration below the right scapula.
Took 14 stitches.
What happened?
He said he tripped in the shower. You suspect otherwise?
One cut, no glass fragments in the wound?
You walk through a glass door, you're gonna have multiple jagged lacerations.
So you just took his word for it?
And the word of the two cops who brought him in.
Do you have their names? Admitting would.
We were out on patrol and caught a run over to Hamilton Drive.
To Marissa Hastings' house?
Yeah, routine injury run.
You met the ambulance there?
They never called one. Hastings had the direct number of the 116.
Pelham was in the front room when we got there and, uh,
Hastings had a towel pressed to his back.
Who came up with the shower story? He did.
And what did she say?
She corroborated.
And how did things look inside the bathroom?
We never looked.
Officer Di Ponti you're telling me you took their word for it?
The word of two fellow officers.
This didn't look like a knife wound to you?
It looked like what they said.
It's all in the report. It was an accident.
Officer Di Ponti worked with Marissa Hastings,
on the Bronx Trick or Treat Squad two years ago.
Nice of her to mention it.
Yeah, well maybe she didn't want me gettin' the wrong idea.
Okay, here we go. The 116's muster sheet for the night of the accident.
Di Ponti and Kass left the precinct at 10:28.
What time did Hastings call for help?
LUDs show she called the precinct six minutes earlier.
Friend in need.
Look, I thought we were on patrol when we caught the call.
I remembered wrong. It was two months ago.
You know how many calls we've had since then?
One cop tries to kill another. Yeah, I bet you get one of those every night.
They both said it's an accident.
What are we supposed to do? Officer,
you're already looking at a two week suspension. You want to try for four?
I didn't do anything wrong.
Failure to report a crime,
falsifying an incident report, dereliction of duty.
Being friends with Marissa Hastings just isn't paying off for you.
That trauma doctor was fresh out of med school.
She made that cut for a knife wound no problem.
You've got 12 years on the force.
Lacerations aren't my area of expertise, Lieutenant.
Anyway, Officer Di Ponti got a lot closer look than me.
I don't get it, Kass.
You're blowin' a beautiful career,
because some police person asked you to lie for her friend?
Who wears the pants in your patrol car?
I make the command decisions. Good.
So why don't you explain this one to us?
Where do you get she's a psycho?
She was stalking Pelham.
Oh, right.
Another lady cop with PMS. going berserk.
Is that what Pelham told his buddy boys?
Right now, that's the only story going.
She was trying to keep Pelham from killing her.
When we got to the house, her blouse was torn.
She had bruises up and down her back, on her stomach.
You could see his hand prints around her neck.
She had to use a box cutter to defend herself.
She told me he abused her all the time.
I don't understand.
Why didn't you arrest him?
He wanted us to arrest her.
Dumb, drunken son of a bitch. I told him to shut up.
But you didn't arrest him.
I would've had to arrest both of 'em.
Her for assault with a deadly.
Why would I want to make trouble for a couple of cops?
So what did you do?
I got him out of the house.
I told him if I ever got another call on him, I'd take him in.
But what about Hastings?
She wanted to put charges on him.
So I told Di Ponti to talk to her.
He ordered me to talk her out of it.
He said if she didn't back off, he was gonna write her up for assault with intent.
His word against yours. His word against nothing.
He's got 12 years to my two.
What'd you say to Hastings?
I told her the incident report wouldn't back her up.
It would just look bad for her.
I told her my partner had talked to Pelham
and if he gave her anymore trouble, she should call me.
Did she ever call you again?
No.
I got a hard enough time gettin' these guys to trust me.
I'm not gonna blow it over some cop who can't handle her boyfriend.
So now you know. Pelham was a violent lunatic.
I'm hoping you're going to do the right thing, Mr. McCoy.
What would that be?
Dismiss the charges. It's the thing to do.
Except for the fax from her precinct.
How many people have had access to that fax machine?
What about the calls to Pelham's precinct?
She called to complain about his abuse and to keep track of him,
because she was in fear for her life.
All this behavioral science evidence you think you have against my client,
is explained away by that fact.
There's not one single complaint of domestic violence in Pelham's file.
Instead of calling Pelham's precinct, she should have called One Police Plaza.
Ah, but she did.
The day after he tried to strangle her,
she called the IA hotline. Nothing happened.
Everyone knew what he was doing to her,
but nobody lifted a finger.
We reviewed the tapes of the calls to the Action Desk on January 7th.
Hastings' call came in that morning.
What did she say?
She accused Pelham of attacking her.
She said unless something was done, she would,
quote "do whatever it takes, to protect her family. "
What's the usual procedure with these calls?
Each call is logged in and assigned a number.
The logs are then sent to the appropriate personnel on a daily basis.
And why wasn't this call logged in?
The detective working the desk was filling in for someone else.
It was his first time. He screwed up.
He's on 15 day suspension. Meanwhile,
one officer's dead and another's charged with murder.
Attaboy, Lieutenant.
What can I tell you?
We take these calls seriously, Counselor.
This one... Just fell through the cracks.
Some crack.
One call to IA doesn't mean she exhausted every recourse.
Who else did she tell,
and what did they do about it?
You must've known what Pelham was doing to her. Why didn't you tell me?
Because it's got nothin' to do with anything.
Except for the fact Pelham's dead.
Maybe somebody in that neighborhood don't like cops.
Look, it's very noble of you, standing up for your partner.
You know, you people should send her home to her kids,
with a big fat apology.
Pelham was an animal.
She told me one night he pushed her 5-year-old down the stairs,
just for the hell of it.
It's the first we've heard of it.
She sent up plenty of flares, right to IA. It was a joke.
Did you do anything?
I had a talk with Pelham.
Told him if he didn't straighten out, he was gonna lose his job.
And what did he say? He laughed.
He said, "Until Hillary Clinton becomes Police Commissioner,
"no cop's ever gonna lose his job for slappin' around his girlfriend. "
And you know what? He's right.
But that's got nothin' to do with anything.
Somebody in that neighborhood just don't like cops.
No heroes here. Have we tendered an offer?
We might consider man one. But the ball is in their court.
Man one?
She shoots him in cold blood,
and you're absolving the poor weak thing from her responsibility.
If the police department dropped the ball, it might be a mitigating fact.
Jack, more than anyone else, she should have known better.
I don't know what she knows.
I said I'd consider man one, depending on her state of mind.
Isn't that their defense? Battered woman syndrome?
They can argue it. But not until the judge allows our psychiatrist to examine her.
The judge said you have to talk to me, Marissa.
Do you like strangers calling you by your first name, Doctor?
I don't.
It's Officer Hastings.
Officer Hastings. I'm sorry.
So, did Pelham ever threaten to kill you?
He promised he'd kill me if I left him.
Did you want to leave him?
After what he did to my son?
Yeah.
Did you believe he was going to kill you?
This is a bunch of bull.
Go shrink those sons of bitches in the department
who stood around waiting until Danny beat me to death.
Look inside their heads.
Find out what their malfunction is.
I want to go back to my cell!
How severe was the abuse? Severe.
You can see it in her job performance.
Stress, verbal outbursts,
reluctance to have physical contact with suspects.
Did she think her life was in danger from Pelham?
Yeah, absolutely.
Imminent danger?
As a legal requirement for self-defense?
Don't count on me for a graceful way out.
She didn't give me enough to go on.
She's more focused on slamming the police department than defending her innocence.
She's conceding the obvious.
Unless she admits killing Pelham, I can't see cutting her any slack.
Neither will a jury.
Officer Hastings called me a number of times to complain that Officer Pelham was
physically abusing her.
Well, you told the police that she called you with, uh, in your words,
"The usual female crap. "
Well, sometimes she did call to check on his whereabouts.
Mmm. Sergeant,
what steps did you take, if any, to investigate her complaints of abuse?
Well, she didn't have any witnesses, no doctor's reports.
Do you think she was making it up?
I thought she might have been blowing it up a bit.
Well, what other steps did you take in your,
investigation?
I questioned Officer Pelham. He denied there was any abuse.
He accused Officer Hastings of being possessive and hysterical.
I ordered him to see a peer counselor.
What... What... What is that?
A fellow officer who,
volunteers to help other officers talk through their troubles.
Oh. Is he a licensed therapist or psychologist?
No. But he gets some training.
Did you refer Officer Hastings' complaints up the chain of command?
No. Pelham was seeing the counselor, so there was no point.
Did Officer Hastings stop calling you?
No.
Thank you.
Sergeant McAllen, as far as you know, did Officer Hastings call your immediate superior?
Not as far as I know.
Did she call the Tour Supervisor for your precinct? No.
How about the Borough Commander?
Not that I know.
No further questions.
Oh, redirect, Your Honor.
Sergeant McAllen, are you familiar,
with the recent spousal abuse related incident
involving an officer of the 34th Precinct?
Yes.
The officer's wife made numerous complaints to his superiors,
in his precinct, isn't that right?
Yes.
To the best of your knowledge,
had that officer been disciplined,
or relieved of duty,
or had his weapon taken from him as a result of those complaints?
No.
Tell us what happened,
to his wife.
The officer killed her,
and their kids,
and then he took his own life.
Thank you, Sergeant.
I met Danny at a racket downtown.
He was good looking, sure of himself.
First couple of months were great.
What happened after that?
He came over for dinner.
He had some problem at work. They changed his shift.
He was in a bad mood.
All of a sudden, he went off on me because of how I cut the tomatoes.
He pushed me against the wall, twisted my arm.
Yelled.
Did it happen again?
A week later.
He'd hit me, he'd say he's sorry.
Why didn't you stop seeing him right then?
I'm 35. I've got two kids.
I kept hoping he'd change, but it got worse,
especially when he had a drink.
Did you notify his superiors? Yes.
Sergeant McAllen kept saying he was looking into it.
He told me I didn't have to get anyone else involved.
I didn't want to cost Danny his job.
Then came the night he tried to strangle me.
I had to stab him to get him away from me.
And the next day you called the Internal Affairs hotline?
Yes.
I never heard back.
I told Danny to stop coming around.
But he had a key, so I'd come home, he'd be sitting in the living room eating our food.
I changed the locks.
He still got in.
Did the beatings continue?
Yes.
He told me, he'd never let go of me.
Wherever I went, he'd find me.
He was a cop.
He said he could do anything.
And then he'd kill me.
Me and my kids.
Did he ever hurt your children?
Yeah.
Couple of weeks before he died, he shoved Matt down a flight of stairs.
Did you tell anyone what he was doing to your kids?
I was afraid to.
I was afraid, if I provoked Danny, sooner or later he'd kill us.
Now that he's dead, do you still think about him?
About what he did?
All the time.
I get sick.
I have a hard time sleeping.
Marissa...
Did you kill Danny?
No.
No, I didn't.
Officer Hastings,
did you get a restraining order against Daniel Pelham?
I would have needed a police report, and nobody wanted to write Danny up.
And even if I got one, who's gonna enforce it, other cops?
So you really only had one option left, didn't you?
I didn't kill him.
He beat you.
He beat your children.
Yes.
But you say, you didn't kill him.
Yes.
But if you did, it was self defense. Is that what you're telling us?
Objection! Sustained.
You told us you exhausted all the legal possibilities.
You did all you could, short of killing Daniel Pelham,
to protect yourself and your children.
Yes.
And now that Pelham's dead, you're relieved. Your children are safe.
Yes.
He deserved to die.
But I didn't kill him.
Why deny it,
if it was the only course of action left open to you?
It's because you know what you did was wrong,
isn't it, Officer Hastings?
There was no justification for this murder, was there?
I don't know.
No more questions.
Man one, eight- and-a-third-to-25.
Maybe before she took the stand.
Murder two, 15-to-life.
Because she didn't pass the McCoy Truth or Consequence Test?
Look, she gets a deal, she has to allocute.
You get your precious admission.
We'll get back to you.
Eight years for killin' a cop.
Nice message. That crossed my mind.
This comes with the usual caveats.
For what it's worth,
Hastings didn't do it.
Beg your pardon?
She said she thought he'd kill her sooner or later.
Not imminently. Not any minute.
That just torpedoes her claim of self-defense.
Doesn't mean she's innocent.
I've talked to a lot of these ladies.
Battered women who killed their abusers.
They literally thought they'd be dead any minute.
Not one of 'em killed until she believed it was the only way out.
And then they're anxious to confess and justify their actions.
I didn't hear any of that from Hastings.
Just this man's opinion.
If not her, then who?
Something she said.
I didn't make much of it at the time.
She said she was too scared to tell anyone that Pelham hurt her kids.
But her partner Felton knew all about it.
Only one reason she'd lie about having told him.
Do we know where he was when Pelham was shot?
I can't tell you how it's affected Steven.
I mean, he and Marissa are very close.
Was she close to the both of you?
Yes.
I mean, at first he had a hard time adjusting to a female partner.
But he got to respect her. How about off the job?
Did they socialize much?
Some weekends Marissa'd bring her kids here to play with the boys.
Anything without the family? Just the two of them?
We need to know, Mrs. Felton.
Steven and I hit a rough spot about, you know, a year and a half ago.
He was distant.
There might have been something between him and Marissa.
We got over it. We're closer now.
The night Officer Pelham was killed did your husband talk to Officer Hastings?
No, I don't think so.
I mean, I was on the phone a lot to my sister.
Maybe he used a cell phone?
Well, he went to the pharmacy, so I'm not sure.
What time did he go?
He went to refill his cholesterol medication.
There's a 24 hour pharmacy.
So...
I don't think I should be talking to you anymore.
It'll only take a few minutes.
Yeah, good, 'cause my wife left a lot of messages for me.
Those detectives brought me down here on the fly.
I didn't get a chance to call her.
Have a seat, Officer.
What's goin' on? What's he doing here?
Before I decide on your plea,
I want to talk to the person who knows your client better than anyone.
We didn't see you at the trial.
I'm back on days. Hard to get over here.
I'm surprised you didn't testify on your partner's behalf.
Wasn't my call.
It's all academic anyway,
Officer Hastings offered to take a plea on First Degree Manslaughter.
How much time?
Eight- and-a-third- to-25.
We might still let it go to the jury on murder two.
That's why we wanted to talk to you.
The civilian charges against her might be a factor in which way we go.
I told you, there was nothin' to that.
Not if they demonstrate a pattern of aggressive behavior.
Mr. McCoy,
if you're going to rely...
If I were you, Mr. Jerrold, I'd just listen.
You got the wrong idea about Marissa.
Funny, that's what our psychiatrist told us. He thinks she's innocent.
Then I don't get it. If your own people are tellin' you she's innocent...
Psychiatry isn't an exact science.
The fact that she's willing to take a plea speaks for itself.
And if we accept her offer, that's it.
She waives her right to appeal.
What do you think, Officer?
You know what she was going through.
Should we let her plead to man one?
I think you know what needs to be done.
Your wife told us you went out,
just about the time Pelham was killed, to refill a prescription.
The cops called the pharmacy.
You didn't get that refill until the next day.
It's time to take your partner off the hook, Officer.
Steve, don't.
Of course, in of itself, it doesn't prove anything.
Maybe there was a line at the pharmacy, you didn't want to wait.
For God's sake, Marissa, tell them...
He doesn't know anything about it. He's got nothing to say.
Get out of here, Steve.
Go back to your family.
All right, Officer,
you can leave us.
Hold on.
She don't know this.
Steve, please. Look, you don't owe me anything.
I shot Pelham.
I had to.
I saw what he was doin' to her.
Six months, that piece of dirt was beatin' on her.
It was just a matter of when he was gonna kill her.
She tried everything,
but the department...
They tell you at the Academy,
man or woman, black, white or brown,
we all bleed blue.
But it's a lot of smoke.
When she told me what he did to her kid,
I just couldn't sit there anymore.
She's my partner.
That's the bottom line.
She's my partner.
Officer Hastings didn't know what I was planning,
I never told her.
Not before,
and not after.
When I heard she got arrested,
I thought for sure she'd beat the rap.
I'm sorry for what I put her through.
That's all I got to say.
Are the People satisfied?
Yes, Your Honor.
Mr. Felton,
pursuant to your plea agreement with the District Attorney,
I hereby sentence you to a term of not less than 15 years,
and not more than your natural life,
at a facility to be determined by the Department of Correction.
After six years, I still don't know what cops are about.
I grew up with one. I don't know either.
Well, they're real good at circling the wagons
to protect themselves from the likes of us.
But who protects them from each other?