(male announcer) 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.
Table five is getting up.
Give me two seconds, all right?
I'm waiting 20 minutes, and she just walked in.
Why can't she wait for table five?
Fine. I'll wait for table five.
Somebody call 911!
Hurry!
20 sets of eyes can't be wrong.
Male, maybe Hispanic.
Black hood, red baseball cap.
Anyone recognize him?
Hood covered his face.
Is there any video? Not in the diner.
But the red light cameras might have
caught him running off.
Department of Transport's pulling the tape.
Thanks.
What do we got?
One in his shoulder, one to the chest.
And Crime Scene pulled the slug that winged her
out of the back wall of the cooler.
Still intact?
Yeah, it looks like it. A small caliber.
Can you make sure Crime Scene gets that to Ballistics?
Excuse me.
Detective Green, Detective Fontana.
How's you arm, Miss... Elaine Clemens.
It's just a graze. I'll live.
Did you see the man who shot you?
I turned my head, and it was over before I could turn around.
I can't help thinking if I'd just been
standing a few inches further...
You weren't, so let's just concentrate on healing your arm.
Detectives, the victim's nephew is riling the crowd up outside.
Okay. Nick.
This officer here's gonna take your information.
Thank you.
The guy with the smock, Carlos, he's the cook here.
Carlos. Carlos!
I'm Detective Green. This is Detective Fontana.
Listen, man, we're sorry about your uncle.
Now, did you see what happened?
No, but I know what happened.
Damn dope dealers is what happened.
What dealers? Who are you talking about?
The Puerto Rican guys from the neighborhood.
(Green) Why would they wanna shoot this place up?
My uncle pepper sprayed one of them the other day
in front of his boys.
Who did he pepper spray?
A wannabe punk named Prim.
And throwing out the garbage this morning,
I saw his ass on the corner glaring.
We called 5-0 on Prim like five times and nada.
Do yourself a favor. Stay out of this
and let us do our job, all right?
Can I go?
Yeah, but where can we find Prim?
I got no idea.
All right, go, but, Carlos, go be with your family.
Don't go looking for Prim, all right?
We better find this guy Prim
before this whole neighborhood turns into a war zone.
Hey, is that our guy?
That's him.
What's up, man? Why you following me, dog?
'Cause you look guilty. Turn around, hands up.
You got anything sharp in your pockets?
Excuse me, sir. Did you drop these?
Did you?
Ten decks of heroin within 1,000 feet of a school?
That's B felony territory.
I told you those drugs wasn't mine.
B felony. That's nine years, bro.
What is this?
Y'all ain't even with narcotics, man.
Sit your ass down.
You're right. We're on Homicide.
As in the homicide of Oscar Morales.
You remember, the guy that pepper sprayed you
in front of his diner because you were dealing drugs there.
So what happened?
This old fool drop you in front of your friends,
and you gotta represent, is that it?
Not enough to shoot him.
(Fontana) Shooting? Who mentioned anything about a shooting?
Look, I got 15 guys that say I was on the corner
when that shooting went down.
Well, 15 of your boys and their hoochie mamas
isn't gonna make an alibi for you.
I swear on my grandmother I didn't do this.
Your grandmother ain't gonna cut it either.
But what if I said I seen who did?
Would you negotiate with me for a minute?
Why don't you tell us what you know
and we'll see if it helps your case.
I hear three shots.
I see a black kid with a hoodie and a red hat
come stumbling out the diner.
He was wearing a hat and a hood, and you still saw his face?
I know the kid. His name is Jeremy Miller--
Milner-- Something like that.
Dude's just a neighborhood hopper.
Hopper? What the hell is a hopper?
He just hops along to get stuff.
Does whatever he has to do to make money.
You know, sweep storefronts, cop drugs, whatever.
Well, is there any indication that there's bad blood
between this kid Jeremy and Morales?
I don't know. I only talked to the kid like three times.
So where can we find this dude?
He's been hanging out on the corner with us lately.
Said he was looking for a piece.
Guess he found one.
Now, what about my ten decks?
If your information doesn't pan out,
you have no idea the amount of trouble you're in.
Hey, Lou? Yeah.
Prim's "hanging on the corner" alibi checked out.
He was in front of the bodega across the street
when the shots rang out.
The owner confirmed it.
What about the name he threw on us?
This kid, Jeremy Miller.
He got collared two years ago for solicitation.
He's been in foster care most of his life.
Prim ID'd him as the shooter.
Anyone else ID?
Witnesses saw a kid wearing a hood.
Did Ballistics get anything off the slug from the diner?
There were no hits from IBIS.
So is there any connection between our DOA Morales
and this kid?
No, not so far.
And Morales doesn't have a history with street hustlers.
But that can mean he just never got caught.
Well, I don't know how much I trust a name
coming from this guy Prim.
I mean, he's trying to work off, what, ten decks of dope?
Look, if that kid's the shooter,
he's on the street right now.
He's 14, he's reckless, and he's got a gun.
All right, talk to the boy's foster parents.
We have no idea where he could be.
We did everything we could to parent him,
but he came and went as he pleased.
Does he have any friends that we can talk to?
No one. Not anymore.
What does that mean?
Well, he had a younger sister, Emily.
She was born HIV-positive, then developed full-blown AIDS.
She died two days ago.
Did Jeremy have HIV?
His mother contracted it after he was born.
She died five years ago.
Did his sister live here too?
No. We couldn't accommodate her needs.
It's been this way with Jeremy all his life.
His sister's status has always kept them separated,
but he's worked hard to keep in touch
and to stay close.
Emily's the only person Jeremy really opened up to.
(Fontana) He must have been devastated.
He was, but not enough to go shoot people.
Do you know if Jeremy knew of a man named Oscar Morales?
No.
You know if he ever spent any time
at Mr. Morales' diner at 175th and Broadway?
That's near the hospital where Jeremy's sister died.
Which hospital is that?
Children's Healing House.
Where the other victim works.
We don't think Jeremy was aiming at Oscar Morales.
We think there's a possibility he was aiming at you.
Now, how much contact have you had with him?
I'd see him here when he was visiting his sister.
But you're a hospital administrator, correct?
Chairman of the hospital's community advisory committee.
Then why do you think this kid would be gunning for you?
I had to have security escort him out of the facility
three weeks ago.
A floor nurse caught him disconnecting his sister's IVs.
Assisted suicide?
He said he was trying to take her home.
Or as he said it, break her out.
Why would he wanna break her out?
When Emily's virus stopped responding
to traditional medicines,
her condition declined rapidly.
She was wasting away.
It was hard for us to watch, let alone a 14-year-old.
But I had to have him barred from the facility.
Detective Green.
Maybe if I allowed him supervised visits,
that man would still be alive.
Miss Clemens, until Jeremy Miller is off the street,
we think it's best that we put you into protective custody.
Is that really necessary?
Well, by now he knows he went after the wrong target.
He might wanna try and finish the job.
Hey, Joe, they just spotted him walking into the park
across the street.
Ma'am, I need you to stay here with this officer, okay?
He's on a bench in the park.
He's waiting for Clemens to leave the hospital.
There, next to the garbage can.
He threw his hood up about ten minutes ago.
(Fontana) Okay, make sure everybody knows
that this kid is armed, all right? You got it.
Stay away from me.
Just take it easy, kid.
All we wanna do is talk to you.
Is that why you're drawing down on me?
No, it's because you got that .22 in your right pocket.
Now, listen, kid, I want you to listen to me, okay?
You can trust us.
My name is Detective Fontana, and this is Detective Green.
And we don't mean you any harm at all.
You wanna kill me. I know you do.
No, no, not at all.
All we wanna do is talk with you.
Is that Spanish guy dead?
You don't have to worry about him now.
I didn't mean to shoot him.
I'm sorry. We know you are, man.
They did this. The doctors. That bitch Clemens.
Okay, all right, that's exactly what we wanna talk about.
I could have saved her.
CHH killed her.
They murdered her.
All right, we're gonna look into that for you.
But for right now, stay calm
and please hand that gun over to me.
Tell that man's family I'm sorry.
I'll tell you what.
Why don't we all get together and sit down
and then you can tell them yourself, in person,
how sorry you really are.
How's that?
I'm so sorry.
[gunshot]
Look, if a kid's determined to go,
it doesn't matter what you say to him.
He was here to do another murder.
It's a dirty shame, but I'll sleep fine.
All right.
Lou, we got a suicide note.
Let's see.
"She was all I had, and they took her away.
They killed her. Elaine Clemens killed her.
Why was her head caved in?"
Didn't the sister die of AIDS?
That's what Clemens told us.
Well, why was her head caved in?
Maybe that's why he was trying
to break her out of the hospital,
because she was being abused.
Maybe.
I understand wanting to put this to bed.
It was an ugly thing to witness.
I'm fine, Lieutenant.
No one is fine watching a 14-year-old
blow his brains out.
But maybe we'll sleep better knowing the truth.
Emily Miller. The medical report says
her cause of death is pneumonia resulting from AIDS.
But our intake sheet does show some head trauma.
So what about her autopsy?
I didn't get there yet.
Well, what are you waiting for?
We had five homicides in the last two days.
Till you called half an hour ago,
she was low priority. Natural causes.
Come on! With head trauma?
Hey, cause of death says complications from AIDS.
There's a dead kid in the park
that would argue with you about that.
So you mind checking her head wound for us right now, please?
(Murphy) Yeah, it's a contusion
about five centimeters in diameter.
(Fontana) Blunt force?
Most likely. Enough to kill her?
Not without an autopsy.
Well, what's your best guess, Doctor?
Well, terminal AIDS patients can hemorrhage pretty easily.
A mild whack on the head could have killed her.
You know, we're gonna hand this body over to Rogers.
That way we're not guessing, all right?
Fellas, once in a blue moon
a kid comes in dead with an AIDS diagnosis,
so it's not outrageous to accept the medical report.
Who reported the death?
Uh, Dr. Andrew Copelan.
Children's Healing House.
This is the first I've heard of a contusion on her head.
Emily Miller died of AIDS, which she had since birth.
When the last time you saw her alive?
The morning she died, on rounds.
What was her condition?
Her breathing was labored. She was in a lot of pain.
From her head?
Joint pain and from the sores in her mouth.
Was there anything peculiar about her condition?
No.
Then how would you explain a bedridden kid
with a head injury?
I honestly can't.
She didn't complain of it when I saw her that morning.
What time was it when you saw her?
8:00 a.m. Who could have been in her room
between the time you saw her and when she died?
Doctor?
Is there something on your mind?
No one in the hospital would have harmed that little girl.
Elaine Clemens told us that watching her die
was an awful thing to witness.
It was.
So if you know somebody who might have
put her out of her misery,
you should tell us about that.
I'm an orderly.
We don't involved much with patients
past shuttling them around.
You were close to Emily Miller.
You used to read to her.
You brought her a teddy bear.
It was my daughter's. She'd grown out of it.
Look, I'm gonna cut to the chase.
You were on duty when Emily died,
and you took a collar for a domestic assault.
That was ten years ago.
I was a different person back then.
Emily died of AIDS.
With head trauma being looked after
by a guy who has a problem with his hands.
From drinking, which I don't anymore.
And I wasn't the last person in the room, okay? Who was?
I could lose my job if Dr. Copelan finds out.
Look, if I were you, I'd worry about losing
the next 20 years of your life.
Emily was so sick, and she was crying all the time.
She asked if I'd sneak her old foster mother in to see her.
Why would you have to sneak her in?
Three months ago Child Services took her to court
and had her charged with abuse.
And you let this woman into that child's room.
You got it all wrong.
Pamela's a decent lady. She loved that girl.
That abuse charge was ludicrous.
And it wasn't for physical abuse.
It was because I stopped giving Emily
her AIDS medication.
Why would you do something like that?
Because that medication was supposed to make her better,
not worse.
Well, the judge disagreed.
The judge didn't spend every night
wiping the vomit from her mouth.
When I took Emily out of CHH five months ago,
she could barely walk.
Seven years old, 36 pounds.
Off the meds, she started gaining weight.
She could even play in the park.
How does that add up to an abuse charge?
Dr. Copelan went ballistic.
He said she couldn't ever be off the regimen
because she was part of a drug trial
to find a more effective pediatric
AIDS cocktail.
Well, excuse me for saying so,
but that sounds like a good thing.
But he acts more like a zealot than a doctor.
Look, Ms. Henson, you're gonna have to come down
to the station house with us till we sort this out.
ME's found the cause of death.
The head contusion was non-lethal.
Number of drugs she was on, she most likely slipped and fell
from pain or fatigue.
These are AIDS drugs we're talking about, right?
Her tox screen reads like an AIDS pharmacopoeia.
"Calidrone, Nofolox, Thadnuium, Drexenall, DZB."
At these dosages and these meds,
she probably felt like she was being burned alive
from the inside out.
So what'd she die of?
(Rodgers) Her bone marrow depletion
resulted in a multi-organ system failure--
liver, kidneys--
all caused by very powerful medications
with potentially lethal side effects.
So what are we talking about here?
We talking about hospital mishap?
Accidental overdose, what?
Bone marrow failure this drastic doesn't happen overnight,
and it doesn't happen at all to a person her age.
And look at this.
(Fontana) Track marks?
Intramuscular.
And that's not in a place where you'd draw blood.
She must have been administered some drug
outside her treatment protocol.
And every drug I can identify is given orally.
Every drug in Emily Miller's system
has been approved for my phase two protocols.
These drugs are given orally, correct?
Yes.
Then why would there be track marks on her leg?
Unless you were giving her something
you didn't want anyone else to know about.
Maybe she was self-mutilating.
Some young girls do that.
She had organ failure, muscle wasting, anemia.
You understand there's still no viable drug cocktail
to cure or eliminate the virus in children.
Why don't you tell us what she was allergic to?
You were using this girl as a guinea pig
because she was a foster kid
and she couldn't complain about it.
I was giving her cutting-edge care.
Which led directly to her grave, am I correct?
There's something you're not telling us.
Out autopsy report proves it.
Any other questions, talk to my lawyer.
Dr. Copelan's grant guidelines
say that no more than three drugs
shall be administered on any test subject
during one daily cycle.
Emily Miller died with five in her system.
So Dr. Copelan violated the grant protocols.
It's a civil matter.
Look, this was a voluntary trial.
But how does an 8-year-old comprehend the risks?
Well, who gave the doctor her informed consent?
Some neutral advocate rubber stamped the thing.
So from a legal standpoint,
she didn't have to understand the risks.
Look, should Dr. Copelan have monitored her condition better?
Absolutely. But the DA's office will say
that's a question for civil court.
(Green) Hey, the ME's office called.
Her friend at the CDC said
the mystery drug that was in Emily Miller
was an experimental AIDS vaccine
only for use in animals.
We're way out of civil court now.
That sick son of a bitch.
Detectives.
What now?
You're under arrest for the murder of Emily Miller.
I was her doctor. What are you talking about?
Then you should have acted like it.
Make sure the children stay on the regimen.
(Fontana) You have the right to remain silent.
You have the right to an attorney.
If you can't afford an attorney...
Docket number 37874.
People vs. Andrew Copelan.
The charge is murder in the second degree.
How does your client plead?
Apologies, Your Honor.
For a moment, I thought we were in civil court.
Well, get your geographical bearings
and enter a plea, Counselor.
Not guilty.
(Judge Ferrante) People on bail?
The people request remand, Your Honor.
Mr. Copelan acted with depraved indifference
when he deviated from normal standards of care
by using an experimental AIDS vaccine
which caused the death of an 8-year-old patient.
(Hogenbaum) Dr. Copelan is a highly regarded
member of the medical community
involved in cutting-edge care for 163 dying children
who depend solely upon his treatments to live.
There is no hint of a flight risk.
Except for his contacts in AIDS clinics in Europe,
South America, and three African countries
where the U.S. has no extradition treaty.
Got it, Counselor.
Bail is set at $500,000,
and the doctor will surrender his passport.
"LAV60.
A live-attenuated-virus vaccine
meant to boost the immune response
in people already infected with AIDS."
The ME says it's what killed Emily Miller.
For use only on animals.
How close was it to use in humans?
The manufacturer was close to applying
for an FDA investigation,
but the drug was still proving lethal
in 8% of canine recipients.
And the girl's condition before taking this drug?
She developed full-blown AIDS six months ago.
So the defense will say it was AIDS that killed her.
Which it would have, eventually.
But does that excuse experimenting
on an indigent child?
Any chance it's children, plural?
Still checking, but so far no other kids
have signs of subcutaneous injections.
If it was killing dogs, he'd know it could kill a child.
That's depraved indifference murder.
Or an attempt to prolong her life.
An unapproved experimental drug crosses the line.
Just know that it's not a very sharply drawn line.
Unless he has a financial motive.
It's being tested in two vivisection labs.
One in Costa Rica, one in the city.
Neither has ties to Dr. Copelan and his field research,
but there is a connection between the three:
their benefactor, Randolph McGinnis.
He owns a stake in the manufacturing company.
He paid the doctor to test it on humans?
He did recently give $50 million
to Children's Healing House for pediatric AIDS research.
Andrew Copelan spent four years working with incurable children.
You don't lock the man up. You put a halo on him.
(Borgia) Your $50 million donation to Children's Healing House,
that was his halo? Damn right.
LAV60, Mr. McGinnis.
Any idea how it came to be used on Emily Miller?
You want me to implicate Dr. Copelan?
I can't, and I won't.
Any theories on how it might have gotten
into Dr. Copelan's possession?
I need a club sandwich. You want one?
You threatened to void
your 50-million donation to Children's Healing House
if they didn't bring down their pediatric HIV mortality rate.
You emailed Dr. Copelan an article
from the American Medical Journal,
which ranked his study second in the nation
for pediatric mortality.
I thought he might be interested.
The subject line of the e-mail was "Shape up."
Did you threaten to pull the 50 million?
No.
How do you explain "Shape up"?
A suggestion.
Any indication he'd take it to heart?
By being reckless, you mean?
There's a subsequent responding e-mail
asking for suggestions as to how to accomplish the task.
Recall my response? "I'm not the doctor."
But you have a financial stake in LAV60, don't you?
You own a quarter of the company that's producing it.
50 million to test my drug on humans?
On little girls? That is a sick accusation.
Emily Miller didn't administer that drug to herself.
I gave Andrew Copelan 50 million
because he is a generous, caring physician.
A donation that was never in danger.
Talk to his chairwoman of the community advisory board
and show yourself out.
Randolph McGinnis is a devoted patron.
Do you think it's possible that he pressured Dr. Copelan
to test LAV60 on Emily Miller?
I can't imagine him making that suggestion.
Well, how do you think the drug got into her body, Miss Clemens?
I don't know.
You recently tendered your resignation.
Yes.
It's hard not to read into the timing.
I don't know a thing about LAV60
or how it wound up administered to Emily Miller.
But something about her death bothers you.
Or why leave?
Dr. Copelan agonizes over watching these children
waste away and die.
But recently he's become progressively more...
obsessed.
How so?
He works all hours of the night.
If there's any hint of a breakthrough
anywhere in the world, he's on the first plane out.
Do you think his obsession made him overreach?
The charts are all in order.
But these children,
their deaths were similar to Emily Miller's.
And Dr. Copelan signed each death certificate...
as AIDS.
Four children, all under the age of ten.
Where were they buried?
Cemeteries around the city in donated plots.
Can we locate the parents?
They were orphans or wards of the state.
Perfect fodder for experimentation.
No one I spoke to makes him Dr. Frankenstein.
Of course, he gave up a successful general practice
to pursue research.
We won't know what he is
till we see what these kids really died of.
Get an order to exhume.
(Rodgers) Two of the children had tissue decomp
too advanced for testing.
But in these two, no question.
The cause of death is similar to Emily Miller.
LAV60?
There's no sign of that drug or elevated white cells
to indicate allergic reactions,
but organ failure, anemia...
From the same drug cocktail?
Completely different in each.
Cameron Gonzales' toxicology
revealed six medications to treat suppressed immunity.
Curtis Redmond had five.
Both cocktails were the cause of death,
but each child has a different cocktail.
Different across the board?
Two drugs overlap.
Past that, they were given different meds.
So Dr. Copelan was mixing and matching the drugs.
To see which worked better.
Both combinations were lethal.
Cameron Gonzales and Curtis Redmond were sick kids.
I was trying to stave off their death.
With a lethal combination of drugs?
One child could be argued as an accident, but three now?
This is making me sick to my stomach.
Mine too.
These children have a fatal disease.
You can't blame my client for the inevitable conclusion.
A conclusion he hastened with lethal experimentation.
How do you explain the presence of LAV60 vaccine
in Emily Miller's system?
She had a fanatical stepmother we had charged with abuse.
Her brother shot himself in the head.
Both of them were in her room within a day of her death.
One of them administered an experimental AIDS vaccine?
No sale, Doctor.
Prison? That's what you think is appropriate?
Yes. For working to cure AIDS?
And not just in the U.S.
Our phase three trials will bring anti-viral regimens
to 80,000 HIV-infected kids in Nigeria alone.
Some of whom don't even have running water.
Man two. Community service at your discretion.
Even without LAV60,
three kids outside Institute of Health protocols
is depraved indifference.
Experimenting on foster children and orphans
without oversight?
You want that in front of a jury?
You'll go to trial with just Emily Miller, Mr. McCoy.
No way those other deaths will make it into evidence.
We'll see.
(Hogenbaum) This evidence has no probative value
except to paint my client as some mad scientist
experimenting on foster children.
The two additional victims
refute any claim that Emily Miller's death
was accidental.
The pattern of conduct supports our theory
of depraved indifference murder.
If there's a pattern here, I'd like to see it.
So would I. Mr. McCoy?
Each additional child
displayed the same symptoms of organ failure,
the same progress of disease.
But not the same cause of death.
The exact same cause of death:
overdosage of AIDS-suppressing medications.
Emily Miller, Cameron Gonzales, and Curtis Redmond
each died with five or more medications in their system.
Yet in only two instances was there any overlap
in the specific drugs.
What they were overdosed with is immaterial.
They were overdosed.
These are different children whose viral loads
would flare at different times in different ways,
requiring different combination of medications.
There's nothing similar about them.
Except they had the same general diagnosis,
were in the same treatment program,
with the same physician.
They're coincidental only in that they all died.
But it's a clinical trial to develop an effective
pediatric AIDS cocktail, Your Honor.
And, unfortunately, in this field children die.
These are three AIDS patients who didn't die of AIDS.
If the autopsy results had more similarities
or a greater degree of crossover of the various drugs...
But as it stands, it doesn't pass the balancing test.
The deaths are out.
The defense made Copelan a saintly shepherd
ministering to dying lambs.
I was looking for a connection between Dr. Copelan and LAV60,
and I found an AIDS clinic in Costa Rica
where they say he was a patient.
He might have been experimenting to find a cure for himself.
Dr. Copelan has AIDS.
What's his status?
They said he's a patient in the AIDS clinic.
They won't say more.
Is this clinic the same place they're testing this LAV60?
That's a pharmaceutical lab about 50 miles south.
They're not associated.
(McCoy) Still, awfully close quarters.
I don't think that'll cut it with a jury.
He overdosed three kids.
Well, all you can produce is one.
His disease is further motive
for depraved indifference murder.
How common is it for an AIDS clinician to have the disease?
It's why some people go into the field.
But most people in the field
don't have a trail of bodies in their wake.
Jack, how do you counter the notion
that this is a guy trying to save lives?
One of them being his own.
It negates any argument for experimenting
on unwitting subjects.
It's still a last-ditch effort
to keep them out of their graves.
You're gonna have family members
give consent every day
in every cancer ICU in the nation.
Sometimes just to further science.
But where was the science here?
What was the hypothesis being tested?
Where were the monitored protocols?
The word for willy-nilly self-serving experimentation
isn't science.
It's desperation.
Is the clinic in Costa Rica
going to provide the doctor's medical files?
It'll take some work with the Justice Department,
but it's possible.
Well, you may get the records,
but you're gonna have to fight like hell
to get them into your case in chief.
New York public health laws prohibit disclosure
of confidential HIV-related information.
One exception is a compelling need to disclose
during a criminal proceeding.
The exception was intended for medical urgency
so a rape victim could seek treatment
if her attacker had the disease.
Dr. Copelan was over-medicating children
in an attempt to cure his own illness,
it proves his depravity.
That's not medical urgency.
The only way these records are compelling to the prosecution
is as a means to prejudice the jury against my client.
Firsthand knowledge of treatment
argues compellingly against unintentional
or accidental overdosing.
His status undercuts his defense.
That's not what the legislature had in mind
when they included the exception.
Your Honor, the prejudice held against
a person afflicted with AIDS,
it doesn't carry the stigma it did when the law was enacted.
The law's been revised many times since,
and the privacy aspects remain the same.
It's not coming in.
All we've got is Dr. Copelan giving Emily Miller five drugs
when the protocol was three.
You think we can convince a jury that's murder?
Yes.
How long did you keep Emily off Dr. Copelan's
AIDS treatment regimen?
Close to four weeks.
What was the result?
A vast improvement.
She stopped throwing up.
She could walk without using a cane.
She even began smiling.
What happened when you told Dr. Copelan? He yelled at me.
He said Emily needed to be on her meds.
End of story. Did you question his logic?
Absolutely.
That's when he called in Child Services
to take Emily away.
(McCoy) No further questions, Your Honor.
Where did you attend medical school, Ms. Henson?
I never went to medical school.
Then on what basis did you stop administering
Emily's drug regimen?
She was getting sicker.
A mother knows. Even a foster.
Can you tell me what Mumbala Kahn is?
It's a healing root.
Is it true that you took Emily off Dr. Copelan's regimen
in favor of putting her on Mumbala Kahn?
No. Once Emily was off the regimen,
I wanted to find a less painful way
of boosting her immune system.
By administering an unproven herbal remedy
that doesn't have FDA approval?
I was trying to improve her health.
But isn't it true,
the day she was taken from your care,
a CD4 count measured Emily's T-Cells
at their lowest level in a year?
Yes. I was told that.
A situation from which Emily never recovered, correct?
You can't say that I killed Emily.
I did everything I could to help her.
His regimen was making her miserable.
(Hogenbaum) Knowing what you do now,
do you think if you kept her on it,
Emily might be here today?
Objection! Ms. Henson is not a doctor!
Nothing further.
As the chairman of Infectious Diseases at East End Hospital,
I have overseen 3,400 AIDS cases in the last 15 years.
Dr. Roth, are you familiar with the drugs Calidrone,
Nofolox, Thadnium, Drexenall, and DZB?
Any three of these can comprise
what's commonly called an AIDS cocktail.
Why is there a limit of only three?
Well, each drug has the potential
to cause life-threatening side effects.
Was Emily Miller a candidate for these five drugs?
No one is.
(McCoy) No further questions, Your Honor.
Isn't it true that the five drugs
given to Emily by Dr. Copelan
are proven life-sustaining medications
for AIDS patients?
(Roth) Yes.
Are there any other available treatments
that could have saved Emily Miller's life?
Not to my knowledge.
So, medically, these drugs were Emily Miller's last hope
for survival.
In limited combination
as laid out by the Institute of Health.
How can you be sure only a limited combination
could prove effective?
We can't even be sure of that.
So regardless of the medications
given to Emily Miller,
she would have eventually died of AIDS.
All patients with AIDS eventually die of the disease.
No further questions.
But there is such a thing as mercy
at the obvious end stages of life.
You work with children, Doctor?
I have.
Have you worked with the elderly?
Yes.
Did you find a difference in how aggressively
you treat a patient 90 years old
at the end stages of a disease
versus a child, say, under ten?
Objection. Relevance. Withdrawn.
I'm done.
Unless Dr. Roth has something more to add.
I just got off the phone with Davis Erlanger,
the director of that vivisection lab
that tests LAV60.
He just discovered some of their supply missing.
Before the trial he said he'd never heard of Copelan.
Why's he calling now?
Change his tune?
(Erlanger) We just didn't notice a problem
until a sudden spike in our canine mortality.
Here. It's been diluted practically to water.
How many other bottles were diluted?
Eight so far.
When I spoke to you before the trial,
you said you never heard of Dr. Copelan.
I was certain that he got his sample from Costa Rica,
and I just didn't want to get our lab involved.
How do you know him?
He contacted me about six months ago
for a sample of LAV60.
For what purpose?
He said he wanted to test it on himself.
I said hell no.
We'll subpoena you.
You tell that lie on the stand, it's perjury.
I am not lying. I didn't give it to him.
I just didn't want to get our lab involved.
Well, you are now.
No one touches anything in this lab
until a crime unit's been through.
Dr. Copelan, we've heard police testimony
that your fingerprint was found
at a pharmaceutical testing laboratory
on a medicine bottle containing a diluted dosage
of the AIDS vaccine LAV60.
How do you explain that?
I was the one who stole the drug
and replaced the contents with water.
LAV60. Wasn't that drug found
in Emily Miller's toxicology screen?
Yes, it was, because I administered it to her.
A potentially lethal experimental medication
that hasn't been approved by the FDA?
She was at the end stages of her AIDS.
It was her last hope.
Was she the only person you administered this drug?
I also gave it to myself to treat my own disease.
I have AIDS.
How did you contract HIV?
Four years ago, returning to my hotel
after doing research in a small village
in Imo State in Nigeria,
our car blew a tire and flipped three times.
I suffered a deep laceration to my left arm
and required a transfusion.
The hospital I was taken to didn't have means
to properly test blood.
The transfused blood was infected with HIV.
And last year I developed full-blown AIDS.
Do you think this has affected how you treat patients?
I think I have even more compassion than I did before.
What about your attitude towards AIDS research in general?
I have a greater sense of dedication.
Are you a fanatic, Doctor?
Of course not.
Do you regret your course of action with Emily Miller?
I was trying to save her life.
Unfortunately, I failed.
A heart-wrenching story, Doctor.
But doesn't it prove that you used Emily Miller
as a guinea pig to test a dangerous treatment
in the hope that it would be beneficial to you?
Absolutely not.
Why was she the only one to receive the drug?
Had to do with the timing of her decline
and when I acquired the drug.
Using Emily Miller wasn't more deliberate?
Isn't it true...
that the mutation pattern of her virus
is an exact mirror of yours?
I don't know.
Your T-Cell count from the onset of AIDS
is the exact same as Emily Miller's,
only staggered back one year.
That suggests that your virus was mimicking hers.
Doesn't it, Doctor?
I see a coincidence.
16 CD4-plus counts
in evidence for both you and Emily Miller.
If she scored a 316,
a year later, so would you.
If she scored 420,
a year later, so would you.
I guess there were similarities.
Didn't that make her a perfect candidate
to test out future drug treatments for yourself?
She wasn't a lab rat.
She was a patient in my care.
(McCoy) Then why didn't you tell your colleagues
about your treatment of your patient?
Because they would have objected.
I didn't want to sit back and watch her die.
Did you experimentation on your patient
yield any results?
I'm afraid not.
Did you record any data? Publish any findings?
All I learned was that the drug was fatal to her,
which I deeply regret.
(McCoy) But apparently not fatal to you.
So you must have learned something
from experimenting on Emily Miller,
or why administer it to yourself?
How many people have you watched
wither away and die, Mr. McCoy?
You didn't want to suffer her fate
so you pushed her treatment until it was lethal.
Isn't that true, Doctor?
How many nights have you sat by a dying child's bedside
praying that a treatment might work?
But for the child, Doctor, or for yourself?
I did what I thought was right to save a young girl
from a wasting hell.
Did I hope it might help my chance of survival?
Yes, I did.
For Emily, for me, for thousands of others.
Yes, Mr. McCoy, I admit that.
In the matter of the People v. Andrew Copelan,
in the count of murder in the second degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant, Andrew Copelan,
not guilty.
They wouldn't convict a dying man.
Maybe they'd figured if Emily had survived,
Dr. Copelan would have won a Nobel Prize.
Maybe they're right.
Or they figured a vaccine
that could save their own lives one day
mattered more than a kid who was dying anyway.