(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.
(male host) Each of these men expected to find
a 12-year-old girl named Tiffany
who they chatted with online.
It's clear what they came for.
"R U as horny as I am?"
(woman) I know they always catch the bad guys.
If they didn't, they'd be schlubs.
You wouldn't watch.
(male host) Reuben thought an underage girl was home alone.
(woman) Fine, if you don't like it, change the channel.
(male host) While some of the predators
tried to talk themselves out of the situation
like Manhattan resident Carl Mullaly...
(Carl) She said she was 19.
Oh, my God!
(male host) We have copies of your online chat.
My neighbor's on TV!
I am so sorry.
I've never done anything like this before.
It was a terrible, terrible mistake.
[dog barking]
[rings doorbell]
Delivery.
[dog barking]
[rings doorbell]
[dog barking]
Lemon chicken, brown rice.
Lemon chicken.
(man) Carl Mullaly.
44, 6'2". Weighing in at 195.
He's a Leo with brown eyes.
All right, so they didn't lift his wallet.
Or anything else worth taking.
That ain't saying much.
No forced entry.
Doesn't look like there was a struggle,
and this Mullaly dude is big.
So either he didn't see it coming...
Or he knew who was coming.
What time did the delivery guy find him?
About ten after 11:00.
What you smilin' about?
Novelty.
It's not every day you get one of these.
He's fresh, I get it. You got a window?
With multiple stabs wounds, I'm counting three hours tops.
Partner's calling for you. 2E.
All right. I'll be right back.
You know that show Hardfocus?
Yeah, on the 24-7 news network?
Yeah, Ms. Wallace was watching it tonight.
Hi, Detective Green. Hi.
Thank God for TiVo.
You're telling us that this is the first time
you've sought out a minor--
(Ms. Wallace) I was on the phone with my mother
watching one of those episodes outing pedophiles.
And look who pops up.
I've had urges in the past,
but I knew they were wrong and I never acted on them.
What made this time different?
I really felt like I connected to Tiffany,
like we understood each other.
I know that's sick, it's wrong.
And I apologize
from the bottom of my heart.
This aired just after 9:00 tonight.
No wonder Mr. Mullaly's dead.
What a dirt bag.
How many times you say he got stabbed?
Please sir, just answer the question.
How well did you know him?
(Ali) Well, he picked up our mail once
when we were out of town.
He seemed pretty harmless.
But it's not like he's gonna wear a T-shirt
with "Pedophile" stamped across the front.
You seen anybody coming in and out
of his apartment on a regular basis?
Not that we noticed.
You know of anyone with a beef with Mullaly?
Ever heard any arguments?
No.
But have you checked with his next door neighbor,
Evan Fleming?
He's next on the list.
He wouldn't do this, David. He's a doctor.
Why do you bring him up?
His daughter is eight.
(Evan) I was in the ER till 10:00.
Home around 10:30.
Where was your daughter?
Here in bed.
I got in, the babysitter left.
I checked in on Abigail,
knocked off about two seconds later.
On your way in, did you see anyone in the hall?
Anyone out of place?
No one.
Well, after you got home...
After you got home, did you hear anybody
in Mr. Mullaly's apartment or out here in the hallway?
I was on my feet 12 hours yesterday.
I was out cold.
How about you, Abigail?
Did you hear anything next door?
She was asleep.
Were you, sweetie?
Yeah. Can I watch some TV?
For ten minutes.
How'd you get along with Mr. Mullaly?
Barely saw him.
Abigail ever home alone?
Never. She's all I got.
Did you see this Hardfocus segment?
It was on in the break room.
You're pretty calm about all this, Mr. Fleming,
considering you live next door to a child molester.
I don't work in an ER 'cause I'm prone to panic.
And Mr. Mullaly's not living next door anymore, is he?
Carl Mullaly had no record
until Ulster County collared him
after the Hardfocus segment.
So what's Ulster know about him?
No kiddy porn on his computer,
no threats in his emails.
How'd the TV show dig him up?
Mullaly was trolling the chat rooms
and took the bait on a decoy 12-year-old
set up by this online vigilante group
called Scum Watch.
Their motto is "We fill the gap in law enforcement."
And now there's a murder.
What about the delivery guy who found Mullaly?
Didn't see a soul in the hall.
And the babysitter confirms Fleming's timeline.
So that puts Fleming next door
at the time of the homicide.
He have a record?
Clean.
What about the little girl's mother?
She hit the road six years ago.
So we've got a single father who finds out
he has a pedophile living next door.
And does the world a solid.
Public service homicide?
Boss, have you seen the Hardfoc segments?
I mean, one guy walked into their house naked.
Another perp, he brought his own kid along.
It's sick stuff.
Yeah, but it's train wreck TV.
It's not an investigation.
Hey.
The LUDs from Mullaly's home phone
show a whole bunch of short cell phone calls
from a woman named Hannah Welch.
Look at that, 15 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds.
And one of 'em was an hour before he was murdered.
Track her down.
(Becca) Hannah's holed-up in the bathroom.
She won't come out.
I'll talk to her.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
How are you gonna start?
Ascertain her relationship with Mullaly.
And then you're gonna dig for an alibi, right?
Not ask her her favorite color?
Come on.
I can handle a girl locked in a bathroom.
(Cassady) How long had you and Carl been seeing each other?
Maybe a month.
God, I can't believe this.
He ever mention anyone bothering him?
Nothing like that.
When was the last time you saw him?
A few days ago.
Not at all last night?
No, I went to a movie last night.
When'd you get wind of the Hardfocus segment?
This morning.
It's being passed around online.
And a few days ago, that's the last contact
you had with Carl?
Yeah.
No phone calls?
Um...
I'm sorry, I'm not thinking real clear.
I tried getting in touch
at his work earlier in the day.
And they said he'd been fired.
So I called him to ask about it,
and he wouldn't talk to me.
Wait, he was fired before the segment aired?
Yeah. Where'd he been working?
A community center.
Around kids?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
(Cruz) Carl was our fix-it man.
(Green) Why'd you fire him?
It was time he moved on.
Did anything happen with the kids?
No.
Program director said she heard you and Carl
screaming behind closed doors
and then he wasn't working here anymore.
I saw him on that show.
Made me sick to my stomach.
That was after you fired him.
Yeah, but a few weeks ago, I got tipped off
the guy was a molester.
By who?
I didn't know him.
But he said that Carl was a bad guy.
So I sat Carl down about it, and he went crazy.
This tip, did someone call you?
No, they stopped in.
What'd the guy look like?
He was white, 30s.
He said he was Carl's neighbor.
He said I should watch out for the kids.
Thank you.
(Green) Why did you go to Mullaly's job?
(Cassady) You buried the lead, Fleming.
I mean, why not start with the guy's a scumbag pedophile?
'Cause it's over with.
Why do I have to get involved?
You went to his job to get him fired.
Isn't that getting involved?
That's keeping kids safe.
How'd you know Mullaly was dangerous?
I got an anonymous note under my door that said as much.
Do you have this note?
I got rid of it.
All right, so maybe there wasn't really a note?
Maybe there really was an incident
between Mullaly and your daughter?
No.
After the note, I thought there might have been.
I had a friend, a psychiatrist. Talk to Abigail.
[cell phone ringing]
Everything seemed okay.
Mullaly didn't do anything.
And why didn't you tell us this earlier?
Look, I didn't kill him, okay?
But when you find out who did, let me know.
I'd like to buy him a steak.
Yeah.
We'll be right there.
Don't move.
Guy named Greg Hightower.
Married, father of two.
And the other star of last night's Hardfocus.
Where'd you find him?
At a bus stop on 59th street. Unconscious.
He gonna make it?
Doc said he would.
We looking at a copycat?
If we are, these dudes are walking around
with targets on their backs.
Come on.
Son of a bitch attacked me from behind.
He wanted to kill me.
What'd he look like?
Six foot, brown hair.
He was driving in a Chevy.
You know, I should sue.
This never would have happened
if that show hadn't violated my civil rights.
So you just walked into the Hardfocus thing
to ask for directions?
I wasn't there for anything sexual.
Anything else about this guy outside your building?
License plate.
it started with 123.
I made a mental note.
Just don't forget that I'm the victim here.
We won't.
(Lowe) How bad is he?
He's out of ICU.
Okay.
Disappointed, Mr. Lowe?
I don't wanna say too much, but yeah.
A little.
Princeton grad, place up at Irvington, no record.
How's a guy like you end up vigilante?
A week before my daughter's 13th birthday,
she took a class trip into the city.
She got split off from her class.
A guy got her in his car.
Found her in a suitcase.
She'd been raped and sodomized and strangled.
Men who do that to children don't deserve to breathe.
Men like Carl Mullaly?
I had nothing to do with that.
But I applaud whoever did.
Where were you on the night he was killed?
In Boston on business.
That sicko's been flying under the radar for years.
You should see what he writes online
to little girls.
You seem to know an awful lot about these guys.
How'd you track down that guy you clocked, Hightower?
Scum Watch keeps tabs on all the men they're targeting.
They gave him up to you?
Yeah, they're almost as impotent as you are--
All right, watch your mouth!
What's the point?
My daughter's dead.
There's nothing more that you can do to me.
(man) Howard came here because he couldn't process
his daughter's death.
Others are here because of personal experience.
But if we get any indication that a member
desires physical retribution, then we ask them to leave.
Just like we did with Howard Lowe
a week after he got here.
Any of your other volunteers agree with Mr. Lowe's approach?
We keep close tabs on everyone.
We're gonna need a list of your volunteers
and all their contact information.
Anything to help.
Anyone else have access to your files?
The addresses of guys you target?
They're strictly confidential.
Except that Hardfocus gets copies of everything.
[Ellie scoffs]
No.
He looks like a wounded puppy.
Not a menace to society.
Run it again from the beginning.
Look, I'm sorry, I have to get this locked by lunch.
This airs tomorrow.
Did Carl Mullaly's murder raise interest in your segments?
What happened to Mr. Mullaly was tragic,
but I have a hard time believing
that you have a problem putting pedophiles
behind bars, Detective.
Be careful, Ms. Harper.
What I have a problem with
is your show inciting violence.
No, we are well within our first amendment rights.
This is a news program.
Journalists in Falluja don't pull over
roadside bombers and ask them to sign release forms.
They're breaking the law, you just film it.
Carl Mullaly was a sick man.
When he was online with the Scum Watch decoy,
he talked about his penis size.
And he asked if the decoy was on her period.
And he had all kinds of specific requests
about the decoy's personal hygiene.
It's all in there, I pulled it when you called.
That's his transcript.
And most of that is too graphic to air.
Well, if I had to read this everyday
I might be tempted to take justice
into my own hands.
Look, we all knew Mr. Mullaly was a pervert weeks ago.
But if someone here wanted to cause him harm,
they did not have to wait for this show to air.
The 75 people on this crew list
that Ellie Harper gave us,
the worst record of any is a shoplifting charge.
Same song for the Scum Watch folks.
Well, we need to check if any of these people
pop on Evan Fleming's phone records.
Or Hannah Welch's.
Her movie alibi bothering you?
No ticket stub, no one at the theater saw her.
Give me a reason to like her.
I can't yet. No record.
Just started working at a temp agency.
New to New York.
(Green) Oh, damn.
I'm reading Fleming's LUDs.
He called the Chinese place that night.
For delivery to Mullaly?
Who orders dinner for a dead man?
Your cell records show you made a call
to the Red Dragon eight minutes
before Mullaly's body was discovered
by the delivery guy.
I was hungry. Stop it.
Stop lying and stop wasting our time.
That food never came to your door.
Question is, how many years
do you wanna be away from your daughter?
I didn't kill him.
You got a chance at light weight
if you cop to it, but you go to trial,
that's 25 years.
(Green) Your little girl'll be 33 when you get out.
No, come on!
Mm-hmm.
He was already dead when I got there.
I checked his pulse. He was dead.
Why'd you order him dinner?
So the delivery guy would find him
and call it in.
So I didn't have to get in the middle of it.
Okay. So what were you so worried about?
I was protecting my daughter.
I was asleep, I wake up.
I see Abby standing in the door.
She said she heard a fight through her wall
and went to look.
She saw someone run out
of Mullaly's apartment with a knife in her hand.
Her hand? A woman?
That's what she said.
You've been changing your tune
an awful lot, Mr. Fleming.
That son of a bitch
babysat her twice.
The shrink said nothing happened,
but if it did...
I just don't want her traumatized.
I don't want her on the stand
being cross-examined about it, okay?
All right, this is a third version of the story.
When does it end?
We gotta bring the daughter in.
If Fleming's telling the truth now,
that means he coached his daughter earlier
to say that she didn't hear anything.
So how reliable can she be?
Still.
You're buying it?
Why would he go to Mullaly's work
to get him fired and then kill him?
He saw that Hardfocus segment and he lost his mind.
Then why call the delivery guy to find Mullaly?
Why not just shut the door and take a powder?
Guilt.
Look, I get it.
There's a lot of reasons to doubt him.
But my gut says pursue it.
Your gut, huh?
Yeah.
All right, bring in the daughter.
But I'll talk to her, all right?
I was asleep.
And a noise next door woke me up.
It was Mr. Mullaly. He yelled out.
And when you heard all this noise,
where was your father?
He was asleep in his chair in front of the TV.
And then what did you do?
I went to go look out the door.
Oh.
What did you see?
The woman. She has brown hair.
The woman?
Had you seen her before?
Two weeks ago, I was doing homework
in the living room.
And an envelope got slid under the door.
I went to go look out the door,
and I saw the same woman who ran out of
Mr. Mullaly's apartment.
Now, did you look in the envelope?
No, I gave it to my dad.
He talked to my babysitter about it.
He told her it said Mr. Mullaly was a bad man.
All right.
The woman you saw...
Tell me again what she looked like.
(Kaitlin) Her hair was different.
What do you mean?
It was up in a ponytail.
Was this the night Mr. Mullaly was killed?
Yeah.
Where'd you see her?
In front of Mr. Mullaly's apartment.
Then she ran down the hall.
Hannah Welch, you're under arrest
for the murder of Carl Mullaly.
You're kidding.
You have the right to remain silent.
He's a pedophile. Anything you say...
He destroys lives and strips little girls
of their youth,
their innocence.
He deserved to die, don't you understand that?
He's a monster!
It's still murder.
If you cannot afford an attorney,
one will be provided...
Docket number 069236. People v. Hannah Welch.
Charge is murder in the second degree.
How does the defendant plead?
Not guilty.
People request $1 million bail.
The defendant, until recently,
lived in Pittsburgh, has no ties to New York.
And considering the gravity of the charges,
is a flight risk.
Your Honor, 17 million viewers
watched Mr. Mullaly outed as a pedophile.
Any one of them could have killed him.
We have an eyewitness who saw the defendant
flee the victim's apartment moments after the murder.
Miss Welch was dating the victim.
There are thousands of reasons
why she would have been in the vicinity
of his apartment.
Furthermore, this so-called witness
was an eight-year-old girl whose father
was being investigated
for the crime until my client was arrested.
She would have said it was the Tooth Fairy
if it deflected blame from her father.
(Judge Kaplan) I'd work on your material
before facing the cameras outside, Mr. Depago.
Especially since you went to such trouble
getting them here.
Bail's set at $500,000.
You called, we're listening.
Well, I saw the Hardfocus segment.
It was...
Well, you can imagine
what was going through my mind.
So I went over to Carl's apartment
to tell him that I'd seen it.
Let him know what I thought of him.
What he'd done.
You did more than talk.
Well, he kept telling me it was a mistake.
He'd been online...
talking to a little girl about having sex.
I mean, they caught him on TV
walking into her house.
How is that a mistake?
So I called him a pervert
and he--he lunged at me.
A terrified woman acting in self-defense
when confronted by an enraged sexual predator.
Crim neg.
No time served. Probation.
We might as well send out invitations
to execute suspected pedophiles.
That man sexually assaulted children.
And was walking around free.
All I did was defend myself and you wanna send me to jail?
Whose side are you on?
For the purposes of this trial, Mr. Mullaly's.
Are we done here?
Good luck, Mr. McCoy. You'll need it.
No way this plays as self-defense.
We have motive.
The defendant learns her boyfriend
is a pedophile on national TV.
An eyewitness puts her at the scene.
The victim has no defensive or offensive wounds.
His blood is found on the defendant's shoes.
There were four stab wounds.
Have we recovered the murder weapon?
Not yet.
And the stab wounds don't match any knives
in the victim's apartment.
So Hannah brought her own.
Looks that way.
The evidence is pretty solid, Arthur.
Well, solid gets watery pretty fast
if your victim is a pedophile
and your defendant is a sympathetic young woman
claiming self-defense.
Whether we like it or not,
Hannah Welch fulfilled the fantasies of every person
who watched that TV show the other night.
Television acting as judge and jury
makes me a little queasy.
Well, if it wasn't a problem,
it wouldn't be anything to watch.
I mean, we can't overlook the fact
that they're helping to get child predators
off the street.
And helping defend anyone willing to kill them.
Hardfocus put up Hannah's bail.
Which I can only assume
was in exchange for an exclusive interview
once all is said and done.
Well, your arm's gonna get pretty tired
swimming upstream.
People watch these shows because it makes them
feel like they're doing something.
Like cleansing the community.
Are you suggesting that I plead this out, Arthur?
I'm suggesting that the deck's stacked against you.
I'm moving forward.
Fine.
But you better find some skeleton
in Hannah Welch's closet... fast.
She moved here three months before the murder.
Not much time for skeletons.
In New York, but what about Pittsburgh?
Looks like I'm taking a road trip.
(Cassady) You and Hannah broke off your engagement
five years ago.
Why?
We were young.
We needed to figure out who we really were.
Do you two still talk?
Yeah, sure.
The romance is over, but we managed to stay friends.
Congratulations.
I know, it's not easy.
When was the last time you spoke to Hannah?
In person?
Three weeks ago.
Did she mention anything about a relationship
with Carl Mullaly?
No, never.
Did she say anything strange?
Mention any new guy she'd met?
We only talked for a few minutes.
She had to meet her roommates for dinner.
Roommates? How many roommates?
Five.
The Upper West Side don't come cheap.
We searched Hannah's apartment.
It was a week to week dump in the East Village.
That's news to me.
I've got her address right here.
There were at least six of 'em sharing that apartment.
Were?
Uh, yeah, moved out. They all did.
Building manager screamed bloody hell.
Now he's got a whole floor sitting empty.
I don't understand, they all moved out at the same time?
Yeah, when Hardfocus stopped paying the rent.
Hardfocus was paying their rent?
Like any of those kids could afford this building?
Do you have any idea why?
No clue.
Do you know where any of them might have moved to?
One of them asked me to forward his mail
to an address in Brooklyn.
I'm gonna need that address.
I'd ask if you wanted to sit down, but...
It's only temporary.
A friend of mine's letting me crash here
until I find a place of my own.
Hardfocus gonna set you up with that?
We signed non-disclosure agreements.
I'm really not supposed to talk about it.
I could subpoena you, Kyle, if you prefer.
What does that mean?
It means I could force you to tell the truth.
In court.
I just don't wanna get in trouble,
that's all.
You won't, I promise.
Well, what do you wanna know?
Why was Hardfocus paying your rent?
'Cause they wanted to hear my story.
Which is?
I was molested by my soccer coach
when I was 12 years old.
Really messed me up.
They interviewed you?
A few months ago I saw an ad online.
Reality show is looking for victims of sexual abuse
who wanted to confront their abusers.
I answered it, they flew me to New York,
interviewed me on tape and I was in.
So Hannah's story about dating Mullaly is a lie?
She moved here to be part of a TV show
where victims of sexual abuse
confront their abusers.
Are you saying Carl Mullaly molested Hannah?
He's from Pittsburgh, she's from Pittsburgh.
Big city.
He also worked in the same insurance company
as her father.
The victim seeks out victimizer years after the abuse
and stabs him four times in the chest?
Sounds more like revenge than self-defense.
Whether he's my boyfriend or not,
Carl Mullaly came at me.
And you stabbed him with a knife you brought
for what purpose exactly?
Don't answer.
Then why are we here, Mr. Depago?
He raped me. When I was 12.
He was a friend of my father's.
There's a system in place to handle that crime
and it's not on prime time.
But I never would have confronted him
if it weren't for the show!
The show made you do it? Please, Ms. Welch.
They didn't force you to answer that ad.
But she sent me there that night
with a knife and a camera.
You have a tape of the murder?
I never turned it on.
I got so scared.
And the knife?
Ellie Harper gave it to me.
To give me confidence.
Why send you in for more footage
if the show was already cancelled?
To try and get it back on track.
Prove how healing the confrontations could be.
It's creative, I'll give you that.
I have the knife. I hid it.
When Ellie gave it to me, it was in an orange bag
from a sporting goods store.
I can't remember the name.
We want to talk about your client's relationship
with Hannah Welch.
Why?
We just wanna understand...
what happened the night of the murder.
Seems pretty straightforward to me.
Angry woman confronts the lunatic who raped her.
She flips out
and kills the guy.
Yeah, that part we know.
What other part is there?
The part where your client bought the angry woman
the murder weapon.
Told her to get something explosive on tape.
That's crazy! That knife was for her--
Let me do the talking.
Understand? Yeah.
The knife was given to Ms. Welch
for her protection.
What you're describing is depraved indifference homicide.
That's insane.
I'm a TV producer, not a killer.
I create theater.
And to do that, to create conflict,
you have to put opposing forces together.
So the drama can unfold.
You mean the murder.
She means she's a respected member
of the television community with a long list of awards
for excellence.
We're done here.
You think the network knew what she was doing?
Let's find out.
(man) Mr. McCoy...
Ms. Rubirosa...
I appreciate you coming uptown.
But I oversee 24 hours of prime time programming
as well as 400 or so different projects
in development.
I can't keep track of every detail.
You pulled the plug on Confront and Heal. Why?
Lost interest in it.
Victims looking for closure, healing wounds.
It's too soft for today's marketplace.
Yet you found it interesting enough
to greenlight a pilot.
Well, you gotta sip the wine
before you buy it. [knocking at door]
Thank you for coming, Ken.
Ken LeSaboy, general counsel.
Good to meet you.
Likewise and good timing.
We're gonna need copies of all the records
and tapes pertaining to the show.
Why?
It's relevant to our investigation.
Into what?
Ellie Harper's role in Carl Mullaly's murder.
Sounds like you're looking for headlines, Mr. McCoy.
Just the truth.
Except those documents and tapes
contain privileged correspondence.
Trade secrets.
You can't expect us
to just roll out the red carpet.
Exactly why I brought a subpoena.
Gentlemen...
we're not murderers.
We're a television network.
So read what you like, Mr. McCoy.
Watch our tapes.
I hope you find them entertaining.
If you saw Carl Mullaly again,
what would you do?
I'd tell him that he ruined my life.
And that I think about what he did to me
every day.
And every night.
(Ellie) Then what?
Then I'd like to cut his heart out.
And watch him bleed.
Ellie Harper knew Hannah was ready to kill.
Well, hope you got more than that.
The psychiatrist considered her
psychologically unfit for the purposes
of the proposed TV show.
Do really think that you can prove
depraved indifference here?
Ellie put two trains on a collision course
and said, "Go."
Well, if you prosecute
the wrong defendant for the wrong crime,
there's a chance that we're the ones
who'll be flattened.
Ellie calls herself a journalist.
She arranged this disaster.
And Hannah is willing to take 15 years and testify.
Where is Ellie Harper?
To quote her counsel,
if you wanna talk to her again,
indict her and put her on trial.
And you're prepared to do that?
She bought Hannah Welch a knife.
Make it happen.
(Hannah) Carl Mullaly worked with my dad.
They were friends.
He used to go camping with us in the summer
and on the weekends.
He'd get me alone in the woods and then...
And what, Ms. Welch?
Rape me.
He said if I ever told my parents,
he'd kill them.
It finally stopped when I was 12.
When my dad got transferred.
Once you agreed to participate in the show
Confront and Heal, did the producers
do anything to prepare you to confront Mr. Mullaly?
Ellie Harper was the one who ran everything.
She made me talk to a therapist
about the abuse and how I was going to confront
the perpetrator.
We did role playing.
Ellie had me keep a video diary.
She even brought in a Krav Maga trainer.
Krav Maga.
It's like judo, but it's Israeli.
Ellie wanted me to be able to defend myself.
From Carl.
In case he got violent.
Was anything else done by Ms. Harper
to get you ready for this confrontation?
She bought me a hunting knife
for protection.
(McCoy) On the day you sought out
Mr. Mullaly, what happened?
Ellie gave me a camera for my purse,
showed me how to use it.
Then she gave me a pep talk.
She said that by putting this on television
for everyone to see, this was my chance
to finally give Carl what he deserved.
And did you confront
the man who raped you, Ms. Welch?
Carl opened the door.
He knew right away who I was.
His jaw almost hit the floor.
I asked him if I could come in and talk to him for a minute.
Just like I practiced with Ellie.
I asked him,
"Why did you rape me?"
He denied it.
He said I was crazy.
How did that make you feel?
Angry.
Really, really angry.
I said I wasn't crazy.
That he knew exactly what he did to me.
And all I wanted was for him to admit it.
And did he?
He said it was my fault.
That I seduced him.
An eight-year-old girl.
What happened then, Ms. Welch?
I guess I just...
lost control.
I grabbed the knife from my bag
and I went after him.
I started stabbing him.
Then I ran outside and walked around for hours.
Did you tell Ms. Harper what happened
in Mr. Mullaly's apartment?
She said not to say anything to anyone.
That she'd help me
figure things out.
You answered the ad, correct?
Yes.
And you went to the training,
went to the therapy, went to the door
of the man who raped you.
All totally voluntarily.
Yes, but it was like they were brainwashing me
for their show.
And the doors weren't locked?
You could have left at any time?
Right, but they made me sign legal papers.
A waiver, Ms. Welch, not a contract
of indentured servitude.
Objection. Sustained.
And after you killed Carl Mullaly,
you hid the knife?
Yes.
And you lied to the police.
And then you made a deal with the prosecution
for leniency?
Because she was the one who made me do this
for the television show.
None of it was for you?
I recognize that a terrible thing
happened to you when you were a child, Ms. Welch.
But does that give you the right
to put the blame on somebody else
for what you did?
(McCoy) Objection. Withdrawn.
I'm done with this witness.
Ms. Harper, on the night that Hannah Welch
confronted Carl Mullaly,
what were you hoping to capture on tape?
A woman reclaiming her dignity.
Why did you give Hannah Welch a knife?
So she could protect herself
in case Mullaly came at her.
Did you ask Hannah Welch to kill Carl Mullaly?
Of course not.
Were you pleased that Hannah Welch
killed Carl Mullaly?
Pleased?
I was devastated.
Absolutely, 100% devastated.
I'm a producer, for God's sakes.
A journalist. Not a criminal.
Journalists report the news, but you create it, don't you?
I consider informative entertainment akin to news.
Based on Hannah Welch's audition tape,
you knew that she was predisposed
to violence, correct?
I knew she was angry and looking to heal.
When she was asked what she might do
if given the opportunity to confront Mullaly,
Ms. Welch said, and I quote,
"I'd cut his heart out and watch him bleed."
What part of that statement suggests a desire to heal?
Well, we talked after the audition
after the camera stopped rolling and she--
But you turned Hannah Welch into a killing machine.
You gave her combat training,
you filled her with rage.
You put a knife in her hand and told her
to confront the man who molested her.
Objection. Sustained.
You have to wonder if your goal
was to capture a murder on film.
Objection.
Sustained.
(McCoy) If the sum result...
of Hannah Welch's going to Carl Mullaly's home
had been a polite conversation,
and healing...
would that have re-invigorated the network's
interest in the project?
It may have.
Then why pick a woman who'd said
on her audition tape that she wanted to kill?
Nothing further.
So, it sounds like Hannah did pretty good on the stand.
She has conviction, I'll give her that.
And there's no part of us that's going after
this woman because we're a couple
of out-of-step old-timers?
What's that supposed to mean?
In my day, television was a different animal.
Husbands and wives in separate beds.
Picture postcard towns
where the teenagers drank only malteds
and went to sock hops together.
So the crap that passes for entertainment now is okay
because the programmers have caught up with the reality?
You tell me.
Nothing's changed.
In Shakespeare's time,
people thronged to watch the bear baiting.
You're right.
There's an appetite for this stuff
and always will be.
And you've got people on your jury
who watch these shows.
And I'd be careful not to alienate them
in some hope of bringing down
a cultural phenomenon that you can't
do anything about anyway.
If people want to watch a man
crawl through a tunnel full of rats,
I can only shake my head.
But nobody gets to sell tickets to a murder.
(woman) Last night...
29 million people
watched the most recent episode of Hardfocus,
where a 55-year-old orthopedic surgeon,
father of three,
was arrested after showing up
at what he thought
was a ten-year-old girl's apartment.
The detective posing as the little girl
asked the man to take his clothes off.
He did.
And put bunny ears on his head.
He did.
Moments later, he was arrested.
Naked with bunny ears on his head.
This is what the public wants to see.
This is what you want Ellie Harper to deliver.
So why should she be blamed for
attempting to create another show
that deals with the exact same subject matter?
My client may be guilty
of being an ambitious producer.
Of pushing the entertainment envelope.
But she is certainly not guilty of murder.
So please pay attention to the facts and the law.
And not the anti-reality TV rhetoric and vitriol
that the prosecution is attempting to pass off
as evidence.
Even reality TV's biggest fans know
that 20 people on a desert island
competing for a can of soup
or drinking goat's urine for $50,000
is not that real.
Lots of people think it's fun.
Maybe some of you. It's entertainment.
Ellie Harper claims she's a journalist.
And the motto of a journalist used to be
you two fight and I'll write about it.
But the reporter didn't set up the fight.
Nowadays, the distinction between the news
and entertainment is not so clear.
Staging events for the news cameras...
doctoring photographs...
planting pseudo-news on the news
without a disclaimer.
That's not fun. That does real harm.
Some of those situations are frustratingly unclear.
Or beyond our reach to correct.
But not this case.
Ellie Harper was looking for ratings.
She knew the danger, but did she care?
No.
Did she even care enough to send someone along
with Hannah Welch
in case the staged encounter got out of hand?
No.
So tell her...
and anyone tempted to follow in her footsteps...
that an event where one of the participants
is trained, paid,
and armed by the producer...
is not journalism.
And a man being stabbed to death
is not entertainment.
It's murder.
Has the jury come to a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
(Judge Davis) On the charge of murder in the second degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant, Ellie Harper...
guilty.
I hear someone from Hardfocus called.
They're doing a special on Carl Mullaly's murder
and Ellie Harper's trial.
They wanted to land an interview with Jack.
What'd you tell 'em?
Something they can't quote on TV.
Well, I hate to say this, Jack, but with or without you,
it's gonna get a huge audience.
I'll be reading a book.