- In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses
are considered especially heinous.
In New York City, the dedicated detectives
who investigate these vicious felonies are members
of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit.
These are their stories.
[TV playing cartoons]
[cartoon character in background]
[chair squeaking across floor]
[cartoon continues in background]
[suspenseful music playing]
♪
[horn honks]
[TV playing]
- 99 cent.
Shorty, where your mommy at?
- So that wasn't as horrible as I thought.
- You're gonna be a lieutenant.
You need to practice kissing those rings.
- Lieutenant?
So I passed.
- And then some.
When it's official, you can pick any command in the city.
- I'm happy where I am.
- Okay.
You up for a nightcap?
We need to talk about finding you a number two.
[phone buzzing]
Don't you ever turn that thing off?
- I can't. We're short staffed.
Benson.
Okay.
Yeah, I'm on my way.
- Where to? I'll drive.
- Liv, Chief, sorry to break up your date.
- That wasn't a date. - It wasn't a date.
- Detective Campisi and I took this from patrol.
Our sergeant suggested SVU
would be better equipped to handle a lost kid.
- In other words, he passed the buck.
- Little boy won't talk.
Not even a name. Walked in here all by himself.
- Where the hell are the parents?
- That's why we're here.
[dramatic music]
♪
- That's a cool bus.
Huh? You like the bus?
The bus goes "vroom, vroom," right?
Can you say that?
Hey, let's try our game again.
Ready?
So I'm Olivia and you are?
Remember, you are?
You are?
- Bruno. - Bruno.
Bruno, what's your last name, sweetie?
- Bruno.
- So Bruno, how old are you?
Huh?
Are you this many?
Hmm?
You this many?
Hey.
Okay, sweetie, I'll be back
in one second, okay?
- Any luck, Sergeant Benson? - Just his first name.
I mean, he's gotta be three years old, right?
Shouldn't he be talking by now?
- Delayed speech.
I mean, I'm not surprised.
No one's taking care of him.
He was filthy, several cavities.
Vitamin D levels were low, so he's not getting out much.
- Okay, so he's neglected, but any abuse?
- No broken bones or any signs of sexual trauma.
- Good. - But I want to run
some more tests, and I'd like to talk to the parents.
- Well, so would we.
Thank you.
- The way you're carrying, that's a girl.
- Yeah, so you were saying you'd seen Bruno around?
- In this courtyard, all hours.
No one watching him.
I called 911, 311.
Nothing.
- What about the mother?
- That girl is a mess.
All hopped up.
- Excuse me, is that your son?
He's cute.
- I know you?
- Have you seen this boy around here?
- I guess, with his mom sometimes.
- Well, does his mom have a name?
- Manuela something.
Like a baseball player name.
One of them Dominican brothers.
- Who taught you how to slide?
- Look, man, I'm not holding.
- What are you, a lookout?
Looking for this kid's mother.
You know him?
- Look, I don't know the kid
or his mother.
You know what?
My name's Tito Morales,
and I'm recording the rest of this.
- Hey, Tito, keep snitching
and we'll drop those charges against you.
- Come on, man, I'm no snitch.
- Then start talking.
- We are all over it.
Uh, that was Dodds.
He's asking about Bruno. What can I tell him?
- Local runner told me his mom's been copping once a day.
He'll call when she shows.
- You get a name? - Manuela.
Last name could be Ortiz, Organda, Ordano.
It's something Dominican.
- You talk to the housing authority?
- They're checking, but my contact there
said not to expect much.
He's gotta go through 2,000 leases.
- Yeah, not to mention illegal sublets,
hot beds, roommates.
- So Manuela's strung out, and Bruno is home alone.
Did you run their names through Child Services?
- Yeah, I called them. Without a last name,
the guy told me where I could go.
- Did he? Let's do a drop-in.
- Yeah, you know what, Fin and I got this.
Ugh.
- Actually, Rollins, why don't you stay here with Fin?
- No, seriously, no, I'm fine.
- No, seriously, just work the phones.
You know, food stamps, housing.
Carisi, let's go.
- How the hell you gonna tell me I can't see her?
Get out my damn face! - A little help please?
- I'm just trying to see my daughter, okay?
- Let's go, sir. - Welcome to the jungle.
- We good?
- [sighs] You all right, Keith?
- Yeah, he's just got a little bit of anger there.
- Keith Musio, Ser...
- Sergeant Benson. - And Detective...
- Detective Carisi from SVU.
- Oh. SVU? What happened?
- Get your ass out of here! - Don't talk to me like that!
Treat me like a man. - Will you excuse me?
- So your boss tells us
that you have some families in the Conyers Projects.
- At least a dozen.
- This kid one of them?
Name's Bruno.
- Um, I think so. This way.
Um...
Yeah, here it is.
Bruno Ozuna.
Is he okay?
- You must not watch the news.
- With this job, I barely have time to take a piss.
- Bruno Ozuna was found
wandering the streets last night.
Alone.
- Is he okay?
- We need to find his mother.
- Sorry, elevator's always out.
And the stairs can get pretty rank in the summer.
- When was the last time you were here?
- A couple weeks ago.
Both kids were fine.
- Kids? Plural.
- Bruno has a half-sister.
Keisha Houston, she's eight.
It's just down the hall.
- This is six dead bolt country.
That door's not even locked.
- Manuela Ozuna?
[TV in background]
NYPD...
- She's not here. No wonder Bruno walked.
This place is a furnace.
- She's not in there.
- I think she sleeps down there.
- Hello?
Keisha?
What is this?
Carisi?
Oh, my God. - It's a kid.
Keisha? Keisha, honey?
Can you hear me? - Oh, my God.
- Keisha, can you hear me?
There's a pulse.
It's just faint.
- Hey, I need a bus here right now.
Conyers Project, building 6, apartment 9-J.
- She's tiny.
I thought you said she was eight years old.
- She is. She's almost nine.
- Keisha?
Keisha, sweetheart.
It's okay, honey.
We're gonna get you some help, sweetie.
You're okay.
You're gonna be okay.
You're gonna be okay, sweetie.
[monitor beeping steadily]
- That poor kid.
Still no sign of the mother?
- Fin's working the dealer.
Dr. Wilder, how's she doing?
- Not well.
Starvation, infections.
She's so dehydrated her organs are shutting down.
- But she's gonna make it though, right, Doc?
- I wish you'd have found her sooner.
[whispering] Thank you, thank you...
- Manuela Ozuna?
- What you got?
- We got your kids.
Get up.
- What? What do you mean you got my kids?
I'm their mother. - That's what you tell yourself?
You don't act like it.
- Yo, what you doing, man?
- You're under arrest.
- You ain't got no right.
- Shut up.
- Hey, you feeling better?
- Yeah.
When I was a rookie, I used to puke all the time.
Keisha... the way she looked.
- Keith, you were just there a couple of weeks ago.
I mean, how did she look then?
- Well, I'm trying to remember.
You know...
there's so many visits in a day.
At least eight or nine. I never have enough time.
- Yeah, but you did see Keisha two weeks ago, right?
- I-I m-must have.
I mean, I'd have to check my notes.
Look, the Ozunas weren't even my family to begin with.
My colleague has been on maternity leave,
so now I have twice the workload.
- Okay. - I'm doing 12-hour turns here.
Rushing through visits.
And all the paperwork, and the court appearances...
- Okay, okay, I get it.
But you know where I'm going with this, right?
We just picked up Keisha's mother.
There's gonna be more questions.
- Bruno.
That's my good boy. I want him back.
- That's not happening.
Keith Musio's putting him in foster care.
- Keith? I don't know no damn Keith.
- Your DCS caseworker?
- Oh! Him.
Last time I seen him he was up my ass
about feeding my kids chips for dinner.
- Chips? We found your daughter in a cage.
Starving.
- Well, that's Keisha's fault.
If she'd shut up, stop crying,
maybe she'd earn herself some food.
- Oh, so you starved her to teach her a lesson?
- My mother used to whip me with an electrical cord till I bled.
You want I should do that?
- The mother is a piece of work.
- She's also a murderer.
- Keisha didn't make it.
- Damn.
[somber music]
♪
- Was it as bad as the headlines?
- It's worse. - We got the autopsy report.
Keisha Houston's cause of death
is child abuse syndrome
due to prolonged physical abuse,
malnutrition, dehydration.
- That's homicide. - Yeah.
- Where was Child Services?
- Well, Carisi talked to Keith Musio,
her caseworker.
He's so slammed he doesn't remember yesterday.
- His supervisor, Jeanette Grayson,
claims that DCS is launching an internal investigation.
- You mean cover-up.
- Keisha's dead. What's there to cover up?
- Their complicity.
The caseworker botched this.
- You want to prosecute the caseworker?
- Yes.
- Brooklyn tried that and lost.
Morally responsible, okay, legally...
- Keisha didn't lose
20 pounds in two weeks. If Keith had actually been
showing up for his visits, he would have noticed.
- And she'd still be alive.
- Okay, all right, I get it.
You're angry, emotional,
but if you want me to go after this guy,
I'm gonna need more than maternal outrage to make a case.
- This is a caseworker and a supervisor's worst nightmare.
- Yeah, the whole city's heartbroken.
- Just tell me Manuela is not gonna get away with this.
- Well, this brings us to why we're here.
We're looking to document Manuela's abuse.
- Now, Keith, you told me
that you visited the apartment two weeks ago.
- Yeah, that's right, and I've got that right here.
Home visit, July 27th around 2:00 pm.
"Manuela Ozuna is present and sober.
"Son, Bruno, and daughter, Keisha,
are also present, clean, and seem healthy."
- Okay, so Keisha was there, because when we talked
you said you weren't sure.
- No, I said I had to check my notes.
- Yes, which we did.
And we've gone through these with a fine-tooth comb.
- Okay, hold on, so you're saying that two weeks ago,
that Keisha looked healthy?
- Yeah, that's what the report says, but you know,
these situations with parents on a drug binge,
they can deteriorate like that. [snaps]
- Jeanette, you should've brought me in.
Matt Sheridan, Deputy Commissioner.
Let me assure you that
our agency is reviewing every moment and action
that led up to this tragedy.
- So is our ADA, so we're gonna need Keith's laptop
and all of his case files.
- We're here to cooperate,
but because of confidentiality issues,
we can't hand anything over without a subpoena.
[dramatic music]
♪
- So there is a home visit report
on the Ozunas dated two weeks ago?
- There is.
- That doesn't mean he was there.
- If I had to guess, he hasn't seen the Ozunas
for at least four months.
- Four months? How do we know?
- I ran a statement analysis
on a year's worth of his home visit reports.
Detail in his earlier reports compared to the latest...
It's night and day.
- Walk me through this. - All right.
- Keith inherits the Ozuna case last November
when his co-worker starts maternity leave.
Now that jumps his caseload from 30 to 47.
- Even so, there's extensive handwritten notes
on each field visit,
and his typed reports are one, two, three pages,
scanned in in a timely manner.
- Yeah, and at this point, Keith's logging 16,
17-hour days,
but with the court hearings and the family visits...
- It's a losing battle.
- By April, no more handwritten notes.
- And after April? - No reports on the Ozunas
were scanned in at all until the morning after Keisha died.
- He goes in, and he backdates nine reports.
- And all these cases take place at the same time
that his calendar has him in court
or visiting other clients miles away.
- His supervisor signed off on these?
- Yep, even the ones [phone vibrates]
scanned in eight hours after Keisha's death.
- Okay, copy that.
That was the sarge.
She just got called down to 1PP by Dodds.
They want a briefing on all the stuff we found at DCS.
- That's not good. - No, it's not.
Why don't I walk over? Pay my respects.
[dramatic music]
- I understand your concern, Sergeant,
but Child Services is a city agency.
There are protocols.
- A caseworker lied about his visits.
A supervisor signed off on false reports.
Child Services is responsible for Keisha's death.
- The city has a Department of Investigation.
If they decide something criminal has transpired...
- Which they won't. - Then NYPD gets involved.
- Since when does NYPD kick an investigation back to DOI?
Who's this coming from, City Hall?
- No one likes bad headlines, but let me be clear.
I'm not just in charge of press for NYPD.
I'm the commissioner's right hand.
I work for him, and so do you.
- I issued the subpoenas.
SVU is investigating at my request.
- SVU doesn't work for you, Counselor.
- All right, we're all friends here.
The commissioner wanted us to convey that, as of now,
this is not a police matter, but if it becomes one...
- You'll let us know.
- I'm glad we're all on the same page.
By the way, I hear you're on the Lieutenant's List.
Congratulations.
- Thank you.
- So that's it. They just call us off.
- Well, they called you off.
I don't work for NYPD.
[dramatic music]
Good morning.
I am ADA Raphael Barba.
[camera shutters snapping]
Early last Saturday morning, eight-year-old Keisha Houston
died after her mother,
Manuela Ozuna, locked her in a dog cage.
Ms. Ozuna has been charged with homicide.
At the time of her death,
Keisha was under the supervision
of the Department of Child Services.
Our investigation has revealed that Keith Musio,
her caseworker... - Keith Musio.
- Falsely reported having made - You're under arrest...
Home visits to the family for the last four months.
Digging deeper, we discovered this caseworker's fraud
was orchestrated by his supervisor,
Jeanette Grayson.
Overseeing this unit
was Deputy Commissioner Matt Sheridan
who has also been taken into custody.
Among the charges are,
reckless endangerment of a child, official misconduct,
and obstructing governmental administration,
as well as a felony charge
of manslaughter in the second degree.
Thank you.
[reporters shouting]
[dramatic music]
- Matt Sheridan, Jeannette Grayson,
and Keith Musio,
in addition to the aforementioned charges,
you are also charged with manslaughter
in the second degree.
How do you plead? - Not guilty, Your Honor.
The ADA's attempt to expand criminal liability
for Keisha Houston's tragic death
is a purely political overreach.
- Something you can elucidate at trial, Mr. D'Angelo.
People on bail?
- People request $200,000.
- And the overreach continues.
My clients have no records. They are civil servants.
They are paid like civil servants.
They should be ROR. - Duly noted.
Bail is set at $50,000 per defendant.
[taps gavel]
[indistinct murmuring]
- Sergeant.
I told you to drop this case.
- And we did. ADA picked it up.
- Yes, we all saw his showboating.
Hey, Barba, you got your punim on TV, man.
The press is kissing your ass.
But now's the time to do your real job
and plead this out.
- I'm sorry. You're NYPD's press boy, right?
As you've already made clear, I don't work for you.
- Look, as a friend,
I'd hate to see the tall poppy get cut down.
- That was subtle.
- They apply that much pressure, that means they're scared.
- Politicians, I swear to God.
What are you gonna do, Counselor?
- Well, if I'm gonna plea it out,
I'm gonna need leverage.
[dramatic music]
- Ms. Ozuna's agreed to talk with you, but she has a request.
- Do you think you could ask the judge
to let me out for Keisha's funeral?
- Uh, yeah, we'll see about that.
- Just help us understand something.
How did it get so bad, Manuela?
Your caseworker's report said that you were clean and sober
and both of your kids were okay.
- I was...
until Filipe got released.
- Filipe?
- Bruno's dad.
After his bid in May, he moved back in with us.
- May?
The home report didn't mention him.
When was the last time you saw your caseworker?
- I haven't seen a caseworker since Easter.
- Okay, so when Filipe moved back in,
you guys started partying.
- We weren't junkies. We were having fun.
Drinking. Barbecuing.
The two of us and Bruno, we were a family again.
- What about Keisha?
- Felipe wasn't Keisha's dad.
She didn't like us partying.
She mouthed off to him, and I told her
to keep her mouth shut, but she wouldn't listen.
So Felipe got a cage.
- And where's Felipe now?
- He got shot 4th of July weekend.
Bled out on the ground.
I fell apart after that.
Oh, my God.
What have I done?
- I am so sorry, and I feel horrible about this.
- To clarify, that is not an admission of guilt.
I mean, we agreed to meet to discuss a potential deal.
- Bluntly, Keith, as a caseworker on this,
you missed a lot.
- You didn't make mention the fact that Manuela
was back on drugs, that she had a boyfriend.
- Because I didn't know... - You don't have to answer.
- You know what I think happened?
I think your bosses gave you an impossible workload
and then they pressured you to file false reports.
I mean, they set you up to fail, Keith.
Does that sound right?
- There was a lot of pressure. - Hey, hey, hey.
We're all overworked.
You, Detective. You, Counselor.
It's not a crime. It's a reality.
- Why don't you let your client answer the question?
- Actually, I'll answer for him.
Shame on you...
using this tragedy to score political points.
If your idea of a deal
is to pit co-worker against co-worker, well,
it's a non-starter.
Hang in there, Keith.
Gentlemen.
- I forgot my pen.
A word to the wise, all right?
I know the union lawyered up the three of you,
but you are low man on the totem pole.
So if anybody's gonna take the fall here...
- Is there anything Barba can use?
- You know how Keith backdated the reports
right after Keisha died?
- Wasn't just Keith. - What?
- Dozens of other caseworker's reports
were scanned in that day, all generic,
all filed the morning after she died.
- What's going on here?
- Just... just, um, catching up on some paperwork.
- Uh-huh.
A word, Sergeant.
- [murmurs]
For God's sake, you don't have a political bone
in your body, do you?
Abraham is a hatchet man.
He says back off, you back off.
- This city has blood on its hands.
Barba is doing the right thing.
- I know that you're close to him,
but if he wants to hang himself, let him.
Don't get stuck in his noose.
Also, Detective Rollins...
I'm assuming you're aware that she's pregnant.
Look, we're down a man. I've been looking the other way.
- Well, not anymore.
Starting yesterday, she's on desk duty.
- Got it. - Good.
- If Dodds is here, I'm busted.
- Desk duty, I wouldn't mind.
Yeah, Fin, I know.
- Hey, they still in there?
- Yeah, stay out. - Good point.
Uh, when Dodds leaves,
tell Sarge I went back to the pen.
Keith wants to talk.
- Jeanette was breathing down my neck about the paperwork.
She told me to stop coddling my clients.
- Meaning what?
- Meaning stop taking their phone calls.
Stop counseling.
She would say, "This is casework, not social work."
- She told you this explicitly?
- Absolutely.
Jeanette and Matt even said that I didn't have to
make all my visits as long as there was
some sort of record that I had.
- So when we found Keisha, you hadn't seen her for months,
but Jeanette and Matt told you to report that you had.
- This is where I say that my client has information
that could prove very helpful in bolstering your case.
- Depending on what we hear, we could downgrade
from manslaughter to criminally negligent homicide.
- Which is still a felony.
We'll stop here then. Not another word, Keith.
- No, look, wait. I don't care.
I mean, they have to know.
Jeanette...
so she calls me that Saturday,
and she orders me to come into the office,
and it's closed, but...
Jeanette and Matt stand over me
and make me file false reports
saying that I had visited Keisha's home
and noticed nothing was wrong.
- There were lots of reports filed that day, Keith.
Were other caseworkers there?
- No. I mean, we stayed there all day.
We stayed there into the night filing lies for half the staff.
- And you're willing to testify to that?
- Yes.
[suspenseful music]
♪
Keisha died on my watch.
That's gonna haunt me for the rest of my life.
- Keisha Houston was a happy and healthy girl
on Christmas, 2014,
when she and her family were still receiving regular visits
from the Department of Child Services.
On August 7th, months after those visits ceased,
NYPD detectives found Keisha...
Locked in this cage,
battered and starved.
She died early the next morning.
- We're all outraged.
We all want someone to blame.
But what Mr. Barba failed to mention,
the two people directly responsible
for Miss Houston's death...
Keith Musio, her caseworker who took a plea deal
to save his own skin,
and Manuela Ozuna who abandoned her daughter
without food or water
and went on a drug binge.
- The state will prove that this tragedy was a direct result
of the policies of the DCS.
Their system-wide failure
prioritized paperwork over field work.
Caseworkers were ordered by the defendants,
Jeanette Grayson and Matt Sheridan,
to falsify reports and to ignore families in need.
- My clients' only failure is that they
trusted their caseworker, and he betrayed them,
the same way he betrayed Keisha Houston.
[dramatic music]
- In my opinion, Keisha's condition
would have taken months to develop.
So if a caseworker had visited two weeks earlier,
he would have noticed her deterioration.
- Absolutely.
- Thank you.
Nothing further.
- [clears throat]
- Dr. Wilder, as a physician
you are familiar with the term triage?
- Yes.
- It means to prioritize,
treat a gunshot wound before a broken arm.
You must make these decisions all the time.
- That's right. - And have you or any doctor
that you've worked with ever made a mistake
when deciding who to treat first,
a mistake that resulted in a patient's death?
- We do our best to ensure everyone's safety,
but even so, sometimes...
- Sometimes patients die, right?
I mean, it happens.
And when it does, are you or any other medical professional
charged with manslaughter?
- No.
Thank you, Doctor.
- The last time I saw Keisha, she was fine.
Her mother was sober,
and every week there seemed to be a family more at risk.
I made the wrong choice, and I am so sorry for that.
- What happened on that Saturday morning
a few short hours after Keisha died?
- Jeanette Grayson and Matt Sheridan
ordered me to compose, backdate,
and file false reports of visits to the Ozuna apartment.
- Why did you go along with that?
- They said that if I didn't,
I would go to prison for Keisha's death.
- Was this the first time Ms. Grayson or Mr. Sheridan
had ordered you to falsify case records?
- No, all of us were expected to appear on paper
more productive than we actually were.
- Why would Ms. Grayson want her staff to fudge data like this?
- Objection. Calls for speculation.
- Rephrase. During the time
this widespread record falsification was taking place,
were you reprimanded or questioned by anyone above you?
- No, um, I was put on probation
for spending too much time with my clients,
but the probation was lifted
as soon as I doubled up on falsifying paperwork.
- All right, thank you.
- Mr. Musio, you said in your own words
that you chose not to visit Ms. Houston
between May and August.
- Yes. - Now, did Ms. Grayson
or Mr. Sheridan ever tell you not to make those visits?
- No, but they knew I couldn't make...
- Are you familiar with the city's
Department of Investigation,
the agency that investigates public corruption?
- Yes. - So you must have
reported your supervisors' wrongdoing, yes?
At the very least you must have filed a complaint
about your impossible case load.
- No, I wanted to keep my job.
- You wanted to keep your job,
so you only came forward when you were facing
manslaughter charges, Mr. Musio? - Yes, but...
- I mean, are you upset that a vulnerable child
was starved to death by her drug addicted mother,
or are you just trying to pin it on your supervisors
to save yourself?
- Objection.
- Withdrawn.
Nothing further.
[dramatic music]
♪
- You know I missed Keisha's funeral.
My transportation showed up three hours late.
- That's why they're letting you see Bruno now.
- I'm doing eight years.
By the time I get out, he'll be halfway to a man.
- They found a good home for him.
If he's lucky, he won't remember any of this
or you.
[dramatic music]
- Ms. Grayson, what can you tell us
about Mr. Musio's reports on the Ozuna home?
- All of them indicated that the family was functioning,
and the children were safe.
- And you, as a supervisor,
do you also make home visits? - No.
- So you relied on Mr. Musio's reports
on Ms. Houston's condition.
- Yes.
And I had no idea how badly things had devolved.
I mean, I'm heartbroken for Keisha and how she suffered,
but I only wish Keith had come to me sooner.
- Thank you, Ms. Grayson.
- Ms. Grayson, have you received any promotions
or raises over the past year?
- I have.
Two promotions and one raise.
- And were they based on productivity levels
as they related to caseloads?
- I believe so.
- Over the last year,
you increased Keith Musio's caseloads from 30 to 47.
As an experienced supervisor... - We're all overworked.
- But did you honestly think it was possible for one caseworker
to make as many home visits as you had assigned him?
- According to Keith's reports, he did make those visits.
- But you knew he didn't,
which is why after her death you ordered Mr. Musio to backdate
and file case reports on Keisha, isn't that right?
- When I realized how behind how behind he was
in his paperwork... - Uh-huh.
- I asked him to come in so we could walk
through the chain of events.
- Just Keith or... did any of the other caseworkers
come in on that Saturday morning?
- No, just Keith.
- Huh. Then how did 130 home visit reports
from eight different caseworkers
get scanned in on August 8th?
- I have no knowledge of that. - Uh-huh.
You have no knowledge of case number 30632?
People's exhibit 16 through 28, Your Honor.
This boy's caseworker visited every week
even though his family had moved back to El Salvador a year ago.
Or about case number 20185, a four-year-old girl,
given the all clear by you on the very day
that she was admitted to the ER
with cigarette burns all over her body.
Or, how about an eight-year-old boy, case number 54624.
Another success story on paper,
when the reality was
his mother was forcing him to drink bleach.
You didn't know about any of these?
- No, how could I?
- How could you not?
Are you the most incompetent manager in the world
who can't tell the difference between a false report
and a legitimate one?
Or did you instruct caseworkers
to falsify reports to meet productivity goals?
- Objection. Badgering.
- I'll allow. Witness will answer.
- So which one is it, Ms. Grayson?
- I didn't want any of this to happen.
- You didn't want to advance your career
by ignoring innocent children's pain and death,
or you didn't want to get caught?
- Objection.
- I'm asked to do what the courts can't do,
what the cops can't do.
- You are asked to do your job.
- Oh! God himself could not do this job!
- We need a recess, Your Honor.
- You want to judge me?
You wouldn't last an hour in my world.
And if I go, who's gonna be on the front lines?
You?
- Your Honor?
- I mean, you dump the most hapless cases
in the world on us every day.
More and more.
We get the dregs of humanity...
Children raised by wolves!
And you see them come in this court,
in and out, week in and week out.
They come to you as criminals.
Do you ever stop to think,
"Gee, what happened before that?"
- Ms. Grayson, do you need a break?
- Oh, now you want to give me a break?
After 25 years of, "Make your quota, Jeanette.
Push that paper. Hit those numbers."
Right, Matt? Right?
It's impossible, and everybody knows it.
You all know it,
but you want to scapegoat me.
You want to make me feel bad.
You want to take me down
so you can feel better about yourselves, see?
'Cause you pretended like you... You don't know
there are poor people out there in the city.
Broken people.
You don't turn away
from the homeless guy on the subway?
Of course you do.
Everybody does, 'cause it's too much.
Now you want to put me in jail for this?
Look in the mirror, my friend.
Look in the damn mirror. Okay?
- Jeanette had a complete breakdown.
Is she okay?
- She's in Belleview.
She can't continue with the trial,
but her lawyer is gonna plead guilty
to the manslaughter charge.
- And Matt? - He'll do a year.
And while admitting no wrongdoing,
the DCS Commissioner is also gonna step down.
The city's appointing an outside administrative board
with a mandate to change the culture of DCS.
- Right, until the cameras go away.
I mean, what am I gonna do when I get out?
No one's gonna let me work with kids again.
- You'll find your way.
[knocking on door]
- Chief.
Tell it to me straight.
- Congratulations.
Your efforts to reform Child Services
have not gone unnoticed at 1PP or City Hall.
- So my promotion's not happening.
- I had to cut a deal.
They want a sergeant under you they can trust.
- You mean a spy.
- I found someone they like who will work for you.
Motivated, smart.
He just finished up a stint in Anti-Crime.
- Great. When can I interview him?
- Oh, there's no need.
He's my son.
Good night, Lieutenant.
[door closes]
Detective Rollins, how are you feeling?
- I'm okay.
That was a tough case.
- Yeah.
Well, you can't save them all.
- Yeah, I know.
[dramatic music]
♪