.
- 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.
- ♪ It's a new dawn, it's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life for me, yeah ♪
- Are they still gonna drop the ball?
- Yes, of course.
- If nobody's gonna be here,
then why are they putting those up?
- Oh, just to close it off.
Hey, Noah?
We're gonna watch it on TV
just like any other New Year's.
- No, it's not.
I just want this year to be over.
- ♪ And I'm feeling good
- Everyone does.
♪
- ♪ Fish in the sea
- Morning, handsome.
- Good morning. - ♪ You know how I feel
- It's rooibos. Herbal.
- Rooibos? - Mm-hmm.
- Hmm.
- ♪ It's a new dawn, it's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life for me
- What?
Do I have something on my face?
- No, you're just beautiful.
♪
- ♪ Dragonfly out in the sun
- Black coffee, two sugars and one regular.
Give--give me two bear claws as well, all right?
- Ooh, what are you doing to me?
- You need to eat. - [laughs]
- You got my file? - Yeah.
DD5s for the Berasco case.
- Thank you.
Gives me something to do tonight.
- You're not with your family?
- No, they went out to the Poconos.
I got seven arraignments Monday morning and--
- So you're alone on New Year's?
That's--that's bad luck.
Why don't you...
why don't you come over?
- Nah, I don't want to crash or anything.
- You're not crashing, it's pizza.
And the girls will bang on pots and pans.
We'll all be asleep by 9:30.
- Ah.
Ah, okay. Okay, sold.
- Good.
- ♪ And I'm feeling good
- Whew.
- Too much? - No, it's--
it's just right.
It's--Fin, it's gorgeous.
- What if she says no?
- She's not gonna say no.
- An engagement, then what? A wedding?
It all seems so corny to me.
- After the year we've had?
Fin, you found love.
Hold onto it tight.
- Thanks.
- ♪ And this old world is a new world ♪
♪ And a bold world for me
[noisemakers tooting]
- Hello, Officer.
- Not tonight.
For once, I am off duty.
- Pizza man's here!
- Uncle Sonny! - [laughs]
Hey, Jesse. Where's Billie?
- She's asleep. We're one down here already.
- What? What a lightweight!
I'll tell you what, Jesse.
You and I, we're gonna get this party popping, okay?
[noisemaker toots]
- [laughs] Oh, my God.
- I'm sorry, sorry. - It's okay, it's okay.
- ♪ It's a new life for me
- Happy? - [giggles]
I can stay up till midnight, right?
- I don't know, can you? - [giggles]
I'm not tired.
♪
[giggles] - Here we go.
- ♪ Dragonfly out in the sun
- Well, this is lovely.
- You like the meal?
- Yeah, I told you, I loved it.
But are you okay? You seem a little anxious.
- I'm okay. I'm cool.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
- 'Cause you know, my father would always say
that New Year's is for amateurs,
so, I mean, we can go home.
- No, no. Before that...
to us.
- ♪ For me
- You know, we were each other's first partner,
and that's a bond. - Mm-hmm.
- Then last year, we found each other again.
I don't ever want to lose you.
♪
Phoebe...
I got you something.
[cell phone beeping]
- Oh, sorry.
- ♪ Blossom on the tree
♪ You know how I feel
♪ It's a new dawn, it's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life
[cell phone beeping]
♪ For me
♪ And I'm feeling good
- [sighs]
♪
- ♪ Dragonfly out in the sun
♪ You know what I mean, don'tcha know? ♪
[cell phone beeping]
♪ Butterflies all having fun
- [sighs] One sec.
- Seriously?
- ♪ Sleep in peace
- It's an AMBER Alert. I have to go.
I'm sorry.
- ♪ It's a new dawn, it's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life
♪ For me
[cell phone beeping]
[vocalizing]
- What is it? - AMBER Alert.
13-year-old girl taken off the street
a block from Gracie Mansion.
- SVU requested.
So 2021 begins. - ♪ Oh, I'm feeling good
[both sigh]
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
.
- So much for ringing in the new year.
- Yeah. I can stay; you got kids.
- No, no, it's okay. They're home with Carisi.
He didn't have a place to go.
- Well, the missing girl is Nydia Davis.
- Okay.
- Those are her foster parents, Ajay and Rani Sharma.
He's also an ACS supervisor.
- And this is the last place he saw her?
- He said they got into a fight; she ran away.
He followed her and saw her get thrown
into a white box truck on that corner.
- You think he went through with it?
- Fin. Phoebe say yes?
- I got saved by the AMBER Alert.
She's home. - Come on, turn around.
Go back. We got this.
- I'm in no rush.
I'm here. What's going on?
- She's a good girl. Just been acting up lately.
Hanging out with a bad crowd.
- What happened tonight?
- She wanted to go out. I said no.
She's 13.
She ran.
By the time I caught up, I saw two guys
wrestling her into a box truck.
- Did you get a good look at them?
- Latino, hoodies, face masks.
- So, no.
Does this "bad crowd" have names?
- I try to give Nydia her privacy.
- Does she have a cell phone, use social media?
- I took her phone and her computer.
- We'll need to take a look at both of those.
- Yeah, of course.
- Are there any other kids in the house
that might know where Nydia was going?
- Our son and daughter were asleep.
We have two other foster daughters,
but I already asked them.
They don't know.
- Is there anyone else in Nydia's life?
- You think someone she knows did this?
[somber music]
Ajay lets Nydia's biological mother have visitation.
She's a junkie.
♪
- Captain.
- What are we looking at?
Is this an abduction
or a runaway teen on New Year's Eve?
- We're not sure.
The girl was fighting with her foster parents.
There could be a bad boyfriend in the picture.
- Got it. - Checking partials on plates
and truck rentals.
Nothing on the traffic cams. - 1PP has its eyes on this.
The girl's foster father is high up at ACS.
This happened near Gracie Mansion.
- Rollins and Kat are talking
to the girl's birth mother right now.
Lulu Davis, record for possession and prostitution.
- Phoebe?
- Ten, nine, eight, seven... - Happy New Year.
- Yeah, literally.
- Six, five...
- What, did you come here to give me a kiss
at midnight? - Yes, of course.
Also... - Two, one, Happy New Year!
- Happy New Year!
[party horn blares]
- Also, the AMBER Alert girl.
Turns out I arrested her mom
and her mom's pimp, Chili Chacon.
He runs his girls out of a white box truck.
- She was reported taken
by two male Latinos in a box truck.
- I'll run Chili's plates.
- I hate to say it, but you can make a lot of money
running a 13-year-old girl on New Year's Eve.
- Chili? I haven't seen him in weeks.
And I'd never let him pimp my daughter out.
- Nydia was last seen being dragged into a truck
that matches Chili's.
- That curry-breath ACS idiot told you that?
She ran away on him.
I never lost her.
- You lost custody.
Drugs, prostitution.
- I needed money.
My husband ditched us.
I'm clean now, working my program.
- You don't look it.
- [scoffs]
Come on, girl. It's New Year's Eve.
- Yeah, Nydia's out there, so either you spend the night
jonesing in a holding cell, or you text Chili.
[hip-hop music playing]
- Forty per shorty.
- What's the deal, player?
- Forty per shorty, 15 minutes.
- How about 15 years, Chili?
- Not you again. - Where's Nydia?
Am I gonna find her back there, Chili?
- Lulu's brat?
[scoffs] I don't run kids, baba.
- Witness saw her snatched into a white box truck.
Get out. - Not me!
Ask my girls--I've been at this hot spot all night!
- Come on.
[tense music]
- Everybody out.
♪
- My truck might have rocked, but it never rolled, baba.
- Party's over, Chili.
[cell phone ringing]
- Nydia's not here.
They say they haven't seen her.
- They might be telling the truth.
A girl matching her description was found
bleeding out off York Avenue.
♪
- No ID.
She was unconscious by an ambulance bay.
One of the orderlies realized she matched the AMBER Alert.
- But what happened to her? - She was hemorrhaging.
Her tox screen shows misoprostol and mifepristone.
- The abortion pill. - We had to do a D&C.
She was at least eight weeks along.
- They told me I lost the baby. - We are so sorry.
- I just wanted to be a mom.
- But you took the medication to end the pregnancy.
- What? No, I would never.
- Nydia, how did you get to the hospital?
- Didn't Ajay tell you?
Is he here?
- He's on his way, he--
Ajay reported you missing.
He was very, very worried about you.
- What?
Didn't he bring me here?
- Okay, so...
Nydia, why don't you tell me
the last thing that you remember.
- I was...bleeding.
- Okay.
- Ajay said he'd take me to a hospital.
- 'Cause EMTs, they brought you here.
And they found you unconscious on a sidewalk.
- No.
No, Ajay carried me to his car.
- Nydia, did Ajay know that you were pregnant?
- Yeah. He didn't tell you that?
- No, he told us that you ran away--
that he saw you being kidnapped.
- Why would he say that?
- Do you have a boyfriend?
Hmm, Chili?
- [laughs] What?
No. No, Chili's a pimp.
You think I'm like my mom? That's disgusting.
- Okay.
- I'm in love...
with Ajay.
♪
Just ask him.
.
- Thank God you guys found Nydia,
but I don't understand why Rani and I can't see her.
She must be so traumatized. - Soon.
But while we're waiting...
some of what she's telling us
doesn't track with what you told the police.
- Now that she's okay, I can tell you the truth.
- Which is?
- She ran away on New Year's Eve.
I thought if I didn't say she had been kidnapped,
no one would look for her.
- That makes sense.
The problem is she said she passed out at home
and you were gonna drive her to the hospital.
- What? No.
She's confused.
- That's what we think, but this is some shocking news.
She's pregnant.
- Oh, my God.
Well, that would explain why she's been acting out.
- Hmm.
- Do you have any idea who the father could be?
- No, what'd she say?
- Well, actually, for whatever it's worth,
she says it's you.
- [laughs]
Okay, we all know what this is.
She has a boyfriend. She's protecting him.
She's angry with us for being strict.
I-I've seen this a lot in foster care.
I need to talk to her.
- That's not gonna happen right now.
- Of course, you have an allegation.
You have to do due diligence.
- We do. And for starters,
if we want to exclude you, we need to search your car.
We need a DNA sample from you.
- Believe me, I appreciate that you need to investigate,
but an accusation like this,
my whole career could be ruined.
And I got four other kids at home.
- I get it.
I got two teenage daughters of my own.
But you're innocent, right?
So why not just clear this up?
- To be safe, let me talk to my supervisor first.
- Okay.
- And maybe a lawyer. - Of course.
- He's right.
Troubled teens can blame their guardians.
Any priors? - No.
Twenty years at ACS.
Ajay and his wife have personally fostered
dozens of girls.
The supervisor called me back immediately
on New Year's Day to tell me
that Nydia had caused trouble in former foster homes
and that he has never, ever gotten
a complaint against Ajay.
- Well, somebody got this girl pregnant.
Who else is in the house?
- The Sharmas have 10-year-old twins, a boy and a girl,
and two other pre-teen foster girls.
- Can we try for fetal DNA?
- We can, but it's a very complicated process
and it doesn't always work.
- Nydia denied taking abortion drugs?
- Nydia said that she wanted to keep the baby.
Look, it is possible that somebody
slipped her these drugs without her knowledge.
- Yeah, easy enough to get online.
I'll start with a warrant for her computer and his.
- Is there anyone in Nydia's life
she might have confided in?
- Well, the mother has her own problems,
but we did get Nydia's cell phone records.
The dad texts her every day.
- The father's still in the picture?
- Mm-hmm. - Where is he?
- My ex says Nydia's in the hospital.
She's not returning my texts.
Is she okay? - She's being taken care of.
- Good.
Old Lulu likes to push my buttons.
- Mr. Davis, do you know if Nydia has a boyfriend?
- What? No.
She's 13.
Besides, she'd tell me. We text every day.
Listen, I love my daughter.
It killed me to lose custody, but...
it had to be.
- Her foster parents, how well do you know them?
- I only met the father.
He brought Nydia in here a few times.
Showed respect.
- She ever talk to you about him?
Any problems?
- No, typical teenage girl stuff like...
he wouldn't let her use the phone at night.
He seemed very protective of her.
- Protective how?
- Well, he always had his arm around her
like he was shielding her or something.
I guess it can be tough to take
if you're not used to a place like this.
- Yeah.
Did you get much of a chance to speak with Nydia
away from Ajay?
- No, but she seemed happy.
Before the Sharmas, she was in a group home.
You know, between Nydia's mother and the drugs,
and, you know, my chair...
it's all my fault.
- Never apologize for wearing the cloth, soldier.
- Yeah.
I lost a lot of good friends.
Lost my wife, my leg...
maybe my mind.
But the worst part was losing my kid.
Once I get out of here, I'm gonna make a home
for Nydia and me.
And be a real dad, you know? - Hey.
From one Airborne Ranger to another...
call me if you need some company
when you want to go visit your daughter.
[soft dramatic music]
- Hey, any luck with the girl's father?
- He loves his daughter,
but if there's something going on
between her and Sharma, he's not seeing it.
- Nydia is sticking to her story
and I talked to the girls in the house, the wife.
They all blame Nydia for acting out,
see Ajay as a saint.
- Which could be true, or he's an experienced groomer.
- Well, that's what I think, but...
still don't have enough to arrest.
- Taru went through Ajay's computer.
He tried to delete his history,
but they were able to recover recent searches for...
New York State abortion clinics,
RU-486, misoprostol, and mifepristone.
- So he slipped her the abortion drugs.
- Nydia told me he made her smoothies.
- Call Carisi. Get a warrant for that blender.
Pick up Ajay.
- Nydia's father...
I have to tell him.
- Mickey, are you sure you want to be here?
- I want to look that son of a bitch in the eye.
Let him know I know.
- Mr. Sharma...
on the charge of rape in the second,
rape in the third,
first degree reckless endangerment,
and official misconduct,
how do you plead?
- My client pleads not guilty.
- People on bail?
- This is a heinous crime, Your Honor.
There are other children in the defendant's home.
Request remand. - Your Honor, my client
is a respected civil servant with no priors.
- I don't want to hear it. I'm granting remand.
Bailiffs? COs will arrange
individual protective transport to Rikers.
I put my faith in the DOC thereafter.
- That's it? - For now.
Want me to take you back to the VA?
- Let me get a smoke first.
[soft tense music]
♪
- Mickey!
There you are.
Right across the street.
Mickey?
- Reporter told me he's coming out this way.
He didn't look at me at the arraignment.
That's all I want.
♪
[cell phone rings]
- Captain?
- Ajay!
[gunshots]
- No, no, no!
The hell did you do?
- Mickey Davis, Specialist.
173rd Airborne Rangers, The Herd.
Last four: Zero, six, four, seven.
- Oh, my God.
♪
.
- Consulting with the Innocence Project,
defending voting rights on the ground.
I've barely slept since the election ended.
- Liv said once everything cleared up,
you might consider doing defense work.
- Your case or hers?
You're both getting sued.
- [scoffs] - The city settled one of mine.
Liv's still waiting on her day in the barrel,
but that's not why we're here.
- It should be. Sorry.
- Anyway...
Hypothetically, if we...
arrested a defendant
who was not innocent--
- Decorated vet. Six tours in Afghanistan.
Comes home to find his daughter raped by her foster father.
- And he shoots the guy point-blank range three times?
Hypothetically. - So you're all caught up.
- All right, hold on.
Carisi asked you to intervene on Davis' behalf?
- Well, actually, Carisi doesn't know that we're here.
- [laughs]
- We wanted to see if you would feel him out.
And see if he would cut Mickey a deal.
- With Carisi's stomach?
He won't have the stomach to take this to trial.
- As long as Mickey doesn't go to prison.
- I feel for him, but he shot a suspect
under arrest going to trial.
The government frowns on that.
And it's against the law.
- That's why we called you.
- Carisi?
How's the eighth floor treating you?
- No differently than any other junior ADA.
- They want you to cover their ass all the time?
Never lose a case?
- Pretty much.
Good to see you, Barba.
If you came to taunt me, I got all day.
- Huh, they gave you an office.
Nice view.
- I had to move the Xerox machine
and four filing cabinets just to get the desk in.
- So you caught the Mickey Davis case?
- Oh, yeah. Horror story.
- What are you charging?
- The guy brought a gun to court,
he followed the vic to transport,
and shot him at point-blank range.
What do you think?
- I think the guy's got a Purple Heart,
titanium leg, and PTS.
- That doesn't change what he did.
- He was betrayed by the VA and ACS.
Even the eighth floor's gotta know this is a dog.
- Maybe, but they still want him to do time.
- That has to be negotiable.
- Hold on.
Before we continue... - Mm-hmm.
- Are you representing Mickey Davis?
- I guess I am now.
- [scoffs]
Okay.
What kind of deal are you looking for?
- No way you want to put this guy on trial.
- Best I can offer is man two.
- 3 1/2 years? No, but thank you.
- Barba, we both know this wasn't heat of the moment.
Man two is a gift.
- Maybe to you, not to Mr. Davis.
- There's security cam video. There's multiple eyewitnesses.
Mickey broke the law.
- A jury might see that as defending his daughter
when no one else did.
- Get the jury to ignore the law?
That's a slippery slope, Rafael.
- You really have become a lawyer.
- What does that mean?
- Mickey Davis is a human being.
So are the jurors. See you at arraignment.
- You going for insanity?
- I'm going for straight-up not guilty.
[dramatic music]
- So you know, Mr. Barba, I don't need charity.
I get 100% disability because of my leg and PTS.
- Don't worry about his fee. We'll talk about that later.
- Thank you, Sergeant. That's right.
That's not your worry right now.
- What I'm worried about is my daughter.
She's telling her mother that I killed
the only man she'll ever love?
My goal was to get out of rehab and give her a normal life,
but now?
They'll never let me out of prison.
- One thing at a time, Mr. Davis.
I want to go over your story.
- The day I shot that animal?
- First, your life story.
Your time in the Army.
When you became a dad.
Just so you know, there's nothing you can say
that I haven't heard before.
Mickey held his own at the arraignment.
The judge released him ROR.
- Well, it's not like Davis is a flight risk.
- What do you need, Barba?
- I'm going for jury nullification.
- English, Counselor?
- Get the jury to ignore the law,
see the accused as a victim.
- Counselor.
I don't know if you've met Deputy Chief Garland.
- Mr. Barba, do you have a second?
- Just to be clear, the NYPD isn't pressuring
a defense attorney to walk away from his client?
- Of course not. Not my prerogative.
At the same time, I'm surprised to see you
in the SVU squad room.
- Oh, I'm sure you were just catching up
with old friends, right?
- Yes. That's right.
- Good, just want to make sure the boundaries are clear.
It's an emotional case for all of us and...
I wouldn't want you presuming on your old friendships
in the hopes of having SVU detectives buttress your case.
- Then we're both on the same page.
- I hope so.
One more thing, Mr. Barba.
I hope your strategy won't be to countenance
a vigilante's murder of a man accused of rape.
Given our country's dark history,
we both know where that could lead.
I'll leave you two to reminisce.
- He's a lot of fun.
Gets right to the point.
- Always, and so will I.
What the hell are you doing here?
- You asked me to defend Davis.
- A hypothetical. And, by the way,
I didn't even know that you took the case
until Garland called me.
- I went to see Carisi, he pointed out
that we couldn't even discuss the case
if I wasn't representing Davis and--
things moved quickly. How did Garland find out?
- The DA's office must have called him.
- I have no intention of disrespecting Carisi.
- [scoffs] - But...
Mickey deserves a defense. Isn't that why you came to me?
- I wanted you to cut him a deal!
Listen. As the Chief said,
we cannot send a message that it is okay
to take the law into your own hands.
- Well, that's Carisi's case to make.
Luckily I don't work for the DA.
I don't need to worry about messages.
I just need to get 12 New Yorkers
to like my client and me.
- Barba...
he's guilty.
- Is he?
Depends on the jury.
.
- I consider myself a nice guy.
But I'm not always gonna be nice during this trial.
Sometimes I'm gonna be loud,
angry, sarcastic
when I cross-examine witnesses
from the ACS, VA, and NYPD,
who, as you will hear,
failed to do their jobs.
Anyone have a problem with that?
All right.
- This is not a popularity contest.
This is not about who wears the snazziest suit,
who has the most charisma,
or even who talks the fastest.
It's also not about how many combat medals
the defendant has.
This is about the facts and the law.
- I'm not allowed to ask you to imagine
what it would be like to be Mickey Davis right now
sitting at that table.
- I submit to you that the evidence in this case
is overwhelming.
You will see video of Mr. Davis
shooting and killing Ajay Sharma.
- But I need to know that you will consider
your decision in this case as the most important decision
in your life...
because it certainly will be the most important decision
in the life of this decorated war hero.
- You will hear testimony
that Mr. Davis is a wounded vet
whose daughter was victimized by a serial predator.
- You expect Mr. Davis to not react
when his own daughter is assaulted
like the victims he saw in combat?
- Are any of you veterans?
Or proud to have family members who have served?
- I need to ask if anyone or a family member
has been the victim of gun violence?
- I challenge jurors 32 and 36.
- No objection. I challenge number 17.
- The evidence will show that Ajay Sharma
was awaiting trial
when Mrs. Davis acted as judge, jury, and executioner.
Do you believe that everybody
has a Constitutional right to have their guilt or innocence
determined by a jury and not a vigilante?
- I challenge number 18, 24, and 29.
- That leaves you two peremptory challenges,
Mr. Barba.
- And I challenge number 16.
- And you're out, Mr. Carisi.
- You promise me, keep an open mind...
and hold the government to make its case?
- Mr. Barba is going to play on your emotions.
But I ask that you promise me and the State of New York
that you will decide this case
on the facts and the law
as instructed by the judge.
- Mr. Carisi told you that he represents
the people of New York.
Well...
you are the people of New York.
And neither Mr. Carisi nor the Judge here
gets to decide how this trial will turn out for my client.
You do.
[soft tense music]
♪
[knocking]
- How'd it go at voir dire?
- It was the Rafael Barba show,
charming and cherry-picking jurors for 12 straight hours.
- Yeah, he was always a dog with a bone.
- [laughs] Yeah.
I'm looking at his witness list,
and he tracked down Ajay's other foster kids,
ACS employees, VA shrinks.
How big of a staff does he have?
- I probably shouldn't tell you this...
- About you and Fin helping him out?
I don't want to know. - I am not helping him out.
- It's fine. Barba was here before me.
Fin was your first partner.
- That doesn't mean I'm more loyal to them
than I am to you.
You should know that it wasn't Liv's intention
to undercut you. - Oh, no?
Are you gonna tell me that Fin brought Barba in?
- Ajay! - No, no!
[gunshots]
No, no, no.
- Sergeant Tutuola,
you were there when Mr. Davis shot Ajay Sharma?
- Yes. I was on the phone.
I heard a commotion. I turned.
I saw Mr. Davis, gun aimed,
and he fired three rounds.
- And what did Mr. Davis do after he shot Ajay?
- He dropped his gun and recited his name and rank.
- Did you think that that was for dramatic effect,
or did he actually believe that he was a soldier in battle?
- Objection. Calls for speculation.
- Rephrase.
Did he appear confused?
- No. - Thank you, Sergeant.
- No, no!
- On the video, you get between Mr. Davis
and the corrections officers.
- I just didn't want a bad situation to get worse.
I knew he was no threat to the officers.
They didn't know that.
- You knew he was no danger.
Do you think Mickey Davis should be sitting
in this courtroom here today?
- That's not my job. - No?
But it was your job to investigate Ajay Sharma?
- Yes. - Do you have any doubt
that Ajay Sharma raped Nydia Davis repeatedly,
got her pregnant, and administered
the abortion drugs which almost got her killed?
- None. - Well, what about the other
four girls he fostered who he also sexually assaulted?
Did you charge him for that?
- We only found out about the other girls
after Mr. Sharma's death.
- So for 10 years as an ACS supervisor,
Ajay Sharma raped girls in his care
and neither ACS nor SVU found out about it
until Nydia Davis was found hemorrhaging in the street?
Why? - I can't answer that.
- Was it because ACS failed to do its job
to protect Nydia, just like SVU failed?
- Objection. - Sustained.
- Leaving my client no choice
but to protect his daughter himself!
- Mr. Barba! I'm about this close
to holding you in contempt. - You can fine me all you want,
Your Honor, I'm not gonna stop asking questions,
because I am fighting for my client's freedom
the same way he fought for our country's.
[tense music]
The defense calls Mickey Davis.
- No, sir.
♪
[groans]
- Mr. Davis, can you tell the jury
how you came to be in that chair?
- My unit was ambushed in the Khyber Pass.
I went back to retrieve two of my men,
stepped on an IED.
It was a coffee can full of rags and a grenade.
Spent two years in Landstuhl, a military hospital,
and then the VA here.
They fit me with one of these. [chuckles]
Still learning how to use it. It's been tough.
Focusing on getting custody of my daughter back
helped me get through.
- And now?
- I'll never get over what happened
to Nydia in that house...
[dark music]
With that animal.
ACS lied.
They made me believe that she was safe.
- How did you react when you found out that Ajay Sharma
had been raping Nydia, impregnated her,
and left her on the sidewalk to die?
- I cried like a baby.
- Why did you go to that courthouse?
- To see him arraigned.
I wanted to hear him admit what he'd done.
Then I heard him plead not guilty?
There's no remorse.
No shame.
- What did you do?
- I found out where he was being transported.
I wanted him to look me in the eye,
so I called his name.
- Then what happened?
- He refused to look at me.
I lost control, I--
my head was pounding and there's blood in my eyes.
My ears were ringing.
I knew I had to protect Nydia.
After that, I--
I don't remember much.
- So you reacted as you were trained to do as a Ranger.
Shoot the enemy, center mass, close grouping--
- Objection, leading.
- Rephrase.
Mr. Davis...
why were you deployed to Afghanistan?
- To fight the Taliban.
To defend women, children, from their brutality.
- Rape?
- Yes, sir.
Shoot to kill if I had to.
- Thank you. Nothing further.
♪
- Thank you for your service, Mr. Davis,
and I'm truly sorry for what happened to your daughter.
You said you went to the courthouse
to see Ajay Sharma arraigned? - Yes, sir.
- And you brought a gun with you.
Did you know that was illegal?
- I'm used to carrying. It's just a reflex.
- But they don't let you keep the gun at the VA,
so you had to go to a brother soldier's house
earlier that day to get it?
- Yes, sir. - And you took advantage
of being a vet in a wheelchair
to avoid the metal detector, get that gun through security.
- Well, law enforcement's usually respectful
of my service. - In court,
you heard the judge grant Ajay private transport?
- Yes, sir. - And you found out that
that transport was going to occur in the sally port.
How long did it take you to get over there?
- Well, I'm not confined to this chair.
- No, I know. You had to find
a service elevator to avoid the courthouse steps,
cross from Chambers to Baxter,
at lunch hour--20 minutes sound about right?
- I guess.
- And how long did you wait outside
before Ajay was walked out?
There's security footage.
You waited 40 minutes in 30-degree weather.
- Objection, is there a question here?
- Let's move along, Mr. Carisi.
- Mr. Davis, you smuggled the gun into the courthouse,
tracked Sharma's location,
waited for him, called out his name,
and then shot him at point-blank range three times.
And you expect this jury to believe
that you didn't want to kill him?
That none of that was intentional?
- I didn't intend to shoot him.
- Oh, so the gun just went off?
You're a trained military professional.
You must know that in order for a weapon to fire,
you gotta pull the trigger?
- Objection. - I'll allow.
- I didn't know where I was.
- Oh, well, where did you think you were?
♪
- Afghanistan.
- Well, do you know where you are now?
- Yes, sir.
- Do you know that murder is against the law?
- So is what he did.
- Do you know that even if you're a soldier at war,
it's a violation of the military code of conduct
to shoot an unarmed, handcuffed civilian?
- That son of a bitch raped my daughter!
Raped her.
I'm her father.
I'm supposed to protect her.
- Your Honor, we need a recess.
- Mr. Davis, be honest with me.
You knew where you were,
you knew exactly what you were doing,
and you would do it again, wouldn't you?
- You're damn straight! Every day of the week.
♪
.
- Well, that didn't exactly go as planned.
- You had to see it coming.
- Off the record, he expressed similar sentiments in prep.
I advised him that it would not be in his best interests
to convey that to a jury.
When I was an ADA, this would be the moment
I would offer the defense a deal.
- Man two is still on the table.
I can recommend the minimum.
- That's exactly the offer I told Mickey you'd make.
- What did he say?
- Basically, no thank you, but more anatomically.
- Man two specifically states that the accused--
- Lacked the intention to cause harm.
- If I go any lower, then I'm saying
it's okay for civilians to take the law
into their own hands.
Rafael, when you were an ADA--
- I would have held the line at man two.
But here we are.
When I was an ADA, the NYPD and the DA's office
commanded a modicum of respect.
- So it's a bull market in vigilantism?
We already have armed militias coming into our cities.
How much more lawlessness can we take?
- In terms of the big picture, I agree.
In terms of Davis...
I don't think a jury's gonna put him in a cell.
- And that's all that matters?
- To my client? Yeah.
See you tomorrow.
You know how you used to come to all of my closing arguments?
- Yeah.
- Let's see if you learned anything.
My client is in a fight for his life,
as serious a fight as when he was
facing the enemy in Afghanistan.
He returned home damaged in body and soul.
And while he was on the long, hard road to recovery,
his daughter was being groomed, raped,
and impregnated by Ajay Sharma.
Sharma was a serial predator,
raping young girls in his home for a decade.
No one stopped him. Not ACS.
Not SVU.
And now the government wants to punish Mr. Davis
because he did what no one else would do.
He protected his daughter.
- We all understand the raw emotion
behind Mr. Davis' decision to murder Ajay Sharma.
We understand that.
But the question is...
who do we want to determine
which laws we obey
and which laws we don't?
We are lucky
to live in a country where police,
prosecutors, and courts mete out justice,
not individuals.
You made me a promise at voir dire
that you would decide this case
based on the evidence and the law.
Well, there's no doubt to either,
as the defendant's own words made clear.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Cheers. - To what?
Jury deliberates for six hours
to find Mickey guilty of man two
and we are right back where we started.
- To irony, then.
- You both did your jobs, and so did the judge.
I mean, Davis got the minimum, but that sends a message.
- 3 1/2 years?
You ask me, he shouldn't do a day.
- Yeah, I got that from you.
I thought we were on the same side.
- We used to be.
- Come on, Fin.
What happens to Nydia now?
- She's in a group home. I mean...
[cell phone chimes]
She's getting counseling. She's mad at Mickey.
She didn't want Ajay to die.
- Sorry to cut this wake short.
My mom is heading to Florida tomorrow.
Tell Liv I'm sorry I missed her.
- Will do. - Uh-oh,
my fiancée wants me home.
- You went through with it? - Yeah, this morning.
One condition. No more herbal tea.
- Good for you. Mazel tov.
- Congratulations, Fin. - Hey, you got a date set?
- Gotta go. - Aw.
- Next round's on me. - Thank you.
You doing okay?
- [sighs] Not really.
To be honest, I--
I feel bad about Mickey. - Hmm.
- And maybe I'm a little angry.
- At Barba? - No.
He was just doing his job.
Look, it's hard enough going up against my mentor,
but when half of my old unit is helping him investigate?
- It's over.
And not for nothing, you won.
- Cheers.
- Hey.
Did I miss the post-mortem?
- No, they're still inside.
Hey, walk with me?
- Sure.
- Are you mad at me
about how I handled this case?
- Davis confessed on the stand.
What if they found him guilty of man one?
- It was never gonna happen. - Because you're so good?
Barba, how much of this was about Davis...
and how much of it was about you?
- What do you mean?
- The way that you had to leave.
Maybe you weren't defending him, maybe...
you were defending yourself.
- We can't change the past.
- I just miss it.
And you.
That's all.
- Me too.
This past year's been all about loss.
- Well, let's hope that this year's a better one.
- Happy New Year, Liv.
- Happy New Year.
♪
.
[dramatic music]
♪
[wolf howls]