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.
- What the...?
Oh, god.
Ugh.
[inhales sharply]
Oh, my god.
No. No.
[gags]
- Careful the emesis.
- Who puked?
- The apartment owner when he discovered her.
Dalton rindell.
He's got a pretty good gash to the head.
Paramedics are with him now.
- We saw him on the way in,
But we wanted to get a handle on what went down here
Before we talked to him.
- Fluids on her thigh indicate sexual activity.
- The rest of the story is written on the wall.
- Bludgeoned to death from someone in a rage.
From the impressions to the skull,
I'd say you were looking for a hammer.
- Rindell called 911 at 7:34 a.M.
Do you have an approximate time of death here?
- I can give you the exact minute.
She tried to shield her head with her hands,
One of the blows crushed the crystal on her watch.
- [sighs]
- 12:57.
- So rindell was out cold for 6 1/2 hours--
That's some hit to the head.
- Well, this might explain the perp's rage.
"audrey, with eternal love, michael."
- I thought mr. Rindell's name was dalton.
- He was having an affair with audrey.
Michael catches them in the act,
He attacks dalton, kills his cheating lover.
- So the sex was consensual.
- Mr. Rindell...
Can you tell us what happened?
- I was hoping you could tell me.
I don't remember anything. My head is splitting.
- Could his injury have affected his memory?
- The neural exam checked out fine.
- What exactly is the nature of your relationship with audrey?
- Who's audrey?
- The dead woman on your bedroom floor.
- We didn't have any relationship.
Until I found her this morning,
I'd never seen her before in my life.
Sync by Adriano_CSI for addict7ed
- Melinda, you got a minute?
- I was hoping to pop her in the fridge before she goes bad.
- I'm thinking it's dalton's story that's stinking.
- You like him for it.
- Well, there's no sign of forced entry.
- But the victim's clothes, purse, and I.D. Are missing.
Someone must've taken them.
- That's someone dalton doesn't want us to know about.
Drug dealer, pimp...
- We know she had sex.
- I need to know if it was with dalton.
You mind coming upstairs and doing a dna swab?
- We letting him know why?
- I don't understand. Why do you need my fingerprints?
- We take it from anyone who
Has legitimate access to the apartment.
- Once we eliminate the friendlies,
Any unidentified print could be the perp's.
- Got you. - We need you to sign this
So we can search your apartment.
- That way we don't have to pester a judge for a warrant.
- Why would you need to do that?
- There's no crime scene exception
To the fourth amendment, we need to keep our searches legal.
- A man killed someone in my home.
Whatever you need to do.
But I don't get it... Why did he pick me?
Have you ever seen anything like this?
- [sighs]
If I had a nickel for every dead prostitute
I ever woke up with...? - I've never used a prostitute.
- Sorry, without gallows humor,
To cope with what we see every day, I'd go stark raving mad.
- What do you mean go?
- How do you deal with stress, mr. Rindell?
- Uh, usually I avoid it.
- Mr. Rindell, is it okay if I take a dna sample?
It's just a quick swab of the inside of your mouth.
Won't hurt a bit.
- Routine procedure?
- With your permission. - Of course.
- Mr. Rindell, do you own a hammer?
- Uh-huh.
- Okay, it's not in your tool box.
- Is that what he used?
I'm gonna be sick again. I need some water.
- We should get you to the hospital
And have you checked out.
- All right, let me just grab my wallet.
[coughing softly]
- I'm not so sure he doesn't know the perp.
- If he's hiding something, we'll find it.
[suspenseful chime]
- Looks like the paramedic missed a sliver of glass.
- Could that have caused the memory loss?
- No, not deep enough.
And your head ct looks fine.
- And you still don't remember anything?
- No. No, and I feel like crap.
- Well, you're dehydrated.
I'll start an iv.
- Did you party last night?
- Uh, no.
Not at all, I was working.
- Dalton, I can't tell you how many victims
Withhold information about illegal drug use
Because they're scared they're gonna get into trouble.
- We're not looking to jam you up on a possession charge.
- If you had a dealer in your apartment,
Or you were partying with friends--
You just have to tell us.
- I don't do drugs.
I don't even drink.
What if someone drugged me?
- Okay. Like who?
- Eh...I don't know.
- Nadia, how much longer you gonna
Keep this bathroom tied up?
You're worse than my ex-wife.
- Someone let a sweet talker like you go?
I'm done scanning, it's all yours.
- Does csu know there's bloody handprints in here?
- They're right behind you in the lunch line.
You know, those prints look smeared to me.
But they'll lift them all.
- And bloody towels as well.
They're still damp.
- Well no one from the canvas saw a bloody maniac.
So you gotta figure he cleaned up before he left.
You didn't look in the shower?
- [sighs]
Washed clean.
- He took a shower while I was passed out on the floor.
- Or maybe you came home and surprised him
While he was in there.
- But why was I naked?
- That's the million-dollar question.
- You think I raped her? You think I did this?
- We're looking for answers.
And you're not providing any.
- Well, I don't have any.
- Dalton, calm down and work with us.
We're trying to figure out how a dead naked woman
Ended up in your apartment.
- What time did you come home last night?
- [sighs]
I don't remember coming home.
- You say you were working.
Where's that? Did anybody see you?
- I'm a developer.
My partner bill and I...
Met with the buyers of these co-op units we pre-sold.
About 75 people showed up to our headquarters.
- Any one of them unhappy with their purchase?
- All of them.
Construction hit a little speed bump,
So we threw this cocktail mixer to put their minds at ease.
- Dalton, you said you weren't partying last night.
- Trust me, it was no party.
- Dalton was dripping flop sweat.
You have no idea how crucial it was
To instill the investors with confidence.
- Of course I do, that's step number one
In the idiot's guide to flim-flamming.
- Hey, we're not running the nigerian prince scam here.
This is gonna be a landmark building.
- When do you plan on completing it?
- As soon as we shore up new financing.
That was the point of last night.
- You were trying to suck even more money out of these people?
- Otherwise, we have to file bankruptcy
And they lose everything.
- Well, how much are they already in for?
- 200,000 to 400,000 each.
- So they all had motive to murder both of you--
Or set you up for one.
- We were hoping for a slightly more enthusiastic response.
That coward dalton left me to deal with 'em.
At the end of the cocktail hour, I called the meeting to order,
And he was gone.
- Maybe he didn't leave on his own.
I'll need a list of your victims.
I mean buyers.
- Absolutely not.
You can't drag them all into a murder investigation.
- Even if it means clearing your partner?
- Detectives...
- What do we got?
- The buildings are connected.
That's mr. Rindell's bedroom window right up there,
And the perp must've tossed this out of it.
- Ah, what have we here?
- We got ladies' clothes, shoes, and a purse.
- Why toss it over here if he didn't want it to be found?
He could've thrown it in the river.
- I don't know,
But I just might've found a motive for our murder.
Our victim's a doctor.
- Audrey hale, m.D. Westside women's clinic.
- They do abortions.
- We're so sorry for your loss.
- Our divorce was finalized a few months ago.
But...I never stopped loving audrey.
- A friendly divorce?
- Is there such a thing?
You can't imagine the screaming matches--
Me begging her to leave her job at the clinic,
And her saying she had a commitment to uphold a...
Constitutionally protected service.
- You didn't approve of your wife's work.
- I was afraid for our daughter clarissa.
- Your family get threats?
- A few years ago, an anti-abortion group
Posted hundreds of doctors' names, their home addresses,
And telephone numbers on the internet.
Then we started getting hang-up calls
In the middle of the night, and nasty letters.
- Did you keep any of them?
- No, I--I didn't want our daughter finding them.
And once that doctor was shot in his own church
In kansas this summer,
I petitioned the court for sole custody
But...Lost.
And audrey was supposed to pick her up tomorrow.
I told her this was gonna happen.
- Mr. Hale, did you or audrey have any connection
With an r.T. Developers?
- No.
- How about a dalton rindell?
- Who's that? One of those fanatical nuts?
- No, I am definitely not one of them.
- Let's play a little free association.
You say the first thing that pops into your head.
Roe v. Wade.
- Ugh, two ways to get across a creek.
- Do you consider dr. Hale's murder a joke?
- No.
No, it was the most horrific thing I've ever seen.
But I didn't do it.
I don't know her, or anything about her.
- Then how'd she get in your apartment?
- Forget that, how'd she get in your bed?
- [sighs]
Look, I know it sounds crazy,
But it had to be one of the co-op owners.
I think I'm being set up.
- Okay, here comes the conspiracy theory.
You go.
- A guy puts a chunk down on a $3 million condo
That's never gonna be built,
And he's not gonna get any of his money back.
- I can see that making a guy a little nutty.
- Right, so he starts obsessing about the ills of the world
And kills two birds with one hammer.
- We're gonna need the investors' list to prove that.
- We're hanging on by a thread.
Could you at least be discreet?
- No problem.
Just answer my partner's question.
Which are you? Pro-choice, or no choice?
- I know it's everybody's litmus test
For picking a president or a supreme court justice.
It's not even on my priority list.
- And I was just starting to believe you.
Mr. Rindell, abortion is the one subject
Everyone has a strong opinion about.
- Abortion is murder.
- I know, that's what I keep trying to tell her.
What group are you with? - Operation save and deliver.
Life begins at conception.
- What if my life is at risk?
- It's in god's hands, not yours.
- What if I told you I was raped?
- Well, the lord wouldn't have brought a child into this world
If he didn't have great plans for it.
- Even though she'll be a constant reminder?
You have no idea the toll that takes on a woman.
- You must've been happy when dr. Hale was murdered.
- [scoffs] no, no, no.
That was awful. We don't condone any killing.
Hey--
But it is a blessing
There's one less mass murderer out there.
- Ironically, the young women she scares away
Are the ones coming for birth control.
So yes, she's a danger, but not a violent one.
- So what's with the bulletproof glass here?
- We had that put in in '93, after our sniper attack.
Our receptionist was shot in the arm.
- Any more recent attacks?
- Well, not here.
But I monitor the national stats.
Since the '70s, there have been 175 arsons, 41 bombings.
- Dr. Hale's ex-husband was telling us
About the hate mail he received at home.
- Yeah, we'll we get plenty of that here.
I have beth pulling it out for you.
This is the first box.
- How many more like this?
- There are five or six.
[thuds]
- Oh, get down. - Down.
- It's just a harmless egging.
We get that from time to time.
- Did you do this?
- It was a couple of kids.
- Which way did they go?
- I don't know, I had my eyes closed.
But I'm touched for your concern for the chicken fetuses.
- El, pop the trunk.
Dr. Kittle said audrey was meeting a friend
For dinner last night.
- Male? - Female.
Let's go see if she made it.
- We had dinner at picholine.
We left there around 9:30.
Shared a taxi.
- So audrey went home?
- No, there was night construction on fifth.
And we were in stand-still traffic.
I saw this bar, said we should get out and have a nightcap.
Audrey didn't want to, but I dragged her.
- Do you remember the name of the bar?
- That's what I'm looking for.
- Anyone there hassling her?
- No, but there was this guy.
- Okay, linda. Linda...
It's okay, calm down.
Just tell us about him.
- [exhales]
White, 30s, really good-looking.
Audrey hadn't even looked at another man since her divorce.
I'm the one that got them talking.
- Well, could he have instigated it?
Maybe followed you into the place?
- No, it looked like he'd been there for a while.
Oh!
Here it is.
West falls lounge.
- Okay, that's good. But back to the guy?
- They really hit it off.
- How did it end with them?
- I don't know, I--
I just left her there.
I thought I was doing her a favor.
- Did you get the guy's name?
- [inhales sharply] something like...Barnes.
Um...I just remember it was a name of a bookstore.
Dalton?
- Yes.
- I appreciate the lift home, I'm exhausted.
- Just got to do a quick stop here.
Ah, here it is.
West falls lounge.
- You know this place?
- No.
- It's walking distance from your office.
- I haven't been to a bar in over a year.
- Back in a second.
[car door shuts]
- You sure you weren't here last night?
- I'm positive. Why do you keep asking me?
Look, I'm in the program.
One year, three months, eight days sober.
- What do you know?
A one-year chip.
[exhales]
So, dalton...
You get a headache?
You were throwing up, you were dehydrated.
- I was hit in the head. - Or you had a hangover.
- I don't drink. I need to use the restroom.
- Uh, wait a minute. Hey, wait a minute.
Dalton.
Yo! Get back here.
Dalton.
- That's the guy. Right there.
- Dalton, what are you doing here?
- Where's the men's room?
- What, you don't remember from last night?
- What are you talking about?
- [scoffs] well, you were knocking them back.
- What's going on here?
- Well, the bartender says that you were
Buying audrey rounds after her friend left.
- Why would you say that?
- Buddy, you two left together.
I know a hookup when I see one.
- You're lying! - Hey!
- Who put you up to this? - Back! Let go!
- Take it easy. - I'm gonna--
I'm gonna be sick again.
- All the way back. On the right.
- [coughs softly]
- Wait a minute. - I can't, I can't.
[cell phone rings]
- Stabler.
Hello?
Who is this?
Yeah, go ahead.
[quiet aside] the lab results.
The bloody print in the bathroom?
- Dalton's.
- And the dna from the rape kit.
Great. Thanks.
Hey, dalton.
Let's go. Suck it up. Get out here.
[knocking] hey, let's go.
- Where'd he go?
Where is he?
- Dalton!
He's running.
- I'll take the front!
[breathless] I don't see him.
- Son of a bitch. We lost him.
- Now what part of taking a killer rapist
On a field trip sounded like a bright idea?
- Dalton wasn't technically on-- - zip it, john.
They are perfectly capable
Of making their own half-assed excuses.
- No excuse.
Liv was interviewing the bartender,
I was supposed to have eyes on dalton.
- It was equally my responsibility.
- Spare me the mutual stroke-fest.
What are we doing to fix this?
- We sat on his apartment all last night,
He was smart enough not to come home.
- Got a subpoena for his cell phone records,
And somebody's watching the garage where he keeps his car.
- I put the word out
To the airport, train, and bus terminals.
- His bank has an alert on his credit and debit cards.
He hasn't used them yet.
- Well, then somebody is harboring him.
Girlfriend, parents...
- Dalton told us he wasn't dating anybody seriously,
But we did a little digging.
His parents divorced when he was a kid.
His father's in california,
And his mother died from cirrhosis of the liver.
- There's no one in the rindell clan can handle their liquor.
There were multiple domestic abuse calls
Against a drunken dalton senior whaling on the wife and kid
Until he skipped out on them.
- Morning, detectives.
- Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse.
- Has anyone seen my missing defendant?
- We could try and find him,
Unless you wanna just waste our time busting my balls.
- Oh, I'd never kick a fellow when he's down.
I'm sure you feel like a grade-a moron as it is.
Of course, I'm the one who has to slog through
A wade hearing because you tainted the bartender's I.D.
- What do you need, sonya?
- On the assumption you'll retrieve dalton rindell for me,
I'm proceeding with my trial prep.
I actually just stopped by to catch a movie.
Want to join me?
- Here's your recreation of the crime scene
Based on the leica scanstation,
Which you can show to the jury from any angle.
Dalton approached from the left, wielding the hammer.
Audrey must've seen the first swing coming,
Scrambles out of the bed, still tangled in the sheets.
Dalton comes around-- - he's got her trapped.
- She's facing him.
Tries to ward off the first blow, which breaks her wrist.
As he hauls back for the second strike here, he--
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
She was raped first, right?
- You want me to simulate that?
- Actually, it's looking like the sex was consensual.
I mean, they hooked up in a bar, they botwere drinking heavily.
- Oh, please.
Half the rapists I've put away were drunk or high.
It's called dutch courage.
It doesn't excuse jack.
And stopping her from crying rape
Is a motive to kill her, right?
Keep going.
- Audrey's on her side.
He strikes h temple,
'causing this arterial spurting pattern on the carpet.
Now she's face down, covering her head with her hands.
One of the strikes breaks her watch.
- It's gonna be hard for a jury to watch.
- But easy for them to convict.
- Castoff extends onto the ceiling,
Means he was bringing the hammer
Back all the way over his head for each blow.
- Wait, this shows him covered in blood.
- There would've been tons of back spatter.
- Well, do we have his bloody clothes?
- No, he must have been naked too.
- So after he cleaned up, he realized what he'd done,
And he started banging his head
Against the medicine cabinet mirror.
- Bull. He was staging the scene
To make it look like he had been attacked as well.
- Captain, this just came in.
- Well, if juries want a video of the crime,
You're practically giving them one.
- Yeah, this is really good.
Listen, raise the production values for me.
Spare no expense.
- We just got dalton's cell phone records.
Dozens of calls to the partner.
All unanswered, but he had a nice long chat with his ex.
- I have no idea where dalton is.
- Really? You mean he didn't mention it
During your 17-minute conversation last night?
- No, he just told me his insane story.
- It end with a confession?
- He swears he's being set up.
- Well, he asked you for a place to hole up, didn't he?
- He asked. I said no.
- Will you mind taking us to your place to verify that?
- Not at all. As soon as my open house is over.
- Well, of course you being a rental agent,
You have access to plenty of apartments you can stash him in.
- You're not gonna make us get a search warrant
For every one of them, are you?
- After what dalton put me through,
I'd never help that son of a bitch.
- Bad marriage?
- Varied days of wine and roses.
I quit drinking, dalton couldn't.
- Was he abusive?
- The real dalton is the greatest guy you'll ever meet.
When he drinks, he turns into a monster.
He kicked a lot of holes in our walls,
But he only hurt me once.
That's when I walked.
- Well, be grateful you're still alive.
- Sober, he wouldn't hurt a fly.
I heard he went on the wagon after our divorce was final.
- Yeah, well he fell off with a big splash.
- If you wouldn't help him, who would?
- [scoff] his old drinking buddy.
His business partner. Bill tattinger.
- [grunting] you son of a bitch!
- Hey! Police, break it up.
[grunting, growling]
Hey, hey. Police, break it up.
Break it up, break it up. What are you doing?
You're only making things worse.
First evading arrest, and now assault?
- I didn't--I didn't run because I was guilty.
I ran because I needed to prove my innocence.
Admit what you did! - He's out of his freakin' mind.
- Now he's under arrest. - It doesn't matter.
I finally figured out who's responsible for this.
Tell him. Tell him!
[panting]
- What? Tell us what?
- We were dying there.
Back in the day,
You closed million-dollar deals over drinks.
I convinced him a little liquid courage could steady his nerves.
- You ruined my life!
- No, that's over. Let's go.
- There's no way one drink put me on my ass.
What'd you put in it?
- Nothing! I didn't do anything illegal!
- No, not by frat boy standards.
You wanna have your way with them?
Get them nice and drunk.
- I swear to god, I only gave him one.
What harm could that do?
[door opens]
- Look, I'm on a prescription benzo for anxiety.
- You're not supposed to mix that with alcohol.
- Bill kept telling me one wouldn't hurt.
He must've made the drink a lot stronger than he told me.
- Well, the thing is, after you left bill,
You drank seven or eight on your own.
- That we know of.
- Yeah, but I didn't even know I was doing it.
I don't even remember leaving the office.
All right, the combination of meds and alcohol
Must've completely disoriented me.
- You had no problem finding the nearest bar.
- And you're the one who did the ordering.
Not bill, not audrey--you.
- It's only because bill pressured me
Into that first drink.
That's the reason I quit in the first place.
Look, once I have one in me, I can't stop.
[sighs]
- [sighs] what a load of crap.
It's not that he couldn't stop, he just didn't want to.
- It's not that cut and dry, sonya.
Alcoholism is a recognized addiction.
- That millions of people have successfully overcome.
- I've been sober over 20 years.
But I struggle with it every day.
It's not something you ever overcome.
- But you're not drinking, are you?
Proving my point.
Alcohol is just a crutch for weak-willed pathetic losers.
- How many coffees and cigarettes you had today, sonya?
- [laughing] oh, please.
I can quit anytime I want.
And if I committed a felony,
I wouldn't trot them out like the old twinkie defense.
Intoxication has never been
And never will be a defense to rape and murder.
- Well, you have at it on the murder,
But I don't think you're getting him on the rape.
- Actually, captain,
There's someone here you need to talk to.
- I used to be an assistant at r.T. Developers.
My friend who still works there called
And told me what dalton was arrested for.
- You don't seem too surprised.
- A little over a year ago,
Just after dalton and selena separated,
I was working late and wanted to let him know I was leaving.
- And what happened?
- He'd been drinking in there all day.
He exposed himself.
I tried to leave, but...
He cornered me.
He grabbed my breast and...
Forced his hand down my pants.
- I told you he was a rapist.
- So let me guess, you have no memory of
Sexually assaulting your old assistant?
- Oh, I took responsibility for that.
- Paying a girl off to keep her from filing criminal charges
Is not taking responsibility.
- Ask glenna when that happened.
It was the day I finally admitted I had a problem.
I quit cold turkey.
I thought the dt's were gonna kill me,
But I never touched another drop.
Not until bill practically poured it dowv my throat.
- Ugh, cut the crap. Jeez!
- You need something, sonya?
- Yeah.
For him to admit he killed and raped audrey hale.
I got tired of watching you two play pattycake, sorry.
- How can I admit something I don't remember?
Look, I had a history of blackouts
In my drinking days.
One time I woke up in a hotel room in phoenix.
I had no clue how I got there.
- The liquor made me do it. My partner made me do it.
- He did! He admitted it.
- Please.
It's not like he slipped you a mickey.
And he's not the one who killed audrey, you are.
You lured her to your place,
Found out what she did for a living,
And then you killed her in a drunken rage.
- I'm not even anti-abortion. - Okay.
So her profession was just a fluke.
Then why did you kill her?
- I don't know!
I swear I have no memory of what happened that night.
- Fine.
Maybe this will jog your memory.
- That's me. - Yeah.
- You can't show that to a jury, can you?
- No, not with your likeness, but...
Everything else.
I made this one just for you.
- I want to talk to a lawyer.
- Thanks for your help.
[door slams closed]
- While the initial decision to drink is a choice,
There comes a time when the addiction switch
Is turned on in the brain.
I believe this is the case with mr. Rindell.
- Dr. Sopher, you conducted a study
Involving the brain imaging of alcoholics.
- Yes, and the results indicate--
- The people renew their objection
To this hearing in its entirety.
- Counselor. - It doesn't matter
What voodoo science she trots out as an excuse.
Intoxication has been banned as a defense
To rape and murder dating back--
- The people didn't meet their burden for rape.
That charge was dropped.
- Banned as a defense to murder
Dating back to the 19th century.
- Would your honor remind ms. Paxton
That the entire point of a frye hearing is
To consider the admissibility of new science at trial.
- I do have other matters to consider.
Objection overruled.
Continue with your witness, mr. Kressler.
- What was the outcome of your study?
- Addiction is a neurobiological disease.
A brain disease.
- You have evidence to support this?
- Imaging of addicted individuals
Shows physical changes in areas of the brain
Critical to judgment, memory, and behavioral control.
So while mr. Rindell took a drink of his own volition,
Because of his disease, he was physically incapable
Of controlling the urge to keep drinking.
- Which led him to kill.
- Dr. Sopher...
Do all addicts commit murder?
- No, of course not.
- And your findings,
Are they generally accepted within the scientific community?
- We do have our detractors.
- Huh.
Do you believe if I had an inoperable tumor
That I could just will it away?
- No.
- Because a tumor is a disease,
Not a behavior, right?
Alcoholics stop drinking all the time
By sheer willpower alone.
And you know why they can do that?
Because alcoholism is not a disease.
Good news, people!
Judge moredock isn't allowing
Dalton's cockamamie "alcoholism is a disease" defense.
- Well, I'm familiar with dr. Sopher's work,
And the point of her research
Isn't to excuse criminal behavior.
It's to find a cure. - Yeah, well...
Good luck with that.
- If they could, crime would be down 50%.
- More than that for sexual assaults,
Some of us might be out of a job.
- Please, people do bad things 'cause they're bad people.
Getting drunk to do it is just an excuse.
- Olivia, finally we agree on something.
- Liv, if there had been a cure a decade ago,
Your mom might still be alive.
- What... Mommy liked her cocktail?
- My mother was a falling-down drunk.
She died going down a flight of stairs.
- She started drinking after she was raped, to cope.
- Yeah, she never quite managed to do that with me there.
- Well, no offense to your mother, olivia,
But you can't hide behind a bottle.
Now dalton is claiming temporary insanity
Due to alcoholic psychosis.
- Well, take it from somebody who's been there.
Odds are, there will be a sympathetic drinker on that jury
Who's had a blackout themselves. - It won't matter.
Not after I show them the 3-d recreation
Of dalton hammering the brains out of audrey's skull.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I warn you.
What you are about to see is graphically violent.
And forensic evidence proves that these are
The indisputable actions of the defendant.
- Objection! - No!
She can't play that! - Move for a mistrial!
- She told me the jury couldn't see this one!
- Oh, my god! - Bailiff!
Remove the jury.
- Wrong one!
Your honor, I-I have no idea how this happened.
- Counselors, my chambers!
- [panting]
- What happened?
- [sighs]
The judge sent the jury home
So we could have a hearing on my royal screw-up.
[chuckles] payback's a bitch.
Come on. Come on, let me have it.
- Everyone makes mistakes.
- Not me. I must be losing it.
- What happened at the hearing?
- That weasel kressler said he knew I was losing,
And purposefully played the wrong disc
To force a mistrial.
- It was an accident, wasn't it?
- Of course it was.
Sheesh.
But the judge isn't convinced.
So he's polling the jurors tomorrow
To see if they can disregard the video.
- What if some of them can't?
- Then he'll have to release them.
Even with the alternates, if the pool dips below 12,
He'll have no choice but to declare a mistrial.
- So you get him on retrial.
- Not if the judge determines
There was prosecutorial misconduct.
In that case, double jeopardy attaches,
And there is no retrial.
Party's over, everybody just goes on home.
- So dalton gets a walk.
- You gotta be kidding me.
- Oh, that I were.
Hey, people... Does anybody work here?
My friends need drinks.
[chuckles] hello?
- I got to go home. - Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Stabler, you need to go over your testimony with me.
- I know exactly what I'm going to say.
I'll see you tomorrow. - Uh-uh-uh.
Please, just come-- - actually...
Why don't you cut yourself off?
What time do you have to be at the hearing tomorrow?
- 9:00 a.M.
We have a lot of work to do, olivia.
I'll probably be up all night re-strategizing,
So can we get started?
- Good luck.
- Here.
I'm here!
I'm here, your honor.
- You're 45 minutes late, counselor.
- I deeply apologize, your honor.
I was involved in a fender bender on my way, and...
- Are you all right?
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I'm fine, thank you.
I'm just...Whoo.
I made it. Just--oh, sorry.
- You don't look all right to me.
Do you need medical help? - No, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no. I might've, um, I might have hit my head
In the fender bender, but I can play hurt.
All right, I can...
I'm ready to proceed, your honor.
- I think you need to be looked at.
- She's drunk.
- Wha--excuse me?
- She's drunk. - Excuse me, dalton.
Are you--did you say something to me?
- Trust me, I would know.
- Uh, your honor, this is outrageous.
- Oh, what's your problem, you tiny little man?
Hey, dalton-- - ms. Paxton.
Have you been drinking?
- No. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Not at all.
I'm just exhausted, your honor.
I was up all night preparing--
- What? Drinks?
- No, I was going over detective benson's testimony with her.
Ask her. [scoffs]
- Bailiff...
Get detective benson over here.
And have her bring a breathalyzer.
- Where would you like me to administer the test, your honor?
! Right at the defense table? - Guess again.
- Unfortunately, the prosecution.
- No.
You can't be serious.
- Could you please clear this up, olivia?
They're trying to ruin my reputation.
- I have no desire to ruin your reputation, counselor.
Detective, were you drinking with ms. Paxton last night?
- I wasn't drinking.
- Was she?
- I saw her consume two drinks.
- So you did lie to me.
How many drinks did you have after detective benson left?
- I object to this line of questioning, your honor.
- Then blow. - No.
I can attest as an officer of this court
That I am not intoxicated.
- Sonya, your eyes are bloodshot and watery.
Your speech is slurred, and you stink of booze.
Now blow.
- I thought you were my friend.
- Just do it.
- Don't do this to me.
Olivia, please don't do this to me.
- You did this to yourself, sonya.
Now blow.
- [sighs]
[blows breath steadily]
[clicks] - I got it.
- Bring it up here, let me see.
- I saw it, your honor.
It's 0.7. It's legally sober.
- I was hoping for a zero.
- It's still climbing.
- For the record, your blood level count is...
0.082.
- That's residual from last night.
I'm fine, your honor.
I am ready to proceed.
- Counselor... You have a problem.
I'm ordering you removed from this courtroom.
Detective.
- Let's go.
Let's go. - I got it.
I got it. - Go.
- I got it.
- A shocking development in the trial of dalton rindell
For the murder of abortion doctor audrey hale.
- A mistrial was declared after a crime scene recreation
Concocted by the prosecution was shown to the jury
With the defendant's image photoshopped onto it.
- I hope you know that you're the luckiest man alive.
- You think?
No matter how long I live,
No matter what I do with the rest of my life,
My obituary is already written.
Dalton rindell, the man who killed audrey hale.
- It's still all about you.
- I've destroyed so many lives.
- You finally owning up to it?
You know you can never serve time for this,
No matter what you tell me.
So why don't you get it off your chest?
Tell me.
- After seeing all the evidence,
After watching that prosecutor falling down drunk,
Ruining her own career...
It was like looking in the mirror.
I finally realized I'd done it, I killed her.
- Why?
- I swear I don't know. I swear to god.
Uh, I had no reason to hurt her.
My doctor told me that in an alcoholic blackout,
Maybe I might have known exactly what I was doing,
But the memory never formed,
And it never will.
Maybe the stress from my business going under
Made me snap, and I--
And I took it out on her, I don't know.
How am I supposed to live with that?
- I don't know.
- Oh.
- Dalton. Dalton.
Can you give me a statement for the ledger, please?
- Do you have anything to say to the victim's family?
- Dalton, how does it feel to get away with murder?
- Move. Move.
- Dalton, you can't walk away.
- At least he walked because of the video mix-up,
And not paxton's...
Don't have to mention the irony of that.
- Svu was too much for her.
The pressure must have triggered her drinking.
- Explains why she was such a control freak.
White-knuckled drunk just hanging on by a thread.
- What a hypocrite.
- She was a good lawyer with a bad problem.
- I definitely saw a lot of my mother in her.
- Career's over, there's no way she's coming back from this.
She's a walking clusterf--
- I couldn't have said it better.
Though, I wouldn't have-- I wouldn't have censored myself.
I just wanted to say that, um,
It's been an honor working with you.
- You taking some personal time?
- No. No, no, no.
I'm [sniffles] actually on my way to court-ordered rehab.
[sighs]
I know that there is no way
That you will ever be able to forgive me.
But I intend to make amends
To each and every one of you.
I'm sorry.