(narrator) 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.
(crossing guard) Now, if this were a real busy street,
there'd be lots of cars and people, okay?
Now I want everybody to take your buddy's hand. All right?
(boy) I don't want to hold her hand.
Now, what do we do when we get to the crosswalk?
Anybody remember?
(all) No.
We stop. We look. And we listen.
And then we walk to the other side.
Now stay inside the lines of the crosswalk, okay?
And walk very, very fast.
[Children chattering]
Okay. No running and no pushing, please.
[Whispers] Hope a cab doesn't splatter you
all over midtown, you little brats.
(boy) He's hurt. He's hurt.
Take them inside, Melody. Now. Go.
Come on, kids. Let's go.
[Children chattering]
White male, 20s, naked,
wrapped in a set of king-sized sheets and a blanket,
condoms in there with him, fluids on the body,
which is why we called you guys in.
Any idea how long the body's been here?
Trash collection worked this street at 11:00 last night. No body then.
Neck's broken.
Bruising goes all the way around,
back of his scalp is pretty torn up
and there's white powder in it.
See this blue stuff on the sheets?
It's not wax. It's more like melted plastic.
(Bryson) Detectives, a trooper pulled
the pillow case out of the bushes.
Matches the sheets.
His clothes.
Check for a wallet.
(Benson) There's no wallet in here.
Found something.
Seventh and Bleecker, Thursday, 7:00 p.m.
Last night in the Village.
Maybe that's where he met his killer.
Must've shown him a real good time before she did the deed.
Marvin, right now is a good opportunity for you to learn.
An erection is often a side effect of asphyxiation.
Oh, yeah? 'Cause I was gonna say the guy was scared stiff.
We've got six restaurants, two bars, thirteen businesses,
and over 400 residences near Bleecker and Seventh.
That is a hell of lot of doors to knock on.
Not to mention it's 100 blocks away from where the victim ended up.
If his date killed him in the Village, it's a long way to lug a body.
Meaning one of 'em lives near the dump site.
Or she had help moving the body.
What did Missing Persons say?
Nobody's missed him yet. And we got no hit on the prints.
(Siper) Detectives.
This turned out to be a challenging one.
What did the lab find?
Substance in the hair turned out to be gypsum particles
and flakes of flat latex paint in eggshell white.
Somebody bashed his head against a wall.
It's a common brand of paint,
won't help much with the location.
The bed sheets were a little more interesting.
We put that blue substance
under an infrared spectrometer. It's nylon.
Specifically used for sports apparel.
Somehow it melted all over the sheets.
Like maybe from a faulty dryer? Runs too hot,
put a pair of running shorts in with the sheets, ruin the whole load.
Killed in an apartment with white walls and a crappy laundry facility.
I think I live there.
But I'm guessing you didn't kill the guy.
We blood-typed the semen found on the sheets.
Two types?
Your victim spent his last night with another man.
There's two bars in the Village on your list.
You and Olivia see if any of them
cater exclusively to gentlemen.
(Benson) Have you ever seen this guy?
Sorry, I don't recognize him.
How late did you work?
Till 4:00 in the morning.
Kind of a blur after 10:00, though.
Benefits of working at a gay bar.
Never have to buy my own drinks.
(Stabler) What kind of clientele you get in here?
Hustlers trolling for work?
(bartender) No, mostly just neighborhood guys.
What about lovers' spats getting out of hand?
Bouncer handles that. Hey, Tony, police.
He come in here last night?
Never seen him here, but I know that face.
I think he's a model or something.
Like in a magazine?
No, posters.
You know, the kind they plaster
all over those construction site fences.
[Horn honking]
Law-breakers.
He said the poster was advertising some dating service.
It wasn't Captain Zippy's Rave,
or fantastic, potent, herbal Viagra?
This might be something.
"We chose the path to love."
That's him.
Looking pretty heterosexual.
"ReGenesis."
Doesn't sound like a dating service.
It's a Christian ministry
advocating freedom from homosexuality
through prayer and counseling.
Started in the '80s as the so-called "ex-gay" movement.
(Benson) Here we go: "ReGenesis,
"a second chance at a new beginning.
"Started by Kelly and Derek Singer,
both ex-gays themselves."
So former gays turned gay-bashers?
Not quite.
ReGenesis doesn't condemn homosexuality outright,
but it does believe that it's a sin.
And like all sins, one has to resist it
in order to enter the kingdom of God.
Meaning, "If I pray hard enough, I'll be straight."
Or celibate.
Most ex-gays consider themselves successful
if they resist same-sex behavior.
The movement's still controversial.
Yeah. But if somebody really believes
that being gay's a sin,
what's wrong with trying to change?
(Huang) The assumption that one can change.
ReGenesis claims that members of its ministry
have actually become heterosexual,
but offer little proof.
Most psychiatrists believe it doesn't work.
So the poster-boy
for the ex-gay movement is still sleeping with guys.
I mean, that's gonna piss a few people off.
Find out how much.
And let's put a name to this face.
(Kelly) James Reed. I can't believe it.
James Reed. When was the last time you saw him?
Over six months ago.
I tried contacting him by phone, l... I sent letters.
And he never answered.
Did you guys have a falling out or something?
He thought we were judging him.
But we loved James.
As long as he was straight?
No. That would make us hypocrites.
But you're straight now, right?
So you're following God's law, but he wasn't.
You think that we're just these bunch of religious fanatics
who think God turned us straight?
It's a struggle, Detective.
And Kelly and I fight it together, every day.
So how was it that James wound up on the poster?
(Kelly) It was his idea.
He felt that people should know
you can be accountable to God
and have joy in your life.
Homosexuality doesn't have to control you.
(Benson) But he changed his tune six months ago.
He had doubts.
I told him we all have crises of faith.
In other words, he had a boyfriend.
Now, that doesn't look good for ReGenesis.
Are you suggesting that we killed James?
(Stabler) Someone may have felt betrayed.
You have this ad campaign,
must have cost you a lot of money.
There's James Reed, your poster-boy for success,
till he started sleeping with a bunch of guys again.
Makes your organization look like a sham.
I wouldn't have cared if James had a hundred boyfriends
if it made him happy.
I knew it didn't.
Look, we were just hoping James would come back.
We would've welcomed him.
Uh, you wrote him, uh, those letters.
Yeah.
We'll need that address.
There's no blood.
Doesn't look like James Reed was killed in his apartment.
A syllabus for a clinical psych class,
Hudson University.
Looks like he was going for his master's.
"Me and Phil, Thousand Islands, June, '03."
They're happy.
Unless Phil's the one he spent his last night with.
Look at this.
Four letters from Derek Singer, all unopened.
I guess he was telling the truth.
Those two were depressing.
Trying to convince themselves and everybody else that they're happy.
Maybe they are.
Elliot, you can't tell me that repressing your sexual desires
makes a gay person a good Christian.
I don't know. Maybe some choose to be gay, others choose to be straight.
Oh, so you chose to be heterosexual?
Me? No.
Check this out.
"All queers will burn
in the eternal fire of hell, so sayeth the Lord."
Somehow I don't think that's a direct quote.
Hate mail? Yeah.
About 20, 30 pieces of it.
All coming from Nebraska.
No return address.
I guess word of Reed's defection slipped out.
Let's see if the boyfriend in the picture
knows who sent them.
Phone number for Phil Sona.
I read about James' death in the paper. I'm sick about it.
I found it odd
you didn't report your boyfriend missing, Dr. Phil.
Ex-boyfriend.
We broke up three months ago.
But James doesn't have any family,
so I'm taking care of the funeral arrangements.
Look, I know you guys have a job to do,
but I didn't kill James.
I was at a seminar in Detroit the night he died.
Why the breakup?
Just wasn't the love of my life.
I wasn't his, either.
We both got what we needed at the time.
A reason to leave ReGenesis.
That is where we met.
Taking the reorientation therapy.
Support groups, prayer groups.
Then we turned to each other and were like,
"What the hell are we doing here?"
You thought the whole thing was a crock?
No. For a long time
I thought things would be easier if I was straight.
Now I can't imagine wanting to be anybody other than who I am.
And that is the one good thing I learned at ReGenesis.
Do you think that any ReGenesis member
would be angry enough to go after James?
I doubt it. They're basically good people.
They just believe that God has given them a roadmap for how to live.
But I don't think it's that easy.
These letters, do you know who wrote them?
If that's more hate mail, could have been anybody.
James had written some angry articles bashing ReGenesis.
I said, "You're making a target of yourself."
Dr. Sona, James may have been with a man the night he was murdered.
Do you know if he had a new boyfriend?
He said he was seeing somebody.
I don't know who. Didn't sound like it was gonna work out.
The guy was way in the closet.
Maybe he'll come out long enough to attend the funeral.
[Crowd chanting]
What the hell is this?
Members of the Church of Eternal Providence
visiting from beautiful Danville, Nebraska.
Got our hate mailers.
They got permits for the sidewalk.
Waiting for them to step over it so I can shut them up.
Get a line on the boyfriend?
Nobody claims to be or claims to know who was dating Reed.
God hates you, you hypocrite.
Get the hell out of here.
The Lord said all sodomites should be put to death.
Oh, his might has been shown to all those who believe.
You're going to let them do this?
The Reverend has the right to free speech!
The Lord Almighty killed James Reed
for being a disgusting faggot whore.
All right. That's right, we're all fags and we're not going anywhere.
We're gonna be sitting here laughing our asses off!
Okay. That's it.
Protest is over, Rev.
This is a legal demonstration.
Not anymore.
Down. You're trespassing.
[Crowd yelling]
Reverend Mitchell Shaw.
You really get around.
Protesting in Vermont, at the Supreme Court.
Cheering at the funeral of a 6-year-old who died of AIDS.
Maybe you should switch to a career in publicity.
The Lord asked me to do his work.
Did he ask you to ignore all that
"love thy neighbor" stuff?
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman,
"both of them have committed an abomination:
"They shall surely be put to death,
their blood shall be upon them." Leviticus.
The Bible also says I can sell my daughters into slavery
and be put to death if I work on Sundays.
Twelve years of Catholic school.
Anybody can memorize words, Reverend.
Doesn't make them righteous.
This city is full of sodomites,
and you waste your time protecting them?
And yet you wonder why so many of your NYPD brothers
were struck down on September 11?
Do you not see the Lord's judgment upon you?
I see a scared, shriveled up, piece of trash
who uses God to justify his bigotry.
(Benson) This guy doesn't believe half of what he says.
He's trying to get his name in the papers.
I speak the truth.
Well, then you won't deny calling James Reed a fag,
an AIDS-infested fag.
You can't prosecute me for writing letters.
We can if you killed the guy.
The Lord passed his own judgment on James Reed.
You're just doing his work for him, is that it?
I wish I had sent Reed to hell.
But I was a thousand miles away.
Go back in there and strangle the son of a bitch.
I want to invite him to the Christmas party.
The Lord spoke to him.
The Lord sent an angel to talk to the mother of his only Son,
but he spoke to Reverend Shaw.
He's a very special guy.
How's his alibi?
Danville P.D. Confirmed it,
had their hands full with another picket organized
by the Reverend on the night of Reed's murder.
Then he's nothing to us. Cut him and the rest of his people loose.
He targeted Reed.
One of his followers could have taken him seriously.
You connect one of the members of Shaw's congregation to the murder,
I might be able to get him on the Fighting Words doctrine.
Till then, First Amendment says
he can enjoy his civil liberties like everybody else.
We'll check out his followers anyway.
In the meantime, if we're thinkin'
Reed's killer was the last person he slept with,
there's a real problem with this theory.
None of Shaw's people would ever have had sex with Reed.
They just would've killed him.
We've still got the mystery boyfriend out there somewhere.
What did you get from the people at Reed's funeral?
Not much. After the fight broke out,
a bunch of people left before we got their names.
But we got their pictures.
Where the hell is that from?
One of Rev. Shaw's church members. He must've left it behind.
I didn't hear that. (Cragen) Get it back to him, John.
I'll be happy to. I'll even develop his film for free.
Show the pictures to the people
you talked to at Reed's funeral.
Maybe they can help ID the ones that got away.
(Waldman) I told you at the cemetery,
I really only knew James as his advisor.
L... I don't know his friends.
He never mentioned dating anyone, Dr. Waldman?
All we talked about was his research.
A shame, it was shaping up to be quite provocative.
How so?
He was planning a long-term study on reparative therapy,
the idea that same-sex attraction
is a form of arrested development
and can be cured.
Don't most shrinks think that's crap?
They do.
Reparative therapy is experimental and unproven at best.
And at worst?
Early research indicates that patients
can develop anxiety, depression,
and an increased risk of suicide.
Now, what was so provocative about James' research?
That reparative therapists know their treatment doesn't work,
yet they prey on vulnerable patients
and take their money for a snake-oil cure.
That could've ruined a few careers.
Might be a motive for murder.
I'd agree, except no one outside
the three professors on the thesis committee had read the proposal.
We're gonna need their names.
Of course.
Actually, there was a fourth professor, but he resigned.
And who was that? Roger Tate.
He's a proponent of reparative therapy
which is why I wanted him to sit on the committee.
But he thought there were methodological problems with the study.
We want to talk to him first.
Mr. Reed and I had differences of opinion,
but I liked and respected him.
We've debated each other over
the past few months in several symposiums.
These debates, he thought gay was being okay and you didn't?
I personally have nothing against homosexuals.
But Mr. Reed believed homosexuality
was a naturally occurring variant.
Like left-handedness.
I believe it's a complex pathology.
And you can cure it.
No.
But by understanding the root of their neuroses,
they can begin to control their neurotic tendencies.
When homosexuals know the causes of their condition,
they're more able to change their behavior
if they choose to do so.
So what causes that condition?
My research has shown that an overbearing mother
combined with a distant father
often influences psycho-sexual development.
A boy longs for a relationship with the father,
and when he doesn't get it, he seeks it out in other men.
Must have really burned you that Reed's research
was gonna torpedo all your work.
Or at least torpedo your wallet?
His methods were shoddy.
I doubt if his research would ever have been published.
I may have disagreed with Mr. Reed, but I didn't hate him.
If nothing else, I felt sorry for him.
I treat men every day
who are trying to fill their empty lives
with anonymous sex and loveless relationships.
Reed spent so much energy trying to convince himself
that he was normal, happy.
But how could he have been?
If an overbearing mother and a distant father cause homosexuality,
how come I'm not gay?
Maybe you're in denial.
That would explain a lot.
Excuse me. Was that Elliot Stabler?
No. That's lan. Dr. Tate's son.
My mistake.
What was that?
I recognized him from his picture.
Lan Tate, at Reed's funeral, 20-years-old, no record.
Enrolled in a university upstate,
dropped out half-way through the first semester,
now he's at a community college.
Mother died when he was 12 years old,
his father pays for his apartment
which is half a block away from where we found James Reed's body.
We dumped lan's and Reed's phones,
past two months, there were over 50 calls.
Including one from lan to Reed the night he was killed.
They knew each other well enough for lan to go to his funeral.
So we're saying Dr. Homophobe's son is gay,
and killed his boyfriend?
Well, if he was ashamed of his sexual identity,
then he may have been driven to destroy the man who personified it.
With a father like Tate, no wonder he tried to hide it.
You're not gay, son. You're crazy.
A lot of gay people suffer from some kind of internalized homophobia.
They all grew up in the same culture that we did,
where being gay was considered weird or sick or evil.
Combine that with Dr. Tate spending years
promoting the idea that homosexuality is unacceptable...
His son must hate himself.
And he might do anything to keep the illusion that he was straight.
See if you can break it.
(Stabler) Lan Tate?
We need to talk to you.
Why don't you come on down to the station with us?
I can't. I've got class. I'm already late.
(Benson) It's about James Reed.
Never heard of him.
You've never heard of him?
You've been talking to him for two months
and we've got the phone records to prove it.
He's dead.
I didn't do it.
Lan,
there's lots of ways this could've gone down.
You guys were together, you got in a fight, things got out of hand.
That's sick. He was harassing me.
(Stabler) Why?
Because of my father.
I met him at one of my Dad's talks,
guy just starts in on me. Freaking faggot.
Faggot?
Boy, lan, buddy. You're a walking cliche.
Most homophobes are actually repressed homosexuals. You know that?
This is gonna be a lot easier if you're honest with us.
I'm not gay.
And I didn't kill him. You get it?
Need some help?
Why don't you come with us down to the station, give us a DNA sample,
we'll leave you alone.
No.
We don't have cause to compel a swab.
Why don't we collect ourselves some evidence.
Faulty dryer maybe?
Public area. Don't need a warrant.
This one looks clean, too.
It's barely giving off any heat.
This one's on fire.
Liv.
That looks like blue melted nylon to me.
And that should get us a warrant for lan's apartment.
(Stabler) Place has been cleaned.
Smells like somebody painted in here.
Guy had dry wall in his hair.
These walls aren't even chipped.
The mattress looks like it's brand-new.
Luminol didn't pick up any blood.
He didn't bleed that much.
Elliott, feel that.
It's uneven.
Like it's just been patched.
Right at head-level. Got a saw?
(Siper) Yeah. Bring it.
[Sawing]
(Tate) What the hell is this?
[Man chattering]
What are you doing?
Where's your warrant?
Enjoy.
I'm calling a lawyer. You can't destroy private property.
Lan, let's go.
Let's see what we find here first. Just relax.
I got blood. And hair.
All that plastering for nothing, huh?
You're under arrest for the murder of James Reed.
Don't say anything. I'm getting you a lawyer.
Say nothing.
Docket ending 247, the People v. Lan Alexander Tate.
One count murder in the second degree.
Emma Dishell for the defense.
(judge) How does the defendant plead?
Not guilty.
Your thoughts on bail, Miss Novak?
The People request remand, Your Honor.
The defendant committed murder because of his hatred for homosexuals.
We consider him a danger to the community.
My client was defending himself
after being sexually assaulted by the decedent.
Your Honor, there was no evidence or report of assault.
In fact this is the first time anyone's mentioned it.
And as the ADA for Special Victims,
you should know that rape victims
often delay reporting their attacks.
The defendant's semen was found at the scene.
If a woman has an orgasm when she's raped,
does that mean she really wanted it?
That's beyond the scope of these proceedings.
You say you have proof of a rape, Miss Dishell.
Present it to a trial judge.
Until then, the defendant's remanded. Next case.
(Novak) Lan Tate wasn't raped.
It's just a lame attempt at a gay-panic defense.
"He came on to me, so I killed him."
Yeah, that defense rarely works.
The trial judge in the Matthew Shepard case
didn't even allow that theory to be presented.
But in New York, gay-panic falls under extreme emotional disturbance.
And juries still don't buy it.
Then why are you so worried?
Because you know this isn't about the letter of the law.
It's about the jury and their prejudices.
If even one juror thinks that gays are predators and sinners
then your murder conviction gets knocked down to manslaughter.
If not an acquittal.
The Supreme Court may have advanced gay rights in that Texas case,
but they also incited a bit of backlash.
All right. So what am I supposed to do about that?
Take the juice out of the defense.
Prove the defendant himself is a homosexual
and gay-panic goes out the window.
You can't lose your mind over a homosexual advance if you're gay.
Now, the tricky part is not playing the politics.
They want to make this about straight versus gay.
You make it about murder.
Lan Tate is a loner.
The only person that he talks to
on a regular basis is his father.
He's got no friends at school, none in his building.
What about financials, tab from a gay bar, magazine subscriptions?
Nothing.
Probably didn't want to leave a paper trail that would out him.
He's never dated anyone else?
I wouldn't be surprised
if James Reed was the only person lan ever dated.
(Munch) Hey, guys. You're late.
I've got a good reason.
Bad news. What is it?
My guess, exhibit "A" for the defense.
The night of James Reed's murder,
the 29 received a call from Stuyvesant's ER.
Patient reporting an assault, that's the 61.
Victim's name, lan Tate.
Checked in at 11:05 that night,
14-centimeter lac on his right arm,
minor contusions to his torso.
Said he got mugged.
The precinct wasn't called until 7:30 the next morning.
Welcome to Thursday night at the Knife and Gun Club, Detective.
We were slammed and he had a long wait.
Any sign of sexual assault?
If I thought he had been, I would've asked. Men underreport as it is.
After he checked in, could he have left and come back?
Nope. You leave, you lose your spot.
Thanks.
61 says the precinct cops
got lan's report at 8:10 that morning.
At 8:30 Reed's body is found seven blocks from here.
It wasn't there at 11:00 p. M,
when lan was on the way to the hospital where he spent the night.
When did he find the time to get rid of the body of a 165-pound man?
Had to be the father. Nobody else is gonna dump a body for him.
We gotta place daddy at that scene.
You guys were right.
What did you find?
That's your victim's blood. We rushed the labs to get the match.
Once your suspect was in custody...
No more rush.
Until now.
Show-and-tell time.
The cheap and fast way to fix a wall
is to put a patch behind the hole,
hold it steady with the string, and plaster over it.
I found another blood sample after the patch was removed.
Then you chip away all the plaster used to fix it,
and you find the perimeter of the initial damage.
Now, if I take your head and bash it through the wall,
my hand is gonna go through as well.
So when I pull my hand out...
That's the killer's blood.
And it's not lan Tate.
DNA came back matching only his "Y" chromosome.
Killer's a close male relative.
No one's closer than Dad.
(Dishell) I'm listening.
Unless the next words out of your mouth are "man two,"
we've got nothing to talk about.
I think I can do better than that.
If your client recants his statement.
My statement's the truth.
He forced himself on me and I fought back.
And you dumped the body on the street near your house?
Yeah.
When did you do that?
That night? Or the next morning?
L... I don't remember.
(Dishell) Why does this matter?
I think your client knows exactly why this matters.
He caught you, didn't he?
Shut up.
Lan, going to jail isn't going to help.
I did it.
We found your father's blood in your apartment.
We know what happened.
If you have evidence implicating his father,
you have an obligation to drop the charges and get my client out of here.
And if your client wants to avoid accessory charges, you'll sit down now.
You have no idea.
No.
But I can imagine how you must feel.
James knew what you were going through, didn't he?
He knew what it felt like to hate yourself.
To want to change, and know you can't.
For the first time somebody understood you.
Now he's gone.
You didn't go to the hospital because James attacked you.
Your father did.
He didn't mean to.
He was shocked. Seeing me like that.
Tell them that, okay?
He wasn't himself.
It wasn't his fault.
[Door opens]
What the hell? This is completely...
Really? What is it, Doctor, sick?
Unnatural? So is murder.
Roger Tate, you're under arrest for the murder of James Reed.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
She rides her bike to work.
That is so environmentally conscious.
Miss Novak, right?
Your office told me you'd be riding up.
Dave Seaver, representing Roger Tate.
Yeah. I remember your name.
State senate elections. I didn't vote for you.
Neither did most of New York. But that's okay.
My shrink says it's made me less self-destructive.
A little advice, Dave,
you want to court the conservative vote, be my guest.
But I'd find another client.
Roger's no defender of family values. He's just a killer.
He was defending his son from a rapist.
You know, that might've worked
before lan Tate said the sex was consensual.
My client was mistaken.
Which, under the law, is still justifiable homicide.
Your Honor, my client believed he saw a man raping his son.
Article 35 of the Penal Code states
that one can use deadly force to prevent forcible sodomy.
Justification is not a defense for stupidity.
The test is, would a man with the same background
and experiences as my client, respond in the same manner.
A reasonable man, Mr. Seaver.
And no reasonable person believes
two men having sex automatically constitutes rape.
My client's research focused on aggression, promiscuity,
and deviant behavior in homosexual males.
It's not just a crazy belief.
He's done the studies to back it up.
Your Daubert test requires theories
to be accepted by the scientific community.
Dr. Tate's work was not.
I'm not presenting my client's work as accepted scientific theory
but as irrefutable proof of his state of mind.
Tate's own son is homosexual.
And he didn't know that.
Your Honor, did my client possess
the culpable mental state required to commit a crime?
The answer is no.
This defense is an attempt to encourage
and exploit bigotry against homosexuals.
He's going for jury nullification.
Miss Novak,
I'm not convinced that a defense should be rejected
simply because a jury might believe it.
Defining "reasonable" is a very difficult issue.
And it's one that I believe
is better decided by 12 of Dr. Tate's peers.
The night James Reed was killed,
how did your father get into your apartment?
He has a key. He was bringing over dinner.
But you thought he was out of town.
That's why you invited your boyfriend to spend the night?
Yes.
And he caught you in bed with James Reed.
What did he do?
He pulled James away from me.
Then what?
Then he pushed James into the wall.
Two or three times. I heard a crack.
James stopped fighting. He was dead.
Your father then attacked you.
What did he say?
He kept asking me how I could do this to him.
Meaning, how could you threaten
his life's work by being homosexual.
Objection. Calls for speculation.
Withdrawn.
Nothing further.
When did you tell your dad you were homosexual?
I didn't.
And you've known for how long?
Since I can remember.
So you've been a liar your whole life.
Must have been difficult hiding that kind of lifestyle.
You even made up a girlfriend, didn't you?
Sandy?
That was high school.
But you must've found some other outlet for your predilections.
Gay pornography.
Objection. Assuming facts not in evidence.
Tone down the rhetoric, Mr. Seaver.
Objection sustained.
Your dad knock you around a lot?
No. Never.
Ever see him get in a physical altercation with anybody?
Once. This kid at school beat me up.
My dad got in a fight with the kid's father,
broke his nose.
So he's only violent when he's defending you.
Lan, why did you confess to James Reed's murder?
What nobody gets
is this happened because of me.
Because of what I am.
If I weren't so sick,
I could have controlled myself.
It was my fault.
I didn't want my dad going to jail for my mistake.
Dr. Cahill, what was the first study
you and Dr. Tate conducted?
(Cahill) We analyzed over 10,000 questionnaires
on male sexuality.
And what conclusions did you and Dr. Tate draw?
That homosexuals solicited sex from minors,
engaged in high-risk behaviors,
and had violent sexual relations more than heterosexuals.
Taking all of Dr. Tate's research
on homosexual behavior into account,
what do you believe are the general conclusions?
Homosexuals suffer a multitude of psychological problems.
They are more likely to be depressed,
alienated, and have issues with rage.
Thank you. No further questions.
Where have these studies been published?
Which one?
Any of them.
They're still being considered for publication.
Oh, good luck with that.
So you say gay people have more sex with minors
than straight people.
Why does almost every other study say
pedophiles are far more likely to be heterosexual?
That is evidence of the bias within the so-called "mainstream" psychology.
So when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality
from its list of mental disorders in 1973,
and every other major medical association followed suit,
you're saying it's all a big conspiracy?
Objection.
(Novak) Nothing further.
I'm ashamed to say
I never suspected lan was a homosexual.
I wish I'd known.
Why?
Wouldn't you have disowned him?
Committed him to a mental hospital?
No. I love my son.
I would have done anything to help him.
No further questions.
You and lan were close?
Yes.
But you claim you didn't know he was gay.
So not that close, I guess.
I love my son.
And yet you let him take the fall for causing James Reed's death.
So maybe the truer statement would be
you love lan, but not as much as you love yourself?
I'm on trial for protecting my son
from a man I thought was raping him.
Then why dump the body? Why conceal the evidence?
Why not call the police and tell them what a righteous guy you are?
Objection.
I love lan.
You keep saying that, Dr. Tate.
You can't tell me how I feel about my son.
How dare you presume
to know anything about our relationship?
Because he's been sitting in this courtroom
while you mount a defense that calls him a deviant.
Now you tell me again how much you love him.
Hey, how'd it go with Tate?
Jurors 8 and 10 believe him.
Enough to hang the jury?
Maybe. In which case, all I've done is out some poor kid.
It's not exactly my favorite legal strategy.
You didn't have a choice.
You've got kids. You ever wonder if one's gay?
I don't know. I haven't asked.
You know your kids. You'd know if one of them was gay.
Exactly. And Tate's whole defense is predicated on the fact
that he never suspected his son was gay.
You don't buy it.
No. But I can't prove it.
Lan had a girlfriend all through high school.
For all appearances, he was straight.
We never found a girlfriend when we were looking at Tate's past.
'Cause we were looking for boyfriends.
If lan knew all along that he was gay,
I bet you that the girlfriend did, too.
Find out.
I haven't talked to lan in years.
I don't know how much I can help.
We appreciate anything you would tell us.
One of the guidance counselors said that you and lan
dated all through high school?
Um, we were good friends. But I wouldn't say we dated.
No? What would you say?
He just wasn't very interested in the physical part.
Which was okay.
L... I really loved him, and he loved me.
So he wasn't really attracted to women?
Well, he never, like,
came out to me or anything. I just knew.
I was happy to be there for him.
So people wouldn't harass him.
Did you ever tell anybody that lan was gay?
Like his father, maybe?
God, no. No way. Lan would've killed me.
I told him.
Mom, are you crazy? Why?
He was such a sweet boy.
Spent so much time around here,
he was like a second child.
I could see how much he was suffering
and I thought Roger should know.
When did you tell him?
The kids' senior year.
I called Roger and I told him:
"Roger, you should talk to lan. He's very depressed."
I just told him. I said, "Roger, your son is gay.
"You're making an incredibly difficult situation worse.
You need to be a father."
How did he respond to that?
He thanked me,
and he asked me never to contact him again.
Lan, what are you doing here?
Why don't you try this manipulation on some little legal-aid attorney
and stop wasting my time. Let's go.
(Novak) This is a one-time offer that's gone
as soon as you walk out that door.
Murder two, 20 to life,
I don't pursue sentence enhancement under the Hate Crimes Act.
And Dr. Tate gets the prison of his choice.
And might I suggest, the security of a Federal prison.
20 years?
With that jury, he's looking at a Man Two, probation.
They haven't heard my rebuttal witness.
Laura Klein.
Consider this your notification.
You remember her, don't you, Dr. Tate?
Sandy's mother.
You knew?
All this time, all these years, and you knew?
Lan, it's not like that.
Yes, it is, Dad.
You know how many times I told myself
it's okay if he thinks gays are sick?
Freaks. Evil.
Because if he knew about me,
if he knew me, he wouldn't say it.
He wouldn't think it.
I didn't do this to hurt you.
But it did hurt me, Dad. Every day.
And I made myself take everything you said,
all that crap,
because I really thought
you wouldn't try to hurt me on purpose.
I mean, who would do that to somebody they really loved?
To their own son?
I can help you.
What makes you think you can make me any more straight
than what I've already tried to do by myself?
Dad,
all you've done
is make me wish I were dead.
They took the plea.
It's so weird, you know.
I've been sitting here for a while,
and everybody who walks by, I wonder:
Does he know? Does she?
James used to always talk about
how happy he was that he was gay.
He said guys are so much more fun.
Yeah, I agree with James.
Everything's different now, you know?
No matter what I do,
nothing will be like it was before.
Lan, I had my job to do,
and I made you deal with something you weren't ready for.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
I'm not.