Public Service Homicide

Public Service Homicide is an episode of the NBC crime drama series "Law & Order". It aired on October 20, 2006. The episode was inspired by "To Catch a Predator", a series of specials of the NBC newsmagazine "Dateline", which depicts the capture of pedophiles red-handed on camera after they are lured to a certain location in an online sting operation.

Cast

Police

*S. Epatha Merkerson Anita Van Buren
*Jesse L. Martin Ed Green
*Milena Govich Nina Cassidy

District Attorney's Office

*Fred Thompson Arthur Branch
*Sam Waterston Jack McCoy
*Connie Rubirosa Alana de la Garza

Plot Synopsis

"Law"

The episode begins with a woman in an apartment, arguing with her mother over the phone as the two are simultaneously watching a show on the 24/7 News Network called "Hard Focus", in which pedophiles are lured to a house believing they will have sex with an underage minor, only to be confronted by a reporter and a camera crew. The woman watches in shock as she watches her next-door neighbor, Carl Mullaly, getting caught red-handed on television attempting to solicit underage sex. Later on, a delivery boy with Chinese food arrives at Mullaly's apartment to discover the door unlocked and Mullaly on the floor, stabbed to death. When detectives Green and Cassidy arrive on the scene, the woman shows them the TiVoed "Hard Focus" clip featuring Mullaly. After watching the clip, Detective Green remarks, "No wonder Mr. Mullally's dead".

Interviewing other apartment residents in the building's laundry room, Green and Cassidy learn that Mullaly's next-door neighbor, a surgeon named Evan Fleming, has an eight-year-old daughter. When they interview Fleming, he claims he was at work and his daughter, Abigail, asleep at the time of the murder. He further claims that he did not know Mr. Mullaly very well, but expresses a lack of concern over the fact that a pedophile had been living next door or that he was murdered. At the precinct, Cassidy tells Lieutenant Van Buren that while Mullaly was arrested after appearing on "Hard Focus", he has had no previous criminal record, and that the delivery boy claimed he saw no one else in the building when he found the body. Green arrives with phone records showing that Mullaly had received a series of cell phone calls from a woman named Hannah Welch. Van Buren tells the detectives to track her down.

At Welch's office, Green and Cassidy find that she has holed herself in a restroom. Green briefly tries to coach Cassidy before she goes in to talk to Welch, though Cassidy says, "I can handle a girl locked in a bathroom". Inside, Welch tells Cassidy that she had been dating Mullaly for a month, saying she hasn't seem him for days and that she went to a movie the night of the murder. Welch also says she didn't learn about Mullaly's appearance on "Hard Focus" until she saw clips of the show on the Internet that morning. Cassidy also learns from Welch that Mullaly had been fired before the "Hard Focus" episode aired, from a job working at community center around children.

At the community center, Green and Cassidy learn from Mullaly's old boss that he was tipped off about his employee's pedophilia, from a white male who said he was Mullaly's neighbor. While being interrogated by the detectives, Evan Fleming says he learned about Mullaly being a pedophile from an anonymous note slipped under his door, which Fleming later threw away. Fleming says that after he received the note, he had his daughter, Abigail, checked by the psychologist, who determined that she hadn't been molested. Fleming also expresses gratitude for Mullaly's killer, saying that, "I would buy him a steak". Green receives a call on his cell phone, and hurriedly leaves the interrogation room with Cassidy. Arriving at a hospital, they learn that a man named Greg Hightower, another pedophile exposed by "Hard Focus", was found severely beaten at a bus stop. When Cassidy suggests a copycat, Green laments that if so, "these dudes are walking around with targets on their backs".

While the detectives interview Hightower, he gives a detailed description of his attacker, and blames his assult on "Hard Focus" for "violating my civil rights". Green and Cassidy later arrest a businessman named Howard Lowe, who openly admits to assaulting Hightower and expresses his disappointment he survived. He says his motive behind the attack was caused by the brutal rape and murder of his twelve-year-old daughter during a field trip. He denies killing Mullaly, but says he learned about Hightower from a website called ScumWatch, which has assisted "Hard Focus" in its investigations into online predators. When the detectives meet with the head of ScumWatch, he says Lowe was expelled from the group for his desire for violence. He also says that the list of ScumWatch's targeted pedophiles are strictly confidential, except to the show "Hard Focus". Green and Cassidy go to the 24/7 News Network to meet with "Hard Focus" producer Ellie Harper. She denies that the show has been inciting violence, and specifically denies any connection between her show and Mullaly's murder.

At the precinct, Cassidy expresses doubt over Hannah Welch's alibi for the night of the murder, noting the lack of a ticket stub for the movie she said she went to, and the fact that nobody at the theater saw her. However, Green discovers that it was Mullaly's neighbor, Evan Fleming, who ordered the Chinese food for Mullaly. During the second interrogation of Fleming, the detectives threaten him with the lengthy prison term of a murder conviction. Fleming says that he found Mullaly's body first, and that he arranged for the delivery boy to find him so he didn't have to be involved. He further claims that he was awakened by his daughter, Abigail, who said she heard fighting in Mullaly's apartment through the wall and saw a woman fleeing his apartment with a knife in her hand. Van Buren and Green express doubt over Fleming's latest story, but Cassidy says she has a gut feeling he's telling the truth. Abigail is later interviewed by Van Buren, and confirms her father's story. She also picks out Hannah Welch in a police lineup. Welch is arrested by Cassidy for Carl Mullaly's murder; when Welch attempts to rationize the murder by pointing out that the victim was a pedophile, Cassidy responds, "That still makes it murder".

"Order"

At her arraignment, Hannah Welch pleads not guilty to second degree murder. Assistant A.D.A. Rubirosa argues that since Welch is a native of Pittsburgh with no ties to New York City, she is a flight risk and requests bail at $1 million. Welch's attorney, Mr. Depago, tries to make arguments against the People's case. The presiding judge sets bail at $500,000.

After the arraignment, a meeting is held between Rubirosa and A.D.A. McCoy and Welch and Mr. Depago. Hannah Welch says that he did watch Carl Mullaly on "Hard Focus", and that she went to his apartment to confront him. She further claims that she was forced to stab Mullaly in self-defense after he violently attacked her. Mr. Depago suggests that she serve probation, but McCoy refuses. McCoy later discusses the case with District Attorney Branch, who points out that despite the amount of evidence stacked against Welch, McCoy faces an uphill battle winning over a jury since Mullaly was an exposed pedophile, and that Carl Mullaly's murder satisified the desires of any person watching his appearance on "Hard Focus". Branch, McCoy, and Rubirosa further discuss the public's collective desire for controversial shows such as "Hard Focus". When Branch suggests finding dirt on Welch's credibility, the three decide to have Rubirosa travel to Pittsburgh to learn about her life before moving to New York.

In Pittsburgh, Rubirosa arranges a meeting with Welch's ex-fiance. He says that he last spoke to Welch in person three weeks prior, but that she didn't mention Carl Mullaly. He also says, to Rubirosa's bewilderment, that Welch was living with five roommates in a trendy apartment on the Upper West Side, even though Welch's residence was in the East Village. Back in New York, Rubirosa talks with the doorman of the apartment Welch was living in, who says that she and her other roommates simultaneously moved out after "Hard Focus" stopped paying their rent. The doorman gives her the address of one of her roommates, Kyle Risko. While meeting with her, Risko, a former molestation victim, reluctantly tells her that he was a living in the apartment with Welch because they were participating in a cancelled 24/7 News Network reality show, "Confront and Heal", based on the "Hard Focus" reports, in which former victims of sexual abuse confronted their former abusers.

While meeting with Rubirosa and McCoy, they deduce that since both Hannah Welch and Carl Mullaly came from Pittsburgh, and Mullaly worked in the same insurance company as Welch's father, Welch's story of a romantic relationship between the two was a lie and that Mullaly molested her as a child. During a meeting with McCoy, Welch confirms this theory, saying that Mullaly had indeed molested her, and that "Hard Focus" had intended on letting her confront Mullaly. She further claims that she was given a knife and a camera by the "Hard Focus" producer, Ellie Harper, before the murder. Welch says that she didn't have the camera turned on when the murder took place. Welch says that Harper had sent her to Mullaly's apartment with the camera in the hopes of getting "Confront and Heal" back on the air. She further claims that she has hidden the knife.

McCoy and Rubirosa later meet with Harper and her attorney, Wendy Weiss.