Disrobed (Season 1, Episode 13)
Premise: When a judge celebrated for protecting women is shot dead in his car, the detectives uncover a scheme trading parole decisions for money and sex.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 1, Episode 13
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd), Det. Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek)
- Guest stars
- Kathryn Meisle as Gina Silver, Jack Gwaltney as Roger Silver, Angie Everhart as Emily Waterbury, Otto Sanchez as Delfino Melendez, Judy Frank as Winnie Varella
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Story: Wendy West & John Chambers; Written by: Janet Tamaro
Summary
“Disrobed” opens on a Manhattan pier, where Judge Warren Varella is found in his car shot twice, first in the groin and then in the head, with his own 9mm pistol, which is missing. Varella was known as tough on sex offenders and helped found a women’s shelter, Together We’re Safe. The medical examiner finds he had a sexual encounter shortly before his death and recovers saliva and Cherry Glow lipstick. His wife, Winnie, says she was used to him working late and did not notice he never came home.
Delfino Melendez, a parolee who threatened Varella in court, says he paid the judge $2,226 to a charity to win release. Varella’s last call went to Emily Waterbury, an Albany lobbyist whose old arrest record he helped clear. She explains the system: parolees donated to the shelter, and Varella’s calls swayed two members of the parole board. The shelter took in $4.7 million in a year, and the girlfriend of one inmate says Varella demanded oral sex while she was pregnant. A drug user at the pier heard two shots and saw a woman in a blue uniform leave the car.
The third board member reveals the last case Varella weighed in on: Roger Silver, whose wife, Gina, is a flight attendant and spoke with the judge for long stretches over two years. Her prints are on the car door, and detectives tell her lawyer a saliva swab will settle the lipstick evidence. Gina admits she met Varella once a year for sex, not to free her husband but to keep him in prison after he nearly killed her by breaking a chair over her back. On the pier Varella phoned Albany, had her request turned down and laughed at her, and she shot him with the gun he kept behind the seat.
Meanwhile, Cragen asks Cassidy about a girl he once interviewed as a child witness; Cassidy reports that she has since been gang-raped, and he accepts a transfer to Narcotics. The state Attorney General then gives Gina immunity so she can help expose the parole officials. She makes a monitored call to a board member, Adam Peterson, demanding the judge’s cut.
Spoiler, the ending: The detectives warn Gina that the deal can be revoked and that her neighborhood’s precinct can offer only passing patrols. Freshly paroled, Roger finds her within hours and drags her at gunpoint into her building’s laundry room. Benson and Stabler corner him there and try to talk him into dropping the gun, but when he refuses to let Gina go and readies to fire, Benson shoots and kills him.
Why it stands out
- This is Dean Winters’ last episode of the season as Det. Brian Cassidy, who transfers to Narcotics and leaves Munch without a partner.
- In the next episode, “Limitations,” Munch is partnered with Det. Monique Jeffries.