Nocturne (Season 1, Episode 21)
Premise: A respected neighborhood piano teacher is exposed by his own photographs, and the case rests on a former student whose abuse was taped for years and who has begun to repeat it.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 1, Episode 21
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek)
- Guest stars
- Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Evan, Kent Broadhurst as Larry Holt, Marc John Jefferies as Jonathan, John Benjamin Hickey as ADA Mark Hickey, Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Story: Wendy West; Written by: Wendy West
Summary
“Nocturne” starts when a photo shop worker flags pictures dropped off by piano teacher Larry Holt, showing a young boy posed next to a bottle of liquor. Holt notices the detectives following him and is arrested for endangering the welfare of a child, a charge the squad fears will not hold. While an officer keeps Holt’s house sealed and turns away his adult son, a student named Jonathan says Holt keeps pictures of naked boys tucked in his sheet music, and Judge Rothman signs a warrant just before the 9 p.m. cutoff for a night search.
The search turns up an album of obscene photos and 157 videotapes, and Holt is charged and held without bail. One tape, reaching back 13 years, follows a single boy into adulthood: Evan, now almost 21, whom Benson and Stabler find at Holt’s piano days before his Juilliard audition. Evan credits Holt for his skill and denies any abuse until the detectives show him the tape, which leaves him shattered. He points out former students now in prison, on drugs or missing, but parents, neighbors and successful pianist Rey Guzimano, another old pupil, will not cooperate.
ADA Mark Hickey explains that because of a 1996 change in the law, only two abuse counts involving Evan can be charged. Munch, worn down by the tapes, talks with Cragen late at night about his years in Baltimore. Thrown out by his mother and fired from a dishwashing job, Evan calls Stabler and agrees to testify. Then the squad learns that Evan has molested Jonathan during a piano lesson, repeating Holt’s words; Evan says it happened once. He is arraigned and released into the prosecution’s custody until he testifies, and Stabler, who had comforted him, now sees an abuser.
Evan testifies, the jury returns quickly, and the judge gives Holt 115 years, the most the law allows; he will not be eligible for parole for 38 years.
Spoiler, the ending: Jonathan’s father objects to a plea deal that would give Evan supervised probation and threatens to go to the press. When the judge declines to make a deal, Evan’s lawyer suggests a trial, where probation is likely, but Evan, just accepted to Juilliard, refuses to make Jonathan testify and stands by his guilty plea, facing up to three years in prison.
Why it stands out
- Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who won a Tony Award for playing Angel in the Broadway musical “Rent,” guest stars as Evan.
- Munch’s late-night talk with Cragen nods to his past as a Baltimore homicide detective, the role Richard Belzer played on “Homicide: Life on the Street” before moving to this series.