Criminal Hatred (Season 14, Episode 12)
Premise: A man who targets closeted married men leaves one dead, and Barba tests the hate crime law against a gay defendant who is shielded by his own marriage.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 14, Episode 12
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza)
- Guest stars
- Max Carpenter as Jeremy Jones, Nia Vardalos as Minonna Efron, Paul Fitzgerald as Charles Murphy, Andres Quintero as Mason Clark, Jenny Bacon as Laurel Dunleavy
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by the Black Doodler, the never-identified killer who murdered gay men he met in San Francisco in the mid-1970s, often sketching them first.
- Director
- Adam Bernstein
- Writers
- Story: John P. Roche; Written by: Ed Zuckerman
Summary
“Criminal Hatred” begins with Fin and Amaro working a gay bar in Chelsea, hunting a blond man who picks up closeted married men, ties them up in hotel rooms, assaults them and steals their wallets. That night Charles Murphy, a married father of three, becomes the fourth known victim. He tells his wife, Melissa, he was mugged and refuses to help, afraid of losing his family and his job. A head shop owner who sold a water pipe on Murphy’s stolen credit card helps make a sketch. The next night a man at a bar points the detectives toward a hotel, where they find Harry Dunleavy unresponsive; he dies of a heart attack brought on by the assault. His widow, Laurel, says she knew about his encounters with men, and that their anniversary was the next day.
Told that the attacker has now killed, Murphy names a stripper he met at a bar, and a club owner identifies him as Jeremy Jones. Jones is arrested at home with Mason Clark, and Murphy picks him out of a lineup. Mason, facing a drug charge, says Jones came home upset the night Dunleavy died, but defense attorney Minonna Efron reveals the two are married, and the judge rules spousal privilege bars the statement despite Barba’s challenge to the Provincetown wedding. With no case for murder, Barba proceeds on the assaults and, after learning that Jones refused to rob a drunk woman, adds hate crime charges.
At trial Murphy, Curtis Armstrong and Ethan Jackson describe being bound, beaten and raped, and Melissa confronts her husband outside court. Jones claims the sex was consensual and the property gifts, but Barba’s cross-examination provokes an outburst against men who hide their sexuality behind wives and family. In chambers, the judge finds that this shows hatred of closeted men, not gay men as a group, and Barba drops the hate crime counts rather than see the verdict set aside. The jury convicts Jones only of unlawful imprisonment and deadlocks on everything else, and Murphy, whose marriage is collapsing, refuses to testify again.
Spoiler, the ending: Remembering Jones’s remark about anniversary presents, the detectives learn that Dunleavy bought his wife a platinum bracelet engraved “Love you madly” on the day he died. Confronted with the receipt and with Laurel, Mason turns over the bracelet Jones gave him; it carries Dunleavy’s blood and Jones’s fingerprints. Barba agrees to low bail pending sentencing, and Jones is arrested for murder as he leaves court. He curses Mason and turns on Efron, accusing her of betraying him.
Why it stands out
- Nia Vardalos guest stars as Minonna Efron, a seemingly disorganized defense attorney who outmaneuvers Barba.
- Victoria Rowell plays the trial judge, and Fred Norris of The Howard Stern Show makes a cameo appearance.