Poison (Season 5, Episode 24)
Premise: A mother accused of making her adopted daughter swallow detergent is acquitted by a judge whose past rulings Novak sets out to expose.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 24
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong)
- Guest stars
- Tom Skerritt as Judge Oliver Taft, Marlo Thomas as Judge Mary Clark, Cynthia Gibb as Karen Campbell, Alicia Goranson as Rosalin Silvo, Barry Bostwick as Oliver Gates
- Ripped from the headlines
- The antifreeze-poisoning subplot draws on a real case of a mother wrongly convicted of poisoning her baby, whose story was also told in the 1993 TV movie Without a Kiss Goodbye.
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters
Summary
“Poison” opens with four-year-old Alexis Campbell, adopted from Romania a year earlier, in the hospital with detergent in her stomach and doctors fearing brain damage. Her aunt, Wendy, blames the adoptive mother, Karen, and seven-year-old Katie tells Stabler that their mother pushed a soapy sponge into Alexis’s mouth again and again, then kept her standing in a corner until she collapsed. Karen is arrested for attempted murder and calls it an accident. Judge Oliver Taft, who tells Novak to wear a skirt in his court, questions Katie himself and rules she cannot be sworn, then suppresses her statement after the defense attacks Stabler’s interview. Stabler’s outburst earns him a contempt citation, later withdrawn.
Karen waives a jury, and Taft refuses to step aside. Records show Karen once tried to return Alexis to the adoption agency, but Taft acquits her on all charges, saying she loves her daughter. Searching Taft’s record, Novak finds Rosalin Silvo, imprisoned since 1993 for killing her baby, Christine, with antifreeze. Her former lawyer, now Judge Mary Clark, says Taft blocked a genetics expert and the test he needed. The expert explains that a rare disorder, methylmalonic acidemia, can mimic antifreeze on older tests. Christine’s exhumed remains show she had it, and the ethanol drip the hospital gave her most likely killed her. With Clark as defense counsel and Novak joining the motion, Silvo’s conviction is vacated.
Spoiler, the ending: Soon after Alexis is brought home, her aunt finds her dead; she was smothered. Karen confesses to Stabler and claims Taft told her the girl would be better off dead. Her lawyer explains that Taft spoke to her alone in an elevator during the trial and urged her to get psychiatric help. Novak charges Taft with criminal facilitation, but the charge is thrown out at arraignment. Under subpoena, Taft testifies at Karen’s murder trial, admitting the talk was a mistake, and the jury convicts her of second-degree murder. Leaving court, Taft faces reporters asking about his reassignment to civil court and a possible inquiry into his conduct.
Why it stands out
- Tom Skerritt guest-stars as Judge Oliver Taft, with Marlo Thomas as Judge Mary Clark.
- Barry Bostwick plays defense attorney Oliver Gates, and Cynthia Gibb plays Karen Campbell.