Collision (Season 10, Episode 11)
Premise: The death of a homeless woman with schizophrenia leads to a mentally ill drifter, and McCoy fights to have him medicated against his will so he can be tried.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 10, Episode 11
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin), Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Seth Barrish as Harvey Bauer, Tovah Feldshuh as defense attorney Danielle Melnick, Roberta Maxwell as Teresa Brewster, Marcia Jean Kurtz as Myrna Bauer, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Story: William N. Fordes; Story & teleplay: Gerry Conway
Summary
The Investigation
“Collision” starts as a missing-person case: a couple hears screams in Riverside Park, and officers find a bag of clothes, fresh blood and a pair of glasses. Prints on the glasses belong to Karen Brewster, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in college and has drifted between shelters, hospital wards and an apartment her parents pay for. Her psychiatrist stopped treating her after her father’s insurance dropped her, and Bellevue records show she was admitted with pneumonia, when a roommate saw someone run from her bed during the night.
A street vendor sold Karen a knife, and a cabbie dropped her near the park. Briscoe and Green find her body in a padlocked storage container by the 79th Street marina. She was strangled, probably raped, and covered with a man’s coat, and the blood in the park came from someone else. A pawn ticket leads to a watch she pawned, which a man later stole back. A soup kitchen and a workfare crew know him as Harvey: Harvey Bauer, who has bipolar disorder, a long list of petty arrests and a release from Rikers two weeks earlier.
His parents help on the condition that his pediatrician be there. When Bauer comes out of their garage with a wrench in his pocket, an officer shoots him in the shoulder. At the hospital he answers questions with rants and later blames Bill Gates for the shooting.
The Trial
Defense attorney Danielle Melnick seeks commitment to a state hospital instead of prosecution. McCoy learns that Bellevue’s emergency room turned Bauer away as a faker, but he came back and was admitted the day after Karen arrived with pneumonia. Dr. Skoda tells the judge the psychotic episodes are too convenient, and the insanity defense is barred. Bauer then hides his pills and becomes unfit for trial; over Melnick’s objection, the judge orders him medicated.
Melnick now argues the sex was consensual. Carmichael finds Bauer’s childhood photo on Karen’s wall and shelter records showing she stayed near the jail whenever he was locked up. Bauer offers to plead to the killing but denies rape. His parents hand over pills found in the garage, which turn out to be Haloperidol that Karen had collected from several doctors.
Spoiler, the ending: With Karen’s parents in the room, McCoy explains that Karen had planned to end her life and that Bauer took the pills and the knife away from her. Bauer admits she begged him to kill her so she would not grow old alone and that he did it because he loved her. He pleads to first-degree manslaughter and will serve 6 to 18 years in a prison psychiatric ward; the Brewsters approve, and the Bauers drop their lawsuit against the police.
Why it stands out
- A judge orders a defendant who quit his medication to be medicated against his will so the case can go forward.
- Dr. Skoda’s testimony that the defendant could still tell right from wrong gets the insanity defense barred before trial.
- The case begins with a botched police surrender in which the suspect is shot in front of his parents and Van Buren.