Who Let the Dogs Out? (Season 12, Episode 1)
Premise: A teacher out with her terrier is killed by a pit bull in Riverside Park, and the hunt for its owner runs through a dogfighting ring to a convicted killer in Attica and the lawyer and her husband who handled his business.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 1
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), DA Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest)
- Guest stars
- Melissa Leo as Sherri Quinn, Bruce McCarty as Roger Quinn, David Warshofsky as Danny Miller, Tom O’Rourke as defense attorney Peter Behrens, Joel Marsh Garland as Ralph Carson
- Ripped from the headlines
- The episode is inspired by the 2001 death of Diane Whipple, who was killed in a dog attack.
- Director
- Don Scardino
- Writers
- Kathy McCormick & Douglas Stark
Summary
The Investigation
“Who Let the Dogs Out?” opens with a dog-mauling case: a jogger finds a young woman and her Jack Russell terrier dead in Riverside Park, both torn apart. A coffee-shop worker helps identify the victim as Sandra Meekin, an English teacher at a private school. A Rottweiler owner from a nearby dog run briefly draws suspicion. Then a pit bull attacks a girl in the park, and Animal Control captures it. The animal is groomed and vaccinated but carries old scars from abuse.
An implanted microchip traces the dog to a Montauk breeder, who sold it and five other dogs to a Brooklyn outfit called Pound Partners. Its warehouse turns out to be a training ground for fighting dogs, and seven animals there have been killed with an overdose. A meat-counter clerk leads the detectives to caretaker Bill Reade, who names his boss as “Leon”; a veterinarian with gambling debts identifies Leon as parolee Ralph Carson. Carson says the real owner is Danny Miller, an Attica inmate serving two life terms, who ordered the operation shut down after the killing.
Miller refuses to talk. Prison logs show his only visitors are his appellate lawyer, Sherri Quinn, and her accountant husband, Roger, who relayed messages to Carson and own a house in Schenectady, where the company kept its mailbox. Sherri Quinn had recently obtained a restraining order against a paroled former client who threatened her, and the couple lives a few blocks from the park. Their furniture is scored with claw marks, and both are arrested.
The Trial
The Quinns are charged with second-degree manslaughter. Defense lawyer Peter Behrens hints that the victim provoked the attack, while McCoy compares keeping a trained fighting dog to carrying a loaded gun. Judge Scholl rules that the People must prove the couple knew how dangerous the animal was. McCoy warns Miller he could face first-degree murder because he was already serving a life term, and Miller agrees to testify that the Quinns knew.
A veterinarian describes the dog’s strength. Sherri Quinn testifies that the dog, which they called King, was gentle at home and slipped its leash only after Meekin’s terrier ran at it. On cross-examination she concedes they never called 911 and later had Miller destroy his other dogs. McCoy then has the muzzled pit bull brought into the courtroom, where it lunges and snarls at its former owners, and Behrens demands a mistrial.
Spoiler, the ending: Scholl refuses a mistrial and tells McCoy to make an offer. McCoy proposes manslaughter with three to nine years, then drops to two to six; a later remark makes clear they were sentenced. The dog, kept alive only as evidence, is then put down.
Why it stands out
- Elisabeth Röhm makes her first appearance as ADA Serena Southerlyn, who replaces Abbie Carmichael this season.
- McCoy brings the muzzled killer dog into the courtroom to test the owners’ claim that it was a gentle pet.
- McCoy turns the imprisoned ringleader into a witness by pointing out that a killing committed while serving a life sentence can be charged as first-degree murder.