Born Again (Season 12, Episode 16)
Premise: An adopted girl with severe behavioral problems dies during an unlicensed rebirthing session, and McCoy must sort out how much blame belongs to the therapist and how much to the mother who brought her there.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 16
- 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
- Wendy Makkena as Janet Weston, Debra Monk as Dr. Madelyn Stahl, Spencer Garrett as defense attorney Stephen Olson, Ezra Knight as defense attorney Tyler Epps, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Director
- Jace Alexander
- Writers
- Story: William N. Fordes; Teleplay: Jill Goldsmith & Matt Witten
Summary
The Investigation
“Born Again” opens with the body of 11-year-old Paula Weston on a playground near Central Park, with no wounds, no sign of sexual assault and a barely smoked joint lying nearby. The medical examiner finds that her chest was squeezed until she choked on her own vomit, that her throat was swollen, and that the body was probably moved. Two prep-school boys who slipped out of a Planetarium laser show admit they found her already dead and walked away rather than confess they had been getting high.
Paula’s mother, Janet Weston, adopted her at nearly four after a neglected early childhood, and a teacher and a therapist describe a defiant, hard-to-reach child who was exhausting her single mother. A neighbor says no one was home the night Paula died, and Janet stops talking once she asks about a lawyer. A coworker mentions an alternative therapist, and a hotel bill leads to a conference on reactive attachment disorder. An intern for one speaker, Dr. Madelyn Stahl, reveals that Paula had a session with Stahl and her mother that night. Dr. Emil Skoda explains rebirthing, in which a wrapped child is pressed on to mimic labor, and a search of Stahl’s home turns up blankets, pillows and a tape of Paula begging for air.
The Trial
McCoy charges Stahl with depraved-indifference murder and Janet only with obstruction, but the judge bars the tape because no one can vouch that it is complete. Pressed by McCoy, Janet testifies that she helped pin Paula down with pillows, stepped out when Stahl said her doubts were hurting the therapy, and came back to find her daughter lifeless; the women then left the body by the swings. Stahl turns down a manslaughter plea, defends her method on the stand and concedes she never tried to revive the girl.
That answer sends Southerlyn back to the medical examiner about the swelling in Paula’s throat. New tests reveal a high histamine level: Paula died of an allergic reaction. School records show a severe latex allergy that Janet left off Stahl’s intake form, and the pillows carry cornstarch like that on the latex gloves Janet wears at her catering job. Confronted, Janet breaks down, saying nothing had worked and that she deserved a life of her own.
Spoiler, the ending: The prosecutors void Janet’s cooperation deal, treating the latex she introduced as the direct cause of Paula’s death, and the charge against Stahl is cut to assault for the injuries to the girl’s chest. No verdict is shown for either woman.
Why it stands out
- The prosecution’s key evidence, an audiotape of the session, is excluded because no witness can vouch that it is complete and accurate.
- A defendant’s offhand admission on cross-examination that she never attempted CPR reopens the autopsy findings and reverses the case.
- The victim’s mother serves first as the state’s reluctant witness against the therapist and then becomes the accused, for hiding her daughter’s latex allergy.