Bitch (Season 13, Episode 15)
Premise: A charming stockbroker is killed in his home, and the case leads from his photographer girlfriend to her mother, a cosmetics tycoon and friend of DA Arthur Branch.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 15
- 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 Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Lucie Arnaz as Jackie Scott, Melissa Errico as Lindsay Tucker, Maria Tucci as defense attorney Helen Brolin, Fred Grandy as Neil Skinner, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Michael S. Chernuchin & Roz Weinman
Summary
The Investigation
“Bitch” opens when a dog walker finds stockbroker Bradley Osterhaus dead at the foot of his stairs. He fell and was then struck with a golf club; his Rolex and cash are untouched, and an antique diamond earring lies nearby. His answering machine is full of messages from women, including a Saturday afternoon call from one seeking a brunch date. A lingerie shop’s deliveries lead to photographer Lindsay Tucker, who wanted to marry him and says she spent Saturday with cosmetics queen Jackie Scott, who confirms it.
A client, Phil Brucker, reveals that Jackie is Lindsay’s mother and was also sleeping with Osterhaus. A photo Lindsay took of a charity run that morning undercuts her alibi, and Jackie’s Saturday phone message to Osterhaus was left on her cell phone amid loud background noise, not from the soundproofed office where she claimed to be. Confronted, Lindsay reads aloud a note from Osterhaus to her mother that the lingerie shop sent her by mistake, then confesses.
Jackie, a friend of Branch, asks for his help; he offers to step aside and instead steers McCoy toward her money. Osterhaus and Jackie were co-trustees of an account for Lindsay. Jackie dumped her Pylon Petroleum stock two days before it lost 70 percent, using a phone on founder Neil Skinner’s private jet, but the trust’s shares were never sold. With the SEC investigating Skinner, McCoy believes Osterhaus refused to backdate a stop-loss order and that Lindsay confessed to shield her mother’s business. Lindsay is released, a wiretapped call between the two confirms the plan, and Jackie is arrested during a poker game.
The Trial
Jackie is charged with first-degree murder and held on $2 million bail with an ankle monitor. Her palm print is on the wall above the body, but defense attorney Helen Brolin claims mental defect caused by stopping hormone replacement therapy. Dr. Emil Skoda grants that withdrawal could affect behavior, so McCoy relies on Dr. Elizabeth Olivet, who testifies that Jackie knew right from wrong. Brolin then calls Skoda, still on the prosecution’s list, to describe how sleep loss can impair judgment, and he admits he is on the DA’s retainer.
Jackie testifies that night sweats and memory lapses left her unable to recall the killing. McCoy shows that she remembers walking to Osterhaus’s home and tipping her cab driver afterward, and that she left him a cheerful message two hours after his death.
Spoiler, the ending: Fearing a hung jury, Branch offers Jackie manslaughter one at the minimum in person. When she resists, he threatens to indict Lindsay and to try the case himself, questioning witnesses about every check, trade and lover. Jackie takes the deal.
Why it stands out
- DA Arthur Branch is a personal friend of the accused and ends up negotiating her plea himself.
- Both of the series’ psychiatric experts take the stand: Dr. Elizabeth Olivet for the prosecution and Dr. Emil Skoda, called by the defense despite his DA retainer.
- The defense argues that stopping hormone replacement therapy left a self-made executive unable to control her actions.