Smoke (Season 13, Episode 24)
Premise: A popular comedian’s adopted baby falls to his death from a burning hotel suite, and the investigation uncovers a child sex abuse case the star paid to keep quiet.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 24
- 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
- Adam Ferrara as Monty Bender, Ned Eisenberg as defense attorney James Granick, Lisa Lisa as Lucy Mireles, Jon Budinoff as Sammy Mireles, Larry Miller as himself
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Story: Dick Wolf; Teleplay: Michael S. Chernuchin
Summary
The Investigation
“Smoke” opens where the jumper call leads: a fire in comedian Monty Bender’s hotel suite, and his adopted infant son, Robbie, dead after a 12-story fall. The blaze began in a wastebasket in the room of Bender’s nutritionist, Fred, and the smoke alarms had been disabled. Fred and Bender’s stylist, Birgit, use the same phrases to describe Bender holding the baby out the window to escape the smoke before Robbie slipped. Hotel video places masseur Harvey there before the alarm, and Harvey admits he drove an ice cream truck for Bender, who eyed children through peepholes, and invited the families of boys Bender liked to his Berkshires estate.
Comedian Larry Miller recalls a rumor that Bender paid seven figures to silence a boy. Records show a $1 million check to John Mireles in August 1997 and $500,000 every year since; Mireles calls it royalties on a script, and his son Sammy, now 17, denies meeting Bender. The medical examiner finds no smoke in Robbie’s lungs and Birgit revises her story, but the arson investigator cannot say whether the fire was set. The detectives then find Sammy’s deposition from a civil suit against Bender posted online, and Bender is arrested for sexual abuse.
The Trial
Defense attorney James Granick notes the statute of limitations expired three months earlier, but McCoy argues the annual payments form an ongoing conspiracy. The judge rules the sealed deposition inadmissible and dismisses the case. When Sammy refuses to testify, McCoy charges his parents, John and Lucy Mireles. Lucy says the money paid for eight operations on their younger son, Davey, born with a heart defect. Southerlyn sympathizes with the family, but Branch and McCoy are unmoved.
At trial Harvey describes recruiting Sammy’s mother, and Lucy says she learned of the abuse the morning after; McCoy notes the family has moved from Spanish Harlem to Riverside Drive. Called by the defense, Sammy claims he invented the story. McCoy then shows him the first check was dated days before the Labor Day weekend visit, meaning his parents were paid in advance. Sammy confronts his mother, returns to the stand and testifies that Bender sexually abused him and that his mother told him to stay silent.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts John and Lucy Mireles of conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual abuse. Bender is rearrested on a sexual abuse charge and held without bail. Southerlyn is troubled that Sammy will grow up without his parents, but she is told he is better off.
Why it stands out
- Comedian Larry Miller appears as himself; he earlier played Michael Dobson in “Coma” and “Encore.”
- It aired on May 21, 2003, the same night as “Couples,” and picks up from that episode’s closing call about a jumper.
- With the statute of limitations expired, McCoy treats years of hush payments as an ongoing conspiracy and prosecutes the victim’s parents to secure his testimony.