Cut (Season 15, Episode 6)
Premise: A best-selling thriller writer is found dead in a hotel room the day after cosmetic surgery, and the trail leads to her plastic surgeon, who prescribed a painkiller that proved lethal with her antidepressant.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 15, Episode 6
- Detectives
- Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), 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
- Bruce Altman as Dr. Alvin Lawrence, Kate Burton as defense attorney Erica Gardner, Roxanna Hope as Angela Gusmarino, Max Baker as Clive Raymond, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Director
- Richard Dobbs
- Writers
- Wendy Battles
Summary
The Investigation
“Cut” opens with a housekeeper finding Nora Hackett dead in her room at the Renfield hotel, a day after liposuction. Nothing appears to be missing, and a room-service waiter heard her quarreling with a man with an accent around 6 p.m. Hackett, 54, wrote best-selling thrillers as Corrine King. Her ex-husband was out of town, and the accented visitor turns out to be her agent, Clive Raymond, who admits they fought because she fired him and negotiated a five-book deal without him.
The medical examiner traces the death to Demerol, prescribed by her surgeon, combined with Nardil, an antidepressant her internist put her on six months earlier along with warnings about such interactions. Dr. Alvin Lawrence says Hackett never mentioned Nardil, and her intake form marks the question as not applicable. But his receptionist, Angela Gusmarino, noticed the form was filed out of order, and a document examiner finds that “Nardil” was erased from it and written over.
Gusmarino quits and goes home to Chicago, but Fontana, a fellow Chicagoan, gets her uncle to send her back. She says Hackett called twice after surgery feeling dizzy and Lawrence never called back. The prosecutors weigh leaving the matter to a civil suit, but Branch wants charges if Lawrence’s carelessness is a pattern. His former partner, Dr. Stuart Barton, declined to operate on Hackett again and urged therapy, and an ex-patient, Ann Belmar, had a stroke during a chin tuck done with a ventilator inspectors said he knew was faulty. After Southerlyn poses as a prospective patient and gets a sales pitch, Lawrence is arrested for criminally negligent homicide.
The Trial
Defense attorney Erica Gardner argues that one accidental death is no crime. Gusmarino testifies that Lawrence ignored Hackett’s calls and phoned a restaurant on his way out, though she concedes Hackett often called with complaints. Dr. Elizabeth Olivet, who never met Hackett, concludes from records and interviews that she likely had body dysmorphic disorder, which surgeons are trained to spot and refer for psychiatric care. Gardner asks whether women should need a doctor’s approval for elective procedures, comparing the idea to abortion.
Lawrence testifies that he never knew about the Nardil, denies changing the form and likens his work to sculpture. On cross he admits operating on Hackett five times without a psychiatric referral, saying he could help her more than therapy could. That night he visits McCoy uninvited to blame his lawyer and ask about a deal; McCoy says he can plead guilty.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Lawrence guilty of criminally negligent homicide. The prosecutors note that the Class E felony means four years at most, but that for a doctor like Lawrence, the conviction ends the life he had.
Why it stands out
- Dr. Elizabeth Olivet testifies as an expert on body dysmorphic disorder, basing her opinion on records and interviews rather than any meeting with the victim.
- The defense casts the case as a question of women’s choice, likening a required psychiatric consult before cosmetic surgery to one before an abortion.
- Fontana uses a Chicago connection, the receptionist’s uncle, to bring a key witness back to New York.