Acid (Season 16, Episode 10)
Premise: When an old friend’s daughter, disfigured in a chemical attack, takes her own life, Van Buren drives the hunt for the attacker and then shades her testimony to keep him in jail.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 10
- Detectives
- Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin), Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Alexandra Borgia (Annie Parisse), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- John Mese as Jason Corley, Annie Corley as Christine Hill, Elizabeth Lundberg as Callie Newton, Michael Tucker as defense attorney Terrence Putney, Kat Foster as Justine
- Director
- Michael Pressman
- Writers
- Richard Sweren
Summary
The Investigation
“Acid” begins with Emily Newton, 22, found hanged in her apartment with her hands bound and music blaring. The M.E. finds a six-month-old chemical burn on her face that someone else almost certainly inflicted, and Van Buren recognizes Emily as the daughter of Christine Hill, a friend from John Jay College. Christine insists the burn was an accident with drain cleaner. Tests show Emily first took heavy doses of her prescribed sleeping pills and painkillers, and her computer shows research into suicide methods, so the evidence points to suicide. Van Buren orders the detectives to find whoever burned her anyway.
Emily’s younger sister, Callie, recalls a costly mountain getaway with a boyfriend, and an Adirondack resort names a regular guest, Jason Corley, a wealthy man with assault cases in Florida and Colorado that ended in misdemeanor pleas because the women would not cooperate. His new girlfriend, Justine, mentions industrial drain cleaner under his sink, and hardware-store video shows him buying an unidentified can an hour before the attack. Christine finally admits that Corley has mailed drain-cleaner labels addressed to Callie every month and that she saw him outside Emily’s building that day. She picks him out of a lineup, then panics and takes it back.
The Trial
Corley is charged with first-degree assault and witness intimidation and turns down a 20-year offer. At a Wade hearing, Van Buren describes the lineup but leaves out Christine’s retraction. When the judge orders Fontana to testify too, he offers to back her account; she refuses and tells McCoy, who calls it close to perjury. Branch insists she correct the record. Back on the stand, Van Buren explains that Christine was terrified, and the judge suppresses the identification.
With little evidence left, the prosecution moves to dismiss, and Corley goes free. The detectives then lean on Justine, who has an old call-girl arrest, to wear a wire. Corley reveals nothing until Callie shows up at his door and splashes his face with vinegar. Enraged, he threatens to burn her and says he will do worse to her than he did to her sister, as police rush in.
Spoiler, the ending: Facing his recorded admission and a Colorado victim now eager to testify, Corley pleads guilty and accepts 25 years. Christine thanks Van Buren, saying Callie is doing well.
Why it stands out
- Van Buren is at the center of the case: the victim’s mother is her old friend and fellow police-exam taker, and Van Buren’s own testimony nearly sinks the prosecution.
- A judge suppresses the lineup identification after finding that Van Buren came close to perjury by hiding the witness’s retraction.
- The case is rescued only after prosecutors drop the charges and the suspect incriminates himself on a wire.