Captive (Season 17, Episode 20)
Premise: The kidnapping and murder of a young boy lead to a man who abducted another boy five years earlier, and the prosecutors come to doubt which of the two did the killing.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 17, Episode 20
- Detectives
- Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin), Det. Nina Cassady (Milena Govich)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Connie Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- David Warshofsky as Roger Kraslow, Liam Aiken as Tory Quinlann, Julia Murney as Lisa Quinlann, Michael Potts as defense attorney Malcolm Young, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Director
- Michael Watkins
- Writers
- Richard Sweren
Summary
The Investigation
“Captive” begins with a kidnapping seen by a traffic agent, who spots a frightened boy under a blanket in a burgundy Honda and copies part of its plate. A school logo on his shirt identifies him as Kevin Fogarty, whose teenage sitter, Josh, had left him near home to meet a girl. Josh recalls a man with a college team decal on his car trying to talk to children at the bus stop.
The partial plate leads to a standoff at a house where a man claims to have a gun, but he proves to be John Lee Foster, unarmed and wanted only for a burglary. Nearly two days after the abduction a Parks crew finds Kevin’s body in a shopping cart under trash bags in Queens; Rodgers says he was smothered between 7 and 9 p.m. and finds no evidence of sexual abuse.
A local man walking his dog remembers a red Honda with an eagle decal, and the detectives find one with the decal scraped off and tape altering its plate. At the owner’s house they meet a teenager who tells them that Roger Kraslow kidnapped him five years ago. He is Tory Quinlann, taken from Macy’s, who has lived openly with Kraslow and attended school under his name. Kraslow is arrested while watching boys play basketball.
The Trial
With Kevin’s blood in the car and a matching throw pillow, Kraslow’s lawyer, Ms. Kurland, works toward a plea of 40 years to life. But in a preview of his allocution Kraslow describes the wrong pillow, and a receipt and store video show he was buying a video game console at a mall an hour away when Kevin died. Questioned without his parents, Tory says Kevin ran away and Kraslow stayed in all night. Tory is arrested, and Kraslow admits he took the blame to protect him.
Defense attorney Malcolm Young pleads Tory not responsible on grounds of mental disease, arguing that Stockholm syndrome overbore Tory’s will. Dr. Olivet concludes that Tory saw Kevin as a rival who was replacing him. Kraslow testifies about abusing Tory, and a defense expert describes capture bonding. Rubirosa notices makeup on Tory’s face, and McCoy calls his mother, Lisa, in rebuttal: social services in Ohio once looked into a broken jaw, and Tory now has a black eye. McCoy suggests Tory stayed away out of fear of his stepfather.
Spoiler, the ending: McCoy turns down the judge’s suggestion of a first-degree manslaughter plea and tells the jury that jealousy and betrayal drove the killing. The jury finds Tory guilty of second-degree murder. Told it was a good win, McCoy answers that nobody won.
Why it stands out
- Kraslow’s attempt to plead guilty unravels when he describes the wrong murder weapon, and a store receipt gives him an alibi that points to the captive teenager.
- The defense offers Stockholm syndrome as a mental-disease defense for a teenager who spent five years living with his abductor.
- McCoy undercuts the defense with the boy’s own family history, including a broken jaw at age nine and a black eye hidden under makeup during the trial.