The Family Hour (Season 17, Episode 22)
Premise: The beating death of a former senator’s ex-wife exposes years of abuse in his family, and then the senator kills his daughter and claims self-defense.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 17, Episode 22
- 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
- Harry Hamlin as Randall Bailey, Annika Boras as Trina Bailey, Jeffrey Tambor as Judge Barry Dilwynn, Jeremy Sisto as defense attorney Clint Glover, Daryl Wein as Chaz Bailey
- Director
- Matthew Penn
- Writers
- Richard Sweren & David Slack
Summary
The Investigation
“The Family Hour” begins with the murder of Nicole Bailey, ex-wife of former U.S. Senator Randall Bailey, beaten with a fireplace poker hours after she strong-armed her way to a better table at a parks benefit. Blood on the roof looks planted, so the killer probably knew her and left by the front door. A wooden spoon has been inserted in her body, but the autopsy finds no sign of a typical sexual attack.
Bailey says Nicole phoned him about their son, Chaz, who lives with him. A photo from the benefit shows Nicole close to Jim Kirkpatrick, husband of Bailey’s daughter Trina, and phone records show a flurry of calls within the family that night. Sent to a fight at Bailey’s home, the detectives find Chaz chained to a radiator, which Bailey calls a way to wean him off heroin, and Trina bruised; Bailey admits hitting her. When he insults Cassady in questioning she loses her temper, and Van Buren removes and reprimands her.
Medical records show both children were repeatedly hurt as kids with no one ever charged, including injuries Trina suffered from a wooden spoon. Trina, whose only alibi is her drunken husband, becomes the suspect in Nicole’s death. When police serve a warrant at her apartment, Cassady finds Bailey stabbing Trina to death; he then pokes himself with the knife and claims she attacked him. Glass in her apartment resembles the bottle broken at Nicole’s.
The Trial
Bailey, once a presidential candidate, is arraigned before Judge Barry Dilwynn, new from Surrogate’s Court, who plays to the cameras and sets bail at $2 million. Defense lawyer Clint Glover argues self-defense and wins permission to tell the jury that Trina killed her stepmother. Dilwynn refuses to step aside and denies a delay after Chaz, who could describe Trina’s diaries of abuse, overdoses and is sent to a rehab clinic in Switzerland.
Cassady holds up under cross-examination about her clash with Bailey. Bailey testifies that Trina came at him with the knife, but McCoy contrasts her 13 stab wounds with his superficial ones and shows photos of her childhood injuries. In rebuttal Rodgers calls Bailey’s wounds self-inflicted and ties the ploy to a crime novel missing from his collection, then realizes she cited the wrong book. McCoy wants to disclose the error and drop the book from his summation; Branch objects and gives the closing to Rubirosa.
Spoiler, the ending: Rubirosa tells the jury that Bailey’s self-defense story is an old crime-fiction trick, and the jury convicts him of second-degree murder. McCoy then hands Branch his resignation. Branch asks him to reconsider and suggests McCoy may one day sit in the DA’s chair; McCoy replies that he is no politician.
Why it stands out
- This is Fred Thompson’s last episode as DA Arthur Branch and Milena Govich’s last as Det. Nina Cassady; Thompson left the cast less than two weeks after it aired to seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
- In Branch’s final scene he suggests McCoy may one day run for District Attorney; McCoy was named to serve out Branch’s term in a November 2007 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
- Jeremy Sisto guest-stars as defense attorney Clint Glover ; a season later he became a series regular as Det. Cyrus Lupo.