Rumble (Season 19, Episode 1)
Premise: A stockbroker dies after an organized street fight in Union Square, and when his killer gets a lenient plea, a revenge brawl in a park leads McCoy to charge every fighter as a terrorist.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 19, Episode 1
- Detectives
- Det. Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto), Det. Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), ADA Connie Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza), DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston)
- Guest stars
- Pablo Schreiber as Sean Hauser, Ryan Brannan as Vince Fonsella, Margot White as Claudia Hodges, Dana Shiraki as Donna, Josh Hamilton as attorney Reardon
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Richard Sweren & Christopher Ambrose
Summary
The Investigation
“Rumble” begins as a street-fighting death. Stockbroker Todd Hauser slips away from his desk at lunch, spends the afternoon doubled over and dies of internal bleeding at an emergency room. His clothes are torn, yet his face is unmarked. A skate shop clerk remembers an NYU student, Donna, bringing him cold packs, and an e-mail on his BlackBerry leads Lupo and Bernard to an organized bare-knuckle bout in Union Square, complete with a referee.
Donna picks Todd’s opponent out of an online video: construction worker Vince Fonsella. Todd’s brother Sean, a firefighter, hears that Todd tried to surrender mid-fight, but with no witness Rubirosa can only arraign Fonsella on misdemeanor assault, and he is released. A co-worker privately confirms Fonsella kept punching after Todd tapped out but will not testify, so Cutter accepts a plea to criminally negligent homicide. When the detectives learn Fonsella was an unbeaten Golden Gloves boxer, the judge still refuses to undo the deal and leans against jail time.
That evening Todd’s friends and Fonsella’s crew clash on the East River ball fields with bats, pipes and a hatchet. Fonsella and two others die, including Reggie Hodges, who was in the park with his wife and son. An anonymous online video shows Jason Kimmel, Neil Whitman and Adam Neville killing Fonsella, but because no one knows who shot it, the judge excludes it and dismisses the murder charges.
The Trial
In an election year, McCoy publicly appeals for the videographer to come forward and fields hostile questions from reporters. Rubirosa then suggests the state’s post-9/11 terrorism statute, covering violence meant to intimidate the public or sway government, and McCoy charges every brawler under it, exposing all to life terms. Lupo, who spent four years pursuing real terrorists, refuses to let his record be used to sell the case and is dropped as a witness.
At trial Claudia Hodges describes her husband’s beating in front of their son, and Bernard likens street gangs to terrorists. Defendant Sean Hauser calls the brawl grief and anger, not politics, but under cross-examination he agrees it showed that courts should not free killers like Fonsella. The defense calls the case political posturing; Cutter argues that violence staged in a public park erodes trust in the government’s ability to protect people.
Spoiler, the ending: After five days of deliberations, court officers break up a fistfight in the jury room. Warned that a hung jury or acquittal would damage his office, McCoy drops the terrorism counts. Fonsella’s three killers plead to second-degree murder, 20 years to life, and the others take two consecutive five-year manslaughter terms. At a press conference McCoy credits Cutter with the outcome.
Why it stands out
- The premiere opens Season 19, the series’ third season with no cast changes from the previous one and its last in the Wednesday 10 p.m. slot.
- McCoy turns New York’s post-9/11 anti-terrorism law against a street brawl, a charge carrying an automatic life sentence, before settling for murder and manslaughter pleas.
- The final scene has a reporter asking McCoy, still the interim district attorney, whether he will join the Obama administration.