All New (Season 19, Episode 19)
Premise: The torture-murders of an FDNY lieutenant and his wife lead to decades-old drug money hidden in their house, and when the hazed rookie under suspicion dies in a warehouse fire, Cutter charges a senior firefighter with his death.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 19, Episode 19
- 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
- Eric Michael Cole as Brad Toshack, Dash Mihok as Firefighter Walters, Tom Degnan as Nick Spence, Bernie McInerney as Lou Ballard, Tom Galantich as Joe Chappell
- Director
- Roger Young
- Writers
- William N. Fordes & Keith Eisner
Summary
The Investigation
“All New” opens on a home-invasion double murder in Washington Heights. FDNY Lt. Thomas Cooper has been beaten to death, and his wife, Linda, has been raped and choked repeatedly in the house they are renovating. Though known as a penny-pincher, Cooper had paid a paint dealer with near-mint $100 bills printed in the late 1960s.
Initials on the bills lead to retired narcotics detective Lou Ballard, who admits he and his late partner, Paul Mansfield, split $400,000 skimmed from a dead drug dealer. Mansfield’s widow lived in the Coopers’ house until her death, and an empty cache in the dining room wall shows that Cooper found the money and moved it. A lumberyard clerk’s description of Cooper’s helper points to probationary firefighter Nick Spence.
Spence’s alibi is thin, and he was hospitalized after eating dog food, which the detectives tie to Cooper’s hazing. Old bills turn up at banks near his grandmother’s Long Island home, but Spence dies alone on the top floor of a burning warehouse; his team leader, Brad Toshack, says the rookie disobeyed orders. Spence’s father says his son felt responsible for Cooper’s death.
Linda’s old fan mail includes letters signed “L.D.H.,” sent from the firehouse computer and matching Toshack’s nickname, a large-diameter hose. Toshack’s roster let Spence choose whether to work the night of the murders, a sign he was no accomplice, and a deposit from an asbestos-removal firm shows Toshack worked inside the warehouse a month before the fire.
The Trial
With nothing placing Toshack at the Cooper house, Cutter charges him with depraved-indifference murder for leading Spence into the fire without warning him about aerosols stored upstairs. A fire chief calls the case an attack on all firefighters and seeks a special prosecutor for the warehouse owner, and the firefighters endorse McCoy’s rival, Joe Chappell. McCoy warns Cutter not to miss.
Firefighter Walters testifies Toshack told the team to skip the top floor, but admits his statement to the fire marshal mentions no such warning. Toshack swears he warned his crew; Cutter raises his past relationship with Linda and gets him to blame Walters for not passing the warning back to Spence.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Toshack of second-degree murder. Cutter then threatens Walters with the same charge, built on Toshack’s testimony, and offers 15-to-life for the Cooper killings instead. Walters says he, Toshack and Ken McShane went to steal the money, that Toshack beat Cooper and killed Linda, and that Toshack later set the fire and sent Spence upstairs; he and McShane burned more than $100,000 once police began tracing the bills. Walters and McShane get 15-to-life and Toshack 35-to-life, and Cutter moves to indict the warehouse owner before a special prosecutor can.
Why it stands out
- Jack McCoy is running to keep the DA’s office, and the city’s firefighters endorse his opponent, Joe Chappell, in the middle of the case.
- Cutter wins a murder conviction without proving who set the fatal fire, relying on a team leader’s duty to warn the firefighters behind him.
- The stolen cash is traced through initials an undercover detective wrote on drug-buy money in the 1960s, a practice from the days before copy machines.