Knock Off (Season 19, Episode 5)
Premise: An upstate man is shot in Chinatown, and the case against the woman who accused him of rape unravels into a sheriff protecting his informant, with the governor’s office shielding a key witness.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 19, Episode 5
- 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
- Clancy Brown as Sheriff John Burkhart, Katee Sackhoff as Dianne Cary, Tom Everett Scott as Governor Donald Shalvoy, Daniel Stewart Sherman as Deputy Robbie Linz, James Murtaugh as Judge Samuel Sorotsky
- Ripped from the headlines
- The story partly draws on New York Times reporting about upstate New York judges with no legal training and the injustices in their courts.
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Story: Jonathan Rintels; Teleplay: William N. Fordes & Matthew McGough
Summary
The Investigation
“Knock Off” begins in Chinatown, where William Timmons, who rode down from the upstate town of Dargerville on a church bus, is shot twice in an alley. The bus driver, Bob, takes kickbacks for steering passengers to shops selling counterfeit goods, and the detectives first suspect a turf war. Transit cameras instead trace Timmons to the flower district, where shop manager Dianne Cary, a jujitsu student with a marksmanship certificate, attacked him and then left. She also comes from Dargerville, and a hospital bill shows she had a rape kit done there three years ago, a day before Timmons was arrested.
In Dargerville, Sheriff John Burkhart says the rape case fell apart over a weak identification and that Dianne swore revenge. Leila Dickson, who helps run local recovery meetings, says Timmons had been sober for months and was working on making amends. Deputy Robbie Linz says he taught Dianne to shoot and gave her an old department .38, and slugs dug from his target tree match the murder bullets. Dianne is arrested, but she denies ever having a .38, and her lawyer hands over her only gun, a 9mm Glock.
The Trial
When Rubirosa tries to bring Linz to a Manhattan grand jury, Burkhart takes him back and has Lupo arrested, and a local judge quashes the warrant. Burkhart’s record supplies a motive: for six years Timmons was his confidential informant, testifying in most of his drug cases while getting a pass. Timmons’s old lawyer hints that his client wanted to come clean. Logs show Burkhart’s unmarked SUV making a round trip to the city that day, but Thruway toll videos have been erased, and the trail leads to Trooper Thomas Volchek of the governor’s security detail.
Governor Donald Shalvoy invokes executive privilege for Volchek and accuses McCoy of campaigning. Before Linz can testify under immunity, he shoots himself after a visit from Burkhart, using the .38 that killed Timmons. McCoy counters by convening a grand jury on highway security and planning to call Volchek as a technical witness, beyond the reach of the privilege. The missing toll footage then surfaces.
Spoiler, the ending: Faced with video of himself on the Thruway, Burkhart is offered 25 years in a segregated unit, and no trial is shown. Shalvoy announces a review of Burkhart’s drug convictions and a commission on confidential informants. McCoy then hands over his nominating petition to run for district attorney and asks for the first signature.
Why it stands out
- McCoy closes the episode by launching his run for district attorney, asking for the first signature on his nominating petition.
- Tom Everett Scott returns for his third appearance as Governor Donald Shalvoy, this time shielding a member of his security detail with executive privilege.
- Arrested upstate, Lupo enters his own not-guilty plea, citing his first year of law school.