Sisters of Mercy (Season 2, Episode 17)
Premise: A 16-year-old runaway arrested after a shooting accuses a nun at her rehab shelter of molesting her.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 17
- Detectives
- Sgt. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Kate Burton as Sister Bettina, Kelli Williams as Maggie Corson, William H. Macy as Jack Powell, Judy Reyes as Maria Barragon
- Director
- Fred Gerber
- Writers
- Story: Robert Palm; Story & teleplay: René Balcer
Summary
The Investigation
“Sisters of Mercy” opens with Maggie Corson, a 16-year-old in recovery at Haven House, a Catholic shelter for teenage girls, firing a gun during a fight with her boyfriend while high on methamphetamine. When Sister Bettina comes to take her back to the shelter, Maggie panics and tells Cerreta that the nun touched her sexually in the shower the night before. Her roommate, Maria Barragon, says she saw it, and the shelter’s executive director, Jack Powell, says Maria brought the story to him.
Sister Bettina says she was only helping a sick girl clean up. Dr. Olivet finds Maggie believable, noting that she was abused for years by her stepfather as a young girl and that her mother refused to believe her. A search turns up Maggie’s clothes hidden in the nun’s office, and Sister Bettina fails parts of a polygraph, so she is arrested. She then admits Maggie was drunk, not sick, and that she hid the clothes because a third drinking violation would have sent Maggie back to court and out of the shelter.
The Trial
Faced with lab results showing she was drunk, Maggie concedes she blacked out. Pressed by Stone, Maria admits she lied: Powell had been having sex with her, and when Sister Bettina asked innocent questions about her special errands, Maria feared the secret was out and tried to get rid of the nun. The charges against Sister Bettina are dropped. A former resident confirms Powell did the same to her when she was 15 and has paid her to stay quiet since, but she refuses to testify.
Stone charges Powell with first-degree rape, arguing that threatening to throw a girl back onto the street made her fear for her life. Schiff warns that the law requires a threat of death or physical injury, and Judge Reisman holds off on the defense motion to dismiss until after trial. On the stand, Powell says Maria pursued him. Stone counters with the fates of 18 girls expelled from Haven House, most of whom died or disappeared.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Powell of rape in the first degree, and Judge Reisman denies the motion to dismiss, letting the verdict stand. Stone expects it may be reversed on appeal but hopes the case pushes lawmakers to rewrite the statute.
Why it stands out
- The case flips from a nun accused of abuse to the man who reported it.
- Stone tests whether the threat of homelessness can count as forcible compulsion under the rape statute.
- William H. Macy plays the shelter director Jack Powell.