Duty to Protect (Season 24, Episode 12)
Premise: A 17-year-old model is found strangled, and when the stepfather who abused her takes his own life mid-trial, Price prosecutes her mother, a filmmaker who knew of the abuse, splitting him from Maroun.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 24, Episode 12
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), Det. Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Abigail Spencer as Michelle Burns, J. Anthony Crane as Ronald Lawson, Siobhán McGroarty as Kaitlyn Lawson, Eisa Davis as defense attorney Virginia Hogan, Amina Robinson as Dr. Lisa Mankin
- Ripped from the headlines
- Brady and Michelle both bring up Alice Munro, and the case reportedly draws on the July 2024 disclosure by Munro’s daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, that Munro’s husband, Gerald Fremlin, sexually abused her from age nine and that Munro stayed with him.
- Director
- David Grossman
- Writers
- Pamela Wechsler
Summary
The Investigation
“Duty to Protect” opens on the set of a sunscreen commercial, where a man is waiting downstairs for its teenage star. That evening a girl is found dead beside a dumpster behind a flower shop, with a head wound and a necktie used to strangle her, and no phone or ID. Detectives chase down 15-year-old Joey Richards, who has her bracelet, but flower-shop video shows a man dragging her toward the dumpster well before Joey arrives. DNA on the tie comes from an unknown man who is not her blood relative.
A preschool worker saw a bald man shouting at the girl that afternoon, and his discarded cigarette box leads to Nick Paven, a limo driver whose son nearly died after a caffeine-drink challenge she promoted online. Paven has an alibi and names her: Kaitlyn Lawson, 17. Her mother, film director Michelle Burns, and stepfather, Ronald Lawson, say they were at Michelle’s premiere. Her boyfriend, Dylan Sanders, suspects she was cheating. Kaitlyn’s laptop shows she looked up a doughnut shop near the scene, where Ron paid half an hour before the murder. Ron admits meeting her but says he arrived late to the premiere. He adopted Kaitlyn, which fits the DNA, and his DNA matches the tie.
The Trial
Charged with second-degree murder, Ron is freed on $20 million bail posted by Michelle, who backs his alibi. A video Kaitlyn meant to post the day she died gives the motive: Ron had been molesting her since age 14, and telling her mother did not help. During a recess after opening statements, Ron gets hold of a gun and shoots himself, and the case ends.
Brady interviews Michelle, who admits she knew of the abuse and of the video and told Ron about it. She is charged with second-degree manslaughter. Her lawyer, Virginia Hogan, offers psychologist Lisa Mankin, who tells a hearing that Michelle was battered by Ron, molested by an uncle at nine and suffers from a dissociative disorder; the judge rules her testimony irrelevant. Medical and police records confirm the abuse, and Maroun, whose sister was killed by an abuser, calls Michelle a victim, but the trial proceeds. Brady testifies, and Price cross-examines Michelle about one of her own films, in which an abused daughter dies.
Spoiler, the ending: Maroun tells Price that if he will not respect her view on domestic violence, she does not know why she stays in the office. Price then tells Baxter that Maroun understands these issues better than they do. Michelle pleads guilty to child endangerment and receives one year in jail plus three years of supervised release.
Why it stands out
- Maroun draws on her own history, telling Price she has counseled victims and volunteered at shelters and that her sister was killed by an abusive partner.
- A public service announcement with the national sexual assault hotline number airs after the episode.