Liberty (Season 25, Episode 21)
Premise: A vice admiral in New York for Fleet Week is pushed from an elevated walkway, the trail leads to a bribery scheme and the admiral nominated for Secretary of Defense, and Price comes to believe the trial judge is protecting him.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 21
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), Det. Theo Walker (David Ajala)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Anthony Edwards as Judge Kenneth Sullivan, Chance Kelly as Admiral Rusten Garvey, Zeljko Ivanek as defense attorney Charles Banks, Daniel Sauli as Frank Mazzeo, Toby Leonard Moore as Jack Drell
- Director
- Alex Hall
- Writers
- Rick Eid & Scott Gold
Summary
The Investigation
“Liberty” begins in a card room, where Vice Admiral Wally Kane pays off a $4,000 debt run up by two of his sailors. Later he is pushed to his death from an elevated walkway. Kane commanded a strike group in town for Fleet Week, and TV commentators blame the soft-on-crime district attorney; Baxter, mid-campaign, presses Brady for answers. Admiral Rusten Garvey, Kane’s friend of 30 years and the nominee for Secretary of Defense, says he was aboard his ship. Bodega video captures the push but not the attacker’s face, and a text from a contact called FM warns Kane that the alternative would be bad for everyone.
FM is port owner Frank Mazzeo, who met Kane at a bar that night; an FBI official pulls him out of the interrogation, and his alibi holds. His FBI handler, Steve Campisi, explains that Mazzeo is an informant who bribed naval officers to use his ports, and Kane was a target. Garvey orders the detectives off his ship, citing federal jurisdiction. Seventeen cash deposits just under $10,000 turn up in his account, and video near the scene shows a man in the attacker’s scarf talking to a sailor, who confirms it was Garvey. Armed with a naval search authorization, detectives board the ship and arrest him. Jack Drell warns Baxter that charging Garvey offends very important people.
The Trial
Garvey is remanded, and Judge Kenneth Sullivan suppresses the bodega video as unreliable and, citing Batson, refuses to let Price strike three white men who had heard talk-show claims about the case. Price suspects Sullivan is in Garvey’s pocket, though Baxter warns him against fighting a judge. When Baxter confronts Sullivan outside the courthouse, Sullivan accuses him of improper contact. Mazzeo testifies that he paid Kane bribes and wore a wire to their last meeting, and Sullivan lets defense attorney Charles Banks raise a domestic assault arrest that never led to charges.
Chief administrative judge Charles Lehman tells Baxter off the record that Sullivan asked for the case; Sullivan is also on a short list for a federal appeals seat. Baxter tells a Garvey ally he is coming after everyone involved; the man urges him to find a legal reason to dismiss. Baxter refuses, tells Price he was right all along and plans to seek a mistrial and criminal charges against Sullivan.
Spoiler, the ending: Instead, Price offers Banks a deal without Baxter’s consent, and Garvey pleads guilty to criminally negligent homicide, a charge that could free him within a year. Price says a war with Sullivan would cost Baxter the election and Price his job, so he acted for himself; Baxter says that does not help. The district attorney’s office publicly calls the plea a just result.
Why it stands out
- The episode is the Season 25 finale and the series’ 544th episode.
- Anthony Edwards guest stars as Judge Kenneth Sullivan; he and Maura Tierney (Brady) were both ER regulars, as Dr. Mark Greene and Abby Lockhart.
- Zeljko Ivanek returns as defense attorney Charles Banks, the role he played in Season 23’s “Balance of Power” and Season 24’s “The Hardest Thing.”