Extended Family (Season 3, Episode 11)
Premise: A 7-year-old’s disappearance turns out to be her mother’s doing, and it leaves Stone with an abuse case built on shaky evidence.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 11
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), 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
- Barry Primus as Gary Silver, Anna Holbrook as Janet Silver, Joyce Van Patten as Dr. Ramona Stark, Madeline Zima as Samantha Silver, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Director
- Charles Correll
- Writers
- Teleplay: Robert Nathan; Story & teleplay: Wendell Rawls
Summary
The Investigation
“Extended Family” begins in a department store, where 7-year-old Samantha Silver disappears while her nanny, Christina, tries on makeup. Her father, Broadway producer Gary Silver, shares custody with his ex-wife, Janet, who has supposedly left for a spa in Majorca. No ransom call comes. A security tape shows Samantha talking to a stock clerk, Harold Zorn, who once pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child, but his alibi holds.
Samantha told Zorn a woman was buying her a stuffed gorilla. A loading-dock worker remembers helping a dark-haired woman load the toy into a gray Lincoln, and a parking ticket leads to Alan and Myra Fischer. Myra volunteers for a children’s legal defense group, whose staff points the detectives to Ramona Stark, a child psychologist. At Stark’s apartment they find Samantha with her mother. Janet says she arranged the abduction because Gary has been molesting the girl.
The Trial
Janet’s lawyer demands charges, but Stone and Schiff see an accusation made during a custody fight. Dr. Olivet finds Samantha’s behavior consistent with abuse, though the girl never says her father touched her. A divorced father tells Robinette that Stark helped his ex-wife build an abuse case against him. Gary’s grown daughter, Leslie, recalls fearing him at night, but he has just bought her an apartment. Gary turns down a plea to second-degree sexual abuse. Janet then produces a videotape of Stark questioning Samantha, which helps win an indictment for first-degree sexual abuse, but Judge Schreiber bars it from trial.
On the stand, Stark and the pediatrician, Dr. Jenner, are undercut by Silver’s lawyer; Jenner admits that 13 defendants in his past cases were acquitted. Samantha mostly repeats what Stark and her mother told her, then reveals that her mother wants to take her to live in France, which would require full custody.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Gary Silver not guilty. Janet then hides Samantha and refuses to say where she is. Stone faces having to jail the mother and says the only real victim is the 7-year-old.
Why it stands out
- The judge excludes the homemade interview tape, forcing a young child to testify.
- Dr. Olivet evaluates the child and finds signs of abuse but nothing conclusive.
- The episode ends in an acquittal, with the mother defying a custody order.