Securitate (Season 3, Episode 20)
Premise: A Romanian immigrant’s murder exposes his brother, a former secret police officer, and the brother’s own killing brings a novel insanity defense.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 20
- 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
- Morgan Weisser as Leon Iliescu, Richard Council as Alex Iliescu, Irén Bordán as Karen Iliescu, Alan King as defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro, David Margulies as Tommy Zanescu, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Director
- James Hayman
- Writers
- Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer
Summary
The Investigation
“Securitate” begins with the murder of Nicolas Iliescu, a Romanian immigrant who owns an antique furniture store. He is shot twice in the head, then dragged half a block when his body catches in his car’s seat belt. The stripped car turns up on the Lower East Side, and its seats lead the detectives to two punk musicians holding the murder weapon, a Beretta. Their alibi holds: they were playing a club during the killing and only looted an abandoned car.
A credit card left in the car opens a fraud case. Customers who paid the store by check and showed a card as identification later found counterfeit charges. Handwriting analysis ties the forged signatures to employee Tommy Zanescu, and a deliveryman says Tommy took the store’s white van. Facing a murder charge, Tommy names his partner: Nicolas’s brother Alex, a former officer in Romania’s Securitate secret police, who killed Nicolas after Nicolas found the forged cards. The van, hidden in a Queens garage, carries burgundy paint from Nicolas’s car.
The Trial
Because Tommy had no authority over Alex’s rented garage, the judge rules the warrantless search illegal, excludes the van and dismisses the case. Soon after, Alex is found stabbed to death in his apartment. Nicolas’s widow, Karen, confesses, but blood at the scene does not match her. The killer is Alex’s son, Leon, whom Karen and Nicolas raised in New York.
Defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro pleads cultural insanity, arguing that a childhood at his father’s side in Ceausescu’s Romania conditioned Leon to violence. Dr. Olivet testifies that Leon knew what he was doing, but Shapiro attacks her lack of experience with such cases. Stone then turns to Tommy, Alex’s former associate, who describes a father who sent Leon away and mocked him, and says it was Leon who warned Alex that Nicolas planned to go to the police.
Spoiler, the ending: Confronted with Tommy’s account, Leon admits he betrayed his uncle to win his father’s approval and stabbed Alex in a rage when Alex laughed at him and turned away. The episode ends with a plea to first-degree manslaughter on the table, based on extreme emotional disturbance, rather than a verdict.
Why it stands out
- The defense raises “cultural insanity,” claiming an upbringing in a violent police state can excuse a killing.
- Stone loses the first case when the judge rejects his apparent-authority argument under Illinois v. Rodriguez, holding New York requires police to check who controls the property.
- Dr. Elizabeth Olivet testifies for the prosecution and faces a pointed cross-examination about her expertise.