Snatched (Season 4, Episode 12)
Premise: A real estate magnate caught carrying millions in cash says his son has been kidnapped, but the case turns back on the son himself.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 12
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Theodore Bikel as Sol Bregman, Reg Rogers as Jason Bregman, Vyto Ruginis as Shep Watson, Bernadette Penotti as Helena Navarro
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Walon Green & René Balcer
Summary
The Investigation
“Snatched” begins when officers stop Sol Bregman’s Mercedes in the middle of the night and find more than $4 million in the back. Bregman, a wealthy real estate man, explains that his son, Jason, has been kidnapped and he was trying to pay the ransom. The kidnappers call with a taped message in Jason’s voice and give him two days.
Briscoe and Logan learn that Jason dabbles in films, art and rave parties, and that his partner, James Ameche, took $250,000 from Sol to put out feelers on the street. Sol then shakes his police tail by trading cars with his lawyer and hands over the ransom alone near the Tenth Avenue freight trestle. Phone records lead from a deli pay phone to one in the South Bronx, where a neighborhood watch volunteer wrote down a license plate.
The car belongs to artist Shep Watson, who lives with Helena Navarro. A search of their loft turns up plane tickets and a photo of a South Bronx building on the same block, and police find Jason there, shot and left in a basement. Watson and Navarro are charged with kidnapping, grand larceny and attempted murder.
The Trial
Their Miami lawyer, Hastings, forces a lineup, where Jason cannot identify either defendant. The pair turn out to be wanted under other names in Florida and Nevada, and a storage locker tied to them was emptied shortly before Hastings’s jet left for Miami. The defendants then claim Jason planned his own kidnapping, and the ransom tape includes Jason asking to record his message again.
Schiff, a friend of Sol’s for more than 30 years, tells him Jason was likely involved, and Sol cuts him off. An insurer reveals an earlier claim on a stolen Watson painting that Sol quietly withdrew. Jason finally admits the scheme, blaming his father’s call to the police for its failure, and agrees to a plea deal. He testifies that shooting him was Watson’s idea.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Watson and Navarro of first-degree grand larceny but acquits them of attempted murder. Jason fails to appear for sentencing, and when Sol refuses to help find him, Stone has a warrant drawn up charging Sol with hindering prosecution.
Why it stands out
- Schiff’s decades-long friendship with Sol Bregman is strained when the office concludes the kidnapping victim was in on the crime.
- The judge orders a lineup before indictment at the defense’s request, and Jason fails to pick out anyone.
- The supposed kidnapping victim becomes the prosecution’s main witness against his own accomplices.