Volunteers (Season 4, Episode 2)
Premise: A violent, mentally ill homeless man is beaten nearly to death in an alley, and the trail leads to the Bedford Street neighbors he had tormented for years.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 2
- 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
- Denis O’Hare as Harold Morrissey, Marion Killinger as Roland Kirk, Stephen Mendillo as Leon Prosky, Kent Broadhurst as Dr. Steven Creighton, Pamela Stewart as Irene Morrissey, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Director
- James Quinn
- Writers
- René Balcer
Summary
The Investigation
“Volunteers” begins when a couple finds a homeless man beaten nearly to death in an alley off Bedford Street. The victim, Roland Kirk, is a crack user with a long psychiatric history and a record of vandalism and assault, and he is carrying $2,200 in cash and a new designer nightgown. The weapon, a steel reinforcing bar from a nearby construction site, turns up close by.
The cash traces to a trust account set up by Kirk’s lawyer, Richard Gillrich, after the Bedford Street Block Association settled Kirk’s harassment lawsuit for $30,000. Residents describe years of abuse, including Kirk pushing a dentist’s 11-year-old son into traffic, and Irene Morrissey says Kirk mugged her outside her home on the night of the attack, taking the nightgown.
Kirk wakes from his coma and describes a bald attacker in a flowered dress. A neighbor places Dr. Steven Creighton, a bald oral surgeon, in the alley in his bathrobe, and Kirk’s blood is on his slippers. Kirk picks him out of a lineup, and Creighton is charged with attempted murder. He then admits he only gave Kirk CPR, after restaurant owner Leon Prosky claimed he had called paramedics, a call Prosky never made.
The Trial
Off drugs, Kirk is more lucid with Dr. Olivet and recalls Prosky in the alley and a struggle over a shopping bag. Kincaid learns that Harold Morrissey phoned Prosky’s restaurant twice from the hospital where his wife was treated. Facing a conspiracy charge, Prosky says Morrissey picked up the rebar before entering the alley, and Morrissey is charged with attempted murder.
The defense argues Morrissey was using lawful force to recover stolen property. On the stand, Prosky suddenly claims Kirk attacked first, so Stone calls Kirk, who testifies he woke to blows on his legs. On cross-examination Kirk vows to sue again and spend the money on crack. Stone walks Morrissey through each blow, to the knee, the legs and then the head, and Morrissey blames the system for leaving Kirk on the street.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury acquits Morrissey of attempted murder and first-degree assault but convicts him of second-degree assault. Judge Stein sentences him on the spot to time served, two days, plus two years’ probation; Stone notes his exception and says the People will appeal.
Why it stands out
- Remade by Law & Order: UK as “Community Service.”
- The beating victim, a psychiatric patient the defense calls incompetent, becomes a key prosecution witness after a hearing in the judge’s chambers.
- The judge sentences Morrissey immediately, without the pre-sentence report Stone says the law requires.