American Dream (Season 4, Episode 8)
Premise: Remains found on Roosevelt Island contradict the testimony that sent a Wall Street swindler to prison for murder years earlier, and he uses the discovery to win a new trial, representing himself against Stone.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 8
- 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
- Željko Ivanek as Phillip Swann, Guy Davis as Russell Bobbitt, Scott Sowers as Billy Doyle, Mark Tymchyshyn as Chip Rafferty, Stephen Payne as George Mazlansky
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Sibyl Gardner
Summary
The Investigation
“American Dream” opens when an archaeological dig in a condemned Roosevelt Island building uncovers a skeleton with a toupee, a pin in the knee, missing teeth and a .22 bullet in the skull. Gold buttons from a cashmere blazer lead Briscoe and Logan through a tailor to a realty firm and then to the daughter of Sidney Cohen, who vanished in 1984. The knee pin confirms the identification.
Cohen’s murder was Stone’s case. Eight years earlier he convicted Phillip Swann, a charming young Wall Street promoter whose investment scheme Cohen had drained of nearly $1 million, without ever finding the body. The key witness, Swann’s friend Russell Bobbitt, testified that Swann cut Cohen’s throat and that they buried him in New Jersey. Kincaid questions whether Swann was guilty, but Stone is certain.
The Trial
Acting as his own lawyer, Swann wins a new trial on the strength of the new evidence. Forensics links lava-rich soil on Cohen’s remains to soil in the trunk of Swann’s old Mercedes, suggesting he moved the body. Then Bobbitt disappears, apparently to the Bahamas, and the judge rules that his earlier testimony cannot be read in because Swann has a right to cross-examine him. Swann discredits a former cellmate, Billy Doyle, by exposing his prior perjury, explains the soil away as golf dirt, and is acquitted of murder.
Swann then sues the state and Stone personally for $10 million. During a deposition, Swann boasts that this is not his first case, and the prosecutors discover through a legal database that Swann had written a legal brief for Doyle. Pressed by Stone, Doyle names George Mazlansky, another inmate Swann had helped, who admits he killed Bobbitt on Swann’s orders and leads the police to the body.
Spoiler, the ending: Swann is arrested for Bobbitt’s murder. Stone refuses any deal that does not include a confession to Cohen’s killing as well, Swann will not give it up, and the episode ends before any trial.
Why it stands out
- A defendant serving as his own lawyer beats Stone in court and wins an acquittal before being caught for a second killing.
- Stone faces a personal civil suit for malicious prosecution, with the prosecution’s immunity in question.
- Law & Order: UK later adapted this story as “Unsafe.”