Baby, It's You (Season 8, Episode 6)
Premise: A 14-year-old fashion model dies of an infection caused by an untreated rape, and her wealthy parents’ combative lawyer fights the police while the case reaches back to Baltimore.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 8, Episode 6
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt), Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Dan Hedaya as Leslie Drake, Richard Belzer as Det. John Munch, Jon Seda as Det. Paul Falsone, Yaphet Kotto as Lt. Al Giardello, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Ripped from the headlines
- The JonBenét Ramsey case is the basis for the story.
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- Jorge Zamacona
Summary
The Investigation
“Baby, It’s You” opens with the death of 14-year-old model Brittany Janaway, who collapses in the office of her father, plastic surgeon Steven Janaway, after he chooses to treat her stomach pains there instead of at a hospital. The M.E. finds an older bruise on her lower back and healed cuts on her forearm that look self-inflicted. Her mother, Gayle, her agent Jeri Stein, designer Paul Delacourte and an eighth-grade model offer no explanation. Lab results then show Brittany died of toxic shock after being raped about two weeks earlier, and Delacourte is ruled out.
Details of the autopsy reach the press before the squad sees them, and the Janaways’ lawyer, Leslie Drake, sets strict terms for any interview. When the detectives finally question the parents together, they learn the family still keeps a house in Baltimore and was there two weeks before the death. Briscoe calls Det. John Munch, whose ex-wife he once dated, and Munch and Det. Paul Falsone find a neighbor who saw a young Latino man looking into the Janaway house; a cab driver recalls taking a passenger in a Mets cap from the train station.
Drake brings Van Buren a privately paid profiler, publishes the profile and offers a $250,000 reward, and the DA’s office threatens him with an ethics complaint. A former housekeeper points to Johnny Ramirez, son of an ex-babysitter, who his mother says wanted to rescue Brittany. Ramirez slips away before police reach his room, and Drake goes on television to blame the police and repeat the reward. Lt. Al Giardello sends Munch and Falsone north, arguing the fatal assault happened in Baltimore, while prosecutor Ed Danvers presses McCoy over jurisdiction.
The Trial
McCoy subpoenas the Janaways before a grand jury, and at Ross’s request a judge bars them and Drake from discussing the case and orders the reward withdrawn. Ramirez’s notebook shows he tracked the model’s public appearances, and the four detectives catch him at her grave in Green-Wood Cemetery.
Ramirez denies hurting her under hard questioning, but he tells Munch he went to Baltimore and watched through a window as someone attacked her. He cannot name the attacker, only that her father’s Lexus was in the driveway. Dr. Emil Skoda tells McCoy the violence fits a pattern of incest driven by domination and warns him not to expect a confession.
Spoiler, the ending: No charge or verdict is reached in this hour. With suspicion turning to the father, the story continues in the Homicide: Life on the Street episode of the same title.
Why it stands out
- This is the first half of a crossover that finishes on Homicide: Life on the Street, in a same-titled episode broadcast two nights later.
- Munch and Briscoe trade barbs over Briscoe’s past romance with Munch’s ex-wife, Gwen.
- Two detective squads and two prosecutors’ offices compete for the case, with Baltimore claiming the crime occurred on its turf.