Cherished (Season 9, Episode 1)
Premise: A little girl dies days after her adoption, her troubled older brother is arrested, and new ADA Abbie Carmichael follows the case back to the couple and the Russian doctor who passed along a dying child.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 9, Episode 1
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Spencer Breslin as Nicholas Waring, Monique Fowler as Megan Connery, Edward Conery as Edward Connery, Victor Steinbach as Dr. Andre Kostov, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- Story: Carl Nelson & Scott Tobin; Teleplay: Kathy McCormick
Summary
The Investigation
“Cherished” opens with the death of a recently adopted girl whose mother, Elizabeth Waring, says she fell from her crib. A paramedic doubts it because the head bruises are on opposite sides. The Warings refuse to let detectives into their apartment, a judge won’t sign a warrant without a cause of death, and the autopsy is delayed. A former nanny, Angela Cruz, reveals that the couple threatened to have her deported, and new ADA Abbie Carmichael uses that threat to win a search warrant on an obstruction theory.
Inside, police find the Warings’ other adopted child, seven-year-old Nicholas, living in a bare locked room, along with a videotape of one of his violent rages. Dr. Emil Skoda links the behavior to the severe abuse the boy suffered before his adoption. Carmichael asks family court to strip the Warings of guardianship, and once a guardian consents, Skoda interviews Nicholas, who says he hit and scratched his sister because she would not look at him. The boy is arrested, and McCoy objects to Carmichael’s tactics.
The autopsy changes everything. The girl was two and a half, stunted by long neglect, and had already died of heart failure before her brother touched her. The Warings had paid a broker $12,000, and her birth certificate belonged to an infant killed in a car crash. That family’s lawyer, Edward Connery, had held the document, and his wife Megan admits they had adopted the child a month earlier. The M.E. finds a fatal spinal cancer and a fatty acid oxidation disorder that proper diet and care could have controlled.
The Trial
Carmichael insists on depraved-indifference murder, but Judge Rockwell suppresses Megan’s admission that they knew the girl was ill, since it followed a provocative remark by Van Buren, and the charges fall. A doctor’s tip leads to Russia and Dr. Andre Kostov, who placed sick orphans from Vologda with American couples for $20,000 each on clean health certificates. All three are indicted for murder after offers of manslaughter go unaccepted.
An emergency room doctor testifies she told the Connerys the diagnoses. McCoy shows the orphanage received only $2,000 per placement, and Kostov blames adoptive parents who want perfect children. Megan Connery says they tried to return the girl and then lied to a broker, and under Carmichael’s cross concedes they never warned anyone or sought help. A late plea bid is refused.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury acquits all three defendants of murder and convicts each of first-degree manslaughter. McCoy and Carmichael agree to take no position at sentencing, and also agree they are too busy to fight the Warings’ petition to regain custody of Nicholas.
Why it stands out
- This is Angie Harmon’s first episode as ADA Abbie Carmichael, who arrives from Special Narcotics with a 95% conviction rate.
- The apparent killer is a seven-year-old, but the autopsy shows the girl was already dead when he struck her.
- McCoy uses the orphanage’s own records to show Kostov kept $18,000 of each $20,000 placement fee.