Refuge, Part 2 (Season 9, Episode 24)
Premise: After a prosecutor and a child witness’s mother are murdered, McCoy follows the Russian mob’s money to a New York banker shipping planeloads of U.S. cash to Moscow.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 9, Episode 24
- 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
- Tom Mason as Carlton Radford, Cameron Bowen as Billy Woodson, Olek Krupa as Constantin Volsky, Nelson Vasquez as Omar Pinella, Terry Beaver as defense attorney Manning
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- René Balcer
Summary
The Investigation
“Refuge, Part 2” resumes the Russian mob case with ADA Toni Ricci and Billy Woodson’s mother found with their throats cut in the boy’s safe house; Billy survives a similar wound. Officers outside saw a young Latino couple go in, a marijuana courier saw them arrive in a cab, and surveillance video plus the cab’s medallion number lead to its owner, Gabriel. Meanwhile, because Billy was never sworn, his earlier testimony cannot be reused, and McCoy will not put him on the stand again, so the murder count against Maletkov and Tolstonog is dismissed.
The couple, Leo Zamora and Aricella Santos, are wanted for killing an informant against the Cali cartel in Miami, suggesting the Russians are working with Colombian traffickers. Gabriel recalls driving a Colombian, Omar Pinella, to a bank with boxes, and Pinella’s doorman recalls his boast about planes full of cash to Moscow. A search of a JFK flight to Moscow finds $105 million in new bills sent by Gramercy Savings, whose president, Carlton Radford, calls the shipments routine; records show Russian banks bought nearly $15 billion in U.S. notes through Gramercy in a year.
The Trial
After a bomb is found at a police precinct, McCoy defies a direct order from Schiff and has Volsky, Maletkov and others locked up without charges. The courts sustain the defense’s habeas corpus writ, McCoy does not pursue a Supreme Court appeal, and the men are released. A $20,000 monthly payment from Gramercy leads to Galina Krylov, who turns out to be the mistress of both Radford and Volsky and who flees the country. McCoy charges Radford with enterprise corruption on a theory of willful blindness.
A Gramercy compliance officer admits he never followed up a customs warning about the Russian banks, and Radford insists he met every legal duty. McCoy counters that the bank took in about $1.2 billion in commissions, while gathering proof of the banks’ mob ties cost his office about $96,000.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Radford, whose lawyer then offers his help against Volsky, Maletkov and Pinella in exchange for a lighter sentence. Other defendants are later convicted of the murders, the attack on Billy and the bombing attempt, and are sentenced to life without parole. Schiff tells McCoy, who expected to be fired for disobeying him, that he wants no martyrs. Curtis leaves the squad to care for his ill wife, Deborah, and says goodbye to Briscoe.
Why it stands out
- This is Benjamin Bratt’s final regular appearance; Curtis leaves the 27th Precinct to care for his wife, who has MS.
- McCoy jails mob suspects without charges in defiance of Schiff, and the appeals courts order them freed.
- The cliffhanger from Part 1 is resolved grimly: ADA Toni Ricci is found dead in the boy’s safe house.