Venom (Season 9, Episode 7)
Premise: A paid society escort is shot outside a charity concert, and the detectives learn the bullet was meant for the wealthy widow beside him, whose secret young lover turns out to be her son.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 9, Episode 7
- 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
- Laila Robins as Liann Crosby, Matt Keeslar as Dennis Pollock, Penny Fuller as Mrs. Joyce Pollock, John Cunningham as defense attorney Daniel Metzler, Doris Belack as Judge Margaret Barry, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Ripped from the headlines
- The story draws on the case of Sante and Kenny Kimes.
- Director
- Jace Alexander
- Writers
- Story: David Shore; Teleplay: I.C. Rapoport
Summary
The Investigation
“Venom” begins with the shooting of walker Stuart Wattman, a paid escort for society women, in an alley beside a charity concert; the single bullet passes through him and wounds his date, widow Liann Crosby. Rival walker Jeremy Orenstein reveals that Wattman was pressing a client, Pamela Marks, for $20,000 with threats to expose her and her husband’s private habits, but the husband has an alibi, and Wattman learned only that evening he would be at the concert.
Blood evidence shows that Crosby, not Wattman, was facing the gun. A company executive and a marina dockmaster report that since her husband drowned she has met a young man on the family yacht, and that the two quarreled a week earlier. A rare wartime motorcycle leads to Dennis Pollock, 27, husband of much older philanthropist Joyce Pollock, who recently made him president of her foundation and tore up their prenuptial agreement. A biker mechanic says Dennis got a .357.
Detectives intercept a .357 mailed to a Saratoga Springs motel, near where Crosby is staying, for a guest booked as Alex Robson, and arrest Dennis when ballistics match it. Judge Margaret Barry dismisses the case because nothing ties him to the package. Crosby then calls the shooting an accident. Robson’s disappearance in Jamaica and Crosby’s fraud record reveal that Dennis is her son. Henry Crosby drowned while Dennis was unaccounted for, and Joyce nearly died from a faulty heater while Liann skipped a spa booking.
The Trial
Charged again, Dennis turns down 15 to life and, backed by Joyce, pleads insanity, admitting the shooting and Henry Crosby’s death but blaming a childhood under his mother’s control. Speaking to a prosecution psychiatrist, he discloses that his mother has had a sexual relationship with him since his teens. Judge Barry allows the defense to go forward at trial.
Dennis testifies that he killed Henry Crosby on his mother’s orders and that the gun fired as she grabbed for it. McCoy suggests he shot her to keep their secrets from Joyce. Called in rebuttal, Liann confirms the abuse and takes the blame, but denies ordering any killing. Her phone records show she told Dennis where she was staying, and prints on the motel package belong to Joyce, who sent the gun and booked the Robson flight. McCoy offers Joyce leniency if Dennis testifies against his mother, but he refuses.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds that Dennis acted under extreme emotional disturbance and convicts him of first-degree manslaughter and attempted first-degree manslaughter, and he is sentenced to eight and a third to 25 years. McCoy agrees to offer Joyce Pollock two years in minimum security, while Carmichael notes that Liann Crosby escapes a murder charge.
Why it stands out
- The case turns when lab work shows the wounded widow, not the dead escort, was facing the shooter.
- Given the chance to spare his wife by testifying against his mother, Dennis refuses.