Law & Order

In the criminal justice system

the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups,

the police who investigate crime

and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.

These are their stories.

That was pretty decent.

Yeah? Well, I can't wait to see you in action.

Okay, so let's do this.

Hauser, are you working MDX?

Yeah.

You see what's happening? You still want those puts at 38?

No, uh, scratch the ticket.

Todd, you look like hell, man. Are you okay?

Yeah, just, uh, stay away from that falafel guy on Water Street.

All right.

Cause of death was catastrophic internal bleeding.

He staggered in a little after 4:00,

vomited at the admissions window and collapsed.

His vitals had flat-lined by the time we got him on the table.

That bruising's fresh, and his forearms are swollen.

Probably from defending himself from whoever beat the crap out of him.

Expensive shoes, nice shirt.

Flip him.

Back of his shirt and the seat of his pants are all torn up.

Whoever kicked his ass had him down on the ground.

But not a mark on his face. They didn't want it to be obvious.

Todd Hauser. There's an address on Rivington.

He worked at Wasserman Gardner.

A stock broker, beaten to death in the middle of a work day.

In this economy, this is the kind of thing that might catch on.

Todd was hunched over his desk

all afternoon yesterday, holding his stomach.

I asked if he was okay.

He just said keep away from the falafel cart on Water Street.

I thought you guys never left your desks when the market's open.

We don't. Todd snuck out at lunch.

He was carrying rollerblades.

I thought he went blading. We play in a street hockey league on Saturdays.

Trust me, this was no blading accident.

If somebody hurt him, Todd would've told me.

Did he have any other past-times?

Drugs, gambling.

No. Are these the skates you saw him with?

Yes.

These wheels are brand new. Triangle Board and Skate, off Union Square.

He brought in his skates yesterday.

He wanted more traction,

so we swapped out his wheels for 82A's.

Okay, what did he look like when he came in?

When he dropped off his skates or when he came back?

We'll take both.

The first time he was fine, but he came back like an hour later,

and, man, he was dragging ass.

His girlfriend brought him some cold packs.

His girlfriend, what did she look like?

She's Asian. She's hot.

I don't know her name, but she always wears a Pixies t-shirt.

So, you've seen her before?

A few times, over on the Square,

handing out comps for the Grand Street Ballroom.

He hit on me in Union Square yesterday.

We hung out a little, but I'm not his girlfriend.

He's not my type-

Well, you liked him enough to buy him cold packs at the skate shop.

Oh, that? It was the least I could do.

He tripped over one those metal things,

you know, that they put around the trees.

No kidding?

So he did all of this falling over one of those little metal things?

Oh, God. What's wrong with him?

He's dead.

Somebody beat the living daylights out of him.

Well, I don't know anything about that.

Look, I gotta go. I'm gonna be late for class.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What did you take my picture for?

In case you lied to us, Donna.

We'll need it for the wanted poster. Look.

Pixies t-shirt and all.

Wanted poster? That's a new one.

The girl checked out, no beefs with the law.

Lives in a dorm at NYU, major in Victorian Literature.

With a minor in lying.

Find some hook into that girl and bring her back in.

Sorting through your photo collection?

Yeah. No, this is Todd Hauser's Blackberry.

CCS broke the password.

Check out this e-mail blast he got this morning.

"It's on. Union Square, 3:00 p.m."

Union Square? That's where Todd's troubles started.

Yeah. This message was CC'd to a couple dozen people.

Yeah, including her. "Surfer Rosa."

Right there. It's a Pixies album.

Yeah, the girl was wearing a Pixies t-shirt.

Well, whatever's on at 3:00 p.m., the girl's a part of it.

You've got 20 minutes to get to Union Square.

Yeah, over here, man.

Dude, are you ready for this?

Feels like something's about to go down.

Yeah.

Yo! Here we go! It's showtime!

All right. Keep those punches down. No shots to the face.

A street fight with a referee.

Yeah. Maybe this is how Todd got his ass kicked.

Look at this over here, man.

Come on. Hit him harder.

Hey, look. It's our friend.

I see.

Come on, man, above the waist.

Nothing in the face. That's what I told you!

You all right?

We got to stop this. Yeah.

You sure? You sure? You sure?

Hey, You going to do your job?

Oh, yeah. Sorry.

All right. Hook 'em both up.

For what?

Just do it.

All right, all right. Let's stop this.

Hey, come on, man, this ain't fair. They both want to fight.

You too, Don King. Come on. You're coming with us.

Aren't you supposed to be in class? Let's go. Let's take a ride.

We got rules. No head or face shots, nothing to the groin area.

If you're some kind of pro or you got training, you've got to tell.

What's in it for you?

I give lessons to some of the younger dudes.

And these lessons, they don't come for free.

You got a problem with capitalism, move to Cuba.

We got a problem when somebody gets beat to death.

You recognize him?

Yeah. Yeah, he was out there on Tuesday.

Got whopped big time.

By who?

Nobody gives their name.

I didn't mean to lie. I just didn't want to get in trouble.

Yeah. Well, you are in trouble.

So, why don't you tell us what happened?

You know, I think she liked watching Todd

get the life beat out of him.

No way, I didn't...

And the guy who killed him is her boyfriend.

That's insane. No, no, I like the sound of this.

You liked watching your man kill someone, didn't you?

In fact, you probably set the whole thing up.

Yeah, she probably played Todd.

Made him fight.

Unless you want a charge of conspiracy to commit assault,

you better help us find this person.

Okay. I think I saw him in one of the videos.

On the Internet.

Hang on, this is a good one. Watch what happens.

Did you see that? He puked!

You should see about getting some counseling.

You see the guy we're looking for?

No, maybe in the next one.

Oh, wait, that's him!

Which one?

Him, with the hard hat.

Construction workers on break.

They can't be more than a few blocks from the Square.

Whatever happened to just watching pretty ladies walk by?

You're looking for Vince. He's the guy working that steel over there.

Thanks.

Hey, Vince? Detective Lupo.

This is Detective Bernard.

We'd like to talk to you for a second.

What's up, fellas?

You know him?

Yeah, we mixed it up at Union Square a few days ago.

ls that yuppie dip trying to press charges or something?

No, you beat him till his kidneys burst.

Maybe you want to pay a fine.

Hey, he challenged me.

Come on, this is bull and you know it.

Oh, yeah? That's your opinion.

Us, we're charging you with murder.

Murder? What? No way!

We'll show you the autopsy pictures.

You can order a set for your scrapbook.

Ralph, Larry, you see what's going on?

They're arresting me for fighting that guy.

My buddies aren't going to let this go.

Lupo and Bernando, remember those names, Ralph.

Bernard. Lupo and Bernard.

Why's everybody so hostile?

You got the guy, right? This guy, Vince Fonsella? That's what we heard.

You're charging him with murder?

Well, we're still sorting that out.

What's to sort out?

Look, I'm sorry, Mr. Hauser, about your brother,

but the fact of the matter is that he consented to the fight.

He didn't consent to be killed.

Do you believe this! They're blaming Todd.

We heard this Vince guy, he kept beating on Todd even after Todd tapped out.

Tapped out?

Surrendered. It's supposed to end the fight.

All right, Mr. Hauser, you're not in your firehouse.

Where did you hear he tapped out?

The Internet. Somebody posted a comment where they have fight videos.

Well, we'll look into that.