Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

In the criminal justice system,

sexually based offenses

are considered especially heinous.

In New York City, the dedicated detectives

who investigate these vicious felonies

are members of an elite squad

known as the Special Victims Unit.

These are their stories.

- I'm starting to question your supervision.

My team is the best in the department.

Dad wasn't who I thought he was.

Were there things we did back in the day

that wouldn't fly now?

Sure.

I'm being reassigned.

She's doing this to get to me.

What is that?

It's from a shooting in a bar

involving a Lieutenant Jimmy Griffin

and Detective Kathryn Tynan.

You're wrong about Benson.

I'm not gonna look the other way when

you're doing something wrong.

- You are suspended, effective immediately.

Please turn over your service weapon and badge.

You have to get back in the fight.

We broke up.

It's fine.

It's for the best.

Everything you said, that dude was not right.

Yeah.

The last straw, he said he didn't believe in birds.

"Hollow bones don't make sense, Jess."

Dumbass.

- He backed into me! - That's a lie. I saw you.

- We all saw it. - She's at fault.

That man didn't do anything wrong.

All right.

- What's up, brother? - Are you all right?

Just fine, Officer.

Witnesses say you got hit.

Any injuries?

None at all.

All righty.

Look, we're gonna take a report.

You can give it to your insurance or whatever.

Can I see your license and registration, please?

- Not necessary. Thank you. - You sure?

Just a second. Hold on.

How we doing over here?

You hurt your head, sir?

You got any neck pain?

I did not.

You had anything to drink tonight?

Just water.

Gun!

Hands up.

- Hands on the steering wheel. - Hands now, do it!

Is that your gun?

You got a permit for that gun, sir?

All right, keep your hand on the wheel.

With your left hand, open the car door.

Get out and get on your knees.

No clip.

Check the trunk.

There... there's a kid.

There's a kid here. Oh, my God, buddy.

All right, we got you. We got you. Come here.

I observed the butt of the handgun

from underneath the passenger side seat.

I alerted Officer Acosta, who then proceeded

to arrest the defendant without incident.

And what happened next?

- We observed the handgun was missing its ammo clip.

We initiated a search.

Upon opening the trunk of the vehicle, we discovered the boy.

Thank you, Officer Rodriguez.

Nothing further, Your Honor.

- Officer Rodriguez, where were you standing

when you observed the butt of the handgun?

- I was standing at the open passenger side window

of the defendant's vehicle.

How close were you to the door?

Right next to it.

But how close?

Were you a foot away, two feet, leaning up against it?

I guess a foot, give or take.

- And when you looked down, what did you see?

- I saw the butt of the handgun sticking out

from underneath the passenger side seat.

And you did not search the vehicle

before you saw the handgun.

You didn't reach in or anything like that.

No, I did not.

- Your Honor, I'd like to play a video taken by an eyewitness

on the night in question.

This is you here, Officer Rodriguez?

Yes.

You had anything to drink tonight?

And where is your head, Officer?

Uh... I was...

I was looking at the bottle, trying to see if...

Is your head outside the vehicle

or inside the vehicle, Officer Rodriguez?

It was for a second, but it was...

And in that second, by putting your head

inside the vehicle, you initiated a warrantless search,

and then you saw the gun.

Is that correct, Officer Rodriguez?

All right, all right, that's enough.

You may step down, Officer.

Get up here.

You better have more than what came out

of that search, Carisi.

- I, uh... - I do not, Your Honor.

I cannot believe this.

I cannot believe you're putting me in this position.

I apologize.

This was a complete surprise to me.

So get out of my sight.

Go sit down.

First, I'd like to acknowledge and thank

the Manhattan Special Victims Unit

for their excellent work in this case,

specifically, Captain Benson,

who obtained a full confession

just hours after the defendant's arrest.

And to Officers Rodriguez and Acosta,

we owe you a debt of gratitude as well.

Their street smarts and intuition

saved a young boy's life, and we must never forget that.

Now, we call this a Mapp hearing,

named after the landmark Supreme Court case.

And at the risk of sounding like an old windbag,

I'm gonna quote from the majority opinion.

"Nothing can destroy a government

more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws."

And that is where we are now.

The search of Mr. Caine's vehicle

was a violation of his 4th Amendment rights

and was illegal.

So I am suppressing the gun, the boy, and the confession.

And since the government has no further admissible evidence,

I am required to dismiss this case and release Mr. Caine.

Process him out. We're done.

I'm gonna kill that kid Rodriguez.

I prepped him three times.

- He's been out of the Academy for all of five seconds.

Captain Benson.

I just wanted to say, I really hope we can

put all of this in the past.

- You could play hardball, you can be uncooperative,

and then, you know, the judge is

gonna give you the maximum.

Or... or, Richard, you can help yourself.

And I think you're smart enough to do that.

I mean, if you're forthcoming,

the judge notices that. It matters.

I've seen that. I've seen it a million times.

- I need you to hold your questions until the end.

I just want you listening.

I can agree to that.

Okay.

I saw him a few times on the street.

His mom, she's distracted,

a lot going on, always on her phone.

Sometimes she lets him go to a friend's

down the street by himself.

He likes to take a shortcut through the alley,

climb over the fence.

It's not very safe.

I waited in the alley.

It was cold, felt like rain was coming.

I scared him.

That was on purpose.

I figured if I threatened to hurt his mother,

he'd do what I said.

I was right.

So I told him to get into my trunk.

He didn't even fight, he was so afraid.

It all worked amazingly well.

Hey, Cap.

I can come back if you're busy.

No, it's fine.

What's up?

Hey.

What the hell are we gonna do?

Everything we can.

Carisi is on his way down for a brainstorming session.

What have you got?

I traced the gun that I found

on my dad's storage unit, all right?

Unregistered serial number goes back to a robbery from '97.

And my dad was the responding officer.

Must have held onto it.

- And then dropped it on some low-level mob guy

who he just shot in the knee?

Yeah.

Tynan helped him cover it up.

- So, Griff, what are you gonna do with this information?