Episode 11

<--   22 March 2004   -->

Alice meets outside Old City Hall with her client Jillian Nisker. Jillian is accused of stalking her ex-boyfriend Matt, who has now hooked up with Jillian’s former friend Erin. When Matt and Erin head up the stairs, Alice has to restrain Jillian from becoming violent.

Inside Old City Hall, Alice talks with her teenage client Kiana Lewis and Kiana’s mother Verlene. Kiana is charged with being a drug mule and Alice is advising her that if they go to trial Alice can mount a decent defense. But Verlene wants Kiana to plead guilty and argue systemic racism (Kiana is black) and perhaps the judge will go easy on her when he hears about her circumstances. Alice disagrees with this approach but Verlene wants Kiana to plead, despite Alice’s warnings.

Joe Pretak meets with the Russian Kuzmin family, who’s father is charged with assaulting his daughter Katerina, who appears before Joe now bruised and afraid. The family is very unhappy with Katerina and they tell Joe that she is responsible for the whole thing. They want to bail the father out, but Katerina is noticeably afraid. Joe takes her aside and she tells him that her family is angry with her because her boyfriend is black. Later, when the boyfriend arrives in court, the family erupts in rage and tell Katerina that if she leaves now she can never return.

Elliot meets with Rudy Hennely, a dentist caught in a vicious cycle of practical jokes that has spun dangerously and pathetically out of control. Rudy is charged with orchestrating some humiliating pranks at the expense of his dental partner, including giving him a Valium cocktail to knock him out and tying him to a dentist’s chair in diapers.

Crown Portella tells Alice that if Kiana gives him her drug source she can have a favourable plea. When Alice takes this deal to Kiana and Verlene, Verlene refuses. The reason, Alice learns, is that Verlene’s older son is the dealer and his business is supporting the family. Alice turns to Elliot and Anna-Lynn for advice about this ethical dilemma and in the end although she can’t force Kiana out of pleading guilty she decides to casually alert Portella to the brother’s drug business.

Erin takes the stand in Jillian’s trial and Crown Menon has her itemize the number of times Jillian harassed Erin and Matt. When Matt takes the stand, Alice is able to get him to admit that he was never truly afraid of Jillian and that he antagonized Jillian by moving in with her best friend. But Menon reminds the court that despite “not being afraid” Matt allowed Erin to call the police. When Jillian takes the stand she apologizes but Menon suggests that she may have a problem controlling her temper when she drinks. She is convicted and given a conditional discharge.

At Rudy’s trial, the office dental hygienist takes the stand to discuss the intense rivalry between Rudy and his partner Dr. Siracusa. Dr. Siracusa had been tormenting Rudy with a series of pranks designed to embarrass Rudy for his prostrate problems and Rudy responded in kind. When Dr. Siracusa takes the stand, Elliot questions his “playful” motivations for teasing Rudy about his prostate problems. Rudy suggests when he takes the stand that the two men were competing over the affections of the attractive young dental hygienist and that things just spun out of control. Fraser chastises both men for their immature behaviour and lets Rudy off the hook.