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.
- So, I'm finished? - Yeah. Four weenks.
That's it. For the radiation.
Great.
I can scratch that off my bucket list.
I like your hemoglobin levels.
They're better than last time.
How are you feeling?
- Well, okay, considering.
So what happens next?
- We measure the tumor.
In three months, we measure it again
To see if it's shrunk,
And then we'll know.
- Know what?
- Three slices.
- From the fresh pie, mustafa.
- Thank you, sammy. I was just gonna ask.
- My favorite police lady, you don't need to ask.
- Hey.
- So I told her
I'm not ready to be exclusive.
- Uh -huh.
- I mean, what's this uniform for?
[laughs]
Hey, who's got sector eddie today?
- I don't know. Ramos and colson.
- Ah, let's stop for a slice.
- If they're out to meal,
We should be covering their sector.
- So we'll get them to go.
- We responded to a 13 from 911.
We were the first ones on the scene.
I saw her breathing.
I know her. Rebecca.
- Witnesses?
- They say some guy came in
And just started shooting, then ran out.
- Shooting only cops?
- I know her too.
Saw her at the coffee machine this morning.
- They're all from our house.
- All right. - What do we have here?
- Four cops shot, three d.O.A.
- Then you better get to work.
- Captain, a guy around the corner ten minutes ago
Left his bmw running while he went inside a bodega.
Somebody stole it.
- You have the details?
All right, let's get this over the air.
- Which direction...
Was the car from here?
- North.
- He has two little girls.
- We're gonna get this guy, captain.
- My precinct...
My cops.
- Our precinct...
Our cops.
Sync: Adriano_CSI
Captain, there's nothing for your people to do here.
- Except get in your way?
- I'll update you every hour.
- Every half hour.
- He was a black guy,
Uh, clean-shaven.
- I think he maybe had a mustache.
- Did he say anything? - No.
He just walked in, and he took out the gun.
- I -I asked him what he wanted to eat
Before I saw the gun.
- And then bang, bang, bang!
10 times, 20 times.
- And he ran north. You're sure about that?
- Yeah, he, uh--he went there, past the barber shop.
- Okay, and what was he wearing?
- He had on blue jeans
And a puffy winter jacket--blue.
- It was black, and a wool cap.
- Only one of the officers got off any shots--the female.
The shooter used a .45.
His casings are all over the place.
- You find her slugs-- the nines?
- Well, they could be anywhere. She was shot twice.
If she kept firing as she fell...
- Hey, b. - Hmm?
- Patrol just located the stolen bmw.
- It's around the corner, parked halfway down the block.
We saw it and just kept driving.
Didn't want to tip the guy if he's still around.
- Good.
- Some big buildings over there.
Could be 500 apartments. He could be anywhere.
- E.S.U. Is on the way.
- All right, so we check the car.
We find his prints, maybe see if he's bleeding.
- Or we just sit and watch until he comes back.
- Sit here forever if he ditched it and ran.
- I'm gonna check it out.
- Lupes!
[car alarm chirps]
- Police. Don't breathe.
Drop it.
Lupo.
Lupo!
- I didn't kill no cops. You think I'm crazy?
- Yeah, but you did five years for felony gun possession
And resisting arrest.
- [bangs table]
You don't like cops, do you?
Where'd you ditch the weapon?
- You want to talk about a stolen car, we'll talk.
The rest of this is just wrong place, wrong time.
- You got that right.
[knock at door] - we're ready.
- What is this, a firing squad?
- Get him into the lineup
And show mr. Kaplan where to wait.
Captain, I know your people are concerned,
But we don't need them up here right now.
- This is officer colson's widow.
Where do you need for her to be?
- Is that the man?
Did he kill my husband?
- We're not sure, mrs. Colson.
I'm so sorry.
Please, why don't you wait in my office?
This way.
- I -I don't think so. I don't see him.
- You can take as long as you like.
- He said he doesn't see him.
- He can take as long as he likes.
- Maybe you can ask my nephew?
Maybe he remember different?
- It isn't him.
- I thought I'd feel better if it was,
But it wouldn't have made any difference, would it?
- Probably not.
Mrs. Colson, the whole department
Is here to support you in any way that we can.
- The department?
I think it's done enough.
My husband gave 90% of himself to the job,
And the department took the other ten.
It's supposed to be our part...
My part.
- Yes, well...
The job does have a way of taking over.
- I have two little girls.
Amy's two. Jesse's five.
How much will she remember her father?
He'll just be this--
This...
Fuzzy image.
[sobbing]
- Counterman couldn't make an I.D. Either.
Plus, he was negative for gunshot residue.
- Square one.
- You got to give me something to take downstairs.
I'm turning out 45 officers tonight,
And some psychopath is stalking cops.
- We don't know that.
- You don't know what? - That it's random.
- What, you think he chose these four on purpose?
- Well, maybe not all of them.
Maybe one or two, and the others just happened to be there.
- What, someone they arrested, crossed paths with on the job?
- Something personal?
- So you're gonna dig
Through four cops' personal lives
Looking for garbage?
- Four victims-- that's what we do.
- They were all excellent officers--
Clean records.
Rebecca ramos and fred colson were go-getters.
They had more collars than anyone else in the precinct.
- What about the other two, oren and garber?
- Middle of the pack by the numbers, but good cops,
Did everything by the book. - Not everything.
They should have been covering ramos and colson's sector,
Not eating with them.
What do you think that was about?
- Oren was a bit of a ladies' man.
- And officer ramos is a lady...
A pretty one too.
- Well, he would have been wasting his time.
She's married, and she doesn't mess around.
- She wasn't wearing a ring when she was shot.
- So other than her dead partner,
Who knows her best?
- Just came over the radio rebecca died--
Officer ramos.
- I'm very sorry.
- So they're all dead, all four?
- Yeah, we understand she was a friend of yours.
- We were in the same company at the academy.
She lived for the job.
All she wanted was one of those.
To be a detective.
- Yeah, it can be tough on a marriage.
How was hers doing?
- It wasn't easy.
Husband moved them to suffolk county
When he got a job there,
So she had a two-hour commute each way to work.
She started staying at her sister in queens
In between shifts.
She said her husband didn't get it--
Even accused her of having an affair.
You--you don't think that had something to do with it?
- Well, what do you think?
- I met him once. He seemed like a good guy.
When they took her to the hospital today,
I went right over.
He was there. He seemed so upset.
- He--he was there right after she was shot?
It's a two-hour commute each way.
- Hmm.
- Becky's sister is with her parents.
I'm staying with her while the funeral gets worked out.
It's a whole thing, you know?
Cop funeral. - Yeah.
You and the family...
You're all getting along?
- Yeah.
Sure.
- We hear that you and your wife
Were having problems.
- So you're talking to me?
Not looking for the maniac who killed her?
- You mind telling us why you were in town today?
- Yeah, buying some supplies for my boss.
- Your boss-- he's gonna vouch for that?
- Okay.
Look, becky and I...
Were having problems.
I came down last night,
Because I thought maybe she was having an affair.
- To confront her?
- Spy on her.
I should have just talked to her.
- What'd you see?
- Her and her partner,
After their shift last night, they went to a bar.
- Her partner who was killed with her--
That's who you thought she was having an affair with?
- Yeah, but after the bar, they split up,
Went their separate ways.
- Hmm.
- I took pictures.
- Show us.
[camera beeps]
- See, that's them.
They arrived in separate cars.
- Hmm.
You know who this is?
- No, why?
- Puffy jacket, knit cap.
- Is that the guy who shot them?
They knew him?
They knew the guy who killed them?
- They'd been in a few times.
- Together? - Yeah.
Well, these two are cops.
I mean, you probably knew that, though, huh?
- Yeah, how'd you know it?
- I caught this lowlife snorting coke
In the men's room last month.
Told him I was gonna call the cops.
He said don't bother, his friends were cops.
They showed me their badges
And said they'd take care of it.
- You happened to catch that lowlife's name?
- No. Why don't you ask them?
- 'cause they're dead.
- The ones from today?
Did he kill them?
- What happened the last time they were in here?
- They talked, and it got pretty intense.
And this guy, he looked really upset.
- All right. Thank you.
- Witnesses from the pizzeria picked him out of an array.
He's the shooter.
- C.S.U. Dusted the booth
He sat at with ramos and colson for prints.
Our luck, we get the one bar in queens
That actually cleans its tables.
- So he got upset about something.
He tracked ramos and colson down the next day.
The other two had the bad luck to be there.
- They were meeting on a regular basis
With a lowlife drug user.
- Their captain said they were making more collars
Than anyone else-- drug busts.
- This guy was their informant.
- Neither one of them registered a c.I.
- Because uniforms aren't supposed to be running
That kind of operation.
- These two were ambitious. They were bucking for detective.
- Yeah, with his help.
Talk to the perps ramos and colson busted.
Maybe they know who snitched on them.
- I don't know him. Who is he?
- He's the guy who ratted you out
To the cops who busted you.
- Wish I can help.
- You were busted holding 50 grams of crack.
Who knew you had that much weight?
- Excuse me, but client is pleading not guilty.
What crack?
- He can earn himself a walk here, counselor.
We need this guy.
- Guy named high -top knew.
I was supposed to meet him in garvey park.
He didn't show.
All of a sudden, boom, two cops.
I was doing nothing but feeding pigeons.
- I'm sorry. Somebody steered you wrong.
- Well, you look a little shaky.
You all right, high-top?
- It's charles. Yeah.
I-I just don't need cops hassling me, okay?
- You should be shaky, charles,
'cause your dealer who got busted,
The one sitting in rikers,
He blames you for putting him there.
- Me? Why?
- You knew where he was.
You were supposed to meet him, but cops showed up instead.
- Well, I didn't rat out anybody, so...
- Maybe a friend of yours, then.
Maybe somebody who knew what you were doing that day.
How about this guy?
- Yes.
That son of a bitch's name is calvin stokes.
- So you recognize him now?
- Yes.
- Maybe sitting right there? - Yeah.
- Ah, looks like dried blood.
- Well, he said he got bit by a dog.
- He shot four cops, and one of them shot him.
Did you hear about that?
- I didn't know he did that.
- Where'd he go when he left here, huh?
- I don't know.
I-I told him he needed to get to a hospital.
He told me he knows somebody that could help him.
- Who?
- I don't know, man.
Seriously.
The guy was chewing on a bunch of vicodin, okay?
I could barely understand what he was saying.
- Where'd he get the pills? From you?
- No, definitely not. He's always got pills on him.
He's mr. Pill.
[chuckles] you know?
He's--he's always got a prescription bottle.
I saw the label once.
It was some, uh, chick doctor--
Funny name, you know, like hooter.
Nancy hooter or kooter or something.
- Easy does it.
- What? - Get up.
- Oh, come on. You're busting me? Why?
- Hindering prosecution.
- I just helped you guys. I gave you hooter, didn't I?
- For taking in your friend after he shot four cops.
You know what? They'll explain it to you at rikers.
[drill whirs] - who is he?
- Apparently someone you've been prescribing vicodin to.
- Calvin stokes.
Um, I don't know him, okay?
Uh, now, I got a root canal in that room
That's about to wake up.
- Who else has access to your prescription pad?
- Uh, I don't know.
Um, my staff, but I trust them.
- Is all your staff here today?
- Yeah, everyone except my office manager, dolores.
She called in sick today.
- Dolores what?
- Martin.
Oh, it used to be something else.
Did you say his name was stokes?
That might have been it.
- So this could be her husband.
- Dolores is 60.
- No movement.
No sign of the suspect or mrs. Martin.
- Are you guys ready to go in?
- Woman approaching from the south.
- Dolores martin? - Yes.
- Police. Ma'am, we need to talk to you about your son.
- I don't know where he is.
- What's in the bag, ms. Martin?
- Just some things from the drugstore.
- Uh -huh. May I?
Bandages, sutures, antibiotics.
- He's in the house, isn't he?
He killed four police officers yesterday.
We're gonna take him in.
Now, you can help us, or we'll go in shooting.
- No. No.
He didn't mean to hurt anybody.
- Where is he?
- His old room...
Upstairs in the back.
- Give me your keys. Let's go.
- Stokes!
Move your hands away from your body!
He's alive.
Get the emts up here now.
Get the emts up here now!
- How you feeling, stokes?
I'm okay.
- That's as far as this interview goes.
- Yeah, maybe he wants to talk about the four officers he shot.
- I've strongly advised him against saying anything.
- That's his advice.
But it's a free country.
You have anything on your mind?
Maybe you were mad at something,
And you want to tell us about it.
- I'm doing what he says.
- Yeah? Did he tell you detective bernard here
Saved your life?
Did he mention that?
- He'll send you a thank -you note.
We're done.
- Be sure to be vigilant now.
- Calvin stokes, 25,
Convicted of attempted murder when he was 16.
His sentence was 20 years, but it was commuted after 3.
Since then, he's been back in prison twice--
Drugs and assault.
- We had this guy behind bars three times
And kept letting him go?
- Not anymore.
He didn't get bail,
And the evidence to convict is rock-solid--
Eyewitnesses,
Stokes' gun is the murder weapon,
And the bullet in his shoulder
Came from officer ramos' weapon.
- Four counts of first -degree murder.
Four terms of life without parole.
- Why stop there?
Let the u.S. Attorney take the case.
The federal government has a death penalty.
- We don't go forum shopping for harsher penalties.
We follow the laws of new york here.
- The new york legislature passed a death -penalty law.
It was a court that voided it.
- A new york court.
- This is all premature.
Do we know why this man stokes
Opened fire on four police officers?
- With all due respect, who cares?
- I do.
And you should too,
If you want to make a federal case of this.
- The murder of police officers
Isn't a federal crime in itself,
Only if it's committed
In certain specified circumstances.
- Was it a terrorist conspiracy,
A kidnapping,
A continuing criminal enterprise?
- We'll find out.
- How'd it go?
- I'm not sure your lieutenant
Shares our attitude toward cop killers.
- Well, cop killers, we all feel the same about.
Playing god, I'm not so sure.
- I know you've been sick, lieutenant,
And I'm sorry about that.
But, uh, maybe it's affecting your judgment.
- [scoffs] I certainly hope so.
- I hope you two are not done with your investigation.
- Looks like you may be facing a lynch mob in the courtroom.
- Can you blame them?
Maybe we should hand this case to the feds.
The u.S. Attorney would lap this up.
- The u.S. Attorney would execute his own mother
To show what a hard-ass he is.
- Right, kill everybody--
Not like we ever make mistakes.
- Stokes is guilty.
If anyone deserves to die, he does.
- I've witnessed one execution.
I don't ever need to see another.
What else do we know about stokes?
- His attempted -murder sentence was commuted
At the recommendation of mary markson
When she was state attorney general.
- She's running for senate now.
This is gonna bite her in the ass.
- She must have had a reason.
- I can't tell you how sorry I am
About how all this turned out.
- I can only imagine.
- You know, stokes was arrested twice
After I got his sentence commuted.
- I know.
Both times he got the minimum. - For felonies.
Those judges made the same mistake I did.
- Mary, nobody's saying you could have foreseen this.
- Nobody?
Have you listened to talk radio lately?
[inhales deeply]
Based on the information I had,
I made the right decision.
He was 16.
He had been provoked.
He was repentant.
His mother wrote me a beautiful letter.
- We practice justice.
Mercy's supposed to be part of it.
- Not anymore, jack...
Not after this.
- You know, it was his mother who was sheltering him
When he got caught.
- They were very close.
That is one of the reasons
That I thought that he would be okay.
If you want to know what he was thinking,
Talk to her.
- High -top isn't much of a housekeeper, is he?
- Well, you know, the single -crackhead lifestyle.
- What a load of garbage...
Or not.
- Mr. Pill.
- Check this out.
- He's a good son. He's always been good to me.
- Well, that's not the issue right now, mrs. Martin.
- It is for a mother.
- Your good son killed four police officers,
Somebody else's good sons and daughter.
- I don't know. Something must have happened.
- Well, we think so too. We just want to find out what.
- Mrs. Martin, when you took your son in,
You committed a crime,
And it's still possible that you will be charged.
- He's my child. Don't you understand?
Do you have children?
- Excuse us.
- Dolores martin, you're under arrest.
- What are you-- what are you doing?
Hindering prosecution is our call,
And we haven't made it yet.
- Oh, well, take your time, 'cause right now,
She's under arrest for dealing drugs.
Let's go.
- We're supposed to be on the same team here.
- We're on the team that wants to make sure
A cop killer gets what's coming to him.
- You think we want to give him a parade?
- We're going by the book.
We conducted a search
Of the suspect's friend's apartment.
- High -top, the guy who took him in after the murders.
- And we found these.
- Prescription pads.
- From the oral surgeon that mrs. Martin works for.
- Made out for vicodin, oxycontin,
And all kinds of goodies.
- So we arrested ms. Martin for criminal diversion
Of prescription medications.
- How about consulting us first?
- We don't need an a.D.A.'s permission to do our job.
- You're trying to establish some kind of criminal enterprise
To make this qualify as a federal case.
- Well, if that's where the chips fall...
- We have no idea how these pads got into that apartment,
And neither do you.
- Go ask this high -top.
And do it together.
- It ain't mine.
- Well, they were found in your apartment.
That puts you in possession-- another felony.
- Or you could tell us about your friend stokes.
- They're his.
He stashed them at my place,
Along with some of the pills he had with him.
- Where did he get those pads? - I don't know.
He called me a couple days ago before those cops were shot.
He told me to get rid of them.
- Them and the pills?
- No, not the pills, just the pads.
He said, "burn them."
I told him I would, but, I mean, come on.
You know, they're worth something.
I figured...
- And he never mentioned his mother to you?
- His mother? Why?
- That doesn't incriminate the mother.
- How do you think he got those pads without her--
Positive thinking? - The connection is obvious.
- So stokes tells his pal
To destroy the pads but not the pills,
Because the connection is obvious.
- Yeah, to protect his mother. - From whom?
- Well, ramos and her partner wanted to make detective.
They had an informant,
But he was bringing them little fish.
- And if they wanted to go after something bigger,
But stokes wouldn't play along...
- Right. What's his pressure point?
- You know what? You guys are fun.
But I think I should talk to her alone.
- They haven't even let me see my son.
- I'll see what I can do, mrs. Martin.
But I know that you were right about your son.
- You do? - Mm-hmm.
Even in this situation,
He was trying to protect you...
Just like...
You have always protected him.
We know you took those prescription pads.
But you did it because he needed the medication, right?
- He was trying to stop being a drug addict.
It was very painful, the withdrawal.
He just needed some pain pills to help.
- He didn't want to be in that world anymore, did he?
- No, he didn't.
- Which is why he was helping those police officers,
Helping them arrest drug dealers.
- That's right.
He wanted to change his life.
He wanted to be a good citizen.
- What did they want him to do?
- To go after dangerous people.
He could have been hurt.
- So he said no.
What did they say?
That they'd send him to jail?
That they'd send you to jail?
- They saw those pads.
They said I was guilty,
And they made him choose to risk his life,
Or they'd arrest me.
He wouldn't let anyone do that to me.
It was a terrible, terrible situation.
They forced him into it.
[voice breaking] anything he did,
He did it to protect his mother.
- You informed the p.D.?
- Well, we're all on the same team, right?
[knock at door]
- If stokes killed those cops
To protect his mother from a drug charge,
The murders
Were part of a continuing criminal enterprise,
Which makes him eligible for the federal death penalty.
- Exactly what the U.S. Attorney says.
He just filed an application
For a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum.
He wants to take over
The prisoner and the prosecution.
- The police didn't waste any time running over there.
- It wasn't the police.
Somebody beat them to it.
- Mary markson.
She filed a supporting brief,
Saying, "the state has consistently mishandled
"its prosecutions of mr. Stokes.
Only the federal government can be trusted to do it right."
- Mishandled by whom?
It was her recommendation that freed him.
- Five years ago.
Now she's running for senate.
She's trying to make up for that by killing him.
- Politics and the death penalty--
My favorite combination.
-Your honour, on three occasions,
The state of new york had the opportunity
To deal properly with calvin stokes,
And every time they failed to do so,
With the tragic consequences of which we are all aware.
- I'm sorry, your honor,
But what standing does ms. Markson have
To address this hearing?
She doesn't represent the United States government.
- Her brief is crucial to our application, your honor.
Want to make ms. Markson available for questions.
- You may proceed, ms. Markson.
- I personally made one of new york's three mistakes
With mr. Stokes.
As a former attorney general, it pains me to say it,
But new york does not deserve another bite of this apple.
- Well, we're sorry if ms. Markson feels bad,
But current state officials don't share her doubts
About new york's capacity to try a murderer.
We do it every day.
And the ones whose sentences ms. Markson doesn't commute
Stay in prison.
- In any case, your honor,
The supreme court held in ponzi v. Fessenden
That the sovereign which first arrests an individual
Acquires the priority of jurisdiction
For the purposes of trial sentencing
And incarceration.
- That dates from 1922, your honor.
It seems archaic that this important question
Boils down to a race
Between the fbi and local police.
Are they supposed to have tug-of-wars
Over murder suspects?
- Apparently so, mr. Horvath.
New york has him,
And if it wants to keep him, it has a right to do so.
Have a nice trial, mr. Cutter.
- Now, what is she so happy about?
She lost.
- She went down swinging for an execution.
That's got to be worth ten points in the polls.
- [knocks]
- I heard.
It stays in state court.
I know that's not what you wanted.
- Yeah, I've noticed, lieutenant,
That very little of what happens around here
Is what any of us wants.
I'm sorry...
About what I said about your illness.
- Well...
If four of my detectives were killed,
I don't know what I would do
Or what I would say.
- Well, your detectives did a good job.
And whatever happens now,
I wanted to thank you...
To thank them.
- I'm sorry for your loss, captain.
- No...
Our loss.
- We're putting you on first
To give the bare bones of the case.
- It's not gonna be much of a trial, is it?
He has no defense.
- Well, his lawyer's going
For a verdict of manslaughter instead of murder
On the grounds that stokes acted
In a state of extreme emotional disturbance.
- So he can get out in 10 to 20 years?
Why didn't you just allow him to go to the feds?
He doesn't deserve to go on living
No matter how disturbed he is.
- Detective, I heard when stokes was arrested,
You were the one who gave him cpr.
You saved his life.
Why, if you wanted him dead?
- I'm a cop.
I'm not the executioner.
- Neither am I.
- When you apprehended the defendant,
Did he have a weapon in his possession?
- Yes...
A .45-caliber pistol, which we secured.
- And were you present when the man you arrested
Was presented to eyewitnesses?
- Yes, and everyone positively picked him
As the man who fired his weapon in the pizzeria.
- Thank you.
- Detective bernard, how much did you know
About how officer ramos and her partner
Treated mr. Stokes?
- I don't know what you mean by "treated."
- They had a relationship with him, didn't they?
He provided them with information
Leading to the arrest of drug dealers.
- There was some indication that he did.
- And did they then pressure him to go after bigger fish?
- I have no idea.
- Did they threaten to arrest his mother
If he didn't do what they wanted him to do?
- You know, these are questions
That officers ramos and colson could answer,
Had he not murdered them.
- Move to strike.
- Detective, you know how to answer these questions.
- Didn't you prepare an affidavit
For the u.S. Attorney alleging that mr. Stokes
Killed those police officers
To prevent them from arresting his mother?
- Yes.
- Thank you.
And officers ramos and colson crossed some lines
In their treatment of mr. Stokes, didn't they?
- Not to my knowledge. - Really?
Are police officers supposed to condone
The use of illegal drugs by informants in their presence?
- No.
- Didn't you become aware that officers ramos and colson
Did just that when mr. Stokes
Was caught using cocaine in a bar?
- We were told that by a source
Who I wouldn't consider reliable.
- Why not?
- Because he works in an establishment
Where drug use is common.
So I'd consider anything he says suspect.
- That was crap about the bartender, wasn't it?
- Drugs are used where he works.
He told us himself. - Used by stokes.
That's what the attorney was asking about.
- It's not germane.
We don't have to dirty dead cops
To convict the man who shot them.
- I need my witnesses to testify truthfully.
- Okay, so what's my lie again exactly?
- You are pushing it.
And if you go too far and screw up this trial,
Either of you, the defense might get what it wants--
A manslaughter verdict, a slap on the wrist.
- How bad would that be?
If you don't get stokes on murder,
The feds could step in and try him then
On the death-penalty charge.
It's not double jeopardy.
The state and federal governments
Are separate sovereigns.
- I see you're still staying awake
In law school, detective.
Now, you wouldn't be thinking
Of deliberately sabotaging this trial
To give the feds an opening, would you?
- No.
- Good.
- Detectives?
- I found something of rebecca's that I thought you should see.
- There's a guy in the neighborhood--
Runs drugs and guns.
He's crazy.
Everybody know he killed three people.
- And that's who officers ramos and colson
Wanted you to inform against?
- He killed his own brother for denting his car.
I said, "no way."
- But you had informed on other criminals.
- Yes.
It felt good.
But I wasn't gonna get myself killed
'cause they wanted to be detectives.
- They mentioned that to you?
- A lot.
Said they'd put me on the books
Once they got their gold shields,
That I could go on salary.
I said thanks, but I was done.
- Then what happened?
- They rousted me on the street,
Found some pills,
Said they'd send me back to the joint
For violating parole.
Plus, I had a prescription pad on me
From the dentist my mother works for.
She didn't even know I'd taken it.
They said they'd bust her too,
That we could celebrate mother's day in attica.
- What happened the night before the shooting incident?
- I met them at the bar,
Offered to keep working for them--
Not aimed at the crazy guy, but at some other good targets.
They said fine,
And then we could go at the crazy guy,
Plus some of his friends.
I said, "no."
- What did they say?
- "do it or go to jail...
You and your mother."
That was my choice--
Die or send my mother to prison.
I walked out of there,
Couldn't sleep.
I stayed up all night.
My brain was, like, shooting off fire stars.
Went to see them the next day.
They saw me coming,
And they smiled...
A "screw you" smile.
And...
And I lost it.
I didn't even see the other cops.
I never meant for this to happen.
I'm sorry.
I really am sorry.
- We'll break for the day.
Mr. Cutter, you can cross tomorrow.
[gavel bangs]
- What's that?
- Uh, it's a logbook kept by officer ramos.
Her husband found it and brought it in.
- You tell the d.A.S? - No.
No, we just got it.
- You know, I heard about the trial today.
That defendant kicked butt.
- Yeah, sob story from hell.
- So what's in it?
- Informant log--
Every contact she had with stokes.
- Interesting.
- Some might think so.
She saw him do drugs.
She gave him money she knew he would use to buy drugs.
And she and her partner
Did push him about his mother.
- And this here, their last meeting with him--
The d.A.S could use it.
- Well, if we turn it over,
It all comes out.
- So?
- So officer ramos and her partner crossed some lines.
It's nothing anybody needs to hear right now.
- Oh, so that's what you're worried about.
Okay. [chuckles]
But what about me?
If I'm not ever around,
You gonna turn me into a retroactive saint?
Go through my office and clean out my nasty habits,
Tell the world how sweet I was all the time?
Look, she was a cop.
She wanted to be a detective.
She made some mistakes--
Honest, good-faith mistakes, but she made some mistakes.
Get over it.
- "January 4th, $50.
January 12th, $75."
Are these accurate descriptions
Of officer ramos' payments to you?
- Sounds right.
- "January 13th, collar, brent darien,
Criminal possession, $50 bonus."
Is that right too? - Yeah.
- Is this your signature next to the payment amounts?
- Yeah, she made me sign, in case she ever got reimbursed.
- Would you please read this description
Of your final meeting with officer ramos
And her partner at the bar in queens?
Right there.
- "'s' complained of low pay,
Demanded bonus, $1,000."
That's not true.
- Keep reading.
- "we rejected. 's' got angry."
There ought to be stuff in there
About their threats about my mother.
- There is, from weeks before,
But there is no mention of it near the time of the shooting.
But that last night in the bar--
"'s' got angry, said we were cheating him,
Said he'd show us."
It was all about money, wasn't it?
- No. They left stuff out.
- It wasn't about your mother that night!
It was about getting you more money to buy drugs!
- Drugs had nothing to do with it!
I wa--I was taking big chances for them!
- Right, so you wanted to be paid.
- I wanted what was fair!
I wanted what I was earning!
They thought they could push me around
Like I was nobody!
- "'s' got angry, said we were cheating him,
Said he'd show us."
And that's exactly what you did.
- On the charge of murder in the first degree
For the death of officer dwayne garber,
How do you find?
- We find the defendant guilty.
- On the charge of murder in the first degree
For the death of officer christopher oren,
How do you find?
- We find the defendant guilty.
- On the charge of murder in the first degree
For the death of officer frederic colson,
How do you find?
- We find the defendant guilty.
- On the charge of murder in the first degree
For the death of officer rebecca ramos,
How do you find?
- We find the defendant guilty.
- Best case-- he gets four life sentences.
Worst case--he gets four consecutive 25s.
- If the feds still want him, they can have him in 100 years.
- Well, if I'm still around, I'll testify.
- It's van buren.
We caught a fresh one.
- Detectives...
Be safe.