Ping: Law & Order Fans (current events tie-in)

[QuikSand]

Law & Order, the very popular crime drama series from NBC, is entering a new season soon. New episodes are being written as we speak. The basic idea of the show is this: in each episode, a crime happens or is discovered (almost always a homicide), the first part of the show details the investigation (mostly the police work) and the second part of the show details the prosecution (mostly the district attorneys).

For those of you who know the Law & Order formula fairly well, this will be familiar. Many of their stories start with a seed idea that is (and is frquently billed as being) "ripped from the headlines," and then devolves into a different sort of story than it initially appears. Frequently, the cases on this show involve some sort of dramatic twist that alters the direction of the plot substantially (often redirecting the suspicions onto a new individual).

So, given that setup (which I admit may be inadequate for those who really don't know the show), here's the challenge:

Write a short (like one paragraph) summary of a Law & Order script idea that starts with the incident at the Oakland-Texas baseball game the other night, where a player-fan fracas ended with a player throwing a chair into the stands and injuring one or more patrons.

Your entries will receive kudos for originality, potential for being interesting, loyalty to the traditional L&O concepts, and so forth. A bonus will be -- let's see if anyone can come reasonably close to the actual storyline that L&O will surely do later this season based on this germ idea.

Have fun.

[wade moore]

Wow. I'm gonna have to think on this one. It is tough because you're dealing with a situation where the crime itself is witnessed by millions. Or even in a small spinoff, it would be at least the crowd of thousands (say they did it in a minor league stadium)...

I'll have to ponder this throughout the work day...

[Ksyrup]

The prospect of Dennis Farina on L&O makes me queasy.

[samifan24]

The prospect of Dennis Farina on L&O makes me queasy.
:eek: What? Do tell my friend, do tell...

[Ksyrup]

He's replacing Joe Dimaggio's Lenny Briscoe as a new character. I just think Farina's a crappy actor.

[albionmoonlight]

A hothead visiting team baseball player--at a very important game--being heckled by an old man and his adult son throws a chair into the stands, injuring the old man who dies from a heart attack based on the stress of the injury. Police investigation learns that the old man had been in poor heart health for a while, taking a large assortment of drugs for the problem, and probably should not have been at the game. However, as we learn from his grieving family, he was a lifelong [HOME TEAM] fanatic and begged and pleaded his family to allow him to go to the big game.

Initially, it looks like the main issue will be how to handle a high profile homicide involving a famous defendant. With what do you charge the baseball player? However, an offhand comment by one of the pathology guys gets the attention of one of the investigators. Something does not seem right. Upon further investigation, we learn that the son had some major debts coming due for which he needed his inheritance. After even more investigation, it is suspected that the old man’s son, unbeknownst to the old man, replaced the old man’s morning heart medicine with a placebo, hoping that the stress of the game would cause him to have a heart attack. The son went with his dad, doing his best to keep the old man excited by heckling, etc. The chair simply was the incident that put the old man over the edge.

Due to political pressures, the DA’s office offers a very generous plea to the baseball player. The main prosecution in the show is that of the son, for first degree murder: intentionally causing the death of his father by withholding his heart medicine from him and subjecting him to a stressful situation with a high likelihood that it would cause a heart attack.

[QuikSand]

albionmonlight gets it.

[Radii]

very nice, albionmoonlight.

[Ksyrup]

Yes, nicely done. So nice, in fact, that you've shamed me into not participating.

[condors]

albionmoonlight>condors

very nicely done!

[lurker]

So you guys are succumbing to the depths of writing fanfic now? :D

[NevStar]

A minimum salary visiting player throws a chair into the crowd, sending a middle-aged, seemingly healthy, man to the hospital with a broken nose Later, when it appears he was recovering, he dies under mysterious circumstances. The federal government reveals that he was a former member of the Mafioso (or Russian Mob, L&O loves the Russian Mob), who was set to testify against his former bosses.

A vast conspiracy unfolds (possibly under the supervision of the Reverse Vampires), where the visiting ballplayer is revealed to have large gambling debts & was instructed to throw the chair. When the baseball player gets a plea bargain, he is also assassinated before he can testify against the mob leaders.

[rkmsuf]

not only is law and order seemingly on 24 hours a day on various channels, it's even here now.

I'm eagerly awaiting an accompanying CSI thread.

[wade moore]

Yes, nicely done. So nice, in fact, that you've shamed me into not participating.

ditto.

[Z²+]

Detectives Briscoe and Green are sent into Yankee stadium to investigate the murder of a 10 year old child at the game. According to witnesses and stadium security, fans in the bullpen bleachers had been heckling the visiting Texas pitchers throughout much of the game. As the game went into extra innings, according to players within the Texax bullpen, someone in the stands began to yell racial slurs to pitchers below. Jose Santinos, at whom several of the slurs were directed, ran over and began swinging a bullpen chair at one of the fans in the bleachers. In the ruckus that followed, Santinos accidentally strikes the 10 year old fan on the head, causing injuries that led to his death just minutes later while en route to the stadium first aid office. Santinos is arrested, and again enters a fit of anger, shoving detective Briscoe and continually asserting his innocence. After shown footage of the incident taken by stadium security cameras, Santinos begins to sob and claims he doesn't remember it happening at all. His lawyer then arrives and puts an end to the questioning. Santinos pleads not guilty, and is held without bail by our hero, Jack McCoy.

The detectives do some researching on Santinos. He was a career minor leaguer for 9 years, toiling away in the Texas system without much success. He was called up to the majors 2 seasons ago, and had spent time between majors/AAA without really distinguising himself. Until spring training this year, when his fastball gained nearly 10 mph, now topping off around 96 mph. He became the team's closer, was selected to the All Star Team, and led the league in saves. A major turnaround, he was the story of the year among baseball afficionados. While investigating, several players tell Briscoe and Green that Santinos had changed recently, stopped socializing with them after games, had left his family, and had been acting very strangely in the locker room.
During his psychiatric meeting with the good Dr. Emil Skota, Santinos again becomes aggressive when challenged by Skota to answer questions. Skota diagnoses some type of aggressive disorder, and wants testing done. Testing shows traces of randomscientifictechnojargonicide in his system, an experimental chemical found in a new type of unapproved performance enhancing substance. Santinos denies taking anything when interviewed by McCoy. In a search of his apartment in Texas, the local police find the substance hidden under a loose board in the closet. McCoy's research leads him to discover that an unordinarily large number of minor leagues had died of mysterious causes over the past 2 years, specifically among the players in Santinos' league. McCoy again meets with Santinos, telling him about the evidence and the other deaths. Santinos offers to tell him where he got the drugs in exchange for a plea. McCoy offers a reduced sentance for the boy's murder, and Santinos spills his guts.
The investigation eventually leads to BALKY, a pharmacuedical company suspected of distributing illegal and untested substances to professional athletes in exchange for large sums of money. In the special law and order twist, however, we find that BALKY had a large supply of their experimental enhancing drug stolen 2 years back from their Mexico facility. Jose Santinos was charged with the crime in Mexican court, but the charges were dismissed after a technical error by the prosecution.
As the show closes, McCoy has a glass of scotch, and he and Serena begin to prepare indictments charging Santinos with the murder of all the players he distributed the substance to.

[kcchief19]

Incessant heckling from a rambunctious fan causes a baseball player to throw a chair into the stands, causing turmoil in that section of the stadium where a sports simulation software company is having a company outing. During the melee, the CEO of a sports simulation company is killed when the chair strikes him and sends tumbling head over heels down the concrete steps of the stadium.

With pressure from the media, the public and politicians to file murder charges, the DA pursues a case against the player, but immediately nothing adds up. A person in front of the president was struck by the chair and suffered nothing more than a bloody nose. There was a blunt trauma to the head of the president, but it was not consistent with being struck by the chair. With no TV footage of the incident and no security camera trained on the exact spot of the incident, the DA is forced to drop the charges against the player and the case appears to drying up.

Until a tip comes in from a woman claiming her ex-boyfriend has footage of the incident on his home video camera he smuggled into the stadium. The tape shows the truth, but he is unwilling to come forward because the first part of the tape shows him and his buddies joyriding and breaking in car windows on a drive through the city. He can't come forward with the tape without admitting his own guilt. He denies having the tape and it is a he-said/she-said between two exes. But knowing what the girlfriend says is on the tape, the prosecutors make a deal not to charge the man with any crimes he committed captured on the tape in exchange for the footage of the murder.

The video is grainy, but it seems to show that the CEO of the software company fell down after the chair struck the woman in front of him. The detectives renew their interviews, starting with the only man who claims to have seen the chair hit the company CEO -- the president of the software company.

An Internet search reveals that rumors of the rift between the two were posted on an Internet message board and the two even exchanged combative messages on the board. The detectives are now convinced they know what happened -- in the confusion the president of the company realized in an instant he had an opportunity and struck the CEO in the front of the head and pushed him down the stairs. No one noticed the exchanged amid the confusion.

But armed with only a grainy video and Internet bulletin board messages, the DA does not have enough evidence for a conviction. The only hope is that a witness can be found who will testify. Sitting next to the president of the company at the game was his wife, who is also a partner in the company. The detectives are convinced she must have seen something, and grill her, asking her how she can live with a murderer and have him raise her children. On the opposite side of the two-way mirror, the president of the company watches his wife sob as she continues to defend him and refuses to change his story. He realizes what impact the murder has had on his wife and confesses so she will not have to live with the guilt of hiding his crime.

I may have seen this on an old Perry Mason, though. Not sure. :)

[JeeberD]

Not Arlie!!!!!!

[lynchjm24]

...

[Suicane75]

This one is simple. Brisco and Green are at the ballpark, a cop explains the incident, a ballplayer recklessly threw a chair into the crowd and fractured a womans skull. She'll survive but the player is in trouble. They're led into the clubhouse and take away the ballplayer.

During the interogation the video is played back and players lawyer tries to plead the chargers down, Brisco informs him that deportation is highly likely. The ballplayer becomes very scared and offers up an agent who is forgeing the birth certificates of many Dominican players and misrepresenting their ages.

Brisco and Green look into things further and find out that the agent is a taking an absurd amount of money from many of players contracts.

Further looks into things reveals an almost slave labor ring that brings players from the Dominican to the United States.

In the end Baseball puts it's lawyers to work and everyone shuts up and things don't go anywhere even though it's obvious that there are some very shady things going on.

[wade moore]

Detectives Briscoe and Green are sent into Yankee stadium to investigate the murder of a 10 year old child at the game. According to witnesses and stadium security, fans in the bullpen bleachers had been heckling the visiting Texas pitchers throughout much of the game. As the game went into extra innings, according to players within the Texax bullpen, someone in the stands began to yell racial slurs to pitchers below. Jose Santinos, at whom several of the slurs were directed, ran over and began swinging a bullpen chair at one of the fans in the bleachers. In the ruckus that followed, Santinos accidentally strikes the 10 year old fan on the head, causing injuries that led to his death just minutes later while en route to the stadium first aid office. Santinos is arrested, and again enters a fit of anger, shoving detective Briscoe and continually asserting his innocence. After shown footage of the incident taken by stadium security cameras, Santinos begins to sob and claims he doesn't remember it happening at all. His lawyer then arrives and puts an end to the questioning. Santinos pleads not guilty, and is held without bail by our hero, Jack McCoy.

The detectives do some researching on Santinos. He was a career minor leaguer for 9 years, toiling away in the Texas system without much success. He was called up to the majors 2 seasons ago, and had spent time between majors/AAA without really distinguising himself. Until spring training this year, when his fastball gained nearly 10 mph, now topping off around 96 mph. He became the team's closer, was selected to the All Star Team, and led the league in saves. A major turnaround, he was the story of the year among baseball afficionados. While investigating, several players tell Briscoe and Green that Santinos had changed recently, stopped socializing with them after games, had left his family, and had been acting very strangely in the locker room.
During his psychiatric meeting with the good Dr. Emil Skota, Santinos again becomes aggressive when challenged by Skota to answer questions. Skota diagnoses some type of aggressive disorder, and wants testing done. Testing shows traces of randomscientifictechnojargonicide in his system, an experimental chemical found in a new type of unapproved performance enhancing substance. Santinos denies taking anything when interviewed by McCoy. In a search of his apartment in Texas, the local police find the substance hidden under a loose board in the closet. McCoy's research leads him to discover that an unordinarily large number of minor leagues had died of mysterious causes over the past 2 years, specifically among the players in Santinos' league. McCoy again meets with Santinos, telling him about the evidence and the other deaths. Santinos offers to tell him where he got the drugs in exchange for a plea. McCoy offers a reduced sentance for the boy's murder, and Santinos spills his guts.
The investigation eventually leads to BALKY, a pharmacuedical company suspected of distributing illegal and untested substances to professional athletes in exchange for large sums of money. In the special law and order twist, however, we find that BALKY had a large supply of their experimental enhancing drug stolen 2 years back from their Mexico facility. Jose Santinos was charged with the crime in Mexican court, but the charges were dismissed after a technical error by the prosecution.
As the show closes, McCoy has a glass of scotch, and he and Serena begin to prepare indictments charging Santinos with the murder of all the players he distributed the substance to.

I'm thinking there is a better direction to take this. To me this actually sounds much more appropriate for CSI than Law & Order.

If it was L&O I think it is something like this...


Detectives Briscoe and Green are sent into Yankee stadium to investigate the murder of a 10 year old child at the game. According to witnesses and stadium security, fans in the bullpen bleachers had been heckling the visiting Texas pitchers throughout much of the game. As the game went into extra innings, according to players within the Texax bullpen, someone in the stands began to yell racial slurs to pitchers below. Jose Santinos, at whom several of the slurs were directed, ran over and began swinging a bullpen chair at one of the fans in the bleachers. In the ruckus that followed, Santinos accidentally strikes the 10 year old fan on the head, causing injuries that led to his death just minutes later while en route to the stadium first aid office. Santinos is arrested, and again enters a fit of anger, shoving detective Briscoe and continually asserting his innocence. After shown footage of the incident taken by stadium security cameras, Santinos begins to sob. The player swears that he watched where the kid was and did not swing the chair anywhere close to him.

McCoy wants to take a hard line as incidents in between players and fans have become increasingly serious and he wants to prove a point. For some reason something does not seem right to Brisco. The 10 year-old boy was at the ball-game with his step-father (the fan heckling) while the boy's mother was working. At the scene, the step-father was in an awful hurry to leave and did not show any signs of grief at all. When the family was brought in to get a statement, the step-father again rubbed Brisco in the wrong way.

Brisco discovers that there are security cameras posted in the stands from other angles. Although not as clear as the TV cameras, it gives a different view. Meanwhile, McCoy continues to pursue the case on the player. The jury of his peers deliberates for 20 minutes and comes back with a guilty verdict on manslaughter charges.

The show ends with a fading out shot of Brisco watching a grainy security tape that shows the step-father pushing the 10-year old boy into the path of the chair.

[QuikSand]

These are better than I would have imagined... nice job, fellas!

[wade moore]

So when is the prize awarded? ;)

[QuikSand]

Watch your mailbox.

[wade moore]

I think you might have been joking...

but i realized that my e-mail address in there was like 3 years old and innaccurate...