Timothy Busfield directed this episode. Now that's talent behind the camera. He’s not the first actor / director for this show. I noticed Charles Haid also directed episode 1.05 Nevada v. Senator Harper.
Nick arrived at work in a foul mood. Someone parked their Porsche in his spot. He was complaining about it when he arrived at the office that he had to double park and he was a little surprised to see a crowd of reporters upstairs. (This is a real great set by the way.)
The car belonged to Betty Johnson, who had come to the firm seeking legal representation after she fired her sixth lawyer shortly before her case is finally going to trial.
The media calls her Black Betty. She and and her boyfriend Jason Nichols are accused of stealing 40 million dollars in silver and killing famed Vegas entertainer Duane Daryl, a man she had lived with for eight years.
Nick automatically takes a disliking to her, and believes she’s guilty. That’s the kind of treatment she’s been getting from everyone for the past year. She doesn’t need it from her lawyer. She admits to taking the silver and stealing his ring, but stresses that she didn’t kill Duane.
Pete wants to form a defense pinning the blame on Jason, but Betty wouldn’t have it.
Pete finds out from Betty’s former lawyers why the case was so difficult. Aside from her bad attitude, they tell him she was being tried with her no good boyfriend. Jason Nichols was a convicted felon. He was already doing time for burglary and assault. Also Jason's lawyer Howell was an ambulance chaser defending a murder case. The sooner they can severe themselves from Jason's case, the better it will be for Betty.
Pete tries to lure Nick in by taking a trip to Duane’s house. He couldn’t resist, but it still doesn’t mean he will get involved in the case.
Betty tells them what happen the night he died. As she does this, she's takes them to the vault Duane hired Jason to build, to store the silver, the silver Duane gave Betty.
It’s been bad for her and Duane. They had argued the night before. She came back the next night to pack her things and leave him for Jason. While Betty was upstairs packing, Jason was in the vault getting the silver. When Betty found Duane, she knew that he had overdosed on heroine. She tried to save him, but she knew he was already gone.
Pete is angry at Nick for thinking Betty was guilty, but sees that could be good thing. If he thinks like the DA, maybe he can convince the jury of Betty’s innocence. It was enough to make Nick concede and agree to be on the case.
This is exciting for Pete. They are going to represent the most hated woman in Vegas.
Nick and Pete asks ADA Cole to let them defend Betty separately. No deal. They are hero killers; they are hanging together. Cole thinks it’s a new low even for them for even asking. Nick is upset by this. Pete tries to calm him down.
“I am not a monk. I’m a lawyer. You don’t see me sitting on a mountain eating miso soup.”
The prosecution opens that Betty and Jason killed Duane for greed. They suffocated him with a sofa cushion. They had motive and opportunity.
Jason’s lawyer opens that the defendants were innocent, and claims a third party killed Duane.
As a result of co-counsel’s statement, Pete decided to waive his right to make an opening statement.
Incensed, Betty asked why he didn’t defend her. Nick told her that Pete was right to not say anything. Jason’s lawyer is incompetent; he made Jason look guilty.
Nick and Pete let Howell continue with his incompetence, which forced the judge to declare a mistrial.
Despite protests from Cole, the judge will allow the trial to continue with Betty alone.
While at the office late, Pete inspired Nick with another plausible scenario of how Duane could have suffocated on a sofa cushion.
Nick demonstrated to the court how Duane death could have been an accident.
Duane had vast quantities of heroine in his system, a drug known to affect a person’s breathing. If the heroine made Duane sleepy, it was likely that Duane had rolled over and suffocated on the sofa cushion that way.
The fact that police had found him face up was because that Betty knew that it was not murder and turned him over to try to save him.
ADA Cole then put Jason Nichols on the stand. He testified that it was Betty who had suffocated Duane with the cushion. He lied.
Betty was hurt. She had thought that Jason cared about her. Who will believe she didn’t murder Duane now?
Pete puts Betty on the stand. She’s cleaned up to let the court see the real Betty Johnson. She talked about her love for Duane and said she took his ring in hopes that he will marry her some day.
Pete follows with an impassioned closing statement.
“Everyone loved Duane. My partner sang ‘Sending Me Angels’ to his wife at their wedding and embarrassed the heck out of her too. There’s a reason why they call Duane Mr. Vegas. Like Vegas, Duane was entertaining, Duane was iconic, also like Vegas, Duane had a dark side, a side of addiction and emotional abuse, a side that Betty endured for years, despite the pain it caused her. My client described Duane Daryl as a generous man and I am sure he was in many ways. But Betty, Duane was never generous with you. Duane put you through hell. All he allowed her to have, although she stood by his side for 8 years was that silver, something so heavy and impossible to move, you have to wonder if it was a way to keep her bound to him. But Betty isn't the kind of girl you can keep tied down. So she took the silver that Duane had promised her. Not the wisest choice but it was what gave her the strength to leave and that does not make her a thief and does not make her a murderer. For a year the media and this entire city had a field day judging Betty for her bad choices. Well now we are in a court of law. And in here, you are not allowed to judge people for their choices. In here, you just got to make sure that justice gets done. Thank you.”
The court finds her not guilty of murder and not guilty of stealing the silver. She is only guilty of stealing Duane’s ring.
On the way to the office, Pete reminds Nick that he can’t keep calling her Black Betty anymore. She’s innocent. They are surprised to find there Duane’s baby grand piano. Betty gave it to them.
Nick sits down and starts to play, singing “Sending Me Angels.”
Brilliant. I give it 9/10.
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