Original subtitles

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.

Hi, sweetie. You like my tie?

Yes. It's red.

You can watch me on the Internet, bella.

Mommy will show you how.

I know how. Bye.

Ciao.

Go play, baby.

I want you on the next plane home.

I'm not going to argue with you about this, Dana.

I'll call you later.

Please!

The evidence that human conduct

causes climate change is open to debate.

No, it's not!

What's indisputable is the foolishness of the solutions

to that supposed problem.

Cap and trade of carbon emissions

injects scientists into the financial sector, where we have no place being.

Excuse me. Excuse me!

I do not agree with Dr. Silva's views on global warming,

but that does not mean that he is wrong about cap and trade.

It's a racket, and government policy should look elsewhere.

Thank you, Dr. Brown.

It's nice to know that we can find common ground, even...

Even despite our ideological differences.

I'm sorry, I have the worst headache.

Somebody call 911!

Dr. Silva has been rushed to the hospital, unconscious,

extremely elevated blood pressure.

Looks like a hypertensive crisis triggered a stroke.

And the blood?

Probably broke his nose when he fell.

A stroke and a broken nose?

What can I tell you? Apparently Dr. Silva's a controversial guy.

The Brazilian Consulate wanted cops in the mix.

Great.

Got the video teed up.

I'm sorry, I have the worst headache.

Run that back again in slo-mo.

Look at that, he was bleeding before he went down.

Bleeding like that from a stroke?

Not from a stroke. I've never seen this before.

We have. It's called homicide-itis.

His blood work shows he ingested a massive amount of methylphenidate

an hour before he collapsed.

Right. It's an amphetamine.

The drug caused a sudden jump in his BP

and triggered a cerebral hemorrhage.

Any chance he was popping uppers?

Oh, I doubt it. Methyl P's usually for kids with ADD.

Meaning he might've been poisoned.

Yup. The E.R. Pumped his stomach.

Looks like somebody spiked his granola.

There was a buffet breakfast before the morning panel,

but I can't believe anybody would hurt Dr. Silva.

We're going to need a list of everyone at the breakfast.

You know who Silva ate with?

Probably himself.

It's a climate change symposium.

He's a climate change denier, so...

Yeah, the odd man out.

I know what you're thinking, but these are scientists.

The worse that happens is they flame each other in a journal,

or pull some sophomoric prank.

Any of that happen to Dr. Silva?

He was worried about his data being hacked.

He told me he got an alert on his laptop,

the hotel's Wi-Fi wasn't properly firewalled.

He was just being paranoid.

Hey, check this.

Blood pressure meds, pills for ulcers,

but no methyl-whatever the M.E. Called it.

Silva has a file here labeled "Smoking Gun."

It's an e-mail thread from a Dr. Everett Brown to a Dr. Larry Cattermole,

dated two weeks ago.

"We have to adjust these data hiccups.

"Any temperature anomalies will encourage the climate deniers.

"We can't allow that."

Sounds like they were fudging data.

Silva's not on the distro list for these e-mails,

meaning he's not supposed to have them.

Stolen e-mails proving that two global warming scientists

were cooking their numbers.

No wonder Silva was worried about somebody hacking his computer.

All right, so maybe Brown or Cattermole figured out that

Silva had hacked theirs and decided to shut him up.

Guess who was on the panel with Silva?

These are private e-mails, and possession of them is a felony.

Did you tell that to Dr. Silva?

No. I didn't know he had them.

It's the first I've heard of this.

I am very concerned with the invasion of privacy.

Yeah, not to mention it getting out that you were monkeying with your data.

A few data points among thousands,

with zero effect on the bottom line that global warming is real.

Then why game your research, Dr. Brown?

Because...

Global warming deniers will use any excuse

to create doubt where there's clarity.

The stakes are too high to let them muddy the waters.

You were on the panel with Silva.

Did you talk to him at the breakfast buffet?

I didn't even see him. I grabbed a bagel and left.

We're still verifying Brown's alibi.

The other scientist, Cattermole,

he was in Portland, teaching a seminar.

Excuse me. Uh, Lou, check this out.

This is the video of Silva collapsing.

This is Brown talking just before it happened.

I do not agree with Dr. Silva's views on global warming,

but that does not mean that he is wrong about cap and trade.

It's a racket, and government policy should look elsewhere.

Cap and trade, that's about carbon emissions.

Right, limiting the pollution a company can emit.

If you want to pollute more, you can buy carbon credits

from a company who's polluting less. Weird thing.

Brown is an eco-warrior, and here he is siding with Silva to rip cap and trade.

Yeah, Silva had proof that Brown was falsifying data.

Now, maybe he used this to convince Brown to support him.

Carbon trading, people make money out of that, right?

Mmm-hmm.

A prominent global warming advocate bags on cap and trade,

the market might have noticed.

Stocks in carbon emissions trading companies tanked right after Brown's statement.

If Silva knew what Brown was going to say,

he might have made money off it.

Find out if Dr. Silva liked to play the carbon market.

And then talk to his wife. She just flew in from Brazil.

Mmm.

We met at a conference. I moved to Rio. We have the perfect life.

Our daughter Nicole, you should see him with her.

Why anyone would want to poison Oscar, I...

He was a controversial figure, right?

The warmists, the global-warming fanatics,

have accused him of every crime.

Now we see their lies about the glaciers, the manipulation of data.

Mrs. Silva, I'm sorry to have to ask you this,

but did you know that your husband bought stock options

in a carbon-emissions trading company last week?

Stock options?

Yes. $50,000 worth of short-call options.

The company's stock dropped after Dr. Brown came out against cap and trade,

and now your husband's investment

is worth $200,000.

We think your husband pressured Dr. Brown into making those statements

so he could profit from it.

It may be a reason why someone poisoned him.

Oscar's no crook, he's a decent and honest man.

You can't be right.

He said he'd ruin me

if I didn't come out publicly against cap and trade.

Did he promise you a cut of his scam?

No. He said I was lucky if I kept my reputation.

What choice did I have?

He threatened to send the e-mails to the media if I went to the police.

I was scared.

There's something off about the man.

Beyond the fact that he was blackmailing you?

We were talking the day before the panel, and then he takes a call,

and he starts arguing with someone in Portuguese, something vicious.

And I got to thinking that maybe he was raised in a favela.

You know what those guys are capable of.

No, but you seem to.

Maybe you thought the extortion had just begun.

I did not poison him. I swear.

We talked to five people at the breakfast,

and all of them verify that Brown left before Silva arrived.

And with Cattermole 3,000 miles away, we're back to square one.

Mmm.

Hey, that phone call Silva got when he was talking to Brown,

it was from his wife in Brazil.

The phone call that scared Brown?

Yeah. Silva turned vicious, screaming at his wife.

She told us she and Silva had the perfect life.

Don't worry about his personal effects. I'll send for them.

Whoa, whoa, what's going on here?

I'm medevacing Oscar to Säo Paulo.

Twelve hours after you got here?

What seems to be the hurry?

There's nothing they can do for him here

that doctors can't do for him at home in Brazil, so let's go.

No one's going anywhere. Please, take him back to the room.

You don't have the right!

Especially you, Mrs. Silva. We need to ask you some questions.

I don't have to answer any questions.

I'm a Brazilian citizen with a Brazilian passport.

Well, this is an NYPD badge. Let's go.

As a Brazilian citizen, Mrs. Silva refuses to answer

any questions until she talks to her consulate.

Well, her Brazilian passport lists New Jersey as her place of birth,

so that makes her a citizen of this country.

So, maybe she'd like to answer our questions as an American.

I was in Brazil when my husband was poisoned.

How could I know anything?

We confirmed your husband engineered that stock scam.

Now, we just need to know why he needed the money.

Was it a gambling debt, or was it a mistress?

Is that what you two were fighting about on the phone a few days ago?

How dare you!

We understand that if your husband was

cheating on you, you'd be angry.

Angry enough to hurt him.

All right. End of conversation.

Obviously, you don't have enough to arrest her,

and we'll see how long this BS detention lasts

after the Brazilian Consul talks to the State Department.

If she was behind the poisoning,

she would've needed an accomplice to pull it off, someone at the conference.

Someone she would've talked to on the phone from Brazil.

We'll need records from the local phone company.

I'll put in an MLAT request.

In the meantime, we keep her passport, she doesn't leave the country.

So, we're looking for someone at the breakfast

who might've been Mrs. Silva's accomplice.

Well, we're working our way through the list of attendees.

We found one gentleman who's been pestering the organizers

for a full refund for the conference.

He claims he didn't attend a single event.

Yeah, except they have his signature

on the sign-in sheet for the breakfast.

Sounds like someone was trying to create an alibi.

There was an occluded front over Montana

kicking up rare cloud formations all week.

I'm talking stratocumes.

That's why I bailed the night before the conference.

They have you signed in at a breakfast two days later,

so the skies must have cleared up in a hurry.

Impossible. I was in Montana.

The morons who organized that conference,

they claim to have a photo of me

shaking hands with some Chinese diplomat.

It's not even me, and they want to sell me a print for 20 bucks.

Can we see that photo?

Yeah.

He's wearing your name tag.

Yeah, look at that. The nerve.

You know him?

Oh, yeah. He was at the hotel bar that night.

Professor Shoemaker. From Jersey, I think.

Okay, you caught me. I crashed the event.

But, you know, before you condemn me,

these à la carte conferences are very expensive,

and my research grant doesn't really cover...

Got it. You run into Oscar Silva at that breakfast?

Oh, yeah, the guy who got sick. No. Why?

You know him?

By reputation. I know he's a real mouth-breather.

Is this Iguazu Falls? In Brazil?

Yeah. It's beautiful, huh? You see those swifts?

They nest behind the falls. It's awesome.

You go to a place like that, you know what you're fighting for.

Yeah, you spend a lot of time in Brazil?

Few weeks a year, to study the green desert.

The green desert... Of course, they cut down the rainforest

and they planted more pine trees far as...

You know who'd be interested in something like this?

Hmm?

Silva's wife.

Right. Dana.

Very good-looking lady.

You ever run into her down there, Professor Shoemaker,

in the green desert?

Um, no. No, I don't... I don't know them.

Listen, uh, my simulations,

I got a presentation to a grant committee meeting tomorrow,

and if I don't get cracking...

You'll be sneaking into a lot more conferences.

Yeah. Thanks.

No worries. Thank you.

Lou, we've got seven calls over the past year to the Silvas' home in Brazil

from the main number at Shoemaker's college.

Well, the Silvas are scientists,

anyone at that school could've been calling them.

How many of them have this kind of travel pattern?

Three trips to Brazil last summer, two in March.

Seven the year before that, some for two weeks, some for two days.

I mean, it looks like Shoemaker and Mrs. Silva were having an affair.

We have something from the record search on Shoemaker.

This guy was racking up some legal fees.

Look at all these court appearances.

Shoemaker v. Shoemaker. Sounds like a divorce. Open up one of those files.

Son of a bitch.

Anita Van Buren for A.D.A. Rubirosa.

You're arresting her?

On an outstanding contempt citation.

She was married for six years to Phillip Shoemaker,

divorced in 2006. One daughter, Nicole.

And three years ago, she fled the country with her daughter,

in violation of a shared custody order,

to go marry Oscar Silva in Brazil.

The judge issued an arrest warrant

and granted full custody to Professor Shoemaker.

You and your ex, we take it, weren't getting along?

It's not amicable. The divorce was ugly...

And not being able to see Nicole has been difficult for Phillip.

All those trips to Brazil, and he hasn't seen her?

No. I don't think spending time with someone that angry

would be healthy for Nicole.

But he keeps suing me in Brazilian court to get to her,

and it's cost us a fortune to defend ourselves.

That's why... That's why Oscar needed money.

He needed to pay the lawyers so that we wouldn't lose Nicole.

How did your ex feel about Oscar?

About what you'd expect.

But Phillip would never hurt Oscar.

We're scientists. We deal with disagreements

with emotional detachment and reason.

That's what the argument was about, on the phone, the custody?

I wanted Oscar to come home.

I was worried that Phillip would find out he was there and have him detained.

Do you have any ties to Brazil beyond your husband?

No. Not really.

So, if something were to happen to him,

there'd be nothing keeping you or your daughter there, right?

You'd come home, to the U.S.

Oh, my God.

If you know this, why don't you arrest Phillip?

We don't have enough evidence,

not even for a search warrant.

Look, if you know anything that could be useful,

anything that could help us.

I don't. Please, just think, any detail.

She told you she doesn't know.

Your ex used a poison that raised your husband's blood pressure.

Now, did he know Mr. Silva was vulnerable,

if he had a heart or circulatory problem?

Phillip knew Oscar had some fainting spells

associated with his high blood pressure.

Look, I made my peace with Dana moving on long ago.

Even if I hadn't, how would killing her husband serve any purpose?

It's fundamentally irrational.

Registered mail receipt from a P.O. Box in Hogansburg, New York.

It's for maple syrup.

Sure it is.

Suspicious maple syrup?

Hogansburg has an Indian reservation that straddles the Canadian border.

In my Intel days, we kept tabs on the place

because it was a staging ground

for smuggling all sorts of nasty stuff into the U.S.

Okay, so it's my P.O. Box. I sell tons of sports memorabilia on eBay.

It was probably a signed Canadiens jersey.

The recipient said it was maple syrup.

Right, well, I ship that stuff, too.

It's hard to remember. I do a lot on volume.

Thing is, Vernon, you're on parole

for bringing in Oxycontin across the border.

Now, are you back in the pharmaceutical business,

maybe smuggling methylphenidate?

Honestly, I don't even know what that is.

The guy you sent that package to,

we're gonna offer him immunity

in exchange for testimony about its contents.

Or we could make you that offer.

Five seconds, and we're out of the door.

Okay, okay. Look, look, look. I get a call from some dude who wouldn't give me his name.

He says he'll pay big.

He sends a money order and instructions on where to send the pills.

What kind of pills?

Methyl P, man. Methyl P.

Come on, please, please, please.

This is all just a huge misunderstanding.

You'll have plenty of time to clear it up.

Mrs. Silva, get back in here.

Animal! I hope you die in jail! I want my daughter back,

you thieving whore! She doesn't even remember your name!

I told her you were dead. You evil bitch!

You murdering bastard!

Oh, they'll love you, honey.

- They'll love you in jail! - Sit down!

Must be some of that emotional detachment and reason.

"Case number 187299, People v. Phillip Shoemaker, Attempted Murder."

Not guilty, Your Honor.

People request bail of one million.

Professor Shoemaker has ties to the community and no criminal record.

We request ROR,

so he can assert the sole custody rights granted to him

when his ex-wife fled the country with their daughter.

Judge, the custody issues are collateral to a bail determination.

Not if my decisions impact them.

Where's the child now?

In Brazil with the parents of her stepfather.

The man Mr. Shoemaker tried to kill.

The child's mother is in custody

pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by the Family Court.

If my client can't make bail,

the child will remain in Brazil, far from her lawful parent.

And if you release Mr. Shoemaker,

he'll get his daughter back,

giving him exactly what his attempt on Mr. Silva's life

was meant to accomplish, custody.

So, I get to make everybody unhappy.

Fine. Bail is $500,000.

Ms. Rubirosa, I'm Kate Orris.

I've been retained by Mrs. Silva in the custody matter.

We're moving to have her custodial rights reinstated.

Dana's moving to keep her kid in Brazil.

She's using Shoemaker's indictment to prove he's an unfit parent.

The last thing we need is to get dragged into a custody dispute.

Too late. Shoemaker just subpoenaed me in the custody case.

He wants a full airing of the charges against him to prove they're bogus.

We'll get the subpoena quashed.

You better. A prosecutor on the stand

giving a defendant a free preview of his pending criminal case...

You may as well dismiss the charges now.

This subpoena is Mr. Shoemaker's naked attempt

to undermine his criminal trial.

The details of his case are not relevant to this custody dispute.

Mrs. Silva made them relevant by arguing the indictment

demonstrates my client's lack of fitness as a parent.

It's sufficient for this court to take judicial notice of the charges.

Anything more imperils the State's compelling interest

in prosecuting an attempted murder.

The only concern of this court

is the best interests of the child.

Those might be served by a full inquiry into whether the charges

against Mr. Shoemaker are baseless.

Motion denied. Take the stand, Mr. Cutter.

We indicted Mr. Shoemaker

because we had evidence that he illegally purchased the drug

that was used to poison Mr. Silva

and he assumed a false identity to attend the breakfast

where Mr. Silva was poisoned.

I see. Mr. Cutter, are you the product of a broken home?

Objection. Beyond the scope of the subpoena.

Goes to bias. I'm entitled to show Mr. Cutter's upbringing

tainted his investigation of Professor Shoemaker.

I'll allow it. Mr. Cutter?

My parents divorced when I was 10.

A divorce initiated by your father, right?

That's right. He left my mother.

Your parents were granted shared custody of you, correct?

Yes. But things didn't quite work out that way.

Your dad kept moving, different states, different countries...

He was a turn-around specialist,

he worked for different companies, and he would...

You didn't get to see a lot of him?

No.

Fair to say you grew to resent your father, hate him?

I was 10 years old.

Petitioner's 2-B.

A declaration from Mrs. Silva's former attorney, Eli Driscoll.

Mr. Cutter strong-armed Mrs. Silva into filling out an affidavit

he needed to search my client's apartment.

That is a slanderous accusation.

Didn't you pressure her to provide probable cause

for a warrant to search my client's home?

That's my job. And when she couldn't think of anything,

you kept insisting, even suggesting evidence...

The warrant and the charges were based solely on the facts.

Are you telling this court that your animus toward your own father

didn't undermine your prosecutorial judgment one iota?

Your Honor, please.

Yes. Ms. Marks, you're done.

The witness may step down.

Thank you.

Well, I've heard enough to render my decision.

What's clear is that neither party deserves custody at this juncture,

which puts me in a quandary.

Fortunately, there's a third option.

Mrs. Silva's parents have filed a motion to intervene.

I'm granting temporary custody of Nicole to Sharon and Nelson Lehman

pending permanent resolution of the custody order

and of the charges against Mr. Shoemaker.

Mrs. Silva will make arrangements

for the immediate return of the girl to this country.

We're adjourned.

I trust this won't come as a surprise to either of you.

Shoemaker's trying to throw out our search on the grounds of your bias.

So my search gets tossed

because I had a no-account dad 25 years ago?

Marks did her homework on you.

Homework. All she needed was Google.

If the search is out, we lose the P.O. Box upstate

and all proof that Shoemaker received amphetamines.

I can't convict him without the drug link.

If your case can't survive the loss of even one piece of evidence,

maybe you shouldn't have brought it in the first place.

Silva's final lab work just came in.

Even with his hypertension, the amount of methyl P he was poisoned with

wasn't enough to give him a stroke.

Then, why did he have a stroke?

Turns out he had a pre-existing aneurysm.

The methyl P just blew it out.

Shoemaker must've known about Silva's aneurysm.

Well, Dana said all he knew was that Silva had fainting spells.

If you can establish that Shoemaker knew about Silva's aneurysm,

that would be probable cause for a search of his apartment.

Inevitable discovery, and the evidence of the drug shipment stays in.

And your bias stays out.

I'm positive. I never told Phillip about Oscar's aneurysm.

It wasn't even diagnosed until last summer.

Hold on.

Now, you remember something?

That depends. My client sits in jail,

meanwhile her husband has awakened from his coma,

her daughter's flying in from Brazil.

You want her help with your case, you help with her release.

Talk to the judge.

It wasn't our custody order she violated.

No, but another voice in favor of her release might tip the scales.

Suppose we do that. What do we get?

Last summer, Mr. Shoemaker sued for custody in Brazilian court.

He argued that Dana and Oscar were unfit parents.

His lawyers requested and were given Oscar's medical records.

You have proof they were turned over?

My Brazilian co-counsel does.

I might convince him to dig it up...

After my client gets out of jail.

I'm not going to reward a woman who flouted a court order for three years

because your case needs a hand.

With or without your help, I'm gonna nail Shoemaker.

And at the end of the day,

you will be sending little Nicole back to Brazil

with her mother and stepfather.

So, why fight it, right? Right.

If this custody matter proves anything,

it's that nothing is inevitable.

Whatever you think of my case, Nicole deserves to get back at least one of her parents.

She's fine with her grandparents for now.

Children are resilient.

Yeah... Yeah, they muddle through,

without one parent, or even both.

But some wounds

don't heal.

Enjoy your lunch, Judge.

A permanent custody determination will be deferred

pending conclusion of Mr. Shoemaker's criminal trial.

On another matter, Mrs. Silva,

I have decided for humanitarian reasons to conditionally release you

to the custody of your parents.

You'll be fitted with an ankle monitor

and subject to home confinement.

Allowance will be made so you can visit your husband

in the hospital as he recovers.

Judge, for three years, Mrs. Silva has thumbed her nose at this court.

Now she gets to live with her daughter?

At a minimum, custody should be shared.

I disagree. If Mr. Shoemaker is acquitted,

you can move to have my order modified. We're adjourned.

Mommy!

Nicole! Hey, Nicole! Nicole.

It's me, it's Daddy, baby. Hi, baby.

Nicole, you remember me. It's Daddy. Nicole.

All right. Let's go.

As promised.

You feel good about this?

I haven't felt good since this case landed on my desk.

We have proof he had access to Silva's medical records,

meaning your client knew he had an aneurysm,

meaning the fruits of our search stay in.

That's not a given.

Well, how many years of your client's life are you willing to bet on it?

Our offer is a plea to assault, five-to-ten years.

God! My ex-wife kept me from my daughter for three years.

If you think I'm gonna let you put me in jail,

away from Nicole, for one more day,

you're out of your mind, out of your mind.

Mike Cutter.

What? Thanks.

To repeat, we have an eight-year-old girl,

Nicole Shoemaker, missing from her grandparents' house

here in Locust Point.

Missing too is an inflatable boat

that was tied to the dock at the back of the house.

The girl's mother and grandparents are extremely concerned

that the strong currents of the Long Island Sound

have carried the small boat out to sea, with little Nicole in it.

Now, the Coast Guard has begun a massive search of the waters,

however, they have yet to find any sign of Nicole or the raft.

Now, we pray.

Sharon and I were coming back from the grocery store.

We'd promised Nicole we were going to make s'mores.

TV was still on, but she's gone.

Dana was doing yoga. Her door was closed.

So we look upstairs, downstairs, and then I see the back door's open,

so I rush down to the boathouse,

and I find her doll on the dock.

The boat was gone.

Keep the faith, okay? Everyone's doing all they can.

They found her!

A dramatic scene is unfolding

five miles out in Long Island Sound,

where the Coast Guard has found a small, yellow zodiac boat.

Now, we understand that rescue divers are already in the water.

The divers are at the boat. They're checking...

They're signaling. The boat is empty. No one is in the boat.

No, no, no! No sign of little Nicole Shoemaker.

The search will continue in the icy waters... No, no, no!

Look who I found. Mommy!

Here, give me her. Give me her. Nicole, Nicole!

Oh, thank God!

She was asleep in the storage shed behind the boathouse.

It doesn't matter.

My baby. I was so worried about you!

You're safe now. You're safe with Grandpa.

We'll take her.

What?

You go finish your yoga.

What's everyone looking at?

I didn't do anything wrong!

Morning.

The Lehmans are moving for sole custody of Nicole.

They want Dana declared an unfit parent.

That's a pretty extreme reaction

to an eight-year-old being an eight-year-old.

Well, if you think that's extreme,

they're even kicking Dana out of their house.

She's on lock-down at an airport hotel.

They also claim Oscar Silva's an unfit guardian because of his health.

Just covering their bases.

I'll say. They attached that Brazilian medical record

about Silva's aneurysm.

At the top of the page here,

it's the fax number the medical record was faxed from to the Lehmans.

That's New Jersey, isn't it?

It's a fax number registered to Shoemaker's college.

He's sharing information with his ex-in-laws?

What's the big mystery?

Neither Shoemaker nor his former in-laws want to be schlepping

to Brazil to see the girl.

Makes perfect sense they'd find common cause on this point.

Except according to the header on this document,

Shoemaker faxed the medical report

to the Lehmans three months ago.

Makes you wonder how long they've been cooperating to get the girl back.

You're thinking the attempt on Oscar Silva's life?

Well, why not? If you're willing to have your daughter

declared an unfit parent,

then whacking your Brazilian son-in-law doesn't seem so extreme.

Except the evidence points to Shoemaker acting alone.

Not all the evidence. We still haven't traced the 500 bucks

used to buy the methyl P.

We know Shoemaker didn't pull it out of his bank account.

Then you'd better subpoena the Lehmans' bank records.

A happy ending.

It's starting to look like wishful thinking.

Yeah, with everyone too busy trying to get custody of Nicole,

it's dumb luck she didn't end up on that boat.

Maybe luck had nothing to do with it.

Nelson's running an errand, if you want to come back in a few hours.

It's just a few routine questions.

Since there was so much money spent on the search,

the city comptroller wants to make sure all our "I's" are dotted.

I already gave the police a statement.

Oh, yes, about how your daughter was too busy to keep an eye on Nicole.

Has Dana always been so negligent?

I didn't see it when she was living here with Phillip.

But the past three years...

I can't speak to what happens in Brazil.

Three years, that's a long time.

You must have really missed your granddaughter.

Yes. She's our only grandchild.

We understand that your son-in-law, Mr. Silva, is awake and walking.

So when Phillip goes to jail,

I assume your daughter will be taking Nicole with her back to Brazil.

I... I don't know.

It's obvious what Nicole means to you.

The prospect of losing her a second time must be awful.

Awful enough for you to want to ensure

Dana can't take her back to Brazil.

It's almost empty. Want more tea?

Mrs. Lehman, we can get a subpoena to do a drug test on Nicole.

Whatever you gave her to make her sleep, it'll still be in her system.

Child Services will question her.

Do you really want to put her through that?

We came home,

Dana was in her room doing yoga.

Nicole was just sitting there, watching TV,

like a good little angel.

And we started to think how we couldn't lose our angel again.

We gave Nicole a glass of lemonade with an allergy pill in it,

and Nelson carried her out into the shed.

Nelson's a retired biology teacher,

and he said it would just make her sleepy.

Then, Nelson set the boat adrift, we called the police.

We didn't mean to cause so much trouble.

I mean, we just, we love her so much.

Did Phillip Shoemaker know what you were planning to do?

No. It wasn't planned.

But you've stayed in touch with Mr. Shoemaker over the years?

Yes, we've stayed friendly. I mean, we wanted the same things...

To see Nicole grow up, to be a part of her life.

It hurt so much to lose her.

Look, you want me to pay for the search?

Fine, I'll write you a check.

Splashing your cash again.

You've been doing a lot of that lately. Sit down.

A $500 ATM withdrawal three weeks ago,

and two hours later, you bought a money order in the same amount,

made payable to Vernon Clayton.

The clerk at the Western Union ID'd your photo.

That money was for the methyl P

Phillip Shoemaker used to poison Oscar.

You're nuts.

Mr. Lehman, you saw how much your wife missed your granddaughter,

you saw it for three long years.

I didn't kill anybody.

Look, you can stonewall all you want.

But there's enough here to assume your wife

was in on the murder attempt, too,

and certainly the boat hoax.

Either way, she'll do time.

No.

Look, I did it.

It was all me. I poisoned Silva.

I wasn't going to let him take our granddaughter away from us,

from Sharon, ever again.

If you're willing to testify against Shoemaker...

He had nothing to do with it.

I was the one who walked into that breakfast,

and I put the methyl P on Silva's cereal.

We know the methyl P was shipped to Shoemaker's house.

No, he had no idea what it was.

I shipped it to his house, so that I wouldn't involve my wife.

The whole thing was my idea, you understand?

Nobody else. Nobody.

Nelson's falling on his sword.

If he cops to everything, Shoemaker walks.

Well, and if he does, he gets to retain sole custody of Nicole.

Meaning Grandma Lehman gets to spend her golden years

doting over her granddaughter.

Not a bad play for Mr. Lehman. Take his plea.

Two people conspired to poison Silva,

and I'm not letting Shoemaker off the hook.

Bird in the hand. In the meantime,

Lehman will have eight years minimum

to agonize over his decision to cover for Shoemaker.

Meaning, sooner or later, he'll be ready to deal.

Now, take the plea. I'm not asking.

I waited until Silva got up to make a call,

then I poured the contents of 12 500 milligram capsules

of methylphenidate into his cereal.

I wanted to kill him so that my daughter

would be forced to move back here with Nicole.

And that's all of it.

Mr. Cutter, are the People satisfied?

Just one small matter, concerning the shipping of the poison.

I'd like to call Phillip Shoemaker to the stand

to corroborate Mr. Lehman's statement.

Judge, we object.

Mr. Shoemaker is not part of these proceedings.

Well, if we can't corroborate Mr. Lehman's statement,

we're going to reject the plea agreement.

There's no procedural bar. Ms. Marks?

Mmm-hmm.

My client has no objection to testifying, Your Honor.

Nelson said he was going out of town,

he asked if he could have a package shipped to my house.

I didn't know what it was. I didn't open it. I just gave it to him.

At any point, did you and Mr. Lehman

discuss poisoning Dr. Silva in a scheme to get your daughter back?

Absolutely not. I'd never do that.

So, you expect us to believe that you had zero to do with this?

Despite the fact your ex practically kidnapped your daughter.

You even got a court order awarding you sole custody, isn't that right?

That's right.

Despite all the trips you took to Brazil

to have her returned, all the money that you spent on lawyers?

Uh, it's in the past.

You mean, you've given up on trying to get your daughter back?

I've moved on.

You've moved on?

Yes. My work takes up all my life now.

I lecture, I teach.

I spend maybe 60 days out of the year at home now.

There's really no room for her in my life now.

So, you're telling us that you've stopped caring for your daughter?

Caring enough to do whatever it takes to get her back?

Look, um, after three years,

she's basically dead to me.

I don't really have an emotional bond with her anymore.

Judge, is there an end in sight here?

Mr. Cutter, I assume this constitutes ample corroboration?

Just one more thing, Your Honor.

Your daughter is eight, sir.

In a few years, she'll read the transcripts of your testimony here.

How do you think she'll react to it?

I haven't really given it much thought.

You haven't given much thought to the fact

that you've just publicly disowned her?

Once she reads that, do you think she'll have anything more to do with you?

Objection.

This goes to credibility, Your Honor.

Overruled. Mr. Shoemaker?

Uh, I don't know.

I love my daughter very much.

I would do anything for her, and she knows that.

That's not what you said.

I asked if you'd given up on trying to get your daughter back,

and you said that you'd moved on.

I didn't mean it that way.

So you haven't moved on? No.

You testified that there was no room in your life for her.

Is that true? No.

Said you no longer felt an emotional bond with her,

she's dead to you.

I can tell you from experience, Mr. Shoemaker,

kids don't forget. And they don't forgive.

You tricked me.

These words, they're not true.

Well, how much of what you said here is true, sir?

Most of it? Some? None of it?

None of it, none of it, actually, none of it.

I would do anything for Nicole.

Anything? Yes.

Even risk going to jail? Yes.

And even poison Oscar Silva?

Yes.

They stole her from me.

They stole her from me. She was my life.

She gave my world meaning.

She made the world a happier place.

And they took her from me.

They took my daughter!

Two guilty pleas.

You look like someone ran over your dog.

Well, I won, but Nicole Shoemaker lost.

She'll grow up with her father and grandfather in prison,

under the care of a mom whose selfishness

set this whole tragedy in motion.

That's why I never went into family law.

It's where all the heartbreak is.

Heartbreak is everywhere in this job,

as you both know.

Take consolation in getting the right result.

It was a good day's work.

Yeah, but not a good day.