Directed by Fred Gerber
Written by Rene Balcer & Robert Palm
Maggie Corson, a young drug addict, is arrested for pulling a gun inside a diner. She has run away from a Catholic-run drug rehab shelter after one of the nuns in charge sexually assaulted her in the shower. Maria Barragan, Maggie's roommate at the shelter, claims to have witnessed the incident. It emerges that Maggie was drunk at the time and passed out, so she has no memory of what happened. Her only knowledge of being assaulted is what Maria told her. Maria admits to lying, but confesses that she herself is being abused by the shelter's director Jack Powell. He had threatened to have her dismissed from the shelter if she told anyone. Maria worried that the nun, Sister Bettina, was becoming suspicious; so jumped at the chance to try to get Sister Bettina fired.
In court, Stone needs to prove that there was a threat of death or injury if Maria did not consent to sex. He argues that Powell's threat to expel her from the shelter counts as this, since she feared her life would be in danger if she ended up back on the streets. Stone cites eighteen former residents expelled from the shelter: all of whom died or went missing after they became homeless. The jury finds Powell guilty, and the judge denies the defense's motion to dismiss. Robinette warns Stone that he may lose the case on appeal, but Stone is hopeful that he has set precedent for future cases like Maria's.
This episode contains examples of:
- Broken Bird: Both Maggie and Maria.
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: TOTALLY averted. The detectives and attorneys take the allegation against Sister Bettina seriously (Logan has some doubts but it seems more about the particular case than the female on female aspect) and investigate it as they would any other case.
- Dirty Old Man: Powell
- False Rape Accusation: Against Sister Bettina.
- Lie Detector: Sister Bettina takes one, though she actually fails it, having lied to protect Maggie over her drinking.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Stone does not want to force Powell's previous victim to testify, so she won't have to tell her husband that their son may actually be Powell's.
- Nun Too Holy: Sister Bettina is treated as such because she belongs to a non-traditional order that encourages birth control and sex education for girls (though by all accounts, she is of exemplary moral character).
- Parental Incest: Maggie's backstory includes being sexually abused by her stepfather for many years.
- Rape as Backstory
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
- Sex for Services: Powell's defense tries to argue that Maria offered him sex in exchange for getting out of work and chores.
- Sexual Extortion
- Titled After the Song: By Leonard Cohen.
