POLICEMAN: We've made an arrest.

REBECCA: You can only search the suspect's desk, that's it.

POLICEMAN: Anything subject to the suspect's control.

POLICEMAN: Hey, hey, hey, hey!

OTHER POLICEMAN: [holding up a blood-stained knife] John,

BOBBY: Where'd that come from?

OTHER POLICEMAN: Bottom drawer, under some files. Looks like there's some dried blood on it.

BOBBY: Let me see that.

POLICEMAN: Counsel. Bag it.

LUCY: God, Lindsay, you been provoking her?

EVERYONE: Lucy!

KITTLESON: Bobby?

BOBBY: Your Honour -

KITTLESON: What's going on?

LUCY: One of our lawyers just got arrested.

EVERYONE: Lucy!

KITTLESON: Well, you're not gonna believe it when I tell you. Actually you might, considering our... Yesterday afternoon, I was served with a complaint against me, filed under seal, by one of my former law clerks. He's claiming sexual harrasment.

BOBBY: What a shock.

KITTLESON: Funny. The claim is baseless, but nevertheless I have to defend myself against it. That's why I'm here. To hire you.

BOBBY: You wanna hire me? To defend you in a sexual harrasment case? Don't you think that's a little strange?

KITTLESON: Why? You're an excellent attorney..

BOBBY: Who you had erotic dreams about...

KITTLESON: Oh please. If I had a dime for every erotic dream I'd ever had... Forget it.

BOBBY: Oh, is that what you'd say in your deposition?

KITTLESON: Look, if you choose not to represent me, that's fine. But I don't think you need be discourteous, I'm sorry to have bothered you.

BOBBY: Why would you wanna hire me? Sexual harrasment is not my specialty, though it would be a good way to disqualify me as a witness, should I ever be called to testify....

KITTLESON: So this hostility just comes out whenever somebody tries to engage your services.

BOBBY: Let's just say I have a hard time believing you're totally innocent.

KITTLESON: Let's just say I have a hard time believing that you only represent the totally innocent.

BOBBY: Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that I do.

KITTLESON: I am innocent. I had an affair with the boy. The truth is, I think he still has a thing for me. After he finished as my law clerk, he asked me to write him a letter of recommendation. I did. It wasn't glowing enough in his eyes, and he's retaliating.

BOBBY: Okay, which brings me back to why me?

KITTLESON: If this goes public, I'd get destroyed, merits aside. I want somebody vicious enough to make this go away, who's not afraid to get ugly if he has to. I asked around. Word is, you're it.

CLERK: Be seated. Case number 32111. Commonwealth versus Ellenor Frutt, possession of controlled substances.

EUGENE: Eugene Young for the defendant. Waive reading, Your Honour. I move to dismiss this right now.

JUDGE PHILLIP SWACKHEIM: On what grounds, hmm?

EUGENE: Miss Frutt's a lawyer. She represents a man who charged into our office...

LINDSAY: Objection...

SWACKHEIM: What the hell?

EUGENE: Your Honour, the police charged into our office, chasing a man they believed had drugs in his possession. This man ran to Miss Frutt's desk, the police followed. Suddenly, drugs were discovered on Miss Frutt's desk. They asked her how they got there, she, of course, refused to answer any questions. They arrested her for having drugs in her possession, and it's bogus.

SWACKHEIM: Is that what happened?

ADA: From what I know, that seems accurate.

SWACKHEIM: Out of line. Out of line. Arresting the lawyer?

ADA: Your Honour, Miss Frutt was given opportunity to explain how the drugs came into her possession.

SWACKHEIM: But if a client dropped them there... then she's not free to say so, is she? I wanna know who the officer is, I wanna know who said okay to this... This case is dismissed. Dismissed, dismissed! We do not go around arresting lawyers. Hmmmm hmmm. Next case, next case, next case.

CLERK: Case number 32112. Commonwealth versus Leonard Sawas, possession of controlled substances.

REBECCA: Rebecca Washington representing the defendant, Your Honour. Waive reading. I, too, ask that you dismiss all charges.

SWACKHEIM: Why?

REBECCA: As the police report stipulates, they didn't find any drugs on my client, they were on Ellenor Frutt's desk.

SWACKHEIM: Wait a second, second, second. This is the guy that went running in, so forth, so forth, so forth drugs?

REBECCA: Well, there's no evidence of that. The heroin was only found on the desk, never in Mr Sawas' possession.

SWACKHEIM: What do I look like to you? A big dope? Am I a big dope to you? He's got a record as long as my intestine. He's a drug addict. Do I look like a dope?

REBECCA: You do not look like a dope.

SWACKHEIM: You have got a God-awful, scum-sucking, guilty client here. We all know that. Drug addict.

REBECCA: Your Honour -

SWACKHEIM: Get yourself a jury. Hmm, I mean, they're the dopes. They'll probably let him go! Hmmm. Not dismissed. Bound over! And no bail either, because you got me angry, hmmm. Next case, next case, next case. And give me something good.

DA: Ellenor Frutt, please place your hands behind your back.

ELLENOR: Excuse me?

DA: You have the right to remain silent.

EUGENE: Now what?

Guy: Anything you san can -

EUGENE: Enough with Miranda. What's going on now?

HELEN: The knife they found in your drawer, did George Vodelman give it to you?

ELLENOR: What?

HELEN: It's the weapon used to cut off Susan Robin's head.

LEONARD: I'm so sorry.

REBECCA: Leonard -

LEONARD: I never meant to hurt her...

REBECCA: Leonard, you need to stop crying and listen to me.

LEONARD: I love Ellenor.

REBECCA: I know you do, and for you to help her... You see, we may have to be making statements that go against your interest. Which means you might need to get a new lawyer for the time being.

LEONARD: I want Ellenor.

REBECCA: Ellenor is unavailable right now.

LEONARD: I love Ellenor.

REBECCA: She is in jail, Leonard.

LEONARD: She's always stuck by me. I can't...

REBECCA: Okay, well, what I'm trying to tell you is we won't be sticking by you.

LEONARD: I love Ellenor.

REBECCA: Son of a bitch.

EUGENE: George, I'll tell you this. If I get wind -

GEORGE: You'll what? Beat me up? Do it. I've been out of work now for six months. I finally got hired two days ago - two days ago! - and what happens? In come the police to take me away again. Go ahead, Eugene. Beat the hell out of me. I need the money.

CLERK: Case number 32632. Commonwealth versus Ellenor Frutt -

BOBBY: Bobby Donnell for the defence, Your Honour. Waive reading. Ask that this court dismiss all charges on the grounds -

SWACKHEIM: Dismiss, dismiss! Everybody's getting up and asking me to dismiss charges. What do I look like, hmmm?

BOBBY: Well, under the circumstances -

SWACKHEIM: I've already dismissed charges against this woman once today. That's all she gets. I don't just kick things here. Especially in murder cases. Not dismissed! No, no, no!

BOBBY: What do you mean, murder case?

SWACKHEIM: Yes, murder. Your client's being charged with first degree murder. If you didn't know that, why the hell did you waive reading?

BOBBY: What do you want, Richard?

RICHARD: Vogelman. She testifies he gave her the knife, well, maybe we can make things go easy on her.

BOBBY: First of all, I have no knowledge that he gave her the knife. Second, you can't get Vogelman. Double jeopardy.

RICHARD: Oh, we can't get him on murder, but we can on concealment and perjury.

BOBBY: Third, this is blatant blackmail.

RICHARD: This is a settlement negotiation.

BOBBY: You're charging a lawyer with murder to get her client? This is way over the line.

RICHARD: Bobby, you guys accused a victim's brother of murder just to get your client off, and you wanna debate where the line is?

BOBBY: We're defence attorneys. It's different.

MILTON: So you don't deny the affair?

KITTLESON: No, I don't. Nor did I regret it, until yesterday.

MILTON: Can you tell us how your relationship with Kevin Michaels began?

KITTLESON: Our professional relationship began when I hired him out of law school to clerk for me. Our physical relationship began about four months later. It was a Friday night, we were going over a draft of a rather convoluted opinion regarding stock fraud, and, uh, well, I suppose one might say I seduced him.

MILTON: Why might one say that?

KITTLESON: Because I did.

MILTON: Can you be more specific?

KITTLESON: Do I need to be? The basis of this lawsuit concerns what happened after he left my employ. We can all stipulate to the sexual affair.

MILTON: We're on a fast course to settle this. I need to flush out some of the background before I advise my client.

KITTLESON: All right. We were working side by side, going over this draft. He reached across for something, I don't know what, and he inadvertantly brushed my breast. He began to apologise profusely, and perhaps to dissipate his embarrasment, I said 'don't be sorry, I rather enjoyed it.'

MILTON: What happened next?

KITTLESON: Well, he just stared back at me. I'd obviously shocked him. But he had an expression almost as if he were titillated, a little, as well. Oh, I dont know. Maybe because the hour was late, and my senses were fogged or it was just the dare in me. I said 'it's not the worst thing in life to be touched'. And I reached out my hand, I touched him. And I said 'it's not so bad, is it? '

MILTON: And then?

KITTLESON: Uh, and then, at the risk of sounding immodest, I gave him the best fallatio known to mankind. I am sorry to be so blunt. But, I think we all know what could happen if you don't come clean at a deposition.

LINDSAY: They had no warrant to search that desk.

RICHARD: And nor was one required. It was a search incident to an arrest. Warrantless searches -

WEST: Hold on a second. Are you saying the arrest of Miss Frutt was invalid?

LINDSAY: On the knife, absolutely -

WEST: Not on the knife, on the drugs.

LINDSAY: That case was dismissed.

WEST: I understand. But are you saying at the time the arrest was made it was legally invalid?

LINDSAY: Yes. They knew those drugs weren't hers.

WEST: The heroin was on her desk, counsel. There was no probable cause for an arrest?

LINDSAY: They came in chasing somebody else for those drugs. He ran right to this desk. They see the drugs on top of the desk, they suddenly think they belong to her. Please. That insults everybody's intelligence.

WEST: Which is why the case on the drugs was ultimately dismissed. But if the arrest was technically valid at the time, then so was the search that turned up the knife.

LINDSAY: Even if you were to uphold the search as incident to a valid arrest, the area to be searched has to be within the control of the suspect.

RICHARD: Which this was. It was her desk.

LINDSAY: She wasn't even in the building by the time you found the knife, so the desk couldn't be within her control.

RICHARD: The search began contemporaneously with the arrest. It continued after she left. It did not begin after she left. There's a difference, Your Honour, I can site the cases.

LINDSAY: None of these cases involved a pretext arrest, which this was. They knew the drugs weren't hers. They didn't have a good faith basis to make that arrest. Any search incident to that arrest is also lacking in good faith. This is part of a master plan to get George Vogelman and everybody in this room knows it.

RICHARD: Objection!

LINDSAY: Make your objection, but I am putting this on the record. They charged her with murder and they offered to drop everything if she would flip George Vogelman on concealment. He's the one they're after. The arrest of Ellenor Frutt is not only unethical, it is flat out immoral.

RICHARD: I completely reject that. We never offered to drop this. And any and all settlement discussions are inadmissable. She should be sanctioned for attempting to raise this in these proceedings.

LINDSAY: You're charging her with homicide to coerce testimony. Yes, sanction me!

REBECCA: You can go. Your case has been dismissed.

LEONARD: Thank you, God.

REBECCA: You're the only one to catch a break this week, Leonard. You know that heroin you bought? Lab results show that it wasn't heroin. It was some brown confectionary or something. That's how gone you are, Leonard. Even the dealers -

LEONARD: I can go now?

REBECCA: Right now.

LEONARD: Good. Not a second too soon. I need a fix.

REBECCA: You know, I can't stop you from going to get your fix, but don't you ever come into our office again and bring that stuff. Ellenor Frutt is in a lot of trouble right now because of you.

BOBBY: By your own admission, this affair, it was consentual?

KEVIN: Yes, but I feel that after it ended, this letter was not a ringing endorsement. That was clear to anybody who read it.

BOBBY: Well, did it say anything negative?

KEVIN: No, but it wasn't glowing. I think it was what she didn't say that was conspicuous.

BOBBY: Is it possible that you weren't that great a clerk?

KEVIN: It's possible, but...

BOBBY: But what?

KEVIN: Well, I don't think she had the opportunity to really know whether I was a great clerk or not.

BOBBY: Why's that?

KEVIN: Once our personal relationship began, the only thing that transcribed in her chambers was sex. For the last seven months, we probably made love two to three times a day, sometimes four.

BOBBY: Four times in one day?

KEVIN: One day, I think we hit eleven. She was insatiable.

BOBBY: Wow.

BOBBY: Are you claiming that in any way it was against your will?

KEVIN: No no, It was the most amazing... Look, I didn't complain. And if she tried to seduce me again today, I can't honestly say that she wouldn't succeed, knowing how... Look, my point is that what chance did I have to excel at being a clerk when all we did was -

BOBBY: Mr Michaels, why did you ask her to write a recommendation in the first place?

KEVIN: It was probably a mistake. I just figured, I don't know, I mean, if a woman can't get enough of your penis, chances are she'll write a decent letter.

KITTLESON: Uh, can we go off the record here a second? Kevin, I will write you a superlative recommendation, right now. Maybe a call or two, I could get you a job in a second. How about I do that? Can we call off this lawsuit?

KEVIN: It's a little late.

KITTLESON: No, it isn't. This isn't about you getting a job, Kevin, it's about getting me.

KEVIN: Excuse me?

KITTLESON: You're obsessed with me. Does your lawyer not know that?

KEVIN: You're sad.

KITTLESON: Am I? I could give an erection from across the room, we both know that. Go ahead. Stand over there, I'll prove it. Probably getting aroused right now. Stand up, Kevin.

MILTON: Hey. Let's just go back on the record.

WEST: A man gets chased into an office. Leads to a search, turns up a knife. Somebody somewhere has an idea as to what's going on here, but it isn't me. The search of the desk drawer was valid. As far as the muder charge, possession of the weapon alone does not constitute probable cause, at least not to me, under these circumstances. That count is dismissed. As far as the charges of concealing evidence and obstruction of justice, those counts stand. The defendent is bound over for trial, personal recognisance. We'll conference Tuesday, ten o'clock. Adjourned.

KITTLESON: Oh, hello. I'm Roberta Kittleson.

LINDSAY: Lindsay Dole.

KITTLESON: Yes, I know. You have quite a reputation at the courthouse.

LINDSAY: So do you.

EUGENE: Then who, Ellenor? This doesn't make sense.

ELLENOR: Look, we figured he was set up the first time. If someone could put a head in his medical bag maybe they're doing the same thing again with the knife.

BOBBY: If someone wanted to frame George with the knife, it would have turned up before he was acquitted. Why hold the knife back? How stupid would that be?

EUGENE: Maybe they didn't have the knife at first.

BOBBY: Didn't have it? If he was set up with the head in the bag it would've had to have been by the killer who would also have the knife.

LINDSAY: This just doesn't make sense.

REBECCA: It's the police. The knife turned up after the trial. And because of double jeopardy the only way to make use of it was to plant it here, and set up a perjury obstruction of justice charge.

LINDSAY: That's a bit of a reach.

REBECCA: This trial embarrassed them. And just like Eugene and Helen said, there is a mission to get George. And I know how they did it.

LEONARD: I don't - I don't know what you're talking about.

REBECCA: Yes you do, Leonard. See, what didn't make sense, nobody buying heroin, especially someone so experienced as you, is going to walk off with sugar. The reason it was sugar was so the case against you would eventually get dropped, which you seemed to see coming. Something that also confused me a little, when I went to your cell and said you could go, you weren't surprised. The police sent you running in there to drop that bag to allow them to search Ellenor's desk. Where the knife was either planted then, or sometime before.

ELLENOR: Leonard, is that what happened? The police sent you running into my office?

EUGENE: Leonard, you're not gonna get arrested or prosecuted on this if you tell us the truth, I guarantee it. Police misconduct, coersion, trust me, they can't touch you. But if you don't tell us the truth, if you go along with the police trying to frame Ellenor, a person who has been very good to you, a person who has been saving your ass for the last ten years, if you don't come clean, and we find out, I will hurt you.

LEONARD: They caught me with some stuff again. Said if I do this, they'd let me go. I'm sorry, Ellenor. I'm afraid of prison.

DA: So far it appears to be limited to a select group of officers. We've arrested three uniforms and two leiutenants in forensics.

REPORTER: Where was the knife found?

DA: It's unconfirmed, but the weapon was evidently found in an abandoned car. We don't know by who at this point.

REPORTER: After the Vogelman trial?

DA: That's my understanding. I would like to stress this does not represent the Boston police department. These officers are a disgrace to the force. Police Chief Sullivan will be conducting a press conference shortly to address this further. Thank you.

BOBBY: I still can't believe it.

LINDSAY: How could they be so brazen to think they wouldn't get caught?

EUGENE: They almost didn't.

KITTLESON: Tell me, Jimmy. Do you typically toast victory with all your clients? Or did all that sex talk make you curious? I'm sorry. But you can be honest.

JIMMY: Well -

KITTLESON: Just between you and me, which part of the testimony was your favourite? Do you remember?

JIMMY: My mind's a little blank at the moment

KITTLESON: I'm sure it is.

LINDSAY: You okay? What's wrong?

ELLENOR: Nothing, nothing. It's uh - When I think about why I practice law, my mind always goes to the little guy, you know, the Leonards, the people that I fight for. And after ten years, for him to just sell me out -

LINDSAY: Ellenor, he's a drug addict.

ELLENOR: No no no, let me finish. I've been sitting home for the last two hours, feeling sorry for myself. Thinking that nobody's loyal. There's just no such thing as - And then my mind went to how all of you stood up for me, dropped everything. I'm sorry for the way I've treated you lately. I think that this whole partnership thing has blinded me to, I don't know, to what it really means to have true partners. I know I have them. I especially know you're one of them.

LINDSAY: Thank you.

ELLENOR: Well, that's all I came to say. See you at work.

LINDSAY: Okay.