Doug Stender

A young model is shopping when the security cameras pick her up shoplifting. When the store manager attempts to confront her in the dressing room there's no response, because she is lying there dead. The victim, Nadia Parkova, is an aspiring model. Found by her body is an empty syringe with traces of Demerol. Cause of death was cardiac arrest and it was a lethal combination of asthma medicine and the Demerol that did her in. But her body showed serious signs of abuse and internal injuries. The Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) think perhaps her boyfriend or father was beating her, but her younger sister Lena (Alexis Dziena) says that's not true, she's accident-prone and fell down the stairs.

When the facially scarred daughter of Lieutenant Van Buren's (Emmy winner S. Epatha Merkerson) college friend is found dead, Van Buren directs Detectives Fontana (Dennis Farina) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) on a no-holds-barred mission to catch the serial assailant who threw acid in the victim's face months earlier. Meanwhile, A.D.A. McCoy's (Sam Waterston) prosecution is complicated by Van Buren's tactical desperation, which has caused her to cut corners. Annie Parisse and Fred Dalton Thompson also star.

An Assistant District Attorney, Dan Tenofsky, is found dead in Central Park. Branch, McCoy and Southerlyn are devastated. Briscoe and Green go to Tenofsky's apartment and don't find many clues. He apparently had no family or friends but they do question his office mate who tells them he had a brother in Phoenix. They can't find his brother and something's not quite right. Tenofsky was apparently in Phoenix while enrolled at Brooklyn Law School. It turns out his real name was Jacob Dieter and he assumed the name of Daniel Tenofsky, who dropped out, so his real identity and credentials come into question.

When a wealthy middle-aged woman is found drugged and comatose, Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) suspect that her husband (guest star David Dukes) either tried to commit a mercy killing or murder her for her money, but the discovery of a shocking tape swerves their investigation in a new direction. Later, new evidence could implicate another close family member and informs Assistant D.A.s McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Carmichael (Angie Harmon) of the victim's true condition and prognosis. Steven Hill and S. Epatha Merkerson also star.