This was the opening episode for Season 9 of "Law and Order," and was the first episode with Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), who was a wonderful addition to the series.
The episode concerns a little child who ostensibly died of abuse, but her physical injuries were inflicted postmortem. Nothing is as it appears, and the police and prosecutors have to dig pretty deep to get at the truth, which involves the peddling of physically damaged Russian children for adoption to American families.
The family who had custody of the child when she died are the Warings (Graham Winton and Lisa Bostnar), who are saintly in their desire to provide a home to children no one else wants, including their first adopted boy, Nicholas (Spencer Breslin), who suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) due to the horribly abusive treatment he received during the first years of his life. Kudos to the writers for putting this problem into the plot.
But the adults principally to blame for the child's death mouth some sort of excuse for their behavior, and refuse to accept responsibility. Even though McCoy and Carmichael are able to convict them, it is doubtful any of them will truly believe they did anything wrong.
The episode concerns a little child who ostensibly died of abuse, but her physical injuries were inflicted postmortem. Nothing is as it appears, and the police and prosecutors have to dig pretty deep to get at the truth, which involves the peddling of physically damaged Russian children for adoption to American families.
The family who had custody of the child when she died are the Warings (Graham Winton and Lisa Bostnar), who are saintly in their desire to provide a home to children no one else wants, including their first adopted boy, Nicholas (Spencer Breslin), who suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) due to the horribly abusive treatment he received during the first years of his life. Kudos to the writers for putting this problem into the plot.
But the adults principally to blame for the child's death mouth some sort of excuse for their behavior, and refuse to accept responsibility. Even though McCoy and Carmichael are able to convict them, it is doubtful any of them will truly believe they did anything wrong.