Judge Dread 

An accountant goes on trial after being charged with ordering a hit on the hard-as-nails judge who imposed an unusually harsh prison sentence on him just to send a message.

Director:

David Platt

Writers:

Dick Wolf (created by), Richard Sweren

Stars:

Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin, S. Epatha Merkerson

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Jerry Orbach	...	Detective Lennie Briscoe
Jesse L. Martin	...	Detective Ed Green
S. Epatha Merkerson	...	Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
Sam Waterston	...	E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy
Angie Harmon	...	A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael
Dianne Wiest	...	Interim D.A. Nora Lewin
Roxanne Hart	...	Judge Linda Karlin
David Wohl	...	Randall Wylie
Scott Sowers	...	Jimmy McGowan (as Scott Nicolai Sowers)
Carolee Carmello	...	Janice Wylie
Tovah Feldshuh	...	Defense Attorney Danielle Melnick
Dan Ziskie	...	State Police Investigator (as Daniel Ziskie)
Michael Goodwin	...	John Karlin
Kelly Deadmon	...	ADA Sarah Benedict
E.J. Carroll	...	Vince Ellis

Storyline

Judge Linda Karlin is a hard line judge and well-known for handing out the maximum sentence for even the most minor crimes. Detectives Lenny Briscoe and Ed Green find themselves investigating an attempt on her life when Frank Morris, who stole a gun from his bartender uncle, takes a shot at her and is gunned down by her police detective bodyguard. The police find that Morris visited Randall Wylie, who has a case before Judge Collins, in jail not long before the shooting. Judge Karlin rejected a plea bargain the DA and Wylie had agreed to and it looks like he may have hired Morris to make the hit.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 May 2001 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wolf Films, Studios USA Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The detective assigned to guard Judge Karlin asks her what case she is trying that day: she replies that she's presiding over a drug case where the defendant was caught with 13 pounds (208 ounces) of heroin. The detective asks the judge what kind of sentence you'd get for that: the judge sarcastically replies, "A needle in the arm." Though she was joking, the judge wasn't too far off: 208 ounces of heroin would be criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree, a class A-I felony with a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Considering the amount of heroin in this case, the defendant would likely get the maximum sentence of 25 to life since 208 ounces is obviously way more than the minimum 8 ounces needed to be charged with first-degree possession.

---

Quotes

D.A. Nora Lewin: I'd like to think I can do this job without becoming a cynic.
Jack McCoy: I'm not a cynic. I get up every morning hoping to find an honest man.

---

Connections

References Judge Dredd (1995)

User Reviews

Does the man make Rikers or does Rikers make the man?

A professional killer was waiting for a judge to get out of her limo. Shortly after he took the gun hidden in a daily newspaper and start firing at her. Luckily, he missed her and her bodyguard killed the shooter during the gunfight. The judge is well-known for passing harsh judgment over the defendants. The gun belong to a bartender and the killer was his nephew who stole it some years back. Detectives looked up all the inmates recently sentenced by the judge, included a black man who lately sent a menace letter to her. The killer just a week before the attempted murder visited an accountant at Rikers whose daughter bank account had been drained for 100 grand the same day. The accountant (a meek kind of man) had set up three different scam that had led to a big tax evasion; in the time spent at prison, he made the acquaintance of an arsonist he shouldn't have trusted....

District attorneys in this episode make a mistake in taking a plea with the wrong guy who staged everything. Anyway the judge character (played by Roxanne Hart) really looks like Stallone in Judge Dreed