Tuesday, October 30, 2001

Redemption - 142

Harm (H) was assigned TAD to an air squad with his old buddy Cmdr Scott Webster and ended up defending him on fraternization charges trumped up by Lt Mantei a pilot who Webster passed over for assignment to the Joint Strike Fighter project. During his defense H looked at Webster's computer and found an email from Ciecle Tech negotiating payment for stealth paint. He couldn't do anything about what he thought was espionage because it was privileged information as Lawyer- Client. Webster's son, Bill, who had been estranged from him, all of a sudden turned positive and testified for his father. After Webster's hearing H found that there really had been a can of the paint reported missing, so he told the NCIS and had Webster arrested. Charges were filed against H for attorney misconduct. Chegwidden (C) told him that the paperwork hadn't gotten to his desk yet, so to "use the time wisely." H continued the investigation and found that Bill's "girlfriend" was working at Ciecle Tech as a secretary. H got Webster to finally confess that he had been covering for his son. When H found the Email, Webster had challenged Bill who said that he "hadn't actually given the paint to them but had flushed it down the toilet." H said he would try and get him a plea-bargain deal for his testimony against the company. C decided that the charges against H were groundless.

Mac (M) defended PO Maat in civil court regarding the custody of her daughter Katelyn who was abused by her attorney father Seth. The father acted connivingly and was infuriatingly assured and cocky. Even expert witness Beth Salluci, who Bud (B) recommended, wasn't able to prevent the judge from granting joint custody. M and B told Singer (S) about the decision. PO Maat went UA with Katelyn immediately prior to her fathers first visitation. Seth then came storming into JAG, pushing people aside and threatening people. He said that his ex-wife had been seen leaving her home in the company of a "blond female officer". When he saw Harriet (Ht), he knocked down Bud to get to her, so M to "took him down," effortlessly. M told him that she would appeal the joint custody and pursue assault charges for B against him. S was made to "seem guilty" of being the "blond officer" when she deferred answering Ms question about if it were she who had secured PO Matt and her daughter. She just said "that would be illegal, wouldn't it?"

Tuesday, October 23, 2001

Mixed Messages - 139

[superb, story driven episode] (M) Mac was back at JAG and received a meritorious service medal. She contacted police Capt. Jarot who helped find the girl Lylyana who was in a hospital with a concussion. Jarot questioned M about the engagement ring which she had given up to him - "you didn't love him?" "Someone else you care about but aren't with?" "Is he a fool?" M gave Lylyana the medal she had received.

Renee appeared, engaged to Cyrus the mortician who "loved her completely." Harms (H) former shipmate on the Midway, Cdr Rick Stoechler, was assassinated in a high security cryptography unit along with Sr Chief Trujillo. Cdr Pagano, who was there also, was only wounded. At Admiral Danaco's request, Chegwidden (C)assigned H to "parallel" agent Holland's investigation which was receiving obstruction from NSG. Webb (W)brought H a dossier, from his "source in Beijing," which showed that Stoechler had been a "mole" feeding info to the Chinese. There was also a videotape showing the gunman and the fact that the last security code entered was Stoechlers. If that weren't enough, he showed that Stoechler had $150,000 in a secret bank account. Both H & C were suspicious because: "when did W ever do anything without an agenda?" Stoechler's boss, Capt Reeves, was shown to be real "jerk" obviously throwing rank and hiding something from H. Reeves had summoned Stoechler to a "needless" offsite meeting and the killer had entered the secured area after he returned. Trujillo was shot once but Stoechler 3 times (once for spite). The tape showed the killer get point blank drop on Pagano and shoot. Stoechler's wife set H on track of a memo she heard her husband say he had sent to Capt Reeves about the new experimental Submarine Jimmy Carter (JC). Turner said he had heard of espionage 2 or 3 times while he was JAG for ComSubPac.

The JCs Capt. told H of the sub's recent tonal signature tests (noise "signature" which allows tracking). Gunny (G) and H went over the video tape frame by frame and found alterations! Reeves blocked access to the original tape so H got C to have Adm Danaco hold an article 32-hearing in a classified, bug swept, "jammed" courtroom then called Reeves to the stand. Bud (B) defended Pagano who's soot in his wounds proved his lie that he had been shot from across the room. Then, in a surprise visit, they found Reeves, Pagano & W "conspiring" in his hospital room. Judge Harrison made W testify so he finally admitted that they knew Pagano was really the mole and had fed him dis-information about the tonal tests. Pagano then gave the faulty information to the Chinese; but then, in his spy job, had decrypted a message between two Chinese agents about the results. So he then told the Chinese that the "US knew that THEY knew!" The assassin was then sent, hoping that the info would die with the people killed and deliberately left Pagano wounded, but still working as their agent. W & Reeves had ordered the videotape altered, then framed Stoechler in order to preserve their deception. H called the JCs Capt., who unexpectedly testified in front of Pagano that the decrypted message of their tonal tests were not the "real" results, thus "spilling the beans" of the CIAs counter-intelligence. W & Reeves decided to "turn" Pagano into a double agent. H asked W how the court could know that he was telling the truth. He responded "I'm under oath." Danaco told C not to let H pursue Pagano's murder & espionage charges further. W said that Stoechler's wife could keep the $150K. H was "ticked off" about having to keep his wife and children in the dark over their fathers death. H told her to tell her kids their dad was a hero and Danaco had promised a medal "at some future date."

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Guilt - 138

[A bit of a "contrived" plot] Mac (M) and Gunny (G) are still TAD onboard ship. She was sent to secure the release, from civilian authority, of Cpl Lassiter who had been arrested for rape in Aceh Province. The corrupt police chief, Jarot, shook M down for a bribe and the only thing of value that she had was Brumby's (Brum) ring. An angry mob besieged the US consulate setting off an explosion and they were eventually ordered to evacuate. While they were undertaking procedures for burning records, one of the mob dropped a grenade killing Gunny Sgt Simpkins and blinding his second in command. The ambassador, Raymon Dart, wanted to give Cpl lassiter (who actually turned out to be guilty) to the mob as a "diplomatic solution." M was senior officer. The "motor-mouth" daughter of a consulate cook, Lylyana, took to M and drew her a picture. M gave her an insignia from her uniform in return. The evacuating helicopter couldn't land due to small arms fire from the mob. Lylyana led them all through a "secret" tunnel beneath the consulate (that no one knew about) onto the next street, and her school building. The mob eventually came to the school, as they all were boarding the helicopter, and lobbed mortars. Unbelievably, the girl stood in the courtyard jumping up and down waving that M had forgotten to take her picture! A mortar was shown exploding directly in front of her as the helicopter took off. Chloe & Jingo talked to M by phone and are OK at her grandparents.

Harm (H) and Singer (S) defended Lt Cmdr Kegan who killed Anton Summer, an ex-con going to be arrested for disabling a smoke detector and smoking on a plane. Turner (T) was prosecuting and called Harriett (Ht), who was on the plane, as a witness. Ht said that Kegan had knocked a water bottle out of Summer's hand and while he was picking it up wrestled with him and broke his neck. Ht, however was not in a position to see that Summer had actually grabbed the exit handle and was trying to open the door. In cross examination, S made Ht cry talking about being "blinded" over her grief for the loss of her baby. H had to reprimand S that she had acted like a bully and had hurt their case with the jury. A "dead head" pilot on board had conversed with, and warned, Summer not to smoke in the lavatory but he said "let the captain try and stop me." The stewardess, then, had requested that Kegan watch Summer while she notified the pilot. That's when Summer made for the door, was knocked down and grabbed the exit handle trying to open it despite struggling. Kegan finally subdued him but killed him. An officer, who had felt insulted by Kegan in a bar before take-off, gave surprise testimony against Kegan. Also (unbelievably) Kegan was found guilty of manslaughter; but, after Hs closing statement (where he told the members that SEALS had always done peoples "dirty work" and 193 souls would have been lost if Kegan hadn't acted) Kegan got off with a reprimand and anger management (for manslaughter?!!)

Tuesday, October 9, 2001

The Measure of Men - 137

Mac (M)and Gunny (G)are still on the Guadalcanal in her self imposed exile. Capt Huddleston disliked marine Major Lasley, who he considered "an arrogant SOB who is incapable of admitting that he is wrong," and ordered M to investigate when a man was killed during a severe-storm training exercise that Lasley refused to cancel. M suggested an article 32 hearing but Huddleston demanded an unusual special court-martial so he wouldn't have to give up control and therefore might be able to force Lasley off his ship. Neither M nor G liked Lasley's pattern of avoiding responsibility. Harm (H) requested the defense because M had ignored his many calls and the assignment would put him back on the same ship. Even though H kept pressing, M kept pushing him away, then said: "Brumby gave up country and navy for me, are you willing to give up Renee?" H danced around stupidly trying to make her commit to a position first, so M, frustrated, said she "was tired of the dance." H finally said "yea, I would giver her up" but by that time M had already stormed out and didn't hear him say it. Without telling H, Lasley hired Larry Kaliski (a civilian attorney who "beat" M previously) to perform his defense. Kaliski wanted H to continue second chair to which H only reluctantly consented. Kaliski threatened H with filing a grievance on him if he didn't act appropriately subservient. He nearly lost the case until H recreated the boats course showing that the accident happened due to inaccurate maps and Huddleston's own insistence on a delay which washed away the marker buoys. M finally got Lasley's XO to admit that others "may have" taken the heat for Lasley in the past. H finally negotiated a settlement with M if Lasley would take the stand and admit his portion of blame; but, he was still too arrogant and refused to do so. He was found guilty of dereliction of duty. M didn't even say goodbye to H when he flew back to JAG.

Chegwidden's (C)teen goddaughter Lisa Rossbach ran away from her aunt and came to his house. She refused to let him call her mother so they could talk. C did call her mother, Merrill, who was deployed as skipper of a ship, and offered to keep Lisa for a week over the holiday's. Lisa pretty much did whatever she wanted and acted rude, childish and demanding to C whenever she didn't get her own way. C, eventually, could only prevent her from going out in the evening to meet an unknown boy by saying that he would follow her everywhere she went. She stormed into her bedroom but then ran away from his house too during the night. Finally her mother had to take leave during deployment to solve her daughters issues.

Sturgis Turner (T)tricked Bud (B)into jogging with him 8 miles to his apartment, ostensibly "for Bs career's sake" and to ameliorate his weight problem and doughnut fetish.

Tuesday, October 2, 2001

New Gun in Town - 136

[Good episode despite Harm and Mac's "parallel play" and somewhat "forced" plot lines.] People were barraging Mac (M) about resetting her wedding plans. Even Chloe hung up on M saying "Harm happened." M begged Chegwidden (C) for TAD assignment on the USS Guadalcanal to replace Maj Miles Holmes who had "gone overboard." C made her take Gunny (G)with her. Using computer files they found that Miles had communicated with USO worker Susan Evans as much as he had with his own wife, and that Evans had met the ship at all of her last ports. They discovered that Miles had faked his own "man overboard," then hid out in a ships void until he could sneak aboard a landing craft the next day to Jakarta. They intercepted Miles and Evans both at a hotel on the island. Oddly Miles advised M that maybe "someday she could work without a net" and love again!

Harm (H) attended Rene's fathers funeral and was very uncomfortable being manipulated into their "family" role especially by Rene's pushy mother. Rene met Cyrus Fortney, the undertaker, who used to be her old flame until he went to embalming school. H appeared before the mishap investigator who claimed the only reason H didn't die, having not followed "the book," was because "someone up there likes you." H replied "well he can't like me very much cause I'm in here with you." C told H about when he returned from Vietnam all beat up and went to church. When the priest offered kind words it "damn near killed me. I had no idea how bad I hurt until I heard those words. Make of it what you will." H went to see his Stearman but couldn't bring himself to fly. The caretaker of the hanger where H kept his plane counseled H that "sometimes it's better to stay on the ground" unless you felt like you had the luck to fly. Cdr Sturgis Turner (T) came to JAG (Hs old company mate). He refused to bump Bud (B) out of his office and instead took the small office with pipes saying it reminded him of a submarine. Sturgis played basketball with H and asked about Annie. Then he asked "you got a girl" and H replied "No, she's got me." Sturgis prosecuted and H defended airman Peter Tyree who had tried to get a T-34 trainer up in the air and flipped it. Sturgis prosecuted and refused to deal. Tyree was a real "doofus" and although H successfully presented the case that he was just taxiing and "it got away." Sturgis tripped him up into admitting he just wanted to get it into the air one time. The judge found him guilty; but, H talked Admiral Landry (AIRLANT) into taking authority of the case and dropping it in favor of applying for education scholarship and OCS. H took Peter for a ride in his Stearman.

B prosecuted and Singer defended Master Chief Edwards who disliked and swore at children at a scout camp. Scout Lovelace wrote down the words cause he wouldn't say them - there were 40 some that B didn't know. Singer suggested a settlement that she knew her client wouldn't like, knowing how much he hated kids - 200 hrs community service at Norfolk freedom scout camp, without swearing or straight to jail.