Tonight on NBC Law & Order returns with an all-new Thursday, February 22, 2024 episode and we have your Law & Order recap below. In tonight’s Law & Order season 23 episode 5 “Last Dance,” as per the NBC synopsis,
“When a woman is found murdered in Central Park, evidence points to two frequent park-goers – a street vendor and tech billionaire. In the face of extreme political pressure, McCoy takes drastic action to make the case.”
Tonight’s Law & Order season 23 episode 5 looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it. So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back from 8 PM – 9 PM ET for our Law & Order recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our Law & Order SVU recaps, spoilers, news & more!
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In tonight’s Law & Order episode, a woman was found strangled in the park. She was found without a wallet. She might have been mugged, but the way she died indicated someone with an actual motive killed her. They knocked her onto the ground. She hit her head. She could have died from that wound and instead her killer finished her off by strangling her to death.
They wanted to make sure she was down for good. This didn’t sound like a stranger would do it. There was no sexual activity. The police came to see that it wasn’t mugging or robbery related. They figured that out after they found the person who did steal from the body.
His name is Miguel. He works with maintenance. He clocks in at six every morning. He saw the body and he stole a necklace along with other items because he thought the victim didn’t need it.
Only Miguel saw a white guy with a black or dark blue hat with a letter on it was standing near the body. Miguel’s tip proved helpful. It gave them an idea of who to look for. The stolen necklace also gave them an identification for the victim. Her name was Veronica Knight. She created a dating app to help women have their own community.
The police later broke the news to Veronica’s family. Her sister said she wasn’t dating anyone. She wasn’t interested in dating anyone. Nor did she jog. Veronica wasn’t dressed for a jog and she watched other joggers while just walking.
There were plenty of witnesses to testify to that. Veronica was in that park early morning to meet someone. It could be with the man that Miguel described. The police searched nearby security cameras. They found someone matching that description leaving the park. The letter on his hat was “P” for Princeton.
Their suspect was Scott Kelton. He was the thirteenth richest man alive. He was a billionaire. He lived in that area. He jogs every morning in that park. When the police questioned him, he revealed he knew Veronica.
She worked for him fresh out of college. It was for three years and then they went their separate ways. Veronica tried contacting him recently. He never returned her messages. She might have tried to waylay him on his usual jog and Kelton claims he saw a street vendor harassing a woman that looks like her.
Kelton called 911. There was a record of that. The police then followed up his lead. They question the street vendors and they found one with a history of criminal sexual assault.
There was just one problem. Kelton lied about his past with Veronica. Veronica’s therapist contacted the police to tell them that Veronica started seeing her to finally process her rape. She told her therapist that she was raped by Kelton when she worked for him. She also told her therapist that she wanted closure. She wanted to confront her rapist. This was why she contacted him out of the blue.
Kelton was arrested after the police spoke with the therapist. They believed that Kelton had murdered Veronica to protect his reputation as well as his company. He was a tech mogul.
If it got out that he raped a woman working for him, it wouldn’t matter if it was he said/she said. It would still look bad that he slept with someone he has power over. Kelton was arrested. District Attorney Jack McCoy suddenly faced pressure from all sides to drop the case. Kelton had apparently donated to McCoy’s rival for District Attorney. He was also considered a golden boy of New York City.
Even the Mayor tried to tell McCoy to drop it. McCoy stuck to his principles because he said this wasn’t political retaliation. He firmly believes that Kelton killed Veronica and that he should pay for it. McCoy gave this case to ADAs Price and Maroun. It was their job to make an airtight case against Kelton.
They started out by putting the street vendor on the stand. They knew that Kelton’s lawyer would try to paint this man as the real killer. They tried to work around that by showing that the man was just chosen because Kelton tried to shift blame.
Their next move was to put Dr. Shannon Andrews on the stand. Only they didn’t make it that far. The therapist refused to testify. She claimed that it was unethical for her to discuss Veronica and she’s been getting a lot of calls from other patients. The other patients are worried that she would one day testify against them. They needed to know their secrets were safe. The doctor was trying to reassure them by not testifying. It didn’t matter that Veronica’s sister had given her consent. The doctor couldn’t let other patients see her break doctor/patient confidentiality.
McCoy told Price to offer Kelton a plea deal. He wouldn’t do less than ten. Price tried to negotiate with Kelton by first saying fifteen and working down to ten. Kelton refused to take it. He was willing to serve five and no more than that. Kelton admitted during negotiations that he did kill Veronica. He claimed that they had consensual sex back in the day. Veronica was calling it rape when she confronted him. She wanted him to apologize. He refused to do that. They got into an argument and things supposedly got out of hand.
Price and Maroun tried to find other witnesses to corroborate the rape. They found a lawyer who might know something. They tried to convince Jordan Payne to testify and he wouldn’t do it. He didn’t want his affairs or his secrets to come out on the stand if the other side questions him.
He was a supposedly happy married man with kids. Price was thinking of subpoenaing him when he was contacted by power brokers. Jordan was the son of Mayor Payne. The Mayor wanted to give Kelton the five year plea agreement. He told Price to make a deal or else he’ll ruin Price’s career if his son gets subpoenaed.
Price told McCoy what happened. It was therefore McCoy’s decision to remove Price from the case. McCoy decided to personally finish the trial as the prosecutor on file and he did subpoena Jordan. Jordan tried to be as much belligerent as possible. He claimed that it was all a witch hunt. Nothing happened on the trip to St. Barts. He was ultimately forced to admit that Kelton called Veronica “an uptight bitch” after she abruptly left their work trip. She also stopped responding to messages. And so the defense did bring up Jordan’s affair to show that he has a history of lying to people he loves.
Jordan’s affair was going to be in the news, but he helped convict Kelton and McCoy later resigned as District Attorney with another win under his belt.
McCoy took the hit to keep his office free of political strife.
THE END!
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