9.30PM MONDAY / MARCH 24

Nicole Bailey, the ex wife of a former senator Rand Bailey, is found brutally murdered in her apartment with a wooden spoon and fire place poker lying nearby, the day after she verbally abused event organisers at a rally.The detectives suspect Nicole knew her attacker as there is no sign of any defensive wounds, and they discover Nicole left the fundraiser with her stepdaughter Trina’s husband, Jim. Although he is known to be abusive, Trina gives him an alibi for the time of the murder.Green and Cassady decide to question Rand again, and when they get to his apartment, officers are already there responding to shots fired. Trina and Jim are both inside involved in a fight, and Rand is waving a gun around. He claims he’s trying to protect his daughter, but the cops arrest both men.On the way out, Cassady Chaz, Rand’s 20 year old drug addict son, who is chained to the heater in a desperate bid to keep him from doing drugs.When Cassady pushes Rand’s buttons at the station, he throws a chair at her and Van Buren is furious because Rand was close to confessing, and Cassady blew it. But he’s eliminated as a suspect when Chaz alibis him, and tells them that whatever abuse her parents dished out to her, Trina did the same to Chaz. Old hospital records show that Trina was beaten with a wooden spoon as a child, and that tips them off. When they go to Trina’s apartment, Cassady sees Rand stabbing Trina, who is now dead. Cassady also tells the others that she witnessed Rand stab himself with a knife.In the courtroom, Rand’s slick defence attorney claims his client acted in self-defence. But McCoy is determined to show Rand’s violent side and chronicle the years of abuse Trina suffered.McCoy calls on Chaz to testify, but when he overdoses, Rand sends him to rehab in Switzerland. The judge dismiss-es McCoy’s request to delay the trial, and now everything depends on Cassady’s testimony …TRIVIA:Six Feet Under actor Jeremy Sisto guest stars as the defence attorney Clint Glover, but it seems the producers of Law & Order think he’s better as a detective. He’s signed on as a cast regular for season 18 of Law & Order as De-tective Cyrus Lupo, Detective Green’s new sidekick.