The Poisoned Tree

**The Poisoned Tree** is the fifth episode of season one of the series featured on the ABC channel, *The Commish*. The episode aired on October 12, 1991. However, the episode was shown as the third episode during the airtime, while the real third episode called ***In The Best of Families*** was shown as the first episode.

### Synopsis

Rachel Scali refuses to believe Tony Scali when he tells her that her school teacher colleague is a child molester.

### Plot

##### Cold Open

During the Eastbridge Teacher of The Year Awards, which Rachel is being nominated for Teacher The Year, she complains that their night usually ends up with Tony arresting someone and she even says that her husband probably carrying a gun, but he denies it and assures her that they will have a special night.

At the hotel where the ceremony is held, Tony drops Rachel in the lobby and drives to the hotel garage because of cop regulations, he can't let a valet drive his car. In the garage, he sees a man stealing tires from a sports car and arrests him. He tells a valet attendant to call the cops and to tell them that an officer is making an arrest.

The valet misunderstands as he sees Tony holding a gun and exaggerating the situation, which alerts every cop near the vicinity to come with loud sirens. A dozen of cop cars go to the garage to make the arrest, and Officer Ronnie Lopez tells the commissioner that the call mentioned a gunfight. Rachel saw the whole thing and asks what happened, but Tony denies anything had happened and dragged her to the ceremony, hiding his embarrassment.

##### Story

At the ceremony, while eating dinner and waiting for the announcement of who will win the Teacher of The Year Award, Rachel mentions to other guests that Tony will take her to Bolshoi Ballet for her birthday. It's obvious that Tony forgets, but he covers it like he's joking. Another teacher whose at their table named Jim Hollister is also nominated and wins. Rachel is disappointed because she didn't win the award but glad that it was Jim because he's a good elementary teacher and she feels that he deserved it.

Meanwhile, an auto-repair shop belonging to Gino Martoni is being robbed while Gino himself is taking a nap. He wakes up and chases after the robber, even manages to shoot the robber's hat. Before he can shoot again, the other robber hit him in the head with a wrench and knock him out cold. After Tony can't reach his secretary Helen Stags in his office, Desk Sergeant Bill Frawley tells him about the robbery and the commissioner goes to the shop to see the victim. Officer Stan Kelly reprimands Gino for letting the shop open until midnight, but the owner says that the police will capture him by finding the owner of the hat he shot off.

At the office, Helen returns from a doctor's appointment, and Tony rushes her to buy two Bolshoi ballet tickets for Friday night. Tony forgot to buy the tickets for Rachel's birthday, and to avoid her anger, he needs to buy them soon. Helen then informs Tony that Mary Basman and her mother Mrs. Basman are in the squad room, reporting a crime. Mary is only six years old, and she was sexually molested by a man she didn't know. Detective Marcia Richards is talking to the little girl, and the only clue she gets is that he smelled icky and tied a towel around her face. Tony orders Marcia to keep up with the investigations after he told the mother that they will find the molester.

Chief of Detectives Irv Wallerstein informs Tony that they picked up a drunk driver last night, and it's Jim. Irv also tells Tony that Ronnie was making an inventory from Jim's car and found a videotape labeled 'Hockey' but when he watched it, it wasn't hokey at all.

Ronnie, angrily, shows the commissioner what's inside the videotape: it's child pornography. The kids on the video are probably still around six or seven years old. Tony is shocked that his officers found a child porn tape in Jim's car.

As both Irv and Tony interrogate Jim, the teacher denies every allegation and claims that he bought the hockey videotape from a supermarket and never even watched it. At first, Tony seems to believe him, which shocked Irv, but it's a ruse because Tony wants to investigate Jim without letting him know that he's being investigated. He even asks Jim whether he knew anything about a molested girl three nights ago, especially when the girl seems to see the molester's face.

Tony asks Jim whether he can meet and talk to the girl, but the man balks and says he cannot do it, feigning some anger. Tony tries to bait him by telling him that most molesters should be able to get helped but Jim says most of the time the molester can't be helped. Their conversation gets cut short because Helen calls Tony to inform him that she got ballet tickets for Wednesday night, but he is adamant that she needs to buy them for Friday night. Jim slithers out during the phone conversation and is in a rush to leave the police station before Tony could talk to him some more.

At home, Rachel is excited about Friday night and wants to see the ballet tickets. Tony, in panic, asks why, but she just wants to hold the tickets because she is so happy. Tony says that it's bad luck to see her birthday present before her birthday, and changes the subject by telling her that there's a possibility that her colleague Jim Hollister might be a child molester and connected with the rape of a little girl a few nights ago. Rachel gets angry and doesn't believe her husband, and tells him that Jim's life could get destroyed if Tony accuses him of child rape and molestation.

Stan arrested a few suspects for the robbery and planned to interrogate them but Tony advises him just to let them stew for a couple of hours, calling it the 'Brooklyn Interrogation' where the real culprit will take a nap instead of getting angry or upset. The culprit will have nothing to lose, so he will just take some rest, unlike others. A guy named Maddox is sleeping, and Tony immediately points to him as the robber. He orders Stan to interrogate him because it's obvious that the guy is guilty of the robbery.

Irv explains to Tony that there was an eye-witness that put Jim at midnight during the night of the attack; Mrs. Duffy's cat, Sheba, likes to wander around. As Mrs. Duffy waited for her cat to come home, she noticed that Jim also just got back instead of staying at home grading papers as he claimed. Tony compliments Irv's excellent investigation but worries that the case would get thrown away because the only reason why they suspected Jim is that Ronnie watched the tape, which he shouldn't do in the first place.

Tony visits Jim and lies to him about how the little girl remembers everything in detail and it's a matter of time until the cops will get him. The teacher angrily tells Tony that he needs to grade some papers, but the commissioner bluntly says that Jim needs help, which he denies in panic. Tony presses on, telling him that child molesting is the lowest of crime, worse than murder, and they will arrest Jim without parole. The commissioner asks Jim whether he knows what prisoners will do to pedophiles, but he asks Tony to leave. Tony keeps going and says that Jim had done some good, maybe if he surrender now, the commissioner could help him.

Tony says it must be exhausted to live a double life, and he offers Jim some advice and also tells him the offer is only valid right now, because if he leaves then he can't help the teacher. Jim breaks down in front of Tony and cries that he cannot help raping little children and say that he was molested too when he was a child by his father.

Tony gets the confession he needed, but he's afraid that Jim will lawyer up and the only defense attorney he's not fond of is Brenda Peterson because she's ruthless. And his nightmare came true, because Brenda is after the commissioner for breaking her client's constitutional right, even when Jim already signed a waiver, according to DA Clayton Marshall. But Brenda countered that Jim signed the waiver under duress and the videotape wasn't concrete evidence, and without the videotape, the cops wouldn't suspect Jim at all, therefore his so-called confession is inadmissible in court, and the police with the District Attorney doesn't have a case against him.

Tony asks whether Jim regrets what he did, but he denies having anything to do with the crime. Tony yells at him, but Jim does not even look at the commissioner, and Brenda threatens both Tony and Clayton that if this case leaked to the media, she will sue them and the city of Eastbridge for $10 Million. Both Tony and Clayton are arguing whether they should just press charges and they are going back and forth between Jim's reputation as a good person and the City Council who will refuse to get sued.

Tony orders his police officers and detectives that they need to get Jim by the rules or not at all, which makes officer John Hibbs angrily voice an opinion that pedophiles shouldn't have rights. Tony says that the Police Department also has the right to put Jim under 24 hours of surveillance and watch him, so when he's making another snatch to a child, the police can immediately arrest him.

Meanwhile, Stan tells Tony that Maddox is the robber but he paid a hooker to say that he was with her so therefore couldn't do the robbery. Tony has a plan and asks Stan to call Maddox back tomorrow at noon and bring the hat that was shot by Gino, and he assures him that he will make the robber confess.

Helen informs Tony that someone wants to meet the commissioner at the park tomorrow afternoon for the ballet tickets, which makes him uncomfortable but he doesn't have a choice as he's desperate. At home, Tony is comforting Rachel who is in disbelief that Jim is evil and she wonders how they can protect children like David, but Tony assures her that they can as a family full of love.

The next day, Jim is cruising for another victim with his car while not realizing that he's being followed by a bunch of undercover cops including Ronnie, John, and Ricky Caruso. When Jim sees a little girl buying ice cream, he pretends to be her mom's friend and lets her into his car. After almost losing the car, Tony and Irv drives to an overpass and arrest Jim who is about to do something to the girl.

At the police station, Tony is ready to trap Maddox for the robbery; he put the hat inside a bin and locates it next to the suspect's chair. He also pretends to be sick and has the flu, so he exaggerates and sneezes all the time. Maddox refuses to shake hands with the commissioner because he keeps sneezing and snide at Stan for suspecting him of a robber. Tony blows his nose and throws the tissues into the bin but Maddox sees the hat inside the bin. He exclaimed that the hat is his, and immediately realizes that he just confessed to the robbery.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are grateful to Tony that the police saved their little daughter, but refuse to press charges because they don't want their girl to be traumatized. Tony tells them that another girl was raped and they can't let this man go, but the parents are adamant about not having their daughter testify, and they don't care whether the man would rape others as long as their daughter is safe. Tony is shocked that Jim is slipping through his fingers again, but Helen says at least the case is on the news and Jim's reputation as Teacher of The Year and a good person is tarnished especially they put his picture on the front pages of newspapers. She also says that Jim will never work or teach in any school in Eastbridge ever again, and he probably would leave town.

Tony is meeting a guy named Lyle Reynolds who can give him the ballet tickets, and he's willing to pay $200 for the tickets, each. But the man wants Tony to release his brother-in-law who is being sentenced for a crime in exchange for the ballet tickets. Tony refuses and informs him that bribing an officer is a crime and he can arrest Lyle for it, but he only curses the commissioner and leaves. Helen contacts Tony and informs him that Mrs. Basman called and she was talking about revenge. Tony realizes that Mrs. Basman is going to kill Jim, and he rushes to his home.

Mrs. Basman is threatening Jim with a gun and is going to shoot him, but Tony gets there in time to persuade her not to kill him because if she does, she will go to prison for a long time, and who will take care of her daughter? Mrs. Basman is crying and suddenly shoots the diplomas behind Jim and leaves the house while the teacher is cowering on the floor. Tony stares at Jim and gives an ultimatum: someday his luck will run out and he's going to wish that she killed him.

Rachel comforts Tony and says that she's not in the mood to go to the ballet, and tells him that he should get his money back. Tony feels guilty and confesses to his wife that he forgot to buy the tickets, but Rachel only smiles and gives him the tickets - apparently, she already purchased them two months ago, knowing that Tony is forgetful, and she just wants to see her husband sweating. Tony asks for her forgiveness, but she only forgives him on one condition: no guns, no beepers, no muggings, no car thieves, no recidivists, just them alone having a good night in town.

### Cast and Characters

#### Starring

* Michael Chiklis as Tony Scali
* Theresa Saldana as Rachel Scali
* Kaj-Erik Eriksen as David Scali
* Geoffrey Nauffts as Stan Kelly
* Ken Lerner as Jim Hollister
* Joan McMurtrey as Mrs. Basman
* Alex Bruhanski as Irv Wallerstein
* Babs Chula as Helen Stags
* Phil Peters as Bill Frawley
* Nicholas Lea as Ricky Caruso
* Jason Schombing as Ronnie Lopez

#### Guest Starring

* Tamzin Kelsey as Brenda Peterson
* Deryl Hayes as Clayton Marshall
* Jo Bates as Marcia Richards
* Kahla Lichti as Mary Basman
* Bill Croft as Maddox
* Ian Black as Gino Martoni
* Patricia Dahlquist as Mrs. Brown
* Dean Regan as Mr. Brown
* Colleen Winton as Jane Thomas
* Marek Czuma as William Thomas
* Terry King as Lyle Reynolds