“History tells us there always will be bad cops betraying the badge. But there are also the little-known agents of the New York City’s Internal Affairs Bureau rooting them out. These are their stories.”
The hour long crime show is centered around the Internal Affairs Bureau, which is often derided as ‘The Rat Squad’ by the rest of the NYPD. The Officers are flamed as cheese, grass or meat eaters. L&O: IA is the new incarnation of Dick Wolf’s Law & Order franchise and follows one team of the Investigative Review Unit (IRU), located at IAB headquarters on 315 Hudson Street. The team consist of five cops who investigate in each of the 76 NYC police precincts, revealing cases of narcotics abuse, theft, fraud, bribery, perjury, conspiracy, unauthorized off-duty employment, sex offenses and all other forms of police corruption, be it on or off duty. On top, the IAB investigates all instances in which their colleagues have used their firearm, be it to uproot another corrupt cop or to clear a fellow officer.
Lieutenant Eugene Hayle played by Thom Barry
Lieutenant Eugene Hayle is the unit head of the portrayed IAB Investigative Review Unit. He has come to terms with being more of a politician than a cop. But he still misses the streets of New York during the long hours behind his desk working for the annual report of the IAB and CompStat. Eugene usually gets the IAB orders from the Chief and disperses them to his detectives. He is very happy about his new team members, Detective Lea, as he feels his unit is now perfectly balanced and will be more successful than ever before.
Eugene and his wife live in Queens. Their children are grown up and they are looking forward their first grandchild, who will be born during the first season. As Hayle is also approaching retirement in a few years, he passes on more and more of his administrative work to Sergeant Lime. He thinks Harry would make a great team leader.
Sergeant Harry Lime played by James Spader
Sergeant Harry Lime is the connection between Lieutenant Hayle and the three Detectives of the Investigative Review Unit. In the field, he leads the team and arrests NYPD members charged with criminal offenses. Harry has no problem being an IAB cop. He knows how to defend himself and his colleagues from hostility with his sharp tongue. His mission is to clean the NYPD, ensuring the boys in blue actually protect and the serve the people of New York City. Although Harry likes the extra duties Eugene passes to him during the first season, he doesn’t know if he ever wants Hayle’s job. He loves to investigate outside the office and does not like the game of politics associated with team leader position.
Harry lives in Manhattan. He has been married three times and got divorced three times. He is a man who loves the women but also knows that a relationship is hard work, even harder work for a cop.
Detective Henry Lovell played by Justin Chambers
Detective Henry Lovell, the oldest of the three Detective of the Investigative Review Unit is a former military police sergeant and desert storm veteran. He knows how to handle hostilities because of investigating against the ‘home team’. Like Sergeant Lime, Henry wants his hometown and neighborhood crime free. To get New York City clean there needs to be a perfect working NYPD and Detective Lovell makes sure of getting rid of problem officers. He hates every form of corruption and is very resolute during the investigations. As a firearm expert Henry also works a lot of weapon cases. He would never admit but it feels good to clear a cop now and then.
Henry is a widower after his wife died of cancer a couple of years ago. He raised his eleven year old daughter Elizabeth in Brooklyn.
Detective Esmeralda Vega played my Justina Machado
Detective Esmeralda Vega, the 34 years old cop is nearly her whole police life employed at the Internal Affair Bureau. After the two mandatory years patrol duty Detective Vega started at the Command Center receiving phone calls and letters collecting tips. It followed a few years as officer of the IAB vehicle enforcement unit. Esmeralda drove one of the big tow trucks and hunted for NYPD members misusing their special parking placard by, for example, blocking a loading zone or fire hydrants. She knows the structures of the bureau very well. Esmeralda is an inherent part of the IRU team and has found a good friend in Sergeant Harry Lime.
Esmeralda lives in Brooklyn with her family. She is the mother of Diego, 10, and Teresa, 8. Her husband Enrico is also a NYPD detective with the Narcotics Division. During the first season, he comes under scrutiny for selling drugs. The charges ultimately lead to the break of up Esmeralda’s and Enrico’s marriage.
Detective Joshua Lea played by Adam Brody
Detective Lea is the youngest member of the IRU team. He starts his detective duty at the Internal Affairs Bureau at the beginning of the first episode. Through his eyes, the audience gets to know the structures and characters of the unit. He is not completely happy about his promotion to IAB, as he has worked hard for his gold shield and has a hard time not being “liked” by his fellow police officers. He is impressed at how cool his Sergeant and Detective Vega and Lovell brush off all the hostilities. During the first few episodes he learns how important the bureau and its work is. Joshua has a keen temper and is never shy of a joke.
Joshua lives in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, finally big apple. But he enjoys spending his free weekends in Staten Island, the place of his youth.
ADA Rebecca Cunningham played by Melinda Clark
Rebecca Cunningham completes the IAB team when the investigated cases involve higher crime and corrupt officers are accused at a federal court instead the Police Department trial.
The opener of Law & Order: Internal Affairs takes place in winter 2009/2010. To the beginning we see each team member of the IRU working and investigating.
Lieutenant Eugene Hayle has a secret meeting, discussing with Chief Campisi. In the end he gets the advice to be careful and he reached for a folder.
Sergeant Harry Lime welcomes the new IRU member, Detective Lea. He shows him his desk and introduces Joshua to the Detectives Vega and Lovell. Esmeralda is working on three cases of testilying. Officers of the 42nd Precincts lied in court. Henry reconstructs a gunfight of two Detectives with four drug dealers in Harlem.
But all current cases come to a stop as Eugene enters the office. He presents the new team case suspect: NYPD Chief of Detectives Kenny Moran. Even the Chief of the IAB couldn’t ignore all the tips and logs against Kenny Moran any longer. Beside irreproducible personal decisions, Moran should have taken money to prefer arming producers.
The team is not happy in the end. They solve the case and collected many evidence to proof the corruption. But Chief Campisi stops the investigation before they could arrest the CoD. It would have been a too big scandal for the NYPD.
In the end Moran will be kicked upstairs to Albany to get rid of him. At least the team can check all of Moran’s suspensions and firings. Harry gets a big manila folder. He opens the binder. At the first page the Academy picture of Robert Goren is tacked and we fade to black.
Sources: For closer information about the NYPD Internal Affair Bureau I used the following web links. The New York Times article was a huge help.
If you follow the Kathryn 2010 to 2011 or Current Movie Project section here at my blog you already know that Mother’s House will be shown in several film festivals in the next months.
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citjara for suggestions and her beta work.
As I had done researches for 10 x 25 a few weeks ago I also saw at the Atlantic Theater homepage that Bluebird should be their next play, starting August 9th. Kathryn attended several opening events of plays in the last couple of months. I hoped she would visit Bluebird as well, especially because it’s her company.
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tvrealm and there are only two more weeks until the end of the first round.
