Tonight on NBC their new drama Chicago Justice airs with an all new Wednesday, March 5, 2017, episode and we have your Chicago Justice recap below. On tonight’s Chicago Justice season 1 episode 2 as per the NBC synopsis, “A chain of events following the arrest and death of a young man is investigated, and CPD’s Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) is ultimately charged with murder. Defending him is Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks, reprising his “Law & Order” role).”
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Chicago Justice begins tonight with ASA Anna Valdez (Monica Barbaro), arriving at the Chicago PD asking Sgt Trudy Platt (Any Morton) to see Adrian Carrera (Sal Velez Jr.) who is in the drunk tank with his bottom-feeding lawyer, Arnold Rifking (Danny Jacobs).
Her boss Peter Stone (Philip Winchester) offers Carrera a plea of 20-years, for today only. Rifking says they will not accept that plea on assault. Anna informs him the victim died at Chicago Med; and they are filing murder charges; as she leaves he tells her he is also representing the man in the drunk tank beside Carrera, Justin Wilkes.
She says if she doesn’t hear from him by 2 pm, she is putting the case before the grand jury. Carrera told them to shove their offer, and Stone tells her she will be first chair on a murder case. Just as she has a moment of excitement, she receives a call from Rifking informing her the client beside Carrera has died, and he is at the hospital with his mother, Mrs. Wilkes.
At the hospital she learns from Rev, Finch that he is making sure their office investigate Justin’s death thoroughly since he didn’t die of natural causes, and he passed away from fatal injuries while in police custody. She looks on as the mother says goodbye to her deceased son.
Stone and Anna meet with Mark Jefferies (Carl Weathers) and share everything they know about Wilke’s case. He tells them to get in front of this immediately, starting a the hospital and work backwards; with Rev Finch on it, Rifking won’t be Wilkes’ lawyer for long.
Stone learns from the ME that drunk or not, the second that piece of his sternum broke, he was a dead man walking; its pretty clear it came from someone or something hitting him in the chest; this usually happens in car accidents. She wanted him to know that she is signing the homicide block as cause of death.
Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) and Laura Nagel (Joelle Carter) learn it took the ED over 5 hours to get to Justin. Laura wants to know how they knew he was drunk if no one examined him. The nurse said some of their best customers are drunks. She is not very helpful, she reveals he died from exsanguination but can’t tell them any more.
EMS startles Laura and Antonio when they say Justin smelled like booze and had vomit all over them when they took him with them on a call of an 8-year-old pulled from the lake with no pulse. As they walk away, Laura tells Antonio to remind her not to get sick and he says to remind me to not be a black male. One of the paramedics yells to them that the kid from the lake made it.
Antonio and Laura arrive at Chicago PD to talk to Dt. Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins), who is the officer who arrested Justin. Kevin says he knew Justin growing up, and explains what happened; Kevin then learns Justin died. Laura asks him if he was properly restrained and Kevin informs them that the suspect was resisting arrest and he subdued him using reasonable physical force; he slams his locker and brushes past Antonio.
Antonio defends Kevin, but Rifking brings in his client Carrera who claims to have information from that night Wilkes died. He says Wilkes might have told him a cop hit him, and if Rifking gets a deal he will testify to that. Stone turns down the offer. Meanwhile, Antonio is asking for the video coverage before they throw Kevin Atwater to the wolves to keep the peace. He says he will have them in a couple hours.
Jefferies meets with Mrs. Wilkes and Rev Finch. Finch produces cellphones from people who wouldn’t come forward to the police. He offers them to Jefferies saying Justin was definitely murdered. Antonio and Laura watch the videos of Kevin Atwater’s arrest. Antonio is on Atwater’s side and Laura reminds him he is her partner now.
Atwater says to Antonio in truth he shouldn’t have done anything; he should have just let him sell his dope because its always going to be someone’s kid. Everyone gets together to review what they know about the case so far.
Antonio says to Anna she knows Atwater and Stone says he also knows Sgt Hank Voight’s (Jason Beghe) unit and he wouldn’t exactly call them shrinking violets. Stone says he takes no pleasure in going after a cop; especially a cop like Kevin Atwater. Antonio tells him to just drop it. Stone reminds him their obligation is to the victim and his family and he can’t just drop it; Antonio grabs his coat and says he doesn’t have to be a part of it.
Voight comes to see Antonio, who says he is doing everything he can. Antonio questions what if Kevin killed him; Voight says if Kevin killed that SOB then that SOB needed killing. Stone decides they are going to go after the cop who arrested Wilkes, the EMTs who took their time getting him to the hospital and the doctors who let him bleed to death in a waiting room.
He became a ward of the state the second he was arrested, and the EMT’s and doctors treated him like a subhuman not worth saving after that; plain and simple he is a murder victim!
At a bar, Stone shares he is not making it a conspiracy, it was the collective actions or lack of actions that contributed to his death. She reminds him that doesn’t exist in the criminal code. Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), who served with his dad in NYC, arrives.
He defends police officers, and after Voight called him, he had to come help Atwater. He has a motion to preclude grand jury action, Stone tells him this doesn’t exist in Chicago; Robinette says let the presiding judge make the call. In court, they argue about the preclude, the judge asks for an hour to read what Robinette is asking and she wants all subpoenas from the ASA office.
Stone doesn’t care about Kevin Atwater’s characteristics until after the trial; Robinette says he reminds him of his old man, Stone immediately says his father has nothing to do with the way he practices law. He tells Peter he should try calling his father and offering an apology; Stone says he doesn’t know what he is talking about but Robinette says he thinks he does.
Back in court, the judge denies his motion; Anna returns to Jefferies office saying the grand jury has indicted one single motion: First degree murder for Kevin Atwater. Stone bows his head as Jefferies orders them to have an arrest warrant within the hour and executed immediately. Stone says Atwater would turn himself in, but Jefferies orders him to work on all the reasonable doubt they handed Robinette.
Antonio comes to bring Atwater in, as Jefferies gives a press conference. Antonio blows up at Stone defending Chicago PD. He says Atwater is just a man, better than most, and what kind of prick would ruin that?
The ME says that the victim received blunt force trauma to his rib cage causing it to splinter. Stone shows the videos of the arrest and she admits on several spots in the video it could have caused it. She says it would take 6 or 7 hours to die. He died at 4:06pm but Atwater arrested him at 7:10am.
He brings up that Stone attempted to indict the EMTs and the Doctors because they don’t know what truly cause Justin’s death. Witnesses from the neighborhood know Justin Wilkes and they know he is a drug dealer.
Antonio tells Kevin he did what he could, but Atwater is upset that it obviously wasn’t long enough. They used to ride together and everything has changed now that Antonio has moved to a bigger house. He is upset that a black woman got on the stand today and implied he is turning his back on his people over being a police officer.
The younger siblings are in a hotel after death threats; Antonio said he will take them in until he is cleared. Atwater says its too late, and maybe he did kill him; maybe he hit him harder than he should. Antonio tells him what they do are for the right reasons.
Stone is having a crisis of conscience, that Robinette was right that there were several people responsible for Justin’s death. Jefferies asks about the jailhouse snitch Carrera; wondering if he knows for fact he is lying. Carrera says Justin said that the cop who arrested him beat the hell out of him. Court is adjourned until tomorrow.
Robinette and Stone talk, mentioning how a criminal has more credibility than a cop. Robinette wants charges dropped to aggravated assault with 6 months probation; Stone refuses and offers 1 year. Kevin Atwater stands in court and recounts what happened; Antonio leaves the courtroom.
Laura tells Antonio she wants to talk about it, but Antonio doesn’t. She shares a childhood story telling him that she has learned to pick a side and stick with it; she tells him she is happy he is her partner. Antonio reviews the case and discovers there was no blood tox report, and there was no vomit on him.
Anna and Stone arrive at the prison, and inform Carrera his deal is off the table. Stone tells Carrera the only choice he has is concurrent or consecutive sentences as he is now being charged with Justin’s murder on top of the man he killed in the bar. Carrera admits he killed him for a cigarette.
Back in court Stone has Kevin Atwater’s sentence and charge vacated. He admits to Atwater that sometimes they get it wrong and he apologizes to him. Antonio and Atwater nod to each other. Robinette shakes hands with Stone and tells him his father would be proud of both of them. Antonio comes to Stone’s office and offers him an apology; he tells him not to worry about it. Stone picks up his baseball and calls his father.
THE END!