Tonight on NBC Law & Order returns with an all-new Thursday, March 30, 2023 episode and we have your Law & Order recap below. In tonight’s Law & Order season 22 episode 17 “Bias,” as per the NBC synopsis, “When a public defender is murdered, Cosgrove and Shaw are surprised to find Price at the crime scene. His involvement in the trial compromises the case.”
Tonight’s Law & Order season 22 episode 17 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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Tonight’s Law & Order episode begins with Price who is outside and waiting for someone when he notices a wallet belonging to Rachel Bender on the ground, he looks around and sees blood, lots of it, and then he finds Rachel, she is dead.
Cosgrove and Shaw are on the scene, the victim was killed with one stab wound, no sexual assault. Judging from the blood trail, looks like she tried to get out of the park. On her cell phone, she dialled 9. There is a witness, he saw her arguing with a man in a long coat, thought it was a lover’s quarrel.
Price says he was meeting Rachel, she is a friend. He was running late, he was thirty minutes late. They used to work side by side at the public defender’s office.
Security footage shows a man was following Rachel when she left the office, his name is Owen Bardo and he has a long list of violent priors, he is on trial for assault now and Rachel was his council on record.
Cosgrove and Shaw go see Owen, he says he was dropping off an afidiidavid for his case, she said she was going to meet a friend. When he caught up with her, she was on the phone about getting a protective order and she told him not to worry, he wasn’t the guy she was afraid of.
At the Public Defender’s office, she did call in for the protective order, she was talking about a recent murder sentencing and she was scared. The case was for Raphael Cortez, a dispute over drug proceeds. The problem was with Rachel’s client’ son, he said she was stupid and it was all her fault. Court officers had to hold him back.
Next stop is to see Luis Cortez, Cosgrove and Shaw find him playing basketball outside, there is a gun and a knife in his backpack along with an address written on a sticky note, it turns out it is Rachel’s address.
Cortez was in the area at the time of the murder, but ht knife is not a match. There was a shoe imprint near the murder, size 11 and a high end Italian loafer.
Cosgrove and Shaw speak to Rachel’s mother, they ask if she was dating anyone, she says no. She says all her clients were problems, they were criminals. And, she did mention an altercation at a restaurant last Friday. She was really shaken up, said she was never going back. At Luchardi’s restaurant, they find out that Rachel was a regular.
And, the owner remember’s the altercation at the bar, he pulls the receipts and is able to narrow down who it is, Adam Grassley. Cosgrove and Shaw head there and try to speak to him, he looks drunk and starts to get mouthy with them, finds himself at the station. Grassley says that his 15-year old daughter was raped and murdered by her client and Bender got him acquitted last week.
He wants to ask her how, how do you represent such a vial human being. He tried to call her, she wouldn’t take his calls and then he bumped into her. He says he didn’t do it and like he told her boyfriend, he said his peace. He says the boyfriend followed him out of Luchardis and threatened to beat him up.
Maroun finds three charges on Bender’s credit card for espresso in the mornings, maybe that is where she was meeting this boyfriend that nobody knows anything about. The person she was meeting at the coffee shop was judge Raymer. They head to his office and he says they are making a mistake. A search warrant at his house finds those expensive size 11 shoes and the print matches. Cosgrove and Shaw arrest him for murder.
At the station, Cosgrove tells Raymer that his shows match, he has cut on his hand, his stabbing hand, and a witness saw him arguing with Bender, and she dumped a few days before she was murdered. Cosgrove tells him to tell his side of the story. Raymer says he didn’t do it and this is a stupid mistake, then he asks for a lawyer.
Raymer calls his law clerk two hours before, they head over there and Price goes with them. Tyler Minter, the law clerk, says he was with Raymer all the evening that Bender was killed – Price does’t buy it. They talk more and Price tells him that he is lying. Tyler admits that he knew they were dating and he heard raised voices, he knows they broke up.
Price then goes to see Jessica Raymer, she says she is not comfortable speaking about her ex. A little pressure and she says that he stalked her, hit her and if she left him, he would kill her. She din’t file a complaint because he is a judge. Price says he is going to subpoena her.
At the chambers of judge Malcolm Benning, Raymer’s laywer doesn’t want his ex testifying. Price looks over and sees a photo of Benning and Raymer, he says he didn’t know they were that close. Price wants him recused. Benning says motion denied and tells Price to leave.
At court, Price has his opening remarks, says Bender broke up with Raymer and he killed her because of it. The other attorney says Price is making a simple breakup seem like murder because Price has been at the wrong end of Raymer’s rulings again and again.
Price speak to Jack who says his motion didn’t stand a chance, he just made Benning angry.
In court, Tyler is on the witness stand and he now doesn’t remember anything and he lies about his conversation with Price.
Phone records prove that Tyler spoke to Raymer for over an hour that morning before he appeared in court.
Price is in his office, he receives a subpoena for him to testify, he was the one that found Bender.
In court, Price is on the witness stand. The attorney asks if he was romantically involved with Bender, he says no. They show a photo and it is allowed, it is from 2012, Price is about to kiss Bender. Price says they had a brief relationship a decade ago. The other attorney, Mr. Strong, says maybe Price killed Bender in a jealous rage because he wasn’t over they relationship.
Price and Maroun go see Tyler and Price tells him that he lied on the stand, he is not going to let that go unchecked. Tyler says he can’t prove it, Price asks if he is really ready to take that risk. Tyler says Raymer bought a diamond ring, he was going to propose, that is why he dropped him off that night at the office.
Security footage show Bender and Raymer, he did propose but it doesn’t look like it went over well. There are two people nearby, one is Drew, a bellboy at a local hotel. He says Raymer did propose and Bender turned him down, he told her she was going to be sorry and he was going to get her.
Unfortunately Drew has a prior for harassing an ex girlfriend, they can’t use him.
Jack goes in to see Price and asks about the jury, he says they have been out for two days. Jack says if he had known that he found the victim’s body and slept with her, he would not have let him a timezone near this.
In court, the jury finds Judge Raymer guilty.
THE END!