Law & Order: SVU - "Snitch" (Episode 193)

A group of Green hippy-types are cleaning up the east river and stumble upon a trash bag with a set of bound feet sticking out. After expressing their disdain that human bodies should be recycled rather than dumped into a river, they contact the police. Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson arrive on the scene to hear Medical Examiner Melinda Warner's evaluation. The woman found in a bag dumped in the river is dead. Shocker. She suffered blunt trauma to the head and although there is no sign of rape there is significant genital mutilation. They find a man passed out on the concrete with bloodied hands and scratched up face. He suddenly regains consciousness, punches Stabler, and runs for it. He doesn't get far and his fat ass falls right onto his head while trying to jump a fence. Looks like we got ourselves a suspect.
The detectives are in the hospital when, again, this man regains consciousness. He is extremely bewildered and apologizes for punching Stabler. He seems confused that he is being accused of murder but doesn't exactly react the way a normal person would. His demeanor is more similar to that of someone whose roommate just told them that they forgot to lock the door when they left for work. "I did what? Oh, really? Shit, I'm sorry about that." Stabler is all gung-ho to throw his ass in prison for the rest of his life without any further evidence because he is still embarrassed that he got caught with a good right-cross by such a retard. Unfortunately, the man is an epileptic that was coming out of a seizure which explains the cuts, the paranoid behavior, and his willingness to believe anything. A surveillance camera shows the man sleeping in front of a liquor store at the time of the murder and our friend walks.
With no other suspects the Detectives head back to Dr. Melinda Warner's body shop to get more information about the victim. It turns out the genital mutilation wasn't from a rape or sexual abuse but rather just a cultural quirk called female circumcision that is popular in many African, Asian, and Middle Eastern societies. This practice is done as a way of keeping a woman faithful by denying them any sexual sensation. In this country we just monitor our women's internet history and spend lots of time stalking them and threatening them anytime they get a little too friendly with the guy giving them their change at 7-11. Such drastic voluntary mutilation on such a young girl leads the detectives to believe the victim is either a West African immigrant or an American girl getting into Goth music. Stabler has "a friend" at the immigration office so they go there first but decide that they will also try the nearest Hot Topic store in case the latter is the correct suspicion. Stabler's "friend" is a cute African-American woman who alludes to the fact that she dated Stabler before his wife got herself knocked up and trapped Stabler back into domestication. She also tells them that the victim is Nikkiel Kwambe, is 15 years old, and has an expired Visa that was sponsored by her aunt.
The detectives head to the aunt's craft store and find her performing a circumcision in the basement. They arrest her for the clit-clipping and lean on her for more information about her niece, Nikkiel. The aunt is genuinely surprised that Nikkiel is dead and gives the detectives her address. I am not sure, but let's hope she washed her hands somewhere in there also. When they arrive to Nikkiel's home another young West African woman answers the door and they hear someone fleaing from the back. A man is running from both detectives and won't take his left hand out of his pocket. He is not hiding a gun but rather he is disabled but either way is very lucky that Stabler and Benson didn't kill him.
Through the interrogation they find out that Chukwei Bothame is a 37 year-old immigrant from Nigeria who was married to Nikkiel. The detectives go back and forth awhile with him but never really get anywhere and when he lawyers up Captain Donald Cragen insists they let him go because there is no evidence that he killed Nikkiel. Detectives Fin and Lake get a warrant to search the Bothame residence. They find another young woman, Amane, and a household full of children and the woman explains that she and Nikkiel babysat for extra money to save up for their genital mutilations. A young boy enters the house and is wearing a shirt that says "Lie or Die" that he says a man gave to him. The shirt is clearly meant to intimidate the young woman talking to the police and we find out that it is part of an overall "anti-snich" movement that is gaining popularity. This anti-snitch movement is against people testifying at trial. It bases itself philosophically on the idea that most police informants are only testifying as a way to reduce their own sentences or for some other self-serving motives but the t-shirt and website clearly aim at intimidation. At the station the detectives check the website and see a full database of informants and a photo of Chukwei. Chukwei witnessed a drug dealer named Dennis King murder a young boy in broad daylight.
Chukwei's attorney, Sara Flint, shows up to the station to ask the detectives to leave him alone. The detectives tell her that they know he is set to testify against Dennis King and they want to help. They give her a ride to Nikkiel's funeral and see Dennis King at the cemetery. They arrest him for intimidating a witness and violating his bail. The detectives take Chukwei into protective custody but he wants his entire family placed into protection. His entire family includes his wives Amane and Sara (his attorney). Is this guy from Nigeria or Utah? I give him credit, it can't be easy to have three wives and only one arm to try and cover your ears during a three-way nag session. The detectives are compelled to arrest him for polygamy and I am getting a little tired of the NYPD's love / hate relationship with Chukwei. First they arrest him, then they want to protect him, and now they arrest him again...what's next an open relationship where they can arrest other people? Cragen decides to squash the polygamy charges since it is really only two wives now that Nikkiel is dead.
Stabler and Benson go to the Bothame home and get a lecture from Sara the bleeding heart attorney about how great their marriage is compared with that of her parent's. Oh, here we go, just as I expected, Sara went an married herself into a polygamist relationship with a damaged West African immigrant family because she has daddy issues. How many drug addicts, weirdo religious freaks, swingers, and wife-beaters owe their relationships with adoring women to a fucked-up father somewhere in the woman's past?
The following day the Bothame family shows up at the station looking for further protection after a death-threat note was slipped under their hotel room door. Chukwei wants to withdraw his testimony against Dennis King. At the trial when asked what he witnessed on the street that day he claims he didn't see anything unusual. The prosecutor tries to push him but he won't budge and the judge gives the prosecution 24 hours to find some evidence or Dennis King walks free.
Back to square one, the cops need to find proof that King has coerced Chukwei into altering his testimony. They trace the death-threat note and realize that it was printed from Chukwei's home computer. That means that one of his wives faked the note to try to gain more police protection. Amane calls SVU and they find her knocked out in her home. They rush to the hospital and she tells them that Sara faked the note to try to get the detectives to continue to blame Dennis King for the murder of Nikkiel. Sara was in a fight with Nikkiel and they fought and she "fell" down the stairs. Sara told Amane that she was taking her to the hospital and when she returned without her she told Amane to keep her mouth shut or she would have her deported. Miss Daddy Issues just caught a lot more complicated. The detectives confront Sara while she is visiting Chukwei in jail. Being the crazy bitch that she is, she readily admitted to the murder of Nikkiel because it gave her a chance to blame Chukwei. She tells him that it wasn't his fault for marrying her but it was his fault for "falling in love" with her.
With Nikkiel dead and Sara locked up, Chukwei is down to one wife and probably gets the best night's sleep of his life that night. He decides to go through with his testimony against Dennis King because he secretly hopes that King will kill Amane and he will finally be free to live the American Dream as a single man collecting disability. His testimony in the courtroom provokes King to flip over the table and scream threats which pretty much seals his fate at getting a conviction. Way to go, smart guy. Surely the defense would have had a decent chance at discrediting Chukwei since he already testified that nothing happened and that he was getting immunity from the poligamy charges for his testimony. That's not how King rolls though.
Chukwei is finally free of his legal obligations and two of his wives and can finally stop pretending to be disabled to get out of pitching in with household chores for three women.