Unites States: Original Airdate: April 18, 1999
THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS LOVINGLY AND METICULOUSLY DONE BY RYANA. PLEASE DIRECT YOUR COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND PRAISE TO HER!
-------------------- Disclaimer --------------------
I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the
television show 'The Practice'. They were created by David E. Kelley and
belong to him and David E. Kelley Productions.
This is not a novelisation or a script. It is a straightforward and dry
transcript of the episode 'Home Invasions'. It also includes descriptions
of the settings and camera movements where I felt they were needed. I am
not making any money or any other benefit off this. It is purely for fun.
I made every effort to accurately transcribe the dialogue from this episode.
If you notice anything that has been transcribed incorrectly, please email
me, and I will post an update.
This transcript was written by Ryana.
-------------------- Prologue --------------------
The office, it's morning. Jimmy and Lucy are the only ones there. Jimmy is
staring at Lucy. She catches him and looks at him strangely.
Jimmy: (nervously) Bobby come in yet?
Lucy: No, not yet. What's wrong, Jimmy?
Jimmy: (still nervous) Nothing.
Lucy sighs and turns back to the mail. Bobby walks in and Jimmy charges up
to the door.
Jimmy: Bobby, can I see you a second?
Bobby: Now?
Jimmy: (nodding) Now.
Bobby's office.
Bobby: What's wrong?
Jimmy follows him in and carefully closes the door behind them.
Jimmy: I was on the Internet last night. You know, just killing time. In
the privacy of my own home. I don't know what I was thinking.
Bobby: Jimmy.
Jimmy: I clicked onto a web page. It was about hidden cameras. I figured,
what the heck.
Bobby: What, you saw some girly pictures?
Jimmy: Videos. And not just any girly videos. Lucy was in them.
Bobby: (shocked, and probably a bit too loudly) Lucy? (he glances out of
the window towards the main office, and lowers his voice) Our Lucy?
Jimmy: (nodding) Yeah.
Bobby: You sure?
Jimmy: (indicating the notebook on the table) I downloaded it. (Bobby
looks at him) To show you.
They sit down. The video shows a bathroom. Lucy walks over to the shower,
dressed in a robe, and turns it on.
Jimmy: It's kind of like Psycho. (quickly) Nobody gets hurt, or nothing.
Back to the video. Lucy takes of her robe and steps into the shower.
Bobby: That's not Lucy. I mean, that's Lucy (indicating the video), but
she wouldn't, um...
The video shows Lucy beginning to wash herself.
Bobby: Turn it off.
Jimmy: There's more...
Bobby: (warningly) Jimmy.
Jimmy turns it off.
Jimmy: What should I do?
Bobby: You gotta tell her.
Jimmy: Maybe, you should tell her.
The door to Bobby's office opens suddenly. Both Jimmy and Bobby jump.
Jimmy: What?
Bobby: What?
Lucy: Just bringing in the mail.
Bobby: (standing nervously) You can, uh, just, uh, just put it on the
desk.
Jimmy: Yeah, right on the desk. The desk is good.
Lucy: (slightly confused) Okay. (she walks slowly into the office)
What's wrong?
Bobby and Jimmy: (very quickly) Nothing.
Jimmy: (trying to sound calm) The desk is fine.
Bobby: (snatching the mail) I'll take the mail. (he throws it on his
desk)
Lucy: (very confused) Okay. (she slowly walks out the office and looks at
them strangely the whole way)
Bobby: (emphatically) I don't think I can ever look at her the same again.
Jimmy: (equally emphatically) I know I can't.
-------------------- Opening Credits --------------------
Helen's office.
Gary Armbrust: I already testified once.
Helen: That was at the prelim. I explained this, Gary.
Gary: You can't just go with the other witnesses?
Helen: You're the only eye-witness.
Gary sighs in frustration.
Helen: You wanna go over it again?
Gary: No, I got it. I'm okay. (he rises to leave)
Helen: Gary. I know this is hard.
Gary: (disbelieving) You know? Ever see your mother get shot, Miss
Gamble?
Helen: (pauses) I'll try and keep it short.
Gary: Does my father have to be there?
Helen: Gary, he's the defendant.
Gary leaves.
Bobby's office. Lucy is watching the video with tears in her eyes.
Bobby: (awkwardly) So, you didn't know about this?
Lucy just looks at him.
Bobby: I didn't think so.
The door opens and Lindsay comes in. Lucy quickly closes the lid of the
notebook.
Lindsay: Hey. What's going on?
Bobby: (gently) Um, Lindsay, could you excuse us for a sec?
Lindsay: (nods) Oh, sure. (she leaves and closes the door)
Lucy: (very upset) How could this happen?
Bobby: You never made any videos?
Lucy: (firmly) No.
Bobby: And you don't have any roommates. Okay. Let's go check out your
apartment.
A courtroom.
Detective: When I arrived at the scene, I found the defendant, Gordon
Armbrust, seated on the living room sofa, with his head in his hands.
Helen: What else did you see, detective?
Detective: The victim, Charlotte Armbrust. She was lying on the floor.
Helen: Her condition?
Detective: She'd been shot once in the chest at close range, as was
indicated by the powder residue around the entry wound.
Helen: Was she alive at that time?
Detective: The paramedics were unable to revive her and she was pronounced
dead at the scene.
Helen: Detective, were you able to recover a weapon?
Detective: Yes. From the floor of the same room, several feet away from
Mrs Armbrust, I recovered a 38 special revolver, registered to the
defendant. Gun residue tests revealed he had fired the weapon.
Helen: And in the course of your investigation, did you determine if anyone
had witnessed the shooting?
Detective: Yes. The victim's son, Gary Armbrust, had been present, and
gave a full account of events.
Helen: What did you do at that time?
Detective: I placed the defendant under arrest for murder. His shirt was
splattered with blood, and that was sent to the crime lab for testing and
analysis along with the gun.
Arnold (defence counsel): So you spoke to, and had an opportunity to
observe Gary Armbrust at the scene?
Detective: Yes.
Arnold: And, according to your report, you observed his eyes to be
bloodshot and his speech to be slightly slurred.
Detective: He'd just witnessed his mother's murder. He'd been crying, and
was extremely upset.
Arnold: These symptoms are also consistent with someone under the influence
of drugs, correct?
Detective: Sometimes, yes. But he didn't appear to me to be under the
influence of anything other than grief.
Arnold: He was never drug tested?
Detective: No.
Arnold: And Gary Armbrust's account of these events played an instrumental
role in your decision to arrest his father for murder?
Detective: Yes.
Arnold shakes his head and returns to his table.
Lucy's bathroom. She is looking on while Bobby removes a grate from her
ceiling.
Bobby: Look at this. There's a VCR up here too. Must be on some kind of
timer. We should just leave it as is and show it to the police. (Lucy
closes her eyes as Bobby comes down the ladder) In the meantime, is there
another place that you could stay? (Lucy doesn't answer and keeps staring
at the ceiling) Lucy?
Lucy: What?
Bobby: Is there some place else you could stay?
Lucy: Yeah. With my dad.
Bobby: And you have no idea who could be doing this?
Lucy: (sighing) No.
Bobby: (sighing too) Okay. Look, I know you don't want anybody else to
find out, but I'd like to bring in Eugene, Lindsay -
Lucy: (firmly) No.
Bobby: Lucy -
Lucy: I don't want them all to know, Bobby.
Bobby: It'll stay within the firm. Lindsay's pretty up to speed on
computers, and I'll need Eugene to knock on some doors. Let us help you.
Lucy looks away, unhappy, but resigned.
A courtroom.
Mrs Ronish: Charlotte was my closest friend. I knew he was gonna do
something like this.
Helen: Why do you say that, Mrs Ronish?
Mrs Ronish: Their marriage was falling apart. She was planning to leave
Gordon, and his ego couldn't take it.
Arnold: Objection.
Judge B Watson: Sustained.
Helen: Did you ever hear the defendant threaten her?
Mrs Ronish: Yes. About a week before her death, I stopped by their house
to pick Charlotte up for a yoga class. She hated that class, because she
didn't think it was really exercise.
Helen: I know this is difficult, Mrs Ronish, but we need to know about the
threat.
Mrs Ronish: I'm sorry. Yes, well, when I got there, no one answered the
door, so I opened it a little. To call for Charlotte, because I knew she
was expecting me.
Helen: What did you see at that time?
Mrs Ronish: Gordon was holding Charlotte's arm, she was trying to pull
away. And he said if she left him, she wouldn't even live long enough to
regret it.
Helen glances at the judge and returns to her seat.
Arnold: (rising) More accurately, Gordon said that he didn't want her to
leave him and their son, whom he believed had a drug problem and needed both
parents.
Mrs Ronish: Well, yes, that's true, but it was still a threat.
Arnold: And you were so concerned the threat you overhead might be real,
you immediately contacted the police.
Mrs Ronish: No. That was my mistake.
The hallway. Helen comes out of the courtroom.
Gary: Miss Gamble.
Helen: Hi Gary. How you doing?
Gary: Ah, I guess I'm okay. I need to talk to you about my testimony.
Helen: Well, you wanna come back to my office and we can run through the
questions again?
Gary: Un, no, that's all right, it's just that -
Helen: What is it?
Gary: Look, I don't really know how to say this, but part of what I told
you isn't true.
Helen: (dangerously) Which part?
Gary: The part about my father murdering my mother. I lied.
Helen does not look happy.
-------------------- Commercial --------------------
Helen's office.
Gary: It was an accident.
Helen: (angrily) Then why did you tell the police it was murder?
Gary: I don't know. I was angry.
Helen: You need to be better than that.
Gary: My father and I were in this fight. He was so paranoid, thinking I
was using drugs. I finally got fed up.
Helen: Your father's fingerprints are on that gun, not yours.
Gary: I had flipped out. I guess he thought I was gonna attack him or
something, because he went and grabbed the gun he kept in the end table
Helen: Your own father pulled a gun on you?
Gary: Yeah. And I charged him and that's when the gun went off.
Helen: If that's the truth, why would you have even accused him in the
first place?
Gary: I guess I was kind of in shock. And I thought that if he went away
for this then, maybe he'd finally be out of my life.
Helen: You really expect me to believe this?
Gary: I know it sounds crazy, but that's what was going through my head.
Helen: Yes. And why would you wait 'til now to change your story?
Gary: I just couldn't go through with it. And this is not a story. This
is the truth. I was there, you weren't.
Helen: But I was at the preliminary hearing where you testified that your
father shot your mother.
Gary: And that wasn't the truth.
Helen: (sighing) Have you talked to your dad recently?
Gary: No.
Helen: Look, I understand you might not want to send your dad to prison,
but -
Gary: But he didn't do it! I did.
Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt. Lindsay is working on a computer. Lucy
walks past and see what she's doing.
Lucy: You don't have to watch it, Lindsay.
Lindsay: No, I'm just trying to find out how many web sites it's been
uploaded onto.
Lucy: (in disbelief) You mean, that there's more?
Lindsay: I'm afraid you're pretty popular.
Lucy looks upset. Jimmy glances over and looks away.
Lucy: How many times did you watch it, Jimmy?
Jimmy: (uncomfortably) Not too many.
Rebecca shakes her head. Helen enters.
Lindsay: (in surprise) Helen. (she fusses around her desk for her diary)
Are we on for lunch?
Lucy jumps and reaches past Lindsay to switch off the monitor. Lindsay
looks at her in surprise.
Helen: No. Um, I actually came to sort of, hire a lawyer. (Lindsay looks
at her, surprised again) Ellenor. (Ellenor looks up in surprise, and then
glances at Lindsay)
The conference room.
Helen: Basically, he's recanting now to save his dad. Which, since he
could now face perjury, makes me think he needs his own lawyer.
Ellenor: And the reason you want it to be me?
Helen: I want you to scare him. Make him realize how serious perjury is.
Ellenor: Well, Helen, if I represent his kid, I'd be working for him, not
you.
Helen: I realize that. I just want him to hear the legal consequences of
recanting from a defence attorney. His best interests are also mine.
Ellenor: And you don't think he's telling the truth now.
Helen: No way. His story has been completely consistent up until now, his
statement to the police and the preliminary testimony corroborate the
physical evidence... This case is tight. Will you at least talk to him?
The office. Eugene enters.
Eugene: Locks have not been tampered with, no sign of break in through the
windows.
Bobby: What about from above the shower where the VCR was?
Eugene: It's a secured crawl space. This was done by somebody with access.
You had any parties, Lucy? Friends over?
Lucy: I have friends over sometimes, but I -
Lindsay: What about that Boston Celtic guy? Basketball player, what's his
name? Hot rod?
Eugene: (witheringly) Rodman?
Jimmy: What about friends?
Written by: Jill Goldsmith and Alfonso H. Moreno
Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc