Cagney & Lacey (TV Series)

Child Witness (1984)

Tyne Daly: Mary Beth Lacey

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mary Beth Lacey : [to Rhonda]  Do you think we can do it?

  Rhonda Gallegos : I can't file. You've got an uncooperative witness.

  Mary Beth Lacey : No, it's not the witness. It's for the father to convince himself it would be better for the little girl.

  Rhonda Gallegos : As opposed to us who, being on the side of the angels, think it's better to throw her into some adversarial courtroom proceeding and let a jackal of a defense lawyer tear her apart.

  Christine Cagney : Oh, come on, Rhonda, the fault of the judicial system is not on our heads. It's on yours.

  Rhonda Gallegos : Oh, yes!

  Christine Cagney : You go ahead and laugh. All we wanna do is get this man off the streets. Are we gonna subpoena this little girl without her father's cooperation or not?

  Rhonda Gallegos : Have you any idea how hard it is to win a case when all you've got is the testimony of one small child? Make that one terrified, traumatized child in the alien, threatening environment of a courtroom. And then you throw in a squeaky clean defendant. And a father who's telling her to lie! Ah, ah. I've gotta tell you, I'll pass.

  Christine Cagney : I asked the question. You have not answered.

  Mary Beth Lacey : No, no. We know this guy is guilty.

  Rhonda Gallegos : Guilty? I've answered the question.

  Christine Cagney : Well, that is a terrific attitude!

  Rhonda Gallegos : I do not understand what we are arguing about here. Now, I want this guy as badly as you do. It happens that I need witnesses to do it!

  Mary Beth Lacey : We're still trying to track down possible victims.

  Rhonda Gallegos : Good! You get me three. And three children still might not equal one adult in the eyes of a jury.

• Christine Cagney : Mary Beth. The hospital called. Carrie Mitchell never came in for her examination.

  Mary Beth Lacey : You have the father's business card. We'll find out what happened.

  Christine Cagney : [hands Mary Beth the business card]  Mitchell, McDonnell and Maine, Attorney-at-Law.

  Mary Beth Lacey : A lawyer. Seemed too nice for a lawyer, don't you think?

  Christine Cagney : For a lawyer.

• Jeremy Mitchell : Carrie, honey, are you gonna tell the officer what you told daddy. It's all right. The officer won't get mad at you.

  Mary Beth Lacey : [to Carrie]  Hey. Hey, didn't we make a deal this morning? You could tell anything to our friend. Come on, it's okay.

  Carrie Mitchell : I made it up.

  Christine Cagney : What? I'm sorry.

  Jeremy Mitchell : Oh, she imagined it. I guess it's a phase she's going through.

  [a tear runs down Carrie's cheek] 

  Jeremy Mitchell : I'm just sorry the school didn't call me first before bringing you two into it. I could have saved you a lot of time and I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.

  [Carrie buries her face in her arm] 

  Mary Beth Lacey : Oh, hey, Carrie. What are you crying for?

  Jeremy Mitchell : [picks up Carrie]  It's okay, baby. It's okay. We can go home now.

  Christine Cagney : Mr. Mitchell, please wait.

  Jeremy Mitchell : I'm gonna take Carrie home. This has been very hard on her. She has a school vacation coming up in about 10 days and I have made arrangements with her grandparents to take her for a few weeks.

  Christine Cagney : Mr. Mitchell, you realize we've already filed a 61 and notified the Sex Crime Squad, so this investigation will probably continue.

  Jeremy Mitchell : No, it won't. You can kill it!

  Mary Beth Lacey : We'll have to talk about that with our supervisor, sir.

  Jeremy Mitchell : You can do that. It's just fine. Tell him it's been a mistake and it's all over now.

  Christine Cagney : It's not that easy now.

  Jeremy Mitchell : You do it or I do it!

• Mary Beth Lacey : A child molester running around and we can't even touch him.

  Christine Cagney : Let me ask you something. What if he isn't...

  Mary Beth Lacey : What if he isn't what?

  Christine Cagney : What if he isn't guilty? Well, the little girl's mother just died. I mean, maybe none of this is true. I mean, I had a pretty wild imagination when I was her age.

  Mary Beth Lacey : Oh, no, you didn't have an imagination about stuff like that. I mean you were there. You heard that little girl talk about stuff that nobody her age would know unless it happened to her. I believe what she said.

  Christine Cagney : Mary Beth, she said that she lied.

  Mary Beth Lacey : Chris, I know it's as true as I'm standing here right now. Kids don't lie. Not about this.

• Mary Beth Lacey : Carrie! Hey! How ya doing! We were looking all over for ya. To tell you the truth, I was worried about ya.

  [Carrie slowly approaches them] 

  Carrie Mitchell : I'm not supposed to talk to people I don't know.

  Mary Beth Lacey : That's a good rule, Carrie, but you know us. Right? Come on and talk to us a minute, would ya? Last time I saw you, you were crying. Are you okay?

  [Carrie nods her head] 

  Mary Beth Lacey : Well, that's the important part. Looking forward to going to your grandparents, huh?

  [Carrie nods her head] 

  Mary Beth Lacey : Have some fun. Carrie, I told my partner that you're a straight one. Could I... could I check something out with ya?

  [Carrie nods her head] 

  Mary Beth Lacey : Remember yesterday when we were talking in the nurse's office. Right? And you told me about your babysitter. Remember? And do you remember when you came with your father to the squad room? Right? Did you make up that story about the babysitter? Did ya?

  [Carrie shakes her head] 

  Mary Beth Lacey : [to Chris]  What did I tell ya?

  [to Carrie] 

  Mary Beth Lacey : Straight out.

• Mary Beth Lacey : [to Jeremy Mitchell]  Well, I was just wondering what kind of a loving father encourages his child to lie.

  Jeremy Mitchell : Oh, come on, Detective Lacey, this is not the debating team. I have discussed this with institute trial psychologists and it's a recent opinion as well as mine that Carrie should not be subjected to any further unpleasantness with regard to this matter.

  Christine Cagney : You're not even denying that you encouraged her to lie, are you?

  Jeremy Mitchell : Please spare me your feeble attempts at cross-examination.

  Christine Cagney : We need Carrie's testimony in court. It's that simple.

  Jeremy Mitchell : I'll make it even simpler. Get someone else's child to do your dirty work for you!

  Mary Beth Lacey : We don't have another witness. And testifying in court is not dirty work. It's a civic responsibility.

  Jeremy Mitchell : I know exactly what testifying in court is, Detective. "King of the Cross-examination". That's what they call me. Although in sex cases it's not even difficult. My last rape case, I had the victim in tears. Barely knew her own name. I won! A month later, my client was arrested again. Another rape. Now last week I was in the bank, ran into the victim. You know, I didn't even know who she was, but she knew me. And she remembered me. She spat in my face! Now, thank you, Detectives, Carrie declines to exercise her civic... responsibility.

  Christine Cagney : Mr. Mitchell, this is a first-degree sex abuse case. If you keep telling your daughter to lie, you can be charged with obstructing justice, tampering with a witness...

  Jeremy Mitchell : [shouts]  You take me before the Grand Jury!

  [in a quieter tone] 

  Jeremy Mitchell : ... and I'll hit you with the biggest false arrest suit you've ever seen, and next year I'll be the richest man in New York City.

  Mary Beth Lacey : We can take you to Family Court and have you declared an unfit parent.

  Jeremy Mitchell : Not a brilliant idea. Arrest me, put Carrie in a foster home and they all lived happily ever after. Now that is the classic, fabled ending.

• Mary Beth Lacey : [to Rhonda]  I don't get it here. You ask us for a witness. We got you a witness. So now, we're doing the best we can.

  Rhonda Gallegos : No! A three-year old on the witness stand?

  Mary Beth Lacey : Okay. You explained it to us. We understand it. We know that it's not gonna be not easy.

  Rhonda Gallegos : Hey! I would tell you if it were not easy! This is impossible!

  Mary Beth Lacey : The man is guilty.

  Rhonda Gallegos : I cannot go into a courtroom with nothing more than the uncorroborated testimony of a three-year old. I have to qualify him as a witness. That means that I have to prove that a three-year old understands the meaning of the oath, and knows the difference between telling a lie and telling the truth.

  Mary Beth Lacey : I know...

  Rhonda Gallegos : You wait!

  [to Christine] 

  Rhonda Gallegos : You be a three-year old.

  [to Mary Beth] 

  Rhonda Gallegos : I'm gonna be a real lovely defence lawyer here.

  [to Christine] 

  Rhonda Gallegos : Michael, did you see "Dumbo"? Did you see an elephant fly? Do you believe in tooth fairies. Do you believe in Santa Claus?

  Christine Cagney : I got the picture.

  Rhonda Gallegos : No jury is going to convict an adult on the word of a three-year old.

  Christine Cagney : We got the picture!

  Rhonda Gallegos : Still, you realize we will probably get him some day. And we really don't have to do very much, because, after all, molesters keep on molesting.

  Christine Cagney : And we just keep on letting him do it!

  Rhonda Gallegos : That's right! Until we've got enough credible witnesses!

  [Mary Beth rushes out of the room] 

  Rhonda Gallegos : Mary Beth!

  Christine Cagney : There. You see, you've upset my partner.

• Christine Cagney : Mary Beth, you wanna slow down a minute? Where are you going?

  Mary Beth Lacey : I'm getting sick of this when we know who it is. And we've gotta beat up ourselves worrying that we won't catch him until he does it again. This... This... I know it's crazy and I will not sit around and wait for him to rob somebody else's innocence!

  Christine Cagney : Going to talk to Carrie's father?

  Mary Beth Lacey : Yeah. You go ahead and take the car. I'm gonna get a cab.

  Christine Cagney : Mary Beth, there is a restraining order.

  Mary Beth Lacey : Never stopped Christine Cagney.

• Mary Beth Lacey : [to Jeremy Mitchell]  I understand why you're doing what you're doing because I've got kids myself. You're doing what you think is best for your little girl and if you could, you'd wrap her up in cotton so nothing would ever hurt her, no matter what, but life isn't like that, sir. I mean, sometimes, no matter what we do, or what we wish, our kids get hurt anyway.

  Jeremy Mitchell : Is there a point to this story? If so, would you please get to it?

  Christine Cagney : The point is, Mr. Mitchell, Neil Traeger is a filthy, predatory animal that should be removed from society. However, in between his Mid-Terms he is out preying on small children, children that are just as young and just as sweet and just as innocent as your Carrie. And it's in your power to keep this from happening. And I say if you don't exercise that power, you are responsible for every other child that he hurts.

• Mary Beth Lacey : Mr. Mitchell, would you please wait?

  Jeremy Mitchell : There's nothing more to say. We're going home.

  Mary Beth Lacey : No, I think it's a mistake, sir. I think it's bad if you stop in the middle.

  Jeremy Mitchell : I don't care what you think, Detective.

  Mary Beth Lacey : You're her father. Why don't you let her help to get rid of him. Don't let her carry it around like some secret for the rest of her life. She needs to talk about it.

  Jeremy Mitchell : She doesn't have to talk to the Grand Jury! She talks to me or she talks to a therapist.

  Mary Beth Lacey : No, sir. It's not the same thing. This way maybe she helps another little child. This way what she says makes a difference.

  Jeremy Mitchell : Carrie, sweetheart, do you want to go into that courtroom or not? It's up to you. Whatever you decide, it's okay.

  Carrie Mitchell : I'm scared.

  Mary Beth Lacey : Oh, geez. To tell you the truth, I get scared every time I go to court. I'll bet your father does too, but I'll tell you something that helps me not be scared, Carrie. I imagine I've got a friend sitting right in front of me and I look right into her eyes and I talk to my friend. And I forget about the people in the room and I talk to my friend. You can try that, maybe.

  Carrie Mitchell : I can't imagine a friend.

  Rhonda Gallegos : [running up]  Mr. Mitchell! Detective Lacey, here, can assist the Grand Jury. The foreman has agreed.

  Mary Beth Lacey : Carrie, do you understand what she's saying?

  [Carrie shakes her head] 

  Mary Beth Lacey : You don't have to imagine a friend because you can talk to me in there. Can you talk to me?

  Carrie Mitchell : Yes.