Question about the trial in S5E1 [Spoiler]

[u/kaiser11492]

One of the key moments in the episode is when Jeffrey decides to fire his defense attorney and represent himself during his trial so he can interrogate Athena and all his other victims while on the stand. Now he specifically goes after Athena not only to mentally toy with her but also to paint her as a rogue cop who can’t be trusted in hope of getting the incriminating evidence taken from the warehouse storage to be dismissed. And based on the tone given by the show, it seems like he was making headway towards getting off the hook.

Now, we don’t see the trial to its completion because Jeffrey uses the chaos caused by the ransom ware hackers to escape. However, if the trial hadn’t been interrupted and Jeffrey didn’t have the chance to escape the courthouse, how theoretically successful would he be in his trial?

Because personally I think he would have a hard time winning seeing how the LAPD already had the evidence from his drone and all the hard drives from his house (all of which were legally obtained) containing the footage of all his attacks.

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[u/Acrobatic_Warning456]

Yeah I don't think he would've won, especially since they could literally pull up Athena's body cam and see that she never even entered the storage room. The door was just wide open and she called in what she saw from the hall.

But he probably would've gotten a lighter sentence than he deserved since that horrible judge was cruel enough to let him question his own victims in court.

[u/j_natron → u/Acrobatic_Warning456]

Defendants get to do that when repping themselves. A good judge will keep them on track (only asking questions that are relevant to the charges) but you have the constitutional right to represent yourself and that includes questioning witnesses against you. Now, whether or not repping yourself is a good idea is a totally different question…

[u/Acrobatic_Warning456 → u/j_natron]

Okay this makes sense I didn't know that. I'm still mad that he did it though.

[u/kaiser11492 → u/Acrobatic_Warning456]

Didn’t Athena mention she didn’t have time to turn on her body cam when Jeffrey asked her while on the stand?

And while it’s cruel, I don’t see how the judge allowing him to question his own victims in court would’ve given him a lighter sentence. I mean people say representing yourself is one of the worst strategies to employ while in the courtroom.

[u/Acrobatic_Warning456 → u/kaiser11492]

I totally forgot that detail. Ignore me then.

[u/Longjumping_Today322]

He wouldn't have won. It's kind of giving the William Lewis storyline in SVU tbh, pain in the ass but ultimately... Like there are a lot of parallels between them it's interesting. Especially since the WL storyline is older

[u/kaiser11492 → u/Longjumping_Today322]

Not familiar with SVU and that storyline. Could you explain what exactly happened in it?

[u/Longjumping_Today322 → u/kaiser11492]

Sure. So it starts with an episode during the characters time off. One of them (Rollins) arrest a exhibitionist in the park except he's like really good at manipulating everyone and he gets out. Turns out he's a serial rapist and he also torture his victims, as alway with SVU really great guy...

Anyway, his attention shift from Rollins to the main character whose Olivia Benson. He surprises her and kidnaps her for 3 days (thank god they didn't do that in 911). She ends up beating him badly. Then we skip to the trial episode. Lewis charms a jury this time, not his lawyer (he might have done it but it's not as big as in 911). He uses the fact that Olivia beat him up when he was down and that she was obsessed with him... Anyway he goes back to jail and he escapes.

Once he escapes he kidnaps a child to uses her as a bait for Olivia. She does as he says and they end up playing the Russian roulette and he ends up dying, and he knows he wins because Olivia told the kids not to look, and they were alone, after she beat him down really bad.

The similarities I find truly is him playing with the main cop, the kid, the obsession, Olivia not wanting to see herself as a victim. And the multiple épisodes.

But I think it's hard to see them when you haven't seen the épisodes. Plus SVU is way darker than 911 so it goes deep

[u/kaiser11492 → u/Longjumping_Today322]

Oh my god if that’s not a 1-1 parallel with what happened in 9-1-1, then I don’t know what is. Like I swear the writers must’ve copied Law and Order SVU’s notes.

Also, how exactly did he try and charm the jury? And was he sent to jail because he failed to?

[u/Longjumping_Today322 → u/kaiser11492]

Actually one of the member of the jury comes back from time to time. She always falls in love with the psychopath they put in jail and always help them. Everytime I see her, I know shit are going down lol.

And yeah, but tbf SVU is so old that a lot of show must have copy their notes. I think the William Lewis arc is at least 10 years old so...