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| “ | If I'm the master criminal you say I am, this guy wouldn't stay alive six months in prison if he talks. | „ |
| ~ Scannel threatening Johnny Stivers |
Frederick Scannel is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Atonement". He is a gangster who orders his limo driver to murder a woman after the driver shows her his cocaine in a vain attempt to impress her.
He was portrayed by Mark Zimmerman.
Early life[]
Scannel is one of the most powerful drug lords in New York City, with his primary interest being cocaine that he smuggles from South America and sells in several nightclubs that he owns, through which he launders his drug money. The FBI and NYPD have known about his criminal activities for years, but they cannot find enough evidence to prove it.
Scannel passes himself off as a philanthropist by funding charitable endowments and "mentor" young fashion models, almost all of whom he sleeps with. He frequently employs limousine driver Johnny Stivers to transport his cocaine from JFK Airport to his various clubs to sell to the models he parties with.
The lonely, socially awkward Stivers has unrequited feelings for one of these models, Sharon Lasko, and one night he shows her the latest shipment of Scannel's cocaine in the trunk of his limo in a vain attempt to impress her. While hanging out with Scannel, Lasko gets drunk and makes fun of Stivers' "romantic gesture", infuriating Scannel, who feared that she would attract attention from the police. He orders Stivers to kill Lasko, threatening to kill him and hurt his family if he refuses; Stivers then reluctantly kills her by hitting her over the head with a champagne bottle.
"Atonement"[]
After Lasko's agent reports her missing, NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Rey Curtis question Scannel, who claims that he briefly flirted with her before going home with another model. They eventually find Lasko's body in a landfill and discover her blood in the backseat of his limo, giving them enough probable cause to arrest him for her murder.
During his trial, Stivers pleads insanity, claiming that Lasko was his girlfriend and that he killed her in a fit of rage because she cheated on him - a claim partly motivated by self-delusion, but mostly by fear that Scannel will kill him if he reveals what really happened.
Lasko's boyfriend, Kevin Soames, testifies that she had gone with Stivers on the night she died to get cocaine, which makes Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid suspicious as to where Stivers got the drugs. They investigate further and eventually discover that Scannel had arranged "dummy rides" in Stivers' limo so he could pick up the cocaine; they also find out that Lasko had told him about Stivers showing her the cocaine, meaning that her murder was not a crime of passion, but the elimination of a witness.
McCoy and Kincaid set up a meeting with Scannel and his lawyer, during which he denies knowing anything about the murder. When they allow Stivers to join the meeting, however, Scannel implicitly threatens him by saying that he would never survive in prison if the allegations were true. Stivers replies that he does not care what Scannel does to him, and then tells McCoy and Kincaid what really happened in return for being spared the death penalty. Scannel is not so lucky, however; McCoy charges him with first-degree murder, and Scannell is convicted and sentenced to death.
External links[]
- Frederick Scannel on the Law & Order Wiki
