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| “ | He said he would hurt the family. He said he would kill my children, Ezra's children! Mr. Stone, my family, that's all I have! | „ |
| ~ Isaac testifying against Joseph Tashjian. |
Isaac Shore is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order episode "The Fertile Fields". He is an unethical jeweler who gets involved in a smuggling racket with gangster Joseph Tashjian that eventually results in Tashjian murdering Isaac's brother Ezra; Isaac then murders Tashjian as revenge.
He was portrayed by the late David Spielberg.
Early life[]
Isaac and his brother Ezra ran Shore's Jewelry, a precious metals business left to them by their late father. He and his wife had a teenage son, Caleb.
A year prior to the events of the episode, Shore went into business with Joseph Tashjian, a small-time con artist who sold counterfeit jewelry and laundered the profits through an importing business. Tashjian would create fake transactions in which Shore sold him $400,000 in jewelry every month, and he sold it back to Shore at a $10,000 markup. The scam made Isaac $140,000 in profit, while Tashjian made $4 million. Isaac wanted to get out of the scam, but Tashjian threaten to kill his family unless he kept their arrangement.
Eventually, Ezra found out about the scam and threatened to go to the police. Isaac begged his brother to stay quiet, but Ezra nevertheless went to confront Tashjian personally. Isaac followed his brother to Tashjian's office, where he watched, paralyzed with fear, while Tashjian beat Ezra to death with a cane. Tashjian then dumped Ezra's body in an alley, where a group of teenage boys who, by coincidence, had been thrown out of the store days earlier, saw his body on the street and set it on fire as revenge.
"The Fertile Fields"[]
While investigating Ezra's murder, NYPD Homicide Sergeant Phil Cerreta and Detective Mike Logan speak with Isaac and Tashjian, who both say that Ezra had been heading out to meet with clients on the night of the murder. Eventually, they find evidence proving that the teenagers beat and kicked Ezra's body and set it on fire. The arrest the boys for murder, and Isaac agrees to testify against them, committing perjury by saying that the boys did it.
Before Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette can get an indictment, however, Isaac goes to their office with his lawyer and asks for immunity from prosecution for fraud in return for his testimony. When Stone refuses, Isaac, fearing that Tashjian will kill his family, abruptly confesses to killing his brother. Stone and Robinette suspect he is lying to protect someone, so they investigate his financial records and find records of the money laundering. They arrest Tashjian, and Isaac agrees to testify against him after Stone threatens to take all of his assets as the proceeds of a crime if he does not.
During the trial, Isaac tells the jury what Tashjian did, but Tashjian's lawyer forces him to admit to the fraud he committed, and that Ezra would be alive if not for him. Tashjian's lawyer also points out Isaac's many lies to the police and the grand jury during his summation, which results in Tashjian being acquitted. When he sees that his family will not even look him in the eye, Isaac, plagued with guilt and shame for his role in his brother's death, shoots and kills Tashjian as he exits the courtroom.
Isaac is ultimately convicted of second-degree murder.
External links[]
- Isaac Shore on the Law & Order Wiki
