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| “ | You people come in, you give me the evidence. You tell me, "See what you can come up with, Lisa". And I gave you exactly what you wanted. And you know what? You are the worst kind of hypocrite. And are you really gonna sit there and tell me that you don't blur the boundaries? Go home and look in the mirror, Anita. And when you do, you ask yourself is it right that I'm in here AND YOU'RE NOT? | „ |
| ~ Russo’s parting words to Van Buren to rebuff her own guilt |
Lisa Russo is the overarching antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Myth of Fingerprints". Russo is a crime lab technician chief who, in spite of her tenured history, fabricated fingerprint evidence in multiple cases to answer to the stress of her job.
She was portrayed by Diana Scarwid.
History[]
| “ | Oh, they were guilty! Everybody knew that! | „ |
| ~ Russo cracking on the stand |
Russo had a 19-year history as a lab technician and became a personal acquaintance to Lieutenant Anita Van Buren. As demands were high for closure rates in their offices, Russo combated the heat of the demands by eventually turning to scientific misconduct, lying about her professional judgments to sway cases for the prosecution with false forensic testimony. At least eight cases involved her being in no position to testify to validity of fingerprint evidence, especially when she lied about who them prints belonged to if she knew for certain. Her most prominent "success" is of the shooting of David Gale, who was murdered outside city hall, leaving the mayor personally demanding the case be solved. Russo’s fabrication of evidence, and making reformed prostitute Brenda Warren, an affiliate of one of the killers, Ray Gifford, give a perjured eyewitness testimony, resulted in the convictions of Bobby Campbell and Larry Martin, two construction workers on a job near the scene of the crime. Bobby lost his family, life, dignity, and twelve years of his freedom, Larry only making it to nine, as an inmate shivved him to death in prison. In spite of that, Van Buren rose the ranks because of the case, and Russo’s prestige was only further bolstered.
When Bobby’s brother Luke tracked one of the real killers, James Foley, and killed him in a confrontation, the law and justice system went back to evaluate Bobby’s conviction in the event it caused a stink when taking Luke to trial. Van Buren, who by then reached the rank of Lieutenant, was coincidentally presiding over Luke’s case. When the flimsy evidence led straight back to Russo, who at first worried Luke had a vendetta for her, then brushed off the investigation out of annoyance and persona offense, the FBI randomly evaluated 20 of her cases and found the seven other identified ones where she went over her professional obligations. The D.A.’s office, with no case against Luke from the mess Russo created, charge her with manslaughter. Van Buren politely tells Russo to come to her precinct and have a replacement run the lab, Russo bitterly objects from not realizing it’s s pretext for her arrest. At her trial, the defense tries to still paint Bobby and Larry as guilty, and the FBI as the actual incompetent party compromising Russo’s position. But on the stand, when Russo professes she had the best judgment and a fitting position to refer the cases to herself, she showed her true colors when prodded with all her perjured testimonies found, professing her confidence in the guilt of the people she sent to prison. The jury returned a guilty verdict for manslaughter. As Van Buren started questioning her own professionalism and responsibility in the case, she went to see Russo for answers. Rossi simply said Van Buren was only thinking of herself, proclaiming she was no less guilty and scapegoated Russo for prison time. Russo them called to be taken back to serve her sentence in prison.
Trivia[]
- Russo is inspired by Joyce Gilchrist, a forensic specialist who falsified hair analysis evidence in multiple cases, which she argued was a witch hunt instead of her own culpability. In one case, she actively colluded with the prosecutor to suppress exculpatory evidence and perjure testimony.
- Russo is also inspired by Fred Zain, a police seroligist with a similar history of false evidence and testimony, specifically modelling Russo off Zain defying criteria for certainty of evidence and the position he rose to in his office.
External links[]
- Lisa Russo on the Law & Order Wiki
