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| “ | I shot an animal - call a vet. | „ |
| ~ Fisher defending having killed the man who molested his son |
Sid Fisher is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Sweeps". He is a former U.S. Army Ranger who murders the man who sexually abused his son on a TV talk show, at the instigation of the show's host.
He was portrayed the late Steve Ryan.
Early life[]
As a young man, Fisher served in the Vietnam War as a U.S. Army Ranger, learning advanced tracking, hunting, and firearm skills. After completing his service, he returned to the U.S. and married a woman named Sarah, with whom he had a son, Scotty. Fisher was a loving father, but his violent temper eventually drove Sarah to divorce him. The divorce was so contentious that Fisher and Sarah only saw each other in court, during which he often yelled and threatened his ex-wife and her lawyers.
Scotty had trouble adjusting to his parents' divorce, so Sarah put him in therapy with child psychologist Dr. Joseph Vinton, over Fisher's objections. Vinton molested Scotty during their therapy sessions and, afterward, manipulated him in keeping silent about the abuse. After enduring the abuse for three years, however, Scotty finally couldn't take it anymore and told his mother what Vinton was doing to him. Vinton was arrested for molesting Scotty and six other children and convicted of child sexual abuse, even though Fisher endangered the trial by threatening to kill Vinton in open court. Vinton received a lenient sentence of 18 months in prison, which only enraged Fisher further.
After Vinton was released from prison, he wrote a memoir about his "recovery", which attracted the attention of tabloid talk show host Rick Mason, who persuaded Scotty and Sarah to appear on his show, Final Confession, and confront Vinton. Fisher adamantly opposed the idea, fearing that Mason would exploit and humiliate Scotty in front of the entire country, but Sarah insisted on going through with it. Mason, who wanted to provoke a violent confrontation between Fisher and Vinton to boost his ratings, manipulated Scotty into calling his father and telling him where the show would be filmed: the ice cream parlor where Vinton took Scotty after abusing him.
"Sweeps"[]
During filming, Fisher barges into the ice cream parlor with a gun and shoots Vinton twice in the chest. In the ensuing chaos, Mason's head of security, Barry Talbott, shoots Fisher in the shoulder and subdues him. Fisher is arrested and taken to a hospital; after Vinton dies during surgery, he is charged with murder.
NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Mike Logan investigate Vinton's murder and suspect that Mason, who is notorious for unethical, exploitative journalism, arranged for Fisher to kill him. They question Fisher in the hospital, but he refuses to cooperate, convinced that no jury will convict him of killing his son's abuser.
Briscoe and Logan try to question Scotty, but Sarah refuses to let him tell the truth for fear of getting him in trouble, and says that her ex-husband killed Vinton all on his own. The detectives check the phone records of the hotel where Sarah and Scotty were staying and discover that someone called Fisher from the lobby payphone. Scotty eventually admits to calling his father at Mason's suggestion and telling him where and when the show would be filmed, which Briscoe and Logan believe is enough evidence to charge Mason with facilitating Vinton's murder.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid meet with Fisher and offer to charge with manslaughter instead of murder if he tells them who told him when and where the show would be filmed. Fisher tries to implicate Mason, but Stone senses that he is lying and threatens to take the deal off the table unless he tells the truth. Not wanting to get Scotty in trouble, Fisher declares that no one called him. When Stone bluffs that he will charge Scotty as an accessory, however, Fisher agrees to testify against Mason in return for Stone and Kincaid leaving his son alone.
During Mason's trial, Fisher testifies that he told Mason he would be at the taping whether he was allowed there or not, and that Mason incited him to kill Vinton. Mason's lawyer, Alice Sutton, asks Fisher about the deal he made with Stone, insinuating that he is lying to get a better deal for himself and his son. In response, Stone asks Fisher how he had reacted to his offering to commit perjury, and Fisher replies that he had forbade it.
Ultimately, Mason is convicted of criminal facilitation, and Fisher receives a reduced sentence for manslaughter.
External links[]
- Sid Fisher on the Law & Order Wiki
