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| “ | Are you a Jew? You're a Jew, right? I should've known they'd stick me in a room with a Jew cop. I'm not talkin' to a Jew! I know the law as good as anyone. I am gonna personally destroy you. Your sad little world's turnin' to shambles, 'cause I'm gonna have you fired. Fired and tossed out on your ass, Jew cop! | „ |
| ~ Mitch Carroll cursing Detective Nina Cassady. |
Mitchell "Mitch" Carroll is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "In Vino Veritas". He is an anti-Semitic actor who manipulates his teenage son into murdering a Jewish TV executive whom he blames for his dying career.
He was portrayed by Chevy Chase, who also portrayed Pierce Hawthorne and Evil Pierce in Community.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Carroll is a past-his-prime actor whose career has been in steady decline since the sitcom that first made him famous was cancelled. A raging anti-Semite, he believes that a "Jewish conspiracy" is out to ruin him; in reality, no one wants to hire him because he is an alcoholic and difficult to work with. He holds a particularly big grudge against producer Danielle Hertzberg, who passed him over for a coveted TV pilot that he believes would have revived his career.
He indoctrinates his 14-year-old son John with anti-Semitism as well, regularly ranting in front of the boy that Jews are out to destroy him. Wanting to please his father, who usually ignores him, John bullies his Jewish classmates. He once broke a Jewish boy's nose for beating him in tennis; Carroll bought him an expensive tennis racket as a reward for "standing up to a yid".
After Carroll drunkenly tells John that he should kill Hertzberg, John takes his father's gun and shoots Hertzberg dead, with Carroll's unspoken encouragement. After John tells Carroll what he did, Carroll covers for him by going to a bar to establish an alibi, and then dumping the body in an alley. He is pulled over for drunk driving, and the arresting officers find him covered in Hertzberg's blood.
"In Vino Veritas"[]
NYPD Homicide Detective Nina Cassady interrogates Carroll, who drunkenly insults her as a "Jew cop", even though she is in fact Irish-American, and threatens to have her fired. Cassady keeps him in a holding cell until he sobers up, at which time he claims not to remember what he said, blaming his behavior on alcohol and prescription pills.
Cassady and her partner, Detective Ed Green, question John, who brags about killing Hertzberg and parrots his father's conspiracy theories about Jewish people "running the world". After John is charged with Hertzberg's murder, Carroll goes on several talk shows claiming that he is not anti-Semitic. John, meanwhile, refuses to testify against his father, even though Carroll does not even visit him in jail.
Green and Cassady find evidence that Carroll knew what John was going to do, and they arrest him for murder. Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Connie Rubirosa make a deal with John to charge him as a juvenile offender if he testifies against his father, but John backs out at the last minute, claiming under oath that Carroll did not know he was going to kill Hertzberg. McCoy tells Carroll he will put John in prison for life unless he admits he told the boy to kill Hertzberg, but Carroll refuses, dismissing his son as disturbed and not very smart.
McCoy decides to show John who his father really is by letting him secretly watch a negotiation with Carroll and his lawyer. As expected, Carroll turns his back on his son, blaming him for Hertzberg's murder to stay out of prison. Heartbroken, John confronts his father and tells McCoy that he told him to kill Hertzberg. John is given a lenient sentence in a juvenile facility, while Carroll goes to prison for life.
Trivia[]
- Carroll is loosely based upon actor/director Mel Gibson, who in 2006 went on an anti-Semitic rant after being arrested for drunk driving.
External links[]
- Mitch Carroll on the Law & Order Wiki
