Law & Order Season 13 Episode 8

McCoy certainly didn't put up much of an argument to justify getting the doctor to testify as to motive. The defense attorney is able to convince the judge that McCoy knows the blackmail was over Seleeby being gay, and therefore calling the doctor to establish motive about blackmail over steroids would be a violation of legal ethics because McCoy knows it isn't true. The judge's decision to disallow the doctor basically gives the defense attorney a double standard. McCoy should have argued that he only knows about the homosexual blackmail because the defense attorney made a mistake. If the original memo weren't delivered to the DA's office, the authorities would have pursued their original theory that the blackmail would have been over the steroids, and probably would have called the doctor to testify. And without knowledge to the contrary, McCoy's action would have been legit. It would therefore have been up to the defense to either accept the doctor testifying when they know it isn't true, or dispute that with the revelation Seleeby is gay. So McCoy could have pointed this out and might have gotten the judge to present the choice to the defense: either let the doctor testify or let the prosecution use the homosexual stuff. It's almost as if the defense sent the memo to purposely alert the DA of the gay lover knowing they could have it thrown out later and cut off any effort to present an alternate motive because the DA knows the truth. Yet everyone seems to accept it was simply an incompetent legal clerk rather than a purposeful tactic, and some acknowledgement of the idea would have been appropriate.