Directed by Rob Bailey
Written by Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn & Wendy Battles
"Rush to Judgement" is the 13th episode of Season 5 and the 105th overall. It originally aired January 21, 2009.
A beloved high school wrestling coach is murdered, dismembered and scattered around the city. A young suspect dies in Flack's custody during an interrogation.
Tropes for the episode:
- Clear Their Name: The team, especially Sid, work to find evidence that Flack did not kill the young man.
- Corrupting Pornography: A high-school wrestling coach is killed by the father of a student on his team because the man believed the coach had emailed child pornography to him and several other boys.
- Creepy Gym Coach: Coach Nelson has apparently sent child pornography to several team members. Feigned, though - he was framed by an embittered team member, Kyle, whose grudge had nothing to do with creepiness.
- Dismembering the Body: A wrestling coach is murdered, dismembered and the pieces scattered in various places. Identification is made from his fingerprints once a hand is located, but cause of death isn't confirmed until all the parts are found.
- Ear Ache: The coach had cauliflower ear from his own wrestling days.
- Gone Horribly Right: Upset that Coach Nelson moved him up a weight class which cost him a scholarship, Kyle Sheridan, with the help of his friend Todd Fleming, hacks into the coach's wifi and sends several team members child pornography to get him fired. When his father sees the emails Coach Nelson "sent" his son, he confronts him. They get into a fight and Sheridan ends up killing him, then chops his corpse into pieces that he distributes around the city.
- Hollywood Hacking: Someone accesses the coach's unsecured wi-fi from the man's rooftop to frame him with child pornography in an attempt to get him fired.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Until they discover the victim's Thursday night salsa lessons are legit, Flack and Mac believe the coach is cheating on his wife.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Due to the child pornography, the killer assumes that the coach is a pedophile.
- Sexual Euphemism: Thinking the victim is cheating on his wife, Flack tells Mac the man was taking salsa lessons. Mac replies, "'Salsa lessons', is that what they're calling it these days?"
- Take Our Word for It: Sheldon finds the porn file on the coach's laptop and shows the pictures to Mac, who is so disgusted that he turns away, saying, "That's enough." The only image the audience sees is of a shirtless young boy clad in a pair of shorts.
- Turn in Your Badge: Flack is temporarily assigned to desk duty following the young man's death.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Kyle uses Todd to help him frame the coach for viewing child pornography to get him kicked off coaching the team so Todd can move up. When the detectives follow the evidence to Todd Fleming, he takes an overdose of antidepressants and dies, putting Flack in a bind. Two people die and another is going to jail for a stupid and Disproportionate Retribution. Or in Mac's words, "A lot of waste in this case."
