Violence breaks out at a protest over immigration reform, and McCoy announces an investigation led by ADA Josh Latham. Meanwhile, Green and Lupo must investigate the death of Maria Soriano, who was shot at the protest. They identify a witness named Ignacio Perez, who also received a bullet wound at the protest. He says the police started shooting at the protestors; this is confirmed when Green and Lupo find one of the bullets that killed Maria, and it's police-issue. But then the detectives are led to evidence that the shooter was an auxiliary who was supposed to be unarmed. Officer Victor Rodchenko is the only auxiliary at the scene with a gun licence, and he is arrested.
Latham, who favors the police, sabotages the Grand Jury hearing and gets the case thrown out. He justifies this by saying that McCoy abuses the position of DA to advance his own liberal political agenda. McCoy fires Latham and gives Cutter the case, but now Cutter needs to find new evidence. McCoy is pressured to drop the investigation into the police, but refuses. With new ballistic evidence, a judge grants Cutter a new hearing. But the defence now says that they will present evidence of Rodchenko acting on a senior officer's orders. Sure enough, audio recordings from the scene show that commanding officer Sloan gave the order "green light" - meaning open fire.
At trial Sloan says that the order was meant for police to fire tear gas, and this was agreed beforehand at a briefing. But Rodchenko is not under Sloan's command and wasn't present at the briefing. Rodchenko says that he was cut off from the police and had to defend himself, so he fired when Ignacio threw a bottle at him. Under cross from Cutter, Rodchenko admits he's angry because he feels he does the same job as regular police but doesn't receive the same protection.
Latham is called as an expert witness for the defence. He testifies that McCoy is deliberately misrepresenting the case based on political prejudices. In turn, McCoy takes the stand and says he fired Latham solely because they could no longer work together. When the defence questions McCoy's prosecutorial record, he responds that he follows the law. Rodchenko is found guilty, and McCoy produces his report into police conduct at the protest. He says he doesn't expect either side to be happy with his findings.
This episode contains examples of:
- Double-Meaning Title: The protest was supposedly about "illegal" immigration, but the title also refers to the legality of Rodchenko's actions.
- Granola Guy: This is McCoy's reputation in some judicial circles.
- The Illegal: Some of the protestors at the riot were this. Latham and others assume all of them were, although many (including Maria and Ignacio) are American citizens.
