Although it was canceled in 2010, “Law & Order” lives on, though perhaps not in the way that NBC would’ve liked. A defamation suit over the episode “Floater” has been dragging on since 2004, and the latest development is that N.Y. Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings will order former N.Y. Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau to be deposed.
Lawyer Ravi Batra claims the episode featured an unflattering representation of him in the form of the character “Ravi Patel,” who is arrested for bribing a judge. Batra himself resigned from the Brooklyn Democratic party’s judicial screening committee after media reports linked him to an investigation into the possible sale of judicial seats in Brooklyn. However, he claims to be innocent, and was never charged with any crime.
In 2003, anonymous sources in the New York Post quoted Pfau as telling other judges not to deal with Batra. Batra told the court he wanted to depose her about whether she actually made such statements, because he suspected that NBC might want to use the article before a jury. However, lawyers from NBC claimed they would only use the article to illustrate Batra’s background, not for specific statements that may or may not have been made by Pfau.
Read more at Thomson Reuters.
