Plot summary for
"Diagnosis Murder"
Murder Two: Part 1 (1997)

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Stuntwoman Paula McCarthy was found beaten to death in an L.A. hotel-room. Her husband Barry McCarthy was arrested there. Dr. Eric Spindler tries to stop Charlie operating a car accident victim without waiting for an MRI, then convinces the family to sue for ER malpractice and acts as star witness. Spindler's girlfriend nurse Jeri Murdico cheated him at birth-control and refuses an abortion, he thinks she just wants to marry his money. Jessie begs Mark to ask his friend Ben Matlock (star of the homonymous murder lawyer series) to defend him, which requires good pay and fringe benefits. Alas Ben's boisterous court room style gets him jailed for contempt of court. Jeri goes over to Eric's place and during an argument knocks him down with a lamp, he's dead. Ben takes her case at Mark's insistence, but she's not charged because Spindler was already fatally poisoned. Steve is taken off the case because Jesse becomes the prime suspect given his motive and his fingerprints on a bottle containing the rare poison which was also found in his bathroom: Ben now has an angelic murder charge defendant as client, bail denied. Steve is too late to stop a man stealing something from the murder-scene. Spindler's car was packed for a Santa Barbara hotel, where he repeatedly called stunt double Debbie Gardner, Paula McCarthy's sister and successor. She drives her -now absent- husband Jack Gardner's black truck, which was used to steal from the Spindler house, and denies having called back but her phone was billed for 12 minutes. Ben finds in the truck a video tape and more stuff on the McCarthy murder. A masked man tries to drown Ben, Debbie saves him- apparently to her horrified surprise it is... Written by KGF Vissers

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