Rebels (Law & Order)

"Rebels" is the 113th episode of NBC's legal drama Law & Order, and the second episode of the sixth season.

Plot

Detectives Lenny Briscoe and Rey Curtis investigate the stabbing death of a college student at a biker bar.

Thomas Bell, the son of a wealthy family, had a fondness for biker culture. He went to the bar with his girlfriend, who had been romantically involved with another patron of the bar, a member of a New York City biker gang called the "Yankee Rebels".

Bell used computer bulletin boards and email to correspond with other bikers. Curtis uses his familiarity with the technology to help track down a bulletin board poster known to have been at the bar during the altercation. The poster declines to testify at the grand jury, calling himself a journalist and invoking the press shield law. Jack McCoy goes to court to force the testimony. After hearing arguments, a judge determines the poster does not have to testify about his sources, but he does have to testify about what he personally witnessed.

At the grand jury hearing, the poster claims to not have seen anyone murder Bell, because he murdered Bell himself. Because he did not sign an immunity waiver, this posed a significant problem to McCoy's case. McCoy does not believe the poster, though, and continues his investigation.

Further investigation reveals that after Bell's girlfriend broke up with the gang member, she kept a Yankee Rebel biker jacket. When Bell wanted to break up with his girlfriend, she was upset and suggested that Bell wear the jacket to the bar to "fit in," knowing that wearing a gang jacket to a biker bar would probably put Bell in severe physical danger. Though she did not intend for him to get killed, Bell was stabbed by his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend who had been at the bar the same night.

With the story straight, the episode closes with the arrest of the ex-boyfriend, who is indicted for the murder.