"Indifference" is the 9th episode of NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's legal drama

Legal drama

A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...

 Law & Order

Law & Order

Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

. It originally aired on 27 November 1990. The plot of this episode would be revisited in the 15th season episode "Fixed".

This is the only episode of the series in which the narrator acknowledges that the plot resembles that of an actual real-life case, that of Joel Steinberg

Joel Steinberg

Joel Steinberg , a former New York criminal defense attorney, attracted international media attention when he was accused of murder and convicted of manslaughter in the November 1, 1987, death of a six-year-old girl, Elizabeth , whom he and his live-in partner Hedda Nussbaum had illegally adopted...

, prior to the ending credits.

Plot

The detectives discover that an abused

Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...

 child has a cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

-addicted mother, who is also being abused

Domestic violence

Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...

 by her drug-addicted psychotherapist husband. The detectives investigate the doctor's checkered past, while prosecutors take a new tactic after the child dies.

Law

• George Dzundza
  George Dzundza
  George Dzundza is an American television and film actor.-Personal life:Dzundza was born in Rosenheim, Germany, to a Ukrainian father and Polish mother who were forced into factory labour by the Nazis. He spent the first few years of his life in displaced persons camps with his parents and one...
  
   - Sgt. Max Greevey
• Chris Noth
  Chris Noth
  Christopher David "Chris" Noth is an American actor. He is known for long-running television roles as Det. Mike Logan on the police procedural and legal drama television series, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as Big on Sex and the City. For the latter role, he has been...
  
   - Det. Mike Logan
  Mike Logan (Law & Order)
  Michael "Mike" Logan is a fictional character in the police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order franchise, played by Chris Noth.-History in the franchise:...
  
  
• Dann Florek
  Dann Florek
  Ezekial Dann Florek , professional name Dann Florek, is an American actor and director.-Early life:Florek was born in Flat Rock, Michigan. He attended Eastern Michigan University, but never graduated...
  
   - Capt. Don Cragen

Order

• Michael Moriarty
  Michael Moriarty
  Michael Moriarty is an American-Canadian actor of stage and screen, and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for four seasons on the TV series Law & Order.-Early life:...
  
   - Exec. A.D.A. Ben Stone
  Benjamin Stone
  Benjamin "Ben" Stone is a fictional character portrayed by Michael Moriarty in the TV drama Law & Order.-Character overview:Stone works in the Manhattan District Attorney's office under Alfred Wentworth and Adam Schiff. It was Schiff with whom he is closest, treating him as a kind of surrogate...
  
  
• Richard Brooks
  Richard Brooks (actor)
  Richard L. Brooks is an African-American actor, singer, and director. He is best known for his role as Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette during the first three seasons of the NBC TV drama Law & Order .Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooks studied acting, dance, and voice work at...
  
   – A.D.A. Paul Robinette
  Paul Robinette
  Paul Robinette, played by Richard Brooks, is a fictional character who appeared in the TV drama series Law & Order from the pilot episode in 1990 until the final episode of the third season, "Benevolence," in 1993...
  
  
• Steven Hill
  Steven Hill
  Steven Hill is an American film and television actor. His two better-known roles are District Attorney Adam Schiff on the NBC TV drama series Law & Order, whom he portrayed for ten seasons , and Dan Briggs, the original team leader of the Impossible Missions Force on CBS's television series...
  
   - D.A. Adam Schiff
  Adam Schiff (Law & Order)
  Adam Schiff is a fictional character on the TV drama series Law & Order. He was played by Steven Hill from 1990 to 2000. Schiff was one of the main characters of the series and appeared in every episode of the first ten seasons except for Everybody's Favorite Bagman, which was produced before Hill...
  
  

Guest Stars

• Marcia Jean Kurtz - Carla Lowenstein
• Lorraine Toussaint
  Lorraine Toussaint
  Lorraine Toussaint is an actress best known for starring alongside Annie Potts in Any Day Now.Toussaint graduated from Manhattan's School of Performing Arts in 1978, before going on to graduate from Juilliard School...
  
   - Shambala Green
• Louis Zorich
  Louis Zorich
  Louis Zorich is an American actor. He is well-known for his portrayal of Paul Reiser's father "Burt Buchman" in the NBC series Mad About You. He played the role from 1993 to 1999.-Life and career:...
  
   - Judge Milton Erdheim
• John Seitz - Principal Babcock
• David Groh
  David Groh
  David Lawrence Groh was an American actor best known for his portrayal of Joe Gerard in the 1970s television series Rhoda, opposite Valerie Harper.-Early life and career:...
  
   - Dr. Jacob Lowenstein
• Paul Geier - Redding
• Diane Salinger
  Diane Salinger
  Diane Louise Salinger is an American actress, voice actress, and comedienne.-Filmography:* Creature as Melanie Bryce * Pee-wee's Big Adventure as Simone * The Morning After as Isabel Harding...
  
  - Eugenia Rawlings
• Gordon Joseph Weiss - Rudy Scelza
• Eugene Troobnick - Medical Examiner
• Mary Joy - Ms. Dobrinski
• Blanca Camacho - Miss Perez
• Sarah Rowland Doroff - Didi Lowenstein
• Brian Smiar - Judge Harper
• Amanda Carlin - Doctor
• John Rothman
  John Rothman
  John Mahr Rothman is an American film, television, and stage actor.Rothman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Elizabeth D. and Donald N. Rothman, a lawyer. He is the brother of film executive Tom Rothman. Rothman is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Yale School of Drama...
  
   - Internist
• Richard M. Davidson
  Richard M. Davidson
  Richard M. Davidson is an Old Testament scholar and Seventh-day Adventist. He has authored dozens of articles for theological journals. As of 2009, he is the chair of the Old Testament department at Andrews University, and the J. N...
  
   - Court Clerk
• Kim Chan
  Kim Chan
  Kim Chan also known as Kim S. Chan, was a Chinese-American actor and producer. He was most notable for his role as The Ancient in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.-Early life:...
  
  - Juror (uncredited)