Plot summary
Following a near riot in a courtroom by a group of men in custody led by Wade Brownfeld ( Ari Fliakos ) who espouses anti government values, Judge E. Barton ( Susan Angelo ) is ambushed and killed in her home by two men who appear to be seasoned hunters. Days later an appellate court judge, Roland Thibodeaux ( Mark Kenneth Smaltz ), is assassinated by a sniper. As Goren and Eames investigate the killings, they suspect that a wider anti-judiciary conspiracy is afoot and four judges have been killed in recent years. Their investigation leads them to Lloyd Anson Wilkes ( David Andrews ) who lost custody of his son to his ex-wife through a court order and has "adopted" a young man, Clay Turner ( Jeremy Blackman ) of a similar age as his surrogate son.
The detectives drive an emotional wedge between them by offering Wilkes an opportunity to meet his real son, convincing Turner that Wilkes may abandon him and prompting him to divulge their joint conspiracy to murder the judges.
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent season 4. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.