Jesse L. Martin was absent from the last four episodes of the fifteenth season. He left the show temporarily to work on Rent (2005). His character, Detective Ed Green, was shot in the line of duty. For those four episodes, Martin was replaced by Michael Imperioli as Detective Nick Falco.
This episode appears to be based on the 2004 Bernard Kerik ethics violation scandal. In 2004 George W. Bush nominated Kerik to head Homeland Security, but Kerik soon withdrew his nomination when scrutiny revealed he had employed an illegal immigrant as his children' s nanny. He also became the target of both state and federal investigations, was convicted of several charges, and sentenced to four years in federal prison.
While discussing the possibility of a plea bargain the defendant's attorney tells McCoy she believed him to be a "mensch". Mensch is both a German and a Yiddish word, in German it means "human being" and the Yiddish word means "a good person". In American English the term is used to describe a person of integrity and honor.
The drug dealer who gives the detectives information on their murder case in exchange for a deal was caught with 1/4th of an ounce of cocaine, which equals 7.09 grams. Without a plea deal he would be facing a charge of Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, a non-violent class B felony with a minimum prison sentence of 1-3 years and a maximum of 25 years; though considering his extensive previous criminal record he would be looking at much more than 1-3 years as a minimum sentence, more like 8-1/3 years.
In addition to playing Detective Nick Falco, actor Michael Imperioli has played two other characters in the L&O franchise:
- Johnny Stivers in Atonement (1996)
- Miles Gordon in The Last Hurrah (1997)