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Fannysmackin'
Fannysmackin'
Season 7
Number 4
Writer Dustin Lee Abraham
Director Richard J. Lewis
Original Airdate October 12, 2006
Navigation
Previous Episode: Toe Tags
Next Episode: Double Cross

Fannysmackin is the fourth episode in Season Seven of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

A violent pack of teenagers start savagely beating tourists in Las Vegas, and one of the CSIs finds himself in danger.

Plot[]

Victims: Vasco Ruiz (deceased), Jessica Hershbaum (alive)

On the case: Entire team

A Hispanic man clocks out of his job and walks to his car in a darkened parking garage. Before he can reach his car, he's beaten to death by an unknown assailant. Catherine and Grissom are on the scene. The only thing on the victim is his work ID, identifying him as Vasco Ruiz, a dishwasher at the Golden Sapphire hotel. There's no surveillance in the parking garage, and the only "witness" is a drunk singing Wayne Newton songs. Since there's no wallet, cash, phone, or car keys on Vasco's person, the assumption is that he was robbed. Grissom notes that the beating Vasco endured was more than excessive. Elsewhere, a young woman getting ready for a night on the town checks herself in her pocket mirror and finds a masked figure behind her.

In the parking garage, Grissom finds a set of keys on the ground belonging to a Honda. He locates the car and while he's looking inside, the officers on duty get in their cars and hurry to another crime scene. The other scene is where the young woman was attacked; she's alive and is being wheeled away on a stretcher. Nick and Warrick take the call; there, Brass tells them there's no wallet or cell phone on the victim. Her souvenir cup identifies her as a tourist, and Nick notes the shady part of town they're standing in. Warrick points out that Grissom's crime scene is just five blocks from theirs and that both scenes have the same M.O.

In autopsy, Catherine finds a piece of a painted toenail in Vasco's mouth and collects it as evidence. Meanwhile, in the hospital, Sara photographs the female victim, Jessica Hershbaum, and collects trace from her facial wounds. There's an imprint of the letter "F" on Jessica's side. She tells Sara that she heard the attackers mention that she was the second victim, and Sara tells her that the first victim died. We then see a pack of hooded people moving swiftly through a dark alleyway, violently kicking things out of their way and laughing.

Catherine and Greg process Vasco's clothes; she finds three different shoe prints on the shirt, while he finds five different prints on the pants. Since Vasco was Hispanic and Jessica is Jewish, Catherine wonders if they're looking at hate crimes. In autopsy, Doc Robbins tells Grissom that he found no evidence of particular patterns, sharp edges, or tool marks on Vasco's body. The body had too many bruises to count; underneath, Vasco suffered multiple bone fractures and a fatal blow to the head. The doc believes that there's no way this was the work of one person.

Sofia talks to the owner of a liquor store, who tells her that he was robbed by a group of hooded individuals. He was able to rip the sweater off of one of the perpetrators and says that the person's face looked like it was deformed. Grissom sends Greg to the scene solo, telling him that he doesn't need a wingman anymore.

Sara informs Grissom that the two scenes are related, as she found two common treads on both victims—an athletic shoe and a boot. Grissom sees what appears to be a female shoe print, and Sara confirms that it's an open-toed stiletto heel. This lines up with the broken toenail found in Vasco's mouth. Most of the treads are on the sides and back of the victims' clothing, indicating that they were on the ground for most of the beating.

In Brass' office, Vasco's wife tells him that her husband always carried his wallet and cell phone with him. Brass has her write down Vasco's phone number in order to track it. After speaking with her, he walks into the lobby and sees a TV report about Jessica's beating. An anonymous bystander took a video of the beating with a cell phone and gave it to the news. Brass tells some officers to get the reporter on the phone.

On his way to the scene at the liquor store, Greg passes an alleyway and sees a group of people kicking a body on the ground. Greg calls the attack in to dispatch and is told to wait for backup. However, feeling that the backup won't arrive in time, he drives down the alleyway honking his horn and flashing his siren. The group of attackers disperse except for one, who continues kicking the victim. He then grabs a rock to finish off the victim; however, he starts walking towards Greg's SUV instead. The glare from the headlights shows that the attacker has unnaturally glowing eyes. As the attacker runs towards the SUV, Greg hits the gas pedal and runs him over. Greg sits silently and thinks about what has just occurred, but a brief moment later, the windows on his SUV are broken. He gets pulled out of the car and beaten by the group. As the group leaves, one of the attackers spits on Greg's vest. A departing car brushes up against the SUV.

The following morning, a crowd has gathered behind the police tape. A woman asks to speak with her son, who is the young man Greg hit with the SUV; however, Sofia won't let her pass. Sara arrives and rushes over to Greg; he fills her in on the attack, telling her that he scratched one of the attackers and includes the information about getting spit on and possible transfer from the car. In the hospital, Brass speaks to the most recent victim, Stanley Tanner. He tells Brass that he cut through the alleyway looking for a taxi; the next thing he knew, he was on the ground getting beaten. Greg's arrival saved his life, and he asks Brass if he could meet him to thank him.

Nick and Warrick process the scene and get heckled by some onlookers. As the heckling gets worse, Nick walks over to one of them and punches them in the stomach. Warrick pulls him away. As the onlooker is about to document his injuries with his phone, Warrick grabs it from him and thumbs through it before handing it back to him. An irate Nick tells Warrick that he's sick of everything that's going on.

Grissom visits Greg in the hospital and tells him that he saved Stanley's life. The young man Greg ran over is identified as Demetrius James, a student at the university; he's in surgery and it's unknown if he's going to survive. When Grissom offers to tell Greg's parents what has happened, Greg tells him that his parents still think he works in the lab. He reveals that he's an only child with an overprotective mother that would freak out over the situation. Grissom reassures him that his mother would be proud of him for saving somebody's life. After Grissom leaves the hospital room, Sara stops him in the hallway and shows him that Demetrius was wearing special "Halloween" contact lenses. Grissom concludes that, because of the costumes, this is all a game to the attackers.

Phone records indicate that Vasco made a phone call after he was dead. The number dialed belongs to Cha Cha Romero, who is brought to the station for questioning. She laughs when shown a picture of Vasco's beat-up face. Catherine then shows her a picture of Demetrius, but Cha Cha doesn't recognize him. Cha Cha places her purse on the table and Catherine notices a large "F" insignia on the bag flap that lines up with the bruise on Jessica's body. When told that she'll go down for murder, Cha Cha admits that someone named Tara called her from Vasco's phone and invited her to a party at a motel with her boyfriend "Pig". The party turned out to be a "fannysmackin' session," where a group of people beat up "fannypackers," or tourists. She doesn't know Pig's real name and figures that the attack on Vasco was practice since he was actually a local.

Two men enter the police station and demand to talk to a cop; both Brass and Sofia answer to the commotion. One of the men, Dean Harden, was beaten up and robbed, with his money, watch, and cell phone being taken. Both men say that the attackers were wearing hoodies, making them unidentifiable. Brass and Sofia, thinking the beatings had stopped, now have second thoughts about that.

Tara is arrested at her house; as she's led to the police car, we see that she has a bandage around her left big toe. As he walks by Tara's car, Nick sees paint transfer on the driver's side consistent with Greg's statement. Inside the car, Greg finds Vasco's wallet and cell phone. He glares at Tara as she sits in the back of the police car.

Hodges informs Grissom that the jacket recovered from the liquor store contained blood from both victims. Furthermore, the saliva on Greg's vest came back to an unknown male, the same unknown male that Greg scratched. Grissom looks over a map of the beatings and notes that all of the attacks occurred near the strip except for Dean's. He tells Hodges that a group's instinct is to move forward, not backward. Unlike the other attacks, Dean's clothes contain one shoe print, which turns out to be his own. Under interrogation, Dean admits that he owed his uncle $10,000 and staged a beating in order to get out of the debt.

In the lab, Nick goes through Tara's purse and finds her cell phone; it contains text messages from "Pigman" about their fannysmackin' sessions. Based on wordage, Nick figures that the texts were sent to more than one person. He tells Catherine that they can send a text message to everyone in the group from the computer; all they have to do is enter Pig's number to make it look like he was the one who sent the texts.

Brass interrogates Tara, who refuses to rat out her associates. He has her write down a text message in words that Pig would use when contacting everyone. When threatened with jailtime and taking the fall for people that don't care about her, Tara complies.

A text message is sent to the group under the disguise of Pig's phone number. When assembled in a garage, Pig tells the group that he didn't send them a text. The police surround the group and arrest them, with Pig being the most resistant. When he finally gets out of his car, Nick removes his pig mask and finds that it's the same guy he punched in the stomach earlier at Greg's crime scene.

Back at the hospital, Stanley meets Greg and thanks him for saving his life. In an adjacent room, Demetrius' mother cries as her son has just died. Demetrius' brother, Aaron, glares at Greg as Greg turns away.

In the station locker room, Catherine tells Nick, Sara and Warrick that Cole Tritt, AKA "Pig," was the only adult in the group, as the rest of the fannysmackers were minors. As Nick and Warrick blame the parents, Sara says that the kids were perfectly capable of making their own decisions, regardless of their upbringing. Grissom chimes in and says that a moral compass can only point you in the right direction, not make you go there. Vegas, he adds, preaches the idea that there's no such thing as guilt. Without a conscience, there's nothing to stop you from killing someone and feeling good about it.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Wallace Langham as David Hodges
  • David Berman as David Phillips
  • Lorraine Toussaint as Cynthia James
  • Vicellous Reon Shannon as Marshall James
  • Kevin Federline as Cole 'Pig' Tritt
  • Jim Beaver as Stanley Tanner
  • Vicki Davis as Jessica Hershbaum
  • Indigo as Cha Cha Romero
  • Daniel Franzese as Dean Harden
  • Dov Tiefenbach as Anthony Himmer
  • Seidy Lopez as Lucita Ruiz
  • Siera Casey as Tara Miller
  • Willie Macc as Demetrius James

Quotes[]

Greg (after Grissom assigns him a case): Who's my wingman?
Grissom: Greg, you're a big boy now. You don't need a wingman.

Goofs[]

  • When the fannysmackers attack Greg, they smash his car back window out. The next morning, when Warrick and Nick are processing the SUV, Greg's car window is completely intact.
  • After the attack on Greg, when Sara rushes to his side, we can see the sun's rays on the ground change at each scene.
  • While talking to Sofia and walking, all the victims are in the shade. But as Sara kneels by Greg, his head is directly under the sun's rays while Stanley is fully under it. Though during the close-up of Greg's face, we see that he's in the shade again. Then, when they pull back on the scene, the sun-rays reappear but retreated further.
  • Dean Harden claimed that he was beat-up "On the corner of Decatur and Jones." In Las Vegas, the streets Jones and Decatur do not intersect; they run parallel to each other (North/South) and are one city block apart.
  • In the locker scene in the end, you see Sara take her sunglasses off her shirt and put them on her head. The shot changes to Warrick and Nick, and when it goes back to Sara, her sunglasses are back on her shirt. The shot changes again to Nick, Warrick and Grissom, and when it's back to Sara, her sunglasses are on her head again.

Major Events[]

  • Greg is apparently not in good terms with the James family, as they start showing their hostility towards him due to the loss of Demetrius, one of the fannysmackers.

Music[]

  • Paper Heart by Gram Rabbit

Notes[]

  • Greg reveals that he's an only child.
  • Fannysmackin' is a "thug" thing to do. A group gets together and goes around beating up tourists.

Trivia[]

  • The episode appears to be inspired by the Brooklyn Thrill Killers case.
  • Kevin Federline played Cole 'Pig' Tritt. He's most well-known for his high-profile two-year marriage to Britney Spears and the child custody battle that followed.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 7
Built to Kill, Part 1Built to Kill, Part 2Toe TagsFannysmackin'Double CrossBurn OutPost MortemHappenstanceLiving LegendLoco MotivesLeaving Las VegasSweet JaneRedrumMeet MarketLaw of GravityMonster in the BoxFallen IdolsEmpty EyesBig ShotsLab RatsEnding HappyLeapin' LizardsThe Good, The Bad, And The DominatrixLiving Doll
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