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| “ | In half an hour, my lawyer will have an injunction. Your butts will be out of here! | „ |
| ~ Tashjian cursing the police as they search his office. |
Joseph Tashjian is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "The Fertile Fields". He is a con artist who strong-arms struggling businessman Isaac Shore into one of his rackets and kills Isaac's brother Ezra when he finds out about it.
He was portrayed by Tom Mardirosian.
Early life[]
Tashjian is an Armenian small-time con artist who sells counterfeit high-end jewelry and launders the proceeds of his crimes through an importing business.
A year prior to the events of the episode, Tashjian started doing business with Isaac Shore, the co-owner of a struggling jewelry store. Shore would make fake purchases of $400,000 worth of rubies and sapphires a month from Tashjian, and "buy" them back from Tashjian at a $10,000 markup. No jewels actually exchanged hands, but the paper trail made it look like a legitimate business expense. Tashjian and Isaac ultimately launder $4 million. Isaac tries several times to get out of the scam, but Tashjian keeps him under his thumb by threatening his family.
Eventually, however, Isaac's brother and business partner Ezra found out about the scam and threatened to turn his brother and Tashjian in to the police unless they put a stop to it. Isaac panicked and told Tashjian about his brother's threat; Tashjian responded by beating Ezra to death with a cane. By coincidence, a gang of teenage boys who had harassed Ezra and his children a few days before happened by and saw Ezra's body and proceeded to set it on fire as revenge for his having thrown them out of his store.
"The Fertile Fields"[]
NYPD Homicide Sergeant Phil Cerreta and Detective Mike Logan investigate Ezra's murder as a hate crime, eventually arresting the teenagers who lit his body on fire. They also speak to Tashjian, who misdirects them by saying that Ezra left his office several hours before his death.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette prosecute the teenagers for murder in front of a grand jury. Before they can get an indictment, however, Isaac, terrified that Tashjian will kill his family, falsely confesses to the murder, saying that he killed his brother because Ezra caught him embezzling from the store.
Stone and Robinette suspect that Isaac is lying to protect the real guilty party, so they examine the store's financial records and discover the money laundering. Cerreta and Logan search Tashjian's office and find a cache of counterfeit merchandise, which, along with the records of money laundering, is enough to connect him to Ezra's death and arrest him for second-degree murder.
During Tashjian's trial, Isaac testifies that he saw Tashjian kill Ezra. Tashjian's lawyer, however, forces him to admit to his complicity in the money laundering and in Ezra's death, which results in the jury finding him not guilty. As he leaves the courtroom, however, Isaac shoots and kills him.
External links[]
- Joseph Tashjian on the Law & Order Wiki
[]
 Villains
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