Judge Roger Thorson is the colleague and killer of Judge Kathleen Draper. He appeared in Judge, Jury and Executioner in Rizzoli and Isles.
History[]
A longtime colleague and friend, Thorson was Kathleen's confidant and who she trusted in their jobs. Kathleen was a juvie court judge, presiding over the cases of child offenders, but as a fair and compassionate judge who hoped to rehab kids back into society. She worked with Thorson to send kids to a facility Thorson was familiar with, Kathleen believing in him from their tenure together. However, one child was suffocated to death by one of the prisoners, leaving his family in grief and blaming Kathleen for their son's endangerment.
It was revealed the facility was actually taking in dangerous criminals as well as juvenile offenders, despite the facility specifically being known publicly as directed to minors. The child was killed by one of those criminals when placed in their unit. Thorson was in on the conspiracy, being bribed by the officials as long as his courts kept filling beds for them. Kathleen was starting her own investigation, finding out the truth behind the facility, except for Thorson's involvement. She met him for coffee and discussed the details she found out, which Thorson famed support for her busting wide open. But when she got up from the table, he stole her files.
Knowing Kathleen would eventually give Thorson up, he targeted her on the day her daughter Ashley was partaking in a mock trial for her school in her mother's courthouse. Thorson was a court adviser, as was Kathleen, who couldn't attend the whole trial. Knowing Kathleen's routine of running up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, Thorson cornered her on a stairwell and injected her with ritalin, her own prescription medicine. Kathleen fought back by scratching her hand on the needle but she was too heavily dosed. She stumbled through the doors into the mock trial, collapsing and seizing in front of Ashley and the rest of the spectators. Thorson, who slipped in again, pretended to try and revive Kathleen with CPR to divert suspicion from himself.
He offered only the testimony of Kathleen's life and routine, such as taking the stairs, which led to the crime scene. When the son's murder and family were tracked, the scandal came to light, but Thorson wasn't found out by that point. That is until his theft of Kathleen's material was caught on the camera of the courthouse coffee shop. He was confronted with the information, and despite his denial, his clothes on the day of the murder were stained with ritalin and Kathleen's blood, even though the needle he used was all too likely thrown out. Thorson was arrested in the spot and jailed for his crimes.