"Jerry didn't quit. He's moving to 'Law & Order: Trial by Jury,' which will be on at midseason," Wolf said. "And as Jerry will be the first to tell you, he has moved beyond the mandatory retirement age of any police force on the planet. Luckily, in New York City there is the D.A. squad, which is composed of both active-duty and retired detectives."

The new show is almost entirely based inside the courthouse.

"It starts basically with the arraignment and ends with the verdict," Wolf said. "But it shows all the points of view in the system. It has been extraordinarily educational to find out . . . judges actually have opinions, that they talk to each other. That they go to lunch and say, 'Have you ever had this guy in your court? He's a lying scumbag.' They talk like this. They talk about cases. And I've never seen that on television. That's an aspect of this that's interesting to me."

And he's out to correct "misconceptions" about defense lawyers, including the "myth" that attorneys tell their clients not to tell them if they're guilty.

"In actual fact, the first thing out of most defendants' mouths is, 'Look, I did it. Get me off.' "

So, quite obviously, "Trial by Jury" isn't going to be any more sympathetic to defense attorneys than the other three "Law & Orders." Because Wolf certainly isn't.

"They get people off. We're certainly not going to demonize defense attorneys. I hope we'll show them the way they really are," Wolf said.

At least the way he thinks they really are.

---

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com