Pubdate: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL) Copyright: 2002 Orlando Sentinel Contact: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325 Author: Hal Boedeker, TV critic Note: This program will also run at 11pm EST, Mar 13 'GUILT BY ASSOCIATION' EPSN entered the TV movie business Sunday with a punishing Bobby Knight docudrama. Court TV jumps in with its first original movie: Guilt by Association, an advocacy drama that's also punishing. The film, premiering at 9 p.m. Wednesday, illustrates how mandatory minimum sentences in drug laws can make innocent women suffer for the misdeeds of their husbands or boyfriends. It's a modern-day Les Miserables, with the legal system as Javert and the many mistreated women as Jean Valjean. Widowed Susan (Oscar winner Mercedes Ruehl) is plunged into a nightmare for loving the dashing Russell (Alex Carter). She breaks off their relationship when she sees him smoking marijuana in her home, but she doesn't know he's a drug dealer. When he and his cronies are arrested, Susan is charged with conspiracy. The prosecution demands her cooperation although she has nothing to offer. The government seizes her house and car. She loses her nursing job. She's sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her two young children go to live with her stressed sister. The issue is important. The movie is heavy-handed and mediocre. Ruehl, in a fierce performance, spells out the problem: "People in this country better wake up because if it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody." Point taken, but subtlety would have helped. - --- MAP posted-by: S Heath(DPF of Florida)