Dr. Phillip Shoemaker is the father of Nicole Shoemaker and the poisoner of her stepfather, Oscar Silva.
History[]
Phillip was involved in a messy divorce and custody fight over Nicole with his ex, Dana Silva. In a nutshell, as Phillip was successfully arguing Dana was no adequate parent, Dana fled with Nicole to Brazil and married Oscar, a Brazilian citizen, to avoid extradition and an arrest warrant for kidnapping placed on her in America. Oscar was to attend a global warming summit in New York City, which left Phillip an opportunity to form a plan to get Nicole back, with the help of Dana’s parents, Nelson and Sharon Lehman.
Phillip stole the identity of Anderson Leavitt to get into the convention, then discreetly overdosed Oscar with Ritalin. Oscar had an aneurysm and high blood pressure, so he hemorrhaged at the conference and went to the hospital. As expected, Dana arrived with Nicole, and she was arrested on the outstanding warrant. Phillip reignited the custody battle, but he was arrested once he was confirmed to have poisoned Oscar. Nicole was too dependent on Dana that she didn’t want to see Phillip.
His attorney tried and failed to get Cutter off the case, arguing his bias due to his own parents’ divorce. When Dana was released with an ankle monitor, the Lehman upped the ante by setting a floating boat out to sea and lying Nicole was missing, trying to blame Dana. In truth, the Lehman's gave Nicole sleeping pills and hid her in the boat shed, as part of Phillip arguing Dana was an unfit mother. Nelson tried to take the blame for everything, but Cutter got Phillip to admit on the stand to poisoning Oscar.
Phillip pleaded guilty to assault and was imprisoned. (L&O: “Brazil”)