Don't Sentence Yourself With `False Arrest'

"False Arrest," ABC miniseries, 9 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday, KOMO-TV. ----------------------------

If women are being skeptical about the justice system these days, TV isn't doing much to help the situation. Last week CBS aired a docudrama which starred Cheryl Ladd as a mother unjustly sentenced to prison on the basis of one man's lying testimony. It was only after herculean efforts that she was freed.

Now comes ABC with a two-part docudrama, "False Arrest," in which Donna Mills plays a mother sentenced to prison on the basis of two men's lying testimonies.

Andrew Laskos based the film's script on a book by Joyce Lukezic and Ted Schwarz which recounted Joyce's nightmare when her husband's business partner was murdered. Under the pressure from a hotshot investigator, two individuals who were already in trouble fingered Joyce as the mastermind who hired paid killers to do the murder. "False Arrest" covers the crime, Joyce's efforts to uncover the truth and clear her name and the misery that accompanied her efforts along the way.

The murder took place in affluent Scottsdale, Ariz., a decade ago and Mills, and her husband, played by Robert Wagner, seem to be living the good life as the film begins. But that doesn't last long and the film soon provides Mills a chance to suffer and suffer and suffer. You begin to wonder what will go wrong next as the story lugubriously unfolds. Her children are understandably distraught, her husband turns out to be less than reliable, her business partner bad-mouths her, her lawyer drops her case for mysterious reasons - and that's only on the outside. In prison, Mills must contend with rape and romantic overtures. Oh, and I forgot the suicide scene.

The trouble with "False Arrest" is that almost none of the characters elicit much sympathy. Mills has played so many bitchy roles that it's difficult to care a lot about the character, no matter how many dreadful things befall her, and no one else is particularly appealing, either. Wagner is good as the sleazy husband, as are Steven Bauer as an equally sleazy detective and Lane Smith as a devious lawyer. Eventually Kiersten Warren grows on you as Joyce's daughter, and Mimi Kuzyk is sympathetic as a fellow prisoner who befriends Joyce. But four hours of "False Arrest" is a trial in more ways than one.