The defense attorney was flipping channels on TV when he saw two Cleveland detectives he recognized.

Ian Friedman paused to watch the A&E show “Crime 360.” What he saw should make you want to fight even harder for open discovery.

The episode “Blood on the Tracks” follows the Cleveland Police Department investigation into the homicide of Gabriel “Gordo” Feliciano, who died last October.

The cameras take viewers inside a drainage tunnel near Brookside Park. They show a cop shining a flashlight on decomposing bare feet poking out of rusty water. Police point out blood splatters on the gravel by the railroad tracks.

The camera moves to the coroner’s office to show the X-rays. One bullet entered the skull and ripped through the brain. The other one hit under the shoulder blade, then pierced a lung and the heart.

The viewers watch as detectives question the dead man’s girlfriend. She last saw her boyfriend leave with Milo, whose legal name is Ismael Irizarry. She never saw her boyfriend again.

The detectives return to the crime scene. They find a pool of blood near the railroad tracks and a footprint. Then an eyewitness comes forward and says he saw Milo force the victim into a car and heard Milo brag about killing Gordo.

Detectives interrogate Milo. He admits he moved the body hours after the man died. We find out Gordo had been dead for hours before being dragged into the tunnel.

We learn that Milo and Gordo were charged with burglary and wanted to swing a plea deal with the prosecutor’s office. The motive? Milo didn’t want Gordo to rat on him.

After Friedman watched the show, he checked out the court docket to see how long ago the case had been settled. He was stunned.

It was wide open.

Milo goes to trial on Monday.

The entire country got to see the investigation unfold. The TV show airs again at 3 p.m. this Saturday. “It’s absurd,” said Friedman, who is president of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “You can put this on national TV but defense lawyers can’t have it?”

Defense attorneys can’t get open discovery from Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason. A spokesman from Mason’s office said the prosecutor’s office did not work with the show. The Cleveland Police Department did.

The episode does show assistant prosecutor Eleanor Hilow in Juvenile Court arguing for Milo to be tried as an adult. Milo was 17 at the time of the murder. He will be tried as an adult for aggravated murder and retaliation.

Attorney Vincent Gonzalez, who is representing Milo, told me he did not get open discovery in this case. Watching the show helped him prepare a defense.

“It told me more than what the prosecutor gave me,” Gonzalez said. “There’s stuff in that video that can help my client.”

He didn’t know about the footprint found at the scene until he watched the show. Then he asked for the information and got it.

“If you don’t know what they know, it’s very difficult to represent an individual effectively,” Gonzalez said.

It shouldn’t be that way. Let the Common Pleas Court judges know you support their vote for open discovery in Cuyahoga County. Sign the petition at http://www.oacdl.org