Allison Leotta's Blog, page 3

Lessons from a Sex-Crimes Prosecutor — by Heide Herrmann

My friend, Heide Herrmann, is a sex-crimes prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (the same job I held before becoming an author).  She has handled some of the office’s most high-profile sex-crime cases, but is known for bringing incredible diligence, compassion, and good judgement to every case that crosses her desk. Heide is leaving the USAO to work for DOJ’s Consumer Protection Branch.  Her recent Facebook post about the lessons she learned from the job really resonated with me.  In a few lines, she captured a lot of what the job is about.  Her post is reprinted below. Good luck with the new job, Heide, and thanks for making the city a better place: one day  and one person, at a time. – Allison

As I embark upon my last week as an Assistant United States Attorney, below is a list, in no particular order, of a few of the lessons I’ve learned over the last six years or so. Some more trite than others.

1.  You gotta fake it ’til you make it.

2.  Everything about being a prosecutor is scary as hell. And it’s how I now know how brave I am capable of being.


3.  When a person tells you that you can’t possibly understand how she feels, she’s right. But you should still try.

4.  I can’t fix all of the problems for all of the people I meet. But every day, there is at least one thing I can do to make one person’s life a little easier, safer or better.

5.  No means no. Unconscious means no. So drunk that she can’t walk or talk means no. If that seems obvious to you, good. Teach it to your sons anyway, because apparently it’s not obvious to everyone.

6.  If a car runs you down in the middle of a crosswalk, it’s the driver’s fault, not yours. But you still look both ways before crossing. Young women — please think about how much you drink, and whether you’ll still be safe if you have another, and another, and another. If a man assaults you it’s his fault, not yours, but I’d rather you never find yourself in that situation.

7.  Hug your children. Tell them how important they are. Talk to them, listen to them, love them, protect and appreciate them. If you already do that, good. Do it more. You’d be surprised how many children have no one who gives them the most basic care and kindness. I don’t want to tell you more, because then it’ll hurt you, the way it hurts me.

8.  There is no group of people more concerned about doing justice, protecting the vulnerable, and maintaining the highest level of ethical and professional standards than the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. I will always be proud to have practiced alongside these heroic prosecutors, and to have served the citizens of the District of Columbia.

SVU’s Season 15 Finale: “Spring Awakening”

Congratulations, SVU! Not only was the show renewed for a sixteenth season, it delivered one of its best episodes for this season’s finale. “Spring Awakening” showed some admirably authentic police details while provoking the full spectrum of emotions. Earlier this week, showrunner Warren Leight tweeted out a picture of Kleenex, warning fans to prepare. He was right.

Recap:

Nick is hauled to jail for beating up Simon, the child-torture fetishist who was acquitted last episode. Fueled by its recent Twitter #fiasco, NYPD charges Nick with a felony, and he’s locked up on $500,000 bail. Munch returns to bail Nick out and give a fatherly pep talk. Amanda, who often shows serious disregard for the law she’s sworn to upheld, saves her lover by threatening Simon’s wife. If Simon doesn’t drop the charges, Amanda snarls, she’ll make sure he goes to jail forever. Oh, also, Simon is online offering to let men rape his wife if they email him kiddie-torture-porn pictures. Simon promptly says he threw the first punch, and the charges against Nick are dropped.

Let’s hope Nick signs up for some anger management classes, Amanda signs up for some ethics training, and Simon falls down an elevator shaft.

Meanwhile, a German tourist hires a prostitute named Ellie to visit his hotel room, but is instead robbed, beaten and raped by her pimp, Tino. Murphy poses as an Irish tourist looking for love, and nabs the duo. But then the German goes to a lineup and identifies the wrong guy as the pimp. Tino is set free, and Ellie won’t testify against him. “He’s my gangster, my daddy,” she hisses through heroin-brown teeth. Even the prospect of going through drug withdrawal in jail isn’t enough to make her turn on her pimp.

That is, until DNA results show that Ellie is the mother of baby Noah, whom Olivia rescued from child pornographers a few episodes ago. Olivia has been following Noah’s path through the foster care system – and slowly falling in love with him – but now must use him as a tool to flip Ellie. When Ellie is reunited with her baby, who she thought was dead, she vows to get clean and testify against Tino, who sold the baby to the pornographers.

But the resolutions of heroin addicts are notoriously short-lived. The night before her Grand Jury testimony, Ellie leaves her halfway house. Her body is found burned to a crisp and full of drugs. Homeless eyewitnesses say they saw a bunch of men beating Ellie. Tino takes the blame, but is clearly covering for a more powerful gangster we can chase in Season 16.

Olivia goes to baby Noah’s next foster-care hearing, where he’s declared an orphan. A tall, handsome lawyer heroically strides in to represent the child pro bono, all while giving Olivia some sexy eyes. (In real life, that hunky actor is Mariska Hargitay’s husband, Peter Hermann – apparently they met filming SVU. Go Mariska!) The judge asks Olivia if she wants to adopt the child. She startles, and realizes she does.

In the final scene, Mariska cuddles baby Noah and, for the first time in a long time, seems truly happy. Cue the Kleenex.

Verdict: A-

What they got wrong:

The police executed a search warrant on Tino’s house right after they learned he sold Ellie’s baby. But they were disastrously not ready for that warrant. Ellie hadn’t given her testimony in the Grand Jury yet – which meant there was no indictment, which meant that Tino was released after his arrest. The warrant alerted Tino that Ellie had flipped on him – and gave him and his gang the opportunity to kill her before she could testify. The search and arrest warrants are often the last thing police should do in a case.

What they got right:

Murphy and Olivia were good friends to visit Nick and jail. Murphy also gave good legal advice when he wouldn’t let Nick talk to them about beating Simon. “Nothing here is privileged,” he said. Conversations with friends, fellow police officers, and even your boss, aren’t protected by any privilege. By keeping Nick quiet, Murphy kept himself and Olivia from having to testify against him.

The German tourist wanted a “New York girlfriend experience” from the prostitute. The “GFE” is a common term in the higher echelons of the sex trade, where men pay not just for sex but for small talk, cuddling, and “no-rush” sessions.

Tourists are victims of certain violent crimes at higher rate than locals. Criminals know that foreigners – like all of Tino’s European johns – are less likely to travel back to America to testify against them.

Teenage prostitutes are often in love with their pimps, and refuse to testify against them. It takes a special kind of police officer, willing to put in the time and commitment to grow trust, to help turn such a victim away from her pimp.

Olivia gave Ellie a candy bar when she started shaking. Addicts going through heroin withdrawal crave sugar.

Ellie’s death was eerily reminiscent of Brenda Paz’s. Paz was a teenage girl involved with the gang MS-13. She was cooperating with the police and scheduled to testify against her gang, when she snuck out of her witness-protection-sponsored house, and met her MS-13 boyfriend. He and several gang members killed her. Testifying against a gang comes with risks – especially when the witness ignores police safety precautions .

The police used infared imaging to scan Tino’s house before executing the search warrant. In 2001, the Supreme Court said that police may use thermal imaging on a house only if they have a warrant. As long as our SVU detectives put thermal scanning in their paperwork, they were okay to use it as part of the search warrant. For legal geeks like me, check out this argument by Prof. Orin Kerr, who argues now that thermal scanning devices are widely available to the public, police might be able constitutionally to use them without a warrant.

NYPD recently launched one of the worst Twitter hashtag rollouts in history. They suggested that people post happy pictures of themselves with New York cops along with the hashtag #myNYPD. Instead, people used the hashtag to post pictures of police brutality. You can see how this wouldn’t help Nick’s police brutality case.

Olivia was startled when the judge asked if she wanted to adopt baby Noah. The very same thing happened to man who found a baby on the NY city subway. He showed up at the child’s foster-care hearing, and the judge asked if he wanted to adopt the child. According to NBC New York:

Three months later, no one had come forward and Stewart found himself at a family court hearing. As he explained to the judge how he found the baby, the judge suddenly asked him if he would be interesting in adopting the baby.

“I think everyone in the courtroom, their jaws dropped, everyone was quiet,” said Stewart. “Everyone was looking at me, and I said, ‘Yes, but it’s not that easy.’ And she said, ‘Well, it can be.’”

Stewart and Mercurio had only been dating for three years, and they had not discussed having a family. Gay marriage wasn’t legal then, either, so they weren’t married. But Stewart said at that moment, he just knew the right thing to do.

“I thought, ‘Maybe this is destiny, maybe this is divine intervention. This is a gift we’re given and how can we say no to a gift?’” said Stewart.

The couple has since married and raised the baby, who is now a happy 12-year-old. Cue the Kleenex.

What do you think, SVU fans? Will the unit be able to hold together with Murphy gone? Should NYPD bureaucrats stay away from social media? And, after all these years, is there a chance that Olivia will finally get her happy ending? Leave your comments!  And stop by the blog while SVU is off the air.  I’ll still be posting good stuff periodically.  Meanwhile have a great summer!

SVU Episode #15-23: Thought Criminal

“Do you want to live in a world where you can be put in prison for what’s in your head?” That’s what the outraged defense attorney asked our ADA in tonight’s episode, and it’s the real-life question raised by the horrifying “Cannibal Cop” case. As technology is increasingly used to explore our most secret desires, it’s an issue that will be debated and litigated for years to come.

Recap:

A photographer named Simon, who specializes in photos of children, secretly fantasizes about torturing and killing little boys. He discusses this extensively in Internet chat rooms, which eventually leads to police attention. Murphy and Amanda go to his showroom for an undercover chat, with Murphy posing as a rich guy who wants to participate in Simon’s activities. After they ditch Amanda, the men discuss kidnaping a boy to torture and kill. Ice-T plays a guy willing to do the kidnapping for a price. Simon is all in, and shows Murphy and Ice the soundproof torture chamber he’s built – across the street from a school – complete with restraints, butchers knives, rotating saws, operating tables, and industrial grade drains and sinks.

Simon is arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping and attempted sexual abuse of a child. The problem with the case: there’s no evidence Simon ever touched a child. Only his DNA is found in the dissection chamber. No children have ever reported being molested by him. The defense attorney says, “He’s on trial for what’s in his head.”

The jury agrees, and acquits him. Nick then follows Simon to a playground and beats him thoroughly. Nick is the one led off in handcuffs at the end of the episode.

Verdict: B+

What they got right:

This was based on the real-life “Cannibal Cop” case. Gilberto Valle was an officer with NYPD, a newlywed husband with a lovely young bride, and the father of a baby girl. He also fantasized about killing, roasting, and eating women. He went online to a site called “Dark Fetish Network,” where he met other men who shared his interest. He googled human meat recipes. In online conversations, he plotted how to kidnap several different women, including his wife. He discussed roasting them on a spit, rotisserie style. He offered to kidnap a schoolteacher for a fee of $5,000. He used NYPD databases to search for information about the women he talked about kidnapping.

In an admirable example of women’s intuition, his wife installed spyware on his computer, and saw what Valle was chatting about. She promptly moved out and notified the FBI. Valle was charged with conspiracy to kidnap, and accessing a federal database without authorization.

He never actually touched a woman, and his defense attorneys argued that he was being penalized for his mere thoughts. The jury disagreed, and he was convicted.

What they got wrong:

There was actually a lot more evidence against Simon in tonight’s episode than against the Cannibal Cop. Simon built a torture chamber! The Cannibal Cop, while bragging that he had an oven large enough to fit a person, didn’t. He never actually procured any of the things he spoke about online. The torture chamber made for compelling TV — but it took a lot of the nuance out of the issue.

The idea of “attempted” crimes has evolved in America over the last century. In the 1800′s, attempting but failing to commit a crime wasn’t considered a criminal act. If you tried to pick someone’s pocket, but there was no money, you couldn’t be prosecuted. In the early 1900′s, attempted crimes were first criminalized. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes cautioned, “There must be dangerous proximity to success.” In the 1960′s, the Model Penal Code replaced “proximity” with the idea of a “substantial step.” A person plotting a crime could be arrested if he took some real action in furtherance of the crime.

Under this standard, Simon should have been convicted – he built a torture chamber – which was far more than the Cannibal Cop ever did.

According to New York Magazine:

What’s changed in recent years are the tools used to detect intent—namely, a person’s online activity. “We’ve always said you can’t punish for thoughts alone, but now we really know what the thoughts are,” says Audrey Rogers, a law professor at Pace University who has taught the Valle case in class. Since 9/11, the government has used the monitoring of electronic communication to bring more than 200 prosecutions against people suspected of providing material support to terrorist organizations. “You expand the definition of a crime by extending it to this sense of what might happen in the -future,” says Georgetown law professor David Cole.

What do you think, SVU fans? Is Nick going to prison? Will you ever be able to look at rotisserie chicken the same way again? And what would you be convicted of if the police could read all of your Internet communications? Leave your comments. Or not.

SVU Episode #15-22: “Reasonable Doubts”

In this powerful episode, SVU captured in one hour much of the pain, controversy, and ambiguity of the decades-long Woody Allen / Dylan Farrow child-sex abuse case. The show explored how hard these cases are to prosecute, and how the effects of abuse linger forever in a child’s life.

Verdict: A

Recap:

A director named Frank leaves his middle-aged actress wife, Katherine, and takes up with her barely-legal sister, Rose. In the midst of an acrimonious divorce, Frank and Katherine’s little girl, Chelsea, tells her mother that Frank molested her. Mom takes her to a pediatrician, who loops in the police. Our detectives try to figure out whether Katherine is using Chelsea as a pawn in the divorce, or whether Frank is a serial pedophile. They conclude the latter, and charge him with sexually abusing Chelsea. Frank skips town in the middle of his trial, and, a la Roman Polanski, flies to Paris, where he publicly paws Rose. He is convicted despite his absence. Katherine takes a public victory lap, while Chelsea grimaces at the assembled paparazzi.

This story mirrored the Woody Allen scandal. In 1992, Allen left his wife, Mia Farrow, for Farrow’s 20-year-old daughter Soon-Yi Previn. The same year, Farrow’s 7-year-old daughter, Dylan, reported that Allen molested her. Unlike tonight’s show, Dylan’s charges were never adjudicated in a criminal court. The DA declined to prosecute, noting how hard a trial would be on Dylan.

Allen sued Farrow for custody of Dylan, which he lost. You can read the judge’s scathing condemnation of Allen’s conduct. That judge concluded that “we will probably never know what occurred” that day.

As Natalie Shure of The Atlantic put it:

There is something inherently imbalanced about a child abuse case. The very secrecy that makes the truth “unknowable” is an instrument of the crime. With no witnesses or credible legal evidence, the “he said/she said” conundrum prevails. The assailant knows this, and he can use it to his advantage.

To this day, Dylan maintains that Allen abused her; to this day, Allen denies it – most recently, in open letters published in the New York Times. Click here for “10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody-Allen Sex-Assault Allegation,” in which the author rebuts several of the factual claims in Allen’s letter.

Tonight’s episode took several real details from the Allen/Farrow case and fictionalized them for this story (the attic in Farrow’s case became a laundry room on SVU; the missing underwear in Farrow’s case became missing tights; a gory Valentine Farrow gave Allen became a bloody statue). But the show also got some larger truths right. It showed the ambiguity in these cases, how hard it is to know exactly what happened. It showed how a family can be torn apart. And it deftly showed how the little girl whom this happened to will continue live in its shadow for the rest of her life.

SVU Episode #15-21: “Post-Mortem Blues”

One week after SVU’s heroine survived the ultimate physical danger, the show plunked her in the middle of a legal and emotional dilemma almost as dangerous. I admit, I had doubts about the premise of “Post-Mortem Blues.” How could this heroic woman be blamed, much less charged with a crime, for the suicide of monstrous Lewis? But the SVU writers showed why they’re the best in the business, demonstrating how skeptical eyes can interpret things differently and the ambiguities to be found in facts that seemed so clear.

Verdict: A-

Recap:

In the midst of kidnapping Olivia and a little girl, Lewis shoots himself in the head. The SVU detectives are running up the steps to rescue Olivia, and are listening to her plight on their police radios, just as Lewis kills himself. His blood spatters her face.

Lewis deviously manages to haunt Olivia even after he’s dead. He shot himself with his left hand, staging the scene to look like Olivia did it. With all the Russian Roulette they played, the M.E. can’t say who pulled the trigger. The little girl was looking away when the shots were fired. Internal Affairs investigates Olivia, wondering if she actually killed Lewis.

Thereupon commences a massive legal nightmare. A sultry defense attorney is appointed to defend her. All of Olivia’s colleagues are called to testify against her; they privately discuss whether to perjure themselves on her behalf. Barred from working, Olivia spends a lot of time with her psychologist and drinking wine. IAB eventually clears her, but an ambitious DA from Brooklyn opens a Grand Jury investigation, trying to indict Olivia for murdering Lewis. (The DA never mentions the dozens of people Lewis raped, tortured and slaughtered over the last two seasons, which didn’t seem sporting of him.)

Acting Sgt. Murphy counsels all the SVU detectives to tell the truth. But when it looks like Olivia is going down, Murphy perjures himself in the Grand Jury – saying that he ordered Olivia’s televised “confession” last week about beating Lewis – in order to save her.

The Grand Jury refuses to indict Olivia. Murphy stays on as SVU’s new sergeant, with Olivia demoted to his grateful Number 2. And some “larger truths” are told.

What they got right:

Whenever a suspect is killed during police action, officers come under scrutiny. Regardless of how heroic or blameworthy she may have been, the system can’t just take the officer’s word for it. This episode realistically showed some officers willing to lie to protect their own, but other officers insisting on telling the truth, consequences be damned. And it showed the complicated character of the new guy, Murphy, who both wanted his officers to be truthful, but was willing to tell “the larger truth” about Olivia’s heroism to save her.

Even when an officer has done everything right, being involved in a shooting is extremely traumatic. It can take an officer years of therapy to recover.

Olivia’s defense attorney’s dialogue was good. When Olivia started to confess to beating Lewis while he was handcuffed (back in Season 14), the attorney stopped her. She said something like, “Hypothetically, if you told me that, I wouldn’t be allowed to let you say the opposite on the stand. I can’t suborn perjury. So let’s just skip that for now.” That’s exactly right, and it’s the reason why some defense attorneys don’t want to hear their client’s version of the story until they know what facts the government has, and can massage the client’s story to fit them. I’ve never been a defense attorney, but I’ll bet there’s a lot of use of the word “hypothetically” in those conversations.

The Brooklyn DA was an ambition-blind jerk, but it wasn’t entirely unreasonable to put this controversial case in front of a Grand Jury. This allows the citizens to police the police, and takes away the perception that police might whitewash an incident. Sometimes a DA will present the evidence in a case where he fully expects to get a “No True Bill.” This allows the citizens the choice to decline the prosecution.

The writers were wise to demote Olivia to the #2 officer. She can do more on the show that way. You’ll notice that she was only the SVU sergeant for a few weeks, during which Lewis kidnapped her. The life of a sergeant involves a desk and many reams of paper, and is not at all telegenic. The demotion lets Olivia get back on the street doing what she does best: investigating cases.

What they got wrong:

Fin was wearing a wedding ring! Did I miss something? Either our favorite bachelor cop eloped during the last SVU hiatus, or someone in wardrobe missed something. Or maybe Ice-T just wanted to show his devotion to his foxy real-life wife, CoCo. Check out this Late Night with Seth Meyers appearance and tell me if Ice is wearing the same ring he did on the SVU episode tonight:

I wish we could get SVU’s decorators into some real-life courthouses. The white-on-white IAB room looked like it came straight out of Star Trek, and the Brooklyn Grand Jury was spotless. In real life these rooms are usually a conglomeration of mismatched formica furniture, putty-colored filing cabinets and walls so scuffed that the pure beige patches stand out.

The silliest part of the episode was the frizzy juror from Lewis’s trial testifying in the Grand Jury about how she felt about Olivia. That was totally inadmissible. If the DA needed evidence from Lewis’s trial, he would just read the transcript into the record. The judicial system goes out of its way to avoid querying into any juror’s feelings post-verdict. Plus, this was the woman who fell in love with Lewis, baked him the poisoned cupcakes, and helped him escape! A prosecutor would need to turn over to the Grand Jurors the evidence of such massive bias. Plus, shouldn’t Miss Frizzy be indicted herself for aiding and abetting Lewis?

What do you think, SVU fans? What level of scrutiny should officers involved in shootings face? Did Fin elope some time in April? And is Lewis actually gone this time? Leave your comments!

A Dream Visit to SVU –by Elexa Nosonchuk

SVU is on a hiatus this week, but this story will make you love the show even more.  This guest post is by Elexa Nosonchuk, one of the biggest SVU fans on the planet.  She visited the set last year via the Dream Foundation.  Here is her inspiring story.  Thanks for sharing this with us, Elexa!  You made me laugh, cry, and … breathe.

 

I have a progressive lung disease that will eventually kill me. The only things that have kept me alive for the last 2 years are experimental treatments, including chemotherapy and steroids. They each have their own side effects which wreak havoc on my body. One of the few things left in my life that I’m able to enjoy is television, and my favorite show is Law & Order: SVU!! I love the show and the inspiring, encouraging message it gives. SVU reruns are constantly on TV and I never get tired of watching them! A few years back, when asked to figure out what one thing I would like as a life wish, it was an easy answer, and thanks to the amazing people at The Dream Foundation (an organization that gives dreams to adults with life threatening illnesses) I was given the opportunity to visit New York so I could go to the filming of the 300th episode of SVU and meet Mariska Hargitay and the cast! Mariska, the driving force behind the show’s message – that sexual assault and domestic violence are never ok – is the show’s star, and my favorite TV actress! When I asked to meet her, I thought I might get to say hi to her for a few minutes and experiencing the city would be the biggest part of my trip, but the people at Dream Foundation and SVU made it so much more!

It started with a private tour of the set at Chelsea Pier. The entire way into the building I was freaking out; I even took a picture of the floor of the elevator. I was able to see each part of the set and got to sit in the judge’s seat in the courtroom. I sat in the interrogation room and watched segments of the episode film. I had multiple moments where I freaked out because I was so excited about everything I was seeing! Every time I passed by one of the actors on set they would stop and take a picture with me and talk to me! Everyone was so extraordinarily nice!! I must have been beet red the entire visit. One of my favorite parts of the visit was meeting the puppies – the actors bring their dogs to work – and I am definitely a dog person!! After meeting most of the cast and crew, there was a little party with cake and photo opportunities for the 300th episode. I was allowed to take a picture with the cast in front of the cake, during which I’m glad I didn’t pass out! I met Dick Wolf, who I didn’t realize was going to be there. I told him all about how I have seen every episode and he indulged my star-struck, wide-eyed freak out.

We started walking toward Mariska’s dressing room to see if I could finally get my meet and greet with my hero, and we ended up accidentally running into her as we turned a corner. I literally ran into her. I started giggling uncontrollably and doubled over because I couldn’t breathe (remember, I have bad lungs) and she asked, jokingly, if she needed to walk away so I could breathe again. Obviously, I said no!! We were able to sit and talk for a little while and it was so amazing. She wanted to know all about my disease and she took such a real interest, even tearing up multiple times. I was in total disbelief at how amazingly well the day was going. After hearing my story, Mariska got an idea and asked us to follow her to her dressing room. On her wall she had a frame with white paper in it which had the word “Breathe” drawn on it. She told me the story behind this drawing – she made it during an incident where she had a collapsed lung, and she hung it above her door so she could see it whenever she left her dressing room. She took it down, signed the back of it (ending with, “You are a badass. Never forget that”) and gave it to me. We both cried. She also gave me the ‘Fearlessness’ necklace that she was wearing!!! She wears it in every episode, and is a symbol of her Joyful Heart Foundation – and she gave it to ME!!! Again, we both cried. It was such a surreal feeling to be anywhere near her; I couldn’t believe how perfect the day was.

I was also able to bring the cast some bracelets that I had been selling that say “Just Breathe.” I was sure none of them would actually wear the bracelets, or that the bracelets would break too easily because they were just made of stretchy string, but I still watched every episode after that looking for the bracelet on one of their wrists. It took me about a year – I don’t know how I missed it the first time I saw the episode – but I finally caught a glimpse of my bracelet on Mariska’s wrist in the episode titled, “Vanity’s Bonfire” from 11/14/12 (have I mentioned how much I love Mariska?!). I haven’t noticed the bracelet on any other episode, but I may have just missed it. The last thing I left with my mark on it was a Dream Foundation hat that Kelli Giddish asked me to sign for her. I was so excited that she wanted my autograph, and she said she would wear the hat in her next marathon. I’m not sure if she ever did, but I hope so!!

I don’t think it’s possible to explain what that trip meant to me. I’ve been trying not to ramble while I type this because I just want to say all of the incredible things that happened in my quick-talking, excited way that makes everyone tell me to calm down. I was invited back, but since I don’t live in New York, I’ll just have to cherish the memories I already have. Danny Pino has been awesome enough to keep in touch with me on Twitter. Every time I get a message from him it makes my stomach jump and I feel the excitement of being on the set all over again. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was way too excited to think straight. I don’t know if any of the SVU cast and crew remember that day for anything other than it being the 300th episode. I like to think someone other than Danny might remember me, but I understand that they meet fans all the time. I am so grateful for my trip and the memories I’ll always have! I wish I had a word to explain how excited I was all day, but no words exist.

SVU Episode #15-20: Beast’s Obsession

Tonight’s episode wasn’t about a realistic problem that society faces – there were no untested rape kits, no reluctant witnesses, no restitution for child-porn victims. Tonight’s episode was pure thriller. It was disturbing; it was intense; it left you clenching the edge of your seat.

Recap:

Horrible Lewis escapes from prison, and uses his freedom to torment Olivia by going on a crime spree in Manhattan. By the third commercial, he’s tortured and raped two people and killed seven more. His victims include a hospital nurse, prison guard, defense attorney, and a doctor and her two young daughters. Using the youngest daughter as bait, Lewis lures Olivia to a secluded warehouse. He makes one final unsuccessful attempt at raping her, then forces her to play Russian roulette. Lewis may be the world’s worst forced Russian roulette supervisor, because in the end, he takes the gun from Olivia and shoots himself in the face.

Verdict: C for realism, A for drama

What they got right and wrong:

Typically, I comment about what’s real and not real in these cases. I’ll do some of that here. But this show wasn’t about what it’s really like to be a sex crimes detective. Tonight, SVU took its heroine and put her in the most dangerous, disturbing and intense situation she could be in. It tested her mettle and set her up for hardships to come. But her choices – her willingness to sacrifice her career and her life to save a child – showed her incredible strength. Tonight’s episode was about the heroism that SVU detectives show, even if the story itself was far removed from the more mundane challenges they face.

Okay, down to brass tacks: when a prisoner breaks out of jail he usually goes to his girlfriend’s house. If he manages to stay out for a while, he might try to get a change of clothes, a steak, and a beer.

Once again, Lewis tried but was unable to rape Olivia. The inability of an assailant to maintain an erection is surprisingly common in rape cases. As a sex-crimes prosecutor, I handled several cases where the rapist became flaccid mid-act and was unable to complete it. Often, rape is about power not desire.

There really is a “Lazarus effect,” where a person appears to be dead for a long time, and is then revived. One amazing British doctor has been able to revive people several hours after they die. I’m skeptical that Lewis’s ditzy girlfriend had such skills with the meds she mixed into his cupcakes.

What do you think, SVU fans? Should prisons allow inmates to receive home-baked cupcakes? Will the people of NY blame Olivia for killing Lewis – or will they applaud her for it? And should Olivia just put her therapist on permanent retainer at this point? Leave your comments!

SVU Episode #15-19: Downloaded Child

This was a disturbing but important episode about the power of child pornography to destroy lives, and the power of the law to help victims get restitution.

Recap:

A little girl named Maddie totters on the brink of a 10-story apartment balcony; our detectives swoop in and save her from falling. Her parents aren’t home, leading the detectives to investigate a child neglect case. They discover that Maddie’s mother, Jenny, was a victim of child pornography herself. Jenny’s erratic behavior stems from her own traumatic childhood. As an eight-year-old, Jenny was videotaped having sex with her stepfather; the video was shared on the Internet thousands of times.

Instead of pressing charges against Jenny for leaving her child alone, the detectives help her collect damages from the men who downloaded pornographic images of her. But collecting from one man at a time is logistically difficult. The Violence Against Women Act allows Jenny to collect from a single rich porn viewer the entire $4 million she’s owed in damages. If he wants to sue the other offenders, he can.

Verdict: A

What they got right:

There is an ongoing legal debate about how child-porn victims can collect damages from offenders who downloaded their images. The Supreme Court just heard arguments in January on this very issue.

In the real case of Paroline v. Amy Unknown, an eight-year-old girl named Amy was sexually abused by her uncle, who then posted the images online. Amy’s images were traded thousands of times among child pornographers. When Amy (at age 17) started receiving notices from the government about these cases, she hired a lawyer and started suing the offenders, one by one, for restitution. The Violence Against Women Act allows victims of child pornography to sue people who saw their images, and collect money damages including lost income, counseling, medical expenses, and attorney’s fees. Using VAWA, Amy has succeeded in collecting about $1.7 million from more than 170 men.

In January, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case Amy brought against Donald Paroline. Paroline was caught with hundreds of images of child pornography, including two pictures of 8-year-old Amy. Amy sued him for the restitution due from all offenders who viewed her images; the Fifth Circuit upheld her claim. This is known as “joint and several liability,” and effectively forces the porn offender, rather than the victim, to collect from the other offenders.

But other courts have held that a single offender can only be held responsible for his own portion of the restitution. In an unusual move, a bipartisan group of Senatorsfiled a brief with the Supreme Court, in which they explicitly stated that they did mean to include this form of restitution in VAWA for victims like Amy. Hang tight to find out what the Supremes say.

Tonight’s episode also highlighted that child pornography isn’t a victimless crime. Each time an image is downloaded, the child is revictimized. I loved the courtroom scene where Jenny confronted the child porn offender (right after his daughter finished speaking on his behalf). It was very realistic and summarized the harrowing issues that cases like this present.

Many American judges feel that watching child porn is victimless crime. It’s not. The damages caused by this marketplace and all the actors in it are devastating. I wish every judge in America would watch this episode of SVU.

What they got wrong:

No way would Olivia bring Jenny to her own personal therapist. Detectives usually try to keep their personal and professional lives far apart.  I’ve even known detectives and prosecutors who refuse to keep family photos on their desks for that reason.

What do you think, SVU fans? Should a single porn viewer be responsible for the damages caused by every other offender who views the images? Who should have the burden of collecting damages, the victim or the offender? And did Olivia and Cassidy break up or get back together? (I couldn’t tell.) Leave your comments!

SVU Episode #15-18: Downloaded Child

This was a disturbing but important episode about the power of child pornography to destroy lives, and the power of the law to help victims get restitution.

Recap:

A little girl named Maddie totters on the brink of a 10-story apartment balcony; our detectives swoop in and save her from falling. Her parents aren’t home, leading the detectives to investigate a child neglect case. They discover that Maddie’s mother, Jenny, was a victim of child pornography herself. Jenny’s erratic behavior stems from her own traumatic childhood. As an eight-year-old, Jenny was videotaped having sex with her stepfather; the video was shared on the Internet thousands of times.

Instead of pressing charges against Jenny for leaving her child alone, the detectives help her collect damages from the men who downloaded pornographic images of her. But collecting from one man at a time is logistically difficult. The Violence Against Women Act allows Jenny to collect from a single rich porn viewer the entire $4 million she’s owed in damages. If he wants to sue the other offenders, he can.

Verdict: A

What they got right:

There is an ongoing legal debate about how child-porn victims can collect damages from offenders who downloaded their images. The Supreme Court just heard arguments in January on this very issue.

In the real case of Paroline v. Amy Unknown, an eight-year-old girl named Amy was sexually abused by her uncle, who then posted the images online. Amy’s images were traded thousands of times among child pornographers. When Amy (at age 17) started receiving notices from the government about these cases, she hired a lawyer and started suing the offenders, one by one, for restitution. The Violence Against Women Act allows victims of child pornography to sue people who saw their images, and collect money damages including lost income, counseling, medical expenses, and attorney’s fees. Using VAWA, Amy has succeeded in collecting about $1.7 million from more than 170 men.

In January, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case Amy brought against Donald Paroline. Paroline was caught with hundreds of images of child pornography, including two pictures of 8-year-old Amy. Amy sued him for the restitution due from all offenders who viewed her images; the Fifth Circuit upheld her claim. This is known as “joint and several liability,” and effectively forces the porn offender, rather than the victim, to collect from the other offenders.

But other courts have held that a single offender can only be held responsible for his own portion of the restitution. In an unusual move, a bipartisan group of Senatorsfiled a brief with the Supreme Court, in which they explicitly stated that they did mean to include this form of restitution in VAWA for victims like Amy. Hang tight to find out what the Supremes say.

Tonight’s episode also highlighted that child pornography isn’t a victimless crime. Each time an image is downloaded, the child is revictimized. I loved the courtroom scene where Jenny confronted the child porn offender (right after his daughter finished speaking on his behalf). It was very realistic and summarized the harrowing issues that cases like this present.

Many American judges feel that watching child porn is victimless crime. It’s not. The damages caused by this marketplace and all the actors in it are devastating. I wish every judge in America would watch this episode of SVU.

What they got wrong:

No way would Olivia bring Jenny to her own personal therapist. Detectives usually try to keep their personal and professional lives far apart.  I’ve even known detectives and prosecutors who refuse to keep family photos on their desks for that reason.

What do you think, SVU fans? Should a single porn viewer be responsible for the damages caused by every other offender who views the images? Who should have the burden of collecting damages, the victim or the offender? And did Olivia and Cassidy break up or get back together? (I couldn’t tell.) Leave your comments!

SVU Episode #15-18: Criminal Stories

Was that … sexual tension between Alec Baldwin and Detective Olivia Benson? Cassidy, watch out! Tonight’s episode was a tight and realistic riff on the Tawanna Brawley case. It was also Mariska Hargitay’s directorial debut. I think she hit it out of the ballpark – maybe even to Jupiter?

Recap:

A beautiful young Muslim woman named Heba is found injured and raped in Central Park. At first, she claims that she was assaulted by two white strangers who shouted anti-Muslim slurs. The city is shocked by the hate crime.

Olivia races against a swaggering journalist played by a swaggering Alec Baldwin. Alec’s sources are better than the SVU’s. Soon, he discovers that Heba wasn’t raped in Central Park! “HOAX” screams his front-page headline the next day. Heba’s family enlists the help of a pulpit-pounding minister (why not an imam? because the minister is a regular guest star on SVU), who denounces the NYPD for leaking the case and disgracing Heba.

It turns out Heba was raped, just in a different manner - by her brother’s rich boss and the boss’s friend, after the boss invited her to an “after-party” in his penthouse office. Heba initially lied because she was ashamed to tell her parents she went to see a man by herself and drank champagne. The fibers found on her clothing belong to the goat-skin rug in the boss’s office; the semen inside her belongs to the two cocky real estate brokers.

The men claim consent; the case goes to trial; and a mistrial is declared after Alec finally looks in Heba’s dewy eyes during her testimony, realizes she’s telling the truth, and writes a front-page story saying so. The jurors admit they read the story despite their instruction not to read press coverage, and the judge dismisses them. A retrial is avoided when the cocky boss pleads guilty to a misdemeanor and throws his co-conspirator under the felony bus.

One final twist: the rapist/boss’s family has powerful connections to Alec’s newspaper, and Daddy is the one who pushed Alec to write the HOAX story. Shamed by Olivia’s withering glare, Alec posts a story describing the whole sordid business, then resigns from the paper. “I’ve got balls as big as Jupiter,” he crows from his barstool later that night, while Olivia coyly holds up a finger to order a second round of drinks for them.

Verdict: A-

What they got right:

The Tawana Brawley case rocked the country in 1987, when the young African-American woman claimed she had been gang-raped by several white men then left to die in a garbage bag covered in dog feces. She wouldn’t cooperate with prosecutors, retained Al Sharpton as her PR man, and accused a local prosecutor of being one of the rapists. It was all a hoax. According to NPR, “”a special state grand jury later determined that Brawley had fabricated her claims, perhaps to avoid punishment for staying out late.” In 1998, the prosecutor successfully sued Brawley and Sharpton for defamation.

Did you suspect that the dad and the brother had sexually assaulted Heba, then framed it as a hate crime to deflect blame? Then perhaps you’ve heard of the case of Shaima Alawadi, an Iraqi immigrant found murdered in her San Diego home. A note next to her body read, “This is my country. Go back to yours, terrorist.” Reacting to the apparent hate crime, a Facebook page called “One Million Hijabs for Shaima Alawadi” was launched. In a few days, over 12,000 women posted pictures of themselves wearing a head scarf. Later, the police arrested Alawadi’s husband and charged him with killing her and planting the note himself.

The hajib Facebook page was the one heartening thing to come out of the tragedy.

Tonight’s episode also got a lot of the details correct. Olivia knew that victims of sexual assault initially omit details of their assault 50% of the time. The concept of “rolling disclosures” is familiar to every sex-offense detective. The way Nick and Finn used a Q-tip to swab the inside of the suspect’s cheeks, then put the Q-tips in a long white box, is exactly how detectives swab for DNA when executing warrants on suspects in real life. Carpet fibers left on clothing or shoes can be tested and matched to carpet in a given home, and DNA analysis can tell what type of animal a hair comes from (although I didn’t see any smoking-gun goat hairs in my prosecutions. Goats again! Why does it always come back to the goats on SVU?).

And the difficulties in prosecuting a case like this were well articulated. It’s very hard to make a case when a victim has lied so enormously in the beginning. The fact that Barba was able to get a misdemeanor plea out of one defendant and a felony conviction out of the other speaks to his legal skills (and, maybe some dramatic license in the overwhelming quantity of corroborating evidence the police found). After the victim lied and deliberately faked a crime scene, I’m not sure this case would be winnable in a real courtroom. And Barba was right about how the plea went down. Although the rich boss was the worst offender, every criminal attorney knows that, “The first one in the life boat gets the best seat.”

What they got wrong:

Besides Woodward and Bernstein breaking Watergate, I’ve never seen a case where a single journalist is so important to coverage. In real sex-offense cases, it seems, everyone is interested or no one is. And no way would Alec quit at the end. A grizzled veteran reporter like him would have seen hundreds of cases far worse than this one.

What do you think, SVU fans? Would you believe a rape victim’s subsequent story if she were initially caught in a serious lie? Are goat hair accessories going to be all the rage? And can Olivia personally vouch for Alec’s planetary dimensions? Leave your comments!