Recap: This was a great episode, with a realistic depiction of teenage prostitution, and some intriguing personal drama for our detectives.
A pink-cheeked 14-year-old runaway from the suburbs emerges from a subway stop. A charming pimp standing on the corner glances at her and immediately recognizes a certain vulnerability for which he’s always on the prowl. He sweet-talks her to a fancy hotel room, where he plies her with champagne, strawberries, great sex, and a Tiffany necklace. She’s ecstatic at her thoughtful new boyfriend. Soon, he convinces her to sleep with his friends to pay for luxury goods, and then she’s turning dozens of tricks a night with strangers the pimp brings to their now-much-dingier hotel room. When she tries to leave, the pimp beats her.
At the police station, the girl’s handsome, distraught father asks for Nick by name, saying he (Dad) has been deployed in Iraq with Nick’s wife. Dad begs Nick to find his daughter. Tracking the girl’s cell phone on the incredible “NYPD Location Triangulator,” the police hone in on the fleabag hotel. They arrest the girl.
At first, the girl won’t talk to the police, saying the pimp is her boyfriend, and “he loves me.” The detectives go to Facebook, find a photo of the pimp cuddling his two kids and babymama, and show it to her. She finally talks, leading the police to her pimp. They eventually flip him too, and he offers up his clients in return for a deal.
Oh, by the way, the girl casually mentions that Dad was seeing some woman in Iraq. Nick tries not to flinch. He sees where this is going. Oh, poor Nick.
They doesn’t normally prosecute johns, but Olivia convinces the DA that the policy should change. They set up a sting, in which the girl’s clients show up and are arrested. Among the clients is the requisite sports star, a retired All-American quarterback.
Seems like a slam-dunk case until they learn that the QB is suffering from dementia caused by too many blows to the head. His wife confides to Olivia that he’s been acting crazy, getting in so much trouble they can’t pay their legal bills. Olivia gives the wife a card for Ellis, a hotshot defense attorney and her new friend. Olivia isn’t supposed to do this.
Olivia explains her ethical lapse to Ellis himself, during a decidedly romantic walk in an elevated garden. She says she feels sorry and personally responsible for the QB – but it’s clear that she’s also there because she shares a connection with Ellis himself.
Continuing the personal drama, we finally see Nick’s pretty soldier wife during a Skpe call. She’s way too defensive when Nick casually asks about the girl’s Dad. It remains unsaid, but she’s obviously having an affair with the guy. (I liked the subtle way this storyline was established . . . and I can’t wait to see how Nick responds.)
The case against the quarterback goes to trial, and things are looking bad for him. He seems like a conceited jerk during cross-examination. “Wait!” Ellis stands up. “I need a moment with my client.” As Ellis and the QB confer in the hall, we see the QB is batshit crazy but too proud to admit it. They go back in the courtroom, and Ellis skillfully brings out his client’s dementia during re-direct. The QB is found not guilty by reason of insanity.
During a press melee on the courthouse steps, the QB realizes the depth of his despair, grabs a gun from a fawning cop, and shoots himself. He dies in a bloody heap in his wife’s arms. (Most SVU defendants die by the end of the episode. I appreciated that this time at least we got to see the trial before the defendant was ritually slaughtered.)
Verdict: A-
What they got right:
This was a very accurate depiction of how pimps commandeer underage girls. Many pimps have a sixth sense when it comes to someone who will go home with them. At first, he’s the world’s best boyfriend. Then he’ll ask her to sell herself, like it’s a gift to him, like he’ll respect her more if she does it. Once she’s gotten over the mental hurdle of selling herself, he’ll use violence to keep her in line. These girls often think the pimp is their boyfriend and refuse to testify against him.
This episode also showed one effective tool to break the girl’s loyalty: showing her that the guy is seeing someone else. In this case, they used Facebook. In many of my cases, we used recorded phone calls from jail, where the pimp told Prostitute #1 that he loved her more than Prostitute #2, and that #1 was prettier and smarter, to boot. Prostitute #2 could usually be convinced to testify against the pimp after hearing that call.
It’s also true that many jurisdictions don’t prosecute johns. Some offices say this is similar to the policy of not prosecuting drug users – they only go for the bigger fish. But many feminists have argued that the policy is part of an old-boys network, and that DAs don’t want to embarrass their powerful male friends who are inevitably scooped up in stings like this.
The QB’s wife said that their family lawyer wouldn’t help them any more because they’d racked up too many bills – many private lawyers would call that a Rule One violation, Rule One being that you have to get paid.
I also appreciating that Nick took the 14-year-old to the empty courtroom before trial to practice her testimony. That’s great prep work. It’s helpful for a child witness to see what the room’s going to look like and where she’ll be sitting, and get comfortable telling the painful truth in that stiff setting. We have a program called Kids Court which does just that.
It was true that Olivia shouldn’t have suggested Ellis to the QB’s wife. It’s a conflict of interest. How could the wife even trust Olivia – maybe she was suggesting some hack? In this case, Olivia was actually trying to help the defendant, which violates her duty to the police department. Olivia took a distinct step away from the SVU and toward Ellis in this episode.
What they got wrong:
Man, would I love to get my hands on that NYPD Location Triangulator. We’ll probably have to wait a few decades before it’s available in real life, though. Now, if we want to know where a cell phone is, we subpoena the phone company, which sends a bunch of documents noting the nearest cell tower the phone was pinging off. The cell towers are usually miles and miles apart. You can tell what county your guy is in, but not what block. You certainly can’t pinpoint an apartment building based on the cell phone. And only in very rare cases do you get any information in real time; usually you’re getting it weeks later. There are no wide-screen plasma TVs or blinking red dots. Looks great, though, I can’t wait!
Ellis stood up and said that he needed a word with his client during the QB’s cross-examination. There are no Time-Outs like that. An attorney can’t even talk to his witness about his testimony in the middle of it, much less call for a break to coach him. The witness needs to make it through his entire testimony without consulting his lawyer. Anything Ellis wanted to say to his client, he should have done before the guy took the stand.
Rob says
8 December, 2011 at 12:45 pmIt’s quite hard to believe that this time last year we were talking about lay-lists, paramedics digitally raping (correct terminology?) a dying patient in an ambulance, a lesbian couple burgling houses, a custody case, and a courthouse carpark shooting *in the one episode*.
There’s pros and cons to each style but the show is very different this year, and in my opinion for the better. The realism and the (refreshing) scenes expressing the conflict between justice for the victim and compassion for (some) of the more unfortunate perpatrators remind me why ‘Law & Order’ (both the original and the early years of this series) was so great to begin with.
The show is ten episodes in and I’m curious to know your thoughts on the new characters at this point?
Personally I’m enjoying them. They have distinct approaches — Rollins is very impersonal and factual; Amaro intuitive and willing to back his gut — it’s a nice change to each character parroting each other or falling into predictable routines and when those approaches clash (as they did last week) it’s leading to some interesting confrontations. I also like how Amaro is a lot calmer than Stabler, even if he’s similar in other superficial ways, it was good not to see Nick yell at the computer screen or throw the laptop across the room!
I too was a bit put-off at the convenience of the technology but I’m sympathetic how even a judicial and quick montage of the DA getting a subpoena, the tech people hunting down the data and the squad canvassing a search area would cost them extra money on what I’m sure is an already stretched budget. I’m inclined to forgive it as practical over lazy storytelling given the episode was about the football player more than it was about finding the girl.
And finally congratulations being recognized by the ABA yet again! It’s well earned. I look forward to your valuable insights after each episode. Keep up the good work!
Rob says
8 December, 2011 at 12:47 pmAnd please forgive my appalling typo on ‘perpetrators’.
Allison Leotta says
9 December, 2011 at 5:54 pmHey Rob, Thanks for your comment! I really like our new detectives, especially Nick. He reminds me a lot of some of the best real detectives I know – he seems real and nuanced and also a guy you can really root for. I also think that the actor, Danny Pino, has some nice chemistry with Mariska Hargitay. (He’s also easy on the eyes.) The thing that’s interesting about Amanda is how she always needs to prove herself: running off into the woods alone after a suspect, insisting she’s fine when a rapist has a knife to her throat. It can be difficult to be a woman in a mostly male force, and that chip on Amanda’s shoulder is a realistic result.
I know what you mean about the technology. As a dramatic choice, it’s better to just show the flashing red light on the flat screen TV. I’d hate to watch an episode that showed the actual, boring paper chase. Zzzz…. That said, I’ve definitely found that this season is getting a lot less wrong.
Andrew MacKie-Mason says
12 December, 2011 at 6:36 amI don’t buy the idea that Benson was “violating her duty” to the police department by suggesting an attorney as a personal favor.
I agree there could be a conflict of interest issue, and I wouldn’t take a cop at their word if they recommended a defense attorney, but no prosecution should hinge on a defendant getting a better or worse attorney. She didn’t undermine any of her actual duties (she didn’t mess with her testimony, or that of any of the witnesses, or in any other way fail in her job as a cop). She just helped the defendant get what they’re all entitled to: the best representation possible.
I was actually very disappointed in the flak the prosecutor gave her for that. She seemed to be saying “if I were up against a less skilled adversary, I could have won.” Prosecutors should never feel comfortable letting their successes rest on the failures of the defense attorneys.
Allison Leotta says
21 December, 2011 at 5:53 pmIt’s not a matter of a better or worse attorney. Conflict of interest rules are to protect the fair functioning of an adversarial justice system. I would not be allowed to recommend a defense attorney on a case I was prosecuting, and a detective can’t, either. I thought it was an interesting insight into where Olivia’s character is emotionally that she was willing to break the rules that way.
Steven says
13 December, 2011 at 4:20 pmAt least by shooting himself in the chest, rather than in the head, the QB’s brain can be examined.
Sadly, one former Notre Dame/NFL star committed suicide the same way so that his brain could be examined postmortem:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/02/sports/la-sp-dave-duereson-20110503
It turned out he had developed a neurodegenerative disease.
Allison Leotta says
21 December, 2011 at 5:58 pmHey Steven, that’s really interesting. Thanks for the link. It raises some tough issues about how the legal system should treat defendants who’ve suffered injuries like that.
Alenna says
14 December, 2011 at 2:58 amGreat blog! I’ve lurked around here a few times and I really like your insight into the crime dramas. I used to be an MP in the Army many years ago, so I like to grumble about how the cops are portrayed on TV.
I have to disagree with you on this episode – I didn’t like it very much. It was obviously a poor remake of the SVU episode “Scourge” from Season 2, which had Richard Thomas as the man with advanced syphilis, and Karen Allen as his wife. This episode started off with a very good, important issue (child sex-trafficking), and then they turned it into a sob story about football player head injuries.
Since when do sex-crimes police concern themselves with football injuries? His use of the excuse “I didn’t know she was 14” was appalling (although unfortunately probably realistic). The star football player loses all his money and needs a public defender? His wife didn’t see what was happening and stash some money away somewhere? It all seemed contrived to make us feel sorry for the guy (sorry, I didn’t).
Then there’s Olivia Benson’s part in all this. I know she’s been through some tough times lately, but is she now working for the defense? The way she interviewed and sympathized with the wife, and completely abandoned the 14-year-old sex crime victim – maybe she needs a vacation. The writers abandoned the victim too; are we to assume that the pimp the other men were prosecuted and got what they deserved, and the girl is now back with her loving family? Olivia Benson didn’t even speak to her at the end of the trial.
I know too much story in all this for an hour-long show. Maybe the writers should stick with one story line. BTW, ALL perps have sad sob stories – even John Wayne Gacy was an abused child. Does that mean we feel guilt and let them off? I’m not a lawyer – I’m wondering why the QB wasn’t placed in an institution or under supervised care, especially after the second incident?
Allison Leotta says
21 December, 2011 at 6:05 pmHey Alenna, thanks for your comment — I’m happy for everyone who “lurks” around here. You raise a lot of good issues. You’re right, the fact that he didn’t realize she was 14 wouldn’t matter as a legal matter; statutory rape is a strict liability crimes, which means it doesn’t matter what his intent was. But I thought that the issue of how to deal with a defendant who doesn’t even know what he’s doing was an interesting one. This QB’s case didn’t quite fit into any recognized legal category. He would have been placed in an institution once the jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity — and actually might have spent more time there than if he’d gone to prison. A prison sentence is finite, but people found not guilty by reason of insanity are institutionalized until a doctor certifies that they are again sane — which often can be a lot longer. I agree with you that Olivia was showing some uncharacteristic deviations from her police duty in this episode. I suspect it is the beginning of the end of her tenure in the SVU…
lulu says
17 December, 2011 at 1:31 pmAs always,great review.congratulations on garnering the writers attention. Everyone go vote,on aba site for this blog. It deserved top honors!
Allison Leotta says
21 December, 2011 at 6:06 pmThanks so much, Lulu!
Jackie Corwin says
27 January, 2012 at 10:20 pmI live close to Notre Dame. At about the time this episode ran Corwin Brown a former football player and coach for Notre Dame made the local news. He was involved in a stand-off with the police and shot himself. He had a recent history of bizarre and violent acts. He is currently undergoing analysis to see if he is suffering from traumatic brain injury as a result of his injuries during football. Is this a coinsidince?
Allison Leotta says
30 January, 2012 at 2:15 pmHi Jackie, I hadn’t heard of the Corwin Brown case, but thanks for bringing it up. It’s probably not coincidental. I think SVU must have interns whose job is to scour the headlines for notable real-life cases like this.
Timothy Dille says
29 January, 2012 at 1:20 pmHow did he get the officers fun? Most all have double our triple retention holsters for these exact reasons.
Allison Leotta says
30 January, 2012 at 2:15 pmHey Timothy, interesting point! Are you law enforcement?
Neil B. says
2 February, 2012 at 12:49 pmHey Allison, fantastic blog. Just wanted to reiterate (as a previous post pointed out) that this story was based on Dave Duerson, the ex-NFL player who committed suicide, and the growing awareness of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), which is similar to dementia pugilistica in that both are neurodegenerative conditions caused by repeated blows to the head. Just as it was seen in many of the boxers from the 60s and 70s as they grew older, I fear we’ll see it more and more in the former NFL stars of the 80s and 90s. Sad story.
Allison Leotta says
2 February, 2012 at 2:35 pmHi Neil, Thanks for pointing that out. I like hearing when SVU episodes are based on real cases, and I hadn’t heard of Dave Duerson’s before this. Very sad. I hope you’re wrong, and we don’t hear more of these stories about NFL stars. But, man, they take a lot of blows to the head and those helmets can only do so much.
Nate says
3 February, 2012 at 3:53 pmAre you sure your information on cell phone location isn’t outdated? Most cell phones now use GPS or Assisted GPS location services, which means the carrier can typically determine location with an accuracy of a few feet (assuming a satellite signal is available). Google confirms that this tool is used by law enforcement nationwide, although it looks like usage statistics await responses to ACLU FOIA requests.
Allison Leotta says
3 February, 2012 at 4:09 pmYep, very sure. I’ve had to track down phone information countless times. The public thinks we can do stuff like on this episode, that roving red dot on an interactive map, because of shows like this. But it just doesn’t work that way in real life. It’s kind of like 3D televisions. They’re out there, and technologically feasible, but not many people actually have them. Can’t wait til we do.
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