A doctor tells a young patient he has to admit he has gonorrhea, not a cold. Boy, that takes me back. The kid's reluctant, but the doctor says he needs to tell the girl he slept with. "It wasn't a girl. It was a woman," says the kid.
Cut to Melissa Joan Hart as Sarah Trent, teaching an English class. Benson and Stabler show up, escort her into the hall, and arrest her for statutory rape. Is that what Shane told you? She asks. Stabler says it was the pediatrician who told him, after Shane told the doctor that Sarah seduced him. Nuh-uh, says Sarah. "Shane raped me," she says.
We do the annoying overlapping dialogue thing, with Fin and Chester interviewing Shane, and Elliot and Olivia interviewing Sarah. She was tutoring Shane when he raped her, according to her, whereas he's sticking to his story that she seduced him (seeming ashamed to have gotten excited). It's he-said, she-said right now, which seems enough for Shane's parents to assume the police are going to throw her in the slammer. She says she didn't say anything about the rape when it happened (two months ago) because she didn't want her husband to know. As for the gonorrhea, she says she's never had it, so the detectives toss her apartment to find any medications one would take to clear it up, which they do, along with some unidentified stuff in ampoules. Sarah's firefighter husband shows up, surprised to see cops in his apartment. He just got off a 48-hour tour; he didn't talk to his wife last night and doesn't know where she is. Try Chuck E. Cheese's! The detectives tell the husband about the rape charges, which he doesn't believe, and says the medicine they found is for a urinary tract infection. He calls his wife's cellphone, worried she might hurt herself (he says she used to cut herself) and there's no answer, but the phone rang several times, which means it's operating, so the detectives can track it.
Which they do, to an office building, thanks to some other cops with fancy technology. They even have a little gun that'll pinpoint the signal of her cellphone to within five feet. Fin and Chester bust in on a family planning clinic, which, much to the detectives' consternation, won't let them bust in on her while she's having surgery. Thanks a lot, constitutional protections!
Olivia and Casey dash through many hallways in a drawn-out emergency warrant-obtaining procedure from Judge Brady. He wants to know why they need the "products of conception" since both parties concede sex took place. Casey says the fetus is the only proof of the rape. How does that work, exactly? Can you tell that a fetus has been conceived against the mother's will? I call shenanigans.
Warrant obtained, the detectives get the, um, products of conception in one of those little organ-donor coolers. And Chester's just standing there holding it, which doesn't improve Sarah's mood when she comes out of surgery and is immediately arrested ("please, don't tell my husband," she says). She faints.
The husband shows up wanting to know what's happened, and is disbelieving when he finds out Sarah's had an abortion. Worse news: he angrily confronts her about it, because he's pro-life. Sarah tearfully tells him she had to, because she was raped, and he says she killed a child, swats at her with the doctor chart. Elliot tries to calm him down, and gets a fist in his face for his efforts. Hubby's cuffed and Elliot marches him outside the hospital. Elliot tries some male bonding by saying he understands how the guy feels, what with him being Catholic himself. Hubby says he can't forgive his wife, since they've been trying to have a baby. Elliot uncuffs him, tells him he needs to be more pro-wife than pro-life right now, and here's some of that forgiveness he's talking about. Dude thanks him, apologizes, and scurries off to (presumably) terrify his post-op post-rape wife some more.
Benson comes out say the DNA has come back on the fetus: Shane's the father. "Doesn't prove anything," shrugs Elliot, and Benson's surprised he believes Sarah now, what with her lies. Elliot blames the lying on Sarah's husband, pointing out he just "got a fistful of why she didn't want to tell him." Well, good thing you sent the rageaholic to go comfort his wife, then, Elliot.
Chester pulls up to tell them Sarah got fired from her last teaching job for taking her male students to lunch, even after being warned not to. Olivia and Elliot are all, great, but you drove all the way out here for this? Not just this, says Chester, and he pulls out some pictures of Sarah in red lingerie that Chester says were sent to them anonymously. "Still think she's innocent?" Olivia says pointedly to Elliot. I ...what? No, you're right, Olivia: she's wearing lingerie, so her claims of rape should be greeted with more skepticism. Nice attitude for a special victims detective to have. On the plus side, it's nice that Melissa Joan Hart still has copies of her Maxim appearances lying around.
The court appearance has Sarah's lawyer claiming her first amendment right to freedom of religion was violated when the fetus was seized, because she didn't get a chance to bury it. Casey, rather understandably, tries pointing out that Sarah's supposed devout Catholicism didn't prevent her from aborting the fetus, but the judge ain't going anywhere near that. He does want to know if the detectives even asked Sarah what should have been done with the fetus.
The detectives back-and-forth about this a little bit, with Fin wanting to know how it is she got all Catholic after the abortion, and Chester spouts some stuff having to do with the Mohawks believing everything in balance, and blah blah blah, and eventually Fin says the test results on the unidentified drugs came back: it's stuff for fertility treatments. And records from the couple's fertility center pinpoint the problem: Sarah's husband's boys are slow swimmers. 'So Sarah knew Shane was the father," says Casey.
Huang's turn! He blah blahs about borderline personality disorder, which may explain Sarah's cutting, and says a lot of the "teachers in the news" who seduce their students have that. He says if Sarah is like that, she won't be able to stay from Shane, even with everything going on, and the detectives decide to tail both of them.
Fin and Chester are on Sarah, who, to avoid the media horde in front of her building, sneaks out the basement wearing a wig and sunglasses. Chester recognizes her, though, miraculously ("My grandfather built that wig" is the explanation). She heads into the subway. Meanwhile, Olivia and Elliot watch Shane hop a bus. It appears they're meeting up, but they lose track of Sarah when Fin goes underground, and his radio doesn't work. So you know this is going pear-shaped somehow.
Shane arrives at a hotel, and Elliot and Olivia get all excited at the prospect of catching Shane and Sarah doing it.
After some perfunctory strong-arming of the forgetful hotel clerk, who tells them a woman arrived before the kid got there, the detectives kick a hotel room door down to find a topless Shane and a topless blond woman, who has her back to us. Since we lost contact with Fin, and since we don't see her face, we already know it's not Sarah. Sure enough, she rolls over and says her name's Felice. Olivia gets on the radio to report Shane's with a "pro." I really hope Felice really is a hooker, or she might be quite insulted.
Elliot hauls Shane out of the room while the kid maintains his innocence (at least when it comes to raping his teacher). Elliot calls him a dirtbag. Olivia interviews Felice, who says this was her first time with Shane (who set up the date by emailing her boss).
Fin checks in, a little too late, to report Sarah's gone into her church, and apparently just didn't feel like being recognized.
It's a parade of prostitutes down at the detachment. Apparently, Shane's done 'em all, and they report that he liked them to pretend to resist his advances. Casey strolls in and can't belive what she's seeing: "Shane slept with all these women," she says. "A bunch of times, with some!" says Fin, who sounds a little impressed before he strolls off to corral some wayward hooker named Monique. Speaking of a bunch of times, the hooker who gave Shane the clap says the last time she screwed him, he was bragging about doing his teacher the same way he does her.
There's more: Sarah wasn't fired from her work for wining and dining her students; the principal was putting the moves on her, and shuffled her off to keep it secret. Casey says she'll drop the charges against Sarah and tells the detectives to pick up Shane.
Fortunately, defense attorneys have a habit on this show of walking into a room just at the right time to offer their own opinions. This time it's Annie Potts, playing Sophie, saying it wasn't her client's fault, as he is a bona fide sex addict. Oh, god...[fast-forward, fast-forward].
Eventually, we make it to the judge's chambers, while Sophie goes on about the internet-porn-surfing and inveterate-hooker-fucking that Shane partakes in, and there's some stuff about neurons and what have you. Basically, all Casey's got is, "But he raped her!" and warning that if the judge allows this, every pedophile will be found innocent because their brains are wired wrong. And while the judge seems to believe that, she doesn't want to chance a guilty verdict being overturned on appeal.
Huang interviews Shane, who, among other things, says he masturbates five or six times a day. God, who even has that kind of time anymore? Huang runs tests, which are intercut with his testimony, which outlines how Shane's brain is actually wired differently than most people's (not that he's willing to completely hand the case to the defense by outright saying he thinks Shane deserves treatment rather than jail).
After Sophie questions Shane ridiculously briefly, Casey asks him about the photos of his lingerie-clad teacher, which turns out were found on his computer. He admits to Photoshopping them on his computer after the rape. Casey gets him to admit he knows rape is wrong, but not much else and she browbeats him into breaking down crying as he yells at Sarah (in the courtroom watching) that he's sorry.
Sarah taps Casey on the shoulder and says "I need you to do something for me: set up a meeting between Shane and me where he can promise to do whatever he can to get better so I can take pity and ask you to go easy on him." Then, this is what happens. "I can live with the pain, but I can't live with ruining Shane's life if he can be helped," she says. Casey offers 18 months probation in a detention centre for juvenile sex offenders, with treatment, and if he successfully completes treatment, the rape charge will be dropped, and his record will be cleared. "You screw up, though, and you're doing the full monty: seven years for the rape," she says. He accepts, and regular viewers of the Law & Order franchise in all its incarnations instinctively check the clock, and groan when we see there's still fifteen minutes left in the episode.
Casey and Sophie get called to the Kastner Center for Juvenile Offenders, where Shane is being wheeled down the hall, bloodied and beaten, on a gurney. He says he was jumped in the hallway and pushed into his room, where he was raped. "How could you let them do this to me?" he wails as he's taken into the elevator.
The centre administrator leads Sophie and Casey down to Shane's room, where Casey is dismayed to find is already being cleaned by the janitorial staff. She kicks them out of the room and takes it out on the administrator, and demands to have all of the security tapes handed over. He tells her (naturally) that the camera system has been down for months, and corporate won't pay to get it fixed. Casey wants to know how then they're supposed to catch the perv who did it, and administrator protests, "Take your pick -- I've got fifty hard-core sex offenders locked up here. Casey shoots back that she'll interview them all, and she orders the guy to post a guard.
"I want whoever did this to burn," says Sophie. Well, unless they couldn't help it, right? That's my reaction, and Casey's too. Sophie snaps, "Don't you dare put this mess on me!" Well, but seriously. "I did my job. Do yours," she says.
Seems to me Casey's job involves calling in the detectives, but instead she starts interviewing the other juveniles, who tell tales of sex happening between inmates, between guards. And Shane's not the first kid who got raped. Casey talks to one who did (hilariously, that is to say, "solemnly," telling the kid, "No one has the right to touch you"). The kid fingers a guard named Pete. Note to self: find a better choice of words than "the kid fingers a guard."
Casey learns from the administrator that Pete Lincoln is a former cop from Florida who shouldn't have even been on shift, and is the first person he'd rule out as a suspect. Not in the mood, Casey wonders who this guy wouldn't rule out as a suspect, and when the administrator says he doesn't like her tone, she grabs him by the lapel and pushes him against the wall, and accusing him of protecting criminals. Oh, look who finally showed up! It's Elliot and Olivia, who show up to pull Casey off the administrator. Casey doesn't go quietly with Olivia, and instead yells to make sure to get all the personnel files. Elliot gives the administrator a "bitch crazy" face.
"He ordered his men to clean up the crime scene," Casey snaps at Olivia. "That's my problem, not yours," says Olivia, because it's not like a prosecutor wants to make sure there's enough evidence to lock a person up or anything. Olivia tells her that grabbing the guy's shirt is assault, which she just witnessed. She tells Casey that she's drowning, and blah blah blah "lifejacket," and Casey says, "I'm a big girl. I can swim."
Casey goes to the hospital to stare at Shane and his parents, because blaming herself all alone in her apartment wouldn't be as dramatic. Elliot shows up to tell her not to blame herself, but she's too full of guilt, and takes the whole justice system down with her, what with its inability to make sure juvenile sex-offender facilities aren't hellholes. Good news: Elliot talked the centre's administrator into not pressing charges. What Elliot doesn't say is he that roughs up suspects (and victims) pretty much daily, and Casey's got a long way to go before Elliot will even consider something like this "assault." The good news, says Elliot, is they got DNA, from Shane, of his attacker. The bad news: they can't test everyone without probable cause, so they'll start with the ones with criminal records. Yeah, good idea. How about you start with guard who was accused of raping someone else?
Oh, okay, they do. He's got no criminal record. And why did he come all the way up here for a minimum wage job?
On an unrelated note, Cragen strolls in to say the DNA matched a guy named "Earl Romaine" who once raped a thirteen-year-old. But Earl Romaine's not on the list of employees, points out Elliot. A little more digging reveals that Pete Lincoln never actually left Florida; the guy in the Kastner Center ID card photo must be Earl Romaine!
Let's hope so, for the detectives' sakes, because the detectives take him out with Elliot smacking him in the face with some wood after Earl flees. (Fortunately, Elliot knew just which alley this guy would run down, and is sitting there waiting.)
Did the writers run out of time for this episode? The few moments are a montage of scenes while we get voiceover from Casey: Earl Romaine stole the ID so he could get a job in a place where he'd have unlimited boys to rape. He's a registered sex offender ("I'm serious, Dude. He's a pederast") in Florida, which Kastner would have known if Kastner had bothered to do the proper background check. Well, they won't be making that mistake any time soon; Kaster's getting shut down, and the clients are being moved to juvenile detention, and criminal charges are being considered, especially for the guards who knew about the rapes but did nothing.
In the hospital, Casey tells Shane and his family that he's being released on probation, and will have to complete his treatment, but this time on out-patient status.
Any more loose ends to tie up? Well, Sarah and her husband are waiting for Casey at the police station to find out if it's true Shane was the one who was raped. Sarah starts to cry when it's confirmed. And in case we were getting the impression that the firefighter was going to be more compassionate, he's more upset about Shane getting a million dollars while Sarah gets nothing. "How crazy is the law?" he says. That's a theme this show really needs to consider exploring, you know? I don't think we know that by now.
Sarah and her husband leave, and Elliot's all "I don't blame him," which gets Sophie up in arms. "The law is 'one size fits all,'" he tells her. "It's not customized for each brain." Anyway, Elliot's got no time for her, and goes into the interrogation room, where Olivia is already questioning Pete "Earl Romaine" Lincoln. They're offering him a deal, which he'd be wise to take, since his DNA was found inside Shane. "Too bad all the treatment you got down in Florida didn't work," says Olivia. Wait, what's that coming down the track at five-hundred miles per hour? "I guess I'm just wired bad. I can't help myself," he says. "You know. Like that kid I raped."
Elliot looks back through the glass at Casey, who's thinking either, "I knew this would happen!" or "I think Sophia just cut one but I can't really step away from her because then it'll be obvious that I know, and I don't want to embarrass her." It's hard to tell with her sometimes. Maybe she's wondering if she can't renegotiate her contract and land a nice acting job in a show about doctors or something.