Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses

are considered especially heinous.

In New York City, the dedicated detectives

who investigate these vicious felonies

are members of an elite squad

known as the Special Victims Unit.

These are their stories.

What more can you tell us

about your investigation into Dr. West?

The first patient I spoke to,

a ten-year-old boy, uh, named Sammy Price,

disclosed that Dr. West had performed

oral sex on him in his pediatric office

over the span of two years.

Once you had this disclosure from the first patient,

what was your next step?

To determine if Dr. West had molested any other children.

Where did this investigation lead you?

My squad interviewed 15 patients in all,

and two other boys disclosed

that Dr. West had performed oral sex on them as well:

Hector Ramos and Tommy Roberts.

Based on your conversation with the boys,

were you able to discern

how Dr. West manipulated them into submission?

He had a playroom that was stocked with,

sports equipment, videogames,

uh, remote control cars, you name it.

While the parents sat in the waiting room,

Dr. West escorted the boys into this playroom,

and he locked the door.

This must be torture for them.

Thank God it's almost over.

Hey, you and Cassidy?

Oh, not since the DA's office cleared me

of child abuse charges.

I mean, he's left a few voicemails,

but I just haven't been able to...

No, no, I don't blame you.

Hey, Liv. Hi, Amanda.

- Yeah. - Hey.

How's my new boss doing in there?

Pretty good, considering he only got the case

from Barba two weeks ago.

All right, time to go put the final nail

- in this creep's coffin. - Mm.

It's good to see you, Liv.

The Special Victims Unit gathered

a substantial amount of evidence against Dr. West.

The case was then advanced to the DA's office,

where I'm an investigator.

I re-interviewed all three boys.

Did any new information come to light?

Yeah. Uh, Sammy Price revealed to us

that Dr. West had threatened to kill him

and his entire family

if Sammy told anybody what was going on

down at Dr. West's playroom.

Nothing further.

You used to work undercover

in Narcotics, Detective Cassidy?

Yeah, sometimes.

- Who is, uh, Carissa Gibson? - Objection.

Goes to credibility and bias, Your Honor.

I'll allow it.

Carissa Gibson was a prostitute,

whom you had a sexual relationship with

while you were undercover, hm?

- Yeah. - Mm.

And, um, what happened to her

during the course of, uh, that investigation?

Um...

she was murdered.

Heather Riggs, another prostitute,

she accused you of rape.

Come on, I was cleared of all these charges.

Do you wanna ask me a question

that actually has to do with this case?

Sure. Here's one.

When you went to arrest my client,

did he have a swollen face and a black eye?

He resisted.

So you smashed his face into a desk

and you called him a monkey?

That's a lie!

But you do admit you violently subdued him?

Yeah, he was trying to get away!

Because you are a loose cannon

that cannot control his animal instincts.

Actually, the only animal in this courtroom, Counselor,

is your client, Dr. West.

So all black men are animals to you?

Oh, come on, this is such garbage.

And you felt justified to take out your rage on him?

- So what if I did, huh? - Detective...

After what he did to those three boys...

- Detective, sit down! - And all the other ones?

He's lucky I didn't put him in a goddamn body bag.

Detective, sit down!

I move for an immediate mistrial, Your Honor.

This witness's allusions to other alleged victims

- is prejudicial! - The jury can be instructed

to disregard that portion of his testimony.

Too loud a bell to un-ring, Mr. Stone.

Motion for a mistrial is granted.

- Yes! - What?

You should know better, Detective.

The jury is dismissed.

Thank you so much, Your Honor.

I also move that bail be set.

Your Honor, the facts of this case have not changed.

No, on the contrary, Your Honor,

Detective Cassidy's outburst has tainted the people's case.

Do we expect Dr. West to rot in jail

while they try and pick up the pieces?

I'll re-try this case tomorrow, 9:30.

We both know that's not going to happen.

Bail is reduced to $50,000.

- Are you kidding me? - Praise the Lord.

Wait, he gets to walk away from me

- after what he did to my son? - Sit down! Bailiff!

Order in this courtroom!

- Shame on you! - Get him out of here.

- Shame on all of you! - Clear the courtroom.

- Let's go. - Amanda...

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

In one fell swoop, you jeopardize our entire case.

- He was attacking me up there. - That's his job.

He baited you, and you handled it like a rookie.

- Yeah, well, you could've objected. - To what?

Your less than immaculate personnel profile is fair game.

You know what...

consider yourself suspended until further notice.

- Are you kidding me? Huh? - Cassidy, why don't you wait outside?

Go outside.

Yeah, whatever.

You work with him before?

I have, and normally he's money.

Well, you'd never be able to tell that from his performance today.

I can't believe I let Jack McCoy talk me into taking this job.

Why did you?

Something came up after my father died,

and I didn't see it coming.

Look, we need to make sure that these families know

that we are not giving up on them.

I can't believe this happened.

Felix, please!

Hector, sweetie, you wanna show me

those Transformers that you got for Christmas?

Okay.

I know you're both upset. We are too.

Well, thanks to your big mouth detective,

that son of a bitch is walking free.

How can the judge just let him go?

Mistrials happen.

They're rare, but there will be a new trial.

- When? - Hopefully in a few months.

Hector has to testify all over again?

I'm afraid so.

West's lawyer made my son look like a liar.

He cried himself to sleep for days.

He wet the bed.

I'm sorry, but this is the only way

that we're gonna be able to lock up West for good.

Well, you should've gotten it right the first time.

I promise you, Ms. Price, this kind of thing will not happen again.

It doesn't matter.

I spoke with Sammy's father a few minutes ago.

I'm gonna send Sammy to North Carolina to stay with him.

Well, that's fine.

We can fly them both back here for the new trial.

Come on, Sammy! Take it to the hoop!

Take it to the hoop! You got it! Come on!

Sammy needs to get away from here for good.

They bully him in school now.

Some people around here,

they think we should've never come forward.

- How 'bout we talk next week? - My mind is made up.

I don't think you've thought this through.

Okay, Kayla.

You let us know how he's doing, okay?

Let's go.

Sammy's our best witness.

He's the oldest and most articulate

about what West said and did to him.

Look, she's just looking out for her son.

We can't strong-arm these families

into cooperating.

I'll... I'll double back in a few days.

Um, look, can you... can you take it from here?

There's... there's something I gotta deal with.

Easy, Sully.

Hey, Frankie, what's going on?

He was three sheets to the wind

a couple of vodkas ago, then Sully made a crack

about Cassidy screwing up in court today.

Cassidy went full cage fighter on him.

Okay, thanks for the heads-up.

- I'm going. I'm going. - There you go, there you go.