Counterfeit

"Counterfeit"
←	SVU, Episode 3.14	→
Production number: E2313 First aired: 25 January 2002
	th of 476 produced in SVU
←	th of 476 released in SVU	→
	th of 1229 released in all
Written By Amanda Green Directed By Arthur W. Forney

Summary

A woman's body is found near her car after she was raped. Detectives Benson and Tutuola are paired to discover what the motive was, as well as why was her car's trunk full of forged drugs.

Plot

A woman, Paula Grace, is found dead under a bridge with fake cancer drugs in her car trunk. Investigating the detectives believe that it was part of a plan by a drug company to defraud its competitor. Not long after, a woman named Francesca is raped and she claims it was a cop who did it. Tire prints at the scene match the ones from the murder scene and Fin and Benson investigate a cop named Marcosi who had a prostitute he had a relationship with mysteriously disappear who worked a beat in the area but didn't log in any jobs at the time, having left one he claimed he was on long before he supposedly did. Marcosi claims she's in rehab and during his interrogation a third victim from six weeks before comes forward. Marcosi confesses to having sex with a prostitute at the time of the rape and witnessing what he believed to be his boss arriving, but denies the rape and murder. Marcosi is cleared when Francesca is arrested by a cop that she identifies as her rapist while Marcosi is in custody.

Benson comes up with the theory that this is not actually a cop but an impersonator. Investigating the mailing list of a cop store that sells to people who aren't police, they get a list of suspects before Marcosi, who initially refused to help, shows up with more information: he didn't actually see his boss get out of the car and took down a partial license plate that doesn't match his car but a search through the DMV records shows only matches a car of the type belonging to Jeffery Trapani who, under an alias, bought things from the store including a red dashboard light. Investigating his apartment, the police find blood on the bed presumably from Francesca. Benson and Fin follow Trapani from his work-release program to a bar where they pretend the cops are close to figuring out who did it and Francisca's fate determines his sentence. Trapani immediately goes to Francesca to rape and kill her and Fin and Benson follow him and catch him in the act. Above the bed Francesca was handcuffed to are the licenses of all of his victims which he took as trophies, around a dozen, which identify all of Trapani's victims of sexual misconduct.

Cast

Main cast

• Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
• Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
• Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
• Stephanie March as A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot
• Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
• Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen

Recurring cast

• Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner
• Daniel Sunjata as C.S.U. Technician Burt Trevor
• B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
• Robert John Burke as I.A.B. Sergeant Ed Tucker
• Michael Arthur as Uniform Officer #2

Guest cast

• Michael O'Keefe as Officer Al Marcosi
• Khrystyne Haje as Francesca Jesner
• Armand Schultz as Kevin Ragolia
• LeAnna Croom as Stacia Green
• Billy Strong as Lieutenant Phil Urzi
• Rochelle Bostrom as Samantha Raggetti
• Jenn Thompson as Mandy Mangun
• Paul Regina as Jeffrey Trapani
• Gordon Joseph Weiss as Brandon O'Keefe
• Sharon Wilkins as Neighbor #2
• Ty Jones as Officer Roger Graves
• William Cote as Bartender
• Michael McCartney as Officer Driscoll
• P.J. Morrison as Sorre
• William H. Burns as Robbins
• Tom Bruno as Uniform Officer #1
• Ed Bogdanowicz as ESU Cop
• Sharon Wilkins as Neighbor #1
• Tim Salamandyk as Super

References

References

Quotes

"Alright, nice dress."
"Yeah, it was a nice date. Where's Munch?"
"He banged in sick."
"He's such a hypochondriac. How many times has he had anthrax this week?"

- Odafin Tutuola and Olivia Benson

"Burning the midnight oil."
"Just like you asked."
"Nice dress."
"Don't start."

- Donald Cragen, Odafin Tutuola and Olivia Benson

"These cases have too much in common. Same area, same time of night..."
"Paula Grace was front page news. There's enough details for Franscesca to fake hers."
"There is no way that she could have faked being that traumatised. I'm telling you Captain, this woman was raped."
"I just don't want to send the rat squad on some witch hunt and screw some innocent cop."
"Neither do I."
"Could have been anybody in a uniform, didn't have to be a real cop."
"Doesn't matter. This woman is a rape victim until we prove otherwise."

- Olivia Benson and Odafin Tutuola

"You wasted your time fingering me"
"You're right. So hate us, don't let her die."

- Officer Marcosi and Olivia Benson

"You know if this goes south, we're both back in uniform."
"And if we don't try Franscesca's dead."
"You don't know someone till you work with 'em."

- Odafin Tutuola and Olivia Benson

"Were you a car thief in a former life?"
"No, baby. A boy scout. Always prepared."

- Olivia Benson and Odafin Tutuola

"When are you going to tell me how you really got hurt?"
"Why should I give that up, when you never even once mentioned that you have offspring?"
"My son? What, Olivia told you that?"
"I bare my soul to you and you can't even share that there's a little Tutuola running around."
"He's not little, he's 18."

- Odafin Tutuola and John Munch

"You just soft-pawed them."
"I don't wanna blow two good cops."
"You sound more like their union rep."
"Who's side are you on?"
"The victims, where we're supposed to be."
"What about the truth. Your victims definately not telling that."
"We just had a chance, and you blew it. Now it's IAB's call."

- Olivia Benson and Odafin Tutuola

(Munch walks in on crutches) "I can't wait to hear this."
"Your sympathy is overwhelming."
"What happened to you?"
"Skydiving, hard landing."
"He wiped out riding his friend's Harley."
"Now the only thing he'll be riding is a desk."

- Odafin Tutuola, John Munch, Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, and Donald Cragen

Background information and notes

• This episode seems to be based on the Craig Peyer case. Peyer was a California Highway Patrol officer convicted for the 1986 strangulation murder of 20-year-old Cara Knott, a student at San Diego State University. On the night of December 27, 1986, Knott was driving from her boyfriend's home in Escondido to her parents' home in El Cajon, California on Interstate 15 when Peyer, on duty in a marked CHP patrol car, signaled Knott to pull off the freeway on an isolated off ramp. It is believed that the situation escalated when Knott threatened to report Peyer for unprofessional behavior, and that he killed her by bludgeoning her with his flashlight and then strangling her with rope and then he threw her body off an abandoned bridge into the brush below in an attempt to avoid disciplinary action. The first trial resulted in a hung jury. Upon retrial, testimony regarding a potential second suspect and a hearsay explanation for the defendant's scratches was ruled inadmissible, and Peyer was found guilty of murder. In 1988, Peyer was sentenced to 25 years to life. The Craig Peyer case was covered in the book True Stories of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit by Kevin Dwyer and Juré Fiorillo. (Source: Craig Peyer at Wikipedia)
• The term "counterfeit" is an imitation that is made with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. In this episode Jeffrey Trapani imitated a cop in order to lure his victims to his place.
• Actor Robert John Burke makes his first appearance as IAB Sergeant Ed Tucker. Burke also appeared as different character in episodes from Law & Order.
• In this episode we learn that Detective Odafin Tutuola has a son. Ken Randall is eighteen years old in this episode, he later appears in Haunted (SVU).

Episode scene cards