| "Counterfeit" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 3.14 | → |
| Production number: E2313 First aired: 25 January 2002 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Amanda Green Directed By Arthur W. Forney | ||
Detectives Benson and Fin are forced to team up to investigate a rape-murder case in which a police officer might be the prime suspect.
Summary[]
A woman's body is found near her car after she was raped. With Munch on crutches, Detectives Benson and Tutuola are paired together to discover what the motive was, as well as why was her car's trunk was full of forged drugs. When another woman is raped, she claims the rapist was a cop who captured her by using a routine traffic stop. Their need to catch the cop escalates when the second victim is re-captured by the suspect.
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 but 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. Benson cuffs Trapani, who claims she is hurting him but she says that is the least of his problems and Fin helps Francesca.
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 Ragolia
- 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
- Nicole Halmos as Neighbor #1
- Tim Salamandyk as Super
References[]
Quotes[]
- Tutuola: All right. Nice dress.
- Benson: Yeah, well, it was a nice date. Where's Munch?
- Tutuola: He called in sick.
- Benson: He's such a hypochondriac. How many times has he had anthrax this week?
- Benson: Were you a car thief in a former life?
- Tutuola: No, baby. Boy Scout, always prepared.
- Cragen: Burning the midnight oil.
- Tutuola: Just like you asked.
- Cragen: Nice dress.
- Benson: Don't start.
- [When Fin and Olivia are searching victim's apartment]
- Benson: Gucci, Prada, Chanel. It's pretty pricey stuff for a lab tech.
- Tutuola: Living above her means. You ladies are all alike.
- [Munch walks by on crutches]
- Tutuola: I can't wait to hear this.
- Munch: Your sympathy is overwhelming.
- Benson: What happened to you?
- Munch: Skydiving, hard landing.
- Stabler: He wiped out riding his friend's Harley.
- Cragen: Now the only thing he'll be riding is a desk.
- Benson: How's Francesca's rape kit?
- Tutuola: It looked clean, but we got a problem with her blood alcohol.
- Benson: Over the limit?
- Tutuola: Way over. Doc says she would have blew about 0.12.
- Benson: She said she never had a drink.
- Tutuola: Well, that's a good way to get out of a DWI. Accuse the cop of rape.
- Benson: Well, he sure thinks like a cop. Took the condom wrapper so now we can't get prints.
- Tutuola: If there was a condom.
- Benson: You think Francesca's Iying about the rape?
- Tutuola: She lied about being drunk. Maybe it's just a habit.
- Tutuola: Francesca Jesner has two prior DWIs. The last one, she got belligerent with the arresting officer and was charged with resisting.
- Cragen: So this time, she figured she'd lie her way out of it.
- Benson: Or maybe she's telling the truth. These cases have too much in common. Same area, same time of night...
- Tutuola: Paula Grace's homicide was front page news. Enough details for Francesca to fake her story.
- Benson: There is no way that she could have faked that traumatized. I'm telling you, Captain, this woman was raped.
- Tutuola: I just don't want to send the rat squad on some witch hunt and screw some innocent cop.
- Benson: Neither do I.
- Tutuola: Could've been anybody in a uniform. Didn't have to be a real cop.
- Benson: It doesn't matter. This woman is a rape victim until we prove otherwise.
- Cragen: Nobody is jumping to any conclusions until we investigate this case, okay?
- Benson: Francesca, you lied about being drunk. I want to believe you. I do, but you're not making it easy for me.
- Benson: You just soft-pawed them.
- Tutuola: I don't wanna blow two good cops.
- Benson: You sound more like their union rep.
- Tutuola: Who's side are you on?
- Benson: The victims, where we're supposed to be.
- Tutuola: What about the truth. Your victims definately not telling that.
- Benson: We just had a chance, and you blew it. Now it's IAB's call.
- Tutuola: When are you going to tell me how you really got hurt?
- Munch: Why should I give that up, when you never even once mentioned that you have offspring?
- Tutuola: My son? What, Olivia told you that?
- Munch: I bare my soul to you and you can't even share that there's a little Tutuola running around.
- Tutuola: He's not little, he's 18.
- Officer Marcosi: You wasted your time fingering me.
- Benson: You're right. So hate us, don't let her die.
- Tutuola: You know if this goes south, we're both back in uniform.
- Benson: And if we don't try Franscesca's dead.
- Tutuola: You don't know someone till you work with 'em.
Background information and notes[]
- Actor Robert John Burke makes his first appearance as IAB Sergeant Ed Tucker. Burke also appeared as different character in episodes from Law & Order.
- Michael O'Keefe later played another investigative target of Tucker, his cousin Eugene O'Hanigan, in the SVU episodes "Manhattan Transfer" and "Unholiest Alliance".
- 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 the episode Haunted.
- Blooper: When Olivia and Fin bust Trapani, you see all the IDs of the women he has assaulted. There is a duplicate of one woman but only one.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Quantum Pharmaceuticals |
Apartment of Paula Grace |
Lucio's Restaurant |
Dave's Coffee Shop |
| 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|
|
West 18th Street |
22nd Precinct |
O'Keefe's Uniforms |
| Previous episode: "Prodigy" |
"Counterfeit" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 3 |
Next episode: "Execution" |