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Crystal Nuñez is the single mother of Manny Nuñez and a rape victim of Travis Hillsdale.

History[]

Crystal was stalked by Hillsdale from the ice cream vending station she frequented, Hillsdale targeting her because she had a child. Hillsdale got into Crystal's apartment by tricking her into opening the door, pretending to be maintenance. After barreling inside, Hillsdale forced Crystal onto her child's bed and repeatedly raped her in front of Manny. Crystal was ordered by Hillsdale to keep Manny from crying, threatened with Hillsdale killing him if she didn't, so she kept telling Manny it "was just a game".

The team was called to investigated and actively investigated the case, quickly identifying Hillsdale. But since Crystal didn't see his face, she couldn't successful pick Hillsdale out of a lineup. Chief Tommy McGrath figured Crystal's case was a bad one for the department due to the fact she was a single mother having hook-ups to not be lonely while fighting for her child after a toxic marriage to Manny's father Eduardo. Just as well, she's Latina, from a lower class, unable to be a definitive victim from an ID so as to prove she wasn't lying, and Eduardo kept wanting casual sex from Crystal from not being willing to fully accept a divorce.

Her case finally got notice when Peggy Grogan, the daughter of Deputy Inspector Dermott Grogan, was raped in front of her infant baby and even beaten with her own gun by Hillsdale before it was taken, the details of the rape and assault being the same as with Crystal. With a full scale manhunt underway, Hillsdale was fingered again when both mothers and their children went to the same ice cream station he worked at. Hillsdale ran and waved Peggy's gun at all bystanders, but he was arrested even though Detective Joe Velasco choked him for his actions.

Hillsdale was taken to trial with both women ready to testify and horrified Hillsdale was the rapist after their past interactions with him. With Hillsdale facing arraignment after being brutalized in jail to the point of wearing a sling and one eye ending up with a shiner, Crystal was horrified even more from A.D.A. Carisi being ordered by his superiors to only charge Hillsdale with the rape and assault of Peggy and her child. The Latina mother never trusted the police again from being heartbroken she was barred from standing up for herself and getting justice for her family in court, just because she wasn't the person the highest officials decided her safety and life mattered and were hurt just like anyone else's. Captain Benson nearly resigned from the blatant injustice, but McGrath accepted it was an offense to commit that maneuver and insisted Benson stay. (SVU: "One More Tale Of Two Victims")

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