Diane Perkins is a psychologically deteriorated woman and a scarred rape victim of gynecologist Alex Merritt. A psychiatric patient of Elizabeth Olivet, Olivet had her visit Merritt for an exam once when Perkins' usual gyno was temporarily unavailable. Olivet didn't do more community research past Merritt's accolades into other patients and women to find out he's a pathological sexual sadist.
When Olivet found out Perkins was raped, she scheduled an appointment with Merritt in her own investigation, only to be molested in one appointment, then raped on record on a tape recorder while sedated in another. The case was taken to trial, but in a failure to fight victim blaming and a revelation of Perkins being Olivet's patient, Merritt's guilty verdict by the jury was immediately thrown out by the presiding judge.
Miriam Gregg, the drug-addicted nurse having prepared the sedative, was arrested and took a deal to testify to Perkins' rape so she, as the victim, wouldn't go to the witness stand against the clinician that raped her. But that didn't seal Merritt's fate: a conference where Merritt denied all allegations after posting bail led to fifty-four more women reporting Merritt's rapes, molestations, and sexual battery, guaranteeing a plea deal of life without parole. (L&O: "Helpless")