Dominick Carisi, Jr.

A.D.A. Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Jr. is a former detective at the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. He is now an assistant district attorney.

History

Carisi transferred into the precinct after Sergeant Olivia Benson put in a request for an "experienced, empathetic Detective" following the temporary demotion of Nick Amaro to patrol officer. Sonny also took Amaro's place as the lead male of the SVU. He was in Staten Island SVU for two months, Brooklyn for almost a month and Queens for a week (before that, he was a patrol officer on Staten Island). Though his brash and argumentative attitude has placed him at odds with Benson and the others, he's shown a knack for interrogations, by pretending to empathize with suspects and getting them to open up to him.

He attended night classes at Fordham Law, often attempting to offer up legal suggestions on the cases at hand. He assisted ADA Rafael Barba during the trial of Lewis Hodda. (SVU: Depravity Standard)

He passed his bar exam in 2016, but following the death of Mike Dodds, he decided to stay with the Special Victims Unit.

He is an Italian-American Catholic. Two of his cousins are priests and, when he was a child, he looked up to a priest who he stated saved him. Carisi wanted to join the priesthood, as well. (SVU: Patrimonial Burden)

While on an undercover assignment, he mentioned to wanting to be a lawyer.(SVU: Sheltered Outcasts)

He served as a pallbearer at the funeral of Sergeant Mike Dodds, who was shot to death by Gary Munson, a corrupt Rikers Island corrections who held his wife, Lisa, hostage. At the bar following the service, Sonny toasts Mike as "the bravest cop we ever worked with". (SVU: Heartfelt Passages)

In one episode, Carisi told a young boy that when he was a boy, he was pushed through a glass window by a bully and stayed silent, out of fear that the bully would come back and attack him again. Several years later, Carisi found out that his bully had murdered someone in a fight and was in Rikers for it. He then said that he regrets not speaking up about the assault. (SVU: Great Expectations)

In 2019, Carisi was promoted to Assistant District Attorney for the Special Victims Unit, replacing Peter Stone, who had quit his job. Benson and Rollins both attended his first arraignment against a serial rapist who had sexually assaulted several young, aspiring actresses. Carisi said that he practiced Barba's summations in front of his mirror. (SVU: "I'm Going To Make You a Star")

Carisi told a lawyer that his mother had once fallen pregnant but the unborn baby had had a heart defect, which would have resulted in death once born. He then said only him and his mother knew and both had been extremely distraught over the whole deal. (SVU: The Burden Of Our Choices)

Sexual tension has been hinted between him and Amanda Rollins. Carisi is often seen with Rollins off-duty, such as helping her with Jesse Rollins and assisting Rollins with several parenthood-related duties. The two also almost shared a kiss when traveling to pick up a a criminal, but didn't carry it out. Amongst that, Rollins and Carisi have also fought several times during certain cases, disagreeing about certain things such as domestic violence. The sexual tension seems to have grown since Carisi became an Assistant District Attorney, with Rollins claiming that she misses him. Rollins also visits her more than any of the other detectives from the precinct and also confides in him a lot more than she does with any of the other detectives.

Tension is also shown between him and Katriona Tamin. Both of them have a rocky relationship, with Tamin fighting with Carisi often, particularly during a case in which a lawyer tried to stop a rape victim from having an abortion, with them both having a heated discussion about abortion rights and laws.

Trivia

The only other person from the original squad besides Benson that he has met is Cragen.
In several episodes in which Carisi finds a body, he makes the Catholic sign of a cross with his hands in respect.
His badge number is 0188.
Carisi is the only main character in the Law & Order franchise to be promoted from detective to assistant district attorney.
Carisi was initially only meant to appear in the first three episodes of Season 16 as a brash cop who would shake things up in the precinct.