| "Influence" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 7.22 | → |
| Production number: 07020 First aired: 16 May 2006 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Ian Biederman Directed By Norberto Barba | ||
Summary[]
Mental-health issues are explored during a case that starts off as a possible rape involving students at a preparatory high school where sexual experimentation is the norm.
Plot[]
Teenager Jamie Hoskins accuses two of her classmates of rape, however it is later proved that it was consensual: she solicited them to take her virginity so she could get attention from another boy she liked but didn't want to date a virgin. After the truth is found out, Jamie is suspended from school. Shortly later, she attempts suicide by driving a car into a building, however instead she drives into a crowd, and mows down nine pedestrians with her car, killing one of them. The detectives discover that Jamie is bipolar and off her medication.
Jamie is charged with murder and then later released on her own recognizance after she agrees to stay on her medication. Soon after, rock star Derek Lord (who is known for his negative views on psychology) becomes involved in Jamie's case and Jamie stops taking her medication.
As Jamie insists on listening to Derek Lord's advice not to take medication or take a deal, Novak has no choice but to take her case to trial. During the trial, Jamie turns on her parents, making them out as controlling and that Derek helped her realize it. Afterwards, her Mother tells Novak that Jamie stopped taking her medication, which violates the terms of her release. She is arrested and forced back on them. When Benson visits her, she is upset but somewhat more open to reason, finally accepting that her parents are the ones that care about her rather than Derek and she reveals what caused him to be sympathetic to her and her to believe in him: he was committed to a psychiatric institution as a child and had electro-convulsive therapy which destroyed a chunk his memories.
Novak brings this up at trial along with the fact that it seemed to have helped him as he stopped trying to kill himself and is now a very successful man. With Derek's influence over the trial gone, Jamie is found guilty of vehicular manslaughter, but Novak promises to ask to have her sentenced as a juvenile which would result in her being committed to a residential psychiatric facility.
Novak later reveals the source of her strong convictions during the case to Benson: she was once engaged to a man who was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia but refused treatment. Eventually, she couldn't handle it and broke off the engagement. The last time she heard about him, he was homeless, leaving her with guilt that she didn't help him.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Peter Riegert as Defense Attorney Chauncey Zeirko
- Stephen Gregory as Dr. Kyle Beresford
- Jill Marie Lawrence as Defense Attorney Cleo Conrad
- Tom O'Rourke as Judge Mark Seligman
- Audrie J. Neenan as Judge Lois Preston
- Caren Browning as C.S.U. Captain Judith Siper
- Jackie Judd as Herself
- William H. Burns as Officer Robbins
Guest cast[]
- Brittany Snow as Jamie Hoskins
- Jeff McCarthy as Mr. Hoskins
- Marsha Dietlein as Mrs. Hoskins
- James Murtaugh as Dr. Porterman
- Norman Reedus as Derek Lord
- Ron Scott as Malcolm Shaw
- Chris Lindsay-Abaire as Barbara Collins
- Teddy Cañez as Mr. Ramirez
- John Sutherland as Danny Morrison
- Brandon Gill as Cameron Shaw
- Stella Maeve as Leslie Sweeney
- Zachary Booth as Trevor Olsen
- Bus Howard as Janitor
- Brianna Shea Russo as Girl
- Jeremy Chu as Boy #1
- Brandon Kelley as Boy #2
- Keisha Alfred as Reporter #1
- Devyn Rush as Katherine
- Thomas Hoyt Godfrey as Foreperson
References[]
- Nuremberg trials
- Rhode Island
- Xbox
Quotes[]
- Trevor Olsen: I don't do virgins. It's nothing personal, I just don't want the responsibility of planting the first flag, you know?
- Benson: Oh, how noble.
- Trevor Olsen: Ah, it's self-preservation. I hooked up with this girl freshman year. She was a virgin. She thought we were gonna get married or something. Never again.
- [Discussing Jamie's rape allegations]
- Cragen: So she solicited two of her classmates so a third boy would have sex with her?
- Stabler: It looks that way.
- Munch: When I was a kid, girls who had sex were afraid of being called sluts. Now they're auditioning for the title.
- [about Jamie Hoskins]
- Benson: Look, I saw her. The girl had PTSD. You can't fake that kind of trauma.
- Cragen: She got caught doing it with two guys in the john. That's enough to traumatize anybody.
- Jamie Hoskins: They raped me! They forced me to have sex with them! Why don't you believe me?
- Benson: I want to, Jamie. I really do, but you're making it very difficult.
- Jamie Hoskins: Look, I don't care what you think, okay? I know what happened. You're trying to turn this around and make it my fault? Well, screw you, okay? I didn't do anything wrong!
- Benson: Jamie, we talked to Trevor Olsen.
- Jamie: He doesn't have anything to do with this.
- Benson: Oh, I think he does.
- Jamie: Trevor is my friend.
- Benson: I know that you like Trevor, but I gotta tell you, I think his priorities are really screwed up.
- Jamie: How would you know?
- Benson: Trust me. Any guy that won't date you until you lose your virginity doesn't deserve somebody as great as you.
- Malcolm Shaw: You sent her home? That girl tried to ruin my son's life.
- Novak: I understand how you must feel, Mr. Shaw.
- Malcolm Shaw: I doubt it. They're throwing Cameron out of school. He graduates in five weeks. He could lose his scholarship.
- Novak: Your son violated Lanchester Prep's code of conduct by having sex on school grounds.
- Malcolm Shaw: Cameron was never in trouble a day in his life. It's that damn girl! She seduced him!
- Benson: Nobody forced Cameron into that bathroom.
- Malcolm Shaw: That girl made false charges against my son. That's a crime. I want her charged.
- Novak: I'll decide that after I review the evidence.
- Benson: We bent over backwards to get the facts before we arrested your son. Jamie Hoskins deserves the same consideration.
- Malcolm Shaw: But if she's not arrested, you'll read about it in the newspaper. White girl lies about being raped by a black boy and just walks away. They'll be all over it.>br>[leaves Novak's office]
- Benson: Well, I guess we know where he stands. How about you?
- Novak: He has a point. Jamie did file a false report with the police.
- Benson: Jamie made a mistake, but she's paying for it. I mean, she also got kicked out of school.
- Novak: Cameron's dad isn't gonna go away anytime soon and Danny Morrison's lawyer is on my voicemail.
- Benson: Those boys got themselves expelled. And as for Jamie, she lied to us. It was our time she wasted.
- Benson: Why didn't you tell me you were bipolar?
- Jamie: I didn't want you to think I was crazy.
- Benson: You're not crazy, Jamie. You have an illness. Just like diabetes or migraine headaches, you take medication and you get better.
- Cragen: [about Derek Lord] What makes a rock musician think he's an expert on psychiatry?
- Novak: That's a good question. If I could, I'd charge Derek Lord as a co-defendant.
- Benson: First Amendment says that he's got a right to his opinion.
- Cragen: This is one hell of a mess.
- Benson: Look, I screwed up. Jamie was upset. I should have never let her go home.
- Novak: You had no reason to hold her. You couldn't know she'd steal her parents' car.
- Cragen: She ran down those people right after we released her. Makes us look negligent. The sooner we charge this girl, the better.
- Novak: It's not that simple. Jamie was having an acute psychotic episode.
- Cragen: Which she suffered after choosing to stop taking her medication.
- Novak: We already have one dead girl. So who benefits from destroying the life of another?
- Benson: She's got a point, Captain.
- Cragen: What are you suggesting?
- Novak: Probation with mandatory counseling.
- Cragen: For vehicular manslaughter?
- Novak: I'm not gonna throw the book at this girl just to satisfy your bosses downtown.
- Cragen: This wasn't some disturbed homeless person. This girl had the best drugs and treatment available.
- Novak: Yeah, which her idol told her to stop taking.
- Cragen: Okay. This is your call. You just remember we got two boys whose lives were ruined by her false allegations. A dead girl and half a dozen others injured when Jamie mowed them down. Now, you let her walk, your ass is on the line right next to mine.
- Munch: Kid doesn't fit the mold, so he's got LD, ADD, HDD, ADHD. They can give him powerful drugs like Ritalin, Concerta or Adderall.
- Dr. Huang: But there is a huge difference between over-diagnosis and telling legitimately sick patients to abandon lifesaving treatments.
- Munch: I'm just saying, whatever happened to them having a lousy day?
- Novak: It's easy to judge mental illness if you've never had to deal with it yourself.
- Derek Lord: Ms. Novak, psychiatry has damaged countless lives. Elena Ramirez is just the latest victim.
- Novak: I'm not here to debate the legitimacy of psychiatric medicine, but I do think it's unfair to Jamie to use her trial as a platform for your political views.
- Derek Lord: They're not just my views. Libertarians, fundamentalist Christians, scientologists. Even practicing psychiatrists. There are caring people that have been fighting this battle ever since German psychiatrists were convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg.
- Novak: I can call on any number of experts to testify that psychiatry not only helps people, it saves lives.
- Derek Lord: Psychiatry is a corrupt instrument of social control. And no offense, Ms. Novak, but you're a lawyer.
- Novak: And you're a rock star. So you'll understand if I don't defer to your expertise on the subject.
- Derek Lord: They strap you down to a special table that flips over. So that you don't choke on your own vomit. Then they inject you with a muscle relaxant. Then they tape electrodes to your forehead and then turn up the juice. When your toes starts twitching, that means you're having a major convulsion, which is what they want. It's what they call "healing".
- Casey Novak: Why did they do this procedure?
- Derek Lord: Because...they said I was psychotic depressive.
- Casey Novak: And, in fact, didn't you attempt suicide three weeks prior to your parents committing you?
- Derek Lord: It was a mistake.
- Casey Novak: You took enough pills to cause permanent brain damage.
- Derek Lord: And the cure for that was for them to pass huge amounts of electric current through my brain. ECT fried my memory. Huge chunks of my childhood gone! It was painful, dehumanizing torture. I'll never know how much damage they did to me.
- Casey Novak: That sounds like a terrible ordeal. But tell me, after you got out of the hospital, did you ever attempt suicide again?
- Derek Lord: No.
- Casey Novak: And now you're a rich, successful musician with millions of fans. Isn't it possible that psychiatry didn't ruin your life...but saved it?
- Benson: You did what you had to, Casey, you saved yourself.
- Novak: Yeah, but nobody saved him.
Background information and notes[]
- At the end of the episode, Casey holds up a picture of her college sweetheart who was schizophrenic. It is really a picture of Diane's husband, Marcus Fitzgerald, whom she eventually divorced in 2014.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Lanchester Preparatory |
Technical Assistance |
Arraignment |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
|
Trial Part 53 |
Trial Part 53 |
Trial Part 53 |
| Previous episode: "Web" |
"Influence" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 7 |
Next episode: "Informed" |