Defense Attorney Sidney Truex is a mob lawyer who goes to great lengths to protect his family, including divorcing his wife, Maura, when they continued to be harassed, sharing custody of the kids.
When Ryan Bedford, his daughter Charlotte's boyfriend, knocked him out with a glass tray and fatally raped Maura with a silver candlestick, Charlotte, who was a witness high on drugs at the time, was suspected of the attacks. Despite her little brother Tommy not identifying her, Sidney remembered her there and blood was on her sneaker, leading her to smash an interrogation window and cut her arm.
Sidney recovered enough and was livid from Charlotte's self-harming, screaming at the detectives they pushed her to her breakdown by pressuring her in interrogation without a lawyer. He bailed her out and was planning to argue her drug addiction should get her an insanity verdict. But when Bedford was identified by Tommy, then died in a fight with Elliot Stabler, Sidney reluctantly agreed to a barbiturate interview with Charlotte so she could recall the night. Bedford was revealed to be guilty, and once the charges were dropped on Charlotte, Sidney regretted believing she murdered Maura and attacked him. (SVU: "Dependent")