2003 — Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

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Role: Judge Walter Thornburg Year: 2003 Episode: E3X19 – Justice Airdate: 05 April 2002 Series Created by: Dick Wolf Director: Juan José Campanella Writer(s): Dawn DeNoon (writer) & Lisa Marie Petersen (writer) Genre: Crime-Drama / Procedural / Legal Network: NBC Tagline: Where risks are taken

Overview

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit follows the detectives of the Special Victims Unit inside the New York City Police Department of Manhattan. Crimes such as rape, child rape and abuse, child pornography, pedophilia, abuse of the elderly, are handled by this squad. The show focuses in on a select group of detectives, assistant district attorneys, defense attorneys, medical examiners, psychiatrists, technicians, and other units attached to help the detectives solve their cases.

Main Cast

Guest Cast

Synopsis

Two men are moving a couch into an apartment when they find a teenager dressed in a school uniform lying in a stairwell, a gash to the back of her head and pool of blood around it. After some investigation Detectives Stabler and Benson find she is the step-daughter of a Supreme Court Judge named Walter Thornburg and his wife Brooke. It is discovered that Patricia is Brooke’s daughter from a previous marriage and that she was writing to prisoners who her step-father presided over their trials. ADA Alex Cabot and Captain Don Cragen discover Patricia was trying to find a man to shoot her step-father. Stabler and Benson in the meantime find out Patricia was a problem child and that a PINS (person in need of supervision) petition was taken out on her. Detective Tutuola visits a home for hard to handle children discovering Patricia had been pregnant. ADA Cabot files a petition to order a DNA sample from the oldest son of Brooke and Walter, angering her boss EADA Liz Donnelly. When the DNA test comes back identifying Walter Thornburg as the father of the child, it is also found out Patricia was the mother. Captain Cragen goes to see Thornburg at the hospital where he is recovering from a gunshot wound. Cragen asks Thornburg why he raped a little girl. Thornburg has no answer for his old friend. Cragen further questions Thornburg about his whereabouts on the day Patricia was killed. Thornburg states he was on the bench, which Cragen has already confirmed. After CSU Tech Burt Trevor pieces together the bottle found in many parts near Patricia’s body, he finds a single fingerprint on the neck identifying Brooke Thornburg as Patricia’s killer. Stabler and Benson go to her to take her statement, to which she answers she was incredulous when the girl told her Thornburg had raped her and impregnated her.

Quotes

“I’ve searched the depths of my soul and I can’t find a reason.”

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