Decaying Morality (Season 16, Episode 13)
Premise: A girl’s rape accusation against a man already suing the NYPD ends with her father killing him, before the evidence turns toward her uncle, a respected dentist.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 13
- Starring
- Sgt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza), Judge D. Serani (Michael Mastro)
- Guest stars
- Haley Lu Richardson as Jenna Davis, Paul Adelstein as Dr. Neil Alexander, Jamie McShane as Luke Davis, Eva Kaminsky as Marcy Davis, Kamal Angelo Bolden as Jerome Jones
- Director
- Michael Pressman
- Writers
- Kevin Fox & Brianna Yellen
Summary
“Decaying Morality” finds Rollins back from a yoga retreat in Costa Rica when she and Benson come upon 16-year-old Jenna Davis screaming that a pizzeria worker, Jerome Jones, raped her in the restaurant’s bathroom. Jenna has alcohol and Clonazepam in her system, injuries consistent with rape and possible semen on her sweater. Jerome turns out to be one of the “Prospect Park three,” young men whose confessions to a gang rape collapsed over lab contamination and who are suing the city for $36 million. Barba will not charge without an airtight case, and Jerome is released, angering Jenna’s father, Luke, and her uncle, Dr. Neil Alexander, a dentist who consults for the NYPD and treated Jenna that afternoon.
Luke abducts Jerome and records himself using a nail gun to force a confession; Jerome dies, apparently of an asthma-triggered heart attack, despite Luke’s attempt at CPR. Luke is charged with murder and held on $1 million bail. Then recovered pizzeria video shows Jerome was in the bathroom under 90 seconds, door ajar, with a line outside. Questioned again, Jenna remembers sitting back with her hands on armrests and a big ring like her uncle’s, and names Neil. Amaro and Carisi obtain his DNA on a pretext, and it matches the semen. Neil says he and his wife, hygienist Jiya, had sex in the dental chair before Jenna’s visit, and after a therapist suggests her memory is confused, Jenna takes back her accusation.
Once the case reaches the papers, women call in describing being sedated and assaulted by Neil over 20 years, but Barba still needs Jenna. The detectives tell Luke that Neil steered him toward Jerome, and Jenna’s mother, Marcy, learns her brother groped her friends’ daughters. With detectives listening, Jenna confronts Neil and says she is pregnant; he insists that is impossible because he had a vasectomy, and he is arrested as Marcy lunges at him.
Spoiler, the ending: Barba tells Jerome’s mother that her son was innocent and that Neil will answer for the rape, but because a jury could acquit Luke of murder outright, he will let Luke plead to manslaughter and serve time. She asks whose life matters to him. Barba says he is sorry, but this is where things stand.
Why it stands out
- Rollins rejoins the squad on screen for the first time since “Forgiving Rollins”; she is credited but does not appear in the two episodes in between.
- Haley Lu Richardson guest stars as Jenna Davis, with Paul Adelstein as her uncle, Dr. Neil Alexander.