Devastating Story (Season 16, Episode 18)
Premise: A TV newsmagazine’s story of a fraternity gang rape goes viral, and SVU’s case unravels as the student’s account changes and the reporting proves unchecked.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 18
- Starring
- Sgt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza)
- Guest stars
- Rob Morrow as Skip Peterson, Laura Fraser as Professor Jessica Dillon, Ally Ioannides as Heather Manning, Kathleen Chalfant as President Roberts, Derek Goh as Brian Mackey
- Director
- Michael Slovis
- Writers
- Samantha Corbin-Miller
Summary
“Devastating Story” opens with an episode of the newsmagazine America’s Worst Crimes, in which host Skip Peterson interviews “Jane,” a Hudson University freshman who says a hockey player led her into a fraternity room where he and three friends raped her for hours, and that the school brushed her off. With the mayor’s office and Chief Dodds demanding action, Benson opens an investigation, though no complaint was ever filed. Peterson will not name the student, and Professor Jessica Dillon, who brought him the story, tells Rollins and Carisi that Jane will not talk. Hudson’s president, Roberts, tells Benson that the student described drunken sex with one man, who called it consensual.
At a campus rally, Jane reveals herself as Heather Manning. With Dillon beside her, she tells the detectives that on December 12 hockey captain Brian Mackey and teammates Connor Howell, Lance Biscone (called Mosconi in the episode) and Zach Franklin attacked her, one using a hockey stick, and she shows a text in which Mackey apologizes for his friends. Her underwear carries semen from Mackey and Howell, and a fraternity computer holds Howell’s video of brothers jeering at her as she left. Mackey claims consensual sex, and Howell, after denying any contact, says he had consensual sex with her too, with Mackey present. Mackey, Howell and Biscone are arraigned, while Franklin is reportedly in Cuba.
Heather then tells a rally that six men attacked her, and Peterson reports a video and DNA evidence that do not exist. Franklin’s lawyer, John Buchanan, presents him on live television with proof that he was playing in a televised soccer game in West Virginia that night. Questioned by Barba without Dillon, Heather admits she went willingly to Mackey’s room, cannot say the sex with him was unwanted and passed out, then woke to find Howell raping her; Dillon had told her the others probably took part as well. Peterson concedes he spoke only to Dillon and Heather before airing the story, and his show issues a retraction.
Spoiler, the ending: Heather insists that Howell raped her while Mackey watched, but she is told a jury would have reasonable doubt. Barba drops the charges against all four students, whose lawyer plans to sue Hudson and the NYPD. Benson apologizes to Roberts and warns her that Howell is a danger on campus, and Roberts reports that a student accused in a new case has already told campus security that his accuser is lying just like Heather Manning.
Why it stands out
- Rob Morrow guest stars as TV host Skip Peterson, and Laura Fraser plays campus advocate Professor Jessica Dillon.
- Kathleen Chalfant returns as Hudson University President Roberts, a role she first played earlier in the season in “Pornstar’s Requiem.”