Ridicule (Season 3, Episode 10)
Premise: An apparent accidental hanging leads to a male stripper’s rape complaint against the dead woman and two friends, and to the first test of a rewritten rape law.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 10
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Judge Lena Petrovsky (Joanna Merlin)
- Guest stars
- Paige Turco as Pam Adler, Diane Neal as Amelia Chase, Pete Starrett as Peter Smith, CCH Pounder as Carolyn Maddox, Dianne Wiest as Interim DA Nora Lewin
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Judy McCreary
Summary
“Ridicule” begins when Andrew Green finds his wife, Sydney, hanging in her bedroom among candles, music and sex toys. With Warner away, assistant medical examiner Justin reads it as accidental autoerotic asphyxiation. The couple married after a few months and had separated, and the building log shows visits that day from defense lawyer Pam Adler, who once accused Fin of brutality on the stand, and trader Amelia Chase. Adler calls Andrew a gold digger, though Sydney turns out to have been nearly broke, and Chase says Sydney liked risky sex, including choking.
Andrew admits they met in drug rehab and says that at Sydney’s pre-wedding party, she and two friends raped the male stripper, Peter Smith, who reported it to police. Peter has an alibi for Sydney’s death, which is ruled accidental. A previous prosecutor dropped his complaint, but Cabot revives it under a recently changed law, while Stabler doubts Peter and his ex-girlfriend calls him a fame seeker. Peter says three women cuffed him to a bedpost, one wielding a letter opener, and repeats a taunt Adler had also used on Stabler. He picks out Adler and Chase in lineups, and both are charged with rape, sodomy, unlawful imprisonment and assault. District Attorney Nora Lewin has Stan Villani take first chair, and the judge denies a motion arguing that women cannot be charged with rape.
At trial, Adler, represented by Carolyn Maddox, cross-examines Peter herself and reveals that he filed a $5 million civil suit against Sydney. He says he only wanted his attackers’ names, and his civil lawyer confirms Sydney had agreed to give them up the day before she died, after which she phoned both friends. Warner, back at work, concludes the scene was staged by someone who practices autoerotic asphyxiation. Chase’s prints are on the ceiling beam and rope marks are hidden under her scarf; arrested for murder, she accepts a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Adler.
Spoiler, the ending: Chase testifies that she handcuffed Peter and that Adler had arranged a private show and paid him. The jury acquits Adler of rape, sodomy and unlawful imprisonment but convicts her of third-degree assault. Outside the courtroom she is arrested for Sydney’s murder, and Cabot and Maddox begin haggling over a sentence without reaching a deal on screen.
Why it stands out
- Diane Neal plays Amelia Chase here and later joins the cast as ADA Casey Novak in Season 5, after Stephanie March leaves.
- Dianne Wiest, a two-time Academy Award winner, makes a special appearance as District Attorney Nora Lewin, the role she played on Law & Order from 2000 to 2002.
- CCH Pounder, best known as Claudette Wyms on The Shield, plays defense lawyer Carolyn Maddox.