Counterfeit (Season 3, Episode 14)
Premise: A woman found raped and killed with a trunk full of counterfeit drugs is only the first victim of a rapist who uses traffic stops and a police uniform.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 14
- 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)
- Guest stars
- Michael O’Keefe as Al Marcosi, Khrystyne Haje as Francesca Jesner, Armand Schultz as Kevin Ragolia, Paul Regina as Jeffery Trapani, Robert John Burke as IAB Sgt. Ed Tucker
- Director
- Arthur W. Forney
- Writers
- Amanda Green
Summary
“Counterfeit” starts under the West Side Highway, where patrol officers find Paula Grace raped and dead beside her car, killed when her head struck a rock during the struggle. With Munch hobbled by an injury, Fin partners with Benson. Paula’s rigged trunk holds what looks like a million dollars’ worth of the cancer drug Rytex, but the lab finds the pills are fakes.
Paula, a researcher at the drug company Quantum, lived in a Manhattan apartment owned by her boss, Kevin Ragolia, who also paid for her car without his wife’s knowledge. Phone records show she called the FBI the night she died, and the detectives suspect Quantum of selling counterfeit Rytex to undercut a rival product. Ragolia admits the affair and says Paula threatened him when he would not leave his wife, but he denies the killing and is handed off to the FBI.
A second woman, Francesca Jesner, is attacked at the same spot and says a uniformed officer in an unmarked car with a red dashboard light stopped her, demanded sex, and raped her, keeping her license. She lies at first about drinking, but tire tracks match Paula’s scene and fibers under Paula’s nails match NYPD uniform pants. Suspicion falls on anticrime officer Al Marcosi, who could not be accounted for during either attack and is already under Internal Affairs investigation over a missing prostitute. Fin’s gentle questioning of Marcosi and his partner angers Benson, and IAB objects to SVU going around it.
Marcosi’s car has new tires and a washed undercarriage, and his locker holds the condom brand found on Paula, but he says he was with a woman in his car that night and that the prostitute went to rehab. A third victim, Stacia Green, describes a similar traffic stop, and Huang profiles a man drawn to the power of the badge. Then, while Marcosi is at the squad, a man posing as an officer arrests Francesca at her home.
Spoiler, the ending: Marcosi, though bitter at being targeted, brings in a partial plate from a car he saw following him the night of Paula’s murder. With help from IAB Sgt. Ed Tucker, it leads to Jeffery Trapani, a paroled burglar who bought police gear. Instead of picking him up as ordered, Benson and Fin let him overhear them talking about the case at a bar and follow him to a hideout, where they find Francesca alive and arrest Trapani beside his wall of trophies.
Why it stands out
- Robert John Burke makes his first appearance as Internal Affairs Sgt. Ed Tucker in this episode.
- Michael O’Keefe, an Academy Award nominee for The Great Santini and Caddyshack’s Danny Noonan, plays anticrime officer Al Marcosi.