Appearances (Season 4, Episode 19)
Premise: A nine-year-old pageant contestant is found raped and murdered in a suitcase, and after her killer is caught, Cabot tries to hold the publisher of the material that inspired him responsible.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 19
- 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
- Brian Kerwin as Stanley Billings, John Cullum as Barry Moredock, Eric Thal as Tommy Hedges, Paul Doherty as Jeff Lathan, Gabriel Millman as Kevin Roumel
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by the 1996 murder of six-year-old beauty pageant contestant JonBenét Ramsey.
- Director
- Alex Zakrzewski
- Writers
- Story: Liz Friedman & Vanessa Place; Story & teleplay: Stephen Belber
Summary
“Appearances” opens on a school field trip, when a boy spots an abandoned suitcase on a Manhattan bus. The bomb squad’s X-ray shows the body of a girl of eight or nine, and the medical examiner finds she was bound with her hands behind her, raped, and suffocated on her own vomit behind a latex gag. Her salon manicure, dyed hair and an expert nose job suggest the child beauty pageant circuit, and a blade of saw grass on her sweater points to the Florida Everglades.
Cragen and Munch visit a pageant coach while Nassau County police report a missing girl: Cherie Lathan, 9, of Valley Stream, who set off alone for her bus after a sleepover at a friend’s house. Her father pushed her pageant career and her surgery, but his DNA does not match. Neither does that of Kevin Roumel, a 15-year-old who posted violent sexual stories about Cherie online. The semen holds progesterone and synthetic testosterone, pointing to a chemically castrated sex offender undoing his treatment. One such offender in Jersey City, Rob Canotti, shows he has since had surgery, but Fin and Munch trace Florida parolee Tommy Hedges to his mother’s house near the Lathans, where testosterone turns up in the trash. Hedges has been living there and flying to Miami each week for his injections. He confesses to offering Cherie a ride, raping her in his late father’s van and gagging her to stop her crying.
Hedges says an online story set him off. TARU technician Ruben Morales finds child pornography hidden on his laptop and “The Story of Janet,” an illustrated guide to stalking and raping young girls whose photos match how Cherie was tied. Its publisher, Stanley Billings of Excel Entertainment, says his models are adults digitally altered to look younger, which is legal. Cabot takes the death penalty off the table and accepts a second-degree murder plea from Hedges in exchange for his testimony, then charges Billings with facilitating the murder. Billings is defended by Cabot’s former law professor, Barry Moredock, who frames the case as a fight over free speech.
At trial, Hedges says the company’s emails wore down his resistance, but under cross-examination he admits earlier attacks on girls and accepts the blame. The judge warns Cabot that the case will be dismissed unless she can show Billings had reason to expect a crime. Hedges then reveals that he repeatedly asked the company to stop emailing him, and Cabot argues that Billings ignored all 21 requests.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Billings of facilitating Cherie’s murder. Moredock vows to win on appeal and congratulates his former student, but Cabot replies that thousands of people can still legally view such material.
Why it stands out
- John Cullum makes his first appearance as Barry Moredock, Cabot’s former law professor turned defense attorney, a role he returns to in later seasons.
- Brian Kerwin plays pornographer Stanley Billings, and Eric Thal plays Tommy Hedges.