The Perfect Man (Season 24, Episode 2)
Premise: The killing of an AI dating-app founder is traced to a woman identified through DNA she gave as a rape victim, and SVU’s Capt. Olivia Benson takes the stand for the defense.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 24, Episode 2
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), Det. Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson, Elizabeth Marvel as defense attorney Rita Calhoun, Emily Meade as Laura Kingsbury, Jacob Heimer as Tyler Miller, Angel Desai as Judge Roberta Hines
- Ripped from the headlines
- The DNA storyline reportedly draws on the San Francisco case made public in February 2022, in which police used DNA from a woman’s rape kit to identify her as a burglary suspect.
- Director
- David Grossman
- Writers
- Scott Gold
Summary
The Investigation
“The Perfect Man” follows the murder of Tyler Miller, founder of ELI, short for Enigmatic Love Interface, an app that sells women an AI boyfriend for $79.99 a month. He is found shot dead in Central Park at dawn with no wallet or phone.
Hoax 911 calls, one naming Miller as an active shooter, trace to Ethan Saradino, a developer who lost a lawsuit claiming Miller stole his code; he admits the hoaxes but has an alibi. So does Randall Doering, whose fiancée left him for ELI.
Miller’s phone leads to Scratch, an addict who heard the shot, saw a woman run past and took the phone from the body. Cameras show the woman dumping Miller’s wallet, cash intact. The second DNA profile on the wallet gets no hit in CODIS, so Brady has it run through the city’s local database, a step Dixon always avoided. It matches Laura Kingsbury, an art buyer, and the gun turns up under her bed.
The Trial
Capt. Olivia Benson of SVU tells Brady and Price that Kingsbury is a rape victim whose profile sits in the local database only because of her rape kit, and warns that victims may stop coming forward. A motion by defense attorney Rita Calhoun to suppress the match is denied. At trial Calhoun claims self-defense, saying Miller had stalked her client for months, and calls Benson as an expert on sexual trauma. Under cross-examination, Benson says the police brushed Kingsbury off after her rape and again when she sought a protection order against Miller.
Kingsbury testifies that after a few dates Miller kept turning up wherever she went, and Calhoun produces 126 of his letters, gushing rather than threatening. On cross, she admits he never threatened her and that she shot him and took his wallet. Soon a newspaper starts a campaign against the database, and Benson is accused of feeding it the story. Baxter approves an offer of first-degree manslaughter with ten years. Kingsbury refuses, and her bid for five years on a lesser charge is turned down.
Spoiler, the ending: In closing, the prosecution reads from a notebook in which Miller listed the things he loved about Kingsbury, with photos he took on their dates. The jury convicts her of second-degree murder. Benson is then told that Baxter will announce the office will stop using local-database matches to solve unrelated crimes, and she agrees to stand with him at the press conference.
Why it stands out
- Mariska Hargitay and Elizabeth Marvel cross over from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Capt. Olivia Benson and defense attorney Rita Calhoun.
- Brady breaks with Dixon’s practice of staying away from the city’s local DNA database, and by the end the DA’s office agrees to stop using it against people in unrelated cases.