We go into the room were Hans is staying. He exits the bathroom as we come in and I start the interview "Hi Hans, we're with the special victims unit. Can we ask you a few questions.
"Sure." He says in an accent I'm still working on placing.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Rollins asks.
He begins to slowly walk back to his bed "I went on Craigslist, looking for a real New York girlfriend experience."
"You took her on a date?" Finn asks.
"No, she came to my room. She asked if she could order champagne from room service." He tells us. I write what he says down in my notepad.
"What did she look like?" Rollins asks.
He makes a face while climbing into bed "not like her picture. Maybe 25, but rough. Said her name was Lisette."
"So you two talk?" I ask.
"Not really." He answers pulling the blanket back over himself. "She got right down to business, unzipped my pants, and put her hand on me. There was a knock at the door. I figured room service had arrived. I said, "come in. It's open." In came a man with a gun."
"Can you describe this man?" Fin asks him.
He gives a basic description "Latin, scary" and shrugs. "He hit Lisette with the gun, held it on me, demanded my wallet and passport. I was nervous opening the safe, so he hit me with the gun, took everything. Then he forced me down on the bed and used the gun to rape me."
I ask him, already feeling like I knew the answer "and the girl? Where was she?"
"Lisette was in the corner, crying, terrified." He says.
"Did the room service ever come?" Amanda asks, also knowing.
"No." He says, like he's realizing it for the first time.
"This was a scam. She set you up." Finn explains to him. He sighs and averts his eyes to his bed. The three of us excuse ourselves from the room and make our way to the hotel, calling CSU along the way.
We meet CSU there, and go over the crime scene. The details match his statement and after finishing up setting up the crime scene we head back to the precinct to go over everything with Olivia and Declan. "Hans Erhard, 32, a tourist from Cologne, Germany. He answered an ad on Craigslist, looking for company." I go over from the start, pointing out our victim on the board.
Rollins goes on "he ended up getting rolled and raped. The girl he met said her name was Lisette. This is her surveillance photo, and this is her Craigslist ad."
Declan asks "we're assuming she was in on the job?"
"She told him she was calling room service, but the hotel only shows one outgoing call to a no-name cell." Finn explains.
"She never called for help." I add on "And she must have taken the stairs, because there's no footage of her leaving."
"What about the doer?" Declan asks.
Finn clicks a button and switches pictures on the screen "he's a pro. Hotel security doesn't recognize him or the girl."
"Maybe they move around." He says out loud "check all Times Square budget hotels."
Benson now questions "and C.S.U. didn't get anything from the hotel room?"
Finn almost chuckles "a midtown tourist hotel? They'll be going through bodily fluids, hairs, and prints for weeks.
"Any open cases with a similar M.O.?" She asks next.
I answer her "yeah, four in the last year. They were robberies, beatings, but no rape, and no arrests were made. And in each case, the vic returned to his own country, so." I open my arms as if to say 'can't do anything'
"Is this ad still up on Craigslist?" Declan asks.
"Yeah, it's sent from an Internet cafe." Amanda says. "Taru says there's no point in trying to track it."
"Any point in answering it?" He asks.
Olivia looks to him "you're thinking of answering it? Talk about being proactive."
"They just rolled somebody last night." Finn argues "they may be laying low."
"Maybe they're feeling lucky." Declan says back. "Especially if someone calls," his accent changes to an Irish one "visiting from Ireland feeling lonely."
We all eye each other but he moves to set up the sting. "He always so enthusiastic to go undercover?" I ask Olivia as we move to help get things going.
She eyes me with a small grin "like I said, proactive" and walks away.
Finn and Olivia go with Declan undercover while I stay at the desk to clear up paperwork. Amanda goes off to a meeting of some sort and I wait in anticipation to hear back from the team. I get a call a little after 7 P.M saying they caught the girl and her pimp and were heading back to the precinct now. The night was busy with booking and more paperwork. Declan tells us all to go home and that we'll pick up in the morning.
"Anybody hear from Amaro?" Declan asks first thing as he walks into the bull pen.
"Yeah, I saw him this morning." Olivia answers him. "He's as good as can be expected."
"What about last night's perps? They lawyered up?" He asks, looking at a file.
"Little Tino, the pimp, got himself a guy in a nice suit. He won't be talking." Finn explains.
"And Lisette, aka Ellie, is in holding, waiting for legal aid." I sigh out the information about the girl.
"He doesn't even look out for his own?" Amanda questions.
Finn tells her "it's penny-wise."
A man in a suit, probably a lawyer walks towards us "I'm looking for Ellie Porter. Sorry I'm late, I just caught the case." He says. He's a tall man, good looking features.
"I thought she had a public defender." Olivia says eyeing the man whose now next to her.
"Rollins, Grey, meet Trevor Langan." He introduced us to him "He's a, uh, high-priced mouthpiece for lowlifes."
"And you, once." He quickly says back trying to hide a smirk "how soon we forget. It's nice to see you, detective."
"It's actually sergeant now." She corrects him "So what, you caught a pro bono?"
"Yeah." He answers "Do a few of them a year. It keeps me an honest lawyer.
"That's an oxymoron." I chirp in, knowing a thing or two about how lawyers work.
He looks to me with a grin and Declan stands up, ready to meet the man defending Ellie. "Uh, this is our new C.O., lieutenant Murphy." Olivia introduces them and Declan waves.
"Wow. A lot of changes around here." He comments "And, uh You, are you doing okay with, uh Uh, everything?" He asks her.
I only know a few things about Olivia's past. She's been on the job at SVU the longest, the easiest to find information on. "Yeah, I'm fine." She says back to him "Thanks." She says and he walks away.
"He's tall." I comment, not understanding what just happened at the end there.
"Yeah, like that's a skill set." Olivia chuckles, sitting back down at her desk.
Rollins asks "you two have history?"
"I don't date lawyers." Olivia quickly says back.
"Since when?" Amanda asks and I decide to get back to researching the case at hand.
We have a line up ready later that day. I stay with Olivia to do Hans' lineup while Rollins takes care of Little Tino's.
We walk Mr. Hands up to the window "take your time, there is not rush." I tell him as we come up to the window.
"That's her." He says about 7 seconds later.
"Okay, Mr. Erhard." I say.
"Which- which number?" Olivia asks.
"Three." He says to confirm.
"Thank you. This way, Mr. Erhard." Declan takes her over to the next window.
I turn to Olivia and the lawyer "well, that seemed pretty definitive."
Trevor argues "you need to start seeing Ellie as a victim. She was pimped out at 16."
Olivia disagree's "she tried to pull a gun on Murphy."
He defends her "yeah, coerced by her pimp."
"Look, I'm the first person to defend battered women. But she also set up a tourist to be raped. She's a career criminal." She tries to get him to understand.
Although I want to agree with her, I can't help but feel her lawyer has a point. Before I can stop it, I spit out "a career criminal? Come on, Olivia, up to now it's only been misdemeanors." I bite my lip. Wondering if the the use of her first name was too much.
Trevor obviously backs me "She needs rehab, not jail time." And with that, he walks away.
Olivia turns to me "so, you're agreeing with low life lawyers? Is that was they taught you at the FBI?"
"They taught me to build a relationship where you can. Ellie is a victim, she can be talked too, worked with." I say to her.
Olivia just semi rolls her eyes at me and walks away to the window where Hans' is iding his rapist.
After both lawyers are gone, we meet again at our desks to go over everything we have. Declan starts off "there you have it. Eyewitness I.D., the most unreliable form of evidence." He asks. "Do we have anything on the lucky man?"
Rollins goes over information in a file "Little Tino, real name Augustino Aguilar, does have a record. Runs with a queens-based Dominican gang. He's got two arrests for misdemeanor possession, pled down. And then another domestic but the charges were dropped when the girlfriend recanted."
He asks next "what about DNA?"
Finn explains "Melinda said there's nothing in the prelim rape kit. She's checking Tino's gun for Erhard's DNA."
I comment "well, we still got him on the gun charge and maybe the attempted robbery on you."
"Wait a second." Declan pauses "there was another witness in the room when Erhard was raped Ellie Porter.
Olivia stands from where she was resting "Ellie Porter, his accomplice? And the only one that was positively I. D.'ed by the vic? The defense will have a field day with that!"
"Her record says she started working for little Tino when she was 16. She can testify to underage sex trafficking." He argues, going closer to her.
"She's not gonna help us, okay? Little Tino has her pawned." She says back.
"Pimps almost always take care of the legal so they can control their girls." Finn informs.
"He didn't even bother with her." He reminds Olivia. "Maybe that'll come back to bite him. You know her lawyer. Try to get him to see the upside to a sit-down." He goes to walk away, but adds on without turning "Bring Maddison with you!"
Olivia and I sit walk into the pen together once Ellie and Trevor are seated and done talking. We get inside, sit down and Olivia starts "Ellie, we need your help here."
"I'm not giving up little Tino." She smirks towards us, taking a sip of her soda. "He's my gangster. He's my daddy."
"He lawyered up, Ellie." Olivia says matter of factly.
"He left you in holding all night." I remind her.
She looks to her left "my lawyer's just fine."
I look to him with wide eyes, he knows what we are trying to do. "So listen to my advice, testify against Tino. You were a teenager when you started working for him."
"That was my choice." She claims.
"You don't have a choice at 16, Ellie." I say out loud "He had sex with you. That's rape." I try to make it clear to her.
"I love him." She says back lowly but meaning it.
"But he doesn't love you, Ellie." Olivia says back. You think he's not gonna give you up to save himself?" She asks her.
"He'll look out for me." Was Ellie's response.
"Okay." Olivia pushes herself back in the chair "so I guess there's nothing else to talk about."
"No, there isn't." Olivia stands up to leave.
As I stand up to follow her I push a chocolate bar on the table. Ellie quickly puts her hand over it and Olivia knows what to do next. She jumps right in, moving closer to her " Ellie, have you ever gone through full withdrawal? Hmm? I can see that you're shaking, huh?" She holds at her wrist "You're not feeling well. You're going to be crying, lying on the floor of your cell, curled up in the fetal position, puking your guts out."
"Shut up." Ellie yells at her.
"Is that what you want? To be lying in a pool of vomit, dirty, pathetic? Because you have a chance to break this cycle. You have a chance to clean up your act."
"You want to be my mommy? Lady detectives love saving girls like me." She eyes her up and down. "But I like my life just the way it is."
"Well, good for you." Olivia responds. "Okay, so we'll be sending you over to central booking, uh, for robbery and accomplice to rape." She goes over to the door one more time.
Olivia leaves the room with me still sitting at the table "Ellie, I know this isn't where you want to be right now, but it's where we are." She eyes me, rage still coursing through her eyes, her hands still shaking over the candy bar. "If you help us, we can help you. You can overcome all of this."
"I'm tellin' you what I told her, I'm happy with my life." She grills me down while saying that and turns her attention back to the soda in her hand.
Trevor sighs, looking down but then meets my gaze "just give me a minute with her, will you?
"Take two. Not sure it's gonna do any good." I say back and leave the room.
