[Interior. Busy ER waiting room, babies crying, a bicyclist holding a towel to a wound]

Nurse
Alaina Newton, Don Ritter, Carlos Alverez

( Alaina sits, staring at a crying baby in the lap of a horrible-looking mother )

Nurse
Miss Newton, do you still need emergency assistance?

Alaina
(still staring)
They should go before me

Nurse
(approaches Alaina) Miss Newton. (Alaina doesn’t respond) Miss Newton! (Alaina turns to look)
You’ve already let 3 people go before you. If you don’t have an actual emergency then go home and schedule an appointment with a doctor.

Alaina
It’s an emergency (she grips the filled plastic garbage bag she’s holding)
But I’m not going to die or anything…

Nurse
(confused)
Neither is anyone else in here or they’d be in front of you.
Let me do my job and take you back.

(they both get up and begin walking)

Nurse
What exactly is your emergency?
All you wrote on your form was that you need an emergency physical examination.

Alaina
(matter-of-factly)
I need a rape kit done. I’ve been raped.

----- opening credits -----

[Interior. Hospital Hallway]

Olivia
Victim is Alaina Newton, 24.
She was home alone with her cat, perp breaks in through the roof access panel and rapes her at knife point.
Stole some money and jewelry and her ipod.

(Elliot approaches a table covered in bags of clothes and sheets and random objects in zip-lock baggies)

Elliot
What’s all this?

Nurse
Alaina brought sealed bags filled with all of the clothes she was wearing, along with everything she saw the burglar touch, to make sure we had enough evidence to find whoever did it.

Elliot
That’s thoughtful of her.

Olivia
How is she?

Nurse
Anxious. But not like the usual way.
She wants to get the report filed and get a sketch done and get the results from the rape kit.

Olivia
She wants to find out who did this to her.
That’s perfectly normal.

Nurse
She’s not acting perfectly normal, for someone who’s been raped.

Elliot
What are you trying to say?
You don’t think she was?

Nurse
No, she was.
There’s vaginal tearing, bleeding, fluids.

Elliot
Then what’s wrong with how she’s acting?

( laughter from the hospital room )
(Olivia and Elliot peek in room where Alaina and Male Nurse are laughing)

[interior Hospital Room]

( Male nurse inserts an IV needle, while Alaina turns away with eyes shut, but is smiling, listening to his story )

Male Nurse
… and this guy thinks he can sneak out of the psych ward in stolen doctor’s scrubs and an IV cart rolling at his side

( Alaina laughs. )

Male Nurse
I’ve never seen anything more ridiculous. And I’m done!

Alaina
You’re hilarious! You know you’re really good at telling stories?

Male Nurse
(dropping the hint)
My fiancé thinks so.

Alaina
Well you tell your fiancé that you made someone’s worst day ever… a little less awful.
(she looks at the finished IV) Thanks Alex.

Olivia
Alaina Newton?

(Male Nurse looks sheepish for talking so casually with rape victim)

Alaina
Yeah, that’s me.

Olivia
I’m detective Benson, and this is detective Stabler.

(Alaina smiles)

( Olivia and Elliot exchange glances )

Alaina
They said I was dehydrated and had to get an IV. I hate needles.

Olivia
Alaina, I know this might be hard for you, but we have to talk to you about what happened tonight.

Alaina
I know you do… I mean... (looks embarrassed)
I watch the show Los Angeles Sex Crimes

Elliot
Hollywood’s glorification of serial rapists and high-profile sex cases of actresses in Los Angeles.

Alaina
The guy who plays the main lawyer is really hot.

Elliot
Is that why you brought all the evidence in baggies? Because you watch that show?

Alaina
Yes. I… (no longer smiling) I didn’t know what else to do.
It was like something right out of the show.
At first I thought the noises were my cat.
She gets crazy at night, sometimes even knocks stuff over.
But this was a loud noise, and then, like, rummaging.
It was 2:22, I remember, because I thought it was weird that the numbers were all the same.
And. Then he was there, at my door. I…
( Alaina looks embarrassed ) Detective Stabler, can you close the door?

Elliot
Sure

Alaina
I don’t know why I’m so embarrassed.
I know it wasn’t my fault. But I still don’t want anyone to hear.

Olivia
It’s alright, Alaina. We’re going to find who did this to you.
Just tell us what happened, anything you can remember.

Alaina
I remember everything… It was my first time… I was a virgin.

-----------------------------------------------------------

[int police station]

Fin
A 24 year old virgin who packs up her own evidence bags and doesn’t shed a tear while talking about what happened?
Sounds like she’s making it up, if you ask me.

Wong
Just because she didn’t cry doesn’t mean she wasn’t emotionally effected.
She could be scarred so deeply that she’s covering it up with an act of non-emotion and denial.

Elliot
She wasn’t crying, but she wasn’t non-emotional…
She was spirited: laughing when we walked in and chatting with the male nurse, but then embarrassed when she had to start talking about it.
She even acknowledged that it was the worst day of her life.

Olivia
Elliot’s right. It was almost like she was talking about something that happened a long time ago that she’s already come to terms with.

Fin
Wonder what that means?

Wong
I’d have to talk to her myself to see.
Do you know if she’s on medication or mood-altering drugs?

Olivia
Just pills for A.D.D., which she said she hadn’t taken for a couple of weeks because she keeps forgetting to pick up the prescription.

(( Det. Munch enters ))

Munch
Got a hit on the DNA from the rape kit and from the evidence she brought in.
An ex con from Jersey. Ken Miter, who’s been in and out for burglary his whole life.

Fin
Wonder what made him jump to sexual assault during his burglary?

Elliot
Let’s nab him and find out.
Munch and Fin, see if you can bring in Alaina for a lineup, and we’ll make this a solid case against Miter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Exterior. lumberyard]

Elliot
Ken Miter?

( Ken runs )
( Elliot and Olivia chase him through the lumberyard until a coworker brings him down )

Coworker
That’s what you get for stealing my iPod, Kenny.

Elliot
So you’re not just stealing from women in their homes, are you?

Ken
I’m not saying anything. I have a right to a lawyer! You can’t prove nothing!

Olivia
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against...

[Interior. Alaina’s Apartment]

Alaina
You have him?

Fin
Olivia and Elliot are taking him to the station now

Alaina
I… I have to get my jacket. Come in. Sorry about the mess.

(Munch looks around, observing the books on her coffee table)

Munch
You’ve got a lot of books about the Bible out here.

Alaina
(from the other room)
Yeah. I joined a Bible study a few weeks ago. You go to church?

Munch
I’m Jewish.

Alaina
We can still be friends, right?

Fin
(to Munch quietly)
I guess that explains why she was a virgin.

Alaina
(coming back)
Actually, I’m really anti-abortion.

(Fin turns around)

Alaina
Not that I think abortion should be illegal.
You can’t legalize morality, after all.
When Jesus says “Love thy Neighbor” I think he’d rather we love the accidentally pregnant woman than a bunch of unborn cells.

(Alaina begins searching for something)

Alaina
But me? I would never get an abortion, and I figure even if I was on the pill and the dude wore a condom, I’d still be that 1 in 1000 chick who’d get pregnant.
And I wouldn’t get rid of the baby.
I would just much rather wait.
Which I know sounds old-fashioned and religious and ridiculous, but it’s my choice, and it’s not like I’m telling other people it’s what THEY should do.

( Alaina looks embarrassed )

Alaina
Sorry, I get on a roll and talk a lot sometimes…
Impulsivity, from not having my ADD meds.
Luckily, I didn’t get pregnant from this rapist

Fin
You know you’re not pregnant?

Alaina
I was on my period when it happened.
Sorry. That’s gross.
But the chances of me getting pregnant are really low.
I’m more worried about STD’s.
Those tests come back next week.
I never thought I’d even need tests for those.
Another reason to stay abstinent.

(Alaina is still looking for something)

Munch
Are you looking for these?

( he holds up her keys, taps her computer mouse while picking it up. the computer screen "wakes up")

Alaina
Yes!

( she takes them )

Alaina
I lose my keys all the time.

Munch
Luckily your downloaded pornography isn’t lost

( he turns the computer to her, which features a video of porn )
( Alaina looks embarrassed )

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[Interior. Interrogation room, Ken is inside with his lawyer, SVU team is on the other side of the glass]

Alex Cabot
He has no alibi, we’ve got DNA from the scene and an ID from the victim and from a taxi-driver from outside the building that night.
This would be a closed case if not for Detectives Fin and Munch

Fin
We had to report seeing the pornography on Alaina’s computer.

Munch
To not report it would be a violation.

Olivia
If she had been a man, you wouldn’t have cared if there were a couple of porn videos on the computer.
With a male, it’d be normal, but if it’s a woman, it’s worth reporting?

Fin
It was in plain sight

Elliot
After Munch tampered with her computer

Fin
Stop acting like we were TRYING to find something against your girl.
It just happened, okay?
We had to report a finding of sex-related paraphernalia because of the nature of the crime.

Alex
Unfortunately, that’s a rule usually for the perp's place and not the victim's.
This will only hurt her case.

Elliot
Why? The docs say she was raped.

Alex
All the defense needs is a reasonable doubt that she consented to the sex.
When they find out she had porn on her computer, they’ll make it part of their case.
That maybe it was consensual and the physical tearing was from her being a virgin, not from her being raped.

Olivia
And we didn’t focus on the crime scene because of the evidence she brought in.

Alex
They’re going to say she was trying to hide something.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Interior. questioning room]

Alaina
I look at porn. I know it’s wrong but it’s not a crime is it?

Elliot
No, it’s not.

Olivia
It’s just unusual in a case like this

Alaina
I’ve seen the show Los Angeles Sex Crimes.
I don’t have to stay at the station and answer questions unless you arrest me for something.
And I didn’t do anything illegal.

Olivia
Alaina, we’re trying to help you.
We need to know if there’s a search of your apartment, if any other sexual paraphernalia will show up.

Alaina
Wait… searching my place?

Olivia
The defense has the right to inspect the crime scene, which isn’t just the things you brought with you to the hospital.

Alaina
Wait, they’re doing it? They’re inspecting RIGHT NOW!?

Elliot
Why are you so scared? What are they gonna find?

( Alaina says nothing )

Oooo that was good keep going i couldnt keep my eyes off the comp. KEEP GOING. and good job

[Interior, outside of questioning room where Alaina is sitting alone, staring]

Elliot
What’s the damage?

Munch
Nothing big, but a lot of little things are stacking up. Hardcore porn, streaming rated R sex thrillers from mainstream movie websites, romance novels… Everything with some kind of rape scene or forced sex. She is obsessed with it.

Alex
Why wasn’t any of this part of the original investigation?

Munch
The cops didn’t think they had anything to investigate. They took photos of the roof access panel, where the perp broke in, and of the rooms that he rummaged through. All the rest of the evidence had been bagged up.

Olivia
And now we’re treating her apartment as if it belonged to the rapist, not the victim.

Elliot
Maybe if she acted like a victim, we wouldn’t need to investigate.

(Tony King, Ken Miter’s attorney, enters)

Tony King
She’s not acting like a victim because she wasn’t one.

Alex
Tony King… I thought you were too busy chasing ambulances and filing class actions to put it all on hold for a defense job. You must have grown a pair to allege that our rape victim isn’t a victim at all.

Tony
While my client was, admittedly, breaking and entering, Miss Newton seduced him into bed in order to live out a rape fantasy. It was consensual. With your witness, we’re sure to have media all over this one. 24 year-old Christian good-girl obsessed with rape porn accusing a burglar with no history of assault, sexual or otherwise… We could drop the rape charge and go with breaking and entering, and keep Miss Newton’s private life private.

Alex
You know you’ve got nothing that would make us drop the rape charge. His DNA was inside of her. This is an open and closed case and if you take it in front of a jury, you will lose.

Tony
We’ll see. And I’ll see you at arraignment.

(Tony Leaves)

Olivia
She doesn’t need to take the stand, does she? We’ve got enough physical evidence that we don’t need her to testify against him.

Alex
If she doesn’t take the stand, then the jury will never see Alaina as a victim. They’ll only see her obsession with rape porn and her attempt to keep it a secret from investigators. She had no bruises on her body, no scratches, nothing except tearing inside. It doesn’t look like she fought back. They need to see her and associate her with the attack and hear her testimony in order to see her as the victim.

Elliot
Will getting her on the stand help? I mean, we haven’t even seen her act like a victim yet.

Olivia
So just because she isn’t acting the part, means it didn’t happen?

Elliot
Come on, Liv. How long have you been working with victims? How many have ever acted so casual about being attacked? And this stuff she looks at is pretty sick... she might be some kind of nutcase we haven't seen before.

Olivia
She was attacked, Elliot. The doctors said so, the evidence says so, and she says so. It doesn’t matter if she’s putting on a happy face to fool everyone, it’s not going to fool me. I’m going to go in there and tell her this rape wasn’t her fault, no matter what kind of porn she looks at, and convince her to take the stand even though it will be embarrassing and humiliating. That’s how you treat victims. Or have you forgotten?

Elliot
Don’t accuse me of not knowing how to do my job.

Olivia
Then do it. Get Wong down here so he can sort through this porn obsession and help us figure out why she’s acting this way. Wong will tell me if she's a nutcase, not you.

(Olivia turns to enter questioning room. Elliot stops her.)

Elliot
Liv… what’s wrong?

Olivia
(after a moment)
I have to tell a rape victim that her personal sexual fantasies that WE uncovered are going to be broadcast to the world in order to put her rapist behind bars. (sarcastic) And it's making me upset. Aren't I "playing the part" and reacting how I should? Or maybe I'm a nutcase, too.

(she stares pointedly at Elliot before entering the room)

-------------------------------------------------------------

[interior, questioning room. ]

(Alaina is staring at her reflection in the mirror)

Olivia
… Alaina, do you understand everything I’ve told you?

(Alaina doesn’t answer)

Olivia
Alaina are you okay?

Alaina
No

Olivia
I know this must be hard for you.

Alaina
You don’t know. Everything in my apartment was private. And now everyone in the police station knows. And soon everyone in the country will know. Everyone in my bible study, everyone in every church I’ll ever go to, all the parents of the kids I tutor.

(Alaina stops staring at herself in the mirror and looks at Olivia)

Alaina
I wasn’t going to report what happened. I was going to take a shower, because of how dirty I felt, and I was going to file a report for the burglary and never tell anyone what really happened. But on Los Angeles Sex Crimes, I always hated the characters who couldn’t get their act together, who hid things from the cops and who lied and who accidentally destroyed evidence. I always told myself that if it happened to me, I would gather so much evidence, it’d be impossible for him to go free.

Olivia
Alaina, it will be impossible for him. You did everything right, everything you were supposed to do. He won’t get away with what he did.

Alaina
(harsh whisper)
Won’t he? Even if he goes to prison for the rest of his life, he’ll have taken my virginity, taken my ability to be alone without freaking out, and he’ll have taken away my privacy as every piece of porn I’ve looked at is shown to the world. He wins no matter what I do. How can I continue tutoring kids, or volunteering, when all that parents can think about are my private thoughts and turn-ons? (looks like she will start getting emotional, but she stops the tears) I’d like to go home, please.

Olivia
Alaina, you’re allowed to be upset. You don’t have to run away.

Alaina
(fighting tears, voice desperate)
Please. Can’t I leave?

Olivia
… of course, but it’d be good if you just faced…

(Alaina gets up and rushes out)

(Olivia exits the questioning room and joins Elliot and Wong on the other side of the one-sided mirror)

Elliot
Is she going to testify?

Olivia
She didn’t say. She really hates showing her feelings, though. Wong, any idea what might be up? Why the obsession with rape?

Wong
Rape fantasies are more common than you’d think, especially among women.

Olivia
What kind of woman would fantasize about getting raped?

Wong
It’s often due to a desire to not be in control. Normal intercourse involves two people taking action, giving each other pleasure. For someone like Alaina, a virgin who has no sexual experience in a culture where women her age are expected to have sexual know-how… the thought of someone else in control is arousing because she’s free from expectation. She doesn’t have to know how to have sex in order to participate in the sexual activity. It frees her, mentally.

Elliot
So she likes the idea of being actually raped? That’s why she’s not traumatized by the attack?

Wong
No. For a female, being aroused by rape fantasy has absolutely nothing to do with real rape. It’s just as traumatic for her than for someone who doesn’t have rape fantasies. The only difference is, she’s likely thought about being attacked, for real, more often than women who never think about being attacked. That’s why she seems like she’s handling it so well… she’s probably thought about what she would do if it did happen, thought about how she would react, emotionally.

Olivia
That’s what she was saying. She said she thought about it; told herself “if I was ever attacked, I would gather evidence…”

Wong
Part of her emotional recovery was done before the attack even happened. But she probably doesn’t know that her rape fantasies have nothing to do with real rape. She might feel like she asked for it, or deserved it, or somehow wanted it.

Olivia
But if forced-sex fantasies have nothing to do with real rape, then how can the defense use it?

Wong
They convince a jury that the fantasy shaped the reality; that she saw what looked like the beginnings of one of her rape porn videos, and wanted to live it out.

Elliot
So the evidence won’t even matter if they think it’s consensual. She has to testify or he could walk.

--------------------------------------------------------

[interior, court, arraignment]

Bailiff
Docket ending 424, The people versus Kenneth Miter. One count of rape in the first degree.

Judge
Mr. King, what does your client plead?

Tony
Not guilty, your honor.

Judge
Bail, District Attorney?

Alex
The district requests remand without bail.

Tony
Excessive, your honor! My client doesn’t even have a passport – he’s not a flight risk.

Alex
The defendant has a history of breaking and entering, stealing jewelry and selling it. He possibly has large amounts of undocumented funds. Not to mention the safety of the victim, who had Mr. Miter’s DNA inside of her.

Tony
From a consensual encounter. My client has no history of physical violence before this victim’s allegation.

Judge
There’s always a first time. Kenneth Miter is to be placed under remand without bail. Adjourned. Next case.

-----------------------------------------------------------

[Interior. SVU headquarters. Night.]

(Olivia sits at her desk, fingers pinched between her eyes.)
(Elliot rushes in, carrying a piece of paper)

Elliot
You’re here

Olivia
You got one too?

Elliot
We’re being called to testify? To talk about Alaina’s emotional state at the hospital the night of her attack? How did anyone even know about that?

(Olivia looks down at the paper in disgust)

Olivia
It’s my fault. I made a note of it on the report.

(Elliot sits)

Olivia
I wrote... about a victim... that she seemed vaguely disconnected and unusually happy. I... I just couldn't put nothing after we first met her, but I didn’t know what else to put down.

(Olivia looks upset, guilty)

Elliot
Hey, I was suspicious, too. Olivia, her reactions weren’t normal.

Olivia
But who am I to say, on official documentation, that they weren’t normal? What makes me an expert as to what a rape victim should act like? I should’ve let it go until we talked to Wong. And I shouldn’t have snapped at you when you brought it up... when I was the one who wrote it into the report.

Elliot
You were just doing your job.

Olivia
My job is to help victims. And I feel like we’ve done nothing but hurt this one. She does everything she’s supposed to, above and beyond… and we pull her privacy into the spotlight and question her emotional state. Everything she did to make sure we got the bad guy, and we do this to her.

Elliot
We’ll still get him.

Olivia
If we don’t interfere any more than we already have.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[interior. Courtroom. Opening statements]

Tony

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury:

Ken Miter will concede that he did break into Alaina Newton’s apartment in the early morning of Wednesday, September 2, but he did so with absolutely no intent to rape her or attack her in any way. Miss Newton, as you will no doubt realize upon seeing the evidence, has an obsession with rape pornography. She was aroused by a man breaking into her home, and asked him to have intercourse with her, in order to sate her sexual desire. Ken Miter complied with her request, with the understanding that she would not file a police report for the burglary.

You will find no sign of a struggle on Miss Newton. No cuts, no bruises, no defensive wounds… Nothing! The only piece of physical evidence that points to rape is vaginal tearing, which could be the result of a virgin’s inexperienced first sexual encounter. When my client left, Miss Newton was embarrassed about who she gave her virginity to, embarrassed about someone discovering her obsession with rape fantasy, so she brought the evidence to the hospital herself, to prevent investigators from seeing her hidden obsession, and to avoid responsibility for her sexual conduct.

Yes, Ken Miter broke into her home, but Miss Newton wanted him to stay, and wanted him to perform the sexual acts she’d seen so often in the pornography she attempted to keep secret.

(Tony sits down)

Alex

Alaina Newton woke up at 2:22 am to the sound of what she thought was her cat making a commotion, and then realized that she had woken to the nightmare that every single woman has: A stranger in her apartment. When Ken Miter entered Miss Newton’s room, he saw the opportunity to assert his power over a woman, so he grabbed a knife from the kitchen, came back to her room and raped her, threatening her life if she resisted.

She didn’t fight back, terrified that anything she did would cause him to kill her. When he left, threatening her if she breathed a word to anyone, Alaina bravely bagged the evidence, something she’d seen on a cop show on TV, and went to the hospital immediately for an examination to provide evidence. It was the only way she could fight back, and every piece of evidence found supports her statements of what happened that night. She was not hurt on the outside, but she was torn apart on the inside… something that doesn’t happen when you’re “turned on” and ready and willing to have sex.

Alaina Newton was raped, and her private sexual desires have nothing to do with what Ken Miter did to her.