.
- In the criminal justice system,
Sexually based offenses
are considered especially heinous.
In New York City, the dedicated detectives
who investigate these vicious felonies
are members of an elite squad
known as the Special Victims Unit.
These are their stories.
- I don't.
♪
- Sit on the couch.
- Put the gun down! Should I tell her?
How you shoved me in the back of your van
until we crossed the border?
You burned me, you cut me.
Over and over, you raped me!
I want you to feel
what it's like to be dead inside!
- I know
that he did something horrific to you.
Give me the gun.
Arrest them...
Both.
- All right, so what are we
looking at here? - I'm not sure.
Stone's on his way down to the precinct.
There's a lot to sort out.
That's Jorge Diaz, owner of the apartment.
- What's his connection to Miguel?
- Hell if I know.
- Maybe he'll remember when he comes to.
- That's it, Liv, I'm taking you to the hospital.
- I'm fine, Fin, I'm not hurt.
Put a squad car on Noah's school.
We may be dealing with traffickers
and Mexican cartels.
He doesn't have a record with ICE,
the CIA, the FBI,
Border Patrol. He's not even a blip
on the radar-- - Miguel Lopez
is a coyote, who raped and tortured Lourdes.
Okay, he sold her into domestic slavery.
Lourdes is the victim here.
- Okay, okay.
I'll send a squad car to your school
and post one on your block.
- This is Olivia Benson.
I need to speak with my son.
I almost got killed for picking up a girl
and taking her home. - Not to your home.
- What is your connection to Jorge Diaz?
- I did some website design work
for his business.
- Communications, I--
I don't really know him that well.
- All right, why did you have an app on your phone
connected to his security camera?
- He has staff in and out. He was robbed last month.
He asked me to keep an eye out when he was out of town.
- Did you know the feed was on the dark net?
That makes it untraceable to law enforcement.
No, I--
I don't know what you're talking about.
- Miguel, I'm Efrain Hernandez.
Stop talking, please.
I'm Mr. Lopez's attorney. - We got that.
- I see my client's still under arrest.
- For now. - Then this little Q&A is over.
- Just call ICE. Have me deported.
- We're not gonna do that.
You deport me back to Mexico,
they'll track me down, they'll kill me,
end of your problems and mine.
Miguel Lopez? Jorge Diaz?
- I don't know Diaz.
- He's the guy who owned the apartment.
The guy whose skull you fractured.
- I...
I didn't want to call the police.
It wasn't personal. - Not like Miguel.
- Did you know Miguel would be at that club?
- No.
You just ran into the guy who supposedly trafficked you
five years ago?
- It was him.
I didn't want any of this, I--
I didn't ask for any of this.
- Could have walked away.
- I can never walk away.
If I try to run or tell anyone
what happened to me, they kill me.
It's a waste of time, talking to you.
- No.
We can't help you if you don't talk.
- Thank you. Yes, as soon as you can.
That was the Buckleys.
They're en route from Connecticut.
They've hired a lawyer for Lourdes.
- Do they know anything about her story?
- They said they had no idea.
Anything on Miguel? - Not much.
A lawyer showed up and shut us down.
Miguel didn't call him. He could have been connected
to the cartel. - But we did confirm
that Lopez was living in Portland in 2013.
- I believe Lourdes. - I know.
but she can't just take an NYPD lieutenant,
hold her hostage, and walk away.
- What happened to her was a thousand times worse.
- If we can prove it.
- Carisi, I was there.
I saw the scars. I heard her story.
- Lieutenant, I am not saying that she wasn't trafficked.
I'm not saying she wasn't abused.
But was it Miguel?
Is--is it not possible
that he just looked like a coyote?
- I don't know.
- Liv, you've been dealing with enough.
I'm driving you home. - That's not necessary, Fin.
- There's no discussion.
I'll wait for you at the elevator.
- Benson.
Uh-- Okay, thank you.
- The hospital just called.
- Died on the operating table.
What does this mean for Lourdes?
- I have to charge her with murder.
♪
Good morning, Mr. Stone. - Your Honor.
- I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure
of seeing you in my courtroom, Mr. Rojas.
- When I heard the circumstances
of this case, I was compelled
to offer my services.
Lourdes Vega is not the criminal actor here.
She is a victim
of human trafficking, rape, worse.
- No disrespect, but let's just stick
to the matter at hand, okay?
How does your client plead on the charges of...
Assault, kidnapping, attempted murder,
and manslaughter? - Not guilty.
- I assume the people request remand?
- We do. - My client
needs protective custody.
- She is a potential witness in a RICO case
against the Mexican Cartels.
These animals, they-- they kidnap,
torture, murder, and mutilate with impunity.
Mr. Stone.
- I'm not aware of any pending case,
Your Honor. But in any event,
we can put her in solitary in Rikers.
- Her life has already been threatened.
She's not safe in institutional incarceration.
- I'll take this under advisement,
pending the D.A.'s recommendation.
You'll get back to me, Mr. Stone?
- Yes, Your Honor. - All right, next case.
- Miguel Lopez is a trafficker.
- Do you have any evidence of that,
other than Lourdes' word? - Not yet, but I will.
- Until then, my hands are tied.
- So Miguel walks,
and you're putting his victim on trial.
- I offered a deal. It was refused.
- Drop the charges. - Not for murder.
Even if I could, she would be deported.
Is that what you want? - No, it's not.
But if she agrees to testify in a trafficking case,
she will be granted asylum
and go into witness protection.
An inmate at Rikers
threatened to skin her alive.
That has to come from the Cartels.
- We can get her into protective custody.
At least until the trial is over.
But I have to drop the charges against Miguel.
- So he can run back to Mexico.
- We don't know he's gonna do that.
We don't know he's anything other
than what he says he is: a website designer.
- With business associates
who use hidden cameras
to transmit on the dark net.
They are hiding something.
- Then find me a reason to charge Miguel
or turn him over to the Feds
or the Mexican Federales or all of the above.
- We're good to go, Room 6.
- What kind of protection is she going to have?
- Plain-clothes officer, 24/7.
- One officer.
- We don't have unlimited resources.
- She's a potential federal witness.
- Not until we have a case, she isn't.
- My client's told you everything she knows.
She's been cooperating.
They'll never be able to prove it,
and I'll be dead before then anyway.
- I--I know it seems hopeless,
but I'm telling you, we have made cases
against sex traffickers.
- We need to back up your story.
- You never said anything to the Buckleys?
- No, of course not.
Miguel was the one who put the ad on Craigslist.
He made me say I was a student
with an expired visa.
He said if I said anything to the Buckleys,
that I would be dead.
- Does Lourdes have any friends, any family?
- I don't know. She never had any visitors.
She rarely made any calls.
Hey!
- Mommy, when is Lourdes coming home?
- Oh, soon, uh-- Give us a minute.
Why don't you go turn on the TV, okay?
- I miss Lourdes. - I know, honey.
Both my kids, they're very attached.
- I can imagine.
Lourdes lived with your family for five years.
She never talked about herself?
- No. Now I know why.
I-I guess I never asked.
We cared about her, but...
- But she was the help.
- God, that sounds so horrible.
- Uh...
The blonde, I think her name is Ingrid.
She's a nanny for the family next door.
The dark haired one, I-- I don't know who that is.
- No, I don't know her. - Lourdes,
there were two photos
in your room.
- I'm sorry. I just don't want
the family she works for to find out.
She was trafficked?
Just like you?
We gotta talk to her, Lourdes.
Unless...
Unless you want Miguel
walking around free for the rest of his life.
never paying for what he did to you,
what he did to those other girls.
Hey.
Where--
Where was this picture taken?
In Central Park?
- So Lourdes said that they would meet
at Tavern on the Green, get the kids an ice cream
before they'd cross the park
every day after school around 3:30.
- It's about that now. - Hang on.
Is that her?
'Scuse me!
- Hi, Maria.
Can we talk to you for a second?
- I didn't do anything.
- Oh, no, you're not in any trouble.
We want to talk to you about Lourdes Vega.
- I'm sorry, I can't talk to you--
- This'll just take one second, just one second.
Maria, you knew Lourdes
from--from Texas, from Mexico.
- It was a long time ago.
I want to forget about that time.
I'm happy now,
better than in Tenancingo.
Please do not call immigration.
- No, no, no, that's not why we're here.
We wouldn't do that. - Maria,
we need your help to identify somebody.
- Okay, do you know this man?
Was he the trafficker?
At the safe house in Texas?
- No.
Because Lourdes told me what he did
to Estella and to Lucita.
- Yes, I knew them.
- Okay, can you look one more time?
Do you recognize this man?
- I have never seen him before in my life.
I'm sorry, I have to go. - Please--
.
- Okay. So this other nanny, Maria,
she denies knowing Miguel.
Maybe this is a case of mistaken identity.
- Or more likely,
Maria is terrified of the cartels
like Lourdes.
Look, going public, taking this to trial,
you're putting her in danger.
- I offered them a deal. I can't make her accept it.
- Lourdes did not intend to kill anyone.
- She intended to cold-cock Jorge Diaz.
What happens after that is on her.
- Mr. Stone, this just came
from Santino Rojas' office. - Thank you.
Well, I hope you know a good shrink.
Rojas is asserting an insanity defense.
- Las mariposas.
The monarch butterflies.
Millions of them.
They fly from America
to the Mexican mountains every fall.
And if you look up to the sky,
it's like looking at...
Beautiful orange and black angels,
hovering over your head, arguing about who to bless.
Then in the summers, they're gone.
Back to America.
It's silly, I know.
But I used to imagine a little girl
in Boston
or New York,
looking at my butterflies and smiling.
I tried to picture them when Miguel was raping me.
- Nothing.
It was the cold, dark sky.
The moon was full.
It was like a perfectly round circle,
cut out of a sheet of blackness.
- What was on the other side of that sheet?
Heaven?
Now when I look at the sky,
it's just a big, lifeless rug.
- That day you had...
Miguel tied up.
You left him for a few minutes.
- I...
I went to the terrace because I couldn't breathe.
- Do you remember what you were thinking?
- I wanted him dead.
- What stopped you from killing him?
- No. - Scared.
- You have a right to be. - Stupid.
- Of course not.
- Those butterflies...
They only live four to five weeks.
The ones that live near my mountain in March?
They aren't the same ones that end up back here in June.
They don't make it.
- In my opinion, Lourdes Vega is suffering
from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
- Did she know what she was doing was wrong?
- She did.
- Just to be clear, Dr. Olivette,
at the time of the alleged crime,
was the defendant delusional? - No.
- Thank you. - You are aware,
aren't you, Doctor, that the prosecution's
key witness, Mr. Miguel Lopez,
will testify that he has never met
Miss Vega before?
- That's what I've been told.
- If one person not only misidentifies another,
but insists on that mistaken identity
despite all facts to the contrary,
would you say the former is delusional?
- If she insisted that the latter
was God or the Devil, yes,
that would be medically delusional.
- The Devil.
Huh.
Might that include a man who burned her
and raped her over and over again?
- Objection.
- Just something to consider.
Withdrawn.
- Well, going back to my apartment
was-- was her idea.
My place was being painted,
so we went to my associate's place.
He was out of town.
And, uh, so I was staying there.
Before I knew it, she hit me
with the butt of her gun, tied me to a chair,
burned my face,
and threatened to kill me.
- When you refer to you associate,
that would be Jorge Diaz.
- Yes.
He, uh...
He...
He came back from his trip early.
And, uh, now he's dead.
Because of her.
- Thank you.
- Mr. Lopez,
you testify that you travelled
to Mexico City several times a year.
Isn't that right? - That's right.
To visit my grandmother.
I've been going there since I was a little boy.
- Never had any issue reentering the United States?
- Well, my mother brought me here
when I was eight months old.
- That's right. - But DACA wasn't implemented
until 2012.
That means all those years prior to 2012,
you travelled back and forth to Mexico illegally?
- Sure, but...
It was no big deal un--until recently.
- In other words, you have no regard
for our laws, do you? - Objection.
- Sustained.
- Did you pay your taxes before 2012?
- Yes.
- You had a fake Social Security number.
- I paid my taxes.
- But you committed a crime.
- Technically.
- So...
"Technically" you lied.
You lied to your employer, you lied
to the United States government--
- Objection. - Overruled.
- So why should we believe you now,
when you claim to have never met
Miss Vega before?
Why should we believe you when you say
you didn't rape and torture her?
- Your Honor!
- That's enough, Mr. Rojas.
- Nothing further, Your Honor.
- All I'm saying is that I--
I won't make a very good witness.
- Did Lourdes Vega point a gun at you?
- Yes, but-- - Did she prevent you
from leaving that apartment?
- Yes. - You will do fine.
- And what happens when Rojas asks me
what went on between Lourdes and Miguel?
- Legally, it's irrelevant.
- Maybe it means that whoever's less guilty wins.
- You're right to have ambivalent feelings
about this case-- - No, no, you're wrong,
there's nothing ambivalent about this.
- What if Miguel wasn't the coyote who raped her?
- He's the guy!
Do you have any evidence that he is the trafficker?
- I don't know how to get through to you.
- Your certitude is a good thing, Liv.
Hell, it may even be noble.
Unfortunately, the law--
Please, just stop.
I've, uh--
I've heard the lecture before.
- Maybe, then, you should listen.
- Maybe you should listen.
Lourdes was raped,
her entire being--
her past, her present, and most importantly,
her future-- negated.
- That doesn't entitle her to seek revenge.
- But it does entitle her
to reclaim what was once hers.
And if revenge is part of that, then...
Then so be it.
- You don't believe that.
- I believe that the wrong person is on trial.
I have a kid.
Nice bar.
You know, where I'm from,
we only have two types of vodka,
cheap and cheaper.
I'm here for a funeral.
My brother.
- I'm sorry.
- I loved Jorge...
As much as you love your sister,
I'm sure.
Pamela, if I'm not mistaken.
- You do realize I'm an Assistant District Attorney?
- And that's why we're talking, Mr. Stone.
Mm.
And that's why you're gonna drop this case.
Lourdes will get deported, and then...
Ourjustice system will take over.
.
- The defendant, Lourdes Vega,
had Officer Montero at gunpoint.
She said that she would shoot
if I didn't drop my weapon, so I did.
And she did not shoot.
- Officer Montero and I were handcuffed but unhurt.
Please describe his physical condition.
- He was alive.
I'm...
not a doctor.
- Permission to treat the witness as hostile,
Your Honor? - Go ahead.
- True or false, Lieutenant:
Mr. Diaz was tied up,
unconscious, and bleeding from his head.
- Look, the defendant didn't intend--
- Move to strike. - Granted.
- Let's try one more time, Lieutenant.
Was Mr. Diaz bleeding from his head?
- Um, yes.
- Did Ms. Vega threaten to shoot Miguel Lopez?
- She didn't intend-- - Your Honor.
- Just answer the question, Lieutenant.
- She said that she would shoot him.
- She said it several times, didn't she?
- Yes.
- Thank you, Lieutenant.
No more questions.
- Lieutenant Benson, you spent several hours
with the defendant, Lourdes Vega.
- Yes, I did. - In your experience
as an SVU detective, was her affect consistent
with PTSD? - Without a doubt.
- Specifically, PTSD a rape victim might experience
after being triggered by an encounter
with her rapist?
- Yes. - And severe symptoms
of PTSD caused by rape and physical assault
can include flashbacks, impulse control, hyper-arousal.
Almost a form
of psychosis, correct?
- It is consistent with my experience
in these situations.
- Thank you, Lieutenant.
- The people rest, Your Honor.
- Jorge Diaz's brother threatened your sister.
Why didn't you tell me? - I--
I thought I could handle it. I am handling it.
- Yeah, she's fine, I--
Westchester PD is aware. State troopers are aware.
I drove up to the facility last night.
It's on lockdown. There's armed officers
at her door and in the lobby--
- This is the cartels, you realize that?
- This is New York City, not Mexico.
We don't drop charges because of ultimatums
from organized crime. - Okay.
Does Jack McCoy know?
- No.
He'd make me recuse myself.
Look, judges and D.A.s,
they get threats all the time. They are rarely acted on.
Okay, I'm gonna pull security footage
from the bar, from the street cams.
Maybe we'll get a hit on facial recognition.
And I'm having Fin and Carisi drive up to South Salem.
- I always carried a gun.
I was afraid the men who trafficked me
would come back,
and, this time, sell me as a prostitute.
- So what happened when you and Miguel Lopez
went back to the apartment?
- He kissed me.
His hands were all over me.
I felt the horror...
I felt like...
I was in the dirt in Texas where he raped me.
And that's when I decided to pull out my gun
and demand he admit his crimes.
- Eventually, yes. He did.
He admitted to raping me.
To cutting me.
To burning me.
This.
He burned me with his cigars.
He laughed. He drank tequila.
He raped me over and over.
He did whatever he wanted with me.
I was trapped. I was helpless.
- And that's how you felt,
facing the man who had tormented you?
- I was suffocating.
I-I felt like I was dying.
I-I couldn't think clearly.
I-I wanted the pain to end,
but I didn't know how to end it.
That's when Lieutenant Benson...
She saved me. She brought me back.
She brought me back to my senses.
Back to reality.
- Yes, I cut you with my pocket knife.
I burned you with my cigar.
- So the burn scares on Lourdes' chest
are clearly made by a cigar.
Only, in the apartment,
Lourdes never mentioned cigars.
Every other detail, the-- Texas, tequila,
the dirt floor-- she said first.
- He claims he was just repeating
what she said, what she wanted to hear.
- So how did he know about the cigars?
- You're serious.
- Yes, I'm serious.
- It won't hold up in court.
- Miguel Lopez raped and tortured Lourdes.
She's not mistaken.
His confession to her,
his confession to me, was real.
- It's not on tape. - I was there.
I heard it!
This is my word!
- You are not thinking clearly.
You are choosing to believe what you want to believe.
- Oh, my God.
- Yeah, Fin.
- She's gone.
They took her.
They took your sister. I'm sorry.
.
- Our security is usually very good.
Oh, my God, the patients--
- No, all the patients except for one
have been accounted for.
- They made me take them
to her room before they locked me
in the supply closet with the rest of the staff.
- Uh, let's see. There were three that I saw.
Hispanic. They were polite,
except for the guns, and professional.
They took our phones so we couldn't call for help.
- It looks like they took her alive.
- Bad news, they got an almost
three hour jump on us. - We need a copy of this.
- If I knew anything, I would tell you.
It's okay.
Do you remember Miguel mentioning another house
or an apartment that Jorge might have used?
- Why would he say anything to me?
- I don't know, maybe you noticed a--
a photo, or-- or a calendar,
or some marks on a notepad.
- The only thing I saw was the hate in Miguel's eyes.
- You're not...giving me... anything.
I used to be on your side.
I used to understand why you did what you did,
but now-- What can I do?
- You can cut a deal with Stone.
- Perhaps you've spoken enough, Detective.
- These men--
They run the cartels.
They won't think twice about killing me!
- And we can do our best to protect you!
You know, if you cooperate with us, we can--
we can offer you asylum, Lourdes!
- I heard stories.
I watched shows on television about the risks girls take
when crossing the border.
It was worth it to me.
I was willing to hide from Border Patrol.
To crawl through the desert if I had to,
to go without food or water for days.
I was willing to be shoved like an animal
in the back of a van.
I was willing to take it from Miguel.
Anything to be an American.
And I'd be a good American, too.
I'd work my way up from the bottom.
All I wanted was a chance.
I went through hell and back to get here, Detective.
And what did Miguel do?
Su mamita brought him here
when he was a baby, on a bus!
And he can stay.
He gets to be a real American
because your president signs a piece of paper.
And me?
I will always be an illegal.
And now I have to die,
because I wanted to be what he was given for free.
Tell Mr. Stone I'll take his deal.
- Yeah, yeah, sure. Blame me, why not?
Blame me for anything that happens
to any woman in the city.
I've never met this Pam!
- Just like you never met Lourdes.
- That's right! - Okay.
So why don't you tell us about Jorge Diaz's brother?
I've never met him.
- Well, that must mean that you're pretty far down
on the cartel daisy
- I don't know what you're talking about.
- Cards on the table, Miguel.
Mr. Stone has the DEA
and the Federal Trafficking Task Force
in his speed dial right now.
- I'm happy for him. - These people on the other end
of my speed dial, they're gonna ask me
how helpful you've been.
And I'm certainly not opposed to lying.
Even if my friends have very big mouths.
- And Mr. Stone's lies are gonna travel very quickly
to your compadres, so my advice to you
is to get your affairs in order.
- Screw this!
Okay.
You're free to go.
Let's go.
My advice to you, though,
is to watch your back.
- I don't have any idea what happened to that girl.
It's not like Diego consulted with me.
- She attacked me,
for crying out loud!
I'm not a bad person.
I--
You don't have any idea.
I went to college. I have a skill.
But ten years ago, who's going to hire me?
Huh?
Sure, I could--
I could wash dishes. - Mm-hmm.
- Mow lawns.
But I'm a damn good programmer!
Ten years ago, nobody gave a damn!
- I don't give a damn right now.
- Jorge said all I had to do
was drive a truck.
Hey, you know, I'm Mexican, right?
I can do that. It's in my blood.
- And the girls were already there,
so you figured...
You might as well rape them.
- There are the weak
and there are the strong. - And you were the strong.
- Yes! Yes!
I could have anyone I wanted.
For a thousand miles, I was their god.
They were mine
until I dumped them in the warehouse,
and went back to get a new batch.
- And you weren't scared that Lourdes would mention it
to the Buckleys?
- That warehouse.
That warehouse where you left the girls,
where is it?
.
- Six girls, maybe more. Under armed guard.
- She's alive.
- Listen to me. Le ESU take the lead.
We don't want anyone to start shooting.
- Don't shoot!
- Keys! - In the desk.
- Come here, it's okay. It's okay.
Go, go, go, vaya. - Go, go, come on, come on.
Come on, come on. - Vaya, vaya.
- Let the girl go, Diego!
- What, so you can shoot me?
- Nobody wants to hurt you.
Then drop your guns!
- Lieutenant Benson, SVU. - Stand back.
- Let me talk to him. - I said, stand back.
- Peter!
Peter!
Put the guns down or she's dead!
- Hi!
Peter!
- Hold fire! Hold fire!
- Pam, stay with me.
Pam, stay with me.
Pam? Pam! Pam!
- Oh, my God. - Pam! Pam, stay with me!
Can you hear me? Pam!
Shh, shh.
Pam-- Medic!
Stay with me, no, no--
stay with me, stay with me--
Pam...
They're gonna come after me!
- Mr. Stone is a very good man,
and he's talking to the Feds.
And when you testify, hopefully you're going to
get asylum.
And go into witness protection.
- I-- I'll be all alone.
- No.
No, honey.
You're gonna be free.
Yes.
- You're gonna be free.
- Yes. Yes.
- Thanks to Miguel,
the feds rounded up
all his associates on both sides of the border.
- That's good.
- Peter, I'm--
I'm so sorry.
- I was nine...
playing stick ball with my buddies
in the schoolyard.
Pam showed up with her--
A bloody lip.
She said Billy Collier pushed her down the stairs.
I beat the living hell out of him.
- Peter...
You have to know...
That there was nothing
you could have done.
Nothing.
- The last thing
Pam said was...
Peter...
.
♪