Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Dance, Lies and Videotape (2020)

Kelli Giddish: Detective Amanda Rollins

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Quotes 

• Pornmonger Man : Ballerina getting nailed in a tutu. That's a whole genre. But what isn't? Rule 34, am I right? You gotta be more specific.

  Amanda Rollins : Okay, well, this was posted two days ago.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : And there's been an official complaint. You need to take this down.

  Pornmonger Man : So, it's revenge porn. You still can't just waltz in here, flash a badge, and expect me to fold like a cheap tent.

  Amanda Rollins : And why is that?

  Pornmonger Man : Well, in case they didn't teach you this in cop school, there is a little thing known as the First Amendment.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, I actually went to lawyer school, where they taught us about subpoenas. So how about I go get one for every hard drive in this dump?

  Amanda Rollins : We start kicking the tires, you don't think we're gonna find dozens of minors in your little video cache?

  Pornmonger Man : Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Let's start again. I can scrub this from our site, but it's not gonna mean anything. Nothing disappears from the Internet. No, it gets pirated, goes airborne, and then mutates like the plague.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, for now, let's eliminate Patient Zero. How did you get this?

• Edward Jenkins : It was just guy stuff.

  Brad : A competition. You know, with, like, points and everything. We didn't hurt anyone.

  Amanda Rollins : Why don't you ask Dehlia? I mean, you're still rehearsing together. Did you even talk to her about any of this?

  Brad : My mom told me not to talk about this to anyone because there's... legal stuff involved.

  Attorney Turner : My son feels terrible about this being distributed on porn sites and had absolutely no involvement in that.

  Amanda Rollins : He distributed it via text to all his dance buddies.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : First degree. An E felony.

  Attorney Turner : Clearly an overreach. Look, maybe this rises to the level of misdemeanor harassment.

  Amanda Rollins : Hmm.

  Attorney Turner : We all know the real felon here is Jason. Surveillance, dissemination, it's all on him. My clients can help you make that case.

• Dehlia : They were both in on it? Jason was always hitting on me, but Brad, he... he's a gentleman. Are you sure?

  Olivia Benson : I'm sorry, Dehlia.

  Amanda Rollins : From the looks of the video, he knew exactly what he was doing, where the camera was.

  Dehlia : In ballet, the boys move the girls; that's how it works. Brad placed me on the barre, in front of the camera. How could I be so stupid?

  Olivia Benson : You couldn't have known. And you weren't the only dancer.

  Amanda Rollins : Brad, Jason, Edward Jenkins...

  Dehlia : He's in the corps.

  Olivia Benson : They shared your video in a group text, and there were videos with other women.

  Dehlia : [taking a tablet and scrolling through pictures]  That's Beck Silva. She's in the corps, too. That's Grace Pressley. Ashley Fallon.

  [giving the tablet back] 

  Dehlia : I feel sick.

• Olivia Benson : So, the man in the video, the other dancer, Dehlia; he's your boyfriend?

  Dehlia : Brad and I just started seeing each other. He's a nice guy. Sweet. Not like most of the jerks in ballet. There's no way he did this.

  Amanda Rollins : W-What did he say?

  Dehlia : I texted him. He hasn't answered. He's been in rehearsal. I need your help. I have to get this taken down. I mean, I already got fired from my teaching job. You know, my god... what if the National finds out?

  Olivia Benson : Dehlia, Dehlia, we are... we are gonna do everything that we can to help you, believe me. But to be honest, once these things go viral, it can... it can be difficult.

  Dehlia : Isn't it illegal?

  Olivia Benson : If you did not agree to be filmed, yes.

  Amanda Rollins : Are you sure Brad had nothing to do with this?

  Dehlia : Positive.

  Amanda Rollins : Then he won't mind talking to us.

• Attorney Turner : Unlawful surveillance?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Mm-hmm.

  Attorney Turner : It's obviously consensual. The girls look like they're playing to the camera.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, they all say that they weren't aware they were being recorded.

  Attorney Turner : Well, my clients say otherwise. Maybe the girls have regrets now.

  Amanda Rollins : Well, they swear they didn't know they were being filmed, and they absolutely did not want the videos shared. Have you seen the texts between the boys? Here's a transcript. Shall we read it out loud?

  Attorney Turner : All this proves is that they're idiots. I should know, I'm Brad's mother. Being an idiot is not illegal.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : But dissemination is. And they're definitely guilty of that.

• Olivia Benson : Okay, so Brad and Edward are willing to testify that Jason set up the camera?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, in exchange for bumping them down to misdemeanor harassment.

  Amanda Rollins : Can't we get them on misdemeanor dissemination?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : She's smart. She doesn't want that on their records.

  Olivia Benson : Okay, so this is our best chance to get one of the three boys on a felony.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, and with their testimony, we can get Jason on unlawful surveillance, dissemination, and toss in revenge porn for the hat trick.

  Olivia Benson : Which is gonna be tough to prove, because we have to show intent to harm, which, even so, is just a misdemeanor.

  Amanda Rollins : So, texting the video to a friend is worse than posting it on a porn site?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Tech lobbies, corporations, civil libertarians; they got their fingerprints all over the state's revenge porn bill. It's basically toothless.

  Olivia Benson : But Jason doesn't know that. And he hasn't lawyered up yet. This might give us some leverage.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah,

  Amanda Rollins : Yeah, well, what's Jason gonna give us that don't already have?

  Olivia Benson : You never know.

• Jason Harris : Well, yeah, that's my e-mail, but I... I don't even look at porn, so someone must have hacked me.

  Amanda Rollins : Oh, you were hacked? You don't watch porn? Really? That's the best you can come up with? Because you're a dancer, you had access to Studio X. Now, are we gonna find your prints on the camera?

  Jason Harris : I-I don't know anything about a camera.

  Amanda Rollins : Hmm.

  Jason Harris : I-I mean, I've been in the studio, but either way, it wasn't me. Brad's a friend.

  Amanda Rollins : How about Dehlia?

  Jason Harris : Well, she's new. I barely know her.

  Amanda Rollins : [hearing a rapping on the one-way mirror]  You get a little more time to work on your story.

• Beck Silva : Edward and I hooked up last year. This was at his parents' house. This one... oh, my god. That's Alistair's desk. Edward kind of dared me.

  Amanda Rollins : Did you know he was filming you?

  Beck Silva : No. I'm on a visa. I have to be careful. Who's seen these?

• Tina Bishop : There are no videos of me and Jason.

  Amanda Rollins : Because Sascha had it deleted?

  Tina Bishop : You know about that? Sascha's a friend.

  Katriona Tamin : With benefits.

  Tina Bishop : After Sascha saw the video, he said he needed to make sure it didn't get out, or my career would be over.

  Amanda Rollins : But not Jason's?

  Tina Bishop : You kidding? There's a hundred other dancers who could be in my costume and my solo tomorrow. Sascha said he'd make sure that didn't happen.

  Katriona Tamin : And what did he want in return?

  Tina Bishop : For me to do to him what I did to Jason in the video.

  Amanda Rollins : Tina, he pressured you. He extorted you. That's rape.

  Tina Bishop : Like any of the other girls wouldn't do it. Sascha saw all the videos. He chose me.

• Olivia Benson : TARU went through Jason's phone. He uploaded the video to Pornmonger, but he didn't record it.

  Amanda Rollins : So who did?

  Katriona Tamin : It was texted to him by Brad. Along with other homemade sex videos.

  Amanda Rollins : So the nice, sweet guy twirling his baton out in front of the victim bandwagon...

  Olivia Benson : Are you surprised?

• Brad : Dehlia and I are on Internet porn sites? How did that happen?

  Amanda Rollins : We were hoping you could tell us.

  Brad : I have no idea, I swear.

  Katriona Tamin : You didn't know that you were being recorded?

  Brad : No, neither of us did. Ask Dehlia, she'll tell you.

  Amanda Rollins : We did. She's wondering why you haven't texted her back.

  Brad : Well, our rehearsals have been at different times, we're... we're opening in five days. If... if I'd know that was why she was texting me, I, um... she didn't say.

  Katriona Tamin : She's embarrassed, humiliated.

  Brad : I get it. This is terrible for both of us. C-Can you take it down?

  Katriona Tamin : Well, as far as we can tell, the site that initially reposted it is based in Cypress. We're trying to find out how it got uploaded in the first place.

  Brad : There must have been a camera hidden in the studio.

  Katriona Tamin : [sarcastic]  You think?

  Brad : Dehlia and I aren't the only people to hook up in there. It's secluded, you know? It... it locks from the inside.

  Amanda Rollins : Everybody knows about this?

  Brad : It's the company's worst-kept secret.

• Olivia Benson : Hey, Kat, any luck?

  Katriona Tamin : Struck out again.

  Amanda Rollins : So we're 0 for everyone?

  Katriona Tamin : They've danced their whole lives, sacrificed everything to get to the National. They have too much to lose. Sorry.

  Olivia Benson : Don't be. Just need to find somebody who already lost.

• Ashley Fallon : You're very generous to support the company this way.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : And you're very kind to let me sponsor you, with, um, all that that entails.

  Ashley Fallon : So we're clear, this is just for one night. And safe sex only?

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : Absolutely. You're in charge.

  Ashley Fallon : Then unzip me, Nick.

  Amanda Rollins : [bursting in]  NYPD.

  Ashley Fallon : W-What the hell?

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : Ashley, I'm Sergeant Khaldun.

  Ashley Fallon : What is going on?

  Amanda Rollins : It's up to you.

  Ashley Fallon : This is not my idea. I...

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : Then tell us whose it was.

• Olivia Benson : So, it turns out that Sascha looked at the videos. It's not just about the boys anymore.

  Dehlia : So he knew? He didn't stop them?

  Amanda Rollins : Just the opposite.

  Dehlia : So, there was a video of Tina? That's why she slept with him? Everyone was wondering why she finally got her solo.

  Olivia Benson : Dehlia, do you know of any other dancers that were involved with Sascha?

  Dehlia : Wait, you guys are going after Sascha now? No way. I'm out.

  Olivia Benson : Hang on.

  Dehlia : No, I never should have come to you in the first place. He's the choreographer. He gets to do whatever he wants.

  Olivia Benson : Not if you're willing to help us.

  Dehlia : It's ballet! It's like my friend Hudson says, "straight male, can't fail. Gay men, it depends. But girls in ballet? Do what we say."

• Olivia Benson : Alistair Woodford, Sascha Thomas.

  Alistair Woodford : Captain Benson, what is this?

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : Give it a second. It'll come to you.

  Alistair Woodford : You're making a major mistake.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : Not my first, won't be my last.

  Alistair Woodford : [to Sascha as he gets cuffed]  You vouched for him.

  Amanda Rollins : Don't worry, he's under arrest, too.

  Alistair Woodford : Whatever I did, I did to subsidize art. That man's your rapist!

  Olivia Benson : So you knew? And you used it as leverage. That makes you a sex trafficker. Get him out of here.

• Amanda Rollins : We need to know how all this works.

  Ashley Fallon : Every year, at the gala, dinner with the prima goes to the highest bidder.

  Amanda Rollins : Mm-hmm.

  Ashley Fallon : Everybody knows it's more than just dinner. This year, I was on the auction block.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : How did he get you to agree to this?

  Ashley Fallon : Same way he got everybody else. He had a video. Me, Brad, and Jason.

  Amanda Rollins : Does Sascha know about this?

  Ashley Fallon : He gave Alistair the video.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : What did Alistair say to you, exactly?

  Ashley Fallon : He said I'd already worked my way through the dancers and the choreographer for my career, so compared to that, this was a small ask.

  Amanda Rollins : And if you refused?

  Ashley Fallon : The video would be made public. He said, after that... the only way I'd be able to make a living was in porn.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : [watching with Benson]  That's enough for an arrest warrant.

  Olivia Benson : Better idea. We pick him up now.

• Amanda Rollins : You clean up nice.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : I'd rather be in jeans on the E train.

  Amanda Rollins : How was the ballet?

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : The last ballet I saw was "The Nutcracker" when I was ten. This was better.

  Amanda Rollins : So, did Sascha walk you through the night?

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : Briefly. He's prepped Alistair that there's a potential "Diamond Tiara"-level tier donor waiting to meet him.

  Amanda Rollins : Hey, Diamond Tiara. How much is that?

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : If you have to ask...

  Amanda Rollins : [giving him a plastic card]  Okay, here.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : What's this?

  Amanda Rollins : That's the key to your hotel suite. Break a leg. Or whatever it is they say.

• Ashley Fallon : Am I under arrest?

  Amanda Rollins : We all want to avoid that.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : But you could be looking at prostitution charges.

  Ashley Fallon : You can't be serious.

  Amanda Rollins : Ashley, we know this wasn't your plan. Whose was it?

  Ashley Fallon : I can't say.

  Sergeant Hasim Khaldun : If we call Alistair Woodford and tell him you were picked up in a police sting, about to service a sponsor, you think he'll protect you?

  Ashley Fallon : He didn't give me any choice.

• Rose Sullivan : That was a lifetime ago.

  Olivia Benson : That was at the gala last year. It's right after you got picked to be the principal.

  Rose Sullivan : How did you get my name? I quit the company a year ago. No one from the National has even called.

  Amanda Rollins : We read the interview in your hometown paper, the Suffolk Times. How excited you were to get your first lead, and you never actually danced.

  Rose Sullivan : You're with NYPD. Why do you care?

  Olivia Benson : Well, we're looking into a... a company-wide pattern of... of sexual abuse.

  Rose Sullivan : You're actually investigating those pricks?

  Olivia Benson : We are.

  Rose Sullivan : How did you even find out about this? Who came forward?

  Olivia Benson : Dehlia Kelly, initially.

  Rose Sullivan : Oh, no. She was one of my students. Sascha raped her, too?

• Katriona Tamin : Well, she says it wasn't rape. That's that.

  Amanda Rollins : Well, from what I heard, rape culture is so much a part of this company, they don't even realize it anymore.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : Okay, so the highest bids at every gala auction are for "dinner for two with a ballerina." That doesn't prove these women are being sex trafficked...

  Olivia Benson : You said that you wanted a pattern, and we have one.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Go ahead.

  Olivia Benson : So, the male dancers are secretly recording the women having sex with them. Sascha is using the tapes to blackmail these women into re-enacting these videos, right? So if they consent or if they just fail to fight him off, they get solos.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, but none of these women are willing to testify.

  Amanda Rollins : Rose Sullivan is. She told us that Sascha coerced her, and when she went to Alistair with it, he doubled down, blackmailed her, and told her if she didn't sleep with the highest bidder, that she would lose her job.

  Olivia Benson : We're looking at sex trafficking here.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Okay, maybe. Did she actually go through with it? No?

  [groaning in frustration] 

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : So the board's gonna circle the wagons, the dancers aren't talking, and these donors sponsoring ballerinas, they certainly won't. So at the end of the day, this is Rose's word against Sascha and Alistair's.

  Amanda Rollins : All right, you got any ideas, or are you just gonna keep playing the "I'm the ADA, I need more" card?

  Olivia Benson : Rollins.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : You know what would be helpful? A confession. How about that idea?

  Amanda Rollins : I don't see that happening.

  Olivia Benson : Or we catch him in the act. This year's gala is tomorrow night after the premiere. We put in a UC, and we get Alistair on tape promising to deliver the goods.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Huh.

  Amanda Rollins : How about Hasim Khaldun?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Your transit-groper cop?

  Olivia Benson : He could pass as an oil heir.

  Amanda Rollins : Or a venture capitalist from Silicon Valley. He's... he's a chameleon.

• Dehlia : Now anytime someone searches my name, this video comes up. How long before my parents see it?

  Olivia Benson : Cybercrimes are tracking down the sites one by one, enforcing the court order. Dehlia, it's just... it's not easy.

  Amanda Rollins : In the meantime, we can help you get the links removed from the search engines.

  Dehlia : No one knows who I am in the ballet world. This is what I'm famous for? The National's gonna fire me.

  Olivia Benson : Dehlia. They're not gonna fire you.

  Amanda Rollins : They're too busy covering their own asses.

• Olivia Benson : Is Sascha the reason that you left the company?

  Rose Sullivan : Well, he's the reason I'm here. Jason made a sex tape of me. Sascha got a hold of it, told me he could make it go away if I did to him what I did to Jason. He wouldn't take no for an answer. I just gave up and let him do it.

  Olivia Benson : Rose, I'm... I'm so sorry.

  Rose Sullivan : A few days later, he promoted me, told me that what happened was just between he and I, and that he'd do it again any time he wanted.

  Amanda Rollins : Did you tell anybody? I mean, any other dancers or friends or family?

  Rose Sullivan : I told the one person who I thought could help me; Alistair. Alistair said he would help me, that I could do a lot better than Sascha.

  Olivia Benson : And what did he mean?

  Rose Sullivan : Every year at the gala auction, dinner with the prima ballerina is the top item. But what's expected is not just dinner. Alistair said if I'd let him auction me off, he'd get Sascha to back down. Then he told me if I said no, he'd leak Jason's sex tape, fire me immediately for cause, and blackball me with every other company.

  Olivia Benson : So that's why you left.

  Rose Sullivan : I didn't even dance the premiere. I couldn't go on that night. And Alistair was right. I've never danced since.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : Tina said the sex was consensual?

  Amanda Rollins : But it wasn't. She just doesn't wanna see it that way. Sascha's her boss, he gave her the choice of losing her job or getting a solo, depending on whether or not she was gonna re-enact that video with him.

  Olivia Benson : It's forcible coercion, rape three.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : In theory, yes. But his defense attorney's gonna say the relationship was consensual. At worst, transactional, one in which she was a willing part of.

  Katriona Tamin : Sascha? From what the other dancers said, this is happening all the time at the company.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Then we need to try to establish a pattern. Are there any other allegations against Sascha?

  Amanda Rollins : No official complaints lodged with the National HR department.

  Katriona Tamin : Yeah, the cone of silence in ballet is real. I knew a few bunheads at LaGuardia; rehearse nonstop, never spoke out of turn, never ate... I mean, that kind of conditioning sticks with you

  Olivia Benson : Listen, this isn't just ballet. It's churches, news organizations, movie sets. When your boss is a predator, people are afraid.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, unless someone breaks ranks, we're stalled.

  Olivia Benson : [checking her phone, she groans]  More bad news. Cybercrime said somebody ran Dehlia's image through facial recognition. Her identity has gone viral.