The following lists all characters, major and minor, who are/were medical and forensic experts.
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New York City's Office of Chief Medical Examiner
Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers
Appearances: Law & Order | Exiled: A Law & Order Movie | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Leslie Hendrix
A wise-cracking medical examiner who figures out why people died. Blasé about her job, to the point of eating lunch in rooms containing corpses. She at least once had to perform an autopsy in a full HAZMAT suit.
- Autopsy Snack Time: Has a habit of eating lunch in the morgue.
- Berserk Button: Disrepect of the dead or sloppy work by her employees. She is livid when one of her assistants rushes through an autopsy in "Blasters".Rodgers: Natural causes?!? What did you do, a drive-by intake?Assistant: He was outdoors three or four weeks, exposed to the elements...Rodgers: He was hanged. After his ribs were broken. How do you miss that? Did you even look at him?
- Deadpan Snarker: Big time. A scene with her and Briscoe is a sight to behold. It's a trait that carried after her Transplant to Criminal Intent.
- Fake Guest Star: She's been on the parent show longer than any of the regulars.
- Iconic Sequel Character: One of the most fondly remembered characters in the show, but doesn't make an appearance until the parent series' second season.
- Progressively Prettier: She was originally seen with short red hair and hidden in lab coats. Over time, her hair was dyed blonde and grown out and she was seen more outside work in more feminine clothing. "Untethered" even had her wearing a beautiful, sparkly dress as she was about to head to the opera with Ross.
- Ship Tease:
- With Lennie Briscoe. They've gone out to the opera at least once, but whatever relationship they may or may not have had is never confirmed.
- With Captain Ross; it's never officially mentioned on screen, but they're seen dressed for a theater date in one episode, and in "Frame" Goren angrily confronts Ross about asking Rodgers for information on him by saying, "Did your girlfriend tell you that?"
- Transplant: From the original series, then briefly to SVU, permanently to Criminal Intent..
Dr. Melinda Warner
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Law & Order: Trial by Jury
Other Appearances: Chicago Fire
Played By: Tamara Tunie
The main medical examiner for the SVU, she has a snarky personality and varying levels of importance - she's the only cast member to have been promoted to opening titles and still regularly appear after leaving them.
- Black and Nerdy: African-American and the SVU squad's go-to medical examiner.
- Combat Medic: She served in the U.S. Air Force during The Gulf War to pay for her medical bills.
- Commuting on a Bus: Of all the departed regulars, she's the one with the most frequent guest reappearances.
- The Coroner: Her role, of course.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Blast".
- Deadpan Snarker:Stabler: (standing over a burnt corpse) What's on the menu for tonight?Warner: Barbecue. A little too well-done.
- Demoted to Extra: In Season 13.
- Happily Married: One of the few recurrent SVU characters without much personal angst.
- Iconic Sequel Character: She's the definitive medical expert of the show, but she didn't make an appearance until Season 2.
- The Medic: In general, but particularly noticeable in any episode that places the SVUs in a live situation.
- Minored in Ass-Kicking: She was a soldier before joining the SVU, and she's able to use a gun to good effect when she needs to.
- Nerves of Steel: In "Shattered", she was shot in the chest by a crazed suspect, and still kept her cool long enough to talk Olivia through performing an emergency medical procedure long enough to keep her alive. The woman has guts.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Was a Recurring Character in Seasons 2-6 before being upgraded to a series regular during Seasons 7-12.
- Sassy Black Woman: A less extroverted version than usual examples, but she is extremely tough, well-respected, and snarky — even after being shot and carried out by the morgue staff: "Back off, vultures, I'm not dead yet!"
- Quip to Black: Often sets these up.
Medical Examiner Taylor
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Lance Reddick
- Black and Nerdy: He is a medical examiner.
- Only One Name: Hence, we don't know if he's addressed in First Name or Last-Name Basis.
- Put on a Bus: Disappears after Season 3, though Lance Reddick has appeared in the Law & Order TV shows four more times as different characters.
Crime Scene Unit
Forensic Technician Burt Trevor
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Daniel Sunjata
- Put on a Bus: After "Families", O'Halloran permanently took over his duties without mentions of what happened to him.
- Two First Names: Trevor is as common of a given name as Burt.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears without proper explanation.
Forensic Technician Ryan O'Halloran
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Mike Doyle
- Alone with the Psycho: An inversion in that O'Halloran only sees that the computer found a DNA match before he's stabbed by said killer. Elliot only figured it out when he saw the actual results on the screen and by then he's arrived too late to save O'Halloran. Averted in that The Cavalry that arrives ends up captured.
- A Death in the Limelight: He was featured rather prominently during season 10, and especially during "Zebras".
- He Knows Too Much: The reason why Stuckey killed him
- The Lab Rat: Was the main Forensic Technician season 5 to season 10.
- Shorter Means Smarter: The shortest person in just about any scene he appears in, and a highly competent forensic technician who has produced case making evidence for the detectives many times over.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: NBC made a big deal of SVU losing one of their own in the trailers for the episodes, but we knew next to nothing about O'Halloran, despite him being around for several seasons.
CSU Technician Dale Stuckey
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Noel Fisher
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Stuckey is genuinely dismayed when Benson walks in on him about to kill Stabler, because he didn't want to "have to" hurt her. She manages to use this against him.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Does not take criticism well. At all. Although to be fair: while he was annoying, he also didn't need almost every single other character in the show bullying him. It eventually gets to the point where even his meaningful contributions get shot down.
- Butt-Monkey: He was extremely unpopular with a lot of viewers, but mostly everyone agreed that, while Stuckey was exaggeratedly incompetent, the nonstop bullying he got from the other main characters bordered on What the Hell, Hero?
- Catchphrase: "Bing Bang Bong."
- Final Boss: He's the final antagonist in the closing minutes of Season 10.
- The Lab Rat: Halloran's second-in-command.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Is initially (a little too) enthusiastic about working with the detectives and helping get scum off the streets, and Stabler is at first polite even though he finds him irritating. Soon, Stabler keeps dropping more and more hints at just how much Stuckey annoys him, built on by almost every other member of the squad. When Stabler finally starts physically pushing Stuckey around like a high school bully and Cragen blows him off for complaining, Stuckey goes off the deep end.
- Temporary Scrappy: Everyone in the SVU absolutely hated him for being extremely annoying and doing many screw ups (such as calling the press to a crime scene to nearly cutting a body by using his shovel). By the end hardly anyone did not roll their eyes when he walked in. And then he gets dangerous. Thankfully, he's only around for a few episodes.
- Villain Has a Point: Yes, Stuckey is annoying as shit, but he still didn't need to have every single other character on the show bullying him and shooting down even his meaningful contributions, such as his explanation of phone spoofing in "Crush". He gets a Pet the Dog moment from Olivia in "Zebras", but by then it's too little too late.
- Who's Laughing Now?
New York City Police Department Technical Assistance Response Unit
Lt. Technician Ruben Morales
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Joel de la Fuente
- Ascended Extra: He goes from a nameless background guy to having his own It's Personal episode.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Vanished without explanation later in the series.
- Mauve Shirt: Graduates to this over the course of the series.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Zigged-zagged. After the detectives use kinship DNA, he believes it'll lead to Jumping Off The Slippery Slope. His worries are not completely unfounded, especially when Elliot says he's okay with infringing with civil liberties for what he thinks is the greater good. Later he disobeys Cragen's orders to shutdown a kiddie porn site in order to keep the pedophiles from going to unmonitored ones. However this results in a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment where owner of said site is able to escape with pedophiles' help.
Psychology experts
Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
Appearances: Law & Order | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Law & Order: Trial by Jury
Other Appearances: New York Undercover
Played By: Carolyn McCormick (Seasons 2-7, 9, 13-20)
A psychologist who often interviews people that are claiming to have insanity defenses, and who also assists with profiling defendants. She comes from an academic background, having earned her degree in psychology through a graduate research program. Olivet is generally non-confrontational when talking to her patients. Often inclined to believe that a given client is insane (or was during the time of the crime), and has disagreed with McCoy vehemently when she feels obligated to do so. Appears in 87 episodes between seasons 2-19.- Broken Bird
- Cowboy Cop: When she goes after a Smug Snake gynecologist who raped one of her patients—only to become a victim herself.
- Did They or Didn't They?: With Logan; she treated him after Greevey's death and they later became friends, but the exact nature of their relationship isn't clarified until Season 18, when Cutter discredits her during a trial by mentioning that she once had a relationship with a detective who she was counseling over the death of his partner (no names are mentioned, but it's fairly evident that it's meant to be Logan). Olivet admits to it, but adds that she stopped treating him once the relationship started.
- Fake Guest Star
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Briefly.
- Rape as Drama: One episode focuses on her being molested and later raped by a gynecologist.
Dr. Emil Skoda
Appearances: Law & Order | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Other Appearances: New York Undercover
Played By: J. K. Simmons (Seasons 8-15, 20)
A psychiatrist who handles the psych workups required when a defendant pleads an insanity defense, and who also assists in creating profiles of suspects. His background is in practicing medicine; he was a physician with a specialty in psychiatry before becoming an expert witness. Often disinclined to believe that a patient is insane, to the point of arguing with psychologists (such as Olivet, and in one case, the criminal's victim) about it. Appears in 42 episodes between seasons 8-15, and 3 more in season 20.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome (Disappeared after the 2004 season as the actor (J. K. Simmons) got a job on The Closer, but subverted when he appeared again for two episodes in 2010 with no warning.)
- Iconic Sequel Character: One of the most fondly remembered characters in the show, but doesn't make an appearance until the eighth season.
Dr. George Huang
Dr. Rebecca Hendrix
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit |
Played By: Mary Stuart Masterson
- Idiot Ball: Mistakenly assumed the picture a girl drew of her abuser was her coach. The girl, a terrified nine-year-old child who was browbeaten and pressured by her and Elliot into making the accusation, went along with it to put a stop to it. It actually was the local Jerk Jock, and after Elliot realizes the huge fuck-up, he gets the dude caught.
- Minored In Ass Kicking: She was classmates with Benson in the academy and was in the force for two years before quitting and becoming a psychiatrist.
- Never My Fault: Somehow shrugs off responsibility for above mentioned Idiot Ball, yet criticizes mothers for doing the same thing and then says the wrong man was accused because the abuser had the girl so frightened. Later ignores that a man's murder was in consequence of her actions.
- Retired Badass: She was an ex-cop now working as a shrink.
- Romantic False Lead: For Elliot, as she was introduced almost immediately after he and Kathy separated and got several Ship Tease with him. Nothing came out of it and Elliot and Kathy eventually reconcile.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: It's her primary character trait, but unlike the other characters, she lets it detrimentally get in the way of her job, so much so that she quit being a police officer and then is fired as a doctor after that. In "Identity", she was warned that her career would be in jeopardy if she told the unknowingly and forcibly transgender girl that he was born a boy. She did it anyway.
- Ship Tease: Upon her introduction, she immediately hits it off with a recently separated (at the time) Elliot. Nothing came out of it.
- The Shrink
- Temporary Substitute: For Huang in Season 6 (B.D. Wong was busy with Pacific Overtures).
Dr. Paula Gyson
Appearances: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Played By: Julia Ormond
Goren's psychologist and friend of the new captain of MCS, Joseph Hannah. Goren was required to see her as a condition of his return to MCS.
- And Starring: Jay O. Sanders and Julia Ormond are credited with "And Starring." Neither of them are in the title sequence, however.
Dr. Cap Jackson
Appearances: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Played By: Jeremy Irons
A psychiatrist who specializes in treating sex addiction.
- Aerith and Bob: Cap is a very unconventional name.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Consuming too much alcohol led him to believe that he molested his own daughter. He actually didn't, but his relationship with her is damaged nonetheless since the one he actually slept with was his daughter's best friend who she was in-love with.
- My God, What Have I Done?: For the longest time, he believed he slept with his daughter due to the Alcohol-Induced Idiocy mentioned above. The Reveal about what really happened and the circumstances behind it didn't lessen his guilt. He actually slept with her best friend (it was fully consensual), and the reason his daughter resented him after that incident is because she was in love with said best friend.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His daughter ultimately succumbs to the injuries she received.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Doubles as Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! He disregards the rules of his own therapy sessions to allow Elliot to catch the perp who assaulted several women including Cap's daughter.
- Stacy's Mom: His daughter's best friend was attracted to him, and she consented on him making a move on her when he was drunk.
- The Shrink: He specializes on treating sex addiction.
- Temporary Substitute: Subs for Huang after his unofficial departure.
