Tonight on NBC Law & Order SVU returns with an all-new Thursday, February 16, 2023 episode and we have your Law & Order SVU recap below. In tonight’s Law & Order SVU season 24 episode 14 “Dutch Tears,” as per the NBC synopsis, “A recently released convict goes looking for his arresting officer, Fin Tutuola. Carisi tries to get an arrest warrant without a positive suspect ID.”
Tonight’s Law & Order SVU season 24 episode 14 looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it.
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back from 9 PM – 10 PM ET for our Law & Order SVU recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our Law & Order SVU recaps, spoilers, news & more!
Tonight’s Law & Order SVU recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
In tonight’s Law & Order episode, Sergeant Odafin “Fin” Tutuola won the Harlem Heart Award. Fin was from Harlem. He was born and raised there. It hadn’t always been easy. He was six when he witnessed his mother’s murder, but he didn’t let his pain stop him from doing the right thing or from becoming a cop.
Fin started out in Narcotics. He transferred over to SVU. He was now best friends with his captain and with an ADA. He does great work there. Fin found the love of his life with his second marriage. His son was doing great. And now he has this award.
Fin was feeling his best that night. He got drunk and Benson walked him back to his apartment. Finn was just settling in for the night when someone pulled a gun on him. They had apparently broken into his apartment and waited for him to get home. The gunman was probably hoping to frighten Fin, but Fin doesn’t frighten easily. He calmly talked to the man with the gun and he listened as the guy reminded him of their shared past. The gunman’s name is Ivan Hernandez. His street name was Dutch.
Fin sent Dutch to prison for drug dealing. Dutch was only seventeen at the time. Fin’s partner had broken Dutch’s arm the night of the arrest and then they threw him in a cell without him ever getting medical treatment. It was supposed to be a secluded cell. Only there had been a guard on shift during that time.
The guard let in some big, fat, ugly guy who raped Dutch. He also branded him with the letter “H”. Dutch tried to report what happened to him. But he got railroaded by the system and having that letter on him set him up to fail when he got transferred to an actual prison.
Dutch was raped, passed around, and bartered because everyone thought he was up for grabs. They even made him grow out his hair so that they could put pigtails in it. Dutch never had a chance after the guy nicknamed “Cream Cheese” branded him. Now, Dutch broke into Fin’s apartment because he wanted Fin’s help.
He wanted to go after the crooked guard that set him up to be raped. He also wanted to go after his original rapist. Dutch had heard that Fin now works with SVU and that’s why he went to his place to talk.
The gun that Dutch had wasn’t even loaded. He just wanted to get Fin to listen him and his plan worked. Fin wasn’t angry about Dutch breaking into his apartment. He felt for the guy. He knew that male rape victims were less likely to report their rapes because they felt too ashamed for what happened to them. With Dutch coming to him, Fin knew he was ready to get justice. Finn never reported the break in or that Dutch had a gun. He simply reached out to Detective Bruno for help with the case. They looked into Correction Officers who were in charge back then. And by working together they were able to find the man that set up Dutch to be raped.
His name is Pete Ryan. He was now a captain up at Riker’s. Fin and Bruno went to the man’s house even though it was late at night. They told Ryan that he had been identified as a corrupt CO that set up a child to be raped. Ryan tried to deny it. The detectives told him that they could make a deal with the District Attorney if he was willing to tell the person that attacked Dutch. But then his wife overheard he might get arrested. She freaked out. She threw the cops out of her home. She thought she had gotten rid of them and they instead waited in their car outside.
The detectives figured that Ryan would go warn his accomplice. They didn’t count on the wife being the one to leave the house in the dead of night to drive up to a wellness center. The wife visited Virgil Hatton’s room there. She was trying to warn him. The cops went in there after her and they had just missed Hatton because he escaped before he could be arrested. Hatton has a long record. He also grew up with Ryan. They were neighbors as well as best friends all throughout high school. And so when Ryan began sanctioning rape as a way of gaining allies amongst prisoners – Hatton was his go to guy.
The police went back to Ryan’s home. They arrested him. They have his fellow Correction Officers willing to go on the record that Ryan allowed a lot to happen on his watch and that he did so because he thought it was his only way to maintain control. Ryan would later say that the holding cells were like a zoo. He would make friends with the biggest people in there and give them whatever they wanted in exchange for the COs having an easier time of it. He explained that’s what he did with Hatton showed up in the cells.
Hatton was a scary big dude at the time. Ryan hadn’t wanted to upset him and so he allowed Hatton to rape and brand anyone he wanted to. Hatton even used the “H” brand because he wanted to mark his territory. Hatton got away from them once. The cops weren’t going to let him get away a second time. They found out from Ryan where he likes to hang out. It was so bar in the city. They then went there and they had Dutch look at everyone coming out of the bar. They needed his identification to officially arrest his rapist. And at first Dutch wasn’t much help.
Dutch couldn’t really remember at first what the guy looked like. He had tried to put that night out of his mind for the longest. It wasn’t until he saw Hatton’s face lit up as he used a lighter to lit a cigarette that he was able to identify him. Dutch’s clearest memory from that night was looking back at his rapist as he lit a paperclip to brand him with. And so Dutch tried to run outside and attack Hatton.
But Fin was able to talk him down before he got himself arrested and Fin later reunited Dutch with the daughter he never got to meet.
THE END!
