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| “ | Jacob says that healing is a matter of adjusting your mind to God's will. | „ |
| ~ Carla demonstrating the depth of her dependance on her husband |
| “ | He has to learn! He's gotta learn! | „ |
| ~ Carla as she abuses her son |
Carla Lowenstein is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Indifference" and a minor character in the later episode "Fixed". She is a housewife whose abusive husband gets her addicted to cocaine and makes her abuse their children to the point that their daughter finally dies.
She was portrayed by Marcia Jean Kurtz.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Carla was married to Jacob Lowenstein, a depraved psychiatrist and cocaine addict who got her addicted to the drug as well, making her completely dependent upon him and pliable to his violent sexual demands. He nevertheless frequently cheats on her with his female patients, to whom he also deals cocaine.
He also made her "discipline" their children, six-year-old Didi and two-year-old Ezra, by starving them, chaining them to a radiator, and inflicting severe beatings for the slightest misbehavior, or for no reason at all. While she obeyed his every whim and command, he often beat and raped her, particularly when he was high. He also brainwashed her into believing that his sexual abuse of Didi was for her own good, a way to "train" her to serve him and her future husband.
The night before the events of the episode, Carla hit Didi in the head while in a drug-induced rage, striking her so hard that it caused a brain hemorrhage. When Jacob came home from work and saw Didi lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor, he punched Carla in the face so hard that it caused her jaw to swell up; he did nothing to help Didi, however, simply leaving her in a pool of her own blood all night. The next morning, Carla sent her daughter to school as if nothing had happened.
"Indifference"[]
When Didi's teacher finds the girl unconscious and bleeding heavily from the back of her head, she suspects that Carla hit her and calls the police. NYPD Homicide Sergeant Max Greevey and Detective Mike Logan go to the Lowensteins' apartment to notify Carla that Didi is hurt, but she is so high and detached from reality that she refuses to cooperate.
Greevey and Logan discover that the Department of Family Services had investigated Jacob for domestic violence, so they go to his office to question him and find him having cocaine-fueled sex with a female patient, which he dismisses as "therapy". When they bring him to their station house for questioning, he accuses Carla of abusing their children and tries to punch Captain Don Cragen, which gives them cause to arrest him. Greevey and Logan return to the Lowenstein home to pick up Carla, only to find her about to scald Ezra with boiling hot water, so they take her to a psychiatric hospital.
When Greevey and Logan ask her whether Jacob has ever harmed Didi, she avoids the question and demands to know if Jacob has asked for her, saying that they are "very much in love". Greevey presses her about Ezra being taken in by social services, and she shrugs, "Now, how am I supposed to know anything about that?"
Carla reminds Logan of his own abusive, emotionally unstable mother, and he suspects her of having inflicted Didi's injuries - a suspicion confirmed when the Lowensteins' neighbor tells them he saw Jacob hitting Carla and Carla hitting Didi the night before Didi was hospitalized. He also says that he saw Didi coming home from the hospital just as Jacob, who has been released from police custody for lack of evidence, is also coming home. They rush to the apartment just as a bruised and bloodied Carla has struck Ezra and left him lying on the floor, just as she did with Didi. They arrest both Jacob and Carla, and Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette charge them both with murder and assault after Didi dies of her injuries.
When Robinette informs her of Didi's death, Carla appears not to care, instead asking whether Jacob is all right. Robinette tries to get her to tell him what happened, but she insists that no one hit Didi, although she does say that Jacob "put hands on it" to "make it better". The medical examiner soon confirms that Didi was indeed sexually abused. During the trial, Didi's teacher testifies that she saw Carla slap Didi and pull at her hair and clothes several times, and that Didi often came to school covered in bruises.
Stone is convinced that Jacob's abuse of his entire family is the primary cause of Didi's death, so he meets with Carla and her lawyer, Shambala Green, to get her to testify against her husband in return for going to prison for manslaughter rather than murder. By now, the drugs are out of Carla's system, leaving her lucid enough to realize her culpability in Didi's death; overcome with remorse, she confesses to hitting Didi and says that Jacob ordered her to abuse both their children.
Carla testifies that Jacob told her to hit Didi so she would "grow up to be the perfect wife", and that he molested her, although she excuses the latter crime as his way of showing that he loved her. Jacob testifies in his own defense that he never hurt Didi and that Carla is to blame for her death, but Stone confronts him with the fact that he kept her continually high on cocaine even though it made her violent, and that he saw his daughter unconscious and bleeding and did nothing to help her.
Jacob is found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, while Carla is given a sentence of seven to ten years in prison. As they are led out of the courtroom, Carla pleads with Jacob to help her, saying, "Pookie can't live without her daddy. Pookie needs you."
"Fixed"[]
After serving eight years in prison, Carla manages to conquer her cocaine addiction, and, with the help of a therapist, Jacob's hold over her. She gets a job as a teacher in a nursing school as a way of atoning for her part in Didi's death.
Jacob, meanwhile, is granted early parole after manipulating social worker Joyce Draper into believing that he has changed. Upon learning that Jacob is free, Carla abruptly quits her job and moves because she is terrified that he will track her down, knowing full well that he blames her for his incarceration.
When Jacob is hit by a car and seriously injured, NYPD Homicide Detectives Joe Fontana and Ed Green consult with Cragen, now commanding the Department's Special Victims Unit, about his work on the original case. He refers them to Carla, who has started a new job at another nursery school. She provides Lieutenant Anita Van Buren with an alibi and tells her that wanting to kill Jacob would mean that she was still tied to him emotionally; she says that all she wants out of life is to never see or think about him again. She gets her wish soon afterward when Jacob dies of his injuries.
It is ultimately revealed that Draper killed Jacob because she found out that he was going to marry a woman with two young children, and she feared that he was going to hurt them. Jack McCoy, Stone's successor as EADA, charges her with murder, but the jury finds her innocent; it is implied that they think that Joel deserved to die. Carla, meanwhile, presumably moves on with her life, finally free of Joel.
Trivia[]
- Carla is loosely based upon Hedda Nussbaum, who in 1987 was accused of abusing, neglecting, and ultimately killing six-year-old Lisa Steinberg in concert with her abusive partner, Joel Steinberg, Lisa's unofficially adoptive father and guardian. Unlike Carla, however, Nussbaum was never convicted of a crime.
External links[]
- Carla Lowenstein on the Law & Order Wiki
