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| “ | I have no idea what they're talking about, mother. | „ |
| ~ Dennis Caufield trying to convince his mother of his innocence. |
Dennis Caufield is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Hysteria". He is a wealthy stockbroker who rapes and murders Tracy Henderson, the woman with whom he is cheating on his fiancee.
He was portrayed by Brad Beyer, who also portrayed Spence in Sorority Boys.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Caufield is from a wealthy family, and works as a stockbroker for a Wall Street firm. He has a fiancee who is also from a wealthy family, but is secretly cheating on her with Tracy Henderson, a college student who is interning with his firm. He keeps Henderson in the dark about his other life and manipulates her into believing he loves her, though in reality he considers her merely "a piece of strange"; he also privately denigrates Henderson, who is Black, as "jungle fever".
One night, following an argument with his fiancee, he goes clubbing with Henderson, and tries to talk her into having sex with him in an alley. When she refuses, he flies into a rage and rapes her. When she cries out for help, he hits her over the head with a rock, and asphyxiates her to death by putting a plastic bag over her head. He then leaves her body in the alley and flees the scene.
"Hysteria"[]
Caufield goes to work the next day as if nothing had happened, but is unnerved when Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit question him about Henderson's death, having found his business card in her wallet. He claims that he barely knew her and that he had been drinking with a friend at the time of the murder, but his nervous demeanor and the speed with which he volunteers his alibi make the detectives suspicious.
Benson and Stabler briefly suspect serial killer Peter Ridley of having murdered Henderson, but he denies it. Believing that Henderson's killer knew her, SVU Captain Donald Cragen sends Benson and Stabler to talk to Caufield's drinking buddy to make sure his alibi checks out. Benson and Stabler question Caufield's friend, who unconvincingly claims to have been in a bar with him. When the detectives threaten to arrest him for obstruction of justice, he admits that Caufield said that he had made a date with Henderson at the very club where her body was found, but had stood her up. He then admits that Caufield told him to lie if anyone asked where he was that night.
The detectives look at the evidence again, and notice a footprint made by an expensive designer shoe - the kind that might have been purchased by a wealthy young clubber like Caufield. They find Caufield at his parents' house and confront him with evidence against him, which is so damning that his own parents start to suspect him. Stabler then notices that Caufield is wearing the same shoes that left prints at the crime scene, and says, "Nice shoes." They arrest him, and he imprisoned for life for rape and second-degree murder.
Trivia[]
- Caufield is inspired by Robert Chambers, a.k.a. "The Preppy Killer". Chambers cheated on his girlfriend with Jennifer Levin and strangled her during sex, leaving her to be found dead in Central Park. Chambers claimed that he killed her in self-defense after she injured him in bed, in what is now commonly referred to as the "rough sex murder defense".
- Caufield is the second character in the Law & Order universe to be based on Chambers, the first being Ned Loomis in "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die", a 1990 episode of the original Law & Order.
External Links[]
- Dennis Caufield on the Law & Order Wiki
