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| “ | I guess I'm just wired bad. I can't help myself. Y'know, like that kid I raped. | „ |
| ~ Romaine explaining his actions to Detective Olivia Benson. |
Earl Romaine is an antagonist in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Impulsive". He is a sex offender who steals the identity of a guard at his treatment center and uses it to sexually abuse minors at a treatment center in New York.
He was portrayed by David P. Conley.
Biography[]
Romaine was convicted of raping a 13-year-old boy in Florida and sent to a sex offenders treatment center. After his release he stole the identity of a guard at the center named Pete Lincoln and relocated to New York City, where he used Lincoln's identity to get a job on the night shift at the Kastner Center, a treatment center for sex offenders. Romaine took advantage of his position to rape minors who were sent to the center for rehabilitation, with the other guards turning a blind eye because they viewed the sex offenders under their supervision as human garbage.
"Impulsive"[]
After Shane Mills, a teenager who raped his English teacher, is sent to the Kastner Center to be treated for hypersexuality, Romaine decides to make him his next victim and rapes him while on the night shift, breaking his arm during the struggle. Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak takes a personal interest in the case as she was the one who arranged for Shane to be sent to the center, and soon realizes that the center is trying to cover up the crime after she sees staff members cleaning up the crime scene. Suspecting that this is not the first time such crimes have occurred at the center, Novak has every inmate interviewed by detectives from the Special Victims Unit, who discover that at least two inmates claim to have been raped by a guard.
The SVU begin to suspect "Pete Lincoln" of being the rapist after finding that he stayed on for several minutes after his shift ended on the night of Shane's rape. However, DNA testing from Shane's rape kit reveals that the rapist is Earl Romaine. After further investigation reveals that the real Pete Lincoln is still working in Florida, and that Earl Romaine was previously an inmate at the center where he works, the SVU realize that "Lincoln" is really Romaine and is impersonating the real Lincoln.
Detectives Fin Tutuola, Chester Lake and Elliot Stabler are sent to arrest Romaine, who tries to run away - after calling Tutuola, who is Black, a "spook" - but he is subdued by Stabler, who hits him with a wooden plank. Romaine's other two victims identify him as their rapist and he is charged with three counts of rape, while the Kastner Center is shut down for failing to protect its charges from Romaine. Romaine is last seen being interrogated by the detectives and claiming "I can't help myself, like that kid I raped", referencing Shane's defense that his crimes were the result of an impulse he could not control.
External links[]
- Earl Romaine on the Law & Order Wiki
