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| “ | You try to pull anything, you'll never see your son again. | „ |
| ~ Utley threatening Olivia Benson |
Joe Utley is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Townhouse Incident". He is a rapist and thief who takes an entire family hostage so he can hold them for ransom for $1 million.
He is portrayed by Joe Reegan, who also portrayed Lewis Ramsey in Criminal Minds.
Early life[]
Utley is a career criminal who was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army for dealing drugs that he bought from the terrorists he was supposed to fight. Once he was back in the U.S., Utley scraped out a living selling drugs and committing small-time scams and robberies, with the help of his girlfriend, Roxie Volkov, and her brother, Ralph. Eventually, all three of them became addicted to the drugs they sold.
Shortly before the events of the episode, Ralph was fired from his job as a truck driver by his boss, Richard Crivello, the owner of a chain of grocery stores. Ralph complained to Utley, who got the idea to rob Crivello's house, which Ralph claimed contained a safe that, he assumed, contained a great deal of money.
"Townhouse Incident"[]
Utley and Roxie break into the Crivello house one morning and take the entire family hostage, while Ralph acts as armed backup. When Richard Crivello and his wife, Lisa, deny having any money in their safe, Utley turns violent, hitting Richard in the face and choking Lisa; he then threatens to kill them unless they give him $1 million, even though they insist that they do not have that kind of money.
At that moment, Lucy Huston, the babysitter for Richard and Lisa's young son Luca, shows up at her door to walk the boy to school. Joe threatens to kill Luca unless she gets rid of Huston, so she tells Huston that she and her whole family have the flu. Huston sees the red marks on Lisa's neck, so she calls another of her clients, Lieutenant Olivia Benson of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit, and asks her to come to the house to make sure everything is all right.
Benson goes to the Crivello house and talks to Lisa, asking if she can come in after noticing a cut on her face. Lisa tries to get rid of Benson, but Utley tells her to let Benson in. He then ambushes Benson and slams her up against a wall while Roxy shuts the door and Ralph disarms her; they then take Benson as another hostage.
Utley takes Benson's phone and sees that she has a picture of her son Noah as her lock screen; he tells her to do as he tells her, or she will never see Noah again. He tells Roxie to tie her up, and hits Benson in the face and kicks her when she tries to resist. He and Ralph then takes turns beating and kicking Richard when he says he does not have a safe. As Utley takes a break to snort methamphetamine, Benson gets a text message from Mike Dodds, her sergeant at SVU, about a serial rapist that he and Detective Fin Tutuola have arrested. Benson says that she needs to answer her phone, but Utley refuses to give it to her.
When Utley threatens to kill Luca, Lisa says that she has a safe deposit box at her bank, so he tells Ralph to take her to the bank to retrieve her money before telling Benson that her squad has caught the rapist. He then decides they should celebrate, before he takes Lisa's teenage daughter Tess into another room and rapes her, forcing a helpless Benson to listen while a visibly unnerved Roxie holds her at gunpoint. Benson gets another text message, this time from Huston, and she manages to convince Roxie to untie her and let her respond, as long as she says nothing about the hostage situation.
Benson texts Lucy to take her son "William" on a playdate with his friend "Lewis" - a reference to Benson's archnemesis, serial rapist and murderer William Lewis, that she uses as code for an emergency. Huston alerts Benson's detectives at SVU and Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba, and the latter calls Benson several times, each time getting her voicemail. Utley comes back into the room, having finished with a clearly traumatized Tess, and chastises Roxie for untying Benson, while also threatening to kill Benson if she tries anything.
Ralph calls Roxie, saying that he has the money, but Lisa will not leave until she has proof that her children are still alive. Irritated, Utley takes a picture of Tess and Luca with Roxie's phone and sends it to Ralph, while threatening to kill both children unless he gets the money. Just then, Tutuola and fellow SVU Detective Dominick Carisi Jr. show up at the door, posing as truant officers, and briefly speak with Tess, who is so visibly traumatized that they know instantly that something is wrong. Utley, meanwhile, tells Benson to call someone in the NYPD who cares about her and tell them to come over and listen to his demands. Benson calls her boyfriend Ed Tucker, Captain of the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau, who is also trained as a hostage negotiator.
They come back with several officers from the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit, Dodds and Tucker in tow. Tucker calls Utley, who demands a car, a helicopter, a jet, and $1 million, but refuses to release the hostages. Benson offers to be Utley's hostage if he lets the family go, but he refuses to do that, either. He tells her to call Dodds and put him on speaker phone; he then says he wants the police to take their cameras down and order their snipers to stand down.
Meanwhile, Carisi arrests Ralph at Lisa's bank, and he and Barba threaten him with life in prison unless he calls Utley and brings him to the bank to be arrested; Ralph calls Utley, but he goes back on the deal by telling him that he has been arrested and hanging up. Panicked, Utley tries to negotiate with Tucker to send him a car and the money immediately and to send Ralph in, but Tucker says he cannot do that, as it is against NYPD procedure to send civilians into a hostage situation. Roxie, having finally had enough, curses Utley for getting them into a worsening mess; Utley responds by striking her and putting a gun to her head.
Tucker calls back and offers to give Utley $50,000 as a show of good faith in return for Utley releasing one hostage. Utley agrees on the condition that the ESU officers put down their weapons. He sends Roxie out to make sure it is safe, but she surrenders to the police over Utley's protests. Enraged, Utley puts a gun to Benson's face, but she manages to calm him down by saying that, with her as his only hostage, he can get he wants on his own terms. Tucker calls Joe and says he can get him everything he demanded if he releases the children. Utley says he will release Luca after he gets into the car. He then goes outside with Benson, Tess, and Luca huddled together around him, and lets Tess and Luca go. Benson uses the distraction to punch Utley, and an ESU sniper shoots him in the head, killing him instantly.
External links[]
- Joe Utley on the Law & Order Wiki
