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| “ | What happened to that boy wasn't right, but it was just. | „ |
| ~ Roy Eastman callously trying to justify setting up a Black teenager to be lynched |
Roy Eastman is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Welcome to the Pedo Motel". He is a racist parole officer who frames his stepdaughter's Black boyfriend for rape, and who later frames him for murder and has him lynched.
He was portrayed by Grayson Berry.
Biography[]
Past[]
Eastman was a parole officer and the stepfather of 15-year-old McKenna Jenson. His brother was a detective with the Nassau County Police Department.
However, Eastman embezzled the money of his parolees, which allowed him to afford a nice house and a Porsche. He was also a racist who was enraged that McKenna was dating Lonnie Liston, a Black teenager, and decided to break them up by claiming that Lonnie had raped his stepdaughter after the boy turned 18.
Because his parents could not afford a good lawyer, Lonnie agreed to a plea bargain in which served minimal prison time, but had to register as a sex offender after he was paroled. Lonnie became a pariah in his community, and he had to live in a cheap motel filled with other sex offenders. Nevertheless, Lonnie and McKenna continued to see each other in secret.
"Welcome to the Pedo Motel"[]
Aware McKenna would soon turn 17, New York's age of consent, Eastman decides to find a way to send Lonnie back to prison to keep him away from her. He threatens to one of his parolees, Antonio Johnson, back to prison unless he sexually assaults Lonnie's 17-year-old coworker, Ceranda Zajmi, a crime for which Eastman plans to frame Lonnie. Antonio cannot bring himself to hurt Ceranda, however, so his half-brother Sam volunteers to commit the crime to keep Antonio out of prison. The assault goes awry, however, and Sam accidentally kills Ceranda,
While investigating Cerando's murder, the NYPD's Special Victims Unit at first suspects Lonnie, especially since he had no alibi, and the killer was wearing the same type of jacket as him.
Impatient with the investigation, Eastman decides to do away with Lonnie permanently. To that end, he tells a neo-Nazi biker gang whom he knows through his clients that Lonnie killed Ceranda; the bikers then attack the hotel, injuring dozens of its residents and lynching Lonnie.
SVU Detective Amanda Rollins and Hate Crimes Task Force Officer Hasim Khaldun speak with Lonnie's devastated parents, who direct them to Eastman. During the interview, Eastman claims to know nothing about Lonnie's murder, although he says that Lonnie got what he deserved. Tutuola and Rollins do not believe his story, however, and note that someone with his money could outsource the murder to one of his parolees. With that, they run the DNA left on Ceranda's body through the system to find a match. Their search leads them to Antonio, and then to Sam.
SVU arrests Sam for the murder of Ceranda, and Captain Olivia Benson and Assistant District Attorney Dominick Carisi Jr. learn from him that Eastman set up the attack by threatening to send his brother back to jail.
Sergeant Fin Tutuola and Khaldun proceed to arrest Eastman, who claims that he was just trying to protect his stepdaughter. When Tutuola reprimands Eastman on being responsible for the deaths of two innocent people, he smugly replies that they cannot prove he is guilty of anything and tells a horrified McKenna to call his brother to get him a lawyer.
Carisi later finds texts messages and cash withdrawals that Eastman made to Antonio, which confirm that Eastman orchestrated the kidnapping and murder. He also makes a deal with the Johnson brothers to testify against Eastman in return for less prison time. Ultimately, Eastman is found guilty of murder, kidnapping, and hate crimes, and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
External links[]
- Roy Eastman on the Law & Order Wiki
