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| “ | You know how you survive in here? You trust nobody. | „ |
| ~ Selena on prison |
Selena Cruz is a supporting antagonist in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She is a former prostitute turned pimp who traffics underage girls for crime bosses Angel Perez and Johnny D.
She was portrayed by Laura Gómez.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Selena was born and raised in Vargas, Mexico. She was kidnapped from a market at age 13 by sex traffickers working for crime boss Angel Perez, who raped her and got her pregnant with their son, Miguel. He then pimped her out in Tenancingo, the prostitution capital of Mexico, until finally making her his enforcer, "breaking in" the new girls by beating them and selling their bodies to much older men.
At first, Selena only followed Perez's orders because he said he would kill Miguel if she disobeyed him. Over time, however, she became a hardened criminal willing to inflict the same abuse she suffered, and even to kill people, dismissing it as "the cost of doing business". For all her flaws, however, she remained a devoted, loving mother to Miguel, the only person in the world she cared about or who cared about her.
"Girls Disappeared"[]
Selena is first seen pimping out a young girl named Luna Garcia, who is arrested by NYPD Officer Nick Amaro. Panicked, she calls Perez for help, but he sees her as a potential liability and sends his personal assassin, Diego Ramirez, to kill her; she manages to get away from him, however.
To recoup the income she lost from Luna's arrest, Selena pimps out another girl, Carmen, and brings her to an underground sex party, unaware that the NYPD's Special Victims Unit is staking out the party to arrest the traffickers and johns present. When a customer - secretly SVU Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr., working undercover - pretends to get rough with Carmen, Selena comes to her defense, only to be arrested moments later when the SVU detectives raid the party.
SVU Sergeant Olivia Benson tries to get Selena to talk by threatening to put her in prison for 10 years, but Selena remains silent. When her lawyer shows up, however, she appears terrified, knowing full well that he is working for Perez and will bring her back to him once he bails her out. Benson and Detective Amanda Rollins visit Selena in jail and offer to help her get Miguel back if she cooperates with their investigation of the traffickers she works for. Selena tells them that Perez ordered the murder of Ellie Porter, the biological mother of Benson's adopted son, Noah.
Eventually, Selena's information helps the SVU team find enough evidence to arrest Perez, leading to a shootout in which he is killed. With the threat to her and Miguel's life gone, Selena gets custody of her son back, and takes him home.
"Undercover Mother"[]
Months later, however, she returns to pimping, the only life she knows. The SVU team discovers that she is now working for a pimp named Arthur "Timmer" Jones, and stake out a sex party to which she delivers five underage girls. Rollins arrests her, and Selena first tells the girls not to say anything and then pretends not to speak English, apparently not recognizing the detectives.
Amaro and Detective Fin Tutuola question Selena in jail about the whereabouts of Ariel Thornhill, another young girl that Jones is trafficking, threatening to put Miguel in foster care if she does not tell them what they want to know. Fearing that she will never see her son again, Selena tells them about a house that Jones and crime boss Johnny D. use to rotate girls. The SVU detectives later use Selena's information to raid the house, arrest Johnny D, and save Ariel. Selena, meanwhile, remains in prison.
"Surrendering Noah"[]
Selena eventually makes a deal with Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba to testify against Johnny D in return for a reduced prison sentence. When Amaro visits her in jail to go over her testimony, she says she wants to see Miguel, but he says she will have to wait until after Johnny D's trial. Selena protests that Johnny D will kill her, but Amaro assures her that the police will protect her, and then warns her not to squander her last chance at a new life with her son.
On the day of the trial, Selena is loaded into a police van with Jones, who has also agreed to testify against Johnny D for a lighter sentence. On the way to the courthouse, however, a corrupt police officer named Fox who is on Johnny D's payroll gives her a knife and orders her to kill Jones, threatening to kill her son if she refuses. Selena slits Jones' throat, and Fox tells Benson and Rollins that she did it in self-defense after Jones tried to kill them both. They do not believe him, and interrogate Selena, who repeats Fox's story.
Ultimately, however, a reporter from the New York Ledger writes an article exposing Jones' corruption and the fact that Fox is in a relationship with one of Johnny D's pimps. These revelations, combined with SVU's investigation of Jones' murder, prove that Selena killed him at Fox's behest, and she is found guilty of murder and imprisoned for life.
External links[]
- Selena Cruz on the Law & Order Wiki
