Sonya Paxton was SVU`s executive ADA, temporarily replacing Alexandra Cabot for four episodes of season 11, starting with the first episode of the “Unstable” season. Paxton works at the Manhattan District Attorney`s Office under the supervision of Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston; Law & Order), as Executive Assistant District Attorney. As a member of the DA board for over 25 years, she has a black and white view of the law and ensures that all proceedings are handled “in accordance with the book”. She worked at the Appeals Office and was the first to receive a death sentence in New York when newly elected Governor George Pataki introduced the death penalty in 1995. McCoy sends Paxton to the SVU to “clean the house” in the “he said, she said” unit because too many convictions were overturned. However, things start badly as she hits her head with the SVU team, especially Detective Stabler. In the second episode, “Sugar,” she and Stabler argue after Paxton calls the suspect`s lawyer after twice denying his right to a lawyer. In the fourth episode of “Hammered”, Paxton follows a case in which a man has drunk a lot and murders the woman he met at the bar. The defense blames alcoholism for the murder during the trial. Intending to use a computer-generated video mockup of the crime, Paxton accidentally plays a version in which the defendant`s face is superimposed on the attacker.
Paxton is ashamed and meets Benson and Stabler at a bar where she drinks. The next morning, she arrives 45 minutes late to the hearing before the wrong trial, seems desperate and accuses a “Fender Bender”. Judge Barry Moredock (John Cullum) asks her if she needs medical help, but the accused points out that she is drunk. Moredock orders Benson to come with an alcohol test, which shows that his blood alcohol level is 0.082, resulting in an unsuccessful attempt. Moredock orders Paxton to seek treatment. At the end of the episode, she returns to the SVU district and apologizes to the team and explains that she intends to make amends for each of them. Dr. Huang was last seen in a lead role during the season 12 episode “Bombshell,” in which he helps Benson and Stabler get information from a homeless man. The reason for his departure is only revealed in the episode “Father Dearest” of the 13th season, in which Dr. Huang temporarily returns to the SVU team to help with an investigation and tells them about his new assignment in Oklahoma City. Huang returns in the episode “Born Psychopath” of the 14. Season returns to New York and helps SVU detectives in a case involving a little boy who has become increasingly violent towards his confidants.
He diagnoses the boy with an antisocial personality disorder and takes precautions to take him to a treatment facility. As many episodes of “Law & Order” as there have been, as well as spin-offs over the years, I can understand why trying to get a role in the series was and is good for an aspiring actor. Even if you are not a main character (i.e. a victim, a criminal or a lawyer), you can still get a check by playing something small (a witness, someone who knows where a criminal is, the corpse found at the beginning of the series). So many actors and actresses started with the show, with “Criminal Intent” and “Special Victims Unit,” or appeared in it before they grew up, and we found some of the blacks here: Wolf and Co. not only hired a black star, but they also gave Merkerson their most visible season. After five years of advocating for more dialogue, Merkerson`s tough but caring lieutenant finally got more screen time, including a plot that included possible promotion. “What happened this season should have happened in the first season, but it took so long for the writers and producers to realize it,” she says, attributing her lobbying skills for change. “I used to come to the script meetings and say, `I shouldn`t even be here, there`s nothing for me to do,` and then I pointed out where my character needed to be involved.
In the season 14 episode “Secrets Exhumed,” Agent Lewis reflects on the partnership with SVU when she believes an unsolved case in Manhattan is linked to several rape murders across the country. Lewis beats Detectives Benson and Amaro at the Miami Correctional Center, where detectives were to arrest the suspect, a disabled man who was released after completing his stay for another crime, again. Lewis accompanies Benson and Amaro to Manhattan, where she watches the interrogation and begs Captain Cragen to shoot them at the suspect after detectives fail to get the man to admit to killing the fifth victim. When Cragen gives in, Lewis sweats the suspect to admit that he was at the scene when the victim was murdered. Amaro begins to question the confession when the victim`s friend comes to the compound and Lewis says he was an old friend when they dated at Tulane University. Parts of the confession begin to crumble when Munch and Rollins discover that evidence is missing from the unsolved case file and that the victim`s boyfriend admits to having a romantic relationship with Agent Lewis. Amaro asks the suspect to retract and Lewis panics. Cragen tricks Lewis into believing that the disabled suspect has had an accident and it will be some time before she and Benson can question him again.
When Benson begins to ask Lewis questions, Lewis realizes that Benson`s interrogation resembled an interrogation. Benson and Amaro begin to ask Lewis pressing questions about the nature of Lewis` relationship with the victim and her boyfriend at the time. They make them admit that they had a romantic relationship of several months, which then made Lewis pregnant. After forcing Lewis to have an abortion, she discovered that he had asked the victim to marry her. Lewis admits in tears that she went to the victim`s house, and after the victim mocked Lewis with the fact that he had asked her to marry her, she says she darkened. She says that when she came to herself, the girl was dead.