On April 12, 2010, NBC officially recorded SVU for a twelfth season, with Meloni and Hargitay returning under a one-year contract with NBC prior to the start of production on Season 11, which included an option for a second year. The two began filming new episodes in June and July 2010. Hargitay expressed interest in her character having a baby this season, saying, “A friend! A baby! I don`t even need to get married. I just want a baby! Give me a baby! In a 2001 episode, Cragen found a kidnapped boy whom he and Greevey were supposed to find in 1991 while he was investigating a corrupt adoption agency.[10] Cragen and his detectives later discovered that the wife of the boy`s biological father had killed his mother and given the baby to the adoption agency, where he had been given a home. In the end, the boy`s biological father gets custody of him. Florek was eventually fired from the series after Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC on the West Coast, ordered that more women be added to the series.[18] Wolf opposed the decision, but accepted it in the face of a possible annulment if he did not. He is one of the two fired actors of the series, along with Richard Brooks, who plays the role of assistant prosecutor Paul Robinette. Wolf described Florek and Brooks` notification of decisions as “literally the two worst phone calls I`ve ever had to make in a business context.” Florek said he did not approve of the “quiet and hidden” way his dismissal had been handled. [38] After beginning the adoption process in 2010, which included a meeting with an adoption lawyer and home inspections, Hargitay and Hermann adopted their daughter, Amaya Josephine, in 2011. Hargitay told Good Housekeeping in 2012 that she decided to adopt because she and Herman had always imagined a “big family” but didn`t know if she could get pregnant again. “August wanted siblings, and Peter and I both imagined this big family because we`re both from there.
Plus, we had so much love to give,” she said. She continued: “I really dropped the tokens as best they could because I think a lot depends on God. I`ve always said, “I don`t know how this is going to end. I don`t know if I`m going to get pregnant and have twins. I don`t know. if someone leaves a baby on my doorstep. But I really thought Peter and I would adopt a child later. That has always been part of the plan. Hargitay also told Good Housekeeping about once she went to Thailand and India as a child and saw other children without parents when she first thought about adoption. “I remember when I was 9 or 10 years old in Thailand and India, I saw children alone on the street and I thought, `Where are their mothers?` ” she recalls. “They were incredibly resourceful, moving and intelligent. And somewhere inside me, even if young; I had this maternal instinct, I remember thinking I wanted to take them all home! So what happened to this baby? And why do we never talk about it again after this episode? Throughout season 13, Cragen plays a more personal role in CSR affairs.
In the episode “Russian Brides”, Cragen takes on an undercover mission to lure a murderer of mail order brides posing as the head of a children`s rights organization. During a conversation with his “date,” he mentions that he and his late wife talked about adopting a child after she suffered a miscarriage, but couldn`t find the time to do so. It`s still unclear whether Cragen is talking about his own life or simply improvising as part of his undercover role. [26] The season 13 finale, “Rhodium Nights,” ends with Cragen waking up in bed and finding the body of a young female escort next to him, her throat slit and her hands covered in blood. He is suspended while the NYPD`s Internal Affairs Office investigates him for murder. In the season 14 premiere, Paula Foster, ADA bureau chief of the Public Integrity Unit, investigates Cragen in the escort`s murder.[27] He was arrested and detained at Rikers Island. SVU detectives are also working on the case and trying to prove that she was slandered. It is discovered that Cragen has hired some escorts for “Company”. After proving that the girl was murdered by her pimp Bart Ganzel (Peter Jacobson), Foster drops the murder charge, but announces that she is accusing him of several other crimes, prompting Benson and the SVU detectives to investigate Foster`s motives. [28] Benson discovers that Foster is on Wilson`s payroll.
The SVU detectives arrest Foster, which allows the charges against Cragen to be dropped. [29] In an interview with TV Guide in 2006, Hargitay recalled the first time she heard August cry. When I first heard August`s cry, I lost it,” she said at the time. “You have so much love you didn`t even know.” The magazine also reported that August was a week late and, although Hargitay was hoping for a natural birth, had undergone a C-section. “I`m not a fan of surgery. But I wanted a healthy baby,” she said. Hargitay also joked to the magazine at the time that August believes his siblings are the result of his wishes. “August thinks it was his whole idea!” Hargitay said. “He said, `I want a little sister,` and Amaya came.
Then he said, “I want a little brother,” and Andrew came. August feels pretty good and quite powerful! Shortly after Hargitay and Hermann brought Amaya home, they received a call from their adoption lawyer telling them that a baby boy born two months prematurely was available for adoption. That baby was her second son, Andrew. “I don`t really know what to say about it, except it was a no-brainer. Peter and I both thought: let`s do it! Here I am! It was like. A miracle. And I don`t use that word lightly. I`ve never made a major decision so quickly. It all happened in two days in total,” Hargitay told Good Housekeeping. She and Hermann named their son Andrew after a good friend who had died shortly before. At the beginning of the ninth season, Cragen is briefly relieved of his duties for not supervising because several of his detectives, such as Detective Odafin Tutuola`s (Ice-T) stepson Darius Parker (Ludacris) commit three murders and are acquitted by them,[20] Benson helps his fugitive half-brother Simon Marsden (Michael Weston),[21] and his partner, Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), covers his daughter`s drunk driving. [22] Cragen is forced to move to the detective chief`s office and cede control of his compound to newly promoted Sergeant John Munch (Richard Belzer).
However, the transmission is short-lived, as Cragen`s command is restored after Munch is entrusted to her sister`s care for a suspect (Cynthia Nixon) who feigns dissociative identity disorder, just to kill her parents. In season 11, he was again suspended for 10 days and told that any further problems with his unit would cost him his job.[23] [24] In “Ace,” he uses lethal force against a child trafficker who is about to kill a rape victim. Diane Neal, who played ADA Casey Novak from the fifth season until the end of the ninth season, repeated her role for the episode “Reparations”[19] with Law & Order actor: LA Terrence Howard, whose character (DDA Joe Dekker) comes to New York to defend his cousin.[25] This episode was the second crossover episode with Law & Order: LA of the season. [42] Lori Singer played Dede, a mother whose baby is kidnapped in the episode “Bang.” [43] John Stamos played an adoption lawyer with a secret passion in the same episode. [18] Rita Wilson played Bree Mazelon, the protective mother of a teenager (Sterling Beaumon), who is the subject of an investigation in the episode “Delinquent”. When a teenage girl (Kristina Alexandra Makarian) shows symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual abuse on a plane, all the clues point to a wealthy defense contractor (Colm Feore). The billionaire replies that the girl raped him at a party he organizes, and Benson and Stabler find a woman (Kelli Barrett) who seems to be looking for young girls for him. Fearing that the commando had no evidence of arrest, Munch worked to make the girl`s blog viral, prompting other rape victims to come forward. Then, Florek first played the role of Donald Cragen in “Everybody`s Favorite Bagman,” the pilot episode of Law & Order.
