Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Counselor, It's Chinatown (2019)

Peter Scanavino: ADA Dominick 'Sonny' Carisi, Jr.

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mei Mei Li : Mamasan pay for funeral, but no one come.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : I'm sorry, Mei Mei.

  Mei Mei Li : Lily very good person. All the time, she make us smile. She very brave. She must be very scared if she jump.

  Amanda Rollins : She was threatened. Do you... you know who this is?

  Mei Mei Li : Lily mother. Mamasan do this. Mamasan know where all parents are.

  Amanda Rollins : So will you help us? You can testify against Theo, against Mamasan...

  Mei Mei Li : No. No, I can't. They hurt my family.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Mei Mei... is there anything that you can tell us?

  Mei Mei Li : If Charlie there, he no let this happen.

  Amanda Rollins : Why not?

  Mei Mei Li : Charlie love Lily. They saving up. He help pay off debt, then run away so no one find them.

• Amanda Rollins : If you could just tell us who this is.

  [Mei Mei says something in Chinese] 

  Amanda Rollins : Hmm?

  Mei Mei Li : Bad egg. Don't know name. Loud, do anything he want. Last week was my turn.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : When does he... he usually show up? After work?

  Mei Mei Li : No, he have no job. He used to come with friend. Now just alone. Wait. He come in on Sunday. He say we're his special hangover cure.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : What the hell was that? The feds can't just waltz in here and take our case.

  Vanessa Hadid : They can. They did. Evidently, my boss has signed off on it. Changs cut a backdoor deal with the DOJ.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : No, we had them. International sex trafficking, money laundering.

  Vanessa Hadid : They trumped that. National security, intel on China. Whatever it is, we'll never know. That's why she confessed so easily. She had this in her back pocket.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : I don't think so. Her confession was sincere.

  Vanessa Hadid : Either way, it never happened.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : So, what? "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown"? Did you know this was coming?

  Vanessa Hadid : No. I give you my word. The D.A. didn't even give me the courtesy of a heads-up. I'm sorry.

• Mei Mei Li : I still don't understand. Bad lady don't go to jail?

  Amanda Rollins : The federal government has her now. They decide.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Either way, you won't have to worry about your debt anymore. Mrs. Chang has agreed to pay off the smugglers. You're free.

  Mei Mei Li : To do what?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Mei Mei, we talked to your brother.

  Mei Mei Li : Did you tell him what I do?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : No, no. Just that you were working to pay off the money your family owed to the smugglers and that we busted that ring.

  Amanda Rollins : [handing her phone to Mei Mei]  He'd like to talk to you.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : I have a grand jury waiting.

  Olivia Benson : And they just texted and they're on their way.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, they'd better be. Mei Mei backed out, same as the two workers from the Yorkville spa.

  Olivia Benson : You still have Theo's assault video.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, without Mei Mei supporting it.

  Olivia Benson : Enough for an indictment. And Theo? Two hours in Rikers, he'll wet the bed.

• Lily Song : You get undressed.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Lily, right?

  Lily Song : Mm-hmm.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Now, my, uh, buddies say that you're good with full service?

  Lily Song : Yeah. You want executive release, number one, honeymoon?

  Olivia Benson : [watching the surveillance feed]  That's it.

  [into her radio] 

  Olivia Benson : All units, game on.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Here we go.

• Olivia Benson : So, we arrested four johns. They all claim they were getting a "massage."

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah. Tough to prove otherwise. Who else?

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Charlie Hu. Bodyguard/muscle. Carrying an unregistered .45.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Hey, we can work with that.

  Olivia Benson : Other guy's over here.

  Odafin Tutuola : The mamasan, Evelyn Lee, she's hanging tough.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, no surprise there. What about these women?

  Olivia Benson : We're waiting on a translator for the ones who don't speak English, and, uh, Kat and Rollins are with two who speak some English. Kat says she's not fluent, but she does have some Cantonese, Mandarin, and Hokkien.

  Odafin Tutuola : Of course she does.

• Sergeant Joe Chin : Dates, names, amounts. Villages in China.

  Amanda Rollins : [into her radio]  Captain, we just broke into the Changs' iron mountain.

  Olivia Benson : [in the car, as Rollins texts photos]  We'll need more forensic accountants. Look at this. Okay, what about an arrest warrant for the Changs?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : I'll call my new best friend, Hadid.

• Olivia Benson : So, we know that you rent out at least 11 of the buildings that you manage to these spas. So these spas are all connected. But the women are debt slaves. They get moved around from one to the other to the other.

  Avi Olin : That, I can't speak to.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : What can you speak to? How about the syndicate behind the whole operation?

  Counselor Art Blumfeld : Here's where we stop. You want Mr. Olin's cooperation, it's simple. Your boss guarantees no charges will ever be filed against Rick Olin.

• Olivia Benson : Hey, guys, listen up. So, welcome to Operation Dragon Slay. This is Sergeant Joe Chin from the Human Trafficking Task Force.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Thank you, Captain. Our focus: massage parlors that are fronts for sex slavery and debt servitude, undocumented women being forced to pay off their family's debt to smugglers.

  Olivia Benson : So, SVU has been tasked with investigating the Sweet Joy Relax Spa down on Eldridge.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : How long have we had them under watch?

  Odafin Tutuola : This one, a week. The girls are let out one hour a day, always escorted by Charlie Hu. He's illegal with ties to Chinatown gangs.

  Amanda Rollins : We estimate off-menu extras bring the spa around 50k in cash a week.

  Katriona Tamin : The women keep the bare minimum for food. The rest they turn over to the spa's mamasan, Evelyn Lee. Korean-Chinese.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : So she's the manager? Do we know who they lease the space from?

  Amanda Rollins : Not yet. The buildings and spas are hidden behind a web of offshore LLCs.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : UCs will pose as clients. The goal is we arrest the johns, management. We flip 'em, we follow the money, we get the owners.

  Olivia Benson : Okay, but the girls we do not arrest, right? If they talk, great, but if not, we still offer them immigration, legal, and medical assistance. Take them to social services.

• Olivia Benson : Surveillance cameras in the smoke alarms.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : All nine rooms. Mamasan's nine eyes.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Not security for the girls?

  Odafin Tutuola : No, to keep an eye on the cash.

  Amanda Rollins : TARU went through the servers. It turns out the cameras were routed to Mamasan's nail salon across the street. I went through some of it. It's... it's pretty ugly. Each woman services over a dozen men a day. Um, I found this in there.

  Olivia Benson : [watching a feed]  Okay, turn that off. That's rape.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Mm-hmm.

  Olivia Benson : Who is she?

  Amanda Rollins : This is Mei Mei. I-I spoke with her. She didn't say one word about this.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Of course she didn't. She's scared of Mamasan.

  Olivia Benson : So, bring Mei Mei in and let her know that if she helps us, we will take Mamasan down.

• Vanessa Hadid : You got the Changs to agree to plead guilty to sex trafficking?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : And extortion and money laundering. She just... she just confessed.

  Vanessa Hadid : Why?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Because she's guilty. Also, I think she's worried about her husband. He's old, he's frail. The deal is that he knows nothing.

  Vanessa Hadid : All right, I'll take it. She's a big fish. Reel her in.

• Judge Gloria Pepitone : Christine Chang, how do you plead?

  Counselor Josh Wang : At this time, Your Honor...

  AUSA Mark Sullivan : [entering]  Excuse me, Your Honor. Mark Sullivan, Southern District of New York. I have an arrest warrant for Christine Chang on federal charges.

  Judge Gloria Pepitone : Approach.

  Vanessa Hadid : Objection, Your Honor. We had no knowledge of this

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : We have a plea deal in place.

  AUSA Mark Sullivan : Not anymore. This case has international implications. We've requested the suspension of the State's case to investigate and prosecute with global disposition. The D.A. has agreed to allow us to take the lead on this.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Your Honor, this is...

  Judge Gloria Pepitone : It's out of my hands, Mr. Carisi. The State's case is hereby suspended. I am releasing Christine Chang to federal custody. Bailiff?

  Counselor Josh Wang : [leaving with Christine]  Better luck next time, counselor.

• Sergeant Joe Chin : Snakeheads smuggle girls from China, charge the family with insurmountable debt.

  Amanda Rollins : Which the girls are forced to pay off doing sex work at massage parlors.

  Vanessa Hadid : Yes, we all know how this works, and we're no longer supposed to arrest the girls, so the cycle never ends.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Which is why we're working our way to the top. Avi Olin here, he holds leases on a dozen slum buildings housing massage parlors.

  Vanessa Hadid : You dug him out behind his LLCs? He got sloppy?

  Amanda Rollins : No, his son did. We got him on a rape charge.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, to keep his son out of prison, Avi has given us Arthur and Christine Chang.

  Vanessa Hadid : You do know the Changs are one of Park Avenue's most prominent power couples? Hospital and museum boards, Asian charities.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : The classic Chinese-American success story, except they're also sex traffickers.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Avi Olin has agreed to testify that the Changs are behind every shadow spa company that he leased to.

  Vanessa Hadid : And the Changs will argue Mr. Olin cut a deal to save his son. Even if they do own the parlors, how can we prove they know what goes on inside?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Ms. Hadid, what do you mean?

  Vanessa Hadid : Hard evidence that they're behind the trafficking, or this is a no-go.

• Avi Olin : My first set of kids, they turned out fine, but Ricky, he's a little dim. But he's no criminal.

  Olivia Benson : Let's agree to disagree, Mr. Olin. Your son is looking at conspiracy to rape and sex trafficking.

  Avi Olin : What, so he got a few freebie, uh, happy endings? I told him to slow that down, but how is that sex trafficking?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : He's on camera taking cash from somebody that he thought was the parlor's bag man.

  Avi Olin : What "bag man"? It's rent.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Oh, it's rent. So you... you know about the payments. So if we go through your books, we're gonna see $15,000 a week in cash rent?

  Avi Olin : Ricky might be behind in the paperwork.

  Olivia Benson : I don't think you understand what we're saying. You know your son's friend Theo? Rick gave him permission to do anything he wanted to those women, including rape.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : So in answer to your question, Mr. Olin, that is how we get to conspiracy to rape and sex trafficking.

  Avi Olin : You're talking to me because you want something. I'm a great deal-maker. So let's talk.

  Olivia Benson : Good.

• Counselor Josh Wang : The Changs among the most well-respected business leaders in New York.

  Olivia Benson : Okay.

  Counselor Josh Wang : These are wild, baseless and, frankly, offensive accusations.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Offensive? Yeah. Baseless? No. In addition to trafficked sex workers, a mamasan, and a bag man, your lead CPA, Lester Ping, has agreed to cooperate.

  Christine Chang : Lester, he's only our travel agent.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, you should have paid him more. He's still walking our forensic accountants through your maze of money laundering. Smuggler pay-offs, bribery, fraud, embezzlement. From here to Guangdong.

  Counselor Josh Wang : The Changs know nothing of any of this.

  Olivia Benson : Really?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Is that true, Mrs. Chang? Because in your home village, Dalang, six girls were smuggled out last year.

• Christine Chang : Sex trafficking? That cannot be. My husband and I only own legitimate businesses. Restaurants, travel, real estate, import/export, hotels.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : And, uh, transportation, right? The Silver Rabbit Bus Line?

  Christine Chang : Yes, uh, very successful. We started this because we have so many restaurants. We needed to transport our workers. Other bus lines charge too much, but... our Chinatown buses became very popular.

  Olivia Benson : Okay, Mrs. Chang, we read the articles. Thank you very much. And we also know that you use the bus lines to transport girls from one massage parlor to another under armed escort.

  Christine Chang : To protect them.

  Olivia Benson : No, no, it's so they don't run away.

  Christine Chang : They are freelance. They want to work for us.

  Olivia Benson : They want to perform sexual services a dozen times a day six days a week while you take away their pay?