Olivia Benson and Maura Tierney's Law & Order Lieutenant Clash

Jessica Brady, the new lieutenant of the 27th District law and order, Perhaps new to the squadbut she has already clashed with a lEgend from the franchise.

Brady, played by Maura Tierneycompeted against Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in a special crossover episode of the original series' 24th season. The episode, titled “The Perfect Man,” focused on a murder case that was so controversial that Benson testified for the defense.

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However, Brady still has to settle into her new role as district manager takes over the position of Lt. Kate Dixon (Camryn Manheim), The straightforward lieutenant proved she has what it takes to compete with some of the NYPD's best when she refused to back down despite Benson's objections to the police's handling of the case.

The complicated case began after app developer Tyler Miller's body was discovered in Central Park. Miller invented an app that promised women the “perfect man,” but his own dating skills were far from perfect.

“I'm not Dixon,” Lt. Jessica Brady sure

After investigators discovered the victim's wallet in a dumpster, they learned that the evidence contained two different sources of DNA. One sample matched Miller, but the second sample was unidentified. Investigators ran the DNA through the national CODIS database, but after getting no hits, Brady instructed them to run it through a “local” database.

“Dixon always told us to stay away from the local database,” said Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) contradicted. “Defense lawyers have fun with it, judges hate it.”

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“I’m not Dixon,” Brady replied. “This is where we are and this is what we have, so let it run through the local population.”

After running the system, investigators discovered that the DNA matched Laura Kingsbury (Emily Meade), a woman who had been raped in a separate case and mistreated by police in this earlier incident. Miller had pursued her, sent her lavish gifts, shown up unannounced, and refused to back down even though Kingsbury had repeatedly rebuffed his advances.

After Kingsbury's arrest, Benson showed up at Brady's office, convinced there must be a “mistake.”

“I'm trying to understand the whole thing. I know this woman and she is not a murderer, she is actually a victim,” Benson insisted. “Laura Kingsbury was brutally raped. I probably didn't speak to her for at least a year, but back then I helped her and her family get through an extraordinarily difficult time because no one would listen to them.”

Although Brady and Assistant District Attorney Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), who had come to discuss the case, were sympathetic to Kingsbury's past, noted that the evidence against her was solid. The murder weapon was found in her apartment and its DNA was found in the victim's wallet.

“Your DNA? “Why would her DNA even be in a federal database?” Benson asked.

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Price interjected, insisting that the evidence against Kingbury had been obtained legally.

“Well, let’s see what a judge says,” Benson said, making it clear she had no plans to back down.

Benson testified for the defense in the Laura Kingsbury case

Rita Calhoun (Elizabeth Marvel), a defense attorney we've seen before Law & Order: SVUtook up the fight in the courtroom, arguing to a judge that Kingsbury would never have agreed to release her DNA after the rape if she had known it would later be stored in an unregulated database. For this reason, she argued that the DNA evidence should be thrown out.

However, the judge ruled against the defense and agreed with the prosecution that the database was a helpful tool in solving violent crimes.

However, the problem was far from solved. During the trial, Price and Assistant District Attorney Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi) were shocked when the defense called Benson to the stand.

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After the surprise, Calhoun said in the judge's chambers that the defense planned to use Benson as an expert to testify about sexual trauma.

“We want to argue that the shooting was in self-defense. And that Tyler Miller had been stalking my client for months prior to the incident in question,” she explained. “My client will testify that she believed Mr. Miller was going to kill her that morning.”

On the witness stand, Benson testified that the trauma felt by sexual assault victims can “last for years” and often causes them to perceive “the world as a more threatening place.”

“They have a heightened perception of danger, threats and things that another person might find harmless,” she testified.

Benson also told jurors that Kingsbury tried to get a restraining order against Miller, but police did not help because they did not believe there was enough evidence that he was dangerous and believed he was just “flirting” with her.

During his cross-examination, Price pointed out that Benson had not spoken to Kingsbury the morning she shot an unarmed Miller, so she couldn't possibly have known what she was thinking at the time.

When Price later confronted Kingsbury on the witness stand, he also pointed out that before she obtained a gun, she had not attempted to purchase non-lethal means of self-defense, such as pepper spray, and had never attempted to render aid, after she shot Miller or made a call to 911.

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“You shot Mr. Miller in the eye and then you just ran away,” he told her. “You let him die and went home and hid the murder weapon and prayed no one would ever find you.”

Nervous about the direction the case would take, Benson went to District Attorney Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) to see if he and Price would be willing to negotiate a deal with Kingsbury.

Baxter already felt the case being pushed back after Benson leaked the story to the press, resulting in a front-page story headlined “Can Crime Victims' DNA Be Used Against Them?”

Baxter then asked Price to offer Kingsbury a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence.

Benson tried to encourage Kingsbury to accept the deal by arguing that it was a “good deal”, but Kingsbury refused, insisting that she had done nothing wrong.

“I did what I had to do because he wanted to hurt me. He was. And if the police had done their job at any stop along the way, if the system had believed me when I was raped or stalked, we wouldn't be here now,” she said.

Kingsbury's chances didn't work out and she was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder.

Benson was clearly frustrated with the outcome of the trial, but she was later able to reach an agreement with Price after he informed her that the DA's office would be holding a press conference the next day to announce that they no longer planned to do so to use local database to solve unrelated crimes.

He asked Benson if she would appear at the press conference, and despite some unresolved tensions, she agreed.

“I’ll be there,” she said.

To keep up to date with the latest season 24 dramas, regard law and order Thursdays at 8/7 p.m NBC or stream new episodes the next day on Peacock.