Casey Novak

Casey Novak is a fictional character on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, portrayed by Diane Neal.

Character

The character Casey Novak is a young and focused Assistant District Attorney who, while sometimes deeply affected by the horrific situations she deals with on the job, does not often reveal her emotions. Novak can sometimes see the world in black and white and follows the law strictly without sympathy for the suspects and their situation, unless she is convinced otherwise by the detectives in SVU, or by extreme mitigating circumstances. Although she quickly loses her innocence when dealing with sex crimes, she still shows uneasiness when dealing with the gray areas of human involvement, preferring the letter of the law to the messiness of each individual reality. Nonetheless, Novak has a 71 percent success rate in the cases she prosecutes, whereas the average for prosecutors is 44 percent.

In one of the episode, it is reveal in the story that in her final year of law school, Novak was engaged to a man, Charlie, who suffered from schizophrenia. She ended the relationship when his symptoms became so severe she felt she could no longer be intimate with him. It is revealed that in 2002 Charlie attacked her in her home during a psychotic episode. She convinced the police not to press charges, but then ended the relationship. He eventually became homeless, and was found dead as a 'John Doe' in the spring of 2007. She developed a deep compassion for the mentally ill afterward, but still feels guilty for not being able to help him.

She states that she is a big supporter of the U.S military (explaining the "Support Our Troops" sticker on her car). She says that her father was an M60 Door Gunner on a Huey during the Vietnam War. His helicopter crashed three times and he received a Purple Heart.

She lives in an apartment in the Upper West Side of New York City. Novak is Catholic.

As the SVU Prosecutor

Novak prosecuted white collar crimes before being assigned full-time to the 16th Precinct in 2003, after Alexandra Cabot transfers into the Witness Protection Program. Following her first case, Novak asks District Attorney Arthur Branch to reassign her because she feels she could not handle the intensity of prosecuting sex crimes, especially those committed against children. Branch refuses, saying that he had been eyeing her for the job for some time, and thought that she was a perfect choice for the position. Even though the acts of sexual abuse she saw daily still repulsed her, she stayed on and has became more at ease.

Novak arrived on the scene with guns blazing, intent on leaving her mark on the bureau, and immediately approaches detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson by taking a hands-on approach, second-guessing their detective work and interfering with their interrogation of a suspect. It took a few months and a candid conversation with Capt. Don Cragen to understand the necessity of working as a team. Not until spring of 2004 did Novak connect on a personal/professional level with the detectives. By September 2004, her relationship with Stabler in particular develops into a level of professional respect and friendship.

Novak had a snarkily adversarial relationship with her former supervisor, Elizabeth Donnelly (Judith Light). Novak often found herself at odds with Donnelly, and in one case, Novak forced her (acting upon a directive from Branch) to recuse herself from a case. Occasionally, she found herself opposing attorneys with whom she has worked before.

In later episodes Novak has her hair dyed blond at the suggestion of detectives Benson and Stabler to remind them of former A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot. Novak agrees in an attempt to properly fit in with the rest of the SVU crew.

In November 2007, after deliberately sabotaging a competency hearing for a schizophrenic child rapist to avoid him being extradited to Louisiana where he would face execution, Jack McCoy called Novak into his office and threatened to fire her and have her disbarred if she abused the authority of the DA's office again.

In May 2008, after violating due process while prosecuting a corrupt police officer who raped two undocumented immigrants, Novak was called to Judge Donnelly's chambers and informed that the District Attorney had refused to refile charges against the defendant and that she would be facing censure or suspension by the Bar association.

In the second episode of season 10, which aired in September 2008, it is confirmed by ADA Kim Greyleck that "Novak lied to a judge and got disbarred."

Behind the scenes

• Novak's photograph of herself with her ex-fiancé, shown in "Influence", then again in "Blinded", is actually a photo of Neal and her husband, Marcus Fitzgerald.

• Novak reveals in the episode "Mean" that she was born in September, pointing out that one of the murderers (who was born in January) was wearing a class ring (that belonged to the victim) which had a sapphire stone, which is a birthstone for those born in the month of September.

• Novak is currently the third-longest running ADA in the history of all the Law & Order, behind Jack McCoy and Ron Carver, and she is longest running female ADA in any Law & Order series.

• Neal also played the character Amelia Chase in the SVU episode "Ridicule" (Episode 10, Season 3).

• Novak is the first Law & Order character to be disbarred.