Mariska Hargitay helped real-life prosecutor resolve hundreds of instances

As Regulation & Order: SVU viewers know, Olivia Benson doesn’t give up.

That is additionally true of actress Mariska Hargitay, who’s performed the character since 1999.

Kym Worthy, a prosecutor in Michigan’s Wayne County, had made the upsetting discovery of greater than 11,000 untested rape kits sitting on a shelf in a police proof room, NBC journalist Andrea Canning defined Tuesday on At the moment.

“So she made it her mission to get all of them examined,” Canning mentioned whereas selling her new Dateline True Crime Weekly podcast.

After all, the county wanted funding for a lot testing, and that is the place Hargitay entered the image.

“She helped them elevate the cash to get this accomplished, and it is having a ripple impact throughout the nation. It is making adjustments all over the place — for police departments, for prosecutors’ places of work,” Canning mentioned. “So hats off to Kym Worthy…. She deserves the largest pat on the again for this. 1000’s of instances have been solved. They discovered 22 serial rapists amongst these kits.”

Hargitay’s real-life expertise with legislation and order would not cease there. The actress spoke in Could a couple of state of affairs she confronted due to her position as Benson. In April, she had been filming a scene for an upcoming episode and was carrying her Benson wardrobe when a misplaced younger woman approached her.

Whether or not it was as a result of the little woman thought she was an precise cop or not, Hargitay and the kid have been “meant to attach in that second,” the actress informed ET at Selection‘s Energy of Ladies occasion.

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Followers of Hargitay, Benson, and her former companion, Elliot Stabler — performed by Christopher Meloni — can be glad to know that Meloni is writing an episode of his present, Regulation & Order: Organized Crime, for its upcoming fifth season that options Benson. Hargitay, who has appeared on greater than a dozen episodes of Meloni’s Regulation & Order franchise collection, “can be with OC for a second there,” he not too long ago revealed.