DIANE NEAL ONLINE || RESUME || TELEVISION || LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT || (108 EPISODES, 2005—2008 || PLAYING ASSISTANT DISCTRICT ATTORNEY CASEY NOVAK

In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT || ABOUT THE SHOW & ADA CASEY NOVAK

After the huge success of his groundbreaking series LAW & ORDER, Dick Wolf conceived of a series about the lesser-known division within the New York Police Department... that of the dedicated detectives of the Special Victims Unit. The difference between Sex Crimes and the regular NYPD, is they investigate only sex-based crimes involving rape, crimes against children, abuse of the elderly, and other things associated thusly. LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT debuted on Monday, 20 September 1999 at 9:00 PM and starred Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson, with the supporting cast of Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen (LAW & ORDER), Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch (formerly of Homicide: Life on the Street), Dean Winters as Detective Brian Cassidy (Oz) and Michelle Hurd as Detective Monique Jefferies. SVU as its come to be known to the fans, relied solely on a rotating group of ADAs (Assistant Disctrict Attorneys) during its first season until season two where Stephanie March was hired to play ADA Alexandra Cabot, who became a fast fan favourite. With the departures of Winters and Hurd and the addition of March, the show welcomed former rapper Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutola. With a move to Tuesday nights at the end of its fourth season, SVU gained a steady following amongst viewers either titillated by the nature of the show's subject matter, or genuinely interested in the stories and characters. At the end of season four it was announced that Stephanie March would be vacating her role of ADA Alexandra Cabot and the search for a new ADA was made. Just as Dick Wolf has done throughout the course of his LAW & ORDER franchises, he promoted from within. In the tradtion of Jerry Orbach (Detective Lenny Briscoe), S. Epatha Merkerson (Captain Anita Van Beuren) and Isabel Gillies (Kathy Stabler, SVU), Wolf went to the well from season three and the episode RIDICULE, a story about three women at a bachelorette party who raped a male stipper. The episode guest starred Paige Turco as high-powered attorney Pamela Adler, CCH Pounder as defense attorney Carolyn Maddox and a certain Diane Neal as stock broker Amelia Chase. There he plucked Diane out of serving Amelia Chase's 12 year prison sentence to replace March as Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak, a young woman who was fiercly loyal to seeking justice for the victims of violent sexual crime. Casey was introduced in season four's Serendipity where we find out District Attorney Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson) had been eyeing Casey for Cabot's replacement. We soon found out she was a hands-on ADA who preferred to go to the crime scenes rather than relying on her detectives to report to her. Throughout the course of Diane's time on the show, we found out various things about Casey's background, including her father was a door gunner on a Huey during the Vietnam War, that she was a baseball nut who loved spending time in a batting cage as oppose to being with society gals sipping wine, she rode her bicycle to work, enjoyed an adversarial position with defense attorneys, and had a schitzophrenic boyfriend named Charlie (in photographs, played by Diane's own husband, Marcus Fitzgerald). During season eight, a Brooklyn detective named Chester Lake (Adam Beach) was brough in to solve the rape of several of Manhattan's SVU victims and who had a connection to three deaths in Brooklyn. Sparks flew between Novak and Lake signalling the possibilty of a future romance. Beginning season nine, Adam Beach had been added as a series regular. Season nine was also a banner year for Casey Novak and Diane Neal. In no less than five episodes, Casey proved her worth in prosecuting cases from a woman who was killed by a young boy whose father was having an affair (SAVANT), a famous serial killer whose most ardent devotè attempted to follow his suit in killing her victims in the same way as he did (SVENGALI), and faced her own worse dilemma when a man, played by Ayre Gross, from Louisiana kidnaps and rapes two children only to be found out to be schitzophrenic and not responsible for his crimes, (BLINDED), bringing up memories of her relationship with Charlie. By the time of the WGA Strike, Casey Novak seemed to be on fire, and with her, so was Diane Neal. WGA Strike over, came news that Diane Neal wouldn't be returning for season ten. The reports were that she chose to move on with her career, and also news that Adam Beach would be exiting along with Diane. The reports were that Diane was chosing to move on with her career, to spread her wings. However, the hasty way season nine's finale (COLD) was put together and no sense as to why Casey and Chester would do what they did, made little sense to who their characters had been established as. Casey was sent off on suspension pending disbarrment for witholding Brady Material, and Chester was sent to prison for killing a perp who got off even though he did rape and kill two women. This drastic turn in Novak's previously stellar behaviour, meant that season nine would be the end of Diane's time on LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT || SEASONS FEATURING DIANE NEAL

SEASON 03 playing Amelia Chase SEASON 05 playing Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak SEASON 06 playing Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak SEASON 07 playing Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak SEASON 08 playing Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak SEASON 09 playing Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT || MULTIMEDIA

SEASON 03: SCREENCAPS STILLS MEDIA SEASON 05: SCREENCAPS STILLS MEDIA SEASON 06: SCREENCAPS STILLS MEDIA SEASON 06: SCREENCAPS STILLS MEDIA SEASON 07: SCREENCAPS STILLS MEDIA SEASON 09: SCREENCAPS STILLS MEDIA

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT || EXTERNAL LINKS

OFFICIAL SITE ON NBC LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT @ IMDB LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT @ WIKIPEDIA LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT @ TV,COM LAW & ORDER: SPEICAL VICTIMS UNIT @ USA NETWORK CASEY NOVAK @ WIKIPEDIA CASEY NOVAK @ IMDB