Talk about inspired method acting. Law & Order: SVU ’s Mariska Hargitay , who plays Olivia Benson, the commanding officer of a fictional Special Victims Unit in New York City, was key in investigating “over 11,000” sexual assault cases in Detroit, Michigan. The turn of events, set to be explored in the Thursday, August 15 episode of the news podcast, “ Dateline True Crime Weekly ,” saw Hargitay, 60, funding the mission of a prosecutor, Kym Worthy , who discovered more than 11,000 untested rape kits sitting on the shelf in a police evidence room.
Andrea Canning , a Canadian Dateline journalist and the podcast’s host, shared details of the upcoming podcast episode on the Today show on Tuesday, August 13. “They found 22 serial rapists among these kits ..
. and they needed money for this effort so who stepped in? None other than Law & Order’s Mariska Hargitay,” Canning, 51, said. “She helped them raise the money to get this done and it’s having a ripple effect across the country.
It’s making changes everywhere, from police departments to prosecutors’ offices.” The news comes seven months after Hargitay bravely opened up about her personal experience with sexual assault, penning a powerful essay for People that was published on January 10. “A man raped me in my thirties,” Hargitay wrote in the essay.
“It wasn’t sexual at all. It was dominance and control. Overpowering control.
” Hargitay revealed that her attacker was “a friend.” “I tried .