Main ===Crossover stars from
Law & Order=== •
Fred Dalton Thompson as District Attorney
Arthur Branch Recurring Guest stars for the nineteenth episode "Painless" in which she played assisted suicide advocate Dr. Amy Solwey. Her character shares an emotional scene with Detective Munch during which it is revealed that Munch's father killed himself. This is also true of Richard Belzer's father. Matlin commented that "I remember Richard having a hard time with it at first. I figured there must have been some personal connection there and I believe he told me afterwards." The episode "Coerced" is about a schizophrenic man trying to reach out to his son.
Leland Orser played the father and
Spencer List played the son. In a 2012 Twitter interview, List wrote "I became an actor when I was 5 I did a [Law & Order: SVU] and I knew from then on I wanted to do this for the rest of my life." The episode "Choice" sought to raise awareness about
fetal alcohol syndrome.
Josie Bissett (whose husband
Rob Estes appeared in the previous season) played the role of an irresponsible mother. Kathrine Roberts played her daughter and was chosen because she has FAS in real life. played an arrogant judge in "Poison". His character's attitude has been compared to those of three judges in a 2010 hate speech case. In the episode "Abomination",
George Segal portrayed a father in denial about the fact that his son is gay. The accuracy of this episode garnered approval from critics of the
ex-gay movement. In the 100th episode "Control", Mariska Hargitay's father,
Mickey Hargitay guest starred as a man on a subway station escalator who witnesses the aftermath of a brutal assault. This was Mickey Hargitay's final acting role before his death in September 2006.
Cynthia Ettinger guest starred in "Shaken" as a mother whose daughter falls into a coma because of a bad decision she made. Christopher Meloni and Dann Florek were both moved by the episode with Florek saying "it was some of the most emotional stuff Chris has done." In "Home",
Diane Venora portrayed an abusive mother who uses homeschooling as a way of keeping her children from the eyes of the public. When discussing her role, Neal Baer said "She played it, I mean she was ferocious." Michael Beach previously played an AIDS patient in
ER who was intended to have been on the down low. In the twenty-first episode "Criminal"
James McDaniel portrayed Javier Vega, an ex-convict who has a history with Captain Cragen. Coincidentally, a character played by McDaniel appeared with Cragen in the "Mushrooms" episode of the original
Law & Order. Even though he did not play Vega, Florek has stated that this is one of his favourite episodes. The season finale "Head" starred
Stacy Edwards as a school principal who becomes pregnant with the child of her student portrayed by
Jake Weary. Matt Loguercio, who played a teacher in the episode wrote at length about how he had been auditioning for all three
Law & Order when he got the call to appear. He stayed up to date on auditions by taking a classes taught by Jonathan Strauss and Jennifer Jones. Jones was the assistant casting director for
SVU at the time and Strauss became the casting director after Julie Tucker departed. ==Episodes==