Brian Cassidy

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Law & Order character
Detective Brian Cassidy
Time on show	1999-2000
Preceded by	none
Succeeded by	Monique Jeffries
First appearance	Payback
Last appearance	Disrobed
Portrayed by	Dean Winters

Detective Brian Cassidy was a fictional character on the TV drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, portrayed by Dean Winters during the program's first season (1999-2000).

Cassidy was a detective in Manhattan's 16th Precinct, or the "Special Victims Unit," which dealt with sex crimes. He was partnered with John Munch, and occasionally Monique Jeffries.

The youngest and most inexperienced member of the precinct, Cassidy had a genuine desire to put rapists and child molesters in prison, but lacked the professional detachment necessary to deal with particularly grisly sex crimes or remain objective toward victims and perpetrators of sexual assault. He often had trouble concealing his anger and revulsion toward the cases he investigated; this sometimes created friction between him and his colleagues, made worse when they poked fun at his relative lack of sophistication.

While far from an intellectual, Cassidy was a genuinely talented and driven police detective. He made real effort to learn from the other members of the precinct, particularly Munch, who he thought of as a sort of older brother/mentor figure. He had a more troubled relationship with Olivia Benson, with whom he had a brief affair that she ended when he got too close.

After a year with SVU, the horrifying crimes he dealt with began to wear him down. The final straw was when his superior, Captain Donald Cragen, sent him to check up on a teenaged rape victim. After the young girl told him in detail how she had been systematically violated by her abuser and then gang-raped, Cassidy decided he didn't have the stomach to deal with sex crimes, and transferred to the NYPD's Narcotics Division.