| Det. Nina Cassady | |
|---|---|
| Law & Order character | |
| First appearance | "Fame" |
| Last appearance | "The Family Hour" |
| Portrayed by | Milena Govich |
| Time on show | 2006–2007 |
| Preceded by | Ed Green |
| Succeeded by | Cyrus Lupo |
Det. Nina Cassady is a fictional character on the NBC crime drama Law & Order, portrayed by Milena Govich. Cassady, the first, and only, female detective in the original Law & Order series, appeared in the first episode of the seventeenth season. Cassady worked alongside Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin).[1]
Govich initially appeared on Law & Order as a bartender in the sixteenth season episode "Flaw".
She was transferred to the 27th Precinct after a shootout at a beauty parlor, which led to the press nicknaming her "Detective Beauty Queen." Other episodes revealed that she was born in Queens, New York, came from a family of police officers, has a brother named James (Jimmy) who is also in law enforcement, and attended Sunday school for six years.[2]
She is initially looked down upon for having less experience than her fellow homicide detectives, and her promotion to homicide is seen as a fluke after her high profile shootout in a beauty parlor. She ends up with the nickname "Detective Beauty Queen," which annoys her.
In the seventeenth season opener, there is tension with her boss, Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson), who states that Van Buren had a "hand-picked" replacement for Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), a much older and more experienced detective. Van Buren appears to have come to accept Cassady, however, at least up until the season finale "Family Hour". After Cassady botches an interrogation by losing her temper and goading a suspect who was close to a confession (the suspect is enraged to the point that he throws a chair through a glass window), Van Buren chastises her for acting unprofessionally after eight months on the job, suggesting that Cassady may not have a future in homicide at the 27th Detective Squad. While she later recovers her mistake with a strong performance on the witness stand, Cassady is no longer a character on the show at the start of the eighteenth season and is succeeded by Det. Cyrus Lupo. No explanation for her character's leaving is given.
Cassady is of Irish descent, as is revealed after a famous actor (played by Chevy Chase) uses anti-Semitic slurs against her while being interrogated, erroneously believing her to be Jewish.[3]
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