Janice Raleigh is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Disabled". She is the sister of disabled opera singer Cara Raleigh who abuses and steals from her out of resentment for Cara's greater success in life.
She was portrayed by Jill Scott, who also played Lady Eve in Black Lightning.
Biography[]
Janice and her sister Cara grew up in poverty. Cara was their parent's favoured daughter and was always given what she wanted, which Janice grew to resent. This resentment only grew in adulthood when Cara became a talented opera singer and was heaped with praise and adulation from their family and the general public while Janice continued to be ignored.
However, Cara's career came to an end when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her condition rapidly degenerated until she was left in a wheelchair, unable to communicate except by blinking, and she was forced to move in with Janice and her son Damien, who she was completely dependent on for care. This only exacerbated Janice's hatred, as she viewed Cara as "forcing" her to wait on her hand and foot, and she began lashing out and abusing Cara, viciously beating her with a bar of soap in a sock and subjecting her to verbal abuse. She also started skimming several thousand dollars from Cara's bank account, forcing Damien, who was unaware of the physical abuse, to get a job to pay back the money. To make it easier for her to abuse Cara, she falsely accused three of Cara's nurses of stealing from her, getting them reassigned by their agency, and had the remaining nurse scaled back to a one-day shift.
"Disabled"[]
Janice spends the night with her married boyfriend while Damien is at work, leaving Cara alone in the apartment. While Cara is alone, serial rapist Tony Griegs forces his way into the apartment and rapes her. Janice is informed of her sister's rape by Detective Fin Tutuola and feigns horror at the attack, telling Tutuola about the three nurses who supposedly stole from her.
The Special Victims Unit initially suspect that one of the sacked nurses could have attacked Cara in revenge and investigate one in particular, Mark Hubbard, who was accused of defrauding and blackmailing his patients. However, when Hubbard is interviewed by the SVU, he reveals that the accusations stemmed from his habit of secretly taping his clients in order to prove he was not stealing from them and turns over his footage from Cara Raleigh's apartment, which shows Janice beating and taunting Cara.
Janice is arrested for domestic violence, and the SVU begin to wrongly suspect her of being responsible for Cara's assault. Janice is interrogated by Tutuola, psychiatrist George Huang, and Assistant District Attorney Garret Blaine, who accuse her of raping Cara in order to make her feel as humiliated and degraded as her. Janice denies the charge and mocks Cara, gloating that people used to love her singing, but now she can't even talk and the people who once loved her have abandoned her. When she mentions that Cara is all alone, however, Huang replies that Damien cares about her, and suggests that her loves her more than he loves Janice. This outrages Janice until she tries to attack Huang and is restrained by Tutuola, who drags her back down to the cells.
Janice is later cleared of Cara's rape, as her boyfriend is able to confirm her alibi for the night of the assault, and is further charged with larceny after the SVU find out about the skimming from Cara's bank account. However, she manages to bail herself out of prison using money she stole from Cara and bursts into the hospital where Detective Olivia Benson is interviewing Cara to reveal that she has invoked her power of attorney to have her sent to a nursing home. When Damien confronts her, demanding to know how she could abuse her own sister, Janice mockingly tells him to go with her if he loves her so much, and declares that, as her son, he is either with her or against her.
After Griegs is identified and charged with Cara's rape, Janice is called to Blaine's office to discuss her case. She sees Cara there and begins insulting her, before Blaine reveals that, at Cara's request, he is offering her a deal to plead guilty to assault and get probation and a restraining order rather than going to prison. Janice accepts the deal, then immediately resumes berating Cara, accusing her of ruining her life, until Benson replies that Cara didn't force her to do anything; she chose to take care of her so that she could punish her for her parent's actions. Damien then silences Janice by revealing that her power of attorney has been transferred to him, and he has now become Cara's official carer; due to the restraining order, this means that his mother will be unable to have any further contact with him. Horrified, Janice futilely begs Cara and Damien to reconsider and accuses Cara of stealing her son from her as the two of them leave the office together, leaving Janice devastated and alone.
