Leslie DeSantis (Law & Order: SVU)

Leslie DeSantis (Patricia Kalember) was the secondary villainess of "Folly", episode 2.17 of Law & Order: SVU. She was a madam who masked her male prostitution business as an escort service, claiming none of her escorts were permitted to have sex with clients. One of her escorts was struggling actor Victor Coe, but Leslie fired him when he offered a client sexual services. Victor retaliated by opening his own services and stealing Leslie's clientele, angering the madam. She also gave a loan to another financially struggling escort, Tommy Dowd, in exchange for sleeping with her. She forced him to continue the relationship and, when he threatened to end things, Leslie in turn threatened to withdraw the loan if he did. Enraged by both men's acts, the evil Leslie set Victor and Tommy up with a pair of clients (later revealed to be couple Gary and Darlene Sutton) who had a habit of getting violent with male escorts. Tommy survived the attack while Victor was left in a coma.
After learning about Tommy's survival, Leslie made another attempt on Tommy's life by setting him up with the murderous duo again. But Tommy sent his friend Gregory Moore in his place due to having to meet with lawyers regarding his mother's store, resulting in him being attacked and killed. Cabot managed to convince Tommy to have dinner with Leslie while wearing a wire in order to get her to confess to her crimes, and he is able to get her to admit that her escort business is secretly prostitution, as well as inadvertently state that she had a role in Victor's assault. When Leslie tried to get intimate with Tommy and discovered his wire, she irately accused Tommy of being ungrateful before splashing boiling water on him from the linguine they were preparing. Detectives Benson and Stabler stormed into the apartment right after and arrested Leslie, who spat at Tommy as she was led away in handcuffs by Stabler.
While meeting with Cabot in prison with her lawyer, Leslie smugly proclaimed that Tommy wouldn't testify against her when Cabot threatened to charge her with Gregory's murder. She then gave Leslie a deal: she take a sentence for manslaughter on Gregory and she gave up the name of the couple that murdered him. Leslie, however, revealed that she had no idea who they were, as they always used a different credit card number and took turns phoning in appointments (which was proven true by her records). Leslie was ultimately sentenced to prison for promoting prostitution and attempted murder on Tommy.
== Trivia ==
* Ironically, Patricia Kalember would return to SVU as recurring character Judge Taten.
==Gallery==
Leslie DeSantis arrest.jpg|Leslie DeSantis's arrest
Category:2000s
Category:Attempted Murder
Category:Bondage Used On Villainess
Category:Hero's Lover
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Indirect
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Fate: Arrested