Flat Rock is home to Dann Florek, who plays Captain Donald Cragen in the television series Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Her character will be tasked with handling the case against Special Victims Unit commanding officer, Captain Donald Cragen ( Dann Florek ), who is under suspicion of murder after waking up beside a dead woman in the 13th season finale.

Donald " Don " Cragen is a fictional character played by Dann Florek in the American crime drama television series Law & Order and its spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC.

A recovering alcoholic, Cragen is a tough police veteran, but one loyal to his officers.

Cragen comes from an Irish Catholic working-class background, and graduated from a Catholic university in New York City, although different episodes have given conflicting information about exactly which school ; he calls St. Raymond's University his alma mater in the first season episode " Sophomore Jinx ", but says it is St. John's in the third season episode " Justice ".

The episode " Prescription for Death " establishes that Cragen is a recovering alcoholic.

Cragen is jaded by city politics and no longer votes.

In the 1991 episode " The Blue Wall ", Cragen is investigated by internal affairs for possible corruption after evidence tampering within the department leads to the acquittal of three Wall Street bankers in a money laundering case.

When his friend Greevey is murdered in the episode " Confession ", Cragen is a pall-bearer at his funeral.

During that investigation, Cragen, discovers that there is not only a cop in the 27th precinct on Uzielli's payroll, but that his former detective from homicide, Mike Logan ( Chris Noth ), is interfering with the investigation of the Don by investigating a murder of his own.

Logan is investigating the suspicious death of a friend and fellow detective, Bill Marino, and is questioned by Cragen and task force detectives due to Marino's ties to the narcotics detectives.

At the start of the ninth season, Cragen is briefly relieved of duty for failure to supervise due to the actions of several of his detectives, such as Benson aiding her fugitive half-brother and Elliot Stabler ( Christopher Meloni ) covering up his daughter's DUI.

Cragen is forced to transfer to the office of Chief of Detectives and cede control of his precinct to the newly-promoted Sergeant John Munch ( Richard Belzer ).

His " date " turns out to be embarking on a ruse against Cragen and the detectives, as she is involved in the murders.

It is discovered that Cragen did hire a few escorts for " company " but not for sex.

He is temporarily promoted to commanding officer of the Special Victims ' Unit following Cragen's temporary reassignment but is depicted as happily relinquishing control back to Donald Cragen, commenting upon Cragen's return, " This job sucks ".

He is temporarily put in charge again when Cragen gets suspended after the detectives mishandle the Nikki Sherman rape case.

As Captain Don Cragen ( Dann Florek ) explains it, the person in charge of transfer paperwork is a colleague of Tutuola's in the narcotics unit who holds a grudge because his ex-wife started calling Tutuola after their divorce.

" In the season 10 episode " Confession ", Tutuola enters the interrogation room with a suspect ; Cragen quickly closes the blinds to block the view into the room from an approaching superior, a subtle gag that hints that Tutuola is about to become violent.

Cragen encounters Logan again in " Bad Faith " during an Anti-Corruption Task Force investigation into crooked narcotics detectives.

In the fifth season episode " Criminal ", a homicide investigation leads to a suspect named Javier Vega ( James McDaniel ), a man Cragen arrested for murder in the 1970s who has since reformed and become a criminology professor.

Convinced of Vega's guilt, Cragen becomes personally involved in the investigation, which results in Vega's arrest and conviction.

* In an 2009 episode of Law and Order: SVU entitled " Lead ", Captain Cragen ( Dann Florek ) tells a couple of his detectives to talk to a hospital representative to find out information about a suit filed against them: " Talk to the hospital, find out what Keppler and his shyster lawyer are up to.

The SVU detectives arrest Foster, which allows the charges against Cragen to be dropped.

Florek reprised the role of Cragen in the 1995 episode " Bad Faith " ( which he also directed ), and in the 1998 TV-movie Exiled, centered on former L & O star Chris Noth's character, Mike Logan.

Cragen finally hit rock bottom when he pulled his service revolver on a taxi driver while in a drunken rage ; horrified, he quit drinking and joined AA, and has been sober ever since.

Vega later kidnaps the actual killer and threatens him at gunpoint, but Cragen personally talks him down, then saves Vega when the killer grabs Vega's gun and tries to shoot him.

Cragen in " Ace ", Marlowe was a Lieutenant in 1995 when she left the NYPD after her command decision resulted in the deaths of two of her officers.

When Logan feels conflicted about whether to testify about his knowledge of Marino's complicity in those crimes, he turns to advice from Cragen, who comforts Logan and ultimately helps convince Logan not to commit perjury by lying about Marino.

Cragen in " Rhodium Nights ", after awaking up and discovering the young woman's ( portrayed by Pippa Black ) body.

When Law & Order: SVU first aired, Dave Mason, television editor for Ventura County Star, said Cragen was " played brilliantly " by Florek, and called the relationship between Cragen and Stabler the strongest aspect of the series.

In the episode, Cragen, by now the head of the titular sex crimes unit, finds Stephen Talmadge while investigating a corrupt adoption agency.

Despite clearing his own name in the process, Cragen feels guilty for bringing down his former mentor and friend.

As portrayed in the 1998 TV movie Exiled: A Law & Order Movie, Cragen next interacts with the 27th Precinct while attempting to arrest Mafia boss Don Giancarlo Uzielli for the murders of 15 people.

In " Stalked ," a first season episode, Cragen participates in a sting operation in which one of his detectives, Olivia Benson ( Mariska Hargitay ), serves as bait for a suspected rapist who had been stalking her.

When the suspect attempts to attack her, Cragen physically incapacitates the man and allows for his arrest.

When evidence surfaces proving Vega's innocence, a guilt-stricken Cragen arranges for his immediate release.

Alan Sepinwall, television columnist for The Star-Ledger, said the Cragen character " showed off more personality " in the film Exiled and on Special Victims Unit than the character exhibited in the original Law & Order.

Cragen reassures ADA Alexandra Cabot that " Fin won't take the bait " during an interrogation in which the suspect refers to Fin as a " coon.

Cragen started the series as a homicide captain with the New York Police Department, then became captain of the department's Special Victims Unit.

Cragen served as a Green Beret in the Vietnam War before joining the New York Police Department, where he was a homicide detective partnered with Max Greevey ( George Dzundza ).

The season 13 finale " Rhodium Nights ", closes with Cragen awakening in bed to find blood on his hand and the body of a young female escort whose throat had been cut beside him.

He began his career in the 1960s, partnered with Don Cragen ( Dann Florek ).

By the beginning of the series, he is promoted to sergeant and partnered with Mike Logan ( Chris Noth ), with Cragen as their captain.

After Greevey's death, Cragen took the case over and kept in touch with her parents.