Lorraine Dillon (Lynda Carter) is the secondary villainess of "Design", episode 7.02 of Law & Order: SVU (as well as episode 16.02 of the original Law & Order, "Flaw")
History[]
Lorraine Dillon was the mother of April Troost, whom she taught from a young age to become the same sociopathic manipulator she was. Lorraine left April's father Douglas McManus due to his lack of money and began seducing various other men into marrying her, with the intent of swindling them out of their money. She had also previously had an affair with conman Patrick Sullivan while married to Douglas, and he had (unbeknownst to Lorraine) raped April when she was 14. She also aided April in various criminal schemes to make more money.
Law & Order: SVU[]
During the events of "Design", April impregnated herself using the semen of scientist Barclay Pallister and ultimately staged her murder after extorting a bribe from him, whilst also making off with money from couples she'd said she'd let adopt the baby. During the investigation into April's deeds, Lorraine came to the SVU squad, surprising the detectives (as April had claimed her mother had died of cancer). When questioned about April, Lorraine claimed that she'd always been a compulsive liar and feigned shock at her villainous scheme involving her pregnancy and her ex-husband's fertility studies (April having also provided him with stolen semen from the wealthy and talented men she'd seduced).
When April was arrested by the SVU detectives and refused to give them the location of her and Barclay's baby, Lorraine confronted about this along with her telling the detectives that she had trained her to be the evil manipulator she was. When April still refused to talk, Lorraine stormed out in disgust, saying she was done with April and going home to Florida. After April was given a deal that would keep her out of prison, however, she revealed that her mother was in possession of her baby and Detectives Benson and Stabler stopped her just as she was about to get on a train to Florida with her granddaughter. Unable to prove her involvement, though, the evil Lorraine simply handed over the baby before walking away.
Law & Order[]
Lorraine resurfaced in "Flaw" along with April, as the two entered another fraud scam with Patrick, this time to extort $500,000 from businessman David Glass. As part of the scheme, Lorraine interrupted the meeting between David, Patrick, and April while posing as an SEC agent and pretended to shoot Patrick dead when the two got into an altercation, using squibs to further the deception. But later on, April became greedy and killed Patrick for his share of the money, lying to Lorraine and claiming that she had done so as retribution for him having raped her as a teen. Wanting to protect April, Lorraine claimed responsibility for killing Patrick, claiming that he had attacked her when she confronted him about raping April and she shot him in self-defense.
When the case went to trial and ADA McCoy argued that Lorraine killed Patrick to get the money he'd earned from the fraud, Lorraine adamantly denied the claim and continued to defend the fact that she had been motivated by what he had done to her daughter. When April took the stand, however, she turned on her mother and claimed she was Patrick's consensual lover and that Lorraine had killed him out of jealousy, shocking Lorraine. Later on, after being found guilty and sent to prison, Lorraine told of how April had told her she'd killed Patrick, along with revealing that April had manipulated her with her only weakness: her love for her child. However, though, the scorned Lorraine herself turned on April by confessing to how she had murdered her first baby in exchange for a deal in which she would serve a 20-year prison sentence.