Lauren Stanton

This is an overview of regular and recurring characters on the NBC legal drama Law & Order: LA.

Law & Order: LA, a spin-off of the crime drama Law & Order, follows the detectives who work in the Robbery-Homicide Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, a unit that focuses on homicide related crimes featuring two homicide detectives, a senior partner and a junior partner, who investigate the crime, collect evidence, and interview witnesses while regularly reporting to the commanding officer, Lieutenant Arleen Gonzalez (Rachel Ticotin). The evidence leads to the arrest of one or more suspects. The matter then is taken over by the prosecutors of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office: the junior deputy district attorney and senior deputy district attorney; they discuss deals, prepare the witnesses and evidence, and conduct the people's case in the trial. The series generally shows two deputy district attorneys working in the District Attorney's office, in alternating episodes under the leadership of District Attorney Jerry Hardin (Peter Coyote).

Due to low ratings, NBC cancelled the series on May 13, 2011.

Ricardo Morales is a veteran detective in the Robbery-Homicide Division of the Los Angeles Police Department only after giving up a career in the district attorney's office after becoming frustrated with the justice system and the prosecutorial politics involved in trying to convict a Mexican drug dealer, who in turn got away with kidnapping charges along with multiple counts of murder and manslaughter charges.

Morales has a deep abiding sense of justice. He got his work ethic from his father, a groundskeeper at Hillcrest Country Club who took great pride in his work. His father and mother are Latino immigrants, he has a few brothers and sisters, and one daughter - Karina - who doesn't live with him, likely the result of a divorce. Morales returns to the LAPD after Rex Winters is murdered, causing problems such as coerced confessions, officer involved shootings, and believed to have done witness tampering; which causes others, including Morales to question his efficiency as a police officer.

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