A recent episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was actually based on an experience that TikToker Katie (@katienelson.photography) had.

She was a victim of Kaitlyn Braun, who faked multiple pregnancies and harassed two people providing doula care.

Just a few nights ago, Katie and her roommate were watching a sitcom together when she received a text from someone asking if she knew about the latest SVU episode.

When she looked up the promo for the episode, she saw the show’s characters reenacting exactly what had happened to her.

“First of all, I just want to give props to the costume or wardrobe department and the casting director because that’s pretty crazy,” Katie said.

“Actually, there was a character who was not shown on screen, named Karina, and that was based on my experience and the experience of another doula. We’re kind of combined into one character. It was fairly accurate as far as the details were concerned.”

The only two things about the episode that Katie took issue with were the mention of laboring at home with placenta previa and that all the doulas were new or inexperienced. Neither was the case in real life.

According to Katie, it was healing to hear Mariska Hargitay’s character, Captain Olivia Benson, say all the comforting things that she wished the actual police had told her.

“They definitely treated the victims a little bit better on TV than what happened in real life,” Katie pointed out. “The courtroom, unfortunately, was not quite as dramatic as they showed in the show, but the end, unfortunately, was exactly the same.”

However, at least Kaitlyn Braun is currently sitting in federal prison, paying for her crimes. On two occasions, the 26-year-old woman faked pregnancies and fraudulently received doula care while she was on house arrest for similar crimes.

She pleaded guilty in January to two counts of obtaining services less than $5,000 under false pretenses and two charges related to harassment.

Previously, she pled guilty to 21 charges of mischief, fraud, false pretenses, and indecent acts after pretending to have experienced pregnancies and stillbirths between June 2022 and February 2023. She was sentenced to two years of house arrest and quickly reoffended.

The latest incidents occurred in April 2024. Braun contacted an organization that supports parents in crisis. She claimed that she was 19 weeks pregnant and that the baby wasn’t going to make it to full term.

She spoke to a social worker volunteer for 18 hours over the course of two days. Finally, the volunteer discovered that Braun was not actually pregnant.

A week later, she reached out to a doula over text and claimed to be 21 weeks pregnant and was experiencing pregnancy loss. Braun and the doula exchanged more than 600 texts over three days until the doula called the hospital and found out Braun was not there.

Both the judge and Braun’s lawyers say that she needs mental health care.

Overall, in some ways, fiction can provide the closure that the justice system can’t. Katie’s story highlighted the emotional toll on people like doulas or care workers who dedicate their time to helping others, only to be exploited.