Nick Falco

Det. Nick Falco is a fictional character on the NBC crime drama Law & Order, portrayed by Michael Imperioli. He first appeared as Joe Fontana's partner in the last four episodes of the show's 15th season while Jesse L. Martin, who played Ed Green, took time off to film the movie Rent.

While Falco can appear to be a "loose cannon" type in the mold of Mike Logan, he has been known to take extra precautions when interrogating suspects or executing warrants that sometimes annoy other detectives. A part-time law student, Falco tends to know more about the "fine print" of the law that could sink otherwise good-faith arrests.

Falco appeared again near the end of the 16th season, when a woman he brought home was found dead in his apartment's bathroom. Falco, in an effort to clear his name, tried to investigate the murder on his own, which tainted the investigation Fontana and Green were conducting. Falco's name was later cleared; detectives learned that the murdered woman was part of a criminal gang which routinely committed robbery. The leader of the gang, the wife of an incarcerated criminal, had asked the woman to go home with Falco and put Rohypnol in his drink to knock him out. The woman was later murdered (by the girlfriend of another gang member) and left in Falco's apartment in an attempt to incriminate him. Her son was in on the sting to get her only to prove to the police and Falco that she did not do it.

After Falco was exonerated, he returned to his post in the Brooklyn homicide division.