Joel Parven is a husband and father of two boys, the younger of whom has Down's Syndrome. In 2007, he slept with Corrine Nicholson, his wife's best friend, who also happened to have a developmentally-disabled child, Katie. When Corrine became pregnant by Joel, his son Alex found out and beat her into a coma. Joel was initially considered a suspect in the beating, but was cleared when it was learned that Katie had heard the whole attack and recognized Alex's voice as the attacker. (SVU: "Savant")