| “ | That bitch deserved it! | „ |
| ~ Bunker cursing the woman he assaulted. |
Allard Bunker is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Conduct Unbecoming". He is a Navy Captain who sexually assaults and murders a female subordinate.
He is portrayed by Len Cariou, who also portrayed Sweeney Todd in the original Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Patrick Dunn in Prisoners.
Early life[]
Bunker was a decorated Naval officer who served in Vietnam, Grenada, and the first Gulf War. In 1988, he was promoted to a prestigious instructor position at the U.S. Naval Academy, and started an affair with one of his students, Janet Hagen. When Bunker became possessive of her, Hagen filed a claim of sexual harassment against him. While he was eventually cleared of the charges, the accusation ruined his career; he was denied promotion to the rank of Admiral and the command of a ship, and he was transferred to a dead-end position at a weapons station in New Jersey.
In 1993, he was assigned command of a submarine hunting frigate. There, he once again encountered Hagen, now a Lieutenant, and tried to seduce her. When she rebuffed his advances, he grew angry and twisted her arm, tearing her rotator cuff. He then hit her so hard that she fell and hit her head, causing internal bleeding in her brain. She staggered into a party that her unit was having in a hotel and passed out after going into a room with Ensign Evan Walters, who tried to have sex with her before she had a seizure and died.
In "Conduct Unbecoming"[]
When Hagen's body is found by police officers busting up the party, Bunker tries to write off her death as the result of alcohol poisoning, but NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Mike Logan investigate it as a murder. Bunker incriminates Walters, who had been blackout drunk at the time of Hagen's death. Walters believes that he is responsible for Hagen's death and pleads guilty to manslaughter. Bunker puts Hagen's bunkmate, Lieutenant Ruth Mendoza, on leave so she cannot testify at Walters' hearing.
The coroner's report, however, proves that Hagen died of a brain hemorrhage and had not been drinking. Since Bunker had gone to such great lengths to bury the investigation, Briscoe and Logan suspect him of committing the murder. They interrogate Mendoza, who admits seeing Bunker and Hagen together shortly before the latter's death and that Bunker had ordered her not to talk to the police. Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette question Tammy White, a prostitute who had been hired to work the party, who says that Bunker got violent with her after he failed to perform sexually. After they uncover Bunker's history with Hagen, they have him arrested for second-degree murder.
Stone calls Mendoza and Walters as witnesses at Bunker's trial; Mendoza testifies that Bunker treated Hagen with cruelty onboard the frigate, while Walters denies hitting her. Bunker, meanwhile, testifies in his own defense, dismissing Hagen's claims of harassment against him as a "misunderstanding" that she used to punish him for rejecting her. When Stone confronts Bunker with the decline of his career after Hagen's accusations and his assault against White, Bunker yells, "That bitch deserved it!" Stone replies, "Which bitch, sir? Tammy White or Janet Hagen?" The jury sees Bunker for who he is and finds him guilty of second-degree murder, and he is sentenced to life in prison, while Walters is exonerated and set free.
External links[]
- Allard Bunker on the Law & Order Wiki
