| “ | I love PJ. And I'm never gonna let you hurt him again. | „ |
| ~ Avery's last words to Pierson Bartlett before killing PJ Bartlett and herself. |
Avery Hemmings is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Trade". She is a lawyer who murders her friend's fiancée after becoming obsessed with him, then represents him in court when he is charged with the crime.
She was portrayed by Michelle Borth.
Biography[]
Avery studied law in college and fell in love with her friend PJ Bartlett, the son of millionaire coffee importer Pierson Bartlett Sr. To stay in his life, she became the family attorney once she graduated from law school and hired private investigator Roger Fromm to keep an eye on PJ and investigate any women he dated, believing that every woman other than her was a gold-digger who was after PJ's money.
Avery was devastated when PJ fell in love with a woman named Jenna Ludlow and began planning to marry her. Her hatred for Jenna only grew when her private investigator revealed that she was cheating on PJ with his father, who was the father of her unborn child, and that she had previously lied about being pregnant to scam money out of the Bartletts. She eventually confronted Jenna in her home and demanded she break up with PJ, calling her a whore and a gold-digger. Jenna responded by telling her that PJ had proposed to her earlier that night and showing her the ring; enraged, Avery grabbed a lamp from the bedside table and beat Jenna to death with it. She then cut her clothes to make it look like a rape-homicide and set the building on fire before making her escape.
"Trade"[]
The NYPD's Special Victims Unit investigate Jenna's murder and soon begin to suspect PJ after discovering that he lied about his whereabouts and that he had sex with Jenna the night of her murder despite claiming he was out of the country. Avery immediately rushes to defend PJ after hearing of his arrest and agrees to represent him despite the fact that she usually tries Federal SEC cases. She later threatens Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak with a lawsuit after the revelation that Pierson Sr. was the father of Jenna's child results in a fight ending in Pierson Sr. throwing PJ throw a plate-glass window. However, Avery is unable to stop both Bartletts from being charged with the murder after the SVU find evidence that Jenna was scamming the two of them.
Knowing PJ will likely be convicted, Avery investigates the jurors and finds out that one of them, Debra Jackson, is a single mother with a disabled son. She has Roger Fromm bribe Jackson to vote not guilty with an offer to pay for her son's treatment, deadlocking the jury and resulting in a mistrial. Novak re-files charges and, suspicious of Jackson's vote, she investigates her further and finds evidence she was bribed. Jackson confesses and implicates Fromm in return for not being prosecuted, but Fromm has fled the country and destroyed all evidence of who paid him by the time police arrive at his office. The detectives do manage to find evidence that Fromm was surveilling PJ and his girlfriends, but they assume that Pierson Sr. was behind it. They search the Bartlett home, but Avery uses a legal technicality to invalidate the search warrant before they can find anything.
Unable to prove what happened, Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler search what's left of Jenna's home and discover that she had a secret camera set up to record her having sex with both Pierson Sr. and PJ in order to blackmail them. They soon realize that the camera recorded the night Jenna was killed and summon Avery and both Bartletts to the police station to watch it. Avery immediately realizes she is caught and leaves the room just before the video shows her attacking Jenna. Unable to escape, she heads up to the roof and prepares to jump off before PJ intervenes. Avery tells PJ she loves him and confesses to killing Jenna and hiring Roger Fromm to "protect" him. PJ almost manages to talk her down, before Pierson arrives and starts yelling at her. Avery, believing Pierson is responsible for what happened, tells him that she will never let him hurt PJ again before grabbing hold of PJ and jumping off the roof, killing them both.
External links[]
- Avery Hemmings on the Law & Order Wiki
