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| “ | I know the reality of homelessness. I lived it as a child. Me and my mother, discarded, sleeping on the trains, watching your back every second. I'm the only one looking out for these women. | „ |
| ~ Machado rationalizing how she pimps out at-risk women she is supposed to help. |
Catalina Machado is a supporting antagonist in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, appearing as the main antagonist of the episodes "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing" and "And the Empire Strikes Back". She is a corrupt philanthropist who uses her non-profit organization as a front for sex trafficking.
She was portrayed by Zabryna Guevara.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Machado was born into a poor, single parent family in New York City, and she and her mother were often homeless. She managed to rise above her humble beginnings, however, eventually becoming a doctor and an advocate for homeless and at-risk women and families. She created and ran a non-profit organization, Proud Life, that provided homeless and at-risk women and their families with subsidized housing. Her philanthropy made her a well-respected and powerful figure in the city's political elite, and made her many powerful friends, including NYPD Chief Tommy McGrath and Christian Garland, the Bureau Chief of the department's Special Victims Unit.
Beneath her altruistic façade, however, she hid a dark secret - she financed her non-profit, while also making millions for herself, by running a sex trafficking ring. She ran this operation through Proud Life: After approving homeless and at-risk women for housing in Holt Towers, a luxury condominium complex, she would pimp them out, ordering building superintendent Paulie Banducci to let men come into the women's apartments and pay for sex. One of her most powerful clients was Congressman Justin Howard, who also directed multimillion dollar federal grants to Proud Life and appeared with her at high-profile charity functions. In addition to providing him with women, she also arranged for him to rape 14-year-old Jenna Evans, working with his campaign manager, Ruben Ortiz, to offer the girl up to Howard and making sure no one ever found out.
"Wolves in Sheep's Clothing"[]
After Banducci rapes Machado's latest charity case, Rosa Estrada, Rosa's neighbor, Betty Swanson, mistakenly assumes she is a prostitute and goes to SVU to accuse her of endangering the welfare of her young son, Felipe. Captain Olivia Benson sends Detectives Fin Tutuola, Amanda Rollins, and Kat Tamin to investigate, and they find that she is being trafficked.
The SVU team initially suspects Banducci of leading the trafficking ring, so Garland reaches out to Machado, asking her to find out what is going on in the building. Machado promises to help in any way she can, while secretly threatening to evict the women she is trafficking unless they keep their mouths shut. The SVU team finds security footage of Ortiz going in and of a particular apartment, so Tutuola and Tamin question its occupant, former prostitute and recovering drug addict Lulu Davis, who says that Ortiz is her boyfriend. When they tell her she could lose her suit for custody of her daughter if she is caught committing or abetting a crime, however, she admits that she has sex with Banducci, Ortiz, and Howard as a form of "rent", and agrees to help the investigation.
They arrest Ortiz, who offers to testify against Howard and Ortiz in return for leniency, while identifying the latter as the leader of the trafficking ring. While Garland refuses to believe it, he reluctantly allows Benson to send Lulu to talk to Machado while wearing a wire. Lulu approaches Machado after a Proud Life rally and asks for her help getting custody of her daughter, saying that Machado owes her after she "did things" with her clients. Machado agrees that she owes Davis a favor and promises to pull strings on her behalf - thus confirming her involvement in the prostitution ring. Benson and her detectives, who are listening in a surveillance van parked several blocks away, arrest Machado for sex trafficking and racketeering.
Machado and her lawyer, Evan Braun, sit down with Benson and Assistant District Attorney Dominick Carisi Jr. and try to arrange a lenient plea bargain. When a disgusted Benson accuses her of exploiting the women she promised to help, however, Machado self-righteously claims that she is the only person in the world who cares about them and that the trafficking is just a means to an end to keep them safe and off the street. Carisi is unmoved, however, and says that he does not need her help to dismantle the prostitution ring. To keep his client from going to prison for life, Braun offers to have her testify against all of her clients, including several state and federal government officials. Carisi agrees to the deal and tells her that she has to help SVU arrest Howard.
"And the Empire Strikes Back"[]
Machado attends a fundraiser for Proud Life with Howard as her guest of honor while Tutuola, Tamin, and Detective Joe Velasco work undercover to catch the Congressman in the act of sexually abusing Jenna, whom Machado and Ortiz have invited as a "special guest". The detectives arrest Howard as he is about to rape Jenna, whom he has drugged with Rohypnol, and charge him with rape and child sexual abuse, while Carisi begins preparing Machado to testify against him.
Before Machado can take the witness stand, however, she is found dead in an apparent suicide, having fallen to her death from the balcony of the motel Carisi had put her in while she awaited her court appearance. Ortiz and Banducci are also murdered, and it is later revealed that Howard's attorney and fixer, Myron Gold, had ordered the murders to protect Howard and many of his other rich, powerful clients, even though he eventually cuts Howard loose as a "sacrificial predator" after the Congressman implicates himself in abusing Jenna.
External links[]
- Catalina Machado on the Law & Order Wiki
