| “ | You wouldn't dare talk to me like that if you didn't have that badge and that gun! | „ |
| ~ Hoffman cursing Olivia Benson |
Dan Hoffman is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Desperate". He is a domestic abuser who beats his first wife, rapes and murders his second wife, and terrorizes his son.
He was portrayed by Rob Estes.
Biography[]
Hoffman was a successful realtor and family man seen as a pillar of his community. Behind that wholesome image, however, he was an abusive control freak who emotionally and physically abused his wife, Kim. He avoided detection because of his prestigious reputation, particularly with the local police, to whom he donated generously. Dan did not physically abuse his and Kim's son Tommy, but frequently hit her in front of him and subtly threatened them by saying that something bad would happen if he told anyone.
Kim found a support group of battered women who helped her escape from her husband, although she was forced to leave Tommy behind. Hoffman told his friends that Kim had been an unfaithful wife and an unfit mother, winning him sympathy in the community and keeping his abuse a secret.
A few years later, Hoffman married a woman named Jill, who became Tommy's stepmother. Soon enough, however, he began abusing her, as well. She left him and took Tommy with her, having come to love the boy as if he was her own child.
Soon afterward, a friend of Hoffman's told him that he had seen Jill working as a stripper in New York. Hoffman went to New York and found Jill at a diner with Tommy. Hoffman stalked Jill until he learned her routine, and then broke into her apartment and raped her before beating her to death. Unbeknownst to him, Tommy saw the whole thing.
"Desperate"[]
After the NYPD's Special Victims Unit finds Tommy covered in Jill's blood, Hoffman shows up at their station house to pick him up. Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler notice that Tommy is afraid of his father and start investigating him. After learning of his history of domestic violence and finding circumstantial evidence linking him to Jill's death, they arrest him for rape and murder. The usually unflappable Hoffman flies into a rage as he is taken to jail; he is especially angered by Benson "talking back" to him.
Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot tells Benson and Stabler to find more solid evidence of Hoffman's guilt, leading them to investigate further until they uncover the support group's efforts to help Kim escape and, eventually, discover the whereabouts of Kim herself. Stabler asks her to testify against Hoffman, but she is afraid that Tommy will hate her for leaving him. Ultimately, however, Stabler manages to convince her that Tommy needs her to protect him from his father.
During his trial, Hoffman is stunned to see Kim again after so long. When Tommy goes up on the witness stand, Dan subtly intimidates him into backing down. Hoffman then asks the judge to keep Tommy from testifying, hypocritically voicing concern for the boy's emotional well-being. The judge agrees, and Cabot reluctantly lets Tommy leave the witness stand. Dan smiles at his son and tells him he loves him. Tommy looks to his mother, giving him the courage to finally stand up to his father; Tommy looks Hoffman in the eye and says, "You killed Jill". Dan realizes Tommy did witness his crime as his lawyer calls for a mistrial, but the judge denies the request while dealing with the murmuring jurors. A seething Dan watches as own his son testify against him, for once powerless.
It can be assumed Hoffman was found guilty of raping and murdering Jill, abusing both his ex-wives, and endangering the welfare of a child, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Tommy was presumably placed in his mother's custody again.
External links[]
- Dan Hoffman at the Law & Order Wiki
