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| “ | I read your texts, I read your emails, I listen to your voicemails, because you're a slut! | „ |
| ~ Willard to Jennifer right before he kills her. |
David Willard is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Know It All". He is the CEO of a digital security company who murders his employee and lover Jennifer Knowles and spies on the NYPD's Special Victims Unit in order to blackmail them into dropping the murder case against him.
He was portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos, who also portrayed Sotto Voce in Red Notice, Clark Ingram in the TV series Hannibal, and Doc Seismic in Invincible.
Early life[]
Willard is the founder and CEO of Attention, Inc., a digital security company that specializes in surveillance, recording customers' personal information and buying habits and selling them to advertising companies. While he is a talented engineer and an astute businessman, however, he is also a narcissistic control freak who demands complete "obedience" of his employees and especially his significant others, insisting on knowing where they are and what they are doing at all times.
He starts dating his employee Jennifer Knowles, and keeps her under his thumb both at work and at home, controlling every aspect of her life and physically and emotionally abusing her when she tries to "disobey" him.
In "Know It All"[]
When Knowles finally decides to leave Willard, she comes over to his house and has sex with him to soften the blow. They get into an argument afterward, however, with Willard accusing her of being unfaithful. When she tries to leave, he hits her so hard that she falls and hits her head on a table, killing her instantly. In order to avoid prison, he strangles her post-mortem, ties up her corpse and cuts off strands of hair on the back of her neck to mimic "The 23rd Avenue Strangler," a serial killer and rapist who is preying on women in New York City. He then leaves her body in a neighborhood where the killer has struck before.
The next day, Detectives Amanda Rollins and Dominick Carisi Jr. of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit inform Willard of Knowles' death, which they believe to be the work of the 23rd Avenue Strangler. Willard feigns shock and grief, and tells the detectives that he and Knowles had broken up amicably. He also denies Knowles' sister Laura's accusations that he had abused and controlled Knowles, and dismisses Laura, a recovering alcoholic, as a "paranoid drunk".
When the 23rd Avenue Strangler, Alex Ryan, is finally caught, he is brought to the SVU precinct house, where Carisi and fellow NYPD Detective Marcus Perry interrogate him about his victims. He brags about the ones he did kill, but appears to have never seen Knowles before, although he takes credit for her death as well to increase his notoriety. SVU Lieutenant Olivia Benson is unconvinced, however, especially when Knowles' autopsy shows she had not been drinking, as Ryan's other victims had been at the time of their deaths, and that she had died of a blow to the head, not strangulation. The SVU detectives keep investigating until they find that Willard had been lying about his amicable breakup with Knowles, and begin investigating him as a suspect.
Willard retaliates by using his surveillance technology to spy on the SVU detectives and the Manhattan District Attorney's office and threatening to reveal their secrets unless they drop the case against him. First, he finds out about a sex offense that NYPD forensic scientist Colin Bennett committed years earlier and blackmails him into altering the DNA evidence against him. He then finds out that Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba once given a witness money, knowing she would use it for drugs, only for her to overdose, and has been giving money to her daughter ever since. He tries to blackmail Barba, forcing him to recuse himself from the case.
His luck finally runs out, however, when Benson looks through Knowles' apartment and finds a surveillance device that had recorded Willard killing her. He is charged with murder, but pleads not guilty. Nevertheless, he is found guilty and goes to prison.
External links[]
- David Willard on the Law & Order Wiki
