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| “ | I had to protect my home, my family. I roughed her up good and she kept her mouth shut. Now she's gone, and so is Ralphie. All tied up in a bow. The dead don't talk to the living. | „ |
| ~ Wald bragging about silencing his rape victim |
Gary Wald is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "The Longest Night of Rain". He is a former police captain who uses his connections in the NYPD to cover up a rape he committed years earlier.
He was portrayed by Michael Gaston, who also portrayed Donald Bazinski in an earlier SVU episode.
Early life[]
Wald served in the NYPD's Vice Department for many years, rising to the rank of Captain. At one point, he was partnered with Sergeant Ed Tucker before the latter was transferred to the Internal Affairs Bureau. He was also a mentor to Detective Rachel Wilson, but in 2004 he abused her trust by raping her and threatening to ruin her career if she told anyone.
Wilson eventually told Tucker and Vice Sergeant Ralph Morris what Wald had done to her, but neither of them could find enough evidence to charge Wald with anything. Wilson's fellow NYPD officers turned against her and called her a liar, and she was forced into a dead-end job in Staten Island. She fell into severe depression and drug addiction and lost almost everything she had; at one point, she was reduced to living in the basement of her neighborhood's community center.
Wald, meanwhile, retired from the NYPD and started a security company called Mobile Fortress. The company was very successful, earning Wald millions that he used to lead a playboy lifestyle, including cheating on his wife with several mistresses.
In "The Longest Night of Rain"[]
At Tucker's retirement party, Wilson accuses him of abandoning her and throws a drink in his face. Moments later, she records an account of the rape on her phone and commits suicide with her own sidearm. Captain Olivia Benson of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit asks Tucker, her ex-boyfriend, about Wilson's accusations, but he claims to barely remember Wilson.
Unsatisfied, Benson orders two of her detectives, Amanda Rollins and Kat Tamin, to investigate further. Tamin, who once worked in the Vice Department and is close with Morris, asks him about Wilson, and he says that she slept with several of her colleagues before washing out of the department. When Tamin asks him who he suspected of assaulting Wilson, he names Wald. Hours later, unable to live with the guilt of having turning his back on Wilson, Morris commits suicide.
Rollins and Sergeant Fin Tutuola question Wald, who says that Wilson was unstable and promiscuous, and got revenge against men who rejected her by threatening to ruin their lives with false accusations of sexual harassment. He then says that Tucker had investigated her, as well. Rollins and Tutuola bring Tucker to the SVU station house, where they and Assistant District Attorney Dominick Carisi Jr. question him about Wilson's accusations against Wald. He tells them about the investigation, denying that he had covered anything up. After finding out that Wilson slept with Morris, they theorize that Wald used this to intimidate Morris into keeping silent.
Benson, meanwhile, finds out that Morris had called her therapist, Peter Lindstrom, right before committing suicide. She tries to get him to tell her what Morris had said to her, but he refuses, bound by doctor-patient confidentiality. Carisi tries to compel Lindstrom to testify, but he is unsuccessful. Wald, meanwhile, breaks into Lindstrom's office and steals his files concerning Morris. Lindstrom tells Benson that Wald had been to his office shortly before the break-in, asking him what Morris had told him before he died. He says that he told Wald that he could not tell him what Morris had said, but that he could ask Tucker.
Benson meets with Tucker, who reveals that he is dying of brain cancer and wants to atone for failing to help Wilson by helping to bring Wald to justice. He goes out to dinner with Wald while wearing a wire, and brings up Wilson's accusations. Wald admits to raping Wilson and beating her up to keep her quiet; he also brags that, since Wilson and Morris are dead, no one can touch him. After Wald goes home, Benson, who was listening from a nearby police van, tells Tucker that she has enough evidence to put Wald in prison. The following day, Rollins and Tutuola arrest Wald at his work, and he is imprisoned for rape, assault, and witness tampering.
Trivia[]
- Wald is inspired by Danny Lee Reedy, an LAPD officer reported for assault, rape, and other abuses by colleague Ysabel Villegas.
External links[]
- Gary Wald on the Law & Order Wiki
