| “ | You're soft, just like your father! I was trying to show you how to be a man! You don't apologize, you take what's yours! You don't have what it takes! | „ |
| ~ Hendricks showing his true colors to his grandson. |
Lawrence Hendricks, Sr. is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Decline and Fall". He is a wealthy businessman and sexual predator who has raped several women.
He was portrayed by Bob Gunton, who also played Gil Himes in Law & Order, Samuel Norton in The Shawshank Redemption,Benjamin Maxwell in Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Warden in Family Guy and Leland Owlsley in Daredevil.
Biography[]
A successful businessman, he formed his company in the early 70s and it has grown into various businesses over the years. He eventually had two kids Lawrence Jr. and Cynthia who joined his company in their adult years.
Behind his facade as a working family man, he was a sexual deviant who subjected many women to rape after drugging them, due to anger at other men showing him up. His first known was his daughter-in-law who was pregnant with his grandson. This caused estrangement with his son who left the company. However, Hendricks was still close to his grandson Eric who went onto work at the company and move in with him.
Decline and Fall[]
The night of his seventy-fifth birthday party, he drugged a caterer named Sarah after getting jealous that Eric hooked up with an attractive woman. Because it was a rare drug that caused memory lapses, Sarah reported her experiences to SVU who discovered that two men had relations with Sarah and were related. As a result, all of the Hendricks men were looked into even Eric after he claimed consent.
When Rollins tried to collect a DNA sample from Lawrence Sr., he admitted in front of her, his daughter, and business associates he had sex with Sarah not long after his grandson Eric, to their shock. He saw nothing wrong with the act, claiming she seduced him after being impressed with his success. He denied drugging her before his daughter silenced him from saying any other incriminating statements. Cynthia told Rollins to get a sample nut stated her father didn't have to answer and the DNA was taken in for processing.
At the precinct, Lieutenant Benson helped Sarah recall the night of the rape and she remembered sleeping with Eric but became horrified to learn Lawrence claimed to have had sex with her and the DNA matched. They also explained the drugs may have been planted in his room to incriminate him. With SVU's help, Sarah called Lawrence for a meeting, with him and Cynthia meeting her at the pier. She was angry he had company, but Hendricks tried bribery to silence her accusations, as she demanded an apology for the rape, but he disregards and admits that he gave her the drugs to relax, to her anger. Soon the detectives (who wired Sarah) move in and arrest him for his confession. Unfazed, he tells Cynthia to call his lawyer before he is taken away.
His lawyer Timmons is outraged SVU first accused Eric and now Hendricks Sr, telling them that this victim doesn't seem credible, and they'll have the charges dropped soon. Much later, his daughter petitions that he is suffering dementia and tries to usurp the company from him, despite his protests. However, this causes Timmons to get an idea for a defense by talking Hendricks into going along with it and his daughter to quietly assure him on not fighting her help. This left witnessing A.D.A Rafael Barba to become determine and swear to expose the defense for the scam it is.
To that end, he brings in Hendricks' lover who is revealed to have place the drugs in Eric's room. He also had Hendricks' son Lawrence Jr. testify after it is revealed that Hendricks Sr. raped his pregnant wife. After being convinced of his grandfather's guilt, Eric was placed on the stand and told the jury of how Hendricks Sr. is lucid in many modern things and reveals on the night Sarah was raped, he specifically told him not to drink what Sarah had. Outraged by his grandson's betrayal, Hendricks called him soft like his father and that he was teaching him to be a man, as a way of justifying his rapes. He was then detained and was found guilty of rape.
In the end, Hendricks was imprisoned for multiple counts of rape.
