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| “ | I haven't seen any innocent people for a long time. | „ |
| ~ Stoat rationalizing his crimes. |
Mike Stoat is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Purgatory". He is a corrupt ex-cop who works as hired muscle for gangster John Testarossa, and who brings Detective Robert Goren into the gang, unaware that he is working undercover.
He is portrayed by Dean Winters, who also portrayed Ryan O'Reily in Oz, Trevor Gooden in Hellraiser: Hellseeker, Avi in John Wick, Andrew in Tangled: The Series, and the title character in Allstate Insurance's "Mayhem" ad campaign.
Early life[]
Stoat was a detective in the NYPD's Narcotics Division, working alongside his partner, Detective Lois Melago. They were both working undercover in a drug cartel, and both used cocaine as part of their cover. When their drug tests both came back positive for cocaine, however, they were both disciplined by the department - Melago was demoted to officer status on a traffic detail, while Stoat was suspended for six months without pay. This was especially hard for Stoat, who had to pay alimony to his ex-wife and child support for their son.
To make ends meet, Stoat began working as a bodyguard for gangster John Testarossa, collecting debts, dealing drugs, bouncing unruly customers out of Testarossa's club, and beating up debtors who couldn't pay. He was soon making more money as a criminal than he ever did as a police officer. He also had Melago cover for him by steering the police away from investigating Testarossa's crimes.
In "Purgatory"[]
Stoat breaks up a bar fight between Detective Robert Goren of the NYPD's Major Case Squad, who has also been suspended without pay after going on an unauthorized undercover investigation of a ring of corrupt prison guards, and a former detective who lost his job and his pension after Goren caught him lying to clear a suspect in a murder investigation. Stoat, who had met Goren years earlier when the latter had worked in the Narcotics Division, offers him a job as "security" for Testarossa. Goren accepts, seeing it as an opportunity to bring down Testarossa's entire gang and earn back his detective's shield.
After clearing his undercover operation with the NYPD's Chief of Detectives, Goren works alongside Stoat to collect debts and bounce at Testarossa's clubs and impresses Testarossa by spotting two undercover cops in his club and throwing them out. When Testarossa and Stoat gun down rival drug lord Dean Winchester and two tourists who witnessed the murder, however, Goren's undercover status is threatened when his former partner, Detective Alexandra Eames, is put in charge of the investigation. Eames questions Stoat, but he denies having anything to do with the murders,
One night, Stoat brings a drug addict named Gomez who owes Testarossa money into the club, and Testarossa decides to test Goren's loyalty by ordering him to kill Gomez. At that moment, however, Eames and her temporary partner, Detective Terry Daniels, burst in and arrest Testarossa and Stoat, and reveal that Goren is a cop. Stoat is genuinely hurt, having come to like and trust Goren, and accuses Goren of using him; Goren says that Stoat uses innocent people all the time, and that the two of them are nothing alike.
Goren offers Stoat a chance to make a deal for less prison time in return for testifying against Testarossa. Stoat reluctantly accepts, but he is still sentenced to several years in prison for murder, while Testarossa is given a life sentence. Goren, meanwhile, is reinstated as a detective in the Major Case Squad.
External links[]
- Mike Stoat on the Law & Order Wiki
