| “ | I love children. I like making them happy. | „ |
| ~ Bender rationalizing his pedophilia |
Monty Bender is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Smoke". He is a famous comedian who is secretly a child molester.
He was portrayed by Adam Ferrara.
History[]
Bender was an eccentric comedian who entertained kids across the United States. He also adopted a baby son named Robbie. Bender and his staff covered up his history of pedophilia, down to driving around in an ice cream truck to stare at kids through a peephole and choose ones he wanted to get alone. In a confirmed case, Sammy Mireles' parents were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars every year after Bender took Sammy to his hotel room and sexually assaulted him when he was 11.
Bender was questioned when an ashtray started a fire in his room and he held Robbie over the balcony, dropping him to his death. Robbie was dead before the fire broke out, but the arson investigation came up inconclusive. Bender's hush money payments were discovered after his staff rolled on him, and he was taken to trial. However, Sammy perjured himself, as he was gaslit that the money was for his brother Davey's heart defects, but he assumed there was only settlement money. The case was still thrown out, so his parents were tried for facilitating his sexual abuse. A million-dollar payment was found before the day Sammy was exploited, revealing he was deliberately arranged for child sex trafficking, which horrified him enough to testify to the truth in another trial.
After his parents took a plea for reduced jail time, Bender was arrested again, in front of paparazzi, and was presumably imprisoned for child sex crime charges.
Trivia[]
- Bender is based on the late singer Michael Jackson, as both are beloved celebrities who were accused of molesting children only to get the charges dropped by paying an out-of-court settlement to the accuser's parents. Jackson also gained controversy for an incident where he dangled his infant son over a balcony, which is similar to the circumstances of Robbie Bender's death in the episode.
- Bender is the first of two Law & Order villains to be based on Michael Jackson, the second being Billy Tripley in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
External links[]
- Monty Bender on the Law & Order Wiki
