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| “ | You expect me to stand by and become the laughingstock of corporate America while this sonofabitch knocks you up? You want to make a fool of yourself and be his whore? Fine. Go right ahead, that's fine. But what are you gonna do when you walk into the Maidstone Club with a little Black baby clinging onto you? And when he goes to Dalton, what do you think they're going to say? 'Oh, here comes the scholarship boy?' These people come into our homes, into our families! They are animals! | „ |
| ~ Bauer berating his daughter for having a child with a Black man |
Orion Bauer is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "American Disgrace". He is the wealthy, racist CEO of a fashion company who frames the company's spokesman, a Black basketball player, for rape to punish him for sleeping with and impregnating his daughter, Cordelia.
He was portrayed by Stacy Keach, who also portrayed Lou Ford in the 1976 film adaptation of The Killer Inside Me, the Phantasm in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Cameron Alexander in American History X, Robert Vance in Batman Beyond, Howard K. Duff VIII in The Simpsons, and Ken Titus in Titus.
Overview[]
Bauer is the founder and CEO of Orion Bay Sportsware, a multibillion-dollar athletics wear company that is known for running advertising campaigns with famous athletes. His adult daughter, Cordelia, is the company's legal counsel and his personal lawyer and all-around right hand.
While Bauer cultivates an image of treating the mostly Black athletes who represent his company like family, however, he is privately a white supremacist who believes that people should only associate with their own "tribes", and that Black people are "animals" who invade white homes and families. He is also a malignant narcissist who cares only about his money and the power that goes with it, and who sees everyone in his life, including his own daughter, as a possession.
Bauer has a long-time business relationship with retired NBA All-Star Shakir "The Shark" Wilkins, appearing alongside him at Orion Bay PR events like store openings and press tours. While Bauer privately thinks of Wilkins as little more than a trained animal, he publicly embraces him as a "member of the Orion Bay family", even saying that Wilkins is like a son to him. When he finds out that Wilkins is in a relationship with Cordelia and that she is pregnant with his child, however, he decides to destroy Wilkins' career by paying off three female Orion Bay employees to say that he raped them.
"American Disgrace"[]
Bauer appears with Wilkins and Cordelia at a press conference in which Wilkins announces that he is renewing his contract with Orion Bay to start a new clothing line called Sharkwear MVP. After the press conference, Orion Bay press wrangler Carla Cannon, one of the women Bauer bribed, attacks Shakir in an elevator and accuses him of raping her as security guards drag her away. She then goes to the NYPD's Special Victims Unit to press charges against him, claiming that he had drugged and raped her during a corporate retreat, and that Bauer gave her a $5,000 raise to keep her quiet.
SVU Sergeant Olivia Benson and Detectives Fin Tutuola and Amanda Rollins meet with Bauer and Cordelia, who both say that Cannon is an emotionally unstable liar, and that Bauer gave her a bonus to prevent her from making false allegations and harming the Orion Bay brand. When two other women come forward accusing Wilkins of raping them and Bauer of bribing them to keep quiet, however, Bauer holds a press conference saying that he now believes Wilkins' accusers, and that he only paid them off because of a misplaced sense of loyalty to Wilkins.
Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba indicts Wilkins for rape and prepares his accusers for trial. While going through trial preparation with one of the accusers, Tiana Raynes, Barba notices some inconsistencies in her story, and asks her to clarify them. She replies that she will say whatever he wants her to if he makes Bauer pay her as much or more than he did the other accusers; she complains that Bauer only paid her $800 to say that Wilkins raped her. When a horrified Barba asks her if she lied, she merely says that she wants to be paid "what's fair", even offering to have sex with Barba like she says Bauer paid her to have sex with Wilkins.
Benson, Rollins, and Tutuola question the other accusers, who say that Raynes is lying. When they question Bauer and Cordelia, he denies the accusations, as well, while telling Cordelia that he forgives her "for everything". Rollins asks Cordelia what exactly her father forgives her for, but she refuses to say.
Later that night, Cordelia meets with her father and tells him and resigns as his lawyer, while also begging him to tell her if it is true that he bribed the women to make false allegations against Wilkins. Bauer angrily replies that he knows that she is carrying Wilkins' child and accuses both her and Wilkins of making him "the laughingstock of corporate America". He then goes on a racist tirade, saying that Black people are "animals" who "invade" white homes and families, and that she will be a pariah if she has a mixed-race baby.
Unbeknownst to Bauer, however, Cordelia had been secretly recording their conversation, and she gives the recording to SVU and Barba to exonerate Wilkins. She then tells Barba not to use the recording to press charges against her father; Barba replies that he couldn't even if he wanted to because it was made without the knowledge of the police or the DA's office, meaning it is inadmissible as evidence. The charges against Wilkins are dismissed, but his career is nevertheless ruined by the bad publicity, while Cordelia regretfully tells him that she had an abortion because of the false accusations that he had before. Bauer, meanwhile, escapes punishment for bribery, however Cordelia told Wilkins that he can sue her father and the company now with his charges dropped and also Bauer's reputation could get ruined in future since despite the evidence against him is inadmissible, Olivia said that kind of tapes and audios get into the press and public knowledge sooner or later, so Bauer possibly got his reputation ruined afterwards.
External links[]
- Orion Bauer on the Law & Order Wiki
