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| “ | Look, the Tombs was a zoo. You do whatever you can to maintain order. You look for the biggest guy in there, and they help you keep things in check. When big ole Virgil showed up, you bet your ass my job got a whole lot easier. | „ |
| ~ Ryan making excuses for allowing Virgil Hatton to rape Ivan Hernandez. |
Pete Ryan is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Dutch Tears". He is a corrupt corrections officer who allows dominant inmates to rape smaller, weaker ones to maintain order on his cell block.
He was portrayed by Mike Borkowski.
Early life[]
Ryan was a career corrections officer in New York City's penal system. He started out as a low-level guard in The Tombs who frequently failed to maintain order on his cell block, with inmates getting into fights and even inciting riots that he lacked the courage and physical strength to stop.
When Virgil Hatton, an old friend of Ryan's from high school, was imprisoned in The Tombs, Ryan got an idea: he would use Hatton, a sociopath with a sadistic taste for torture and rape, to brutalize problem inmates and keep them in line. Ryan made a deal with Hatton that he would get extra privileges in return for beating, sodomizing, and torturing inmates who got out of line, or who he simply didn't like. He also forged alliances with gang leaders in The Tombs by helping them smuggle drugs into and out of the prison in return for "breaking in" new inmates.
When 17-year-old drug dealer Ivan "Dutch" Hernandez was brought to The Tombs in 1998, Ryan decided to make an example out of him by letting Hatton into his cell. Hatton raped and branded Hernandez, burning the letter H - for "Hangman", his prison nickname -into his victim's chest with a hot paper clip to let the other prisoners know that Hernandez was his "property". He begged Ryan for help, but Ryan coldly ordered him to get back in his cell and then mocked him by saying that he had Hatton's "stink" on him.
Hernandez was soon transferred to a different facility and never saw Hatton or Ryan again, but the news of his rape quickly spread throughout the prisoner network and made him a target. Now a literally marked man, Hernandez spent the next 25 years being repeatedly raped and beaten by his fellow inmates. Ryan, meanwhile, rose up the ranks of the Department of Corrections, eventually attaining the rank of Captain.
"Dutch Tears"[]
After Hernandez is released from prison, he decides to get revenge against Sergeant Fin Tutuola of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit, who had arrested him in 1998 when he worked in the department's Narcotics Division, which in Hernandez's mind made him responsible for the pain and suffering that was inflicted upon him in The Tombs. He breaks into Tutuola's apartment and holds him at gunpoint, accusing him of ruining his life.
Tutuola does not remember Ryan at first, but he gradually pieces together who he is, and then talks him down by promising to listen to his story if he puts down his weapon, which turns out to be unloaded. After hearing Ryan's account of being raped on his first night in The Tombs, Tutuola takes him to meet Detective Terry Bruno, and they show him pictures of corrections officers who had worked in The Tombs while he was incarcerated there. Hernandez identifies Ryan, so Tutuola and Bruno go Ryan's house for answers. They talk their way inside by saying they need Ryan's help with a cold rape case, but when they tell him that Hernandez identified him as the guard who instigated his rape, he and his wife Patti order them to get out.
Tutuola and Bruno stake out Ryan's house until they see Patti drive off in a hurry. They follow her to an alcoholism rehab facility, and Tutuola calls SVU Captain Olivia Benson to get them a warrant from Assistant District Attorney Dominick Carisi Jr. After they get the warrant, they search the facility with Hernandez in tow, only to see Hatton run out of the building and drive away. He manages to get away from them, but Hernandez identifies him as his rapist.
Tutuola and Bruno take Ryan to the SVU station house for questioning, with Carisi explaining that Ryan is criminally liable for everything Hatton did to Hernandez. Ryan denies knowing Hatton, but Bruno confronts him with proof that he and Hatton know each other, and that Patti asked for Hatton by name in the rehab facility right after Tutuola and Bruno told them of Hernandez's accusations. Carisi tells Ryan that he is going to prison, but that he can help himself by cooperating with the investigation. Defeated, Ryan admits to allowing Hatton to rape inmates to keep his cell block under control, and then directs Tutuola and Bruno to a bar where they can find him.
Tutuola arrests Hatton with Hernandez's help, and Carisi convicts him and Ryan of rape in the first degree.
External links[]
- Pete Ryan on the Law & Order Wiki
