  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | I was innocent and you guys put me in jail, and now you're trying to put me back there! I'm done talking to you! Just leave me alone! | „ |
| ~ Sanderson cursing Detectives Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard. |
Ted Sanderson is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Strike". He is an ex-con who kills the man he paid to kill his wife, a crime for which he was previously imprisoned for nine years.
He was portrayed by the late Brad William Henke, who also portrayed Desi Piscatella in Orange is the New Black, Steve in Criminal Minds, John Cooke in Split, Frank in The Office, and Don Kubiak in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Early life[]
Nine years before the events of the episode, Sanderson worked as a scuba instructor. He found out that his wife Julie was having an affair, and paid his friend and fellow scuba instructor Frank Dresner to kill her; he was unaware that Dresner was actually Julie's lover.
Shortly after the murder, however, Sanderson was arrested for killing Julie himself, and was convicted of murder. He spent the next nine years in prison before DNA evidence proved that the killer suffered from cystic fibrosis, a disease he did not have, meaning that he could not have killed her. He was pardoned by Governor Donald Shalvoy and released from prison, and found a job as a greensman on a golf course.
He got back into contact with Dresner, now a lawyer with Legal Aid, who had used his connections to get the case reopened. He told Sanderson that he had been having health problems and would have to have a physical examination to keep his job. Sanderson panicked, as a physical would reveal Dresner's cystic fibrosis and tie him, and soon enough Sanderson, to Julie's murder. He decided to kill Dresner and stalked him to learn his routine. He then ran Dresner over with his car as the latter led a union strike against Legal Aid.
"Strike"[]
When NYPD Homicide Detectives Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard investigate Dresner's murder, they discover sand from a golf course in his wounds and see a Suffolk County golf course maintenance truck in video footage of the crime scene moments after the murder. They go to the golf course and question Sanderson, with Lupo recognizing him from the earlier murder trial. Bernard tells Sanderson that they know he was late to work on the day of Dresner's murder and claims to have found a nail from the crime scene in the front tire of the company truck, which has a dent in the hood and has recently been cleaned. Lupo and Bernard take Sanderson in for questioning; unbeknownst to Sanderson, however, Bernard had planted the nail near the truck to trick him into going along with him.
During Sanderson's interrogation, Lupo confronts him with the fact that they found an unlawfully purchased gun in his car, and says he thinks that Sanderson was planning to shoot up the courthouse as revenge for his wrongful imprisonment and ran over Dresner in a fit of panic after he recognized him. Sanderson claims to have the gun for protection and denies killing anyone while accusing Lupo and Bernard of trying to frame him. Lupo and Bernard also confront him with the fact that Dresner had cystic fibrosis, just like Julie's killer, and say that he killed Dresner out of revenge. They then arrest him for murder.
During Sanderson's arraignment, Sanderson has no one to represent him, as he cannot afford a lawyer and the Legal Aid attorneys are all on strike. The arraignment judge asks Assistant District Attorney Connie Rubirosa, who is prosecuting the murder with her superior, Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter, to temporarily act as Sanderson's attorney for the purposes of arraignment; she reluctantly does so, and even manages to get his bail reduced. She tries to get him another lawyer, but he insists that she continue to represent him, leaving her no choice but to continue on as his counsel in order to protect his due process rights.
While conferencing with Rubirosa, Sanderson says that he had been in the area of Dresner's murder three days before it occurred in the company truck, and did not tell them so because he had been drinking on the job. He also claims to have cleaned the truck because he ran over a dog while driving home. Rubirosa later goes to the area and finds that there is indeed a dead dog on the side of the highway, and starts to genuinely believe Sanderson might be innocent. She asks Sanderson to tell her what happened, and Sanderson admits to knowing that he had been Julie's lover, but that he had no idea that Dresner killed her.
Rubirosa proves herself an excellent advocate for Sanderson, successfully arguing before the trial judge that, because the police planted the nail on his car, any statement he made to the police in the resulting interrogation should be disqualified as evidence. She also acquires video surveillance footage from a bank across the street from the crime scene, but Cutter gets that suppressed after finding out that she used her ADA credentials to access the footage, creating a conflict of interest. She reviews the footage, which seems to show Sanderson stalking Dresner, and confronts him. He says he ran Dresner over in a fit of rage after learning that he had killed Julie and stolen nine years of his life. He also says that he had found the dead dog and moved it to create an alibi.
During the trial, Rubirosa cross-examines Bernard and forces him to admit planting the nail in the truck. Bernard then says that he knows that Sanderson killed Dresner because the footage shows him looking at Dresner while the latter used his inhaler, proving that he knew Dresner had cystic fibrosis and therefore killed Julie. Rubirosa calls for a mistrial, reasoning that Bernard has unduly prejudiced the jury. The judge declines to grant a mistrial, but says that he will consider whether to exclude the tape as evidence.
Cutter and his and Rubirosa's superior, District Attorney Jack McCoy, offer Rubirosa a deal in which Sanderson would plead guilty to vehicular homicide and serve eight-and-a-third to 25 years in prison. Sanderson refuses, however, emphatically stating that he will never go back to prison, so Rubirosa rejects the deal. She tells Sanderson that she has a feeling that McCoy and Cutter will want to cut their losses and offer to let him go with probation. Overjoyed, Sanderson thanks Rubirosa for her help, and says that he cannot wait to go scuba diving in Belize as a free man.
His mention of scuba diving strikes Rubirosa as odd, so she digs into both Sanderson and Dresner's background, and discovers that they knew each other through their common interest in the pastime, contradicting Sanderson's claim that he had never met Dresner prior to killing him.
The judge ultimately rules that the tape is still admissible as evidence, so Rubirosa advises Sanderson to take Cutter's deal; she then reveals that she knows he hired Dresner to kill Julie, and then killed Dresner to cover his tracks. Fearing that Rubirosa will intentionally lose the case now that she knows the truth, Sanderson reluctantly agrees to take the offer of vehicular manslaughter, and is sentenced to eight-and-a-third to 25 years in prison.
External links[]
- Ted Sanderson on the Law & Order Wiki
