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| “ | Don't you dare ignore me! You think rape was bad? You haven't seen anything! | „ |
| ~ Tyler assaulting Pam Galliano. |
Tyler Brunsen, formerly Marshall Koehler, is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Liberties". He is the son of Judge Joshua Koehler who was abducted by a child molester and raised as the man's son; as an adult, he stalks his ex-girlfriend Pam Galliano and sets her up to be raped.
He was portrayed by Jon Patrick Walker.
Biography[]
Tyler Brunsen was born Marshall Koehler to Judge Joshua Koehler and his wife Shauna. When he was three years old, he was abducted from a family picnic by a child molester named Gregory Brunsen who renamed him Tyler and raised him as his son, sexually abusing him until he reached adulthood. The police stopped looking for him after seven years when serial killer Roy Lee Dotson falsely confessed to raping and murdering him.
As an adult Tyler dated a woman named Pam Galliano, but the relationship didn't work out because Brunsen's abuse had left him with anger and abandonment issues. When Pam broke up with him, Tyler was unable to accept this and began stalking her. She got a restraining order against him which he repeatedly violated, every time successfully persuading the judge that it was a coincidence. The stalking eventually terrified Pam to the point that she left her friends, family, and job and moved to New York City to get away from him, but Tyler still managed to track her down and followed her to New York under the pretext of finding work, moving into an apartment building across the street from hers.
"Liberties"[]
Tyler begins impersonating Pam online under the screen name "WhamBamPam", contacting users on a rape fantasy website and sending naked photos of Pam to them. One of them, Owen Walters, contacts Tyler and the two of them exchange sexual fantasies until Tyler eventually tells Walters how to break into Pam's apartment through the skylight, inviting him to break into "her" apartment and rape her.
Walters falls for Tyler's ruse and breaks into Pam's apartment to assault her, resulting in his arrest. He tells the Special Victims Unit that he was acting on a consensual rape fantasy they had arranged online; when the SVU check Pam's computer to investigate his story, they find naked photos, pornographic videos, and child pornography on her computer. It is soon proven that this was planted on her computer via Trojan horse, likely by the same person who set up the liaison with Walters, and the SVU come to suspect Tyler after finding out that he was stalking Pam and that he works as a computer technician for the Department of Defense, giving him the know-how to plant the images on her computer.
The SVU soon discover that Tyler recently bought an apartment in New York and Detectives Elliot Stabler and Fin Tutuola interview him to serve him with another restraining order. He insists he is not stalking Pam, once again claiming it is just a coincidence, and refuses to show them his computer claiming it is classified. Later that day, he attacks Pam while she's walking her dog and tries to strangle her until her dog bites him, allowing her to get away. Detectives Stabler and Olivia Benson arrest Tyler and manage to trick him into admitting that he conned Walters into raping Pam. He is then charged with stalking, facilitating rape, and disseminating child pornography, and immediately moves to suppress his confession, claiming it was coerced.
During the hearing on his confession, which is presided over by Judge Koehler, Tyler becomes outraged when Stabler disparages him on the stand and tries to storm out of the courtroom, making it to the stairway before being caught by Benson and returned to custody. Judge Koehler responds by revoking his bail, sending Tyler to jail to await trial, and also rules his confession admissible; Tyler responds by accusing him of conspiring against him with Pam, and tells him "A tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny" - a quote from Aesop's fables which Judge Koehler had been fond of telling his son. Shaken, Judge Koehler sends Stabler to interview Roy Lee Dotson to try and find out once and for all if he really killed Marshall. Meanwhile, after hearing that Tyler has gone on hunger strike, Koehler visits him in his cell under the pretence of making sure he's competent for trial and asks him about his life, learning of his sexual abuse from his "father".
Stabler eventually confirms that Roy Lee Dotson did not kill Marshall Koehler, as his body is not where Dotson said it would be. Now suspecting that Tyler may be his son, Judge Koehler has some of Marshall's hairs tested for DNA, confirming they belong to Tyler. Infuriated, Koehler tracks Gregory Brunsen down, kidnaps him, and beats him up. When he is arrested he tells Benson and Stabler everything, revealing Tyler is his son. Tyler, who is still awaiting trial after a mistrial was declared in his previous case, is brought down to the precinct to talk to him, and realizes that Koehler is his father after he tells him to think back to when he first heard the Aesop quote. Tyler breaks down in tears as he realizes the truth and the episode ends with him embracing his father through the prison bars.
