ALEXANDRA CABOT

'Alexandra Cabot' is a fictional character within the Law & Order universe. She was a primary character in '' and ''Conviction''. Cabot is portrayed by Stephanie March.
Cabot was hired to work with SVU as their permanent ADA to oversee the legality of its arrests, following a rotating mix of ADAs (among them Abbie Carmichael of the original ''Law & Order''). She was known for her stubbornness, keen intelligence, and her cool, sometimes icy, demeanor. While she empathized with the sexual assault victims she dealt with, her strict code of legal ethics often forced her to make harsh decisions and judgments that went against her personal feelings.
She did occasionally bend the rules to suit her own notions of the meaning of justice, however, often with unpleasant results. In one case, she lied to detectives about having a search warrant in order to convict a serial child molester named Roy Johnathan Barnett, and aggressively pressured a teenage boy named Sam Cavanaugh (played by Bret Harrison), who was one of the molester's victims, to testify against him. Sam later attempted suicide, leaving him with severe brain damage. She was let off with a one-month's suspension, as well as the (temporary) enmity of Judge Lena Petrovsky (who presided over the case), but never truly forgave herself.
Cabot was taken out of the show after an episode in which she was prosecuting a powerful drug dealer named Rafael Zapata Gaveria, one of Colombian Drug Lord Cesar Velez' top Lieutenants (who represented his operations in the United States).
Zapata had brutally raped, beaten and murdered an undercover DEA Agent named Livia Sandoval. It should be noted that Sandoval's cover was not blown at the time; she had insulted Zapata's manhood by commenting about his sexual performance. She insisted on continuing the prosecution even after a credible threat was made towards her and her mother apparently sparked after Alexandra let it slip that Sandoval was a Federal Agent and insulted him in much the same way that Sandoval did. This prompted a violent outburst from Zapata in her own office that was quickly stopped by his lawyer Lionel Granger, who put a table between him and Alexandra when he tried to rush her. After a car bombing that took the life of Timothy Donovan, the DEA Agent who was Livia Sandoval's handler (who was also a witness, and was blocked from testifying) and originally warned Alex about the death threat, she was forced to finally drop the case. However, Zapata was immediately arrested by Federal Agents for the car bombing.
At the conclusion of the episode, she was gunned down in a drive-by shooting while saying good-night to SVU detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson. Proclaimed dead in the newspapers, Cabot disappeared into the Witness Protection Program, assuming the identity of an insurance agent named Emily in Wisconsin. She insisted on telling Benson and Stabler the truth the night she left the city, however. She was replaced by Casey Novak.
Benson and Stabler were the only ones who knew the truth about Cabot's "death" until nearly two years later (''Law and Order: Special Victims Unit'' episode ""), when she came out of hiding to be a witness in a case against the assassin who tried to kill her. The hired killer, Liam Connors (formerly of the Irish Republican Army), went to prison, having been found guilty under two counts of attempted murder (Cabot and eight-year-old Antonio Montoya), plus four counts of murder (Montoya's parents and a wealthy couple). Cabot quickly disappeared again under a new identity.
Her departure from witness protection and return to New York as a Bureau Chief in ''Conviction'' were not explained, as March was a last-minute addition to the cast and most of the early episodes had already been written before she was added. There were plans in a later episode to explain Cabot's departure from witness protection, and a greater exploration of her personal life and past was planned, but the cancellation of ''Conviction'' means that this will not be pursued. ^[1]

Contents

References

References

1. "The Wolf Pack" Newsweek. 20 February 2006