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Alexandra "Alex" Cabot was an Assistant District Attorney on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She was also a primary character in the mid-season replacement series Conviction, where she was the Bureau Chief ADA of the Homicide bureau.

After an assassination attempt by the Colombian drug cartel, she spent several years in Witness Protection. In 2005, she briefly left Witness Protection to become a witness against Liam Connors, her attempted murderer. In 2009, Cabot was out of Witness Protection for three years and was contacted by Jack McCoy to reprise her role as SVU's ADA.

History[]

Lead Cabot and Granger

Cabot in 2009

The niece of Judge Bill Harriman, Cabot vigorously pursued a career with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office as an adult. In 2000, she was first assigned to the Special Victims Unit to give then-Chief Assistant District Attorney Charlie Phillips an eye into the unit as they went under the Morris Commission. Phillips wanted Cabot to find any improprieties in the unit before the commission did, as the latter's findings might have jeopardized his hopes of replacing Nora Lewin as District Attorney. The SVU was later cleared of any wrongdoing, but Cabot stayed on as their ADA-liaison. (SVU: "Wrong Is Right")

After finding the long-missing Stephen Talmadge, the SVU was caught in a bind because Stephen's biological father wanted custody of him, while Stephen wanted to stay with the adoptive parents who raised him. Since everyone involved were good people, Cabot decided to volunteer as Stephen's lawyer at the custody hearing, putting her in a position to help only him. As a result of her efforts, Stephen's adoptive parents lost the case, and Cabot admitted it was easier being a prosecutor than a defense attorney because, as a prosecutor, she at least knew who the bad guys were. (SVU: "Stolen")

Cabot's time with the SVU was notable for a high success rate, but also for her habit of leaning on certain judges (including her uncle) for favors. One judge in particular, Lena Petrovsky, went so far as to call Cabot out on her behavior after she went to Petrovsky to nullify an immunity agreement with Missy Kurtz. (SVU: "Damaged")

In Conviction, Bureau Chief Cabot is engaged, and has had a fling with Deputy District Attorney Jim Steele, which was alluded to in Episode 5. Since her time as an ADA with SVU (2000-2003), Alex's ideals and the way she does her job have changed, becoming more of a "politician" – something that often angers her staff, particularly Jessica Rossi. This was shown in an episode where she offers a rapist a deal to plead to misdemeanor sexual misconduct in exchange for his testimony against a doctor committing fraud, which goes against everything she fought for on SVU. During the show's run, it was unexplained why Cabot was able to leave the Witness Protection Program which she joined in 2003 after her life was threatened a member of the Colombian Drug Cartel. In a 2009 episode of SVU ("Lead"), in which March guest starred as Alexandra Cabot, it was revealed that the drug lord who had ordered the hit on Cabot (Cesar Velez) had died in prison and the hitman who had threatened her life (Liam Connors) had been extradited to his native Ireland, and that she had been active back in the Manhattan DA's office for the past three years, which would account for her reappearance on Conviction in 2006.

Cabot decided to participate in training to become an appeals executive assistant district attorney in Albany. During the time she was away, DA Jack McCoy asked Sonya Paxton to temporarily cover her case load.

ADA Cabot S13 2011

Cabot in 2011

Cabot was so affected by the testimony of a rape victim from the Congo that she decided to take a leave of absence to join an International Criminal Court prosecuting sex crimes in war-torn areas. (SVU: "Witness") She appears a year and a half later to resume her job as one of the ADA's assigned to the Special Victims Unit.

She later returned in the Season 13 premiere "Scorched Earth", in which Cabot is the lead prosecutor in a rape case against a man who is the favorite to become Italy's next prime minister. She is the prosecutor in seven episodes, sharing the ADA duties with Casey Novak and Bureau Chief Michael Cutter.

In "Sunk Cost Fallacy", it is revealed that Cabot retired as an Assistant District Attorney in 2012, after an abusive husband she tried to prosecute was acquitted and later murdered his wife in retaliation. Since then, she joined a secret organization helping battered women get away from their abusive husbands by arranging their disappearances.

Trivia[]

  • Cabot was once a student of Judge Barry Moredock.
  • Cabot served as an advocate for Stephen Talmadge in the custody battle Blake vs. Cook.
  • She believes it wrong to prosecute children and has incidents with Elizabeth Donnelly about this issue. Similarly, she has also clashed with Donnelly on the right to privacy of women seeking help for pregnancy. (SVU: "Mercy")
  • Cabot is the only character in the Law & Order franchise to have been a series regular, then moved down to a recurring character role, then back to a series regular.
  • Cabot had the longest tenure with the SVU as ADA and supposedly has high conviction rates.
  • Cabot was born on May 31, 1968.
  • Cabot is the only main character in the Law & Order franchise who has had to fake her death in order to protect herself from any danger.
  • Cabot has met two of the five ADA's that succeeded her: Casey Novak and Dominick Carisi, Jr..

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. He was referred to as "Robert" in the Conviction episode "Savasana" and as "Shelton" in the episode "Indiscretion". It is unclear if either name is meant to be canon, or if both of them are and one is meant to be a first name and the other a last name.


Icon SVU Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Main Characters

Senior Detectives: Elliot StablerJohn MunchOdafin TutuolaOlivia BensonAmanda Rollins

Junior Detectives: Olivia BensonMonique JeffriesOdafin TutuolaChester LakeAmanda RollinsNick AmaroDominick Carisi, Jr.Katriona TaminJoe VelascoGrace Muncy

Squad Supervisors: John MunchOlivia BensonOdafin Tutuola

Commanding Officers: Donald CragenOlivia BensonChristian Garland

Assistant District Attorneys: Alexandra CabotCasey NovakKim GreylekRafael BarbaPeter StoneDominick Carisi, Jr.

Others: Melinda WarnerGeorge Huang

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