Daniel "Dan" Hoffman is a wealthy real estate agent in Rye, New York. In private, he was a violent and abusive wife-batterer.
History[]
Dan was previously married to Kim and they had a son Tommy. To others, he was a kindhearted man but in private he was an abusive man who beat his wife and isolated her from the world. With help from friends, Kim left Dan and he never saw her again.
Dan moved on and remarried a woman named Jill, who was close to his son. Shortly after their wedding two years ago, he abused her too and completely isolated her from the world; he drove all her friends away. Jill divorced him and took Tommy with her to Manhattan to get away from Dan, while having Tommy's name changed so his father would not find them. Dan soon tracked them down and followed Jill to her home before he raped and killed Jill while Tommy secretly watched devastated. Dan left the house just as it became filled with smoke because of the stove being on. Unknown to him, Tommy was in the house at the time and witnessed everything while hiding in the closet. After Tommy was found by SVU, Dan came to pick him up but was arrested for murder.
In Dan's murder trial, Dan was surprised when his former wife Kim appears in court. When Tommy gets on the stand, Dan subtly urges his son not to testify against him, nearly causing him to back down and asked the judge to remove him from the stand because it was hard on him. As ADA Cabot leads Tommy past the defense table to leave, Dan tells his son he loves him and flashes a smile, but Tommy looks at his mother sitting nearby, then quietly says to his father, "You killed Jill." Dan was horrified to realize that Tommy witnessed his crime while Dan's attorney, Priscilla Chaney, immediately asked to move for a mistrial, as the judge calls for order in the court among the murmuring observers. Dan frantically urges his son not to testify against him, but Tommy ignores him and turns to Cabot and agrees to testify. Dan can only watch in silence, seething with rage as his own son returns to the witness stand.
It is presumed that Dan was convicted of Jill's murder, rape, and the domestic abuse towards both his ex-wives, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Tommy was presumably placed in the custody of his mother again after the trial. (SVU: "Desperate")