Law and Order
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Meredith Cleary is the wife of serial rapist Kenneth Cleary.

History[]

When Harper Anderson accused Kenneth of raping her, Meredith refused to believe it and stood by her husband, denying the allegations were true. (SVU "Closure (Part I)")

When Kenneth was accused of raping another woman, Harper started harassing Meredith, who still stood by Kenneth. However, as time went by, Meredith started to doubt Kenneth. When Stabler visited Meredith and told her that the jewelry that Kenneth gave her was most likely his victims jewelry. Meredith went to Harper's apartment that same day to write Harper an apology letter for not believing her but encountered Harper and Benson, who arrived as she was dropping the letter off. Meredith apologized to Harper, to which Harper said that Meredith didn't know. Meredith then gave Benson a plastic bag of jewelry, saying that Kenneth gave it to her and that he had had sex with her while she was wearing them.

She eventually befriended Harper and both women stood by and supported each other during Kenneth's trial. As well as that, she left Kenneth and planned to file for divorce. When testifying against Kenneth about jewelry he bought her after raping his victims and then having sex with her, Meredith snapped on the stand, disgusted that Kenneth had done what he did, hysterically asking him if he got turned on by having sex with her while she wore his victims jewelry. Her hysterical outburst broke spousal privilege which resulted in a mistrial, upsetting Meredith and shocking Harper.

That night, Meredith went to grab some stuff from Kenneth's place. There, Kenneth started physically abusing her. Meredith then grabbed a gun and shot Kenneth dead. Benson, Stabler, Cragen and Cabot came to the crime scene, where Meredith told them everything that happened. Harper was there and told the detectives that she cleaned the crime scene with bleach, claiming she was unaware that bleach would get rid of the DNA. The detectives asked Meredith and Harper who killed Kenneth, to which Meredith claimed responsibility, however Harper had a smug and satisfied look on her face, hinting she shot Kenneth and Meredith was taking the blame. It was unknown whether Meredith was acquitted due to self defense or if she was charged and imprisoned for murder. (SVU "Closure (Part II)")

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