Attorney Miranda Pond, as portrayed by Alex Kingston
Miranda Pond is a fictional character appearing on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and portrayed by actor Alex Kingston. She appeared in the episode "Transitions" with A.D.A. Kim Greylek, "Crush" with A.D.A. Samantha Copeland, "Wannabe" with A.D.A. Jo Marlowe, and "Trophy" with A.D.A. Gillian Hardwicke. She is a defense attorney.
Her character is perhaps most remembered for having helped Olivia Benson have judge Hilda Marsden disbarred for breach of judicial duty in sending teenagers to a juvenile detention center where she had personal financial ties. In this episode, Marsden sentences a teenage girl to one year in an Ohio detention center for sexual offenders for having sent sexual messages or "sexts" to her boyfriend, resulting in her having sex with an adult despite Copeland being willing to drop the charges which were just an attempt to force her to tell the truth. As a result, Benson and Pond request documents on Marsden's past rulings (they had hoped the A.D.A. would join them, but, while mortified by the verdict, she feared doing so could ruin her career), are denied these documents and then arrested for contempt of court after being summoned to her chambers - Pond simply for reminding the judge that her initial citation on Benson was illegal. Fortunately, when Copeland hears about the incident, she senses a cover-up and obtains Marsden's records herself, and with Cragen releases the two surprised women, announcing that she now knew exactly why they had been stonewalled: in a year-and-a-half Marsden had sent over 50 teens to the Ohio facility, not one of whom was initially charged with a sex offense. After the clerk who blocked them from viewing the documents is arrested and admits that the judge receives kickbacks (as does he) from the facility, the SVU, aided by Copeland and a friend of the victim, run a sting that catches Marsden in the act and gets her disbarred and sent to prison on state and federal charges. Pond's client's sentence is overturned by another judge and her record is wiped clean so it is like it never happened. Thanks to the group's efforts, a lot of innocent teenagers were released from unfair sentences they didn't deserve.
Trivia
- Alex Kingston is well known for her role as River Song in the long-running British Sci-Fi cult classic Doctor Who. Coincidentally, the character's real name is Melody Pond, quite similar to the name of her L&O character.