Rita Gabler (Law & Order: SVU)

Rita Gabler (Margo Martindale) was the main villainess of "Cage", episode 8.08 of Law & Order: SVU (airdate November 21, 2006). Rita ran an adoption agency along with her husband Bud Gabler. As revealed throughout the episode, Rita and Bud were both mentally and physically abusive towards the children under their care, punishing them harshly for misbehavior. Two common punishment methods they implemented were locking the misbehaving child in a cage or forcing them to put an operating hose in their mouth.
When Rita and Bud took in sisters Eden and Rosemary, Rita and Bud became frustrated with Rosemary's violent tendencies brought on by her reactive attachment disorder and decided use a controversial therapy treatment to "cure" her, with therapist Dr. Arlen Rieff providing assistance over the phone briefly. But during the process, Rosemary was suffocated to death and the evil Rita and Bud buried her body in their backyard. When Eden was brought in after nearly dying in a car accident while being transported to another home, the SVU detectives learned of Rosemary's death after finding a smashed tape of the therapy session that claimed Rosemary's life. When Detectives Elliot Stabler and Dani Beck went to the Gabler household, they discovered one of their children locked in the cage and arrested the coupple, with Rita claiming that locking the boy up was the only way to keep him from hurting their other kids. When confronted with the tape, Rita broke into tears and claimed that everything they did to Rosemary was out of love before Bud angrily said they wouldn't say anything else without their lawyer.
The tape was later thrown out due to the damage that had been done to it and none of the other children in Rita and Bud's care (excluding Eden) were willing to confess to their abuse. During the trial, Rita and Bud's lawyer Donna Emmett argued that Rosemary was dangerously violent and that Rita and Bud did what they thought would help her, with Dr. Rieff defending the Gablers on the stand. Their claims were proven true when Eden, while staying with Beck, set fire to the apartment in an attempt to kill herself and Beck. Rita and Bud were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, resulting in them only serving a maximum of two years in prison, ultimately getting away with child abuse.
Category:2000s
Category:Brunette
Category:Child Murderer
Category:Conspirator
Category:Deceiver
Category:Domestic Abuser
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Suffocation
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Villain's Lover
Category:Would Hurt a Child
Category:Fate: Arrested
Category:Fate: Karma Houdini