Carmen Benitez is a court stenographer and graduate of Hudson University near the same class as Judge Charles Gallagher.
History[]
She attended Hudson University with Charles Gallagher. In her freshman year, she attended a party in the Hamptons and got drunk, leading to her passing out. Gallager had spiked her drink and stripped her naked, so she's wake up feeling exposed. Carmen begged Gallagher to take her back, because she couldn't swim due to growing up in the city, and Gallagher said he'd do so only if she allowed him to rape her. Carmen didn't fight, and when she got back to shore, she filed a report to campus security, who refused to extend the matter to legal penalties. As Carmen was on financial aid, she couldn't risk her scholarship.
Years later, she went onto become a court reporter and had several kids.
Carmen was tracked after Gallagher acquitted rapist Ian Hunter after Hunter raped Valentina Palma just from being another white Hudson student. When the detectives tried to fight the verdict, Carmen was found with other women digging into Gallagher's background of rape and sexual assault. She provided her account to detectives, and she even went as far as releasing the account of the rape to Buzzfeed. However, when Carmen's employer threatened to fire her and bar her from ever working in a courthouse again, she pulled her testimony out of the trial, for the sake of caring for her kids.
A.D.A. Isaiah Holmes, who didn't stand up for April Kelly after Gallagher raped her, recorded Gallagher's confession in a confrontation, which was enough for a plea deal. Carmen attended Gallagher's trial and was surprised when presiding judge Annette Lewis threw out the plea of a year of house arrest, instead sentencing Gallagher's year be served in prison for sexual and judicial misconduct. Carmen was surprised but overjoyed at getting justice after many years.(SVU: "The Long Arm Of The Witness")