Eleanor Duvall is the prominent mother of savant and serial rapist Gabriel Duvall, both stonewalling and trying to sabotage the legal measures against her son.
Background[]
Eleanor is the head of the Duvall family, a very prestigious family. She had a son, Gabriel, before her husband Clay died, and knowing the ins and outs of higher class, she inherited her family's fortune with iron resolve and always watched over her son despite also disciplining him as well. Showing early signs of Asperger's, Gabriel beat a bully in school for stealing his book, but he cried when he was confronted with what he did wrong.
Eleanor's hired nanny for Gabriel, Ava Vilka, would always discourage his erections by saying his genitals would fall off if he fondled himself. When Vilka wasn't on staff at the time, maid Julia Lonegan was told to bath Gabriel when he was fourteen. When Gabriel begged Julia to make his erection shrink and go away and she didn't help Gabriel with results that satisfied him, the teenage Gabriel raped Julia and impregnated her with her daughter, Megan.
Eleanor refused to address the rape, and Gabriel watched as Eleanor called Julia a "whore" and paid off her silence. Even in spite of Gabriel's later discipline in military school, he'd be forever warped by both his reactions and exposure and finding immigrated cleaning women on the streets to rape and then pay in wads of cash.
History[]
After Gabriel rapes Marguerite Beauclaire badly enough she has a fatal heart attack, the dollar bills are printed and lead back to the family lawyer, Jason Whitaker. Through him and the amount of finances in question in the attacks, Gabriel's the prime suspect. Gabriel's brought to the precinct under the guise of parking tickets so Bosnian immigrant and rape victim Nina Zergin can identify him. Whitaker called for her deportation, but she's granted legal status so she can testify.
Eleanor arrives and says she has nothing to hide and that her family deserves better treatment. With Gabriel identified, Eleanor and Whitaker take Gabriel home. When she throws out the tissue he's been using for days, Elliot Stabler collects when seeing Beauclaire's makeup on it, open for taking as evidence since it was thrown in the trash.
When Casey Novak is brutally beaten by Milan Zergin, Nina's brother, for her having her testify, which ousts she lost her virginity as a Muslum, Stabler personally confronts Gabriel and furiously intimidates him, suspecting him and demanding to see if his hands have any cuts. He's innocent and Milan's arrested, but Eleanor, horrified and offended, goes straight to Donald Cragen and files her complaints, having Stabler under obligation to give a personal, formal apology to Gabriel. She later tells Gabriel to expect it, which he takes as an apology preemptively. But when the tissue comes back with Beauclaire's makeup and DNA from her tears, Gabriel's arrested at the diner he frequents. (SVU: "Night")
Whitaker acts as Gabriel's defense and Eleanor posts Gabriel's two-million dollar bail. After Whitaker has the DNA excluded and the charges for Beauclaire's rape and murder are dropped, Eleanor consoles Gabriel back home and discusses the defense plan with Whitaker. Eleanor intends to break Nina so she can't testify, so she hires mobsters to break into her apartment and spray it with graffiti in her native language, reading "prostitute" and "whore". She's only more resilient to testify.
Eleanor holds a press conference to rebut Tracey Kibre's to defend her son, especially when Julia's tracked and Megan's tested in her DNA to reveal Gabriel's her biological father, as well as the M.O. when she was raped being uncanny to Nina's. When Gabriel's pelted with trash by protesters, Jason and Eleanor shelter him to get him to safety and contemplate getting him to a doctor. He tries to have the testimony of Julia and Megan's DNA test thrown out, but it's a failure. When Gabriel tries to rape another cleaning woman, Whitaker panics and try to secure a diagnosis of Asperger's for him, which Elizabeth Olivet sees the signs of when interviewing Gabriel, even after Gabriel mentioned Vilka in interrogation previously.
Eleanor's appalled by diagnosing Gabriel, but Jason insists she go along with the defense in hopes of Gabriel's acquittal. Eleanor snidely degrades Julia taking the stand when she's brought up, but she eventually concedes. When trying to make Nina seem like she admitted to a trigger of Gabriel's psyche to prove Asperger's, however, Eleanor ruins the defense by refusing the multiple diagnoses Gabriel's had and mentioning when Gabriel punched a bully, in a failed attempted to show him as a "good boy" who doesn't have the capacity in his outbursts. Kibre instead turns this into Gabriel having enough capacity to put up an act. The jury convicts Gabriel of rape, causing Eleanor to storm out of the courtroom at hearing that.
It's unknown if she's ever investigated for obstruction and tampering, let alone charged as a result. (TBJ: "Day")