Ethan Morse was a high school student at Grandview Preparatory School and a star of their theater program. He'd also been suspended twice for fighting. Ethan was a friend of Kim Garnet. Though he was interested in her, he later admitted "hot girls don't really go for drama geeks".
History[]
Kim texted a nude picture of herself ("sexting") to Ethan by mistake. She'd meant to send it to her boyfriend Steve Walker. Kim later went to Ethan's house to explain the mistake, disappointing Ethan, who thought she'd wanted to be more than friends. After leaving Ethan's house, Kim was attacked and beaten by Steve who'd followed her there thinking she was cheating on him with Ethan. He then texted the pictures to several other students in retaliation.
After a later fall down some stairs revealed Kim's injuries, Ethan was questioned about Kim by Detectives Elliot Stabler and Odafin Tutuola, but left out that Kim had come to see him. Ethan, with his mother Janice Morse present, was later questioned again by Tutuola, who accused him of beating Kim. When Ethan saw Steve, who was also being questioned by detectives, in the hallway, he ran at Steve, accusing him of hurting Kim, forcing detectives separate them.
Though Steve was later arrested after Kim identified him as a long-term abuser, Kim herself was convicted summarily by Judge Hilda Marsden for distribution of child pornography and sentence to a year at a facility in Wellsburg, Ohio. Soon after, the detectives, discovering unconscionable corruption on the judge's part. Benson and Kim's lawyer Miranda Pond tried to look up Marsden's records, only to be stonewalled by clerk Ed Mangini and jailed by the judge on bogus charges. At this point, Samantha Copeland, the ADA from the case, looked them up herself and discovered that Mardsen had sent over 50 teens to Wellsburg on convictions horrifically disproportionate to the offenses; the clerk was quickly arrested and confessed that they received kickbacks from the facility.
When the group arranged a sting operation against Marsden, Ethan helped, portraying the juvenile offender, joined by Captain Donald Cragen posing as his father, Dr. George Huang (there as an FBI agent, since Marsden, by so conspiring out-of-state, had committed federal crimes as well) as his attorney, and Detective Stabler as his girlfriend's father, who had bribed the judge to put him away. With the evidence against her, Judge Marsden was promptly arrested - as she is being led away, a smiling Stabler tells Ethan that he had given a Broadway-worthy performance - and Kim's conviction was vacated. After her release, she reunited with and thanked Ethan and the detectives for everything they had done to help her. (SVU: "Crush")