Stuart Gharty

Infobox character
name = Stuart Gharty
caption = Stuart Gharty
first = ""
last = ""
cause = Still Active
gender = Male
age = 50's
born =
death =
family =
spouse =
episode = 48 ("")
portrayer = Peter Gerety
creator = Tom Fontana

Stuart Gharty is a fictional police officer played by Peter Gerety in the television series . He was introduced in the season four one-shot episode "Scene of the Crime", as a cowardly patrolman who allows two drug dealers to murder each other rather than venture into a housing project to prevent the crime. This exercise in poor judgment, compounded by his failure to call for back-up (which would have been following police procedure and would have likely saved the life of one of the two shooters), and his attempt to later cover up these failings, led to a hearing in which he was exonerated. In the end of the episode, Detective Megan Russert, the chief witness against Gharty, seems to be successful in her attempt to talk Gharty into resigning and admitting to himself that he is not cut out for police work.

However, Gharty later returns in the two-part season five finale, "Partners and Other Strangers" and "Strangers and Other Partners", in which it is revealed that Gharty not only didn't resign, but was offered a promotion into a senior position in Internal Affairs -- one of many unjust promotions featured in the show. Gharty plays a key role in solving the murder of Detective Beau Felton, whom, Gharty reveals, had been working for I.I.D. Megan and Kay Howard blame him for Felton's death and Frank Pembleton originally doesn't want to work with him. Gharty later tells Frank that he suffered a brutal beating during an IAD investigation and got over his fear of being hurt on the job. Afterwards, he works well with the Homicide detectives and helps clear Felton's murder.

In season six, Gharty is transferred to the Homicide Division as a result of a "departmental rotation" program recently implemented in the Baltimore Police Department. As a homicide detective partnered with Laura Ballard (to whom he is extremely loyal). Gharty would display racial paranoia that at times would get him into trouble. During his first appearance, Gharty allowed two teenage African American drug dealers to kill each other as a means of avoiding charges of racially motivated police brutality and made statements that drew the ire of African American detectives such as Frank Pembleton and Mike Giardello. Gharty also displayed other forms of pettiness, but for the most part redeemed himself as a detective, demonstrating aptitude, confidence, and devotion that he had not exhibited as a patrolman.

John Munch is openly disdainful of his presence in the unit, and begins in Season 7 to openly question Stu's statement that he served in Vietnam. Stu and Munch also clash when both fall for bartender Billie Lou, as Stu had begun an affair with her that led to his divorce but she ended up with (and briefly married to) Munch. After Munch illegally obtains Gharty's service records and finds he received an "other than honorable" discharge, Stu tells the whole story: he witnessed American troops committing atrocities against the residents of a village, and a superior officer who was insane with rage threatened to kill him before he left the area without stopping the war crimes. Stu later cut a deal to keep his mouth shut about what happened and was cut loose from the Army.

Gharty gets a divorce from his wife early in Season 7 after she finds out about his affair with Billie Lou, and begins drinking heavily later in that season before he is able to pull himself together and return to doing his job well.

The Movie

In "Homicide: The Movie", Stu has replaced Lt. Giardello as the Homicide unit's leader as Gee is running for Mayor. Gharty admits that he is named Lieutenant because the bosses know they can push him around and that he wasn't going to last much longer on the streets. Stu then sees Captain Roger Gaffney push aside retired Detectives Bayliss and Pembleton who return with the hopes of helping find Gee's shooter. Despite Gharty's personal dislike for Pembleton, he respects Pembleton's investigative skills and ignores the bosses (on Frank's advice) giving Pembleton and Bayliss the chance to find Gee's shooting, which they do.