Mitchell Hatley, also known as Henry Prescott is a lawyer and a cleaner for criminals, helping them hide their crimes.
Background[]
Hatley is an attorney with a child who shared classes with the son of Judge Sonia Fisher. It was Hatley who called Fisher when her 17 year old son was in custody for the assault of a young woman, who was going to the hospital to get a rape kit administered. He asks her if she wanted the whole thing to disappear, and the next day the kit goes missing. Fisher says she did not ask him to do it, but neither did she ask him to put it back. The charges against her son was withdrawn, and 6 months later, Hatley made his first request. Soon, Hatley was regularly asking the judge to suppress evidence and let the guilty walk free. Because the judge knew him through her son's school, she was 1 of the few people that knew Hatley's real name.
Under the alias of Henry Prescott, Hatley set himself up as a cleaner or fixer who regularly helped his clients make their troubles, such as murder, disappear. Hatley set up a shell corporation to launder his money and hide his identity with his client paying into the company as “donations“ to cover up the truth. Hatley would make the body disappear or, in the case of a wife who had accidentally killed her husband, make it appear as a suicide. One of his other known clients was a pro football player who used Hatley on at least one occasion to make an incident where he shot his gun into a crowded club and injured someone go away. When he took a body away, Hatley preserved it in formaldehyde in drums at a secret location as an insurance policy against his clients.
After the murder of Reven Wright in November 2015, National Security Advisor and Cabal leader Laurel Hitchin hired Hatley to help cover up the murder. Hatley caused Reven's body to disappear so effectively that the authorities could find no trace of it, though Hatley kept it as one of his insurance policies.
Season 3[]
“Kings of the Highway“[]
After the murder of Reven Wright, a team of Hatley's men in Hazmat suits remove her body from Laurel Hitchin's residence.
Season 4[]
“Mr. Kaplan: Conclusion”[]
Raymond Reddington describes Prescott as a man who knows how to bury problems, that if someone finds themselves facing impossible odds due to poor judgement Henry Prescott is the man they want on speed dial because he is “the courage you never had” and a “cool head on your crisis”. Prescott himself is first seen helping a woman hide the murder of her husband, by throwing him off a building and saying he was drunk.
The Reddington Task Force tracks down a football player named Jay-Jay who had paid for the fixer’s services. Reddington visits the man and after threats are exchanged, Reddington shoots Jay-Jay’s drug dealer, so that there is a real “problem” for Prescott to fix.
Prescott arrives and assures his client that he will transport the drug dealer to a private clinic. When he asks what happened, Reddington reveals himself. Prescott does not recognize him, so he asks Jay-Jay, getting annoyed when the football player admits to confessing that he was Prescott’s client to a stranger. Reddington asks about a package he picked up from Dupont Circle on November 19th 2015, but Prescott refuses to talk. He is not afraid of Reddington shooting him, but when Reddington threatens to out him in public, he agrees to help.
Reddington and Donald Ressler later meet up with him, and Reddington introduces Ressler as his associate “Frank Sturgeon”. He is there to confirm the findings, and Prescott shows them a depository where he keeps his leverage. Inside a sealed barrel, Reven Wright’s corpse is discovered perfectly preserved. The Task Force is able to use this to blackmail Laurel Hitchin into suspending the Grand Jury.
After accidentally killing Hitchin, Ressler contacts Prescott under his Frank Sturgeon alias to have Prescott cover it up for him.
Season 5[]
“Smokey Putnum”[]
After Harold Cooper questions him about the timing of Hitchin’s death, Donald Ressler calls Prescott. When they meet, Ressler demands to know why Hitchin’s body was left at the scene. Considering how high-profile she is, there was now a multi-agency investigation to her death. Prescott calmly assures him that the cops will only find that she slipped and hit her head, because all trace evidence had been removed.
Later, Prescott locates Ressler again. He explains that he was curious how Reddington’s security man “Mr. Sturgeon” knew details about the police investigation. Prescott ran Ressler’s prints and discovered that he was actually an FBI special agent. With the knowledge of Ressler’s true identity, he intends to make Ressler do him a few favors.
“Miss Rebecca Thrall”[]
While questioning the parents of a victim, Ressler receives a text from Prescott telling him to pick up a car from the impound. Ressler texts to say he is busy, but Prescott threatens to call his boss, forcing Ressler to finally call. After reminding Ressler that he had evidence, Ressler reluctantly asks for the license and registration. Elizabeth Keen hears him and asks what happened, and Ressler claims that a friend did something but instead of coming clean, he is just digging himself a deeper hole. Elizabeth correctly guess that the friend wants Ressler to help dig him out, and tells him to go. Ressler arrives to the pound, and starts switching out a flat tire on the car, where he discovers a dismembered body inside. Before he could take the car away, he gets a call from Cooper telling him to get to another location.
Left with no choice, Ressler drives the fancy car to the scene, where Elizabeth compliments the car. Ressler admits the car belongs to the guy he was helping out, and even admits that there was a dead body in the trunk. No one believes him, Elizabeth even jokingly tells him to talk to their suspect, “one crooked cop to the next”. After the case is over, Reddington implies that should Ressler ever be in a situation where someone is holding something over his head, Reddington can be counted on to take care of it. Ressler tells him it would never happen, even as he eventually brings the car to Prescott.
Once Prescott arrives, he sees Ressler with the trunk open, and Ressler asks who the body was. Prescott points out that all Ressler did was get a car out of impound, and tells Ressler he will be getting his next assignment soon. He drives the car away, leaving Ressler to his thoughts.
“The Informant”[]
Ressler is following a Blacklister when he gets a call from Prescott, who tells him he is tailing a client. Prescott confirms that Howard Ray Bishop is the Informant who stole a list of bank accounts, and when the FBI started closing in, Prescott gave him an alibi. He gloats about his power because he arranged for a car accident that was actually a murder, and forced a judge to lie about having an affair she was not having with Bishop. Reminding Ressler is in the same position, he orders Ressler to call the teams off. Ressler diverts the FBI team, but at the last minute, arrests Bishop anyways.
Prescott meets up with Ressler, telling him that Ressler is not the first client to grow a conscience. Ressler tries to tell him they were done, and Prescott actually hits him, not caring when Ressler pulls out his gun. Calmly reminding Ressler that there was no evidence and that Ressler did not even know his true name, Prescott shows him photos of Hitchin’s murder. Ressler was now a crooked cop, and a crooked cop in prison was a fate worse than anything Prescott will make him do. Ressler tells him that he may not be able to arrest Prescott, but he could kill him, and he will do so if Prescott ever got in touch with him again. Prescott simply says they will be touch before he leaves Ressler with the photos.
Back at the Post Office, Samar Navabi tells Ressler that Bishop has admitted to being Henry Prescott’s client. Cooper also questions Ressler about diverting the team, but they soon get distracted when Samar tells them that Bishop admitted the car crash was actually a murder with the judge planted there in advance as a witness. The victim is Jasmine Perez, an Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia internal affairs investigator. Bishop does not know why she was killed, but any internal affairs officer’s worst enemy is a bad cop. Ressler gets increasingly anxious when Cooper says after they have already arrested a terrorist and traitor, if a crooked cop is in the story they should arrest them too.
Detective Farwell tells Ressler and Samar that for the past month, Perez’s investigations have been compromised, and he suspects she was killed because of a dirty cop. Perez had been careful enough to keep her files on an offline personal server at home, and Farwell knows the password is “Frank Sturgeon”. Neither he nor Samar recognize the name, there is no record of such a person, but Farwell suspects it is the person who got away.
At Perez’s apartment, Ressler finds a tablet containing many internal affairs files, including one with his real name. Inside there are photos and a recording of Perez identifying herself to Ressler’s recorded voice saying “I can’t arrest you, but I can kill you, which is what I’m going to do if you ever, ever get in touch with me again”; the exact words he said to Prescott.
Reddington and Samar have both noticed that Ressler becoming “unsteady”, the latter speaks to Cooper about it, but the former contacts Ressler directly for a chat. In Reddington’s car, Ressler asks how he learned about Prescott, but Reddington simply says it was his business to know. Neither knows Prescott’s real name, and Reddington asks if Ressler only wants to find out so he could kill him. Reddington continues by saying the Informant is Prescott’s client, and Ressler is now Prescott’s fixer, the case was partially for Reddington to test Ressler and see how far he would go. When Ressler did not let Prescott’s orders stop him, Reddington decides to help, suggesting that they meet with Prescott’s other client Fisher. Ressler argues the judge will never talk to an agent, but Reddington points out that if Ressler is a dirty cop with Reddington they would be fine.
The two visit Fisher at her apartment, where Reddington introduces himself and tells her he is a fan largely because she incarcerated three of his fiercest competitors. Ressler says he and Reddington have an arrangement similar to Fisher’s with Prescott, and Ressler knows Fisher lied about Perez’s car crash. Fisher tells them her history with Prescott, and finally reveals his true identity: an attorney by the name of Mitchell Hatley.
With that knowledge, Ressler locates Hatley, where he and several parents are playing at a football field with some kids. Ressler remembers how the last time he and Reddington was in this situation it was after Audrey’s death and Ressler almost killed someone as a result. This time, he intends to arrest Hatley even though it means that Ressler himself will go to prison when Hatley exposes him.
Ressler publicly approaches Hatley on the field, identifying himself to the other parents as FBI and placing Hatley under arrest. Hatley attempts to run, but is hit with a car door by Reddington. Though Hatley urges Ressler to kill him, Ressler places Hatley under arrest. Dembe and Reddington drives away.
While being transported in a prison van, the van is attacked by Reddington. Once the drivers are safely away, Reddington sets the van on fire with Hatley inside, killing him. Hatley’s files are recovered and used by the FBI to arrest his various clients. Reddington removes Ressler’s file first and though Ressler attempts to confess to Cooper, Cooper rejects the confession until the task force’s work is finished.
Ressler goes to Reddington, telling him he made it perfectly clear that he wanted Prescott to go to jail. Reddington confirms he had Prescott killed, but it was not just to protect Ressler, it was because Prescott now knew about Reddington’s relationship with the FBI. As Reddington now had Ressler’s file, Ressler says he will not trade being under Prescott’s control to being under Reddington’s, Reddington tells him after Prescott he knows Ressler will not respond well to threats.
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