List of Monk Characters - Recurring Characters and Special Appearances - Judge Ethan Rickover

Judge Ethan Rickover (Craig T. Nelson) was a respectful former college professor turned federal judge. Prior to his appointment as a judge, and Trudy meeting Adrian, Rickover has an extramarital affair with Trudy. The affair results in Trudy becoming pregnant with his child. After the baby was born, Rickover covers up the illegitimate child by telling Wendy Stroud, the midwife, to tell Trudy that her baby died about nine minutes after birth and to put the child up for adoption.

Fourteen years later, in 1997, Rickover is nominated as federal judge, and when Stroud finds out about this she blackmails Rickover. Stround threatens to tell the press about his and Trudy's illegitimate child, which would ruin his confirmation chances. Rickover realizes any information regarding these events could be potentially damaging to his political career and has Stroud killed as damage control, burying her body in his backyard.

Around the same time, Rickover hires bomber Frank Nunn to plant a bomb in Trudy's car. Trudy has already suspected that Rickover was involved in Wendy Stroud's death after she read about it in the newspaper. When Trudy is subsequently killed, it is impossible to connect either her death or Stroud's death to Rickover, allowing him to have a prosperous career as a judge. Twelve years later, in 2009, Rickover has come far in his career, having been recently nominated for the California Supreme Court. He still lives in the same house because he knows that Wendy Stroud's body is buried in the yard, marked by a sundial.

Dr. Malcolm Nash (Ed Begley, Jr.), the director of the clinic where Stroud worked, discovers the truth about Trudy's child while digitizing the records from old paper records to computer files. Coincidentally, Nash is earlier questioned by Monk and Stottlemeyer when they got the call that Trudy had been killed. Nash calls Rickover, blackmailing him for information. Panicking, Rickover hires a different professional hit man, Joey Kazarinski, to kill Dr. Nash.

Monk gets involved in the investigation following Dr. Nash's death and is able to uncover evidence at the crime scene linking back to Kazarinski. Rickover finds out about this when Stottlemeyer comes over to his house to sign a warrant to search Kazarinki's premises. Fearing that Monk's involvement in the investigation may ultimately lead back to him, Rickover orders Kazarinski to kill Monk as well. Kazarinski poisons Monk's wipes with ricin, a synthetic deadly toxin that will kill him in a period of two or three days. When Kazarinksi gets hit by a train and dies while being chased by Stottlemeyer through a yard, Rickover thinks himself to be cleared of any suspicion. Unbeknownst to him, the day before Trudy was killed, she made a video message to Adrian, explaining how Rickover wanted to meet her in that parking garage, and also mentioning the secret affair.

Having just found out about the video, Monk confronts Rickover and informs him that he knows he was behind Trudy's death, although he has no other evidence to back this up. Eventually, Monk realizes why Rickover refused to move away from his longtime house and confronts Rickover again in his yard as he is returning home, forcing Rickover at gunpoint to dig up Wendy Stroud's body. The body is eventually found, with both Monk and the police present at the scene, and Rickover confesses to the murders of Wendy Stroud and Trudy. Deciding not to kill Rickover, Monk puts the gun on the sundial in Rickover's garden, which Rickover then picks up and holds to his own head, saying "Take care of her," before pulling the trigger. Because he is the only person left to know that Trudy's child was still alive, no one is able to figure out what exactly he meant by his final statement. Eventually, Monk finds an article, dated the same day that Trudy's illegitimate child was born, detailing how Wendy Stroud saved a child. Adrian is then able to locate his stepdaughter. Rickover first appeared in "Mr. Monk and the End - Part I" and later in "Mr. Monk and the End - Part II".