Dr. Victor "Vic" Clemente is a fictional character portrayed by American actor John Leguizamo.
Background[]
Clemente first appeared "Wake Up" as a new attending physician from Newark, New Jersey to replace Dr. Susan Lewis and attempts to introduce modern equipment and diagnostics to the ER.
On his first day at County, Clemente poses as a patient which causes confusion and some irritation from doctors Abby Lockhart, Archie Morris, Gregory Pratt and especially Luka Kovač. Clemente and Luka clash over nearly every case that comes through the ER, and Luka is so annoyed by Clemente that he decides to seek the ER Chief job for himself.
Luka's main complaint with Clemente is that, regardless of whether Clemente is right or not, he will take the initiative on procedures whether he has the approval/opinion of other Attendings. Even if everyone working on a patient is against Clemente, he always seems to get away with it because Kerry Weaver (who hired him) likes his credentials.
In the end, Luka does become Chief, after which Clemente claims to have earlier decided not to seek the position, citing time constraints; Luka nonetheless takes steps to rein in Clemente's independent streak.
It is later revealed that Clemente is not the consummate professional he was originally portrayed as. His former girlfriend Jodie (portrayed by Callie Thorne), whose relationship with Victor in Newark caused unspecified problems that Weaver said were not his fault, tracks him down to Chicago and initiates a new relationship between them; this causes Clemente to become careless and even miss work to stay with her.
Eventually, Jodie's controlling husband Bobby (a violent police officer who apparently beats her) appears in his apartment, and he shoots both Clemente & Jodie after Jodie asks him for a divorce.
Clemente sustains relatively minor injuries while Jodie ends up in a coma, but he becomes the prime suspect of shooting her and himself due to the cocaine found in his apartment and the fact that records in New Jersey show that Jodie's husband was supposedly working on the day of the shooting.
Clemente is subjected to drug tests and kept under close watch by Luka and the other staff; Luka wants him gone, but neither he nor Weaver take any steps to fire him from his job.
Jodie does survive from her injuries and gets Clemente out of trouble by telling the cops what really occurred, but more issues occur when Bobby continues to harass Clemente by phone, stalk him by car, leave threats and make other comments to him. The comments indicate that he had tried to frame Clemente for an unspecified crime in Newark.
In The Gallant Hero & The Tragic Victor, Clemente finally succumbs to the troubles plaguing him. His behavior includes relieving himself in public, property damage, and threats of violence. After nearly being hit by a taxicab while delivering coffee for the ER staff, he is eventually hospitalized at County and medically classified as being in an altered psychiatric state.
A psychiatric consultant rules Clemente's peculiar behavior is caused by post-traumatic stress disorder or sleep deprivation, presumably from his vigilance in avoiding his stalker.
In the Season 12 finale, Twenty-One Guns, Luka reveals that Clemente has finally been fired from his position at County.
Weaver faces stern questions from Dr. Anspaugh when a former patient files a lawsuit against Clemente & he is listed on a medical watchdog website as a bad doctor, leading to her initially throwing Luka under the bus (to his visible disbelief).
However, when the board plans to fire Luka over his Weaver-insinuated negligence in Clemente's hiring & terrible history at County, Weaver admits that she was responsible for those issues and as a result, she is demoted from her Chief of Staff position.