Cote was a Tendaran man, a security chief and senior official for the Department of Planetary Corrections on Tendar IV.
History[]
By 2265, Cote was in charge of the prison on the capital city of Tendar IV and reported to Prime Minister Jon.
In 2265, Cote answered the hails of Montgomery Scott after Captain James T. Kirk, Spock and Gary Mitchell were arrested on Tendar IV. Cote described their totalitarian legal system, explained that the officers had committed crimes, and transmitted files of legal documents to the USS Enterprise. He also explained to the landing party that they would never leave the prison facility alive, but could have bearable lives if they obeyed orders. Kirk, Spock and Mitchell fought guards to try to escape, but Cote held Kirk at gunpoint to stop them.
Later, after Kirk refused to cooperate with Dack's prison orientation and work details, Cote spoke with the captain again, mentioning that he'd reviewed what the Tendarans knew about Federation law from what they'd pieced together by overhearing subspace communications, and he considered it to be inefficient and flawed. He was proud of the Tendaran system, which did not grant rights to those accused of crimes and gave all criminals the same punishment. He tried to threaten Kirk to get him to fall in line. Kirk believed Cote was prohibited from killing him. Meanwhile, Spock was being tortured.
When the landing party broke out of their cells, they made their way to Cote's office. Kirk punched Cote in the face. Spock and Mitchell adjusted Cote's computer to relay their location to the Enterprise. Cote was beamed up and arrested on charges of kidnapping and assault of Starfleet personnel. He was read his rights by a security detail and put in the ship's brig. Prime Minister Jon was similarly arrested by Kirk. Both were kept aboard the Enterprise so they could see how Federation law worked firsthand before they were beamed back to Tendar IV. (TOS comic: "Prisoners")