Runners-up: politicians, businessmen, school teachers and others
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Ex-convict businessman Bo Stefan Eriksson, 44, who pleaded “no contest”to embezzling two exotic cars, a Ferrari and a Mercedes McLaren, and being a felon in possession of a handgun, facing a new trial just four days after a jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction. A few weeks before, he pleaded “no contest”to a DUI in the now infamous Malibu, California crash of a million-dollar Enzo Ferrari into a telephone pole in February. He previously turned down a plea deal that would have put him away for just over two years despite the fact that Judge Patricia M. Schnegg made it clear she felt it was a “very generous offer.”The offer got a little less generous”he was sentenced to three years. Eriksson, who personifies the idea that digging deeper with only one initial clue to alcoholism (driving 162 mph anywhere off a race track) can lead to the uncovering of a cesspool of misbehaviors, has nine criminal convictions in Sweden for forgery, counterfeiting, narcotics and firearms offenses.
Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), pleading guilty to bribery charges after confessing to taking bribes in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal. In a plea agreement reached a month earlier, he explained that alcoholism contributed to the downward spiral in his life and he had checked into rehab. In a written statement after the courtroom plea he said, “I accept responsibility for my actions, and I am prepared to face the consequences of what I have done.”Alcoholics Anonymous, which is part of nearly every rehab and requires addicts in recovery to take full responsibility for their misbehaviors, appears to have already done Mr. Ney good.
Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, 52, ticketed for public intoxication several weeks before his sentencing and several months after his conviction on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors in the investigation of Enron’s collapse, which cost investors billions. The punishment, a $385 fine, pales in comparison with the 24-year sentence he was handed down for the Enron conviction. In April 2004, Skilling was involved in a scuffle with patrons of a cigar bar, after which he was taken to a hospital where a test revealed his blood alcohol level to be .19 per cent. As a result of this incident, a U.S. Magistrate ordered Skilling to stop drinking and join an alcoholism treatment program. Anyone older than 30 who can function at a BAL in excess of .15 per cent or is past 40 and drinks the equivalent of over 18 ounces of 80-proof liquor (or two bottles of wine) in the space of four hours is extremely likely to have the disease of alcoholism. As I pointed out in Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse, financial abuse is an indication of alcoholism and alcoholism explains (but doesn’t excuse) most financial abuse. Skilling and perhaps most of the Enron participants are a tragic example of this truism.
Florida school teacher Debra Lafave, once again in the news. Lafave, who pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious battery charges in 2005 for having sex with a 14-year-old student when she was 23 and who blamed Bipolar Disorder for her behavior, was interviewed by Matt Lauer for NBC’s “Today”and “Dateline.”She admitted to “drinking heavily by age 15″and said, “I would drink. I would drink a lot”at age 22, when she began smoking and dressing “provocatively.”She told Lauer that she didn’t care what people thought”she’d shrug it off, feeling “confident”that she wouldn’t get into trouble. She also admitted she “didn’t care about anyone else.”Indications of alcoholism from just this one interview include 1. alcoholic drinking; 2. smoking; 3. a need to wield sexual power; 4. overly confident and 5. she felt she should be at the center of your universe. The behaviors in general suggest a bloated ego, a Supreme Being complex and a sense of invincibility. As I mentioned in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics, sexual abuse is an indication of alcoholism and alcoholism explains (but doesn’t excuse) most sexual abuse. By the way, she also told Lauer that her father was “emotionally absent”for much of her childhood, which might explain the particular behaviors her alcoholism impelled her to engage in.
Former Army private Steven D. Green, indicted by a federal grand jury on 17 counts of murder, sexual assault and obstruction in the death of an Iraqi family near his checkpoint in central Iraq in late 2005. The case has raised questions about the Army’s recruiting because Green had a known history of alcohol and drug-related problems, including repeated contacts with the law. He was honorably discharged in May because of a “personality disorder.â€
Cheryl Athene Miller, 59, charged with the murder of four of her babies, aged one month to one year, from 1965 to 1970. Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Poma, who wouldn’t reveal means or motive, told reporters that Cheryl’s brother, Gerald Miller, came clean after carrying the secret for 35 years. The series of mysterious deaths began when Cheryl was 18 and living in an Escondido, California motel with the father of the first baby to die and ended in Mendocino, California, where the death of her 9-month-old child was deemed suspicious, because it was the fourth. All four deaths, however, were ruled natural and the cases were closed. Gerald explained that Cheryl had suffered a rough childhood, with frequent beatings by her mother, before drifting, using drugs and serving time in prison in the late 1990s. According to Poma, Cheryl seemed ready to unburden herself and was remorseful”a hint that she may have gotten sober several years ago.
Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, charged with the murder of five firefighters who died in the Esperanza, California wildfire, which he was charged with setting. Co-workers and friends, who were “shocked”by the allegations, described Oyler as “a very good guy.”However, he pleaded guilty to auto theft in 1995 and possession of illegal drugs in 2001. While his former father-in-law hosted the marriage of his daughter, Christy, to Oyler in 1997 in his backyard, he later described Oyler as a “lowlife.”Christy, who died a year ago in a traffic accident, explained in her 1999 divorce petition, “[He] verbally harassed me, there is…drug trafficking [at our home]…He is so paranoid, it scares me. He is very unpredictable and hits walls.”Perhaps his co-workers and friends would benefit from a reading of Jekyll and Hyde, in conjunction with How To Spot Hidden Alcoholics.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Novelist William Stryon, author of Sophie’s Choice and numerous books related to his obsessions with race, class and personal guilt, dead at 81. Styron firmly maintained he wasn’t an alcoholic, even while admitting to a “huge capacity to abuse alcohol.”He stopped drinking suddenly at age 60, after a lifetime of using alcohol “abundantly, almost mercilessly.”He fell into a deep malaise and began taking powerful prescription medicines, including Halcion and other “mood stabilizers”(also known as “sedative-hypnotics,”or “tranquilizersâ€). When he emerged from a deep suicidal depression, Styron traced the source of his pain to his mother’s death when he was only 14. He didn’t consider the fact that his “pain”continued for decades while drinking “abundantly”and that if he had not “abused”alcohol, he might have better dealt with his mother’s early demise.
Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, dead from esophageal cancer at age 73. A Democrat known for her “freewheeling oratory”and one of the most prominent female politicians in the United States, she was in political office from 1976 until 1994, when she was defeated by George W. Bush. In 1980 Richards was forced by family and friends into rehab and reportedly never relapsed. While Governor from 1990 to 1994, she started treatment programs in the Texas prison system (which Bush largely put the kibosh on). When visiting inmates she told them, “My name’s Ann, and I’m an alcoholic.â€