Robert Clymer, FBI agent, alcoholic.
y from “True Stella Awards” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
In the spirit of this month’s top story and movie review on possibly alcoholic law enforcers, Randy’s 2006 # 3 runner-up for The TRUE Stella Awards (http://www.stellaawards.com/) is fitting. The Awards mock wild, outrageous, ridiculous and abusive lawsuits, from which there are plenty to choose. This particularly abusive suit was brought by FBI agent Robert Clymer.
Unfortunately, even if we’d like to think otherwise, many law enforcers are practicing alcoholics. While working a high profile case in Las Vegas, Clymer crashed his pickup–with a Blood Alcohol Level over .30 per cent, almost four times the .08 per cent limit. He had no doubt consumed the empty 25 ounce bottle of Captain Morgan Rum sitting next to him, but fortunately had not emptied his gun, which was found next to the rum, fully loaded. He was found sitting passed out, while his truck began burning. (It gets weirder: he was reported to have been urinating in the parking lot of the Suncoast Casino at about 3:20 a.m., an hour before the crash, apparently with his gun visible. Police later found a 15-round magazine that matched his gun nearby.)
Clymer initially did the right thing and pled guilty, but quickly flipped and sued the manufacturer of his pickup truck and the dealer he purchased it from under–get this–product liability laws, seeking $33,000 in medical bills and $11,000 in lost wages. He claimed that he “somehow lost consciousness” and the truck “somehow produced a heavy smoke that filled the passenger cab” (due to the fire caused by the accident). As Randy points out, “the drunk-driving accident wasn’t his fault, but the truck’s fault. Just the kind of guy you want carrying a gun in the name of the law.”
This was not the only public behavioral clue to something amiss in Agent Clymer’s biochemistry. Just a month before the accident, he and his wife Tracy, an FBI secretary, filed for bankruptcy listing over $580,000 in debt, including nearly $122,000 on credit cards. Clymer, a 20-year FBI veteran, makes $102,000 per year. A few months after the accident, he left his wife. He later filed for divorce.
Gross overspending and divorce, particularly in conjunction, are frequently behavioral indications of alcoholism. One can only imagine how many related misbehaviors the Agency knew about, many of which likely occurred long before these very public escapades. If the FBI wants to prevent another Robert Hanssen tragedy, they should take such indications seriously. At the very least, those exhibiting such obvious clues should be removed from high profile cases and precautions taken to prevent possible alcoholics from accessing anything that might compromise the integrity of the FBI. At best, they should be given one opportunity to get clean and sober and those failing should be shown the door. The United States would be a safer place.
(Story and tagline from “This is True,” copyright 2007 by Randy Cassingham, used with permission.)