Enablers of the month: sister says “no way” that her brother would wield a hatchet; neighbor to bank executive partygoer-house squatter asks “how many bank exec’s would do that?” and a judge and psychiatrist think financial fraudster Marcus Schrenker is a narcissist–without mentioning likely alcoholic.
Enablers of the month:
Marsha Polk-Townsend, who described her brother Brownie Polk, 46, as not being “a violent guy” after causing a disturbance at a liquor-store and confronting police with a hatchet. After ignoring “numerous” commands to drop the weapon, he held the hatchet over his head and advanced on the officer, who shot him several times, killing him. While Polk-Townsend disputes the story, a security camera recorded the entire incident and corroborates the officer’s account. Polk-Townsend claims, “He would never charge at police with a hatchet.” No, Ms. Polk-Townsend, the brother you knew would never do that. Meet Mr. Hyde, who would.
An un-named resident of Malibu Colony, referring to Cheronda Guyton, who was responsible for Wells Fargo Bank’s foreclosed commercial properties division while “house-sitting” a $12 million Malibu Colony home without the bank’s permission, commenting: “It’s shocking what she did. I really question her judgment. How many other bank executives would make a decision like that?” Answer: as many as are alcoholics. By the way, although a resident said that the parties she had “weren’t excessive,” they were reported to be “lavish.”
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson rejected a request by Indiana money manager Marcus Schrenker, 38, for a shorter sentence than the four years he was given for crashing a rented single-engine Piper Malibu and parachuting to safety in an elaborate scheme to fake his own death. Vinson explained that he agreed with an unnamed prison psychiatrist who diagnosed Schrenker as a narcissist who lacked empathy. While this may be true, Vinson and the psychiatrist may be unaware that a “lifelong pattern of lies and manipulation,” as U.S. Attorney Tiffany Eggers described Schrenker’s behavior, is a clue to underlying alcoholism. They could be unaware that a lifestyle marked by daredevil flying, luxury cars and a 10,000 square foot home in an upscale neighborhood outside of Indianapolis known as “Cocktail Cove,” where affluent boaters often socialize, is not inconsistent with alcoholism. They may not know that fancy toys purchased with ill-gotten gains, for which the person is under indictment on 11 felony counts of fraudulent security sales and other securities violations (including forgetting to inform annuitants they faced high fees and commissions by switching to annuities he sold to them), is a terrific behavioral clue to alcoholism. They may never have learned that alcoholism almost always comes first when someone admits his “life was out of control and he didn’t know what he was doing.” On the other hand, perhaps they do know this but think an admission provides an excuse and supports a shorter prison sentence. No, it doesn’t. Alcoholism is an explanation, never an excuse. On the other hand, they wouldn’t be the first to fail to realize that unchecked alcoholism is the reason the courts are so clogged.