Runners-Up for Top Story for June
Runners-up for top story of the month: Jaime Plascencia, husband of give-Wendy’s-a-finger-woman Anna Ayala, who purchased the finger that ultimately found its way into the chili from an otherwise uninvolved Nevada man who lost it in an industrial accident. Plascencia, who was charged along with his wife with conspiracy to commit fraud in her attempted grand larceny, was already in jail on unrelated charges of identity theft. Jeremy Brian Jones, 32, aka John Paul Chapman, indicted by an Alabama grand jury in the slaying of 45-year-old Lisa Nichols, who was found raped, shot and burned in September 2004, now suspected in a string of rape-murders. Neighbors described him as a “volatile, paranoid man who was often glassy-eyed from using methamphetamine”(meth use causes paranoia; if you see someone paranoid and glassy-eyed, you likely see a meth addict). Michelle M. Johnson and Harrell Johnson, finally charged with murdering their daughter Erica in 2001, having used hedge clippers to sever the little girl’s head after the child died following a beating for which they failed to seek help because both had warrants out for their arrests. Harrell admitted he was under the influence of alcohol and PCP when he threw Erica to the ground after she refused to go to bed, leaving her unconscious on the floor for two days. Millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst, possibly under investigation for the death of writer Susan Berman, a friend of Durst’s missing first wife: the LAPD has requested Durst’s pistols from Galveston County, Texas prosecutors. Durst was acquitted of murder in November 2003, despite the fact that he admitted cutting up his neighbor’s body and dumping the parts into Galveston Bay. Music producer Phil Spector, attempting to suppress evidence of prior acts for the upcoming trial in which he is charged with murdering actress Lana Clarkson. With Spector claiming he “never pulled a gun on these women,”Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler ruled evidence of using guns to threaten and intimidate women would be allowed. Winston Hayes, at whom Los Angeles deputy sheriffs fired an estimated 100+ rounds (all but four missing their intended target) after ending a car chase in Compton, admitting he was on drugs when he ran. In addition to six misdemeanor arrests, he was previously convicted of attempted arson and felony assault on a peace officer; this would be his third strike. Bristol Township, Philadelphia councilman Kevin Gilroy, claiming he swerved to avoid hitting a cat, arrested for DUI when he crashed his car into a curb about 25 feet from his home. He previously resigned as treasurer of the township’s Democratic Committee after party officials allegedly found financial irregularities (an excellent behavioral clue to addiction). Former America West pilot Thomas Cloyd and co-pilot Christopher Hughes, facing up to five years in prison for flying an aircraft while intoxicated, arguing that they weren’t “flying,”since they hadn’t yet taken off. They didn’t take off because airport personnel stopped them. (You’ll find the story’s beginnings on page 71 of Alcoholism Myths and Realities.) Former “Partridge Family”child star Danny Bonaduce, physically restrained by a VH1 camera crew during a drinking binge despite being warned by his wife that she would offer only tough love if he ever slipped, back in rehab. Filmmaker Oliver Stone, again arrested on suspicion of DUI and drug possession. The uninitiated would hardly know there was a problem by reading the recent sanitized Playboy interview. Recovering alcoholic country music star Hank Williams Jr. requesting a court order to force his alcoholic wife, former Miss Hawaiian Tropic Mary Jane Williams, into rehab after she set their kitchen on fire while drinking and cooking. The lyrics to his new single, “Devil in the Bottle,”seem to be for her. Former Ventura County, California Superior Court Judge Robert Bradley, arrested for driving cars and, once, a bicycle while under the influence, found dead at his home, having choked to death on a piece of meat. Actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who portrayed Elvis Presley in a recent TV miniseries, completing rehab and reportedly doing well with the help of fellow recovering-alcoholic actors Matthew Perry and Joaquin Phoenix.
Under watch: Laverne Dunlap, 35, tailed from West Los Angeles to Palmdale by a concerned motorist who saw Dunlap checking on two children in the trunk of her Toyota compact on the shoulder of the San Diego Freeway before closing the trunk and continuing north with five children and one other adult inside the car. None of the children were wearing seat belts. Dunlap was arrested on charges of felony child endangerment; the children were released into the custody of a 28-year-old passenger in the car. There is no mention of police testing for Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus to determine if there was any alcohol in the blood of either adult. Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, indicted on charges of making false statements to police. Except for the priors for shoplifting, I’d argue her commitment-phobia likely resulted from having been psychologically abandoned as a child of an alcoholic. Alberto Vilar, founder of New York-based Amerindo Investment Advisors, charged with stealing $5 million in client funds, which he allegedly used to pay personal expenses and make charitable contributions. His Amerindo Technology Fund is down 17% this year after gaining 24% in 2004 and 85% in 2003; however, it lost 90% from 2000 to 2002 (overall, then, since 2000 it’s down about 85%). Tennessee State Senator John Ford, indicted along with three other state lawmakers on charges of taking bribes from FBI agents posing as representatives of a company seeking favors from state government. Ford, who egotistically boasted to agents “you are talking to the guy that makes the deals,”was also charged with attempting to threaten or intimidate potential witnesses by telling an agent that “if he caught someone trying to set him up he would shoot that person.”Hannibal Kadafi, son of Libyan ruler Moammar Kadafi, convicted by a French court of assaulting his pregnant companion in a Paris hotel; the French foreign ministry has expressed “displeasure”to authorities in Libya about “repeated incidents”involving Hannibal. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean who came under fire for insisting that Osama Bin Laden not be prejudged, telling the Massachusetts state Democratic convention that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay “ought to go back to Houston, where he can serve his jail sentence,”despite the fact that DeLay (whatever we may think of him) has not been charged with any crime. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said, to his credit, that it was wrong for the party chairman to refer to DeLay “as a criminal.”Jesse Jackson, asserting that the above-mentioned Winston Hayes was the victim of a “hate crime,”even though three of the deputies who shot at him were black and four were Latino. Hyperbole is an outstanding first clue to alcoholism in public figures, whose actual use is difficult to confirm. In addition, Jackson, who to me looked stoned while at a recent press conference, often uses twisted logic (clue # 11 in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics), gets others to play the “blame game”(clue # 15) and, in suggesting this was a “hate crime,”may have knowingly made a false accusation (clue # 16). Without evidence of addictive use, we’re stuck at 80% likelihood of psychotropic drug addiction.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: the benefit of the doubt is given by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts – which would explain the misbehaviors). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. An essential prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain, making these news events possible. The cure for alcoholism and consequential bad behaviors is simple: stop protecting the addict and proactively intervene.