Enablers could be held partly responsible. Let’s start with law enforcers and see where that takes us. The case of Brinda Sue McCoy and Anthony Nicholas Orban.
Should Enablers be Held Responsible?
Vernon Johnson, in I’ll Quit Tomorrow, explicated that every alcoholic experiences euphoric recall, causing him to view everything he says or does while under the influence through self-favoring lenses. James Graham, in The Secret History of Alcoholism, expounded that the early stages of the disease are characterized by an inordinately large sense of self-importance (inflated ego) something first written about by Harry M. Tiebout in his fabulous pamphlet Ego Factors in Surrender in Alcoholism. During my research while writing Drunks, Drugs & Debits, I realized that Johnson’s euphoric recall triggers Graham and Tiebout’s alcoholic egomania, which increases over the progression of the early- to middle-stages of the disease. Over time, egomania and its behavioral manifestations can “slop over” to periods between uses; this allows hidden alcoholism to be more easily identified. Regardless of whether we see the person while under the influence, as misbehaviors increase the odds of alcoholism also increase. Even without seeing any use, if serial misbehaviors are evident we can ascribe about 80% odds that the person under scrutiny experiences euphoric recall and is, therefore, afflicted with alcoholism. This insight is incredibly helpful in protecting ourselves from the erratic and often dangerous behaviors in which addicts engage.
Alcohol and other-drug addicts commit at least 80% of unethical and criminal behaviors, including felonious ones. Addicts don’t have to be under the influence while committing misbehaviors; many feign sobriety when they are only temporarily abstinent. Sobriety requires both abstinence and ego deflation, an admission they are not all-powerful. Since the commission of a crime generally requires an inflated sense of self, the addict who commits such crimes is by definition not clean and sober. Since a cause and effect relationship exists between active addiction and the commission of criminal acts approximately 80% of the time, the number of criminal acts obviously would drop if we could get more addicts clean and sober. It follows that crime prevention should focus on cleaning up addicts rather than reacting to misbehaviors and focusing only on punishment.
Criminals commit an estimated 100 crimes per crime for which they are dealt appropriate consequences and possibly many times that in acts involving questionable ethics. Arguably, every tragedy that occurs in an addict’s life is preceded by dozens if not hundreds of incidents for which close people or the law should have intervened but didn’t. Two separate incidents involving law enforcers—a police chief’s wife and a former detective—are prime and tragic examples of likely known addiction. Unfortunately for everyone involved, their addiction seemingly was allowed to progress unimpeded.
Brinda Sue McCoy, 49, hazy from prescription pills and martinis, got into an argument with her husband, a former councilman and police chief in Orange County, California, and teenage son. Trying to avoid further confrontation, the husband and son left the house. She became suicidal, grabbed her husband’s loaded service weapon and barricaded herself inside the family home. She called several friends, a daughter and a nurse practitioner and told them which two songs she’d like played at her funeral. When police arrived, having already warned a 911 operator she’d shoot anyone who tried to interfere with her impending suicide, she shot twice and hit police cruisers the police were using as barriers; fortunately, no one was injured. She was convicted on five of six felony counts and could draw a 29-year prison term. Out on bail pending sentencing, she tried to kill herself and was remanded back to jail.
Anthony Nicholas Orban, a former Westminster, California police detective, shared eight margaritas and two pitchers of beer with a friend and sought a sexual encounter. He kidnapped and then raped a 25-year old waitress in a hotel room. He didn’t remember the rape and “came to” shortly after the criminal act, having no idea how he or the waitress got to the room. His attorney argued he was rendered “mentally unconscious” by a “powerful” dose of Zoloft and was, therefore, not responsible for his actions. (And by the way, Zoloft is not a psychotropic drug like Xanax, which is also used in treating depression.) Although neither the defense nor prosecution identified it as such, Orban was almost assuredly in an alcoholic blackout, during which time alcoholics can commit heinous acts they will never remember because the events don’t enter the memory banks of the brain. The jury convicted him and he now faces life in prison. Recall from issue #69 of TAR the story of U.S. soldier Robert Bales, by all accounts “a nice guy,” who murdered 17 Afghanis during an alcoholism-induced blackout. Bales could easily have done what Orban did, and vice versa. Perhaps Zoloft interacted with alcohol to create especially awful behaviors, but it doesn’t matter.
Brinda Sue McCoy’s husband likely knew what he was up against: an alcoholic wife. And Anthony Nicholas Orban’s cop friends, associates and captain almost certainly knew they had an alcoholic detective on their hands. Both addicts had probably engaged in dozens and possibly hundreds of incidents for which close people and especially the law should have intervened but didn’t.
Currently, the law proscribes that an absence of memory of an incident is by itself enough to absolve the perpetrator of responsibility for a crime. However, what if that person has been apprehended for crimes multiple times—and he had never been forced to face, address and deal with the root cause of the misbehaviors and lack of memory? What if there were numerous incidents of unethical behaviors for which close people should have intervened, but didn’t? If alcoholism is a disease that causes the afflicted person to act in ways he never would when clean and sober, shouldn’t there be some absolution if the cause of the behaviors has never been properly addressed by those in a position to know about the problem? Consideration should be given to lesser sanctions and greater compassion against those who have never been confronted with their all-too-obvious addiction. Since most alcoholics are never confronted or made the subject of an intervention, it’s unlikely either McCoy or Orban’s family, friends or co-workers had ever properly confronted either of them.
On the other side of the coin, greater incentives on the part of those in a position to intervene to get them to do so would be helpful. We should consider sanctions against those who bypass obvious opportunities to intervene—particularly law enforcers in the broadest sense. This especially includes judges, who should be required to tell defendants, “You probably sit in front of me because, through no fault of your own, you inherited a genetic predisposition to addiction: when you drink or use, you act badly some of the time. Therefore, society can no longer allow you to drink or use any drug capable of causing distortions of perception and memory. In installing an ankle bracelet on you today to encourage abstinence, we hope you will find your way to sobriety, which requires ego deflation, possible only when you become abstinent. So that you may learn about the cause of and solution to your behavioral problems, the court recommends that you attend AA meetings or some facsimile as often as you can. We wish you the best of luck and remind you that any failure will result in remand back to jail or prison.”
A police force captain who observes a modicum of misbehaviors could warn officers, detectives and other law enforcers under them that this is what a judge will advise if the drinking continues. When close people including family, friends and employers use these words and act on them with appropriate disenabling and, where feasible, regular and random testing and ankle bracelets, there will be far fewer Brinda Sue McCoy, Anthony Nicholas Orban and Robert Bales-like tragedies.
We should consider taking this idea further, even if it would be a legal morass. Those in a position of power with an opportunity to intervene, but don’t, should face some sort of sanction(s). We could start with egregious and obvious cases and see how it goes, especially when involving law enforcers on whom the public depends for sound judgment and moral rectitude.