Behavioral indications of alcoholism rear ugly in a con man, two cops, a former judge–and a school teacher
Under watch:
In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” With this in mind, these are stories for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behaviors themselves, even though absolute proof in public sources may be lacking.
James William Lull, who failed to show up for sentencing in court in Hawaii after being convicted of scamming more than 50 investors out of $30 million in a Ponzi scheme because his car ripped through a barbed-wire fence and plunged 200 feet down a canyon, killing him. Lull, 60, while manager at the Kaua’i branch of U.S. Financial Mortgage Corp, engaged in what he referred to as a “sideline business” of giving bridge loans to home buyers who couldn’t qualify for conventional financing. He convinced wealthy investors to provide “low-risk” short-term loans with high interest rates, presenting them with loan applications he claimed borrowers had filled out. He never made the bridge loans and “diverted” the money for personal use. He filed bankruptcy in 2006, declaring more than $31 million in debt and $6.7 million in assets, including two estates in Kaua’i and one in Idaho. He later admitted to a failure to disclose an estimated $3 million in diamonds, opals, coins and collectible pool cues. The behaviors suggesting alcoholism include the crime itself, as well as an effort to inflate the ego by showing off his collectibles.
Dallas police officer Robert Powell, placed on paid administrative leave after chasing a family to a parking spot near a hospital’s emergency entrance for failing to stop at a stop sign and trying to prevent the family in the vehicle from visiting a mother dying from breast cancer. While the rest of the family ultimately rushed inside, the man, who turns out to have been 26-year-old NFL running back Ryan Moats, pleaded with Powell to let him go. After explaining, “My mother-in-law is dying,” Powell lectured Moats and threatened him with arrest. Instead of quickly apologizing, he said, “Ok, I can screw you over. I’d rather not do that. Your attitude will dictate everything that happens, and right now, your attitude sucks….I can charge you with fleeing….I can take you to jail.” His wife’s mother died before Moats was able to see her. Behaviors suggestive of alcoholism in Powell include an abuse of power and failure to quickly get reasonable, particularly when we consider where the incident took place.
Woollahra, NSW, Australian native Marcus Einfeld, 70, who received a $77 speeding ticket from a photo radar system and got it dismissed when he swore a friend was driving his car that day. The problem: his friend had been dead for three years. The other problem: Einfeld was a federal judge. After pleading guilty to perjury and perverting the course of justice (he fabricating evidence by producing a detailed 20-page statement describing a fictitious “alternative” driver) Einfeld was stripped of his Queen’s Counsel title, sacked from his post as Judge, had one of the country’s highest honors, the Order of Australia, revoked and is in the process of being disbarred. Einfeld is the first Australian superior court judge to be imprisoned. After being sentenced to three years Einfeld said, “I don’t think I’m in the slightest bit dishonest. I just made a mistake.” After the speeding ticket came to light, other improprieties were found, including padding his curriculum vitae, purchasing doctorates from US diploma mills and plagiarism. Behaviors suggesting alcoholism include the need to win at any price, confabulated thinking and, well, plain old gross stupidity.
Tracy, California Sunday school teacher Melissa Huckaby, 28, pleading “not guilty” in the slaying of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu and separately charged with slipping “harmful substances” to a 7-year-old girl and an adult male. Since this is just the beginning of the criminal complaint, we’ll defer other comments—but she is clearly “under watch.”
Former Bolingbrook, Illinois police sergeant Drew Peterson (finally) arrested for the murder of one of his ex-wives, Kathleen Savio. He has not yet been charged in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, who told her pastor, Neil Schori, that she knew her husband had killed Kathleen and she feared she might be next. She vanished a few weeks after. Lucy Barry Robe reported in Co-Starring Famous Women and Alcohol that she found 85% odds of alcoholism in someone married four times. While Peterson hasn’t yet been convicted, research cited in Drunks, Drugs & Debits suggest that over 80% of those committing murder are alcoholics. Peterson is reported to be charming and charismatic, which is also consistent with a diagnosis of alcoholism. Now run the odds.