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Nancy Grace
Drunk Driver Videos
Aired December 04, 2012 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. Dashcams, grainy surveillance videos, police monitors capture the wildest, the most dangerous DUI smash-ups and road rages, and it`s all caught on tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her DUI crash was caught on surveillance cameras.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was (INAUDIBLE) over the legal limit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of (ph) the (ph) officers, stealing my money! Stealing my money!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, stop banging your head!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police had their hands full when they pulled a Missouri couple over for suspicion of DUI.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shut up! Shut up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Step out of the vehicle!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, she stepped out, all right. Whoops! This miss was missing most of her clothes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She goes airborne before crashing into the road and slamming into a truck in the other lane.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A speeding pickup truck smashes into two patrol cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the front of the store just exploded.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crashed through the wall, throwing him 15 feet in the air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What the heck is going on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Answer me! (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Begins urinating and flipping off officers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s been charged while driving while impaired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Including DUI.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the incredible scene all caught on several surveillance cameras.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. First we go to Florida, a high-powered anesthesiologist behind the wheel. But when cops search his tricked-out BMW, he goes berserk. He goes berserk in the police squad car. Believe it or not, he`s banging his head over and over and over against the glass divider until this doctor needs a doctor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the officers, stealing my money! Stealing my money!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, stop banging your head!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s Zach Bird (ph) going berserk in the back seat of an FHP cruiser. Bird is an anesthesiologist. Investigators say he nearly ran a trooper off the road. Bird was pulled over and failed a field sobriety test. Troopers then searched his pocket and found $40,000 in cash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops stealing my money! Cops stealing my money!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All this over the money, which as you can see, had been in Bird`s pocket the entire time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A doctor? Did you see that? How would you like him working on you? This doctor -- don`t you even start claiming police brutality to me!
Rita Cosby, what happened?
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: This is a very crazy story, Nancy, forty-one-year-old Zachary Bird. Here he is, here`s this crazy doctor. Apparently, first of all, he gets -- trying to run off, basically, a state trooper on the highway. Can you imagine? He almost hits him!
GRACE: Whoa! They didn`t teach him much in med school, did they.
COSBY: And then in addition to that, when they pull him over, he is so drunk, he is walking in a circle. He can`t even walk a straight line. Then when they put him in the back of the car, as you can see right here, he goes crazy. And they find on him $40,000 in his pocket -- I want to know how you put $40,000 in your pocket -- and 14,000 bucks in his car, also two handguns, also other medications. This guy goes crazy and he`s all bloody!
GRACE: OK, Ellie, $54,000 cash?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, that`s right, Nancy. And not only the cash, which, by the way, what he`s yelling on this tape is that the officers are trying to steal his money. They also found a vial with some liquid in it in the car. They said that contained ketamine, which is better known by its street name, Special K. That`s actually an animal tranquilizer that people take to get high. That was allegedly in Dr. Bird`s car.
GRACE: Whoa. Special K? Explain.
JOSTAD: Special K, yes. It`s a very powerful drug. You know, we heard about this back in the days where people were taking this at nightclubs. It`s a very powerful tranquilizer. They use it to perform surgeries on horses and other large animals. But like I said, people take it recreationally. They say -- police say Dr. Bird had that on him when they pulled him over.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Patty in Georgia. Hi, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, Miss Nancy, I am wondering why they will allow alcohol to be legal when there are more killings on the highway than there are with people with marijuana. So why not legalize marijuana instead of let alcohol be legal?
GRACE: OK, so you want me to legalize marijuana. Are you serious? Or you want me to criminalize alcohol? Which one -- what`s your heart`s desire?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, my problem is -- no, I`m not saying to legalize it. I`m just saying, why not take alcohol off the shelves. It is killing people, literally.
GRACE: OK. Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Joey Jackson, defense attorney, Holly Hughes, defense attorney, both joining me out of Atlanta. Let`s just go ahead and wrangle in Mike Brooks, HLN law enforcement analyst. And also with us, Steve Wilkos, host of "The Steve Wilkos Show" and former cop, Chicago PD.
All right, to Mike Brooks. OK, outlawing booze. Didn`t they try that back in the Prohibition era?
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, didn`t work then, Nancy, and it`s not going to work now. I mean, they`ve -- what they`ve done is they`ve taxed it highly, but still people abuse that. So if you`re going to legalize marijuana, well, I guess we`ve already got two states that have already done that in the last election, but...
GRACE: OK, Mike Brooks...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: I`m trying to have a merry Christmas. Don`t remind me that two states have legalized pot. All right, OK, Wilkos, jump in.
STEVE WILKOS, TELEVISION TALK SHOW HOST, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Well, I think not only the alcohol is a problem here, I think that this guy -- he`s medicating with this Special K, which...
GRACE: Why are you saying medicating?
WILKOS: Well, he`s taking it, right?
GRACE: Like it`s a prescribed drug.
WILKOS: He`s prescribing it to himself.
GRACE: He is hooking (ph) up to Special K in his microwave, all
WILKOS: He`s prescribed it to himself.
GRACE: That`s what`s going down with that. Joe Jackson, here is a doctor, a doctor, a high-powered anesthesiologist. He`s got more money in his pocket than most people make in one year. And did you see him -- let`s see the video again, Dana. And after I talk to Joey, I want to hear the video, so re-rack it.
Joey, look at this guy. You know if it was not on video, he would try to jump up and claim police brutality.
JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, you know, it`s likely that he would. But what`s important here -- two things. First of all, as to making something legal or illegal, it`s not the product, it`s the person and whether they use the product responsibly.
(CROSSTALK)
BROOKS: Ketamine, Joe? Come on!
JACKSON: As to -- well, I mean, with regard to...
BROOKS: No way, Joey!
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Use your heroin responsibly. Is that what I`m hearing, Holly Hughes?
JACKSON: We didn`t talk about heroin. We were talking about alcohol and marijuana, two things that are legal.
BROOKS: Ketamine!
JACKSON: One in Washington and Colorado, marijuana...
GRACE: Are you in...
JACKSON: ... and alcohol everywhere.
GRACE: ... Washington or Colorado right now, Joey?
JACKSON: I am not.
GRACE: Yes, well, then they`re not legal.
JACKSON: And I don`t want to be.
GRACE: Holly?
HOLLY HUGHES, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you know, Joey`s got a point in that if the person abuses it...
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: ... right now, alcohol...
GRACE: Are you saying, what, that, ditto, I agree with Joey Jackson? Holly, I`m going to come back to you...
HUGHES: No, what I`m saying is...
GRACE: ... after you hear the audio, for an original thought. All right...
HUGHES: If a person abuses alcohol, even though it`s perfectly legal -- and it`s a big, huge lobby, let`s face it. A lot of senators, a lot of congressmen -- they`re not going to outlaw something they`re engaging in.
GRACE: OK, you know what, Holly?
HUGHES: So if he`s drunk, as they`re claiming...
GRACE: I really appreciate that. It`s the whole, If he jumps off the cliff, would you? That`s like my child saying, So-and-so did it on the playground. OK, let`s just stop.
Dana, rack it up. I want to hear the audio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the officers are stealing my money! Stealing my money!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, stop banging your head!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s Zach Bird going berserk in the back seat of an FHP cruiser. Bird is an anesthesiologist. Investigators say he nearly ran a trooper off the road. Bird was pulled over and failed a field sobriety test. Troopers then searched his pocket and found $40,000 in cash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop stealing my money! Stop stealing my money!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All this over the money, which, as you can see, had been in Bird`s pocket the entire time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I mean, you can look at his demeanor. And when I first became a prosecutor and I would read a police report and it would say, I could look at his demeanor and see that he was high -- and I didn`t get it until I was out on the street, out making busts with the cops, riding with them. You can look at someone and tell they`re high as a kite.
And I`m going to throw that to Steve Wilkos. You worked the streets in Chicago. You can look at somebody like this anesthesiologist and know he`s high.
WILKOS: When you`re working on the streets and you see people acting like this, you can tell somebody`s high or under influence. They got the crazy eyes. This guy has no wellbeing for himself. He`s just injuring himself.
GRACE: Now we turn to Wellesley (ph), another doctor. A prestigious doctor of the year turned DUI suspect, crashes her Subaru Outback through a parking lot, then plows through cars at a stop light. We have the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A prominent ER doctor has been arrested after her DUI crash through a Whole Foods parking lot was caught on surveillance cameras. Police say 56-year-old Kristen Howard (ph) was under the influence of controlled substances and was allegedly found with prescriptions written to herself in her possession at the time of the crash.
The driver of the other car was taken to an area hospital with two cracked ribs. Video shows the car traveling through the parking lot, over the median and goes airborne before crashing into the road and slamming into a truck in the other lane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to you, Michael Board, WOAI. That`s not exactly what you expect when you`re sitting at a red light, minding your own business.
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI: No. And you won`t believe the excuse this doctor gave when she was talked to by the cops. She was slurring her speech. Her eyes were bloodshot. This is all according to the police report.
And they said, What happened? Why did you do this? All she could blurt out was that this was a mechanical malfunction with her car. Now, you know, that`s kind of a crazy idea. I`ve had malfunctions with my car before, and I don`t go skidding through parking lots and slamming into cars.
GRACE: Wendy Walsh -- Wendy, of all people, you`d think a doctor would know better.
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, Nancy, you know very well that one of the biggest dangers in the population right now is not so much the abuse of alcohol but the abuse of prescription drugs. And who do you think writes these prescriptions? Doctors. So it stands to reason they`d be writing a few prescriptions to themselves, too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please step out of the car, miss. Oops! This miss was missing most of her clothes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We clocked the vehicle going 110 miles an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-eight-year-old Erin Holdsworth of Carom (ph), Ohio, may have been half-naked. She was allegedly going full speed, as fast as 128 before stop sticks thrown on the road disabled her tires.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Step out of the vehicle! Step out of the vehicle!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK. I don`t want to stop that video. Keep it rolling. There -- whoa! Is she naked with tennis shoes on, Rita?
COSBY: No, she`s actually wearing wedge heels. That seems like the only thing that`s intact. The rest is a G-string, and then she`s wearing a see-through tube top. And as you just heard, Nancy, she led authorities on a seven-mile chase, 128 miles an hour. They had no idea who they were chasing. Suddenly, when she pulls over, this is what they see.
And in fact, the funny part, Nancy -- she first starts coming towards them, and the officer`s, like, What is this? He tells her to turn around, and she`s so drunk, she doesn`t know how to turn around. He said, Please walk backwards. I don`t want to see the front of you. I just want to see the back of you. And she is just stumbling all over the place.
And then when she gets in the car, she goes berserk and goes crazy and starts screaming. This woman is absolutely nuts!
GRACE: OK, there you go. There`s a shot. Thank you, Lord, for mosaics. And let me just put it euphemistically. All right, what happened, Ellie?
JOSTAD: As you see, Erin Holdsworth is driving her Mazda down the highway. This is the Cleveland suburbs in Ohio. When they pulled her over, that`s when they realize she`s wearing a he tube top, mesh see- through tube top, I might add, white G-string.
Once she got in the car, she started cussing out the officer. She called him a racial slur, including the "N" word, multiple times. She told him he was as stupid as the "F" word, and she tried to kick out the windows of the car.
Now, Nancy, what`s worse is that police say, later on, she got her driving privileges back for a while so she could take her kids to school and also drive to work. But she showed up for one of her court appearances high on marijuana, so then she went back to jail to wait for trial.
And you see her there in the back of the squad car giving the officer an earful.
GRACE: So the judge allows her to continue driving her children to school?
JOSTAD: Yes. Briefly she was allowed to do that until she blew it, like I said, by showing up and failing a drug test. So then she went back into jail while she awaited trial.
GRACE: OK, Holly Hughes, don`t you just hate when it your client is not only drunk as a skunk but caught in her white mesh see-through tube top and her G-string? Ouch.
HUGHES: Yes, I sure do, Nancy, because, unfortunately, the video shows what happened. So what you`ve got to do as a defense attorney is look at why it happened and try and explain to the court why your particular client needs to be given a chance, maybe put in a rehabilitation center.
Obviously, she has problems. So you need to get her treatment, and you`re going to argue that jail is not the place for her, but perhaps a lockdown rehab facility where we can address the underlying problem is going to benefit everybody so no one gets hurt.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: First of all, I want to address the see-through mesh tube top, number one. All right, Mike Brooks, when you get a naked DUI, what are you supposed to do?
BROOKS: Well, first question, where are you going? Or where are you coming from? No, but you have to handle it as a professional, just like people...
GRACE: Oh, I`d like to see you handling this one like a professional, Mike Brooks. You know, Mike...
BROOKS: Nancy! Please!
GRACE: ... she refused to tell police where she was going. She would not tell them.
BROOKS: Well, my next question is, did she wear the same thing to court? That`s the other question.
GRACE: But I guess by then, she`d have on an orange jumpsuit.
All right, out to the lines. Lapita, Arizona. Hi, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, my question is, how long was the tape going for before she was actually stopped?
GRACE: Oh, good one. What about it, Michael Board? Michael joining us from OAI.
BOARD: She was going seven miles before the cops were able to pull her over. And Nancy, why is it always the people you never want to see naked showing up naked?
GRACE: Always. It happens at those naked beaches. Don`t go to one. That`s my advice.
OK, Ellie, we just heard Holly Hughes, God bless her, talking about rehab and a second chance. What is this, this woman`s third or fourth chance?
JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, this woman, yes, has been convicted of what they call OVI there in Ohio, operating a vehicle under the influence, in both 2004 and 2010, according to the HuffingtonPost.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Texas convenience store clerk is lucky to be alive tonight. Working the night shift, Raj Kumar (ph) takes a stretch, not expecting a 2001 Honda Passport to crash through the wall, throwing him 15 feet in the air. And it`s all caught on surveillance video.
It`s a miracle tonight. Raj survives. Behind the wheel, 36-year-old Denise Wilson. She says she meant to push the brakes, not the accelerator, but cops say Wilson was drunk, charging her with intoxication assault.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, how many times have we heard that one, Steve Wilkos? Oops! I meant to hit the brakes!
WILKOS: They always give you a crazy excuse. And yes, that`s what happens when you`re drunk. You hit the gas pedal instead of, you know, the brake, and that`s what happens.
GRACE: Rita, what happened?
COSBY: In this particular case, this woman -- by the way, the wildest thing, this woman`s a regular customer. She had just gone into the store earlier in the day. She bought a six-pack of beer. She said that she had been recently diagnosed with cancer. And then suddenly, here she is. She`s driving her car. She`s going through a parking lot. She claims to cops again that she hit the accelerator instead of the brake. She goes flying into the front of the Hi-Ho (ph) convenience store...
GRACE: How apropos!
COSBY: Yes, how apropos. And by the way, this guy, this is the clerk here. This Kumar is so lucky to be alive. He was just sitting in the chair. He got up to check his phone. And just when he walked away, the vehicle flings into the front of the store and misses him by literally a few inches.
GRACE: Ellie, wasn`t Wilson charged and released in October after posting $100,000 bond?
JOSTAD: Yes. That`s right, Nancy. This, like Rita said, is a regular customer there at the Hi-Ho. They knew her as Nisey (ph).
GRACE: In the refrigerated area.
JOSTAD: Perhaps. And also, Nancy, this clerk, Mr. Kumar, he was hospitalized for a couple of days and then he went right back to work. It was lucky, there was a nurse who was actually pumping gas out front who came to his aid, as well as other witnesses. But police say that the suspect here, Denise Wilson, never got out of her car to help him.
GRACE: This guy need five staples to his head to hold his head together. Isn`t that true, Mike Brooks?
BROOKS: He is one lucky man. It`s a good thing he got up out of that chair to get a little bit of stretch before all this happened.
You know, but this woman, you know, what was she coming back in for? Was she coming back in for another 12-pack? Who knows? She got a six-pack earlier. And she never got out of her car. Well, you know what?
GRACE: That`s curb service, Mike Brooks!
BROOKS: Yes, but she should never be in a car again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police had their hands full when they pulled a Missouri couple over for suspicion of DUI, and after arresting the husband, were confronted by this screaming, near naked wife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Shut up! Shut up! (INAUDIBLE) shut up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wife was trying to take the blame because another DUI conviction for Teeter (ph) would result in jail time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shut up! (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, what is she saying, Ellie?
JOSTAD: To me it sounded like she was saying shut up, f-ing shut up. At one point she`s yelling at the cops, taser me, just taser me. And you see right there she got a bible from somewhere.
GRACE: Dear Lord in heaven.
JOSTAD: And she appears to be --
GRACE: I don`t know where that bible came from.
JOSTAD: She`s trying to make this trooper, you know, swear on the bible, who knows to what?
GRACE: While husband (INAUDIBLE) is charged with DIU after a rollover, his wife is caught here on tape ranting and raging at police, decked out in a string bikini and a tank top. OK, now she is not charged in this incident.
Steve Wilkos, why?
STEVE WILKOS, HOST, THE STEVE WILKOS SHOW: Well, I`ll say one thing, that bible is where they keep the drugs. I guarantee it. She`s not charged. These troopers showed a lot of restraint. When she was begging to be tasered, I think that might have been a good time to do it.
GRACE: You know, though, Steve, I think the reason why is because she wanted to be charged and not her husband. Although I don`t know if she had the wherewithal to even form intent. They were so drunk.
And Rita Cosby, what time of day did this happen and where are they? They`re dragging a boat behind them.
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, AUTHOR OF "QUIET HERO": Yes, in fact they were coming from boating, apparently. It`s in the middle of the day, it`s late morning. And this woman, by the way --
GRACE: Wait, Rita, doesn`t anybody have a job?
COSBY: It`s crazy.
GRACE: Is it just me? I have to be somewhere all day long.
COSBY: I`d like to have somebody dressed.
GRACE: Why is everybody else driving around with a boat behind them drunk?
(LAUGHTER)
COSBY: How about being dressed appropriately? This woman is so crazy. The other thing, she`s also screaming in the middle of it all, Nancy. She is screaming and saying, First Amendment rights. I have a right to speak. She`s like reciting the constitution. I also saw --
GRACE: Sounds like to me somebody has had a brush with the law before.
COSBY: I also saw an interview with her later and this is also funny. Here -- this is fast forward a couple of weeks later. She says, you know, gosh, I don`t remember saying any of those things. I`m so, so sorry. It was like a choir girl, a totally different person when she is off booze.
GRACE: To Joey Jackson and Holly Hughes.
Holly Hughes, there`s usually a reason that a civilian, not a cop, not a lawyer, can recite Miranda.
HOLLY HUGHES, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They watch TV, Nancy, come on. It`s all over the television. Tune in any night of the week, you can watch "CSI," you can -- "CSI" got 14 different shows now.
GRACE: Again, Holly, I`m busy.
HUGHES: So yes.
GRACE: I don`t have time to watch TV at night. I`m working.
HUGHES: Well, she does apparently. She can watch TV at night.
GRACE: Joey Jackson, I like the bible. I like that special touch she added.
JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: First of all, I`d rather watch NANCY GRACE. But be that as it may, the bottom line here is that the husband has significant problems. He has a number of DWI arrests. Apparently, she -- he provides for her livelihood and of course she`s going to be upset. You credit the troopers for doing the right thing and for letting her get it out, leaving her alone.
GRACE: And now we go to Ohio. A traffic stop on highly congested I- 75 turns deadly. State troopers barely escape with their lives after a speeding pick-up slams two patrol cars, smashing them into two state troopers and it`s all caught on a dash cam.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It was a routine traffic stop at the wee hours on the side of busy I-75. But it almost turns deadly for two Ohio state troopers. A speeding pickup truck smashes into two patrol cars. Those patrol cars slam into two state troopers. Police dash cam catches the ugly aftermath. You can even hear the troopers wailing in pain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK. In this one, Ellie, it`s all caught on tape. And that`s a good thing. Because otherwise the defendants would claim none of this ever happen. That doctor we showed at the beginning guarantee you, he would have claimed police brutality. That little gremlin woman jumping up and down in the middle of a field claiming taser me, taser me, she would claim they tasered her inappropriately if that had happened. But these dash cams, these police videos change all of that.
Ellie, what happened?
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy. This is caught on the state trooper`s dash cam in Ohio. What happens is the police -- the troopers there had actually pulled over a DUI suspect and were the -- in the process of processing him when a second vehicle, a pickup truck, comes crashing into one trooper`s car which pushes it forward into another squad car which then hits the two troopers and the suspect.
GRACE: Take a look at this.
Michael Board, WOAI, what else do we know?
MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WOAI NEWSRADIO: You know, it`s a -- you know, a tragic situation. You have to wonder, you know, how someone this drunk can get behind the wheel of a car. You know, thank God this was all caught on video camera. So this person can be put away.
I`d like to see laws where they take away his license forever after you hit a police car like this.
GRACE: You know, to you, Mike Brooks and Steve Wilkos from the "Steve Wilkos Show," former cops, Chicago PD. Mike Brooks, of course, longtime police officer, also with the FBI.
You know, guys, here`s the deal. By the time I would get a drunk driver as a prosecutor, it was a felony. Typically vehicular homicide or a habitual violator which means you have four to five DUIs under your belt. And yes, they would be out driving again.
Why is it so hard to put a second or third time? I get it on your first DUI. Give somebody treatment. Don`t throw them into jail. But the second time.
Why do we have to wait, Mike Brooks, until there is a vehicular homicide? Why do we have to wait until their fifth DUI?
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST; FMR. D.C. POLICE DET., FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: We shouldn`t have to wait, Nancy. I mean, that`s why a lot of states now, they have devices on cars which you need to blow into. But they should take their license away altogether. Let them take a cab. Let them spend a little bit of money. You know, that`s the way to do it if you`re going out, take a cab. But you look at things like this, Nancy. I mean these guys are lucky that they weren`t killed. And this happens all the time. A lot of people never even hear about it.
GRACE: Steve Wilkos, take a cab, forget it. I say take the pattern turner. Straight and turn the corner and walk.
WILKOS: You watch -- you watch this and you think, here`s -- they`re stopping one drunk, another one crashing into the cops and how many more drunks are driving down the road that aren`t even being stopped and crashing into somebody?
GRACE: To Wendy Walsh, psychologist joining me out of L.A. Wendy, when you`ve got one to two DUIs under your belt, why doesn`t it dawn on them, don`t drive.
WENDY WALSH, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST AND CO-HOST OF "THE DOCTORS": Well, obviously it doesn`t dawn on them because they`re addicted to a substance. I know we wish that they could just stop. But they may have to go the way that Robert Downey did. Finally have a judge parent him and put him in jail. And I think you`re right. Jail time is necessary. Rehab is necessary. These guys need a serious wake-up call. Because there could be moms on the street driving their kids and these habitual DUI people are out there, too.
GRACE: You know, Rita Cosby, it`s all well and good for all of us to sit back, you know, in our easy chairs going, they should just stop. It`s not that easy to stop drinking. I mean, how hard is it for me to turn down a Krispy Kreme doughnut? It`s hard. You know, you get tempted and you do it. And that`s just sugar, much less alcohol or drugs. It`s not easy.
COSBY: No, it isn`t. And people are habitual. As you know they are over and over again. The good news in this case, too, Nancy, as you look at the video, I mean it`s amazing. It looks like what we`ve heard. The two troopers and the guy who was originally pulled over for DUI, not the one who caused the accident, they were all treated and released. Amazing they were OK.
GRACE: Wilkos, that is one of the reasons I say that -- especially after your second DUI, you know what, the state -- I can order rehab for people out the ying-yang. Even locked down rehab. And I would always try that first when I would get a case. You have to physically stop people from drinking or drugs. They can`t do it on their own.
WILKOS: Well, you`ve got to make the consequences severe when you`re drinking and driving. And you were saying a thing about the Krispy Kreme doughnut. But when you`re drinking, and yes, it`s hard to stop drinking but you have to control that urge not to get behind the wheel of a car.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A horrific crash caught on tape. This driver allegedly traveling at high speed runs a red light, T-bones another vehicle, slams into the median divider, goes airborne and takes out the light post in mid flight. The car spins several times before landing hard in the oncoming traffic lanes.
Despite the horrible crash, the driver only suffers minor injuries. But ends up with a DWI and other charges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Wow. OK, everybody just screamed when they saw that happen. What happened here, Ellie?
JOSTAD: Nancy, this man is Christian Erala (ph). He`s 29 years old, he is driving a 2001 Toyota Echo. He is speeding down the highway when they think he ran a red light. This other car that you see pulling into the intersection T-bones him. His car flips through the air before it comes to a stop. Police say he was drunk at the time.
GRACE: Joining me right now, we finally got the satellite up with Brad Lamm, board certified interventionist and author of "How to Help the One You Love."
Brad, we were all just talking about how hard it is to get off booze and drugs. And I was saying, when I go on a diet it`s even hard for me to behave. And I`m just talking about food. Much less somebody that actually has an addiction to booze or drugs.
BRAD LAMM, CERTIFIED INTERVENTIONIST, AUTHOR OF "HOW TO HELP THE ONE YOU LOVE": Well, you know, when you`re in that, you just want more. And so even though family members stand around and they see it again and again and again, I mean, the average person who gets popped for drunk driving has done it 80 times before. Eighty times before. And I mean, that illustrates how powerless family members feel around their boozed up, their drugged up, their messed up loved one. It is hard to stop.
You know it took me a long time to figure it out, Nancy. And here`s the biggest thing that helps people is that if people will accept help, they`re much more likely to change. You know, we change best with the help of others.
GRACE: Well, Brad, that sounds great. It sounds like you`re reading poetry. Accepting help and how great it all is.
(LAUGHTER)
LAMM: No, but it`s true.
GRACE: But -- I wish you could see this video, because this is a pile-up. A big one.
LAMM: I know. I know. It`s just awful.
GRACE: Where a lot of lives are at risk. But I was saying earlier how I would get people that were on their fourth and fifth DUI and they were finally a habitual violator, which is a felony, or I would get vehicular homicides, when it is too late to do anything to help anybody because you`ve got a dead body. So what do you do? The states don`t have any money. Everybody up in Washington is spending money like water.
(CROSSTALK)
LAMM: Yes -- no. Look, I have a hardcore virtue. I actually believe the people that -- drink and drive should lose their license forever. I really do. I think it`s a -- it`s a privilege. It`s something that kills a lot of people. And -- so I`m not a softy when it comes to drinking and driving at all.
Look, and I think for some people, it will take going to jail to get better. You know. Look, Nancy, you know this, too. People can go into jail, go into prison and find exactly the same drugs and booze they found out on the streets. So you know, these videos just tell us what a big problem it is across the country. I admit, I used to drink and drive.
GRACE: OK. How did you beat it?
LAMM: I can`t believe it. I mean, I`ll tell you, I can`t believe that I was that guy but I was.
GRACE: How did you beat it, Brad?
LAMM: You know, I went to rehab. I had a group of friends that sat me down and they said hey, you`ve got to do something different. You look really sick. We think you`re going crazy. And I wasn`t going crazy, I was just drunk. I was high all the time. You know, I was a crystal meth addict and alcoholic. I just couldn`t stop. And it`s like -- you know. It`s like you invite the devil in. You know? And so, you see these videos and you`re like, oh, my god. What another knucklehead. Thankful God he didn`t hurt someone in that one or this one or the other one. But you know me, I`m -- I`m preaching to the choir. I know that you`re not a softy with any of this stuff either. But the --
GRACE: Well, the thing is this. So, Brad, and I face this every day as a felony prosecutor for 10 years. You`ve got to have discretion about who goes to jail and who doesn`t.
LAMM: Yes.
GRACE: Because frankly, the jails are full. So you`ve got to pick, what`s the most important? Because Congress and state assemblies and legislatures are not going to give you money for rehab. Money for alcohol and drug addiction treatment.
LAMM: I know. I know.
GRACE: It`s just not there. All right?
LAMM: But get this. I`m working -- I`m working in a case out west right now. And on Wednesday, we will be in court before a judge and say, look. I know you don`t want her as part of the system. I want her as part of my system. I think I`ll have a better outcome if you let me have her for 90 days and I`ll do really great intensive treatment with her for 90 days. Odds are that she`ll have a better outcome than going to jail. It`s likely that I`ll get my wish, too, because the judge doesn`t want her in the system. It`s overtaxed and overburdened. And she`s just another number on the -- on his docket.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The driver is out of control. He takes the (INAUDIBLE) Exit, but then decides to get back on the freeway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. That vehicle is going the wrong way. Getting back on to the interstate.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The state cop needs backup now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Wow. All right. Straight out to you, Ellie, what happened?
JOSTAD: Nancy, this guy is Esteban Tapia (ph). He`s 26 years old. He`s behind the wheel of his white Ford F150 pick-up truck. When he is speeding going 91 miles an hour, a trooper tries to pull him over, but he won`t stop. He ends up leading the troopers on a chase that goes through two counties. Goes from speeds, from 50 to 100 miles an hour the whole time.
And what`s more, Nancy, when this guy is finally stopped a couple of times, he takes that opportunity to -- as you see there -- urinate on the roadway and give police officers the bird. Won`t even set down his beer while he`s doing it.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joey Jackson, Holly Hughes. All right, felony pee-pee (ph) and felony finger. What about it, Hughes?
HUGHES: Well, you know, at this point, Nancy, all I can say is his mother must be really proud. They`re going to take his blood. They`re going to find out that this was a DUI. So basically what you`re going to try and do is make sure procedurally they read him (INAUDIBLE) consent. Make sure his rights were protected and preserved. But I think they got him dead to rights. This is just obnoxious behavior and no matter what you say to a jury they`re not going to excuse this.
GRACE: Well, I know that they`ve got his penis caught on video, Joey Jackson.
HUGHES: Right.
GRACE: Just what I want to see in the morning.
JACKSON: Yes, I`m sure you wouldn`t want to see it, Nancy. And I don`t think most juries want to see it.
GRACE: No, I would love to run this in front of a jury.
(LAUGHTER)
JACKSON: But I think there`s underlying issues here that need to be explained and I think how you have to approach it is he has a problem obviously if he`s doing that in front of police officers.
GRACE: Yes. He`s drunk and he`s driving.
JACKSON: And he also has --
GRACE: And now I have to look at his penis.
JACKSON: And he has prior -- apparently he`s not -- he`s done this before. And so the issue is what help can we get him such that people can be safe.
GRACE: Steve Wilkos -- yes, OK. Yes. I appreciate that, Joey Jackson.
Wilkos, I`m surprised cops just didn`t beat the stew out of him.
WILKOS: Well, this guy can`t even stand up. I can`t believe he was able to drive a vehicle for 100 miles an hour. And with this guy, how many times he`s been arrested for this over and over again? This guy needs to do some serious jail time.
GRACE: You know what`s so irritating on top of him being a DUI is disrespecting police officers out there who put their lives at risk by -- let me just say. There`s no nice way to say it. Taking a piss on camera and then shooting a bird. You know what? He needs to go to jail and dry out. And learn some manners.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We remember American hero, Army Specialist Jeremy Brown, 20, McMinnville, Tennessee. Brown Star, Purple Heart, Army Achievement Medal. Loved sports. Remembered for a big heart. A bridge in his hometown named after him. Parents Rhonda and Mack. Brother Chris.
Jeremy Brown, American hero.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALJINDER SINGH, STORE CLERK: I could break my back if the shelf comes over me in the back. I`d have been dead. I`m lucky I`m still breathing.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The wall behind Daljinder Singh completely collapses around him as he rings up customers. The incredible scene all caught on several surveillance cameras at the Kay Bee Liquor Store off Fair Oaks Boulevard in Carmichael. Some shots so clear you can make out two people sitting inside the white truck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to you, Michael Board, WOAI. What happened?
BOARD: That definition of irony on this. A drunk, alleged drunk plowing into a liquor store. Lucky here, no serious injuries on this one, Nancy.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Bridget in New York. Hi, Bridget, what`s your question can be, dear?
BRIDGET, CALLER FROM NEW YORK: Hello. First, I wanted to say that I love you and love your show.
GRACE: Thank you.
BRIDGET: But I actually have more of a comment.
GRACE: OK.
BRIDGET: I have a question asking if hopefully you could ask your viewers for prayers for our community. This past weekend we lost two high school seniors due to a driver who was driving with speed and also drunk. And also the driver has not been charged yet. And we don`t know why.
GRACE: You know what? When I hear stories like that -- out to you, Mike Brooks, Steve Wilkos, and Rita Cosby. It`s so frustrating. All we have is our system. And when it fails, we`re all just up the creek without the paddle. What about it, Rita?
COSBY: You know, it`s heartbreaking when you hear this. And like you said, you just have to rely on authorities. And in this particular case, thank goodness in the case of what we`re looking at the video, the video captured it all. And in fact authorities in this particular case, and I hope it happens in your community, too, they actually got the license plate because there was such great security cams. They were able to arrest this guy two hours later.
So, oftentimes the system works. But hopefully it works in your town, too.
GRACE: Everyone, "DR. DREW" up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night friend
END
