Posted on 02/02/2010 10:33:11 AM PST by Graybeard58
LITCHFIELD -- A disheveled Elmore "Rip" Torn said nothing Monday when a judge held his bond at $100,000 on charges that he broke into a Salisbury bank Friday night, claiming it was his house.
Both Torn, who had a blood-alcohol level of .20, and the revolver he was carrying were loaded at the time, according to police reports.
Torn, an award-winning television and film actor, struggles from substance abuse and mental health issues, court officials and his attorney told Judge John Pickard in Bantam Superior Court. Torn was last seen in this courthouse last May, when he was granted an alcohol education program as an alternative to prison for a drunken-driving arrest in Salisbury in December 2008.
The courtroom, filled with more than a dozen reporters from Connecticut and the New York metropolitan area, fell silent as the aging actor stood silently in handcuffs and leg irons. He wore black pants, cowboy boots and a blue fleece jacket bearing a button for the Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.
"A fair reading of the police report indicates he believes he was in his own home," his attorney, A. Thomas Waterfall, said. "He wasn't intending to commit a crime. There was no violence. No weapon was ever brandished."
As a condition of his release, Torn was ordered to undergo alcohol evaluation. He told his bail bondsman, Michael Connole, that he intends to enter an alcohol treatment facility in New York City.
"He is going to address the alcohol issues first, and the legal issues as we go," Waterfall said. "The alcohol is our primary issue."
Torn's son Anthony, who lives in New York and Salisbury, posted his bond by paying between $7,000 and $10,000. The case was continued until Feb. 17 and transferred to Litchfield Superior Court, where the district's most serious cases are heard.
Torn's recent troubles began at about 9:40 p.m. Friday, when a burglar alarm triggered at the Litchfield Bancorp at 326 Main St., Salisbury.
Police found a highly intoxicated Torn, who lives nearby at 25 Farnum Road, walking aimlessly inside the bank. His brown boots and a wool hat had been left beside the shattered glass of a broken window. State troopers ordered him to the ground. It was obvious he was drunk, police reports say.
"The subject looked unsteady on his feet," police noted. "The subject had the zipper to his pants undone, was wearing multiple coats, dark blue pants and suspenders. ... He seemed disoriented."
Torn's only response to repeated orders for him to get to the ground was mumbling. Finally, troopers wrestled him the ground and handcuffed him.
Torn, who will turn 79 Saturday, had a revolver with nine rounds of ammunition in his pocket.
Actor Elmore "Rip" Torn, right, with his attorney, A. Thomas Waterfall, appears in Bantam Superior Court on Monday for his arraignment following his arrest Friday night inside a Salisbury bank. State police said Torn was drunk and was carrying a loaded revolver at the time of his arrest. He posted $100,000 bond after his arraignment Monday, and is expected to enter an alcohol rehabilitation program as early as today. Jim Shannon/RA
Sheesh. Everybody's a comedian, now.
Rip Torn tries to seize a bank and goes to jail. Obama takes de facto control of banks and...
Guess that program worked!
"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."
OK - crazy, drunk, armed and breaking into the bank. This guy should be writing country songs, man!
He’s still a great actor. Loved him as the lawyer in the Albert Brooks movie Defending Your Life.
One of my all time favorites.
Well, there goes his chance to star in another MIB movie.
Loved Rip as Artie, Larry’s producer on The Larry Sanders Show. Hope he gets his stuff together - even at 78, it’s not too late.
Wow. I'm getting misty, thinking of torn posts bond. Maybe I should post more torn posts.
I guess the alcohol helps the healing.
I liked him a lot in Extreme Prejudice.
Dr. Drew to the rescue???
Unless the MIB if for Men In Banks.
I wish him the best, and hope to see him acting again.
He will have his own reality show within a few months. Some names being thrown out are, R.I.P Torn, Rehab With Rip, and Rip’s Raw Nerve.
“In 1957, Rip plays an arrogant young thief on Alfred Hitchcock Presents — the episode is entitled, “Number Twenty-Two”.”
One of the few classic films in it's own right was
Payday
Made in 1975, he was Maury Dann, a traveling horn dog of a country and western singer. The country boy nonsense gets him out of many a scrape- until the very last. Trying to sell a highway trooper tickets to his next concert.
Quoth the trooper "I am arresting you for murder".
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