Posted on 10/01/2003 10:41:34 PM PDT by lainie
Talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of addictive painkillers from a black-market drug ring.
The moralizing motormouth was turned in by his former housekeeper - who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.
Wilma Cline, 42, says Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone - and went through detox twice.
"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer, which broke the story in an edition being published today. "All these pills are enough to kill an elephant - never mind a man."
Cline could not be reached for further comment yesterday, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."
The Daily News independently confirmed that Limbaugh is under investigation.
His lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations and said any "medical information" about him was private and not newsworthy.
They said Limbaugh - who has a top-rated syndicated radio show but resigned early today from a weekly ESPN football segment amid criticism of racial comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb - was traveling and had no comment.
The Palm Beach County state attorney's office, which is running the probe, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.
Scoring in parking lot
Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.
She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries to the conservative commentator and gave the tapes to authorities.
She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him - 4,350 in one 47-day period - and E-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.
In one missive, Limbaugh pushed Cline to get more "little blues" - code for OxyContin, the powerful narcotic nicknamed hillbilly heroin, she said.
"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more it takes," the May 2002 E-mail reads. "But I will try and cut down to help out."
The account Cline gave the Enquirer is that she became Limbaugh's drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach mansion.
It started after her husband, David, hurt himself in a fall, and Limbaugh asked how he was.
"He asked me casually, 'Is he getting any pain medication?' I said, 'Yes - he's had surgery, and the doctor gave him hydro-codone 750,'" Cline said. "To my astonishment, he said, 'Can you spare a couple of them?'"
Husband's pills
Cline said she gave Limbaugh 10 pills the next day and agreed to give him 30 of her husband's pills each month. When the doctor stopped renewing the prescription in early 1999, Limbaugh allegedly went ballistic.
"His tone was nasty and bullying. He said, 'I don't care how or what you do, but you'd better - better! - get me some more,'" Cline said.
The housekeeper said she found a new supplier and arranged to hide Limbaugh's stashes under his mattress so his wife, Marta, wouldn't find them.
After several months, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox and didn't need any more pills, Cline said.
But a month later, he said his left ear was hurting and asked her for hydrocodone, followed by an order for OxyContin.
Limbaugh, 52, suffered from autoimmune ear disease, a condition that left him deaf and had to be corrected with cochlear implant surgery two years ago.
Cline said she continued to make deliveries to Limbaugh even after she quit as his housekeeper in July 2001 - but he became increasingly paranoid, even patting her down for recording devices, she said.
In June 2002, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox a second time.
After he returned, "I went to talk to him, and he cried a little bit," she said. "He told me that if it ever got out, he would be ruined."
She claimed that a lawyer for Limbaugh gave her a payoff - $80,000 he owed her, plus another $120,000 - and asked her to destroy the computer that contained the E-mail records.
Soon after, Cline and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.
That's how they set you up and knock you down in Disneyland.
"You woke me for this? Use your head. 4,000 and some odd pills in a 47 day period, and you would be reading his obit, not some salacious news article."
Thank you, onyx! Great post.
now, Tylenol can be harmful to one's liver, but again, perhaps they checked his liver enzymes, and perhaps they did not....
you have to understand what pressure doctors , nurses and hospitals are under these days to RELIEVE ALL PAIN AND DOCUMENT IT......we have to record what the pt. says about his pain, and show what we did for it, and then how it helped or not....
no doctor is ever going to refuse his pt. pain meds. at all, even when the doctor knows he is dealing with an addict, because the legal ramifications of leaving your pt. in pain is looked at in a worse light than over prescribing, even to addicts....imo....
At times, she can't remember what she said 5 minutes earlier .... and that doesn't count the fact that such severe pain in itself becomes debilitating and often causes depression.
I don't often get to hear Rush much these days but have tuned in enough to believe very firmly that he would not be a sharp and as quick-witted as he is if he were either in that much pain or that addicted to such meds.
They always have lawsuits in the back of their heads. On something like this they will be certain they didn't print anything they hadn't verified from 2 sources.
That said, this still stinks of a political hit job. I can almost hear Michael Corleone before the baptism saying "today I settle all family business". Rush and Arnold impacting together, with the Bush/Wilson story still at full steam. Bill and Hillary, you just had to sign your message, didn't you?
Rove, you better grow a pair and answer them for this! Screew this Compasionate Conservatism bullshit. Do you want to give away everything next year?
As for Rush, I still respect him. It sounds like he needs help, but then again so did my dad once upon a time. I still love my dad and he's been sober for nearly 20 years. This isn't going to change the way I view Rush. I hope he gets well before something worse happens. Perhaps by having the story impact like this he will finally be forced to change. AA works Rush, check it out.
Not necessarily, it depends on how much and how long he was taking them. Eventually it catches up with you though.
The part in the story about the e-mails makes me wonder. If the story is true, how could Rush be so stupid to leave an evidence trail through e-mail? This could be an indication that his thinking was affected.
I like the sound of that, Timesink. That would be hugh! :)
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