Posted on 10/04/2003 1:42:29 AM PDT by Walkin Man
Saturday, October 4
Limbaugh won't be prosecuted, attorneys wager
By John Pacenti, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 4, 2003
WEST PALM BEACH -- Rush Limbaugh's alleged addiction to painkillers may be documented in e-mails.
His reported drug deals may have been taped by his former housekeeper.
And the talkative maid and her handyman husband could even be willing to testify against the conservative talk-show host. They sure were willing to spill everything to a supermarket tabloid.
But the chance of criminal charges ever being filed against Limbaugh is next to nil, say criminal defense attorneys who have handled numerous drug cases.
And some local lawyers say they are hearing from sources within State Attorney Barry Krischer's office that Limbaugh -- who lives in a $24 million mansion on Palm Beach -- will indeed not be charged.
Sources also said Limbaugh won't even be questioned by law enforcement officials, unless the commentator chooses to cooperate on his own.
Roy Black is the Miami powerhouse attorney Limbaugh has reportedly hired to represent him. But Black, who has represented such celebrities as Marv Albert and William Kennedy Smith, won't return calls to confirm he has been retained. And Limbaugh said on his radio show Friday he wasn't at liberty to address the allegations.
James Martz, the prosecutor who heads up a task force on money-laundering, said he is more interested in finding the heads of such distribution cells as opposed to prosecuting low-level drug users -- whether they are celebrities or not.
Plus, to prosecute drug abusers, authorities need to catch them in possession of the illegal substance, he said. "Shy of that, we have very little leverage in the state system," Martz said.
What it all comes down to, attorneys say, is that the court of public opinion is a far cry from the court of law.
"I think that the state better have a heck of a lot more than what I'm seeing, hearing and reading right now," attorney Michael Salnick said. "First of all you have a major credibility issue with these witnesses. The credibility issue starts with the fact they sold their story to The National Enquirer."
The former maid, Wilma Cline, and her husband, David Cline, told The Enquirer for its latest edition that Limbaugh bulldogged them into supplying him with thousands of painkillers between 1998 and 2002. They said Limbaugh took hydrocodone, Lorcet and OxyContin.
The story came out on the heels of Limbaugh resigning from his job as an ESPN sports analyst after he said Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted a black quarterback to succeed.
Maid said she taped transactions
It is unknown if the timing was coincidental, but The Enquirer's story is full of juicy details. According to the piece, it all started when Limbaugh asked for some extra pain pills from David Cline's legitimate prescription for a back injury.
Soon, Limbaugh demanded that they continue to supply him with pills when the prescription ran out. That's when Wilma Cline started keeping a log of her deliveries and preserved desperate e-mails from Limbaugh in which he referred to pills as "small blue babies."
Wilma Cline said she would meet Limbaugh in parking lots, passing a cigar box filled with pills through his Mercedes' window.
During her two last drug deliveries, Wilma Cline told The Enquirer, she secretly audiotaped the transactions.
Late last year, the Clines went to prosectors, who gave them immunity. Sources say the couple helped prosecutors in their investigation into tracking some 450,000 pills of hydrocodone back to the source.
Authorities believe some of Limbaugh's supply was dispensed from a small suburban Lake Worth pharmacy, World Health Association. The couple that ran the operation, Gloria and Louis Beshara, were arrested in May, seven months after the Clines came forward. The Besharas currently face trafficking charges.
Also, what could undermine the Clines' credibility is that David Cline has a criminal history.
He was arrested in 1982 in Collier County for cocaine trafficking, serving five years in prison. In 2000, he was arrested on charges of identity theft -- using the name George Earl Taylor -- of possessing a fake driver license and fake vehicle registration, as well as possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. He served 18 months probation.
It is unknown if the couple received full immunity from prosecutors for information they gave about how they provided pills for Limbaugh.
If Wilma Cline did tape Limbaugh without his knowledge, that is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, attorneys say.
Plus, Martz said such tapings can't even be heard by prosecutors. As for e-mail evidence, Martz said any such evidence is problematic because there is trouble verifying who sent the e-mail.
So where does this leave Limbaugh's criminal liability?
"I think it's legal suicide to go after a guy like Limbaugh with evidence as flimsy as this," Salnick said.
Two former prosecutors, now in private practice, agree.
Robert Gershman said most of the time, users are prosecuted only for possession. He said the Clines probably wouldn't have even gotten in the door of the state attorney's office if they weren't outing a celebrity.
Marc Shiner said the celebrity issue taints the case. "Why would drug dealers turn in their client unless they are trying to save their own neck -- or trying to make a couple hundred thousand dollars peddling their story to the tabloids?" he asked.
"If I was Roy Black, I'd be sitting on the beach right now sipping a pina colada or watching a Marlins game and not worrying too much about Rush Limbaugh's criminal liability right now."
Why would someone, as you say is 'worth millions' stoop to riding into mall parking lots to obtain medications to alleviate his aches and pains from a felons. I believe this couple had a plan in mind from the get go. Only Rush will clear up this matter when he himself will get all the facts.....Looks like the opposition has declared 'war' on the conservatives. ..God Bless you Rush and keep up the good work.
Gee...you are going to believe the National Enquirer who paid people who have produced no evidence except in their own imagination?
Listen, the story makes no sense. Limbaugh has a gazillion dollars. He could buy and sell doctors to write him legal prescriptions if that were his desire. He has absolutley no need to meet a criminal and her boyfriend to get prescription drugs in a parking lot when he could easily obtain them from a doctor who is on his payroll. Barring that, there are a milliion ways he could get them without enlisting the aid of people whom he knows could go to the LEFTIST press at any time.
I have to agree with you on that one: when simpson was accused he cried "not guilty" non-stop. same with the Ramseys. same with scott Peterson.
If you KNOW you're not guilty you have no reason NOT to say it to any and all that will listen. RL, meanwhile, carefully hedged his answers on his show the other day and it makes One wonder
If someone IS innocent they have nothing to hide and will proclaim their innocence. If someone has something to hide and falsely proclaims innocence, and is THEN found-out (i.e. Robt. Blake) it swings an awful lot against them for "lying in the court of public opinion"...
IMO, his words on his show say he's hiding something.
He should sue them for a billion dollars or give them the choice of plastering the front page of their newspapers with an article approved by Rush exonerating him.
But I'm hoping that now we have a new enlistee against the War On Some Drugs.
Not sure if he was taking them. Perhaps storing them...
What I want to know is...Where did "walking man" go? Plenty of questions to him posed on thie thread he has not answered.
Of course, he is being victimized by drug sellers now to save their own skin.
Drug sellers who managed to retain a very elite lawyer high up in the liberal establishment.
Re: the name... No relation to Indiana. It's a handle named for a photographer who used it as his nickname (his real name was Arthur Felig).
But when people speak of tort reform they discuss limits on lawsuit abuse in suing companies/individuals (caping settlements, attempts to end frivolous lawsuits with things like "loser pays", etc.); reigning in prosecuting trial lawyers. This is a defense lawyer.
My thoughts exactly. The Dems are desperate and this is just the type of behavior that is to be expected of them, especially close to election time. I would not be at all surprised if this whole mess is eventually traced back to them. I hope Rush nails their @sses to the wall.
Keep the faith, Rush. I'm prayin' for ya.
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