Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Tiger Woods claims no alcohol involved in DUI, JUST prescription drugs!

Episode Date: May 30, 2017

Tiger Woods blames prescription drugs for his drunken driving arrest. Police found the golfing great asleep at the wheel of his running car early Monday, describing him as confused but cooperative. In this episode, Nancy Grace talks with Atlanta DUI lawyer Preston Haliburton about the dangers of driving after taking medications the doctor gave you. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. The 41-year-old charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He told police he didn't know where he was. His speech, the report says, was extremely slow and slurred. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A police report says that there was no alcohol in his system at the time of his arrest. He was given a breathalyzer test and blew a.000. However, Woods did tell police he took prescription medications. This, just the latest blow for the professional golfer struggling to get his career back on track.

I'm trying everything I can to be able to get back in play. I know that the mind is sharp. I just need to get the body willing to do it. Many of us have cheered for Tiger Woods to make a comeback, to come back to the spotlight, be the focus of the sports world again. This is not exactly what we had in mind. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. The only peak we have of Tiger Woods' life now looks hellish. By now we have all seen his mugshot where he looks puffy, balding, and just plain out worn out. There are claims he was DUI. In the last hours he has released a statement saying oh no he

was not that that was a an unexpected reaction to a mix of prescription drugs well we'll find out the truth very soon long story short tiger woods golfing great has been pulled over with yet another incident allegedly involving drugs and or alcohol. Now ask yourself, when the day is done and the dust settles, what do you remember about Tiger Woods? Okay, 14 championships. He's second only to Jack Nicklaus. 79 career PGA Tour victories

second only to Sam Snead 142 consecutive cuts over 7 years second to no one I can't even count the millions and millions of dollars of endorsements he's made with Nike, Rolex, Cadillac, or will you remember this mugshot? Or will you remember the 2009 Thanksgiving

night sex scandal when somebody, I'm not pointing the finger at his then wife, beat in the window of his car after it was revealed a string of infidelities from everything to Waffle House, waitresses, to various people he had met on the PGA Tour. With me right now, of course, Alan the Duke Duke and Preston Halliburton, DUI lawyer. Let me first go to you, Preston. Thank you for being with us on your way to court. Well, Nancy, you did describe him as a great athlete, what we remember.

I remember him as a legend. I still want to remember him as a legend. I still want to remember him as a legend. But what you described to me as a human, humans make mistakes. So I don't know whether or not what type of mistake he made in this situation. It is a little bit concerning, Nancy, some of the comments he's made that he's apologizing, saying that he's never going to let this happen again. Well, yeah, I do. On one level, Preston, with me, DUI expert Preston Halliburton.

I agree on one level, and that level is the legal angle. Because when you say, I'll never let this happen again, that's tantamount to saying, okay, I did it. Hands up in the air. But with him, A, he's probably not going to go to jail on a DUI. Okay? Just that's the harsh reality of it. But

he's going to possibly lose millions and millions, I'm talking $40 million of endorsements. So to appease the public and his fans, maybe that's why he gave the statement. And I think the real question here,

Nancy, is given the type of DUI it was, allegedly it's involving lawfully prescribed medication. That's a phenomenon that's going on in this country where you have young kids taking Adderall, maybe having one drink, having an unforeseen reaction, or an elderly person, which I often see, which is lawfully prescribed medication. So the defense needs, the nexus of the defense would center around an individual who's had three back surgeries, taking a lawfully prescribed medicine, having an unforeseen or abnormal response to a lawfully prescribed medicine. It could happen to anyone. The problem, Nancy, as you know as well as I do, when you get in front of a jury, if it were to go that far,

given the overwhelming knowledge in the medical community now and the warnings that doctors give their patients before prescribing that medication, types of medication, pain medication, it would be a hard sell for a criminal offense attorney to say this was unforeseen. Oftentimes right on the label it will say, recommended not to operate heavy machinery or do not drive at all or do not mix alcohol at all. Well, here's the, let me just say the fly in the ointment. One of the officers said it smelled like alcohol in the car.

It smelled like alcohol. That's a problem. Always know that. They're going to smell alcohol, but that's not an objectively observed truth. I'm going to pause and thank our awesome sponsor, our partner in today's podcast. And I'll start with a story out of Racine, Wisconsin. A house catches on fire at nobody's home. It took a while for neighbors to even notice the problem. But at the end of the day, there were $40,000 damages. If you're not home when a fire starts, who will be there to save your house, your belongings, your home? For SimpliSafe home security user Tricia, SimpliSafe was there.

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podcast. Don't get me wrong, Alan and Preston. This is a time I think we should hope for the best for tiger woods not help drag him down on the other hand everybody saw him go through this horrible horrible lapse of judgment with repeated infidelities and this goes to prove to you two guys you know men cheat down they cheat down i was just i'm just telling you two they cheat down he had this beautiful l how do you say nordegren and was his wife just absolutely beautiful had stood by him for years and years and years had the two children with him a boy and a girl and what did he do cheated with everything that walked in front of his face he couldn't stop now of course some guys will say oh i have sex addiction you know what save it don't don't know don't even go there i don't want to hear those two words out of either

one of your mouth we're all made differently and we do all have our own sins we all have our own infirmities so yeah okay great fine yes each little snowflake is different i understand preston so each little snowflakes usually don't cheat on their wives in gigantic and to a gigantic scale and that was added into the crash he had Thanksgiving night 2009. Everybody was rooting for him then to work things out and come through because he's a success story. I mean, Alan, the Duke, Duke, one of the things I have talked about before many times is his example. You remember at the end of every golf match, his father would go out and meet him. Right.

His father who helped make him great. And then when his father passed away and he would be walking that last round, I would always imagine his dad meeting him in spirit. I mean, I wanted Tiger Woods and want Tiger Woods to do well. But this is bad. A lot of people look up to him. And it ain't the first time, people. In the end, I predict this will be a very small snapshot,

literally snapshot, mugshot in his life. I think he'll do fine hiring a prescription type of attorney that defends these type of cases. And I predict he'll do just fine. He'll come back. This is too many judges, too many. President Bush had a DUI. Dick Cheney had two of them.

So I think we're really, really having a draconian reaction. I don't know that I'd really want to be in that pot to stew along with Cheney and Bush, but okay, go ahead. Here's the thing. It's like, fool me once once shame on you fool me twice shame on me we've already been through this with him okay i'm sorry i can't get the image of him in that way just in the back of the waffle house parking lot out of my head but um alan how much money is he set to lose i know nike won't dump him. I mean, because everybody represents Nike, no matter how many convictions,

no matter, you know, it doesn't matter to Nike. But other advertisers may care, like Cadillac or Rolex. Well, with Nike, it's just do it. So they're okay with all of that, I guess. But, yeah, it could be tens of millions of dollars. I mean, don't let any thug, you know, represent Nike. What, dear? It could be tens of millions of dollars. I mean, don't let any thug represent Nike. What, dear? It could be tens of millions of dollars.

But actually, in November of 2009, when he crashed that Cadillac near his home in Florida, and he was attacked, I guess his car was attacked by his angry soon-to-be ex-wife. By an unknown person. He claimed then that he was under the effects of ambien we really need to dig into that i don't think that ambien can account for everything yes he did i don't think everything can be blamed on ambien but damn ambien you know i will tell you this though guys hold on i i do have this to add in. And, I mean, again, this is his second go-around with me, so I'm not as inclined to believe that.

And we're going to get the blood test. I assume he had to undergo a blood test. The booking records indicate he did take a blood test. I had a very dear friend, Preston, very dear, a woman that prosecuted with me for years. Her specialty, which I would have shot my foot if I had to do it, was child support recovery, which basically you go after deadbeat dads. And I applaud that, but I wanted to be in court and get violent felons behind bars.

She was awesome, had a boy and a girl, and she was having dental surgery and she took something the dentist had prescribed for her, unknowing that she was taking I don't know, sleeping pills

or Ambien or something like that. And the mix of the two, she went to sleep that night. She never woke up. It can happen, yes. It can happen, and it did happen to her. And to this day, I think about her all the time.

Her children have grown up without a mom. It can happen. So I know it can happen, but I'm not ruling this out here. I'm not ruling out booze because, A, the cops smelled it. B, they said Tiger Woods was arrogant and was basically an a-hole. And, C, he's got a track record. So when you don't know a horse, look at his track record, people. Am I crazy or what?

No, it's a natural inclination but obviously you know it's still not illegal for him to have a lawfully prescribed medicine and have an adult beverage it doesn't make him a less safe driver is the issue and that's an officer's decision you're relying on someone with very little intro level training at a police academy nancy oh please don't even I mean he's on the dash cam and that's going to you know we'll see that I can't believe you're coming down on the cop Preston cop might be very well trained I don't know enough but you did mention blood now that'll be the the truth serum now was it a voluntary test was there a search warrant now if he voluntarily wanted his blood to prove his innocence that was big volumes and then we would have to bring in a pharmacologist and a toxicologist to refute the exact levels of

that medication. Can we talk just for a second about his current sponsors? I know he's got a $20 million a year deal with Nike Golf. And they signed him up back in 1996. And he has become synonymous with Nike golf for now 21 years. Now, on a last day charge, he was wearing a red sweatshirt with Nike on it. You know, that's what he would always wear, red at the end. There's Bridgestone Golf. That's $2 million a year year who else does he represent alan rolex yeah you're right rolex he's with upper deck which is a sports card collectible firm hero motor group eight million dollars a year that's an Indian motorbike maker wow I didn't even know what that

was Hero Motor Group Kowa that's a Japanese pharmaceutical firm that may not look too good right now to be repping a pharmaceutical firm and TaylorMadeGolf that uses he uses their golf clubs and he signed with them in 2017 I don't know how he can use their golf clubs, and he signed with them in 2017. I don't know how he can use their golf clubs when he represents Nike Golf, but I guess that's not Nike Golf wear. What about the girlfriend? What about that, Alan? She finds out while she's out shopping, she breaks down in tears, blurts out,

I knew it, I knew it. I don't know what it was that she knew. But then she spent $5,000 after she finds out and then leaves. I'm wondering why at 10 o'clock in the morning on Memorial Day she's out shopping. Alan, you know how much I hate to shop. I'd rather be beat with a stick than get in a mall. It'd be smart for all these people that endorse him to stick with him. Tiger Woods is a winner. He's come back before. He's under some great new treatment for his low back. And he said this is the best he's felt in years on the L4, L5 reconstruction. I think he's going to come back. He's a winner. He's a life winner. He'll come back. I hope you're right. I think while the

internet's gone crazy making fun of him, I think for the most part, people are rooting for him. I mean, I am. Everybody I know knows someone that has had or has an alcohol or drug problem. Everybody has somebody in their family, a relative, a neighbor, a friend with an alcohol or drug problem and i just hope because he is representative yeah he's an icon people look up to him that he can come through instead of mocking him and making fun of him right now i think we should wish him the best and hope that he comes through it's not as if and alan i know this is going to shock you, but even when I prosecuted for a decade in inner city Atlanta, if somebody had a drug or alcohol

problem, I would do my best to get them in treatment. When it got to be habitual violator status, when you have three, four, five, and you're driving and endangering other people, you've got to go to jail. But when you have a problem, you need help. Sadly, most people cannot afford it, and the state doesn't have the money to provide it because we're spending money on everything else but criminal justice. So I just hope he can make a comeback because he is a hero to so many people, right? Yes, he is. Okay, let's hear it, Alan Duke. You've been strangely silent.

I agree with you, and you look at the statement that he made as far as this goes, perhaps a public relations person crafted this for him, not a lawyer necessarily, but he does seem to be, as we say, coming clean with this, admitting that he made a mistake and that he is going to do better. My question is, will he ever win on the golf course again? That has nothing to do with this, everything to do with his determination and I guess his surgeon. 3 a.m. Okay, I told you, Alan, nothing good happens after midnight. That is so true. 3 a.m. Okay, I told you, Alan, nothing good happens after midnight.

That is so true. 3 a.m., he's out driving around. Can I just ask you, this guy is worth $740 million. Okay. How much is that house worth? I'm just curious. That's all I want to know. How much is it?

Is it like $85 million? It's down near Mar-a-Lago. It's the home of the really, really wealthy people. He made $45.5 million last year for not playing golf, just for those endorsements we were talking about. So financially, I think he's just so far in another stratosphere. His home has nothing to do with this one way or the other, but it was reportedly phenomenal.

A $60 million home with a running track, a four-hole golf course, two pools. Wow. His marriage to Ellen Nordegren occurred, I think, right after he had this home built. It's a hugely expensive home, like his hugely expensive divorce that cost him over $100 million. And now this.

The home overlooks the Atlantic Ocean with huge windows and sea views. It's beautiful. And now his children and wife are no longer there. Heaped on it, a DUI arrest for Tiger Woods, the golf great. Let's see what happens. And again, if you're not there when a fire starts, who will be there to save your home? With Simply Safe Home Security, your smoke detectors immediately alert emergency services at the first sign of a fire. Get 10% off your system today at SimpliSafe.com slash Nancy. That's SimpliSafe.com slash Nancy. With us today, Preston Halliburton and of course,

the Duke, Alan Duke Duke Nancy Grace, Crime Stories signing off. Goodbye friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.