Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Tv star Heather Locklear arrested; where is missing doctor?
Episode Date: March 1, 2018The disappearance of a disease researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has spurred many theories. Dr. Timothy Cunningham left his keys, car and wallet behind in his Atlanta home. Nancy Grac...e explores the case with medical examiner Dr. William Morrone, forensics expert George Schiro, and WSB Radio reporter Robyn Walensky. Grace also looks at the latest troubles for actress Heather Locklear. who faces a felony domestic violence charge in the wake of a fight with her boyfriend. Los Angeles defense lawyer Troy Slaten, New York psychologist Caryn Stark, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan, and RadarOnline.com reporter Alexis Tereszcuk join the discussion. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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This is an iHeart Podcast.
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132.
Atlanta police say it doesn't make sense why this scientist with a six-figure job at the CDC
would just vanish. Timothy Cunningham is a Harvard-educated
epidemic intelligence officer.
Colleagues at the CDC say he went home sick on February 12
and was never seen again.
His car keys, wallet, credit card phone, and even his dog
were found locked inside his house.
There is a lot that I cannot simply explain.
This is an extremely unusual set of circumstances.
It is not common in missing person cases
for us to find someone's entire belonging.
Police have searched the home, jail, hospitals,
even a nearby cemetery.
This week, they helped to research a wooded area
near this scientist's neighborhood.
Are you awake?
Are you awake?
Mom, are you awake? Are you awake? Mom, are you awake?
Seemingly, the very last text message sent by a CDC doctor to his mother, and then he vanishes into thin air. But what happened?
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
being with us. The search is on as heartbroken parents to this missing CDC star want answers.
Tim Cunningham asked his mom early, early in the morning, Mom, are you awake? That's the kind of
thing that you send to your parents or to your loved one
or the closest person to you when you have something you want to talk to them about.
Hey, are you awake?
And if you are, then I want to talk to you about something.
That's commonly how that is perceived.
Well, that urgent text, Mom, are you awake? It's the last time anyone has seen, heard from, know of Tim Cunningham,
a bright star at the Center for Disease Control at a time when the CDC is on the forefront of so many volatile issues.
With me right now, Dr. William Maroney, renowned medical examiner and author of a brand new book on Amazon,
American Narcan, George Shiro, forensics expert, and Robin Walensky, investigative reporter with WSB.
On the scene, Robin, let's start at the beginning.
What do we know?
Here's the thing, Nancy. Timothy Cunningham is 35 years old, and he was an epidemiologist at the CDC in Chambly, Georgia.
And by all accounts, he's a really good guy.
Break it down.
Break it down, Robin Walensky.
I know the way epidemiologist just trips off your tongue, but not everybody knows what that is.
Yes. trips off your tongue, but not everybody knows what that is. Yes, well, he was involved in,
you know, the study, the analysis of diseases in certain populations, how diseases affect
whites versus how diseases affect black people. And he was very involved in this. And he was up
for a promotion at his job. By all accounts, he lived in his own house by himself.
He had an SUV.
He has a beautiful, adorable dog by the name of Bo, Bo Jangles.
And friends tell me, who I've spoken to that were very close to him,
that he was an all-around good guy with a big, wide smile on his face,
very handsome man, 5'11", 230 pounds.
I'm looking at him right now, Robin Walensky,
and somebody's parents pumped a lot of money into that mouth of his
because he has got the most beautiful, the widest, it looks like a picket fence,
smile, I know, I just got the twins' braces off,
and let me tell you, I had to do a coupon book for that.
You know how our parents used to pay the mortgage with a coupon book?
Yeah, that's not the kind of thing you just chunk down one check for.
I'm looking at this guy, Tim Cunningham,
and he's everything Robin Walensky is describing.
He's in his SUV in this shot.
It looks like it could be a selfie, maybe.
And he's got a big smile, happy, beautiful brown eyes, a loving family. And now
I'm looking at all of the missing flyers that have been attached to trees and telephone poles,
all in my old neighborhood. I lived right by the CDC for a period of time. Robin Walensky, when I was
prosecuting in inner city Atlanta, then it was too far away from the courthouse and I would have to
be at the courthouse at the drop of the hat. So I moved even closer, but this is near the CDC, and I'm looking at everything we know.
Are you awake?
That text is confounding to me at 521 a.m.
He is a noted epidemiologist, noted.
And if you don't know about the CDC, Center for Disease Control, it's been at the forefront of the flu, Zika, STDs, all types of life-threatening ailments.
And this guy is one of their shining stars.
What else do we know, Robin Walensky?
Well, we know that he was up for a promotion, and this was taking place right before Valentine's Day.
I was with the police major, Michael O'Connor, with Atlanta PD the other day.
He sort of had an open Q&A, question and answer, with the media because there's been so much press about this gentleman, Timothy Cunningham, who's missing. And I asked, was he in a relationship? They do not believe he
was involved in any sort of love triangle or anything like that. Two days, the Thursday and
Friday before he was to have this meeting, he calls out sick Thursday, calls out sick Friday. The weekend goes by.
He texts his mother the timeline, 5 o'clock in the morning, are you awake?
He goes into the office in the 7 a.m. hour.
He calls his sister.
He meets with his superiors at the CDC, finds out he's not getting this promotion.
Coworkers say that he was upset, as you would be if you're not getting the promotion.
And then in the 9 o'clock hour, early in the 9 a.m. hour, there is a 20-second call, the police major told me,
to the mother, to his mom again, that does not go through to her phone.
You know how sometimes you dial on the cell phone, you dial out, but the other person doesn't receive the call?
There's a 20-second call to his mother's cell phone that she never receives. And from that point,
he's gone. Guys, what has become of this Harvard grad? This guy worked on the Ebola and Zika teams, putting his own life at risk to help other people.
Perfectly stable, young, good looking, great job. The last person we know he reached out to
is his mother. Right now, his parents begging for his return.
Very close with his family.
And this is what is very intriguing.
To Dr. William Maroney, medical examiner and author of a brand new book,
you can find it on Amazon, like me, American Narcan.
You know, Dr. Maroney, when we are looking at cause of death,
often medical examiners take into account not only what they see on the body but the surrounding circumstances that they can confirm.
I can tell you this much, Dr. Maroney.
His family reports him missing.
Tim Cunningham, valuables that he cared about are left behind. His SUV, his wallet, his phone, and his puppy, Bo.
These are situational, environmental facts that don't make sense.
They don't add up.
He was taken away in haste.
And I mean taken away because you don't leave these things and go.
There's something wrong here. a conspiracy related issue or a professional opportunity that he discovered something that
he can't go public with and he had to leave things because he didn't want to be traced.
Those are the two things that are most likely, either that he was taken away in haste, sometimes security forces, national security agencies, or he needed to drop off the grid below the radar.
When you drop off the grid, don't you leave a trail whether you want to or not?
With me, Dr. William Maroney, medical examiner and author of American Narcan. Robin Walensky, reporter, WSB.
Also with me, George Esquiro, forensics expert.
I mean, George, I'm looking.
I'm looking at his home, which is gorgeous.
It's a two-story yellow boarded home with green shutters.
The yard is immaculate.
The home looks like it's just been
painted and re-roofed. It's a sidewalk in front of it. It's like, you know, a dream, an American
dream home. Okay, so like a family home. There's his SUV, his burgundy colored SUV parked in his
garage, which I might also add is completely immaculate.
There's his dog, Bo.
I mean, everything is in order.
His family, his mom and dad, have driven down from Maryland.
They're in his house right now.
Everything's there.
But, Timmy, to George Skiro, forensics expert, what kind of trail could he possibly have left behind?
Well, the investigation ground zero is going to be his house.
And at his house, they're going to be looking at what type of perhaps electronic footprint he's left through computers, social media.
His phone evidently was left behind.
And that's where the investigation is going to
start. And that's where they're going to branch out from there and check the surrounding area,
because obviously we know he left his vehicle behind, he left his keys behind. He couldn't
have gone too far unless he had some assistance or was with someone. So I'm assuming that they're
examining all of the video, any videos in the area,
checking any wooded areas, any parks, any bodies of water, things like that,
to see if they can locate this very important doctor. Police are holding onto Tim Cunningham's
phone. Guys, this is not the kind of guy that just drops off the map. He graduated from a distinguished college, Morehouse and Harvard University.
That's no cakewalk.
First of all, you can hardly get in, number one.
And then once you do get in, it's a very difficult course of study.
This guy is, as I said, an alumni of Morehouse and Harvard,
but also works as a commander for the U.S. Public Health Service.
Right now, we know that he has been working on highly sensitive cases.
He had worked on Zika.
He had worked on Ebola, putting his life before others.
What is he working on right now? I find it very, very perplexing that
he left behind his cell phone. Let's go right now to a police press conference.
So Dr. Cunningham is an epidemiologist in the chronic disease unit at the CDC. He last reported to work on Monday, February 12th.
While on his way to work at approximately 0715,
he calls his sister and speaks to her briefly.
He arrives at work, and when he arrives at work, he meets with his supervisor,
and the purpose of that meeting was to explain a promotion
that he did not receive to branch manager.
He had been informed the previous Monday that he was not getting the promotion,
but the explanation occurred on the morning of the 12th.
Shortly after the meeting explaining that, he tells the supervisor that he's not feeling particularly well.
He had actually called in sick the two previous work days and decides to go home. While going home, the last known phone call that he makes occurs at 0, 9, 12 hours,
and he calls his mother while traveling home from the CDC, we believe.
The call is missed.
She does not receive a call, and he does not leave a voicemail.
We presume, and I'll explain why we presume, that he drives home from the CDC and his car is parked in the garage at his residence.
That's the last time anybody sees or hears from him is basically at that point.
His family tries over a period of time to call him.
They don't receive any answer.
They then call a relative of the mother's who has a key to the home who
goes by to check on the house. He comes over he finds the house has been secured
but there are two upstairs bedroom or windows that are open one to a bathroom
and one to a laundry room but they were on the upper level and it
appeared as if everything else was in order and the windows may have been
left open because he had a dog that was inside of the residence. The relative reports that to the parents. They obviously become somewhat concerned
because now they haven't heard from him and they decide to make the drive at some point Tuesday
afternoon or evening down from Maryland. They arrive approximately at 0730 hours in the morning
of the 14th, which is the Wednesday, and by 0930 they have
dialed 911 to report Dr. Cunningham missing. The most unusual factor in this
case is that every single belonging that we are aware of was located in the
residence. So his keys, his cell phone, credit cards, debit cards, wallet, all his
identification, passports, anything you could think of, we've been
able to locate. None of those items are missing. So what have we done from that point forward?
Well, obviously, we created immediate Bolo, and we released that information to you that he was a
missing person. We've processed his home. We've canvassed the neighborhood. We've searched the
immediate wooded area around his house with a dog. We've checked local hospitals and jails. We searched the cemetery Crest Lawn, which is nearby his home. We've gotten with the CDC and we've gone through and made sure that his government credit cards aren't being used. We've looked at the browser history on his desktop computer at work to make sure there's nothing suspicious on it. We've checked his swipe card activity.
We know the last time he clocked in or out at the CDC.
We've gone through his government phone records to ensure that that phone's not in use.
And we've been provided some access to his email, so
we know that nothing suspicious went back and forth on it.
We asked specifically whether the CDC felt that anything related to his job
would have contributed to this, and they did not believe so.
They did note that he
had been up for this promotion which he did not receive and obviously I think any of us would
agree that if you didn't receive a promotion you thought you might get you're somewhat disappointed
but beyond that we don't have any information that his employment would lead to his being missing.
Before I take you back to the investigation into the disappearance of a doctor at the CDC involved in very sensitive research,
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Police say he lost out on a promotion and learned why the morning he disappeared.
On his way home, they say he calls his mother in Maryland, but the call goes to voicemail.
His family is offering a $10,000 reward.
This is not normal. This is definitely out of the ordinary.
It's not the type of news you want to hear that your child is missing. Straight back to the disappearance of Timothy Cunningham, his parents distraught.
They have driven from Maryland through the night to get to his home, and everything's there.
His dog, everything is perfectly in place in the home.
His wallet, his SUV is parked in the garage.
His cell phone is there.
Everything is in place, but he is gone.
George Skira, a forensics expert, what's the first thing police are doing in that home?
The first thing that they're doing is they're checking any of his
electronic footprint, his computer, checking his cell phone, probably downloading all the data from
that. And then hopefully they're fanning out from there and checking any video that may be of the
street area, public transit videos, and any things along the lines of bus stations and things like that.
That's how I assume they're proceeding with the investigation.
And to Dr. William Maroney, medical examiner, author of American Narcan on Amazon,
Dr. Maroney, they say that they have done an extensive search in the densely wooded area around and behind his home.
What could they possibly find there?
What they'd be looking for is a secondary crime scene. The primary crime scene is where he
disappeared. A secondary crime scene would be a sign of struggle, a sign of blood or
damaged foliage to show there may have been vehicles near the house that took
non-traditional access he left he left somewhere and his vehicles in his house so somebody either
took him out the front door or out the back door and that's what they need to look for. And then you connect signs of a struggle, blood, clothing and footprints.
Now, Tim Cunningham was last seen in his uniform. He's highly decorated. I'm looking at him right now in his uniform.
And police are saying he may have changed into civilian clothing, but it seems
to me that's an obvious thing they should look for George Skiro. If his uniform isn't
there, then he's in his uniform. If he's not in his uniform, he's in civilian clothing.
And I want to know why he was last seen in his uniform. That could tell me a lot. If
he went to his home after work, what was he planning to do?
Why?
Why would he change out of his uniform?
And by uniform, I don't mean like a work uniform like you wear at McDonald's.
I mean his military uniform.
Why did he change?
What was the reason?
That could give me a lot of clues, George Schiro.
That's correct. If he did change into
civilian clothes, it may mean that he wants to drop off the grid, that he is trying to disappear,
or it may mean that he just wanted to be essentially not being able to be recognized
as easily out on the street. Or something else.
Let me go to Robin Walensky with WSB.
There's a $10,000 reward.
The tip line is 404-456-4235.
Repeat, 404-456-4235.
Robin Walensky with WSB he worked on highly sensitive matters did he not
he did but it was very interesting that at the news conference they said that the uh the CDC
and his work there was not related to his disappearance how they can rule that out I
don't know but I have to tell you Nancy the thing that's missing for me in all this
is where is this and I asked this at the news conference where is the surveillance
video at cdc the entire compound is on camera is he getting into his car alone or is there someone
else with him i'm told there's no cameras no surveillance at his house but there is definitely
surveillance if he left in his car alone there's going to be a picture of it with the license plate and the SUV,
and is there a second passenger in the seat in the back in the front?
They have yet to be able to tell me if he was alone leaving the CDC, and where is that video?
You know, Robin Walensky, the CDC is off the road.
It's a huge facility near Emory University in Atlanta. But there has actually been
quite a bit of crime surrounding that area, and it's on a bus route. What scares me about that is
it makes it harder to identify who may be involved because people are coming and going
that are not connected to the area in
any way.
Like people that don't work at the CDC or that don't live in the area or don't work
in the restaurants and the businesses that are all around the CDC that support it.
So if you've got an influx of unrelated people, that's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
So that makes the surveillance video all the more important as well as the surveillance video
Along that street where there are numerous
Restaurants dry cleaners banks you name it that support the huge amount of people that work at the CDC
Also that number one to you Robin Robin Wielinski, but number two, I don't know how the hay.
They can jump up and say, oh, we know this is not related to his research.
They don't know that?
They don't know that, and I felt that there's a lot of outstanding questions.
There's also a report, Nancy, I want to leave you with this, that there is a neighbor that claims, a male, a female, like a
couple, and the gentleman says that on Saturday before the Monday that he goes missing, that the
neighbor says, oh, by the way, this guy came to him and said, hey, can you delete my phone number
from your wife's cell phone? Now, why would you tell somebody to take my phone number from your wife's cell phone now why would you
tell somebody to take my number out of your directory out of your contact list
in your phone that to me is a very suspicious nugget okay that's just odd I
don't mean weird I mean odd in the sense obscure I don't believe I've ever in my life a had the time to
go back to old contacts and ask them to delete me from their phone but this is a
neighbor with him they seemingly haven't had problems with him no neighborhood
feud or anything like that why in the world would he do that, Robin Walensky?
I think the only thing that makes sense is, are you going off the grid?
Are you disappearing?
Are you in trouble?
Do you feel that someone's going to kidnap you?
Do you have secrets about the flu or the Ebola virus or any of these other viruses?
I mean, you know, you hate to go all conspiracy theory, but what was he thinking in his head? And then the other thing is, you know, when you go to the most obvious, here's someone who's a Harvard graduate at, you know, my mother has this expression, you know, if you don't bend,
you break. Maybe he was just so distraught about the not getting the promotion that he just took
off and wanted to be by himself. Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.
I'm sure there is not one person on this panel right now
or somebody even listening that hasn't gotten the boot.
I remember the first time I got fired.
Let me just start with that.
It was in law school, and I was working at a sandwich shop,
Zed's Sandwich Shop, and I had the most horrible hours
and I was violating every rule of safety first I would sit at Zed's sandwich shop until 10 or 11
o'clock at night working alone in his trip center where everything else had closed okay and studying for law school and I would get so absent-minded during exams
I remember one dentist came through every day and wanted the number four I think it was turkey this
and that and two days in a row I gave him nothing but cheese because I was just so thinking about
my exams finally I said look I've got to study for these exams.
As much as I love my career here at the sandwich shop,
mopping and cleaning the bathrooms at night,
and yes, washing my hands before I made sandwiches,
I'm going to have to study for at least the next week to get through exams.
And they fired me!
So obviously I was not a valued member of the sandwich making team.
Okay. That was the first time I've been fired. So, you know, Dr. William Maroney, George Skiro,
let me go to Maroney first. Dr. Maroney, you've seen a lot of dead bodies as have I. I mean,
if somebody committed suicide, every time they got fired for Pete's sake, we'd all be dead.
Maroney, you're so awesome.
Have you ever been fired?
Ever?
At least every five to seven years on a regular schedule for the last 40.
It's human.
You know, and if I wasn't fired, I was told that I wasn't going to go anywhere and I should look for some other kind of job.
You know, I think your talents would be better suited not here.
Something like that.
Okay, so it's not just me.
I had a dean of a medical school tell me that he didn't want addiction patients in the lobby of the clinic.
And I said, they're here.
You just don't know who they are. And he
said, you're never going to be assistant Dean, Dr. Barone. You know, I had, thank God you're not.
Thank you, Lord. So, but wait, I've got to put, I've got to put that in my next book. You're
never going to be assistant Dean. Okay. Words to live by. Yeah. So he obviously began to position and stage things he knew something was up and the
fact that he left so many things behind that could be tracked on gps that just leads you to say he's
either knowing something's coming and he's going to do something or he's worried for his own safety
and at one point i reported fraud to the attorney general in my state about
a federally qualified health center. And I said, do I become a whistleblower? Because they tell you
stand up for your taxpayers, do what you need to do. And I had somebody come to me from the
attorney general's office from the state and say, if you become a whistleblower on this clinic, they're going to take your
head off, duck, turn, walk away and forget everything you saw and do something else.
Move to another city.
Let me guess, you blew the whistle anyway and got fired?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Let me just, let me one up you or try to anyway.
So when I was still a prosecutor, I guess I had been putting away the bad guys for I
don't know how many years.
A judgeship came open and my now husband said, you know, you should really try to get on
the bench.
I'm like, okay, I'll try.
So you had to submit all this information and go for an interview.
And I'll never forget, there is a, you know about this, Robin Walensky, there is a lawyer's newspaper.
You know, like business, there's like, you know, Business Chronicles.
There's a legal newspaper. newspaper and the defense bar got together and wrote a scathing for front page article about
why i should not be a judge ever and had the most unflattering picture ever of me screaming at a
defendant in court like i was about to attack him that was the picture it was horrible. And needless to say, I did not make judge.
But I remember about a year later, my now husband said,
I was in the courthouse today for jury duty,
and I saw it was a woman I prosecuted with that made judge several years before,
and she was asleep on the bench.
She had dozed off.
And she was asleep on the bench. She had dozed off and she was an incredible prosecutor
and one of the brightest people I know, frankly. And he said, aren't you glad you didn't make it
or you'd be asleep up there right now too. And I thought about it and sometime firing or getting
the boot is not necessarily a bad thing.
So in this case, I don't know, just because he got passed over by a promotion,
that it's necessarily a bad thing.
To George Kiro, forensics expert,
don't you think that there would be some indication of a suicide if that had happened?
It's very possible and it's and we don't know if you know
if that was part of if he voluntarily left if that's something that was on his
mind because evidently he had some professional and personal issues that
brought up and again being passed over for his promotion and we can't exclude
that possibility. Yeah right now we don promotion and we can't exclude that possibility.
Yeah, right now we don't know. We'd have to really exclude anything. Robin Walensky, you've been working on some highly sensitive issues like Zika, like Ebola that have really worldwide implications,
but particularly for our country, as well as immigration issues?
Yeah, because he was the person who was studying how these diseases affect different populations.
So you're studying how the flu affects a black man, how it affects white women, how it affects children.
So how they can say that he wasn't working on sensitive material, to me that makes no sense at all because he was working on all of these things,
in my mind, that are sensitive.
Did he have access to any kind of government secrets?
Is there something that he knew that's true that's not out there in the public?
Oh, can I just answer that for you?
And I'm not a conspiracy person, Robin, as you know,
because I think typically people can't keep their pie holes shut,
so you can't really have a conspiracy or they'll blab about it.
There's no doubt in my mind, and I'm a dyed-in-the-wool anti-conspiracy theorist there's no doubt in my mind that there is a trove of an avalanche
of highly sensitive information regarding zika and ebola that have been kept from us
i guarantee you that when you see people in moon suits at the immigration
offices you know there's something bad wrong right there. Okay.
Now, I don't know what it is.
It's a great point.
What?
I said it's a great point.
I'd also like to know why was he passed over for the promotion?
And I've asked that question over and over and over again.
Why was this gentleman, Harvard grad, brilliant doctor by what everybody says,
really excellent at his job and his work
why was he passed over for the promotion nobody can tell me well according to the parents his father
uh mr cunningham says quote there were some exchanges via phone and text that alerted me to be concerned about our son.
But he did not specify what they were.
The sudden disappearance of Tim Cunningham, Dr. Cunningham, is surreal and heartbreaking for his family, including his parents.
His brother convinced that Tim would not just walk away from an awesome job, a beautiful home, a dog, a community, a family.
This 35-year-old Morehouse and Harvard grad is an epidemiologist at the CDC, highly decorated and dealing with highly sensitive matters.
There is a GoFundMe page for a reward.
It's up to $23,000.
A reward to locate Dr. Tim Cunningham.
And if you look online and you see his beautiful brown eyes
and that beautiful smile of his?
The tip line, please contact 404-546-4235.
Tim Cunningham, where are you, man?
With beautiful sky blue eyes and a gorgeous smile, Heather Locklear, one of the biggest stars all the way through the
80s and 90s and still just as gorgeous. What happened? How in the world is she booked for
attacking police officers and nearly biting the nose off her boyfriend. You heard me right. Biting the nose off her boyfriend.
Right.
Okay.
I need Alexis Tereschuk, RadarOnline.com investigative reporter.
Alexis, please tell me I'm wrong.
I would love to do that, but I cannot.
Heather Locklear got in a fight in her home on Sunday night with her boyfriend, Chris Heiser.
They have been dating about a year.
She has been really – and I want to say that Heather Locklear also is one of my favorite actresses.
I love her.
I love Melrose Place.
I actually worked in the building where they filmed – well, where they pretended they filmed Melrose Place.
D&D advertising.
I love her.
But she has just – as someone told us the other day, she has been
struggling with inner demons lately. So she gets in a huge fight with her. Well, I'm all fine with
working out your inner demons, but do you have to bite somebody's nose off to do it? Apparently.
Yes. Yes. Apparently you do have to bite somebody's nose off. Okay. Alexis, I'm not buying
that. And let me just say the tip of his nose was still attached to his body.
So it's not technically bitten off completely.
This is just start at the beginning.
Go ahead.
So Sunday evening, Heather Locklear was at her home.
Her home, by the way, her beautiful mansion that she lives in.
And she gets in a fight.
Where is Thousand Oaks? Alan Duke, where is Thousand Oaks in California? That's where she lives in. And she gets in a fight. Where is Thousand Oaks?
Alan, where is Thousand Oaks in California?
That's where she lives.
It's up the 101 past Calabasas where the Kardashians live,
probably another 10 miles from there.
So it's pretty far out.
Okay, go ahead.
Sorry, that was just a curious question.
Go ahead, Alexis.
And it's a very wealthy suburb of Los Angeles.
She and her boyfriend get in a fight, a huge fight.
And they start.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Sorry, Alexis.
We just got the 911 call.
Take a listen.
I gave it to her and I jumped.
It was a domestic disturbance.
Our P just arrived.
His sister and her boyfriend are arguing.
Okay, Alexis, go ahead. Sorry.
That's okay.
So Heather and her boyfriend get in a fight.
It is actually, as you just heard on the call, it's her brother that calls the police because he is so worried that these two are fighting so much, and she is attacking him.
She's really, what they're saying is she was out of control, angry,
and they assumed that she was actually going to do
serious physical harm to him.
But she's about five feet and probably weighs 100 pounds,
soaking wet.
So it seems a bit extreme.
Well, that's just the tip of the iceberg
because apparently when cops arrive at her home,
they see a mark on the boyfriend's body
and decide to take her,
Heather Locklear, into custody for domestic violence. But as they were trying to handcuff
her, the Melrose Place star allegedly kicks and strikes the three officers,
calling one of the female officers, well, a C-U blank T.
That's bad.
Okay, number one, Alexis, just the whole biting the nose off the boyfriend,
but then when you attack police, you're begging to get arrested and call a lady cop that.
Yeah, you're going to get booked.
You're about to have a brand new mugshot.
You're exactly right i
mean she got completely out of control with the cops they were physically trying to drag her out
of her house and she was fighting them every step of the way because they saw her boyfriend so they
were going to take her into custody and she did she she lunges at the cops she screams the c-word at them and they arrest her then they take heather down to jail the boyfriend
leaves heather's house drives away gets pulled over by the police he gets a dui so he was not in
any better condition than heather was she's had um a tough time he Heather Locklear married twice, first to the Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee,
and then to Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora. She had a daughter, Ava, is that correct? Yes,
it is. And she had two very tough marriages. They break up. Then she has one relationship
with the Melrose Place star, Jack Wagner.
They were together for a while.
That broke up.
And now this.
This guy was her high school sweetheart, from what I understand.
Now, it's alleged that there have been many DUIs and problems with prescription drugs.
Is that the genesis of all this, Alexis?
That is what her family members are saying, yes.
That she has been dealing with a substance abuse issue,
that there have been prescription drugs and alcohol,
and that this is what is contributing to her insane behavior. Straight out to Joe Scott Morgan, forensics expert,
professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University.
Joe Scott, I mean, between alcohol and prescription drugs, wow, she's in trouble.
But that is not going to be a defense at law.
But how could it be used and how can it be determined that that was the root of the problem in the middle of all this brawl in her home?
Yeah, that she's so disconnected from reality as a result of this chemical storm she's got going on in her body.
But, hey, you know what?
Chemical storms have been going on for a long time based upon a lot of these reports.
She's got multiple DUIs.
Who knows what else she's taking?
I do know that she did assault a police officer.
It's one thing you engage in this behavior in your house.
Who knows what was going on?
Boyfriend's drunk.
She's drunk.
Police show up.
You get abusive with them.
And one thing that wasn't mentioned, yeah, she screamed, you know, the C word at this female cop.
She also scored a groin shot with her foot to one of the police, male police officers that was there as well.
So this is not going to go well for her, particularly if they appear before a judge
that, you know, doesn't take kindly to people assaulting the police. Plus she's been down this
road multiple times. I just, you know, I'm not an attorney obviously, but I just got to tell you,
based upon my background in investigations, this, this generally does not go well in the court when you
have a person that appears multiple times here's the thing troy slayton la defense attorney
as far as beating up the boyfriend i guarantee you he'll probably drop charges watch it it'll
unfold just like that do i think it's right no i don't i don't think it's right? No, I don't. I don't think it's right. But will it
happen? Most likely, yes, and there won't be a darn thing the prosecutor can do about it.
But attacking police officers, Troy Slayton, I don't care how drunk you are or what prescription drug you have abused, that's a big N-O.
Cops show up to calm things down.
Yes, I know there are a few bad cops out there.
I know that.
And they make everybody else in the justice system look bad.
And I hate them.
But when cops show up at home, they are not signing up to getting kicked in the groin, attacked with misogynist slurs by another woman, cursed out, spit on, bitten, the works. Uh-uh. No, those charges must
not be dropped. And I got to tell you, I've always sided with Heather Locklear because I felt that
she was fighting an alcohol problem and she had had a
tough time of it. But that is no excuse for attacking cops. I mean, this has got to stop
with her. Nancy, from my perspective, there's a lot of things to unpack here. First of all,
since the O.J. Simpson case, when police respond to a domestic violence incident,
someone's going to jail. One of the parties is going to jail
if there is any kind of evidence of anything any what tiny red mark and someone's going to jail
so i don't really have a problem with that choice that neither heather was somebody going to jail
if the victim has a red mark well you say they're just coming to calm things down you say they're
just coming to calm things down but no they're're just coming to calm things down, but no, they're coming to bring someone to jail. And it was neither the victim nor the aggressor
that called the police. It was Heather Locklear's brother. Oh yeah. You know what? You're right.
Because the boyfriend was too busy trying to hold his nose on his face. Remember it was nearly
bitten off. And you say he's going to drop the charges. Well, it's not up to him now. Once the
police get involved, it's up to the prosecutor to decide whether or not they want to continue.
That's true. Whether or not he's a willing witness. There is no boyfriend-girlfriend privilege
that would prevent him from being forced to testify against her. Well, you're right about
that. It is up to the
prosecutor. He does not have the power to drop charges. He does have the power to get on the
stand and recant. He can certainly do that, which, practically speaking, guts the state's
prosecution, but not so with the police. And also, police can testify to what they saw that night.
Yes. And Nancy, if I was her attorney, I would certainly be looking to work out a disposition
that involved drug and alcohol treatment,
even residential rehabilitation in lieu of jail.
And she's already had that.
Well, you know.
She's already had treatment
and she's already been to maybe four to five rehabs.
And when you kick a cop and call a lady cop a misogynistic slur.
That's not a crime.
It's either time for you to go to jail or start picking up trash on the side of the road.
It's not a crime to call a cop the C word.
However abhorrent it might be, it's not a crime.
I didn't say it was a crime.
I said she needs to go to jail or pick up trash.
That's what I said.
And there's not a question in my mind that she did say it.
And there's not a question in my mind that she attacked the police officers physically.
In California, if we can get a judge to order her as a condition of her O.R., her own recognizance release, or as a condition of bail to do some
residential rehab, then that means we get day-for-day credits towards any eventual sentence.
So that may be something strategically that we want to get going right at the beginning of the
case. No, but you know what? How many times, Alexis Tereschuk, how many times can the court with a straight face order Betty Ford Center, you know, community service?
I mean, how many times before it's just a big joke?
Well, it is California.
It is Los Angeles.
She is a celebrity.
They can order it pretty much 450 times.
Celebrities get major special treatment in Los Angeles.
All the cases I've covered, as long as I've been covering Heather Locklear for the last 10 years, has been in trouble.
Never has she spent really more than five seconds arrested this past weekend.
It's endless.
Look at Lindsay Lohan, which you covered with me.
You were the one leading the charges against Lindsay for all those years.
Multiple rehab assignments.
Multiple.
And look, you know, Alexis, I don't want to bring down a star or an icon.
I don't care.
But what I care about is people being treated equally under the law.
Okay.
If this had been a lower income, uneducated female that the cops arrived and got kicked
and cursed out that way,
she would have been thrown down on the asphalt,
handcuffed and dragged to jail.
She'd still be sitting there right now.
Correct.
Okay, because it's a Hollywood star,
it's all different.
And with that, I disagree.
Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off.
Goodbye, friend.
This is an iHeart Podcast.