The Smoking Gun (syndicated by LiveJournal.com) (original) (raw)

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FEBRUARY 24--While most of you were enjoying last night's finale of Fox's "Littlest Groom," TSG was busy studying freaky David Gest's medical records--so you wouldn't have to. The 2003-4 documents, just filed in connection with litigation between Gest and estranged wife Liza Minnelli, purport to record the 50-year-old producer's fragile, pain-filled existence since Liza allegedly went Sonny Liston on him last June during a London holiday. Since then, Gest has been living in Hawaii, where he is presently being treated with a "bizarre and irrational course of medications and treatments," according to a New York doctor who reviewed Gest's records for the Minnelli camp. The records are filled with accounts of Gest's morphine drips, insomnia, lesions, elevated cholesterol levels, and other details from his stays at Honolulu's Queen's Medical Center. Below you'll find some of the more entertaining Gest documents, a collection we kick off with a report written last July, at the time of his first Hawaii hospitalization. Amazingly, Gest somehow forgot to mention the brutal beating Minnelli had administered weeks earlier, complaining only of a severe sunburn and the subsequent development of a migraine headache. Other highlights include:

Retrieved at 5:49pm on 20th February 2004

FEBRUARY 20--The Oregon lawn ornament thief has finally been apprehended--and cuddly garden gnomes from Portland to Beaverton are breathing a sigh of relief. Kimberley Rae Baker-Bundy, 49, was named this month in a 25-count misdemeanor theft complaint charging her with boosting wagon wheels, wind chimes, doormats, and plastic deer. Baker-Bundy's alleged crime spree dates back to 2000 and covers two counties, according to investigators. She recently landed in the Washington County Sheriff's lockup (where the below mug shot was taken) after failing to show for a court date. Baker-Bundy was nabbed after neighbors spotted her scooting across their lawn, her arms full with backyard booty. (6 pages)

Retrieved at 5:47pm on 19th February 2004

FEBRUARY 19--In addition to the deadly gamma rays, there's another reason to avoid those icky tanning salons. It seems that the owners of these businesses like to secretly videotape patrons as they disrobe and enter those glowing pods. The latest creep to get nailed for such cinema verite is Mark Huffman, the 43-year-old owner of Maximum Exposure, an aptly named Reading, Ohio tanning joint. Huffman, pictured in the above mug shot from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, was nabbed earlier this week when a male customer noticed what appeared to be a camera hidden in a wall fan, according to the below Reading Police Department report. When cops arrived, they found evidence of Huffman's clandestine taping operation, as well as pot plants and kiddie porn. (2 pages)

Retrieved at 6:07am on 18th February 2004

FEBRUARY 17--Barry Bonds's personal trainer admitted to federal investigators that he gave steroids to "several" baseball players, and two other central figures in the drug probe confessed that their San Francisco laboratory illegally distributed steroids to "numerous professional athletes," according to court records unsealed today. The bombshell admissions from Greg Anderson, Bonds's trainer, and two officials from BALCO, the San Francisco lab at the center of the steroid investigation, are contained in search warrant affidavits filed last September in U.S. District Court in San Jose. In the below September 3 affidavit sworn by IRS agent Jeff Novitzky (filed in support of a search of Anderson's home), BALCO executives Victor Conte and James Valente are said to have copped to their roles in the steroid distribution ring, and implicated Anderson in the drug conspiracy. A second IRS affidavit, filed in connection with a "follow-up" September 5 search warrant application for Anderson's computers, states that after Anderson initially denied "distributing" steroids, he subsequently admitted giving "steroids to several professional baseball players." While the names of most athletes were redacted, the identity of one baseball player is contained in one of the IRS affidavits--and the disclosure will probably upset New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. An IRS examination of BALCO's trash turned up outfielder Gary Sheffield's name on a Federal Express receipt addressed to the lab (Sheffield was an off-season acquisition by the Yankees). According to press reports, Sheffield was one of several athletes to testify before the federal grand jury that subsequently indicted Anderson, Conte, Valente, and Olympic coach Remi Korchemny. (12 pages)

Retrieved at 6:45pm on 12th February 2004

FEBRUARY 12--If you follow up the "dirty dancing" contest at your daughter's 12th birthday party with a field trip to Thirsty Jake's to get the kids some booze, don't be surprised if you end up in cuffs. And that's exactly what happened to an Ohio man who pleaded guilty Monday to eight counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with the January 31 all-nighter described in the below Newark Police Division report. Jeffrey Yingling, 52, threw the party and made the booze run with several partygoers in tow--none of whom was over the age of 13. According to a statement given to cops by one 12-year-old girl, she nagged Yingling to score them some brew and offered to "be his kid if he bought some beer." Yingling, who has four prior DUI convictions, copped his misdemeanor pleas in Licking County Common Pleas Court, where he is scheduled to be sentenced later this month. He faces a maximum of four years in prison. (5 pages)

Retrieved at 6:41pm on 12th February 2004

FEBRUARY 11--Idaho state investigators have ruled that there is "no probable cause" to support allegations that Demi Moore sexually harassed a former employee who claims he was fired for rebuffing the star's amorous advances. Lawrence Bass, who worked as an estate manager at Moore's Hailey retreat, last year filed a complaint with the Idaho Human Rights Commission alleging that Moore had groped and massaged him against his will. But in mid-December, the rights commission formally dismissed the 43-year-old Bass's complaint after a lengthy investigation, according to TSG interviews with Moore's lawyers. At the time the state's decision was announced, Bass was sitting in a Hailey jail serving a 10-day sentence for civil contempt stemming from a lawsuit brought against him by Moore. Bass, who law enforcement officers have nicknamed "Big Mouth," is pictured below in a Blaine County Sheriff's Office mug shot taken at the time of his holiday imprisonment. Below that image is another Blaine County booking photo, taken last March, apparently in connection with Bass's violation of a restraining order involving another woman.

Retrieved at 4:35pm on 11th February 2004

FEBRUARY 10--In case you thought the rumble over the merits of the Atkins diet would have cooled following last year's death of Dr. Robert Atkins, guess again, bub. The below report from the New York City medical examiner--which was inadvertently provided to a Nebraska doctor who is vehemently anti-Atkins--shows that the 72-year-old physician had suffered from a heart attack, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. According to his death certificate, the "immediate cause" of Atkins's death last April was "blunt impact injury of head with epidural hematoma." He was critically injured when he struck his head in a fall on an icy Manhattan street. The references to Atkins's medical history are contained in handwritten notations on one page of the ME's document--"MI" for myocardial infarction, "CHF" for congestive heart failure, and "HTN" for hypertension. The document, first reported on by The Wall Street Journal, also lists Atkins weight as 258 pounds.

Retrieved at 7:58pm on 9th February 2004

FEBRUARY 9--Meet Shane Walker. Last Tuesday, the Charleston, West Virginia woman contacted cops to say that her boyfriend had stolen her marijuana stash. Normally, that's not something you share with the fuzz. But Walker apparently really wanted those 3.5 ounces back. As a result Walker spent her 25th birthday in the local lockup and is facing a felony possession charge, according to this amusing criminal complaint. (3 pages)

Paris Hilton Gets Literary

Retrieved at 12:22pm on 9th February 2004

FEBRUARY 6--Next to the fourth and final installment of Robert Caro's Lyndon B. Johnson opus, TSG can think of no other biographical work more eagerly anticipated than Paris Hilton's memoir, "Tongue-in-Chic: Paris Hilton's Confessions of an Heiress." As first obtained by our friends at gawker.com, the 22-year-old socialite's book proposal--which began circulating last month--promises chapters on sister Nicky, the "jet/set life," and her cavalcade of paramours. And Paris and co-author Merle Ginsburg will not be avoiding the young woman's recent "trials and tribulations." The notorious Rick Salomon sex tape "has made me change my life. I used to have fun and dress up--and that was my life. But now I'm moving on, I've grown up a lot." If you say so, Par. We won't quote any other passages, since that might dampen the joy of literary discovery. (13 pages)

Retrieved at 2:43am on 9th February 2004

FEBRUARY 6--Bobby Knight, the infantile college basketball legend, is up to his old, tired tricks. The psychotic coach, who was exiled to Texas Tech after being run out of Indiana University, had his wrist slapped this week for a bizarre run-in with Chancellor Dr. David Smith at, of all places, a Lubbock salad bar. Details of Knight's tirade Monday are contained in the below February 2 memo written by Smith, which Texas Tech's general counsel provided in response to an open records law request. The university also released a draft memo to Knight from Gerald Myers, Tech's athletic director, noting that he would be reprimanded and suspended for three games. Anticipating that discipline, the school prepared a draft press release announcing Knight's brief ban. But before the suspension could be announced, Myers apparently changed his mind, pleading with Smith in a February 3 memo that Knight's suspension would be "detrimental to a positive resolution of the issues involved." When Tech's disciplinary action was announced Tuesday afternoon, the suspension had evaporated. Until next time, the enabling continues. (5 pages)

Retrieved at 4:52am on 6th February 2004

FEBRUARY 5--It took almost three days, but the first lawsuit has been filed in connection with Janet Jackson's breast. A Tennessee woman yesterday filed a proposed class action lawsuit "on behalf of all Americans" who watched the Super Bowl halftime show and were somehow injured by Miss Jackson's adorned nipple. In the below federal complaint, Terri Carlin, a 47-year-old Knoxville bank employee, contends that Jackson's exposure and other "sexually explicit conduct" during halftime festivities caused viewers to "suffer outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury." Details of those supposed injuries were not further described in the complaint filed by attorney Wayne A. Ritchie II. Along with Jackson, Carlin has named as defendants Justin Timberlake, CBS, MTV, and Viacom. Carlin's complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages, though an exact dollar figure is not specified. But it seems billions would be in order since Carlin notes that punitive damages should not exceed the gross revenues of all defendants for the past three years. (8 pages)

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