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"A million little pieces." Tucker Carlson had the officer on his show last night.
Frankenstein, the boy toy, "The line up and heerrrrrreeeeeesssssssss Andy !
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Here it comes. Oprah. Anderson, the Actor. Evidently, Oprah needs to be defended. So, fiction is interesting, too.
Did you have the police officer on as well?
I didn't think so.
SCARBOROUGH: THE SITUATION starts right now.
CARLSON: Thank you, Joe.
And thanks to you at home for tuning in. We always appreciate it.
Tonight, an exclusive interview with the Ohio police sergeant who made the now famous arrest of James Frey detailed in Frey‘s blockbuster bestseller, “A Million Little Pieces.”
Was Frey‘s account accurate, or did he lie in the most outrageous possible way again and again and again and make millions doing so? We‘ll get to the truth.
Also, is the housing bubble about to burst, and if so, does that mean recession or even depression is on the way? I‘ll ask former presidential candidate, and visionary economist, Steve Forbes.
Plus, a 79-year-old mother crashes her car into a mother and her kids then flees the scene. What led to that horrific accident, and should the elderly be allowed to drive at all? We‘ll get to that in just a few minutes.
We begin tonight with the remarkable literary scandal that has the millions of Americans who read the best seller “A Million Little Pieces” feeling outraged and betrayed. One of the centerpieces of James Frey‘s book is a 1992 incident in Ohio during which Frey says he assaulted a police officer and incited a riot. Not true, says my next guest.
Sergeant Dave Dudgeon was the arresting officer of the night in question. He joins us tonight from Columbus, Ohio, in an exclusive interview to tell us what really happened.
Sergeant, thanks a lot for coming on. I want to read to you the parts of the book in which you star and get your reaction to them. This is Mr. Frey‘s account of an arrest in 1992, in October, in Granville, Ohio. He says, “I drove up onto a sidewalk and hit a cop who was standing there.” Did he hit you with his car?
SGT. DAVE DUDGEON, ARRESTED JAMES FREY: No.
CARLSON: He said the back-up came, the back-up officers came. “They approached the car and asked me to get out. And I said, ‘If you want me, then come and get me, you f-ing pigs‘.” Did he say that?
DUDGEON: Not to my knowledge.
CARLSON: OK. I know this is torture. Let me just keep going for a second. “They opened the door. I started swinging, and they beat my ass with billyclubs and arrested me.”
DUDGEON: Did you beat him with your billyclub?
DUDGEON: No, sir.
CARLSON: He said he was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assaulting an officer of the law, felony DUI, resisting arrest, possession of a narcotic with intent to distribute. What was he charged with, do you remember?
DUDGEON: He was charged with a DUI, driving without an operator‘s license and having an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle.
CARLSON: What was that open container?
DUDGEON: A bottle of beer, I believe.
CARLSON: Did you find quantities of crack cocaine in the car?
DUDGEON: No, we did not find any narcotics of any kind.
CARLSON: What was Mr. Frey like when he was arrested? Was he pretty outraged, screaming epithets at you?
DUDGEON: Not to my memory. He was polite and cooperative.
CARLSON: He said that he faced, as a result of these charges, three years in state prison, but somehow, through the machinations of the legal system, only served three months. Is it your memory that he was sentenced to three years? And would he have been sentenced to three years for this?
DUDGEON: No, the charges that I charged him with were felonies. They were all misdemeanors. So it wouldn‘t have been any prison time.
CARLSON: That is amazing. Now, do you think it‘s possible—this happened 14, 13 ½ years ago. Is it possible that you‘ve forgotten that in fact you really were screamed at by James Frey and that, in fact, you did beat him senseless with your billyclub, that he called you an f-ing pig and that you found crack in his car? Could you just have forgotten about it, you think?
DUDGEON: No, I think something like that I would remember.
CARLSON: Have you ever been hit by a car?
DUDGEON: No, sir, never.
CARLSON: Do you think if you were you‘d recall it?
DUDGEON: I‘m pretty sure I‘d remember that.
CARLSON: Did you have any memory of this at all before you were contacted by The Smoking Gun website about this?
DUDGEON: No. I completely forgot all about it until I was contacted by them. And when I found the original arrest report, realized that I was the arresting officer.
CARLSON: So of what you remember of this arrest, did anything stick out in your mind? Was James Frey different from, I‘m sure the many college students you‘ve busted for DUI over the years?
DUDGEON: No, it was just a typical, noneventful DUI arrest.
CARLSON: Have you read the book?
DUDGEON: Parts of it, yes.
CARLSON: Then you‘re aware, from reading those parts that Mr. Frey presents himself really as Jim Morrison come back to life, you know, as an outrageous guy, intent not merely on breaking every law there is, but also on giving the finger to the man, that would be you.
DUDGEON: Yes.
CARLSON: Yes. And I just want to make certain that in no way squares with your memory.
DUDGEON: No, I don‘t recall anything similar to that.
CARLSON: Had you heard of the book before you were contacted about it?
DUDGEON: No, I had not.
CARLSON: What do you think of it now that you‘re reading it?
DUDGEON: It‘s definitely interesting.
CARLSON: If—if it were a crime in the state of Ohio to write phony memoirs, do you think Mr. Frey would be arrested?
DUDGEON: It would be—I have no idea on that.
CARLSON: So just to recap. And I know there are a lot of people—there are literally millions of people who have read this book. And from my own experiences in talking to a lot of them, they take this book as true. So I just want to restate here to make certain that there‘s no confusion at all, your account of what happened that night. Can you just sum it up for us?
DUDGEON: I was on foot patrol in the downtown business district checking doors when Mr. Frey pulled into a no parking zone area, drove the right front tire of his car up on the curb and then backed it down off. I approached the car just to let him know that he was in a no parking zone and detected an odor of an alcoholic beverage and handled it as a typical DUI arrest.
CARLSON: He was in a no parking zone. This guy is a regular outlaw.
He‘s outrageous.
All right. Sergeant Dave Dudgeon, tonight from Ohio, one of the stars of the fictional account, “A Million Little Pieces,” unwittingly a star, joining us tonight. Sergeant, thanks a lot for coming on.
DUDGEON: Thank you.
CARLSON: So here‘s a question. Will the career of James Frey shrivel and dissolve into “A Million Little Pieces,” or will this scandal actually help him sell more books? Let‘s ask Steve Salerno. He‘s the author of “Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.” It‘s a great book. He joins us live tonight in the studio.
Steve, thanks for coming on.
STEVE SALERNO, AUTHOR, “SHAM”: Thanks for having me, Tucker.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10819845/
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Commercials
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Anderson apologies for working for a company mired in falsehoods.
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The Newsy Secretary
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commercials
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The people 'scapegoated' in this book, like the officer above have been hurt. Does Time Warner and Oprah care about 'The truth' as it applies to the innocent.
NO !
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I have better things to do besides listening to 'groveling.'
ENOUGH !
