This shit never gets old:
New witnesses have stepped forward to say they saw a talk show host behind the wheel after a hit-and-run crash outside a popular gay bar, and Local 2 Investigates has obtained video from inside the bar that is now in the hands of police.
Houston police obtained video from inside T.C.’s Show Bar on Converse and Fairview in the Montrose to confirm that the conservative activist was inside the club around the time of the Jan. 31 hit-and-run outside the club.
“Videos don’t lie. They don’t paint pictures that don’t exist,” said Tuderia Bennett, whose car was damaged in the hit and run. “I want my money more than anything else.”
The video that was provided to police was obtained by Local 2 Investigates on Thursday afternoon, and it shows a whisker-faced Michael Berry wearing a jacket as he walked into the show bar during a featured drag show event.
The video shows him ordering a beer and walking down a hall to the restroom on two trips.
Bennett told police he saw the crash and wrote down the license number, and he also told police he could positively identify Berry as being the man behind the wheel. Bennett told police he rushed up to the SUV that hit his car right after impact and flashed the beam of his flashlight into the window.
Police officers assigned to the case told Local 2 Investigates that prosecutors from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office declined to file hit-and-run charges against Berry, saying that no one could positively identify him as being behind the wheel.
Bennett calls that a cover-up.
Former councilman and conservative radio host is at a drag show, smashes a car with his SUV on the way out, and then the DA decides not to prosecute despite all sorts of evidence as to what happens. As always, it’s the cover-up that makes things worse. On the two wetsuit and a dildo scale, this is nothing, but if I were Michael Berry I would stay the fuck out of airport bathrooms.
And it is just so funny that these gay-bashing closeted wingers think they can live separate lives, yet always get tripped up by the littlest things. I’m sorry, it isn’t funny at all. It’s sad.
And I was wrong, I have some Smiths titles left.
Cain
I don’t know if going to a drag show is a indication of gayness. I mean, I’ve gone to plenty of gay bars, because well they are fucking fun. Good music, and flashy shit, it’s great.
I *suppose* if you’re a gay hater, that would be a strange place to show up…
The prophet Nostradumbass
I think you mean Berry should stay out of the airport bathrooms, not Bennett.
garbo
My brother and I have talked about creating a “Hypocrites of the GOP” calendar since we never seem to go more than a month without one of these revelations.
Also, too. This is the same guy who suggested that should the “Ground Zero Mosque” be built, someone should bomb it. Maybe he’s a closet Muslim, too?
Bago
I love the ad algorithm that put christianmingle.com on a two wetsuit and a dildo post.
beergoggles
He was this week’s gay homophobe: http://gayhomophobe.com/
I would laugh if assholes like this didn’t lead to people suffering each and every day.
Odie Hugh Manatee
There’s an eyewitness to the crash who can positively identify the guy, there’s video of him in the club prior to that and the prosecutor says that there’s no evidence that he was behind the wheel? Was his wife behind the wheel or did he report the car stolen? No? I would say that all of the evidence points to his being the one behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
What, this is Texas? The guy is conservative and white? Ok, he’s innocent.
Now if he was brown and/or liberal…
lacp
Well, if you libtards weren’t always trying to shove something down conservatives’ throats, this wouldn’t happen.
jl
He was doing research.
Clearly.
/s
gbear
And these haters think that they can waltz into gay-friendly places and just be accepted as one of the boys while they’re there.
Someone should dump a beer on his head every time he shows up.
amk
@lacp: egg.sack.lee. I too blame the libtards.
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear: How does that work when a well-known screeching homophobe walks into a gay bar? Won’t people know him? I am not asking because I think you have special knowledge; your comment just triggered the thought.
Cain
Sames like just talking about teh ghey is enough to want hit a gay establishment!
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know how they do it. It’s not uncommon for self-hating people to go to bars and just stew in their own juices while getting hammered, but you’d think someone would tell him off at some point.
Omnes Omnibus
OT: I just upgraded from FF 3.something to FF 10.whateverwasonoffertoday and it is freaking me out a little because none of the buttons are where I expect them to be.
ETA: I am not a tech person, obviously.
amk
@Omnes Omnibus: whoa, from 3 to 10? That’s a steep learning curve dood. I did from 7 to 8 and ff fucking freaked me out too.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: The guy’s a radio host. And a former city councilman. We’re not exactly talking about Howard Stern.
beergoggles
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s an unfortunate side effect of the low lighting in these establishments. As long as they don’t wait till closing time and the lights turning on at full intensity (heck I wouldn’t be able to recognize Santorum if it weren’t for the smell at the normal level of lighting in there) they can be incognito.
Warren Terra
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
This. If it was a hit-and-run without injury I can see the charges not being pressed (if restitution is paid and the victim doesn’t press charges; and even without injury leaving the scene can be a felony, if there’s someone in the other car), but I can’t see how the prosecutor claims there’s no case.
Omnes Omnibus
@amk: I tried to pay a bill on line today and the company told me that my browser version was no longer supported. So I upgraded. Ten was waht was available. Eep.
@gbear: I hesitate to comment on this – I am straight, white, from a Protestant Christian background, etc., so I don’t have a lot experience with being in a minority community, but while I was in the army, I made no secret of the fact that my politics were left of center. I didn’t make a big deal of it, but if it came up I didn’t have a problem with letting people know. Among army officers, it made me a bit of an outsider. I don’t know, I guess I am saying that you are who you are and you just have to be that person.
jurassicpork
Speaking of gay right wingers… For years, I’ve been feeling the effects of outrage fatigue. Seven years in the political trenches reporting on right wingnuttery will take its toll, which is why many bloggers don’t last as long as I have. But tonight I saw a tweet from GOProud that made my blood boil and I was forced to write quite possibly the filthiest, nastiest, angriest post I’ve ever written in seven plus years. Absolutely not kid or work safe.
Villago Delenda Est
Here’s the problem with this sort of thing. You do it enough, and people start to get the idea that some people can break the law with impunity and there are no consequences.
Oh, wait, forgot…look forward, not backward. Nevermind.
Suffern ACE
@jurassicpork: Take a breath. The gay right were exactly like that 20 years ago. Only you had to contact them through PO Boxes and they seldom used their own names when you took them home in the bars.
scav
Wonder if he’s one of the preforgiven(tm) with a strong moral compass as well.
hilzoy
Maybe another …
“Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.”
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2012-02-16/news/paul-babeu-s-mexican-ex-lover-says-sheriff-s-attorney-threatened-him-with-deportation/
Suffern ACE
@hilzoy: O.K. that one is movie of the week material.
trollhattan
Did they check his countertops for wetsuits? Inquiring minds….
Augie
I work for the police department. Most, if not all hit-and-run arrests result from evidentiary investigations – looking at car/property damage, scratched paint, etc. You do not need videotape evidence that a hit-and-run driver was behind the wheel. If you did, there would be precisely zero hit and run prosecutions in the country all year long. This is pretty clearly a coverup.
hilzoy
efgoldman: Thanks. ;) I’m just hanging out in Baltimore, as usual.
Just because, another link:
http://www.myweku.com/2012/02/possibly-the-worlds-unsafest-car-found-in-south-africa/
(“The world’s unsafest car”. I particularly like the plastic water bottle used as a gas tank.)
Odie Hugh Manatee
@hilzoy:
Wow, Mr. Build The Fence’s career is over. A closeted gay conservative sheriff who’s virulently against illegal immigration and all the while he’s involved in a relationship with a guy he is now claiming to be here illegally? Oh, and he’s running for congress? Talk about having your cake and eating it too. Wow, this guy was going for the gold.
I wonder if he hates teh ghey. It would fit.
ETA: This comment there made me laugh:
Ed Dane defender of Doughnuts
@jl:
They have really good drinks there … honest.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ed Dane defender of Doughnuts: … and the articles are good too.
Texpunk
For the record, as a longtime Houston resident, calling TC’s a “popular” gay bar is a bit of a stretch.
It is, however, IMHO, probably the seediest of several gay bars in a four block radius in the Montrose; it is usually crowded with hustlers and street kids and their older :ahem: gentleman fans.
Texpunk
This, also too.
patroclus
There’s apparently going to be an internal affairs investigation about why no prosecution has as yet been initiated and Berry has lawyered up with Dick DeGuerin, a farily well-known Texas defense lawyer. Berry talked about being concerned about being “smeared” and vilified” on his show today, but didn’t go into specifics.
jill
don’t the girls all get prettier at closing time?
Arclite
My question is this: How much longer before Santorum pulls a wide stance?
SRW1
@hilzoy:
At least he’s not a hypocrite. After all, he did say “Fuck illegal immigrants”, didn’t he.
Ken Fair
I don’t listen to Berry’s radio show, but I have heard from those who do that he is not, in fact, a gay basher. So he may not be a hypocrite on that score.
That said, do I think the Republican DA declined to prosecute because of who Berry is? Heck yeah.
Scott
I’ve gotta assume that the Harris County DA is having sex with Michael Berry. Maybe someone in the Houston media should ask him?
EDIT: No, wait, not possible — I just checked, and Harris County’s DA is a woman. Don’t know why she’s sticking her neck out for him — if he’s like every other wingnut hate-radio screamer, he hates her just for existing and holding a “man’s job.”
Jim Treacher
Oh no, they got Michael Berry!
Wait. Who?
Scott
Hey, look, it’s Jim Treacher, waiting ’til the thread’s dead so he can throw up a post and claim he “won.”
Jim Treacher is macho and so very butch.
Soonergrunt
@Scott: Well, he is the DC-trawler. One wonders what he’s trawling for.
Scott
@Soonergrunt: Maybe he’s hoping Michael Berry will give him his number. For intercourse. I mean, an INTERVIEW! An INTERVIEW! Not that other thing.
Jim Treacher
@Scott: Why so hostile? Relax.
Jim Treacher
@Scott: There’s nothing wrong with being gay, which is why accusing somebody of it is an insult.
Jim Treacher
@Scott: Other than that, though, good point!
clayton
@Jim Treacher: I’ll have you know that Michael Berry is nationally syndicated with shows in Houston, San Antonio, Portland and Baton Rouge. He’s the Czar of Texas Radio. Are you saying that you didn’t know that?
Jim Treacher
@clayton: Yes. That is indeed what I’m saying. If there are any other regional radio hosts on your radar I should know about, though, have at it.
Binky P. Behr
Sources indicate that the song rocking on his car stereo was the following classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XNFokmDKrE