"My lawyer will probably kill me when I say this, but I went to a head shop and I bought some of that white lightning stuff."
Only time will tell whether this admission by Deutsche Bank vice chairman Brian Mulligan will be the unraveling of his $50 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department. Mulligan made the statement during a recorded conversation with a Glendale police officer just two day before his violent confrontation with LAPD officers, which is the basis of his suit against the department.
Released by the police union Los Angeles Police Protective League, the recording catches Mulligan during what appears to be a drug-fueled hallucination.
LISTEN: Brian Mulligan chats with officer about his hallucinations on "white lightning."
Mulligan, worried that helicopters were chasing him, approached an officer in front of the Glendale Police Department on May 13, according to a statement from LAPPL. The officer assures Mulligan that no one is following him, and what follows is an 11-minute rambling conversation in which Mulligan admits to using bath salts over 20 times.
Mulligan also brings up his pot and ambien use, saying that marijuana made him feel like his face was "melting off," while ambien made him feel like his mind had "a cast over it."
Throughout the entire conversation, the police officer remains calm, advising him to throw the bath salts away and return to his family and career. Toward the end, the officer spells it out for Mulligan in a firm but friendly way:
Absent the ramifications to your family, your wife and your sons, the legislations in the works to make that stuff illegal, and I guarantee it will be pretty soon, probably next year, so you could also find yourself kinda wrapped up in legal matters that would finish your career…
Two days later on May 15, Mulligan encountered police officers again. Like his conversation with the Glendale officer, Mulligan stated to LA officers that he was being chased by someone and that he had taken both "white lightning" and marijuana.
According to a police report, officers dropped him off at a motel and left. But police came across Mulligan again the next day when they received reports that a man was running through traffic. The officers used force to subdue Mulligan, who reportedly was snarling and baring his teeth at them. After the violent confrontation, Mulligan was left with a broken scapula, facial lacerations and 15 fractures in his nasal area.
Three months later, Mulligan filed a $50 million lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles over the incident, claiming that it left him with post traumatic stress disorder and medical bills that could reach $1 million. In his version of events, LAPD officers held him against his will in a motel. Mulligan claims that when he tried to leave, officers beat him ruthlessly.
The LAPPL recording could undermine Mulligan's case against the LAPD because it presents him as a paranoid, drug-addled man prone to delusions. It was turned over to the LAPD to aid in the investigation of the use of force, reports the Los Angeles Times.
But an attorney for Mulligan maintains that the recording has no bearing on the lawsuit against the LAPD. "We are going to try this case in court in front of a jury and not in the media," said the attorney to the Los Angeles Times.
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