Ripple effect of Tiger’s rough ride
Ten years ago today, Woods got in a car crash that took a toll on him and many others
In May, on a rainy evening in Springdale, Ark., a 2009 black Cadillac Escalade with an infamous history headed south on Carlton Street.
A 1997 Chevrolet Blazer headed east on the perpendicular street, McCray Avenue, and both cars approached the intersection.
When the driver of the Escalade failed to yield the right of way, the vehicles collided, and it wasn’t the first collision involving the Escalade. That came almost a decade earlier, when the SUV was driven by the most famous golfer on the planet.
Tiger Woods was behind the wheel of that Escalade on Nov. 27, 2009, when at about 2:30 a.m., outside his former mansion in Windermere, Fla., he collided with a row of hedges and hit a fire hydrant. The SUV came to rest after hitting a tree.
Less than two days earlier, the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods was having an affair with Rachel Uchitel, then a New York nightclub hostess. The car crash and its murky circumstances — paramedics found Woods lying in the road, snoring and without shoes or socks — coincided with Woods’ personal crash.
A full-fledged sex scandal ensued, exposing years of infidelity and rocking Woods’ life. He lost his wife, Elin. He lost sponsorships. He lost his dignity.
Woods, then 33, had won 14 major championships at the time of his crash, four behind Jack Nicklaus. But that chase stalled with the scandal and medical issues that followed. It took him almost a decade before he won another major.
But while Woods’ free fall became a public spectacle, others connected to his demise have suffered in relative obscurity.
Mindy Lawton, one of more than a dozen women identified as former mistresses of Woods, was involved in a fatal vehicular collision. Jamie Jungers, who claimed to have had an 18month affair with Woods, attempted to use the notoriety during her legal problems. The trooper who handled the first phase of the investigation into Woods’ accident for the Florida State Highway Patrol faced his own investigation — for shooting an unarmed suspect in the scalp. The neighbours who wrapped Woods with blankets and put a pillow under his head at the scene of the SUV collision suffered indignities they apparently thought Woods would help spare them. And then there is the Escalade itself.
Here are their stories:
MINDY LAWTON
On the list of Woods’ alleged ex-mistresses, which included porn stars, escorts and lingerie models, Mindy Lawton stood apart. At the time she met the golfer, Lawton told reporters, she was an $8-an-hour waitress at Perkins restaurant, near Woods’ former mansion in Windermere.
Two weeks after Woods crashed his Escalade, according to documents obtained by the USA Today, Lawton, then 33, signed a contract designed to cash in on her alleged 14-month affair with Woods that she told reporters ended in 2007.
The deal called for Lawton to be represented by a Florida attorney, Glenn Reid, who would receive 33 per cent of each $1 million (U.S.) generated by Lawton from media-related opportunities, according to a copy of the contract.
The big payday never came. In January 2011, Lawton pleaded guilty to DUI with serious bodily injury, a third-degree felony. She was sentenced to five years probation and served one year in county jail. The following year, Lawton was unable to find employment, out of money and two weeks from being homeless, according to court records. The court terminated Lawton’s probation early and allowed her to return to live with her mother in New York, court records show. Then came another crash.
On June 21, 2015, Lawton was riding on an ATV with her boyfriend, Jamie Kennedy. Kennedy lost control after the ATV hit large rocks and trees, and the two were ejected, according to published reports.
Kennedy, 45, was pronounced dead at the scene. Lawton, then 38, survived.
In Kennedy’s obituary, Lawton was described as Kennedy’s “companion.” Her Facebook page includes photos of her with Kennedy and indicates Lawton, 43, still lives in Ogdensburg, N.Y., a town of 11,128 where she grew up.
The Perkins restaurant has shut down. And the deal between Lawton and Reid, the Florida attorney, went sour.
Five months after the contract was signed, Reid sued, claiming Lawton cooperated for a Vanity Fair magazine article without consulting him.
Lawton did not respond to requests for comment.
JAMIE JUNGERS
Two weeks after Woods’ collision, Jamie Jungers became the first of his alleged mistresses to be interviewed on live TV.
Wearing a fur-lined coat on the set of NBC’s “Today” show, Jungers, then 26, said her affair with Woods began in 2005 after the two met in Las Vegas.
The affair ended a year and a half later after she asked Woods for help with money problems and he declined, Jungers said. But her notoriety continued.
In August 2011, when Jungers was being questioned by Las Vegas police who suspected she had been driving under the influence, she told a police officer she was “a celebrity, related to Tiger Woods.” She was booked and convicted of DUI.
And booked again in Las Vegas in September 2015 on charges of possession of narcotics paraphernalia and driving on a revoked licence. And booked again in Las Vegas in November 2018 as a fugitive from another state on warrant. Her disappearance was featured on an episode of “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” when former bail bondsman Duane (Dog) Chapman helped hunt down Jungers and handed her over to police.
On camera, Jungers said she was struggling with an addiction to heroin — she was on probation in Kansas for heroin possession. She made another cameo on “Dog the Bounty Hunter” about three months later, reporting she was successfully completing rehab at KISA Life Recovery, a treatment centre in Sedan, Kansas.
Jungers, now 36, says she “graduated” from KISA Life Recovery and now works for the treatment centre.
JOSHUA EVANS
Evans arrived at the scene of the crash at 3:01 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 27, 2009. Accustomed to working DUI investigations during his year on the job, the 28-year-old trooper found himself handling the initial stage of investigating the high-profile incident.
On the accident report, Evans noted the estimated damage ($3,300 for the hedges, fire hydrant and tree, and another $8,000 for the Escalade) and diagrammed the winding route Woods took and the estimated speed (30 m.p.h. in a 25 zone).
Evans also went to Health Central Hospital in nearby Ocoee, where Woods had been treated and released, and sought a medical sample of Woods’ blood. He suspected the golfer might have been impaired at the time of the crash. But hospital workers turned Evans away, and the state’s attorney’s office denied Evans’ request for a subpoena to get a sample of Woods’ blood taken the night of the crash.
About four years later, in November 2013, Evans was involved in a high-speed chase. It ended with Evans and the man suspected of driving under the influence struggling at the front door of the home where the driver lived with his parents. Evans pulled out his Glock 37 and fired seven bullets into the front door, according to court documents. One of the bullets struck the man in the head but did not cause life-threatening injuries, according to court documents.
A grand jury cleared Evans in the incident. But an internal investigation found Evans violated the Florida Highway Patrol’s policy on excessive force, and he was suspended for 40 hours without pay, said public affairs officer Kim Montes.
Evans declined to comment for this story, according to Montes, who said Evans is still employed by the highway patrol and remains highly regarded for his work.
THE NEIGHBOURS
Jarius Adams and his sister, Kimberly Harris, told investigators they discovered Woods lying on the pavement in front of their parents’ house and Elin Nordegren, then Woods’ wife, standing over the golfer.
“Can you please help me?” Adams told investigators Nordegren asked him.
First, Adams called 911. “I need an ambulance immediately,” Adams can be heard saying on a recording of the 911 call. “I have someone down in front of my house.”
Then Adams and his sister wrapped Woods in a blanket and put a pillow under his head. But in the days that followed, things got less neighbourly.
“They all wanted Tiger to pay them, (that’s) what they really wanted, for helping him,” said Bill Sharpe, a Florida attorney who represented the family that owned the house next door to Woods’ former mansion. “That was the real issue.” After Woods’ car crash, Sharpe said, he got a call from Jerome Adams Jr., the brother of Jarius Adams and Harris. Their father owned the house next to Woods. Sharpe said he had represented Jerome Adams Jr. in the late 1990s on charges of passing worthless bank cheques.
Six months after the crash, Jerome Adams Jr. launched a website with a pay-per-view video trashing Woods. Adams charged $3.99 for videos.
On the surface, Sharpe said, it probably seemed odd that members of a family that lived in Isleworth, the exclusive gated subdivision, were charging $3.99 for anti-Tiger videos. “They had fallen on hard times,” Sharpe said.
Jerome Adams Sr., then a retired obstetrician/gynecologist, sold the family home in 2011 for $1.8 million. He and his wife moved into a home that cost less than $300,000, and he died in 2014.
THE ESCALADE
The SUV, which can be tracked by its VIN number, rolled off the General Motors assembly line in 2008. GM still owned the vehicle during the time of Woods’ crash. From there things get murky, although CARFAX offers some tidbits.
The Escalade has made its way to Arkansas, with its sixth owner. On May 9, on a rainy eveningin Springdale, Ark., Alicia Galvan, 38, was driving the Escalade when it collided with a Chevy Blazer. Galvan was cited for failure to yield the right of way and for driving without a driver’s licence or insurance.
Like Tiger Woods, there are a lot more miles on the Escalade. The last official odometer for the Escalade, according to a CARFAX report, shows 158,052 miles (254,360 km) — and still rolling along a decade after that fateful crash.
“They all wanted Tiger to pay them, (that’s) what they really wanted.” BILL SHARPE FLORIDA ATTORNEY