Rush's housekeeper levels charges

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 3, 2003 | by John Pacenti

But one month later, Limbaugh called and asked if he could get an even more powerful painkiller: OxyContin, Wilma Cline told the Enquirer. She started to keep a log of her purchases, she said, and within the first 47 days she delivered 4,350 pills to Limbaugh.

She said Limbaugh because increasingly paranoid, one time groping her to see if she was wearing a recording device. He tried to kick his habit again at a New York hospital to no avail, she said.

In 2002, Wilma Cline said, a Palm Beach lawyer gave her a check for $100,000 and made her sign a promissory note, but said the "loan" would never be collected. Four months later, in November, the lawyer gave her a check for $100,000 and told her not to give Limbaugh more pills.

The attorney also told her to hand over the computer retaining Limbaugh's e-mails, Wilma Cline said, but she took the hard drive from another computer and smashed it in front of him. Then the Clines sought legal help.

Enquirer Editor-in-Chief David Perel declined to say if the Clines were paid for their story, but said the tabloid does pay for interviews. The Clines could not be reached.

David Cline was arrested for cocaine trafficking in 1982. He posted bond and then skipped, living as a fugitive under different names until surrendering in 1989. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

In April 2000, while he and his wife were allegedly supplying Limbaugh with drugs, Cline was arrested in Palm Beach County and charged with identity theft, having a counterfeit or stolen driver license and a false vehicle registration, possessing marijuana and resisting arrest. He wound up with a combined sentence of time served, 18 months probation, community service and court costs.

The injury that put a hydrocodone prescription into David Cline's hands happened in March 1998, while he was doing odd jobs at the Palm Beach home of Patricia Bradshaw. A pull-down attic ladder broke, sending him crashing to the floor. The Clines sued Bradshaw for $75,000, but Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga ruled against them in January 2001.

Under questioning by Bradshaw's attorney, Cline said he had made $40,000 to $50,000 a year and that he had not filed any income tax returns for the preceding five years. He also said he had used an alias to avoid paying child support for two children from a previous marriage.

Contributing: Thomas R. Collins, Larry Hobbs, Robert P. King and Tim O'Meila.