Lamar Odom News: Criminal Charges Could Slam Ailing Star After Positive Cocaine Test, Report Says
Lamar Odom, the former NBA star who became a reality TV personality when he married Khloe Kardashian of the gossip-tabloid staple Kardashian clan in 2009, remains in Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles this week as he struggles to recover from what appeared to be a drug overdose suffered during a four-day weekend stay at Love Ranch, a legal prostitution establishment about 80 miles outside of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert.
But once Odom is on his feet again, his problems may not be over. According to new reports emerging on Monday, the former Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers star who also starred in the Kardashian-based reality show Khloe And Lamar, could be looking at criminal charges and even jail time over his alleged use and possession of cocaine at the Nevada brothel.
Police investigators in Nye County, Nevada, obtained a search warrant while Odom was still in a coma after he was found unconscious in a suite at Love Ranch, with a bleeding nose and a white fluid oozing from his mouth, according to a description in the search warrant.
The investigator who completed an affidavit in support of investigators’ search warrant request said that those symptoms were indicative of a cocaine overdose. And now, according to a report by the celebrity gossip site TMZ, the results of testing on that blood sample are in — and the officer’s instincts have been confirmed.
According to the reports, the Lamar Odom blood sample tested positive for cocaine, indicating that the Kardashian-by-marriage did, in fact, ingest cocaine while at the Nevada brothel.
Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly has said that criminal charges against Odom were “distinctly possible,” according to a report in The New York Daily News. But police have not yet submitted charges to prosecutors.
“The Sheriff’s Office has yet to submit any matter involving Mr. Odom to my office. If and when the matter is submitted, it will go through a screening process as do all cases,” said Nye County District Attorney Angela Bello in a statement issued on Monday afternoon.”This will involve a review of all the evidence gathered as part of the Sheriff’s investigation and based on that evidence, a decision as to what, if any, charges would be appropriate will be made.”
According to the police affidavit in the search warrant application, two prostitutes who provided services and companionship to Odom during his four-day stay at the Love Ranch brothel told investigators that they heard Odom snorting what they assumed was cocaine through a bathroom door in the exclusive Love Ranch suite.
“Through interviews with the prostitutes who were with him since that point, it was learned that he possibly ingested cocaine in the bathroom,” Detective Michael Eisenloffel said in the police affidavit.
Odom’s cocaine use may not only have exposed him to criminal charges and even a possible prison sentence, it may have caused him permanent damage. According to reports, the 35-year-old native of Queens, New York, suffered as many as 12 strokes in the aftermath of his apparent overdose.
Whether the strokes will affect Odom’s cognitive or motor functions on a permanent or long-term basis is not yet known.
Odom and Khloe Kardashian filed for divorce in 2013, but the divorce was never finalized and now the couple is believed to have petitioned a judge to dismiss the divorce proceedings as they have now decided to give their marriage a second chance.
But Khloe Kardashian also reportedly given Lamar Odom the news that she would start divorce proceedings all over again if he relapsed into drug use again, after his current, potentially life-threatening experience.
[Featured Image By Mike Hermann / Getty Images]
