Joshua Waring, the son of former Real Housewives of Orange County cast member Lauri Peterson, has been charged with felony possession and being under the influence of drugs in Orange County’s Central Jail, where he is being held on more than $1 million bail as he awaits trial for allegedly trying to murder someone.
We reported last year on Costa Mesa cops arriving at a residence in the early morning hours to find 36-year-old Daniel Lopez suffering from a gunshot wound to his lower torso that was serious, Police Lt. Greg Scott said at the time. Lopez went on to survive his injuries.
Witnesses pointed investigators to the driver of a stolen 2011 BMW X3 sport utility vehicle, which later that same morning was spotted from an Orange County sheriff’s helicopter in the area of Standard and McFadden avenues in Santa Ana. When officers in patrol cars approached the white BMW, it took off. That led to a short chase that ended when the SUV crashed near Fourth and Terminal streets, where the driver got out and ran into a nearby business, where after a brief standoff he surrendered and was later identified as Waring, 28, of San Juan Capistrano. Evidence related to the shooting was found in the BMW, but a gun was not, Scott noted at the time.
Waring’s trial was scheduled to begin next week, but he is now also facing charges of felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor being under the influence while behind bars, according to court records.
His mother reportedly decided after his arrest that she would not bail him out in hopes he could kick a longtime drug habit.
Waring certainly knows his way around lockup. In fact, Peterson left Housewives in 2008, claiming she needed a break to deal with Waring’s legal problems. She had turned him in June of that year for possession of heroin and Ecstasy with intent to sell, and he served 240 days in jail. In July 2009, Orange County sheriff’s deputies doing a probation check say they found him with drug paraphernalia, which violated his parole. Nearly a year to the day later, Waring was picked up for a warrant for another parole violation.
He was popped Oct. 10, 2013, for felony grand theft auto involving a 2005 Cadillac that was not his, possession of an opium pipe and needles and with trying to destroy evidence (said needles). Waring’s wife was also arrested for possession of a billy club. Speaking of which, Waring has also previously been busted for battery on a spouse or significant other and false imprisonment, both misdemeanors.
Meanwhile, The Inquisitir reports the child of another former Real Housewives of Orange County star is headed to jail. Alexa Curtin, the daughter of Lynne Curtin, has reportedly been sentenced to 30 days behind bars for an unspecified probation violation. She originally got in hot water in 2015 for stealing from Macy’s and assaulting a woman.
As my colleague R. Scott Moxley has reported, Alexa Curtin followed her arrest by claiming she had been raped a year earlier by an Orange County sheriff’s deputy who had pulled her vehicle over.
As I previously reported, Alexa used to perform as “barely legal” porn star Jayden Taylors.
Back to Inquisitir, reporter Amy Feinstein notes Alexa Curtin is running into credibility problems with her allegations because she did not file the case against the deputy in a timely manner and she hid the fact she had been a porn star.
Then again, if we go back to a Moxley follow-up, we discover two more women allege that Deputy Nicholas Lee Caropino assaulted them.
Plot, you’ve been thickened.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.