I've said all along I'm not jumping to either conclusion. I'm giving Richie the benefit of the doubt and I tried to find holes in original story to help vindicate him (the identity of the police officer & department). But I'm not going to assume Richie is innocent just because he used to play guitar in my favorite band and the woman is lying about being abused just because she's a "bad" girl. Richie's a notorious "bad" boy who's been accused of abuse before.

Neither one of them are exactly pillars of integrity.

IF this accusation was coming from anyone else, ANYONE, we would all be taking this much more seriously. But anyone who knows much about her and Sean Borg could have seen something like this coming a mile away the day their relationship turned sour.

My bet those tapes will never surface, because my bet is that they don't exist. I doubt this conversation happened the way she describes.

Richie has proven to be a POS in recent years, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Now wouldn't it be funny if the police dept sued her for *insert legal lingo here* wasting their time with her lies and assorted BS?! ;)

I'm not saying Richie did nothing at all, actually I'm even ready to believe he did say he'd kill and bury her but it was not a threat, lt was just the kind of things you say in anger, sober or drunk, and it was over the phone, it wasn't as violent as when you're having an argument with the person in front of you. Quareling over the phone doesn't lead you to jail!

Now I'm sure there's no tape so it'll remain a she said/he said story.

Expecting a video about it. Rare that TMZ have not yet.

http://oi58.tinypic.com/fu9pi0.jpg

There's a video in one of the links I posted, can't remember which one but not TMZ for sure. Just some blah blah blah with "normal" photos.

I wasn't suggesting that you were jumping to conclusions about Richie. I was referring to your earlier statement:

"Being a woman, a psychologist, and a survivor of abuse, I tend to always give the person who says they've been abused the benefit of the doubt. In this case the accused is a known alcoholic/drug addict who has been accused before. I'm not assuming Richie is guilty. But I'm not going to assume Nikki is a lying, unreliable bitch either. I think to do so is misogynistic."

That said however, there's still a world of difference between being "accused of abuse" by ex-girlfriends and proving yourself to be an attention seeking schemer through your own publicity stunts like Nikki has done.

For the record, I don't know if Richie is innocent or not; but I do believe in "innocent until proven guilty." Of course, seeing the posts here over the past two years, that whole concept is nonexistent to some. It's funny how up until April two years ago Richie was pretty well recognized by fans, as well as peers in the industry, as "one of the good guys" but since then he's a notorious bad boy who seems to be unable to do anything right and whose whole personality gets darker with each passing day. That's not directed at you personally; it just seems to be the general attitude here.

Maybe it didn't make the final cut or Jon was just making a point how Tico had issues but got through the tough times with the help of the band and is fine now. That couldn't be said for Richie who still had (has?) problems with alcohol.

It's one thing to go on vacation with someone and something completely different to live with them. Ally Sheedy said herself it took some time before she got introduced to his dark side.

I do believe in the phrase "in vino veritas" in effect that people tend to show their hidden nature when they are drunk. Again going back to the WWWB documentary the fact that Jon said he himself is a happy drunk coincides with the impression of him I have. He's happy with his life and is not afraid of getting old. He's lived the rock 'n' roll life and has come to terms with who he is. This is good for him but not as good for the fans since he has lost the drive and desire to prove to the world how good he can be. That's why I believe we've been getting auto pilot albums.

Richie on the other hand strikes me as a very insecure person. His problem is that for Bon Jovi fans he is Richie Sambora, guitar god but for everyone else it's pretty much Richie who?

He's been a role model to a lot of people (including me) but his desire to be acknowledged by the general public has made him come off as desperate and arrogant and has lowered his coolness. What was cool about Richie in my eyes was that he was relatively unknown but his guitar playing was virtually unmatched (sort of a secret super hero).

His inferiority syndrome has been present since the early days and I believe was also a factor for their split after New Jersey. Richie was a guitar god in 1995 and received a lot of recognition so he was happy while Richie from 2015 is a washed up rock star, desparate for attention and this just makes him do more stupid stuff. He wants to be cool but by doing stuff he thinks will make him popular like being arrogant and trying to make it look like he was the main reason Bon Jovi ever got big, he is just becoming a sad caricature of himself. I wish someone would just sit him down and tell him: "You're Richie f****n Sambora, guitar god. Just be yourself and stop acting like an idiot."

I'm glad to see the TMZ article was fairly even handed.

I agree with Jackie, also, Becky I didn't know you were a psychologist. That's very cool.

Thank you. I only have a Master's, not a Ph.D. I primarily assess and diagnose.

There were stories of "Dark Richie" floating around way back when when I was in the pen-palling days of the early 90's. They are not something that just started since he left the band.