The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist (2022) s01e03 Episode Script

1
Let's turn now to the Bling Ring,
a year-long crime spree.
- A ring that targeted
- Hollywood's rich and famous.
- Orlando Bloom.
- Lindsay Lohan.
- Paris Hilton.
- We've got video.
Two million dollars in jewelry.
Then a large amount of narcotics.
Horrified by what they did to me.
A new movie premieres today
and is based on the real-life story
of a gang of teenagers,
whose obsession with celebrity
led to a headline-making burglary spree.
Emma Watson is imitating
this burglar for a movie.
I had a lot of work to do
to try and get into character.
Somehow I had to understand
and empathize with her.
It's frustrating that the biggest star
in this movie is playing me.
I wanna rob.
They made me the Bling Ring leader.
It's just totally not based
in any reality.
She wasn't really
the main player in the Bling Ring.
But the story wouldn't have been
as popular as it was
if it wasn't for me.
Nick wasn't selling it.
Um, I was essentially the face
of the Bling Ring.
Alexis is just an expansion.
It bothers me.
There's no criminal on Earth
who thinks they get a fair shake
on TV or in the movies.
They're all narcissistic.
For heaven sakes,
this is not a documentary.
I think it would have made more sense
to cast high-profile actors
for Rachel and me.
I don't know if Israel Broussard
was like, the best fit.
I just don't think
he really looked a lot like me.
Who would you have
chosen to play you in The Bling Ring?
I don't know, like, a super young, like,
you know, maybe like, a Tom Cruise?
In nearly every crime story,
a time comes when the tables
are turned on the bad guys
and the good guys
start writing the script.
And for the Bling Ring,
it was time they traded in
their expensive clothes and jewelry
for jail jumpsuits and chains.
With this getting media attention,
a couple of citizen informants
did step forward
and provided the names
of two of the people
that they recognized
from the surveillance videos:
Nick Prugo and Rachel Lee.
My mother comes in my bedroom
with a phone in her hand, crying.
So, she gives me the phone.
"Hi, I'm the detective in charge."
"We need you to come outside
with your hands up. You're under arrest."
And I just
I was taken down
to the Hollywood Police Station.
The cops were trying to question me
for burglary at Lindsay Lohan's house.
He said one charge of 459,
you get anywhere
between two and six years prison.
Being 18, I was terrified.
I mean, I was gonna do some time.
Working against us is the fact
that we haven't recovered
much evidence at his house.
I had moved all the stolen property
to a storage facility at my grandmother's.
Also, the CCTV evidence
against Nick was not particularly strong.
It's very grainy footage.
And the individuals that participated
in those burglaries with him
had not been arrested.
You know, at this time,
Rachel had traveled to Vegas.
Her dad had a townhome there and Rachel
was gonna go stay with him for a while.
The cops try to schmooze you and tell you,
"Just tell us what happened.
Everything'll be fine."
Like, yeah, whatever.
I come to find out that they didn't know
anything about anything.
We needed more
in order to secure a conviction.
Mark.
My name is Sarika Kim.
I am a deputy district attorney
for the Los Angeles County
District Attorney's Office.
My name is Christine Kee.
I'm a deputy district attorney.
And we represent the State of California.
My role is as a trial attorney.
So, if it goes to trial,
I conduct the trial.
Residential burglary
is a very serious offense,
and that's because you can never regain
that sense of safety within your own home.
I remember Lindsay Lohan saying
she had not been back to her house
at all since it happened.
For these celebrities,
in their homes is really the only place
where they felt
that they had some privacy.
I had the truth on my side,
and I have faith
and confidence in our system.
But although in this case we had
surveillance footage, it wasn't enough.
We had to prove that they weren't
just entering to take a picture
next to Lindsey Lohan's chandelier.
We have to prove that they had intent
when they entered to commit a felony.
And do you remember
how you went about that in this case?
Nick Prugo.
That's how we were able to do that.
I got bailed out.
I went home.
My family was shocked.
They didn't know what to say. I mean, I
I was in real trouble.
So, my dad initially had called a lawyer
that he knew to be good,
but I didn't want an old geezer
with a potbelly,
even if that was the best attorney
in town to represent me.
I wanted somebody that looked flashy
and looked good.
The image was more important almost
than the qualification.
Enter an attorney named Sean Erenstoft.
How are you feeling?
Good. Strong. Ready to go.
I was contacted one evening
by a client of mine.
Said, "Hey, I'm at Miyagi's on Sunset."
"Could you come?
I've got a friend I want you to meet."
Free sushi started coming my way,
a little sake,
and I was introduced to Nick Prugo.
So, Sean, you know,
was in a nice tailored suit.
Talked up a good game.
I was steadfast
on becoming a lawyer from age 11.
You could tell he worked out.
Nice jaw line.
In terms of success,
I wasn't losing any of my jury trials.
Flashy, had his Porsche.
I did a lot of work with people
behind and in front of the camera.
He fit the image that I wanted,
and so I told my parents,
"I know you guys have somebody for me,
but I think I know what's best for me."
And they let me make my own choice
as to who I wanted to defend me.
So, at this point,
the police had only connected me
to Lindsay Lohan
and Audrina Patridge's burglaries.
And, it's weird, you know,
because I also still believe, like,
this is gonna be worked out in court
and I'm gonna come out with no time.
I got on the phone
with the rest of the girls.
I said, "Get rid of your shit,
and I'm not saying a word."
What concerned me is
that if the cops put one and one together,
he was facing a cascade
of additional charges.
I think I calculated
that he was facing 48 years.
My role in his life at that point
was to keep him out of jail,
and I provided him
a prescription for doing that.
Maybe a week after I'd actually
retained him, got a call saying:
Are you willing to come 100% clean?
If you are, then immunity might work.
He had spoken
to the detective in charge
and they worked out a deal where
if I were to confess to all the burglaries
and implicate everybody,
that I would walk away
scot-free with immunity,
and he called it an immunity agreement.
Come clean with everything
and probably get out unscathed.
I wouldn't be in trouble.
I just need to implicate
all of my friends.
I was so conflicted, because I knew
this would be the end of me and Rachel,
the end of me and Alexis.
I would have no one,
and I'd be back at square one
from, you know, where I was in 2004, 2005.
So, it was a hard decision.
Time was of the essence.
If he was gonna come clean,
before the cops put one and one together,
he had to be the first one
out of the gates.
A few weeks
after Nick got arrested,
Tess told Nick
that I had called the police.
I received a phone call from Nick
that was really heated.
And he, you know, said to me,
"You were involved
in Orlando Bloom's house."
It felt very threatening.
But I didn't think that I was in trouble
because my involvement was so little,
and I believed he was gonna stay silent
and he got caught for these
two robberies and that was it.
I was very conflicted,
because I didn't want to have to rat out
all of my friends at the time,
but I listened to my attorney and I said,
"Okay, if this is my, you know, best shot,
if this is what I should do, let's do it."
I get to Sean's office
with Sean and two officers
and then Detective Goodkin.
Brett Goodkin, what a character.
He was upwardly mobile
in the Los Angeles Police Department.
He wanted to be the one
to break open the case.
Nick was gonna make him famous.
And that's when Sean
looked at me and said,
"All right, tell them everything."
Nick just opened the floodgates
to all these other burglaries
the investigators didn't even know
had been committed.
This was, in my opinion, unusual.
Most attorneys will advise their client,
"Let's wait to see what the investigation
presents before you say anything."
I skipped out of that office.
I thought I wasn't going to jail anymore,
and at the same time, it was
It was sad. It was like the death
of those friendships.
I knew they would never recover.
Nick identifies the individuals
that participated
in those burglaries with him.
He really laid it all out for us,
and I don't know how easily
it would have been
to connect all the dots
without his confession.
And now this thing
has just kind of blown wide open
as a result of Nick's cooperation.
Our reality show got picked up
for the first episode,
and if the show was well received,
then we would know
if we got the green light
to move forward for a full season.
Oh my God, Gen. Fuck off.
The initial idea was,
there were three sisters
that were homeschooled by their mom
that were trying to break into Hollywood.
So, what are some qualities
you admire about Angelina Jolie?
Her husband.
Okay.
Her hot bod.
I thought we had enough for an episode,
but I wasn't sure
what their story was gonna be
- to have a whole series.
- Right.
Day one of filming was a mess.
We went out clubbing.
The night was messy,
and we had been partying really late.
So, I rolled into the house
around three to four in the morning,
popped a Xanax thinking we're gonna
have to be up for makeup at 7:00.
7:30 a.m., my phone was ringing.
The gentleman that was on
the other end of the line said,
"This is Detective Ramirez."
And at that moment, the production crew
had shown up on our property
and was ready to start filming.
Next thing I know,
somebody's knocking at the door.
Okay, I'm coming. Just a minute.
And then I started to think
maybe this is E!,
setting us up for, like,
drama in the first episode.
- Hello?
- LAPD.
- What?
- We have a warrant to search your house.
I was totally freaked out. I was like,
"What the fuck is going on here?"
Get up, right now!
- We're coming in now.
- Girls, get up right now!
Shut off the cameras.
Before I knew it,
there was, like, officers upstairs.
I was so angry. I was angry at the girls.
How dare you do whatever you did
that's causing me
the level of humiliation and embarrassment
that I'm feeling right now.
They found stuff
from Rachel Bilson's house,
and that was enough to bring
Tess and I in for questioning.
It was really, really scary.
We spent a lot of time in prayer that day.
know that this whole experience
right here and right now
is strictly for the highest good
for each
They were a mess.
So, we were filming that.
I don't want anyone to get arrested,
but I love it when something
good happens like that on a show.
I remember thinking,
"Guess we have a show now."
- "Guess we have a show."
- 'Cause we
Before that, we were like,
"What is this show?"
I'm in the interrogation room.
Just stay calm, Alexis.
And I'm also, like,
on a bunch of Xanax.
I was, like, tripping out.
You're fine. Don't start crying.
Don't start screaming.
They showed me pictures
of surveillance video.
Stay calm, Alexis. You're fine. Stay calm.
They asked,
"Do you know who these people are?"
Like, they kept going over
and over and over.
Just stay calm, Alexis. You're fine.
I was like, "No, no, no, no," you know.
And then they were like,
"Well, Nick says that that's you."
And I was like, "Oh, okay."
When they booked me,
I saw the other girls.
We didn't say a word to each other.
We were driven to jail,
where we were booked and waited for bail.
I'm on TMZ.
Haven't you guys got enough now?
How much was your bail?
I see that everybody I knew
was being arrested.
The charges range from residential
burglary to a large amount of narcotics.
The next article I scrolled down to
is an article about me being charged
with multiple additional burglaries.
I call Sean, and I'm like,
"What the fuck? What is this?"
Sean basically said, "Well, you know,
this is kind of procedure."
"You will get immunity."
I said, "Can I get a copy of, you know,
the agreement for the immunity?"
Um, and he said, quote,
"Oh, I don't have that."
"I shook Detective Goodkin's hand,
and I trust him for his word."
I knew something was wrong.
That didn't sound right.
Immunity deals are usually in writing.
But I knew that I couldn't get
a written immunity deal.
The reason I was comfortable
with it not being in writing
is because I already had
Brett Goodkin's commitment
that he'd place it in writing
in the form of a police report.
Whether it was a written immunity deal
or a promise,
Nick was going to be the rat
and he was gonna be
rewarded for it on the tail end.
There was never any conversation
about giving him immunity.
Most attorneys I know would tell
their client, "Do not talk to the police."
What kind of fucking attorney
would advise your client to do that
when there was never
any written deal in place?
Attorney 101 would teach you:
Get it in fucking writing.
I met with the district attorney,
and I explained that I have a witness
that's ready, willing, and able
to be the State's prime witness.
"Let's do a deal."
No, given his culpability
and his level of involvement in this case,
any sort of leniency wouldn't,
in my opinion, be justice.
At that point, I was starting to feel
and realize that I was fucked.
We get to Van Nuys,
and we go through processing.
Nothing was going through my mind
except, "Get me the fuck out of here."
Do you know who
the mastermind of all the break-ins are?
I I don't know.
The burglaries
were a big story in the news.
What's your relationship
with Nick Prugo?
- Um
- It no longer exists.
I don't know who was tipping off TMZ.
I'm pretty sure that the production crew
called the paparazzi.
It wasn't us.
I made a call out to my mom
and she told me,
"If you do get out, it's a shit show."
The network was not saying
whether or not
they were going to keep the show.
And my intention
was that they would keep the show.
So, what I felt like was important
was for them to show her being released.
I knew that that was gonna be
an important scene
is her coming out of jail.
It was pure and utter chaos.
It was the first time
I had ever experienced, like, paparazzi.
It's really overwhelming.
Like, everything is kind of dizzy
and spinning and not making sense.
And I think that was
the beginning of the media
spinning the narrative
of me being the face of the Bling Ring.
Even though I was only implicated
in one burglary,
it's very clear that the truth
doesn't matter to the media.
Unlock the fucking car!
That was good.
The next day, it started all over again.
The producers decided they were gonna
have to shoot that arrest scene.
So, we fabricated it.
Just a minute. Shh!
- Hello?
- LAPD.
- What?
- We have a warrant to search your house.
- Hello?
- LAPD.
- What?
- We have a warrant to search your house.
What you're actually seeing,
is a film crew
on the inside
and some producers
on the outside banging on the door.
- Coming in now.
- Girls! Get up right now!
Shut off the cameras.
Having to remake this was brutal.
The arrest itself, how were you
able to cover that? Do you remember?
No.
It's all just, um, fake.
Having staged that when I hadn't even had
any time to process what was going on,
it was pretty traumatic.
The whole thing was pretty traumatic.
Was there ever a conversation
about whether or not you should continue?
Once the network said
that they were good and green-lit it,
everybody just said, "Okay, here we go."
Now that we have Nick's confession,
we have to corroborate the information
that he's been providing about these
individuals, connect them to the crime.
Nick and Rachel were very hot
on the social scene.
We would be at parties
and someone would take a photo of us
and we just so happen to be, you know,
wearing the stolen merchandise.
Back then, and still to this day,
there is some naïveté about social media.
I don't think
a lot of people understood
how what they post
can be used against them.
There is an expectation that
it's for your circle of friends, family,
but the Internet is forever.
Somebody who knew the group
had offered her Facebook page
as a window for the LAPD
to spy on the Bling Ring.
It was the first case
that I'm aware of
where they committed a crime using
the Internet and they were very savvy.
Unfortunately, it was their downfall too.
So
All we needed to do
was go to their social media accounts,
and it was very easy to connect them
to the celebrity property.
Whatever the police wanted,
I wanted to give it to them,
'cause I was hoping it would curry favor.
So, I would look at photos of the girls
wearing the stolen merchandise,
and I would email them over
to Brett Goodkin.
It allowed us early on to kind of
create a kind of flow chart
of, you know, "Who's this person?"
"They know each other
because they friended each other."
So, now you've got photographs
of them wearing the stolen property.
So, this really is starting
to resolve this case
in a very comprehensive and effective way.
These are perfect
to hide from the paparazzi.
They are.
Dark, shaded, cover my whole face.
Pretty.
- They'll be like, "Is that Alexis?" "No."
- "No."
During that time, I was living,
like, multiple different lives.
The day after I was released
Come on in.
the show got the green light
to move forward for the season.
It felt really exciting,
and that helped me escape
from the very real possibility
that I was going to go to prison.
- Thirty-three.
- Give me some attitude.
Twenty-four.
- So cute.
- And hips, 34.
We had to figure out
what the series would be.
- But now, we obviously had
- A framework.
a framework for it, exactly, yeah.
i.e.?
- The trial.
- Take one, mark.
Was it an interesting
or exciting prospect for you as a case?
Having her have a reality show
during that timeframe
was not my preference.
Not at all.
My experience is a little different.
At that time, I would say
I was pretty ambitious
and it was interesting that we were, uh,
all of a sudden in the middle
of a high-profile case.
Amber and Gennifer said,
"Look, can we just get
a scene of you telling Alexis
what she can wear to court?"
And I think it made
for a pretty amusing scene.
I'd like to know what I should be wearing.
Not that hat, to start with.
I'm wearing casual.
It's 80 degrees outside.
My head's warm and I'm bald.
Her having a reality show,
it reminded me of what I believed,
which is, they're doing this
just to be seen and just to be relevant.
What I watched
made me think that, you know,
I don't think they're ever
gonna take this seriously.
There was a request to mic the courtroom
for their preliminary hearing
which is unusual.
- Is counsel joined?
- Joined.
Ms. Kapoor, call your first witness.
The People call
Detective Brett Goodkin.
A preliminary hearing is a chance
for the court to step in and say,
"I don't believe there's enough evidence,"
or, "There is sufficient evidence,"
and then the charges can go forward.
Have you spoken to Nicholas Prugo
in relation to this investigation?
I have.
He's a co-defendant.
Who did he indicate to you was depicted
in that video surveillance with him?
Ms. Neiers. Miss
In that scene, it looks like
they didn't have that much on me.
It was Nick's word against mine.
Has Mr. Prugo ever lied to you?
No. I don't believe Mr. Prugo's
ever lied to me.
Nothing further.
What you're seeing is this detective
wanted to bring them down hard.
Your Honor, the defense
would like to make a motion
to dismiss based
on the insufficiency of the evidence.
The motion to dismiss
is respectfully denied.
After the preliminary hearing,
my confidence in our ability
to win this case started to go down,
and so we have to do
everything in our power
to keep me from going to jail.
Now, the latest
on the Hollywood burglary ring
allegedly run by teenagers.
The Bling Ring court cases were huge.
Every single news station,
internationally, was covering this.
We're not gonna answer
any further questions at this time.
We won't make any comment.
I was ambitious
and liked some of the attention.
The interest wasn't just
they targeted celebrities,
it was the brazenness
of keeping the clothes
and wearing it themselves.
Nicholas Prugo was not the ringleader.
Nick played a much more limited role
than as previously reported.
I was talking to the press
to create public sympathy for him,
because we want to reward someone
who comes clean.
Prugo confessed.
He also named his accomplices to police.
The girls were so bored
with the whole thing.
They couldn't be bothered.
They could not be bothered.
What made the Bling Ring particularly
newsworthy was Alexis Neiers.
- Oh my God. Lexy and Tess.
- Hi.
The fact that it was somebody
who had this reality TV show
There's a saying in Hollywood,
there's no such thing as bad publicity,
but the so-called Bling Ring
might be pushing the limits.
Eighteen-year-old defendant,
Alexis Neiers,
turned up to court on Monday
with a reality TV crew in tow.
There's been all of this
really negative high-profile press.
Part of our legal strategy
was to change the narrative.
Jeff came to me with the prospect
of doing a feature piece in Vanity Fair.
And this was going to be the opportunity
to really share about
this other side of me
that people weren't getting
through the television show.
And the reporter agreed
to be filmed interviewing me.
First of all,
what is it like to be you?
Good, actually.
I find myself, um, just to be
a normal teenage girl.
Like, big into shoes and handbags.
For a girl looking
to break into Hollywood,
you know, this was a legit big deal.
All the celebrities she idolizes
are in Vanity Fair.
When you say shoes and handbags,
what kind of shoes, handbags?
Everything from Christian Louboutin
to Miu Miu to YSL.
It felt exciting to be in a publication,
um, that wasn't just, like, TMZ.
Hopefully,
this will be my shot at redemption.
To speak to the media while the case
was going is shocking to me.
I don't know what defense attorney
would allow their client to do that.
Only because something
might come out inadvertently,
that's incriminating and then
it's recorded for everyone to see.
Someone at E!
had called me and said,
"Oh my God, Amber. I got the Vanity Fair."
So, I literally drove by E!,
got the magazine,
and it was their only copy and I was
reading it, and I'm like, "Oh God."
I knew she wasn't gonna like it.
I definitely knew she wasn't
gonna like what she what she read.
So, we ended up putting it
in their mailbox.
Found it. Yes! Yes!
Wow.
Oh my God! I'm in Vanity Fair!
I remember feeling really good
that this was going to help me
and my case.
Hold on. Let me read this.
"The suspect wore Louboutins."
What?
Okay.
"The most audacious burglary gang
in recent Hollywood history
appears to be a bunch
of club-hopping Valley kids
motivated by vanity
and celebrity worship."
- That's a lie.
- This is a lie. What the?
Seeing Alexis's face,
I just remember feeling so fucked.
"Neiers arrived at Los Angeles
Superior Court for her arraignment
wearing a tweed mini skirt,
a pink sweater,
and six-inch Christian Louboutin heels."
The Louboutin heels paints a picture of me
that I'm some rich, spoiled brat,
who doesn't take this case seriously
when that couldn't have been
further from the truth.
I wasn't wearing Louboutins!
I was wearing
little brown kitten heels. bitch!
I was watching it on the monitors,
and I was like, this is reality gold.
They said, "Why don't you call her?
Why don't you call Nancy?"
Nancy Jo, this Alexis Neiers.
I'm calling to let you know
how disappointed I am in your story.
How horrible you me.
You lied!
- Stop!
- You lied!
- Stop!
- Why did you do it?
Stop it, Mom!
- You lied!
- Stop!
It's crazy.
- It is really such a good scene.
- Yeah, it's really a good scene.
We did not anticipate that that article
was going to be so detrimental.
I mean, there's nobody
who would have been in that jury
who wouldn't have known
about that article.
Things were not looking good.
This was just a sexist hit piece,
trying to paint me in a negative light
based off of the way that I looked.
You didn't see
that same reporting for Nick.
Nick was very upset that Pretty Wild
had gone into production
and that he wasn't invited
to be a part of it.
He wanted that exposure.
And in LA, fame and infamy
are very much the same thing.
Now I had paparazzi following me.
Even though this is for something awful,
I'm getting that fame which I wanted.
She said that, you need
to work for this stuff like she did.
Yeah, um
There were some times when I was out
and I would call my contact at TMZ
and have them take photos of me.
One time,
the paparazzi followed me,
and I was wearing Orlando Bloom's hat
and his sunglasses.
I wanted to play the part, if you will.
Nick was fame-addicted.
I was basically dealing with a moth
attracted to the flame.
So, ABC, NBC, CBS,
all the networks were approaching Sean
for, you know,
for me to do a sit-down interview.
I let Nick know that,
"Look, you're not the best messenger
to be asking for an easier time."
But he was not satisfied,
and so now, Nick was going on shows
without my consent.
And one of the ringleaders, Nick Prugo,
joins us now from Los Angeles.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
This was just the most hot story
at the moment.
I felt like I was some sort of celebrity.
Why did you all do this
in the first place?
Well, why is It's kind of
a hard question for me to answer
'cause there's a lot of factors.
I mean, it was definitely
There was a thrill to it, but
Good Morning America, that's when
I realized I lost control of my client.
That was pretty much the turning point.
With the confession and everything,
Sean torpedoed my entire possible defense.
I mean, I needed to end
my dealings with Sean.
And so, through ABC,
we were able to secure a fee
and a connection with an attorney
that would represent me.
That was the end of our relationship.
I canned him.
With the trial around the corner,
my mental health was deteriorating
and my addiction was getting worse.
I was aware of the fact
that Alexis was using heroin.
Oh, I felt powerless.
So powerless and so hopeless
and so unable to communicate with her.
Whatever. I'm just I need to rest
right now. So, can you just go?
- We knew nothing about drugs because
- We didn't know anything.
I think that E!
would have shut it down so quickly.
The show never identified
that Alexis was a heroin addict.
So, they had to make something up.
I was told that I was gonna go
into the bathroom and find these pills.
My mother agreed
to partaking in this
very, like, shaming scene.
What What's the problem?
You're a drug addict.
I'm a drug addict?
- Yes, you have an addiction problem.
- I'm done.
I just lost it in that moment.
You have a choice! You have not
I couldn't trust anybody.
People had their own motivations
outside of my well-being.
At that point, there were things
looking sort of better in the case,
and the producers of the show,
they wanted to know
if we could kind of do a scene where
I told her things were maybe looking good.
We've got some news.
There's been some developments.
It's good news.
It looks like that
if everything is as Alexis has said it is
Uh-huh.
then we may be able
to make this go away for you.
Really?
We're pretty confident that, you know,
we can maybe have a good resolution.
- Oh my God.
- Oh my God.
I'm not gonna get too excited,
but that was the best news
I've gotten in, like, five months.
I got extremely emotional,
because I felt a little glimmer of hope.
And I don't know if that was even real.
What you're seeing is produced.
Highly-produced reality television.
And, um
looking back,
I'm not proud of those incidents.
Jeff, being part of that show
did not cloud Jeff's or my judgment
in the handling of the case.
I just want to make that really clear.
That is the way that I see it,
it's completely separate
from the case itself.
We were going to trial,
and we felt
like we had a really strong defense.
And then all of a sudden
it ended up that Orlando Bloom
was planning on testifying against me.
Anytime you have a living,
breathing victim on the stand
saying how their rights were violated,
it's always gonna make it harder
for a defendant.
My attorneys were concerned
jurors would pick a side
based off of Orlando's status.
She could have been sentenced
if she was found guilty at trial to
Worst-case scenario
would've been six years state prison.
The ball was in my court, because if they
want to get out of this, short of trial,
I'll work with them on a plea agreement.
We were offered a plea deal.
It was six months
in the Lynwood Correctional Facility.
I mean, I remember us
struggling over the
The decision at that point.
But it was entirely her decision.
You have this fantasy as a lawyer
that in this case,
truth and justice are going to rue the day
and show the detectives
to be the liars that they are
and show Alexis to be
kind of an innocent person
present at the scene,
and she's found not guilty,
and we all have a hero's welcome.
Even in heavily-produced reality TV
it just doesn't happen like that.
Today, Alexis entered a no-contest plea
to one count of residential burglary
and accepted some county jail time
in order to avoid trial.
Alexis Neiers was sentenced
to three years of formal probation
and 180 days county jail
and restitution for the losses.
By the time I got to jail,
I had nothing.
The show was over.
At that point,
my addiction was really bad,
and I was literally losing my mind.
I just wanted to die. I was done.
After I had completed
the interviews with ABC,
I hired the new attorneys,
and we began damage control.
This was a really interesting
phenomenon going on in this case,
because there's a disconnect
with the real world within people in LA.
They often actually believe
their own bullshit.
You see that every day, everywhere in LA.
Are you nervous
about jail time or anything?
When we first showed up,
I realized that we were the fixers.
The brains were already on the wall.
The damage had been done.
We had to dispose of what was left.
You talk to Alexis at all?
I saw right away
what was going on here.
These crimes were a chance
for these kids to get attention.
If you found the right jury,
you'd get them to understand it too.
I was potentially facing
over 50 years.
Knowing that, I was not in a good place.
The DA was playing
a real hard-ass.
I was like, "Look, let's see
if we can make this work for both sides."
This was a win-win situation.
Now there were five defendants left:
Nick, Rachel,
Courtney, Diana Tamayo,
and Roy Lopez Jr.
Nick was actually in a position
where he was willing to testify.
And so that was an angle I was working on.
"Nick's helping you out.
Let's see what we can get."
We did offer him
the low term of two years
for his complete cooperation
against the remaining defendants.
I told him,
"Hey, you got a chance now
to do the right thing
in the view of the prosecutors."
Boom, settle the case.
The case was nicely packaged up.
All we had left were, uh,
Courtney, Roy,
Diana.
Rachel was gone. Rachel had already pled.
Right before
we were gonna settle everything
Cut!
Sofia Coppola
was making a movie about this case,
and I got a call from the L.A. Times
asking me, "Are you aware
that Brett Goodkin, your investigating
officer on The Bling Ring,
is actually working as a paid consultant
on Sofia Coppola's movie?"
That was a serious
compromise to the case.
So, once that happened,
we knew that we couldn't go to trial.
We were gonna have
to kind of give the case away.
The defendants want to be famous.
The attorneys want to be famous.
My IO wanted to be famous.
It was the downfall of everybody.
I know we did these horrible things
and there were these victims,
and I deeply do regret those things.
But, you know, for me personally, um,
I would just, you know, have to say
no matter how badly you want to fit in,
a good sense of self does not come
from material possessions.
If I had a better sense of self,
things probably would have been different.
But I'm still responsible for what I did.
And I, you know, it's not like, you know,
I can't blame anyone or I can't pass
the buck onto anyone but myself.
Burglarizing a home is obviously not okay,
but what drove us
was in part
this societal
pressure to be a certain way.
This narrative that we were just
these celebrity-crazed,
self-obsessed teenagers,
absolutely relieves any onus
on the culture and the society
that created that obsession
in the first place.
Paris, stay there, Paris!
I thought the movie was fun,
you know?
Oh my God!
Paris let them film
in her own place.
It maintains her celebrityhood.
Paris is exactly like Nick and the kids.
Get attention no matter how you get it,
and you will become a celebrity.
When people watch this film,
they're gonna see
just what our culture is like
and just how celebrity-obsessed it is,
and things need to change.
People need to have,
you know, more important priorities
and other things to aspire to
because this is crazy.
Life imitating art
or art imitating life,
it's hard to tell with this case.
They wanted something
to be a reality so badly,
it kind of became their reality.
It's like a fucked-up LA Greek tragedy.
So, what Hollywood has always been about
is what is happening today, right?
I mean, the movie stars
of the '50s and '60s,
what was presented on the screen
wasn't who those people were.
Hollywood has always been
about showmanship.
It's a place where people attempt
to live out these fictional lives
that they've created for themselves.
But now kids can do it themselves.
With the explosion of technology,
since this case occurred,
it's all about how can I market myself
to command other people's attention?
Attention has become the most
valuable commodity in the world.
This is how we ended up
with all these reality TV stars.
We ended up with one
as president for four years.
Fake, disgusting news.
Yet attention is also
the least-valued commodity,
because we are also willing to squander it
staring at TVs,
computers, and smartphones.
This story is a warning
that if we are not careful,
we're gonna end up in a world
where the line between reality and fantasy
is so blurred, we will no longer
be defined by who we are,
but who we think we have to be.
Everybody's trying to be somebody
that they're not,
and that leaves a certain dissatisfaction
with who they really are.
Those kids were willing to do
whatever it took
to get the validation they craved
so badly from others.
Okay?
Yeah.
And now through this film,
you have given them
exactly what they wanted back then.
Everyone's looking for that.
I mean, I'm here talking to the cameras,
so I may be looking for it too.