Celebrity: “Do You Know Who I Am?”

Fay could never quite get her mind around Ken’s particular brand of entertainment, and off-camera, he had his issues. His drinking — and the problems it brought him — frustrated her. She’d recently told him that she’d had enough, that he needed to move out; she says this devastated him, and left her feeling conflicted. When his father died of congestive heart failure in 2003, Ken was serving an eight-month jail term on what was then at least his third DUI conviction, and did not attend the funeral. The recurring DUIs eventually led to an order for the installation of an ignition-interlock Breathalyzer device in his car. When he was subsequently pulled over for allegedly not stopping completely at a stop sign at the edge of his neighborhood, an officer discovered he’d yet to install the interlock device. His probation, which he’d been on and off for several years and which was about to expire, was extended.

Following his arrest on March 17th, Ken was held on $50,000 bond. Fay gathered together the 10 percent to bail him out three days later. But as a condition of his probation, Ken had to report any additional arrests; the new charges constituted a violation of his parole. A bench warrant was issued for his re-arrest, and he was remanded to the Delaware County Prison.

Within days, he was complaining that he wasn’t being fed enough, wasn’t receiving his medication appropriately. Because of his intestinal deficiencies, he typically ate twice the amount of a normal man — at five feet, 10 inches, he weighed just 120 pounds — and to assist with absorption was supposed to take his medications with every meal. Instead, he told his mother, he was receiving his pills all at once, at night. He wrote notes to the medical staff to advise them of his regimen; his CF doctor did as well. Ken told his mother the notes were ignored.

When Fay visited him, he seemed lethargic; he appeared to be losing weight. She began making phone calls. When she finally was able to speak to medical staff at the jail, she says, they told her Ken was fine medically, but that he was “just plain obnoxious,” often refusing his medications. A doctor told Fay he suspected that Ken was simply trying to get out of jail.

The dire warnings from Ken persisted. He told his mother he was seeing stars, that he could no longer stand. Desperate, Fay continued making calls, including to Ken’s lawyer, who was pursuing having Ken released on house arrest. But the lawyer called Fay to say Ken’s probation officer wouldn’t allow it.

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