Lauri Peterson‘s son, Josh Waring, is awaiting trial for attempted murder and she has yet to bail him out two years after his arrest.
Almost two and a half years after the Real Housewives of Orange County star’s son was arrested and charged with attempted murder, Lauri sat down for an interview on Megyn Kelly Today, where she explained why she is unwilling to post Josh’s $1 million bail.
“My commitment with Josh from day one when he started using drugs was, I will back you financially for anything that you need for rehabilitation,” Lauri explained. “But we all know that addicts, there’s a criminal element to it… Just purchasing drugs and possessing drugs, it’s a criminal act. So with that, of course, he’s been arrested many times and I told him I won’t help him with that but if he’s ready to get clean, I will put whatever funds into that.”
“That’s my commitment, and I struggle with that,” she continued. “In this situation, especially. I looked at that and he was really spiraling at a really low point, and I felt like actually being incarcerated might help him get sobered up.”
While Josh is currently sober, Lauri revealed her son has only been clean for a year after finding a way to get drugs from behind bars.
Now, with his attempted murder charge looming, Josh is putting his energy into proving his innocence.
“Because Josh found strength and resilience and was able to [get sober], he’s really invested himself into this case and studied, and studied, and studied. It’s really given him a purpose,” she said.
In 2016, Josh was involved in an altercation at a flop house, where he had been going to buy drugs. Hours later, he allegedly returned and opened fire on residents of the home, hitting one man who survived the bullet wound.
According to Megyn, there were two vehicles present at the time of the incident and it was not clear whether or not the shots came from a nearby white car, where Josh was, or from another car, which was blue.
After joining Megyn and Lauri on set, Josh’s lawyer, Joel Garson, revealed a surprising detail about the case.
“The guy that was shot, Danny Lopez, said, ‘I am 100 percent sure that the shots came from the blue car.’ He was interviewed on four different occasions and every single time, he said it was the blue car,” Joel explained.
Unfortunately, Danny has since recanted his statement and filed a lawsuit naming Josh as the shooter.
There are also two witnesses who say it was Josh in the white car who shot Danny.
“The two witnesses, we believe, were not even in a place where they could see where the shots were fired,” Joel revealed. “The first witness who says it was the white car was a guy who had come earlier and started the fight with Josh. He punched the BMW he was in and threw some girl’s cell phone in the street. He and Josh have not gotten along at all.”
As for more possible proof that would redeem Josh, Lauri said her son had no gun shot residue on him after the shooting.
“My son was tested immediately,” Lauri confirmed. “They tested his hands, his clothes, his hair, and video surveillance showed him in the same clothing he was in prior to the shooting when they picked him up. He had no gun shot residue on him whatsoever.”
“They tested him. They did not test Bryan Goldstein,” she continued of the man in the blue car.
Lauri also said they didn’t test the driver’s side of the blue car, which is where the victim said he was shot from.
Megyn then argued that the prosecution had claimed gun shot residue was found in the white car and that Josh’s DNA was found in bullet casings consistent with the gun used in the shooting.
“The gun shot residue that was in Josh’s car was on the passenger’s side and Goldstein was with Josh earlier that evening during the first event and Goldstein sat in that same seat,” Joel explained, with Lauri adding that Bryan has been known to carry a loaded gun and has a violent history.
“He’s been arrested five times where he was in possession of a gun,” Joel noted.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office released the following statement in regard to Josh’s case:
“There is evidence we haven’t been able to present yet because we haven’t been in front of jury. We have to be respectful to the process – so we can’t have NBC come in to look at everything.”
Despite her hard times, Lauri doesn’t have any regrets when it comes to her time on The Real Housewives of Orange County.
“I don’t regret doing the show at all. It was fun,” she said. “Our family enjoyed it. It was really, at the beginning, was just a simple docu-soap showing our careers, our families, our social lives, and it was completely innocent. As the show progressed, it got more about fighting [and] I felt like that was out of my comfort zone. And then with Josh’s issues on top of that, it was just time for me to leave. I really wanted to step back and focus on the family.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.
Photo Credit: Milla Cochran/startraksphoto.com, Costa Mesa Police