Talk show host's alleged hit-and-run under review

HOUSTON – Houston police are circling back, returning to the scene of a hit-and-run accident that allegedly involved controversial conservative radio talk show host Michael Berry.

Local 2 Investigates first broke this story Wednesday night. The bouncer at T.C.'s Show Bar, a gay bar in Montrose, is claiming he saw Berry back into his car after leaving the bar back on Jan. 31.

He said Houston police and the Harris County District Attorney's Office won't file charges against the talk show host.

The allegations have people talking, not only because of the alleged crime, but also because Berry, a conservative, was inside a gay bar at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday .

When Local 2 Investigates emailed Berry, asking for an interview, he replied, "My attorney is Dick Deguerin. I have been advised not to comment at this point, as much as I would like to."

On KTRH 740 AM Friday morning, Berry started his show by saying, "It just feels like everybody's listening. Should be a good ratings week."  

It all started Jan. 31 when Berry came to T.C.'s Show Bar alone. Only KPRC Local 2 has a copy of the bar's surveillance video that shows him inside having a beer at the bar and then walking to the restroom.

The bar's manager told Local 2 that Berry was inside for less than 45 minutes. But shortly after he left, bouncer Tuderia Bennett said Berry's Tahoe backed into his car in front of the bar. Bennett said Berry circled the block and then just kept driving. He said he wrote down Berry's license plate number and saw him behind the wheel.

Bennett sent Local 2 pictures of the damage to his car. He sent his car to the repair shop the next day, but didn't contact police until six days later. He said it was then that he realized the man seen in the bar, and in the Tahoe that hit his car, was Berry.

He said police didn't follow up and interview all of the witnesses to the hit-and-run, and no charges were filed.

"I want my money, obviously, but now it's the principal," said Bennett.

This isn't the first strange circumstance to befall Berry.

In December 2007, when Berry was still a Houston City Council member, he said he was carjacked outside of a southwest Houston bar by three men with knives. He said he ran away, hailed a cab to get home and waited to call police. His Tahoe was found parked at a nearby apartment complex hours later.

Back at T.C's, an HPD sergeant revisited the bar on Thursday night after 10 p.m., asking for witnesses to the hit-and-run that the original investigating officer didn't interview. 

The sergeant also went across the street to the Hollywood store, asking employees to see video from surveillance cameras pointed directly at the area where the accident happened. Employees told Local 2 the cameras weren't working and they didn't get anything on tape.

On Friday, two HPD investigators came out to the bar again, taking pictures of the street where the incident happened. No one from the District Attorney's Office would comment on the case.


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