[unsettling music playing]
Let's turn now to the Bling Ring, a year-long crime spree.
- [man 1] A ring that targeted... - [man 2] Hollywood's rich and famous.
- [woman 1] Orlando Bloom. - [woman 2] Lindsay Lohan.
- [man 3] Paris Hilton. - [reporter] We've got video.
Two million dollars in jewelry.
Then a large amount of narcotics.
Horrified by what they did to me.
[ding]
[reporter 1] 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.
[reporter 2] Emma Watson is imitating this burglar for a movie.
[Emma] 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.
[Alexis] 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. [laughs]
[reporter] 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.
[director] 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?
[unsettling music playing]
[Greg] 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.
[phone ringing]
[Nick] My mother comes in my bedroom with a phone in her hand, crying.
So, she gives me the phone.
[beep and static]
[knocking on door]
[Nick] "Hi, I'm the detective in charge."
"We need you to come outside with your hands up. You're under arrest."
And I just... [exhales]
[tense music playing]
[Nick] 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.
[Greg] Working against us is the fact
that we haven't recovered much evidence at his house.
[Nick] 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.
[Greg] We needed more in order to secure a conviction.
[atmospheric music playing]
[clapper] 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.
[Kee] 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.
[producer] And do you remember how you went about that in this case?
Nick Prugo. That's how we were able to do that.
[Nick] I got bailed out.
I went home.
My family was shocked.
They didn't know what to say. I mean, I...
[puffs, chuckles]
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.
[director] 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.
[Nick] Flashy, had his Porsche.
[Sean] I did a lot of work with people behind and in front of the camera.
[Nick] 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.
[birds chirping]
[Nick] 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.
[line calling]
I said, "Get rid of your shit, and I'm not saying a word."
[Sean] 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.
[phone ringing]
[Nick] 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.
[Nick] 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.
[Nick] 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.
[Alexis] 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.
[Nick] 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."
[mischievous music playing]
[Nick] I get to Sean's office with Sean and two officers
and then Detective Goodkin.
[Sean] 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.
[Nick] And that's when Sean looked at me and said,
"All right, tell them everything."
[Greg] Nick just opened the floodgates to all these other burglaries
the investigators didn't even know had been committed.
[Sarika] 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."
[Nick] 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.
[Kee] 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.
[upbeat orchestral music playing]
[Alexis] 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. [chuckles]
Okay.
Her hot bod.
[Gennifer] 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.
[girls screaming]
[Alexis] 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.
[phone ringing]
[Andrea] 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.
[knocking on door]
[knocking]
[barking]
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? - [officer] 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?"
[Andrea] Get up, right now!
- [officer] We're coming in now. - [Andrea] Girls, get up right now!
[officer] 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.
[Andrea] 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...
[Amber] They were a mess. So, we were filming that.
[Gennifer] 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?"
[tense music playing]
[Alexis] I'm in the interrogation room.
[Alexis] Just stay calm, Alexis.
[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."
[atmospheric music playing]
[Alexis] 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.
[keyboard keys clacking]
[Nick] I'm on TMZ.
Haven't you guys got enough now?
[man] How much was your bail?
[Nick] I see that everybody I knew was being arrested.
The charges range from residential burglary to a large amount of narcotics.
[Nick] 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...
[continues through tablet] ...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.
[Sean] 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."
[dramatic music playing]
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.
[tense music playing]
[Alexis] We get to Van Nuys, and we go through processing.
Nothing was going through my mind except, "Get me the fuck out of here."
[paparazzo] 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.
[man] 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.
[Alexis] I made a call out to my mom and she told me,
"If you do get out, it's a shit show."
[Andrea] 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.
[intense music playing]
It was pure and utter chaos.
[clamoring]
[Alexis] 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.
[paparazzi clamoring]
[Alexis] 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!
[clamoring fades]
[man] 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.
- [dog barking] - Just a minute. Shh!
- Hello? - [officer] LAPD.
- What? - We have a warrant to search your house.
[tape rewinding]
- Hello? - [officer] LAPD.
- What? - We have a warrant to search your house.
[Alexis] 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. - [Andrea] Girls! Get up right now!
[officer] Shut off the cameras.
Having to remake this was brutal.
[director] The arrest itself, how were you able to cover that? Do you remember?
[chuckling]
No.
[both laughing]
[chuckles]
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.
[director] 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.
[electronic music playing]
Nick and Rachel were very hot on the social scene.
[Nick] 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.
[Greg] I don't think a lot of people understood
how what they post can be used against them.
[Perez] There is an expectation that it's for your circle of friends, family,
- but the Internet is forever. - [phone whistling]
[Sean] Somebody who knew the group had offered her Facebook page
as a window for the LAPD to spy on the Bling Ring.
[Kee] 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... [chuckles]
All we needed to do was go to their social media accounts,
and it was very easy to connect them to the celebrity property.
[Nick] 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.
[reality show theme music playing]
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."
[Alexis] During that time, I was living, like, multiple different lives.
The day after I was released...
Come on in.
[Alexis] ...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. - [photographer] Give me some attitude.
[woman] Twenty-four.
- [photographer] So cute. - [woman] And hips, 34.
[Amber] We had to figure out what the series would be.
- But now, we obviously had... - A framework.
...a framework for it, exactly, yeah.
[director] i.e.?
- The trial. - [clapper] Take one, mark.
[director] 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.
[Susan] 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.
[Jeff] It's 80 degrees outside.
My head's warm and I'm bald.
[laughing]
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.
- [Mavis] Is counsel joined? - [man] Joined.
Ms. Kapoor, call your first witness.
[Sarika] 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?
[Goodkin] 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.
[Jeff] 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.
[ominous music plays]
[Alexis] 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.
[reporter] 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.
[Perez] 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.
[reporter] Prugo confessed. He also named his accomplices to police.
[Kee] 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.
- [man] Oh my God. Lexy and Tess. - Hi.
[Perez] The fact that it was somebody who had this reality TV show...
[reporter] 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.
[Jeff] 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.
[Sales] 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.
[Amber] 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.
[Amber] 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 [bleep] lie. - This is a lie. What the [bleep]?
Seeing Alexis's face,
I just remember feeling so fucked.
[Alexis] "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. [bleep] bitch!
I was watching it on the monitors, and I was like, this is reality gold.
[chuckles]
They said, "Why don't you call her? Why don't you call Nancy?"
[crying] Nancy Jo, this Alexis Neiers.
I'm calling to let you know how disappointed I am in your story.
How horrible you [bleep] me.
You lied!
- Stop! - You lied!
- Stop! - Why did you do it?
Stop it, Mom!
- You lied! - Stop!
[chuckling]
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.
[Nick] Now I had paparazzi following me.
Even though this is for something awful, I'm getting that fame which I wanted.
[paparazzo] She said that, you need to work for this stuff like she did.
Yeah, um... [chuckles]
There were some times when I was out and I would call my contact at TMZ
and have them take photos of me.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Nick] 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.
[Sean] Nick was fame-addicted.
I was basically dealing with a moth attracted to the flame.
[enthralling music playing]
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?
[sighs] 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.
[Nick] 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.
[Alexis] 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.
[Andrea] You have a choice! You have not...
I couldn't trust anybody.
People had their own motivations outside of my well-being.
[Jeff] 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.
[Jeff] ...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.
[Susan] 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.
[Alexis] We were going to trial,
and we felt like we had a really strong defense.
And then all of a sudden...
[dramatic music playing]
...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.
[photographer shouting]
[Susan] 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.
[dramatic music continues]
[Alexis] We were offered a plea deal.
It was six months in the Lynwood Correctional Facility.
[Jeff] I mean, I remember us struggling over the...
The decision at that point.
But it was entirely her decision.
[Jeff] 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.
[dramatic music builds]
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.
[Sarika] Alexis Neiers was sentenced to three years of formal probation
and 180 days county jail and restitution for the losses.
[Alexis] 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.
[Nick] After I had completed the interviews with ABC,
I hired the new attorneys,
and we began damage control.
[Markus] 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.
[camera shutters clicking]
[paparazzo] Are you nervous about jail time or anything?
[Markus] 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.
[paparazzo] You talk to Alexis at all?
[Markus] 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.
[Nick] I was potentially facing over 50 years.
Knowing that, I was not in a good place.
[Markus] 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."
[Kee] We did offer him the low term of two years
for his complete cooperation against the remaining defendants.
[Markus] I told him, "Hey, you got a chance now
to do the right thing in the view of the prosecutors."
Boom, settle the case.
[playful orchestral music]
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!
[Kee] ...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?"
[indistinct]
[Kee] 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.
[Kee] The defendants want to be famous.
The attorneys want to be famous.
My IO wanted to be famous.
It was the downfall of everybody.
[delicate piano music playing]
[Nick] 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.
[delicate piano music continues]
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.
[upbeat music playing]
[photographer] Paris, stay there, Paris!
[Markus] I thought the movie was fun, you know?
Oh my God!
[Markus] 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. [chuckles]
[Kee] 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. [chuckles]
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. - [crowd laughs]
[Markus] 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.
[director] Okay?
Yeah.
[Markus] 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.
[closing theme music playing]