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NASCAR Star Kurt Busch Testifies Ex Claimed to Be a Trained Assassin
Bizarre testimony emerges in court battle between Kurt Busch and ex-girlfriend.
— -- NASCAR superstar Kurt Busch said in court his ex-girlfriend told him she was a trained assassin who was dispatched on covert missions around the world.
The bizarre testimony emerged in the court battle between Busch and Patricia Driscoll, 37, who’s seeking a protection order against Busch, claiming he assaulted her.
"Everybody on the outside can tell me I'm crazy, but I lived on the inside and saw it firsthand," Busch said when his attorney, Rusty Hardin, questioned why he still believed Driscoll is a hired killer.
Busch testified that Driscoll told him she and another woman were the inspiration for Jessica Chastain’s role in the movie “Zero Dark Thirty” -- a film depicting the CIA’s hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Driscoll is listed as working for a company called Frontline Defense Systems and is described on the company’s website as having spent her career in the narcotics and intelligence world. But a paid killer? She said the allegations are “ludicrous,” telling The Associated Press in an interview by phone that Busch must have taken the idea “straight from a fictional movie script” she’s been working on and that Busch edited.
“These statements made about being a trained assassin, hired killer, are ludicrous and without basis and are an attempt to destroy my credibility," Driscoll told the AP by phone.
Busch said in court that Driscoll repeatedly asserted her assassin status and claimed the work took her on missions across Central and South America and Africa. He recounted one time when the couple was in El Paso, Texas. He testified Driscoll left in camouflage gear only to return later wearing a trench coat over an evening gown covered with blood.
A day earlier, Busch testified his ex-girlfriend told him she was a mercenary who killed people for a living and had shown him pictures of bodies with gunshot wounds.
Busch said Driscoll took him into Fort Bragg, showing him areas that civilians wouldn't normally see. Busch said they visited dozens of military installations.
In a written statement to ABC News today, Driscoll said some of the “assassin” stories Busch told on the stand are "straight from the [movie] script" she has been working on the past seven years "with producers about a female CIA operative and her work on classified missions for the U.S."
"He clearly believes fiction is reality and that's all the more reason he needs help,” she said.
Driscoll previously stated in court that Busch grabbed her throat and slammed her head into a wall during an argument last fall. Busch said in court Tuesday he "cupped her cheeks" with his hands, and Driscoll's head may have tapped the wall as he looked at her eye to eye.
Busch and his attorneys on Tuesday denied those allegations, which are also the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. A decision on the protection order is expected later this month or in early February. Busch said he is looking forward to the situation being resolved.
“I’m just glad that the truth got told, and we’ll wait on the commissioner’s decision,” Busch said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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