YouTube Dumbass Denies Auto Dumbassery

NOVEMBER 14--The YouTube streamer recently filmed texting while driving--moments before crashing his McLaren on a rain-slicked Miami turnpike--has pleaded not guilty to a traffic charge, records show.

Jack Doherty, 21, who was cited last month by the Florida Highway Patrol, is scheduled today for a pretrial hearing in connection with the one-car accident on October 5.

Like many Doherty productions, the crash video went viral and showed that, in the accident aftermath, he seemed more concerned about damage to his 2019 ride than to injuries suffered by his bloodied passenger, 21-year-old cameraman Michael David (who Doherty called “my filmer”). At one point, Doherty moaned, “I realize I lost two hundred grand.”

Doherty and David suffered minor injuries after the McLaren--the license plate for which reads “LILBR00”--lurched across the roadway and slammed into a guardrail on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Doherty was livestreaming on Kick when the vehicle hydroplaned and struck the metal barrier, the impact from which resulted in the coupe’s airbags being deployed.

Cops listed vehicle damages at $10,000, though that appears to be an exceedingly low estimate.

Not missing the opportunity to create more “content,” Doherty and his associates filmed videos at the hospital where David was being stitched up and later handed over $10,000 in cash to the bystander who helped pull Doherty from the crumpled McLaren. Team Doherty also recorded FHP trooper Luis Forteza arriving at Doherty’s Broward County home to serve him with a traffic citation for driving while using a phone.

Doherty was cited after investigators reviewed “video footage...showing the driver operating a wireless handheld device while driving.” Doherty, who turned 21 a few days after the McLaren crash, was charged with speeding in 2022 (he was driving a Tesla sedan), though that case was later dismissed due to a “defective citation.”

Doherty relocated to Florida from Sea Cliff, the Long Island, N.Y. village where his video career began in his bedroom. He now appears to reside in a $55,000-a-month rental home in Southwest Ranches, a south Florida town whose rural homes are favored by athletes and other celebrities. In July 2023, Doherty, a young Republican, registered to vote from a sprawling nine-bedroom home in Plantation that is now on the market for about $3.5 million. (3 pages)