Sue Scheff Reveals What Led to the $11.3 M Victory
Parent?s Universal Resource Experts, Inc.
10/15/2006 10:21:57 PM
Weston, FL (October 15th, 2006) I understand the hopelessness, helplessness, frustration and desperation felt by parents with troubled teens. I?ve been there.
In 2000 I enrolled my daughter in the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) program, Carolina Springs Academy in South Carolina. Six months after she was enrolled I learned she was hospitalized without my knowledge. With that information compounded by the strange WWASPS seminars I attended, I withdrew her.
I discovered the abuse my daughter endured and learned of other families who had been through similar experiences, I felt compelled to speak out; to turn a negative into a positive. I created my organization, Parents Universal Resource Experts, Inc. (PURE) in January 2001, and launched my website
www.helpyourteens.com. In an effort to help other desperate parents, I shared our experiences with WWASPS on my website.
In January 2002 WWASPS sued me and my organization for defamation in an attempt to silence me. After over two years of litigation, I won in a jury trial in 2004. They appealed and again I won the appeal in 2006 and continue to share my story today.
In September 2002 Carey Bock contacted me asking for help to get her boys out of a WWASPS program. I supplied her with information of other parents and a consultant who had recently visited there.
In October 2002 Carey Bock had her sons removed from the WWASPS program with a bodyguard and camera crews.
In November 2002 Carey asked me for private information about minor children to use in a film. I refused to give her the names, as I felt it was an invasion of the children?s privacy. As a result of this, Bock began an all-out campaign to destroy me over the Internet. She committed Internet Defamation and Invasion of Privacy.
The ironic twist was in 2003 Carey Bock contacted WWASPS? attorneys and negotiated a price for her computer hard drive which contained private information of many families and private e-mails from me that she believed would incriminate me. According to a deposition she gave for the WWASPS v. Sue Scheff, et al. lawsuit in December 2003, Carey Bock asked for $100,000 and settled for $12,500. She accepted money from the same organization she claims harmed her children.
That same year Carey Bock started a hate campaign against me on Internet Forums. She received a copy of my private deposition taken for the case WWASPS had against me. In her deposition she states the transcript just appeared in her mailbox (no return address). This deposition transcript contained highly confidential and private information about my children and me. Carey Bock began posting portions of the deposition transcript on the Internet, threatening to post the entire transcript online.
In December 2003 I hired an attorney, David Pollack, in an attempt to stop this from happening. In February 2003 Carey retained the same law firm that represented WWASPS (again the same organization that she claims abused her sons) to defend her. In her deposition taken in 2005 she claimed she did not know who paid for her legal fees.
During Bock?s campaign to further discredit me, many people begged her to stop. I was fearful to have any contact with her since it was obvious she would stop at nothing. The attempts of others to get her to stop only escalated the vicious attacks.
In June 2006 Carey Bock?s legal counsel withdrew from the Internet Defamation and Invasion of Privacy lawsuit. The Judge postponed the trial to give Ms. Bock ample time to locate new counsel or represent herself. In July 2006 it seems Bock decided to ignore all court requests and my attorney?s telephone calls and mailings.
In September 2006 a Broward County jury spent two days in court listening to extensive evidence (volumious postings and emails). They listened to five witnesses, including a Psychologist. They deliberated for hours and came back with a verdict of $11.3 million, $5 million in punitive damages.
I was as shocked as everyone else with the verdict the jury returned. The jury shared with me their desire to send a strong message that you simply cannot destroy the lives of others over the Internet. This speaks volumes and I feel vindicated.
Media have taken this story and run with it before finding out the facts of this case. Some portray Carey Bock as a Katrina victim. Katrina does not excuse her from her illegal actions.
The misconception that Bock was without representation or could not afford it is simply another smoke screen in an attempt to condone what she did. Carey Bock was represented by a prestigious law firm in Florida for over two years. When they withdrew from her case she had ample time to find new counsel or represent herself.
The Broward County Clerk?s Office, as well as David Pollack, continually sent her notices regarding the case including the trial date ? it seems she made a conscious decision to ignore them. Some were returned. She claims she moved back to Louisiana. We wonder if she intentionally did not submit a forwarding address. The trial was postponed for two months in an attempt to give her adequate notice.
It has been a long five years, however, the victory of both trials have brought me vindication. The fact that I have been on both sides of the fence brings my story full circle.
My book, ?At Wits End?, is a place many parents end up when dealing with a difficult teen, as I did. It is also a place I ended up while defending myself. This book will chronicle both trials as well as much more. Look for it in spring of 2007.
Related Links
Parent?s Universal Resource Experts, Inc. (PURE)
www.helpyourteens.com Coalition Against Institutional Child Abuse
www.caica.org Contact Information
Sue Scheff
President
Parent?s Universal Resource Experts, Inc.
954-349-7260
sue.s@helpyourteens.comSource: Posted on CAICA 10/16/06
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Question? Who is this consultant that had recently visited "there"? What did he/she do to help Ms. Bock? As for the cameras, maybe the purpose of that was for security? I'd like to hear Ms. Bock's side.
Elsewhere I have read that media lawyers don't view the victory as setting any real legal precedent since the case was not defended. I take that to mean that it's important for the plaintiff's witnesses to be subject to cross-examine by a defense lawyer as well as to put on their own witnesses.
T.I.A.