As you know Richard Bradbury is being sued by Mel Sembler over a medical device. One of the causes is the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Melvin intends on suing Bradbury out of financial existence. I spent over a week looking into this case and documenting my findings which are posted on theStraights.com . I want to say a few words about what I uncovered. First let me say that as you know Straight intentionally subjected its clients to brainwashing in the classical Chinese Communist sense. This is a two part process. The breaking down of self and the rebuilding of the person in the Communist image. When breaking the person down there was intent on food and sleep deprivations, beatings, spitting, sexual confessions, confusion, terror. All of this and it was intentional. Straight's declared point is that addiction is a terminal disease and that desperate measures were needed to save the individual child. Straight clients were terrified, felt hopeless and many lost the will to live. Some carved on their bodies as calls for help; others cut themselves intent on killing themselves to escape the misery.
Straight caused the intentional inflection of emotional distress to tens of thousands of kids. How dare Mr. Sembler sue Richard Bradbury or any other former Straight client for intentional infliction of emotional damage and I don't care how outrageous he feels that person's activities have been. Furthermore Straight made $100 million dollars. How dare him squeeze another penny from another Straight client.
Here's what I found. One day around 1982 Richard Bradbury paid his sister a visit at Straight and got kidnapped like so many others into the program himself. I believe he was sexually molested at Straight. Like so many graduates he became a counselor at Straight. It dawned on him one day that Straight was abusing kids. He tried to affect change from within but Straight would not allow it so he left. For eight years he worked almost alone to close Straight finally catching the eye of the local TV stations and that did it.
In 1988 some escaped clients went to Bradbury and authorized him to get their records. Straight blew Bradbury off so he broke in to get those records. Prosecutors knew what he was doing but they tried to put him in jail for a year. One prosecutor was Richard Mensch. His brother Myron was on Straight's board. Another prosecutor was soon to be on Straight's board. The Straight concept had been brought to Pinellas County by the head prosecutor. The prosecutors said that one fault with Bradbury was that he was harassing Mel Sembler!
Now Sembler has filed a civil suit and yet Bernie McCabe the prosecutor and Everett Rice the Sheriff are both investigating Bradbury to see if he has done anything criminal. What I have done in my report is to show that Straight should have been investigated by the sheriff and by the prosecutor, but they did not. Instead they took campaign contributions from Sembler and his crowd. And I've listed the donations.
Sembler's attorney Lenny Englander had judge Walt Logan issue a temporary injunction against Bradbury. Logan's biggest campaign donator outside himself is Walter Lobenberg, Straight Fdn's former president. I have shown that Lenny Englander has used Judge Walt Logan on another occasion to silence a man who was exposing alleged fraud.
The press has reported that Bradbury took the medical device from a poor old man with prostrate cancer. But through Straight, a lot of misrepresentations have been made. Does Sembler actually have cancer or is it alleged cancer? The press said when Sembler asked for it back, Bradbury said give me $700,000. But is that all that was said? Did Bradbury say pay me money for the medical expenses you have caused me and also give part of it to charities working for Straight victims. Did Sembler say it was than a matter of getting the device back but also that Bradbury would have to sign a statement admitting he had performed a crime?
I have documented that the sheriff and the state attorney are investigating Bradbury because Bradbury has data tying them to Straight, and also they are tied to Sembler's pockets. This is scandal and should be investigated, but Mayor Baker can't, I point out, because he's on Straight's advisory board. The state police could investigate but the chief of the state police is on Straight's advisory board. And so it goes up the chain to the governor who is in Sembler's pockets himself.
I spent a lot of time uncovering and documenting this data as I feel it is crucial to keep the authorities from turning this into a criminal case.
Personally I had heard of the medical device and its advertisement on eBay but had not carried the story. But everything changed after the suit. Now I write about it. Hell, why not? ABC News does as does the St Pete Times! Bradbury did what he did to bring attention to the plight of the people posting on this board. And already he has achieved that. And I think the exposure will continue to grow.
But I have been very displeased from what I read on this forum. Namely nobody hardly mentions the Bradbury case. There's a man facing being sued our of existence and maybe even facing jail time on trumped-up charges.
Few of you have read my article which is extremely factual. I think Bradbury has an excellent chance of winning this matter. Some have pointed out that Bradbury may want Straight brought out in a trial, but Englander won't let that happen. But Bradbury has an excellent free speech attorney, so let's see. Read the fact sheet and I think you'll agree with me, that if teh word "Straight" get's in, we all will have a field day. My story is long, very long, but the factual basis of so many years of fraud, abuse and political payoffs is so compelling that it is a long story.
You all know the potential dangers of any program where a kid can't have free access to his parents at, as a minimum, reasonable, set-aside times. Straight's bull that a kid has to earn back that privilege is just that--bull. You have an obligation to any kid in any second generation Straight that is still doing that to see that he can speak, in private with his folks.
When you get a chance, please read "Criminal authorities investigating Ray Bradbury, 6th Circuit silences Kane's Furniture / Straight critics, and Lenny Englander becomes part of the story or why Bradbury can't get a fair trial in Florida." It's right at the top at
http://www.thestraights.com Thank you,
Wes Fager
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-09-22 17:17 ]