New article from Wes Fager:
http://thestraights.com/index.htmor
http://thestraights.com/articles/logans ... -encl4.htm Enclosure 4:
Amongst all the crimes of Straight, is Mel Sembler using the courts to silence his opponents?
by Wesley Fager (c) 2003
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Show me a man who pays other men to say nice things about him and I'll show you a man who pays the legal system to silence his detractors.
Wes Fager, 2003
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A SLAPP suit or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation is a frivolous or malicious lawsuit or lawsuits brought on by wealthy individuals or corporations against individuals or nonprofits and social advocacy organizations for the purpose of harassing and intimidating them in order to "shut them up." One goal is to use the court system to sue opponents out of existence. [Attorney Mark Goldowitz, Esq., Oakland, CA, is an expert in SLAPP suits, 510-486-9123.] And while we are reviewing the SLAPP suit question we must be ever mindful of related action, the tort known as Malicious Prosecution. According to the Lectric Law Library "Malicious Prosecution" is an intentional tort arising from the institution or instigation of unjustifiable and unreasonable civil or criminal litigation. An action for malicious prosecution can be brought against the underlying case's plaintiff, plaintiff's counsel and/or advisors.
CAVEAT: Wesley Fager is not an attorney and not qualified to give legal advice. He writes this study as a public service. He has looked at Straight's long history of suing people who try to expose Straight's fraud and abuse and he notes as a person using plain old horse sense that Englander got Judge Logan to issue a gag order against Ray Bradbury to prevent Bradbury from mentioning Sembler's name. The issue of Mel Sembler's former penis pump is one issue. The issue of silencing an opponent of Mel Sembler is another--seems to this writer. And since this report shows that Mel Sembler's Straight program has a history of threatening, gagging and suing opponents--that is a fact as will become abundantly clear in this report, and since we know the definition of a SLAPP suit, it seems to us, in layman terms, that Mel Sembler is using the courts to silence opponents. Of course actual determination of SLAPP will have to come from certified attorneys and legally constituted courts of law.
Background
Threatening, demoting and firing state workers
In 1978 state social services worker Bob Marshall got the kiss of death after a public outcry led to an investigation of Straight for alleged criminal child abuse. Working for Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) and acting under direction from headquarters, Mr. Marshall watered-down his final report of findings of child abuse. Nevertheless Bob Marshall was fired.
In 1989 an inspection team from HRS went to Straight-St. Petersburg with the intent of closing Straight for a history of uncorrected violations. A later IG report reveals that Harry Moffitt, a former senior human services program specialist with the Headquarters Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health (ADM) Office and Linda Lewis, a former deputy assistant secretary, Headquarters ADM, were told they would be fired if they denied Straight a license. The report concluded that Mel Sembler was probably the man behind the pressure.
In 1993 Fred Gravius of HRS' IG Office opened an investigation of Straight which led to the report discussed in the previous paragraph. Mr. Gravius was subsequently demoted.
In 2003 Florida state worker Mike Sherman sponsored a conference of Straight survivors. He was subsequently demoted.
The 1988 Kangaroo court that tried to send Ray Bradbury to prison to silence him. Ray Bradbury has been a thorn in Mel and Betty Sembler's side longer than anyone else, exposing the fraud and abuse of their Straight program. Ray Bradbury is responsible for causing them to have to close their beloved Straight in 1993. In 1988 a kangaroo court was held in the Sixth Circuit of Pinellas County, Florida for the purpose of putting Ray Bradbury in prison to silence him. Because of public exposure of the proceedings Bradbury was placed on five years probation (later reduced to about 2.5 years) adjudication withheld, and forbidden to come into Pinellas County where he could stage further demonstrations about what was happening to kids at Straight. That story of his 1988 trial is told here. In light of the Sembler's recent gag against Bradbury, their civil suit against him, and their use of political pressure to try to get the Sheriff and State Attorney to arrest him for criminal wrong doing it is necessary to depose the Semblers, former State Attorney James T. Russell, former prosecutors Richard Ripplinger and Richard Mensch and Richard Mensch's brother former Straight board member Myron Mensch to determine what role the Sembler's played, if any, in the attempt to imprison Ray Bradbury.
Threatening and suing enlightened parents. Few kids ever graduate Straight. Of the few who do, many of them become Straight counselors, thus giving rise to the claim Straight is a cult because you never leave. Many kids escape Straight and sever relationships with their parents. Many parents catch on that they have been mislead, that Straight has taken over their lives and that their child will be there longer they they had been led to believe. The kids are yanked but frequently are afraid to tell of the abuse because of the extorted confessions. But some kids do tell and when their parents find about the abuse they refuse to pay any remaining money owed. Straight has a long history of successfully either threatening these enlightened parents into submission or in using the courts to sue these parents as can be seen here.
Claire DeCunzo Martin of Columbia, Maryland (above). Having been a parent in Straight - Springfield, Virginia she knew what Maryland residents were in for in 1991 when authorities ran Straight out of Virginia allowing them to take their young clients with them into Maryland.
Gagging Tempie Fortson Worthy In 1989 Ms. Tempie Fortson Worthy went to Straight - Dallas seeking help for her 15 year old, emancipated daughter Christi Fortson. Straight later claimed they released Tempie for being violent, but Straight's own spokesperson, Joy Margolis, has publicly acknowledged pandemic violence at Straight - Dallas here. The fact is that Straight encourages kids to be violent and rarely are kids let go for violence. Ms. Worthy found out that her daughter had been abused at Straight and refused to pay Straight the remaining money owed. Following its standard procedure of suing parents who refuse to pay for child abuse, Straight sued Tempie Worthy. Appalled at what Straight was doing to children Tempie Worthy sued Straight and like like Claire DeCunzo Martin of Columbia, Maryland, Greg Reight of Maryland, Janet Kennedy, Ph.D. of El Paso Texas and Ray Bradbury of Tampa, Florida Tempie Worthy became an activist against Straight. She mailed out letters; she picketed Straight. Straight got a judge to issue an injunction to shut her up--she was bad for business. Rather than clean their act up, Straight. just kept abusing kids and sued Ms. Worthy for trying to stop the abuse.
Threatening NBC News. A letter to Straight-Dallas dated August 8, 1991 from the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse notified Straight of the Commission's intent to revoke Straight's license. In that letter the commission stated that, It has been determined that Straight, Inc. has consistently failed to abide by the requirements of law . . . Among violations cited were: treating clients who did not meet Straight's criteria of being chemically dependent or being in danger of becoming chemically dependent; forcing clients to sleep in beds with other clients; failing to care for injured clients; and restraining clients with nylon rope. It was noted that at least one [host home] family failed to provide proper bathroom facilities for the clients of Straight giving them only a container to urinate in during the night. True to form Straight voluntarily closed in Texas on the eve of being forced to close stating it was closing for economic reasons.
Straight - Sarasota was the first Straight to close under investigation by state prosecutors. That one closed in 1983. Next it was Straight - Cincinnati's turn in 1987. As in Virginia in 1991 the Ohio Straight simply voluntarily closed on the day the trial was to begin. But NBC national news was looking at the very disturbing reports coming out of Straight - Cincinnati--a boy who carved on his arms to escape the abuse only to have his parents told that that's what kids do when they come down from drugs--they carve on themselves! Straight didn't fix their problems, but Anthony Battaglia, Straight's attorney, sent NBC a threatening letter demanding to see beforehand what NBC planned to show, notifying NBC that any slanderous distortions could lead to litigation.
Threatening FOX News. In May 2002 FOX News ran this front page article on Straight for several weeks before removing it after, according to the article's author Radley Balko, mysterious attorneys representing either Sembler, or DFAF, or both, complained to FOX. Rradley later wrote that his editor decided to remove the article since: (1) It had already run on the front page, and was merely in the archives when it was pulled; (2) It was easier to pull it than to fight a legal battle over a column that was only accessible through the search engine, and (3) He had neglected to place a call to either the Semblers or DFAF before submitting the piece.
Threatening Radley Balko. Subsequently Balko wrote an expanded 5,000 word article on Straight for Reason Magazine. This time he decided to give DFAF (Straight) a heads up but the Semblers refused to correspond with him over the phone or by eMail, so he sent them an advanced copy of the manuscript. DFAF responded in a certified letter, not by stating specific statements with which it had issues, but by carte blanche stating that if the article were published, they would sue. Furthermore, according to Balko, the staff a DFAF was told not to accept phone calls from Balko. The article has yet to be published.
Threatening Mark Emory. In 1993 the Semblers were forced to close there beloved Straight treatment program. It's reputation for abuse had become just too well known. In 1996 Straight. changed its name (yet again), this time to Drug Free America Foundation. One task DFAF took upon itself was to try to play a leading role in deciding national and international drug policy. To that end on April 26-29, 2001 DFAF and DPNA sponsored the "International Task Force Development on Strategic Policy" conference. One outcome of that conference was to plan another conference to be held in Vancouver, Canada in May of the next year. The Canadian Conference was cosponsored by DFAF and IDEAS, an organization formed by wealthy Canadian real-estate moguls Robert and Lynda Bentall. Mark Emory is a Canadian businessman who is for the legalization of marijuana. He is critical of some drug treatment organizations including Scientology?'s-related Narconon? and Straight. In 2001 his magazine Cannabis Culture did a feature article on the Semblers and Straight which is found here. In 2002 he was appalled to learn that Betty Sembler was trying to bring her expertise to the aid of the Canadians. It was at that time that he made an announcement on his Pot TV Internet page that Betty Sembler was a "court-certified child-abuser." That was a false statement which he should not have made. In point of fact Betty Sembler has never even been indicted by Pinellas County State Attorney James T. Russell or his successor Bernie McCabe for her involvement in Straight, much less convicted or as Mr. Emory had claimed "court-certified". Betty threatened to sue and Mr. Emory broadcast a retraction. [See collusion between James T. Russell and Straight here and here, possible collusion between Bernie McCabe and Straight here.]
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and ice cream!
Betty Sembler's last words from The Magic Kingdom were: I said, "let them eat cake . . . and ice cream".
SLAPP SUITS? No one has gained more from Straight than Mel and Betty Sembler. When his company is discussed in the papers about some shopping center being built, the reporter rarely fails to mention "Ambassador" Melvin Sembler. Mel and Betty host spectacular parties out of their Magic Kingdom in Rome. Governor Bush calls Betty Mrs. Ambassadorable; he even named a day in Florida in her honor. Mel and Betty won't hesitate to tell you today they they are responsible for Straight. When the state of Florida tried to close Straight, it appears that Mel Sembler used his political connections to stop it. For years thousands of former Straight clients have suffered, never knowing who was behind the program that caused them so much grief. Now thanks to talk radio shows, TV shows, books, newspaper and magazine articles, conferences, activist groups like ISAC and SAFETY, and most importantly, Internet newspapers, web pages and discussion forums, Straight survivors and activists have been able to slowly piece together what happened to them and why, and who the players are behind it all. Like the Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany, more and more survivors from the camps are coming forward and telling their horrific stories. As the momentum grows and the stories get told, the civil suits and threats of civil suits against the story tellers grow too. But are the suits genuine, or are they part of a scheme to use the courts as an instrument to silence those who know what happened there and are willing to exercise their First Amendment right to tell what happened there? After all Straight has a pattern of misleading parents into believing their Straight experience will probably last a few months when they know almost everyone who stays till graduation will be there for almost two years. Straight makes parents pay most of the money upfront and make them sign a statement that if they leave the next day they forfeit all the money. Straight does not inform parents about hidden costs. Straight makes parents sign statements that regardless what happens in Straight they will not. And when parents finally catch on they have been deceived and yank their kid, refusing to pay any money remaining, Straight uses the courts to sue them.
Threatening Ginger Fornits I just don't understand Stephanie Haynes. Go back to the paragraph above discussing where the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) (it's in blue) wrote a letter to deny Straight its license for abusing children. After making that finding against Straight, one Stephanie Haynes became a board member for the TCADA. Today she is the director of the Drug Prevention Network of the Americas (DPNA) and works closely with DFAF (Straight) to support global drug demand reduction initiatives. She knows Straight has a dark past and yet she works in alliances with Straight. Former Saint Petersburg Police Chief Terry Hensley is another. He became executive director of DFAF after it had gotten out of the drug rehabilitation business. Why did him decide to join a company with a reputation steeped in child abuse. Calvina Fay is another. She followed Terry Hensley as executive director of DFAF. She has saddled herself up with a group that that has a dastardly reputation for criminal child abuse. Not surprisingly people like these might get caught up in the cross-fire over the Straight controversy, more especially since there are those who have issues with the new Straight under its new mission. And yet those who had nothing to do with Straight's abuse, but are willing to play major roles with the new Straight, get upset if they get broadsided in the controversy. _________________________________________________
In 1994 Vice President Al Gore got into trouble because he was calling potential campaign contributors asking for monetary donations for the next election. Why? Because elected officials are paid money by the taxpayers to do the work of the government. Elected government officials can not be paid their government salary while working on work to get reelected. They can do that after they get off work from their homes or private offices, but they can not use government phones, faxes, computers and their salaried time to work to try to get reelected at the next election. This is a violation of theHatch Act which limits the activities of government employees involved in political election campaigns.
In the last few years there has been a grass roots movement in America to curtail our rising prison population by allowing judges to offer certain drug users the option to receive humane treatment in lieu of prison. The backers of the movement have sought to place their plan as ballot initiatives on general state elections. Now you you might think that with their experience in drug abuse treatment that the Semblers would be the people behind this gallant grass roots movement to get first-time offenders treatment instead of saddling them with a prison record. But they are not. In fact they are amongst the biggest opponents of such a plan! The originators of the movement are drug policy reformers and civil libertarians. Mel Sembler is for the privatization of the government. Why? He wants to bid on and manage government jobs. Mel Sembler backs Lamar Alexander, the former governor of Tennessee who was behind the privatization of prisons in his state. Mel Sembler, who always makes money for his partners, is for the privatization of prisons. The more drug offenders are locked up in private prisons the more money investors in private prisons will make. This is another reason why Sembler's financial records must be subpoenaed in his law suit with Bradbury. He is portrayed as an honorable businessman who has been made an ambassador for the charitable work he does, but we need to know the full extent to which his own personal investments in private prisons is. In other words the DFAF charity is opposing the movement for treatment Vs incarceration so it is necessary to show whether the Semblers (including his sons, daughters-in-law and all their varied business enterprises) have a financial reason for doing so. [The author has problems with "humane treatment" and with incarceration of drug users.]
Dan Forbes is the highly respected freelance writer of political and social policy who broke the story on Salon Magazine (the Internet's most read magazine) about a secret plan by the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy to sink $2 billion into TV programs and commercials to plug its anti-drug use message. In 2002 Mr. Forbes, working for The Institute for Policy Studies, wrote the article The Governor's Sub-rosa Plot to Subvert an Election in Ohio. [A condensed version of this very long, highly documented report is here.] From documents obtained by Freedom of Information, Forbes found that Ohio Governor Bob Taft, his wife Hope, his chief of staff and others in his office used government time in a months-long effort to subvert the state's electoral process. What they had done was to work on a sub-rosa campaign to defeat a drug treatment rather than incarceration amendment that was likely to appear on the next election ballot.
Last December the Marijuana Policy Project filed a formal "complaint of possible prohibited personnel practice" with the federal Office of Special Counsel, charging White House Drug Czar John Walters with violating federal law by using "his official authority and influence for the purpose of ... affecting the result of an election" -- specifically, the election that included a ballot initiative in Nevada to legalize marijuana use under certain conditions. Again a government official had been accused of violation of the Hatch Act.
According to Dan Forbes' well documented report when Governor Taft was doing his work to subvert an election he corresponded with several individuals who might would share his interest in stopping the Ohio initiative. Two individuals with whom his staff spoke were Betty Sembler and Calvina Fay. While what Governor Taft was doing might be illegal, what Calvina Fay and Betty Sembler were doing was not. They are not elected officials. At that point Ginger Warbis of
http://www.fornits.com published the following statement:
"Calvina is the Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation. As such, her primary activity seems to focus on promoting and facilitating violations of the Hatch Act. Here we see Calvina lecturing and instructing federal employees in how to prevent reform of our disastrous drug policy. Over here, we see Calvina helping Governor Taft of Ohio to Subvert an Election in Ohio"
What Ms. Warbis was trying to say, as I read it, is that there are those in government that use their salaried positions to work on election matters and that in one specific instance Calvina Fay and the Drug Free America Foundation were consulted by the Governor's office in Ohio who was using his salaried time illegally to work on an election issue. Under such an interpretation Ms. Fay, as a private citizen, would not be breaking the law, but Governor Taft might be. Well Ms. Fay did not interpret it that way and William Benett, an attorney with Englander and Fischer, sent Ms. Warbis and her husband (using the incorrect names Mr. and Mrs. Fornits) a letter dated April 16, 2003 threatening to sue for defamation, giving them 30 days to print a retraction and make a public apology. This was done, and as far as I know Englander has taken no further action against Warbis. Here is the letter, page 1 and page 2.
Threatening Marti Heath Less than two months later the threats were directed at Marti Heath. Like Ms. Fornits, Ms Heath is another former Straight survivor. Today she is the executive director of ISAC, a group that advocates for the rights of kids in destructive rehabilitation programs. On June 12, 2003 she got an almost laughable letter from an attorney representing Father Cassian. Father Cassian is the former national clinical director of Straight when he was then known as Reverend Doctor Virgil Miller Newton. The story of Dr. Newton's abuses at Straight and at his own second-generation Straight known as KIDS is here and here. Furthermore, there is reason to suspect that Dr. Newton never completely severed all ties with Straight when he was run out of Florida in 1983 which is documented here.
Updated 10-28-03 We are trying to get a copy of the letter Ms. Heath received. Following is an uncorrected conversion in pdf format from ISAC's web page. Please note that there are uncorrected errors from the pdf conversion process:
http://www.thestraights.com/legal/heath ... rPage1.pdfhttp://www.thestraights.com/legal/heath ... rPage2.pdfhttp://www.thestraights.com/legal/heath ... rPage3.pdf Excerpts from the uncorrected pdf version of the letter follow:
. . . As you are undoubtedly aware, over the past three to four years you have engaged a maliciously defamatory campaign against Father Cassian. Father Cassian has demonstrated an inordinate amount of forbearance and forgiveness for your reckless, malicious and defamatory conduct. However, Father Cassian was astonished and appalled to learn of your most recent impertinent letter to the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese wherein you accuse Father Cassian of being an abusive priest. The allegations you are now making and have made in the past, are nothing short of outrageous, and no doubt arise from your apparent ignorance of both the facts surrounding Father Cassian's work . . .
. . . Further, you have had no contact with Father Cassian since he became a neuropsychologist or an Orthodox priest. . . Father Cassian has
never been accused of any type of sexual abuse whatsoever. All other complaints made during Father Cassian's tenure as director of the Straight programs were investigated and found to be baseless by the appropriate authorities in each jurisdiction. . .
. . . Father Cassian understands and sympathizes with your troubled past and hopes that you find peace within yourself in the very near future. . .
In 1996 Dr. Newton settled with the federal government for $45,000 in return for not being prosecuted for 254 counts of insurance fraud. In 1999 he and his team of psychiatrists settled with former client Rebecca Erlich for $ 4 million for abuse she sustained at KIDS. And then, in July 2003, less than a month after threatening to sue Ms. Heath, Dr. Newton and team settled with former client Lulu Corter for $ 6.5 million for the abuse he metted out to her. Where is Dr. Newton getting the money to sue Marti Heath? Who is behind his suit? There is a clear reason to depose the Semblers, Newton, Fay, Englander, and Newton's attorney to see whether any conversations, planning or financing has been done by the Semblers for this potential suit.
Gagging of Ray Bradbury and the active civil suit to sue him out of existence. Earlier in this report it was disclosed that there was an attempt in 1988 to have Ray Bradbury imprisoned in order to silence him. Ray Bradbury has been Mel and Betty Sembler's principal detractor longer than anyone else. Ray Bradbury is responsible for causing them to have to close Straight. For fifteen years the Semblers have no doubt hoped for a way to silence this man who has done so much to expose the fraud and abuse of the Straight program that they so unabashedly like to boast they founded. Now they think they have found that way. They think Bradbury has finally committed an action which they can convince a Florida judge and jury has nothing to do with exposing the fraud and abuse their Straight program has committed and perhaps the criminal act that Mel Sembler has committed. Bradbury's act? The advertisement on eBay of a penis pump that Mel Sembler readily admits once belonged to him. The Ray Bradbury gag order and the penis pump civil case is discussed at great length at
http://www.thestraights.com under the orange section PumpGate.
If you have been sued by Straight, DFAF or Mel Sembler, or threatened suit, or arrested or if you are a former Straight official and have a story to tell about Straight's use of the courts to get its way, please contact me at
http://www.thestraights.com.
