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Help. The Oakton Institute is always on the lookout for guest editorialists to write editorials dealing with criminal justice, civil rights abuses, treatment abuse, medical fraud, undue persuasion (e.g. mind control), medical ethics and so forth. Let us know at editor@thestraights.net if there is something you would like to write for us. Right now we are looking for someone to write a commentary of whether it is best to sue a harmful adolescent treatment program in state or federal court. Thank you.

Editorial: The case to introduce separate "claims bills" to the Florida Legislature and to the United States Congress. In July 2001 a conference was held in Bethesda, Md. on treatment abuse at juvenile rehabilitation centers in America. There was a distinguished panel of attorneys present at this first-ever conference of its kind. One question put before this select panel was whether there was any legal way to go after Straight, Inc. which stopped operations in 1993, and/or its officers for damages and suffering they may have caused. There was unanimous agreement that the statue of limitations would probably be an insurmountable obstacle all these years later. One attorney did proffer that, if certain criteria could be met, it could be possible to overcome this high hurdle. Also if you look at attorney Windle Turley, one of the referral attorneys below, you will see that he is currently in litigation against the Hare Krishna Church for sexual abuse and physical abuse of children in that church dating back to 1972. It would be interesting to find out how he is dealing with the statue of limitations. But one thing the legal panel did not bring up was a "claims bill." (The editor at Never Again is not an attorney and does not offer legal advice, but a quick search of the Internet will point out the following data to any reader. You should confer with a licensed attorney before making any legal decisions based on the data presented in this editorial.)

What is a "claims bill?" In 1996 the U. S. House of Representatives passed a Veterans "claims bill" that would allow veterans to appeal prior, final decisions on claims wrongfully denied because of "clear and unmistakable error." In other words, prior to 1996, if a veteran had applied for a benefit but it had been denied by the Veterans Administration for some reason, the veteran lost out, even if the denial decision had been based on an error by the government. The judicial remedy to such an error would be to file a lengthy and costly civil suit against the government to make the government fix the problem and hopefully to get a judge to order a retro-active payment. But there is a built-in legislative remedy also. It is called a "claims bill." When the government is clearly at fault, the legislature can easily remedy the situation by passing a bill to correct the problem by authorizing compensation to the aggrieved party(ies).

According to Florida's Sun-Sentinel, in Florida there is a legal doctrine known as "sovereign immunity" where victims of official negligence or their survivors must go to the legislature to collect money for damages that exceed $100,000 per person and $200,000 per incident. One of the best known "claims bills" in Florida history involves the civil rights violations of a class of people in the infamous Rosewood Massacre of 1923. Between August 5, 1920 when four black men were removed from the local jail in McClenny, Florida and lynched for the alleged rape of a white woman and January 17, 1923 when a Negro man who had been convicted of stealing cattle was removed from his jail cell and lynched by local whites, there occurred a series of tragic murders of black men and the burning of many homes of blacks in Florida. The violence culminated in 1923 when a mob of approximately 100 white men torched the town of Rosewood, Florida and murdered six of its black citizens. A grand jury had been quickly assembled then to investigate the "Rosewood Riot" but on February 15, 1923 it found "insufficient evidence" to prosecute anybody. The incident is documented here.

Seventy years later, in a genuine effort to clear up the matter, the Florida legislature granted $50,000 to a team of researchers from Florida A&M University, Florida State and the University of Florida to study the Rosewood matter. On December 22, 1993 the research team presented its findings to the Florida Board of Regents in a report titled A DOCUMENTED HISTORY OF THE INCIDENT WHICH OCCURRED AT ROSEWOOD, FLORIDA, IN JANUARY 1923. The report concluded, in part, that:

Now unlike the judicial process where wronged parties are frequently dismissed because of statues of limitations, a claims bill was promptly introduced in the Florida legislature. And in April, 1994, the Florida state legislature passed a $2.1 million "claims bill" to compensate the Rosewood survivors. The bill also provides for college scholarships for the descendants of survivors.

And "claims bills" are not just limited to federal and state legislatures either. In 2000 the City of Cincinnati, Ohio paid $600,000 to a woman permanently injured when a police officer drove across the center lane of traffic and hit her car. Even the Republicans have considered using claims bills in Florida as you can see here. And go here for the Florida statue on sovereign immunity.

Child abuse is against criminal and/or administrative code in all 50 states in the United States--and it was illegal between 1976 and 1993, while Straight, Inc. operated, too. And yet Straight, Inc. has never operated in any state in which it has not been accused of child abuse. Straight has routinely done things to children that you, as a parent, would go to jail for doing to your own child! Whether it is too late to take legal action against Straight, Inc. and its officers is an issue we continue to investigate. But there is another matter needing tending to. And that is action against the state of Florida, and Pinellas County and Saint Petersburg, in particular. Straight, Inc. was founded in Pinellas County and operated for 17 years in spite of its reputation for abuse among state health inspectors, law enforcement officials, judges, newspapers and television news rooms all around the country. In 1983 James A. Gardner, states attorney for Sarasota County, Florida, compiled a 600 page investigative criminal report on Straight-Sarasota. Straight-Sarasota closed in the midst of the ensuing controversy and there were no criminal prosecutions, but Mr. Gardner announced that he had given immunity to some Straight counselors who had made statements that they had been taught to do the abuse at Straight-Saint Petersburg in Pinellas County. James T. Russell, states attorney for Pinellas County, conducted numerous investigations of Straight-Saint Petersburg but never found sufficient cause for prosecution.

Following is a series of links that present evidence that officials in Florida including its Republican politicians (including Republican politicians outside of Florida), judges, police officers, sheriffs, states attorney James T. Russell, health officials and maybe even two governors knew of the abuse, tolerated the abuse, did not stop the abuse, did not provide a legal environment where someone could reasonably sue Straight, Inc. for abuse, and did not take criminal action to stop the abuse. And, perhaps, because the abuse did not stop, if you go to the final link below, you will see the case stories of former clients who have subsequently committed suicide.

There are strong grounds for a claims bill in other states too. The strongest cases right now are in Virginia and New Jersey (see bullying the states). If Straight's own claim is true that it successfully treated 12,000 kids, then we may be talking about the abuse and violation of civil liberties and human rights of 50,000 people.

Micheal (1/18/02 2:02:26 pm). Another point of view - a matter of justice. I have observed that there are many on this board who are interested in stopping the abuse at this facility, which I have heard a lot about. It is a familiar story to me: powerful connections, many reported abuses, etc., etc.

I want to share some experiences with you in the hopes that they may be helpful, not as a victim but as a justice officer. I have worked on many cases involving addiction and other similar mental health facilities across North America. I have encountered every type of abuse and fraud known to man and have successfully assisted law enforcement, the media and others, to bring about exposure and justice for those involved.

The first experiential piece of information I would like to relay is that ONLY criminal prosecution has long term benefits. Civil prosecution, which when successful is usually covered by liability insurance, is as much of a deterrent as a parking fine to an automobile driver. They just pay it and get back to business.

In cases where the prosecution becomes serious, the corporation is liquidated and all the assets are transferred to another which is controlled by the same interests. This is done through what is called Nominee Shares. These represent an ownership position taken by party that wishes to remain in the background. The party in question goes through an attorney, who then purchases the stock through a financial institution and this ensures anonymity. In this manner key players protect their assets.

Another technique is to have a separate corporation from the operating company own the property, which is then leased to the operating company at an exorbitant rate. There are many more techniques.

Payoffs to political and other connections are very hard to track. One technique - and, again, there are many - is to take out a credit card on a Cayman Island bank account and then simply provide the card to the party in question. Any purchases made with the card are paid for from the account and no money enters or leaves the country.

However, when there are criminal charges everyone connected suddenly wants to leave the country as they do not want anything to come their way. Moreover, an official criminal investigation can take within its scope far more territory than any other. The most obvious benefit is that the perpetrators have a chance of landing jail time - and that always tends to change things permanently: licenses are revoked, legislation is passed or changed, regulations are stiffened, etc.

The kinds of things you want to look for are persons who have more than one position, usually with more than one corporation. There is also a tremendous amount of money to be made in referrals, where patients or "clients" are referred to other facilities which turn bill a health insurance plan.

I also want to point out that fraud, for one, is a difficult crime for law enforcement to investigate. It is different that any other, because in a typical crime, you have the crime documented and are looking for the perpetrator. In fraud, it is backwards: you have the suspected perpetrator and now you have to find the crime. And finding something that initially is not there can be, for some, a daunting task.

I don't know what all is happening at this particular facility and I am not familiar with your laws up there, but it would appear that, at the very least, an investigation is long overdue.

Good luck to all and remember: tenacity is not everything, tenacity is the only thing.

Michael (1/21/02 12:35:11 pm) Yes, this is an interesting board. Thank you Velvet. I have added this board to my internet shortcuts and have discussed it with a number of colleagues, at least one which said that he was going to check it out.

I am impressed at your perseverance, all of you. I would very much like to see a similar thing happen with other facilities. The light of truth does amazing things.

I had a thought: Is anyone sending any emails or faxes to government and other decision makers about this board? It might be an effective tool to get more people to view it.

I continue to post if I feel I can be of help.

Good luck.

Michael (1/29/02 9:57:25 am) LACK OF CRIMINAL CHARGES. There were two postings since last time I checked. I will responding to the first at this time.

THE QUESTION OF LACK OF CRIMINAL CHARGES:

High level connections are usual when it comes to health facilities, as there is a lot of money involved. I have successfully initiated and concluded criminal investigations and in the course of my duties have dealt with many entities that had "high level connections." There is some truth to this, but for the most part it is merely one block on the investigatory trail. Believe me, when a criminal investigation is in the wind most of these "high level connections" vaporize.

This leaves the question of how do you do it. Here is the answer:

There is a concept in law called Mes rea. This is a Latin term meaning, literally, "a guilty mind." One legal definition of Mens rea is "The state of mind required to constitute a particular crime; the mental element of an offence."

On other words, the intent to commit a crime. Under typical circumstances this is difficult to prove and is the primary reason why criminal investigations are rare. To the police, this is called the "motive."

Law enforcement agencies - especially the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which is the equivalent to state police in the U.S. in Alberta - are very powerful entities and most police officers are good people. They became police officers to uphold the law and many have not forgotten those ideals.

However, in order to get that power to act in the form of an official investigation, you have to fulfill a specific criteria known as "probable cause." This means "Reasonable grounds for belief that an accused person may be subject to arrest or the issuance of a warrant." Probable cause consist of two things: motive and opportunity. It is the former that is typically more difficult to show; the latter is easy.

Now, you do not have to actually do the investigation; that is the police's job. But you have to supply enough information, at least initially, to get the ball rolling. After all, convincing the police that a crime was committed is just half the job. Next the police have to convince their bosses in the justice department, who usually have to give them the green light to start an investigation, that there is merit to the case. There a number of factors to be dealt with here, the topmost being if there is a possibility of prosecution. If the case cannot be prosecuted a district attorney cannot ethically waste taxpayers' money pursuing the case. (This is where your media pressure comes into play, but that is a different matter.)

Money, as one example, is a good motive, one that the police and everyone else can understand. The financial crime that has received the most media attention, at least in the U.S., is fraud. A useful definition of fraud is "A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain."

The ways and means that this can be done are virtually endless. Health care facilities usually have to have agreements with state (and in some cases federal) regulatory agencies and health insurance providers in order to receive monies from those entities. In some cases these agreements are falsified, in most the parameters of the agreements are simply not met. In some instances providers have agreed to provide specific services, which they do not (for example).

There are administrative reporting requirements, for example, to regulatory and other bodies, that are not met by some corporations: reports are not filed or reports are falsified. After all, no one in his right mind is going to note in the clinical record that the patient was physically abused.

Some of the largest criminal and civil settlements in U.S. history have been for health care fraud. Many of the corporations involved provided addiction services. It appears (and you probably already know this) that your facility may have some connections with facilities that were investigated/prosecuted states-side. Two links I found after doing just a quick search are:

http://fornits.com/straight/people/medical-doctors/newton/newton-theclinician.htm

http://fornits.com/straight/the-straights/thestraights-fc.htm

[Ed. These links have moved to:

http://thestraights.net/people/medical-doctors/newton/newton-theclinician.htm

http://thestraights.net/the-straights/thestraights-fc.htm]

I cannot vouch as to the veracity of the data, but it does paint a familiar scene.

I have worked with numerous governments and there are cases upon cases like this. Studying them, even briefly, gives one an idea of what is going on and what to look for. Cases include: Hospital Corporation of America, Columbia Healthcare, Columbia/HCA (which resulted from the merger of the two), Community Psychiatric Centres, Charter Behavioral Health Systems, Magellan Health Services and many others.

I will leave you with a September 1 , 2001, article excerpt: "In December 2000, DOJ reported that the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, HCA-The Health Company (formerly known as Columbia/HCA) agreed to pay $840 million in criminal and civil fines and penalties to resolve allegedly unlawful billing of federally and state funded health care programs."

You can read the entire article here: www.taf.org/news.html

I hope this helps.

Michael

California

Ford Greene
Attorney at Law, California 107601
711 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
San Anselmo, California 94960-1949
Tel. 415-258-0360
Fax. 415-456-5318.

Alan Scheflin, J.D., LL.M, is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University Law School in California. Among his many publications is Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law (co-authored with Daniel Brown and D. Corydon Hammond), for which he will receive the 1999 Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association. Professor Scheflin is also the 1991 recipient of the Guttmacher Award for Trance on Trial (with Jerrold Shapiro).

Graham E. Berry probably has more experience in litigation against the Church of Scientology than any one around. See http://www.factnet.org/letters/FACTNewsJune-July1.html

Florida

Karen Barnet.
201 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Suite 1111
Tampa, Fl. 33602
(813) 224-9510
In 1990 a state jury in Florida awarded former Straight client Karen Norton $720,000 for abuses she sustained at Straight. She was defended by Karen Barnet who has represented other Straight clients.

Sarasota. To be supplied.

New Jersey

Phil Elberg. Phil Elberg, Esq. , a New Jersey-based attorney, represented Rebecca Erlich in a suit against KIDS of Bergen County, which was led by Miller Newton, who had been Straight’s national clinical director and its most charismatic and influential leader. KIDS was a direct descendant of Straight. The Ehrlich suit started out as a medical malpractice case against KIDS, Dr. Newton, and the psychiatrists involved in mistreating her -- and evolved into a civil rights action that demonstrated the destructive and cult-like nature of its activities. The suit was settled on the eve of trial for $4,500,000, which is the largest recovery against Straight or its relatives and descendants. Mr. Elberg will discuss how Miller Newton successfully operated for many years despite his transparently false claims and why the prospect of faith-based treatment programs creates an environment with the potential to breed a new generation of charlatans and hucksters who represent a threat to the individuals who come seeking help. Also read Closure for a Quack Victim, January 2000.

Stanton Peele. An attorney who is also a world renowned expert on addictions.

David Levin, formerly assistant states attorney for Sarasota County, Florida. Principal investigator of Straight there. His investigation led to the closing of Straight-Sarasota. Later he went into private law practice in New Jersey, only to find that Straight's former national clinical director had also moved to New Jersey.

New York

Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq., President of AFF (a very well respected cult awareness organization), is a senior partner in the law firm of Parker Chapin Flattau & Klimpl in New York City. He has written several articles on cults and the law, contributed a chapter to Recovery From Cults, and is co-editor of The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives.

Ohio

Jonathan Schiff. Cincinnati. Successfully represented four Straight clients in civil suits against Straight. And represented a fifth client--Eric Weaver. He is now an assistant states attorney.

Richard Doyle. A Cincinnati attorney (606-431-5683) and principal investigator for the state of Ohio in that state's efforts to close Straight-Cincinnati. On the very day the trial was to begin, that Straight voluntarily closed.

David J. Scacchetti. Represented four Straight clients. Settled two of the suits out of court. Not sure of outcome for other two.

Oregon

Kathleen Wilde. In 1982 and in 1984 attorney Wilde was involved in litigation against Straight-Atlanta. Today she is in private practice in Oregon.

Pennsylvania

Peter N. Georgiades, Esq. is an attorney in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His background makes him particularly suited to deal with treatment-cult issues. He majored in clinical psychology at Carnegie‑Mellon University in Pittsburgh, concentrating on peer counseling. Later, while a student at George Washington University National Law Center, Mr. Georgiades sought to address the harmful effects of unregulated large group awareness training programs sold to industry and government. He did this by petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to regulate the sales practices of such groups. The FTC agreed that it had jurisdiction over the psychological services industry, but found the evidence of abuse insufficient to institute regulations. Having become known as knowledgeable in this area, Mr. Georgiades later acted as a consultant to the television program 20/20, which was then doing a story on Lifespring. Some of the group’s victims asked him to represent them in civil suits, which led in due course to increased contacts with other experts in the field like professors Margaret Singer and Richard Ofshe who were used as expert witnesses to close down Straight in Cincinnati. Since then, Mr. Georgiades has represented former members of Happy, Healthy, Holy (an American Sikh organization), The Work (Brother Julius), Lifespring, Alive Polarity Fellowship, and others. He has assisted non-member spouses to gain custody of their children from husbands or wives in cults.

Texas

Windle Turley, Texas. A jury awarded $119 million. They settled for $23.4 million. They were the men who had been sexually abused 20 years ago as children in the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, Texas. Now Windle Turley, their attorney, is representing 44 former Hare Khrisna students in a $400 million class action suit alleging they had been abused as children in Hare Khrishna boarding schools between 1972 and 1990. Mr. Turley has written a book about law and airplane crashes.

Utah

Mary C. Corporon, Salt Lake City (801-328-1162). Successfully represented Jennifer Woolston in civil suit against KIDS of Salt Lake City.

Virginia

Phil Hirschkop, Virginia. In 1982 Fred Collins, an honors engineering student at Virginia Tech, paid his brother a visit at Straight. But Straight would not let him leave. Fred escaped four and a half months later looking like a concentration camp victim having lost 20 - 25 pounds. Represented by Alexandria, Virginia attorney Phil Hirschkop, Fred sued Straight in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia and was awarded $220,000 for false imprisonment. Hirschkop lost the greater monetary value charge by not being able to convince the jury that his client had also been abused while being held prisoner. But that was a difficult task because Straight's star witness had been the founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and second White House Drug Czar--Robert L. DuPont, Jr. It had been Dr. DuPont who as director of NIDA had administered a whopping $1.4 million contract to Straight's predecessor The Seed whose methods the U.S. Senate later likened to North Korean brainwashing. Dr. DuPont had left NIDA and become a paid Straight consultant, boasting in deposition once that it was his idea that Straight go national. Dr. DuPont testified that Fred Collins was a "pathological liar" even though he had never even met him! Fred Collins went on to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Sandra Havralik, Fairfax. Has experience in litigation against Straight.

David Fudula, Fairfax. Mr. Fudula assisted Phil Hirschkop in the Fred Collins' trial and handled at least one other case against Straight.

Washington, DC

David Bardin, Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia. Mr. Bardin has years of experience lending his legal expertise to those who have been involved in destructive mind-control cults. He worked closely with the old Cult Awareness Network before it was taken over by the Church of Scientology.