The Whittemore Peterson Institute is apparently attempting to sue Dr. Judy Mikovits for “all costs associated with her work”, according to today’s article at RGJ.com, including every dime of her salary since she started working there, all of her research costs while working for the Institute, and, crazily, for the $133,100 drop in donations after Mikovits left. Here’s the article: http://www.rgj.com/article/20120228/NEWS/120228030/Whittemore-Peterson-Institute-seek-millions-damages-from-fired-researcher
I ask you.
On what planet is this sane?
Since when do we fire people, and then sue them for return of the salary they were paid while performing work? And how do you even begin to justify suing someone for loss of income due to the fact that you FIRED them?
I decided a week ago that I was tired of watching the whole trainwreck called WPI. I stopped posting links to the ongoing saga. It’s not productive. But dammit, this is just continuously escalating into a nightmare for the entire community.
Jamie Deckoff-Jones’ latest blog, Truth Is An Absolute Defense To Libel, publishes email communications from Annette Whittemore and her staff/family, in which Jamie is accused of hurting innocent people, such as Annette’s family members and people who come to work at the institute every day to “help patients like you”. Team Whittemore wants Dr. Deckoff-Jones to issue apologies for the harm she has caused to the Whittemores, and to the Institute.
Ironic, isn’t it, considering the damage that the Institute is doing to the community? By the time this is over, not a researcher alive will want to work in this field, and may hesitate to work in any field at all, if they have to work under the fear of their institute suing them for every penny in the event of termination. This is ugly scrapping in the mud, a vendetta that seems based in ego, and one that has done far more harm to the patient population than any good that might come out of the science produced under the NIH grant money could ever make up for. IMO.
I feel that it would be ludicrous for any judge to award the WPI any money for perceived damage to their character or reputation. The very worst damage has come from within.
CFS Untied
True Colors are hard to hide for long! This gets more like a bad movie daily!
WTF.
When this whole mess became common knowledge, I hoped that both parties were acting in good faith. That naive hope grows ever more difficult to believe.
“And how do you even begin to justify suing someone for loss of income due to the fact that you FIRED them?”
Well, if Dr. Mikovits unreasonably bad-mouthed the WPI (after being fired), and the WPI can show that this caused the drop in donations to the WPI, then they have a case.
Sorry to put it so bluntly: I don’t see any of these people doing any good for the community. The WPI will go under, Mikovits will go under and Ruscetti will have a hard time keeping his head above the water – and it will be at their own doing, their own fault.
Jamie played shill for the Mikovits&WPI, and now she thinks the WPI is akin to Darth Vader’s Empire and continues to play shill for Mikovits only – I think neither the former nor the later position are sensible.
None of these people are representing me, that’s for sure. So much of our resources were wasted on this wild goose chase, so many bridges burned. Whatever will happen to whom, they had it coming.
Ah, the WPI would not even need to show bad-mouthing. If they can show that the taking of the lab notes (which is admitted by Freeman, Mikovits attorney) caused the WPI damage to their reputation, that could be enough.
ive been trying to post the following comment but it wont post the social plugin isnt working so ive posted it with a link to the article on jamies blog ……….The only reason that the whittemores are not recieving donations is the appalling way they have treated patients since all this blew up in sept . This has nothing to do with Judy that donations have stopped . Ask anyone in the ME community why they have stopped donating and I bet they al say the same .Many people have infact tried to get their donations back as they feel they were not used for the purpose intended . Very sick patients donated a lot of money much coming from the UK and Europe as all they wanted was to further the research and hopefully get some treatment out of it . Now patients are distraught , angry and feel like they have been sold up the river by the whittemores . I urge the whittemores to drop this case against Judy who has only ever tried to help patients . This case is causing huge distress and damage to the ME community who merely want the science to continue and a stab at normal life again before its too late . So my message to the Whittemores stop blaming Judy for the sudden stop in donations Judy has nothing to do with that . Patients can think for themselves , would you continue to donate money when it was highly unlikely you would ever see any benefit from it ? Only a fool would . http://www.x-rx.net/blog/2012/02/truth-is-an-absolute-defense-to-libel.html#comment-13807 …
Thank you, Khaly. It is good to see a shot of common sense in the midst of all the nonsense coming from WPI. These people obviously do not care one whit about anyone except themselves. If they cared at all for the suffering of patients, they would not be doing all this.
Yes, their actions are indefensible and, yes, they are doing irreparable damage to the reputation of M.E. patients and researchers alike. M.E. research has never been popular, and has been especially unpopular among researchers since they saw what was done to Elaine DeFreitas, but this latest persecution of Dr. Mikovits by her former employer has shocked even the researchers who have been critical of Dr. Mikovits’ research in the past.
WPI stopped receiving patient donations because of what Annette Whittemore did, not because of anything Judy Mikovits did. The Whittemores and the Whittemores alone are responsible for the loss of income to WPI.
None of this is pleasant, but every action Annette and Harvey Whittemore take makes it worse. They, themselves, have made the name “Whittemore” mud in the eyes of most M.E. patients. They have dug themselves into quite a hole; one would think they would stop digging.
It is very, very expensive to defend oneself against the civil and criminal suits brought against Dr. Mikovits by the WPI. A legal fund has been set up by patients who support Dr. Mikovits. If you would like to help with the legal bills incurred by Dr. Mikovits and if you are comfortably able to do so, please donate to the Judy Mikovits Legal Fund. Here’s how: http://tinyurl.com/MikovitsLegalFund
See also http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Judy-Mikovits-Legal-Fund/213326632079072
If you prefer to mail a check, please make the check payable to Judy Mikovits Legal Fund and mail it to: 2031 Jamestown Way, Oxnard, CA 93035 Please do not donate if doing so would use funds which are necessary for your own needs.
Dear Khaly, Now that you have taken this very public jab at the Whittemores, I hope you will publish the “you are hurting our feelings” email you are sure to receive from Annette. Can you please be sure to make your email public, just like Jamie has? Thanks, looking forward to it.
Looking back in retrospect, I have some pressing questions for myself and others in the patient community: Why did we trust these people so implicitly? Why did we have so much faith in them? Why didn’t we investigate them more thoroughly BEFORE we jumped into believing that they would be our “saviors?” Was it because the image they presented to us looked so appealing at the time? Was it because we wanted to believe they would be forever true to their intended mission and ours? Was it because our desperation got in the way of our critical thinking? AND… How do we not make this kind of mistake again?
thank you for this important blog posting.
i just donated (again) to the mikovits legal defense fund.
rivka
I have kept my mouth shut during this whole sad saga between the WPI and Dr Judy Mikovits, because I felt that any negative comments or actions taken against the WPI would ultimately harm Dr Mikovits, and this is in fact happening.
I stopped fundraising and donating to the WPI because they fired Dr. Mikovits for insubordination and insolence. They didn’t fire her for falsifying research. They fired her because she wouldn’t drop her integrity and kiss their collective asses.
We originally started the Human Rights Association in order to take on the government using legal avenues to ensure that M.E. patients were afforded by the government their basic human rights to adequate medical care. Our plan to raise money for a lawyer was to enter some of these contests, and vote our way towards the funds to provide for the lawyer. We are already listed as a non profit 501c3 corporation in the state of Ca. and will have our tax exempt status soon.
Maybe our first order of business for the Association should be for funding a lawyer to help Dr. Mikovits, as this mess seems to be getting worse.
I am going to provide the link for the Human Rights Association…if any of you agree, please click on the “like” button.
oops sorry forgot the link
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ME-Human-Rights-Association/262409767127141
Totally apt title for this excellent blog post.
I had no idea the charges were this far out into the twilight zone.
What a shame, and a waste, on so many levels.
I suggest the Whittemores get some therapy. Perhaps reality therapy would be the best type.
There lawsuit is ludicrous and they have only themselves to blame for losing patient support. I for one feel a top to bottom audit of the whole institute is in order. One that accounts for both the government grant money they have recieved and the patient donations from the sick and poor patients with ME.
Shame on the Whittemores for how they are treating one of the few researchers in the world that is willing to go the distance for us.
That’s pretty harsh; Annette needs to find the funds for her private jets somewhere.
Okay reality: I’ve always had a very strong moral core and it repulses me when I see someone who has proved by their actions that they lack a moral core. In my opinion the actions Annette [and WPI] has taken show they are lacking any sense of morality. As such I don’t believe the should be trusted to carry on research, or to even be involved in running the institute.
Well, I have a job for all of you patients: Did you donate thru Paypal? If so, do me a favor; go back thru your paypal email receipts if you kept them. Look at them closely. What is the return email address for your donation?
If you find dblades’ name, or wingfield company, PM me on FB.
If enough of you do so, I’d like to contact not only the FBI in NV, but the NV
Secretary of State, who governs 501c3 (.orgs). Using another company to
receive donations for a .org is probably against NV regulations governing the same.
Now, whether the money actually ever got to the WPI is another question.
I’ve been holding this in hand for quite awhile now, but think it is time we
patients had some say in this horrendous conduct of the WPI.
Kathryn, this is confusing. There is nothing illegal or even unethical about a 501(c)(3) organization such as WPI having donations sent to an accountant for processing. My Paypal receipts are from the Whittemore Peterson Institute. The email address is dblades@wingfield. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. The email address on my paypal account can say “Verizon” or “AOL” or any other server; it does not mean that money sent to me goes to Verizon or AOL or anyone else except me.
I think WPI has done a lot of unfair and possibly illegal acts. This is not one of them.
You are wasting your energy and that of other patients with this misguided effort.
Patricia Carter
Dreambirdie asked some very good questions. Why did a majority of patients just buy everything they were ‘selling’ without asking more questions? I know that some people asked questions, but then were bullied by Mikovits supporters on Corts forum, so they just gave up.
I hope maybe Khaly or others will try to answer some of the questions she asked, maybe in a future blog post.
This whole thing is so sad and nauseating. I think we are going to eventually follow, more and more, an open collaboration model, more decentralized, if we want to achieve anything. The “powers” of our countries cannot be counted on. Perhaps not so surprising after all.
I don’t mean we should tolerate nonsense–(e.g. Martians are collaborating with the USA government to conduct tests on the human nervous system, or whathaveyou) however.
Beyond that, this affair proves to me that certain people who I had doubted, Dr. Peterson for one, acted with upstanding motives. When we decide who to “trust” we should analyze people on their actions throughout their lives, not creating an impossibly high standard, but also not simply dismissing flaws because “so and so” agrees with us. I am guilty of this to an extent I think.
Co-cure is a great inspiration for an open, collaborative model. If we could expand things in that sort of direction I think it would be really helpful.
Thanks Khaly
thank ALL above, very true words ! 2nd, there ‘has’ to be another lawyer-large law firm, same state, for dr judy, who would love to bring ‘harvey down’ this case has become vey large-& we havent’ seene the rest of the ‘surprises’ i know, if someone can get going on the phones in reno, out to all firms, that a big-one, would take this case PRO-BONO. A firm that stands for ‘whats right’, in intereighty & truth…………………”Think big, you Never Know what will happen, BUT at least u gave it every thing u got.
I believe one of the main reasons so many of us put all our fragile eggs in that basket was because here was a family, a family of means, connected, networked into all the places we as a patient group are not–whose daughter is sick with this disease.
How many of us have LITTLE to NO family support and understanding? This was a very alluring story, not just from the standpoint of the proposed translational science, a clinic designed specifically to meet the peculiar needs of this patient community, then a promising breakthrough form their lead researcher–but also the vicarious
dream-come-true of a family that finally cares about us, understands all about what this is like, and wants to pour money into getting us what we need. It was like everything we want and need on every level was wrapped up in a big bow.
I can’t blame us for believing that story, especially because I think it started out as true. I think the intention started out pure. Their daughter was sick and no one was doing anything about it. They were in a position to get the ball rolling. We were totally behind that.
Ice the cake with people who are skillful, very skillful, at PR, and we don’t have to feel like suckers for buying it. In fact, if they could do one of those cartoon head-shakes
(ubbada-ubbada-ubbada) and drop the lawsuits and refocus, they, despite the current
scandal, might actually be able to redeem themselves and do some good. I hope for everyone’s sake they can let their egos go graze elsewhere, eat some humble pie, and
use their skillset for some PR that has something substantial behind it. I don’t see how that can happen if they insist on suing Dr M, but apparently their POV is distorted enough at this point to think that is somehow a reasonable thing to do.
Green-colored glasses are hard to see through.
I do hope, for everyone’s sake, that the maximum amount of resources will be directed towards our health and well-being. I don’t care where it comes from, as long as it helps us get our lives back–and doesn’t destroy other lives, scientists’ lives, in the process.