Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Isn't Perjury Grand?

I was fired from my job at the DC law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld on October 29, 1991. Dennis M. Race, Esq., the attorney who fired me, later filed a sworn statement with the DC Department of Human Rights alleging that he had spoken to a psychiatrist, Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D., who told him that I was paranoid and potentially violent. Supposedly, that was the reason that I was fired: that I had been determined by a psychiatrist to be paranoid and potentially violent.

I later spoke with Dr. Ticho on the telephone. She denied ever talking to Dennis Race about me.

[notarized statement follows:]

I, Gary Freedman, hereby affirm that on an evening during the week of October 25, 1993 I placed a telephone call to Gertrude R. Ticho M.D. (telephone no. (202) 244-2113); tape-recorded the ensuing telephone conversation between Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D. and Gary Freedman in compliance with 18 U.S.C. sec. 2511(2)(d) and D.C. Code sec. 23-542(3); and thereafter prepared a typewritten transcipt of said telephone conversation.

I, Gary Freedman, hereby affirm that the above-referenced tape recording (a copy of which is attached herewith) is a complete and unaltered aural record of the above-referenced telephone conversation between Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D. and Gary Freedman and hereby further affirm that the above-referenced transcript (a copy of which is attached herewith) is a faithful, accurate, and complete record of said telephone conversation.

I, Gary Freedman, hereby affirm that the statements made by Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D. in the above-referenced tape recording and typewritten transcript had become public knowledge upon my filing on July 27, 1993 with the District of Columbia Department of Human Rihghts and Minority Business Development (DOHR) in Docket No. 92-087-P(N) of a letter dated July 4, 1993 written by Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D. with the intent to disavow publicly the finding of the DOHR that Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D. had consulted with an attorney manager of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld in the period late October 1991; and that public disclosure of the above-referenced tape recording and typewritten transcript is therefore lawful as per Fultz v. Gilliam, 942 F.2d 396, 403 (6th Cir. 1991) and other federal court rulings that have relied on the legislative history of 18 U.S.C. secs. 2511(1)(c) and (d) stating that "[t]he disclosure of the contents of an intercepted communication that had already become 'public information' or 'common knowledge' would not be prohibited." Sen. Rep. No. 1097, 90th Cong., 2d Sess. at 93, reprinted in 1968 U.S. CODE CONG. & ADMIN. NEWS 2112, 2181.

[signed] Gary Freedman
_________________________________
Signature

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 28 day of January, 1994.

[signature illegible]
__________________________________
Notary Signature

My Commission Expires: 11-1-98

The following is a transcript of a telephone conversation I had with Dr. Gertrude R. Ticho [now deceased] some time in about late October 1993. The statements made by Dr. Gertrude Ticho in this telephone conversation had become public information upon my filing with the District of Columbia Department of Human Rights (DOHR) on July 27, 1993 of Complainant's Application for Reconsideration of No Probable Cause Finding, Docket No. 92-087-P(N), which contained as an exhibit a letter prepared by Dr. Ticho dated July 4, 1993. In this conversation Dr. Ticho (1) affirms having written the letter dated July 4, 1993, the authenticity of which was questioned by the DOHR in its Determination on Reconsideration dated September 24, 1993, and (2) reaffirms that she had no contacts whatsoever with Akin Gump.

[colloquy apparently between Dr. Ernst Ticho and Dr. Gertrude R. Ticho [GRT] in German.

ET: . . . fahrweg? [?]

GRT: Fahrweg! Fahrweg! [?]]

GRT: Hello?

GF: Yes, Dr. Ticho?

GRT: Yea?

GF: How are you? This is Gary Freedman

GRT: Yes?

GF: Yes. I, I was wondering if you received the letter I sent you earlier this week.

GRT: Yes.

GF: Ah.

GRT: But it has nothing to do with me.

GF: Um. But it's very important that, um, you file an objection to these findings of the Department of Human Rights. I think it's in your interest to do that.

GRT: No. I have nothing to do with that. You only wanted to know whether I have seen you. And I told you that I haven't seen you in consultation. That's all.

GF: Yes. But the Department of Human Rights states that there's a possibility that you responded to a hypothetical question about me, ah, in conversation with my former employer.

GRT: Yea. But that, that has nothing to do with me. And, ah, I, I gave you that, ah, ah, letter -- and that's all . . . that concerns me.

GF: I . . .

GRT: OK?

GF: I don't think so. Now, ah, I think the Board of Medicine might have an interest in this matter. The fact that the, ah, the Department of Human Rights, a government agency, found that you did in fact contact, had contact with, the firm. Ah, I think that might . . .

GRT: No. I had no contact with the firm. Not the slightest contact.

GF: See. That's the thing. That's the thing. There's a finding by a government . . . I'm not saying that you did. I'm saying that the Department of Human Rights said you did. And if you don't object to that, if you don't file, if you don't file a motion to intervene in this matter, it could pose problems for you -- with your professional standing and your public reputation. I spoke with an attorney with the Amercan Civil Liberties Union, and he suggested that I go to the, go to the press about this matter. Now, if there's an article in The Washington Post that says that Dr. Gertrude Ticho is giving out information like this to employers, it could cause you a great deal of harm. And if you don't do something to object to that, then, then your acquiescence, it'll, it'll signify your acquiescence in this matter.

GRT: There'as an article in The Post?

GF: I'm saying if I go to The Washington Post and provide them with the findings of the Department of Human Rights, and they publish this matter, it could, it could, it could cause a great deal of harm to you.

[brief pause]

GRT: But I have nothing to do with that.

GF: Well, absolutely -- Yes! But the, the, the government agency said you did. I'm not saying you did; I'm saying the Department of Human Rights said you did -- incorrectly!

GRT: So what am I supposed to do?

GF: Well, I think you should, you should intervene in this, in my appeal with the, with the, ah,. in the Court of Appeals.

GRT: How should I intervene?

GF: Well, I, I think you should see an attorney about this.

[brief pause]

GF: He would advise you on this matter. I am not saying that you spoke to my employer, I am saying that a government agency says that you did, however incorrectly.

GRT: How could the government agency say that?

GF: Well, that's the point. They, ah, it was just an incorrect decision. I am, I am appealing this matter with the Court of Appeals. I filed an appeal.

GRT: Hm-mm.

GF: But, the problem is that I am not allowed -- on an appeal -- to file new evidence. You, now you could provide me with an additional statement, a more detailed statement refuting everything. But that would do me no good because I am not allowed to file additional evidence on an appeal. The only course of action that you could take is to intervene -- is for you to file a motion to intervene in the matter, and for you to state your case personally: that in fact you had no communications with my former employer.

[pause]

GRT: Hm-mm.

[pause]

GRT: So, I have to . . . to consult a, a lawyer.

GF: Yes. And it, it has to be done fairly quickly because there's, you only have one month . . . from October 22nd. On October 22nd I filed an appeal. And, to, to intervene in the matter you have to do that within one month of October 22nd.

GRT: [abruptly] OK. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

GF: All right. Thank you.

[end of conversation]

____________________________________________________________________

So, in the end, Dr. Ticho did not intervene in my appeal. I ended up losing my case against my former employer, the DC law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. I used Akin Gump's sworn statement that it consulted Dr. Ticho -- who allegedly told the firm I was paranoid and potentially violent -- to support my case with the U.S. Social Security Administration that I suffered from severe mental illness and that I was disabled. Social Security determined that I was disabled and entitled to disability benefits in August 1993. Social Security determined that I became disabled effective October 29, 1991, the date Dennis M. Race, Esq. of Akin Gump terminated my employment after allegedly learning from Dr. Ticho that I was paranoid and potentially violent.

Since October 29, 1991 I have collected about $150,000 from the Social Security Administration based in part on what appears to be the perjured statements of Dennis M. Race, Esq. -- and here I wonderfully am! Isn't perjury grand? The person who invented perjury should get a Nobel Prize for literature. Don't you just love fiction writers? It's a gift, I tell you -- the ability to make up convincing stories.

Dr. Ticho died in 2004. She now has no right to privacy.

February 24, 2004: Gertrude R. Ticho, 83, a Washington psychoanalyst who also for more than 20 years was a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University's medical school, died of cardiac dysrhythmia and coronary artery disease Feb. 10 at her home in Chevy Chase.

Dr. Ticho and her husband, psychoanalyst Ernst Ticho, supervised and trained analysts at the Baltimore-Washington Psychoanalytic Society and later at the Washington Psychoanalytic Society. They also had a private psychoanalytic practice.

She retired about three years ago. Her husband died in 1996.

Dr. Ticho was born Gertrude Ruth Hollwarth in Vienna and graduated in 1944 from the University of Vienna Medical School.

Incidentally, Ernst Ticho, Ph.D. was Otto Kernberg's mentor. Dr. Kernberg is the past president of the International Psycho-Analytical Association.

If you're going to be certified insane, it pays to be certified insane by the stars of the psychiatric community.

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