GW Psychiatric Treatment: Termination

The U.S. Secret Service (Philip C. Leadroot) had interviewed me at the Washington, DC field office in February 1996, three months earlier.  The Secret Service did not contact me about the following letter.  The following letter is a good example of my opportunism.

May 8, 1996
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC  20008

D. Georgopoulos, M.D.
Dept. Psychiatry
GW Univ. Med. Ctr.
Washington, DC  20037

RE:  GW’s Contemplated Termination of Psychiatric Rx of Charity Patient under Secret Service Investigation - Presidential Security Threat

Dear Dr. Georgopoulos:

Attached with respect to the above-referenced matter are two documents issued by the Department of Human Rights and Minority Business Development (DHR) of the Government of the District of Columbia dismissing my unlawful job termination Complaint against my former employer, the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld (Akin Gump).

1.  Initial Letter of Determination issued June 30, 1993: DHR incorporates the recommendation of Akin Gump, based on the recommendation of a psychiatrist (Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D.), that I undergo counseling.  See p. 9: “That concern coupled with the advice of mental health professionals that Complainant needed counseling and that according to one professional [Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D.] could engage in violent behavior, 1/ was sufficient grounds for Complainant’s termination.”

2.  Determination on Reconsideration issued September 24, 1993: See p. 7: [restates earlier determination verbatim].

I want to bring to your attention a troubling public statement that was recently made by John Hinckley, Sr., father of John Hinckley, Jr., who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the attempted assassination of former President Ronald M. Reagan.  John Hinckley, Sr. stated: “I blame myself for what happened.  We forced John to be independent too soon.  He was not ready for it.  We should never have forced our son to leave home.”  John Hinckley, Jr. has been diagnosed as suffering with paranoid schizophrenia.

Incidentally, Robert S. Strauss, founder of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, my former employer, serves on the advisory board of GW’s Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine, under contract with the U.S. Secret Service to provide emergency medical care to the President.  Mr. Strauss is therefore, a fiduciary of the Medical Center and might, therefore, be open to reviewing this matter with appropriate officials of the Medical Center.

I hope that GW will find some means to continue to provide the counseling that, according to Mr. Strauss’s partners and the Government of the District of Columbia, I need.

You may wish to review this matter with the U.S. Secret Service and/or the Office of U.S. Attorney.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman
________________________
1/  Robert S. Strauss's partners continue to refuse to acknowledge that a determination made by my direct supervisor at the time of my job dismissal that I might be armed and homicidal was evidence of a hostile work environment.  Immediately following my termination senior Akin Gump supervisors secured my supervisor's office against an armed assault that they reportedly feared I might commit.

Cc: (tentative) The Washington Post, The New York Times
 (tentative) President Trachtenberg [President of the George Washington University]