Letter to U.S. Department of Justice: February 3, 1996

The following letter evidences my desperation to trigger a federal investigation of my job termination by the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld as well as allegations made by the employer (or its employees) that I was potentially violent and that I might become armed and extremely dangerous.  Upon its receipt of the following letter, the Justice Department contacted the U.S. Secret Service, which summoned me to the Washington Field Office on February 16, 1996 to discuss the letter.  S.A. Philip Leadroot said to me at that time: "There are lawyers in the Justice Department who think you're a nut case."  (Actually, that's how I make my living!)

The letter is, in fact, carefully crafted.  It cites a letter I wrote to my psychiatrist that arguably brings the communication within the ruling in Tarasoff v. Regents of University of California, 13 Cal.3d 177, 529 P.2d 553 (Sup. Ct. Ca. 1974).  I prepared the subject letter to my psychiatrist as part of the process of psychotherapeutic cure and not for the purpose of revealing hidden danger.  "[A]lthough therapy patients often express thoughts of violence, they rarely carry out these ideas. Indeed the open and confidential character of psychotherapeutic dialogue encourages patients to voice such thoughts, not as a device to reveal hidden danger, but as part of the process of therapy. Certainly a therapist should not be encouraged routinely to reveal such threats to acquaintances of the patient; such disclosures could seriously disrupt the patient's relationship with his therapist and with the persons threatened. In singling out those few patients whose threats of violence present a serious danger and in weighing against this danger the harm to the patient that might result from revelation, the psychotherapist renders a decision involving a high order of expertise and judgment."

February 3, 1996
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC  20008-4530

John C. Keeney
Acting Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
10th & Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC  20530-0002

Dear Mr. Keeney:

Enclosed for the information of the U.S. Department of Justice is a computer disc that contains the most recent letter to my psychiatrist, dated January 31, 1996.  The letter discusses my fantasies in connection with the [violation of 18 USC §1751].

Senior managers of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld have, apparently, not withdrawn their determination that I might be planning an armed assault, which, presumably, may occur at any time.

While I disavow an intent to commit any act of violence, psychiatrists at the George Washington University Medical Center refuse to modify the determination that I lied on psychological testing (administered in May 1994) in order to conceal the nature and severity of a paranoid (psychotic) mental disorder (which may predispose me to commit an act of violence).

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman