What Made Me Suspicious of the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library?

I was terminated from my job as a legal assistant at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld on October 29, 1991 by an attorney named Dennis M. Race, Esq. At the conclusion of the termination meeting, Mr. Race said he would serve as a job reference for me.

Beginning about October 30, 1991, I started to visit the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library just about every day. The branch manager at that time was an individual named Brian P. Brown. I suspected very early on that Brian Brown was in communication with some person or persons at Akin Gump. I noticed that when Brian saw me enter the library he routinely engaged in lewd sexual gestures. The gestures were identical to those used by Akin Gump legal assistant administrator Maggie Sinnott and legal assistant coordinator J.D. Neary. See Record on Appeal at 336, Freedman v. D.C. Dept. of Human Rights. I noted the fact that Brown, Sinnott, and Neary were Irish Catholics. I think the word on the street was that I had a grudge against Irish Catholics; I think that was a defensive response to my implication that I was a victim of anti-Semitism at the firm. In any event, I found Brian Brown's behavior peculiar.

In about late 1991, I started to fax communications to my sister (via my brother-in-law's business, Meredith Financial Services). I noticed that in the afternoons at the library, Brian Brown, sometimes in concert with the circulation desk manager, Debra, used to act out and use double-entendres that seemed to correspond to issues and words and phrases I talked about in my faxes to my sister.

In the summer of 1992, a notable event occurred. I qualifed for extended unemployment benefits. Under the law, I was required to send out six job applications per week to prospective employers. In my cover letter to prospective employers I included the name and telephone number of Dennis M. Race, Esq. at Akin Gump, who had told me he would serve as a job reference. After a few weeks of sending out letters, Brian Brown and Debra started acting out wildly. Brian Brown said "I want my name taken off that letter!" It was a really wild scene at the library and it took place a few weeks in succession when employers would be receiving my letters and possibly telephoning Dennis Race. I formed the (paranoid) impression that Dennis Race was being hounded with telephone calls from prospective employers inquiring about me, and that Dennis Race was having violent temper tantrums in which he said: "I want my name taken off that letter."

My paranoid impression is memorialized in the following contemporaneous fax I sent to my sister in the summer of 1992. The French have a saying, "Qui s'excuse, s'accuse." "He who excuses himself, accuses himself." The fax to my sister serves as an excuse, or legal rationalization, for me to include Dennis Race's name on the cover letters to prospective employers. In doing so, I am accusing myself of having knowledge of something that could only arise out of a sensitivity to the goings on in my environment. Dennis Race (or anyone at Akin Gump) did not contact me to direct me to take Dennis Race's name off of letters I was sending out.


FAX NO. 609 235 5569 MEREDITH FINANCIAL SERVICES
transmittal for Mrs. Edward Jacobson c/o Mr. Edward Jacobson
_____________________________

Dear Stell,

I have been sending out resumes to prospective employers.

My last place of employment was Akin Gump. There's always a chance that a prospective employer will, on his own initiative, contact Akin Gimp. In all likelihood, the prospective employer would wish to speak to the legal assistant administrator or another supervisory employee.

My termination from Akin Gump was unlawful, and resulted in part from the knowingly false and malicious statements made by the legal assistant administrator and other supervisory employees to management. Further, there is reason to believe that it was supervisory employees who, for three and one-half years helped to instigate a course of harassment and helped to instigate malicious and defamatory rumors. Further there is evidence that this harassing conduct by supervisory employees did not end with the termination of my employment with Akin Gump, but continued on for months afterwards by use of the telephone for harassment purposes and not for legitimate business purposes.

In order to protect the firm and in mitigation of my own damages I have indicated on the cover letter that if there are to be any contacts they are to be with Dennis Race. (I know that Dennis Race will act responsibly in relation to third parties.) This may help prevent any further unlawful behavior by the legal assistant administrator or other supervisory employees, which would only compound the firm's legal liability.

I hope Dennis Race and the management of the firm understand and appreciate this course of action, which, unfortunately, is unavoidable in a case such as this. What do you do in a case like this, do you have any suggestions?

GF

page 17 of document submission to the U.S. Social Security Administration

June 14, 1993
3801 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20008

Paul G. Yessler, MD
2501 Calvert Street, NW
Suite 101
Washington, DC 20008

RE: Social Security Disability Psychiatric Evaluation
[social security number redacted]

Dear Dr. Yessler:

Enclosed with respect to the above-referenced matter is a collection of letters I wrote and sent (by mail or fax) to my sister after my job termination on October 29, 1991 and before the filing of a disability claim with the Social Security Administration. Most of the letters were in fact written and sent in the year 1992.

I wrote the letters under the influence of my belief that my sister was in communication with my former employer, Akin Gump, and that my sister, upon receipt of the letters, would transmit the letters by fax communication back to managers of Akin Gump.

Both the writing and sending of the letters together with the content of the letters establish the persistence of seemingly paranoid ideation throughout the period beginning October 29, 1991. The letters deal, among other issues, with my concerns regarding harassment by Akin Gump co-workers; harassing (and anti-Semitic) telephone calls I received during 1991 and 1992; my belief that various of my treating psychiatrists were in communication with my former employer; the belief that librarians at the Cleveland Park Public Library (referred to as "the Club") harassed me; my belief that a clerk at a Giant Supermarket in my neighborhood (Adam [Skillings]) harassed me concerning my friendship with Craig Dye; my belief that a specialist at the Brookings Institution (Stephen Hess) was in communication with my former employer; the belief that it was not a mere accident that my former supervisor, Christine Robertson, had me touch her breasts, etc.

Please forward these materials to:

Ms. Fay Peterson
District of Columbia
Rehabilitation Services Administration
Disability Determination Division
P.O. Box 37608
Washington, DC 20013

If you have any questions, you may contact me at (202) 362-7064 (or leave messages at 202 363-3800). Might I suggest a follow-up evaluation consult?

You may contact my sister, Mrs. Estelle Jacobson, at (609) 727-3295.

Thank you very much.


Sincerely ,


Gary Freedman