Letter to FBI: 10/19/94

October 19, 1994

3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Apt. 136

Washington, DC 20008

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Washington Field Office

1900 Half Street, SW

Washington, DC 20324-1600

RE: Freedman v. Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld

Dear Sir:

Enclosed for your information with respect to the above-referenced matter is a letter dated October 17, 1994 to U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder, Jr.

I am currently receiving disability benefits from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), which has, to date, paid out approximately $24,000 to me. The SSA's disability determination was based in part on sworn statements filed by my former employer, the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld (“Akin Gump”), with the D.C. Department of Human Rights that the employer had determined that I suffered from a serious mental disorder and was potentially violent and unemployable.

You will observe that not a single one of Akin Gump's allegations concerning my mental state or my conduct as an employee can be substantiated.

The District of Columbia Department of Human Rights has determined that Akin Gump's termination decision was lawfully based on the employer's determination that as of October 29, 1991 I suffered from a serious mental disturbance, was paranoid, potentially violent, and unemployable. I had submitted a persuasive body of documentary evidence to the D.C. Department of Human Rights that Akin Gump's allegations were false. The filing of false sworn statements is a felony under D.C. Code Section 22-2513 (and a misdemeanor under D.C. Code Section 22-2514). The D.C. Department of Human Rights, in an apparent posture of “hear no evil, see no evil,” turned a blind eye to the possibility that Akin Gump had filed false sworn statements, thereby shielding Akin Gump's attorney managers form a possible felony investigation.

I direct your attention to the following list of allegations made by Akin Gump or its supervisors or staff, none of which can be substantiated:

1. Akin Gump claims that it spoke with a psychiatrist, Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D. who advised the firm that my thinking was dominated by paranoid ideas of reference and that I might become violent.

--Dr. Ticho expressly denies ever having had any communications with Akin Gump of the nature alleged by the employer.

2. Akin Gump claims that it spoke with an unnamed counselor at the firm's Employee Assistance Program provider, Sheppard Pratt Preferred Resources, concerning my mental state.

--Sheppard Pratt has no record of any such communications. Further, the nature of the communication alleged by Akin Gump is totally inconsistent with Sheppard Pratt operating policy.

3. Akin Gump claims that my conduct as an employee was violent and disruptive from at least March 1990 through October 1991, a 16-month period.

--My personnel file does not contain a record of a single oral or written reprimand during the entire three-year period of my employment. Further, all Performance Evaluations issued during my tenure rate my performance above-average or outstanding.

4. My direct supervisor, Mrs. Christine Robertson, advised her employees on the day of my termination that she believed I might be armed and homicidal.

--The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found in November 1993 that Mrs. Robertson had engaged in a pattern of racially offensive conduct.

5. Akin Gump claims that it investigated my complaint of harassment, and that my allegations could not be substantiated.

--A coworker, Mrs. Patricia McNeil, who worked in the firm's litigation support department where I was employed, said she was not even aware that any investigation had been conducted. She said that management had not spoken with her, and she did not know of any other employees who were contacted.

6. Akin Gump claims that coworkers stated during the course of the investigation that they found my behavior disruptive and frightening.

--A coworker, Mrs. Patricia McNeil, states that she viewed my conduct as quiet and professional; that she had not formed the belief that I suffered from mental illness and knew of no other employees who had.

7. Akin Gump claims that it formed the belief that my allegations of harassment were the product of my paranoid thought disturbance. It is noteworthy, therefore, that Akin Gump, in enumerating the supposedly paranoid incidents to the D.C. Department of Human Rights, omitted the three incidents that involved my supervisor, Mrs. Christine Robertson. Thus, Akin Gump consistently omitted purportedly probative evidence of my supposed paranoia where that evidence related to this one supervisory employee. Why?

8. In about August 1989 a coworker, Stacey Schaar, said to me: “We're all afraid of you. We're all afraid you're going to buy a gun, bring it in and shoot everyone. Even the manager of your apartment building is afraid of you.” (It was on August 1, 1989 that Akin Gump promoted me to full-time employee with benefits). I believe, based on a conversation I overheard between two legal assistants (J. Robert Tansey and Christine Lambert), that Stacey Schaar was terminated for gross misconduct in about May 1990. Yet, in a termination chart prepared by Akin Gump for the District of Columbia Department of Human Rights, Akin Gump omitted any reference to Stacey Schaar and any details concerning her termination in May 1990. Why? (See Akin Gump's Response to Interrogatories and Document Request, dated May 22, 1992, at Attachment H).

Psychological testing performed by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the George Washington University Medical Center in May 1994 failed to disclose that I suffer from any mental disorder. The test evaluator concluded that I might have lied on the testing to conceal my paranoia; there is absolutely no evidence that I lied on the testing. William Fabian , Ph.D., under whose supervision the testing was performed, assigned the diagnosis “Paranoid (Delusional) Disorder.” Jerry M. Wiener, M.D., Chairman of the Psychiatry Department and President of the American Psychiatric Association states that I am paranoid and that my paranoid thinking has left me a cripple. During the first few months of my psychiatric treatment I was treated for (apparently nonexistent) manic-depressive disorder, not paranoia.

What in God's name is going on here?

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman