Daytona Beach “Just For Today” Narcotics Anonymous Meeting at Hollyland Park Continues to Harass Citizens

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This story told by 4thechildren about the Just For Today NA Meeting in Holly Hill deserved it’s own post.

On Memorial day weekend, a volunteer who was cleaning up trash at Hollyland Park, had to listen to excessive swearing from members of the Daytona Beach NA group, “JUST FOR TODAY” who were holding their large meeting directly in the middle of the playground.

Someone had properly rented the park’s main pavilion for a family reunion gathering. This Daytona NA group’s non-traditional chairperson decided to take over the pavilion in the middle of the playground which was about 30 to 40 feet from the family reunion event!

Too bad if the children of the family reunion were hoping to use the playground!

The volunteer was so sick of hearing the foul language and witnessing the inappropriate behavior from this group on Memorial day weekend that he decided not to visit the Holly Hill park last Sunday.

He considered not going again this weekend but then asked himself, why should any citizen allow this group, who takes over the park every Sunday morning, to deny one from enjoying a typical park experience because of their foul language and inappropriate aggressive behavior?

So at about 11:30 a.m., after purchasing a sub from Subway, he decided to stop by and eat his brunch in the park at a nice shady picnic table across the field and away from the meeting.

He got out with his book to read and paused from time to time to watch some batting practice going in the ball field as he ate his food.

The citizen just continued to read his book. Even at this distance one could not help but hear swearing. He also heard a lady who apparently was walking with a small child coming closer to where he was sitting. As she got closer she heckled the citizen with an extremely derogatory and critical remark.

Then two other Daytona NA members came by where the citizen was sitting and muttered derogatory comments about him to one another as they passed.

I guess they are retaliating because this citizen has had to call the police in the past when Daytona Beach NA members illegally smoke and harass citizens etc.

What happened next was much worse! AA Daytona Meetings in Daytona Beach Florida Volusia County

As the citizen continued with his book and some NA members were getting in their vehicles, a newer,tan diesel truck drove toward the citizen.The truck pulled up tightly behind the citizen’s car, which was the last one in the parking area. THEN THE DRIVER AGGRESSIVELY MANEUVERED THIS TRUCK AROUND THE CAR, WAY UP ON TO THE GRASS, TIGHT TO AND PART WAY AROUND THE TREE AND PICNIC TABLE!

HE THEN SAT STARING RIGHT AT THE CITIZEN, WHILE PARKED APPROXIMATELY 10 FEET FROM THE CITIZEN’S SIDE OF PICNIC TABLE, ON THE GRASS WITH HIS DIESEL MOTOR RUNNING! Every time the citizen looked up from his book, the aggressive man in the truck was staring right at him!

After many minutes had gone by the citizen started to pick up his food and book to put it in his car. The man in the truck just kept staring and then pulled his truck sideways right behind the car, blocking it. The citizen just calmly continued to put his things in his car and then thought it best to check the license tag of this truck!

At that point the Daytona NA man in the truck made some aggressive and unusual maneuvers, backing his truck up across the grass, way over towards the nursery. The man in the truck continued to stare at the citizen from his truck. The citizen then walked diagonally across the field to get the license number from the truck. After realizing that the citizen was getting his tag number the truck quickly left the area.

The citizen stayed a while longer and watched some batting practice to relax but then it began to rain so he decided to leave.

As the citizen reached the stop sign at the edge of the park and prepared to pull out, the same truck pulled slowly in front of him on the street and then stopped in the road just past the intersection.

The citizen then pulled out onto the road and went in the opposite direction of the truck to avoid further aggression from this man. At that point the man in the tan, crew cab, diesel truck quickly pulled into Centennial Park and stopped right in the entrance way.

As the citizen headed east, the man in the truck peeled out of Centennial Park and you could hear his tires squealing 3+ blocks away!!

VERY AGGRESSIVE !!

Knowing the long criminal and violent history of some of these anonymous members and the completely unsupervised nature of their meetings, it boggles the mind to think of them being permitted to take over a playground just to avoid paying for an appropriate space.

This would not be allowed in Daytona, Ormond or Volusia County Parks!

Their organization’s 7th tradition expects them to pay their own way and they always recite how their traditions are
NON-NEGOTIABLE!

AA Member and Sexual Deviant Arrested With Having Sex With a Minor and Supplying Drugs and Alcohol for Teen Party

RACHEL LYNN LENHARDT

Georgia Mother Accused Of ‘Naked Twister Party’ With Teen Daughter, Sex With Minor

Rachel Lynn Lehnardt, 35, was arrested Saturday night and charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The charges stem from a wild party allegedly held a few weeks ago in her home, according to police reports. The suspect also has lost custody of her five children, ages 4, 6, 8, 10, and 16.

The allegations were made by Lehnardt’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, who contacted the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office after meeting with the suspect to discuss her future plans for sobriety, AugustaCrime.comreports.

Lehnardt allegedly told her sponsor that her 16-year-old daughter texted asking if she could have friends over “to party,” according to a sheriff’s report obtained by the Augusta Chronicle.

Lehnardt reportedly agreed and allowed her daughter and friends to smoke pot and drink booze in her home. In addition, the sponsor told investigators that Lehnardt participated in naked Twister with the teens, and showed them photos of herself having sex with her boyfriend. Volusia County Drug Court Mandates Criminals To AA and NA Daytona.

The sponsor told authorities that Lehnardt confessed to having sex with an 18-year-old male in the bathroom during the naked Twister game.

According to the sheriff’s report, Lehnardt allegedly went to bed alone, but awoke around 3:30 when she felt someone having sex with her.

“She stated at first she thought it was the 18-year-old from earlier, but then realized it was the 16-year-old who was in fact her daughter’s boyfriend,” Lehnardt’s sponsor told deputies.

The sheriff’s report then goes into shocking detail:

“Mrs. Lehnardt told [the sponsor] she and her daughter had spoken and that her daughter ‘felt guilty because the 16-year-old was 10 inches long and huge, and if she had just been able to take it, he wouldn’t have needed to rape her mother.'”

 This allegation sounds like rape but Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Steve Morris said no charges are pending against the teen. AA Daytona And NA Daytona Complaints.

“Based on the investigation, there’s no evidence the 16-year-old committed a crime,” Morris told The Huffington Post.

The report states the sponsor goes to the same church as Lehnardt. The suspect allegedly belongs to a sexual addiction support group where she admitted to being a “sexual deviant” who is addicted to pornography.

A Sheriff’s spokesman told AugustaCrime.com that Lehnardt was arrested partially based on the account given by her AA sponsor.

No sexual crime charges are being filed because 16 is the legal age of consent in her state. Lehnardt was released from the Columbia County Detention Center after posting a $3,200 bond, according to the Augusta News-Times.

UPDATE: This version of the story includes quotes from Capt. Steve Morris about whether the 16-year-old who allegedly had sex with the suspect will be charged for rape.

Drunk Indiana AA Member Arrested for Starting Fights at Linton Church AA Meeting

Mary K. Brian

How about that an AA member drunk and starting fights at an AA meeting. These are stories AA and NA love to cover up. Not a healthy or safe place to send your loved ones or take your kids with you.

Woman accused of being intoxicated and trying to start fights at an AA meeting

Thursday, February 27, 2014
By Anna Rochelle, Co-Editor

One woman was arrested Monday after police got a call that an intoxicated woman was starting fights in a church in Linton where several people were trying to have an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Holly Hill NA Daytona Meetings in Hollyland Park refusing to pay rent.

Mary Kathleen Brian, 45, of Bloomfield was booked into the Greene County Jail where her bond was set at $500 surety. She was released after posting $50 cash and is due to appear in Greene Superior Court next Monday. AA Daytona Meetings in Daytona Beach.

Officer Nick Yingling was on patrol when he was dispatched to the church and was met by a man standing outside saying the woman was inside the building fighting with people.

He reported that as he walked inside the church, he saw three people who were trying to hold Brian down. He said she was swinging her arms with closed fists trying to hit them, and she was yelling and cussing. SMART Recovery meetings in St. Augustine Fl.

The officer told the individuals to let her go, but she then approached the officer and raised her arms at him. He grabbed her, pushed her against a wall and put handcuffs on for her safety and his. Judge Will Drug Court and religious court mandated AA meetings.

She was reportedly still yelling and cussing when one of the individuals said they were having the meeting when she came in yelling and trying to start fights with everyone.

Yingling said he could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Brian who told him her brother-in-law was supposed to pick her up for the meeting but he never showed. She began drinking whiskey and then drove to the meeting herself.

She was then taken into custody and transported. Orange Papers Anti- AA.

When Brian appears in court for an initial hearing, she will be charged with public intoxication that endangers a person’s life, a class B misdemeanor.

http://m.gcdailyworld.com/story/2056062.html

Milwaukee Who Man Died in AA Meeting From Alcohol Withdrawals 12 Years Ago Identified

Mystery solved: A man whose identity remained a mystery for 12 years after he slumped over dead in a 2001 Milwaukee AA meeting has been identified as this man, 53-year-old Oliveros Perdomo

What I find sad about this story is here is a man who wanted to quit drinking, and quit drinking without proper medical treatment. He went to an AA meeting instead and died. People are being sent to AA meetings without the medical help they need to deal with withdrawals from quitting drinking cold turkey. Stop sending people to a religious cult!

Mystery man who died at Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 2001 was divorcee, 53, who was thrown out of his ex wife’s house and never seen again

  • The man had no identification and no one at the Milwaukee AA meeting knew him
  • No family or friends ever came forward to positively identify him
  • Thanks to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System at the U.S. Department of Justice, the man has been identified as Oliveros Perdomo, 53, and his remaining family notified

Milwaukee Co. officials identify man who died during Alcoholics Anonymous meeting 12 years ago

  • Article by: Associated Press
  • Updated: December 2, 2013

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County officials have identified a man who died more than 12 years ago while trying to get help for his drinking problem at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

No one knew the name of 53-year-old Oliveros Perdomo when he walked into the Milwaukee meeting in 2001, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He also had no identification on him when he collapsed beneath a sign that read, “But for the grace of God…”

Tests later revealed he died from a withdrawal seizure due to chronic alcoholism.

“It was like he ran out of breath,” AA member Jose Gonzalez said at the time.

For months, authorities tried to identify him. Police showed his morgue photo to people in the neighborhood where he was last seen. The same photo appeared in newspapers and on television. People searching for missing loved ones became aware of the case, but left the morgue disappointed. Continue reading

Woman Stabs and Kills Lover Attends AA Meetings Before Court Hearing

Men need to be careful too attending AA meetings, as female killers attend as well to impress the judge to get lighter sentences. She attended AA for 3 years after stabbing her lover death before her plea deal.

Richmond Hill woman pleads guilty to manslaughter in stabbing

Looking for closure
Jennifer Hutchin holds up a photograph of her brother, Greg Goodeve, who was killed in 2010 in Richmond Hill. Mr. Goodeve’s girlfriend, Renee Laurence, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in his death.
ByJeremy Grimaldi  November 7th 2013

A woman who killed her lover during a booze-fueled night in 2010 has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and requested her bail be revoked so she can begin serving her expected six-year sentence. NA and AA Daytona Beach Meeting.

Renee Laurence, 34, who admitted guilt in the 2010 stabbing death of Greg Goodeve, called an end to court proceedings that were expected to continue until 2015, had it not been for the Nov. 1 plea bargain. Continue reading

Daytona Probation Sweep Catches Killer Who Was Looking for a Daytona Beach Narcotics Anonymous Meeting to Attend that Night

NA Daytona Beach is a place for convicted killers.Terry Frison Freeman a convicted Killer of an 81 year old man he brutally beat to death did 15 years for the killing. He was let out in May 2013. He was looking for a Daytona Narcotics Anonymous Meetings when police were doing a probation sweep and found he was not home. Going to Daytona NA meetings is most likely part of his probation requirements. Daytona NA invites killers and rapists right along with children and minors. Of course as we know this is not exclusive to NA Daytona Beach Florida. This is a global problem. NA Holly Hill meetings are in Centennial Park as well as NA Daytona meetings held in Hollyland Park with violent felons, Deland, Ormond Beach, Port Orange and Daytona Beach Shores.

Probation and Parole Sweep Nets Convicted Killer,  police said.

 By  STAFF WRITER

Published: Thursday, July 18, 2013

DAYTONA BEACH — A convicted murderer on parole went back to jail earlier this week because he was late getting home.

Terry Frison Freeman was arrested Wednesday night during a Daytona Beach police probation and parole sweep — the department’s first in more than a year due to budget constraints.

The 41-year-old Freeman, was convicted of second degree murder for beating an 81-year-old grocer to death in 1996. He was also convicted of robbery.

One of the conditions of his parole when he was released from the Tomoka Correctional Institution in May, included that he be home every evening by 7 p.m., said Police Capt. Craig Capri.

A Daytona Beach detective, a uniformed officer and a Probation and Parole officer, knocked on Freeman’s door on Wednesday evening, and he was nowhere to be found, said Police Chief Mike Chitwood and Capri.

“We waited for him until 7:15 p.m. and he didn’t come back,” Capri said Thursday. “We didn’t see him until after 8. He said he was looking for an NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting.”  Donnie Moore Commissioner of Holly Hill calls critics nutjobs.

Wednesday’s arrest of Freeman was a significant one for police. Continue reading

AA Member Sponsor Arrested for Sexually Assaulting 16 Year old Runaway he Met at an Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

"Mentor" Sexually Assaults Teen He Met at Alcoholics Anonymous: Police

Prime reason NOT to send your TEEN to AA MEETINGS!!!!!

A former Philadelphia school teacher is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl that he befriended at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

According to investigators with the Montgomery County the criminal complaint, Paul Jefferey Corrigan, 47, was acting as the girl’s mentor (Sponsor).

 Man Arrested, Accused Of Assaulting Teenage Runaway Posted: Jul 11, 2013

UPPER MERION, Pa. -Upper Merion Police have charged a man with assaulting a teen aged runaway he met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. AA Daytona and NA Daytona Meetings in Ormond Beach, Holly Hill and Daytona Beach.
Paul Corrigan is accused of repeatedly having sex with the 16-year-old.

He was arrested and the girl was found at the Crown Plaza on Mall Boulevard. Police observed lubricant and a vibrator in Corrigan’s hotel room.

Authorities say the girl snuck out of her parents’ home a number of times to meet with Corrigan.

He bought her cigarettes, alcohol, and various other items to bribe her into future excursions, investigators say.

Police say Corrigan and the girl texted each other for about two months after they met at the AA meeting. Corrigan is married.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Former-Teacher-Sexually-Assaults-Teen-He-Met-at-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Police-215275001.html

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/22818494/man-arrested-accused-of-assaulting-teenage-runaway

Man Hospitalized After Fight Behind Alcoholics Anonymous Building

Drinking behind Alcoholics Anonymous leads to fight  Thursday, 20 June 2013A 42-year-old Lawton man was hospitalized with injuries received Tuesday behind the Alcoholics Anonymous building, he said, during some daytime drinking followed by an epithet that could have resulted in his own epitaph. AA NA Daytona Beach Meetings

LPD Sgt. J.R. Helms said he met with the man at Comanche County Memorial Hospital where the man was being treated for a cut right eye/cheek and left side of the head as well as a possible broken arm. The man told Helms he’d been drinking with a group of people behind the AA building at Southwest 12th and F Avenue around noon when he’s said a racial epithet. A 40-year-old black man he knew only as “Michael Jackson” allegedly picked up a piece of wood and began beating the man with it, the report states. “Jackson” then left the area and the injured man walked to the hospital where he called police. Continue reading

Violent Woman Convicted Three Times for Stabbing Partner Attends Narcotics Anonymous Meetings

This very violent woman attends both AA meetings and NA meetings after being charged with stabbing her partner on 3 different occasions. So many violent criminals go to AA meetings before they are sentenced in hopes to impress the judge. Many defense attorneys tell their clients to do this no matter how violent the crime.

Campbell River woman avoids more jail for third stabbing

Published: June 06, 2013 

A woman convicted for the third time of stabbing her male partner is spending her time in rehab, but not jail.

Lena Walkus, 38, appeared in Campbell River provincial court on May 29, to be sentenced for assault causing bodily harm.

According to Crown prosecutor Adrienne Venturini, it’s the third time Walkus has been convicted in connection with a domestic stabbing assault.

Venturini asked the court to impose nine more months of jail time, but instead, Judge Roderick Sutton delayed sentencing a few days to allow Walkus to immediately enter residential treatment in Alert Bay.According to defence lawyer Angie Penhall, Walkus grew up in Vancouver and began drinking at age 12 or 13. At 15, she began smoking marijuana and by 17 she was using crack cocaine. Continue reading

Thief attends AA Meetings after Arrest on 26 Charges Related to Stealing and Identity Theft

Marianne Marcum

AA and NA member Marianne Marcum attended these 12 step meetings prior to her sentencing, most likely to impress the judge. This woman had stolen multiple credit cards and defrauded businesses out of thousands in merchandise. She had an amphetamine addiction she was feeding at the expense of others. No wonder so many 12 step members report being ripped off by other members they meet at meetings. Considering how many thieves the courts send to AA meetings. Also AA Daytona Beach meetings

Police Chief Mike Chitwood is tough on Daytona Beach crime

13TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT

4-year community corrections sentence for Sterling ID thief

Lawyer: Marcum turned to crime to feed meth addiction
Posted:   05/14/2013

STERLING — Almost a year after her first arrest, 41-year-old Sterling resident Marianne Marcum received a sentence of four years of community corrections after pleading guilty to identity theft and criminal possession of a financial device.

The court found that the local mother — who was arrested after a series of incidents in which the court says she stole credit cards and defrauded local businesses out of thousands in merchandise — had acted out to feed a methamphetamine addiction. Continue reading

DAYTONA BEACH ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS GROUP DISREGARDS PARK REGULATIONS

Daytona Beach Alcoholics Anonymous Sunrise Group VIOLATES NO SMOKING SUNRISE PARK RULES IN HOLLY HILL FLORIDA.

Local citizens strolling through the park on a beautiful Sunday morning were admiring the completion of some new projects in the City of Holly Hill, like new sidewalks, repaving of Riverside Dr, and improvements to the park. They were taking pictures of the park and wildlife when they noticed that Daytona AA Sunrise Group from Volusia County Intergroup were defiantly disregarding the no smoking policy. Both Daytona AA and Daytona NA have been refusing to pay rent and running people out of pavilions for years. This group now chooses to disrespect the NO SMOKING rules of the park!

Continue reading

Daytona Beach 12 Step Facility Stewart Marchman Act Employee Charged With Sexually Abusing Teens at Facility

COREY HODGES

12 Step Stewart Marchman Act Adolescent Facilty has fired Corey Hodges 34, over allegations of sexually abusing minor girls at the facility. Corey Hodges had been arrested in 2007 on felony charges for bringing drugs into the Tomoka Correctional Institution while working there as a correctional officer. The charges were dropped after he went through the Stewart Marchman ADI Level 1 program (anti-drug initiative) diversion program. How did this man get employment as a “Child Specialist” at Stewart Marchman Act after that ? What kind of background checks do they do? What training did he have? Continue reading

Cocaine Anonymous Treasurer Sentenced To Death In Petit Connecticut Murders

Condemned: Joshua Komisarjevsky was sentenced to death today for the brutal murder and rape of a wife and her daughters in Connecticut

Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky first crossed paths at a Hartford, Connecticut, drug treatment center in the summer of 2006, according to police.

Both men, career criminals, had been in and out of jail for similar non-violent crimes. Twice they had overlapping stays at the same halfway house or drug center, and the two attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings together and became friends, according to a detective’s report. NA Daytona Meetings in Holly Hill Florida.

They shared similar interests — often the downfall that led them into the criminal justice system — but nobody knew at the time that their friendship would result in what police and prosecutors say was one of the most brutal crimes in memory in the prosperous town of Cheshire, Connecticut.

Connecticut killer sentenced to die for “unimaginable horror”

Mary Ellen GodinReuters2:14 p.m. CST, January 27, 2012
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) – A judge ordered Joshua Komisarjevsky to be executed this summer for the 2007 murders of a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in Connecticut, saying on Friday that he committed a crime of “unimaginable horror.”Judge Jon Blue told Komisarjevsky, 31, that he alone was to blame for his new address on death row after the triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, and beating of husband and father Dr. William Petit Jr.”This is a terrible sentence but one you have written for yourself,” Blue told Komisarjevsky in New Haven Superior Court.”Your crime was one of unimaginable horror and sadness,” the judge said. “Your fate is now in the hands of others. May God have mercy on your soul.”He set an execution date of July 20 pending an appeal, which could drag out the matter for years.Before the judge spoke, Komisarjevsky, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, denied he killed or raped anyone and blamed “the hurt I caused” on being a victim himself of sex abuse as a child, drug addiction, and his accomplice Steven Hayes, 48, already sentenced to death row.Hawke-Petit was strangled and the girls died of smoke inhalation after the home was set afire. Hawke-Petit was raped and Michaela Petit was sexually assaulted.Dr. Petit, who had been tied up and beaten unconscious, escaped as the home went up in flames.http://www.wqad.com/topic/sns-rt-us-crime-homeinvasiontre80q1iy-20120127,0,2603124.story

New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) — A judge in New Haven sentenced a 31-year-old man to death Friday for his role in a deadly home invasion that killed a woman and her two daughters in 2007.

Jurors convicted Joshua Komisarjevsky in October on six capital felony charges. The 12-member jury had recommended death by lethal injection on each of the counts.

“The task of sentencing another human being to death is the most sober and somber experience a judge can have,” said Superior Court Judge Jon Blue.

Komisarjevsky responded Friday, saying that he “came into this trial angry and defiant.”

It’s a “surreal experience to be condemned to die,” he said. “Our apathetic pursuits trampled the innocent.”

He said, “I did not rape. I did not pour that gas or light that fire.”

“I will never find peace again and my soul is torn,” Komisarjevsky added.

The family of his victims left the courtroom before Komisarjevsky spoke.

Richard Hawke, in a victim’s statement prior to the sentencing, said the killings of his daughter and granddaughters had left him “half-past dead.”

“They offered to give you everything you asked for, you didn’t have to take their lives,” he told Komisarjevsky. “You will from now on be known as a prison number in the book of death. You are now in God’s hands.”

The man convicted of being Komisarjevsky’s accomplice, Steven Hayes, was sentenced to death in 2010. Juries convicted the pair on charges that they beat and tied up Dr. William Petit Jr., raped and strangled his wife, molested one of their daughters and set the house on fire before trying to flee.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/27/justice/connecticut-home-invasion-sentencing/index.html?iref=allsearch

Photos of Petit Crime Scene-

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/slideshow/evidence-photos-petit-murder-trial-11658978

July 18th 2013 Katie Couric Show with Mathew West and the Cheshire Murders-

http://www.katiecouric.com/on-the-show/2013/07/18/cheshire-murders-matthew-west/

SECRETS KEPT BY AA SPONSOR FLOYD NADEAU IN MURDER BY BOB RYDER

Floyd Nadeau AA sponsor, finally reported Bob Ryder 20, sponsee in the murder of Danita Brown 38. Police had asked at an AA meeting before about the whereabouts of the murderer, but AA members lied to police.

Bob Ryder

NA Daytona Beach Florida and AA Daytona has the same practice of keeping crimes to themselves. Check out the article ‘The Rude Awakening’ in the stories section written by local citizens who have been the victims of this dangerous practice.

Secrets kept, secrets shared — AA member’s murder revelation raises confidentiality question

                                                      Danita Brown 2008

LEWISTON — An Alcoholics Anonymous member’s story began with the arrival of a Lewiston police officer.

A uniformed cop trying to find somebody — apparently a suspect in a crime — marched into the middle of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He told the group who he was looking for and asked if they’d seen him.

“This is an anonymous program,” the member told him. “No one’s going to tell you if he’s here or not.” A moment later, the frustrated officer walked out, and the meeting resumed.

The suspect had been there the whole time, seated in the front row.

“It was his choice to identify himself or not,” the member said. And each person attending the meeting chose silence rather than break with AA’s 76-year history.

People who attend are anonymous. And what’s said among its members is secret.

“It’s commonly accepted that you don’t go blabbing around what you’ve heard,” said another longtime member.

Yet, some secrets are bigger than others.

On July 11, an Alcoholics Anonymous member and sponsor, Floyd Nadeau of Lewiston, met with police.

He told police that his sponsee, Bob Ryder, 20, of Lewiston, told him he had killed a woman and buried her body in the basement of his 417 Main St. home, according to a police affidavit.

Within hours of Nadeau’s report, police found the body of 38-year-old Danita Brown. Ryder was later charged with murder.

Nadeau had known about the death for two weeks, according to court records. But he held onto the information, reluctant to come forward because of his belief in AA’s confidentiality. He finally went to police after talking with his own sponsor.

AA confidentiality based on tradition

Legally, secrets among Alcoholics Anonymous members aren’t that secret.

The protections that apply to conversations with certain people — lawyers, doctors and clergy — do not apply to people in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Common practice and tradition, rather than law, keep their secrets, said a member who serves as AA’s public information chairwoman for Maine and New Brunswick.

“All we can do is ask,” said the woman, who did not want her name used. “Sponsors are asked ethically, by our traditions, not to divulge anything about a sponsee.”

Traditions don’t include criminal behavior, though.

“We warn newcomers, ‘If you divulge a criminal act, you’re putting yourself and everyone else in the room in jeopardy,’” she said. Most sponsors would go to police.

“By law, we would have to react,” she said.

A longtime member put it more bluntly.

“AA has no laws,” he said. “There’s no rules. There’s no governing bodies. None of us get paid.”

People who hear something in a meeting or in a conversation with a sponsor need to decide for themselves what to do, he said. And bad stuff will come up.

“This has to be looked at realistically,” he said. “This is not Utopia.”

On the other hand, most of AA’s secrets are more personal.

Part of a typical meeting includes frank personal stories, often looking at the damage done to families by alcohol-fueled neglect or affairs.

“Nobody wants that shit out there,” said the long-time member.

Law: Few secrets are safe

People have tried to keep AA’s discussions a secret from police and the courts.

In 2002, New York’s 2nd Circuit Court struck down a decision that compared Alcoholics Anonymous relationships to those of a parishioner and a priest. In that case, a murder was disclosed to several AA members; the talk wasn’t spiritual, the court ruled.

In Maine, discussion among Alcoholics Anonymous members has no legal right to secrecy, said attorney Paul Chaiken, a former president of the Maine Bar Association.

However, a growing number of groups are asking for confidentiality.

It’s widening the gray area where secrets lie, he said.

“You have to ask, ‘Who are you protecting? What’s the policy? What’s the rationale?” Chaiken said.

Many of the new people trying to protect secrets are counselors and therapists who may have licenses but lack some of the formal training of psychiatrists and lawyers, who have some legal standing for confidentiality, or the history of the clergy-penitent relationship, which protects conversations between a priest or minister and a parishioner in certain cases.

Adding to the gray area are differences in law — federal law is less broad in its protection — and the rules of evidence that maintain the confidentiality of some conversations may apply in the courtroom but not apply in some profession’s licensing boards, Chaiken said.

Ongoing and subtle changes in the law make confidentiality a hot topic in medical school and in ongoing training for doctors, said Dr. Michael Kelley, a psychiatrist at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

It can be a chore to keep up, Kelley said.

The same goes for lawyers. The Maine Bar’s rules governing confidentiality go on for nearly 5,000 words, creating a maze of rules.

“You need the (client) to be comfortable that what was said was private,” Chaiken said.

Most exclusions are aimed at preventing harm to people who might be hurt if confidentiality were maintained, balanced by the need to preserve a client’s right to speak openly with a lawyer.

Moral quandaries

When Dr. Kelley meets with a new patient to begin one-on-one counseling, he starts with a warning.

“I need you to understand that everything we say is confidential with a couple of exceptions,” he says. “The main exception is if anybody is in danger or you, yourself, are in danger, then I have to break that.”

The mandate serves as a kind of escape hatch for someone who is both a dedicated professional and a decent citizen.

Secrecy is needed, Kelley said. Without it, some people will miss treatment.

“I’m a substance-abuse specialist,” he said. “If I report every person that ever says they drove drunk, guess what? Nobody’s going to come in and get help for their alcohol dependence or at least they won’t be honest about it.”

During confidential sessions, he has heard people confess to embezzlement, drug-dealing and fraud.

“Ethically, I’m going, ‘Oh my God. I know this person who has done this horrible thing,” he said. But unless he fears someone might come to harm, he cannot talk.

“It’s a moral quandary because on the one hand, if I report everybody who tells me anything illicit they have done, I’m not going to have any patients and they’re not going to get any help.”

The worse the crime, the tougher it can be to remain silent, he said.

“I don’t think there’s a doctor who would hesitate to report a murder,” Kelley said.

As secret as secret gets

If a conversation comes between a member of the clergy and a parishioner during the sacrament of confession, there are no loopholes. It’s as secret as secret gets.

“It’s the highest level of confidentiality and does not admit us any exceptions,” said Monsignor Marc Caron, who leads Lewiston’s Prince of Peace Parish.

“But I think it is often misunderstood,” Caron said. “It is not just any conversation. It is the conversation of a Catholic coming to the priest in order to confess their sins and receive forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation. That level of confidentiality we would consider as being imposed on us by divine law, not even church law.

“The nature of that interaction in itself demands absolute and complete confidentiality, even after the person’s death,” Caron said. “Maine law, so far anyway, does see it as a protected form of speech. New Hampshire law, I believe, does not.”

If someone disclosed plans to hurt or even murder someone during confession, the priest would be bound by his oath to keep silent. And Maine law wouldn’t require him to speak.

But that’s not how the confessional works, Caron said.

“It’s about sins committed,” he said. “It’s about the past.”

But most of his discussions with parishioners are more comparable to Kelley’s discussions, with the same mandate to report threats of physical harm.

Caron respects his legal duty, he said, but such incidents are rare, he said. Most of his talks with people are about their day-to-day lives and family issues.

“They’re much more mundane and they’re much more about relationships,” he said. And if he hears that someone has committed a crime, he asks them to ’fess up.

“We say, ‘Listen, you’ve got to be honest with yourself and others about what’s going on,” Caron said.

‘You can be free’

Moments before the start of a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, as men made coffee and stacked literature on a table, a man raised a small poster with the words, “Think, think, think, think about it!”

For the hour that followed, guys talked about drinking and the damage that alcohol had wrought in their lives.

Though some of the men knew Ryder and Nadeau, nobody talked about the dead woman or the alleged confession. As an organization, Alcoholics Anonymous avoids controversy. It takes no outside donations and doesn’t comment on the news. Even its public information volunteers request anonymity from the news.

“AA is very general,” one volunteer said. “It’s the 12 steps and the 12 principals and the 12 concepts (forming the doctrine of Alcoholics Anonymous) and that’s about it.”

What members do and say is up to them, the volunteer said.

The meeting gave answers, though. People talked about growing up and taking responsibility for their own actions.

After the meeting, a longtime member said that a member who commits a crime is encouraged to confess to the authorities. End the secrecy.

The reason is simple: An unsettled crime will make the alcoholism worse.

“Face up,” he said. “Our suggestion is you go face it and do whatever punishment is due.”

“Then you can be free of it,” he said.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

Colorado Woman Dismembered Boyfriend Set Free and Sent to AA Meetings By Judge

You really don’t know who you will be sitting next to in an AA or NA meeting. It could be a woman who dismembered her boyfriend and cut him up for stew! AA Daytona Meetings, NA Daytona Beach in Holly Hill Parks and AA Meetings in Port Orange and Deland, Orange City and Daytona Beach Shores to meet Court mandated Violent felons and sexual predators.

Jane Lynn Woodley pleaded insanity.The judge felt it is okay to send her to AA meetings where minors attend and other vulnerable members of society. I guess we are all vulnerable when it comes to sitting next to a murderer, right?

Woman Who Pleaded Insanity Set Free.
Saturday, 09-Apr-2005 10:50PM

ALAMOSA, Colo., April 9 (UPI) — A woman found not guilty by reason of insanity of killing her boyfriend and mutilating his body has been set free in Alamosa, Colo.

Jane Lynn Woodry was deemed ready for a supervised return to society by a judge after a two-hour hearing, the Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday.

Woodry was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1993 first-degree murder of Peter Michael Greene. She shot him four times with a .25-caliber revolver, dismembered his body, wrapped his torso in a blanket, and stored it in a closet in his home.

She took his legs back to her apartment, where she cut hunks of flesh from his legs. Investigators found bite-sized chunks of human flesh prepared in a stew on the stove at Woodry’s home.

Conditions for her release also include holding a job, attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, writing daily diary cards and a journal for review by a social worker, and meeting with her case manager three times a week.

“I want people to know that the community is safe”, Woodry said. “I am not a danger to the community.”

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2005/04/09/Woman-who-pleaded-insanity-set-free/65831113100921/

http://news.usti.net/home/news/cn/?/world.law/2/wed/be/Uus-woodry.Rwzx_FA9.html