PHOTO- Daytona Beach Narcotics Anonymous / Alcoholics Anonymous Member, Sunrise Park Holly Hill Florida    

The day was November 21st 2010 in Volusia County, Sunrise Park in Holly Hill Florida. The local community had rented the pavilion for a Thanksgiving celebration cookout. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and there were ribbons around the pavilion to notify others it had been reserved. Law abiding, local business owners and well respected long time residents were preparing to cook a turkey. Steve who had recently run for the position of Mayor of Holly Hill and had been a long time Boy Scout Master was there to cook the turkey.

At around 11:00 a.m., when The Daytona Beach Area Narcotics Anonymous members were starting to arrive for their Sunday meeting, many NA members were quite upset that the citizens of Holly Hill had actually rented the pavilion. Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous continually refuse to pay rent to secure the pavilion for their scheduled meetings. It was available to rent for those that chose to pay the City of Holly Hill the required fees to reserve it for November 21st 2010.

We were unprepared and shocked for what happened next. A tall biker guy named Terrence, actually walked into the center of the pavilion and started to flex his muscles as if he were Hulk Hogan. He said the words from a beatles song that went,  ” Bang, Bang Maxwell silver hammer came down upon her head, Bang bang Maxwell silver hammer made sure she was dead ” while he continued to flex his muscles. Terrence then did a bow to those of us in the pavilion and said, ” I am feeling generous today and will allow you to live another day!”. Needless to say all of us were pretty shocked.

Pictures were taken of this man as he was leaving. He turned and flipped us the bird in a very menacing manner. He then went to his motorcycle and came BACK into the pavilion a 2nd time and told a local Holly Hill citizen, who was a court employee, that he could squash him like a bug. He took out his cell phone, got in our faces and started to take pictures of us. Then he walked over to the NA meeting that was taking place in another part of the park. The Holly Hill Police were called and 3 officers responded to the call. What a relief (we thought).

Little did we know that we would be revictimized again by the very police officers that were called to protect us. They started questioning us in a very hostile tone. Officer Thornton kept demanding to know why we were there. Puzzled by their hostile and odd behavior we kept explaining to her that we had rented the pavilion for a Thanksgiving cookout. We showed them the big Turkey that we were cooking as well. The police were asked by one of the victim’s “is there a problem with the citizens renting out the pavilion? ” Officer Thornton answered quickly, that she thought it was ” MALICIOUS” to rent the pavilion! This was one of many inappropriate and shocking comments coming from Officer Thornton and the other policeman. ( Formal complaints have been filed against Officer Thornton and The Holly Hill Police Department). Officer Angelo Alexogiannis stated that he used to work at The Stewart Marchman Rehab Center and sympathized with the NA members. They showed no concern or interest whatsoever for our safety, or in what had just happened. They exhibited a strong bias in favor of the NA group. They seemed to be joined at the hip. Later it started to make more sense as we learned of Officer Thornton’s own colorful background.

When we had identified the man who had harassed and threatened us, the police said that they knew who he was. They then went over to the large NA meeting taking place and talked and laughed with them a bit, including the member that threatened and harassed us. The officers came back and said to stay away from one another, and allowed this man to remain at the park! He was not arrested or trespassed from the park. One officer asked if their was anything else he could do. We asked if charges could be pressed for threatening us. They said no, there was nothing we could do. Could we fill out a report? No-we could not fill out a report.Then Officer Angelo Alexogiannis was asked if he would at least fill out a report stating what had happened. He promised he would indeed do that.

Well this initially put a damper on the festivities, we made the best out of it and enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings. It was enjoyed by many from the local community.

The following week the police report was requested from the Holly Hill PD. There was a report # given and the incident call, but no actual report. We were later told by staff that the officer decided not to do a report after all! This was  knowing that a report was requested and it had been promised. This appears to be an attempt to cover up the incident to protect the image of Daytona Narcotics Anonymous and the identity of Terrence, the long time NA member that harassed us.

To our complete surprise there were 2 incidents that day at the park. One had a report and the other did not. Both of them shocked us. Where local citizens were threatened there was no report, only a short statement in the incident log stating that the incident was caused by the victim who was threatened and called the police! Also, even though the police stated they knew who the perpetrator was and spoke to him, they did not put his name in the incident log. It’s a good thing citizens were wise enough to get the licence plate of the man,and were able to identify him, Terrence T. This was another rude awaking as to how the police were protecting the NA members, and what a cozy relationship they had with them. We knew then, that the Holly Hill PD and Chief Mark Barker were not going to protect the citizens and local business owners from the harassment and threats by NA members.

Then there was the 2nd report. A woman named Danielle went to the police station later in the afternoon on the day of the incident and filed a report stating that a woman was following her 8 year old daughter around the park with a video camera! At the time it was was not known, but it became clear in the following months that Danielle was the treasurer for the entire Daytona Area Narcotics Anonymous. No where in the report did she state any connection to the earlier incident or that she was affiliated with NA.This was a false report filed by Danielle. This is a crime. She said in her report that the person who she accused of filming her daughter was the lady who owned the store across the street. The owner of the store across the street just happened to be the same person that called the police on Terrence the NA member, and was part of the Thanksgiving party at the pavilion. The owner of the store did not own a video camera. No pictures were taken of her daughter, and certainly the owner was not following a child around taking pictures! This was an obvious attempt by Danielle to start her initial process of setting up the convenience store owner for retaliation. Diabolical indeed! Mark Barker went along with it hook line and sinker. This was the beginning of Danielle making multiple false accusations when calling police against the owner, along with lying to the the commissioners at a City Hall meeting, stating we were dumping cigarette butts on the ground, and blaming it on NA members was just one of the outlandish claims.

Citizens asked to fill out a report that November 21st day, we were denied this right. Yet Danielle was able to waltz into the police department later and file a false police report, which was very oddly written. Neither the police or Danielle were too worried about it, as no one ever came to talk to the owner of the store who was accused of following a child in the park and videotaping her. You would think that a concerned mother would ask the person themselves why they were taking pictures of their daughter, if it actually happened. Of course that was another lie. Danielle is not the mother of the child she was referring to to but her Aunt. She is the daughter of her brother who has a lengthy criminal background.

We soon realized the depth that Holly Hill PD would go to protect NA / AA members. NA members were fabricating stories and lying about the events of that day. Then Narcotics Anonymous World Services in California said that their policy was to do nothing about criminal matters by their own members. We then knew the extent of what we were up against. NAWS advice was to just call the police and that this was a police matter and has nothing to do with them. Well that was, and still is a joke as time would continue to demonstrate the bias of the Holly Hill PD. We knew then that a grass roots effort had to be initiated to expose this fiasco.

Photo of Daytona NA Member Terrence coming back into the pavilion a second time and threatening to squash a citizen like a bug.