This stays in staff

lindape54
SOSEN/CEO
SOSEN Staff
Member

This stays in staff
« on: Today at 10:20:22 AM »

New Personal Message: It's me NOP_Christine

Linda,

Hi, Linda. It's me, NOP_Christine, but I wanted you to know that I'm here - and if you need, you can share that with people you KNOW here. Not all of even the SOhopeful members know this as one of my alternate names, so if it could be kept between you and I and a couple of Board members, as necessary, I would be grateful. I want to be sure that the SOhopeful folks land relatively softly. That is my actual purpose for being here at this time. When I originally signed up here, I was considering already leaving SOh for other reasons, which will become clear down a couple of paragraphs from here.

We didn't refer people here because PetraLuna/AZ and their ilk have targeted ROAR and SOSEN next (and apparently Cheryl specifically), and I couldn't refer our folks to somewhere that they would be coming under immediate attack, particularly in view of tsand/bcu/John J's impersonation of Zman in the comments section of that one news item out of NW Florida (not to mention his obvious release of information to the reporter). You should know that eAdvocate thinks that SOSEN released the info on the problems within SOhopeful to the press, but we of the BOD did not believe that, and I think everyone involved with both organizations saw the flame war that occurred in the comments section of that article as of last night. Tsand/bcu/John J or whatever his name is in any given moment is choosing to pick on one of our more reactive members over at SexOffenderAlliance's forum, but I doubt that will continue for very long. Metanoid is a good admin and I'm sure that he will make the offensive individual aware of the proper protocols and take any other necessary action to quell any flaming.

The arrested former Exec Dir of SOhopeful had everything of SOhopeful's attached to himself - sole signatory on bank account, sole incorporator in the end, etc. Ultimately, shutting down the forum and the front page (and the corporation to the extent possible) were the only ways to prevent any potentially illegal activity from continuing behind the scenes, including the very real possibility of questionable donations through the paypal page. Carolyn had resigned (I don't know if you got a chance to see that - her family is in desperate need of her attention), and the remaining women (and ultimately theparson too) didn't believe it to be appropriate, especially in the current situation, to have another registrant in the Executive Director spot. Not like we could have done anything anyway, with the corporation tied so tightly and exclusively to Freeman and none of us having any access to any of it.

Freeman had unlimited access to the architecture of our forum, as the Exec. While I know most of the former offenders who are working hard for reform do not have ill intent, what I have learned is that it really is nearly impossible to know which former offenders are going back into a life of crime and which ones won't. The arrested individual had apparently been living a double life for a long time, and none of us had even an inkling. When I resigned in January, it was over a falling out with him over his lack of willingness to be accountable about the lack of phone number and address (address being necessary in order to receive bank statements and bills). My original resignation to him had cited my need to focus on my education, but my abrupt premature departure was the result of his vitriolic attacks on me for trying to get him to answer questions that had just been ignored for many months (including Cheryl's questions about when we would get our 501(c)3 status - which never materialized).

We also don't know if he was using the behind the scenes of the forum for nefarious purposes. The potential for that likely problem to continue in some form or other had to be shut off as well. There were hundreds of user names whose accounts had not been activated, and it certainly appears that Freeman may have been having people sign up for SOhopeful just so that he would have an email address for him. We have no way of knowing for sure - he was supposed to activate accounts and put people into user groups.

I am trusting that you see that most of this information really does have to be kept fairly close to the vest. I have tried to explain to people who have emailed me as much as I can without causing any undue panic.

I think the most painful part of all of this is that the AZ/PJ people were right about one thing - active offenders were/are insinuating themselves into groups where sincere people do have child safety at their core message, and using us for cover. I don't think any of the groups are immune, and I don't know what anyone would do about that. None of the groups have real good screening processes (criminal background checks and the like) for leadership positions. (Freeman apparently had a far more extensive criminal history than just his one sex conviction - much of it violent in nature.) The one thing I know I won't ever do again is be in a leadership position of any organization where a registrant is at the top of the food chain, as unfortunate as that is as it regards registrants who really are working at living rightly and legally. And, for the next few years, I have to focus all my attention on my education so that I can create a treatment program that actually works for folks like our family members, whose victims were family members and where reconciliation is both desired and capable of being done safely.

I hope that explains what's happening. I know that's a lot of inside stuff, but I felt like you, as the head of SOSEN, deserved to know as much of the details as I can give you.

Blessings,
Christine (now a_woman_apart)