04-05-2004, 04:51
FYI, the activist involved was awarded one of the highest honors in drug
policy reform for his efforts in shutting down the Straight Inc treatment
facilities nationwide. The children confined in these Straight type centers
are still being emotionally abused. Many of these kids are court ordered
for experimental use or put in by parents not sure what else to do.
Standard treatment 1-3 years (many for smoking a joint).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28991-2004Apr20.html
The Reliable Source
By Richard Leiby
Wednesday, April 21, 2004; Page C03
A Case of One Man's Trash, or Hitting Below the Belt?
Astrange court case involving Melvin Sembler, the U.S. ambassador to Italy
and a major GOP fundraiser and buddy of the Bush family, is heating up in
Florida.
Sembler is suing Richard R. Bradbury, who has spent years rummaging through
Sembler's garbage, picketing and raising a stink about Straight, a
controversial drug treatment program founded by Sembler and his wife, Betty.
The case focuses on a penile pump that Bradbury lifted from Sembler's
garbage, then posted on eBay last year for $300,000. Sembler, 73, underwent
surgery for prostate cancer in 1990 -- and, according to court papers, was
prescribed the device. He calls Bradbury a "sadistic" stalker who tried to
extort money from him.
"This is an invasion into the sanctity of our home and our bedroom," the
couple state in the legal documents filed last month in St. Petersburg,
Fla., where the Semblers obtained a temporary injunction against Bradbury,
forcing him to keep away from their home there. They also demand he return
the pump as well as other materials. Bradbury says he recovered flight
schedules for foreign officials and U.S. lawmakers, along with "Republican
party materials and strategy documents, personal campaign contribution
documents and correspondence" from the Semblers' trash.
Bradbury, 38, calls himself an advocate for victims who, like him, say they
were harmed as adolescents by Straight's practices. According to news
reports, Straight closed in 1993, amid lawsuits and a Florida state audit
that found "a propensity for abuse or excessive force to be used."
Sembler's biography on the State Department's Web site says, "During its 17
years of existence, Straight successfully graduated more than 12,000 young
people nationwide from its remarkable program." Sembler and his wife remain
active in the Drug Free America Foundation.
"They're very philanthropic, very well-meaning people," the Semblers'
attorney, Leonard Englander, told us earlier this week. "Nobody should have
to endure this." A judge yesterday refused Bradbury's motion to dismiss the
case.
The legal battle has been covered extensively on TheStraights.com, a site
run by Wesley Fager, 58, of Oakton. "I was in the cult. My son was in it.
He was significantly harmed by it," says Fager, who unsuccessfully sued the
group in the early 1990s in Fairfax Circuit Court. "The story is not about
a man's penis pump -- it's about child abuse."
Bradbury wouldn't comment, but his attorney, Thomas McGowan, said, "I see
this as a First Amendment case. . . . There is no right of privacy in
garbage."
policy reform for his efforts in shutting down the Straight Inc treatment
facilities nationwide. The children confined in these Straight type centers
are still being emotionally abused. Many of these kids are court ordered
for experimental use or put in by parents not sure what else to do.
Standard treatment 1-3 years (many for smoking a joint).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28991-2004Apr20.html
The Reliable Source
By Richard Leiby
Wednesday, April 21, 2004; Page C03
A Case of One Man's Trash, or Hitting Below the Belt?
Astrange court case involving Melvin Sembler, the U.S. ambassador to Italy
and a major GOP fundraiser and buddy of the Bush family, is heating up in
Florida.
Sembler is suing Richard R. Bradbury, who has spent years rummaging through
Sembler's garbage, picketing and raising a stink about Straight, a
controversial drug treatment program founded by Sembler and his wife, Betty.
The case focuses on a penile pump that Bradbury lifted from Sembler's
garbage, then posted on eBay last year for $300,000. Sembler, 73, underwent
surgery for prostate cancer in 1990 -- and, according to court papers, was
prescribed the device. He calls Bradbury a "sadistic" stalker who tried to
extort money from him.
"This is an invasion into the sanctity of our home and our bedroom," the
couple state in the legal documents filed last month in St. Petersburg,
Fla., where the Semblers obtained a temporary injunction against Bradbury,
forcing him to keep away from their home there. They also demand he return
the pump as well as other materials. Bradbury says he recovered flight
schedules for foreign officials and U.S. lawmakers, along with "Republican
party materials and strategy documents, personal campaign contribution
documents and correspondence" from the Semblers' trash.
Bradbury, 38, calls himself an advocate for victims who, like him, say they
were harmed as adolescents by Straight's practices. According to news
reports, Straight closed in 1993, amid lawsuits and a Florida state audit
that found "a propensity for abuse or excessive force to be used."
Sembler's biography on the State Department's Web site says, "During its 17
years of existence, Straight successfully graduated more than 12,000 young
people nationwide from its remarkable program." Sembler and his wife remain
active in the Drug Free America Foundation.
"They're very philanthropic, very well-meaning people," the Semblers'
attorney, Leonard Englander, told us earlier this week. "Nobody should have
to endure this." A judge yesterday refused Bradbury's motion to dismiss the
case.
The legal battle has been covered extensively on TheStraights.com, a site
run by Wesley Fager, 58, of Oakton. "I was in the cult. My son was in it.
He was significantly harmed by it," says Fager, who unsuccessfully sued the
group in the early 1990s in Fairfax Circuit Court. "The story is not about
a man's penis pump -- it's about child abuse."
Bradbury wouldn't comment, but his attorney, Thomas McGowan, said, "I see
this as a First Amendment case. . . . There is no right of privacy in
garbage."