Just before my mom died of cancer over two years ago, she asked me:
Are you going to be alright...with the SKYWARN thing, I mean? I remember feeling caught off-guard. I stared at the ground, my mouth agape. Catching myself, I closed my mouth, looked back up at her face, and smiling I said "Yah. Sure. I'll be fine. You know me. I'm strong." I feigned a chuckle. I was in her room at Hospice, standing next to her over her bed. She was struggling laboriously to breathe through the O2 mask. She wasn't too much longer for this earth...and I knew it; it was just a matter of time. She died just a few days later. ...My mom had DAYS; she was about to DIE and she knew it...and all she was concerned about wasn't herself; but me.
...I lied. I wasn't strong; I was a wreck. I had no idea what was going to happen. I had no idea if this would ever be resolved, if I'd ever get my name back, if the Alachua County SKYWARN program would ever see the light of day again. Six local hams had...done things...gone WAY too far...put the lifestyles and careers of many people at risk because of what they had done. Everything was destroyed, and my name was left in ruin. ...Everything that I had worked so hard on over the many years...laid waste. There is no real SKYWARN program here in Alachua County now because of what the hams had done. The Weather Service refuses to come back here again because they are too afraid of the things that happened down here. ...And with good reason.
...And ALL that I had ever done, was sit at home...and watch it all happen.
Many have wondered what happened to me these past number of years.
...Stalking, harassment, harassment of friends, of family, threatening of my friend's careers, threats vague, implied, indirect and direct of harm, to keep my mouth shut, of meeting me in "dark alleys", threatening messages left on my answering machine, scary SONGS left on my answering machine...
The song left on the machine was weird. "...WHY don't you just BREEEEAK down!...".1 It had been left by someone who had used a false Caller ID, which indicated that it had supposedly been sent from a Comfort Inn located on Archer Road (in the area behind Target). The lyrics when sung completely out have a completely different and very innocent context. However, what was left on my machine, I knew was meant in a much more sinister way by the person leaving the message, considering what was going on at the time. When you consider how it was left and that the CID was falsified, no one will argue with me there. When I called the hotel and asked if they had any record in their logs of any calls being made to me from thier number, they checked and found no such record. I had no idea at first how anyone could even get away with something like that without being an officer of the law, with access to specialized electronic equipment located within what would have to be agencies such as the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, or some other law enforcement agency. But I mean, wouldn't devices such as these be held behind LOCKED, SECURED DOORS?...with KEYCARD- or PASSCODE-CONTROLLED access? Wouldn't they keep a LOG of who ACCESSED this equipment, too?...who used it, how long it was out, who brought it back, and how it was used? Wouldn't you thinkn there'd be a video camera to record who access the room? Apparently NOT. Then I rented a movie recently called "Untraceable", and I lost my breath when Diane Lane's character mentioned something called a "SpoofCard" [http://www.spoofcard.com])2, which allows people to call others up using a false CID, and to use computer-generated voices in male or female choices, and to harass innocent people. SO FAR, there hasn't been any objection from legislators and there are no current laws against the use of stuff like this at this time. It's very real, though. It really does exist. And there's nothing you can do about it, apparently. If people want to use it, they can.
There were threatening e-mails, e-mail bombing, pager bombing, malicious gossip and rumor was spread around like candy, resulting in the destruction of my name and that of Alachua County SKYWARN, and total destruction of any opportunity for any further civilian-run spotter programs in this county or any county across the entire NWS-JAX County Warning Area. And every time I went to anyone in authority, I was treated like I was being ridiculous, and nothing was ever done. My harassers knew too many people, participated in too many public service activities, were looked up to by everyone, and I...was just some idiot who was "picking" on them.
I have been in hiding from these people, TRYING to stay out of their way, and they would still attack. If I wasn't available directly, they'd just go after my friends, or my associations, or my public service-related contacts. I lost friends and acquaintences because so MANY different people were attacking ME and any people who ASSOCIATED with me - even my business-related associations - simultaneously. ...And they disassociated with me, not because I was a problem, but because it was DANGEROUS to associate with me, and to associate with me might mean that THEY TOO might become targetted, and/or, their families. This was not incorrect or failed logic, it was prudent and very accurate precautionary thinking; and sadly, there was nothing I could do about it. They were absolutely, 100-percent correct to react this way, and I knew it. I KNEW it. There was nothing I could do. It devastated me. It KILLED me.
I cried a LOT; repeatedly. And I didn't HAVE anybody to go to. My mom had just died. My family was gone. My friends were hiding. My car had just been totalled because someone was driving on a license that had been suspended due to a previous DWI, and suddenly I was having to rush around in a rental car to find a replacement so that I didn't lose my job. At the same time, I had a job that was carrying me sometimes up to 200 miles away to do surveys for the Census. I had a funeral to arrange, a eulogy to write, a remembrance video to put together. I suddenly had old tax and other documents to go through, TWO tax returns to research and file, and a sudden executorship to worry about...ALL AT ONCE. I was literally getting NO sleep because every moment of my days were being taken up for a good many months. ...And all the while, these guys are cruelly playing games and toying with me! I had to deal with it totally alone, by myself, and give my OWN consoling. I can tell you from experience that this is NOT easy and I would NEVER wish it upon anyone else. My enemies had ZERO sympathy, ZERO emotional understanding, and didn't care about any of the hardships that I was having to go through. These are some REALLY scary people.
I have effectively become an "expert" now on harassment and stalking; on psychopathy and sociopathy, and other Anti-social Personality Disorders. I have purchased four books on the subject, now - each with copious highlighting, notes, and Post-its attached. They include Nasty People (Jay Carter), the sociopath next door (Martha Stout), Without Conscience (Robert D. Hare), and Snakes In Suits (Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare). I probably know more about the subject than people with PhDs in Psychology at the University of Florida do, simply because it's not a highly researched "speciality" there. I wanted to know what was wrong with me that so MANY people felt they needed to treat me this way, and bring harm to me. I wanted to understand. I wanted to know what to do. How do I protect myself? How do I make them stop? What was going ON? ...and WHY? What the hell was DRIVING these people to go SO...FAR??? ...to even put themselves at risk of being caught, and risking the careers and lifestyles of those around them, too? What made them so TUNNEL-VISIONED on attacking me? There is a very, very real HATRED going on, here! What did I DO????
But it wasn't me. It had nothing to do with me. It had to do with them. It had to do with people who wanted fame and attention and power. At first I was a means to thier ends. But when I discovered who they were, suddenly I was in the WAY of their end, and I'd figured them out; and they felt it was necessary to destroy my reputation and believability in order to protect themselves - before I called their attention to the rest of the world.
I was dealing with "psychopaths."
But I'm done hiding. I'm done putting up with these people. I'm not going to deal with it anymore. I'm standing up for myself, now. And I'm coming back out into the light again. I can't let these people destroy me and my life. I have to get control back.
There is SOME random, miscellaneous information about what happened available in the Alachua County SKYWARN What's New (http://alachuaskywarn.org/whatsnew.html) and News & Announcements (http://alachuaskywarn.org/announce.html) pages, as well as in a special Harassment page that I've been slowly working on that is specifically devoted to it all (http://alachuaskywarn.org/harassment.html). But this blog seems of late to be gleaning most all of my attention right now, and I think I'm going to make THIS the most important document. I'll copy it to some other side places, too.
But this is not going to be something that a lot of hams or public service workers will want to hear, or want to have to admit to, or to evne believe. It's not going to be comfortable. It will in fact be extremely UN-comfortable. It involves popular people - hams, and public service workers, and other people who are otherwise very highly looked up to, greatly respected, admired, and believed in. ...It includes hams who volunteered for a lot of things and who made themselves available to help all, who hid behind their public service backgrounds, who along with other people in public service and in government leadership arenas, allowed themselves to get caught up in some very bad things, and who duped and encouraged other otherwise good people inside Emergency Management, the National Weather Service, and even in various police departments into believing that I was some form of a serious problem and to follow along, working together in "putting a stop" to the "Great, Powerful and Evil TODD", seriously believing that in the end they were doing the right thing.
Laws were broken. Business cards were forged. Titles were made up. Goverment agencies were conned. My complaints of harassment were ignored. Stories were exaggerated, important facts were left out. Gossip, rumor and slander spread rampant and unchecked or verified. Government and public officials were duped, and they were convinced into taking actions against an innocent person, and against an innocent program which encompassed the entire southeast Georgia and northeast Florida NWS-JAX County Warning Area. Everyone truly believed that what they were doing was for the right thing, for a good reason, for a good cause. No one stopped to ask for proof or verification of anything, first.
Superiors and upper echelon were left out of the loop. Actions were taken while in uniform and wearing the logos, on the clock for their agencies, and yet undocumented, under-the-table. So people up on high never knew of what was going on underneath them, the actions that were being taken which were putting themselves and their agencies at risk of legal problems. Everyone did "favors" for somebody else, without verification of facts first, without filing official reports, without notification of superiors or making sure that anything that was being done was being done in the proper, official order and manner, or without checking to make sure that the civil rights of the innocent weren't being violated. All four possible levels of government became involved in the end - city, county, state, and federal. Damage has been done, and people and agencies are now committed, at fault, and responsible. They can't halt or take back what has been done. Now they have to answer for it. All they had to do at any time was ask one very simple question at every occasion: "Do you have any proof of this?"
Many people, organizations and agencies are now at risk of lawsuits and much embrassing Press attention. Many people are at risk of loss of their good government careers. A cop was convinced to sabotage a harassment case. Organizations were convinced that I was a problem, including the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society, the Gator Amateur Radio Club, and the American Radio Relay League. Government agencies were convinced I was a problem, including the Alachua County Office of Emergency Management, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the National Weather Service, the State Attorney's Office, the University of Florida, University of Florida Police Department, and the Gainesville Police Department. Many people within these agencies and organizations were convinced that I was a problem, and to take some form of action against me - and yet, without any proof being required, documented, or requested; including: Angie Enyedi, Steve Letro, and Al Sandrik of the Natl. Weather Service Field Office in Jacksonville; Chief Dave Donnelly and ex-Chief William May, Retd. of the Alachua County Office of Emergency Mgmt (ACOEM); Detective Joseph Mayo, Gainesville Police Dept.; and Paul Eakin/KJ4G, Northern Florida Section Manager, American Radio Relay League (ARRL). On the civilian organizational level, you can add the following individuals who played a direct hand in causing all of the problems, directly engaged in the stalking and harassing, and/or had knowledge of it and said nothing, and/or who built all of the confusion that caused so many agencies and organizations to take the actions that they did: Jeffrey Donald Capehart/W4UFL, Susan Ann Tipton/K9PDL, Frederick Scott West/KG4VWD, Jay Lieberman/KD4FER (now deceased), and especially...Philip Spoffard Royce/KE4PWE, and Melissa Shires Royce/KE4WBQ.
Hundreds, potentially thousands of people by now: ham radio operators and civilian SKYWARN spotters - across the Northern Florida and Southern Georgia area - were given the impression that I was a problem by Paul Eakin/KJ4G especially, who actually campaigned using what in fact was my personal pain and suffering out in the wide-open public while running for the position of "Northern Florida Section Manager". And he did it, without verification of facts, first.
...And that was a common theme - non-verification of facts before acting. It kept repeating with others...with everyone involved, in fact. One person would hear something, decide it's not necessary to verify the facts or even to contact me to let me know, then they'd take some action, do something stupid - committing themselves, which would only end up causing some problem for me, AND for them. (sigh) ...And there was NOTHING that I could do about it. It was always about who had the power and who had the control. Everybody else always had the control. Where did I ever have any control? I was usually always left out of the loop because everyone always took it for granted that the rumors were true, and that to contact ME, why well that was just not necessary and Todd would only get upset and yell at us, and so WHY do that. ...Right?
EVERY agency and organization in the end took it out SOLELY upon the civilian SKYWARN program. But it was the AMATEUR RADIO program which was the problem, not the civilian program. No one was paying attention to what was really happening. The civilian program was just fine. The hams were acting like psychopaths, and convinced every agency that the problem didn't lay with them, but elsewhere. The agencies took it out on the civilian programs unfairly, while SUPPORTING the hams and actually COOPERATING with them, giving them jobs, roles, positions, enacting agreements, and giving them all sorts of power - which they then used to continue to harass and stalk, only now they were using the power given to them by the government. It was disheartening and sick.
Part of the problem was that the involved government agecies for some reason had a VERY difficult problem differentiating civilian SKYWARN spotters and the amateur radio SKYWARN spotters, ham radio from civilians. People made wrong assumptions, took it out on the wrong people, cooperated with the people who had caused all of the confusion and problems, instead.
Because my stalkers were involved with Alachua County Office of Emergency Management and had thier ear, even ACOEM was used to attack me and Alachua County SKYWARN. The hams convinced ACOEM that I was relinquishing control of ACS and handing it over to Melissa Royce. Melissa forged titles, business cards, told them that I was putting her in charge, that I was passing the program to her. She convinced them to create their own actual Standard Operating Procedures Manual for ACS, placing ownership and control of ACS into ACOEM hands, dictating the powers and duties of everyone in ACS, including me. ACOEM had no clue that she was duping them. (The linked version is their final version, still using the name "Alachua County SKYWARN" within it.)
Dave Donnelly (then Asst. Emergency Manager at ACOEM) and I had just had a face-to-face regarding local area hams who were coincidentally involved in ACOEM programs (ACFR-Reserves, CERT, etc.) who were stalking and harassing me.3 We were still communicating by email about that. But it quickly became apparent that nothing that we had discussed had even been listened to. Suddenly Dave sent me a copy of a section of the above-mentioned SOP. It dealt with the "Coordinator" position in Alachua County SKYWARN. (See here.) He asked for my "approval" of it, and that started the decline in the relationship between me and ACOEM. Its revelation to me was completely out of the blue to me and a sudden SHOCK. "What the hell is THIS?!!!, I said to myself (AND to him). Dave was angry at me because I was angry with him. He didn't understand. Dave thought I was nuts because Melissa had apparently been telling him that I WANTED to do this and supposedly here I was changing my mind and renigging on my word. Dave was TOTALLY clueless and I was angry with him because he wasn't acting very responsible or intelligent. Our meeting had apparently meant NOTHING. I couldn't BELIEVE the man had SENT me that, knowing it had been composed by the VERY people whom I had JUST TOLD him had been harassing and stalking me! It never occured to him that maybe the wool was being pulled over his eyes, that he'd just been played for "stupid" by the very same people I'd earlier complained to him ABOUT*. But again, he trusted my stalkers, and assumed that I was the problem, instead. I mean, considering how complicated all of this is, it's just EASIER to believe that. I UNDERSTAND the problem. I'm not stupid.
NOW things were beginning to make sense. I'd just been sent a harassing email from someone thereatening "changes soon" for Alachua County SKYWARN. I had no clue what it meant. It suddenly became plainly obvious.
I went to Chief William May (now retired), and asked HIM for help, and told him about this problem I'd been having with hams stalking and harassing me, attacking my friends and family, too; hams who were concurrently involved in many ACOEM functions (ACFR Reserves, Cert, etc. - and thus under ACOEM's responsibility), and now they were apparently attempting to convince ACOEM to take over control of Alachua County SKYWARN. Chief May INSISTED that no one was trying to take over ACS, and he suggested that I sit down with all of my harassers and "come to a mutual agreement." I was taken aback at that. I'd just told him the names of hams who had been stalking and harassing me, and composing documentation to take over another organization. Then he tells me no one is attempting to take over anything and yet...he wants me to SIT DOWN with these people composing this document and COME TO AN AGREEMENT???? ...EXCUSE me??? I told him that I intended to do no such thing. I don't sit down with the criminals and sign documents agreeing to let them take this and that from me so as to obtain "protection" from further harassing and stalking in the future. You DON'T ask a VICTIM to sit DOWN with the people he just TOLD you were stalking and harassing him, and then ask him to "come to an agreement." I was so angry. The Chief's response had been blindly made without knowing anything about the actual facts and he was obviously making a starting bell assumption that the problem lay with me and thus, that there was no problem at all with his people, because why that's just impossible. Then the Chief broke off all communication with me, and would not respond to me anymore, which was childish and irresponsible, and violated my civil rights.
However, I still have the emails, and the Chief had been warned/notified. We had communication about it. He is partially responsible too, now, for the incorrect assumption that I was the problem, for the decision not to listen and not to act, and for what happened afterwards. I'm sure he'll argue a different point of view; but in the end, he cannot escape the obvious. He had a chance. His actions destroyed it, and any chance for me to get government help. Because...he WAS God.
Melissa Royce called herself the "Coordinator" of the "new Alachua County SKYWARN program" as she put it to the Gainesville Sun see article, and to WCJB/TV-20; and she even created a Yahoo group for "Alachua County SKYWARN" using the username "AC-Skywarn".
We already had an Alachua County SKYWARN Email Alert List, and it had been in operation since 2003, and it's username was suspiciously close to her's: "ac_skywarn". Melissa knew exactly what she was doing. She wasn't a dummy. She knew of the existence of our group, of the existence of our email listgroup, everything. She was doing this to harass, and using ACOEM and even the NWS to do it. We also run the SKYWARN-L Florida SKYWARN Discussion List, which has been around since 1998, a year after ACS was first founded; and the ACEMWIN-HURR-L Hurricane Bulletin Listgroup, and the ACWIN series of weather bulletin listgroups. We run the Alachua County SKYWARN web page, which has been around since 1997, and the Alachua County EMWIN Project web page (we send severe weather bulletins to the public as a public service for free), which has been around since 2002. We also run the Index to SKYWARN Web Pages On The Internet (since 1997) to help people find other SKYWARN groups across the country, and Mobile Scanner & RADAR-Detector Laws In The United States (since 1995) so that hams and spotters and others know where the use of scanners is appropriate in the US. It's NOT like we're an unknown, or we're not visible, or people can say they looked and couldn't find us out there. You can't do a keyword search for 'SKYWARN', 'Alachua County', or even for 'Todd Sherman' without coming across all of this stuff MULTIPLE times! And it's been OUT there since 1997. There ARE no excuses. They could have chosen ANY OTHER NAME THEY WISHED for their organization, but Melissa WANTED to use this one because she knew it would bother me...and ACOEM backed her up. Legally speaking...ACOEM is run by a bunch of morons who just don't THINK too hard. "LAWYERS?! Who the heck needs THEM! WE know what we're doing!" Right? Todd's just a piddley little pee-on. What can HE do to stop a huge agency like US?!" Right? "We can do whatever we WANT, because we're an agency of the COUNTY, and of course, the County OWNS the use of the words 'Alachua County' and by golly Todd's just gonna have to RELINQUISH IT'S USE!!! Because Philip Spoffard ROYCE the THIRD says so and HE knows EVERYTHING and that's all we need to go by!!!" Right?
...WRONNNNG!
But in ACOEM, nobody ever HEARD what I was telling them. I was telling them that the very people they were so proud of and supportive of were stalking me and using their given POWER and CONTACT inside of ACOEM to harass and stalk and to attempt to take over another organization. They didn't WANT to believe me. Chief May and Dave Donnelly heard something else entirely whenever I spoke, and only saw me as being ridiculous. They saw what they wanted to see and refused to believe anything I was telling them I assume because it sounded just too ridiculous. (This is sounding familiar.) Nonetheless, a complaint was filed with them, twice, through two individuals, now. Those two acknowledged me directly. And rather than follow harassment protocol and procedure, they chose to listen to the harassers and to blow me off entirely.
ACOEM then continued to pursue the creation of their own spotter group anyway, using our name. Even today, the Alachua County ARES site STILL has links to Melissa's Yahoo "Alachua County SKYWARN" listgroup on their Mission Statement, Calendar, Nets, Contacts, and Archives pages, even though her little SKYWARN program itself is no longer in existence.
Finally I threatened Dave himself and ACOEM with a lawsuit and demanded he/they cease using our name. There was no reponse from Dave, but they did appear to stop. It was obvious he got on it. I just hope he got on some people, too. But I doubt it. He probably just labeled me as a jerk and went on with his life in his Dave-ley oblivious little way, cursing ME for being an asshole or something. In fact, he ceased ALL attempt at putting together a spotter training program, which is what makes me think he gave up. And that was not my intent. I wanted them to stop using our NAME. I wanted him to be more diligent and to watch his people a bit more responsibly closely and make sure that his people aren't given powers which could be used to abuse and to cause harm, as Melissa was doing. They were attempting to take over another already existing organization, and they were giving my stalkers POWER to do that and to harass me, and I wanted it to stop. That's all there was to it. So now, Alachua County has NO spotter program - as a direct result of what the hams did, here.
Dave Donnelly has himself been a very SERIOUS, SERIOUS problem for me in how he had repeatedly ignored my harassment complaints entirely, and most unbelievably in how he personally interfered with my ability to investigate my harassments and thus to protect myself by offering unnecessary and unresearched personal opinions to an officer of the law in the Gainesville Police Department which convinced that investigating officer that I was a problem, not the victim, while having absolutely NOTHING tangible on-hand to prove that I was at all the problem that he said I was. This unconfirmed "gossip" from Dave Donnelly caused that officer to think that I was actually attempting to use the law to harass innocent people and that the harassers were the victims, instead. As a result, the GPD officer deliberately sabotaged my harassment case because he thought he was protecting the innocent. Dave Donnelly has been extremely irresponsible and incompetent and insensitive in his handling of my problem, has shown ZERO sympathy towards my problem, and in fact has shown an outright denial of the situation. I challenge him to back up any effort that he has made in handling of my situation with documented proof of ANYTHING done; anything. There is nothing. No investigation. No questioning. No documentation. No witnesses. And I'll bet even upper echolon didn't have a clue that anything was even happening. He has nothing to cover himself with.
Now, ACOEM, Dave Donnelly, Chief May, are all in fear of a lawsuit, and they have ZERO understanding of what just happened. Still, it all could have been avoided had they KEPT ME IN THE LOOP, and TALKED to me. But for whatever odd, inexplicable, not to mention against standard policy and procedure reasons...they did not. I make no apologies. This was wholly their own fault. They have no excuses, here. They probably could have helped to PREVENT all of the eventual problems that occured had they just kept in TOUCH with me, and STOPPED treating me like I was being ridiculous. But they chose not to, and my stalkers ended up (however unintentionally on the part of Emergency Management) ONLY BEING ENCOURAGED by EM's lack of proper due diligence and observance of proper procedures to make sure nothing like this could accidentally happen to innocent people and that civil rights weren't inadvertantly thrown out the window.
I think ACOEM did finally begin to see Melissa for exactly all that I had been telling them...YEARS later; and that they'd realized they'd just picked on the wrong guy and maybe even caused him a LOT of trouble...
...But, they can't apologize or admit the truth or the huge mistake that they'd just made because it could open themselves (and many other people and agencies and organizations) up to a lawsuit. So everyone kept their mouths shut, kept it hidden from the public, and from upper echelon (i.e., City and County Commissioners/government) - and ESPECIALLY from the Press. Because I ASSURE you, if City and County leaders had known what their minions had just done to someone, and the huge embarrassment that it could cause for the City and the County, they probably would not have allowed it to go without investigation and severe reprimand. And if this got out into the PRESS...OMG! Everyone INVOLVED was oh so VERY irresponsible, here.
[Future: Add ACOEM sections (Dave Donnelly, Chief William May incidents), here.]
[Future: Add NWS sections (Angie Enyedi, Al Sandrik, Steve Letro incidents), here.]
Detective Joseph Mayo, of the Gainesville Police Dept. was the detective who was assigned to a harassment case that I had filed for someone sending me a harassing email - at first against unknowns, but which later turned out to be against Phil and Melissa Royce when the header information in the email was looked at and investigated in more detail. Someone had sent me a harassing email by opening up a Yahoo account using my name, spelled incorrectly, then sending that email to me, and then deleting the Yahoo account in order to erase the evidence. It threatened Alachua County SKYWARN. It was on the heels of YEARS worth of stalking and harassment by multiple area hams, and I wanted it to stop. I'd warned people that if it didn't stop that I was going to start going to the police 1) to start putting things into the record, and 2) to start filing charges against people, and 3) because apparently it was necessary to set public EXAMPLES, and I DESPERATELY NEEDED those examples, because there currently weren't any consequences out there which made people think twice about what they were doing. ...Whatever it took to make all of this ridiculousness stop. So when it happened again, I did just that. I wanted Det. Mayo to subpoena the IP logs from Bellsouth and Yahoo - a VERY simple task, to confirm the IP information in the email header which, when actually checked, pointed to Philip Royce/KE4PWE's personal web page. (OOPS!) I needed to prove that header information was not forged or made up. I needed to verify it, back it up with logs. That was the detective's ONLY mission. It was VERY simple. It required no effort except to fill out a form and submit it to the service providers.
Det. Mayo was told by Emergency Management that I was a "problem" and without anything to back that information up - in documentation or signature or in any official way, Det. Mayo took it upon himself to deliberately delay subpoenaeing the legal documentation that I had requested - which documentation would have helped me find proof of who had sent me a harassing email. I found this out because word of this was bragged to me by one of my stalkers, who told me that Det. Mayo had shared everything about my case to the two very people whom I had filed the harassment complaint against - Phil and Melissa Royce. I was told that Det. Mayo was saying everything that he thought I wanted to hear, and that he was deliberately delaying getting anything done. Again, he had ONE job: to subpoena the IP logs from Bellsouth and Yahoo. He had six months to do it and all I got were excuses. He never called me; I always had to call him. He never had time. He was always out to a seminar, a meeting, a class, or something. He always feined interest, even promised that he was the best; but his voice betrayed otherwise. It sounded...acted. I...suspected he wasn't being forthright with me from almost the very beginning. I never felt comfortable talking to him, or like I didn't have to worry. His voice was always condescending and I always felt like I was really screwing up his day, putting him out. He took SO LONG to get anything done. In the end, he lied to me and told me that he had obtained the IP logs and that they looked like there was "some anonymizing and spoofing going on". When I told him to make copies of them so that I could bring them to other expert witnesses to analyze, he called me back and told me that for six months he had been pulling the wrong case file - that he had continually pulled someone else's case file, accidentally...but repeatedly, for six months in a row. It just didn't make sense. He told me that he had never subpoenaed the logs. that he never intended to subpoena the logs "because the State Atty's Office had always said that it appeared to be a civil matter", rather than a criminal case." (This actually has nothing to do with subpoenaeing logs; only which courtroom you're going to hold anything in. I've taken Paralegal in school and I know what he was TRYING to get me to believe but I knew too much and he didn't realize it. He was BS'ing me and I knew it.) I put him up against the wall and asked him WHEN he had told the SA's Office about this. He hemmed and hawwed. I had to repeatedly ask the question, and push the answer out of him. Finally, he told me that he had only just asked them recently. So he lied. First he'd said that the SA's Office had "always said" - implying that he'd been in contact with them since the beginning. In fact, when I asked for the copies, I think I scared him because he apparently realized that I was catching on, and he knew he needed an excuse or he'd be in some big trouble. So I guess he made that up. Nothing he said to me ever made any sense. In the end, he treated me like I was a tyrant for wanting to know what had happened, about what he had done, and why he never acted in six months on something so SIMPLE...and he hung up on me. In his own words, "Mr. Sherman, I'm not obligated to tell you ANYTHING, I don't HAVE to explain myself, and I'm going to hang UP now. Okay, Mr. Sherman? Good-bye." That was as much "justice" as I was going to get out of this. It was now too late. The expiration period had lapsed, and the logs were no longer obtainable because they had by now been destroyed to the ether. The detective had sabotaged any chance for me to try to make people stop, or to set any examples. He'd screwed me...on purpose. I DID keep a running log of what was going on. This is interesting reading. (See here.)
The lead stalker also described personal details about my case to me that he should not have known not being a party to the particular case himself at ALL. Apparently the detective was letting them all know, at EVERY step, what new was happening with the case, so that they could prepare, or make up a cover, or whatever. For example, I'd mentioned to the detective not to give them any hint about wireless devices, in case they didn't have one. This way, they couldn't say that someone stopped by outside their home and tried to send the message from their system to try to make it LOOK like it was them. A week later, I got wind that they were actually using that excuse. And before the case was closed, the lead stalker approached me with questions about my case. "Did you say (this) about Dave Donnelly? Did you say (this) about Chief May? Did you send the detective a stack of emails 'this thick'? What did you think this would accomplish? Did you think it was going to GO anywhere? Do you think the detective takes you SERIOUSLY? What would you do if I told you that the detective thinks you're STUPID? that he thinks you 'don't know what you're talking about'. He thinks you're 'just using the law to harass innocent people'. I'm told that he's been saying whatever he thought you wanted to hear so as to delay actual handling of the case until the expiration time ran out." (sigh) The detective acted completely inappropriately and acting on personal gut feeling which was incorrect and which had no business in the case and which in the end caused me more problems and great pain.
I want EVERYONE to be perfectly clear on this: The lead stalker contacts two other stalkers and they give him personal information about my case. The other two stalkers had obtained this information FROM THE COP ASSIGNED TO MY CASE, in violation of policy and protocol. And so the lead stalker BECOMES WITNESS TO THIS INAPPROPRIATE ASSOCIATION going on between the cop and the bad guys. As of the date of this writing, that individual STILL has not approached GPD with this information, insisting that since it went from 1) the cop, to 2) the other stalkers, to 3) to him, that it is thus "third hand information and "not admissible". I have repeatedly advised him that this is not the case, the he is DIRECT witness to a bad cop admitting that he sabotaged a case to the very people that the case was against, and that he is REFUSING to go to the authorities with the information, making himself an accompliss to it. (No moral compulsion. It's completely missing in him. It's common with this guy to "logic" his way out of responsibility like this, and to continue to allow harm to come to me. He in fact has repeated this very thing over the years with me. ...Causes me problems, logics himself out of responsibility, blames me for bringing it upon myself, never comes to my rescue or does anything to make it stop.) To make himself feel better, he even went to a few local FDLE seminars about stalking and harassment put on by some local cops (in fact, he repeated this tactic this TWICE that I remember), and only gave them HALF of the information, left very important facts and details out, genericised it, and asked them if I had a case. The cops, only knowing only so little and not understanding that they were being duped, would tell him "no". Then he'd bring this back to me saying "Yah, well the cops think something completely different and they think you don't have a case." Here's one of the emails he sent me as recently as March of 2009, after he'd broken into the AC-EMWIN computer, and after I'd demanded he do the right thing and finally contact GPD:
"Hey, I contacted an agent with FDLE in the Gainesville Field Office and presented him with the situation. He basically said you would have to file the complaint yourself with the local PD because the agencies don't pay attention to 3rd party complaints. The complaints have to come from the affected person. He also said the best you could hope for would be an administrative reprimand on his personnel file, but that it is likely not worth pursuing."
He just kept going to other completely uninvolved police agencies trying to get them to say things which EXCLUDED him from doing the right thing, by leaving important stuff out, and then waiting for the answer he KNEW they would then give him back, and use it to try to convince me that I had nothing to go on. But he would NOT go to the INVOLVED agency and tell THEM what happened and see what THEY said. This is not a man of conscience who wants to do the right thing. It's a man who knows he was involved in an unethical way and who doesn't want to call attentiion to that fact that he had obtained information he had no business obtaining, and no business knowing nor reason to know. ...PERIOD.
And so, to this day, Detective Mayo has not yet been brought to justice, because the lead stalker will not approach GPD about it and tell them what he knows. My stalker keeps applying criminal law to the situation and since it's handled internally and he thinks there's no criminal consequences for him to compel him to answer, he sees no reason to help. This is psychopath thinking.
It's actually in his best interest not to. You see, to bring this to GPD's attention means that the detective would get in trouble. The detective might spew...everything. His connection to my stalker would become obvious, they'd ask my stalker why he never brought it to their attention before, why he took SO LONG to come to them with it; and then my stalker might be in trouble. Once the cop went down, he might spew about his other government connections, and what THOSE people told HIM, and THEY'D go down. And the cycle might repeat until we got all the way to NWS-JAX. The entire thing might crumble and fall apart if only my stalker would just go report this to the authorities. But he's keeping his mouth shut 1) because he doesn't want to get into trouble and have his involvement pointed out to the world, and 2) because it's just too much fun torturing me and he gets off on it and he loves being able to be in control of me and my life. It's a thrill for him.
On the other hand, it would be in his own WORST interests to NOT cooperate and tell the truth, too - especially if he were to get CAUGHT in the lie and the authorities came back after him. Everybody involved in this has those very same, similar decisions to make: "Do I lie? Do I tell the truth? What if I lie and someone finds out important information afterwards from a witness I didn't know he had or from a document or something that I didn't plan for, and then it comes back to bite me in the ass? How would I get out off that? What would I say? Should I convince everybody else around me to lie, too, placing THEIR careers and homes and lifestyles at risk of lawsuits, too? Should I drag everyone else down with me? How far should I go with the lie? How many people do I have to bring in with me in the lie? WILL they cooperate with me to that end? Is it POSSIBLE to conference call with everyone lieing for me and to go over everyone's stories, and all the possible questions that could be asked, and all the lies for each question that we need to speak, and get everyone to get it down right? How far can I make this go?" That's what is gong on right now. People are reading this blog, calling up and emailing everybody else involved, discussing how to cover themselves, trying to get down what everybody has to say...
Paul Eakin of the American Radio Relay League, for some inexplicable reason, got himself involved in something that was not at all his business, that he had no actual power to do anything about, and which I am SURE he now VERY highly regrets ever getting himself tangled in. He had NO BUSINESS getting involved. He didn't even KNOW me. He proceded publicly against someone he'd never met, never shaken hands with. (...Deja vu?) In so doing, he took responsibility for being the purveyor of facts about something without knowing the facts - at least from any reputable sources wiling to make themselves known, or from anyone who seems to actually have anything tangible to hold up. Paul used gossip and slander heard about me - without first obtaining any documented proof of the rumors - publicly in his personal political campaign to become ARRL Northern Florida Section Manager. (He actually won.) He told me that people in ham radio circles in other counties were spreading rumor about this "guy", "who ran the SKYWARN program in Alachua County", who was apparently a "problem" in some way or another. (See email.)
In the email, Paul says that he wanted to "help clear up any issues so the section business can move forward". ("...section business?") During his campaign, he promised hams that he would make changes so that situations like what happened with Alachua County SKYWARN would not happen again...whatever those "situations" were. What did the civilian-run (not ham radio run) Alachua County SKYWARN program, not tied in any way to the ARRL, pose to HIM or to hams or to amateur radio as an "issue?"
We were a civilian-run organization that worked extremely well. We were not "run" by any ham radio groups or by any emergency management agency. Hams could participate; they just didn't RUN us - which some hams didn't like. (This actually caused no problems. There were no complaints at all about us, from anyone. But the hams made it into a problem.) We shared important reports with EM and NWS. That was as much as we were obligated to do for ham radio. We're not here to recruit new hams for the local ham clubs. We're not here to offer ham radio courses. We're not here to pass flyers for the local hams clubs. We're not here to "publicise" the local ham clubs. We're not here to teach people how to handle portable tower setup and takedown, incident training, or to chase storms in bright orange ambulances, bring food to firefighters, be on call for fire/rescue, or anything like that. Ham radio had no say in our organization or how it was supposed to be run. If they wanted to form their OWN spotter group, that was perfectly fine. But the implication that we had any power to KEEP people from doing that, here in Alachua County, and ESPECIALLY anywhere else in Florida, was OBVIOUSLY rediculous, and Paul completely MISSED the total stupidity of the suggestion. (It SOUNDS like it came from Phil Royce. Phil SAID that he was going to try to prey on fears in a similar manner.) Obviously no one offered Paul any PROOF of the accusation. Obviously Paul sought to make no real hard effort to obtain such proof of the accusation beyond making a phone call to me that I forced him to make after I'd CAUGHT him spreading rumor without check. I put the word out that I didn't like what he was doing, talking about me, about ACS, and how he was completely avoiding any contact with me, keeping me completely out of the loop. So, to cover his ass, he finally called. But he had to be given threat of lawsuit, first.
At any rate, any business there was to be had should have been between us and the National Weather Service. Period. NO ONE ELSE. There was NO connection to ham radio other than the fact that they were allowed to participate at any time if they so wanted. But they chose not to. But we TRIED to hold spotter nets. GARS members would never volunteer or come forward to RUN nets. They wanted to chase, not to be bogged down to a microphone at home. We didn't support chasing, either, and hams didn't like THAT. GARS could have formed their own spotter section. But in our experience whenever we TRIED to hold nets, they accused us of storm chasing and forbade us from HOLDING any nets; or they attempted to make people who participated in the nets pay dues TWICE because we were calling it the "Alachua County SKYWARN Net" - even though most of the participants were already currently-paying members of GARS. The proposal came from Bill Wells/K4RDP, whose idea basically amounted to a "use tax" on the repeater. It was kept within the Executive Board, and they threatened us with it. But knowledge of it ewas not shared with the General Membership.
GARS was never cooperative and they made it perfectly clear to us that any spotter nets held every time there was a storm was quite frankly a pain in the ass to some, because others wanted to ragchew, and to those individuals, the spotter nets got in the way of that. To that end, it started to become a problem every time there were storms. There'd be NO ONE on the air...until a storm came, and then suddenly people got on there to try to hold the frequency and prevent us from operating. I actually have recordings of hams doing this. HAMS got in the way of having any kind of spotter nets, not the other way around as the rumor suggests.
I've had hams stalking and harassing me for many years. I've put up with it for a long time. But this, this is just totally ridiculous. Today, there are no spotter nets, because the ARES program runs none, the redneck hams hog the frequency during inclement weather. And it STILL goes on today. Eakin's done nothing to make good on his promise. Suppoedly we've been out of the way for a number of years, now. What's the problem NOW? It's called lack of participation, inability to reach volunteers. The enthusiasm base just isn't there. Right now, there is NO spotter program anymore because of the HAMS, not because of Todd Sherman, or the civilian organization that he ran called "Alachua County SKYWARN". Paul has done me and ACS a grave, extremely unnecessary, and not-asked-for disservice by his unwarranted interference and lack of knowledge, and lack of care for accuracy OR follow-through in his "investigating" practices. Paul Eakin acted incompetently, irrationally, and irresponsibly.
Paul had REPEATEDLY been asked over the time since he nosed his way into our lives to come forward with contact information regarding his "witnesses" and he has refused any contact. He is attempting to elude me and all it is doing is making me angry and I am thinking of having a compel order issued not to him but the ARRL. I think I'm going to have to involve the ARRL directly in this, hold them responsible, go after them. This seems like it's going to have to be the way if I want anything done.
We NEVER told anyone at ANY time that they could not form their own group. We never at any time had that kind of POWER. There is no documentation to support that...ANYWHERE. What IDIOT goes around believing that some individual has more power than NWS and EM and is able to "control" people in the manner suggested in his email, and DOESN'T see it as obvious BS? It doesn't make sense. He was also told that his Alachua County Emergency Coordinator, Jeff Capehart/W4UFL, was in fact a very serious problem for me; and yet, Paul went to him anyway for advice on the situation and how to handle it! Jeff also knew in FULL DETAIL just EXACTLY what was going on down here and, advising Paul that the situation had "resolved itself" (UGH!), was an outright lie on his part. It had not "resolved" at all, and the harassments still went on - even as recently as March of this year (2009), and there is still at this time no SKYWARN spotter program in this county. What Jeff meant was, ACS had been rendered impotent as far as any further spotter training classes would go; and for a SHORT time, he and Melissa were in the process of creating a group using our group's already existing name, and at the time everything looked like it might actually go THROUGH. But then I caught on and threatened a lawsuit and tried to get ACOEM to cease attempting to use our name and to cease all attempts to take over our group, AND to try to get control of the hams whom they were supporting who were stalking me. ACOEM stopped the takeover attempt; they SLOWLY removed references to the ACS name in PUBLIC documentation that was being handed out; but references on the web still exist, and can still be seen. But they did nothing about the hams, and continue even today to support some of them. Otherwise, they threw up their hands and gave up altogether.
I don't blame them. The whole situation was crazy. But they BLAMED ME, instead of acknowledging anything that I was telling them. They took actions which caused me great harm. They tried to hide it all under the table. Now they're responsible. They stopped everything involving the takeover before things got WAY out of hand; which is good. I actually understand that thinking. They began to realize they had no clue what was going on around them and that people were being hurt and now they could be held directly responsible. So they ceased EVERYTHING. But it hardly helps the victims out there. They brought this upon themselves, though. It does no good to blame ME. It would do them a lot of good to admit what they did, that they were duped, and take the heat. But blaming me is just easier, and doesn't cost a career, and the loss of an entire home.
In the end, I can't believe it went this far. In the end, I can't believe people took unconfirmed information and went so FAR with it, took the drastic ACTIONS that they did, ENCOURAGED the stalkers without check as they did. It's still sort of a dizzying nightmareish realization. And it happened...because no one wanted to dare challenge the Monarchs and tell them that they weren't really WEARING any clothes, for fear of what could happen to them if they did. This whole thing...it's as simple and as complicated as that. Some people saw opportunity; USED my situation. Paul was one.
In the end, Paul ACTED like he wanted to help, gathered information off me to use towards his own politcical ends, and then did nothing to help at ALL. He'd answered NONE of my original questions, stayed WAY off topic, BRAGGED of himself and gave me political literature, shared NONE of the contact information with me that I had originally asked him for, and he abandoned me. He inflamed a situation, and then left me hanging. He had no intention of actually getting involved in any real way to correct the situation. He was full of it. Paul involved himself in something that was not any of his business, that he was not privy to official information about, hiw sources were not backed up by anything official. He caused harm to an innocent person and only exaggerated an alrady bad situation that I was going through..and he used the name of the ARRL to do it.
His suggestion of "management" of our situation is out of place. His world is amateur radio, not SKYWARN.
This is a common confusion among hams...that SKYWARN is an ARRL thing; that SKYWARN is a ham radio thing. That is incorrect. It is a DoC thing. An NWS thing. Ham radio can PARTICIPATE in it. That's as far as ham radio "control" of SKYWARN goes. Our program was deliberately decided to be civilian-run for a FEW very GOOD reasons: 1) the local hams here get into too much trouble and have shown consistent inability to follow through with instructions, or to adhere to safety standards. 2) None of the local area ham radio clubs wished to support the general, non-ham, civilian public if we formed a SKYWARN group under them. They made that loudly clear to us. We wanted to support EVERYONE. 3) I'd seen the past mistakes and problems that other surrounding county clubs have repeatedly had with involving themselves with Emergency Management. They have a bad history of tending to want to run everything like a military operation, requiring people to take all sorts of courses which are wholly inapproriate and totally unnecessary for anyone who is a SKYWARN spotter. Spotters are required to look up, identify a potential severe threat, and pick up a cellphone. I'm sorry but that is ALL that there is to their mission. Requiring EMCOMM this and EMRISS that training, dragging a heavy dummy across a track, becoming a member of CERT, or ACFR-Reserves, or other EM programs, or learning Incident Command...these things have NOTHING AT ALL to do with spotting. There is ZERO argument on this. The PROBLEM lay in the fact that some hams simply DISAGREED with my thinking. What they MEANT was that I would not relinquish control of the organization that I had founded. They could have started their own if they wanted. Mine was not going to be destroyed by politics, or by hams who couldn't follow instructions who followed truckers through five counties when specifically told not to when they thought the guy was a jammer. I always had my management hat on, and I denied some projects for expense, for lack of manpower, and even because they were just ridiculous. Some hams did not like this. So yes, in this sense, I was a tyrannical leadership type. But anyone who ever puts on a management hat knows exactly what I mean. I'm not a jerk. I always did the RIGHT thing. What they MEANT was...that ACS was SO good in what it did that we tended to OVERSHADOW the other organizations. This made some hams angry. We had no objection to more spotter groups, especially under ham radio groups. I always ENCOURAGED more spotters, and my classes often had a hundred at a time, in fact, which is kind of unprecedented. In fact, NWS funding was tight one year and I actually forked out the money out of my OWN pocket to mail out Advanced certificates to those spotters that the NWS could not afford the actual POSTAGE for!!!
This is what I mean. You have to be careful with gossip and rumor. It COULD be malicious falsities, designed to make good people fall for it and to do just EXACTLY what they ended up being conned into doing here, in the end. Paul had been duped by the very hams he says he serves. He deserves it. He's been told.
This also serves as PERFECT example why I made ACS a CIVILIAN, not a HAM, organization. I've lived here a VERY long time. I've been a ham here for 25 years come next year. I KNOW my local area hams. They are NOT responsible. They gossip WAY too much. They get into WAY TOO MUCH trouble. They have to be BABYSAT. They tend to blame ohers for their mistakes as a standard. They're not willing to take full responsibility for their actions. They want you to cover for them when they screw up, etc., etc., etc. These idiots who come from out of town, who take rumor and then take some form of action against me and/or who interfere not knowing the full situation, and not wiling to HEAR the full situation or to do much research at all...they have no business getting involved. In Paul's case...we have yet to even MEET face-to-face. We've had TWO phone calls. The man does NOT know enough about me to make any kind of an educated guess, much less a "judgement", even. Paul's involvement in our affairs, was inappropriate ,and had no business even happening. We're not a ham radio club. We're not an ARRL club. Where the HELL does Paul or the ARRL fit in with us or have any SAY in our operations or right to operate peacefully? But if anyone wanted to get involved in "finding the truth", they should have hired a lawyer for me. That would have gotten right too it RIGHT FAST. But I note nobody seems willing to involve any lawyers, or DO any inquiries, or any investigations, or otherwise risk putting anything going on here into any official, publicized record. Very interesting. No, that would be too dangerous a thing...to actually have any kind of INVESTIGATION into organizational and agency ethical actions. Right? I've actually been DEMANDING official inquiries and investigations for YEARS now and no one seems the least bit interested in actually getting involved in doing such a thing. Interesting, indeed. Sure sounds shady to me. NOBODY TRUSTS THIER POSITIONS STRONG ENOUGH TO HOLD UP TO CLOSE AND/OR PUBLIC SCRUTINY? Hmm. THAT'S scary, if anything.
Paul had been out there discussing me and Alachua County SKYWARN with other people and having open public discussions about me and Alachua County SKYWARN and decided to leave me completely out of the loop. I found out only because one of my ham radio stalkers was using his knowledge of it to torture me. Paul would have gotten away with it had my stalker kept his mouth shut. At first he'd just tell me that there was this ARRL guy out there who was talking about me in the public circuit, in his political campaign suggesting that he was going to "take care of" situations such as mine. The stalker would not reveal to me who it was for some time, then finally admitted it to me. I put the word out that I didn't appreciate it and that I wanted him to stop and to do the right thing and to contact me before he spreads rumor like that, talking about it in public circles without any verification that it's true or not. So he finally he decided to contact me.
Paul would NOT divulge to any names, or titles, or positions, or contact information of those whom he had heard the gossip from. The ham stalker had also added that Paul had said he'd also heard things from people at NWS-JAX, NWS-Tallahassee, and in the Florida Division of Emergency Mgmt. Paul refused to tell me WHO specifically was saying these things, or what exactly was said - only that it was about me and it had to do with "problems". He said that he wanted to know "my side". I thought he meant to HELP me. But apparently, he only intended to gather further fodder to use in his campaign, and then he just as abruptly left me hanging once he'd gotten what he wanted. On the phone, he told me that he was also a cop - one who deals in crime scene forensics, too. This bothers me especially because he took gossip and slander and rumors, my personal pain and suffering, and USED it in his personal political campaign, without so much as a signed document in example to prove anything first, not a complaint filed, not a judgement in his hands. Nothing. There WAS none. He put those rumors back out in the public circuit in a wider, uncontrolled way. That's not fair. There was only one SKYWARN program at the time...mine. And I was the "guy" who "ran" it. He took gossip and slander and rumor, and purported it publicly as if it was fact SOLELY because of the status level of the source, not because he had anything to prove the rumors. He said he was going to do things to "prevent these kinds of things from happeing again." WHAT things?!!! He wouldn't tell me. But in doing this, he not only put himself in the way of a lawsuit, but the American Radio Relay League, too - the agency that he was a member of, and for which he was running for a position in. His involvement in my personal affairs and spreading them out in publivc has only exasperated an already painful situation for me, made it worse, spread it farther out into public than it needed to be, and helped it get even farther out of control; and he DID it...because he wanted to use it in a way to boost his political career. I think he should have acted much more prudently and carefully. He acted wholly inappropriately, and USED my situation to help gain himself a personal goal - a political position within the ARRL; a status level. I have repeatedly tried to get names and specifics out of this guy, and he has repeatedly ignored my emails and calls. He's just NOT willing to cooperate. It's okay to talk about what he's heard about ME; but when I want to try to do something to get to the SOURCES, why gee that's not allowed because now he's revealing personal information about innocent people. Am I guessing his line of thinking correctly here? He UNDERSTANDS privacy and protection and realizes control is important but when it comes to ME, why, that's different?
At the very least, his email verifies that NWS-JAX DID INDEED talk to other people about there being problems with me and ACS, contrary to their public denials. I still need to know the name of the individual(s) that he got this information from. Spreading rumor about me and then PROTECTING the person(s) spreading it is wrong, extremely unethical for someone holding the position and title for the organization that he does, and unfairly violates my civil rights. Being careful with what he says NOW is just way too late and he needs to do the right thing.
Still. He's a cop. He's supposed to be logical, reasonable, CAREFUL - with evidence, evidenciary contamination, rumor and misinformation control, keeping things generally always under control. He's supposed to be TRAINED in all of this. But with me, I guess that's just out the window? I don't see his handling of the situation as fair at all, and he's made my life only that much more difficult by spreading the gossip farther out there than I can even TRY to get a hold on it. On top of that, he's not willing to share with me his sources and for that, I'm thinking about a lawsuit against the ARRL. This supposedly responsible man, supposedly trained man, acted so very irresponsibly; and not only that...but forensically incorrectly, ineptly, and inappropriately. He aided in making my situation even worse, and he did it "on the clock" for the ARRL. So without even knowing that it was happening, the ARRL was had now become responsible for something a rogue officer in it's ranks was doing. If he wants to REALLY do the right thing, he should come to me with names and specifics about what was said and who said what, so that I can actually begin to defend myself. I MAY be lenient; but I make no promises. What he did was wrong. Period. He is not in a position to bargain. Without even knowing me or anything about me, he aided in destroying my name and reputation, and in nailing the coffin on a perfectly good storm spotting organization which had done nothing wrong to anyone, and then put his own organization (the ARRL) at risk of a lawsuit, too. I may have a restraining order issued against this guy. He's acting really shady and staying out of contact and isn't willing to share sources of gossip and this means he is out of control, irresponsible, and dangerous.
Dr. Jay Garlitz / AA4FL, Faculty Advisor of the University of Florida's Gator Amateur Radio Club (GARC), was told multiple times, for many years, about multiple people in the club who were repeatedly harassing and stalking me. He took no action; did nothing. I told them that these people were so bad that for a time I had actually been thinking about suicide. They were destroying everything I had done, destroying my reputation, my credibility, my good name. They were putting my family members at risk, stalking my friends and associations. They were encouraging governments to take actioins against me. But the loss of my friends was the most devastating thing, and it hurt. In some cases, it wasn't me, but that the husbands didn't like that their wives were associating with a guy who had not one but MULTIPLE stalkers stalking him, and they wanted them to disassociate with me in order to protect them. I could not argue with this thinking and they were RIGHT and there was NOTHING that I could do! They were 100-percent CORRECT to be so worried!
Instead of taking it to the authorities, recording it in any documentation, bringing it to the attention of the University - which would have been the prudent and CORRECT thing to do so as to cover his butt and that of the University's, Dr. Garlitz instead threw it back at me, implying that if he reported it that I would be put away. I still have the email. He didn't use those very words, but the implication was there. His lack of concern over something so scary and horrific was a shock to me. He repeatedly refused to believe that his members could do any wrong. He acted like someone deeply in love, who couldn't bare to believe that his lover could do any wrong. He instead made himself believe that I was exaggerating, and it was evident that he had convinced himself that I had some sort of mental problems. Thus, upon seeing that I had gone to him for help, and that he was not going to help me, my harassers were allowed to continue harassing and stalking me, without hinderance. In fact, Dr. Jay Garlitz himself continually did things to cause me even more problems and to even actually block me when I called the University of Florida Police Department on one particular ham operator, my "lead stalker", earlier this year.
To this day, Dr. Garlitz actually believes that I betrayed HIM; and I remember how he once menioned to me that he's going to have to "re-evaluate his friendships." This man is so duped; so out of the loop. He just COULDN'T understand why I was so angry with him and his club. He acted so VERY blind. I cannot help him. I am proceeding regardless of what happens to him or to his club. But one of the things that I am very seriously considering in my mind is actually sueing the University of Florida and the total dissoluton of the Gator Amateur Radio Club for being an organization that is a "danger to society" and for "protecting" members whom they were TOLD were a serious problem and making conscious decision to hide it, cover it, and to protect the club rather than investigate and cooperate with a serious complaint that was made about a serious matter. Jay Garlitz meant well, but his choice of actions (or rather, inactions) have put his club and the University of Florida at risk of lawsuits, severely bad Press with the University being directly responsible for what my attackers have done in an organization that is the responsibillty of the University. I went to the club, the Faculty Advisor, for help. He blew me off. I went to the UF PD, and he convinced the PD that I was the problem, and protected my stalker. UF PD had obligation to do a proper investigation. They ignored me, went to my stalker for all information and treated him like HE was the liason. In so doing, they contaminated the entire investigation. UF PD as a result, became responsible for screwing it up, and for letting the bad guy go. And this happened because Dr. Jay Garlitz vouched for my stalker, and implied that I was a problem. UF PD had obligation to confirm that I was a problem before they just blew me off. They had obligation to handle everything forensically correctly, to handle things in a manner so that contamination could not be introduced, so that the bad guys wouldn't inadvertantly be helped, and the innocent harmed. As a result, the crime was concluded with the bad guy getting away with the help of the Gator Amateur Radio Club, and I got no justice. The UF PD was inept and irresponsible in the handling of the entire situation. A UF employee who worked for UF-OIG, broke two or three Florida Statutes regaring computer crimes, and they concluded that my stalker was innocent only because a Faculty Advisor said so, and NO investigation was truly done.
My stalker was a simultaneous GARC and GARS officer who admitted to me that he'd hacked and broke into the AC-EMWIN server repeatedly by going into the system registry and swiping usernames and passwords. He GRINNED as he admitted this to me! ...GRINNED! He thought it was SO FUNNY! This individual, the mysterious "lead stalker", is Jeff D. Capehart/W4UFL, who also curently works for the University of Florida's Office of Audit & Compliance Review (OACR) as IT Audit Manager, and handles IT security issues for the UF. When he hacked into the AC-EMWIN server, and began reading logs without authorization or permission, he violated two Florida statutes under Chapter 815, Computer-Related Crimes, regarding downloading, and regarding theft of intellectual property (at least a four-time, repeated theft of passwords taken from the system registry over a two year period), and regarding viewing of Trade Secret information (lists which contained customer information). Since he did it while on campus, inside the Gator ARC club station, the Gator ARC was responsible, and thus, the University of Florida was responsible. UF PD ignored my logic, listened only to Dr. Jay Garlitz, and UF PD did nothing. Because Dr. Garlitz vouched for him, they ignored me and listened to everything that Jeff had to say. When they asked him if he had broken into the system, he said no, and feigned no knowledge about what had happened. Some time later, when I was up on the roofop of the Dental Science Bldg, removing all of the EMWIN equipment that I had worked so hard on getting placed up there because Dr. Garlitz saw ME as being the problem (he figured that by getting rid of me was to get rid of the problem), THAT'S when Jeff admitted to me what he had done...when no one else was around to hear it. Why were Jeff and I on the rooftop? ...Because we happened to be the only two in the entire club who had actually TAKEN the Environmental Health & Safety Department (EH&S)-required climbing safety classes that Glenn Ketcham had required us to attend.
Apparently Jeff Capehart and his wife Susan Tipton have engaged in hacking computers before. They in fact have a criminal HISTORY of it. In 1985, while students at UF, both Jeff (then 20) and Susan (then 23), along with a number of other people, apparently hacked into a UF IFAS computer and were brought under SEVERAL charges and investigated. [See Gainesville Sun articles regarding] So yup. Looks like he's definitely done this BEFORE. Sad fact is, UPD handled him back THEN, too. Looks like they did a MUCH better job of forensically handling things back then, though. If only they had been as diligent in the handling of my case.
Prior to that, there are some odd records in the Clerk of the Court from when Jeff was just 17, regarding:
8/17/1982 - 'Flee Attempt To Elude Police Officer';
9/22/1982 - 'Reckless Driving'.
But don't take my word for it; look these things up yourself.
Since the information's existence is betrayed by the existence of both Gainesville Sun and Orlando Sentinel archives, these references will remain in here regardless whether or not Jeff and Susan would prefer the information hidden. People have a right to know who they are dealing with.
Dr. Garlitz does not at this time know about what happened on the rooftop. I haven't told him. I've given up. It is not possible to get Dr. Garlitz to come to my aid. He doesn't WANT to believe that Jeff is bad. He's long gone. It's a lost cause. There's no point. The damage has been done. The EMWIN system has been kicked off of the rooftop. My key has been taken from me. I am no longer allowed access to the rooftop, or to the club station, unescorted. But really, I don't want anything to do with that club, or with Dr. Garlitz, anymore. There is nothing of interest for me in ham radio anymore. I have no desire to associate with those so very scary people who support these bad people so blindly and without question. I'm scared of them. I don't trust them. I don't want anything to do with them. I see ham radio operators here in Alachua County now as being very dangerous individuals - both in how some will participate in causing everything described above, and how the rest support, cooperate, back then up, and/or decide not to say anything, or do anything, or to help. They are ALL responsible. Participating with hams in anything now for me only means reminder of the things that they did to me and I can't take that and I see no reason to torture myself. These people are definitely bad. There is something wrong with them. Both ham clubs in this town need sueing and dissolution in order to regain their consciences, their sense of morals...to be reminded that there are consequences. Currently, there is no reason for them to stop harassing me. No one has bothered to stop them. Why should they? What consequences are there for the local hams? For this reason, I don't see them as being able to get along with the rest of society. I see them as capable of causing harm, as capable of turning a blind eye when they know some members are causing harm to PROTECT their organizations and putting their victims rights and lives at risk...and thus, they are a very real DANGER TO SOCIETY.
I am extremely and so painfully disappointed in Dr. Garlitz and how he allowed me to be treated, in how he chose not to believe me, in how his actions only allowed Jeff and some other hams to continue to cause me even more harm over the years by trusting them at every turn, without ANY challenge whatsoever. Dr. Garlitz's excuse to me for why he always chose not to do anything was this: "I just don't want to get involved." Except, by taking a side and vouching for Jeff to UF PD, and implying that there were problems with ME, he GOT involved. What he meant was, he believed in Jeff, and just didn't want to hear what I had to say because he'd made up his mind. He's being very selective in what he wants to see, hear, and believe. I believed in him. I always thought of him as a very GOOD man. I always looked up to and respected him. But Jay allowed his emotions to dictate how this whole thing proceeded. He put me up against Jeff and chose sides, rather than reporting the situation, or to support and encourage a full investigation, or to do the right thing. He put his club and his friends before my complaints. In so doing he caused UPD to embark on the wrong course of investigation and to assume the wrong things and they too blew my case off without much of any investigation whatsoever. Dr. Garlitz encouraged UPD to go straight to Jeff Capehart for any and all information regarding the computers, the network, the investigation - even though I'd told UPD that Jeff has been stalking me and that it was likely HE had broken into the system. UPD ignored me as a direct result of things Dr. Garlitz told them. It was more important to protect the club and it's reputation by putting my own reputation and even my own safety at risk, based on GUT feeling and incorrect assumption. Dr. Garlitz had abused his power, and it caused me many problems and great harm. He didn't mean to. I really do believe that, because he was emotionally upset over what was happening and there were things that he didn't want to believe. I truly believe that he thought that he was doing the right thing. But he was duped, as everyone had been duped. And I was labeled. I was put in harm's way. It hurt me so badly because I know Jay's heart means to do good. But he couldn't listen, and in this case he got short-circuited. He didn't want to fully engulf the problem because it was too painful for him. And in the end, it caused me more problems and pain. Because of this, I can no longer trust Jay. I can no longer believe in him. I now know that he is capable of placing his emotions before logic and the right thing. I can't trust him to act responsibly in matters like this, or not to put his club ahead of my own safety. But I will not ever trust another ham radio operator again now. I no longer talk to Jay. I no longer consider him my friend. He puts his heart in front of logic, and in so doing, he gets in the way - by choice, and brings harm to innocent people by allowing those who are USING his heart to use HIM. He did so much for me for so long. He has such an otherwise good heart. But he allowed this to get in the way. He made choices...wrong choices...bad choices...and he brought me harm. He gave me no chance, no choice. He decided my fate for me. I talked to him a lot about what was happening but he never really heard anything I'd said because he did not WANT to.
Jay told me that this whole thing wasn't because he didn't like ME, but because he wanted space for the new satellite radio equipment he wanted to put up there. I knew he was BSing me, though. Jeff of course, while on the rooftop with me, betrayed him yet AGAIN, not being able to resist sharing what he knows, and impressing me with how he always knew MORE than me, and he told me that the reason Jay took my key and had me remove all of the EMWIN equipment was because he saw me as a problem and wanted me gone. Actually, he started the sentence with "That's not what he told ME!...", after which I chuckled and shook my head, because I'd already assumed so much, and because I knew Jeff wasn't going to be able to make it through the afternoon without bragging something like that to put me down, and that he just couldn't resist.
Jeff Capehart encouraged other people to harass and stalk me, including...
Melissa Royce/KE4WBQ (ex-KE4WBQ) was selfish and wasn't interested in public service, but in fame and attention for herself. She once put my sick mother's life at risk once because she wanted to talk to me on the phone, and feigned an emergency. She caused me so much problems with EVERYONE around me. She approached me by email just before moving up to Gainesville from West Palm Beach, bragging of being Coordinator of the SKYWARN program down there, of having much previous experience with the SKYWARN spotter program down there. But I never liked her. She gossipped. She was pushy. She always called at all hours of the day and night, wanting to know the latest about various people, and NEVER, EVER had anything really especially important to say, and only seemed to want dirt. She pretended to be really kind and nice at first, and enthusiastic, and energetic, and like she really wanted to get involved. She pretended to be a honorable person, and like she wanted to be my friend. She got me to talk about my personal life, and personal secrets. She was always complimenting me and then trying to get information about me or someone else immediately after. But the common thing to me that I always saw through was how she was always talking negatively about people, putting people down, trying to make me doubt them, as if she was trying to knock out people who were in her way or something. ...Information, information, information. She wanted SO much information, ALL THE TIME, and it never stopped. She fast became an irritation; a real pain in the ass. I started to think maybe she was trying to set herself up to attack some people. I also started to notice how I was always sending her emails and she was NEVER responding via email. My "Melissa" folder was always empty. That should have been my FIRST clue...she did not like to leave "evidence". It was suspicious. I wondered if ever did that to anyone else, or if anyone else ever noticed that about her. Rather, she would ONLY communicate by phone. ONLY on the phone. "I don't like using email", she'd say. My feelings about her kept faling from a grateful high when she first emailed me and sounded like she was going to be someone useful, to lower and lower opinions of her every time we talked over time. I didn't trust her after a while. She began to seem more and more like someone shady to me; like someone extremely territorial who felt everyone was in her way and like she was looking for ways to knock other "competition" out of the picture. Other people complained similarly about her. They just "didn't like" her. People would tell me the same things: that she always complained about others. She made them feel uncomfortable. I'm told that at GARC picnics, she'd bring her entire family, take huge portions, come back for more, and end up taking ALL of the leftovers when the events were done. She'd call me while I was working, and refused to heed repeated requests not to do so. She pushed and clambored for me to assign her positions, citing all sorts of previous experience. She'd show me business cards, trying to make herself look important. I gave her two positions: Lead Net Control Station, and I told her that I was doing this because I wanted more time to myself and that I didn't want to hear from her, that SHE was to be in total charge of that stuff, that she had total control of how she wanted to run the nets, and in getting them operational. I also gave her the position of PIO officer and she was to be in charge of setting up spotter training classes and other weather- and safety-related presentations, and in handling the Press, and getting the word out. But when crunch time came, she didn't know how to do anything. I had to explain everyting to her. Every time we had a net, she'd call me up and KEEP me on the phone for the ENTIRE net, holding me up and taking up all of my spare time, and keeping me from my mother. I'd have to hold her hand the entire way. When it came time to handle classes and the Press, and set up the classes, she didn't know what to do. Again, she'd call me up, ask me what she was supposed to do, how to do things, and again...I'd have to hold her hand and I'd end up doing it all myself...creating the poasters, the flyers, setting up the dates and times and locations. I began to doubt all her bragged about experience, and started to see through her. I wondered what the hell GOOD she was. I started wanting time to myself and I didn't always pick up the phone. Then she began to get condescending and rude, and DEMANDING. She'd call and call, making the phone ring and ring and ring for LONG periods of time without hanging up, and she began to demand that I always be available, that this was my DUTY. (Scott West used to do this, too.) She demanded so much of my time, every second of my days, and got upset when I didn't always answer the phone. She began complaining to others about me. One day, I was at home taking care of my mother, who had cancer, and who was bedridden with an O2 mask, and VERY weak. And she KNEW this. I went to the bathroom on the other end of the mobile home. The phone rang. It was Melissa.
I was on the john and I wasn't really having a good time of it, to begin with. Melissa calls. I'm busy. Mom picks up the phone. She asks who it is. Melissa identifies herself and asks for me. Mom tells her that I'm busy, and asks if I could call her back later. Melissa says "no." Then she insists that it's an emergency and that she needs to speak with me immediately and that she's not getting off of the phone until she does. Mom was VERY weak, and she was absolutely DEPENDENT upon the nearby O2 machine that she was using to breathe. After Melissa insisted that it was an emergency, my mother disconnected herself from the O2 machine, got up, and began a trek 60 feet to the other side of the mobile home to tell me what Melissa had said. I'm sitting there on the john, and I began to hear my mom approaching. She's gasping and wheezing very heavilly. She's crouched over as she walks, slapping her hand on the wall as she walks. She's moving VERY slowly. I can hear her. I'm worried. I'm asking myself why she's disconnected herself from the O2 machine, and walking over to me. Was she having a heart attack? Did she need medical help? I called out to her and asked her if she was okay. There was no answer...just hand slapping on the wall, and very struggled gasping and wheezing. She finally reached the door, and began to tell me what Melissa had told her.
"...TODD! (gasp!) It's...MELISSA! (gasp!) She says (gasp!) that it's (gasp!) an EMERGENCY and she needs (gasp!) to TALK to you!"
"Did you tell her that I was on the john and that I would call her back"
"YES! (gasp!) I TOLD her that! (gasp!) But she said (gasp!) that it was an EMERGENCY (gasp!), and that she wasn't going to get off of the phone (gasp!) until she TALKED with you! (gasp!)"
I was furious. I knew damned well that Melissa was full of it and that she really had no emergency at all and that she was just telling my mother that so that I would have to answer the phone. I wiped my god-damned ass. I washed my hands quickly. I immediately escorted my mother back to bed while she was bent over the entire way, gasping for each breath, and hooked her back up to the O2 mask, watched her a minute... Then I answered the phone:
"WHAT, Melissa?!", I said.
"Oh nothing. I just wanted to talk to you but I knew that if I didn't say that it was an emergency then you wouldn't have picked up the phone."
I was VERY angry, understandably. I listened to her for a little bit; but she really had nothing at all important to say. Just gossip. She talked and talked and kept talking...about nothing. Just more complaining abotu other people. No real business. No emergencies. Just bitching. After we hung up, I immediately fired off an angry email to her husband, telling him about what his wife had just done - how she had just put my mother's life at risk because she insisted on talking to me on the phone about NOTHING that was important. I wanted nothing more to do with her at that point. After that, I was sure that Melissa was bad, and evil, and that she was only concerned about herself. Melissa had one child who had cancer, too. She was a teen. When her child eventually died, she showed NO emotion. Her grieving lasted DAYS, and she was back in business again, like nothing had happened. That just isn't NORMAL. Her husband Phil got angry with me, instead, and then went on a campaign to destroy my name, rather than to help.
In 2008, Melissa created an "Alachua County SKYWARN" Yahoo group of her own, username AC_Skywarn. (Our's was called the "Alachua County SKYWARN Email Alert List" , username ac_skywarn, and it had been in existence since 2003.) Apparently, she had convinced Alachua County Office of Emergency Management to create a new SKYWARN group, and to call it "Alachua County SKYWARN" - regardless of the existence of an already existing group by that name. WHY Emergency Management actually followed through with that, I had no clue at the time4. But I actually had to threaten a lawsuit MULTIPLE TIMES before Dave finally called a halt to it all. I don't mind them having their own spotter training program. I'm all FOR it. But where I draw the line is when dumbasses in Emergency Management actually allow themselves to be conned by Melissa into using their own power to stalk and harass me, TOO! I'd had enough, there. So to put the cherry on top, Melissa also created a Yahoo listgroup with a similar name to the one I had already had on Yahoo since 2003, causing great confusion. I have not been able to get Yahoo to remove the list. I have not been able to get Melissa or Emergency Management to remove the list. The list at this time is not used, and is abandoned. But it is still there, and is still causing the confusion. There was no reason for it. It was done solely to bother me, and to cause people to become confused. It was another method of harassment. One that yet again, she had gotten away with.
BE it known though, that yes...for a short time, the Alachua County Office of Emergency Management WAS abused, WAS actually taken advantage of, WAS USED to stalk and harass, and Dave Donnelly backed it up. I AM AWARE that he was duped. But his handling of the situation, his deliberrate ignorance od me and refusal to contact me regarding any of this, or to cooperate...is just inexcuseable and unethical.
It is a totally unbelievable thing to experience, to have happen to you. But there it is. You have NO IDEA what it is like to watch while other people control actual government agencies and USE them to stalk and harass you. But it actually happened. I can't BELIEVE that it happened, but it did. And not only that, but when they caught it, that they never apologised; never acknowledged it. NOBODY did. And if left alone, nobody ever WILL, either.
According to Jeff Capehart, recently both the Alachua County Office of Emergency Mgmt AND the Alachua County Red Cross, without either knowing that the other was doing it, SIMULTANEOUSLY ceased participating with Melissa. At ACOEM, Melissa was attending some sort of Emergency Manager type of class, so that she could become an Emergency Manager. (OMG, are you frakking KIDDING! Can you IMAGINE what kinds of abuses she might have committed with THAT kind of power??? I'm not even going to GUESS that she had me and ACS in her thoughts, there; I'm going to just put it out there that I'm sure it was almost assuredly on her mind. The more horrific question becomes: What would have happened to Dave and ACOEM in the aftermath of that? That was just too close, but I'm glad that some people actually finally caught on to her.) But Dave Donnelly apparently cancelled her Emergency Manager application and she was issued a letter and face-to-face notified that she was being let go from that and that they no longer wished to participate with her. Apparently there were complaints about her, including forging business cards, telling people she had titles and positions that she never had, people complaining about her being controlling, etc. (Sound familiar?) As well, The Alachua County Red Cross ALSO sent her a letter actually FIRING her from her volunteer position there, supposedly for forging business cards, assigning herself titles and duties she didn't have, abusing her powers, picking on people...and other such-related things. (Anyone seeing any patterns, here?) Melissa apparently suspected that this was coming and avoided admins and calls to come in.
(Sound familiar? Did I not TELL people that my stalkers were PULLING things like that?)
Melissa Royce's face now joins Scott West's on the walls of ACOEM's CCC building as people who are banned from entering the building, and of people whom admin is to be notified about if they ever ARE. Jay lieberman's used to be up there, too; but he died, and his photo was removed. Interestingly enough, for being such a highly touted "problem" all of this time, it is interesting to note that my face does NOT join anyone there, and never has. ...HMMM! I'll let everyone think on that one.
Phil Royce/KE4PWE convinced a number of local government agencies that I was a problem and made them paranoid of me. He worked for the Communications Division of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office. After emailing him about the problems with his wife, and asking for help, he became rabid, and went on a frenzied campaign to multiple government agencies attemping to make them doubt me. I'm told he made multiple threats about causing me harm - advising people that "he better hope I don't catch him in a dark alley!" He once sent me an email advising that he'd complained about me to the National Weather Service in Jax, and to NWS HQ in DC, to the Alachua County Office of Emergency Management, to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. He attacked fears and gullibilities, preyed upon their worries, made me sound irresponsible, incompetent. He told them I was attempting to take over SKYWARN operations across the entire northern Florida area; that I was preventing other organizations from being able to hold spotter classes, or to form their own spotter groups. He told people that I was trying to claim copyright on the SKYWARN logo. Nothing was true. No one stopped to think how one civilian could have so much power over so many government agencies. But I guess everyone wanted to believe it. Jeff Capehart would later tell me that Phil said that he deliberately tried to say everything that he thought would take advantage of everyone's worst fears, and make everyone paranoid about me, and to doubt me. Appatently, his campaign worked...and VERY well. And NO one bothered to ask for proof of anything, verification of anthing. Everyone...unbelievably...simply took his word at face value and trusted it to be the truth. How can so many people in so many agencies be SO stupid and SO gullible! I mean...COME ON!!!!
In 2008, Phil and his wife Melissa were court-ordered evicted from Brookwood Terrace Apts. for 'Back Rent Up To $15,000'. During the process they claimed indigency. Looks like it took Brookwood a year-and-a-half to get it done, from service to actual eviction. [See Alachua Co. Clerk of the Court Records]
There are similar eviction events in the West Palm Beach Clerk of the Court records. Apparently they do this kind of thing regularly. And they also go through the process while claiming indigency. Would you believe there is record of this as far back as 1997? Apparently this is a regular THING with them. This must be a full time job for them. Find a sucker apartment owner. Don't pay the rent. Get taken to court for eviction processes. Claim indigency. Then people can't sue you for damages or demand their money back. STAY indigent, always. Use the system and the process. Claim welfare. Get free momey; free things. File constant legal paperwork; make evverything a legal nightmare for people. Make it take a year to a year-and-a-half or more for people to get you kicked out. In the process, you get a free year's worth or MORE of rental, and you don't have to pay for it! ...Anyone seen the movie Pacific Heights with Michael Keaton? Wow. Then they moved up here and pull the same exact thing? Coincidence? Pfbt! I doubt it. Apparently these people make it a regular practice of pulling the wool over everyone's eyes and conning and taking advantage of people and making everyone's life a full-time legal hell while they're at it. In the WPB records there seem to be some occasions of domentic violence filings between Phil and Melissa and what appears to be a former husband. There's paternity issues - blood tests demanded. Suits for support. These things are all in the public record. Again, don't take my word for it. Look it up: West Palm Beach Clerk of the Court. Type in "Royce, P" or "Royce, M" or "Shires, M" (Melissa's maiden name). The "Spoffard" entries are also Phil. These two are highly, no, EXTREMELY litigious people.
I remember Phil once saying that he wasn't going to let me kick HIM out of town..."again". That sentence struck me as being very odd, and I'd always wondered what he meant by that. I think I know, now. They've been through things like this before. They've harmed other people before, and they've been to court so many times that they probably were moved away because they could no longer hide their litigious history, locally, anymore. The system must have started to get to know them too well.
Again, Jeff always having to be the one with the information, he once told me that when the Royces left WPB, the hams down there had celebratory parties because they were glad they were going. Jeff would not elaborate on the club or clubs that had these supposed parties. But then as usual, Jeff was living up to his character of doing research in something not his business (nobody was causing HIM any problems) and then finding out information, and withholding the important stuff, like names, so that I could gather witnesses of past problems with these people.
Frederick Scott West/KF4VWD email bombed me, pager bombed me, left threatening messages on my phone, rang my phone off the hook trying to force me to answer the phone. He tried to strong arm me into making him President of Alachua County SKYWARN and to incorporate it so that he could use the money to buy himself and his buddies "things to keep on a permanent personal loan basis". (In other words, he wanted me to help him engage in "embezzlement".)
He used to actually place TAGLINES in his email-bombingstagline. Scott actually thought that if he placed these taglines in his harassing emails, then his messages would be considered "private" and thus "protected" by the law from being used, and that I could be prosecuted for showing his emails to anyone, and that they would be inadmissable as evidence for anything. Ergo, he literally thought that he was legally protected from any backlash harm that might come from harassing me. These are the kinds of brainless morons that were sent after me.
For a sample of the emails and pages that Scott used to send me, see Log of Harassments - Frederick Scott West/KG4VWD. Note how in one email, Jeff Capehart is quoted, and actually ENCOURAGES Scott to harass me, citing things that Jeff personally wanted to see done as excuse to do it. Jeff's description of me is NOT "careful" or "prudent" in any way, and is in fact quite condescending - which itself also tends to encourage Scott to be mean, and aggravates and inflames him, and gives him "reason" to attack me, because someone else thinks Todd is stupid too, and inside that group mindset, it makes him feel more justified and encouraged.
Jeff Capehart had a bad habit of constantly allowing Scott to gather information off of him about me. I'd repeatedly told Jeff NOT to discuss me or Alachua County SKYWARN with him, and he would do it anyway - usually with long emails denying that he's talking to him, accusing me of not being a good enough leader, or which contained insults vague and direct, and blaming me for everything that was happening to me. In the same email, he'd suggest that I should harass Scott with insults to embarass him and show him how stupid he is; and in the next paragraph he'd tell me I should just let it go and that I bring all this upon myself. In fact I'd be doing nothing at all - which is what authorities would suggest. Jeff isn't offering advice, he's just excusing himself to continue to do what I have repeatedly told him not to do: encourage people. Normal people would do what I ask because it is obvious that talking to Scott is causing me problems and harm, and they would not argue with me and bicker with me and continue to associate with Scott or give him any kind of information about me for fear that it might cause me further problems. Jeff however, would consistently ignore me, and in fact deliberately FIGHT with me, so that he could continue endangering me.endangerment There is no argument on what a sane person would do in this situation. Jeff has no excuse; no argument, here. He continually placed me in danger deliberately, not just with Scott, either. No other explanation rings acceptable or logical or justifiable. Jeff was doing this deliberately.
Always having to be the harbinger of information, Jeff told me that Scott once pulled a gun on some people while on his security job at the Gainesville Regional Airport simply because they wouldn't do what he asked, not because they were breaking any real laws. He was fired immediately. You have to have a REASON, a potentially life threatening situation, to pull a gun. Whenever you pull a gun there are questions, investigations...paperwork...as a STANDARD. Not obeying an officer's (or a security guard's) commands is NOT an acceptable situation, or life threatening situation, REQUIRING that a gun be drawn. He is irratonal, hot headed, and not someone who can be controlled. I even remember saying to Jeff one day, "God forbid someone ever put a GUN into the hands of that man." Jeff actually chastized me for being overly paranoid, but over the years he'd CONTINUALLY placed me in the way of harm and harassment and treated it like it was a totally unfounded and overly ridiculous worry. Jeff was extremely irresponsible like this. I often think Jeff was experimenting to see how far he could push people and to see if people might actually go far enough to attack me physically and cause me harm. I just...FELT that from the man. And I wanted him to stop working people up. And no matter how much I begged, pleaded, and tried to EXPLAIN things to him in logical and reasonable ways (even though it should not have been necessary and the "STOP!" should have been enough in itself), he would on many occasions outright REFUSE to do as I asked, exclaiming "NO!", and he would continue to work up Jay, Scott, Melissa and Phil, his wife...anyway.
Thing is, Scott was one of those "lower intelligence" ASPD types. The ones always looking to make it a "mission" to harass people into doing what they want. He was a bully. He was a failed leader in everything he attempted. So he followed those he saw as having power. He liked to follow people who gave him freedom and excuse to harass, threaten, and intimidate. Jeff gave him reason and excuse. He would have repeated talk sessions with Jeff and, like having a "pep rally", REMIND Scott about the stupidity of Todd, psyching him up again. Scott it not totally alone in this. Jeff was the initial spark, the driving force, the ringleader.
In the beginning, before I knew any of the bad stuff about Scott though, I'd once made Scott an Asst. Coordinator for Alachua County SKYWARN because, at first, like Melissa Royce, he SEEMED enthusiastic, like he might be helpful. He WANTED jobs to do, seemed energetic and enthusiastic enough to handle it, so I gave him the position. But then he started throwing the title around a lot, I noticed. At the same time, people began to complain about him. Women complained to me that he'd stare straight at their breasts for really long periods even while talking to them. People complained about his vulgar remarks and language and vulgar comments about women5. I heard wind of temper tantrums during Emergency Mgmt/ACFR Reserve training sessions, throwing books, swearing at leadership. He had screwball ideas and he was very serious about. One of them was purchasing an ambulance, painting it SKYWARN orange, putting a SKYWARN logo on it, and...and...to do WHAT? What the HELL would you do with something like that? Where the hell did he think we'd get the MONEY for something like that? Spotters spot. That's it. They don't provide pizza for firefighters. They don't drive fire trucks or ambulances. They don't chase storms. They look up, pick up a phone, and report. Period. We don't need a giant, bright orange vehicle with a flashing light on top to do that. Stalking and harassing me because I thought the idea was just a TAD-side rediculous...was...rediculous.
One day I met a girl who eventually became my best friend. She was REALLY smart, VERY enthusiastic, and knew a hell of a lot about meteorology, and had even chased with the DOW team before under Josh Wurman. She graduated at 24 with TWO simultaneous degrees: BS's in mathematics and in environmental engineering. She knew how to forecast, how to read RADAR and soundings and other charts. She knew what she was doing, and I WANTED her on the AC-SKYWARN team and was REALLY proud to have her. I remember being SO happy that we'd finally found someone with enough knowledge to begin to actually have presentations about a multitude of weather-related things, given by someone with knowledge and training and experience. I really wanted to impress her with what we were doing and I really wanted her on the team.
But as SOON as Jeff found out, any kind of a friendship with her became unnecessarilly stressed and difficult due to interference. It seemed to bother Jeff. He couldn't stop asking me questions about her. He could NOT put it down. He was always wanting information, always wanting to know the latest about her. It was obvious and unnatural, and it was scaring me. I would not give out any information about her to him, though, citing that I didn't any longer trust him with personal information, or how he might use it. I was ACTUALLY afraid that his wife SUSAN might try to research her and then try to do something to harm the relationship once she figured out how "important" this girl was to me. It just "fit" her. Susan is noseyness, and then interference. Susan is obsession, and tunnel vision. I honestly thought that THAT was going to be where any problems with new friends would came from. And I was completely taken by surprise when my worst nightmare did indeed actually happen...only not from Susan...
After a SKYWARN meeting one day (which had been attended by this girl), Jeff immediately got on his cellphone and, regardless of the fact that I REPEATEDLY, over and over, told him NOT to, he called Scott West and told him about this "chic" who was talking to me. It REALLY, REALLY bothered Jeff that I was in any way associating with a female, like it was something that needed to be "taken care of."
The girl and I walked off away, and began talking privately among ourselves, alone. I left Jeff to continue on his cellphone by himself.
I don't know what exactly Jeff told Scott, but it must have been pretty condescending. Scott was on his way to work, and actually made himself late by detouring so as to come all the way to the CCC Building to see this "chic" that I was "hanging" with Todd that Jeff had told him about. He raced into the parking lot, and came to a SCREECHING caddy-corner halt into the parking space, leaving a thick white pall of smoke, and almost hitting us! He got out of the car, stood between me and my friend while we were in the middle of a conversation, put his BACK in my face, and immediatley began berating and insulting me and trying to convince her that I was stupid and a loser. It didn't work; and she wasn't impressed.
For whatever reason, Scott had it in his mind that this "meet" Todd was having needed to be "corrected", and that the girl needed to "understand" what a loser Todd was. ...And he drove out of his way, and made himself late for WORK, putting his job at RISK...to do it. The "whatever the reason"...was Jeff Capehart.
Scott at the time was married and at the time he had a child who was toddler age.
Jeff had convinced Scott that I was stupid, and so, thinking he had public acceptance to do so, he began to treat me that way. He began harassing me and threatening me after that and I fired him, removing his Asst. Coordinator status, while simultaneously telling him that I'd issue a restraining order against him if he ever so much as even discussed me or Alachua County SKYWARN again, and especially if he engaged in threatening or harassing behavior with me. Scott was also a member of the local CERT group, and got kicked out of that. He never made it past probation with ACFR Reserves due to his tantrums. He eventually got kicked out of local ARES/RACES. He was prohibited from entry into the CCC Bldg at the Alachua Co. Office of Emergency Mgmt. and they actually had his photo posted around the inside of the building warning people about him, and to deny him entry. Even the Red Cross banned him, where he served a few times as shelter communicator during some hurricanes. Officers in GARS and in ARES/RACES knew of Scott's involvement in harassing me, and of the dangerous, irresponsible ways in which he had done it, and they showed no concern for it, and allowed him to operate near other people regardless.
Do you know that this guy actually made it into organizations like the Florida Repeater Council? That's right. THIS guy has served as "Vice-Director" for District 7 (our area) from 2005 to today. People like that in positions like this give psychopaths and people with other ASPDs an immense power that they can use to abuse and harass others with. Had the FRC known the problems that we were having with Scott here in Alachua County I seriously doubt that they would have accepted his application or his involvement at all. By the same token, had ACOEM known about the legal history of Phil and Melissa Royce, I doubt they would have cooperated them in ANY of their suggested endeavors, or given them any of the positions that they had. Look at what Phil and Melissa were able to do. I think it is a lesson for everyone, here, though, to note how people of this sort always attempt to find positions of power up on high.
But I'm just a rambling lunatic. What do I know?
In July of 2007, Scott sent an email to the then ARRL NFL Section Manager Joe Bushel/W2DWR, complaining about the police knocking on his door one night because I had called the police after I'd received Melissa's harassing email, mentioned above. Only at first we didn't know who had actually sent the harassment email. There were mispellings, and the M.O. was VERY similar to what Scott had pulled about a year-and-a-half before. I told them to check with Scott West and to ask him if he had sent it. After all the things that Scott had done to me two years before - the email bombing, pager bombing, threats on my answering machine, etc., and then ADMITTING that he had indeed done that to the officer who had knocked on his door at that (it's in the initial police record), I found it to be the height of rediculousness for Scott to complain because I had called the police and had them bother him for something that had happened which had an M.O. very similar to what he himself had pulled before. The man actually wanted an apology from me and his email was complaint to Joe requesting that the ARRL take some action against me. [See email] (sigh) But there you go. Again, an ARRL SM was notified of a problem where a ham had the cops called on him and it was...handed off...to one of my stalkers, because he didn't want to deal with it. And yet again, no one did anything. (sigh) (THIS...is why Jeff Capehart always knows so much - because EVERYONE shares everything with him; and also why nobody does anything about him, because he is ALSO the invaluable SOURCE of information.)
What a moron, though. The man engages in stalking and harassing me, leaves threatening messages, etc. THESE things he excuses away vaguely as "the cost of doing business" (while not going into detail on the "specifics" of what those tactics of doing business were). Then he wants the ARRL to take some form of corrective action (presumably against Melissa and Jeff) for covering it up, and (presumably against Melissa) for sending the email. A man who used to sit at a computer for hours while repeatedly tapping SEND to send me harassing emails and pages, and who used to leave so many messages on my machine that it became full, and who used to threaten me...THIS VERY MAN...wants an apology...AND CORRECTIVE ACTION?
At every step I complained to EM, the NWS, and local clubs about Scott and it REALLY bothers me how with all of the troubles that EVERYONE experienced with Scott, every agency blew me off and treated me like I was being totally ridiculous.
At one time I was planning to press charges against Scott. I came SO VERY, very close. But I stopped dead in my tracks because his little son was only ten years old; and I knew his wife, and she was never mean to me. She was always polite. All I could think about were things like...little Gregory getting beat up in school because...I dunno...because someone had heard about his father being "that guy on TV-20 who was arrested and put in jail" (kids are cruel); or of his wife being suddenly without his income - because *I* had taken it away, and I felt so very guilty. So, I never did file charges. Can you believe that? The guy STALKS me, and *I* feel guilty for thinking about calling the cops on him! (sigh!) You'd think he'd have been grateful for someone being so cool after how he treated me, and stopped. No. He kept on for a while. (sigh) I should have never done that. I shouldn't have given him ANY break. I should have pressed charges right then and there, regardless. You don't give these kinds of people any breaks. They just get worse. I didn't know that then. I know it now, though.
This is apparently a common thing among victims. It is well-documented. Victims often never report things because, believe it or not, they don't want to cause harm to the other family of the stalker, or even to the stalker himself/herself. Isn't that amazing? It's because we keep trying to assign normal conscience to someone who has none, and we keep hoping and expecting that these people will eventually come to their senses and realize what they're doing and stop. But it never happens...because they're not normal. They don't think like us. They truly believe that what they're doing to you is justified, and that it's your own fault. And they continue for as long as you'll let them to. But once you realize who they really are, and any leftover spells are gone, they get even worse.
Interesting to note is that my Navy friend was attacked in various ways by Scott, by Jay Lieberman, and by Jeff Capehart. Were they after HER, personally? No. They were attempting to get to ME, by USING her. (Jeff himself also attacked Angie Enyedi at NWS-JAX, and other people that I knew and who were important to me in some way or another, too; and he tried to scare them, quite successfully. But he always attempted to disguise it so that it looked like he was "trying to help a friend".)
Jay Lieberman also went after my best friend, Alisa, my Asst. Coordinator. According to Jeff, JAY's idea was to destroy her naval career so as to "help get Todd back on track with SKYWARN". Jeff taunted me with knowledge of this...of someone who "hated (me) more than Scott did". [See emails regarding] He tortured me with this for a month and a half before finally revealing who it was who it was who was threatening my friend. That's not the act of a friend. It's the act of someone who enjoys watching you suffer. In person, Jeff actually tried to tell me he was trying to help me by telling me that there was someone out there who hated me more than Scott and who was after my best friend's career. But if it were anyone ELSE, they would have told me right away that someone was threatening the career of a naval officer and then revealed immediately who had said that. Just not Jeff. What MORONIC kind of friend WITHHOLDS information about a THREAT from someone he claims to be his "friend?" Not just that, but it was a threat to a MILITARY OFFICER. He said Jay was attempting to get personal information about my best friend out of him. I'd made her Asst. Coordinator at the time. She was an officer in the United States Navy, then an Ensign just out of OCS. (She's now a LtJG.) Jeff refused to give me the greater details over email or over the phone, and he kept insisting that we meet personally. He told me that Jay intended to call up the Navy and tell her superiors that she was "associating with a known security risk" so that she would be "taken care of, leaving Todd more time to spend on his SKYWARN duties." Thank GOD Jeff didn't actually GIVE him any kind of PII information (at least, so he told me); but the fact that he knew about that and then deliberately WITHHELD it from me for a month-and-a-half so that he could watch me squirm and suffer trying to find out who had threatened my friend and deliberately preventing me from doing anything about it proves what kind of monster Jeff really is. He wanted to watch me squirm. He wanted to have a good laugh. It proved that he is capable of withholding important threatening information with total disregard for another's safety and well-being. And he used to continually put me in the way of harm and problems like that. Jay was not someone to be toyed with. He had a very real criminal history, including arms violations and threats to police and others of gun violence. He was unstable and a diabetic who often flew off the handle during diabetic frenzies. Jeff used to say to me, "Has he SHOT or STABBED you yet? Do you have any reason to THINK he might shoot or stab you? Do you have any REASON to believe that he could cause you harm? Call me when he shoots you, then you can worry." He's also said, "So I withheld it. Just let it GO! Nothing HAPPENED! You worry too much!" That's a very DANGEROUS way of looking at things and I don't know of ANY so-called "friends" who continually put people at risk like that. Jeff is a dangerous man and a danger to society.
I have to rant on Jeff about this point a bit, here...
Jeff CONTINUALLY plays with me and my life like that. He PUTS me in the way of problems and danger, then tells me I'm being ridiculous. He says things to the more volatile hams which makes them think I'm not doing my job, not doing my duty, and CONTINUES TO REMIND them too, which is key. I put Jeff up against the wall on the Jay thing. I asked him WHY Jay was so upset with me. I asked him why Jay would feel like he needed to GO that far. I asked him repeatedly if he was working Jay up and he wouldn't at first answer. I'd push him on it and push him on it and finally he admitted that yes, he keeps talking to Jay and Scott. He'd say that they approach HIM (which I doubted) and ask about me. To which, he would say yes, he'd answer all their questions.
"But you KNOW they're volatile. Right?"
"Yes."
"And you know that they're only going to attack me. Right?"
"Yah, but what am I supposed to do. They're asking about you. What am I supposed to say? '...Fuck off?!'"
"YES, JEFF! That's EXACTLY what you're supposed to say, DAMMIT!!!!"
"...Yah, but then they'd come after ME!"
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!! I frakking HATE this guy!!!
The LOGIC that this man uses is just crazy-fucked. He UNDERSTANDS he's causing me problems, but thinks it's okay because it's "just Todd", and he seriously thinks that it's okay because, as he's told me before, "I knew you'd be able to deal with it." But if it means they'd attack HIM, NOW he understands the DANGER in it all. This man is a freaking psychopath. There's something seriously wrong with him.
What really bothered me so was the fact that I had Jeff and other people stalking and harassing me in these very SERIOUS ways and yet ACOEM and NWS thought I was the problem. That broke my heart. You have no idea how that tortured me in itself. SKYWARN here was laid waste by psychopaths and ASPD types and they had everybody believing that I was PICKING on them. Wow. I must be a MONSTER.
Jeff is always behind things. If Scott or Jay or Phil or Melissa are harassing you, it's because Jeff gave them IDEAS to attack you; because he worked them up. He doesn't VOLUNTEER to anyone that he worked them up. He won't bring it up and tell you unless you CATCH him,or you figure it out and PRESS him. Thus, no one knows to ask him if he DID work them up. Thus, if you didn't ask, it's your own fault; but he didn't LIE to you (as far as he's concerned). He doesn't know the term "white lie." Understand how Jeff thinks, now? When you ask him if he did something, he won't say no. He'll change the subject and try to implicate fault for what is happening to you back to you. And he'll say the same thing to everyone else. "If only he was a better leader, he wouldn't get himself into these things." See? Then all the gullible morons standing around him always shake their heads up and down in agreement because they're weak-willed and have no strength of character. In my case, Jeff always said that everything that happened to me happened because it was MY fault, not his.
"If only you were a better leader, this wouldn't happen to you" He would say.
I'd say, "But you're the one who brings UP these 'problems' and GETS everyone upset. Otherwise, they would not have even THOUGHT about it, and nothing would have happened to me."
"Yah so? That's not important."
"Jeff, STOP talking to these people. I don't want you talking about ME, or Alisa, or Alachua County SKYWARN to Jeff, Scott, Phil or Melissa, your WIFE, or ANYONE...ANYMORE!!! You are NOT ALLOWED to discuss these things with anyone, anymore...because you are a PROBLEM. EVERY time you talk to people, they come AFTER me. And the thing is that you KNOW that they're gonna come after me. You're THE MAIN REASON WHY harm is always coming to me, because you're working them up. So STAY AWAY from me! STOP....TALKING about me and Alachua County SKYWARN! ...PERIOD!"
I have many emails of similar conversations from Jeff. I'm trying to find the one where we had that conversation again, and after throwing blame for everything again back at me, he actually said, "NO!"
Jeff often didn't like that I didn't pay attention to all of his ideas and incorporate them. I always had to have my management hat on with him. Some of his ideas were impossible due to cost. Some were impossible due to the sheer manpower he KNEW could never be had. Some I rejected because I knew it would mean that I would have to do all of the work, in the end. Some were just rediculous, period. He had to have things his way, or he would give me a hard time. When I wouldn't cave, he would encourage others to come to the aid of his causes and try to convince them to convince me of the "errors" of my ways. He would attempt to sabotage everyone's belief in me. It was a very common tactic with him. He was always getting me into trouble with people because he would make them doubt me, or think that I was stupid or irrational. He was always causing confusion in people over me. ...Except that he would always go to the people that he KNEW were volatile and unpredictable and who could become a problem for me. Either that, or he'd go to people he knew meant something important to me, and he'd attack their faith and trust in me. In Jay's case, he knew that he was gullible and easily manipulated. Jay paid attention to him. ...Jay died alone in his apartment and no one noticed for months because he didn't have any friends. Can you imagine that happening to you? He was exceptionally paranoid, extremely rude, an open, slurring racist, believed he'd been abducted by aliens, and that Big Brother was watching him and after him. He didn't list his real name in the phone book. He used "Robert Raven". Jay also had diabetes and he didn't take care of himself and he often flew into diabetic rages and threatened people - including to shoot them. He had a LONG, LONG criminal history dealing with bad check writing and threatening officers, and gun violations. It's open to the public and can be viewed online at the Alachua County Clerk of the Court going all the way back to 1979. There was rumor that back when he was in the Air Force, he was starting brush fires and calling them in, and he would never deny it; but would never TALK about it, either.
I remembered that Jay had once told me something about some woman he had been accused of stalking somewhere down in Hillsborough County. I checked Hillsborough Clerk of the Court records and all I could ifnd on Jay down there were two not-very-descriptive entries - one dealing with filing a false criminal report, for which he was arrested and served some short jail time. But neither report goes into what specifically the crimes had to do with. Still... This man got in trouble everywhere he went.
These are the kinds of very weird people whom Jeff had no qualms about pointing my way.
Jeff even would tag-team me with his own wife, Susan Tipton/K9PDL. Jeff would pick on me and get me in trouble with others, and then when he'd think he was going too far and getting too close to getting into trouble, he'd stop and hand me off to his wife and she'd take over the harassment. And the cycle would continually repeat. Jeff would tell me stories about her. ...How she would sit up in bed with him at night, and BITCH about me. ...How she HATED me. ...How she didn't want him cooperating with me in any public service-related things because she thought I always took all of the attention away from him. He'd tell me how she'd torture him, withhold sex from him, withhold dinner from him, make him do chores...if he spent time with me, or to get him to harass me. He told me that she would ENCOURAGE him to harass me, and then get mad at him if he didn't. He told me that her mother was going to move here to Gainesville to be closer to her but that Susan was so mean with her that she changed her mind and now...they don't talk much. He told me that came home actually crying one day because her boss had called her to the office and reprimanded her and told her that multiple co-workers had filed complaints against her because she was very rude, mean, condescending, and vindictive; and her employer told her to knock it off or she'd be fired. He told me that the University of Florida's Dean of Veterinary Medicine even had words with her, for the exact same reasons - people had been complaining abotu her rudeness and condescensions and vindictive, mean behavior, and he saif that if she didn't stop it then she would be permanently banned from ever putting foot on the Livestock Pavillion property and from attending dogs shows ever again. Years ago, Susan was acting very strange. She was actually reacting with me in a manner which can only be described as a verious obvious "flirting" type of behavior - getting close, giggly, touching. (Not a sexual kind of touching, but putting hands on my shoulders, gently poking my side, etc. - things that weren't natural for her considering how much she hated me and that she knew I did not like her. Touching in any way between us was NOT understood to be any KIND of an acceptable thing.) I wondered what happened to this woman who hated me so much, and what had made her flip her lid. I didn't like her and I wanted nothing to do with her and I was assuming that she was doing it to harass me and to deliberately make me feel uncomfortable - or maybe she was using me to punish Jeff for some unknown infraction that I was not privy to. Jeff would even see this going on at times and he would do nothing. But when four different ham radio operators came up to me and then accused me of FLIRTING with Jeff's wife, I got upset. I told Jeff to tell her to knock it off, and to tell her that FOUR HAMS had now come to me complaining and accusing me of flirting with HER, not the other way around, and that I wanted it to stop. (The hams included Scott West himself, Steve King, Ed Amsbury, Walt Johnson, Shannon Boal, John Warne - all off whom were giving me incredulous looks every time they saw it.) Rather than go to her and give her all of these VERY important details, I think Jeff instead went to her and said something very close to "Guess what? Todd thinks you LIKE him!", because immediately after that, she got set off and became an even worse an enemy towards me than she had been before. It took Jeff SO long to tell her ANYTHING about it, though. I told him REPEATEDLY to say something to her about it, and he would NOT; and he acted like a man in DENIAL. He refused to do anything about it at all. [See emails regarding]
So yah...they tag team me. Jeff works Susan up. Susan works Jeff up. In typical Jeff fashion, he leaves important information out, says bare minimal, and allows people to draw their own (incorrect) assumptive conclusions. The both of them thought that this was just way funny.
Dealing with these people has been extremely difficult, humiliating, embarassing, and horrifically scary - not to mention physically, mentally, and emotionally painful and draining.
The one commonality among all these people harassing me, in case no one has noticed yet...is Jeff Capehart. He was the key to everything. He was behind everything. He ALWAYS knows the details. He's ALWAYS in the middle of the "know". He takes information from one person, and hands it to the other side, and vice-versa. Then he watches the fireworks fly - because to him it's FUN. For example, he hands information about me to Paul Eakin. Paul gives him information. Jeff takes Pauls information back to ME - unbeknownst to Paul. Everything with Jeff is "What do you know?/Here's what I'll give you in return, my gullible little mouse. Well done, you idiot. You've just been conditioned by me...and you're in my control.") Every time someone got upset with me, it was Jeff who had worked someone up, encouraged people to doubt me, and/or to be angry with me, or to take some action against me. It took me a LONG time to figure it out. ...A VERY long time. And once I did, he turned on me and got WORSE.
The other commonality is that every one of my harassers were ham radio operators...NOT regular civilians...which the NWS and EM ended up taking it all out on. ...They were HAMS, every one.
I went everywhere and to EVERYONE to try to get help; and everywhere I went, I was blown off...most often in condescension and rudeness. Jeff would intercede, because he knew everyone, and he'd convince them that I was exaggerating things, blowing things way out of propertion, even being outright rediculous...and he'd be believed. No one EVER challenged Jeff's opinion. He was extremely intelligent and charismatic, involved in every public service organization, every government agency - ACFR Reserves, Explorers, CERT, ARRL, GARC, GARS, Red Cross, Emergency Mgmt. He would participate in communications aid for March of Dimes, bike-a-thons, other walk-a-thons, etc. He volunteered for MANY things, knew a lot of people, had friends everywhere. He worked for the Office of Inspector General, was involved in IT security, and in the Auditing Dept. He aided in a little soldering, cutting of a wire but here and there, help with getting someone's computer back up and running, fixing the repeater. When you look at this and then put it next to my complaints...I LOST every time. NO ONE challenged him. NO ONE would ever look at his titles and still proceed with an investigation. He was untouchable. And everyone else? ...Conditioned dogs. "We NEED Jeff!" To not turn a blind eye to the things he was doing would mean to lose someone who was...VALUABLE...to EVERY-one. He could make the most intelligent person believe even the most rediculous stuff. He was good at sounding very confident, very knowledgeable, and very innocent. No one ever acted on my complaints because he would convince them that it was just me being rediculous.
The things which have happened to me are shocking and unbelievable, and that is exactly what allowed Jeff and five other ham radio operators to continue doing what they did to me (and to Alachua County SKYWARN) for years...because no one wanted to believe it, and no one wanted to hear it, and no one wanted to "get involved" in it. My favorite was how people always seemed to blame me. It was my fault because I was encouraging these people. (People would say this without any knowledge whatsoever to confirm whether or not that was even happening, and it wasn't.) Then there were the people who believe that when bad things happen to you, it's because it's your fault. You did something to bring this bad carma upon yourself, and thereby, everything that happens to you is your own fault. Then there are the people who believe that some people are just "destined" to have to suffer. Then there are those who believe that I should be patient because the Lord will only "get" these people in the end. Oh, GIMME a break! Everybody always has some reason to not get involved, some reason to not accept responsibility for doing the right thing; some reason to blame the innocent victim. It's just..."easier" to handle things in their minds and consciences, that way.
The even worse thing is this... A lot of the people in government and public organizations who took some form of action against me have over time come to realize that all along I was telling the truth. They discovered things. Some came from complaints from people. Some came by actual witnessing. But I will NEVER see any apology or admission from anyone. Want to know why? Because what these people did, while they tried to do it under the table, while they may have thought they were doing it for a good reason, it was still done nonetheless, and some of it unmistakably visible, and there are by now many witnesses out there who would probably come forward if this got out. As well, if they apologized to me, they would be admitting what they did. If they admitted what they did, they would most probably lose their careers, and their homes, and their assets, and their benefits, and their retirement pensions. ...Everything. No government agency would back them up in what they did because even though they did it in uniform in the NAME of their agencies, their upper echelon was not officially made aware of it and they did not know, and upper echolon would NOT back them up or come to their rescue because everything that they did was done without official authorization or even any official communication to upper echelon. Upper echolon would only DISTANCE themselves from their actions, in fact. As well, these people - be they the stalkers or the duped attackers, would be doomed to excessively HUGE Press attention because this whole thing IS huge. It's 'Big Brother', picking on 'Joe Innocent Little Guy', under false pretenses and false accusations, whose civil rights were stomped on and denied at every turn, taking actions against him, blackballing an innocent man, and an innocent organization, and an entire spotter program across Florida and Georgia, too. It's just WAY too huge. It got out of control for them. The attackers won't know how to defend themselves beyond making their lies even bigger and making the stories even more exaggerated in an effort to protect themselves, and thus getting themselves deeper and deeper into the mess that they themselves created. I DOUBT though, that anyone will be HONEST, and come forward, and do the RIGHT thing. I've lived here too long. I know too much. That's not going to happen.
So no. This will not be admitted to. There are people who know. There are people who weren't directly involved who knew but said nothing. There were people who were told, and who didn't want to get involved, and who let harm come to their brother. There were people who were duped, who participated in the harm. There were people who realized, but still kept their mouths shut, and who tried to slink away. There were innocent people who were not involved at all who were also harmed. There were many civilian spotter groups across northern Florida and souther Georgia whose groups are no longer recognized as a result of the actions of the Alachua County hams, because NWS-JAX sent a memo to all County Warning Area Emergency Management offices advising them to no longer recognize any civilian agencies, and to take on the task of forming their own spotter groups. But the one in Alachua County failed. they didn't want the job. They didn't have the time or the manpower to handle what NWS-JAX had forced upon them. There is no longer any spotter training or organization within Alachua County, and NWS-JAX emplyees are too afraid to come down here to give one. This is not a good situation for anyone involved. People made mistakes all around. And in the end, masses of innocent people AND orgainzations were affected and harmed...unfairly.
NWS-JAX seriously believed that I was a problem, based on the rumors from the hams here in Gainesville. Everyone believed the next level below them. No one asked any serious questons. No one verified or bothered to make any attempt to refute any of the rumors. People would have been fine if they hadn't taken any real actions. But they did. I tried to get information out of NWS-JAX about when the next spotter training class could be held. They said that there was a hold on spotter training classes while they figured out what to do. My stalkers were bringing me information - to torture me, really - about conversations within NWS-JAX, and Emergency Mgmt. JAX would talk to Melissa Royce and tell her all their thoughts and plans. Melissa would take this information and pass it to Jeff Capehart, who would pass it to me to torture me. I always knew what NWS JAX was thinking because Melissa couldn't keep her mouth shut, and because Jeff couldn't resist torturing mem so he'd have to email me, or call me, with the latest that he'd "heard." I knew that they thought I was a problem. I caught wind that they intended to hold a meeting with Alachua County Office of Emergency Mgmt about the SKYWARN situation. I wanted more information, and I made attempts to call JAX. But they had Caller ID, and whenever I'd call, they wouldn't pick up the phone. I knew what they were doing, so I resorted to an alternate plan. I needed a pretty, sexy voice. I went to my best friend and asked her to call NWS-JAX and try to find out what she could. She got ahold of Steve Letro. Steve had NO PROBLEM with sharing EVERYTHING with this pretty-sounding voice. Sound really cute, and he'll open right up to you. She asked about a spotter training class, and Steve told her that there would be no more classes until after they'd had a meeting with ACOEM about "the problems with Todd and Alachua County SKYWARN," and they could figure out what to do. When she attempted to get the specifics about the "problems", he suddenly caught on, and his demeanor changed to irritation, and he wouldn't tell her anything else. She asked him specifically if we could participate in this "meeting." Steve flat out said "NO!" But at least I now have a witness that indeed Jax had a meeting with ACOEM about "problems" with me, and that he denied me my civil right to participate in the meeting, to know what was being said about me and Alachua County SKYWARN, and who was saying it, and to defend myself. That is a serious no-no. Had they ALLOWED me in that meeting, maybe all of this could have been avoided. And maybe no harm might have come to me. But now the damage has been done, and EVERYTHING has been done, and they can't take it back, or change it, and they're doomed. My witness is a devastating thing for them, because JAX and ACOEM have been trying to hide this, to blame it on other spotter groups that did "unauthorized damage assessment." But my witness proves otherwise, and that it was indeed SPECIFICALLY about me and ACS. After that, actions were taken by NWS, ACOEM, and GPD - in cascading chain reaction.
The proper way to handle it would have been to allow me to participate, to answer for myself, to know who was saying what. But they denied me that.
I asked many people and agencies and organizations and even the police for help. I got blown off and ignored at every step. There IS no one else, no one better I could have gone to. You decide, here. Who did I MISS? I went to the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society's Executive Board and asked them for a hearing and I was ignored. They chose to withhold my complaint and my request from the General Membership in violation of Robert's Rules, and the General Membership was never even made aware. I went to the Gator Amateur Radio Club and was repeatedly ignored, even sabotaged by the Faculty Advisor, who helped keep Jeff Capehart out of trouble with the police by vouching for him. I had a lunch meeting with Dave Donnelly of ACOEM and he recommended that if people were stalking and harassing me that I needed to go to the police. I went to the police, and when the police called him to verify the story that I had given them, he told the police that I was a problem and in so doing, he sabotaged the police department's attitude towards me and DIRECTLY played a role in causing that cop to sabotage my case. My other stalkers, specifically Phil Royce - who according to many hams bragged threats of physical harm to me in "dark alleys" or if "alone" with me, and Melissa Royce, convinced many good people that there were problems with me. Melissa herself forged unauthorized business cards to both ACOEM and to the Alachua County Red Cross, and gave herself titles and positions and experiences that she didn't actually have, convinced ACOEM that I was relinquishing control of Alachua County SKYWRN to them, and that I was placing her in charge, and convinced ACOEM to create a new SOP manual and documents using Alachua County SKYWARN's name; and when they submitted copies of the SOP for my approval, I got mad, and complained to both Dave Donnelly AND Chief William May. Dave Donnelly and I corresponded by email and every time I tried to set up a meeting with him, it ended up being put off or cancelled. [See related email correspondence log.] Chief May, not understanding what was going on, insisted that no one was attempting to "take over" Alachua County SKYWARN, and wanted to work out a "deal" with me and to come to an "agreement" with my stalkers. [See related email correspondence log.] I was livid. When I did not agree to "coming to an agreement" with people who were stalking me, he TOO blew me off. See, he was led to believe that I was doing this with full knowledge, and in full agreement. It didn't occur to me until a LONG time later that he probably thought I was changing my mind, and that I was nuts. Meanwhile, Phil and Melissa and the Alachua County Office of Emergency Management continued to proceed with creating a spotter group which took over the use of the Alachua County SKYWARN name, despite my demands to cease and desist. At the same time, Melissa Royce sent me a harassing email and I went to GPD with it and filed a comlaint, and requested them to subpoena IP logs from Bellsouth and Yahoo for confirmation and something to go to court with to try to STOP all of this insane stuff going on. GPD then sabotaged the case. I even complained to Spencer Mann at the State Atty's Office. He was rude to me and condescending and treated me like I was being completely irrational and like i was an irritation and some kind of a lunatic. The tone in his voice was...accusatory. I tried to complain to NWS-JAX. They weren't concerned, either. In fact, they were the ones who had started this whole mess.
So who did I MISS folks? Who did I miss? I went to all of the proper places. I notified all of the proper people. I begged for help and no one would act unless I had proof.
If I was female, wore tight jeans, boo-hoo'd a lot, and complained that people were stalking and harassing me...think they'd ask me for proof? No. They wouldn't. They'd be all over it. ...Immediately. They'd take it seriously, and act right away, without hesitation. ...But I'm a male, and I'm just being a cry-baby. Right?
Meanwhile, the stalking behavior only got worse and worse, until most recently in February of this year, when I called UF PD on Jeff Capehart for breaking into the AC-EMWIN server. He still got off, because Dr. Garlitz vouched for him and also implied that I was a problem. But I think everyone finally began to see that I had had enough, and things have at the moment become peaceful. But I know this is only temporary. It always is. They go into hiding for a while, until they think the coast is clear again; and they always come back again.
I'm done running from these people, these idiots, these...ASS-holes. I'm done being stalked and harassed. I'm done being attacked. I'm coming back out from hiding and the stalking and harassment had better stop because this time I'm going to fight to the max of the law. I will not be ruled and controlled by psychopaths and people with other similar anti-social personality disorders, which the local ham clubs seem to be full of, lately.
Everyone be warned. I'm thinking lawsuits. I'm thinking Press. I'm thinking going after GARS, GARC, suing those clubs, dissolving them for being a danger to society. I'm thinking of sueing those in the NWS who attacked me irreponsibly, in Emergency Mgmt who attacked me without question or proof that I was indeed even a real problem, and in the police department. I WILL get my name back. I WILL make people own up to what they did.
I am EXTREMELY hurt and saddened especially by the GPD Detective's decision to act based not on careful and diligent forensic thinking or protocol, but instead upon gut feeling, guesswork, and unproven opinons rather than facts, and in the end causing so much additional and unnecessary pain and suffering to another human being as a result. I CANNOT believe that that happened to me. GOD! That happens only in the movies, on TV...not in real life. ...Or so I thought. But now I know better. I am SO disheartened now in ALL police everywhere as a result and, in fact, I am now afraid of them as a whole. I see favors. I see lies. I see making things disappear. I see hiding things. I see innocent people being put in jail, or accused of things they didn't do, or labeled by improper, non-diligent police work. I no longer trust them to be intelligent, to know what they are doing, to do the job correctly without ineptness and irresponsibility, be it deliberate or careless. I cannot any longer look at anyone in uniform and think to myself..."that uniform means trustworthyness, honesty, honor, and goodness." This is something I have to fight every day, now. It is very difficult to stay on the path of believing in humans as a whole when even our guardians cannot be trusted to protect us the way they are supposed to. I am so disappointed. ...So disappointed. :( In the end, I am sure that the detective will claim that he thought he was only doing the right thing to help what he thought were innocent victims. He had become Judge Dredd. But the innocent victims in this case were the bad guys and, regardless of the fact that the detective made an error in judgement, his irresponsibility in letting himself get emotionally involved in the case ended up in the end causing great harm to the wrong person. And now, his entire organization is at risk of a lawsuit as a result. An innocent person's life's work is destroyed, his name in ruins, and an entire spotter program is no more...because he, and people like him, went too far, did favors without asking why, didn't follow proper procedures or laws, and took justice into their own hands.
In all of my life I have only wanted to do good. In 1997, I created Alachua County SKYWARN largely by myself, and I put all of my heart and soul into it, and it became one of the best spotter programs in the entire nation. I've always been proud of this. The program did no harm. It was there for the people. It was there to protect lives. It did that. I did that. Some people didn't like that. I'm not going to apologize for it. I am in fact extremely proud of it.
...And if anyone doesn't LIKE that, they can go to hell.
I didn't deserve this. I didn't do anything to anyone. I simply tried to run a program in the best way. And I did that. My program helped people. It did so well that overshadowed some other programs. And for that, some people hated me, and they took their hatred out on me. They wanted me out of the way.
But... I'm still here.
This blog simultaneously serves as official public notice and warning of the very highly dangerous nature of many local area amateur radio operators.
This blog simultaneously serves as public backup notice to all involved people, agencies, and organizations of request for any and all information and/or witness accounts that they may have regarding the above-mentioned harassment and stalking.
This blog simultaneously serves as public backup notice of official request to all civilian organizations and government agencies for official investigation into the above-mentioned stalking-related matters.
This blog simultaneously serves as public backup notice of request for all copies of communication and correspondence related to "problems with Todd and Alachua County SKYWARN" - including NWS-JAX, NWS-HQ, Fla. Division of Emergency Mgmt, Alachua County Office of Emergency Mgmt, the Gainesville State Atty's Office, the Gainesville Police Dept, the University of Florida, the University of Florida Police Dept, the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society, the Gator Amateur Radio Club, the American Radio Relay League, and any other agencies, organizations or persons who had, have, or knew of such-related communications, dicussions or documents.
Todd Sherman, Coordinator
Alachua County SKYWARN
Monday, December 7, 2009
Where Did Todd Go?
Or...
How Do You Deal With Psychopaths?
Hams/Spotters: Beware Florida Law Regarding Devices Mounted On Windshield
WARNING FLORIDA DRIVERS:
I had someone advise me today that they got a ticket in November of $116 for having a device mounted upon his windshield. The device was a RADAR-detector, but people should note that detectors themselves are NOT illegal in the state of Florida.
Apparently Florida has had a windshield law which has been around for a while but which has not received much attention...until now. Trying to decipher if this was just an event local to that user or if this is part of a new statewide campaign. (Like the seatbelt law. Been around for a while but not acted on with much ferocity except during a certain specific times of the year. ...Or the laws regarding turning, which are never enforced. You're not supposed to turn wide at intersections if you're turning into a road with two lanes to choose from. But most people do this because there has been ZERO action on enforcement of the law even though it's IN your Florida Driver's Handbook. A lot of accidents could be avoided if cops would actually enforce THAT one - which is a BIGGIE; but they don't.)
At any rate, this would affect things like suction-mounted RADAR-detectors, GPS units, cameras, etc.
Ham radio operators, storm spotters/chasers beware. Hams especially just LOVE to mount things on their windshields, and an expensive law such as this one could destroy a Xmas present (or two, or three) for someone. :(
See the Mobile Scanner & RADAR-Detector Laws home page for more information. I have updated the site with this new information, including the text of the actual law.
Spread the word. Let's not allow anyone's Christmas spirit to be ruined over something like this.
Interesting to note is that the "Television receivers" law (316.303), which prohibits TVs in vehicles, actually exempts "the use of electronic displays used specifically for navigation purposes". But the windshield law would seem to PROHIBIT the very use of those devices anyway, since most all GPS units are suction-mounted! (sigh) ...Legislators. They're SO smart. I'm just...I'm SO proud of them. Aren't YOU?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
GOLDEN LIGHTS RESTAURANT IS BACK!
Bihn and Paul gave me a call, yesterday to let me know...
Golden Lights Restaurant is back - under a new name! It's now called the SILVER DRAGON, located in Magnolia Parke (4780 NW 39th Ave, Ste 1, in the building that used to belong to Millhopper Cafe).
These are the people who ran the Cantonese restaurant on NW 16th Blvd in the Thornebrook Plaza (which has now become The Flying Biscuit organic restaurant).
Hours of operation:
Weekdays: 11:00a - 9:30p
FR-SA: 9:30a - 11:30p
Sunday: 12:00p - 9:30p
*** THEY'RE NOW DOING DELIVERY, TOO!!! ***
So give em a call! Tel: (352) 377-9868.
I really miseed them. I missed thier cooking. This family took such great care and pride in their cooking. Everything was always piping hot, cooked in a wok like it's supposed to -- not in a deep at fryer like some of these "fast food" chinese places which have now overrun the city. The food could be depended upon to be cooked the same way every time, because it was a FAMILY-run business which CARED about what it made and served. ...And it shows. They aren't like these little fast food chinese places where the won ton soup might taste "okay" one day, and like plain WATER the next, or where the chow mein "sauce" might taste okay one day and be watery and have no taste the next because someone taught the cook that cheating to save a penny and increase the "productivity" was an okay thing to do. They don't take shortcuts to make a buck. They don't water things down. They don't skimp. They're GOOD, they serve decent portions, and they're AFFORDABLE. All of this puts them a step above.
(sigh) Thank GOD! I'm so glad they're back. I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms! :o)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Niagara Falls Fireworks Video...
I've uploaded video that I took of the Niagara Falls fireworks display that Kathy and I saw while on vacation on August 19th to my Facebook page...
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=1206206962497
Let me know what you think! :o)
STS-128 Night Launch as seen from Gainesville, FL
I've uploaded video that I took of the STS-128 night launch as seen from here in Gainesville, Fla. to my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=1208364856443&ref=mf
Let me know what you think.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Some kudos are in order...
I would like to especially thank Danny Lloyd, the creator of software called "Weather Message" (aka "WxMesg" for short). Danny's software is designed to be used for the gathering, handling, and sending of EMWIN bulletins.
EMWIN stands for the Emergency Manager's Weather Information Network. It is a means by which we are able to make weather bulletins and some weather-related graphics available to the public without charge as a public service.
I've been in the EMWIN weather bulletin distribution arena since 2003, when the EMWIN ground station equipment was given to us by the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Since then, we've done 900-percent MORE than was asked of us, and we made the bulletins available not just over the air (in the beginning), but also via pager, cellphone, PDA, email, listgroups, web pages, by direct connection to our server, and on rare occasion, even via FAX methods.
Danny's software is in my personal opinion the best at handling all of this information and at making it available in quite the ways that *I* have always wanted to, and in the new ways that I seem to keep thinking of in the future. To that end, Danny has been exceptionally open and patient, listening to all of his users ideas and comments without complaint. He answers questions and emails nearly immediately. He never leaves anyone hanging without a response. This is hard to find, nowadays.
Danny's efforts with his software make it the most versatile and powerful EMWIN handling software that I have ever seen. I have often offered him many an idea, and he's listened to every one, and incorporated a great many of them into his software over the years.
I probably use his software a little more intensely than most other average EMWIN users do. If Danny's software has an option to be used, then I am using all of them, or very soon probably will be. I don't intentionally mean to, but I tend to put his software through a real workout. :o) If there's a bug, I'll run into it. :o) I just like doing what I do, and I like finding more and more ways to make this very cool information available to the public. Danny's software helps me do that in the best way. And if there's a capability that it DOESN'T currrently have, Danny is always there, ready to add a new idea if he thinks it helps make his software that much better.
We're both here to try to disseminate information in a timely manner - to serve the public, and maybe to help save lives in the process. That is what Danny's software is designed to do, and in the most efficient and speedy means possible.
Kudos to Dannny for putting so much of his heart and soul and mind into WxMesg, which I recommend to anyone wishing to get into weather bulletin distribution.
Todd L. Sherman / KB4MHH
Project Mgr, Alachua County EMWIN Project
Gainesville, Florida
Just Created the ACWIN-* Listgroup Series...
I just finished adding the first of many coming listgroups to the ACWIN-* suite of lists.
ACWIN stands for the "Alachua County Weather Information Network". This will be a series of UF Listserv listgroups catering to each county in the Northern Florida area surrounding Alachua County. Each county will have it's own small suite of lists catering specifically to that county. Each county will have the following lists that users can subscribe to:
1) ACWIN-FL-[countyname]
2) ACWIN-FL-[countyname]-CIVIL
3) ACWIN-FL-[countyname]-SEVERE
List 1 will contain general weather-related bulletins (current weather, forecasts, administrative sttatements). List 2 will contain civil emergency-related bulletins List 3 will contain severe weather-related bulletins and reports.
Within each listgroup, users will be able to subscribe to "topics" (bulletins) that they may turn on or off at their own will, whenever they choose. Each county's bulletins cater to ONLY that county. This allows users to pick and choose EXACTLY what they want, without being forced to take more.
As well, every listgroup will be archived.
At this time, the lists for Alachua County have been created and are now operational. I am at this time now working on Bradford and Clay counties, and more will follow after that. We'll even have listgroups for SPC and HPC bulletins.
Of course, these bulletins wouldn't even be possible without the use of Danny Lloyd's WxMesg software, which I use religiously.
For more information, please see http://alachuaskywarn.org/acwin .
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