Get yer’ Pants On!

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” — Winston Churchill

Four weeks ago today I got smacked upside the head with the lawsuit.   I confess…the first few days I was in shock.  It’s embarrassing, frightening, and unnerving on a good day, but even moreso if you are flying to another continent 12 hours after being served.  Trust me, that is one miserable plane ride.   But, eventually I found a wonderful group of attorneys to represent me and the rest of my trip was delightful and I haven’t lost too much sleep over it since.

As I have proven having survived the last 4+ years, what doesn’t kill me just makes me stronger.   This lawsuit experience is no different.  It’s going to be messy and expensive, but, it’s going to allow the truth to finally get its pants on and catch up to everyone who needs to hear it.  As my buddy Winston C. would say….

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

Meanwhile, I’m finding lots more great quotes from Winston Churchill that seem to apply to this situation and I’m enjoying reading more and more about him.  Here’s another one I am very fond of:

“One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!”

Okay, I won’t!

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The Games Begin

On March 7, 2012, a private investigator showed up at my door and served me with a lawsuit filed by Ascend Health Corporation, UHP, LP (d/b/a University Behavioral Health of Denton), Richard Kresch, M.D., and Atique Khan, M.D.  They ask for a bunch of money they know I don’t have, plus ownership of all my websites, which include this WordPress blog and http://www.ubhdentonsucks.com

I have entirely too much respect for the American legal system to drag all the details out here on a blog, plus, that would be kind of stupid on my part. So, don’t look for updates or notices about how things are going.  I guess as long as the site is here, you’ll know I haven’t gotten my butt kicked.  If it disappears?  Well, you’ll know I have shoe prints on my backside.  But, I did think that everyone who chooses to do business with UBH and Ascend Health should know how they operate, in addition to all the other things I’ve revealed on my blog to date.

The date I was served with the lawsuit corresponded with my departure the following day for a three week trip overseas. And in Federal court, you have 21 days to respond to a lawsuit.  How convenient for them that they had such fortunate timing to serve me less than 12 hours before I left for the airport!  I wonder if that unfriendly private investigator who served me had been keeping an eye on me?  I can’t prove that, but it sure seems like convenient timing that I got served when I would be at the greatest disadvantage.

It is my opinion that it was also quite unsportsmanlike of them to refuse my request for an eixtension of time to respond to the suit, given the circumstances.  But hey, that’s John “Bull Dozier” Dozier, the  www.cybertriallawyer.com for ya!

Please note I did NOT make up that nickname, nor am I calling him “names.”  The “Bull Dozier” moniker is featured in an article that he shares on his own website, in an article about being a SuperLawyer (2006).   Apparently he is a Super Lawyer!  Well, I take that back… he was in 2006 and 2007 but not now, at least according to the Super Lawyer website.   (I have to wonder what caused him to lose his super powers?)

There was never any attempt to talk this out, or even to send me a nasty letter.  For those of you who think that our court system is used frivolously, just consider that they filed a lawsuit for millions of dollars that they know I don’t have before simply asking me to stop blogging, which they never once did.

Now Mr. Dozier can call all of this “defamatory” if he likes, but, the truth is never defamatory, nor is a personal opinion.  Everything noted above is either the truth or it’s an opinion I am sharing with my readers.

I have always been completely candid and transparent about who I am and why I’m doing this.  I’ve helped a lot of people since I launched this site in September of 2010.  So, even if I lose… even if a judge orders me to stop blogging about this company?  I still win because I did the right thing and I stood up for what I believed in.  I also stood up for myself against a bully.  My family is proud of me for that, my friends are proud of me, and I can look myself in the mirror and sleep well at night.  I wonder if the plaintiffs in this lawsuit can say the same thing?

ATTENTION ALL VICTIMS OF UBH DENTON/ASCEND HEALTH

I previously misrepresented the facts surrounding the lawsuit filed against me by Ascend Health.  I stated previously that they sued me for $1 million, and, I want to make it clear that my statement regarding that was made in haste, and, was not accurate.  My apologies to Ascend Health.

As it turns out, they are actually suing me for $5.5 million plus attorney’s fees.

Again, I apologize for the mistake I made in publishing this information.

An Interesting Comment on the Blog…. We Saved Another One!

Well, perhaps “save” is too strong of a word. But read this comment posted a few days ago from a woman who almost went to work at UBH Denton:

“I am so disappointed right now. I am searching for a job in the mental health field in the metroplex and was thrilled to discover UBH’s website and the many job opportunities. The website makes it look like a perfect place with such special programs. Then I couldn’t help but be suspicious when looking more closely at the job listings. Why are there so many jobs in every aspect of the hospital? I feared the worst and a google search has confirmed my fears. My heart breaks reading the stories of you and the others posting here. Mental health and families are my passion and I mourn the traumatic experiences of people that are supposed to be cared for in places like UBH.”

You can see the original post here.

It never occurred to me when I started this blog that I might be saving someone from a career mistake.  I guess I always try to see the positive in everything, in spite of what happened to me at this place.  I recall two years ago a lot of things were going wrong with a closing on my house.  I arrived in my new town to find that the stupid mortgage broker didn’t get a mortgage for me.  With three U-Hauls loaded slap full, I discovered I had no place to live.  My poor mother doesn’t deal well with stuff like that, and she was kind of freaked out, but didn’t say anything at the time.  Later, after I was moved in and the house had closed and it was all mine, she confessed to me her anxiety over my situation:

“I just knew you shouldn’t have bought that house… you should have rented something first and then bought something later…”

I told her (from my new home, which was and still is FAB-U-LOUS!) and this was absolutely true:

“I never worried for a minute, and I didn’t let it bother me.  Mom, after you’ve been locked up in a mental hospital and threatened with a commitment hearing, and not really knowing if you’d ever get out, or when you’d get out?  You just don’t sweat the small stuff anymore.  I always know, no matter how bad things are in my life at the moment, they could be worse–I could still be in UBH.”  

She laughed and said, “I never looked at it that way.”

So, I guess I should thank Dr. Khan and Drunk Randy for my new outlook on life?  Maybe that was part of their so-called “treatment plan” all along?  “Hey, let’s just make our patients so damned miserable they vow to never come back here again!”

Nah… they’re not that smart.