Opening Statement:
There are two sides to every
story, the facts in this case speak for themselves.
This website has been established to give the facts from
start to finish with regards to the lawsuit against the DFWMGRC and Judy
Word. Events will be
documented illustrating a time line beginning in April 2005 until the date of the Settlement Agreement with
the DFWMGRC on August 27, 2007. Through this website, you will
be able to see clear and
concise evidence from the Plaintiffs and additional documentation received from the
Defendants supporting the charges against the Defendants in this lawsuit.
Who would have thought
that a puppy with a repairable umbilical hernia, estimated surgical cost of
$65 at time of neutering, would be center stage of a Golden
Retriever Club lawsuit?
Who would have thought that a private
transaction completed to the satisfaction of a breeder and their client
would be cause for interference after the fact by a Golden Retriever Club President ?
Who would have thought that a Golden Retriever Club President would go on a
public forum and describe a scenario that simply didn't exist as she stated?
Who would have thought
that a Golden Retriever Club Board (of which
Plaintiff had just recently resigned from!) would then seek to remove that
resigned Board member's breeding program and other innocent Club members
from the Club's puppy referral service?
Who would have
thought that while it was clear that while there was no violation of any
Board directive or 'hesitation' by the Board that charges would be preferred
and upheld against innocent Club members?
Who would have
thought that so many Bylaws and Standing Rules would be broken by a Golden
Retriever Club Board in order for them to achieve their political agenda?
Who would have thought
that a Golden Retriever Club Board wouldn't inform their membership of what
was really happening and the only way for the 'innocent' to resolve the
situation would be through litigation?
The answers to these and
many other questions to follow can be found here on this website.
You may ask yourselves, “why did the
Plaintiffs tape record selected conversations?” Great question!
That act alone by the Plaintiffs gives you an idea of the history known to
the Plaintiffs with regards to the Dallas Ft-Worth Metro Golden Retriever
Club and Judy Word and that the Plaintiffs recognized that there was a need to protect themselves and took the
actions that they deemed necessary at the time.
The information you will be able to read and hear on this
website may be upsetting in that you may not have ever thought that the
Defendants were capable of what it appears that they did and how they did it. However,
over the course of history, there are many people who have done a lot of good
but to then
also be guilty of some very negative actions. These types of
actions must be exposed so that others can protect themselves from those types
of people. The actions of the Defendants appear to not only have
attempted to harm
the Plaintiffs within the Golden Retriever world but also more recently went 'outside the box' attempting to cause
harm to the Plaintiff's business career and source of income to support his family. These types of actions are not acceptable
and should not be tolerated by the Golden Retriever community.
At
this time we offer you an example of what you will see on this website.
Please direct your attention to what was the last document received by the
Plaintiffs with regards to the Defendants action before the Court ordered Mediation:
On
July 31, 2007, a letter was received by the Plaintiffs in an attachment from
the office of the Sr. VP & General Counsel of The Neiman Marcus Group in
Dallas.
After Plaintiffs
received the letter linked below from Neiman Marcus that
herein contained instructions on how to 'right click' to view a source
document, Plaintiffs noticed that the key words from their
own site also
appeared in exactly the same order, word for word, case for case, in
the source document of a private website (DFW Golden Breeders) of which
Sherri Farmer is the webmaster and
member of which is competition for
Plaintiffs for Golden Retriever puppy sales in the Dallas area.
Back on May 10, 2006, soon after the DFWMGRC membership meeting
adjourned on that evening, the Plaintiffs received a harassing anonymous post, the (NotSo)
Anonymous Email, followed over a year later by the unsigned letter in July
2007:
(Not So)
Anonymous Email
Neiman Marcus Letter
Immediately after
receiving the letter from Neiman's legal counsel, the Plaintiffs followed the
instructions for the right click, saw what the problem was and immediately corrected it
to the satisfaction of all involved. The Plaintiffs had no knowledge that their
website picked up the Neiman's 'tag' while Plaintiff was putting up the
template for their website in 2005. It appears that the letter sent to Burton Tansky, President and CEO of Neiman Marcus was clearly an attempt to harm
the Plaintiffs.
Another document needed to be seen at this time is Judy Word's public post
to Golden Retriever Club Of America (GRCA) members with regards to the Plaintiff's puppy with the umbilical
hernia. Please look first at the vet report link below to the left and
then look at link to the right to see what Judy Word posted. Please note the dates on those reports as those dates will
conflict with other statements made by Judy Word in other documents posted
within this website.
Plaintiff's Vet Report
Judy
Word's initial post to GRCA Puppy Referral
Judy Word portrays the hernia as over 2 1/2 inches long
by 1/2 inch wide.
Measurements: 2 and 1/2 inches
_____________________
by
1/2 inch
____
Dr Kirk
Esmond DVM report
Measurement: 1 and 1/2 cm
_____
It
appears that Judy's Word's description of the hernia is not only incorrect
but far from the truth of which can be told from Dr. Kirk Esmond's Vet report.
Not only does Judy Word misrepresent the size of the puppy's hernia but she also
misquotes Dr. Kirk Esmond as saying that he 'notices' the heart murmur.
It is clearly written in Dr. Esmond's report that there was no audible
abnormality under Heart, he heard no murmur. In BJ Elliot's phone call with
Plaintiffs that you will hear and see later as you follow through this
website, that BJ Elliot concurs that Dr Esmond
found no heart murmur. Dr. Esmond is a well respected Veterinarian in
the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is used by a large portion of the dog show
community in this area, and much of his work is done with the
Reproduction portion of his practice. Dr. Esmond is also a frequently
invited guest speaker at AKC dog breed clubs in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
You can view the Josey Ranch Pet Hospital website at
www.joseyranchpethospital.com
.
What reason could Judy Word have had to
misrepresent this puppy's hernia on April 15, 2005, the date of the above
linked post (take note of that date for later) and misquote this very well respected
veterinarian that she also has a client relationship with? The
Plaintiff did offer to compensate for the vet bill on that day. That
is proven with a letter (see link on top of page) from former DFWMGRC
President Terry Combs who personally spoke with BJ Elliott on April 25,
2005. BJ Elliott also stated to Plaintiffs that he spoke with Terry Combs
in a phone conversation with the Plaintiffs. (Terry
Comb's statement regarding phone call with BJ Elliott) Judy Word states in documentation in this case that BJ Elliott
refused to speak with Terry Combs. Why would she have made that statement
when in fact that statement is not true?
It
should also be mentioned at this time that it was obvious that Judy Word had
contact with BJ Elliot some time between April 12 & 15 as her post to
the GRCA_Puppy_Referral was posted the afternoon of April 15, 2005.
However, in other documents and more importantly, in her legal Affidavit in
the Defendant's Motion To Dismiss Judy Word tells a different story. (Defendant's Affidavits - Motion To Dismiss
w/Plaintiff Rebuttals)
In a
nutshell... Plaintiffs called a puppy referral volunteer early in the
evening of April 22, 2005 to inquire if their litter listing was on her
referral list. After learning from this volunteer that their puppy was
not on the referral list, Plaintiffs called Judy Word. Plaintiffs
spoke to no other DFWMGRC club member that evening after speaking with Judy
Word. Judy Word sent an email to Plaintiffs after midnight as in early
in the morning April 23, 2005 stating the Board was 'hesitant' to list
Plaintiff's puppy. Email dialogues went back and forth between the
Board and Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs dropped the matter after those
dialogs and sold the puppy through a personal reference. Approximately
two months later Plaintiffs
then received charges preferred against them for violating a Board directive
which was IMPOSSIBLE as Plaintiffs had spoken with the puppy referral
volunteer BEFORE speaking with Judy Word on 4/22/05. And that is what
this case specifically stems from... a alleged violation by Plaintiffs,
subsequent charges preferred against Plaintiffs, the Disciplinary Hearing
and Sanctions against Plaintiffs and other innocent DFWMGRC members, and the DFWMGRC Board's refusal to
apologize for their unsubstantiated actions and sanctions.
The DFWMGRC had lost 18 memberships in 2006 (documented in their Newsletter)
and had lost another 10 memberships in 2007 (documented elsewhere) that did
not pay their dues to renew their memberships. In addition, in 2007, one
Board member and his spouse resigned from the DFWMGRC after just a month or
so of his being in office, and now two more memberships have resigned as a
part of the settlement agreement of this lawsuit. The DFWMGRC membership is
approximately half of what it was when Plaintiffs first joined in the mid
90’s. According to documentation, the DFWMGRC has lost over 30 memberships
since 2006. There are currently 54 memberships at the time of this
writing (2007). That is a loss of over 1/3
of of the membership during the period under the leadership of the Boards
addressed in the lawsuit. These statistics in and of themselves speak
volumes as to what can be perceived as the status of the DFWMGRC in recent
years.
After Court-ordered
Mediation, Defendants (DFWMGRC) agreed to pay Plaintiffs $7500 to settle the
Lawsuit out of Court. Plaintiffs refused for the settlement agreement
to be confidential so that the facts of this case could be made available to
the Public and the Golden Retriever Community.
Check from Defendants to
Plaintiffs from Settlement
Plaintiffs agreed to
settle this case out of court as the Defendants (DFWMGRC/Judy Word) had
unlimited resources with a Pro Bono attorney (employer of Sherri Farmer,
2005 Board member) and Plaintiff's contend that the Defendants were going to
throw every legal maneuver/roadblock that they could in order to deplete the
Plaintiffs' financial resources which were very limited as it would be
expected with any family. At the time of Mediation, the Plaintiffs and
their supporters had in their possession enough original evidence and
additional evidence through LEGAL DISCOVERY to have the ability to put
together the lawsuit website to prove that Plaintiffs did nothing wrong at
any time during their membership in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro Golden
Retriever Club. It is Plaintiff's contention that IF the DFWMGRC were
innocent of any wrong-doing in this case, they would have moved forward as
their costs in this case were negligible. Plaintiffs had the support of
long time DFWMGRC members and anyone viewing the lawsuit website can clearly
see which party is lacking in ethics and integrity.
To the Dallas-Ft.Worth Metro Golden Retriever Club members: The Club as a whole was not informed of
the entire truth of what was going on and here is your opportunity to learn
the truth. Considering
the Plaintiffs 12 years of active membership in this Club, you should take
the time to learn the factual events that took place rather than the minimal
information provided by the DFWMGRC Board.
To the Golden Retriever Club Of America members: Your visits are also welcome and it is the intent of this
website that any negative
information you may have previously heard with regards to any innocent members of the GRCA
and/or DFWMGRC involved in this case may not have been the truth. This website is here to state the truth
and the facts and evidence behind the truth in this case.
Plaintiffs and Defendants entered into a Settlement Agreement on August 27,
2007. Defendants DFWMGRC paid Plaintiffs $7500. Plaintiffs and Defendant
Judy Word (and her husband Mark) resigned from the DFWMGRC as members in good
standing according to Article 2, Section 6 (a) of the DFWMGRC Bylaws.
Plaintiffs refused the Defendants request for confidentiality of the Settlement
Agreement and
the settlement agreement is not confidential. Plaintiffs refused for
the settlement agreement to be confidential so that the facts of this
case could be made available to the Public and the Golden Retriever
Community.
The purposes of this web site are:
To dispel all rumors and untruths that may have been
perpetuated with regards to this case about the Plaintiffs and to undo
any and all damage that may have been done to their good name and
reputation.
To have all the facts
and circumstances exposed of what was going on behind the scenes that the
DFWMGRC Board members would not disclose to their membership.
To prevent
what happened to the Plaintiffs from happening to any other GRCA member or member
of a Golden Retriever Club.
Site under construction!
 |
