Letter to Congressman Murphy about Eric

Dear Congressman Murphy;

Thank you for the work that you are doing to aid the mentally ill. I especially noted on your website which is pertinent to my situation:

"After Newtown: A National Conversation on Violence and Severe Mental Illness" (March 5, 2013)

Click here for full committee documents.

Efforts Underway to Prevent All-Too-Often Tragic Results of Untreated, Severe Mental Illness, The Sacramento Bee (May 20, 2014)

First Step Domestic Violence Program (Town of Arlington, MA)

And an advocacy program in Massachusetts:

Safety - Provide a confidential space, where women explore and identify how to best keep themselves healthy and safe from harm. Support - Decrease isolation through providing opportunities to...

In looking for help this week, I asked a librarian about the late Senator Kennedy's Boston Advocacy Group, his staff helped me almost 8 years ago when I could not find mental health care and the staff said that he saw no reason why I could not used this group but thanks to Sen. Kennedy's staff I was able to receive care before contacting them.

I now live in a St. Luke's/Cornerstone group home.

There is a staff member that I believe is becoming more and more dangerous to clients and staff, Eric Gordon. I have known Mr. Gordon for approximately 5 years. I stopped going to the LifeSkills Day Program at Southport for about 2 1/2 years because of Mr. Gordon's harrassment of me and other clients. And I believe his very erratic behavior and abuse of clients has caused others to stop going to the Day Program.

The RCs (Rehab Counselors) pressured me to go to Mr. Gordon's art class on August 8, 2014 and a meeting to talk about differences in November 2013 and I had not attended the Day Program or spoken to Mr. Gordon for about 2 1/2 years last November, I had thought he might be better, less enraged on both visits but he keeps getting worse.

When I told Arlene Gomez, Bel Pre Cluster supervisor, last week about Eric Gordon staring at me in a threatening manner, standing at the end of the hall overlooking the waiting room when sitting there to see my psychiatrist, Dr. Parveen, since the November 2013 meeting, she suggested bring a book to read. I don't think this is an adequate response considering the other things that Mr. Gordon has done, esp on August 8, 2014.

I stayed away from Southport LifeSkills Day programs for 2 1/2 years because I did not want to be there when Eric really exploded and apparently he did sometime in the Summer/Fall of 2013 judging by his extreme anger at our meeting in November 2013. Afterwards I notice in the LifeSkills Day Program Calendar that many of Eric's classes were now taught by someone else and the few he still had rapidly disappeared over the next few months until his name did not appear at all next to the classes.

Then the last two months for the first time in years, there are NO STAFF NAMES by the classes, is it because someone in management wants to allow Eric back into teaching classes and are afraid that clients who have complained about Eric's abusive treatment of them during his classes will complain again?

Eric Gordon must have done something really, really bad to one or more clients for management to have taken almost all his job duties/classes away about a year ago as shown by the LifeSkills Day Program Calendars for the past year. A DMH investigator needs to look at this/these events and if management has paid enough attention to Eric Gordon's more under the radar but still damaging acts to clients since then, using the extra time given to him by reducing his job duties to only the 2 art classes and sales because he was under so much stress.

I filed a grievance, Susan Wilcox tried to persuade me to just consider it venting but the seriousness of what Mr. Gordon did to me on Aug. 8, 2014 necessitates action on the part of Cornerstone or someone to protect clients, Arlene was supposed to help me edit what I had written but she has not, the second meeting, Arlene was very upset at the sudden death 2 weeks ago of a client, Robbie who was 29 years old. The RC (Rehab Counselor) Keith Ellis said Robbie died of natural causes, when I asked if it was a suicide, he said definitely not but did not know why he died at the age of 29 years.

I think that an investigator from Montgomergy County Government's Licensure and Regulatory Services should talk to therapists and psychiatrists about clients who have told them about being emotionally abused or physically intimidated by Mr. Gordon any time in the past. The things Mr. Gordon does stays with you for a long, long time. My life would have been infinitely better if I had never met staff member Eric Gordon and I wonder how many other consumer/clients at St. Lukes/Cornerstone and since the merger withThreshhold would say the same, if given a chance. An inspector needs to ask how many other formal complaints have been made against Eric Gordon for abuse from clients or other staff members in the past 5 to 7 years, how many in the past year?

Questions should be asked by someone with the authority to obtain straight answers, about why the 3 consumers on the Board of Directors, per president Ms. Cho's open letter of a few months ago which left off any contact information so that Cornerstone clients might be able contact these 3 consumers to relay information to the Board members of severe problems with a staff member. I have been unable to obtain any contact information by calling Cornerstone Southport office or from my RC David Minnesfield.

And why Mr. Eric Gordon's jobs other than 2 art classes were rapidly removed from the LifeSkills Day Program Calendar beginning around November 2013 and why the last two calendars do not list any staff members teaching ANY of the classes though this naming of staff teaching each class has been standard for years - is it because Mr. Gordon is being given back some of the jobs taken from him and Admin doesn't want clients who previously complainted about abuse from Mr. Gordon during his classes to know?

I am requesting any help Boston Advocacy Group or other organisation can provide to me with my Grievance and contacting agencies outside of St. Luke's/Cornerstone who I do not believe will finally take action to protect clients from Mr. Gordon's destructive behavior.

I have also written to The Montgomery County Council which financed Mr. Gordon's art classes, which would be a very good thing, but Mr. Gordon has betrayed that trust and told the County Council how Mr. Gordon is using his position and the funding to hurt clients. A terrible waste of human resources and the Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation job coach program plus the beautiful Southport building and the LifeSkills Day Program which who knows how many clients avoid due to Mr. Gordon's abuse and very erratic behavior, ie, rage, berating, sarcasm, dirty tricks.

Arlene was surprised that I had 26 typewritten pages and she still seemed upset and under pressure, she said she would email the 26 pages to Susan Wilcox, Utilization Mgr., on September 11, 2014 and tell her that it was from my heart but that Ms. Wilcox might want me to edit it further before going to the next step in the Grievance procedure which is to convene a meeting of Program Managers within 5 days and 5 days after that to send client a letter of what action will be taken on the Grievance.

Writing this Grievance has been very difficult and very upsetting and right now I cannot edit it further on my own but I believe the situation with Mr. Gordon is urgent. I have not heard back from Ms. Wilcox and Arlene had sent an email request for another therapist for me about 2 weeks ago but I have not heard any more about that.

Eric Gordon is very, very, very impulsive and very quick and doesn't seem to have any of the normal barriers against hurting other people and seems to be self-destructive as well. He needs to be a patient and not have the authority of a staff member. Mr. Gordon is too irresponsible, immature and cruel to be in "team" meetings where clients' very private issues are discussed he exploits this information against clients along with his training in sales how to immediately find people's weaknesses and abuse them.

I have only seen a few of Eric Gordon's artworks but two were very disturbing considering his treatment of clients and his blurred line between fantasy in art and reality where you cannot do certain things without damaging REAL PEOPLE. The first small painting that was above Eric's desk in the office he shares with Dwayne of a blonde young woman with thin ink slashes throughout her face and beyond that was there a few years ago, the second at Radner Museum open show for the mentally ill in Mont. Cnty in Sept. 2013, Mr. Gordon's large charchol drawing, 3/4 lifesize of a man with his bended arm, clenched fist upraised to his shoulder and many razor-type slashes throughout the figure almost obscuring the figure except for the face and fist. Art magazine critics of Matt Secow, a local artist and a friend of Mr. Gordon, used this "razor slashes" term for some of Secow's work.

I saw Mr. Gordon's incredible and increased rage when I met with him in his office on November 2013 and when I noticed in the LifeSkills Calender that he was no longer teaching many of the classes, I decided not to make a formal complaint about Mr. Gordon strangling my leather coat in his clenched fist and coming within an inch of punching me in the face at the end of a meeting also attended by my job coach, Vanessa Martinez, in which I said very few words due to his visible anger, very apparent even before we went in his office.

I was very,very sick for about 3 months afterwards remembering other violence I had suffered in my life and decided not to make a formal complaint when I recovered somewhat from this violently intimidating action from Mr. Gordon -- in part to have compassion on the pressure he had been under and give him time to pull himself together with what Cornerstone Adminstration had left him as a second chance with most of his duties removed, the art classes Mr. Gordon had started about 7 years ago. Though I did not make a formal complaint after Mr. Gordon came as close as he dared to punching me in the face, when I returned to get my coat, I have told my therapist, my psychiatrist, my RC at the time, Christina Taylor who had pressured me into meeting with Mr. Gordon but backed out of attending at the last moment, many other RCs including the Assistant Supervisor Keith Ellis and my Job Coach and none advised me to make a formal complaint.

I did nothing whatever to provoke him, in 5 years, Mr. Gordon has not permitted me to speak more than 3 sentences at a time in his presence. It's like he loses 100 points if he allows me to complete even one sentence and is furious if I ever make it to three sentences in his ongoing inappropriate competition with clients about EVERYTHING. Eric can and will turn the least thing, something you never suspect could be turned into a competition and he is so stone-cold fierce about winning this imaginary competition it is frightening to think what he will do if he "loses" so let him win and walk away shaking and shaking head.

If you want to use someone as a scapegoat, you don't want to think of them as a person which listening might endanger that dehumanization of the chosen scapegoat clients Mr. Gordon tries to repeatedly chase out of HIS personal space, which apparently is all of Southport, the entire clinic and Day program.

August 8, 2014 attendence at Eric Gordon's art class where he practiced his

Mime Mockery of Disfigured Patients

Before I went into Mr. Gordon's art class on Aug. 8, I told my pyschiatrist, Dr. Miriam Parveen, that I was still afraid of being in the same room with Mr. Gordon. She said I shouldn't let Eric bother me, and she would talk to Eric before I went into the art class and went into the meeting room across the hall to request that Mr. Gordon treat me with decency and respect.

[ ]-Gruesome "portrait" of a woman with her throat slashed and spatters of blood

_______bookshelf

o-Jane Clifford

worktable |

_____|o- Eric Gordon

o-me

Shortly after the class began, Mr. Gordon placed a gruesome portrait painting of a woman with her throat slashed and blood spatters on the bookshelf so that it was right in my eyeline when I looked up from my artwork and he left it there the whole time I was in the class, about 3 hours. An hour later Eric Gordon told the person who had painted it, (I didn't look around to see who he was talking to but Mr. Gordon was right by the painting pointing to different areas), that it probably needed more black at the bottom for contrast. There was a large clothbacked book of paintings of vampires on another table near the front of class

Three hours into the art "class" Eric Gordon, who had announced earlier to the whole class that he would go around and talk to the people who were not signed up yet with the gallery/show opportunities. I was sitting towards the end of the long table, Mr. Gordon sat down katy corner ostensibly to tell me about opportunities to show my artwork.

Mr. Gordon then launched into his shameful mockery of my face.

Eric Gordon opened his mouth in an oval, stuck his tongue straight out and twisted it around, I have seen some cartoon Brut art like this but a human tongue bunches in the back. He kept his tongue out long enough for me to get his message.

Then Mr. Gordon sucked in his cheeks quickly several times and fluttered them like someone making fun of someone without teeth.

Eric Gordon then shrugged and looked at me to see my reaction then leaned back in his chair as if to say, "What are you going to do about it?"

Since it took Eric so long to learn how to physically twist his tongue like that - I DOUBT VERY MUCH IF I AM THE ONLY ONE he has used it on.

I felt a lot of pain when he did this but tried to tell him of my large acrylic painting on masonite board 54x48 with 50 figures I was doing with Laschenova, a gymnast with a clown/comedy theme, but Eric Gordon was stone cold silent as he always has been when I tried to talk about my artwork and made no response so I stopped trying to talk to him.

When my mother was older, even though she had her teeth removed and dentures in place right away in her 30s, when my mother would talk or chew food there was a fluttering of her cheeks sometimes and Mr. Gordon, 35 year old juvenile that he is, caught accurate and cruel mime of this action as well as the sucking in of his cheeks to show caved in disfigurement of lack of teeth.

Eric Gordon's mocking client's physical disabilities, throwing away my housemate consumer/client Melissa Willard's criticism/suggestion in the Cornerstone Suggestion Box and the arrogance of TELLING Consumer Melissa Willard he threw away her suggestion.

It will never be known how many complaints Eric threw away from the Suggestion Box with or without telling clients he threw away their complaint to make them feel powerless. Why is he going into the Suggestion Box, to see how many people have complained about his abuse and to throw them away before any other staff members can see them? Melissa said she had made suggestions for field trips and criticized the abstract paintings on the Southport Day Program walls from Mr. Gordon's Studio Insight and Mr. Gordon told her he threw her complaint away because, "It was degrading." Which is how I would describe Eric Gordon's treatment of clients for the past 5 years.

I don't particularly want Eric Gordon, unemployed, stalking around looking for revenge but someone has to finally care about the welfare and safety of clients and staff. It is shameful that clients are afraid to go to the Day Program created for clients and financed by taxpayers for fear of staff member Mr. Gordon's abuse and intimidation.

This is a matter of human life and cannot be put off or ignored any longer.

Mr. Gordon doesn't even seem to have a sense of self-preservation which is very frightening. Eric Gordon doesn't seem to be satisfied with just hurting clients emotionally anymore but seems to be tempting himself to physically hurt someone. I think he has completely lost touch with reality. At least part of Mr. Gordon's motivation may be a cry for help, and I hope someone pressures him soon to get intensive therapy.

I have been given very little support from Cornerstone, Ms. Wilcox wanted to file away the complaint instead of completing the Cornerstone Grievance Procedure and said they would consider it venting, Arlene only glanced at my complaint for a minute instead of helping me to edit it as promised, then did email it to Ms. Wilcox on Sept. 11, 2014 but I have heard nothing since then from anyone at Cornerstone.

Rehab Counselor - Chicara told me to stop talking about my grievance with the Rehab Counselors who come twice a day for at least 15 minutes for medication and they are supposed to talk to clients privately if they have a problem, I have rarely asked for time from the RCs since my housemate Melissa Willard has often asked RCs to stay an extra 15 minutes to hear her distress, she has been hospitalized a number of times in the past 2 1/2 years and I never wanted to make the RCs stay even longer even though in the past year especially I have needed support.

The Patients' Rights specifically mention the right to be free of emotional, mental and/or physical abuse but who will investigate and enforce this right??? Why has management allowed Eric Gordon to get to this point? Anyone who has developed their talent spending thousands of hours on their skills and knowlege of technique and meaning is Mr. Gordon's sworn enemy and he will use any dirty trick to get the competition to leave. For many artists/mental health patients this skill is all they have and they have dedicated much of their free time to being as good as possible. Mr. Gordon doesn't just want to be the best he wants to be the only one. Vulnerable people, especially artists need to be protected from this incredibly sick, empty and selfish man.

I grant Congressman Tim Murphy permission to share the information in these letters with anyone who might help avert a tragedy.