On August 3rd, 2000, a article was published in the Wilmington Star Newspaper titled, "WILMINGTON MAN DENIES CLAIM; State launches probe of alleged online therapy."  I had spoken briefly with the writer of this article over the phone a few weeks before it appeared in the newspaper.  She stated she was asked to write the article by Bruce Whealton, a therapist she had written an article for before.  That article was related to Multiple Personality Disorders, now know as Dissociative Identity Disorder.  In this article I found out that Mr. Whealton had filed a complaint with the State Attorney General's office, who sent it to the county DA's office, who in turn sent it to the North Carolina Board of Psychology to be investigated.  The Boards Executive Director, Martha Storie confirmed to the writer that the state Attorney General's Office had submitted a complaint about me to her agency to investigate. (See links below to Bruce Whealton and Wilmington Star Newspaper)

I had tried to contact Mrs. Storie several times after the article was published and was never called back.  Then in April 2001, almost one year after she had stated to the Wilmington Star Newspaper that her agency was investigating me, I searched the Internet for an email address for her and upon finding it I sent the following email:
*****
To:     Marta Storie
        North Carolina Psychology Board                                                             April 26, 2001
        Executive Director

From:   John Freifeld
        (Address and Phone Number Removed)

Subject:  Complaint Against John Freifeld

Dear Mrs. Storie,

My name is John Freifeld.  Your office received a complaint against me, which was originally filed with the Attorney General's office by Bruce Whealton, a formerly licensed Social Worker in Wilmington, NC.  The State Attorney Generals office forwarded the complaint to the District Attorney's office, who in turn placed it with your agency, the North Carolina Board of Psychology.

You spoke rather openly with a reporter from the Wilmington Star News paper in August 2000, who wrote a news article about this complaint, stating that I was being investigated by your agency, the NCBP.  Frankly, I have a few questions that I hope you will take the time to answer.  First, why have I not ever been contacted by your agency?  Wouldn't any investigation of allegations against me, in order to ensure an impartial investigation, warrant that the investigating party also contact and interview me, the person the complaint was made against, in this process?  Has this complaints investigation been resolved and if not, why not?

For your office to accept a such complaint, for which there is no credible substantiating evidence, or supporting collaboration, and where obviously no violation of law exist, is a miscarriage of any type of justice for the party the complaint is filed against.  To state that a case it is being investigated and/or still "open", but not communicate with the party who is the subject of the investigation seems to be a very inappropriate agency policy or procedure.  I would truly like to know, and would appreciate your informing me of what the current status of this investigation by your office is, or how it was resolved and disposed of.

As I stated in the beginning of this letter, the compliant- Bruce Whealton, is no longer a licensed Social Worker in the State of North Carolina.    The board by which Mr. Whealton was licensed as an LCSW, in conjunction with the Attorney General's office, has required that Mr. Whealton surrender his license to practice therapy in this state.  Nine formal complaints have been filed against him with his licensing board by former clients of his.  These complaints allege breaches of confidentiality, sexual misconduct, professional misconduct, practicing outside his scope of competence, and deliberately implanting false memories of satanic ritual abuse, and government mind control/programming, as well as encouraging clients to exchange medications between themselves, to name just a few of the charges.  Evidence that supports these claims consists of fabric (sheet and towels) with Mr. Whealton's semen on it that was taken from a clients apartment and placed into the evidence/property room of the Wilmington Police Department.  There are over 200 emails from Mr. Whealton (all traced back to his personal ISP account number) to these former clients reinforcing and validating the false memories that materialized in the course of their therapy while under the "care" of Mr. Whealton.  There is a written threat made by Mr. Whealton towards a client who was attempting to terminate the therapist/client relationship, a notarized affidavit by another former client stating that Mr. Whealton used her name and email account to impose as her while he posted slanderous, defamatory and otherwise untrue statements about me on the Internet, written material that has been traced back to Mr. Whealton's ISP (Internet Service Provider) account number wherein Mr. Whealton attempts to further destabilize his clients by acting as an online Psychic to validate and reinforce the material that was being implanted during the course of their therapy, and predicting rather morbid and dark futures for his clients.  There is also email wherein he presents himself to several clients as someone who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (Formerly known as MPD). He writes in what appears to be a regressed state of consciousness, signing the letter "lil bruce - the compulsive 10 year old".  There is a tremendous amount of documentation wherein Mr. Whealton implicates his clients parents in a government program called "Project Monarch" wherein he says that their (the clients) diagnosis of DID/MPD is the result of being tortured by government agency(s), specifically stating the CIA was involved, and that the clients' parents "knowingly and willingly participated in this agencies diabolical and deliberate creation of their internal system of alter personalities".  He writes to one client, "I don't believe you were ever exposed to satanic ritual abuse per se, but that the elements of satanic ritual abuse where introduced during your torture at the hands of government programmers, in order to disguise the real nature of your programming and history should it ever be explored, such as we are doing."  He also writes to several clients stating that the work they are doing in therapy cannot be discussed with anyone because he fears that they have been "programmed with a suicide or self termination program that could be triggered by word or sound cues if the programmers found out that they were being discovered."  Mr. Whealton reinforced and validated this line of reasoning by flooding the clients with a great amount of sensory input related to Satanic ritual abuse, and government mind control experiments.  He provided them with booklets and documents outlining or describing satanic cults, and their use of torture and sensory deprivation to split personalities in young children.  Other documents and material, outlined and described government operations and covert mind control experiments, which allegedly resulted in Dissociative Disorders and Multiple Personality Disorders, (i.e. Paper Clip Dolls, and The Greenbraum Speech, The Manchanan Candidate), audio cassettes of the stories of alleged satanic ritual abuse, and government programming victims, Video cassettes of movies which portray people with DID/MPD and amnesia as government operatives and political assassins (i.e. Conspiracy Theory, Long Kiss Goodnight, The Assassin) and links to many Internet web sites with similar material.  There is a written apology/statement by Mr. Whealton to one of his clients, (sent to them immediately after I confronted him in very strong terms about his therapeutic practices in June of 2000), where he states he knows this clients disorder "is not the by-product of satanic ritual abuse or governmental mind control/programming, but I introduced this idea in the course of your therapy in hopes it would help you find meaning in you experiences, both past and present".  Documentation shows clearly that he followed this line of therapy with this particular client for approximately 8 months.  Mr. Whealton placed confidential client records, including intake evaluations, progress reports, history and family summaries, on his girlfriends laptop computer, with no attempt to secure access to those files, and then loaned this same laptop computer, with the client records still on it, to a client he was sexually abusing while acting in the capacity of her therapist.  This laptop computer is currently in the possession of a malpractice attorney representing this client in litigation against Mr. Whealton.  He also billed this clients insurance for the time spent on the day he had sexual intercourse with her as a "session".  There is also a cassette tape recording of a message Mr. Whealton left on a clients answering machine, instructing her to check her person, clothing and purse for a small devise with a high pitched sound coming from it, and states he believes a tracking devise has been implanted on her.  What kind of thing is this to tell a mental health client with DID?  The list of atrocities by Mr. Whealton goes on and on.
This is only a small amount of Mr. Whealton's activities that is well documented and verifiable.  At this time, several warrants for Mr. Whealton's arrest have been issued by the Wilmington Police Department.  They stem from charges of harassment, cyber-stalking, stalking, tempering with a automobile, communicating a threat to do bodily harm, and impersonation- with the intent to harass, embarrass, and intimidate.  Seven former clients and their spouses have filed claims against Mr. Whealton's malpractice insurance seeking both real and punitive damages and are being represented by 4 attorney's with offices in Wilmington, Greensville and Myrtle Beach.

Mr. Whealton only filed his complaints against me with the North Carolina Medical Board and the State Attorney Generals office, (which ultimately landed on your desk), orchestrated a small band of "John Bashers", and went to the Wilmington Star News paper after I had confronted him about his unethical therapeutic practices and spoke with a clients husband, informing him of the issues surrounding implanted memories and false memory syndrome and encourage this man to remove his wife from Mr. Whealton's care.  Shortly thereafter, Mr. Whealton experienced an exodus of clients from his private practice who had experienced similar unethical conduct on Mr. Whealton's behalf.  I had no knowledge of these clients or them of me (other than what Mr. Whealton had told them) prior to their leaving his care.  Mr. Whealton, refusing to accept responsibility and be accountable for his actions, would like to have the world believe that what has happened is my fault somehow.  However, my only role in all of this has been to help those who had been harmed by him, by assisting them in locating highly qualified therapist of Ph.D. level to unravel the emotional and mental mess he had made of these people.  Because Mr. Whealton did not honor any code of confidentiality between his clients most of them knew each other and sought one another out for support after leaving his care.  As their experiences were relayed to me, both directly and indirectly, I advised them to file complaints with his licensing board.  The same as I would do if someone told me of a child being abused, I would advise them to file a complaint with Child Protective Services.  Because of the various psychological elements involved relating to these clients including dissociative disorder, borderline personality disorder, self injurious behavior, anxiety attacks and being easily triggered into flashbacks,  I was asked by some of the former clients and/or their spouses to assist them, by collecting the information from the clients, both verbally and in writing, collect and research the available supporting documentation, and type out their complaints in a format that would allow the licensing board to see the seriousness of this situation and the harm being done by Mr. Whealton to clients in his care.  These clients initiated the filing of the complaints by contacting the licensing board by phone.  They informed the board of their desire to file their complaint, received the proper complaint forms, provided the details of their experience with Mr. Whealton to administrative personnel at the board, provided the supporting material, proof read the typed material numerous times for accuracy, clarifying and further explaining their experience, and had the complaints properly notarized before sending them into the board for review. My role has been only that of a support person and advocate for these people.

While I get absolutely no joy in being a party to this tragic situation, I do wholeheartedly applaud and support those that have come forward or will come forward in the future to see that this man is not in a position to use his license, office or position of trust as a web to entrap other clients with in the future.  I have never held myself out as a therapist, licensed or otherwise, in this state or any other state but only as a abuse survivor willing to help and support other abuse survivors when and where I can.

I hope this letter helps you better understand the dynamics involved that lead to Mr. Whealton's complaint against me and that you will now understand that his complaint, while not being valid or meritible in the least, was only an attempt on Mr. Whealton's part to retaliate against me for what he perceives is my role in his professional collapse.  Should the complaint he filed not be closed, dismissed or dropped at this time, I would like to know why and what needs to take place in order to bring that about.

Sincerely,
John Freifeld
(Phone number removed)
******
Note that Mrs. Storie states in August 2000 that her agency has received the complaint, yet a year has gone by and I have not been contacted by any one from her agency, nor has my attempts to contact her been responded to for a year.

Update:

On Sept. 6th, 2001, five months after sending Mrs. Storie the above email, 13 months after she talked with the Wilmington Star Newspaper, I received an email from Randy Yardley, a staff psychologist/investigator for the North Carolina Psychology Board.  In it he states he tried to call me but the phone was temporarily disconnected on my end.  I wrote him back and asked that he call me on our second phone line and gave him that number.  Later that day, while I was sleeping he called, but the person who answered the phone was not able to bring the phone to me or come to my room and wake me up as she was in alot of pain due to a recently herniated disk in her back.  When I woke and found this out I sent him another email apologizing for not being awake when he called, informed him that our main phone line was back on and to call me between 2pm and 6pm using the main phone number.  I received another email from him on Sept. 7th, 2001.  He states he didn't get a chance to call me and ask if there is a specific time we could talk over the phone for 30 minutes on Monday, Sept. 10th 2001.  Due to my recent brain surgery I have appointments with my primary care doctor, a CT Scan to have taken, a dilante blood level test, and other things going on I will email him and ask that he call me on Tuesday, Sept. 11th, 2001.

September 11th, 2001
I received a call from and spoke with Randy Yardley of the North Carolina Psychology Board for about 45 minutes. This was at 9am eastern time, just as hijacked airliners were hitting the World Trade Center Towers and the US Pentagon. I provided him with information and told him I would fax him copies of it as well as several other items. Since, my attention for several days was aimed at what had happened in New York, and of course my medical needs (due to having had brain surgery in June) I was a bit slow getting him all the information I intended to send and he only received approximately 1/2 of all the material I felt he should have.

October 2, 2001

RE: Complaint by Bruce Whealton

Dear Mr. Freifeld,

The Probable Cause Committee of the North Carolina Psychology Board has reviewed the investigative materials resulting from the complaint filed against you by the above-named individuals. Following its review of the investigative materials, the Probable Cause Committee recommended to the Board that there was no probable cause to believe that you committed a violation of the North Carolina Psychology Practice Act. The Board adopted the Committee's recommendation. The case is now considered closed.

While determining that it appeared that there was not any evidence that you violated the Psychology Practice Act, the Board determined to advise you of the following provisions in the Psychology Practice Act:

G.S. 90-270.16(a)...
G.S. 90-270.16(b)...
G.S. 90-270.16(c)...

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Erica H. Wise Ph.D., Chair
North Carolina Psychology Board

July of 2000 this complaint was filed. It took over a year (13 months) for the NC Psychology Board to finally issue a letter stating the case was investigated and is now closed. Mr. Yardley shared with me over the telephone that he had spoken to Bruce Whealton, who originally filed the complaint, Pat Stubbs, Christine Brandon, and Ruth Parris. Obviously, based on his recommendation to the board that the case be closed due to a lack of evidence to support it, these people must have handled themselves in a way and/or submitted material that could not stand in the light of a very thorough investigation.

Example of Letters Written In My Behalf By Other Group Members	Ruth Parris and Stephanie Bryant
Pennsylvania Board of Psychology	Psychotherapist Bruce Whealton, MSW License Revoked! Two criminal convictions!
Alleganey County, PA Dept. of Child Protective Services	Miracles In Progress 12 Step Recovery Forums
North Carolina Medical Board	The #Healingroom Abuse Survivor Group
North Carolina  Psychology Board	Broken Laws
Who is Christine Brandon? (aka LWK)	Just Some Thoughts
Morning Star Newspaper	Back To Front Page