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Russ Whitney’s sheriff calls John T. Reed to ask if Reed is in Lee County, FL stalking him

Around 10:00 AM on February 12, 2003, Lieutenant Brad Gossmann of the Lee County, FL sheriff’s office called me. He said Russ Whitney had reported that I might be in Lee County stalking him. The lieutenant observed that if I was in California answering the phone, it must not be true. Stalking is an activity that can only be accomplished in-person.
After a chuckle, I informed Lietenant Gossmann that my last visit to Florida was so many years ago that I don’t remember when. When our sons were young, my wife and I took them to DisneyWorld and Cape Canaveral. Two are in college now and the other is a high school sophomore.
I also told the lieutenant about the threatening phone call I reported to my sheriff and to the FBI, so Whitney’s is not the only one calling his sheriff as a result of his law suit against me. And I directed the lieutenant to my Website information about Whitney so he could see the background of the case. Gossmann told me to call him any time if I needed anything.
Married to a Whitney employee
A few hours after I posted this article, a Fort Myers woman who used to work for Whitney called to ask me if I knew who Brad Gossmann was. “Who?” “His wife works for Whitney.”
Oh, really?
Another reader wrote to tell me he thinks the lieutenant’s wife is head of Equity Corp. which runs Whitney’s Mortgage Payment Acceleration Program. I would not know.
I called Lt. Gossmann and left two messages asking if this was true. He did not return my calls.
I sent an email to the sheriff asking a number of questions relating to whether Lieutenant Gossmann really is married to a Whitney executive and, if so, was it proper for him to call me without disclosing that. He sent me back an email saying that he had referred the matter to their legal counsel and that I would hear from him soon. I never heard from him.
I filed a formal complaint. No answer.
I filed a Freedom of Information Act (It has a slightly different name in Florida) request for the police paperwork on Whitney’s call to the sheriff. They charged me $10 to tell me there no paperwork whatsoever on Whitney’s call to them and Gossman’s call to me.
I do not seem to be getting the same service from the Lee County Sheriff as their local convicted felon (Russ Whitney) gets.
Is Whitney having me stalked?
Speaking of stalking, a late model, silver-gray, compact car with California license plate 4XSM584 stopped in front of my house and took a photo of my office window on 2/19/03 at 11:25 AM. That’s not illegal, but it’s a first. I would be curious to know whose car that is.
I got a call from a Cape Coral guy who says it was likely someone working with with George Bentz (Not his real name), a salaried employee of Whitney who is reportedly a “fireman,” that is, a guy who goes around to “put out fires” for Russ. I am told he works in Florida for Whitney and flew to California to investigate me. Reportedly the guy got a bonus for investigating me. How do I know all this? He had a few drinks and was talking too much about investigating the “California guy who Russ is suing” at a party.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can corroborate this. If so, the next step is to see if he is a licensed investigator in California, what he said about me, whether he violated California’s stalking law, and so forth.
20 depositions
Whitney’s attorney Scott W. Rothstein called me in early March and said he is going to come out to California for 20 days to take my deposition, my wife’s, that of 15 of my neighbors, people who work at the schools where I coached football, and some people who did business with me. Apparently, this is supposed to intimidate me.
I told him I don’t know 15 of my neighbors. He said his investigator talked to them and they know me and will be testifying against me. I doubt that. If I don’t know them, they don’t know me. I don’t know their names, what they look like, etc., which is almost certainly mutual. The few I do know would have told me if any investigator contacted them, unless he misrepresented himself. Even then, I don’t know what he could ask about me that would not trigger the neighbor mentioning it to me.
I was a high school coach in 1994-1996—seven to nine years ago. The head coaches I worked for are gone, as are most of the assistants I worked with. I rarely saw an administrator or teacher because I was only at the schools for practices and games.
As far as persons who did business with me, who might that be? I am a one-man shop. Can’t talk to my employees or partners. There are none. So who are we talking about? The mailman? The trash collectors?
Then there is the little matter of the Local Rules of the Middle District of Florida U.S. District Court. They only allow 10 depositions without special permission.
Another impediment would be Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which says that any discovery, like a deposition, must be “reasonably calculated” to lead to admissible evidence. What would my neighbors, former colleagues, or vendors know about Whitney’s trademark or libel claims?
Sounds like Whitney’s attorney and investigator are getting Whitney to pay for lengthy all-expense paid vacations to San Francisco. He needs to take my deposition, but the rest sound like a total waste of Whitney’s money and my time. For the sake of the people in question, I will probably ask the judge to eliminate most of this if Rothstein actually notices all these depositions.
I’m not interested
Do I want Cape Coral folks to observe Whitney in or around his home and tell me about what they see? No. Why would I? It’s childish, useless information, and possibly illegal.
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Copyright 2003 by John T. Reed
Last update 2/19/03
John T. Reed, a.k.a. John Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alamo, CA 94507, Voice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: johnreed@johntreed.com

CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.