This document is a fabric of lies of astonishing proportions. The links no longer work but I have some of the documents cited and will add them as they become relevant. I first saw this sometime around 2008, and it was a shock. When I, briefly, began talking to Morgan again I demanded to know how she could have told these whoppers. She said Jay made her. When you compare it to what she is writing now the answer is very different. She just says what she thinks will be plausible. But, as with depositions, this does not work as liars would hope.
Supreme
Court
New
York County
Mediation
Settlement Conference
November
14th
2005
Index
No. 121868 - 02_
Morgan
F. Pillsbury (now
“Gell”)
Vs.
John
H. Fund
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Statement and explanation of material facts and history
of the events, circumstances and situations that warrant
consideration in this case, relevant matters, and issue at hand that
may make this case/ action an exceptional action requiring
specialized judicial understanding of matters and issues presented
herein.
Prepared and submitted by the Plaintiff for the Court’s,
Mediator’s and History’s preservation of the facts should for
some reason I become unable to otherwise testify to these issues,
matters, and things required to bring this action to fruition.
I, Morgan Francis Pillsbury Gell do make this statement of my
own free accord and it should be used as, construed as my affidavit
in any event in which my presence or ability to testify or I
otherwise become unable to testify or aid in the preparation and
presentation of my case. If such were to happen I rely on my
husband’s ( Jay E Gell) judgment to pursue this matter to an
absolute end permitting him to stand in my steed.
The purpose and intent of this entire document is to clarify issues
and present the facts of the case as I know and believe them to be
true to the best of my knowledge and ability and as to those things
stated upon information and belief have good reason to believe them
to be true.
This entire torrid affair and the manner and disrespect the defendant
and his council have shown for the court , the rules and principles
of civil litigation combined with a cavalier disregard for orders and
directives of the court leaves me no option other than the
presentation of this material in this format.
I am extremely concerned how this city and state in this case have
ignored their own stated policies and rules on treatment of victims
of Domestic Violence, how they have written Mr. Fund a ,”get out of
jail free card”, concealed evidence from me, the crime victim, and
destroyed evidence. And how do I feel about that? To me and many
others who count on the stated public policies to protect us from the
rich and powerful who think ,” they have more power than senators”
feel a grave injustice and disappointment in the system that is
designed to protect us.
No only did the defendant get away with beating me and assaulting me
he is getting away with robbing me as well. Additionally he is now
beating up the courts with his disrespect through council.
It is my intention to pursue this injustice to the bitter end because
far to many women are afraid to come forward because of these exact
problems and failures of the legal system.
Respectfully submitted this the 14th day of November, 2005
_____________________________
Morgan F. Pillsbury Gell
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
BACKGROUND AND
HISTORY
I first met Mr.
Fund when I was a child; he was a friend of my mothers from the
Libertarian Party in Ca. He was an office manager for the LP in
Northern Ca. and she was in charge of the LP for S. Ca, quite a bit
above him in the pecking order then. I lived with my Grandparents
most of the year and visited my mother on school holidays so I was
not aware of the fact that Fund and my mother were engaged in a
sexual affair. To me he was just another geeky LP friend of hers.
Later on she told me there had been an affair, but I had no idea what
extent it had gone to.
In 1998 I had a
falling out with my mother and we were not speaking, I also had just
been dumped by my boyfriend Eugene Volokh. He found out I had lied to
him about some things and I had found Gay porn in his house when a
friend and I were looking for light bulbs during a commercial shoot
at his house when he was out of town.
My Step-Father,
Craig Franklin took me on a trip to Paris and New York to cheer me up
and since we were to be in NY for a few nights I called Fund from Ca
to ask if he wanted to have dinner while I was there. On the phone I
informed him of the breakup with
Eugene,
whom he knew well, and the fact I was not speaking to my mother. He
was very excited I was coming and called me back offering to take me
to Carnige Hall as well as dinner.
When I arrived in
NY I called Fund and told him what hotel I was in and we arranged to
meet at Carnige Hall where we watched a performance with two friends
of his then he took me to dinner and walked me back to my hotel. He
asked to come up to my room to use the phone and once there proceeded
to tell me how lonely his life was and asked,” If he could have a
hug". One thing led to another and we became sexually involved
that night. I told him immediately that I didn't have one-night-
stands and was coming off a bad break-up and he told me that he had
admired me for a long-time and wanted a serious relationship. I asked
him about the fact he dated my Mother and he said she had blown that
out of proportion and it really had never happened.
We saw each other
the next night as well and then I flew to Europe. We talked several
times when I was there and there were messages on my machine from him
when I returned to LA. He asked my to meet him in New Orleans in late
November and flew me there, we had a great time. He told me he loved
me then for the first time, but we had to keep our relationship quiet
for a bit because he was so involved in the Clinton impeachment and
there were those old rumors about him and my mother to think of, I
agreed.
At this point we
were talking on the phone quite a bit. I told Fund that I had
emotional problems and self-esteem problems dating back many years
and that I found it hard to trust people after some things I had gone
through in my past. He said he understood and would NEVER do anything
to hurt me. He also asked me to always give him the benefit of the
doubt if I heard anything about him. He said he had had problems with
people spreading rumors about him being a womanizer and he might have
done that a bit in the past, but that was over now, again he said I
could trust him.
In January I
decided to move to New York for a fresh start, to help my friend
Matthew Earl Jones start an east coast division of Blacktop Films,
and to be near Fund. Fund at first seemed really happy about it. I
flew out in early February to look for a place and stayed at a hotel
in Jersey City where Fund lived. While there Fund stayed with me at
my hotel and I became pregnant. I discovered this when I was back in
LA and I called Fund to tell him and he hung up on me. When he
finally called back a few horrible hours later he told me that since
impeachment was going on it would be best if I had an abortion. We
could have a family later, but now was not the time. I am politically
pro-choice, but to me personally it is murder and this was awful for
me to think about doing. I called someone I could trust, Manny
Klausner, an old LP friend of my mother, someone I considered like a
god-father and he told me that, yes, people were out to get Fund and
this was probably the right decision.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the meantime I
still had to move so in mid march 1999 I moved to Jersey City a few
blocks from Fund's place which, strangely I had still never seen. He
said it was too messy to have visitors. When I moved in I knew nobody
there and the first day I called Fund to let him know I had arrived.
It took him 3 days to call me back, remember at this time I was STILL
pregnant with his child! He came over a week later to take me to
dinner, have sex and then leave. When I asked him about arrangements
for the abortion he said he was too busy to help out, drive me, or
take care of me afterward. I decided to fly back to LA for the
procedure and stay with Matthew Earl Jones and his girlfriend Pam
Frasier who offered to help me. When I asked Fund if he could help
out, I was hinting at the cost, he gave me the name of his travel
agent...nothing more. Never offered a dime.
I flew out to CA
had the abortion in a clinic in Venice, Ca by a Dr.Leb (
see
attachment A) and went back to Matthews place. Fund
called me there to see how it went, but he was busy so he couldn't
talk long.
I returned to
Jersey City and started looking for work, my funds were getting low
and since Matthew hadn't had any luck setting up an east coast office
I was out of work. Fund kept coming over every week or so and taking
me to dinner. One night at my apartment he asked me if we could make
this a permanent relationship, it was obvious he meant marriage and I
said I would think about it. Right after that he called me and
accused me of telling people about our relationship. I asked him who
he meant and he named Matthew and Pam. I was shocked, I was staying
with them during the abortion, they had nothing to do with politics,
why couldn't I tell them? He said I would have to be punished which
turned out to be standing me up on my birthday, leaving me sitting
there to,” teach me a lesson". It was horrible.
He continued
doing things like that, saying people were watching him and that he
had to be very careful. He accused me of telling my mother about our
relationship even though I was not talking to her at the time. He
told me he had proof I did even going so far as to tell me he would
show me this proof. He never produced anything. I later discovered
his,” proof" was the fact she left him a voice mail at work on
an unrelated topic. Not odd since she still considered him a friend.
It all came to a
head when I attended a David Horowitz, "Weekend" political
gathering in late August that year, 1999. Fund was there to speak and
kept acting as if he didn't know who I was. Manney Klausner and his
wife Willette commented on it, having known of my relationship with
Fund from Fund himself. It was terrible for me and towards the end of
the gathering Fund came to my room and repeatedly accused me of
telling people about us and his continued need to punish me. He said
when he calmed down back in NY he would try to forgive me and we
could then move forward with our relationship. He left me in tears. I
didn't want to believe that someone I killed my child for could be so
cruel so I kept searching myself for what I could have done to cause
all these problems with Fund.
When I got back to
Jersey City I was distraught and still upset and angry with Fund so I
took a deep breath and called my mother. We had a long conversation
and I learned many things as did she. I learned that when she got
pregnant with my younger brother Justin she was sexually involved
with Fund and called him to tell him she was pregnant and he hung up
on her as well! She was also dating my step-father Craig Franklin and
wound up marring him, but she was never sure who was the father and
Fund apparently assumed that HE WAS! And even after this he got
involved with me! She also told me Fund used the same, "I need a
hug" line to get her into bed as well. You can imagine my
feelings on hearing all this. My mother then called Fund who told her
I had fraternized the whole relationship with him and that I never
had an abortion. When he called me a few minutes later to yell at me
for calling and talking to my mother I taped him so that I could play
the conversation back to my mother to prove he was lying to her about
everything . This conversation was the one that later wound up on the
internet and that Fund tells people was faked or that he was just
going along with my fantasy about a relationship and subsequent
abortion with him because I was suicidal. I was NOT SUICIDAL, I WAS
REALLY ANGRY!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My mother and I
then made up and she flew out to NY to see me. She loved NY and
wanted to get a place there and knowing my financial straights
offered to give me a room in her apartment in exchange for my working
for her non-profit.
In January of 2000
she and I moved to an apartment on 34th street. Our agreement was
that this was a fresh start and there would be no male visitors
overnight, she was still trying to get me to give up Fund who kept
telling me AND HER he really loved me and wanted to work out our
relationship.
In February 2000 my
mother came back to NY with a new boyfriend named Phillip who was an
obvious alcoholic and pot smoker and announced this was, "her
new husband and the love of her life" and proceeded to move him
in. I was trapped, I worked for her and lived in the apartment so I
tried to make the best of things, but it was hard. My mother, who
hardly ever even had a glass of wine on special occasions, started to
drink heavily with Phillip in the apartment and was pressuring me to
help her go back after her ex Craig for more support since Craig had
admitted to me he and his boss at work had defrauded my mother of
stock options in their divorce. I agreed because I was trapped and
had no choice.
It is also around
this time that I read a book on Princess Diana and some of her
emotional problems. Some of the symptoms they described such as
depression, lack of self esteem matched mine so I got it in my head I
must have Borderline Personality Disorder. I never was diagnosed with
it, I had no idea it has a legal meaning it just made sense to me. I
also started seeing a doctor and told her I thought I had it, but she
never diagnosed me as such. She put me on Prozac which made me worse,
so I just stopped seeing her.
John was a major
part of my social life at this time. He introduced me to the Fabiani
Society, a group of conservative media people that meets once a month
at the Princeton club in Manhattan. There I met Barbara Herbrich, her
boyfriend Doug Dechert and Marta Hummel. When I was introduced to
Doug Dechert he told me he was a professional PR guy and offered to
help me with a problem I was having at that time. I had heard through
friends, that my relationship with Fund, the abortion and his
relationship with my mother had been found out by some of Fund’s
liberal enemies and they were going to use it, Dechert told me that
he could handle it for me for the small fee of $10,000.00. I blew him
off and he was not pleased so he had the item run as a ,”blind
item” on Page Six of the NY Post. Fund was not very happy about
this. I later found out how sleazy Dechert really was (
see
attachment B)
Around this time I
also decided to file bankrupts because my step-father Craig had given
me money as a gift when I was living in LA and then tried to pressure
me into having sex with him. When I rebuffed him he told me that
before I left for NY I needed to see his lawyer about something and
she confronted me with a promisary note to pay him back the gift
money. I signed because I was scared. After I signed he never gave me
another dime.
Although 2000 I
continued to see Fund, though it was rocky. Towards the end of 2000
and the beginning of 2001 he stayed over at the apartment with me for
days on end when my mother was not there. We got along well and I
thought maybe we had a chance. I was an idiot, I still loved him.
My mother decided
to close down the apartment as of February 2001 and I was to get a
place of my own which she would help me with after I flew out to Ca.
to testify in her court case against my step-father Craig. We put my
stuff in storage and left for Ojai, Ca. where she kept a small
guesthouse. It was hell, when I got there she began to slowly renege
on all her promises to me and when we argued heatedly my brother
Justin, who is 6'2" threw me to the floor and proceeded to choke
me till I passed out. During this my mother and her boyfriend just
stood there watching, not doing anything to help. When I came to I
ran out down the road to a nearby hospital where they examined me and
called the police. The police took me home and were told I was crazy,
that I just made it up. The police were not impressed with my
mother’s boyfriend telling them this because her was obviously
drunk at the time. I had to stay, I had no car, no money and no where
to go so I dropped the charges. I was then forced to sleep on the
floor, which was very cold and wait to see what my mother would
decide to do with me.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What she decided
was to rent a $5,500.00 a month house on the Santa Barbara Mesa for
herself, her boyfriend, Justin and my handicapped brother Arthur in
anticipation of the huge amount of money she would get from her
upcoming trial against my step-father. I was left in a guesthouse in
Ojai in winter with no transportation, miles from a grocery store, no
furniture, heat or a bed to wait till she had need of me for the
deposition which would make her rich.
My deposition came
up and I gave it. I had NO LEGAL REPRESENTATION in this deposition.
In it I said I had Borderline Personality Disorder, though I
had no idea there were legal ramifications for this self-diagnosis
and I was not a doctor. I had no knowledge of the legal definitions
of that condition and had no lawyer to explain them to me. I also
said I had told many lies in my life. I had lousy self-esteem and
wanted people to think I was worth something so in the past I had
exaggerated some accomplishments. I was trying to make a clean breast
of it, and I had been writing people I might have hurt in the past
emails for a few weeks before saying I was sorry if I had hurt them.
I got many responses thanking me for my honesty and I felt pretty
good about that. After the deposition I realized I put things in a
way that might make my past look worse than it was so I wanted to
make some changes, but the day after the case settled and I was
assured the deposition was not going to be used so I didn't make
those changes.
The settlement was
much less than my mother anticipated and she used the opportunity to
blame me. She left me in Ojai without a dime, saying the paltry
amount she got, about $330,000.00, left her no choice but to abandon
me out there. She told me not aborting me was the biggest mistake she
ever made and I was worthless and deserved to windup in a homeless
shelter because I was not smart enough to support myself. She left me
a phone and a computer and told me to be out in 2 months. The
computer was an old one of hers and she left it set up for me and
connected to the internet. She said if I returned to NY, where all my
stuff was, she would give me a one way ticket. I used those 2 months
to really lean how to use the computer and how to do real research
online. I also learned about chat rooms where is where I met Lea
Dudley.
While playing on
the internet one night I found a posting about the Page Six blind
item with Fund and I and started emailing back and forth with the
poster. We finally spoke on the phone and her Name was Lea Dudley, a
woman in Washington State who was in DC circles and was involved with
Fund at the same time I was and was on vacation with him while I was
HAVING THE ABORTION! She told me a lot about Fund, how he uses women,
is a liar, steals stories from other reporters, is paranoid and
delusional. I even taped one of these conversations (
see
attachment C&
D)
I was crushed and
right as I was digesting this info I got a call from Marta Hummel, my
Fabiani Society friend in NY. I told her the whole thing and she told
me that she already knew, but didn’t want to break it to me. She
said that Fund uses his influence to pick up Hill staffers in DC, a
different one almost every night when he is in town. I was physically
sick on hearing this. This monster, who I trusted, who I needed to
give the,”Benefit of The Doubt To”, who I aborted my child for
was the lowest piece of sleaze on earth!
I called my mothers
bookkeeper and requested copies of the phone bills from the apartment
I shared with my mother on #4
th street in Manhattan to see
who Fund was calling when he was staying with me. There were strange
calls in the middle of the night to several numbers so I called them
and left messages that I was John Fund’s girlfriend and these
numbers showed up on my bill and I wanted to see who they were to. I
hit pay dirt(
see
attachment E) I got a vicious call from Fund saying I had
called a Federal Judge named Diane Skyes and how dare I do that. I
told him to go to hell, it was my phone bill, calls on my dime and I
didn’t care if she was upset!!! He tried to convince me they were,”
business calls” but who makes calls like that at midnight! I was
born at night, but not last night!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I sold all
the possessions I could on online auctions ECT. and when the time
came for me to return to NY my mother drove out to Ojai and presented
me with $1,000.00 phone bill she claimed I had ran up being on the
internet. Since one of my brothers set up the internet connection I
had no idea it was a long distance number I had been using. she said
I would get no ticket unless I gave her the old oritone photos of
Yosemite my Grandfather gave me in his will...I had no choice but to
give in. I got my ticket and a ride to the airport.
I returned to NY
and stayed with my friend Arthur Prager for a month and then moved in
with another friend Deborah Scott who lived in the city and had
worked in PR. With my background she thought I would be great at it
and helped me set up some interviews which I went to and was getting
follow-up interviews with different places like Dan Klores. She also
introduced me to a writer named John Connolly who was very interested
in hearing what Fund did to me, so I TOLD HIM! I wasn’t going to
protect that piece of filth anymore.
Fund then started
to call me again and tried to convince me he could help me in my
quest for work and also tried to convince me to work on our
relationship again and dumb, dumb me started to believe the lies
again.
Since I still was
unemployed and felt bad being a burden living on Deborah Scotts couch
and charity Fund told me that if I moved in with him we could work on
our relationship and he would pay me to help him clean up his place,
get his utilities and bills in order and do the same for him at his
office at the Wall Street Journal. He also wanted me to tape any
conversations I had with John Connolly and bought me a device to do
just that. I later used it on Fund himself, HAHA! Connolly was
getting his article about Fund and I published in Talk Magazine and
Fund knew about it and was trying to scuttle it. In retrospect, I
believe Fund had me move in with him for several reasons: 1. so he
could watch and control me 2. To drive me crazy ( I already told him
I had emotional problems, why not do things to make them worse and
make me look bad in front of everyone) 3. To take advantage of me
doing all that work for him and leaving me with nothing.
His apartment
was unreal. I set about doing the following:
Cleaning larva out of his
refrigerator, washing maybe 35 loads of wash the first week I was
there, cooking, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, unstopping the
toilet and the tub, unstopping the sink, carting away mountains of
trash and moldy food, cleaning out bugs and mouse droppings from his
apartment and even his bed! Turning his phone on, his cable on,
making sure his bills got paid, organizing all his bills, checks and
household accounts.
Ordering furniture from Ikea for him and assembling it, organizing
his closets and shoes, helping him go through old clothes to donate
some to charity, hauling hefty bags of dry cleaning blocks to the
cleaner in the summer heat, going into the WALL Street Journal on
weekends to go through over 100 boxes of junk he had there and
organize them. For the first few weeks I worked about 18 hours each
day to get the place in shape. I was with Fund 6 months during which
time I carried out these same tasks on more of an upkeep schedule,
say 40 hours a week. Fund did other things in that time like
causing me to be late paying my American Express bill because he
would delay in paying me back for things I charged for him, i.e. Ikea
furniture, groceries, ect.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The day I moved in
he told me he was going to DC on business. I later found out he was
there also because he was going on vacation with a woman named Leslie
George whose father Clair George had been pardoned by Bush 1 for
Iran- Contra.
When he got back we
spent lots of time together, both at the apartment and at the WSJ on
weekends as I started the job of going through his storage boxes to
clean and sot stuff as he requested. As I did this I read emails he
had printed out from other women which confirmed what Lea Dudley told
me, that he had cheated on me and lied to me countless times
throughout the beginning of our relationship. There were emails from
Federal Judge Diane Skyes talking about the sexual aspects of their
relationship, emails telling some woman that he ,”Used to be a
Rakish Playboy, but now had changed his ways”, old condoms, ect. I
guess I thought he could still change, oh how dumb I was!
During the weekdays
I worked on his apartment, and talked to a friend I met through
Barbara Herbicht, a man named Steve Craig who warned me that Fund was
using me and was, “Gas lighting” me with the emails from other
women, leaving them and used condoms around the house to drive me
crazy and thus make me act crazy in public. I didn’t believe him
Steve also warned me that Fund would also try to pin something on me
like writing bad checks. I dismissed that too, Fund may have cheated
on me but he would NEVER be so evil, I thought.
Then his paranoia
and security concerns started. I was not to leave the apartment
building by the front door, someone may see me. I couldn’t make
phone calls or receive them on the home phone, someone might figure
out we were living together (bad for his love life I guess) since my
cell got spotty reception and many cut offs it was hard to have
potential employers call me. He left me with no money or change
sometimes so I couldn’t leave the house. Later on he started taking
the laptop computer he bought me and the home phone itself to work
with him so I couldn’t communicate with anyone!
Then he started
getting angry and hitting me, the first time was when a convention
called ALEC came to town and I confronted him with the fact he was
supposed to take me to some of the functions. He only ended up taking
me to one, and he really didn’t take me, he met me at a party
associated with it at a Manhattan hotel where he was very late
arriving and hardly spoke to me at all, just introduced me to one or
two people and proceeded to come on to several women in front of me.
I got mad at him and told him off in front of someone important and
left. He was very angry when he caught up with me at home.
I told several
people about Fund’s treatment of me and one day I got a call from
John Connolly who was concerned about the rumors he was hearing. He
had received a call from a woman named Carol Devine Molin who had
been involved with Fund several years before and was treated very
badly by him. At that time she tried to get the story out about how
Fund treated her. She had a public access TV show in Winchester Co.
and invited Fund to appear. He flirted with her and went home with
her and they started a sexual relationship. Carol told Connolly that
she was mad at Fund because when they had sex that night she
preformed oral sex on him and when she asked him to do the same to
her he said,” You got to swallow”. He also made promises to her
about writing articles about her for the WSJ and never came through
and never returned her calls. She called the WSJ to complain and they
blew her off. She then went to Salon magazine and they were
interested in doing an article about Fund’s behavior, but Fund had
the article killed and told the WSJ legal department she was making
it all up and was a kook. Sound familiar? Apparently Fund has used
the WSJ to get rid of women before, at least that is what Carol told
Connolly. When she told all this to Connolly she taped their
conversation and sent Connolly a tape of it then later tried to sue
him to get it back. I will produce that tape at trial.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Anyhow Carol told
Connolly she heard I was being abused so he gave her my number and
she called when Fund was there (
see
attachment F) then sent me an email saying she wanted to
hear my whole story. When she called back later and Fund was gone she
said that she was a Domestic Violence councilor during the day and
would help. I told her everything. She also called my mother and got
her side of the abuse that was going on that I had told her about.
Carol called me back and told me to consider her a friend and to call
her over the weekend. When I tried her home number had been
disconnected so I called her work number and left a message. The next
week Fund came home and I was told that HE asked Carol to call me,
tape me and now I had to be punished. I was. When I emailed her later
she complained to Fund that I was stalking her and she would call the
police on me. I found her new number at home, after snooping through
Fund’s bag one night; she changed her home number after talking to
me, and called her and told her what I thought of her.
This is only one
example of the continuous mind games and hell he put me through.
There was also a woman named Ellen Wesley who worked for Citicorp he
was sleeping with that fall and lying to me about. I called her and
informed her what was going on, and made myself look really crazy,
but I was becoming really crazy! I never knew what the truth was
anymore. One day Fund would be wonderful to me the next he would be
paranoid and take the phone, the next he would accuse me of
doing,”bad things” but he never told me what exactly, I would
sometimes get a scary phone call from him after he went to work
saying he knew what I had done and I was to wait till he got home to
discuss it. I would sit in the apartment all day in the middle of the
living room floor terrified.
He would have me
write up,” punishment lists” of things or emails I had sent, or
thoughts I had that would be threatening to him. He said it was good
for me, it was cleansing and we could then start fresh after I
confessed all.
Fund was also very
bad about normal bill paying, he was always in trouble with a storage
facility or the IRS for not getting things out on time. I have an
answering machine tape of his that proves this I will play in court.
He taught me how to sign his signature, with a little squiggle under
it to pay utilities when he was gone. When I moved in there were tons
of uncashed checks to him on the floor, thousands of dollars worth
that he never got around to putting in the bank (
see
attachment G) How many people do you know who would leave a
$10,000.00 check under a coffee cup? He told me that he doubted they
were even good anymore so I told him maybe I would send them into the
bank at some point and find out.
I stopped
talking to Steve Craig when I got the feeling Fund was talking to him
as well, sometime in November 2001. No big loss, I discovered Steve
had a shady past, had run some modeling agency in NY which was a
cover for Russian prostitutes. Also he was in his late 50’s, had no
job and lived with his mother in a one bedroom in Manhattan. He
self-published a food newsletter which was very unsuccessful, I guess
I only talked to him because I was desperately lonely stuck in that
apartment dealing with Fund and he seemed interested in politics. I
figured he was talking to Fund pretty early on so I would say thing
to him to see if they got back to Fund and they did.
At one point Fund
asked me to marry him and I said yes. I told my mother, who I started
talking to again as well because I was desperately lonely) and she
started arranging a small wedding after SHE talked to Fund about it.
During all this I was still getting punished by Fund and at one point
went to the Jersey City police and filed a report. I did it one night
when I knew he wouldn’t be home, election night. I described to the
officers what he was doing to me and they urged me to file and to
have him arrested, which I didn’t do because I was scared what
would happen to me if I did. Where would I go? I asked my mom for
help and she said go to a homeless shelter.
At Thanksgiving
that year I made a great dinner and had it waiting. Fund never came
home for it and when he did show up we argued he beat me to the point
I was cowering in a corner as he stood over me and laughed and told
me that since he was the friend of Bret Schindler, who was mayor of
Jersey City, if I pressed charges he could get them thrown out. Oh,
he mentioned that he new some bigwigs at the police department too so
he could get them thrown out that way as well.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Once he started
beating me and was about to rape me when the police pounded on the
door. My mother called the police after she couldn’t get a hold of
me again, he disconnected the phones, and Fund appeared to the police
as cool and rational, while I , who was shaking and crying, got
nothing but questions like, Are you on drugs”, and, “if your name
isn’t on the lease you need to get out” They even talked to him
in the hallway alone, not me and he went down to the station the next
day to explain things to them, I was not invited.
At Christmas I got
together enough money for a small tree, decorations, and some gifts
for him. He came in Christmas Eve, threw a book at me he got free
from the WSJ and said, “There is your gift”. I had to beg him to
open the stocking I made for him Christmas morning after which he
just left fro the day to some big thing at a friend’s house. I was
all alone.
After this, even
though I still would have good times with him and discuss marriage I
became aware he was having sex with yet ANOTHER woman, Gail Heriot, a
law professor in San Diego. I confronted him and called her, things
were getting crazier, if that was even possible.
My friend Caroline
Marshall mentioned to me at this time that she was renting out her
studio apartment in Manhattan and asked if I would be interested (
see
attachment H) I was for several reasons, maybe a little
distance would help Fund and I, I was still planning on marring him
and It would be a good base for us in the city instead of him having
to come back to Jersey every night.
I demanded Fund pay
me all the money he owed me for all the work I had done and he told
me to write myself some checks in not so huge amounts, he even walked
me to the bank in the village to deposit some of them! I thought it
was strange, but he said he wanted to see how well I did his
signature. I did it with his full knowledge, anything else he says is
a LIE! I was at his apartment when the bank called to notify him a
large check had been written on his account and I told them to call
him at the office. Those checks cleared and he knew it.
And, I might as
well say here as of this writing November 2005, I have not been
charged by the banks for writing fraudulent checks as they would be
required by law to do if I had done this crime. I didn’t do it and
they know it. The statute of limitations for those charges has past.
I also know and have on good authority, there are no records or
notations on Fund’s bank account to show there was ever any
question of fraud which means he got one of the powerful friends he
brags about to do something underhanded. I am now am going to sue
Chase for this because it has just come to my attention, this fraud
about fraudulent checks.
When I moved into
the city I started slowly moving myself and my stuff out of Fund’s
apartment. I was still going to Jersey City, still cleaning his place
and then taking back a suitcase full of stuff when I went back to the
city. Fund had discovered I had filed police reports against him and
was trying to get me to go to the Jersey police and get the records
erased which I did for him one day in a half-hearted way on one of my
trips to his apartment to clean. That day he was at the city
apartment making calls on my phone to press people slandering me,
trying to convince them a story about those police reports of
domestic violence were the ravings on a crazy woman who at that
moment was cleaning his apartment, stocking his refrigerator, doing
his laundry etc! I know this to be a fact because while I was
cleaning his place one day the phone rang and the machine picked up
and it was the writer Norman Porowitz telling him how sorry he was
that he was the victim of such a nasty smear campaign launched by a
lunatic!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I confronted him on
this and he denied it as usual. One night he spent the night with me
at my apartment, kissed me goodbye and went to work. I went to the
ATM to get some money out and found my account had been locked. I
called him about it, I was panicked, I owed rent that week and he
told me he had reported the checks to be fraudulent and would give me
back the money when I signed certain papers saying he didn’t beat
me, that I was crazy . He also wanted me to talk to Richard Johnson
of the NY Post and other reporters and tell them I was crazy and that
he didn’t hit me. I refused to talk to the reporters and kept
dodging the calls he set up between them and me. Fund gave me cash at
this time to pay rent and other expenses till he got this mess ironed
out AND he was still sleeping over at my place even though I asked
him not to keep coming around. One morning a group of my friends came
by to see if I would like to go out to breakfast and surprised Fund
who was with me at the time. The group included my landlord Caroline
Marshal and her husband Mohan Shah, a prominent Indian businessman
who will attest to this at trial. Bear in mind this is after Fund
stopped the checks and was telling people I was stalking HIM!
When my mother saw there was publicity
in this whole thing SHE became involved, started talking to reporters
and trying to play the loving mother. She tried to get Fund to settle
with me so that I could get my money back and move on with my life.
She told Fund he should settle some money on me so I could keep the
apartment and get over the emotional pain his behavior and lies had
put me through (
see
attachment I ) she was also aware, as I was, Fund was
trashing us both left and right as crazy money hungry loons (
see
attachments J,
J1, K,
& L
). Fund kept denying it and wouldn’t settle anything.
I was losing
friends and business contacts left and right (see
attachment
M) and despairing of being able to stay in NY at all when it
finally came to a head on February 19, 2002 and Fund came to my
apartment, argued with me again, pushed me into a kitchen appliance
several times and left, only to come back a few minutes later and do
it again! When he finally did leave I was very upset, sat on the
floor and cried which was when my mother showed up, she was in town
to see a friend, and insisted I called the police. I hesitated for a
few days then did go to the police, had my injuries photographed, and
pressed charges against Fund for assault.
Fund was arrested
and made a statement to the press to the effect that I was a crazy
woman. I was enraged, finally the liar did it in public! Just then
Steve Craig called me and asked what I was going to do about it. I
angrily told him I was going to sue Fund for more than the $30,000.00
he stole from me! Mr. Craig then wrote a carefully worded piece for
his little food paper that reeked of Fund, accusing me of being a
plotting psycho only after Fund for his money.
If I had wanted to
embarrass Fund for money, would I have let myself in for such agony
at his hands? Aborted my own child to cover for him, looked like such
a fool? No, I loved him, believed him and wanted to be a help to him
and for that I had gone through hell and was about to get lots more.
I hired a lawyer
who I had contacted way before concerning the libel and slander that
Fund was subjecting me too, a firm called Davis & Davis to
represent me. A lawyer named Seth was with me at my first meeting
with the ADA on my case Eric Arnone where Mr. Arnone told me no
pictures of my injuries by Fund were taken. I was speechless! The DA
found them damn quick when the police report documenting that they
WERE taken showed up on the internet. The internet became my battle
ground with Fund, I gave left wing sites documentation on all my
claims because Fund and his powerful media friends, such as Karl Rove
and Matt Drudge had the advantage. It was my way of fighting back. My
mother got to into it though and tried to make a name for herself on
my case, putting up a website with my evidence of Fund’s behavior
on it.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Page Break * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It kept getting
worse, every few days I would find out someone I thought was a friend
would betray me, usually because they were threatened or bribed by
Fund to do so. He had power and I could barely pay my power bill!
In 2002 I got a
call from ADA Arnone telling me that something strange was going on,
the all the papers on my case were going straight to DA Morganthals
desk and I could tell Arnone was starting to believe me about someone
pulling strings to get Fund out of the charges. That call came to me
on a Friday and the next Monday arnone was replaced on my case by
Bonnie Sard. I was told Arnone quit the DA’s office, but I found
out recently he is still there.
Ms. Sard was a real
prize she sneered at me from day one, had me in to question me about
my prior sex life and questioned my credibility. When I told her I
was molested as a child the other ADA in the room asked me why I
didn’t report it if it was real. I was 3 years old at the time!
They waited till the end of the year to drop my case, Sard telling
me, “Fund didn’t hit you hard enough to interest the DA”. She
said they had several people swear I was a liar and couldn’t be
believed. They sealed my court papers away from me so I couldn’t
access them and gave complete access to Fund and his attorney. The
papers were requested by Judge Beeler in my civil case and the DA
refused to grant him access, they said they had to have Fund, the
perpetrator of the crime, GIVE PERMISSION for the court to have them!
Now the DA says they can’t find my court papers. That is a gross
violation of my civil rights and my rights as a citizen of this
country and I am suing the City of NY, I have already filed and will
be filing other suits against Ms. Sard and Mr. Kessler for hiding
evidence as they so clearly did.
I had to leave NY
because of finances and the fact some of Fund’s friends actually
sent me threats over the internet. I told the DA about these threats
and they did nothing. I have lived since then out of a suitcase with
friends and Domestic Violence advocates who took me in as I had no
money to establish residence anywhere permanently and no time since I
have been fighting for justice in my case. I have been treated as
less than a human by the City of New York. I will work all my
life if needs be to see justice served upon the DA and Mr. Fund. To
do less would be to give up and I am not a quitter.
A great thing did
happen out of all this though. Through contacts my mother made with
several Domestic Violence groups she met a children’s legal
advocate in North Carolina who really knew the law and knew how to
get justice in the court system. She convinced me to visit him on my
way to stay with friends in Georgia and the visit in Charlotte was a
long one. I married him and we now have a 4 month old son named Jacob
who is the light of our lives.
There are many
details I left out of this, I already feel like I have written a
book! I will have the long version ready for trial where I know that
at least ALL the facts of Mr. Fund’s character and behavior, the
details of the DA cover-up for Fund and the unethical behavior of Mr.
Kessler will come out. This is not about money it is about justice
and the truth and I want the world to hear the truth about John Fund
more than anything. I seek not to destroy Fund for revenge, just to
set the record straight. Mr. Fund has accused me of trying to ruin
his career, speaking the truth needs no excuse. It was Mr. Funds
personal BEHAVIOR and CHOICES that have hurt him and I have no doubt
that a jury will see that in trial.
Morgan Pillsbury Gell
