What is your worst nightmare as a parent? We all know the answer to this question. If there is any truth to the law of attraction, we are not going to even think about it, lest we invite it to us. The first thing you want to know if your child is in an accident, is if they are injured. The recent horror of the Sandy Hook Elementary school mass shooting serves as a terrifying reminder. Guilt is part of parenting and the guilt for these parents who lost their babies at school, a place we trust to be safe for our children, must be debilitating and overwhelming. Yet, it is not possible for us to consider this happening to our child, no matter what their age.
One such story is that of Jaroslava and Hector Mendez and family. The Mendez’s live in a beautiful ranch style home in Santa Clarita, California, filled with memorabilia from their past, a very homey feel, pictures and treasures adorning the living room and, of course, pictures of their three daughters. Their eldest, their youngest, and their middle child Karla, who died at 31 years old, on August 31, 2011. Karla was a beautiful young woman who was a diabetes supplies medical tech, a great softball player, and loved her dog Kloe, as a mother loves a child. Karla was just getting started in life. At 31, she was dating and enjoying life, having fun and beginning to discover herself. She was also drinking alcohol and testing her limits, like most young people do. She had been charged with a DUI (driving under the influence) after a car accident. She was reportedly driving with a bac (blood alcohol level) of .08. Fortunately, she was not injured, nor had she injured others. She attended inpatient rehab and was taken in a van, with all the other patients, to AA meetings. Jaroslava and Hector wanted their baby Karla to get the help she needed and were happy to see her getting some help.
Soon after becoming a member of AA, Karla met a man there and bought a condo in which the two were living together. His name is Eric Allen Earle, and he was mandated by the courts to attend AA meetings as a condition of his parole. Eric Earle’s criminal record looks like something from a CSI TV show. It is truly terrifying the number of restraining orders that have been filed against Earle, by his ex-wife and his own father. Earle allegedly murdered Karla by strangulation after she had asked him to move out of her condo. A few weeks before her death, Earle was arrested for battery after beating Karla. Earle’s AA sponsor, Patrick Fry, allegedly talked Karla out of pressing charges, and the charges were dropped. Since 1991, Eric Earle has been charged and convicted of 22 civil cases, has 8 restraining orders filed against him and has accumulated more than 52 criminal charges.It might seem strange that he did not spend more time in jail, but his record shows that he was put on probation, with AA attendance as a stipulation, an all-too-common mandate. As any thinking person knows, AA and the 12 steps are cult religions that require one to give one’s life over to a higher power, pray, and recruit others to the cult. Those indoctrinated in AA are now screaming (and boy do they scream when someone tells the truth), “AA is spiritual, not religious.” No sorry, you are mistaken and brainwashed. Those of us who have studied this cult and have been exposed to it know that it does more harm than good. The so-called <em>Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous</em> was taken directly from the Oxford Group teachings, but the references to God were softened in order to attract the most members possible. Please see the link below.
The claim that AA is “spiritual, not religious” is one of many ways AA founder Bill Wilson covered his tracks, and sold his program to the vulnerable and lost people it still attracts and brainwashes today.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-rroot030.html
Eric Earle had proposed marriage to Karla and she had accepted. As evidenced by his criminal history, Earle is one of those guys who preys on vulnerable women like Karla, gets into their lives as fast as possible, then bleeds them dry of all their money and simply moves on to his next victim. Originally, Earle was not charged with murder since he claimed he woke up to find Karla unresponsive the morning of August 31, 2011. Allegedly, the police believed Karla was the victim of an overdose. Months later, after an autopsy was finally conducted at the insistence of Karla’s family, Earle was arrested for the murder. Her family knew that she had not overdosed, she did not take drugs, and at the time was not even drinking. Her family had no idea that Earle had been mandated by the courts over and over again to 12 step meetings. They had no idea that Earle had been kicked out of his parents house for beating his father. They had no idea that Earle was living off of Karla and had her paying his child support. They trusted the pervasive dogma that anyone who wants help need only attend meetings and work their miraculous “steps.” Is your child safe in 12 step meetings? Absolutely not. The guilt Jaroslava and Hector are now living under 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is truly heart breaking. Be warned … No one is safe in a 12 step meeting as long as people like Earle are there.
The 9th circuit appeals court in 2001, deemed that “coerced participation in a religion-based program was unconstitutional because eight state and federal courts had ruled on the issue and all had agreed that a parolee has a right to be assigned to a secular treatment program.” This Federal Court System has deemed mandated AA attendance unconstitutional. This system covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, N. Mariana Islands, Oregon and Washington. However, all these states continue to mandate AA because a circuit court decision is a ruling, not a law. This does not mean that people do not fight it, they do, but very few because of the cost. Also, most people do not know their rights and go along with whatever the judge, lawyer and parole officer says in order to comply. It is also a get out of jail free card for criminals like Eric Earle. Eric Allen Earle was mandated to AA for at least 17 years before murdering Karla.
Has AA been established to be a religious organization? You betcha. Anyone in their right mind can see clearly that AA is a cult religion and therefore is a breach of the Establishment Clause of your first amendment rights – that is, as the First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .” What’s not at issue in these cases is the question of whether AA is, in fact, religion-based. All litigants typically agree that it is, and the courts are unpersuaded by the idea that it’s “spiritual” and not religious.
Technically, mandating people to AA is not illegal in any state … yet. It can be fought if you have the money and the time, which few have who find themselves in situations of this kind. Even if the court or probation department cannot mandate AA attendance as a condition of parole, secondary establishments such as the DMV can. As part of the court sentence, there can be a stipulation that you must complete classes at the DMV. These classes require attendance at AA. This is a loophole commonly used by judges and parole officers. The way things stand now, the most dangerous people are mandated to AA, while the most vulnerable people attend out of a desire for help. Neither party is getting what they deserve. Please see the links below for the AA Guidelines on cooperating with the courts. As you can see, AA tells members to avoid criticizing the program but to actively sell the AA way of life to incarcerated people.
Click to access mg-05_coopwithcourt.pdf
http://www.peele.net/lib/drunk.php
Is AA complicit is harboring the criminal past of it’s members? There is no doubt. AA actively recruits new members from courts and prisons (see link above from AA’s actual guidelines publications). Do not think for one second that Karla’s case is an isolated incident. Nothing could be further from the truth. AA does not want the publicity lest the truth be revealed. Why? Because if the general public knew the truth, AA would turn into the fringe cult for desperate religious fanatics which it is destined to become. Also, if the truth came out, all would see that AA does not work. AA simply hides behind “anonymity” to protect the revelation of the truth. Like any good cult, it has covered it’s tracks to perpetuate survival. AA is not about helping the alcoholic recover. No, AA is about helping AA stay in power, in spite of all the inherent dangers. The indoctrination is indeed powerful.
I did not always think this way, after all I was trained at the Hazelden Graduate School for Addiction Studies, the mothership of all 12 step based recovery. Since 95% of rehabilitation facilities are in bed with the 12 steps, it is difficult to get training other than in the steps. My transformation happened slowly and was sealed after writing an article for the Huffington Post (link below). I was astounded at the anger and vitriol exhibited in the over 800 comments on my article. The fact that the indoctrination is so strong to bring someone (many in fact) to the brink of threatening me and others who criticize their beloved program, is enough to reveal their brainwashing. Even those who have been in the program for years and years and do not even attend meetings any longer will still claim that it is “spiritual, not religious,” along with all the other dangerous dogma. The number of stories I have heard of “13th stepping” and of abuses of power financially, emotionally and physically, are truly mind-boggling.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-tompkins/alcoholics-anonymous_b_1383849.html
So now you know – convicted criminals are routinely mandated to attend 12 step meetings as a condition of their parole. Jarloslava said to me while sitting in her lovely kitchen, “I have no reason to live anymore. My only reason to get out of bed in the morning is my attempt to get justice for Karla. My joy is gone.” They are completely lost and are grieving a loss of incomprehensible magnitude. The worst nightmare of a parent has come to pass for them.
What makes matters even worse is that they are rightfully suing AAWS (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services), but are having a very difficult time finding the proper representation. There are convicts sitting next to our daughters in AA meetings, the Mendez’s have a strong wrongful death case against AAWS and yet, Earle has more rights and protection in jail than Jaroslava and Hector have in their attempt to get justice for Karla. This lovely American couple is looking to our justice system for the help they deserve. Thus far, we are failing them. There is no excuse for allowing the dangerous practices of AA to continue. Exposing the truth is the only solution.
The beginning of the truth rests in finding true justice for Karla Brada.
{For secular help please refer to the link below for the many safe and secular alternatives available.]
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/top-10-best-alcoholics-anonymous-alternatives-list
I am glad you have written this article, this information needs to be public and alternative views of what is going on in “recovery” need to be available to people. Besides the horrific tragedy of Karla’s murder, there is another aspect this story reveals that is a more subtle abuse of people in recovery, because of the assumptions about them promoted by AA and the recovery industry, quote:
“Months later, after an autopsy was finally conducted at the insistence of Karla’s family”
With this statement I take it that since Karla was in AA, it was automatic to believe it was a drug overdose (even though she was someone who drank too much rather than drugged too much). I have been in the emergency room with someone (my husband) completely sober for 20 years who was experiencing severe kidney problems, on his way to kidney failure, because of being prescribed a wrong medication. That was not the worst though, the worst was that since he made sure the medical staff knew that he was a “recovering alcoholic” they assumed that his kidney failure was of his own making, and that he had simply over-doased on a medication that can’t even cause a person to get high. And when I tried to tell the nurse in charge that this was most certainly not the case, I was told to be quiet, that she would only speak with my husband (who was in pretty bad shape and not stating things well). We were lucky that the nephrologist that came in was completely no-nonsense and went by what he found rather than assumption based on prejudice.
Years and years of the recovery industry promoting Bill Wilson’s layman’s theories about the “alcoholic personality” as if they had been handed down by God have done nothing but disparage the character of anyone labled alcoholic or addicted to the point that getting unbiased medical care and even justice when murdered can be a problem. I am also sure there will be those who will comment on your article who basically try to blame Karla or even “slut-shame” her simply because she was “lowly” enough to have sought help for a drinking problem to begin with. All of these will be comments from people in “recovery”. I am in “recovery” but I see things more and more that scare me about the way the whole idea of recovery has gone. It’s become an entity that can do quite a bit of harm, and it needs the light shown on it.
Thank you so much for your comment bordercollie. You take it correctly … the police just assumed she died from an overdose because of her involvement in AA. Also, I am becoming more and more convinced that Karla did not drink too much but she was a pawn in this game of recruiting people and brainwashing them. Apparently after her accident, she was taken to the hospital where the attending doctor referred her to Action Family Counseling, where she was bussed to AA meetings everyday. (I have not verified this claim). Having a bac of .10 is not even enough to be diagnosed ‘alcoholic’ and Karla’s bac was .08. She was looking for friends, support, and love (and she trusted the doctor) – things that are scarce in the cult AA. The most frightening aspect of this case is the time Eric Earle was allowed free rein to continue to harm women – for over 17 years. He should have been locked up long ago. Karla’s death is proof of that.
I am so sorry (yet not surprised) to hear of your treatment in the hospital. How disrespectful and scary. The stigma of addiction, due to the lies of AA, are indeed deadly, even for health care professionals.
Thank you for your insights and eloquence. I will continue to shed light on the harm inherent in AA no matter how much the devotees balk. What’s interesting is that days ago, this article was posted on the orange papers forum (link below).
http://www.orange-papers.org/forum/node/3095
So far, there is only one comment, from the original poster. As you’ll see, he is only supportive of the truth as you are. I anticipated some backlash in spite of orange papers forum being a truth forum for the steps. There are many pro AA members but they have not defended their program yet. I am surprised but relieved. Also, the article has been published in the Patch. (link below)
http://pacificpalisades.patch.com/blog_posts/parents-worst-nightmare
As you can see here, there are typical comments from a so-called therapist. She knows not what she is doing but I did not let her get away with it.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment here.
Thank you for writing this article Laura. I had no idea Eric had such a long criminal record. This really needs to get exposed. My heart goes out to the parents.
You’re welcome AntiD. My heart aches for them too, especially since they (along with most of the general population) had been fed a pack of lies about safety in AA. It was painful to hear all this from Karla’s mom. She is a beautiful woman with a tender heart.
I too was horrified to read Earle’s criminal record and the length of time he was allowed to walk around free. It took Karla’s death for him to finally be locked up. AA is complicit, no doubt. Whether or not they are punished and held accountable is another matter. Lawyers we have spoken with are trying but as you know, they need to find a duty of care in AA literature. Without that, it is very difficult. Wilson knew how to cover his ass.
Thanks for writing. This keeps me up at night. I can only imagine what her mom feels like.
This is an excellent article. I hope certain parts are not true. 😦 But Im doing some digging. Great great article. Im trying to help you get it published on a larger scale. Thank you for your work. We can publish on my front page as well.
Thanks Massive! There has been a lot of interest recently and lots of sharing. What AA devotees do not realize it the more they comment (mostly ad hominem attacks of course) the more exposure the information gets. ; )
Unfortunately the DMV can and does mandate AA attendance. See link below.
http://www.myduiattorney.org/dui-tips/dui-classes-what-you-need-to-know.html
Laura there is a story on http://www.nadaytona.org about a sponsor who was murdered by his sponsee in Charlotte NC. It is a breaking news story check it out. But the other news is that the newspaper pulled it in about 20 minutes! What about doing a story about the press covering these stories up? I wonder if you can get the newspaper to comment on why they did. Massive talks about it here.
http://leavingaa.com/is-narcotics-anonymous-blocking-the-freedom-of-the-press/
I have learned that antagonizing the media is counter productive. The way to go about this is to show how AAWS coerces the media into covering up for them.
Thank you for this, it is very sad that these crimes keep being swept under the table. It is also important to get these stories out there. I’m so happy that is was captured before it was pulled. Great work!
Lookie here.
http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=39
They are expressing their gratitude for the media’s effort to observe their tradition of anonymity.
They then request their continued cooperation and thank them for it.
They then make it known that they do not comment of matters of public controversy.
Of course not! The truth would shut them down! Nice fellowship.
That attorney is wrong Laura. It is not totally up to AA to decide if they have a duty of care or not. Nobody actually admits to it, In fact many people will have people sign away rights to sue to use their services and take no responsibility. Yet the truth is if they are negligent- they can be sued. AA has already been sued. Thats why they have insurance coverage. NA tells groups to get coverage because individuals members can be sued as well and implicate NA World Services.
I believe what he is saying is that in order to bring a wrongful death case, he needs AA documents proving they have duty of care. The law protects the criminals first in this country, the victims are further victimized. Innocent until proven guilty is important though.
He wants to help but he also knows what information he needs to make the charges stick.
Thanks so much for writing. You’re wonderful.
Perhaps some reading on Orange Papers should be required reading. One poster there is very versed in research and he isn’t of the opinion that this suit will go anywhere. However, he does have some idea of some ways that could very well work to bring about change.
I don’t know about anyone else here but I read the op forum often. I have seen the different ideas comparing the AA problems to the Catholic Church and boy scouts child abuse.
I have also spoken with lawyers who take on wrongful death cases like Karla’s, but without definitive proof of duty of care, AA is unlikely to be held accountable.
The one bright spot is for a lawyer to demand AA’s governing documents (which are apparently not available to the public). These documents may provide duty of care.
Thank you for writing in.
Thankyou for taking the time to do this. The ABA Journal has now picked it up, and the comments are grabbing some attention, I am guessing you have seen them, but it is quite a war zone.
A bunch of lawyers getting to see these things may be a game changer for the recovery industry. Thank you for shedding light on this huge problem.
Change is going to come.
deco
You’re welcome! Thank you for taking the time to comment. I’ve seen the ABA Journal article about this. Of course in his first sentence, he claims AA has helped many get better – which we all know to be false. AA takes credit for spontaneous remission and then brainwashes those members to defend the cult and recruit others. Then of course, AA actively recruits from prisons and has enrolled judges, parole officers and lawyers into the program to keep people out of crowing jails – and into the general population. Great idea.
Change is indeed coming. It’s about time.
Hello, my sincerest condolences to the parents. In attending AA meetings I’ve had 4 attempts made on my life by Steve Greisler, Mike Murphy, the son of a Reno Sheriff’s deputy named Bob Keller etc. They stalked me, beat my pregnant girlfriend and tried to kill me. I quit going but eventually went back to get sober. A monster named Alwyn Martin (Yes, the same one mentioned in Jack Walraven’s O.J. Simpson Trial Transcripts) had me kidnapped and tortured. She stole my businesses etc. The AA members are some of the worst monsters that have ever lived. I’m sober today, I go to meetings but I hope the parents win in their lawsuit, I’d like to see the killer go to jail for life. It’s a shame these monsters are there too.
Thank you for writing Sean. So wait, I am flabbergasted. If all you say actually happened to you, which I have no doubt it is all factual … why, why, why in the name of all that is love are you STILL GOING TO MEETINGS?!?!?!?
This is one mind-fuck cult if the abuse, stealing, stalkings, beatings, murder attempts, kidnapping and torture happened to you, and yet you are still a member. Thank you for the most indisputable truth of the dangers inherent in the cult religion commonly known as Alcoholics Anonymous. Absolutely astonishing.
More questions. I’m sorry, I looked and didn’t see a function to email you so, I’m posting here. I’m Googling all this information on Karla Brada but there are some questions I can’t seem to answer. She had two stints in rehab, right? Does anyone know what landed her in the first one? Also, it seems the incident that landed her in rehab the second time was a traffic incident where she blew a .08. For a woman Karla’s size, she could easily blow that after two, maybe 3 shots. Does anyone know what exactly got Karla convinced she was an addict in the first place? I’m seriously wondering. There is no indication in the articles I’m reading that the methadone in her system was prescribed to her, but considering the effects of taking too much, I’m seeing where it could have been real handy for Earle to dose her with. It seems it generally comes in a soluble tab or liquid. Yes, I’m speculating and clearly the prosecution had to shy away from such assertions but, so much about this whole thing just doesn’t smell right to me.