I figured I might as well comply with Radford’s lawyers’ demands, since there wasn’t much effort required. I throw out a lot of my redundant correspondence, so when I went looking for bits of any conversations with Karen Stollznow, I only have one left, and it’s a doozy. It included several files documenting her claims. Here’s her letter, and you’ll immediately see a major problem.

---

So to address their first demand for All communications, including email and voicemail communications, letters or memoranda, to or from Karen Stollznow from January 1, 2013 through the present including, without limitation, communications relating to Ben Radford by name or by implication, here’s as much as I’m at liberty to share.

Hi P.Z.,

I wanted to send you some evidence for my claims of harassment by Radford. Here I’ve attached my email correspondence with him for the years 2009-2013 inclusive.

I’ve also included contact from other women who’ve been harassed by Radford, and a recording where he tacitly admits to having assaulted me at TAM 2010.

It’s probably best if this isn’t shared in public, just yet. In the meantime, feel free to address any questions from people based on this info.

Thanks for your continued support.

Karen.

I’m specifically asked not to share it. Hmmm. I suggest that Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias and Ward P.A. go direct to Ms. Stollznow and get the information straight from her.

As for all the documentation she sent me, I can share just one piece, since it had been anonymized by Stollznow.

Women who have contacted me having had similar experiences of harassment by Benjamin Radford

“M.K.” wrote via Twitter:

Mar 26

Don’t know you. Knew him long ago. Sensed the minute I read your allegations that you were telling the truth. Best of Luck.

Via Direct Mail on Twitter:

KS: Thanks for getting in touch. You’re the fourth person to contact me with similar complaints. Can you can tell me about your experiences?

Mar 26
MK: Sure. I dated Ben about 14 years ago. Was always put off by his misogyny & twisting of facts to support his opinions on female self esteem.

Mar 26
MK: And of course his insistence that sexual harassment is merely oversensitive prudes and unprofessional sluts that regret office relationships

Mar 26
MK: He pushed that men were the victim. In the end, I told him I didn’t have feelings for him, he took me to a shrink because I must be crazy.

Mar 26
MK: The doctor told him that his high opinion of himself was overinflated and didn’t blame me for not sharing it. I got dirty postcards,etc

Mar 26
MK: HE did a film project inquiring about people’s opinions of him. I got cut because I told the filmmaker he had serious issues with women.

Mar 26
MK: And his study on media not effecting self esteem? Alot of the women interviewed were friends/fellow bellydancers. He twisted all the answers

Mar 26
KS: This is all incredibly familiar. Sorry you had to go through this. Did you ever tell anyone else about his behavior? Anyone else complain?

Mar 26

MK: I told everyone. My few close friends at the time did not care for him because of it. Never spoke to anyone else who dealt closely with him.

Mar 26

KS: Do you think he’s obsessive and has issues of dominance and control? I know that his ego is overinflated. Narcissistic personality disorder?

Mar 26

MK: Absolutely obsessive & controlling. exclusively couples with women he can dominate. Was too young to see it at the time, but yes, Narcissism

Mar 26

KS: Sorry for all of the questions, but did you see his behavior as sexual harassment?

Mar 26

MK: No prob. I saw his behavior as sexual bullying, but not being in the same field as him it was as simple as walking away and ignoring him.

Mar 26

KS: Ignoring him didn’t work for me! That was the reason I came forward. He started attacking my career when I ignored him.

Mar 26

MK: FWIW, there was a girl in the art department at SI back then that was really bothered by his behavior including the porn on his office walls

Mar 26

MK: Can you share her name? I understand if you can’t.

Mar 26

MK: Heavyset, pretty. Can’t recall her name. I got the feeling he antagonized her because she didn’t go for him.
Mar 26

MK: But I do recall the formal complaints about the “art” made out of pornography he kept on his office wall.

Mar 26
MK: It wasn’t xxxx xxxxx?

Mar 26
MK: If you could find an old issue of SI I know she was one of the few women listed in the art department

Mar 26
KS: Around which year?

Mar 26
MK: That name doesn’t ring a bell. I’m sorry.

Mar 26
KS: I’ll look into former staff and see if I can come up with other names.

Mar 26
MK: It was around 1998 – 2000 that we dated.

Mar 26
KS: If it comes down to it, would you write up a brief letter of testimony that I could use in court based on these comments? Wouldn’t be public

Mar 26
MK: Of course. I know how he can be a bully and I see it happening here.

Mar 26
KS: I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. This has been a nightmare for years…

Mar 26
MK: I completely understand. Any information or help I can provide is yours.

Mar 26
KS: Thank you so much. I’ll leave you in peace now! But I’ll get in touch again. Thanks again for reaching out to me.

“M.H.” wrote via Facebook:

8/6, 9:06am
Karen,
I just read your story and I am so sorry you have gone through this. I have been harassed be speakers and high powered men in the movement and told higher ups (although did not make an official complaints) and no one cared at all. I am almost sure I know who you are talking about in this story and I have complained about him too. No one gives a damn. Everyone wants to keep the status quo. Best,

Yes, I have complained about him to Barry. I also had a friend harassed by him and told Barry, but she wants to remain anonymous. I told Barry what he did to her. It was disgusting. I don’t know if I can get her to come forward.

8/9, I told Leonard that Ben kept sending me unwanted IMs telling me how
sexy I was and he didn’t care. So no one seems to care or thinks that’s inappropriate behavior from a colleague. I also told him that I was 100% sure that Ben had harassed you, because Ben has a problem and cannot be around a woman for a length of time without being inappropriate. He just thanked me for my input. Basically, a brush off.

“A.R.” wrote via Facebook:

8/6, 10:50am
I just read your article in SciAm am I just wanted to lend some support. I think I know who you are talking about. He tried to hook up with me at a TAM once by calling me a “tattooed slut.” It didn’t go over well with me as you might have guessed. And I was made to feel extremely uncomfortable by the TAM undercover security when I was being harassed at TAM the last time I attended. Anyway, I really appreciate you speaking out about this and if I can help you in any way, just ask.
Yep, that is who came up behind me whispered in my ear that I was a tattooed slut. I’d love to help spread the word.

8/6, 1:58pm
This behavior has gone on for too long. He is a terrible person. I’m so sorry you have to deal with this. The underground has been notified and as you can see the word is out. I hope that this helps you in someway and helps prove that what we all have been saying about harassment has been true. Though I am not convinced that anything will change- only hopeful. If the slympit targets you and you need support, let me know.

“S.J.” wrote via Facebook:

8/14, 7:28pm Hi Karen, I wanted to let you know that I also had problem with Ben, and I would be happy to testify to that if it would be helpful. It was not extremely aggressive — I recognized him as a creep right away and tried to avoid him, but he persisted in proposition my for about a year and a half, sexual explicit, slightly scary – mostly in his obsession with the micheal douglas vigilante film and his interest in S&M. Anyway, I asked him repeatedly to leave me alone, and ultimately complained to Barry Karr. He said they wouldn’t do anything with out documentation, but I suspect he did talk to Ben, because he backed off. I worked at CFI from 2003-2005. I suspect there are other people who have similar stories who will step up if that’s the way the wind is blowing. It’s astonishing to me that CFI can’t step up, even when called out. I emailed Rebecca about it, who of course suggested publishing on her blog, but I don’t think that’s the right way forward. Call me if you like, pacific time.

8/16, 3:54pm Hi Karen, An appeal sounds appropriate to me. I spoke to Austin the other day, and he suggested I write up something to give to the board in such a case. I believe they should fire BR as well, and hopefully figure out a better approach to these issues. There were rumors of other complaints when I was at CFI, and I suspect other people would come forward if it was safe environment to do so. It could be me that he described as batshit crazy, but I’d bet it’s someone else. I avoided him as much as possible, and my guess would be that he fixated more on single women he worked with more closely.

8/16, 4:00pm Whatever way you want to proceed is fine by me. I’d prefer that CFI take action and change their policies. I don’t really want to get into a free for all in the blogosphere, it’s messy and there’s the possibility of libel charges. I have some idea, but we can talk when you get back in the states. he would come all the way down the building to my desk to talk to me in person.

“C.B.” wrote via email:

10/23/2013 FYI – You may (or may not) be a fan of my work… But Ben Radford is EXACTLY as you describe.

That’s as much as I will say on Radford as I am well-known & work in television.

“T.K.” wrote via Facebook:

8/6, Karen, Thank you for speaking out. I’m sure your inbox has been flooded with supportive messages. They are well deserved.
As a “chubby, shy, etc., etc.” woman who has had multiple interactions with this individual, let’s just say that I believe your story without hesitation. I am sad to hear it, but not in the least bit surprised.
3/28/2014 I’m so happy to see that you raised the funds you needed so quickly. It just goes to show you how much support you have. I hope justice prevails. In my opinion, Ben is a narcissistic manipulative ass, and his most recent actions only make that more obvious. Best of luck!

---

Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias and Ward P.A. are also demanding that I send them all correspondence about Radford: All email and voicemail communications to or from any person, persons, groups or organizations relating to Ben Radford or Karen Stollznow or both of them. There isn’t much, and what I do have is all wrapped up in requests that I not reveal their identities! Surprisingly, people don’t want their names mentioned to litigious cranks.

So here are just the few I’ve retained, with names removed.

To whom it may concern,

My wife and I have recently become millionaires, we are child-free and intend to remain so. We are still relatively young (we both turn 40 this year). One of the things we have tasked ourselves with is the creation of our wills. We had discussed giving 50% of our eventual estate away (given our current incomes, current net worth and our rate of saving/investment). We expect to have an estate of roughly $5-7M when we pass. We plan to divide the other half amongst our nieces and nephews. The Center of Inquiry had, until recently, been on our short list. We would likely have left them $1M upon our passing.

We were appalled by the opening address to the Women in Secularism conference. We were then dismayed by the non-apology apology that was issued. We were disgusted by the treatment that Dr. Stollznow was subjected to. We were angered by the tepid response that the Center For Inquiry made to her allegations. We were livid at the fact that the harasser remains at CFI. Finally, I am simply saddened by the fact that the president of the CFI sent a latter demanding such nit-picking, minor corrections to Dr. Stollznow’s article on what happened to her. In the end, the organization and its president appear to have no decency.

I can honestly say that the organization lost $1,000,000 of our money in the last few months. I’m quite sure that I am not alone. I sincerely hope that the board of directors for the CFI steps in and takes action.

Anonymous

For your edification Dr. Myers, please do NOT print my personal information.

Another character witness:

Hi PZ,
I don’t know who else to bring this up to, but it’s been weighing on me for a while. I’m a devoted reader of your blog, although I lurk mostly and haven’t commented since you were over at ScienceBlogs, and I’ve been following this Ben Radford story. I knew Ben in meatspace for several years in the early 2000s. We got to know each other after he came here to Syracuse for an event, Buffalo and CFI not being that far away (lucky CNY Skeptics!). He was a pretty normal person for most of that time, although he spoke really weirdly about the ladies he was banging. Some of his comments left me feeling icky and uncomfortable, but I was a baby feminist then and couldn’t really articulate what was creepy about them (now I know: it was dehumanization, not to mention inappropriately sexual conversation for someone you barely know!).

Anyway, we didn’t see each other much, just when he was passing through town, but stayed friends on Facebook for a long time. Until 2009, when he started making some really egregious comments on FB about false rape accusations. It was fairly standard rape apology, really, and my feminism had developed quite a bit by that time, so I saw them for what they were. I attempted to point him towards the facts about false rape accusations, thinking he was simply ignorant of the information, and as a skeptic he would be interested in hearing the facts. The discussion devolved after that and he continued ignoring the evidence and coming up with the same convoluted justifications to disbelieve women as any other MRAsshole, at which point I defriended him.

This has really been weighing on me, because based on my own experiences and what I heard from him, I have zero problem believing that he is capable of assault, harassment, and intimidation. I just don’t know what to do with this knowledge. I can post supportive blog comments (difficult from work, but I can when I get home). I could write to Karen Stollznow and let her know I support her, and donate to her legal defense fund. I just….I feel like I should do more, somehow.

Anyway, if you have any ideas, that would be amazing. If not, I know you are busy so I’ll keep on reading :) I enjoyed seeing you talk when you came to Syracuse, btw, and I wish I could’ve stuck around longer afterwards.

Thanks for listening.

Somebody else who has been pestered by Radford:

Oh man I hope I get a lawyer’s letter! Interesting to hear more about Ben’s “evidence,” since last week Bob Blaskiewitz (sp?) contacted Elyse and told her to back down off Ben because Ben had shown Bob some evidence that convinced him of Ben’s innocence. He wouldn’t go into details when Elyse asked for them, saying it would be traced back to him if they got leaked (ha ha, he thinks he’s CIA or something I suppose). So Elyse immediately turned to Karen and told her what he said. Karen said Ben had got a hold of a sealed record of hers.

Have you checked to be sure it’s a real lawyer and not just Ben using an alias? I can’t imagine any lawyer worth their salt would advise Ben to threaten to sue people who have quite obviously done nothing wrong by reporting something as they saw it, i.e., “Karen is accusing Ben of sexual harassment.”

A person who is not very happy with Radford:

Yeah, in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have written that post, not because it’s wrong but because I knew when I hit “publish” that it was going to cause me no end of grief. But I was pissed. Now I get prolonged screeds from Ben trying to convince me that he’s the wronged party as he completely misses the point of my post, perseverating on the part where I said it’s irrelevant to me as far as the COI goes whether he’s guilty or innocent and forgetting the part about my writing ONLY about the COI.

To be fair, I think that the powers that be at CFI are pissed with Radford. I know I would be. What I can’t figure out is why they don’t fire his ass over this. He was obviously using CFI resources (the blog) to grind a personal ax, so to speak. Oh, well…hopefully he’s just blowing hot air.

Surprisingly, as I searched my correspondence, I did find one individual who contacted me frequently about Ben Radford. I usually hit ‘delete’ as soon as I saw his messages, so there’s only a fraction of the total left, but I’ll let you have what I’ve got. Here they are:

I love you depeche mode you saved my life

And ben think about it

What are we fighting for?

FOR THE HYPOCRITES AT THE JREF:

LET ME SHOW YOU PSEUDOSCIENCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMz90UsCglY

TAM 2013 APOSTASY

all brains no balls

homo = atheist?

http://www.amazingmeeting.com/

FIGHTING THE FAKERS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWLr5zGBC48

how we won the James Randi Million Dollar Paranormal Prize

http://storify.com/deltoidmachine/how-we-won-the-james-randi-dollar-1-000-000-parano

NEXT…

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/15-7

the end of effective social movements

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/17/us/four-ways-to-beat-the-man/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

TAM 2013 APOSTASY

http://www.amazingmeeting.com/

FIGHTING THE FAKERS

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/08/16/james-randi-the-amazing-meeting-and-the-bullshit-police.html

OH, THE IRONY!

how we won the James Randi Million Dollar Paranormal Prize

http://storify.com/deltoidmachine/how-we-won-the-james-randi-dollar-1-000-000-parano

TAM 2013 APOSTASY

all brains no balls

homo = atheist?

http://www.amazingmeeting.com/

FIGHTING THE FAKERS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWLr5zGBC48

how we won the James Randi Million Dollar Paranormal Prize

http://storify.com/deltoidmachine/how-we-won-the-james-randi-dollar-1-000-000-parano

NEXT…

how we won the $1,000,000 James Randi Paranormal Challenge

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYuIJ9y4-yeQcPZl9aR0F0g

storify.com/deltoidmachine/how-we-won-the-james-randi-dollar-1-000-000-parano#publicize

how we won the $1,000,000 James Randi Paranormal Challenge

storify.com/deltoidmachine/how-we-won-the-james-randi-dollar-1-000-000-parano#publicize

how we won the $1,000,000 James Randi Paranormal Challenge

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYuIJ9y4-yeQcPZl9aR0F0g

storify.com/deltoidmachine/how-we-won-the-james-randi-dollar-1-000-000-parano#publicize

I know! It’s not very coherent. I’m just dumping it here for the lawyers to sort out.

---

The third demand from Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias and Ward P.A. was for Copies of all blog posts or comments authored by you that relate to Karen Stollznow and/or Ben Radford.

Do they even realize that this is a public blog with a search function? OK, I can help the slow people. Here are links:

All posts that mention Stollznow.

All posts that mention Radford.

---

I’ll now send a link to this post to Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias and Ward P.A. in order comply as fully as I can to their demands. I hope they advise their client that stirring the waters of his past behavior is probably not helpful to Radford’s reputation!