Quick recap: John Becker from Truth Wins Out posed as a patient in Marcus Bachmann’s clinic in order to collect hidden camera footage of the clinic’s ex-gay therapy. As part of his ruse, Becker signed a contract promising to pay for any missed sessions. And afterwards he cancelled his two last sessions as required in the contract. Months after Becker aired the expose, Marcus Bachmann personally called Becker and threatened to hire a collection agency if Becker did not pay the $150 owed for his missed sessions. Now a lawyer with Truth Wins Out has called out Bachmann’s bluff, calling his therapy “dubious and questionable [and] not worthy of any billing at all.”
Bust out your popcorn, girls! This is getting good.
Here are the choicest cuts from an oh so withering letter sent to Marcus Bachmann & Associates, Inc. by Norm Kent, Esquire, lawyer for Truth Wins Out:
you have personally called my client demanding he remit immediate payment to Bachmann & Associates in the amount of $150.00 for cancelled appointments. In truth and in fact, these so called appointments were timely canceled pursuant to and in compliance with your clinic’s stated procedures.
According to Bachmann & Associates’ no-show policy, patients are assessed a $75 fee for each appointment that they miss without giving prior notification. Becker’s telephone records indicate that he called the clinic in early July to cancel his remaining sessions, giving Bachmann & Associates ample time to schedule appointments with other clients…
To be quite frank, in reputable and ethical mental health practices, the billing department usually handles collections. We are gravely concerned that you contacted my client out of spite, because he disclosed the truth about the discredited and outmoded techniques practiced in your office, instead exposing the way you misled the public- by denying that this “therapy” was even taking place…
Accordingly, should you take any action against Mr. Becker, we will also allege that your actions constitute a purposeful and malicious prosecution, albeit for a ridiculously small stipend. We will be interested in the civil discovery process to find out from you in a deposition how often you personally call up clients to collect on an alleged $150 debt. Your answer under oath will be most probative.-
It appears that the goal of your unwarranted attacks is to publicly defame and discredit Mr. Becker and impugn his reputation by portraying him as a deadbeat unwilling to pay his bills.
At another point Kent says:
As you know, the American Psychiatric Association says that attempts to alter one’s sexual orientation can lead to “anxiety, depression, and self-destructive behavior.” Truth Wins Out has conclusively documented your office engaging in this discredited “therapy” while masquerading it as treatment.
If you go forward with your claim, we are prepared to show that your clinic’s presentations and practices are specious and surreptitious, unworthy of financial compensation. In furtherance of our assertion, we are going to ask the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General to investigate your policies, practices, and procedures. Specifically, we are going to ask them to evaluate the purported ‘scientific’ basis for your patently false representations that your clinic offers ‘therapeutic’ services…
And then Kent delivers the coup de grace:
Therefore, we hereby demand that you immediately cease and desist from your harassment and intimidation of my client and his employer. Please do not embarrass yourself or your firm further by attempting to collect a debt that you are not owed for a point you cannot make.
Sweet Jesus that was fun to read! “Please do not embarrass yourself or your firm further.” Brilliant! Has Norm Kent, Esquire written any novels? Because if he has, we definitely wanna get our greedy little paws all over that little masterpiece.
Anyway, the letter goes onto say that Bachmann has 72 hours to dismiss his claim against Becker and that if he doesn’t, Kent will “engage counsel and institute appropriate legal actions of our own against your firm” based on the three following arguments:
1) Becker followed the rules and cancelled his last sessions in a way that should have incurred no debt,
2) Bachmann’s ex-gay therapy practice is a sham meant “to defraud otherwise innocent parties” of their cash and mental well-being and
3) Bachmann is a petty dillhole who has personally targeted Becker’s $150 as malicious retaliation for exposing the ex-gay therapy that Bachmann said wasn’t happening there.
There’s even an online petition pressuring Bachmann into quitting his miserly ways and ending his practice of ex-gay therapy.
Nevertheless, you bet your asses we’re gonna be waiting with Orville Redenbacher, some SweetTarts and a bucket of Diet Shasta to see what happens in 72 hours. It’ll be like Christmas, only gayer and with more lawsuits!
christopher di spirito
John Becker could always agree to fork out the $75 fee if Miss Marcus agrees to use it to join Jenny Craig.
Ian
“It’ll be like Christmas, only gayer and with more lawsuits!” Ahh… music to my ears.
Shannon1981
Marcus has not a leg to stand on here. If you properly cancel appointments in a timely fashion, where the spot could feasibly be booked by other people, then there should be no fee whatsoever.
Miz Marcus is grasping and coming up empty. I’m gonna sit back and watch this show.
QJ201
And of course our supposedly “liberal” mainstream media will not pick up this story.
roger
how fun, it would be so funny i miss marcus was ordered to refund the money he’s taken from all the gays he conned into thinking they could (should) be converted. snake oil salesman and colseted queen (note to marcus dont put a glass door on your closet)
Pitou
I think the complaint and investigation should go forth anyway. Dont call that bitches bluff. Just DO it!
Cam
The sad petty Drama Queen is used to picking on the scared people that come to his clinic. THIS TIME he made the mistake of trying to pick on somebody stable…..who could afford a lawyer.
kylew
I don’t understand how the release of a new drug requires rigorous testing and proof that it is effective, but a potentially life destroying psychiatric treatment requires no demonstration of its efficacy beyond the practitioner’s medical licence – if even that.
Jim Hlavac
I have been recommending for three decades that we gays should file class action lawsuits against all the whackos who routinely defame us — it is all tort actionable slander and libel and wrongful medical practice and … oh there so much. Let’s hope this is but the first. Frankly, we should take each and every pastor, politician and PAC and whomever else, Catholic Church included, and both political parties, into court every time they utter their falsehoods. Many of these people perjure themselves in their own Amicus briefs on numerous court cases — and gay rights groups do nothing. Go Becker!
Chad
@Jim Hlavac:
I agree!!!
Religion has lied to us for far too long. Arsenokoitai can be proven that it doesnt mean sodomite and hinge homosexuals. And every bible translation company that has manipulated the Greek to slander gays should be sued.
Alfonzo
Religion hasn’t lied to us, self-righteous, deflecting people have. This is why most good Christians will tell you to read the Bible, so that you know when you’re being lied to.
On a side note, is this lawyer single? He is a man after my own heart.
B
I think Becker should give Marcus the $150 – as an engagement ring.
Just look at Queerty’s picture of the two together. Their hair sort of matches. Plus Marcus would get to dump that airhead he’s married to.
dvlaries
It’s hard to blame Marcus; Becker is probably providing him more excitement than he ever saw any day married to that screeching witch.
D Smith
@Alfonzo:
why would anyone really want to read it once they start seeing for themselves the sexist, bigoted, and genocidal stories contained therein? let it fall into the rubbish bin of history already.
WillBFair
This is too delicious.
B
No. 10 · Chad wrote, “Arsenokoitai can be proven that it doesnt mean sodomite and hinge homosexuals.:
… not really, mainly because nobody can prove what “Arsenokoitai” means – it seems to be a word that Paul made up. Check out http://www.religioustolerance.org/homarsen.htm for a discussion on it: ‘”Arsenokoitai” is a Greek word that appears to have been created by Paul when he was writing 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. No record remains of any writer having using the term before Paul.’ Apparently “arsen” means “man” and “koitai” means “beds” according to the web site just cited, but they don’t say whether there is an significance to “man” being singular and “beds” being plural (or even whether that distinction is in the Greek Paul used to coin his term). Some experts think it may refer to male prostitutes with female customers (a common practice at that time in the Roman Empire): maybe these guys made house calls so each would use multiple beds.
In short, there are a number of guesses as to what the word means, but nothing definitive.
There is also some speculation that Paul was not referring to homosexuals because if he was, he could have used the standard Greek term “paiderasste” That’s a reasonable argument, but it is not proof – it’s like some guys 2000 years from now arguing about the meaning of “rentboy” and noting that if someone meant a male prostitute, he/she could have just said, “male prostitute”.
IzzyLuna
Hmmm…I have to say. On this case, I’m on the Bachman’s side. Legally, if you have a signed contract, you must follow through with what the contract states. You can’t change the rules in the middle of it and then say, “I didn’t like your sessions, so I’m not going to pay.”
Now, YOU CAN stop going, just be prepared to pay for the missed sessions since that’s what the contact says. He signed it, folks so it’s binding and legal.
Schlukitz
@IzzyLuna:
Apparently, you consider yourself to be more legally versed than the attorney defending Truth Wins Out?
B
No. 18 · Schlukitz wrote, “@IzzyLuna: Apparently, you consider yourself to be more legally versed than the attorney defending Truth Wins Out?”
It’s more of a factual dispute due to a possible miscommunication. Becker called to cancel appointments, but added that he had to because of a family emergency, using that
as an excuse in case he wanted to reschedule later to gather more material. The receptionist probably thought he wanted to cancel only one of the three pending ones, under the assumption that he would be gone only for a few days to a couple of weeks, although he didn’t know the duration. That may have influenced how she interpreted Becker’s request.
If Becker said, “please cancel my appointments” and the receptionist heard it as “please cancel my appointment”, thinking he meant the one coming up, that would explain the error.
Meanwhile Becker’s therapist probably thought twice about turning away possible income, so he bumped the question upstairs to Marcus.