USARK/Andrew Wyatt, What's the story?

Andrew and Erika both had posted on their facebook re: "The Truth is Out There".

Essentially, these posts were hinting that some alternative story (other than Ken's) existed and that the allegations they were facing from the Reptile Nation were false.

All of these posts, in addition to the one in which Wyatt taunted and teased Ken, have been erased.

What's the matter Wyatt - what happened to the Truth? Is it not out there anymore?

I predict that very soon, Zuzana's bar-be-quing of you over your lies and rumor-mongering about the false PIJAC compromise in Nevada will also be erased from your Facebook pages.

At some point we will also get the 2012 financials from USARK - and then we will be able to see if there was indeed a payoff to you.

From now on I am taking regular snapshots of your Facebook page. Be very careful what you post Andrew.

You've been very clever hinting that there is some deep dark secret in Ken Foose's past. Why don't you just sack up and admit that the only thing you were hinting at was outing his estranged father?

Originally Posted by Ken Foose

First, I'd like to say thanks to Bob, Kim Bell and especially Kim Lucas. And second, I'd like to make one correction on what Bob posted.

Yes, Erika did a background check on me at the request of Justin Mietz. Yes, she found a man named Ken Foose who was convicted of child molesting. But she pulled up the wrong person. It was not me. Then she said it was the fault of the source. Then she said she "fixed" my record on the Internet. This is false. There was nothing to fix. I have no criminal record of any kind. She had the wrong guy. Then, once she realized her mistake, she tried to make it sound like she was helping me by "fixing" the mistake. This was stated to get her off the hook of telling people I'm a child molester. I'm not letting her off the hook. And Justin Meitz, you are not off the hook either. And Andrew, well, what can I say. I once called you my friend. I backed you up. I joined USARK and provided thousands of dollars in cash and product because of you. I never rocked the boat, and I kept to my own business. I never did anything to you, ever. We were friends. And this is what I get as a reward? Thanks pal. I'm far from done with you yet.

So, let me get this straight to make sure I understand what is being claimed.

This Erika found what turned out to be false information about Ken Foose on the internet and generated a report based on that information. Apparently this report became public via hearsay, yet the report itself has not been actually physically reviewed by anyone outside of a very tight circle (perhaps just Erika and Andrew Wyatt). Later finding out that the information was false, not only did Erika destroy that report, but "fixed" the information at the source of where she got that information from. So did she also destroy the evidence of her efforts to "fix" that information as well? She is an attorney? One would think that an attorney would recognize the importance of retaining evidence, wouldn't one? Why would an attorney destroy the PROOF that the source of a damaging report (which was also destroyed) was the source of such a report?

And at any time did the internet "source" of said information attempt to contact Mr. Foose to corroborate not only the information they had on file, but also that a person attempting to "fix" that information not only had the authority to do so, but the facts she was presenting were actually correct and factual?

Uh huh..............

Erika continues give conflicting info:

Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:30:43 -0700
From: Erika N. Walsh
Subject: The Current Situation
To: Brian Potter; Bob Ashley
CC: Andrew Wyatt

Bob and Brian,

I wanted to jump in here and to clear a few things up regarding the current situation.

First, regarding public records searches, I am an attorney and I do them all the time. I screen every prospective new client and opposing party. I ran public records searches on Potter, Wyatt and USARK before I ever got involved with the herp community. In Ohio, I ran public records searches on multiple business owners and screened many out before referencing them in testimony. The reasons for doing this I think are obvious. There are a lot of people with civil and/or criminal backgrounds that are relevant to legislative issues. I am not talking about DUIs or IRS liens. It is important to know if someone was convicted of a violent crime, a crime involving deception (fraud, embezzling, etc.) or a crime involving animals. Those kinds of people pose a risk to our goals of fighting legislation and we need to know that information before we are in the middle of an engagement. Rest assured, our opponents in these legislative battles have access to the same attorney databases I do. We would rather know in advance if we have an issue than to read about it in the newspaper.

When Ken Foose posted on Facebook that he wanted to lead the fight in NV for the time being without involvement from USARK, Wyatt backed his play. Wyatt has his plate full in Virginia and Washington DC at the moment and Senator Roberson is not going to introduce a bill until February. USARK has made no forays into NV as of this date and was not planning to do so until seeing what headway Foose could make there. (Notwithstanding the fact that we are getting many communications from members of the NV herp community and the exotic animal community to engage.)

As a matter of standard operating procedure, I did a public records search on Ken Foose. I do these all the time and usually never even discuss them with Wyatt. Foose's search turned up a number of criminal convictions. The record pulled was for Kenneth W. Foose, II, husband of Kimberly Foose, owner of Exotic Pets, birth date of 3/1959, both his home and business addresses listed, executive affiliation with Southern Nevada Herpetological Society. This *is* our Ken Foose, not his father.

I spoke to Wyatt about this information and he instructed me not to discuss it with anyone and to keep it to myself, which I did. Wyatt has discussed it with no one.

Justin Meitz later talked to me about the NV legislation. He said he had been hearing rumors from old timer herpers that Foose had had some legal entanglements and I told him I had heard the same. No specifics were discussed. Meitz has forwarded me his correspondence with Kim Foose from yesterday. All he told her was that he had heard rumors and I had asked him about those rumors.

I then raised the issue to Potter that I had done a public records search on Foose and it contained information that there were criminal convictions. When Potter asked me if Ashley should ask Foose, I said yes so that it could be cleared up and what he had to say. To this day, the only people with whom I have discussed this are Wyatt, Potter and Meitz (to the limited extent explained above). No one has seen the actual report except me. Wyatt does not even have it. Wyatt was cross with me for raising the issue to Potter and is furious with me now because of the way it has been blown out of proportion.

The idea that this information is somehow being manipulated to denigrate Foose by Wyatt, me or USARK is preposterous. To the contrary, it has been very much protected. If Foose has a complaint, it is against the public records that are available out there. If the information is incorrect, that is a terrible gaffe on the part of the records databases. Nonetheless, it is there. It is discoverable, and I am not the one who put it there. Think about it. If we wanted to discredit Foose, we could have removed the headers and released the report publicly and let it speak for itself. That was not done. It was not done because we protected the information and instead I chose to ask Brian about it.

I am still not going to disseminate this report, not even to this small group, because it will take on a life of its own. However, I have invited Potter to have lunch with me this week and I will show it to him so that he can see with his own eyes and make his own judgment. Frankly, Foose should be grateful that we brought this to his attention so that he can deal with it if necessary and that it has not been distributed or discussed beyond the circle I have described. Anyone else who knows about this at this point has been told by someone other than me or Wyatt.

If you have a question about this, please let me know directly.

Erika

Remember that post folks, because today, the story has changed again:

....to be crystal clear, I have the corrected report of Kenneth W. Foose, II, born in 1959 with the erroneous criminal record of his father (born in 1938) removed from Kenneth Foose II's public records, per Westlaw.

I called Westlaw this morning and was told by a reference attorney that subscriptions are not limited to attorneys, but she could not tell me with certainty how much it would cost and what databases are available to non attorneys.

I just received a call from Brian Potter today. Brian Potter is the only person other than me who has ever seen the original report. Brian informed me that after a telephone conference as of this morning, he and Bob Ashley will be removing all reference to these events from the NARBC page and their individual pages.
Erika N. Chen-Walsh
Herp Alliance
The Future of Herpetoculture

At the time of her communication with Bob and Brian in September, she had already "fixed" the report, and nobody had seen it. How is it that Brian has seen the original when she had already fixed?

From the above post:

Erika


I called Westlaw this morning and was told by a reference attorney that subscriptions are not limited to attorneys, but she could not tell me with certainty how much it would cost and what databases are available to non attorneys.





Westlaw is often available free in law libraries to the public, sometimes they will limit each person searching the database to a specific amount of time such as 30 minutes. Often places like law libraries pay a contract amount and are not charged by the minute, but in any case the services are often available free to the public.
Those who seek facts, sometimes others will deliberately paint the path to knowledge as difficult and fraught with technical difficulties or expenses.

The hit's just keep coming .I hope all the people defending Wyatt would be just as critical of Ken or supportive of Wyatt had they been in Ken's shoes .I wonder if they have ever pondered that question ? I THINK NOT .So Wyatt supporters.....Try to be Ken for the day ,have your good name ran through the mud ,sit there quietly for months in order to preserve some decency ,then get trashed for telling the truth ,all because of some money. Your illustrious wonder boy Wyatt wanted to furher line up more donations ,to go where ? .SIMPLE GREED FOR MONEY .

As far as al the legal ramifications go ,all that will be determined in the court system ,but we are the court of public opinion ,and that court needs to get beyond this .I don't know Ken ,or Wyatt .Ken once did an inquiry on me ,and another member ,decided to add his own personal bias off this site,(cowardly imho,the other member ,not Ken) and Ken decided not to do business with me ,so some could say I might have a bias against Ken .I never did ,because he contacted me personally and handled it like a man would .

I think he has handled this the same way .Wyatt ,on the other hand ,with his veiled inferences ,did not .He knew that information was erroneous .He knew it would inflict damage to Ken's name ,and his business .It would also damage the credibility of USARK from there on .Now it should be easy to see why he would engage in such a reckless manner .His decision was preemptive .He knew he was gone ,and now it was time to ruin USARK on the way out .He knew he was forming another group ,and he had to cause and inflict damage .DIVIDE AND CONQUER .It has been a tactical strategy for years .Wyatt did not care about the collateral damage(the Herp community) ,he wanted one thing .That thing should be easy to see .

Thank you for sharing your story, Ken. I don't know you personally but I wish you the best of luck with this. I hope you get every penny they own and then some. If anything it seems their plan to slander you has backfired, as you've gotten quite a bit of positive publicity from this!

Wish I could feel sorry for you, ken, but as far as I'm concerned, you are no better than the people you are accusing... Why did you bring up Justin's name like that? Absolutely NO reason to. He did not do what you are suggesting.

Originally Posted by jbt123

Wish I could feel sorry for you, ken, but as far as I'm concerned, you are no better than the people you are accusing... Why did you bring up Justin's name like that? Absolutely NO reason to. He did not do what you are suggesting.

What did Justin do then? What "rumors" did Justin hear that he took to Walsh "later"?

According to Erika, "Justin Meitz later talked to me about the NV legislation. He said he had been hearing rumors from old timer herpers that Foose had had some legal entanglements and I told him I had heard the same."

Which old timers? What legal entanglements? Ken has said he had no criminal past. For Justin to "hear" the rumors, he would have had to been privy to the information found in the report. That means he either initiated it as Ken suggested, was told by Andrew or Erika, or some "old timer" came up with some juicy rumor at the same time the others were spreading what they found in the report.