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| BREAKING NEWS |
Bill Gothard’s
Attorney Sends Legally Threatening Letter to Midwest Christian Outreach
By RON HENZEL
March 20, 2002 (Lombard,
IL)
Don Veinot, president of Midwest
Christian Outreach, Inc. (MCO), acknowledged today that he has received
a legally threatening letter from attorneys for Bill Gothard and the Institute
in Basic Life Principles (Oak Brook, IL). Veinot has also released
a copy of this letter, which was addressed to him, to the Midwest Christian
Outreach web site, along with a copy of his reply.
The letter (dated March 12, 2002)
was sent by William Bock III of the law firm Kroger, Gardis and Regas.
Its first paragraph reads as follows:
 Over
the course of several weeks you have been interviewed by several Indianapolis,
Indiana media outlets and have made a number of false and defamatory statements
concerning the Indianapolis Training Center (the “ITC”) of the Institute
in Basic Life Principles (the “IBLP”) and several IBLP employees, including
Mr. Gothard. In particular, your allegation that the IBLP has engaged
in “child abuse” is patently false. |
Veinot denies every alleging that either IBLP or the ITC ever engaged
in “child abuse.” He says he merely gave his opinion, in response
to an interviewer’s question, that certain allegations would constitute
child abuse if they were true.
Beyond that Veinot would not make any specific comment on the case
due to its sensitive nature arising from the threatening tone of Bock’s
letter.
“The letter makes many vague and confusing accusations against me,
and I really can’t respond either publicly or privately until Bill Gothard’s
lawyer provides extensive clarification,” said Veinot. “Meanwhile,
I hope Bill Gothard’s followers will ask him why he thinks it’s alright
to send this kind of legally threatening letter to a Christian organization
instead of practicing the principles he teaches.” |
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