Where'd Todd Go?...
On Dealing With Psychopaths and Stalking
Chapter 17 - THE RACIST, ARSONIST, REPEAT GUN FELON STALKER PREVIOUSLY ABDUCTED BY SPACE ALIENS - TWICE
ON JAY LIEBERMAN / KD4FER
GAINESVILLE AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY
(sigh) ...Jay Leiberman. Jay was one of those weird people that every organization has, that you can't do anything about. ...One of those people who have some rather far-left-field views of the world. The government was following him. The government was spying on him. He hated cops. He was a racist. He hated jews, and openly bragged that he, himeslf, was a jew. "So, that says something," he would say. He hated "blacks". He insisted he'd been abducted by aliens before...twice in fact, in his past. There was a rumor that he was always first on the scene to many a roadside brushfire, and was suspected of arson, but no one could ever prove it. (...It was another Jeff Capehart rumor. So the question, after years of being personally at the end of a long line of falsehoods spread by Jeff, myself: Were the arson rumors ever true? For all I know now, it was just made up stuff by a guy who hated Jay. But I'll never know. But the rumors ONLY came from Jeff and no one else, I note.)
Very gullible and easily made upset, Mr. Capehart liked to screw with Jay and test him to see how far off the deep end he could make him go. (Thinking back on it now, this seems to be a common thing with Jeff.) Jeff knew how easily Jay could be made paranoid about something, or upset with someone. And Jeff often liked to get Jay upset with me, and to target his rantings towards me. One of the ways he would do this was by implying that I wasn't doing my "job" with Alachua County SKYWARN, which Jay's paranoid mind would eat up because it wants to see the conspiracies.
Jay Lieberman also went after my Asst. Coordinator, who happened to also be my best friend. According to Jeff Capehart, my friend was consuming much too much of my time and he told Jay that it was detracting from my Skywarn duties and preventing me from being all that I can be and doing what needs to be done...whatever that was. In reality she was a very busy person and was still involved in school and study. And in order to pay for her schooling she had signed up for a grant from the Navy, so she was simultaneously preparing to head off to Officer Candidate School. So, personal time with my friend didn't actually happen all that much. However, I had made it known that she had spent two years with the Doopler On Wheels team under Josh Wurman driving the scout vehicle in 2001-2002, and that she had mentioned that she wanted to put together a course for ACS spotters which would have taught people how to forecast and predict severe local storms, and how to read and interpret radar. This is something I know that local area spotters would have wanted. She had so much enthusiasm, and she wanted to teach. Alisa was going to bring something to Alachua County SKYWARN that I had long been hoping for and right when it was about to come, that's when the hams decided to stalk the gift horse.
Jay thought on what Jeff had told him a bit and decided that the best way to remedy the situation was to attack Todd's friend and to destroy her naval career so as to "help get Todd back on track with SKYWARN". ("...Back on TRACK?") Jeff had manipulated Jay into believing that I was being lax in my SKYWARN-related duties, and this made Jay upset with me. And once Jay had been manipulated to begin traversing down the trail of stalking my Assistant Coordinator friend, Jeff then began to taunt me with knowledge of this...of someone who "hated (me) more than Scott did".20 But he wouldn't tell me who it was. And when asked, he refused, even when I advised him that this person was engaging in stalking someone in the military and that since he had knowledge of who it was and he was refusing to say anything to the authorities, he was making himself a co-conspirator. This didn't phase Jeff, who only proceeded to advise me on his own twisted personal version of the law and how I didn't know what I was talking about.
Jeff was even making consorted attempt to get other people upset with me, as well. For example, one day Paul Bennett / WA4FOX and Vann Chesney simultaneously demanded a one-on-one private meeting with me [ add links to example emails, here ] so that they could resign their memberships from AC-SKYWARN, simply stating that they felt that I was not performing my duties as a SKYWARN Coordinator - which was a mirror statement from Jeff Capehart - without ever specifically pointing out exactly how they felt that I was not performing my duties. After some repeated attempts to get this information out of them, it became apparent that they didn't actually know. Since they weren't willing to be very helpful in stating any specific examples, I was only happy to see them go. Oddly, they couldn't just resign over the phone, and apparently felt that it would hold more insulting weight by forcing me to waste gas to meet with them so that they could resign in front of my face, hand me back their SKYWARN pagers, and throw their spotter IDs cards at me. This is the point where you just want to bang your head on the table repeatedly. This is the throw your hands up into the air moment. If they weren't willing to do anything to help resolve the problem, but only to complain, then they were not useful and they were not necessary, and so, I never looked back. I lost no sweat over losing those two. Paul was a little like Jay in that he had some problems of his own. But mostly, Paul kept them to himself and didn't become much of a problem for anyone. He was quiet and largely introverted. It was when Jeff would manipulate him that he became upset with me. Before this, I'd never had any problems with Paul. But after this, there was to be no rekindling of the friendship. Jeff had convinced him that deeply. Once his mind was turned, it was a permanent thing. What did Jeff say to Paul, specifically? Again...I have no idea and probably never will...just like with everything else.
But this chapter is about Jay...
Jeff incessantly tortured me with this stuff about Jay for a good long month and a half before finally revealing who it was who was threatening my friend. That's not the act of a friend. It's the act of someone who enjoys being mean, and watching you suffer. In person, Jeff actually tried to tell me that he was trying to help me by telling me that there was someone out there who hated me more than Scott and who was after my best friend's Navy career. But if it were anyone else, those people would have told me right away that someone was threatening the career of a naval officer and then revealed immediately who had said that. ...But not Jeff. What kind of friend withholds information about a threat from someone whom he claims to be his "friend?" Not just that, but this was also a threat to a person in the military. He said Jay was attempting to get personal information about my best friend out of him. I'd just assigned her the job of Asst. Coordinator at the time. She was an officer in the United States Navy, then an Ensign just out of OCS. (She's now a Lt.) Jeff refused to give me the greater important details over email or over the phone, and he kept insisting that we meet personally whenever he had any new "news". He told me that Jay intended to call up the Navy and tell her superiors that she was "associating with a known security risk" so that she would be "taken care of, leaving Todd more time to spend on his Skywarn duties." Thank god Jeff didn't actually give him any kind of PII information (at least, so he told me); but... (sigh) ...The fact that he knew about it and then deliberately withheld important identifying information from me for a month-and-a-half - so that he could watch me squirm and suffer while trying to find out who was threatening my friend, and deliberately preventing me from doing anything about it, all while trying to belittle the situation into seeming unimportance - proves what kind of an serious, stalking, and truly exasperating monster Jeff really is. He wanted to watch me squirm. He wanted to have a good laugh. It proved that he is capable of withholding important threatening information with total disregard for another's safety and well-being. Whenever I'd confront him about it publicly, he'd deny it with lines like "YOU'RE a piece of WORK!" (That's actually become his new favorite phrase these days. It sounds really good and has the effect on everyone else of making people believe that I'm just some asshole tyrant who is picking on him without provocation, while simultaneously sounding like he's giving a full-on "No, I didn't do that" when in fact he's not saying that at all.) And he used to continually put me in the way of harm and problems like that. Jay was not someone to be toyed with. He had a very real criminal history, including arms violations and threats to police and others of gun violence. He was unstable and a diabetic who often flew off the handle during diabetic frenzies. Jeff used to say to me, "Has he SHOT or STABBED you yet? Do you have any reason to THINK he might shoot or stab you? Do you have any reason to believe that he could cause you harm? Call me when he shoots you, then you can worry." He's also said, "So I withheld it. Just let it GO! Nothing HAPPENED! You worry too much!" That's a very dangerous way of looking at things and I don't know of any so-called "friends" who continually put people at risk like that. Jeff is a dangerous man and a danger to society.
I have to rant on Jeff about this point a bit, here...
Jeff continually plays with me and my life like that. He puts me in the way of problems and danger, then tells me I'm being ridiculous whenever I'd complain. He says things to the more volatile hams which makes them think I'm not doing my job, not doing my duty, and continues to remind them too, which is key. I put Jeff up against the wall on the Jay thing. I asked him why Jay was so upset with me. I asked him why Jay would feel like he needed to go that far. I asked him repeatedly if he was working Jay up and he wouldn't at first answer. I'd push him on it and push him on it and finally he admitted that yes, he keeps talking to Jay and Scott. He'd say that they approach him (which I doubted) and ask about me. To which, he would say yes, he'd answer all their questions.
"But you know they're volatile. Right?"
"Yes."
"And you know that they're only going to attack me. Right?"
"Yah, but what am I supposed to do. They're asking about you. What am I supposed to say? '...Fuck off?!'"
"YES, Jeff! That's exactly what you're supposed to say, damn it!!!!"
"...Yah, but then they'd come after me!"
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!! I frakking HATE this guy!!!
The logic that this man uses is just crazy-fucked. He understands he's causing me problems, but thinks it's okay because it's "just Todd", and he seriously thinks that it's okay because, as he's told me before, "I knew you'd be able to deal with it." But if it means they'd attack him, now he understands the danger in it all. This man is a freaking sociopath. There's something seriously wrong with him.
What really bothered me so was the fact that I had Jeff and other people stalking and harassing me in these very serious ways and yet ACOEM and NWS thought I was the problem. That reaction alone just ripped me to shreds. You have no idea how that tortured me in itself. You do nothing to anyone. People talk about you. then people with whom you've worked for years and who have never had a complaint about you are suddenly saying you're a problem and that you need to be dealt with. SKYWARN here was laid waste by sociopaths and ASPD types and they had everybody believing that I was picking on them. Wow. I must be a monster.
Jeff is always behind things. If Scott or Jay or Phil or Melissa are harassing you, it's because Jeff gave them ideas to attack you; because he worked them up. He doesn't volunteer to anyone that he worked them up. He won't bring it up and tell you unless you catch him, or you figure it out and press him. Thus, no one knows to ask him if he did work them up. Thus, if you didn't ask, it's your own fault; but he didn't lie to you (as far as he's concerned). He doesn't know the term "white lie." Understand how Jeff thinks, now? When you ask him if he did something, he won't say no. He'll change the subject and try to implicate fault for what is happening to you back to you. And he'll say the same thing to everyone else. "If only he was a better leader, he wouldn't get himself into these things." See? Then all the gullible morons standing around him always shake their heads up and down in agreement because they're weak-willed and have no strength of character. In my case, Jeff always said that everything that happened to me happened because it was my fault, not his.
"If only you were a better leader, this wouldn't happen to you!" he would say.
I'd say, "But you're the one who brings up these 'problems' and gets everyone upset. Otherwise, they would not have even thought about it, and nothing would have ever happened to me."
"Yah so? That's not important."
"Jeff, stop talking to these people. I don't want you talking about me, or Alisa, or Alachua County SKYWARN to Jay, Scott, Phil or Melissa, your wife, or anyone...anymore!!! You are NOT ALLOWED to discuss these things with anyone, anymore...because you are a PROBLEM. Every time you talk to people, they come after me. And the thing is that you know that they're gonna come after me. You're the main reason why harm is always coming to me, because you're working them up. So STAY AWAY from me! STOP...TALKING about me, and stop talking about Alachua County SKYWARN! ...PERIOD! If you do it again, I'll call the cops! And I mean it!"
I have many emails of similar conversations from Jeff. I'm trying to find the one where we had that conversation again, and after throwing blame for everything again back at me, he actually said, "NO!"
Jeff often didn't like that I didn't pay attention to all of his ideas and incorporate them. I always had to have my management hat on with him. Some of his ideas were impossible due to cost. Some were impossible due to the sheer manpower he knew could never be had from GARS or GARC because they always ran away from responsibility - especially if it involved what they considered to be "the competition". Some I rejected because I knew it would mean that I would have to do all of the work, in the end (for the same reasons). Some were just ridiculous, period. He had to have things his way, or he would give me a hard time. When I wouldn't cave, he would encourage others to come to the aid of his causes and try to convince them to convince me of the "errors" of my ways. He would attempt to sabotage everyone's belief in me. And these people would never just make a "suggestion". It always involved angered, disrespectful tones, and downtalking - and often even threats to go to Emergency Management or the NWS and tell them that I was a problem. It was a very common tactic with him. He was always getting me into trouble with people because he would make them doubt me, or think that I was stupid or irrational. He was always causing confusion in people over me. ...Except that he would always go to the people that he knew were volatile and unpredictable and who could become a problem for me. Either that, or he'd go to people he knew meant something important to me, and he'd attack their faith and trust in me. In Jay's case, he knew that he was gullible and easily manipulated. Jay paid attention to him.
...Jay died alone in his apartment and no one noticed for months because he didn't have any friends. Can you imagine that happening to you? He was exceptionally paranoid, extremely rude, an open, slurring racist, believed he'd been abducted by aliens, and that Big Brother was watching him and after him. He didn't list his real name in the phone book. He used "Robert Raven". His QRZ.com web page reflects this paranoia. Jay also had diabetes and he didn't take care of himself and he often flew into diabetic rages and threatened people - including to shoot them. He had a long, long criminal history dealing with bad check writing, and threatening officers, and numerous gun violations. It's open to the public and can be viewed online at the Alachua County Clerk of the Court going all the way back to 1979. There was rumor that back when he was in the Air Force, he was starting brush fires and calling them in. When asked, he would never deny it; but he would never talk about it, either.
I remembered that Jay had once told me something about some woman he had been accused of stalking somewhere down in Hillsborough County. I checked Hillsborough Clerk of the Court records and all I could find on Jay down there were two not-very-descriptive entries - one dealing with filing a false criminal report, for which he was arrested and served some short jail time. But neither report goes into what specifically the crimes had to do with. Still... This man got in trouble everywhere he went.
These are the kinds of very weird people whom Jeff had no qualms about pointing my way.