PETA faction loses NEAVS custody verdict

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

BOSTON––Margaret Hinkle,
Justice of the Superior Court for Suffolk
County, Massachusetts, ruled on January
22 that People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals cofounders Alex Pacheco and
Ingrid Newkirk, Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine founder and president
Neal Barnard, Bosack & Kruger
Foundation executive director Scott Van
Valkenburg, and fellow New England
Anti-Vivisection Society trustees Merry
Caplan and Tina Brackenbush all “breached
their fiduciary duties” to NEAVS in 1996
by “failing to allow Theo Capaldo to stand
for election as the duly nominated sole candidate
for president” of NEAVS at the 1996
annual meeting; removing Fund for
Animals president Cleveland Amory from
his dual role as NEAVS president “without
cause”; and “delegating to the executive
committee,” which they created, “excessive
powers and authority.”

Wrote Hinkle in a 16-page decision
issued in settlement of a two-year
struggle for control of NEAVS, “Credible
evidence warrants the inference, which I
make, that some individuals, particularly
Mr. Pacheco, viewed Capaldo as likely to
be unsupportive of continued funding from
NEAVS for organizations with which they
were allied. For example, Mr. Pacheco is
president and a director and Ms. Newkirk is
the managing director of PETA. PETA has
received significant funding from NEAVS.”
A coalition assembled by PETA
and The Fund had controlled NEAVS since
ousting former Massachusetts probate judge
Robert Ford from the presidency in 1988.
Convicted of misconduct for his operation
of NEAVS, Ford was in March 1989 censured,
suspended from administrative
duties, and fined $75,000 by the
Massachusettes Supreme Judicial Court.
Ford left NEAVS with $8.6 million
in assets. The most recent NEAVS filing
of IRS Form 990 showed assets after
fiscal 1995 were down to $5.8 million.