NEAVS, HSUS embezzling, Center for Coastal Studies court cases

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Margaret
Hinkel on June 23 ratified a settlement of conflict among New
England Anti-Vivisection Society board factions aligned,
respectively, with PETA and the Fund for Animals, which
had paralyzed NEAVS for more than two years. Under the settlement,
Marian Probst of The Fund told ANIMAL PEOPLE,
“All members of the board resigned,” except president
Theo Capaldo, whose succession to office the PETA faction
allegedly illegally conspired to prevent. A new board was
elected by the NEAVS membership. Among the new board
members are longtime Massachusetts activist Annette Picket;
Holly Cheever, DVM; Boston judge Sarah Luick; and Spay
USA founder Esther Machler. Roberta Wright, executive
director for less than a year, who served at request of PETA
cofounder Ingrid Newkirk, resigned and is to be replaced.
Hinkle ruled on January 22, 1998, that the PETA faction under
direction of the other PETA cofounder, Alex Pacheco, had
attempted to take full control of NEAVS in order to continue
diverting NEAVS assets in support of “organizations with
which they were allied.” A PETA/Fund coalition had led
NEAVS since deposing the administration of probate judge
Robert Ford in 1988. Ford was in March 1989 convicted of
mismanaging NEAVS assets for personal gains.

Former Humane Society of the U.S. vice president
of investigations David Wills, 45, of Dickerson, Maryland,
was indicted on June 11 in Montgomery County Circuit Court
for allegedly embezzling $84,127 from HSUS in seven increments
between August 1992 and July 1995. The amounts
allegedly embezzled increased each year. Wills was suspended
in August 1995 and fired in October 1995, after three HSUS
employees accused him of embezzling and sexual harrassment.
Their sexual harassment suit was later settled out of court.
Crossfiled civil actions between Wills and HSUS continue. In
June 1995 a Michigan court ordered Wills to pay $42,500 to
Sandra LeBost, of Royal Oak, in repayment of loans he
allegedly solicited while forming the short-lived National
Society for Animal Protection, after leaving the M i c h i g a n
Humane Society in 1989, where he had been executive director
for 10 years, and before moving to HSUS in 1991. Wills
left MHS with an unexplained deficit of $1.6 million. Former
MHS bookkeeper Denise Hopkins served prison time for
allegedly embezzling $56,000 of it. What became of the rest
remains unclear. A longtime protege of John Hoyt, HSUS
president 1970-1996, Wills earlier was executive director of
the Nashua Humane Society, in New Hampshire––and reportedly
also left it with an unexplained deficit.
Settling a gender bias suit filed with the
Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination i n
March by former Center for Coastal Studies staffer L a u r a
Ann Goldman, 38, CCS on June 22 agreed to pay Goldman
$60,000 over the next 30 months to do research of her own
choice, pay $9,000 toward the cost of her education, cover her
health insurance, and pay her legal expenses of $18,000.
Goldman, research assistant to CCS founder C h a r l e s
“Stormy” Mayo 1988-1997, alleged that Mayo and CCS executive
director Peter Borelli had repeatedly promoted men with
equal or lesser credentials ahead of her, and that female interns
and researchers were “considered fair game for sexual overtures
and relationships” by senior male scientists, despite a written
nonfraternization policy. Supporting Goldman, an unidentified
witness in the case told Paul Kandarian of the Boston Globe
that “Opportunities were given to women [in exchange] for sexual
favors.” Goldman gave birth to a son in March 1997. She
was dismissed in October 1997, purportedly due to budget
cuts. CCS did not admit fault, but as part of the settlement set
up a review panel headed by board member Brenda Boleyn to
insure “the center’s unequivocal commitment of gender equality.”
Begun in 1976 by Mayo and his late wife Barbara, CCS is
the oldest whale research organization in New England.