Sigma Data Systems, Inc.\r\n<\/p>
(While\r\nwe're on the subject of Tucson, remember this?)<\/b><\/p>\r\n
For those of you following the online harassment saga against me, I wish\r\nto address an issue repeatedly brought up by the harassers, specifically the\r\nalleged involvement of Sigma Data Systems, Inc. of Tucson, Arizona, in the\r\nharassment operation. While I continue\r\nto take the position, based on overwhelming evidence, that my former employer,\r\nCycorp of Austin, Texas is involved in the harassment, this statement puts\r\nbefore you various information concerning Sigma Data Systems, Inc. (SDSI). \r\nRather than draw any conclusions myself, I invite readers to draw their own\r\nconclusions.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The harassment program targeting me has also targeted, with obsession,\r\nArabs and Muslims. Additionally, they attack anyone critical of Israel as\r\na \"Jew hater.\"<\/b> The harassment has included death threats,\r\nthe release of personal information, libel, defamation and online racist hate\r\ncrimes including threats against my Latina wife and daughter.<\/b><\/p>\r\nFirst Instances of Online Harassment<\/b>\r\n
From 1995 through 1998, I used the Internet free of any significant online\r\nharassment. The first instance of online harassment that I experienced was\r\nduring my employment at SDSI in 1998. I received unsolicited emails asking\r\nme \"if I had heard of identity theft.\" The messages came from an\r\nindividual using the name \"the devil himself.\" These emails were\r\nsent to the same email address I had used to send my original resume to SDSI. \r\nI draw no inference.<\/b><\/p>\r\nSome Background on the Environment at SDSI<\/b>\r\n
While I worked at SDSI, I soon discovered that the office was dominated by\r\nindividuals with rightwing views. I overheard on more than one instance\r\nconversations at the small office where Muslims and Arabs were derided, labeled\r\nas terrorists and where Islam was described in a hateful light. \r\nParticipating in these conversation were the president of the corporation, the\r\nsecretary who handled personnel issues and several other workers. This was\r\nwithin an office of approximately 9 individuals. Of those 9 individuals,\r\none was an ex-police officer, another was the husband of a current police\r\nofficer and a third was the daughter of a police chief. The aforementioned\r\nsecretary has also stated to me, along with her husband, that anyone critical of\r\nIsrael is a \"Jew hater.\" Her husband stated to me that he\r\ndonates funds to the Jewish Defense League (JDL), an organization designated by\r\nthe FBI as terrorist.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
SDSI provides software to government agencies. One of their primary\r\nproducts is used by police departments across the country to screen police\r\nofficers and conduct background investigation on police officers. The\r\ncompany maintains good relations with police departments across the United\r\nStates.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
I found my job at SDSI very disappointing. No less than three times,\r\nafter making significant progress, Jack Feldhaus, president of SDSI, changed\r\ndevelopment platforms. After developing a significant portion of the\r\nsystem in Java, he decided to dump Java and switch to Visual Basic. After\r\nworking on Visual Basic for a significant amount of time, he decided to dump\r\nVisual Basic and switch to Delphi. It is unusally (if not unhead of) to\r\nchange development platforms three times on a small software project. Each\r\ntime he did, we had to start over again. In time, I learned that this had\r\nhappened before. His previous programmer also experienced such radical\r\nupheaval in development at the orders of Jack Feldhaus. Eventually, the\r\nprevious programmer quit or was fired. Jack Feldhaus had nothing but\r\ncontempt for him and continued his open animosity toward him during the nearly\r\ntwo years I worked at SDSI, all after this previous programmer had left.<\/b><\/p>\r\nConflict With Jack Feldhaus<\/b>\r\n
Originally, I worked enthusiastically for Jack Feldhaus, but as the\r\nfutility of the working relationship set in, I became less productive. \r\nDuring the WTO protests in Seattle, I spent some time monitoring those events\r\nfrom office and Jack learned that I was an anarchist. He was disturbed\r\nthat I supporter the actions of the anarchist demonstrators in Seattle. \r\nShortly thereafter, Jack Feldhaus walked into my office and went into a\r\ndiatribe. It was nearly two years after I had started working for\r\nhim. He claimed that I had cost him about $250,000.00 by taking so long to\r\ncomplete the project (a project he forced us to restart THREE times). He\r\nthen said something that I had never heard anyone say before. He\r\nquestioned whether I had finished my degree in Computer Science. No one\r\nhad ever questioned that before. I have always been considered an\r\nexcellent programmer. I completed my degree in Computer Science at the\r\nUniversity of Massachusetts at Boston in 1985. This question floored\r\nme. It gave me the impression that he was \"nuts.\" He then\r\nwent on accusing me of playing rather than working. He stated that I had\r\nmoved around a lot because I am \"incompetent.\" While I have\r\nmoved around a lot, it has nothing to do with my level of competence. He\r\nstated, \"this does not have to ruin your career, you could finish the\r\nproject and then find another job.\"<\/b> I looked at this man (a\r\nman I had now lost all respect for) and said, \"you do not have the ability\r\nto 'ruin' my career.\" I told him that my productivity had declined as\r\nof late because the futility of working for him had made me depressed and that\r\nwhen workers feel depressed they tend to be less productive. With that, I\r\nleft for home.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
Over the next few days I spiraled down into a state of deep depression and\r\nbegan, for the first and only time in my life, to suffer from anxiety\r\nattacks. I went to my doctor who had been treating me for depression and\r\nexplained to her how depressed I felt and how I could not find the motivation to\r\ngo on. I described the anxiety attacks to her. She prescribed\r\nanti-anxiety medication and pulled the medication out of her supply cabinet and\r\nhanded it to me. Since I paid her in cash at every visit and since she and\r\nI had agreed from the start that I would pay her in cash and that no insurance\r\ncompany would be informed of my depression, the only two people, up to that\r\npoint, who knew that I had been given anti-anxiety medication were my doctor and\r\nmyself. My doctor recommended that I not go to work for two weeks and that\r\nI take the time as vacation.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
I was concerned that my coworker, Michael Carroll (of Oro Valley, AZ),\r\nwould be stuck with a lot of work. I was also interested in using him as a\r\nreference. I sent him an email explaining to him why I could not come to\r\nthe office for a couple of weeks. I intimated with him that \"I was\r\nhaving a nervous breakdown\" over the situation and that my doctor had\r\nprescribed anti-anxiety medication.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
I had vacation time coming to me. I sent a message to Jack Feldhaus\r\ntelling him that I could not return to work for two weeks under orders from my\r\ndoctor and that I would take the time as vacation. He shot back with an\r\nharassing email. I replied that I would still take the two weeks of\r\nvacation and that he could consider my reply my two weeks notice for termination\r\nof my job as well. Jack Feldhaus replied with an email stating that HE HAD\r\nACCEPTED my resignation.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
After the two weeks passed, I returned to SDSI to take my possessions out\r\nof my office and handed to Jack Feldhaus a note from my doctor. That was\r\nthe last time I saw the creep.<\/b><\/p>\r\nA Very Short Review of the Online Harassment While At Cycorp<\/b>\r\n
This document will not go over, in detail, the harassment at Cycorp. \r\nIt will detail only that which appears to be connected to what happened at SDSI.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
While\r\nworking for Cycorp I was using my computer at home posting political information\r\non an online forum owned by MSNBC when an individual asked if I were Stephen\r\nDeVoy (I was using a fake name). Shortly thereafter, an individual\r\nidentifying himself as a cop stated that he would hunt me down and slit my\r\nthroat. Shortly after that, another post appeared. It was signed by\r\n\"the devil himself\" and asked whether I had heard of identity theft.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
In time, the harasser recruited an individual at Cycorp to assist in the\r\nharassment. The harassment escalated. The recruited individual\r\nstated that he worked for Cycorp and that he had been recruited to harass me by\r\nthe original harasser.<\/b><\/p>\r\nInformation Released by the Harassers Pertaining to Sigma Data Systems<\/b>\r\n
The harassers have made the following claims on their website (KOBEHQ) and\r\non bogusly annotated copies of my resume that they have posted online.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
(1) That I had a nervous breakdown while working in Tucson, Arizona.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
(2) That I had taken anti-anxiety medication while working in Tucson.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
(3) That I resigned without notice for SDSI.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
(4) KOBEHQ, the original harassers, claimed to have \"fucked up my\r\nlife\" twice. Cycorp was the second time.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
(5) All of the annotations on the bogus release of my resume by the\r\nharassers are completely incorrect with two exceptions: the comments under Sigma\r\nData Systems, Inc. reflect what I believe Jack Feldhaus believes and the\r\ncomments under Cycorp reflect what I believe Cycorp believes (though they are\r\nstill inaccurate).<\/b><\/p>\r\n
(6) KOBE SBM released a statement on NYC IndyMedia (of which I have a\r\ncopy) claiming that ex-employers were behind the harassment. Note the use\r\nof the plural.<\/b><\/p>\r\nAn Attempt to Exonerate Sigma Data Systems<\/b>\r\n
As a thought experiment, let us suppose the SDSI has nothing to do with\r\nthe harassment. As I have already stated, Cycorp is involved in the\r\nharassment. It would seem to follow, then, that when Cycorp telephoned my\r\nprevious employers in a bid to hire me, they telephoned SDSI and SDSI provided\r\nthem with the above information. This seems plausible, but Jack Feldhaus, president of SDSI, has stated to me in an email that no one ever\r\ncontacted SDSI with regard to hiring me and that if they did SDSI would provide\r\nonly a start date and an end date and nothing more. Yet, the information\r\ndid come from SDSI, for it could ONLY have come from SDSI.<\/b><\/p>\r\nConclusion<\/b>\r\n
You figure it out.<\/b><\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Sigma Data Systems of Tucson, Arizona supplies software to governmental agencies across the State of California. This software is used for applicant management, ostensibly to guarentee that laws regarding fair hiring are followed. However, there may be a problem...","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/10\/117584.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}