We've not only got smoke in this situation, we've got fire.

I've met Jim LaMattery personally, and exchanged some emails with him over the last year. If I didn't have personal experience with him that tended to agree with WC's article, I would probably think it was all made up. It really is almost too strange to believe.

In April of last year, I was away from home on business. I got back to the hotel, and checked my email. Jane asked me if I would please look at a series of emails between her and Jim LaMattery.

In these emails, Jim was asking Jane to give him any information she might have so he could turn it over to the FBI.

Jane and I were already aware of the FBI investigation, and had been before Jim suddenly appeared on the ex-member scene. I already had the name and telephone number of the Agent in charge of the investigation. Jane told him that if she had any information for the FBI, she would contact the agent herself.

Then Jim became very agressive toward Jane, demanding information, and threatening her if she didn't give it to him.

This is the point where I stepped in, and emailed LaMattery asking him very politely to please stop emailing my wife, and if he had any questions, to direct them to me in the future.

Then, he became very agressive toward me, and suggested that I had something to hide, and asked how many children I had abused when I was in The Family.

As everyone here knows, I was never in The Family. In fact, I raised two children born in The Family as my own, which is more than Jim can say about his own kids.

His remarks to me were agressive, offensive, and completely out of line. After that, I have no problem believing the accounts of SGA's who also say that Jim was threatening and abusive toward them when they also told him that if they had anything to say they would say it directly to the FBI.

Some people now believe that Jim was gathering this information to use in his book, "Stealing God":

http://lamatteryresource.org/projects/stealing-god

I also find it interesting, that Jim explains that he is not welcome on boards like NDN because of his stance against The Family:

"The controversy that has arisen around me on the former member website chat boards has its origins in the public stand that I have taken against The Family International and its various charitable fronts."

http://lamatteryresource.org/letters/controversy

He goes on to suggest that the people who have prevented him from operating on the ex-member sites have, in effect, been paid off by The Family.

Take a look at this statement, that is in the document from the link above:

"Controversy arose once I made it clear that I felt that individuals who had left TFI membership fell into two camps- one which I could sympathize with and support, and one which I could sympathize with, yet not support. Among the former members of TFI there are those that committed crimes against children and those who did not."

Doesn't this sound just like what I described from my interaction with Jim? When Jane told him that if she had information for the FBI, she would contact them directly. At that moment, in Jim's mind, she became one of "those that committed crimes against children". When I stood up for my own wife, so did I.

Anybody who has been on these boards more than a couple of years knows that WC and I don't agree on a lot of things. But, I can tell you that based on my personal experience, WC's article goes right along with the behavior Jim exhibited with me.