Carolyn Doran : a timeline of events, Feel free to add to this! Options Rating

A Timeline of events relating to Carolyn Doran, former COO of the Wikimedia Foundation:

Carolyn Bothwell Doran is the daughter of a former US. Intelligence officer :

Here is the obit for her father:

(IMG:http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/gifs/bothwell.gif)

The address of James L. Bothwell in the 1991 Association of Former Intelligence Officers membership directory is 6512 11th Avenue W., Bradenton, FL 34209

20 Feb 1990 ¤ The Washington Post reports on Carolyn Bothwell (Doran)'s "unlawful shooting incident" with her boyfriend, to which she pleaded guilty

A Herndon woman pleaded guilty yesterday in Fairfax Circuit Court to unlawful wounding of her boyfriend, who was shot once in the chest Aug. 25.

Carolyn Bothwell, 27, of the 1100 block of Player Way, said she entered the plea after the prosecution offered to recommend probation. She said she did not want to risk losing custody of her 3-year-old son.

Bothwell's attorney, Gerald Bruce Lee, said in court that if the case had gone to trial, the defense had planned to ...

15 Sep 1995 ¤ The Washington Post runs an article about Carolyn Doran (née Bothwell)'s former roommate and testimony that she gave after her roommate's husband's death

A former roommate of Betancourt's, Sterling resident Carolyn Bothwell, testified yesterday that Betancourt told her in July 1994 that Montague "won't be around in September to worry about."

Betancourt's attorney, Gregory Harris, suggested that his client meant that she would be breaking off her relationship with Montague, not that "Cassie was going to do him in."

The tapes were recorded at the home of Bothwell, who is a neighbor of Montague's daughter, Janet Hall. Betancourt lived with Bothwell for three months in the spring of 1994.

Bothwell testified that she bought a recording device and put it on her telephone to capture threatening phone calls from her former common-law husband. She said Betancourt was with her when she bought the device. Bothwell said she gave the tapes to investigators after she found out about Montague's death.

Harris suggested that Bothwell, who has a pending credit card forgery case in Loudoun , was trying to curry favor with prosecutors with her testimony. Bothwell denied that. "I had enough to lose coming up here," she said. "I had nothing to gain." TheCustomOfLife 05:21, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

The court transcript for this case is here.

An except from the proceedings :

Carolyn Bothwell, a friend of Hall's, assisted the police
investigation by wearing a concealed recording device on six
different occasions in a futile attempt to obtain incriminating
statements from appellant. Bothwell testified that she, already
a convicted felon, was the target of a felony prosecution in
Loudoun County at the time of appellant's trial but that her case
had been continued. She further testified that she had reached
no agreement with the Loudoun County prosecutor's office
regarding the effect her cooperation in appellant's case might
have on her own prosecution.

04 Nov 1999 ¤ Sean H. Doran dies in Caïman Islands on his honeymoon with his recently married wife Carolyn Bothwell

?? Mar 2006 ¤ Carolyn Doran moves from Washington D. C. to Saint Petersberg Florida to be closer to the WMF offices

22 May, 2006 ¤ Seand59 (Carolyn Doran's first WP account name, see below) solicited a bid to ship her Tuscan dining room chairs from Herndon VA to St. Petersburg FL.


?? Sep 2006 ¤ Carolyn Doran begins work as "bookkeeper" at the WMF Florida offices.

02 Oct 2006 ¤ Information about adding an office assistant from a "temporary agency" is added to the WMF current staff article.

20 Nov 2006 ¤ Brad Patrick adds Carolyn Doran's name to the WMF staff page as "book keeper in the Florida office (since September 2006)

5 Dec 2006 ¤ The account Seand59 is established. User:Seand59 makes their first edit, removing contact information to the European Agency for Safety and Health<==This information is now attached to the account of User:Carolyn-WMF per Danny Wool's 15 Jan 2007 account rename.

8 Dec 2006 ¤ Carolyn Doran's is added to the WMF foundation article in Wikipedia as "bookkeeper".

09 Jan 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran adds summaries of WMF Income summary (PDF) and WMF expense summary (PDF)

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

24 Jan 2007 ¤ WMF board resolution naming Carolyn Doran COO

27 Jan 2007 ¤ Florence Devouart publicly presents Carolyn Doran as COO and gives some information about her position.

02 Feb 2007 ¤ Essjay posts he provided all his real life information to Jimbo Wales and Angela Beasley, and then the same information to Brad Patrick but does not say when this occurred.

03 Feb 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard makes a Foundation Annoucement that Brad Patrick would be resuming his role as General Counsel exclusively after serving as Interim Executive Director and to now "focus on developing the role of General Counsel, and addressing a backlog of complex legal questions the Foundation faces moving forward."

22 Feb 2007 ¤ Danny Wool adds Carolyn Doran's photo to the WMF staff page.

27 Feb 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran removes Brad Patrick's two lead paragraphs in the WMF staff page and put him in the regular "staff section" with only two lines and no photo.

20 Mar 2007 ¤ Former trusty side-kick Danny Wool removed his name from the list of current WMF staff.

22 Mar 2007 ¤ Former GC Brad Patrick announced his resignation.

23 Mar 2007 ¤ Here is the WMF's most recent Form-990, which every 501c must file with the IRS (which is the least they can do since they don't pay taxes). Go to page 8, where you'll see that Carolyn Doran signed it on behalf of the WMF on 3/23/07.

20 May 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran arrested for 3rd offense of DUI.

1-3 Jun 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran attends a WMF board meeting in Amsterdam. Sue Gardner and Mike Godwin are also in attendence Upon her return, Carolyn Doran is stopped by US Immigration services because her travel is in violation of her parole for the 3rd DUI offense.

12 Jun 2007 ¤ The Wikimedia Foundation passes a new audit charter.

04 Jul 2007 ¤ The WMF board hires Sue Gardner as "management consultant". The boards passes another resolution on Carolyn Doren, presumably terminating her employment

10 Aug 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran arrested for 4th DUI and hit and run

14 Sep, 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard confirms that Carolyn Doran has left WMF, but that WMF cannot discuss the matter because they have signed a non-disclosure agreement. Carolyn Doran is free to discuss this, however

17 Sep 2007 ¤ WMF foundations audit begins, according to Florence Devouard.

19 Nov 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard announces publicly that the audit is not completed, "but will be by the end of the calender year (hopefully".

14 Dec 2007 ¤ Jimbo Wales announces that if any money is missing after the audit, he will pay for it out of his own pocket.

:::I will go even further. If the audit uncovers any evidence of theft, I will personally donate out of my own pocket to cover whatever is missing. I feel pretty confident doing that even though the audit is still underway.--[[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] ([[User talk:Jimbo Wales#top|talk]]) 21:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Jimbo Wales then sums up his view of the incident:

It's a sad story, if true, but fortunately not of much consequence."

I don't see how it is a major scandal, given that as far as we know right now, there were no crimes committed at the foundation.

Later that day, Florence Devouart admits that WMF did not do any background checks on their employees and that this situation was not the responsibility of the board, but of Brad Patrick in his role as CEO.

I would like to remind everyone here that we are still a very small
organization, despite taking care of very large and well known projects.
As such, staff is limited.
Unless I am mistaken, when Carolyn started working for us, the only
old-staff members of WMF were Danny, Brion, Tim and Brad. In fall,
Carolyn and Barbara were added.

Brad was ED at that time. The board hires the ED and has authority over
the ED. Then the ED has authority over all staff members (and he is the
one who hires them). In fall 2006, we did not perform criminal
background checks afaik.

15 Sep 07 ¤ Jimbo Wales pledges for a second time (on the Foundation-l mailing list) that he will personally cover any losses in the case of fraud.

I have decided to get out in front of the issue by pledging to cover,
personally, any losses due to theft if that turns up in the audit. I do
not think that will come to anything, but I stand ready to make sure
that it does. It is the only thing I know of that I can do to help at
this point in reassuring everyone that this is a non-story in the end.

In a further quote, Jimbo says:

If you ever hear of anything like this again, please do not make the "bad faith" assumption that it is being "hushed up". Assume that I would be outraged if I knew, and come and tell me.

19 Dec 2007 ¤ The story is broken in the Tampa Tribune

21 Dec 2007 ¤ The story is picked up by the Associated Press' Brian Bergstein, in a great deal of publications including :

• San Diego Union Tribune
• CBS-4 Denver
• Brisbane Times, Australia
• Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
• Houston Chronicle
• Miami Herald
• The News & Observer (Raleigh-Durham, NC)
• Denver Post
• Newsday (New York)
• Orlando Sentinel
• Forbes
• International Herald Tribune (France)
• Minneapolis Star Tribune
• ABC News
• Fox News

Jimbo Wales discusses this situation from a purely "Wikipedia" point of view :

WP:BLP1E

There is no problem with covering the situation in appropriate places,
but normal consensus about BLP's is that we don't have articles about
people who have had some new coverage only due to a single negative
event. It may seem like Wikipedia is the center of the universe, but it
actually isn't. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

Random sample found by searching in google for "coo scandal":
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7813032

A brief search of Wikipedia shows that in this case of a fraud alleged
by the SEC to have involved $8.2 million profit to the CFO and COO of
this company, we have nothing on either person, nor on the company, nor
on the scandal.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13555_1-9805001-34.html

This story talks about the same event as a $200 million fraud. The CEO,
about whom we do not have an article, is charged.

I am not arguing that we should or should not have an article on this
other case (but please let's not have my use of this example trigger an
idiotic war about it!).

I am just arguing that there is absolutely no way in hell we would have
an article in the case of Carolyn Doran, were it not for Wikipedia
navel-gazing. There was no fraud (that we know of), nothing bad
happened to us (that we know of), it is just an embarassment and for
this poor woman, her rather sad life story is now in the Associated
Press. But this whole thing is still amply covered by BLP1E and
non-Wikipedia precedent and tradition.

However, another poster brings up the repercussions this could cause surrounding "biographies of living persons" if this is not covered in Wikipedia :

I could not agree more. Indeed all mention of this incident can probably
be expunged from wikipedia in about twelve months time.

However, and this is the catch 22, if our concern is that a "poor woman
with a sad life story" be left alone then trying to prevent a bio may be
completely counterproductive. As mush as I hate it, if someone in the
community forces the issue (and I hope they don't), our only means for
preventing such bio (and enforcing BLP1E, is either to have a wiki-drama
and a high profile DRV or Jimmy publicly intervening. The is the real
danger that either scenario will end up in another press run for trash
like the Register.

Doc

at the same time, The Lyndon Larouche foundation also posts a piece on the Carolyn Doran sitauation.

This post has been edited by the fieryangel:

You've got line breaks that look ugly on smaller screens —

Try this —

24 Jan 2007 ¤ WMF board resolution naming Carolyn Doran COO

02 Feb 2007 ¤ Essjay posts he provided all his real life information to Jimbo Wales and Angela Beasley, and then the same information to Brad Patrick but does not say when this occurred.

03 Feb 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard makes a Foundation Annoucement that Brad Patrick would be resuming his role as General Counsel exclusively after serving as Interim Executive Director and to now "focus on developing the role of General Counsel, and addressing a backlog of complex legal questions the Foundation faces moving forward."

20 Mar 2007 ¤ Former trusty side-kick Danny Wool removed his name from the list of current WMF staff.

22 Mar 2007 ¤ Former GC Brad Patrick announced his resignation.

23 Mar 2007 ¤ Here is the WMF's most recent Form-990, which every 501c must file with the IRS (which is the least they can do since they don't pay taxes). Go to page 8, where you'll see that Carolyn Doran signed it on behalf of the WMF on 3/23/07.

04 Jul 2007 ¤ The boards passes another resolution on Carolyn Doran, presumably terminating her employment

You've got line breaks that look ugly on smaller screens —

Try this —

24 Jan 2007 ¤ WMF board resolution naming Carolyn Doran COO

02 Feb 2007 ¤ Essjay posts he provided all his real life information to Jimbo Wales and Angela Beasley, and then the same information to Brad Patrick but does not say when this occurred.

03 Feb 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard makes a Foundation Annoucement that Brad Patrick would be resuming his role as General Counsel exclusively after serving as Interim Executive Director and to now "focus on developing the role of General Counsel, and addressing a backlog of complex legal questions the Foundation faces moving forward."

20 Mar 2007 ¤ Former trusty side-kick Danny Wool removed his name from the list of current WMF staff.

22 Mar 2007 ¤ Former GC Brad Patrick announced his resignation.

23 Mar 2007 ¤ Here is the WMF's most recent Form-990, which every 501c must file with the IRS (which is the least they can do since they don't pay taxes). Go to page 8, where you'll see that Carolyn Doran signed it on behalf of the WMF on 3/23/07.

04 Jul 2007 ¤ The boards passes another resolution on Carolyn Doren, presumably terminating her employment

Thanks! How's this?

Sehr gut!

And if you use the DD MMM YYYY date format, maybe bolding the dates, the dates will stand out and look less ragged.

Jonny (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/cool.gif)

20 May 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran arrested for 3rd offense of DUI.

Identifying marks: tattoo that reads, "I don't really have a problem with it."

In the space of four months, this woman goes from temp "bookkeeper" to COO??

I just don't understand this...

More tommorow. Anyone feel free to add to this and admins, please copyedit as you see fit.

This post has been edited by the fieryangel:

In the space of four months, this woman goes from temp "bookkeeper" to COO??

I just don't understand this...

More tommorow. Anyone feel free to add to this and admins, please copyedit as you see fit.

dont forget the 1990 shooting of her boyfriend in your timeline.

"charge of unlawful wounding for shooting former boyfriend Philip L. Brown in the chest in 1990"
"He asked me to marry him after I shot him," Doran told The Washington Post on February 22, 1990."

or the 1994 conspiracy theory:

In 1994, Doran was implicated in the murder of a man who was the lover of her friend, Cassondra Sue Betancourt. Betancourt was later convicted of the man's first degree murder in 1995 after a jury trial

or her aliases and bankrupcy:

Six months after the 1999 death of her husband she remarried after meeting a man named Christopher Dale Confer in Arapahoe County, Colorado. It was earlier thought she used Confer as an alias, because according to PACER, she filed for bankruptcy in 2001 where she is listed as having "aliases," one being Carolyn S. King and the other as Carolyn Confer.


and no one can complain about the source of that last tidbit... because it was WIKINEWS:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Former_Chief_O...convicted_felon


btw... does anyone else think that article move from "Chief Operating Officer of Wikimedia Foundation was convicted felon" to "Former Chief Operating Officer of Wikimedia Foundation is convicted felon" is a good thing?

This post has been edited by Alkivar:

Accuracy is a good thing. It is more accurate to say she is the former COO, since she is not the current COO.

Accuracy is a good thing. It is more accurate to say she is the former COO, since she is not the current COO.

I was thinking more about the was to is part of the headline when I made that final statement.

Oh. Well I suppose that change makes the statement more grammatically correct, since her prior conviction has not yet been vacated or overturned.

14 Dec 2007 ¤ Jimbo Wales announces that if any money is missing after the audit, he will pay for it out of his own pocket.

:::I will go even further. If the audit uncovers any evidence of theft, I will personally donate out of my own pocket to cover whatever is missing. I feel pretty confident doing that even though the audit is still underway.--[[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] ([[User talk:Jimbo Wales#top|talk]]) 21:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

WHAT?

:::I will go even further. If the audit uncovers any evidence of theft, I will personally donate out of my own pocket to cover whatever is missing. I feel pretty confident doing that even though the audit is still underway.--[[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] ([[User talk:Jimbo Wales#top|talk]]) 21:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Holy Mother of God. (excuse me but)

You just don't say things like this. EVER. EVER. EVER.

If fraud was perpetrated at your organization, you say nothing until it is determined, you release the information, and speak solemn words. You don't give no information, and offer to rebate it. Why should he pay for fraud? That's creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

Something must be going terribly, terribly, terribly wrong. Between this and the "panic" release of Carl Hewitt's name to the press (a precedent - Wikipedia has never leaked names to the press before - it was always the 'victim' complaining to the press), something is very, very, very wrong in Jimboland.

This post has been edited by Disillusioned Lackey:

Ah, that's Jimbo's response to WAS 4.250 on Jimbo's talk page.

Evidently, there is insufficient information to know yet whether there were any irregularities in the handling of WMF accounts.

The longer the completion of the audit is delayed, the more problematic for WMF, as suspicion will grow that the delay is caused by the difficulty of figuring out where all the money went.

This post has been edited by Moulton:

Still, you just DONT DO THAT.

You don't pre-admit there was fraud, and blithely say you'll pay the difference.

This is a charity, not your sister's lemonade sale money.

Offering to do that makes him look VERY suspicious.

Not to mention IS very suspicious.

This post has been edited by Disillusioned Lackey:

Usually a fiduciary is bonded, which is a kind of insurance against breach of fiduciary trust. Very likely Doran could not have been bonded, as the vetting process would have turned up her prior record. So Jimbo is taking personal responsibility for performing the bond.

Usually a fiduciary is bonded, which is a kind of insurance against breach of fiduciary trust. Very likely Doran could not have been bonded, as the vetting process would have turned up her prior record. So Jimbo is taking personal responsibility for performing the bond.

No, what Mr. Wales is saying that if he or anyone in his gang gets caught stealing he will make it good.

Bonding works the same way. To be indemnified for a loss, the loss has to be discovered. What Jimbo has to do now is convince people that not only was there no loss, but that there is no cover-up concealing an otherwise unadmitted loss.

20 May 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran arrested for 3rd offense of DUI.

Identifying marks: tattoo that reads, "I don't really have a problem with it."

Great, now I'm gonna have to clean the bit of soda that I sprayed onto my keyboard...

Accuracy is a good thing.

I doubt her boyfriend would agree.

Still, you just DONT DO THAT.

You don't pre-admit there was fraud, and blithely say you'll pay the difference.

Let's not put words in the mouths of asshats; he's not admitting there's anything. In fact he's doing this as a show of confidence that there will be no theft.

Usually a fiduciary is bonded, which is a kind of insurance against breach of fiduciary trust. Very likely Doran could not have been bonded, as the vetting process would have turned up her prior record. So Jimbo is taking personal responsibility for performing the bond.

I'm not talking about fiduciary trust and bonding. Those are legitimate technical points, you've made.

Again, my point is that for him to ever, ever, ever, ever suggest that he's recompense fraud, and not talk about "getting to the bottom of it" (the normal response) is terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible PR.

If he wanted to subsum her fiduciary responsibility, he should have used those words. He didn't. And he's not uneducated, and knows the difference. Oh yes.

This post has been edited by Disillusioned Lackey:

Accuracy is a good thing.

I doubt her boyfriend would agree.

Touché.

Usually a fiduciary is bonded, which is a kind of insurance against breach of fiduciary trust. Very likely Doran could not have been bonded, as the vetting process would have turned up her prior record. So Jimbo is taking personal responsibility for performing the bond.

No, what Mr. Wales is saying that if he or anyone in his gang gets caught stealing he will make it good.

You completely miss the point. There are consequences for this level of failure of due diligence (Wales, WMF) and possible direct misconduct (hypothetically Doran) that go far beyond giving things back. A public trust has been violated.

Accuracy is a good thing.

I doubt her boyfriend would agree.

I laughed out loud for that.

:::I will go even further. If the audit uncovers any evidence of theft, I will personally donate out of my own pocket to cover whatever is missing. I feel pretty confident doing that even though the audit is still underway.--[[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] ([[User talk:Jimbo Wales#top|talk]]) 21:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

So if he's the one they catch stealing, will he donate the money out of his pocket in addition to the restitution he has to pay?

So if he's the one they catch stealing, will he donate the money out of his pocket in addition to the restitution he has to pay?

(IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/laugh.gif)

That's my point. The way he responded to this question implies he was in some manner responsible, if not the "fella". Which is not the impression one wants to convey when discovering fraud.

A normal reaction would be, "IM SHOCKED AND APPALLED. An investigation is underway".

Even if the "investigation" was complete crap. Those would be the correct words to avoid suspicion. (Oops, he reads, this, right?)

You completely miss the point. There are consequences for this level of failure of due diligence (Wales, WMF) and possible direct misconduct (hypothetically Doran) that go far beyond giving things back. A public trust has been violated.

EXACTLY. And at this point, assuming he doesn't know about any fraud (ahem) he should be in the "we are investigating this and taking it very seriously" phase.

As for his covering any missing money, that's absolute bullshit. If money is missing someone goes to jail.

I doubt her boyfriend would agree.

Can someone help me with this, please? I have no clue why this is funny. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/huh.gif)

A public trust has been violated.

Arguably so.

But what buoys me is that people like WAS 4.250 are successfully raising the issue of due diligence without being dismissed.

Some of you may recall that this was one of the issues I raised in my Request for Arbitration, which 6 members of ArbCom summarily dismissed as not worthy of their time or attention.

This is about MONEY, and the law. Not about someone's right to edit Wikipedia.

Apples and oranges.

This post has been edited by Disillusioned Lackey:

My RfAr wasn't about the right to edit. It was about the obligations to adhere to the norms of due process and the obligation to exercise due diligence in the discharge of one's administrative duties.

This post has been edited by Moulton:

My RfAr wasn't about the right to edit. It was about the the right to due process and the exercise of due diligence in the discharge of one's duties.

But the ultimate endgame was whether or not you would be able to edit. Not about breaking the law.

Due diligence in financial affairs is a procedural definition under accounting law.

As a general principal, it means something similar, but there isn't legal repercussions. Not real world ones. Wikipedia isn't a state, it's rules are not laws, and being excommunicated from Wikipedia is not tantamount to a legal sentence, and/or jail.

Come on guys, you're not being fair. You criticize Jimbo when he takes a "see no evil" approach and takes no responsibility, and now you're criticizing him for implying he is responsible. It can't be both ways.

DL: The "accuracy" thing is funny because her boyfriend was shot, but not fatally. had the shot been more accurate...

Heh. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/sad.gif)

Come on guys, you're not being fair. You criticize Jimbo when he takes a "see no evil" approach and takes no responsibility, and now you're criticizing him for implying he is responsible. It can't be both ways.

No, no, no, no, no. It is about "normal". In this case he is assuming responsibility, but in a bizarre manner. He makes no mention of finding the truth, or assigning accountability, or verifying that "no stone will be unturned"

Politicians make such flowery statements when they are lying their buns off.

Imagine if during the Plame accusations, Bush said, "if anyone in my Administration leaked this, I will quit".

Jimbo's saying "I'll pay the difference" is similar to that. Just not right at all.

My RfAr wasn't about the right to edit. It was about the obligations to adhere to the norms of due process and the obligation to exercise due diligence in the discharge of one's administrative duties.

But the ultimate endgame was whether or not you would be able to edit.

Nope. I didn't ask to be unblocked (in the RfAr), as I had since come to the same conclusion as my colleague, Doug Hofstadter, on that score.

Rather I asked ArbCom to examine whether the admins were adhering to normative standards of due process and exercising due diligence in that regard.

I just had a very interesting and long conversation with someone with deep insight into this situation... and I really wish I could tell you what i've learned... but I promised I wouldnt disclose.

lets just say, we're blaming the carolyn hiring fiasco on the wrong person, and the lack of background check on the wrong person.

and lets leave it at that.

dont ask me for anything more... but so far no one has blamed the right person for this fiasco.

dont ask me for anything more... but so far no one has blamed the right person for this fiasco.

MONGO?

(IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/laugh.gif)

I thought the WMF Board of Directors passed a resolution to hire Doran.

I just had a very interesting and long conversation with someone with deep insight into this situation... and I really wish I could tell you what i've learned... but I promised I wouldnt disclose.

lets just say, we're blaming the carolyn hiring fiasco on the wrong person, and the lack of background check on the wrong person.

and lets leave it at that.

dont ask me for anything more... but so far no one has blamed the right person for this fiasco.

All of this happened on Florence Devouard's watch, didn't it? As she is Chairman of the Board isn't that where the responsibility ultimately lies.

I just had a very interesting and long conversation with someone with deep insight into this situation... and I really wish I could tell you what i've learned... but I promised I wouldnt disclose.

lets just say, we're blaming the carolyn hiring fiasco on the wrong person, and the lack of background check on the wrong person.

and lets leave it at that.

dont ask me for anything more... but so far no one has blamed the right person for this fiasco.

Why do people do this kind of thing? If you need to keep a confidence just keep the confidence. If that means forgoing a claim of "special knowledge" then forgo the claim of "special knowledge."
Don't try to have it both ways.

One of the joys of being an educator is that one can coach a student to independently repeat an historic discovery without actually showing them the discovery. It's called "midwifing the epiphany" and it's an important tactic in education. The idea comes from Socrates.

I just had a very interesting and long conversation with someone with deep insight into this situation... and I really wish I could tell you what i've learned... but I promised I wouldnt disclose.

lets just say, we're blaming the carolyn hiring fiasco on the wrong person, and the lack of background check on the wrong person.

and lets leave it at that.

dont ask me for anything more... but so far no one has blamed the right person for this fiasco.

Why do people do this kind of thing? If you need to keep a confidence just keep the confidence. If that means forgoing a claim of "special knowledge" then forgo the claim of "special knowledge."
Don't try to have it both ways.

I'm trying to keep my promise but at the same time I feel the information told to me is too important to let slip by. I'm therefore trying to keep to my promise and nudge people in the right direction.

I am not just doing it for you guys to pay attention to me...

Why do people do this kind of thing? If you need to keep a confidence just keep the confidence. If that means forgoing a claim of "special knowledge" then forgo the claim of "special knowledge."
Don't try to have it both ways.

There's the tantalization factor. And the "hey guys, wake up and figure it out" factor.

I just had a very interesting and long conversation with someone with deep insight into this situation... and I really wish I could tell you what i've learned... but I promised I wouldnt disclose.

lets just say, we're blaming the carolyn hiring fiasco on the wrong person, and the lack of background check on the wrong person.

and lets leave it at that.

dont ask me for anything more... but so far no one has blamed the right person for this fiasco.

Why do people do this kind of thing? If you need to keep a confidence just keep the confidence. If that means forgoing a claim of "special knowledge" then forgo the claim of "special knowledge."
Don't try to have it both ways.

I'm trying to keep my promise but at the same time I feel the information told to me is too important to let slip by. I'm therefore trying to keep to my promise and nudge people in the right direction.

I am not just doing it for you guys to pay attention to me...

I'm too weary to really mull it over, but I have an inkling that Brad Patrick plays a more key role in this for several reasons or clues. He was the acting executive director. He was legal counsel. He quit somewhat abruptly. If I had to bet a dollar to a dime, I'd put my money on Brad Patrick.

Greg

I just had a very interesting and long conversation with someone with deep insight into this situation... and I really wish I could tell you what i've learned... but I promised I wouldnt disclose.

lets just say, we're blaming the carolyn hiring fiasco on the wrong person, and the lack of background check on the wrong person.

and lets leave it at that.

dont ask me for anything more... but so far no one has blamed the right person for this fiasco.

Personally, I think they're all to blame. Every one of the board members, certainly. 6 of them voted to support the resolution making her COO, and 1 of them voted against it but didn't go public with his/her reasons.

Timing-wise it seems to have come at the same time Brad was booted from ED. I base this on the fact that Florence said "Mid january, the board asked Brad to stop being ED end of january." and the fact that two resolutions were passed on January 24, Resolution:ED Search Firm and Resolution:COO - Carolyn Doran and the fact that the resolution says "The position will be re-evaluated upon hiring an Executive Director."

Anyway, you mean the person to blame for hiring her as a temp, or for making her COO? Because both were mistakes. A felon bookkeeper isn't any better an idea than a felon COO.

If I had to bet a dollar to a dime, I'd put my money on Brad Patrick.

Greg

Hm. Interesting analogy, when money is being talked about as "missing".

There's probably more than enough scapegoats to go around.

It's a little like Murder on the Orient Express. They all dunnit.

The ED/GC and the WMF Board probably shared the responsibility for vetting and hiring the COO.

I get the impression that the whole operation was dicey.

You're implying that the person who opposed hiring her knew of her criminal record. If that's the case then they all did. For shame.

To be honest I don't even see why it's relevant, but I dearly, dearly love Wikimedia scandals so I won't push it :-D

As for Alkivar... he's probably making it up. It's what I would do.

I'm too weary to really mull it over, but I have an inkling that Brad Patrick plays a more key role in this for several reasons or clues. He was the acting executive director. He was legal counsel. He quit somewhat abruptly. If I had to bet a dollar to a dime, I'd put my money on Brad Patrick.

I think the thread Report on board meeting in Florida explains the most. "Mid january, the board asked Brad to stop being ED end of january." So at the time Carolyn was made COO, Brad was a lame duck ED at best. In fact, from all the facts it looks like they tried to split the ED job up into COO and General Council.

The board discusses the issue and wonders how to organise itself in the
*interim* period, which all of us hoped would be as short as possible,
we decide to patch, and have a situation where each of the staff member
will report to a given board member. What is distributed is NOT (most
emphatically speaking) areas of activities, but reporting. There is a
public email explaining this reorganisation. In this organisation, which
was meant to be temporary, Brion (and all the tech staff) report to
Jan-Bart, Delphine to Oscar, Danny to Erik, Carolyn, Sandy and Brad to me.

So on top of Brad being a lame duck ED at the time of the hire, both Brad and Carolyn are reporting to Florence at the time.

Does that mean she's the one to blame? I'm still sticking with my statement that all the board members are equally to blame for making Carolyn COO, basically unless someone informs me that someone assured the board that Carolyn had been checked out.

Now, who was to blame for hiring Carolyn in the first place, as bookkeeper? I'm not sure who made that decision, and there doesn't seem to be a board resolution. There is little information out there about her original hire. I can't even find the name of the temp agency.

Finally, I think all of this fuss about Carolyn is somewhat of a red herring. The WMF's finances were screwed up way before Carolyn was hired. Michael, the treasurer, kept the books then and apparently wouldn't even show certain things to the CFO when requested. The Foundation stopped publishing financial statements long ago. That was part of what Brad was supposed to fix when he was made ED back in June 2006. Which is, by the way, the weirdest part of all this. Am I to believe that it was just a coincidence that a felon was hired as bookkeeper for the books which were already so screwed up?

You're implying that the person who opposed hiring her knew of her criminal record. If that's the case then they all did. For shame.

I'm not sure who you're referring to, but it's not my intention to imply that. I'm saying they should have known, not that they did know. And yes, maybe it was an honest mistake, but just because you make an honest mistake doesn't mean you're not to blame.

And moreover, there are other things unrelated to Carolyn which should have been made public, and I blame each board member who knew about these things for not blowing the whistle.

I thought the WMF Board of Directors passed a resolution to hire Doran.

Passed with 6 support, 1 oppose. - January 24, 2007

Who was the sole dissenter and what was their reason?

I thought the WMF Board of Directors passed a resolution to hire Doran.

Passed with 6 support, 1 oppose. - January 24, 2007

Who was the sole dissenter and what was their reason?

Nobody's talking about Danny Wool. From looking at the diffs I've uncovered, the relationship between him and Carolyn seems extremely close(and yes, I'm aware of the sexual issues: let's just say that in a workplace, that's an advantage in building a close relationship between people of opposite sexes).

Look at this enchange off of the mailing list, where Anthere explains how Danny's last day went down :


Specifically, Danny accused Florence of misuse of funds. And he seems to have been in support of Carolyn. From the mailing list: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/found...ril/028748.html

Mid january, the board asked Brad to stop being ED [emphasis mine] end of january. At
that time, there was no ED, but there was already an ED search planned,
so we had high expectations to have an ED within 3-4 months, say may or
june.

You, Danny, considers that the staff can very well handle
itself alone, without any ED. Actually, your opinion is that Carolyn can
be the ED. At that point, Carolyn opinion is the same. The board opinion
is not the same.

But bottom line, this is the board who is choosing the ED. It is not
Danny. Carolyn is fabulous as a COO, and I really hope she choose to
stick with us, even if we are a mad house. The job of a COO is a
different job than the job of the ED. Both are important and essential.
But they are different jobs. Period. We talked with Carolyn about all
this, and from what we understood, she understand that. She understands
the need for an ED.

Next step was tuesday morning, one hour way from taking my flight. We
were in Carolyn office. You entered the room and gave Carolyn your
resignation letter. I told you, "please enter the room, close the door
and let us talk together about that". You looked at me in a bland
fashion, said nothing, went out of the room, closed the door and left
the office. Carolyn run after you to ask you what was going on and the
only message she brought back is that we were all crazy. Bottom line:
you refused to talk to me when I proposed that we talk. It is not normal
that you claim I never asked you an explanation, I did and you chose to
not answer.

What I'm guessing is that there was huge power vacuum and the "temp girl" saw this and in four months, got control of the whole organization. Nobody bothered to do a background check because she was already there, having lunch with the gang, being a good friend to people like Danny and Floflo...So, since she's already "indispensable" and "a great person", they didn't even think of doing a background check....The only thing that stopped her was the fact that the board didn't want her to be ED...and then her past caught up with her.

This post has been edited by the fieryangel:

I'm sure next Register article will say,

"I will go even further. If the audit uncovers any evidence of theft, I will personally donate out of my own pocket to cover whatever is missing. I feel pretty confident doing that even though the audit is still underway. -- Jimbo Wales"

Ben Kovitz and Larry Sanger had a wonderful idea, that Jimbo's "leadership" and his gang of criminals and sycophants are driving into the ground.

How long until the community formally tries to oust either Jimbo (who has no recourse if they actually do it, as he doesn't 'own' Wikipedia in any legal sense) and/or his Arbitration Committee?

By the end of 2008, I'd say.

Its a runaway train of Wikipedia's failure to govern itself and the buffers of reality are getting ever closer. In many ways this effect reminds of the dying days of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.

I predict one or more Wikipedia Board members jumping off before too long. I think Madame Floflo will be heading the list.

I also predict a PURGE of some of the key admins who are causing 95% of the problems followed by a formal structure on admins to prevent further abuse (perhaps a ban on admins editing at all?)

Which reminds me: how is the appeal for donations going, Greg?

How long until the community formally tries to oust either Jimbo (who has no recourse if they actually do it, as he doesn't 'own' Wikipedia in any legal sense) and/or his Arbitration Committee?

By the end of 2008, I'd say.

The community can't do it alone. They need the PRESS (the most powerful lever). They need politicians to be shocked. They need the audit story to be spread far and wide.

For all this, they need information.

In short, they need the help of Wikipedia Review™.

Its a runaway train of Wikipedia's failure to govern itself and the buffers of reality are getting ever closer. In many ways this effect reminds of the dying days of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.

Who's going to be Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank? Giano?

I hope Giano doesn't drown in the Bottle like Boris.

This post has been edited by Disillusioned Lackey:

It does seem that the runaway train is getting close to the tipping point.

These train wreck cliffhangers are real nail-biters, eh?

You thought that the red on the wall was spaghetti sauce. You were wrong.

(IMG:http://www.tonspion.de/pics_reviews/3482.jpg)

This post has been edited by Disillusioned Lackey:

Is this a remake of the Claudine Longet Story?

How long until the community formally tries to oust either Jimbo (who has no recourse if they actually do it, as he doesn't 'own' Wikipedia in any legal sense) and/or his Arbitration Committee?

By the end of 2008, I'd say.

I don't see it happening that soon without the help of the foundation board or the public revelation of him participating in criminal activity. He may not legally own Wikipedia, but he has enough friends with root access to the servers that he effectively controls it.

The board owns Wikipedia. They can legally take control away from Jimbo, but they don't seem to want to. A grassroots takeover would probably take more than a year. And in case you didn't catch it, apparently Jimbo has hired a psychologist to help him and his fellow cyberstalkers cyberstalking-l members run their cult cabal support group more effectively. ("we formed a task force led by a psychologist to work on proposals")

...Michael, the treasurer, kept the books then and apparently wouldn't even show certain things to the CFO when requested....

Do you have a diff or link or proof of this? This would prove handy in my upcoming expose piece about Mr. Davis.

Greg

The discussion on wikien-l is quite funny -

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikie...ber/087334.html

Shit happens. She is no longer working with WMF. Any large
organization will get these people from time to time, and unless she did
real direct damage to WMF while she was working why should this be
treated as such a big problem?

Any large organization? WMF has fewer than 6 employees, doesn't it? We're not talking a huge office operation with hundreds of staff and this wasn't some minor clerical position, it was Chief Operations Officer.

I guess a wink and a nod is all you need in Jimboland. Research and fact checking is needed if you're writing an article but not for employees and every bit of sleuthing, no matter how questionable or tangential, is allowed when doing checks on editors but no thought is given to conducting even a cursory background check on senior employees.

Wikimadhouse indeed!

I guess a wink and a nod is all you need in Jimboland

Well, he did used to be a porn dealer. Nothing against porn, but, well, there it is.

Research and fact checking is needed if you're writing an article but not for employees and every bit of sleuthing, no matter how questionable or tangential, is allowed when doing checks on editors but no thought is given to conducting even a cursory background check on senior employees. Wikimadhouse indeed!

Yeah.

...Michael, the treasurer, kept the books then and apparently wouldn't even show certain things to the CFO when requested....

Do you have a diff or link or proof of this? This would prove handy in my upcoming expose piece about Mr. Davis.

Greg

The only public statement I can find is his resignation as CFO, which doesn't mention Michael. "I am least proud of the last nine months, a time when
the board repeatedly failed to meet to discuss proposed budgets I submitted to them or to give me direction on what we could or could not publish to the community in regards to spending."

"I am least proud of the last nine months, a time when the board repeatedly failed to meet to discuss proposed budgets I submitted to them or to give me direction on what we could or could not publish to the community in regards to spending."

Good grief.

"I am least proud of the last nine months, a time when the board repeatedly failed to meet to discuss proposed budgets I submitted to them or to give me direction on what we could or could not publish to the community in regards to spending."

Good grief.

And now, without Daniel Mayer's assistance, they come up with proposed budgets in the ballpark of $4.6 million for 2008, right?

And expected fundraising revenue appears to be only in the $1.4 million to maybe $2.4 million range (if all of Sue Gardner's "mystery donors" from Corporation Land actually come through).

I predict their solution to this problem will be to just ask every staffer and every departmental plan to execute a 60% reduction in their salaries and budget.

Double good grief.

Is she any relation to Colleen Doran, a comic book artist/writer (creator of A Distant Soil, about which she got into an acrimonious dispute with its former publisher over the ownership in the 1980s)?

The obituary notice for Sean Doran does not reference any surviving relative by that name.

And expected fundraising revenue appears to be only in the $1.4 million to maybe $2.4 million range (if all of Sue Gardner's "mystery donors" from Corporation Land actually come through).

Donations hit a new low yesterday, but they seem to be way up so far today. The story doesn't seem to have affected much if anything. With Jimbo's pledge to personally reimburse any stolen money, it might even wind up being a positive.

Over a million dollars in donations to an organization who hasn't even released their overdue financial statements for the last year, because the audit is taking months to complete, which was run that year by an alleged alcoholic felon thief. If that's not an argument that people don't act in their own rational self-interest, I don't know what is. If Jimbo really is an Objectivist, he should be as disgusted by this as I am. Altruism is evil, right?

The obituary notice for Sean Doran does not reference any surviving relative by that name.

Do they list every possible relative? She could be his cousin, even his second cousin.

The obituary notice for Sean Doran does not reference any surviving relative by that name.

Do they list every possible relative? She could be his cousin, even his second cousin.

Only through marriage, if having the same last name is anything more than a coincidence.

Starting a timeline : Please copy this entire post each time and add to it...I'll copy everything up top

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

Inserted for the record: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin (renamed RfArb/Rangerdude by SlimVirgin,)

Statement by Willmcw (Will Beback)

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson. [40] [41] [42]

The timeline of Foundation action just days after remedies were implemented from the Rangerdude (i.e. RfArb/Willmcw & SlimVirgin) and Nobs01 cases were implemented will require further reasearch to gain context.

This post has been edited by nobs:

Starting a timeline : Please copy this entire post each time and add to it...I'll copy everything up top

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

Inserted for the record: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin (renamed RfArb/Rangerdude by SlimVirgin,)

Statement by Willmcw (Will Beback)

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson. [40] [41] [42]

The timeline of Foundation action just days after remedies were implemented from the Rangerdude (i.e. RfArb/Willmcw & SlimVirgin) and Nobs01 cases were implemented will require further reasearch to gain context.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does this have to do with Carolyn Doran?

This is not a rhetorical question: I don't see the connection. Could you explain further?

This is really weird:

Carolyn Doran starts work for WMF in September of 2006 as a temp. "bookkeeper". She becomes COO in January of 2007...and then moves to Florida in March 2007 (according to her user page) to be "closer to WMF offices". (see the timeline for diffs of all of these things).

So, the big question is this:

Where has she been working from September 2006 to March 2007?

So, not only did they place the girl from the temp. agency in the position of COO, but at the time they gave her the title, she's not even working in the same place that they are?

Am I misunderstanding something here, or is this what all of this implies???

I simply cannot believe that this could be true...but that's what the evidence suggests...

My mistake, false alarm. She did move to Florida in March 2006 according to her user page.

This post has been edited by the fieryangel:

This is really weird:

Carolyn Doran starts work for WMF in September of 2006 as a temp. "bookkeeper". She becomes COO in January of 2007...and then moves to Florida in March 2007 (according to her user page) to be "closer to WMF offices". (see the timeline for diffs of all of these things).

So, the big question is this: Where has she been working from September 2006 to March 2007?

So, not only did they place the girl from the temp. agency in the position of COO, but at the time they gave her the title, she's not even working in the same place that they are? Am I misunderstanding something here, or is this what all of this implies???I simply cannot believe that this could be true...but that's what the evidence suggests...

I'm not bothered much by anyone home-commuting, even if Cary Bass did, its not that big of a deal, for a while. But what I find strange is that they would outsource a bookkeeper from Virginia, as a temp. That's weird. What made her so special that she should have been outsourced at so much bother? There's lots of bookkeepers everywhere. Why her? Especially since she turned out to have such a checkered past. That might be explained away, but then why did they pick her in the first place?

I need to hear something like, "we worked with her in the Electronic Frontier Foundation" or even "she used to be in my Ayn Rand chatgroup, and I thought she'd be ok to work with" or some good reason why they hired someone to work remotely for such a low level position........ who then got auto promoted to COO.

I'm not so hot on the spy stuff as others - I just need a reason why you would outsource a bookkeeper from Virgina, to work remotely, when you are in St. Petersburg Florida. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif)

Her user page says she moved to Florida from D.C. in March of 2006.

On May 22, 2006, she solicited a bid to ship her Tuscan dining room chairs from Herndon VA to St. Petersburg FL.

This post has been edited by Moulton:

This is really weird:

Carolyn Doran starts work for WMF in September of 2006 as a temp. "bookkeeper". She becomes COO in January of 2007...and then moves to Florida in March 2007 (according to her user page) to be "closer to WMF offices". (see the timeline for diffs of all of these things).

Huh? Her user page on en.wikipedia said March 2006.

This is really weird:

Carolyn Doran starts work for WMF in September of 2006 as a temp. "bookkeeper". She becomes COO in January of 2007...and then moves to Florida in March 2007 (according to her user page) to be "closer to WMF offices". (see the timeline for diffs of all of these things).

So, the big question is this: Where has she been working from September 2006 to March 2007?

So, not only did they place the girl from the temp. agency in the position of COO, but at the time they gave her the title, she's not even working in the same place that they are? Am I misunderstanding something here, or is this what all of this implies???I simply cannot believe that this could be true...but that's what the evidence suggests...

I'm not bothered much by anyone home-commuting, even if Cary Bass did, its not that big of a deal, for a while. But what I find strange is that they would outsource a bookkeeper from Virginia, as a temp. That's weird. What made her so special that she should have been outsourced at so much bother? There's lots of bookkeepers everywhere. Why her? Especially since she turned out to have such a checkered past. That might be explained away, but then why did they pick her in the first place?

I need to hear something like, "we worked with her in the Electronic Frontier Foundation" or even "she used to be in my Ayn Rand chatgroup, and I thought she'd be ok to work with" or some good reason why they hired someone to work remotely for such a low level position........ who then got auto promoted to COO.

I'm not so hot on the spy stuff as others - I just need a reason why you would outsource a bookkeeper from Virgina, to work remotely, when you are in St. Petersburg Florida. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif)

It's one thing to hire a temp bookkeeper from Virginia to do "account received" type stuff from her home. That's not a problem.

But they name her COO four months after she starts home commuting as a temp and they haven't even worked in the same office as her???

What is going on here??

I mean, COO is a pretty important title. It means that you have quite a bit of responsibility, especially in a not-for-profit. If this had been a "for profit" job, I would just say "you hire cheap help etc...."....but this is a charity and they're hiring somebody as COO that they don't even see on a daily basis?

This is just sheer incompetence on a huge scale, if it's true. The evidence suggests that it is. If it's not, then somebody please point us towards diffs which prove the contrary. The diffs we have suggest that this is what happened.

This is truly mind boggling. How can people actually give money to this mess???

I read that wrong. She did move to Florida in March 2006. This has been corrected in the Timeline too.

This post has been edited by the fieryangel:

This is really weird:

Carolyn Doran starts work for WMF in September of 2006 as a temp. "bookkeeper". She becomes COO in January of 2007...and then moves to Florida in March 2007 (according to her user page) to be "closer to WMF offices". (see the timeline for diffs of all of these things).

So, the big question is this: Where has she been working from September 2006 to March 2007?

So, not only did they place the girl from the temp. agency in the position of COO, but at the time they gave her the title, she's not even working in the same place that they are? Am I misunderstanding something here, or is this what all of this implies???I simply cannot believe that this could be true...but that's what the evidence suggests...

I'm not bothered much by anyone home-commuting, even if Cary Bass did, its not that big of a deal, for a while. But what I find strange is that they would outsource a bookkeeper from Virginia, as a temp. That's weird. What made her so special that she should have been outsourced at so much bother? There's lots of bookkeepers everywhere. Why her? Especially since she turned out to have such a checkered past. That might be explained away, but then why did they pick her in the first place?

I need to hear something like, "we worked with her in the Electronic Frontier Foundation" or even "she used to be in my Ayn Rand chatgroup, and I thought she'd be ok to work with" or some good reason why they hired someone to work remotely for such a low level position........ who then got auto promoted to COO.

I'm not so hot on the spy stuff as others - I just need a reason why you would outsource a bookkeeper from Virgina, to work remotely, when you are in St. Petersburg Florida. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wacko.gif)

Maybe this girl has hidden assets that only someone with a keen eye (like JzG) could feel see.

Starting a timeline : Please copy this entire post each time and add to it...I'll copy everything up top

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

Inserted for the record: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin (renamed RfArb/Rangerdude by SlimVirgin,)

Statement by Willmcw (Will Beback)

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson. [40] [41] [42]

The timeline of Foundation action just days after remedies were implemented from the Rangerdude (i.e. RfArb/Willmcw & SlimVirgin) and Nobs01 cases were implemented will require further reasearch to gain context.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does this have to do with Carolyn Doran?

This is not a rhetorical question: I don't see the connection. Could you explain further?

The "passage of this controversial article" reads in part:

Free Republic has been criticized for the frequent actions of some members consisting of threats against former President Clinton, and against the owners of a restaurant who notified authorities when an underage [[Jenna Bush]] attempted to illegally purchase liquor at the establishment. These posts were removed by the site's sysop, Jim Robinson, when they were brought to his attention. He insists that the site has had to "delete relatively few posts" over time for violations of its "no violence" policy despite Free Republic's popularity and ease of registration.

Some of this relates to BLP (which WP evidently has styled somewhat after longstanding FR policy), but some of it relates to the effort to delete the biographical entry on the Free Republic's founder, [[Jim Robinson]]. Katefan0, who was instrumental in denying Jim Robinsdon's notability, was no longer active to remove the reference to Robinson, so it looks like Carolyn Doran did it instead.

Starting a timeline : Please copy this entire post each time and add to it...I'll copy everything up top

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

Inserted for the record: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin (renamed RfArb/Rangerdude by SlimVirgin,)

Statement by Willmcw (Will Beback)

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson. [40] [41] [42]

The timeline of Foundation action just days after remedies were implemented from the Rangerdude (i.e. RfArb/Willmcw & SlimVirgin) and Nobs01 cases were implemented will require further reasearch to gain context.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does this have to do with Carolyn Doran?

This is not a rhetorical question: I don't see the connection. Could you explain further?

The "passage of this controversial article" reads in part:

Free Republic has been criticized for the frequent actions of some members consisting of threats against former President Clinton, and against the owners of a restaurant who notified authorities when an underage [[Jenna Bush]] attempted to illegally purchase liquor at the establishment. These posts were removed by the site's sysop, Jim Robinson, when they were brought to his attention. He insists that the site has had to "delete relatively few posts" over time for violations of its "no violence" policy despite Free Republic's popularity and ease of registration.

Some of this relates to BLP (which WP evidently has styled somewhat after longstanding FR policy), but some of it relates to the effort to delete the biographical entry on the Free Republic's founder, [[Jim Robinson]]. Katefan0, who was instrumental in denying Jim Robinsdon's notability, was no longer active to remove the reference to Robinson, so it looks like Carolyn Doran did it instead.

Okay, now I get it. Can you rewrite that as a "timeline entry", with a date, providing diffs? This could be important.

Starting a timeline : Please copy this entire post each time and add to it...I'll copy everything up top

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

Inserted for the record: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin (renamed RfArb/Rangerdude by SlimVirgin,)

Statement by Willmcw (Will Beback)

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson. [40] [41] [42]

The timeline of Foundation action just days after remedies were implemented from the Rangerdude (i.e. RfArb/Willmcw & SlimVirgin) and Nobs01 cases were implemented will require further reasearch to gain context.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does this have to do with Carolyn Doran?

This is not a rhetorical question: I don't see the connection. Could you explain further?

The "passage of this controversial article" reads in part:

Free Republic has been criticized for the frequent actions of some members consisting of threats against former President Clinton, and against the owners of a restaurant who notified authorities when an underage [[Jenna Bush]] attempted to illegally purchase liquor at the establishment. These posts were removed by the site's sysop, Jim Robinson, when they were brought to his attention. He insists that the site has had to "delete relatively few posts" over time for violations of its "no violence" policy despite Free Republic's popularity and ease of registration.

Some of this relates to BLP (which WP evidently has styled somewhat after longstanding FR policy), but some of it relates to the effort to delete the biographical entry on the Free Republic's founder, [[Jim Robinson]]. Katefan0, who was instrumental in denying Jim Robinsdon's notability, was no longer active to remove the reference to Robinson, so it looks like Carolyn Doran did it instead.

Okay, now I get it. Can you rewrite that as a "timeline entry", with a date, providing diffs? This could be important.

It will take a little more looking into, as I certainly do not wish to begin researching with conclusions already in mind. On the face of it, it appears to fit the pattern of the Wikimedia Foundation's lust for information management and control, in this case, not wishing to make Jim Robinson "notable," or "reputable." And the passage deleted refers to Robinson's heroic effort to do what Wikipedia often refuses to do, be fair to a living person and do no harm.

Starting a timeline : Please copy this entire post each time and add to it...I'll copy everything up top

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

Inserted for the record: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin (renamed RfArb/Rangerdude by SlimVirgin,)

Statement by Willmcw (Will Beback)

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson. [40] [41] [42]

The timeline of Foundation action just days after remedies were implemented from the Rangerdude (i.e. RfArb/Willmcw & SlimVirgin) and Nobs01 cases were implemented will require further reasearch to gain context.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does this have to do with Carolyn Doran?

This is not a rhetorical question: I don't see the connection. Could you explain further?

The "passage of this controversial article" reads in part:

Free Republic has been criticized for the frequent actions of some members consisting of threats against former President Clinton, and against the owners of a restaurant who notified authorities when an underage [[Jenna Bush]] attempted to illegally purchase liquor at the establishment. These posts were removed by the site's sysop, Jim Robinson, when they were brought to his attention. He insists that the site has had to "delete relatively few posts" over time for violations of its "no violence" policy despite Free Republic's popularity and ease of registration.

Some of this relates to BLP (which WP evidently has styled somewhat after longstanding FR policy), but some of it relates to the effort to delete the biographical entry on the Free Republic's founder, [[Jim Robinson]]. Katefan0, who was instrumental in denying Jim Robinsdon's notability, was no longer active to remove the reference to Robinson, so it looks like Carolyn Doran did it instead.

Okay, now I get it. Can you rewrite that as a "timeline entry", with a date, providing diffs? This could be important.

It will take a little more looking into, as I certainly do not wish to begin researching with conclusions already in mind. On the face of it, it appears to fit the pattern of the Wikimedia Foundation's lust for information management and control, in this case, not wishing to make Jim Robinson "notable," or "reputable." And the passage deleted refers to Robinson's heroic effort to do what Wikipedia often refuses to do, be fair to a living person and do no harm.

Yes, I understand. But I don't have your expertize on the subject and can't synthesize this enough to make a timeline entry. We don't need this RIGHT NOW, but I think that this is important enough to be inserted into the timeline of events.

Could you think about this and perhaps make a few entries that I could add to our timeline, which would be of interest to those researching this subject? I think that you're on to something, except that I don't feel competent enough to make these entries myself.

• December 14, 2007: Jimbo says "It's a sad story, if true, but fortunately not of much consequence."
• December 14, 2007: Jimbo says "I don't see how it is a major scandal, given that as far as we know right now, there were no crimes committed at the foundation."
• December 15, 2007: Jimbo says "If you ever hear of anything like this again, please do not make the "bad faith" assumption that it is being "hushed up". Assume that I would be outraged if I knew, and come and tell me."

• December 14, 2007: Jimbo says "It's a sad story, if true, but fortunately not of much consequence."
• December 14, 2007: Jimbo says "I don't see how it is a major scandal, given that as far as we know right now, there were no crimes committed at the foundation."
• December 15, 2007: Jimbo says "If you ever hear of anything like this again, please do not make the "bad faith" assumption that it is being "hushed up". Assume that I would be outraged if I knew, and come and tell me."

Thanks! I've added those into the time line.

A Timeline of events relating to Carolyn Doran, former COO of the Wikimedia Foundation:

20 Feb 1990 ¤ The Washington Post reports on Carolyn Bothwell (Doran)'s "unlawful shooting incident" with her boyfriend, to which she pleaded guilty

A Herndon woman pleaded guilty yesterday in Fairfax Circuit Court to unlawful wounding of her boyfriend, who was shot once in the chest Aug. 25.

Carolyn Bothwell, 27, of the 1100 block of Player Way, said she entered the plea after the prosecution offered to recommend probation. She said she did not want to risk losing custody of her 3-year-old son.

Bothwell's attorney, Gerald Bruce Lee, said in court that if the case had gone to trial, the defense had planned to ...

15 Sep 1995 ¤ The Washington Post runs an article about Carolyn Doran (née Bothwell)'s former roommate and testimony that she gave after her roommate's husband's death

A former roommate of Betancourt's, Sterling resident Carolyn Bothwell, testified yesterday that Betancourt told her in July 1994 that Montague "won't be around in September to worry about."

Betancourt's attorney, Gregory Harris, suggested that his client meant that she would be breaking off her relationship with Montague, not that "Cassie was going to do him in."

The tapes were recorded at the home of Bothwell, who is a neighbor of Montague's daughter, Janet Hall. Betancourt lived with Bothwell for three months in the spring of 1994.

Bothwell testified that she bought a recording device and put it on her telephone to capture threatening phone calls from her former common-law husband. She said Betancourt was with her when she bought the device. Bothwell said she gave the tapes to investigators after she found out about Montague's death.

Harris suggested that Bothwell, who has a pending credit card forgery case in Loudoun , was trying to curry favor with prosecutors with her testimony. Bothwell denied that. "I had enough to lose coming up here," she said. "I had nothing to gain." TheCustomOfLife 05:21, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

The court transcript for this case is here.

An except from the proceedings :

Carolyn Bothwell, a friend of Hall's, assisted the police
investigation by wearing a concealed recording device on six
different occasions in a futile attempt to obtain incriminating
statements from appellant. Bothwell testified that she, already
a convicted felon, was the target of a felony prosecution in
Loudoun County at the time of appellant's trial but that her case
had been continued. She further testified that she had reached
no agreement with the Loudoun County prosecutor's office
regarding the effect her cooperation in appellant's case might
have on her own prosecution.

04 Nov 1999 ¤ Sean H. Doran dies in Caïman Islands on his honeymoon with his recently married wife Carolyn Bothwell

?? Mar 2006 ¤ Carolyn Doran moves from Washington D. C. to Saint Petersberg Florida to be closer to the WMF offices

22 May, 2006 ¤ Seand59 (Carolyn Doran's first WP account name, see below) solicited a bid to ship her Tuscan dining room chairs from Herndon VA to St. Petersburg FL.


?? Sep 2006 ¤ Carolyn Doran begins work as "bookkeeper" at the WMF Florida offices.

02 Oct 2006 ¤ Information about adding an office assistant from a "temporary agency" is added to the WMF current staff article.

20 Nov 2006 ¤ Brad Patrick adds Carolyn Doran's name to the WMF staff page as "book keeper in the Florida office (since September 2006)

5 Dec 2006 ¤ The account Seand59 is established. User:Seand59 makes their first edit, removing contact information to the European Agency for Safety and Health<==This information is now attached to the account of User:Carolyn-WMF per Danny Wool's 15 Jan 2007 account rename.

8 Dec 2006 ¤ Carolyn Doran's is added to the WMF foundation article in Wikipedia as "bookkeeper".

09 Jan 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran adds summaries of WMF Income summary (PDF) and WMF expense summary (PDF)

15 Jan 2007 ¤ As Seand59, Carolyn Doran removes her title of "bookkeeper" from the Wikimedia Foundation article in Wikipedia Again as User:Seand59, She edits the Free Republic article, taking out a long passage of this contraversial article. The account was then blocked by User:Prodego for "impersonating WMF staff.
Danny moves the Username Seand59 to User.Carolyn-WMF

24 Jan 2007 ¤ WMF board resolution naming Carolyn Doran COO

27 Jan 2007 ¤ Florence Devouart publicly presents Carolyn Doran as COO and gives some information about her position.

02 Feb 2007 ¤ Essjay posts he provided all his real life information to Jimbo Wales and Angela Beasley, and then the same information to Brad Patrick but does not say when this occurred.

03 Feb 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard makes a Foundation Annoucement that Brad Patrick would be resuming his role as General Counsel exclusively after serving as Interim Executive Director and to now "focus on developing the role of General Counsel, and addressing a backlog of complex legal questions the Foundation faces moving forward."

22 Feb 2007 ¤ Danny Wool adds Carolyn Doran's photo to the WMF staff page.

27 Feb 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran removes Brad Patrick's two lead paragraphs in the WMF staff page and put him in the regular "staff section" with only two lines and no photo.

20 Mar 2007 ¤ Former trusty side-kick Danny Wool removed his name from the list of current WMF staff.

22 Mar 2007 ¤ Former GC Brad Patrick announced his resignation.

23 Mar 2007 ¤ Here is the WMF's most recent Form-990, which every 501c must file with the IRS (which is the least they can do since they don't pay taxes). Go to page 8, where you'll see that Carolyn Doran signed it on behalf of the WMF on 3/23/07.

20 May 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran arrested for 3rd offense of DUI.

1-3 Jun 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran attends a WMF board meeting in Amsterdam. Sue Gardner and Mike Godwin are also in attendence Upon her return, Carolyn Doran is stopped by US Immigration services because her travel is in violation of her parole for the 3rd DUI offense.

12 Jun 2007 ¤ The Wikimedia Foundation passes a new audit charter.

04 Jul 2007 ¤ The WMF board hires Sue Gardner as "management consultant". The boards passes another resolution on Carolyn Doren, presumably terminating her employment

10 Aug 2007 ¤ Carolyn Doran arrested for 4th DUI and hit and run

14 Sep, 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard confirms that Carolyn Doran has left WMF, but that WMF cannot discuss the matter because they have signed a non-disclosure agreement. Carolyn Doran is free to discuss this, however

17 Sep 2007 ¤ WMF foundations audit begins, according to Florence Devouard.

19 Nov 2007 ¤ Florence Devouard announces publicly that the audit is not completed, "but will be by the end of the calender year (hopefully".

14 Dec 2007 ¤ Jimbo Wales announces that if any money is missing after the audit, he will pay for it out of his own pocket.

:::I will go even further. If the audit uncovers any evidence of theft, I will personally donate out of my own pocket to cover whatever is missing. I feel pretty confident doing that even though the audit is still underway.--[[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] ([[User talk:Jimbo Wales#top|talk]]) 21:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Jimbo Wales then sums up his view of the incident:

It's a sad story, if true, but fortunately not of much consequence."

I don't see how it is a major scandal, given that as far as we know right now, there were no crimes committed at the foundation.

Later that day, Florence Devouart admits that WMF did not do any background checks on their employees and that this situation was not the responsibility of the board, but of Brad Patrick in his role as CEO.

I would like to remind everyone here that we are still a very small
organization, despite taking care of very large and well known projects.
As such, staff is limited.
Unless I am mistaken, when Carolyn started working for us, the only
old-staff members of WMF were Danny, Brion, Tim and Brad. In fall,
Carolyn and Barbara were added.

Brad was ED at that time. The board hires the ED and has authority over
the ED. Then the ED has authority over all staff members (and he is the
one who hires them). In fall 2006, we did not perform criminal
background checks afaik.

15 Sep 07 ¤ Jimbo Wales pledges for a second time (on the Foundation-l mailing list) that he will personally cover any losses in the case of fraud.

I have decided to get out in front of the issue by pledging to cover,
personally, any losses due to theft if that turns up in the audit. I do
not think that will come to anything, but I stand ready to make sure
that it does. It is the only thing I know of that I can do to help at
this point in reassuring everyone that this is a non-story in the end.

In a further quote, Jimbo says:

If you ever hear of anything like this again, please do not make the "bad faith" assumption that it is being "hushed up". Assume that I would be outraged if I knew, and come and tell me.

19 Dec 2007 ¤ The story is broken in the Tampa Tribune

This post has been edited by the fieryangel:

19 Dec 2007 ¤ The story is broken in the Tampa Tribune

Front page of the print edition.

14/15 Dec 2007: Carolyn Doran article is deleted/protected as a "BLP violation"

I wonder if that'll get reversed now. Was Daniel or Angela ever on the front page of a print newspaper?