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.