Morris Dees, SPLC Founder: Molester of Step Children,
Liar, Blackmailer, Wife-Beater, Sexual Pervert, Conman, Fraud and Scam --
But That’s
Just What His Family and Friends Say about Him
Morris Dees, founder of the “Southern Poverty Law Center” is a step child molester, liar, blackmailer, wife-beater, sexual pervert, conman, fraud and scam artist -- according to his ex-wife and work colleagues.
Dees, who specialises in making up lies and slander about any white person who does not want his or her country overrun by the Third World, has a long list of former associates and family members who have been only too happy to lift the lid on his allegedly perverse personality and behavior.
Consider the following extracts from his divorce papers (download the original PDF here), submitted by his ex-wife Maureene during their public court battle (of course, the obligatory legal qualifier: these are her allegations, not mine. But that sort of nicety has never stopped the SPLC from publishing details about other people, has it?):
Dees the Womaniser
“Although Maureene was subjected to a number of degrading sexual episodes by Morris during the marriage which will be discussed hereafter, neither Morris nor Maureene ever wanted or sought a divorce until Morris established his permanent relationship with Vicki Booker McGaha in August of 1977. It was Morris' absolute refusal to give up his mistress, whom he was supporting and whom he had made pregnant, that directly caused termination of Maureene's marriage and forced her to institute these divorce proceedings.”
Dees’s divorce papers list a string of affairs:
1. Becky Logan: “During the year or so after they were married, Maureene became aware that her husband was having an affair with a woman named Becky Logan.”
2. Unnamed “black woman in town”: “During the same period, she began receiving anonymous telephone calls concerning her husband and a black woman in town.”
3. Dianne Hicks: “In his deposition, Morris admits that in the spring of 1973 or during the summer of 1973 he had an affair with Dianne Hicks, a Mobile lawyer who was working for the Southern Poverty Law Center. He had sex with her during a canoe trip down the Tallapoosa River and also in Brewton where they were working together on a trial.”
4. Cathy Bennett: “In the fall of 1974, Morris brought to the family home in Mathews a girl named Cathy Bennett who was a psychologist who had worked with Morris on several cases. Maureene was suspicious of her husband's relationship with this girl and later Morris admitted having an affair with her.”
5. Judith Rogers: “In the fall of 1977, Morris and Maureene held a Little Theatre party at their home, attended by Dr. Rogers, a Montgomery physician, and his wife Judith, who is a criminal psychologist. During the party Morris admits that he took Judith into a back room of his house, while the party was going on, and had intercourse with her.”
6. Deborah Levy: “In the
spring of 1976, Morris invited to the house Deborah Levy who worked for
the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, and the man with whom she
lived in New York, Michael Gaas.
In August, 1976, Morris and Maureene took them on a canoe trip down the river. After supper, they had all gone to bed in sleeping bags, when Maureene woke up and found Morris and Deborah naked, having sex on the sandbar.
Morris turned to Maureene
and insisted that she have sex with the other man.
Later Maureene went back to
sleep and woke up shortly before dawn, and found Morris and Deborah having
intercourse again right next to her. While having intercourse with Deborah,
Morris leaned over and kissed Maureene.
The following month, in
September, 1976, she and Morris went to New York for a tennis tournament
and to take one of the children to a special school in Boston. Over
Maureene's objections, Morris insisted upon visiting Deborah Levy and
Michael Gaas.
Later in a conversation
among the four of them, Morris stopped the conversation in the middle and
said to Michael Gaas "I've just got to tell you this because I feel bad
about it.
I want to tell you that Deborah and I were planning to go off this
afternoon and make love and I just want to tell you that."
Gaas responded that if
that's what Morris was here to do he should just get up and go do it,
following which Morris and Deborah got up and went into the bedroom where
they remained for about forty-five minutes.
While they were gone Maureene had sexual intercourse with Michael (R. 326). Afterward Morris left the apartment, returned in about thirty minutes and hit Michael in the face.”
7. Pamela Horowitz:
“In the
spring of 1977 Morris planned a trip to Kentucky and invited Maureene to
go with him, knowing that she could not go because she was in rehearsal
for a play.
Over Maureene's objection,
he took with him, on his motorcycle Pamela Horowitz, a lawyer working for
the Southern Poverty Law Center at that time.
He drove the motorcycle and she rode behind him from Montgomery to Kentucky, and they were gone for four or five days, during which they shared the same hotel accommodations.”
8. Charlie Springman (homosexual): “On August 11, 1978, Maureene and Morris' tenth
anniversary, they were having dinner at the Watergate Hotel in Washington,
D.C., and afterward had drinks in the bar.
In the bar, they saw Charlie
Springman, who Maureene knew as a Regional Coordinator for the National
Endowment of the Arts. She had told Morris that Springman was gay, but
Morris had never met him. When they saw him in the bar, Morris suggested
inviting him over for a drink.
After a while, to Maureene's
surprise, Morris suggested that Charlie come up to the room with them. In
the room, they drank wine and talked, and Morris unbuttoned his shirt to
the waist.
Finally Morris proposed that
Charlie spend the night with them. Mrs. Dees protested, and put on her
robe and nightgown to go to bed.
Soon Charlie and Morris were
in the bed naked, with Maureene in the middle with her gown on.
Springman and Morris hugged
and kissed, and Morris tried to get Charlie to have relations with
Maureene, but Springman was physically unable to because he was not
interested.
Springman kissed Morris' penis, and in fact, Morris complained that he bit him and that it hurt. Morris kissed Springman on Springman's penis."
9. Karen Sherman Dees (daughter-in-law): "Karen Sherman Dees is Morris' daughter-in-law, who
is married to Morris' son Scooter (Morris, III).
Before Karen and Scooter
were married, when they were eighteen or nineteen, which was three or four
years ago, an incident occurred on Mother's Day at the family home in
Mathews.
The Dees’ had Karen and
Scooter to dinner at the house, and they cooked out.
While Scooter and Maureene
were cleaning up and washing dishes, Karen and Morris went out to go
swimming.
Five or ten minutes later,
Maureene and Scooter started down the path toward the pool, with Maureene
in front.
As she approached the gate,
she could see Morris and Karen standing with their arms around each other
with no clothes on, and Morris had an erection.
Maureene immediately turned and told Scooter that she did not want to go swimming and the two of them headed back to the house without Scooter having seen anything.”
Dees the Blackmailer and Wife-Beater
The Dees divorce papers reveal how violent Morris is and also his attempts to blackmail Maureene into a divorce settlement:
“In February, 1979, Morris Dees realized that he was in a precarious legal position. He had been conducting an affair with Vicki McGaha for almost two years; she had become pregnant by him and had received an abortion which he had paid for; he was supporting her and spending most of his time with her and planned to continue to do so; and Maureene, who was fully aware of all of these facts, and [sic] stated that she could not tolerate the situation anymore and was leaving him to institute divorce proceedings. To protect himself in the impending litigation, Morris had to find a way to neutralize Maureene.”
The way Dees found to “neutralize” Maureene was to try and get her to sign an agreement to have an “open marriage” whereby Dees and her could have sex with whoever they pleased, as long as they were “discreet.”
With Dees off having mistress after mistress (and, it appears, gay affairs as well) Maureene unsurprisingly fell for this trap -- because that was what it was.
The divorce papers continue:
“On March 4, 1979, Maureene
walked naively into the trap which Morris had set. On that date, she flew
to Washington, D.C., where she met Brian O'Daugharty. Maureene knew Mr.
O'Daugherty in connection with her work on the National Endowment, and he
was the Director of the Media Arts Program.
Morris had told her that she
could see anyone she wanted, as long as she was discreet, and her flight
to Washington was booked under the name of Better Foster.
Maureene and O'Daugherty had
dinner together on the night of March 4th, and returned to her hotel
room.
When they were in bed
together, Morris and a Montgomery private detective, both of whom had been
hiding in the bathroom, jumped out and started taking photographs, Morris
said word in substance as follows:
‘Alright sister, you wanted
a divorce. Now I want one, because I've got you where I want you.’
He hit her and gave her a
busted jaw. He then started writing something on paper which he then gave
her to sign.
This document, entered into
evidence as Plaintiff's Exhibit 43, was a separation agreement.
The agreement provided that
Morris was to have custody of Ellie, the parties' nine-year old daughter.
Maureene was to receive "25,000 alimony-in-gross upon the "execution"
[sic] of a divorce, and that in addition she was to receive $1,500 per
month as alimony for a period of three years from the divorce.
Under this agreement, Maureene relinquished all claims to any real estate owned by Morris, and agreed to return to him the diamond ring which he had given to her.”
Maureene fought Dees in court and this was where all the details came out.
Dees the Step Child Molester
Holly Buck, Maureene's daughter by a previous marriage, was sixteen years old when the following incident occurred, according to the Dees divorce papers:
“Holly testified that, in
the summer of 1977, Morris attempted to molest her in the following
incident: One night Maureene and Morris were sitting drinking wine and
discussing a case Morris was trying. She was with them. Around eleven or
twelve o'clock Maureene went to bed and Holly stayed up with Morris
discussing the case.
Morris kept offering Holly
wine, some of which she accepted.
At Morris' suggestion, they
went outside to the pool, and he suggested that they go for a swim, but
Holly was tired and declined.
She went to her room and
then went into the bathroom.
Looking out the window, she
saw Morris in the bushes beside the bathroom window looking in. She said
"Morris, is that you", but he said nothing and ran away.
Two months later, she was
asleep one night and Morris entered her room from Ellie's room, through
the bathroom.
He was in his underwear and
he sat on the bed where Holly was lying on her stomach facing away from
the door.
He touched her on the back
and woke her up. He told her that he had brought her a present, and he
presented her with a vibrator.
He plugged it in and said he
had brought it to her. He proceeded to rub it on her back and said, "Let
me show you how to use it."
She said that's not
necessary, but he started to place it between her legs when she raised he
voice and said no loudly. He then took the vibrator and left.
All he had on was a pair of
bikini underwear shorts.
About two hours later, she
had fallen back asleep and he came back in.
He brought the vibrator with
him, plugged it in and said again, "Let me show you how to use it." He
tried to show her again by putting it between her legs, but she raised her
voice again and he stopped.
He took it and left.”
So much for the SPLC founder’s personal character. I am sure the folks who work there must be thrilled to be in the company of such a fine fellow.
So what really motivates Dees, on a political level? To answer this question, we need to consult some of his former colleagues.
Dees the Con man, Fraud and Scam -- Says Stephen Bright
Stephen Bright used to work closely with Dees but quit in horror and has ever since been a bitter critic. The following extract is from Harpers’ Magazine, November 2, 2007 verbatim, and needs no further explanation:
The SPLC’s Overriding Goal is to “Make Money” -- Says Former Staffer Pamela Summers
In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser won a journalism award for a series of incisive and penetrating investigative articles exposing the unethical fundraising practices of Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A series of investigations by that newspaper revealed
that with his made-up scare stories about “Ku Klux Klans” and other white
demons about to plunge America into a race war, Dees and the SPLC have
managed to rake in millions -- far more than what they spend.
Here is what a former staffer said on this topic to
the Montgomery
Advertiser:
“They're drowning in their own affluence," said Pamela Summers, a former SPLC legal fellow. "What they are doing in the legal department is not done for the best interest of everybody [but] is done as though the sole, overriding goal is to make money.
"I think people associate the SPLC with going to
court. And that's why they get the money. And they don't go to court.
There have only been a handful of court cases over the years, many of
which remain unresolved.”
The Montgomery Advertiser also interviewed former
SPLC associate Courtney Mullin. Mullin declared of Dees, that he is "…not
immoral, he's amoral…I hesitate to say the words that I want to say
because they sound so far out, but I really think the Center--in so far as
Morris embodies the Center--is evil.
“They pretend to be on a side that has moral
underpinnings (but) they do damage by their dishonesty….I mean the little
old lady from North Carolina sends her $5 thinking that she's going to
help…then it's just going to line the coffers of the Southern Poverty Law
Center so they can have the most beautiful building in the world and have
all this money in the bank. That's wrong."
Mullin continues on Dees: "He fools so many people;
he seems so committed. But he's so dishonest… I never saw any examples of
him doing something because he had a moral belief. He was simply doing
things to see what he could get of them." (Montgomery
Advertiser, Feb. 13–14, 1994).
“The Church of Morris Dees” -- Harper
Magazine’s Ken Silverstein Exposes the Con which is Dees and the
SPLC
In November 2000, the highly respected Harper's
Magazine published an article called “The Church of Morris Dees” written by
contributing editor Ken Silverstein.
Subtitled “How the Southern Poverty Law Center
profits from intolerance,” the article made the following remarks:
“The Center earned $44 million last year alone--$27
million from fund-raising and $17 million from stocks and other
investments--but spent only $13 million on civil rights program, making it
one of the most profitable charities in the country.
“The Ku Klux Klan, the SPLC's most lucrative nemesis,
has shrunk from 4 million members in the 1920s to an estimated 2,000
today, as many as 10 percent of whom are thought to be FBI informants. But
news of a declining Klan does not make for inclining donations to Morris
Dees and Co., which is why the SPLC honors nearly every nationally covered
"hate crime" with direct-mail alarums full of nightmarish invocations of
"armed Klan paramilitary forces" and "violent neo-Nazi extremists," and
why Dees does legal battle almost exclusively with mediagenic
villains--like Idaho's arch-Aryan Richard Butler--eager to show off their
swastikas for the news cameras.”
“Dees and his copywriters, deploying an arsenal of
passive verbs and vague abstractions, have sanitized the usually divisive
issue of race of its more disturbing elements--such as angry black
people--and for good reason: most SPLC donors are white.
“Thus, instead of concrete civil rights issues like
housing discrimination and racial profiling, we get ‘communities seething
with racial violence.’ Instead of racially biased federal sentencing laws,
or the disparity between poor predominantly black schools and affluent
white ones, or the violence against illegals along the Mexican border, the
SPLC gives us ‘intolerance against those who are different,’ turning
bigotry into a color-blind, equal-opportunity sin.
“Other solicitations have been more flagrantly
misleading. One pitch, sent out in 1995--when the Center had more than $60
million in reserves--informed would-be donors that the ‘strain on our
current operating budget is the greatest in our 25-year history.’
“Back in 1978, when the Center had less than $10
million, Dees promised that his organization would quit fund-raising and
live off interest as soon as its endowment hit $55 million. But as it
approached that figure, the SPLC upped the bar to $100 million, a sum
that, one 1989 newsletter promised, would allow the Center ‘to cease the
costly and often unreliable task of fund raising.’
“Today, the SPLC's treasury bulges with $120 million,
and it spends twice as much on fund-raising--$5.76 million last year--as
it does on legal services for victims of civil rights abuses. The American
Institute of Philanthropy gives the Center one of the worst ratings of any
group it monitors, estimating that the SPLC could operate for 4.6 years
without making another tax-exempt nickel from its investments or raising
another tax-deductible cent from well-meaning ‘people like you.’
“The SPLC's "other important work justice" consists
mainly in spying on private citizens who belong to ‘hate groups,’ sharing
its files with law-enforcement agencies, and suing the most prominent of
these groups for crimes committed independently by their members--a
practice that, however seemingly justified, should give civil libertarians
pause.
“The legal strategy employed by Dees could have put
the Black Panther Party out of business or bankrupted the New England
Emigrant Aid Company in retaliation for crimes committed by John Brown.
“In 1986, the Center's entire legal staff quit in
protest of Dees's refusal to address issues--such as homelessness, voter
registration, and affirmative action--that they considered far more
pertinent to poor minorities, if far less marketable to affluent
benefactors, than fighting the KKK.
“Another lawyer, Gloria Browne, who resigned a few
years later, told reporters that the Center's programs were calculated to
cash in on ‘black pain and white guilt.’
“In the early 1960s, Morris Dees sat on the sidelines
honing his direct-marketing skills and practicing law while the civil
rights movement engulfed the South. ‘Morris and I...shared the overriding
purpose of making a pile of money,’ recalls Dees's business partner, a
lawyer named Millard Fuller. ‘We were not particular about how we did it;
we just wanted to be independently rich.’
“They were so unparticular, in fact, that in 1961
they defended a man, guilty of beating up a journalist covering the
Freedom Riders, whose legal fees were paid by the Klan. (‘I felt the anger
of a black person for the first time,’ Dees later wrote of the case. ‘I
vowed then and there that nobody would ever again doubt where I stood.’)
“Dees's compensation alone amounts to one quarter the
annual budget of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, which
handles several dozen death-penalty cases a year. ‘You are a fraud and a
conman,’ the Southern Center's director, Stephen Bright, wrote in a 1996
letter to Dees, and proceeded to list his many reasons for thinking so,
which included ‘your failure to respond to the most desperate needs of the
poor and powerless despite your millions upon millions, your fund-raising
techniques, the fact that you spend so much, accomplish so little, and
promote yourself so shamelessly.’
Dees Arrested and Thrown out of Court for Bribery
According to the Burlington
Times, July 30, 1975 and The Progressive, July 1988, Dees was arrested and
removed from court in 1975 for attempting to suborn perjury (bribing of a
witness) in the Joan Little murder trial in North Carolina.
Little was a black convict accused of killing a
prison guard with an ice-pick. The felony charge against Dees was
subsequently dropped, but the presiding judge, Hamilton Hobgood, refused
to re-admit Dees to the case. The refusal was upheld on appeal after the
Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear Dees’ appeal.
Dees the “Scam Artist” Says Washington Times
Editor
Maybe the last word should come from Wesley Pruden,
Washington
Times Editor in Chief.
In an interview about Dees and the SPLC, this
respected mainstream editor said: “The Southern Poverty Law Center, for
the viewers who may not know it, is an organization that specializes in
finding offenses that they can raise money around.
“Morris Dees, who is the owner of it, if you’d like,
I think, is nothing more than a scam artist.”
I sure hope all the SPLC donors get a fuzzy warm feeling as they hand over their cash. Hurry up folks, Morris Dees and the SPLC need your money today!