The Exorcist
Back in 2004, a self ordained minister (well, technically he was ordained by his brother but seeing as the ordination happened at a ‘storefront church’ I’m going to go ahead and call it a load of old twaddle anyway) killed an eight year old autistic boy, Terrance Cottrell Jr, and was convicted of:
felony physical abuse of a child causing great bodily harm
The ‘minister’ was attempting an exorcism…:
..to remove “evil spirits” of autism from Cottrell. Hemphill, who weighed 157 pounds, described how he would sit or lay on “Junior’s” chest for up to two hours at a time, whispering into the boy’s ear for the “demons” to leave his body.
This ‘man of god’ decided to appeal (de rigeur these days for those who have no sense of personal responsibility) and in August this year, his appeal was happily quashed.
I’ve written before about this story but I’m bringing it up again as I was notified about something pretty incredible – at least to me.
Jeff Bradstreet – Man of God
Dr Jeff Bradstreet is two thing. The fist thing he is, is a DAN! doctor. The second thing he is, is an expert witness in the Autism Omnibus case to be held next year.
But in fact, Jeff Bradstreet is _three_ things. Just like that compassionate driver of autism demons Ray Anthony Hemphill of the above tragedy, Jeff Bradstreet is a keen advocate of Exorcism as a treatment for autism.
No, I’m not kidding. Here’s an email message from Holly Bortfield of a pro-chelation group ‘Autism Recovery Network’ made to the Yahooo Autism Biomedical Discussion (ABMD) group in Feb 2005, the group is not open to the public so you can’t read the original unless you sign up (if you do its message 49660) but I’ve linked to a screenshot of her message:
You certainly have a right to the opinion that Jeff [Bradstreet] is the diety himself, but as a former patient and friend to a number of former patients, I can assure you not everyone holds him in such high regard. If you’d like to check out list archives from 1998 and 1999 I bet you will find the discussions of his exorcism referrals (I kid you not)…
When someone on the list suggested the word ‘exorcism’ was too strong, Bortfield replied (message: 49764):
Honey, that was his word not mine. I can think of a dozen people he told to have their kid exorcised
And poster Larry Leichtman chimed in with:
Actually, I heard that from him myself. He is a true believer in the devil and exorcism.
And not only does DAN! offer exorcism, it seems the National Autism Association heartily endorse it, as this message (49765) from Jo Pike of the NAA in reply shows:
Well may[be] its working LOL! I’ve talked to so many parents who have told me their children are improving dramatically and they all give credit to their office. Bottom line is the outcome and it seems they’re helping a lot of families.
And Ricci, the owner and list-moderator for the ABMD board also voiced concern in a long list of troubling DAN! traits. Its too long to quote here (screenshot here, but the lsit included DAN! practitioners who:
1) Have had their licenses suspended for overbilling insurance companies
2) Have had their licenses suspended for substance abuse
3) Have pushed MLM (multi level marketing/pyramid schemes – outlawed in the UK I believe) and lied about their involvement.
4) Received their degrees from a diploma mill in a strip mall
5) Have treated children for conditions they didn’t have and ignored conditions they clearly did have
6) Charged outrageous fees (Ricci quotes $300 for a bottle of Japanese secretin one can buy onesself for $5)
*7) Have performed exorcism on their own autistic children and recommended others to do the same*
Frankly, this is a little more than disturbing. Its crazy. Here’s Jeff Bradstreet – who the Autism Omnibus lawyers are putting forward as an _expert witness_ recommending exorcism as a viable treatment for autistic kids.
How is this man still a DAN! Doctor? Are there really people out there who are happy about this person ‘treating’ their kids? Is the American legal system seriously going to make itself into a laughing stock by admitting this man as a viable expert witness?
Left Brain Right Brain 
Bradstreet…Blech!
He’s got insiders on the mission from god too.
Check out his money-man (Jack Systema).
http://www.icdrc.org/jacksytsema.php
Wouldn’t you know it, Bradstreet’s money-man also runs some sort of church online prayer thing.
http://www.childrenofdestiny.org/about_us.asp
“Defeating autism in the name of Jesus”?
Did Jesus hate autistic people and think they’ll need to be defeated in the future? What if Jesus was autistic? Wow they’d be screwed.
What? They want your money too?
http://www.childrenofdestiny.org/make_a_donation.asp
“Because we are still finalizing receiving our non-profit status, please make your check payable to Glory of Zion, our parent ministry and covering. Be assured that 100% of your donation will go to us at Children of Destiny. You will receive a tax-deductible receipt for any donation.”
Funny, that still finalizing message has been up for a long time.
Hmmm, who is Glory of Zion?
Wouldn’t you know it? Apparently it’s the wife’s co-author – a self-proclaimed gifted prophet, with a business degree.
http://www.glory-of-zion.org/pierce_0.htm
Interesting.
I wonder how many people who walk through Bradstreet’s door get passed along to this dirtbag.
But Bradstreet must be a good guy his non-profit 909’s were filled out by the departed Liz Birt. In 2002 his non-profit took in 120,000 and spent 105,000 on fundraising and “expenses.” The list of directors and key employees has Andrew Wakefield, address in the UK, Mr. Robert Sawyer, of Bath, UK,
Liz Birt, and Jeff Bradstreet.
Bernie Rimland’s ARI filed a form 909 that showed that ARI gave Bradstreet’s org 50,000. 100,000 went to Harvard, that would be Martha Herbert, no doubt. 2,000 went to Doctor’s Data. Some went to James Adams at Arizona State and some went to Boyd Haley at U of Kentucky. $23,000 went to “Teresa C Binstock PhD” who doesn’t have a PhD, or even a Masters degree. The Wake-Forest money must have gone to Krigsman for taking chunks of autistic intestines without IRB approval, IIRC. Bernie Rimland took home a cool $80,000 for his hard work on behalf of autism quacks.
Let me guess; exorcism has a 60% to 90% success rate, just like all other DAN! treatments. Including Secretin, another favorite of Jeff Bradstreet’s.
Just horrifying…typical DAN! style. Thanks for bringing more incredible information to light. It is so sick–thinking of the children who have died at the hands of DAN! docs, parents, and ‘ministers.’ And for the ones who are at risk right now.
When the hell will the world realize the abuse taking place & stand up for these autistic kids??? Quit saying how hard it is for the poor parents, what a raw deal they got, & how they can understand why they take such extreme measures to cure their children. I’m sick & tired of having autism portrayed as poor evil.
Even more sick thinking of all the money these quacks have made–they all have blood on their hands.
“Doctor”????!!!?
Exorcism = chelation I suppose—–both involving the “expulsion” of unwanted/poisonous/”demonic” elements.
For a few years now, Bradstreet’s website has had a blank page (has an image of two girls hugging, I think) saved for testimonials. There’s never been a testimonial there from what I can see. I think it has the words, “coming soon” on it. That’s his icdrc.org website.
It used to have Kartzinel’s face on the main page, too, but Kartzinel disappeared and there’s no explanation… like he jumped ship and went to “Thoughtful House” with the other ICDRC rat, Wakefield.
He claims to be a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Practitioners… but he’s not even a member of the AAFP. How convenient is that? He claims all kinds of stuff that aren’t true. He claimed to be a “clinical advisor” or something like that to the MIND Institute, but he’s not and never was. I know that one of the MIND docs told him to cut it out, but I didn’t check to see if Jeffy ever took it off his website. That MIND doc said, “Jeff Bradstreet is not one of my favorite people…” Well, they invited him to speak to them about his “research” (under pressure from the local mercury parents, no doubt) shortly after the MIND opened.
I don’t think Jo Pike is with the NAA now, but she was when she gave Jeffy that endorsement. Jeffy is one of their famous advisors. http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/bradstreetfullcv.php
It says he has “hospital privileges” at Celebration Florida or something
But he doesn’t have any hospital privileges.
http://ww2.doh.state.fl.us/irm00profiling/Profile.asp?LicId=36219&ProfNBR=1501
According to this state database.
“Primary Practice Address
JAMES JEFFREY BRADSTREET
1688 WEST HIBISCUS BLVD
MEBOURNE,FL32901
Secondary Address(es)
No secondary address available.
….
Staff Privileges
This practitioner does not currently hold staff privileges at any hospital/medical/health institution in Florida. To confirm out-of-state staff privileges please see Other Affiliations.
E-Mail Address
Please contact at: drbradstreet@aol.com
Other State Licensure
This practitioner has not indicated any additional state licensures.”
It looks like he doesn’t carry malpractice insurance.
There’s a page that says:
“This practitioner does not currently hold faculty appointments at any medical/health related institutions of higher learning.”
His claim to be an adjunct professor of neurosciences as Stetson U is bogus. They don’t teach medicine at Stetson U.
Thanks to LW for telling me that Bradstreet didn’t have hospital privileges and sending me to that Florida state website.
Jeff Bradstreet got all born again after his first marriage ended in a divorce.
FYI
Kartzinel lost his house in Hurricane Jeanne in September 2005. Hurricane Francis did significant damage and Jeanne finished it off. I don’t know whether there is any connection between this and him moving to Thoughtful House, which isn’t near the Florida coast.
Well I have been accused of being possesed myself but there you go what happened was I was out pentacostaling the pentacostals never mind the intercostals inbetween but don’t rib me over that.
Well if I am ever possesed I guess that is with Hywl
Wow, I hope Dr. Kartzinel’s house in Texas (I’m guessing he’s living there now) doesn’t get hit by a tornado. That would be like, an “act of god” or something wouldn’t it?
My point about Kartzinel is that his face was removed from the home page of icdrc.org website and there didn’t seem to be anything like a goodbye or an indication that he’d ever been there.
Ms Clark
I think Kartzinel probably didn’t fit in with Bradstreet. When I met him he seemed rather down – perhaps his son was not doing so well at the time – and he admitted that the kids who progressed well were like lottery winners – few and far between and seemingly without rhyme or reason as to why (likely to be same as the small percentage of kids who do well with no treatment).
That was around the time when I realised that DAN! MD’s were well meaning for the most part, but of no use in their stated primary goal – cure. They could help with cormorbidities, and in my experience, were much better than other MD’s who tended to dismiss these as just something that was par for the course – in our case food allergies, loose stools, lack of sleep etc. At least they were able to spend some time and listen and then give the care of e.g. a well-trained, thoughtful paediatric gastroentronologist might give. Actually, they were more like like an old fashioned doctor from my childhoood who actaully listened to you, rather than tried to hustle you out the door.
So perhaps Kartzinel decided to go and just give up the cure thing and just be a paedatrician whose client base was primarily kids on the autistic spectrum … less to do with cure and more to treating tham as children who had real and individual medical comorbidities.
Ian
I have heard of a similar case in Romania. Pascal Brukner is going to write a book about that case or he has already written it. A priest there was trying to exorcize a newly girl entering the convent. He starved her, tight her on a cross and kept her away from sunlight for a couple of days. She died there all alone and abandoned.
———-
London flower delivery – Online London Florist