Woman Sues after seeking Spiritual Help

[breeze]

Doris Reynolds, the food columnist for the Naples Daily News
newspaper in Florida, apparently has a lot of personal problems.
So much so that she has been seeking advice and guidance
from the same newspaper's "spiritual advice"
columnist, Angela Passidomo Trafford.

Since 1999, Reynolds has been getting "spiritual self-healing
treatment" from Trafford, and got spiritual advice from her for three
years before that. In those seven or so years, Reynolds says, she paid
Trafford between $2 million and $3 million for her services.

Reynolds says she paid Trafford $500,000 last year alone, and the
"spiritual healing sessions" were spent talking, meditating and
drawing.
The two women met up to seven days a week for their 4-5 hour sessions,
for which Reynolds paid $190 per hour, a fee that eventually hit $380
per hour.

But in April 2003, she alleges, things got ugly. She says Trafford
"demanded" $150,000 for future services. When Reynolds said she didn't
have that much cash, Trafford visited her at home and "demanded" a
check for $95,000, marked as a "gift" so that "she wouldn't have to
pay income tax" on the money. Reynolds wrote the check,
but "it was under extreme duress," she says.
"She said she would not come back and treat me unless
I gave her that money."
Reynolds says she "needed help" to deal with depression,
anxiety, stress, and an unhappy marriage. "I became
dependent on her," she says. But Trafford
"terminated her treatment" a month after
the $95,000 payment "without explanation or reason."

Well, if your spiritual advisor fails you, where do you turn? A
lawyer, of course.

Reynolds has sued Trafford in Collier County Circuit Court for at
least $1 million, accusing her of constructive fraud, unjust enrichment
and civil theft. Further, the suit alleges Trafford received payment
for services she never provided, and that Trafford "intentionally
misrepresented to Reynolds that she was a
messenger of God and Reynolds needed to pay her."

"I have always tried to find spiritual solutions in my life," she
said. "I trusted her. This is not easy for me. I'm not doing this for
money. I'm doing this because I think people should be accountable for
the harm they cause me."

"There's no truth in this," Trafford says. "It's just an unbelievable
situation." In her formal response to the lawsuit, she denied all
charges and said the $95,000 was, indeed, a gift.

As for the Daily News, Managing Editor William Blanton says he plans
to continue to run both women's columns. But let's hope they're not on
the same page.


SOURCE:
1) "Food Columnist Suing Spiritual Advice Columnist for More than $1m",
Naples News, 25 July 2003
http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect3.pl?37a