T Boone Pickens - a legend in his own mind: 2014

Cause Number	Birth Date	Participant Id.	Defendant Name	Charge Description	Attorney Name	Current Status	Offense Date
C-1-CR-11-216838	02/27/1957	2740575	PICKENS THOMAS BOONE	DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED	MINTON PERRY QUILLIN		10/07/2012
C-1-CR-11-216839	02/27/1957	2740575	PICKENS THOMAS BOONE	POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA > 2 OZ	MINTON PERRY QUILLIN		10/07/2012

CAUSE NO. DC-13-01890-F

E.C. (ELIZABETH CORDIA), § IN THE DISTRICT COURT

P.P. (PAMELA PICKENS), §

B.P. (T. BOONE PICKENS, JR.), §

And T.P., (THOMAS B. PICKENS, III), §

Plaintiffs, §

v. §

MICHAEL O. PICKENS, §

Defendant. §

_______________________________________§ 116th JUDICIAL DISTRICT

MICHAEL O. PICKENS, §

Counterplaintiff, §

v. §

THOMAS BOONE PICKENS, JR., §

Counterdefendant. § DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS

_____________________________________________________________________

DECLARATION OF MICHAEL PICKENS

_____________________________________________________________________

THE STATE OF TEXAS §

COUNTY OF DALLAS §

1. “My name is Michael O. Pickens. I am over the age of twenty-one (21) years, and I am competent to make this Declaration. I have personal knowledge of the matters contained in this Declaration, and the facts stated herein are true, correct and accurate.

2. Plaintiffs -- Elizabeth Cordia (E.C., referred to as “Lizzy”), Pamela Pickens (P.P., referred to as “Pam”), T. Boone Pickens, Jr. (B.P., referred to as “Boone” or my “father”), and Thomas B. Pickens, III (T.P., referred to as “Tom”) -- sued me, first alleging causes of action for “Invasion of Privacy – Intrusion on Seclusion,” “Invasion of Privacy – Public Disclosure of Private Facts,” and “Violation of CPRC §143.01,” which they have called “Harmful Access by Computers.” Primarily, Plaintiffs have sought injunctive relief to prevent me from writing about them on my blog.

3. Now, after changing counsel, the Plaintiffs have dropped their “intrusion” claim, but have added claims for defamation and libel. In spite of the change in the Plaintiff’s claims, my defense still concerns my Constitutionally protected right of freedom of speech and that my statements are true or matters of my opinion.

4. In my blog in general, and in particular in the post titled “My Story,” I review my own personal history and demons and express my opinion about the cause of my long-term drug addiction, viewed through the lens of my recovery. The underlying theme of my blog posts about addiction, abuse, relationships with my father and family, are to serve as an example to others that, given the circumstances, the same fate can happen to anyone, whether you are from a rich family or not, and that you can, in spite of the odds, overcome these problems. Addiction is a major problem in this country, with the complete failure of policy regarding the “war on drugs.” Even the New York Times recently said so. See http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/opinion/gregory-brothers-the-war-on-drugs-is-a-failure.html?_r=0.

5. In this lawsuit, the Plaintiffs and my father in particular, deride me for my history of drug abuse in an effort to undermine my credibility because they want to make people believe that I am lying. They speak about my visit to rehab and my criminal conviction. These facts are, in general, true. But, then that is precisely the point.

6. As my blog states, I do not deny my history; unlike the Plaintiffs, I own it. I kicked my drug addiction at Alina Lodge in 2006-07. Afterwards, I have been completely sober and drug-free. Being now a licensed Intervention Therapist, I spend a great deal of my time assisting addicts to get and stay clean. That is my mission. And I personally desire to make a real difference by using myself as an example and showing addicts and their families that it is love that cures addictions, not jail and certainly not condescension and abandonment.

7. I have reviewed each of the affidavits and declarations filed in this case by the Plaintiffs. While they make a rather inept attempt to disprove my factual statements and opinions, they make no effort and cannot disprove my intent -- I have never had any intent to cause harm or mental distress to any of my family members. Further, I do not believe that anything I say about them has any effect on them or that their reputations can be harmed. Nothing in their affidavits indicates otherwise.

8. My blog simply tells stories about my own life from my own perspective and, to a large extent those stories include my family, because they were around or were involved in those events. This is especially true when I describe my home life and my relationship with my father, Boone.

9. Subsequent to being released from rehab at Alina Lodge, I purposely engaged in a concerted effort to have a better relationship with my father. I was appreciative of his assistance when I was charged with securities fraud. However, his statements both in the petition and in his affidavit that he purposefully and individually wanted to help me are false. John McShane, discussed more below, told me expressly that when I was first charged with securities fraud, that he had to beg my father to help me because my father did not want to.

10. The series of cards and short notes that I wrote to my father, as referenced in the filings of the Plaintiffs, were heartfelt, and I meant them at the time. That however, does not mean that any of the comments that I have made on my blog -- about abuse during my childhood -- are untrue. The notes and letters reflect the fact that I was trying to build a relationship with my father after the point in time that I was no longer drug addicted.

11. My effort lasted for several years, from mid 2008 to late 2012, but it failed. It was during this time that my father gradually revealed to me what had always been his true character. He eventually returned to being extremely accusatory -- making false statements about me and berating and bullying me. He was not trying to help me – I was there to serve him.

12. It was a one-way street with him, and when he dropped his pretense, I had to face the harsh truth that my father really cares only about himself. Certainly, that is my opinion. This is exemplified in his own letter to my siblings and me in which he apologizes for being a bad father because making money was more important to him than his family. A true and correct copy of the letter is attached as Exhibit ____.

My Father is a Public Figure.

13. A simple Internet search yields many, many thousands of stories about him and about members of my family. See a true and correct copy of a print-out from the first page of a Google search, attached as Exhibit ____. He is consistently reported in Forbes magazine as being a billionaire (see Exhibit ___, a true and correct copy of a Forbes reference to him); he has for several years attempted to get the US government to back greater use of natural gas (for his own benefit in the gas companies into which he invested ) (see Exhibit ____, a true and correct copy of ___________); and he even had a bet with now Secretary of State John Kerry about the lies Boone helped to spread about Kerry in the infamous “swiftboating” effort he backed financially (see Exhibit ___, a true and correct copy of _______).

14. My father’s public persona, for better or worse, has drug the rest of us into the public eye, too. Certainly, I was lampooned when I was charged and pleaded to securities fraud. And my brother, Plaintiff Tom, was recently publicly outed for his being sued for stealing millions of dollars from his current employer in Austin (see Exhibit____, a true and correct copy of an article from D magazine, and Exhibit ___, a true and correct copy of the petition filed in the lawsuit against Tom).

15. One story that continues to haunt me concerns the death of my nephew, Ty, my brother Tom's now-deceased son. I had expressed to both Tom and my father, that Ty was obviously drug- addicted. Whenever I saw Ty, he seemed to be out of it and “on” something. In fact, roughly 10 days before Ty’s death at the end of January 2013, I had breakfast with my father. At that breakfast I told him that I was very worried about Ty’s drug abuse, and that I was worried he might not live unless someone intervened.

16. Just as he has done with other personal, family issues, my father acted as if it was too much trouble for him to pay attention to, and that he simply did not care. He told me that it was none of my business and that he did not want to talk to me about it. Ten days later Ty was dead from a Heroin overdose. See Exhibit ____, a true and correct copy of a new story from ______, stating that Ty’s autopsy showed he died from a heroin overdose.

17. Further, my father knows now and knew at the time I spoke to him about Ty that my concern was valid. In July 2012, one of my father’s long-time employees, Jay Rosser, had a son die from a heroin overdose. He was only 18 and had been locked up in the Travis County jail since mid-2011. I begged Jay to allow me to assist with Travis County to get Kent into treatment at Alina Lodge and out of jail. Jay refused, having been "coached" by Boone that his son needed to "hit his bottom." "Hit bottom" is an old AA term, not applicable to the myriad of extremely dangerous chemicals of addiction we deal with today. In spite of this recent history, my father showed no concern for Ty at all.

18. So, when my family asserts that I am critical of them, that is true. My criticism, however, also is true. There are other grandchildren in trouble, and the family dynamic resulting from the fear that Boone perpetrates (by scaring my siblings and other family members into agreement with threats of disinheritance), continues to put them in danger. I do not want to lose any more children in the family while my father, Pam and Tom ignore their cries for help.

OSU

19. It is well known that my father is a supporter of Oklahoma State University, where the football stadium is named after him. See Exhibit ____, a true and correct copy of a new story about his loss of a case in which he cost OSU a huge amount of money in an insurance scheme.

The Boat Story.

21. Apparently my father has a problem with the story that I told about being in a burning boat at the age of 13. That story is completely true, and is told from my own personal perspective. The boat did explode and catch on fire, and I was severely burned and ended up in the water. When I surfaced, I saw my father on the shore.

22. I find my father's complaint about the story to be odd, considering that I never actually criticize him or characterize his actions expressly. I simply told the story as I remember it, and like almost all of my comments about him, he makes no effort to disprove it. Moreover, the story is true, and he cannot honestly claim this story damaged him in any way.

Boone’s alleged damages.

23. In spite of my father stating that he is suffering from some unspecific and unsupported mental distress, he has managed to conduct business as usual. For example, and accessible to anyone who wants to watch, my father was interviewed on his private jet by a local Dallas reporter, Meredith Land. On April 18, 2013, they traveled to Clemson University, and Boone sat onstage and calmly gave an interview to Meredith in front an auditorium full of people.

24. My father has shown no ill physical or mental effects from anything that I have said about him, and ironically, it is the lawsuit itself that has drawn attention to my blog, not any efforts by me. Since articles have been written about this lawsuit, the clicks on my blog have increased exponentially.

25. My father’s lawsuit against me is not about any damage he claims to suffer – it is all about power. His “M O” is to use the court when he wants to squelch speech about him. See Exhibits ___ and ____, true and correct copies of news articles about other times he has manipulated the courts in an effort to squelch speech. Put simply, my father’s sole purpose in this lawsuit is to try to shut me up.

John McShane (“McShane”).

26. McShane truthfully states under oath that he has represented me in a legal matter previously. This is true; yet, in this lawsuit, he also is representing my father against me, his former client. He appeared at my deposition in this case as “additional counsel to the Plaintiffs” but is now submitting testimony against me. I object to this and find it to be unethical and unprofessional.

27. McShane states that he has attempted to assist me with my addictions. Taking him at his word -- his testimony further violates confidences that I have given to him. I have never given McShane a release to use my own personal information against me.

28. McShane states that I told him that it’s hard to be Boone Pickens son. But that is not because my father has been wealthy or achieved notoriety; it is because my father has treated me poorly – even worse than people he does not know. My writing about Boone’s abuse is not inconsistent with McShane’s paid commentary.

29. According to McShane, he is having his office staff monitor my blog and my Twitter account daily. But that is not the complete extent of their efforts. I have seen someone going through my trash; I have caught someone following me more than once. This is no surprise because it is how my father does things.

30. I recall once when I was young going into a closet at my home and finding a newly installed stack of electronic equipment. I later learned it was for internal surveillance and recording phone conversations without anyone knowing. On another occasion, as a young man, I spotted a man tailing me and called a friend to help box the guy in to trap him. When we did, I confronted the guy, and he told me he worked for my father. I still have no idea why he was tailing me. So, I am not surprised to find I am being followed now.

McShane and the Settlement Demand.

31. McShane states in his affidavit various facts concerning a settlement offer that I instructed my counsel to make to my father after I got sued in this case. While I believe this is wholly irrelevant, and I understand it is not supposed to be admissible into evidence (thus I object to it), this is another example of McShane’s unethical conduct at the direction of my father who believes rules do not apply to him. I had never thought to ask for money to take down my blog, and I had never asked for any money before I was sued here. The Plaintiffs cannot honestly state otherwise.

32. My counsel made the settlement demand to McShane as my father’s counsel. The amount was based on what I believe are valid causes of action that I have now asserted as counterclaims against my father (which I incorporate here). In addition, I have planned to publish a book, and because the Plaintiffs sued me to stop me from publishing my personal story and connected stories about my family, childhood, addiction and recovery, there is a great deal of value to me in giving up those rights if I were to do so.

33. At my father’s bidding and as apparently directed by my father’s current lawyers, McShane has violated his attorney client privileges and confidences, has engaged in an egregious conflict of interest and has falsified evidence in order to try to manufacture the Plaintiff’s position in this lawsuit that I am trying to “extort” money from my father. It is not true, and they know it.

Responses to specific allegations concerning various statements:

My step sister, Lizzy.

34. I have never mentioned Lizzy. I have no idea why she is suing me except perhaps that Boone manipulated her into doing so. Even in the statement where I said, “All the members of my family of origin are addicts (discussed below); I did not mention her and meant to specifically exclude her. It is frivolous for her and her lawyer to throw her into the myriad of vague allegations they have made about my written statements about the Plaintiffs. She can point to nothing I have said about her at all and none of my writings concern her in any way.

Regarding Abuse.

35. First, I have never written any allegation that my father sexually abused me, in spite of the Plaintiffs’ attempts to say that I did. All suggestions and references that I have published such an allegation are untrue. Nowhere in my writings have I stated this allegation.

36. When I speak of abuse in the various locations on my blog, I am generally stating my own experiences and observations and my opinion about each. With regard to myself, my father often beat me with a belt. I did not feel that this was disciplinary, and I felt that it was over the top, and it seemed to me that he gained personal satisfaction from doing it.

37. To the extent that my siblings state that they never saw it, perhaps that is because my father used to take me into his closet to beat me. True abusers do not leave witnesses or marks, and most of the abuse I suffered – the type that lasted for life - was not physical abuse; it was mental and emotional. As I say in my blog, my father had his own way with each of us. Being that a lot of what I discuss concerns my childhood, I would not expect any of my siblings to have had the perspective that what they saw was out of the ordinary; in any event – it was out “normal.”

38. My comments about suffering physical, emotional, spiritual and mental abuse at the hands of my father are my personal opinion based upon my personal experiences and specifically based upon his overtly negative treatment of me throughout my life. When I was young, my father berated me and often told me that I was no good and that I would amount to nothing. It is my personal opinion that any father worth his salt would never say this to his child, that it is not helpful or constructive, and that it is in fact abusive.

39. I personally did not understand the abusive nature of my upbringing until I went through rehab at Alina Lodge. There, I learned that my father's uncaring, overbearing, bullying personality, and the fear it generated in me individually, was the trigger for my seeking out the solace of drugs. My father and my siblings can deny this all they want, but my experience is just that – my own experience.

40. In my sister Pamela’s declaration, says that it was not until the end of my rehab at Alina Lodge that I told her about abuse by Boone. I cannot speak to whether she was surprised to hear about it, but I had not talked to her about it until that point because it was only at Alina that I began to understand the extreme negative impact that my father’s treatment of me as a child had on me for many decades. Perhaps she and Tom would feel differently if they had gone through Alina Lodge as I did.

41. With regard to any broad statements I have made concerning my father’s treatment of my siblings, all of those are based upon my personal observations, and based upon my opinion of the treatment of them that I saw and the effect it has had on them. Whether or not each of them wants to express an opinion that Boone’s treatment of them was abusive is up to them individually, I have only generally stated what I saw and what my opinion on the matter is.

42. In general, Boone was uncaring, mean and abusive, sometimes very aggressively, as with me, and sometimes passively, as he was when he stood by and let Pam and her first husband start a business that failed from underfunding because Boone would not loan them the money even though he told Pam that it was fine for her to spend all of her savings. I will never forget that because my father told me directly that he predicted the business would fail and that they would get divorced. In my opinion, no real father acts like that. As I have stated more generally – he had his own form of abusing each of us.

Regarding addiction.

43. One of the Plaintiffs’ primary complaints has been my statement that the members of my “family of origin” are addicts. As stated above this was specifically meant to delete any reference to Lizzy. Further, I mention no one by name and make no specific statements that they can argue is untrue.

44. I made no specific allegation that any of them has any particular addiction. In this particular statement I was referring to “addiction” in a generic sense as opposed to the specific statements I had made about myself and drug use. Compare it to my father’s statements that America is “addicted” to OPEC oil. See Exhibit____, a true and correct copy of a page from the Pickens Plan website stating my father’s opinion.

45. I have seen in paperwork filed in this lawsuit that Plaintiffs and their lawyer argue that I said Boone, Pam and Tom are drug attics. I did not write that. However, it is indeed my opinion that they are addicts, each of the different sort.

46. Boone. – It is my opinion that my father is an alcoholic. He drinks far too much in general for example, I have seen him drink two bottles of wine at dinner with no help from anyone else. And he has told me that he has trouble sleeping without taking medication. Obviously, he made those statements to me prior to this lawsuit.

47. In addition, it is my opinion that my father is a gambling addict. By this I mean he is addicted to gambling with money in the financial and commodities markets and that activity is the sole thing that gives him any satisfaction in life. It is my opinion that his monetary gambling habits have destroyed most of his businesses and is the reason why he is not even close to being a billionaire as he likes everyone to believe. For example, his BP Capital fund, which was worth more than $5 billion at one point, is now worth less than $40 million the last time I checked. Not all of the money in the fund belongs to my father, certainly.

48. Tom -- it is my opinion that my brother Tom is an addict, because he has an extremely long history of alcohol and marijuana abuse.

49. Pam -- it is my opinion that my sister Pam is an addict in several respects. First, she has told me that she takes Adderall daily. If that is no longer true, it certainly used to be. Second, she has told me that she is a sex addict. In addition, I have seen her drink alcohol to great excess, day after day.

50. The Plaintiffs have complained about my vague statement, which is very broad and nonspecific. I had made it that way intentionally. That is because I had no intent to state publicly the actual facts about any of them regarding addiction, individually or specifically. I am stating the facts now only because I am forced to as a result their lawsuit, each claiming that my statement was about them individually (it was not), that it was false (it is not), that I am guilty of malice or negligence (I am not), and they have suffered some sort of damages (they have not).

51. None of the Plaintiffs can point to any damages at all. And if my brother Tom has suffered any recent damage, it has been at his own hands for his own conduct. Attached as Exhibit _____, is a true correct copy of an article and a lawsuit filed against him in Travis County District Court accusing him of stealing $10 million from the company he works for.

“Never had a real dad.”

52. This is from a post on my blog entitled, “Grief.” I did not write this, and the statement is not actually about my family or me. I copied this from the Internet that I found to be enlightening. It mentions no one in my family.

“My home was a sham.”

53. This statement is a matter of my personal opinion. When I was growing up, I did not feel like we had what others called a “home.” It was not a loving place. Instead, I felt fear, primarily of my father, who always said our family needed to run like a business. I did not feel loved.

54. The same holds true regarding my statements that my parents were absent from my life and that “all I had” was the love I felt from my friends’ parents. That is my personal perspective and my opinion. Regardless of what my parents might say, or even my siblings, that is how it felt to me at our house, where my parents were not emotionally supportive in my view. More importantly, I have not expressly written that my parents did not love me – I have only written about how I felt.

55. When I wrote that my father hated my mother and she was terrified of him that is because that is what I observed. He was mean to her, berated her and was verbally abusive to her. She appeared to me to be extremely afraid of him and would physically cower when he was present. She acted markedly different in his presence that she did when he was absent. To the extent of my siblings state otherwise, then perhaps they were not paying attention, but this is what I saw and it is my opinion.

56. My comment that none of Boone’s children has been successful in life is my personal opinion. My statement in this regard is not specific, nor is it about any of the Plaintiffs specifically – it is a generalized statement of my opinion. For example, although I did not publish this about Pam on my blog, I have seen her ruin her relationships with her children, and I have seen her drink too much and have personally experienced her being personally, overly mean, nasty, and abusive. During Thanksgiving of 2012, Pam seemed to stay drunk the whole time that we were at my father's ranch. Then, she became overtly and falsely accusatory toward my wife and both of my children.

57. This same comment about success in life holds true for Tom, again, although I did not mention him. As already stated, he is being sued for stealing millions of dollars from his company in Austin.

Pam and Tom live off my mother’s money.

58. Shortly after my granddad died in 1988, I reconnected with my mother, who had divorced her second husband, Bill Harlow. I knew she was having some financial difficulty so I asked her if I could look into her “business” and her personal banking and financial records. I went back to Amarillo, hired movers and moved all of her office furniture, files, vehicles, etc., to Dallas. I went through all of her files to get an understanding of what she had.

59. What I found out was shocking at the very least. It was a miracle she had anything at all. Both my sister Pam and brother Tom had been stealing from her for years. They both had her credit cards, with which they had been financing much of their own lives, since Boone divorced her. My brother Tom had been flying around the world, first class, for years, staying in five-star hotels and wining and dining prospective partners/investors. Pam had been shopping for clothes, in the most expensive shops, for years, for her three girls and herself.

60. I also found that Tom had moved all of mother’s stock holdings from her broker in Amarillo to a broker in Dallas who was his friend. Tom apparently had convinced mother into selling all of her Mesa Ltd Partnership common stock, which had a very good yield and had been providing her with a good yearly income, and into buying various other stock holdings that had cratered in price, wiping out much of her net worth.

61. Mother had a home on Mockingbird Lane, in Highland Park, valued at about $1 million, which she was having difficulty paying the mortgage. She actually got a job, at age 65, as a real estate sales person.

62. She ended up having to sell her home and car and cancel her membership at Brookhollow Country Club and move into an apartment. She even sold much of her jewelry. I received a letter from Pam during this time period, telling me that “we” were going to have to take care of mother, etc., I responded with a pretty curt response, saying she would not be in the shape she was in if Pam and others had not been stealing from her for years – of course, I heard nothing back.

T Boone Pickens - a legend in his own mind

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

T Boone Pickens III busted for DWI & Possession of Marijuana

Thursday, July 31, 2014

John V "cheeseburger" McShane sues to stop his own Texas State Bar sex addiction Intervention

John V "cheeseburger" McShane sues to stop sex addiction intervention by the Texas State Bar

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

my declaration 5-13