Don Harrison sued for
publishing false stories
Dr. Jay Holder, D.C., M.D., Ph.D., has filed a lawsuit in Oregon alleging that Don and
Sang Harrison have used their newspaper, the American Journal of Clinical Chiropractic
(AJCC), to attack and discredit chiropractors who compete with them for seminar and
therapeutic device sales.
The Harrisons operate Chiropractic Bio-Physics, which markets CBP Seminars and various
equipment and supplies. Their national quarterly newspaper, the (AJCC), which is
used as a marketing tool for CBP, has also in recent years been seen by many as a vehicle
for the Harrisons' personal attacks against competitors.
Dr. Holder offers seminars through the American College of Addictionology and
Compulsive Disorders, Addiction Certification programs, and Torque Release Technique (TRT)
programs and is the inventor of the integrator adjusting instrument.
The Harrisons have published at least six front-page articles on Holder, and in one
issue, devoted close to 15 pages of its total 36 pages to criticizing him. Of particular
importance in the lawsuit is the AJCC's Jan. 1999 front-page article titled,
"Jay Holder's Ph.D. and M.D. Degrees Found To Be Fraudulent By the State of
Oregon."
Arguing that the articles were deliberately false and malicious, Holder has charged the
Harrisons and their businesses (CBP & AJCC) with defamation and wrongful
interference.
The AJCC article claimed to be based on official actions of the State of Oregon.
In late 1998, a thick packet of "information" attacking Holder was furnished to
the Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners (OBCE). According to Holder, much of the
packet's material (including AJCC articles attacking him) appears to have come from
Harrison and Dr. Arlen Fuhr of Activator Methods.
The packet was offered as "proof" that Holder's M.D. and Ph.D. degrees were
fraudulent and that his claim to have been awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize in Medicine
from the Albert Schweitzer Gessellshaft of Austria was false.
Without confirming the information, and without providing Holder with an opportunity to
rebut the charges, the OBCE denied his pending applications for Continuing Chiropractic
Education credits for seminars and lectures. Those same seminars had been approved the
year before.
Contrary to the AJCC report, Holder stated, the Oregon board never made any
independent determination that his credentials were fraudulent or nonexistent. It acted
solely on the unverified information in the packet to reach its decision to reject his
application for CE credit.
Holder appealed the OBCE's order to the Oregon courts and the Oregon Department of
Justice found that the Board had violated Oregon law and Holder's constitutional rights.
The OBCE withdrew its order, negotiated a settlement, and permitted Holder to continue
providing CE programs for Oregon D.C.s. The OBCE also acknowledged that it had received no
complaints regarding the quality or content of any CCE program offered by Holder. The
settlement was approved by the Senior Judge of the Circuit Court and became a final
judgment.
Holder's lawsuit alleges that the Harrisons made false and defamatory statements
regarding the nature and outcome of the Oregon proceedings, and even went so far as to
manufacture fraudulent documents to substantiate their attacks against him and his
programs.
One example cited by Holder was the publication in the AJCC of what the
Harrisons claimed was a copy of Holder's Ph.D. degree. Holder said he can show that the
image was created by piecing together fragments of credentials from an institution which
Holder never attended.
Holder also disputed the Harrisons' accusation that his Albert Schweitzer Prize in
Medicine is fraudulent. He noted that he can provide proof that the prize was conferred
upon him directly by Secretary General H. Falkensee of the Albert Schweitzer Gessellshaft
of Austria, which works under the aegis of the U.N. and UNESCO.
"What should have been received as a well-deserved international honor for the
chiropractic profession was turned into an international disgrace by the Harrisons,"
Holder protested.
The lawsuit alleges that this and other actions by the Harrisons represent "actual
malice," supporting the maximum amount of damages allowed by Oregon law.
"There is no requirement in Oregon, or anywhere else where I have lectured, that a
person has to have an M.D. degree from an American medical school or be licensed to
practice as an M.D. to provide continuing chiropractic education," Holder emphasized.
"I earned my D.C. from the National College of Chiropractic, and I resent the
implication that NCC graduates are incompetent or frauds."
He added, "I stand absolutely behind the quality of my programs, and the quality
of the chiropractors who have honored me by attending them over the years."
Holder has been based in Florida for 24 years, and operates two private practices in
Miami Beach and Miami. The State of Florida, Department of Professional Regulation has
investigated his degrees on three separate occasions and found no violations.
Holder said that Harrison's attacks are not only hurting him personally, but are being
used to hurt the profession. He referred to a report by Dr. Stephen Barrett, M.D. -- the
self-proclaimed "quackbuster" -- and published on his "quackwatch"
Internet website.
According to Holder, Barrett cites Harrison and the AJCC as his primary sources
for footnotes ridiculing the Torque Release Technique, which is being used successfully by
thousands of D.C.s around the country.
Holder said that while he realizes competitors need to promote their products in the
marketplace, "using false and fictional attacks against other chiropractors to do
that is not only unfair to the target of those attacks but is very damaging to the
profession.
"The Harrisons are smearing our whole profession and misleading the public and the
profession's enemies into believing that the thousands of chiropractors who have attended
my programs are incompetent or dupes," Holder stated.
He also noted that he hopes the lawsuit will prove to the profession that the
Harrisons, working with Arlen Fuhr, "created this gigantic 'big lie' campaign to
paint an honest person as a fraud."
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