Declaration, November 19,
2011
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
I, Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, declare
the following to be a true and accurate account of events and not
intended to deceive.
I am a journalist who is published and
writes for the Lone Star Iconoclast in Crawford, Texas and who also
does other free-lance work and other writing projects, working
entirely from my home as I am full time caretaker for my son, Arthur,
who is completely disabled. I am, myself, legally disabled.
On or around August 25, 2011, I was
introduced to Laura, the wife of Alex Montagu, styled the Duke of
Manchester, by Raye Smith (DBA Rayelan Allan), for the purpose of
writing a book. I had no knowledge of either husband or wife prior to
that time. I have known Ms. Smith for a number of years. Ms. Smith
told me at the outset the Duke was short of money but could be
trusted to ensure I was compensated for my work when the funds became
available. I agreed to work on that expectation. This was affirmed by
the Duke, who expressed his gratitude.
I was asked to introduce the Duke to
Ilene Proctor, http://ileneproctor.com/. I did so. I have worked
with Ms. Proctor over the years writing reviews for books and on
other projects. The Duke was hoping Ms. Proctor could find a
publisher for the book he wanted me to write on his life. I was asked
to write the book and began doing interviews of the Duke and Laura
and others, suggested by them.
The Duke asked me to take notes
whenever we talked, even if I was not formally interviewing him. I
generally did so, but the conversations became highly repetitive. I
also spent even more time on the phone with his wife, Laura. The
conversations were generally about her cats, the Manchester estates
and funds which they could not access, and the jewelry, which was not
available to them, or on her personal life and prior love interests.
Laura began drinking about the time the Duke went to bed and from
that point on became increasingly loquacious and incoherent on a
regular basis.
Neither of the Montagus expressed
interest in anything but their own personal affairs. Since the
relationship was professional I accepted this as a matter of course.
Taking notes and researching the background of the title and family
continued to be my focus as I put up a website for them. This was to
be used to refute charges of bigamy leveled against the Duke and to
allow him to carry out his stated goal, to do good in the world with
the money he would have when the Manchester Trusts were broken and
the funds therein were in his possession.
Articles about the scandals attributed
to the Duke have come thick and fast over the last months. These
articles have reiterated the charges of bigamy, stated as fact he was
jailed for fraud in Australia, stealing cars and reselling them, and
additional newer stories which, if true, are shocking revelations
about his children and family life. These are the three most recent
articles, containing these charges.
Court rules O.C. family is blood
nobility, Aussie-born Duke denies bigamy in UK, Aussie-born
Duke denies bigamy in UK .
At the time I believed the Duke was an
honest man who had been badly treated by nearly everyone in his life.
Now, the jury is out. The lies which are contained in his recent
emails document a willingness to spin and restructure documentable
facts.
I began outlining first a book, which I
was asked to change to a series of articles. The project on which I
was asked to spend my time was then shifted to the sale of video
tapes which Manchester had made of Michael Jackson some years before.
I have never, to date, seen these tapes and have never had them in my
possession.
Over a two month period I wrote copy to
produce a sale, which was to be carried out by Ilene Proctor. Working
without seeing the material presented significant difficulties, as I
was forced to interview the Duke on the content and he is not an able
communicator, necessitating repeated and detailed questioning on my
part to elicit the required information. It is probable the
psychotropic drugs he takes daily, or sometimes the lack of such
drugs, was, in part, responsible for this inability to convey
information but his admitted dyslexia could also be, in part,
responsible. Getting technical details, for instance the length of
segments of video, place taken, type of film, and dates proved to be
nearly impossible.
Over this period the Duke expressed
lavish thanks for the work done and began telling both myself and
Raye he considered us to be members of his family. He was verbally
effusive and his promises for compensation increased along with such
demands as having us live either with him or close enough so he could
'watch over us.' This was rather creepy.
I had persuaded a disbarred attorney,
Charles Lincoln, who, none the less, has an earned degree from the
University of Chicago. School of Law and a Ph. D. in Anthropology
from Harvard, to produce contracts and do research on intellectual
property rights sales, promising, after checking with the Duke, he
would be paid for work done. The contracts were essential to the
sales but the Duke could not afford any outlay of funds for any
purpose, telling us he was applying for a job, first at ATT and then
at Target or Walmart. When the contract for services for the sale of
the Michael Jackson tape were produced he asked us to trust him to
ensure we would be paid.
In early October the Duke became
agitated and angry with Ilene Proctor and fired her after she began
to insist a contract be signed for her, specifically.
In mid-October the Duke again became
agitated when his wife, Laura, told him the Michael Jackson tape was
lost. He accused her of stealing it and told us he was going to call
the police. Laura had left the apartment but was calling both myself
and Ray, making accusations of having been abused. Neither of us had
heard any sign of this taking place but suggested various places she
could go and attempted to find a place where she could stay with
friends of ours.
However, it was obvious that if the
tapes were missing the only person who could have taken them was
Laura.
When the police arrived, I was told by
both Raye and the Duke, Raye was on the phone to the Duke. The Duke,
who had admitted the police, asked she talk to an officer. While she
was on the phone with them there was a knock at the door and the
Michael Jackson tape was leaning against the door, according to the
Duke, and by what Raye was told by the police then present.
Over the next several days the Duke,
again asking me to take notes, told me, providing references, that
Laura was a former prostitute who still worked regularly in Las
Vegas. He provided details which included the individuals who had
broken this news to him. As the Duke went through Laura's
possessions, left in the apartment, he reported to me finding papers
she had told him he had lost and women's clothing he had never seen,
tags still on, which he said had been stolen. He told me Laura was
addicted to shop lifting, used multiple social security numbers and
alternate identities. These statements were also made separately to
Raye. He told me he would send references, which were not
forthcoming, but his statements were credible to me because of
remarks made by Laura directly to me previously regarding the
irrelevancy of shoplifting laws along with her obvious her sense of
entitlement and odd stories told regarding her career in Los Angeles.
The sale of the tape was progressing
through these events but had stalled through objections made by Laura
prior to the disappearance of the tape. Raye then mentioned to me
having found a buyer, a major Hollywood producer. That sale also
failed because Laura objected to the buyer for reasons which were
completely irrational.
The presentation package was complete
except for inclusion of stills. Clips also remained to be made. A
request document, to be faxed by possible major media buyers, was
ready to go out. This protective document had been produced by
Lincoln. Raye paid for all the costs and also for the divorce the
Duke insisted on filing against his wife as the Duke continuously
claimed he had no money.
Raye started a FedEx account so the
Duke could send the tapes to her to be processed and the clips and
stills produced. All documentation of transport and the source of
these funds is in Raye's possession along with emails authorizing the
processing to go forward.
When the tapes were received, several
days late, because the Duke failed to send them for next day
delivery, Raye spent 59 hours and $200 for the purchase of programs
to produce the needed clips and stills.
The Duke had no idea of the format in
which his own tapes had been made.
During this time Raye paid for the
Duke's prescription of psychotropic drugs, again at his request. He
told us his psychiatrist was unwilling to work with him unless and
until he divorced Laura. He also requested we talk to his
psychiatrist, which we attempted to do. Alex told us he had sent a
fax giving permission. The receptionist told us it had not been
received. The contradictions in his statements, plus evidence of
continued irrationality toward the end of this period gave both of us
pause.
Up to this point my relations with the
Duke were friendly and we talked on the phone, mostly regarding the
tapes and what needed to be done, several times a day. He had
purchased a used car and decided he would come to meet me as my
residence is located in the national forest in California because he
wanted to 'get away.' I was reluctant, but agreed to the visit,
persuaded by Raye. The Duke wanted me to put up a commercial site for
him to produce income from the sale of military supplies, which was
what I was to be working on while he was vacationing at my home. He
also asked me to set up an email for the url I purchased for him at
his request. He told me what his specific dietary needs were and I
assured him acceptable food would be available. There was nothing
social about the planned visit.
The Duke had told both myself and Raye
he had only one for two feet of intestine, and so required soft food
which was fairly bland.
Our last conversation took place around
October 23rd when he called to tell me he was delayed due to car
problems but would be there the next day. He never arrived. Raye then
contacted me to say she had received an email from the Duke and he
was pulling back on the sale of the tapes.
I then received an email from
Laura which resulted in an exchange of emails between us where, as I
now felt free to express myself, she obviously resented. Copies of
the emails are available and can be obtained by request. These will
soon be up on a website.
Neither Raye or myself have ever talked
to the Duke again. Of myself and Raye, I was the last to speak to him
over the phone. Our intention, when initially discovering he was
going forward with the project without paying us, was to file in
small claims court for the maximum, which was over the number of
hours spent on his project but under what we are owed.
I made one or two attempts to contact
the Duke. His numbers were changed.
Calculating the hours spent putting up
the website and material for the tape sale I was owed $12,540 for
work done. Raye is owed $15,200 on the same Michael Jackson tape
project. Additionally, she intended to file for the loans made to the
Montagus in a separate motion. I did not charge for the interviews as
I will be using them for articles now planned. We deemed this to be
the appropriate avenue to obtain compensation for work requested and
then not paid.
Both Raye and myself had spent hundreds
of hours on the phone with the two of them and deferred other
projects, suffering losses at their request and with their knowledge.
Soon, I was receiving hostile and angry
emails purportedly from the Duke, and forwarded emails from Charles
Lincoln, who forwarded without comment emails from the Duke, filled
with slanders and lies about me. These included my having published
slanders about the Duke and or Laura. A Google search shows I
published nothing about either of them. I never had any materials
except interviews, which were for publication and for which the Duke
refused to sign any agreement, releasing me from any limitation for
their use.
Raye returned the original tape, at her
own expense, to Alan Kidd, who the Duke trusted. She felt this step
was necessary because she did not want to be accused of having not
sent it and Kidd is a known and respectable individual living in San
Diego to whom, she understood, the Duke had given a power of
attorney. The Duke directly told her Kidd had custody of other tapes,
kept in a temperature controlled environment.
From these emails I learned Laura and
Alex were contacting my family and business associates, telling
slanderous stories about me. The Duke claimed I was a criminal, he
positively stated there were active warrants against me, and he had
been deputized by the FBI to arrest me on sight and use lethal force
to do so while refusing to provide details of any charges. He gave
the name of Gregory Coleman, who research showed to be the name of a
real FBI agent out of New York, as having authorized the arrest.
The packet of 'research' they had
compiled from the internet was completely about a run in I had with
an individual who called himself Karl W. B Schwarz in 2004 – 2005
who also slandered and libeled me and who became silent after I
published an article titled, “Dumb, Unscrupulous, and
Debauched,” on December 26, 2008, about him. Schwarz attempted
to harass me again by posting comments about these previous events
below an article I had written on a completely unrelated subject.
Schwarz was researched thoroughly by
Gina di Miranda in an article titled, “Unfortunate Son,” in
2005. The di Miranda article was completed and published online
around 05.Jun.2005.
Harassment by the Duke and Laura
continued, if anything increasing, as more people were contacted.
On Thursday, November 17th I contacted
the FBI myself asking if they deputize non-governmental individuals
for this purpose. I asked as a journalist, providing my name and the
paper for which I write. A copy of the email was sent to my editor,
W. Leon Smith of the Iconoclast in Texas. The answer was
no, they do not deputize.
My next query was to give them the
identify of the individuals involved, Alexander, Duke of Manchester
and Laura, his wife, with his contact information.
I asked Lincoln why he had not done
this himself, instead resending these charges, as forwards, to my
friends and business associates, further spreading the slanders. To
date, I have received no reasonable answer.
The Duke of Manchester has stated that
he calls Raye and claims she does not answer. However, Raye has a
Vonage number and a cell phone number. These make a record of all
calling numbers. The line makes transcripts of all calls. Neither I
or Raye has received a call from the Duke since late October.
To date, Raye is still paying for a
ducal storage unit in Michigan, which payment began at Laura's
pleadings of poverty.
Those contacted include political
figures who were subjects for articles I was writing, law enforcement
agencies, other governmental agencies, and potential business
contacts as well as friends and family. Threats include having
disability payments to my son ended. I have retained counsel for the
purpose of suing for slander, libel and other possible torts.
Signed, Sunday, November 20, 2011
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
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