Complaint Review: Clark Pest Control - Lodi California

In 2005 I began working for a company called Clark Pest Control and at the time I was given a respirator that wasn't for pest control use (the Moldex 2840 R-95 Disposable Respirator) and had no idea that it was the thing that was causing my respiratory problems. My the end of 2005 I started to experience all the symptoms of chemical exposure, while Kaiser Permanente and their doctors blamed it on my Sleep Apnea problems. But by the start of 2006 I was forced to have surgery due to their misdiagnoses.

By April of 2006 I started to experience a burning sensation on my right knee cap, but only when I kneeled down on the ground, this would become the first Workers Compensation claim I would ever file. Out of the 10-15 other times I had been injured in Pest Control, I had never filed a claim for benefits.In my previous 15 years in pest control I had never crawled as much as I had with Clark Pest Control. Still I worked through pain and by the end of 2006 I had filed my second claim for my Respiratory problems.

If you have followed my articles on Broowaha, Wordpress and Gripevine, then you know all that Kaiser Permanente has done. But I wanted to give you the other side of the coin. When I started going to Kaiser Occupational Health in Milpitas, I decided at the advice of my roomate, that I would hire an attorney to protect my rights. I had no knowledge of the attorney's back ground at the time, or that he had previously done work for Clark Pest Control before.So as I looked around I decided on hiring an attorney named Bruce Baum out of Capitola. He asked me to come to his office in the first week of October 2006.

When I met him he seemed very knowledgeable about Workers Compensation and we talked about the Kaiser doctor telling me that my employer gave me a respirator that he described as a "glorified dust mask". He informed me that my employer was going to do everything that they could to get rid of me. Mr. Baum tried to encourage me to start a "Class Action Lawsuit" for lack of Respiratory protection, but I didn't want to do that. He also encouraged me to sue the Moldex Company that makes the respirator, but I didn't want to do that either.Mr. Baum eventually asked me if I wanted to do a "Psychiatry Claim" on top of my "Respiratory & Right Knee Injury Claims". I told him that I wasn't interested in that at all. By the end of the meeting Mr. Baum had told me that he would have his secretary named Marilyn send me the attorney/client documents that I had signed in the mail, but it never came.

Shortly after the meeting with Bruce Baum, I received a call from the Gallagher Bassett Services adjustor named Ted Kuhl, who I informed that I had hired Bruce Baum as my attorney. I gave him the office and cell phone numbers of Bruce Baum and told him that he needed to call him, instead of me, since I was now represented.Then over the course of the next month and a half the adjustor would write me 3 times and call me 6 other times informing me that my attorney had not sent them any Notice of Representation. It got to the point where I had to call the adjustor's boss, named James Petersen and inform him that I was represented.

My Respiratory Claim was denied by Gallagher Bassett Services on November 29th, 2006, because they claim I didn't cooperate with their Discovery Rights and that I failed to request a Panel Qualified Medical Evaluator. Later I would be informed by Dr. Ramon Garcia at the Kaiser Occupational Health in Milpitas that he only released me from care on October 10th, 2006, because Ted Kuhl (the adjustor) informed him that I was already scheduled to see a Pulmonary Qualified Medical Evaluator and that all he wanted Dr. Garcia to do was release me so I could go to the doctor. Dr. Garcia would document this in his medical report.During this time I called my attorney's office 18 times and he never called me back.

When his secretary finally did, she informed me that Bruce Baum had just had back surgery and that he had moved his office to another location. I didn't know it at the time, but both of those excuses were lies. Bruce Baum didn't have back surgery at that time and he had been in the same building for close to 30 years.One day Bruce Baum had finally returned my phone calls and when he did, he sure got an ear full. But his quite demeanor and calmness convinced me not to pull the plug on him just yet. In that phone conversation with him, he told me that it was no big deal to have a Workers Compensation Claim denied and that we could easily get the claim overturned. In that phone conversation I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Mr. Baum had also told me that he had lost my original DWC-1 Claim forms in the move and that he needed to meet with me and have me sign new ones. We agreed to meet at the Workers Compensation Appeals Board in San Jose.I didn't know it at the time, but Bruce Baum could have received a copy of the original DWC-1 forms that were filed at the San Jose Workers Compensation Appeals Board.

When I arrived for my meeting with Bruce Baum, he told me that he had plans for me to go to a Dr. Robert Harrison of UCSF Medical Center who was known for some famous Mold Exposure cases in Santa Cruz. He gave me a bunch of promises that he would never do. Then while I was feeling good again about my Workers Compensation Claims, he placed 2 blank DWC-1 forms in front of me and asked me to sign them. He said he would fill them out later and send me a copy of them. Mr. Baum knew that I didn't want anything other than a Right Knee Claim and a Respiratory Claim. But I didn't realize what Bruce Baum was really up to.

Mr. Baum would turn around and change my Respiratory Claim into a Psychiatry/Respiratory Claim and make it so that the case would go through a Psychiatrist. I specifically told Mr. Baum I do not want anything to do with that kind of claim. Then he would add a Left Knee Injury Claim that happened in October of 2005, while working for Clark Pest Control. What had happened in 2005 was, that I had rubbed against a ground light fixture and it cut the outside of my knee and I had never filled out the paperwork on the claim. So without my knowledge he reopened the Left Knee Claim, though we had never even talked about it. The Right Knee Claim was also refiled. Bruce Baum turned 2 injury claims into 4, so that it would look like I was going after a large amount of money. I had Chemical Exposure and a Burning sensation when I kneeled on my right knee.

When Mr. Baum had me sign the new DWC-1 forms, he changed my injuries from Specific injuries to Cumulative, which allowed my employer to turn around and ask for apportionment, so that they could blame other companies I had worked for, for my Respiratory and Right Knee Injury. But Clark Pest was where I used a Respirator that wasn't for pest control use and did more crawling in the 2 years I worked there, then the previous 15 years combined in Pest Control.

What I didn't know at the time was that Bruce Baum was actually helping Clark Pest Control by having me sign the new DWC-1 forms. What I didn't realize at the time was that Bruce Baum changed the dates of injury on the Respiratory Claim and made it a Psychiatry/Respiratory Claim, so that Clark Pest Control could avoid an investigation by 3 Government Entities that would have investigated chemical exposure on the job site. These 3 entities would have had a field day, finding out that Clark Pest Control had provided over 3,000+ employees a Respirator that wasn't for pest control use and that for 7 years Clark Pest Control did not even know who governed Respiratory Protection in the State of California. Clark Pest Control thought Respiratory Protection was governed by OSHA, when it was really governed by NIOSH (It was on their employees documents).

But before the meeting was over with Bruce Baum, he pulled a fast one and informed me that he had lost the original attorney/client documents in the move and needed my signature on the new ones. I didn't recognize that Bruce Baum was covering his tracks.

By January 2007 my Orthopedic doctor had informed me that I needed to go out on Workers Compensation, that my knee was not improving. That day I called my Branch Manager's secretary and told her to ask Joe Gatto if it was okay to go out on Workers Compensation. Then I received a phone call from Joe Gatto (Branch Manager), he left me a voicemail message telling me that it was okay to go out on Workers Compensation and that there was nothing for me to sign.Then a few weeks went by and I noticed that I had not received a check in the mail from Gallagher Bassett Services, they were the claims adjustors for the real insurance company called American Home Assurance. Then I received a letter from their adjustor Ted Kuhl, informing me that although my claim for my knee had been accepted, they could not pay me benefits, because my employer reported that they offered me modified duties and that I refused the accomodation. Yet I saved the voicemail! It was "Employer Workers Compensation Fraud" and Joe Gatto should have lost his pest control license and been formerly charged with a crime. But California only prosecutes employees for Workers Compensation Fraud.

By March of 2007, I was scheduled to have a deposition and my attorney asked me to come early. When I got there he told me that Clark Pest Control had hired an attorney named Kimberley Pryor of the Haworth, Bradshaw, Stallknecht & Barber Law Firm. Mr. Baum told me that he never met her, but heard that she was a real fireball.As the deposition moved along, I noticed that Bruce Baum would not allow me to put the Employer Workers Compensation Fraud on record, even though I brought the voicemail of Joe Gatto's to the deposition and gave Ms. Pryor a copy before it started. Though he had claimed that he had never met Ms. Pryor before the deposition, I found out that he had lied to me. The reason I knew he lied to me was because Ms. Pryor knew everything about Bruce Baum, from the name of his dog that died, to his wife and she had even been in his house. They talked about some boat that they both had been on together and so I assumed that Bruce Baum had a boat.

The deposition was done by the opposing party to try to dig up any dirt that they could find on me. They were very interested in my grandfather's estate case that was Probated in San Francisco and the names of the parties involved.Then during the break, Kimberley Pryor mentioned her hand injury that she had sustained at work and that she had filed a Workers Compensation Claim for her injury against her employer. Bruce Baum offered to represent her at a reduction in price, while representing me. But something about that conversation bothered me. Plus the fact that Bruce Baum wouldn't let me put anything on record in regard to my employer breaking the law. There was more to it then meets the eye. I was informed by Ms. Pryor that there will be a second deposition on me and as she walked out she told Bruce Baum that she will see him Sunday at Synagogue.

I left that deposition knowing that Bruce Baum and Kimberley Pryor were close, if not the best of friends. During the drive home I called the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department and the District Attorney's Office and they both told me that it sounds like these attorney's are trying to set you up. They recommended getting another attorney.Within the next month, I fired my attorney and informed him and the opposing party by fax the day I fired him. Right after his firing, Ms. Pryor back dated a bunch of subpoenas and sent them out. She would issue 19 subpoenas and never inform me of even one of them. In fact she was so bold that she even wrote on some of the front pages of the Subpoenaed files that the applicant doesn't have an attorney.Kimberley Pryor was issuing illegal subpoenas and going on a "fishing expedition", but she didn't just stop there. Kimberley Pryor arranged a meeting with the Executor of my grandfather's estate, named Dudley Wayne Mendenhall. He told her that the best way to deal with Brian Carrasco is to do what we did. To start informing everyone that he was threatening you. That way it would show a pattern from the Estate of Alexis Mercooloff to his Workers Compensation Case against Clark Pest Control.

What Kimberley Pryor, Gallagher Bassett Services and Clark Pest Control didn't realize was that Dudley Mendenhall had used the phony Restraining Order Claim to embezzle a 100 Million Dollar Estate and get the closest person to Alexis Mercooloff out of the picture.By June of 2007 I was scheduled to see Dr. Lawrence Petrakis, who was a Psychiatry Qualified Medical Evaluator. Bruce Baum had set up my Respiratory Claim to go through him. The day of the evaluation, I received a letter from Kimberley Pryor that was sent to Dr. Petrakis. It was filled with nothing but lies. She had told the doctor that I illegally recorded my Branch Manager (Joe Gatto) without his knowledge, when he actually left me a voicemail message. She claimed that I had left all these lengthy late night voicemail messages that just needed to be documented.

At the back of the letter she wrote, she listed some of the Subpoenaes that she had sent out. She never informed me of any of them. But I was told about one of them by my former employer while I was at church. But then at the end of the letter there was a Workers Compensation Psychiatry Case listed, it was called "Lisa Kapsalis vs. Art Group LTD", (the photo shows the case in the top left corner) this was the outline case of what Ms. Pryor and Mr. Baum had planned to do with me. It was a complete set up that was prearranged by them, along with Gallagher Bassett Services and Clark Pest Control.When I wrote my response letter it foiled their set up plans and Dr. Petrakis who is one of the best Psychiatry doctors in the industry did an evaluation and determined that there was nothing wrong with me, other then I just shouldn't work for Clark Pest Control anymore.

When the senior partner for the Haworth, Bradshaw, Stallknecht & Barber Law Firm named Clark Barber heard about what Ms. Pryor and Mr. Baum tried to do, she was fired from her law firm. Then I recieved a call from Mr. Barber apologizing to me for what she had done. Mr. Barber told me "I can't believe what she was going to do". Ms. Pryor would follow that up by writing me a harrassing letter, threatening me and issuing a Subpoena in my case when she wasn't even on the case anymore. Later I would find out about her history of alcoholism and other abuses.

Then when there were no attorney's working the case, I was sent the documentation to have a Qualified Medical Evaluator. I informed the adjustor Ted Kuhl that I wanted one for my Pulmonary Problems and one for my Orthopedic Problems. So when I turned in the form. He had secretly had the Industrial Medical Council put it aside and then he filled out another one that took away my Pulmonary Qualified Medical Evaluator and just gave me an Orthopedic Qualified Medical Evaluator. But instead he forged my signature and turn it in to the Industrial Medical Council and didn't tell them that it was from him.Then as Clark Pest Control and Gallagher Bassett Services hired the Mullin & Fillipi Law Firm, there focused turned into covering up what Ms. Kimberley Pryor had done. The new attorney that was summoned to represent them was Ms. Paula Montgomery. When she originally called me she told me that Clark Pest Control and Gallagher Bassett Services said they would like to give you whatever you want as a settlement. She even gave me her home and cell phone numbers and when I called her cell phone one day her husband picked it up and thought she was having an affair. She mentioned figures like $35,000, $45,000 and $60,000 and she was shocked to find out that I just wanted Lifetime Medical on my Knee, Respiratory and Nuerological (because I was getting severe headaches).

I went back to Dr. Ramon Garcia who told me about the adjustor telling him that he needed him to release me and that I was already scheduled to see a Pulmonary QME, when I wasn't. Dr. Garcia did do a Spirometry Test that he later changed and gave me a June 12th, 2007 letter. Then I went back to my old treating physician and he ordered an X-ray that Dr. Moon felt was the start of Lymphoma, Cancer of the Lungs and wrote me a July 3rd, 2007 letter of concern. So I had lots of proof that I had a Respiratory work injury.For the next 18 months Ms. Montgomery refused to turn over copies of the Subpoenas that Ms. Kimberley Pryor had sent out in my case. Though I called a dozen times and sent over 10 demand letters asking for copies of the subpoenaed records, she ignored every single one of them. So I finally filed a petition and listed some of the things that the opposing party had done and filed it with the San Jose Workers Compensation Appeals Board.When it was time for the Hearing on July 18th, 2007 (I believe that is the date), Judge Robert Wickler had asked Ms. Montgomery and myself to go to the cafeteria and see if we could work out some kind of settlement agreement. She wanted me to ask for cash, but I wouldn't do it. Then she said let's talk to the Judge and when I went back to the Hearing room I learned that she was nowhere to be found, she had snuck out the back door so as to avoid the petition I filed, being heard by the Judge.

Later I would have a San Jose Workers Compensation Appeals Board representative call Ms. Montgomery and ask her to send me a copy of the files that they Subpoenaed. She refused and said that she was not going to copy that entire file. She said that there must be close to 20,000 documents in that file. I even offered to come to her office and spend a few days copying the files and she still refused.

What I didn't realize at the time was that Bruce Baum, Kimberley Pryor, Ted Kuhl, Joe Clark and Kaiser Permanente had pulled my records out of my medical files and begun to replace some of them with falsified documents. They were trying to make it look like I had a pre-existing condition before I worked for Clark Pest Control. They removed X-rays, CT scans, MRI's, Spirometry Tests, Blood Tests and Doctor visits from my files. Everything that I would be able to use against Clark Pest Control, they removed from the files.

Understamd that the Clark Pest Owners are Elders in the Mormon Church and have facilitated fraud. For some reason they seem to think that they are above any laws. The Mormons aslo run Kaiser Permanente, where they work to cover Clark Pest Control and other Mormon owned company work injuries.