06-26-07

Statement of Tanya (House) Hurley

 John Watson has asked me to give an honest and accurate account of my experience with Devra West per my employment with Divine Unity from 04-2002-03-2003.  The following is an account of what I perceive to be relevant to his litigation.  I was hired as her Personal Assistant.  This means I took care of all of Devra’s personal needs. Diet, vitamins, ordered or purchased all groceries, preparing all meals, in charge of making sure house, laundry, dog, auto, basically everything Mrs. West wanted, I was in charge of.  I hired an assistant for myself as Mrs. West's needs were never ending. My position was one that required no less than 3 full-time employees to perform.      

 I worked with several individuals at D.U. throughout my time employed there.  Due to Mrs. West's extremist behavior, ie: yelling at employees, demeaning employees and students, constantly changing our job descriptions to suit her moods, forcing her religious beliefs upon employees that were there just for the paycheck etc...There was an extremely large turnover of employees.  There was definitely a short shelf life of employees because it was a rarity to satisfy Mrs. West's demands.

 If I wrote everything down that I experienced and witnessed while employed by Mrs. West, I would have a very long book.  So I will just list the facts as follows.....

1. RE: John Watson,  I met Mr. Watson as one of Mrs. West's students and subsequently upon hiring, one of Mrs. West's employees.  It was my understanding that Mr. Watson was "The Money Man", in charge of generating funds for the org. that he and Mrs. West co-chaired called Millennium Mind.  Mrs. West initially had only positive things to say about Mr. Watson until they started to butt heads over money and control of said Org.  Mr Watson ended up resigning and requested to be paid for his services thus-far.  I do not know the specifics of their agreement but suffice it to say Mrs. West did not pay Mr. Watson.  Thus began the battle between the two of them.  Mrs. West repeatedly bad mouthed Mr. Watson to anyone who would listen and when she is the one who pays the salaries, there is not much choice but to listen.  I advised Mrs. West when asked for my opinion, to pay him what she owed him and move on.  I would have to guess by the ongoing litigation 4 yrs. later that she did not take my advice.

Part 2- John Watson's alleged sexual harassment of female employees and or students...I personally never experienced this behavior nor did I hear any of the other females at work speak of this.  He always conducted himself in a respectful manner towards me.  She also eluded to Mr. Watson behaving aggressively towards his wife Lisa and their children.  I myself did not ever witness this type of behavior either.

 I grew up in Darby and have worked and lived in the Hamilton area for the better part of my 42 yrs.  I answered an Ad in the Ravalli Republic, interviewed and was hired by Mrs. West.  The Ad stated, busy professional woman hiring Personal Assistant.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  She hired me at $10 per hour and raised me to $12 within a month.  Good wages for a woman in the Bitterroot.  I was single and raising 2 children, so it was not easy to walk away from that kind of financial security.  I was so exhausted and stressed out from working insane hours, dealing on a daily basis with her demands and outbursts it started to SEVERELY affect me both mentally and physically.  I was never physically abused by Mrs. West, but as we all know there are many forms of abuse. I was told by other employees that physical abuse was exacted on others before and after my employment.

In closing, it is my opinion that Mrs. West is mentally ill and is a danger to herself and others.  I experienced a good side of Mrs. West also.  She could be very giving, funny and caring at times, which made her such a confusing person to deal with.  I developed a close relationship to her daughter Anna West and still hold a place in my heart for her.  It was for that reason only, that I did not divulge my experience at Divine Unity. As in most children, no matter what their parents are like, good or bad, she loves her mother.  I did not want to be the one that caused Anna pain by speaking out about her mother.  It has recently come to my attention that Mrs. West has been carrying on with her abusive behavior for the last 4 years, so for that reason and my desire to stop anyone else from being subjected to her abuse, I have prepared this statement and have given Mr. Watson my permission to use this info. to help with his campaign to stop these atrocities from happening to anyone else.

I was very damaged from my involvement with Mrs. West, physically, mentally and spiritually.  I don't want to keep silent and allow it to happen to someone else.

Sincerely;

Tanya C. Hurley

Copyright 2007. John Watson. All rights reserved.