Retired sheriff discovers details of rogue lawyer Joey Gilbert’s hostile takeover attempt of America’s Frontline Doctors and flips to support Founder Dr. Simone Gold.
Will a “Constitutional Sheriff” do the right thing and finish the job?
In a recent interview with Sam Bushman of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), Retired Sheriff Richard Mack reveals how, as a Board member of America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), he realized that renegade AFLDS Board members had launched a vendetta against Dr. Gold, with which he disagreed. His interview is below.
Mack describes how, in December 2021, he agreed to become a Board member of AFLDS because he “loves Dr. Gold and what she did standing for health freedom in front of the U. S. Supreme Court.” (22:30)
Later, things began to go awry, and he realized he had become part of “an animosity that was aimed at Dr. Gold.” (23:45) He admits he was influenced by rogue board member Joey Gilbert who abruptly turned against Dr. Gold shortly after she was released from a politically-driven J6 incarceration. Mack recounts that the more he learned about AFLDS, the more he realized this organization was “Dr. Gold’s corporation”, “Dr. Gold’s brainchild”, and Dr. Gold was “the one who raised the money.” (24:00)
After several months, Mack realized that the Board faction with which he was associated was “now using the money that [Gold] raised to crucify her publicly.” (24:20)
Sheriff Mack wanted to act with “honor and honesty.” Although Pastor Jurgen agreed, others convinced them to slander Dr. Gold publicly and attempt to forcibly remove her from AFLDS in court. Joey Gilbert, did in fact, file a lawsuit against Dr. Gold in Florida’s Middle District, but that suit, which was based on provable falsehoods, was dismissed by a federal judge.
To counter this damage and revert the organization back to its original mission, Dr. Gold was then forced to sue three individual Board members in Arizona, where the nonprofit was originally incorporated: Joey Gilbert, Pastor Jurgen Matthesius, and Sheriff Richard Mack. (24:45)
Sheriff Mack elaborates in his April 7th, 2023 statement addressed “to whom it may concern”:
“I took the position [as an AFLDS Board member] because I honestly felt I could help bring both sides together. I made such recommendations to all our way-too-many attorneys, other staff and to the Board of Directors. None of them were interested. I warned them several times that litigation would hurt us all and destroy us financially. My warnings fell on deaf ears.”
“At this point Dr Gold filed a lawsuit against us and we intended to counter it. Hate, vengeance and pride were the rule of the day. Money was going to lawyers and Joey Gilbert’s friends and former campaign staff like crazy. Joey Gilbert and I spent days and days trying to [gain control of] bank accounts that were in the name of AFLDS with Dr. Gold as the signatory. Due to the fact that board members Pastor Jurgen, Joey Gilbert and I were now on the AZ Corp Comm website as principals, the banks finally allowed us access to the accounts. We then transferred funds to [newly created] Free Speech Foundation accounts with Joey Gilbert and I as signatories. Joey Gilbert and I paid the bills and payroll.” [Editor’s note: this payroll only included themselves and their own employees—not the nearly 50 AFLDS team members working under Dr. Gold’s direction for the last several years who remained fully in support of her leadership.]
“The CPA who was [processing the totality of payroll] quit us and only worked…with Dr Gold. That left us about $2 million and it was going fast. [For example] Last December I paid $57,000 to Studio 17, Joey Gilbert’s former gubernatorial campaign video crew. I asked what in the hell this was for, and Joey Gilbert told me that was for two months so I shouldn’t worry. [But] Studio 17 was making as much or more than most of our lawyers. I asked to see the work they were doing, but that never happened. To this day I have never seen anything they ever produced.”
The Arizona judge warned them that “we needed to settle this amongst ourselves” (25:12) and “[the judge] said that over and over…he put it in his ruling.”
“We had eight lawyers” (25:30), Mack recounts, “and I was the one that complained about that every day. We had too many lawyers and we were spending way too much money.” (25:45) “The problem with that is Joey [Gilbert] was hiring all his friends and just spending money like crazy, and I objected to that.” (26:00) “I tried to get finances in order. Finally, I went to Florida and met in person with Dr. Gold…I did what the judge asked us to do…I met with her and tried to get things settled.” (26:12)
Mack recounts his later discussions with the rogue Board members about settlement. “We had so many discussions about doing what the judge said. Most disagreed, Joey especially…He had nothing but hate towards Dr. Gold.” (29:20) “I warned the group, not just Joey, a lot of different times, to keep our wits about us, and not be motivated by hate or vengeance, but that never changed anything.” (30:00) “Pastor Jurgen conducted himself in an honorable manner…but most of them were part of the vendetta.” (30:16)
“The backdrop of this was that we just had way too many people, way too many attorneys, and Joey kept adding more people, and most of them were his personal friends, and he had people that worked with his campaign that were now getting paid tens of thousands of dollars a month to be a part of this and I would ask him, ‘I’ve never seen anything that they’ve done that has helped what we’re doing.’” (30:50) “We’re in litigation with Dr. Gold, and I don’t see anything that these people are doing to help that, and that was 90% of what we worked on, was litigation. 99% of the money we spent was all on litigation against her.” (31:12) “I was getting a little bit fed up with it. I didn’t see anything noble or honorable about any of it.” (31:20)
So, Sheriff Mack flew to Florida alone to meet with Dr. Gold.
“[Dr. Gold and I] do agree that she and I could work together to solve all of it.” (31:33)
“I went back to Arizona and we started discussing all of this, and most everybody didn’t care. They just wanted to keep going with the litigation… Remember, we’re spending donor money. I would say that when I first came on, there was about two, two and a half million dollars that we had access to.” (32:35) “Most of the…money Dr. Gold still had, and Dr. Gold still was raising money, and she was the only person raising money.” (32:43) “And we had no fund-raising going on at all. So what were we doing? Spending the money that donors gave to [Dr. Gold], and to her organization, and we were spending that, against her.” (33:00)
“Dr Gold never said this the whole time we were there, she never suggested this, but it came to my heart, time and time again, while we were talking for four or five hours, and I just said, ‘this is her company, her baby, this is her creation, and why don’t we just give it back to her?’” (33:27) “And let’s all get out of this.” Mack told the rogue group: “I’m just throwing out possibilities, and this is what I really felt in my heart that we should do.” (34:00)
“A couple of days later, our attorney, Kellye, called me and she said, ‘you’ve been dismissed from the board and terminated as president of AFLDS.’” (34:25)
Sheriff Mack goes on to recount that Joey asked him to be president six months before that. He was concerned about the AFLDS money, so he suggested that everyone take a 50% pay cut to help get finances in order. (35:00) “And they never would, especially Joey.”
Mack was shocked to hear that Pastor Jurgen would vote to terminate Mack from the board, especially without any notice or direct communication to him, so he called Jurgen and asked him if he had in fact voted that way.
Pastor Jurgen replied: “No I did not.” (36:37)
Yet, “Kellye said, that Joey told her to inform me that I had been fired.” (36:53)
“That [resolution terminating Mack] went to Pastor Jurgen to sign, and he refused to sign it because he said: ‘This is not what we discussed, and I’m not signing this.’ Then I talked to Adam, and I said ‘Adam, Pastor Jurgen refused to sign the resolution.’”
“What is going on here? So we have fabricated minutes from the board meeting, we have one of the members of the board being fired, one that’s refusing to sign it because they’re fabricated, and then, which Pastor Jurgen also said he was very much against, they’re [intending] to put Kevin Jenkins as the CEO of AFLDS. And [Jurgen] said no way he would support that, and no way that he fired me. So, I asked Adam Fulton ‘so what do I do about this?’ He goes: ‘If it wasn’t signed by the quorum, then it never happened and you’re still president, and you’re still on the board.’” (40:21)
Mack proceeded with discussing options and holding meetings. He describes their best options: “…and I thought this was the biggest option. We were going to write up a proposal to Dr. Gold’s attorney, and say this is what we would like, to try to work together to settle this, just as the judge has warned us to do, and admonished us to do…So the only person in the entire group now who’s doing it is me.” (41:00)
“I am still in the position [as a Board member], now probably more than ever, because the [remainder of the] board now has resigned.” (42:40) “I changed my mind, I said I’m not resigning.” (43:28)
This is corroborated by additional details in Mack’s April 7th, 2023 statement:
“[Against Board Rules, Non-Board member] Sally [Wagenmaker] ran and controlled the entire meeting. A motion was made by Gilbert for us all to resign and that a new board would be installed. Jurgen seconded it. I told them I was not resigning and that I had never received the opportunity to vet or speak with any of the supposed new board members. One was picked by Jurgen and the other two, friends of Gilbert’s, were hand-picked by him…the minutes of this meeting were never sent to me and Jurgen said they were never sent to him. So, neither of us signed this resolution or approved the minutes…I never resigned as…a member of the Board. Furthermore, I have never seen any documentation that I was terminated as a board member…”
Can a Board member pass a motion without cause that another Board member must resign, if the second Board member does not wish to resign? No, they cannot. Not only did Mack not wish to resign, but he also immediately protested their illegitimate attempt to terminate him from his Board position.
Clearly, Sheriff Mack legally remains on the Board of Directors at AFLDS.
Mack further explains that an allegation that he stole AFLDS money is false: “Yes, I was a signer on that account, as was Joey, and when this all came down with all this dishonesty, and fabrication of notes and minutes, I said, ‘these people are so dishonest, they’re trying to transfer this money to Kevin Jenkins’ control, and maybe just to him, I don’t know’. I didn’t trust any of it, and I said, ‘I’m going to secure this money, that we have control over’, and I went and did just that. I transferred it from one account to another account, in the exact same name” (46.23). “I want it to be settled, and I’m willing to work with Dr. Gold. And I’m going to make that recommendation to the judge, that Dr. Gold and I can straighten all this out between us.” (50:27)
Mack moved the remaining money from one AFLDS account to another to protect it from the rogue group who he did not trust and who he had personally observed to be dishonest. Mack gave the Gilbert County Police Dept. documentation of these two AFLDS accounts, and no charges were ever filed against him.
In so doing Mack also operated as the only uncontested board member of AFLDS. A board vote was apparently never taken to remove Mack. The minutes from the Board meeting controlled by Sally Wagonmaker which purported to remove Mack were apparently falsified, as evidenced by Pastor Jurgen’s statement that he never voted to fire Mack. Jurgen’s statement contradicts those minutes.
At the end of the CSPOA interview, Mack states that he’s willing to work out an amicable agreement with Dr. Gold as the court indicated. Mack was simply waiting for the judge to order him to do so.
But Sheriff Mack can work out a settlement with Dr. Gold now—there is no need to wait for further instructions from the Arizona Judge; the Judge already instructed Mack and the Board to do this very thing in his written response to the Preliminary Injunction hearing on January 25th, 2023. Time is of the essence. A critical civil rights organization is suffering, along with the public that it serves. The medical freedom advocacy of AFLDS and the resources they provide to the public have saved thousands of lives, and donor funds should not be spent on unnecessary, time-consuming, wasteful litigation. If Sheriff Mack can reach an amicable agreement with Dr. Gold immediately that permits Dr. Gold to continue this lifesaving work, the court has clearly indicated it is encouraging this, and would approve it.
The donors and supporters of America’s Frontline Doctors from across the entire nation are urging the Sheriff to complete the job he started.
FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:
