WaPo's 1999 Interview with Ivins Counselor

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Tuesday August 05, 2008 · 8:38 PM PDT

2008/08/05 · 20:38

As it turns out, the Washington Post had interviewed Bruce Ivins' group therapy counselor, Jean Duley, in 1999. Except that in 1999, according to the Post's account this evening, she wasn't using the name Duley. She was Jean Wittman, a recovering drug user who attended a "clean and sober" bikers' convention at the Frederick County Fairgrounds in Maryland.

Just to summarize what we already knew, recapped in tomorrow's Washington Post:

The counselor he saw for group therapy and biweekly individual sessions, who would eventually tell a judge that he was a "sociopathic, homicidal killer," had a troubled past. Jean C. Duley, who worked until recent days for Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick, is licensed as an entry-level drug counselor and was, according to one of her mentors, allowed to work with clients only under supervision of a more-seasoned professional.

Her 1999 interview as Jean Wittman is available here:

"Once a biker always a biker," said Wittman, now of Frederick, who said she has lived the lifestyle for two decades, much of the time heavily involved in substance abuse.

"You name it, I did it," she said. "Heroin. Cocaine. PCP. The whole nine yards. In 1993, I hit a bottom. I woke up out of a blackout in Southeast lockup in D.C. and didn't know how I had gotten there. . . . I had a spiritual awakening."

She vowed to chuck her addictions. But she cherished the lifestyle.

"To me, it's very important," she said Thursday, extensive shoulder tattoos of roses and lilies peeking out from under her black halter top. "It's who I am. It's what I've been. I can't exactly, with all these tattoos, go back and become a nonbiker person."

It sounds like she's had a hard life and I wish her all the best in overcoming any remaining addictions. But, I'm not sure this makes her a very credible witness.

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WaPo's 1999 Interview with Ivins Counselor

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