I want this to be perfectly clear, I am not a "detractor" of Bret Gordon. I am someone Gordon intentionally and purposefully attempted to slander and defame in multiple articles on two different blogs that I know of. Gordon made up one lie after the next about me, my martial arts background and my instructors.
Article from 2020
https://web.archive.org/web/20201204194651/http://www.join-usama.com/blog/pot-meet-kettle
Article from 2023
https://bretgordon.weebly.com/blog/pot-meet-kettle-barron-shepherd-part-2#/
When Gordon's lies blew up in his face, he told another lie and then another and others after that....for FOUR years.
Last year fed up with his bullshit, I retained an attorney from a reputable and aggressive law firm. Statements from various people have been collected. According to more than a few of Gordon's former students Gordon went from telling his students that the articles he wrote about me were correct when he wrote them, then claimed it was just a big misunderstanding and then telling students, that he and I have worked things out.
We most certainly have not worked things out.
I have no direct communication at ALL with Gordon. Gordon has not reached out EVER to apologize for what he put up online or his other actions regarding my instructors and students.
Gordon had two choices and only two, to come to a scrimmage and get on the mats with me or apologize publicly on his blogs to my instructors, their families, Randy and his daughter and myself and apologize to the widow and daughter of my dead instructor. Then remove all previous articles written about any of us in all forms of media and text. PERIOD!
I can back up all my years of training both on and off the mats. I can back up and document every one of my instructors' back ground as well. I don't have a single exaggerated rank or a rank that was gotten through anything other than hard work. Not one fucking thing was ever given to me. I had to fight for every single one.
It was a 7 year journey to go from white belt to black belt.
Not a single class did I miss. This is 2 to 3 times longer than what is
required today in all the Judo organizations (USA Judo, USJF USJF). I was a
shodan for 12 years, during this time I was teaching judo, competing and going
to camps and coaches clinics. Time in grade for a shodan to be promoted to
nidan is 3 years but I had 12 years Time in Grade (TIG)...4 times more than
what was required by ALL the Judo orgs. 12 years is the amount of time it takes
to go from 1st degree to 3rd degree in all judo orgs. Total time from my white
belt to my nidan was 19 years.
I was a 2nd degree black belt (nidan) for 8 years. During
that 8 years I was still active in judo, teaching and going to coaching clinics
and camps. Time in grade for nidan to be promoted to sandan is 4 years. I had 8
years time in grade, twice the amount required by all judo orgs.
My total total time from white to sandan/3rd degree
black - 27 years. It takes approximately
20 years of being active in judo to go from shodan to godan (5th degree BB). I
had TWENTY TWO years from 1st degree black belt to the time I got promoted to
3rd degree (Sandan). When I got my 4th I had TWENTY SIX years. This isn't
counting the 7 years I put in from white to 1st black.
There were more than enough years for 5th degree BB (godan)
and currently for a sixth degree (rokudan), a rank though I probably won't see
for a few more years yet. So, If I was faking my ranks like Gordon originally
claimed in 2020 don’t you think I would promote myself faster than this?
Gordon lied in an attempt to cover up and stain all the years I had in training. In a later article Gordon attempted to attack both my 4th and 5th dans failing to mention my literally 40 plus years doing judo. In other words he intentionally omitted the factual and pertinent information to continue to paint me as a fraud.
This however wasn't enough for the likes of Bret Gordon.
Gordon made a strange request in another article written much later in 2020 than his first defamatory one, demanding to see my arms. In his article Gordon posted a picture of someone who supposedly was Gerald Smith who had tattoos on his arms. Gordon claimed it was me. I don't have any tats on my arms. I certainly don't need to hide who I am from anyone. But what the hell Gordon wants to see some manly arms so......
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Gordon didn't stop there, he then tried another way to get back at me, Gordon then went after a student of mine and his daughter who lived in another state. Randy got a threatening call one night with someone saying they were going to skin his 13 year old daughter alive in front of him. The next day Gordon drops Randy's daughter's name online. The Ohatchee Police investigated and soon figured out Gordon was involved and that Gordon went after Randy because Gordon hated me and was "too much of a coward to come after me."
According to the Ohatchee authorities and the Magistrate, Gordon was involved with others and they all pointed their fingers at one another. Feel free to contact: Ohatchee Police Department, 7801 Al-77, Ohatchee, AL 36271 Phone: (256) 892-3156
This wasn't enough for Bret Gordon either.
Just this past summer (2024), Gordon after years of calling me fake saying my judo back ground was made up and my Judo instructors fake and even non existent or made up people, He sends one of them an email asking to be promoted to a second degree black belt in judo. I believe Gordon did this because he wanted to say that he and I had the same Judo instructor. He wanted to sponge off my reputation as a judoka like a leach.
A copy of Gordon's email to my instructor asking to be promoted can be found in the following article; https://theninjerkiller.blogspot.com/2025/01/more-proof-of-extent-that-bret-gordon.html
Gordon found out that my instructors don't just give rank away. His email to my instructor is undeniable proof and an admission that Gordon had known that I and my instructors were all legitimate when he wrote his defamatory and slanderous articles.
I believe that Gordon, rather than publicly apologize for his systematic and purposeful attempts to slander and defame not only myself but my instructors, will attempt to lie his way out of it. I He might claim that those blogs belonged to someone else, and were written by some one else. This will not save him from a lawsuit.
Gordon's only chance of avoiding a lawsuit is a PUBLIC APOLOGY to me, my instructors, Randy, his daughter and their families. It is to be presented in an email AND online. All other material regarding me and my instructors and students on his blogs is to be taken down and removed. Nothing less will be accepted.
And I wont go into what's in court records about Jack Stern's Yudo/judo/kojido/hapkido....yet.....
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