The 13th Step - The God of Recovery

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

As Eric Spofford tells it, he spent his teen years in the throes of addiction and crime. When he got sober, he became a crusader for recovery. We hear how he built his company – and his power. And we hear allegations that he abused that power by sexually assaulting members of his own staff. The 13th Step is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio’s Document team. More at 13thsteppodcast.org. Nearly all the music in this podcast was written by Jason Moon. At the top of this episode, we used an excerpt of a track by “grapes” featuring J. Lang and Morusque. It’s called “I dunno.” To support investigative journalism like The 13th Step at NHPR, click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Chris and I'm a grateful recovered drug addict. Hey. So I get the distinct honor and privilege of introducing our commander-in-chief, Eric Spofford, CEO and founder of Granite Recovery Centers. It's been a hell of a ride, man. I'm about as well-known as a drug addict. What a weird claim to fame. I'm a very well-known drug addict in this state.

I know the governor, personally. I know the commissioner. I know most of the legislation. And let me just tell you something. And I say this with all the love in my heart. Nobody gives a fuck about you. They don't. I've been there.

The troops are not coming. Nobody is coming to help. This isn't on your government. This isn't on the cops. This isn't on the Department of Corrections. It's on you. I do my part. Do you do yours?

I will say this, and I hope it empowers you and I hope you take it with you when you leave, that nobody is more qualified to help addicts besides recovered addicts. Can we give it up? This is the 13th step. I'm Lauren Chulgin. Eric Spofford knows how to get people's attention. He founded a wildly successful addiction treatment company in New Hampshire.

It's called Granite Recovery Centers, and Eric built it on a story, his story. For a while, there was a big, big picture of his face on the website. Next is some text that said, where you're going, I've been. That's because Eric's story is about overcoming addiction and then turning around and guiding other people toward recovery. Eric, you'll remember, is the guy with the helicopter. He's also the guy who allegedly sexually harassed his former client on Snapchat, the guy who was described by another woman as the god of recovery. This is the same woman who told me, Eric has a woman who told me, had 13th stepping, quote, down to a science. And there are more women I've heard from. We'll get

to that. How do we square these two characters? A man devoted to inspiring and healing others, and a man accused of abusing his power, especially with women. There are so many places I could start the story of Eric Spofford. I could start with his childhood. You get a pretty memorable image of Eric that way. Some kids have one lemonade stand. I had seven. And I had neighborhood kids manning my lemonade stands as I rode around on my bike and I split the dividends with them. In fact, this is how another podcast called The Mic Drop started their Eric's Pofford story. The hosts are loan officers in Eric's hometown of Salem, New Hampshire. And I also wanted to be a gangster, too, so I packed a BB gun to keep everybody in line.

And it's just the way it was. And, you know, it was almost like that Tony Montana Scarface's mindset from a young age. It's like, I want to rule the world. Okay. I wanted it all. I could also start Eric's story a bit later on when he was a teenager. Because this is where Eric often starts the story when he tells it. Like in this speech he gave at his company's 10-year anniversary.

I sniffed my first oxy cotton off the back of a slim, shady CD case in 19, 99. You know, it wasn't much longer than that that I found heroin, I believe it was about 15 years old. And the first time I ever tried to get clean, I was 17. And 17 is a really young age to try and get sober and find recovery. But at that point, I was running with the hardest. And I was a stone cold heroin addict. Quick aside here, addict is a word you'll hear some people use in this podcast. It's also the first word most experts or advocates will suggest no one use anymore, because it can be stigmatizing. It implies that a person is a problem versus has a problem. So I'm not going to use it, but a lot of people in recovery still do.

I have not been able to talk to Eric in the course of this reporting. I'll tell you more about that later. But as you can hear, he has done many interviews over the years. He posts about himself on social media, and he published a book. So I have lots of material to work with. Like this video where he describes what life was like when he was in active addiction. Robbing and stealing, dealing drugs, rob and drug dealers all sorts of crazy shit on the street, just to survive, living like an animal. That was a decision. I woke up every day and decided to do that. For the record, I can't confirm all these details. I have found documents that show Eric was arrested at least 10 times during the years he says he was using. There was one DWI. He got picked up a few

times for driving without a license, and one time he was arrested in Maine for carrying a concealed weapon, a knife. Nothing about robbing drug dealers, though, or being one. That doesn't mean it's not true, and it definitely sounds like, from what I can confirm, it was a rough few years. But for a lot of people, The story of Eric's empire really kicks off after all that. It starts when he gets sober. Eric says the last day he used drugs was December 6, 2006. He was 21 years old. The next morning, I woke up, I was emaciated.

I was disowned by everybody that I know. I didn't have a friend left in the world. I'd run out of lies. I was tired. They say you have to hit rock bottom. If that's true, that's exactly where I was. This is from yet another interview, Eric did. This one is from The Pomp podcast.

It's a show about investing, hosted by an entrepreneur. Eric tells the host, after he stopped using, he found a 12-step meeting in New Hampshire, where he got to know men decades older than him that had been sober a long time. And Eric says they taught him how to live. They didn't spare my feelings at all. They loved me so much that they literally,

did not give a rat's ass about how I felt. They'd tell me exactly what they saw. They'd be like, you were a self-er, self-centered, dishonest, son of the bitch, and you need to change. You know, and they were right. I was. It was the truth about me. Yeah, then.

There are millions of people who credit the 12 steps with saving their lives. Eric is one of them. The 12-step model was developed in the 1930s by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. They published the steps in 19, 1939 in something that's known as the big book. It's used now by people facing all sorts of addiction, not just alcohol. Step one is admitting you are powerless over your addiction. Step two,

believing in a higher power to, as the big book says, restore you to sanity. Step three, surrendering to that higher power. Step four is to make a moral inventory. For this one, you take a hard look at yourself and literally write a list of all your so-called character defects and the ways you've hurt others. In a speech to GRC staff, Eric says he remembers exactly where he was when he did his fourth step. I wrote my inventory sleeping in a studio apartment in the winter that I didn't have money to buy furniture. My living arrangements was a pile of blankets that I was really grateful for and a busted couch. So Eric sits on this busted couch,

writing out his deepest, darkest feelings. Then step five, he shares that list with someone. It's usually a person who's serving as a sort of mentor through the 12 steps. They're called a sponsor. Step six and seven can be really profound. You prepare for God or your higher power to remove those character defects.

Eric is blown away by this. By the time I was at my seventh step, I was absolutely on fire. I have been changed from the inside out. This was a huge moment for Eric. He continues the steps. Eight is making a list of people he's harmed. Nine is making amends to those people when possible.

Ten is making a daily inventory, holding yourself accountable to the work. Eleven is remaining in contact with your higher power, with prayer or meditation. And then 12. That one, Eric, takes to a whole other level. Step 12 is to spread the word. carry the message to others. Over the next two years, 2007 and 2008, Eric became fully absorbed in helping others recover. Eric wouldn't just attend 12-step meetings for his own recovery.

He was actively looking for guys to sponsor. In fact, by Eric's telling, he basically throws himself at people. He'd show up at meetings armed with his copy of the big book, ready to cut through people's bullshit and straighten them out. I had a hardcover big book that when you closed it across the pages and permanent marker and large capitalized letters. I had bullshit filter. And I would roll into AA meetings and I would slam that baby down on the table and I would light the room up. Eric starts meeting a lot of people this way. I talked to one of the guys Eric sponsored back then. His name is Ken Newman. The first day we met, it was a cold March morning. We were out on the porch. He was drinking an

iced coffee. He had on his hooded sweatshirt. I was flipping cold. Dressed really warm. And he was just in a hoodie, you drink an ice coffee. And I was like, geez, this guy's freaking tough as nails. In 2008, Ken was going through an addiction treatment program in Nashua, New Hampshire, the same town that Eric lived in with the broken couch. Ken was looking for a 12-step sponsor, and the guy who ran Ken's program knew Eric, and he set them up. That first day on the porch, Ken says Eric brought over a copy of the big book. And he told Ken, read a section on your own, underline anything you don't understand, and we'll talk about it. And he asked me, he goes, yeah, he wants to.

to know if I was a real alcoholic. So he asked me about my history, about my use in times I tried to stop and what it looked like. And he recommended his prognosis for that was that I needed to do the 12 steps with him. From that point on, Ken says he and Eric talked almost every day for a year. They'd hang out together too. Go to the beach in the summer, softball games. Go to commitments. We went to commitments every weekend. What's a commitment? We'd drive in the car and go to another AA meeting and share our experience, strength and hope with people. And he was like a freaking celebrity. Someone described Eric Spofford to me once as both tough and vulnerable.

This person pointed out that there's incredible power in being not just one or the other, but both. It helped me understand why Eric would be such a compelling presence in a 12-step meeting. Standing in front of everyone, an intense look in his eyes, a dude that has seen some shit. But then suddenly he's softening, opening up about his pain, connecting with you, he gets you. Here's Eric talking with GRC staff in 2018. It did resonate with newcomers. You know, when you came in like I did, shaking from the booze from the withdrawals or dope sick, and, you know, we started talking about the phenomenon of craving and, you know,

restless, irritable, discontented in the mental obsession, it grabbed their attention because it's real. And so I started to create the fellowship that I crave as the big book talks about. And I had, you know, 15, 20 sponsorsies, and I tried to get them through the steps quickly. So they could start sponsoring other people. And it became overwhelming, and I couldn't keep up. This is the moment when Eric goes from very active 12-step sponsor to entrepreneur. It's 2008. He spent the past few years building a community, getting to know a lot of people,

in recovery in New England. And he starts to see a huge gap in what's available for people in recovery. Guys were coming out of these facilities that were a sponsor men and had nowhere to go. There wasn't a single sober house in the whole state. I haven't been able to confirm that there were no sober homes back then, but it's certainly true that there weren't enough. Sober homes can be a really helpful landing spot, especially for people coming out of residential treatment. They've lived with round-the-clock support for the past month or so, and living in a sober home with other people who aren't using, can be a really helpful next step back to reality. Eric sees an opportunity. And so I moved out of my little apartment that I eventually got a bed and a real couch for,

and I moved into a modest three-family home, and we set it up so that it had 11 beds. And I lived there for the next 18 months. Eric opens up the Granite House in Derry, New Hampshire. He bought the house thanks to a loan from his dad who runs a small logging company. Eric creates a space for men in recovery to start their life over, to live temporarily, paying Eric rent while they find work and get back on their feet. And Eric literally lives with them. I look back on it and they're some of my fondest memories. We went to meetings together. We went on commitments together. We cooked food on the grilled together, but I would never do it again. I enjoy it that I don't have guys crazy, newly sober banging on my bedroom window at midnight anymore. Over the next few years, Eric opens

another sober home and then expands his services, and Granite Recovery Centers is born. Now, maybe it was because of the lemonade stand franchise and the Scarface Energy, or the one-two punch of tough as nails yet empathetic. But it was also, impeccable timing. In 2008, this country was in the early days of the opioid crisis. New Hampshire was having an especially hard time, and it was only going to get worse. If you needed treatment for substance use disorder, of any kind, not just opioids, the options were few and far between, and often they were unaffordable.

Costs very widely, but a single day of inpatient treatment can be several hundred dollars or more. But then, the same year Eric opened the Granite House, Congress passed legislation requiring insurance companies to start covering addiction treatment. And then in 2010, the Affordable Care Act comes along. It ensures millions more people, which means they also get addiction treatment benefits. This was a big deal, because now tons of people who couldn't afford to get help, they could count on their insurance to pick up at least part of the bill. This apparently was also great news for entrepreneurs, looking to make a ton of money in addiction treatment. And this is not a very regulated industry. Even though addiction is a disease, a medical problem, the treatment world still operates in many ways outside of medicine.

That gap has been narrowing in just the past decade, but still, you don't need a medical degree to own a treatment center or a sober home. It was relatively easy to get into the industry, especially back then. So there was lots of need, lots of money, and not a lot of people watching. Over the next decade, Eric would build an addiction treatment network, growing from that one sober house into a multi-million dollar operation. There was inpatient treatment, outpatient services, sober homes for men and for women, and Eric picked up millions of dollars in state contracts along the way. He'd become one of the biggest providers of substance use disorder treatment in New England,

and he'd give himself the job of CEO of Granite Recovery Centers. The services at every GRC facility were based on the 12 steps. In fact, it's one of the most common approaches we have in this country for addiction treatment. And Eric himself would sometimes lead 12-step sessions. Eric said his goal was to create a movement, a community of people who got well at GRC and then turned around and helped others, just like he did. It was pretty common for former clients to be hired as GERC.

for Eric, there was one word that defined how GRC operated. Here he is in a video the company made in 2020 for new employees. This company really focuses and operates on integrity. We pride ourselves on doing the right thing. We have always held a high standard of doing the right thing in a time where addiction treatment, not everybody that does this work is doing the right thing and we put clients over profits consistently and we care about the people we serve. Many clients, including some I've spoken to, say Granite Recovery Centers and Eric saved their lives. So in his mid to late 20s, a few years into sobriety, Eric's life story wasn't just well-known around New Hampshire. He was like a local hero. By the time he's 30, politicians were thrilled to

home off. And of course they were. Isn't this what we all hope for as we drown in overdoses and deaths? In 2015, New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayat invited him to testify at a hearing in the U.S. Senate. He was the only treatment company owner on the panel. I'm a man of integrity today, a good friend, son, boyfriend and father. I'm respected in my community and recently I won the Business of the Year Award from the Chamber of Commerce. Eric got close with New Hampshire's governor, Chris Sununu. Sununu once said that when he had questions about the addiction crisis, Eric was his first call. At a press conference at GRC's headquarters in 2021, the governor called Eric the best of New Hampshire.

You have to find your path of service. How can you give back? It isn't just running for office, right? It could be being a teacher or doing what Eric Spoffer did and saying, look, I went through my challenges. I'm going to give back by creating a system that can help other people. Eric also became one of the go-to addiction experts for local media. And that includes New Hampshire Public Radio. My Newsroom. Addiction treatment is ramping up in New Hampshire. This is from a daily talk show we used to air called The Exchange.

Our guests in studio are Eric Spofford, Chief Executive Officer of Granite Recovery Centers. And Eric, it's really nice to meet you. Thank you for being here. Pleasure to meet you, too. Thank you. Also with us, Dr. Molly Rosingdon. He's an addiction position. Look at you.

I'm telling you. Have a seat. So he's the one. You might get your ass a little wet. These should be a little dry. That's fine. On a rainy day in October of 2021, I drove up to a horse farm near the White Mountains to meet Lori Caputo.

Lori was a nurse at Green Mountain Treatment Center for years. And Lori is the first person who helped me understand. There were actually two erics at play here. The Eric you've just heard about. And the Eric who allegedly harmed people he was supposed to take care of. We sit outside. Lori smokes a cigarette, takes a sip of her extra large coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. And she tells me, when she started working for him, Eric wasn't just a CEO.

He was their leader, commander-in-chief. Everyone looked up to him, respected him, looked up to him, honestly. Like, even though he was young, you know, I'm 55 years old, he's in his 30s, right? You know what? You do an amazing thing. You know, you're just an amazing person. That's awesome. I'm good for you. You're a great role model. You're this. I just want my kid to be like you. That's not just some throwaway line for Lori. I want my kid to be like you. When I visited,

Lori's kid, her oldest daughter, she had been struggling with heroin addiction for more than a decade. Most of the time, Lori had no idea where she was. Today, though, she's with her mom. She'd just gotten out of jail when I visited. She waved to me from the front stoop of the farmhouse. Lori worked at Green Mountain Treatment Center twice. The first time was from 2017 to 2019. And she says she and the other nurses were encouraged to spend quality time with clients, like real time, not just checking their vitals, but listening. Lori was a detox nurse.

She cared for clients while they went through the agonizing symptoms of withdrawal. Dope sick is what some call it. A time that can take a week or more, a horrifying but crucial step toward sobriety. these kids come in and they are so broken. Most of them, I mean, I can tell you, even with my own, she's been couch surfing for 13 years. I mean, it's exhausting. Most of them have exhausted all of their family members,

any friends that they've had because they've either stolen from them or they've lied to them or whatever or worse. And, you know, so getting them through those seven days and having them understand that we do care whether you make it. We do care. It's important to us. not just a number. You're not just a name on a insurance card. There's this one video Eric made that Lori says crystallizes it all for her, the pride she felt for her work and her boss. She puts down

her cigarette, digs out her phone, and hits play. Guys, I'm going to say this, too many people are dying of overdoses. We're a fucking war out there. The video is about four minutes long, and it's just Eric talking to a camera. sick for years now. I've just being flooded with RIP posts on my Facebook. I can't stand it. Lori has seen this video many, many times. And at this next part, Lori shakes her finger toward Eric's face and goes this right here. Like you need to know that even though you think you're not worth shit and you think that people don't care and you think you're all alone and you think that Nobody understands the struggle.

There's a lot of people that do. We can get better. Anyone... I sat there and watched Lori. Her eyes welled up with tears. That's why I worked there. Because that's the message that we sent people. And it didn't matter.

It doesn't... Like, no one... No one was going to judge you. I mean, you know, he was the real deal. You know, so many places like, whatever, you see, whatever those stupid things out in California,

you know, something recovery, come to the beaches, whatever, you know, that was such bullshit. You know what I mean? Like, this was the real deal. He was the guy. Like, he was the guy that was going to make a change. And we were. We really were. We were. We were. He was. Past tense. I mentioned Lori worked at Green Mountain Treatment Center two separate times. The first time was when she wore that sweatshirt proudly. But in 2019, Lori heard her. shoulder and had to take a break from work. When she returned to Green Mountain in 2020, pretty quickly she realized this is not the same place that I left. There were way more clients than they had room for. When Lori started that year, she said they had about 80 clients. A few months

later, there were 170 clients. Lori says they had to stack three people per room, and this was the beginning of the pandemic. Lori says the job became mechanical. Get as many people as you can. And through here as fast as possible to make room for more. And by the time you left after your 12-hour shift, you were so stinking tired. You just didn't want to. You became, I mean, and I watched other nurses do this too. Like, you just didn't want to hear another story. Like, you know what I mean?

And that's not how it should be. Lori and other nurses tried to get management to slow down admissions, especially because of COVID. But she says they wouldn't listen. I've confirmed all this with texts and emails, even a company spreadsheet that shows the client. daily client totals. One former manager actually told me, oh, Lori Caputo, she was a total pain of my ass, but she was usually right. It's just, it's, I don't know what it's about.

I don't know whether it's about the money. I can tell you it's just not the same. It's a business now. It's not personalized. There's nothing. There's just nothing about it that's, that's even inviting. You know what I mean? Like you're just a number. I've talked to a lot of former GRC employees who worked there around 2020, and most of them shared similar concerns. Lori says she was fired from Green Mountain Treatment Center around this time, which was just as well. She was pretty fed up with the place. And after Lori left, she ended up fielding a lot of phone calls and texts from other nurses saying we are drowning over here. And then a few months later, in May of 2020, someone tells her, Lori, something weird just happened. A bunch of administrative staff just quit.

Those were people that knew Eric from day one. And when they started dropping like flies, we're all standing there going, what the heck is? Like, what is going on? Like, if these people who have known him for all these years can't support him, then what is going on? That's after the break. Hey, this is Jason Moon. Thank you for listening to the 13th step. This podcast, it took three years to report and a lot of resources.

One way to show how much you value local journalism and long-form investigative reporting is by giving to New Hampshire Public Radio. It takes just a few minutes, and it makes a big difference. To give now, click the link in the show notes, and thank you. The first person to quit was Brian Stays. This is May of 2020, and Brian was just a few months into his new job as chief operating officer of Granite Recovery Centers. Brian is in recovery, like so many people who work in addiction treatment. He's been in the behavioral health industry for decades. His last job before GRC was a VP-level job, overseeing multiple treatment facilities across the country.

But Brian says he was getting sick of all the travel, and Eric made him a pretty good offer. Eric offered me a package. I mean, he offered me $300,000 a year with 5% ownership in the company, and he picked. that, you know, within a year or so, we'll be selling it, and your share will be three to five million. And I'm like, wow. You know, it sounds like a good opportunity. Yeah. Why don't, why don't I do that? So then I got there, and I'm telling you, within 15 minutes, it's like, what have I done? Brian went up to Green Mountain Treatment Center, and he walked right into the chaos that Lori

Caputo told you about. Way too many clients and not enough stuff. have to care for them. Group counseling sessions that were packed. I mean, you would go into a group and there would be 90 people in a group. I mean, you couldn't even breathe. And this isn't amongst the COVID outbreak. The cafeteria was almost standing room own way, and he's still packing them in. And, you know, and I would push back. And it's like, Eric, we don't have the staff. We don't have the accommodations. Brian says Eric was also willing to accept any person, regardless of regardless of their situation, even if Green Mountain Treatment Center was unable to care for them. I mean, we would get clients that would be admitted to the facility. It's like, no, no, no,

this client is not appropriate. Active psychosis, just clearly medically compromised. So medical and myself would deny the admission, and you can count on your fingers. In eight seconds, Eric Spofford would call me and ream me up one side of that. down the next and he would deny the denial of the admission. I mean, I have a master's degree. I've done this work for 35 years. And you have Eric who quit school in ninth grade, who's overturning decisions made by people who actually have an education. This was not what Brian had signed up for. Not only was it a disaster, it didn't seem like there was anything he could do to fix it. Eric had complete and total control of the place. But that wasn't why Brian quit. But I mean,

the bottom line, all that chaos, all the bullying, the demeaning stuff. I mean, yeah, I had started looking for another job. That was, that wasn't, I wasn't going to stay there. But what the catalyst for me was all of a sudden one day out of the blue, he calls me and he said, I went fired. The story Brian is going to tell you. The reason why he and at least five other people left GRC, it's about another. sexual misconduct allegation involving Eric Spofford. Another story of how Eric seemed to use his

power to manipulate women. You are not going to hear from the woman at the center of this allegation because she declined to speak with me. So I'm only going to tell you a few things about her out of respect for her choice. I will tell you she used to work at GRC. She was also a former client of GRC before working there. So she is also in recovery. And I'm only going to share limited details about what multiple people said happened

between her and Eric. I'm going to call her employee B. So, Brian says Eric called him all worked up and said, I want her effing ass fired. I'm like, Eric, she does a good job.

Why don't I give her performance and prove plan. What are your concerns? So he just said, well, she's insubordinate. She talks back to people. She's unprofessional. I'm like, okay, I'll write up a plan. So I wrote up a plan. I send it to him. He emails me back. He said, this is garbage. Brian called me and he said, I need your help. This is Nancy Bork. She was the director of human resources at the time. And she remembers thinking, this situation sounds so bizarre. Like, the owner of the company, like, why are you getting so involved in this? But he tended to swoop in to all these situations.

So I thought, like, here he goes again. Eventually, there's a meeting with Employee B, and a so-called corrective action plan gets finalized. I've seen a signed copy of it. It says Employee B could lose her job if she got in trouble again. The next day, Nancy talked to Employee B. I said, what's going on? And she goes, I know why.

that happened yesterday. I know why. And she goes, it's because I set boundaries. I set appropriate boundaries. And I said, okay. I said, I don't want to put words in your mouth,

but are you saying that certain boundaries had been crossed? And she said, oh, yes. Nancy says, employee B told her that she and Eric had a sexual relationship. and it was not always consensual, and that Eric was retaliating against her

because she had tried to end things. To be clear, non-consensual sexual activity, that is sexual assault. And it goes without saying that most workplaces frown upon relationships between leaders and their employees. Eric actually was in relationships with at least two other employees

during his time as CEO. He didn't hide it. Nancy took handwritten notes during her conversation with employees. and I've seen them. They include words like retaliation, boundaries, and predator. Nancy also wrote, Need legal advice on this. Nancy remembers feeling torn because she's the HR director. And I said, I will do everything I can to protect you in your job, but I also have to report this, right? I'm not, you know, I work for the company. I report to the owner.

The owner, as in Eric Spofford. It's my position. I have to, and I felt so conflicted. The next day, Nancy met with Eric. I just flat out said, before I say anything, I said, you need to know how uncomfortable I am right now with what I have to share with you. And so I told them, I said, I received, you know, a very serious allegation that has to do with you. And this person. At first, he was just like, what? And then Nancy says Eric started to get really upset.

And the words she says Eric used to describe this employee, they track with what a lot of people have told me about how Eric spoke about women who had crossed him. He was like, this is crazy. This is insane. She's a psycho. She's this. She's that.

She's crazy. Both Nancy and Brian, the C-O, they say that Eric brought someone in from outside the company to look at the allegations by employee B and interview staff. But they both say they never saw the results of that investigation. And Nancy says she was never interviewed. Brian says before his interview, Eric tried to coach him on what to say. So Eric said, listen, I know they're going to talk to you. She's just, she's a pathological borderline.

Just remember that. She's a borderline, and there's not a shred of truth with anything she says. Brian talks to his wife and is like, I got to get out of here. Brian called a meeting with Eric and Nancy and resigned on the spot. Here's your company credit card. Here's all your keys. Do not under any circumstance ever contact me again. And he stands up and he said, I don't even know what the fuck you're talking about.

I said, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And don't ever treat me like an idiot again. Goodbye. That was it. So that was the first person to quit. Next to go was Pierce Canuka, the director of spiritual life at GRC. Many people have told me Peers was deeply respected by staff and clients. Peers and Eric have a long history together. Peers was one of Eric's first 12-step sponsors, one of the most instrumental figures in Eric's early recovery.

They'd had their ups and downs over the years. They'd grow apart and then come back to. together. In 2016, Eric hired Pears to work for him at GRC. They'd end up writing a book together called Real People, Real Recovery. So Peers knew Eric better than Brian did in many ways. I went into this knowing fully well that he had liabilities. I certainly didn't know that he was going to turn out to be like Harvey Weinstein. Harvey Weinstein. It is quite a comparison. A man who we now know used his incredible power in Hollywood to abuse many, many women.

Pierce said that because he'd heard rumors that there were more. Other women that claimed to have had bad experiences with Eric. One of those rumors was actually about Elizabeth, the client you heard about in the last episode, the one who received the dick pictures from Eric the day she left treatment. And I want to take a brief break in this quitting story to tell you about another rumor, heard. A rumor about a woman I'm going to call Employee A. I tracked her down. I talked with her, and I'm going with A because what she alleges, that happened two years before Employee B came forward. Employee A agreed to talk with me on tape as long as we did not use her name. Employee A saw Granite Recovery

Centers as a shot at a second chance. She's not in recovery and she was never a client, but she has a criminal record, a drug charge. So she says, when she got a job at GRC, she felt indebted to Eric. I thought in my mind that this was the only job that will ever hire me again, and I needed to keep this job, and I needed to do whatever it took to keep this job. She started out in an entry-level position at one of GRC's sober houses for women, and she says she loved it. But around 2018, Employee A was promoted to supervisor, and that's when She says things got weird. Eric started messaging her on Snapchat, and at first it seemed innocuous.

But then she says things escalated. He sent her a message about how he works hard at the other steps so he can use sex as a sport. She didn't quite know what to make of that. But then came pictures of Eric without a shirt on, and then pictures of his penis. Just like Elizabeth. Employee A says she had no idea what to do. She remembers she said, on sending back short messages just to acknowledge that he messaged her. But then one day, Eric invited employee A to a one-on-one meeting in his office. And I should say, what she's about to describe may be upsetting. She was driving around while she told me this story.

I had no idea what that meeting was about, but obviously he did. So he was very quick to like just pull me in and, start kissing me and then he went to his desk and he grabbed out a condom and we did end up having sex on his couch in his office. Did you want that to happen? No. But I also didn't know how to tell him No. It was the middle of the workday at GRC's corporate headquarters. There were people working outside, like he has blinds in his office and his door locks. So there were people working like pretty much right outside of his office door.

So I didn't, I had no idea how to, I didn't know what to do. After that, she tried to avoid him. She made excuses to not meet with him. And a few months later, she was having lunch at GRC's headquarters with a male colleague she was dating. She says Eric saw her and started yelling and screaming and telling her to leave the property. She says she responded with something like, I can come here and hang out with you, but I can't just grab a bite to eat. And that probably wasn't the best thing to say in that time.

However, at that point, I was just, I had Eric, like, I had to try to navigate Eric from doing weird things with me. Like, I just was, I was so stressed out that I didn't know how else to react. The next day, Employee A was fired. Her immediate boss told her it was for incomplete work, but she thinks it was retaliation by Eric. I still believe to this day that the people that work for Eric, for the most part, really truly want to do what's best for people in recovery. I really believe that. And it's sad that they're all kind of sucked into somebody who literally just does it for the money because he doesn't practice what he preaches at all. I spoke with three people who independently confirmed details of employee's story.

One of them is a friend, this employee called, right after she was fired, who remembered an anguished phone call and even the detail about the condoms in Eric's desk drawer. Eric denies all accusations of sexual misconduct, a point I'll be digging into later. But right now, I want to go back to the quitting story, the story about Pierce Canuka, the director of spiritual life, in the spring of 2020. Pears had heard rumors in the past about employee A, that something had gone wrong between her and Eric. And as I mentioned earlier, he'd heard rumors about Elizabeth, too, the former client.

And yet, he'd shrugged it all off. And I didn't want to believe it. This is inconvenient to me. You know, I don't want it to be true, I guess. But now, he hears about a third woman. And this time, he goes to her directly. He talks to employee B. And something about that conversation with her convinced him that there was a pattern.

He told me he faults himself for not realizing it sooner, and he's since apologized to employee A. So Pierce decided to just walk out. He was the most recognizable figure at GRC besides Eric. So he figured if he left suddenly, Eric's reputation might take a hit. His hope, he says, was that, quote, this was going to snowball. He is, he should not be in this field. He should be shun, shamed, and probably prosecuted. So, Brian stays, the C.O. He was gone. Pierce Canuka was gone. And then a few weeks later, Nancy Bork, the HR director, she says she noticed that employee B was gone too.

So then I saw Eric that afternoon. And he was like, oh, yeah, I meant to tell you. We put that all to bed. Situation's done. She's signed off on everything. So we can put that behind us. What Eric was saying, according to Nancy, is that he signed a paid settlement with an employee who had accused him of sexual assault. In fact, multiple sources told me this. I have not seen this settlement, but I have seen other agreements Eric made, and they include clauses like NDAs that have become notorious in other sexual misconduct cases for silencing people. And then the next morning I came in, I wasn't in the office five minutes, and two people came in and said that I was done. Eric fired Nancy.

In a text message he sent her, which I've seen, Eric took issue with how she handled the allegations. He texted, quote, you did not have my back. And so now anybody that knew anything is gone. And you can write your own narrative now about how bad we all were. A few more GRC employees would quit after this. multiple sources told me there was talk of legal action from a group of women with accusations against Eric, but it appears nothing came of that.

Eric would remain in charge until the end of 2021, because that is when Eric sold Granite Recovery Centers. I closed on December 21st. I saw more money than I'd ever seen in my entire life. We don't know exactly how much money Eric made on the GRC deal, but judging by his social media posts, it was substantial. One number I've heard him throw around is $115 million, but I haven't seen any public documents that back that up.

Social media, by the way, that has ended up being quite a window into Eric's post-GRC life and career. He bought a home in Miami for nearly $21 million. So this house is seven bedrooms, which I really like. He's building a real estate investment company, and he bought a yacht to rent out. But, you know, we'll cash flow this thing. The demand for yachts and charters.

He travels around via his own private jet. He posts on social media constantly, offering advice on how to level up in life and business. How big is the vision? Fucking bigger. That's the answer. Listen, click the link. You are going to get on my team and I'm going to show you exactly how to fucking blow your life up. He's even hired a video producer to follow him around and post videos to YouTube about what Eric's up to.

That's where I learned that despite his new, fancier business endeavors, He's still staying close to his beginnings. In one video, soon after selling GRC, he's on the phone with a business contact. How are you, sir? Hey, I'm very well. How are you? Eric tells him, I'm totally out of GRC now. And, you know, they bought 100% of the business, and so that left me kind of a soldier without a war, if that makes sense. Right, right.

And, you know, so looking at doing it again. Doing it again. opening more addiction treatment centers. In March of 2022, I published a news story about sexual misconduct allegations against Eric. That story included Elizabeth, employee A, and employee B. I went to Eric before we published to give him a chance to respond. He refused to answer specific questions about the allegations. Instead, his lawyer sent a statement. The first sentence reads, quote, Eric Swofford has spent most of his adult life pulling thousands of people out of the depths of addiction, depression, and trauma. The statement then goes on to criticize my sources.

Eric's attorney accused them of deceptive behavior and says that Eric denies any alleged misconduct. I read you some of this statement in the last episode, but there's much more. Quote, because of the very nature of the work, the recovery industry can be a stressful and sometimes toxic environment. Some recovering addicts are uniquely suited to work in the field and are able to use their past experiences to help others in need. Others relapse and revert to the lies that tragically go hand in hand with addiction, end quote. That statement, as we'd soon learn, was just the beginning. Next time on the 13th step. This is clearly not a random act. This was a targeted event. If they can start picking off the witnesses one by one, pretty soon their case gets better and better.

And your story looks thinner and thinner. My name is Misty Marik. I'm an attorney from the law firm Gordon-Reece. I sent you an email yesterday regarding a potential litigation in federal court brought by Mr. Spofford against you. My first initial reaction was I fucking laughed and I think it's... I think it's funny because I think it just shows how scared he is. The 13th Step is reported and produced by me, Lauren Chulchin. Jason Moon contributed reporting and mixed all the episodes.

Allison McAdam is our editor. We also had lots of editing help from senior editor Katie Culinary and our news director, Dan Barrett. Donya Suleiman is our fact-checker. Sarah Plourd created our artwork and our website 13th Steppodcast.org. That's the number 13. Our lawyer is Sigmund Shoots. NHPR's director of podcast is Rebecca LaVoy.

Special thanks to Casey McDermott, Taylor Quimby, Ariana-like, Max Green, Ilya Merritt, and Chris Ballard. Jason Moon made nearly all the music in this podcast, with the exception of the hip-hop beats at the top of this episode. That's an excerpt of a track by Grapes featuring Jay Lang and Murusk. It's called I Don't Know. The 13th Step is a production of The Doctor. document team at New Hampshire Public Radio.

Hello, this is Jack Wilson, the host of the History of Literature podcast. For the past 10 years, I've been talking to novelists, biographers, and scholars about the greatest books in the history of the world and the men and women who wrote them. Like our recent episodes on Dante in Love, a starter pack of 10 Indian classics, the pop culture that influenced Sylvia Plath and a talk with scientist and novelist Alan Lightman about the wonders of very. nature. Join us at the History of Literature Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.