The Sandy Papers 2: How it all came crashing down

Last week this blog received an email from Mel Ve, co-owner of the Conscious Consumer Network (CCN). Attached to that email was a transcript of Skype texts between Mel and Angela Power-Disney, who was sacked from CCN in January. We’ve been bringing our readers excerpts from that transcript, in an effort to better understand the dynamics of what went on behind the scenes.

On Saturday we received another transcript from Mel: this one contained the Skype conversations between Mel and Angela’s American protegée Sandy Goodridge-Bergen, who was sacked from CCN just before Angie was. Yesterday we looked at some of the warning signs that Sandy was suffering from serious mental health issues. Today: how it all came crashing down….

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All right, this is going to be a long one, so fasten your seatbelts and settle in. We begin in early January, with Sandy bringing Mel a “proposal” that’s been made to her. She and Mel eventually connect by Skype call:

The next day, Sandy is back in delusional mode, claiming she sees herself “shapeshift all the time now”. She also makes allegations against the son of the elderly man she cares for. In Sandy’s world, 16-year-old boys cannot change babies’ nappies without raising suspicions:Sandy states that the person who has made the proposal to her “has all characteristics of a handler”; Mel tries to reassure her, and suggests she might wish to report her assault (remember the 6’6″ paedophile?) to the police.

Suddenly, though, the conversation shifts: Biggi has told Mel that Sandy is complaining about “inconsistencies” in her CCN videos. Mel offers to help clear things up, but cannot reach Sandy. Sandy’s concern is that her CCN videos are not coming up at the top of Google searches. Mel tries to reassure her. Seemingly out of the blue, Sandy says she’s going to “retire” from CCN at the end of February. Mel tries to talk her out of this decision. She reminds Sandy that she has a show the next night, but Sandy does not respond.Sandy calls in a huff, stating she’s just talked to Angie, who relayed the message that Mel was concerned that Sandy might not do her video the previous day. Sandy takes this opportunity to unload a pile of grievances. Six last names, including “Byrnes” twice? How many last names does one person need, may we ask? Mel fires back:A couple of days after this exchange, Mel checks in to see whether Sandy will be doing her show that week. She tries to “draw a line under all the drama”, and expresses support for Sandy.The next day, Mel tries to caution Sandy about having a particular guest on, as “nobody digs him”, and Sandy won’t get the numbers she’s hoping for:Sandy interprets this as a sharp criticism, and strikes back:Mel apologises, and the chat ends. A few days later, Sandy is back, sounding quite chipper: is Mel still interested in helping her publish her book? Mel responds with enthusiasm:

Let’s pause on this for a moment: Sandy Bergen has a “legal secretary background”? We find this…surprising.

All right, carry on:
Translation from the American: “pokey” is slang for “prison”. It seems that the “proposal” Sandy referred to at the beginning of the month was in fact a proposal of marriage, presumably as a way of allowing the groom to acquire a green card, which would enable him to work in the USA. Once again, all seems to be hugs and kisses in SandyLand. A couple of days later, though, Sandy is troubled again: why have things gone sour? She says she has “little faith that things are on the up and up with CCN”. Rather than trying to comfort or reassure this time, Mel tells Sandy that she “doesn’t need (her) negativity”, and that both Sandy and Angie both “just bring negativity and drama”. There’s no record of the conversation after this query, but Mel did tell us that she’d taken out certain financial details. At any rate, three days later Sandy is back with a question about how to paste something into her Facebook profile. At this point, things seem cordial once again, but it doesn’t last: the next day, she’s angry that Mel didn’t respond to her text. She ends with “so looking forward to the finish line”—a reference to wanting to shuffle off this mortal coil?

The next day, Mel is telling Sandy that she “never called her a crack whore”—it’s clear at this point that Angie has been talking to Sandy behind Mel’s back, letting her know that Mel had said that about her.And that was the end of that.

Reading this part of the Skype transcript, it’s very clear that Sandy’s attacks seem to come in cycles; as we mentioned in yesterday’s post, Mel did seem to want to help her, but eventually was pushed to her limit. It was likely at this point that she made the unfortunate comment about Sandy killing herself. We agree, that was a truly dreadful thing to say, but it seems to have been born of frustration rather than malice.

Sandy’s mental health issues are very evident, and as with others we’ve discussed on this blog, we hope she’ll ultimately receive the help she needs to overcome her problems.