The Sunday Story: The 13th Step

In late 2020, a tipster sent an email to journalist Lauren Chulgen at New Hampshire Public Radio. The note contained a shocking allegation that the founder of the largest network of addiction treatment centers in the state. A man named Eric Spofford had been sexually harassing or sexually assaulting women at his facilities. Some of the women were employees, some were clients. Eric Spofford denies these allegations.

Hi Aisha.

I'm curious on how you got involved with this story because I understand it began when you were reporting on a Covid outbreak at one of these addiction treatment centers, right?

Yeah, exactly, I mean, the intent was not to go on this wild journey or even to find allegations of sexual misconduct. Basically, I had just done a story about an outbreak at the largest addiction treatment network that we have in New Hampshire. And then I got a tip that effectively said, You think a Covid outbreak's bad? And this tip came from a former employee of one of these facilities. And she made a huge allegation. She said that the CEO and founder of this network, his name is Eric Spofford, she said. He was facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including a sexual assault allegation by a woman who worked for him, who used to be a patient at one of these facilities. That's obviously a wild allegation and it would be in any industry. But of course, this is one of the facilities that offers the most treatment beds in New Hampshire, a region that has really been hard hit by the opioid epidemic.

And so you've got this huge and disturbing allegation against this man. And this is a very powerful person in New Hampshire, right? With a lot of resources and a lot of money.

So, yeah, he's a very powerful individual, I mean, at this point. He has since sold Granite Recovery Centers, it still exists with a new owner. But when he sold it, he said online that he's made $115 million off that sale. This is a guy who presents his wealth on social media. He has a yacht that he rents out and being an entrepreneur is a big part of his brand.

So when you got this allegation, walk me through what you did next. Where did you start?

Yeah, it was quite overwhelming. I mean, basically, this tip came in from a clinician who had quit, and she said that other people had quit when they heard these allegations as well. So that's really where I started. But, you know, not everybody wanted to go on the record initially.

So you interviewed lots of women, many of whom did not want to be identified. What went into the decision to allow some of your sources to remain anonymous?

Yeah, I mean, this is a big one, right? As journalists, you know what we want. Ideal situation is for a person to use their name be on the record. In this case, it was going to take a lot of convincing to get there. And I tried. Of course, I tried. But a lot of the people I spoke with were really afraid of retaliation, legal retaliation, you know, a lawsuit they couldn't afford.

So the episode we're airing doesn't get into this, but a later episode goes into depth. About the harassment that you and your family, and some of your colleagues and sources experienced while you were working on the podcast, you know, talk to me a little bit about that. And what was it like for you to be threatened and to experience this backlash because of your reporting?

Yeah, I mean, of course, it's been uncomfortable, I think, to say the least. But you know, when I initially started finding these allegations of sexual misconduct against this guy who was the C.E.O of this treatment center? You know? We realized we were sitting on a lot of news here, so we decided to put out what I had last March, March of 2022 in a news story, and a month after, that story came out. My parents home, a home I used to live in in New Hampshire, and the house of my boss, our news director, were all vandalized. Bricks, rocks thrown at windows. The C-word was spray painted in red on my parents garage door and the other two homes front doors.

How are you holding up right now?

Thanks for asking, I'm doing OK. I'm proud of the work we did. And I'm, you know, in awe of the people who, despite all of these obstacles, still felt it was important to come forward.

A quick update to this story since we recorded this interview with Lauren. Three men have been charged by federal prosecutors in connection with the vandalism. The three men are alleged to have conspired with a close personal associate of Eric Spofford in retaliation against the reporting by New Hampshire Public Radio. And now we bring you episode one of the 13th Step. Please note this episode contains explicit language, as well as descriptions of sexual harassment and a mention of suicide.

So so you get there, what do you remember?

Green Mountain is a completely different vibe than I'm used to. It didn't feel like treatment.

You know?

Yeah, no, it is. It's good because I, you know, for the last few years thinking of Great Mountain, it's very difficult to not think of Eric.

That's Elizabeth, Well, that's what I'm going to call her. She was scared to reveal her identity for reasons that will become clear to you later. So she and I settled on calling her by her middle name, Elizabeth, and she allowed me to record her voice. In order to get Elizabeth on the phone, I had to call her late at night.

I'm sorry, but I'm one exhausted from having a toddler and two I'm going to be a little flustered. This isn't something I've ever done.

Elizabeth was about to tell me a story, a painful one, about something that happened to her a few years ago. And for me, her story was just the beginning of a wild reporting journey. My name is Lauren Chooljian. I'm a public radio reporter in New Hampshire, and this journey began more than two years ago. I published a few stories about an addiction treatment company.

You know, I drank when I was 12.

And then, at age 25, she relapsed. She knew she had to get help.

I didn't really want to be doing what I was doing. I wanted to get back to, like, not lying to everyone I loved. And like, not being a complete slave to a bag of powder. It's like, so pathetic when you say it out loud, right? Like it's just a pathetic way of life, you know, that, unfortunately, is so easy to fall victim to.

Elizabeth needed treatment ASAP, and, lucky for her, Elizabeth's best friend had a lot of connections in the recovery community in New England.

Let's just call him John, OK, so John goes, I have a bed for you, you know, at Green Mountain. Eric is holding it. Are you ready to go now?

Eric was Eric Spofford. He was the founder and CEO of a big addiction treatment network in New Hampshire. Turns out, not only did Eric say he had room, he promised to give Elizabeth a scholarship. She'd get a month of inpatient treatment at Green Mountain Treatment Center for free, Elizabeth says. Eric even called her a few times to tell her about Green Mountain.

I just got in a van incredibly high and they almost didn't drive me, and then I was in New Hampshire next thing I knew.

The first few days are hazy, the van drops her off. She goes through detox for a few days. Nurses help her get through withdrawal symptoms, but as her mind starts to clear, she starts going to group therapy and other programming.

You know, I'm used to like a very much like an institution, whereas Green Mountain was like, really nice, right? Like I felt like I was at summer camp.

Green Mountain Treatment Center is in a gorgeous part of New Hampshire. I've never been inside, but I've driven up to the front gates and I totally get what she means by summer camp. It's a big campus with apple trees in the front, clients even sleep in cabins, and it's up on this big hill.

It didn't feel like treatment in the way of, like, all right, put your bags, we have to search you. It was like, Yeah, we have to do these things, but like, we're your friends, and it was like, it was nice.

Elizabeth really, really loved the staff, they made the biggest impact on her. Many of them were in recovery, too. And every once in a while, Eric Spofford, the CEO, would visit.

He wasn't there all the time, obviously, I mean, he's the he doesn't work, you know, he's the CEO, he's not there all the time.

By 2017, Eric had made a name for himself. He owned a company called Granite Recovery Centers. It was a network of addiction treatment facilities and sober homes all over New Hampshire. Green Mountain was their biggest treatment center. Like his clients, Eric had struggled with addiction.

It almost seems as if like he just owns the recovery community in New Hampshire and Maine. You know, like, he's this big head honcho that everyone knows, everyone respects, everyone looks up to.

Elizabeth says Eric would occasionally check in with her when he was at Green Mountain. One time, he asked her to have lunch with him in the treatment center cafeteria. If it seemed weird as a client to eat lunch with the CEO, Elizabeth didn't make much of it. She figured it was because they had that friend in common. John and some other staff members came along to lunch, too, so whatever.

So yeah, I went out to Portland and I want to say it was within day.

This is where I need to tell you this podcast may be upsetting to listen to. Substance use disorder is already a hard topic. You'll also be hearing about trauma and sexual misconduct, and there will be some swearing. It's kind of unavoidable, okay?

It's my first day in this new, sober house. I had just gotten my phone back right, cause in treatment I don't have my phone. Um, and it was, I mean, I don't remember any normal conversation. To it. There might've been a Hey, how are you?

The CEO of the treatment center she just left was sending her pictures of his penis and soliciting her for sex. Just 30 days ago, Elizabeth arrived at Eric's treatment center, high on opioids. He paid for her to go there, and now this Elizabeth fell into a complicated mental spiral.

I knew in my core it wasn't right because I know that. A CEO of a treatment center I left 24 hours ago. Should not be sending me pictures of his dick. He shouldn't be sending me pictures of his dick even a year later. That's just integrity 101, right?

But at the same time, what could she really do about it? She says she'd respond with neutral messages like Don't you have a girlfriend? or I'm busy. She worried about how connected Eric was in the recovery community. If she told him to knock it off or something, maybe he would retaliate in some way.

Like, he was either going to get me kicked out of the house, or he was going to set up a rumor about me. To, like, ruin my time there or whatever, or just like, make me out to be like a crazy bitch, if you will. I just I didn't. I didn't want any of it. I wanted a roof over my head and food in my tummy, like I wanted to feel safe, so I knew not to share it.

Until this moment, I didn't understand the vulnerability of new sobriety. I remember listening to Elizabeth so hard through the phone. Not just about the messages, but the particular complexities around early recovery. We hear about sexual misconduct in so many places, so many industries, but there is a unique danger here.

Like, I was the lowest I've ever been because I had no like, right, like heroin, heroin. Um, best way to describe it is like the worst solution. But my only one when I'm using right like it blocks whatever void I'm trying to fill.

A soldier with no protection, the feelings Elizabeth is describing. There is a lot of science out there that backs them up, just with different language. Words like profound dopamine deficit. State addiction can cause problems with important brain functions like focus, impulse control, decision-making, and judgment. And when someone stops using, the brain is out of whack, even for weeks afterwards.

She told me that this happened to her and I was like, So disgust, I'm just fucking disgusted with this guy.

Justin Downey is from Boston. He's also in recovery from years of heroin use. That's how he and Elizabeth met.

I was in a soba house in Maine, she was in a soba house in Maine, a female soba house. And I just met her out and about in the recovery community. At like, AA meeting or something like that. We just got to talking and she opened up to me and we just became very, very close, fast friends.

Justin says he and Elizabeth were hanging out in Portland, just chatting, and Green Mountain Treatment Center came up, and that's when Elizabeth mentioned the snapchats she was getting from Eric.

I thought, this guy's a fucking maggot. What makes this guy think that this type of behavior is okay with a girl, this vulnerable, right? And let me tell you something here I am at this moment in my life, right? I just got out of fucking prison and took a needle out of my arm, right?

Justin Downey, I should add, is his real name. He didn't hesitate for even a second to speak to me about this.

And in doing so, my hope is that it actually restores other people's integrity in this fucking field, because it's sadly losing a lot of integrity.

The second friend Elizabeth told was another woman in recovery in Portland. It was a similar conversation to the one Elizabeth had with Justin. Elizabeth remembered she was sitting in the living room of her sober house and a notification popped up on her phone. It was a Snapchat from Eric, and this friend was sitting right next to her.

It definitely, definitely, like 100 set me back in my recovery. It's almost like it brought me right back to the real world.

A few weeks after Eric started messaging her, Elizabeth says she relapsed. Relapses are common for people with substance use disorder. It's part of the disease. But, Elizabeth says, who would know better about the unique fragility of early recovery than Eric? Eric is in recovery from opioid addiction.

I mean, not only is he an addict, he works with addicts, right? like that's his job, like he sees it on a daily basis. I don't doubt my mind. For a second, he didn't know what kind of emotional and vulnerable state I was in.

Elizabeth says Eric's messages continued every so often for about two years, then finally, in 2019, they stopped.

I'm Aisha Roscoe and you're listening to the Sunday story. Stay with us.

On the Ted Radio Hour MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle her latest research into the intimate relationships people are having with.

Chatbots technologies that say, I care about you.

I love you, I'm here for you.

Take care of me.

The pros and cons of artificial intimacy. That's on the Ted Radio Hour from NPR.

You're listening to the Sunday story. We're back with Lauren Chooljian as she tells us about another woman. That came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against the founder of New Hampshire's largest addiction recovery network.

About a year ago, another woman reached out to me, I'm going to call her Andrea, that's not her real name. She really wanted to tell me her story about Eric Spofford. But, as she put it, using her real name would open up a door to the past that she's worked really hard to seal up. So Andrea, she also let me record our interview.

So I was going to a alcoholics anonymous meeting. And then I had a relationship that I was in. And that relationship ended really badly. And I really spiraled down, you know, and was drinking again. Had an incredibly low self-esteem and I wanted to avoid seeing this person and seeing any any relevant people to that past relationship. So I actually ended up going to cocaine anonymous meetings, which even though I never have taken cocaine, it's open to anyone that's struggling with addiction problems.

So Andrea starts going to this new meeting, getting to know other people there, and one of the guys she meets is Eric Spofford.

And I remember, you know, he spoke at a meeting and just to give you a little bit of insight into him when he spoke. He was incredibly powerful, he, he really could nail it. And you listened to every word and you were like, Wow, what an amazing story. What a journey he's had.

I hear this a lot from people in recovery, that in the early recovery days, people with more years of sobriety under their belt. They're awe-inspiring. You desperately want what they have, and Eric has an especially compelling way of talking about substance use disorder and recovery.

You know, some people can go to college and get an education in, you know, the treatment of drug addiction and alcoholism. But until you sit in an alleyway in Lawrence and shoot a bag of heroin with puddle water, you don't know where I'm coming from.

As Eric tells it, he started using heroin at 15, dropped out of high school, sold drugs, overdosed five times. He's been to jail several times. And then, in 2006, at 21 years old, he stopped using for good and now here he was two years later, sober and giving back. He was an AA sponsor.

At that point, he was becoming powerful in the sense that all of the new teenagers or young 20 year olds that came in really looked up to him. And he took all those those boys and young men under his wing. And it's kind of like, looking back now, you can almost think of like, an evangelist or something like that. That can, you know, get people enraptured with what they're saying.

When it was Andrea's turn to speak in these meetings, she did not feel like an evangelist or powerful at all. Andrea was falling apart.

Even though I was saying, and this is really hard, because this is a lot of honesty. But at the time, even though I was saying, Oh, I'm sober, I'm sober. I was still drinking quietly at home and I was I. I had lost, I felt like I had no real friends, I, I just. It was probably, you know, I had tried to commit suicide in, um, the fall of 2008, and it was probably the scariest, you know, time. And my parents were worried about me and things were just really bad.

Just briefly, there's a new number you can call for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline if you need it. It's three digits 988 back to Andrea.

But so what happened was anytime any attention was given to me by like a male I was, I just fell right into it.

One day, Andrea was at home, she had this old computer and she was online checking Facebook.

And what happened was he friended me and I thought, Oh, that's so cool.

By he, she means Eric.

Because let me tell you what. What he ended up being like was like the Supreme Commander of recovery, like God of recovery. And to have God send me a friend request was like, Ooh, that's so cool.

So Andrea accepts Eric's friend request.

He started to, uh, instant message me, so he was smart, he didn't send me mess like messages that you could have a copy of. It was like those instant chats.

I totally forgot about this. But back in 2008, Facebook had just introduced Facebook Chat, where you could instant message anyone you were friends with. And the way it worked then was your chat history didn't save. So Andrea says she gets an instant message from Eric and it says.

Hey, how are you doing? And I'm like, Ooh, he's talking to me, I mean, I, I, you know. And and then what happened was he started to ask me for, um, uh, pictures of my private areas. He says. Hey, you know, can you want to send me some of those something, some picture of your bubble?

So many of us have this impulse now that we've heard so many stories of sexual misconduct, to rank them from questionable to terrible. As if there's a scale. And maybe you're doing that now. Andrea acknowledges by sending the pictures, she technically consented, but what does consent really mean for someone in early recovery?

That's so tricky, the consent.

I talked about consent and early sobriety with Jasmine Grace Marino. She's laughing because this is like the thing she constantly runs into with her advocacy work. Jasmine is in recovery. She's also a survivor of sex trafficking. She now tries to help women in similar situations in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Like, how can I say, like, two dead batteries, don't start a car? Like, he's, he's sick, he's not well, right, she's sick.

It's not impossible for people in early recovery to form healthy relationships. In fact, I have multiple family members who met that way and are still married. But Jasmine has seen it go wrong so many times in those early weeks and months of sobriety, you hardly even know who you are.

You don't even know what your favorite color is, you don't even know what how you like your coffee like. Because you haven't been making decisions for you, either your trafficker has, or the person who has been exploiting you has, or your drugs like. And so you, even in early recovery, like, they have to teach you like, this is how you make an executive decision.

That's what happened with Andrea. Andrea says she definitely was not fully processing what was happening. She did tell someone who she was close with. I've spoken with that person and they said I remember it very clearly.

I fell right into it, right into it, you know? It's like, it's just, you're so vulnerable, you're, you're so unwell. And the things that drive people to addiction are are because you. You have such chips on your shoulder, you're so insecure.

13 Stepper. I'd never heard that before.

13 step was a bad word, like men did not want to be called that.

I mean, I've been clean for 15 years, you know, that's something you learn right away when you go to AA. Yeah, it's just wicked common.

You'll be told if you're in a co-ed meeting, you know, uh, be careful of Bob. He always looks for the newcomers.

13th stepping that's been around since, I think at the beginning of time, I can't believe that you the 13th step. You heard about that in the Seventies.

The fact that we have a name for it is just disgusting, right?

Once I heard about the 13th step, all the tips and allegations I'd been gathering, it's like they fit into a bigger picture. This podcast will tell you a story about the addiction treatment industry, but it's just as much a story about the unfinished business of the me too movement. It certainly didn't, though. I didn't know that he was going to turn out to be like Harvey Weinstein. Did you want that to happen?

No, but I also didn't know how to tell him no.

There's so much more to tell you about Eric Spofford because the experience I had reporting on him. It says a lot about the state of the treatment industry.

There's not a lot of, uh, fences around them. I mean, that's the bottom line, there just aren't a lot of fences around them.

There's only so many times you can get beaten over the head and you just stop complaining. So somebody's, you know, somebody needs to be their advocate. I got sued for this reporting. We'll get to that, we'll also get to the other terrifying things that have happened since this project began.

I'm Aisha Roscoe and you've been listening to The Sunday story. This episode was produced by Andrew Mambo and edited by Jenny Schmidt. Our team also includes Henry Hottie, Emily Silver and Justine Yan. Our supervising producer is Liana Simstrom and our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. We'd love to hear from you.