Date: May 21st, 2025 3:21 AM
Author: Todd Driskill
Cynthia,
We seem to disagree on the facts here. You did not ask for, and I did not agree to write you a letter of recommendation. Not only do I not have any record of this, but I would not have done so since I know so very little about you or your abilities. You only took one course with me and, as you afirmed in a recent email, we interacted hardly at all. You sent the materials for me to submit letters of recommendation, but since we had never discussed the matter I did not feel any obligation to reply. You may think this is unprofessional, that is your opinion. As for your other correspondences, they were NOT coherent. I have a record of them and can send you some examples if you'd like. They are rambling and project a feeling of persecution - you mention being under surveillance by several authorities and haunted by neighbours. To be frank, I assumed you had mental health issues and thought it best not to communicate with you at all. Again, you may think this unprofessional, that is your opinion. I am willing to agree that I did not know how to handle the situation and chose to avoid it as best I could. At worst I was inconsiderate, but I do not believe this was such a great grievance to you and I certainly do not believe that it warrants your attacks against me.
I also want to clarify some points you mention in your last few emails:
You claim not to recall me asking you not to contact me. I have attached an email received from you confirming the fact.
You complain that I did not write letters of recommendation and then you turn around and say that I cost you jobs by writing negative letters of recommendation. I assure you that the former is the case. I never wrote any letters about you, either in favour or against (employer or academic).
As for your alleged firings, I have no knowledge of them at all. If you did complain to Johns Hopkins and Columbia, then I would assume that they investigated your claims and did not find any validity in them. That is not my fault.
As for the timing of my response, it is a direct result of you harassing my family. You have no right to contact them and you have no right to know anything about my personal life. Further to this point, you must recognize that, regardless of your opinion towards me professionally, some of your recent correspondence has been inappropriate. You have no reason to know or care about my fiancee. Your hairstyle choices are none of my concern. And you have no reason to send me any gifts - especially ones with "I heart Cynthia" on them.
One final note. I believe you are posting things to several websites using my name and subscribing me to various webmail services. I would ask you to refrain from doing that any longer.
Daniel.
From: Cynthia Cohen [mailto:zccin77077@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 4:14 PM
To: Daniel Brou
Subject: Re: your bullying
Daniel:
Thank you for your note, but you are wrong on several factual points.
1. You did agree to write me a letter of recommendation, and I followed up with my cv, personal statement, and the letter of recommendation forms. I followed up on these items, and I never heard back from you. My notes to you requesting the letters of recommendation were perfectly coherent. If you had changed your mind, you could have very easily contacted me to inform me of the fact.
2. I contacted you subsequently to see if anyone had gossiped about me to you. My question was related to a serious professional problem. My notes were very coherent. You didn't respond to these notes or phone calls. I apologized at first for contacting you, but I needed the information which you didn't provide.
3. You've had years of opportunities to clear up my misunderstandings regarding this information, and you have not bothered to do so even though it was the professionally responsible and humane thing to do. On what grounds should I stop making accusations about the fact that you were involved in these firings when it has taken you three years to respond to my emails? If you were innocent why didn't you make that clear when I mailed my first emails? If you were not motivated to do the professionally responsible thing in answering a former student's email, why should I believe you did the professionally responsible thing regarding my firings? In addition, I complained openly at Johns Hopkins and Columbia, but you were silent. On what grounds are you asking me to be more open about this matter when I have already been more open than you for three years?
Cynthia Cohen
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From: Daniel Brou <dbrou@uwo.ca>
To: Cynthia Cohen <zccin77077@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:05:41 PM
Subject: RE: your bullying
Cynthia,
I have asked you in the past not to contact me, but you continue to do so. It seems you are confused about me in several respects. Let me clarify some things. I do not know anything about you beyond the fact that you were one of my students in an Introductory Economics class at Columbia University in the summer of 2004 (your name was Cynthia Cameros then). During that time, we spoke a maximum of two times. At no time did I agree to be your mentor or sponsor. More than a year later, I received some correspondence from you asking for explanations to events that I presume were happening to you, but which I had no knowledge of. Your emails and letters were not coherent and I asked that you not contact me anymore.
Recently you have begun to contact me again and have made some strong accusations all of which are untrue. As an example, allow me to address the email below. I have never posted anything to Phinished. Furthermore, the course at Columbia in which I taught and you were a student never had an open note exam and you rarely participated in any class discussions. Clearly you are confused about the past.
I have also never written letters of reference - either in your favour or against - and I have certainly not played any role in your academic or professional career. Let me be more clear: I have not had you fired or replaced in any job or academic program. In fact, I have not discussed you in any form to anyone other than to my own employers (at UWO and Columbia) who have received your accusations against me and asked me to explain. If you have any serious complaints against me, I suggest you seek out legal counsel and bring any of these accusations out in the open. Otherwise, I would ask that you refrain from contacting me or anyone I know and from posting misinformation about me on-line.
As for my personal life, it is just that - personal. You have no need to know anything about it and I certainly do not need to justify anything to you.
Daniel Brou.
P.S. I have recently received some items which you have had shipped to my office. I do not want these things and will be returning them to the address from which they were shipped. Please do not send me anything else.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5727937&forum_id=2#48950031)