RASCOE: Eric Spofford, the person at the center of these allegations - can you tell us more about who this person is?ĬHOOLJIAN: Yeah, it's like a big fish in a small pond situation, you know? Eric is from New Hampshire. So I really wanted to get to the bottom of what was actually happening here. And Eric owned most of the treatment beds in our state. But what really made me want to dig further about it was because substance use disorder - like everywhere in this country, but especially in New Hampshire - it's a public health crisis. So obviously, that's an incredibly serious accusation, no matter what workplace or what industry this is. And this clinician also said that there was a list of women who Spofford had paid for their silence and that she, this clinician, and a bunch of other employees had quit after hearing these allegations. 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. She said that the CEO and founder of this network - his name is Eric Spofford. So it was an email from a former clinician at one of Granite Recovery Centers' facilities, and she made a huge allegation. Well, this time, it was such a huge allegation, I was kind of stunned by it. I'm going to just ignore that.ĬHOOLJIAN: Right, right.
What made you follow up on it? Because a lot of times, you might get a tip but you might just go, oh, this person sounds awful. RASCOE: Tell me about this tip that started you on this reporting journey.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN, BYLINE: Thanks, Ayesha.
#13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING FULL MOVIE SERIES#
Lauren Chooljian joins us now to talk about the series and some of what she's learned. And a warning to listeners, this conversation will discuss sexual assault. In the show, she goes deep into the world of addiction treatment and the allegations made against Spofford. And now that reporting is the subject of her new podcast, The 13th Step. So Lauren Chooljian started making calls. The tipster alleged that the founder of Granite Recovery Centers, Eric Spofford, had sexually abused female clients and employees.
Then, not long after that story published, she got a tip about the founder of the treatment network. And early on in the pandemic, she reported on an outbreak of COVID-19 at the largest addiction treatment network in New Hampshire. Lauren Chooljian is a senior reporter and producer at New Hampshire Public Radio. Now for a story from New Hampshire with many twists and turns.
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