Discussion with John Graham

I sat down with John Graham (and another person) on Monday to discuss his Good Samaritan Program. Many, many things were discussed - only some of which will be written here - but in fairness to Graham, I wanted to address some areas where he felt the prior DarkeJournal reporting was inaccurate.

#1 - The occupancy expense on the Good Samaritan Home tax returns

A prior story (link here) highlighted figures from the Good Samaritan Home tax returns, including specifically Graham's salary and the "occupancy expense" of the Good Samaritan Home, Inc. It was speculated that the "occupancy expense" could be money that the nonprofit was paying to Graham in rent. The entire ocupancy expense was listed in the original story. Later, Graham's accountant called clarifying that only about half of the occupancy expense was allocated to rent (and that clarification was added in the story).

Graham objected to the way the article was written because it gave the appearance that the allocation to rent was far more than it actually was, and that the article implied that he was "profiteering."

#2 - Six sex offenders living in the Ludlow Street property

The original DarkeJournal story on May 28 (link here) described how 12 sex offenders were living in three houses owned by Graham - with six being in a single house on Ludlow Street. A later story (link here) detailed how two of the Ludlow Street residents were moved to other Graham houses on the same day (5/28) as the original DarkeJournal article. All of this information was taken directly from the Darke County Sheriff website.

Graham claims this information was false, that six men were not living in the Ludlow Street residence on May 28th. Graham states that the Sheriff's website was wrong, and that nobody was moved in response a DarkeJournal article.

#3 - A sex offender living in the homeless shelter

Multiple stories (one link is here) have described how a convicted rapist is living in a building billed as a homeless shelter.

Graham states that this reporting is inaccurate. Graham owns a double apartment at 449-451 East Third Street in Greenville. At last check, there were two registered sex offenders residing at 449 East Third Street. A third registed sex offender, a convicted rapist, is currently listed as living at 451 East Third Street. And Graham's homeless shelter is also listed various places as being 451 East Third Street. However, Graham states that it is inaccurate to state that a convicted rapist is living in the homeless shelter because the convicted rapist is living in the downstairs unit of 451 East Third, and the homeless shelter is the upstairs unit of 451 East Third.

The DarkeJournal response: I will not take the time to write out rebuttals on all these issues. You have the links to the old stories and Graham's objections. You can make up your own mind.

Aside from the alleged inaccuracies, Graham objected that stories were written without consulting him. And even as to the presentation of facts, he felt that the way the facts were presented was misleading and created fear in the community. According to Graham, the stories lacked "balance."

Graham said repeatedly that the program is good for the community. Graham said that people would accept the program if they knew all the facts, and he was open to talk to anyone anytime. He was offered the opportunity to write anything he wanted to be posted on DarkeJournal, but he declined.

Graham also objected to the use of anonymous comments, so here is the challenge to DarkeJournal readers: leave your full name and email address if you want to comment on this story.

A very interesting story will follow in the next couple days. Stay tuned.