AMERICAN JIDO-CON: HOW BRET GORDON and STEVEN HATFIELD DEFEND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR
I am pleased to post this article and work by my partner and associate, HK Hayward. For those not in the know, according to the illustrious Frank Dux Mr. Hayward is allegedly Harold Howard, former UFC fighter and now-famous convict. Sadly I hate to have to inform Mr. Dux, much as he was convinced I am former cartoonist and novelist Robert Graysmith, author of Zodiac, he was dead wrong. However let us not quibble over paltry facts that are much more easily proven than the history of Dux and his master, the infamous Tiger Tanaka. No, dear readers, allow me to turn the floor over to Mr. Hayward now and let him guide you on what I consider a very informative narrative regarding the current affairs of the duo many have come to know of thanks to their claims and behaviors over the last couple of years.
Yes, apparently this is who is behind Greysmith Investigations according to the Gospel of Frank Dux
And so now I turn the proverbial floor and blog over to my esteemed friend and researcher and present to you what I think is the beginning of quite the series. Ladies and gentlemen, and everything in-between....I present to you all....
American Jido-Con: How Bret Gordon and Steven Hatfield
Protect and Defend Criminal Behavior
by HK Hayward
2008 was destined to be a banner year. At least, that's what Bryce Dallas, cult leader of the Konigun Ninjutsu group thought. He was riding high on book sales, school memberships, victorious legal battles, and the largest camps and seminars ever hosted under his leadership. That's what he wanted everyone to believe, anyway. But then the truth of his fraudulent criminal activities was revealed, and his multi-national criminal empire lay in ruins before the trees could display the first hints of autumn.
Bret Gordon speaks for Steven Hatfield and, it is presumed, for all of the representatives of the various (seemingly endless number of) sham organizations they have established in an attempt at giving their fraudulent activities an artificial air of legitimacy.
Bret Gordon has long been an apologist for criminal behavior, which was a source of curiosity for some months, until it began to become more apparent that Bret Gordon and Steven Hatfield are themselves serial criminals.
In his blog entry entitled “How Low Can You Go?”, published on November 19, 2020, Gordon was responding to an article by Lordus Sapiens which detailed the extensive criminal record of William Sirbaugh, Steven Hatfield’s step-father. William Sirbaugh was incarcerated in an Oklahoma state prison from 1988 to 1991 for theft, an Arizona prison from 1992 to 1995 for theft, and from 1997 to 1999 for forgery. Hatfield based a great deal of his fraudulent claims upon the alleged experiences of his step-father, and the fictional characters of Shune Young Davis and Hasaka Yutashi (aka Haska Yutasi). This article debunked claims Hatfield made about Sirbaugh’s involvement in the martial arts in Ohio and California.
In his blog entry, Gordon attempted to deflect attention from their fraudulent claims about Sirbaugh and minimize the damage they have inflicted upon themselves by pretending to be the victim of an “attack” by a detractor, and threw in a half-assed attempt at virtue-signaling for good measure.
Gordon wrote: “As the second member of Hatfield sensei's family to come up with a record, the implication has been made that I've gotten myself involved in a "crime family" and associate with the dregs of society.”
Criminals do tend to associate with other criminals, and it is becoming more and more clear that Gordon’s associates are less than respectable. But, that will be discussed at a later date. William Sirbaugh was, indeed, the second member of Hatfield’s family to have his criminal record brought to light. The first was Hatfield’s “lifelong friend and student”, who actually turned out to be his cousin - Patrick Justice.
Let’s backtrack a bit to try and understand the full scope of Bret Gordon’s and Steven Hatfield’s narcissistic personalities, exemplified by a total absence of empathy for the victims of criminal acts. The narcissist’s lack of empathy leads them to be more comfortable being angry with someone rather than being understanding. Not once did Bryce Dallas of konigun “ninjutsu” ever admit being responsible for his own criminal actions, nor did he ever express any sympathy for his numerous victims. Instead of admitting any wrongdoing on his part, he also attempted to portray himself as a victim and subjected the victims of his own actions to yet more attacks. Similarly, neither Bret Gordon nor Steven Hatfield have ever admitted any wrongdoing on their part, nor have they taken any personal responsibility for the people they have victimized.
As an example, Hatfield and Gordon handled one situation correctly, and then treated the victim of a sexual predator with complete indifference.
In May of 2018, Gordon wrote a blog post regarding a man named Ryon Connery, who had contacted them in order to acquire certification as the founder of his own style through their USAMA organization. As per their requirements, Connery sent them proof of his shodan rank in Shorin ryu karate, shodan in Hapkido, and 8th kyu in the Bujinkan, which mind you is believed to have been obtained through video training by Richard Van Donk's Bushindo organization.
After running a background check, they discovered that Connery was also a sex offender with multiple convictions. Among Connery’s victims was an 8-year-old girl, who left the following comment on this blog post:
“I'm the 8 year old. I was actually 6 when he molested me the first time, then raped me at 7. I didn't come forward because he manipulated me into it and I was terrified of my abusive father, which he used at every opportunity. When I finally did say something (he did this to all of the girls in our family), he barely got 3 months total for the years of sexual abuse (3 years to be exact) he inflicted upon me. I still have mental issues and severe anxiety. Thank you for posting this PSA, I hope no one else has to go through what the girls in my family had to.”
This is the response posted by Bret Gordon:
“ “
This is the response posted by Steven Hatfield:
“ “
Quite the sympathetic stalwarts aren’t they? They didn’t even make an attempt to respond. They didn’t say “We’re sorry this happened to you”. They didn’t say “We hope you are dong well”. They didn’t say “We hope this horrible experience hasn’t kept you from training with a legitimate, trustworthy instructor”.
No, they didn’t say anything.
Nothing but silence.
Complete indifference.
Disgraceful.
Normally, congratulations for doing something beneficial to others would be appropriate. However, one aspect of narcissistic personality disorder leads the narcissist to believe that one small good deed or gesture of good will somehow balances out against all the bad things they have done. Since it is fairly obvious that Bret Gordon exhibits NPD, it is suspected that this "public service announcement" was nothing of the sort, especially in light of their callous indifference to the victim's comment. It is most likely this was done in order to cast themselves in a good light, as if this one gesture makes up for the years of criminal fraud they have committed. It does not. And would not in the coming years.
Why, do you ask? I'm glad you did.
This curious lack of empathy turned out to be an indication as to how Gordon and Hatfield would respond to the exposure of Hatfield’s cousin being convicted for raping an 11-year-old girl not once, but twice. Patrick Justice was one of Hatfield’s prize students, rising quickly through the ranks and eventually being installed as the president of his fraudulent American Jidokwan Association, with the equally fraudulent rank of 9th dan.
After Justice's conviction for rape in November 2003 was exposed by the previous Gerald Greysmith in the late Summer of 2020 Bret Gordon immediately and foolishly began to engage in damage control. Gordon tried to minimize Justice’ 6-year position as president of a stolen (yes, stolen) organization from 2011 until 2017 as being “largely administrative and symbolic”. Gordon claimed that he and Hatfield were just sitting around discussing...whatever they discuss... one day and the subject of background checks just happened to come up.
And they just happened to realize that they had never conducted one on Hatfield’s cousin.
And Gordon actually believes people are stupid enough to believe such an implausible story. Gordon then claimed: “We immediately confronted him about this, giving him the option to either step down or be removed publicly. He was upfront about his record and chose to step down.”
Gordon then again tried to minimize the impact this exposure would have on their diploma mill by claiming that he had witnessed how Justice had tried to reform his behavior since his conviction.
This was an outright lie. Justice was convicted of raping a child in November 2003. Since that time, he has failed to report a change of address numerous times, was charged with domestic violence in September 2009, resisted arrest in March 2012, and was charged with assault/criminal mischief, disorderly conduct in October 2018. So much for “bearing witness to the reformation and effort he had taken to get his life together in the 13 years since the incident”.
Nevermind that during that time he was also in constant email contact with the previous Gerald Greysmith regularly. Specifically regarding his allegation that at one point Patrick was never convicted....and claimed that it was dismissed.
Gordon then engaged in further disgusting damage control by claiming that “the Ohio statute [2907.03] is vague so I don't really know what the actual crime was.’, and that “Justice's only sexual offense conviction was for "sexual battery," which is a broad characterization of offenses ranging from engaging in intercourse with an intoxicated individual to statutory rape.”
It has already been proved that Gordon, like Bryce Dallas, has an even poorer grasp of law than he does of martial arts, and Gordon, like Bryce Dallas, seems eager to take advantage of every opportunity to proclaim his ignorance to the world. Gordon, not understanding the meaning of the term “Dismissed, Direct Indictment”, and not conducting any research before trying to spin and minimize the damage being done to his sham organization’s reputation, ignorantly proclaimed that others were “outright lying” about the charges against Justice being “dismissed”.
Gordon further proclaimed “The background check we conducted showed that these charges were dismissed. Therefore, claiming Justice is a "pedophile" or "child rapist" is explicitly incorrect and defamatory, and no one knows the origin of such charges to begin with. I only bring it up now to silence the liars, as judging someone based on charges that were dismissed is asinine.”
It seems rather definitive that the charges of Justice being a “pedophile” or “child rapist” were pretty accurate, and originated from the legal process of arrest, indictment, arraignment, confession and conviction. After evidence was published proving Gordon’s ignorance of legal matters, he then proclaimed “In light of new information, I must amend my last edit. The record attached above states that the charges were "Dismissed Direct Indictment." When we received these records as part of the 2017 background check, I mistook this for meaning the charges were dismissed entirely as I asserted above.”
Gordon even descended into the depths of depravity just about as far as he could go by not only defending this heinous crime, but by doing something even more vile and disgusting, trying to shift at least some of the blame onto the 11-year-old victim of this horrific crime. Gordon claimed: "It was indeed drunken sex. Having since learned all of the details surrounding the case, the situation as I have come to learn was this: Justice and the girl were at a party and both became intoxicated. She misrepresented herself as being of legal age, both in her actions and failure to disclose her age." So, Gordon is stupid enough to believe that an 11-year-old girl is somehow to blame because a drunken "adult" couldn't determine that she was not in her twenties? And Gordon believes the people he says this to are stupid enough to believe it as well?
Gordon also claimed that Justice “was never employed as an instructor at Hatfield's school, and never taught classes there except as a guest under the supervision of Hatfield. Justice was never left alone with any students . . .”.
This was almost immediately contradicted by a commentator’s statement on Gordon’s own blog entry.....
In this hand-written letter, purportedly penned by Patrick Justice, the writer apologized for not giving Gordon and Hatfield all the details of the case, and for “any negative reflections” upon their sham United States Association of Martial Arts (USAMA), in the hopes that “the community” will not blame them for his actions. It would be foolish to blame Gordon and Hatfield for Justice’s criminal behavior, which is probably why no one does. People are, however, disgusted with the attempted cover-up and damage control that Hatfield, to a lesser extent, and Gordon to a greater, have indulged.
But, when you take into account that Steven Hatfield has been committing fraud for many years, that Bret Gordon’s father helped him start a criminally fraudulent career at the age of 16, that Hatfield’s father William Sirbaugh was a career criminal, and that they are associated with various other criminals, frauds and persons of questionable character, it becomes more and more understandable that they would defend criminal activities and behavior.
Bret Gordon has made the following statements regarding criminals, criminal behavior, and his willingness to associate with the criminal element:
Gordon: "Even though we at the US Association of Martial Arts require background checks for our members, the mere existence of a record does not preclude one from membership and instead we strive to find out the circumstances of the conviction to determine one's eligibility."
Gordon: "[S]imply having a criminal record is not a reflection of your character but more importantly in this context, it doesn't take away from your skills and knowledge as a martial artist."
Gordon: "If they have something of value to offer, I am eager to listen and train with them."
Gordon: "Everyone makes mistakes and bad decisions in their life, some of which have serious consequences, but I am not so deluded and self-righteous that I can't bother to be seen with someone just because they have a record."
Gordon: "There are too many variables surrounding the circumstances of one's situation and without having the fully story, I refuse to rush to judgement."
It should be more than obvious that neither Steven Hatfield nor Bret Gordon are interested in "striving" to determine the circumstances of anyone's criminal convictions.
No, people should not be eternally condemned or shunned for making mistakes. It is not making a mistake that is most significant, it is how the person copes with the repercussions of those actions. It is obvious that Hatfield and Gordon are comfortable with the criminal element, because they themselves are career frauds.
Gordon: "One could even argue that the best teacher for understanding how to survive real-world violence is in fact a reformed criminal, and after all, that is what martial arts are truly for - survival."
One could equally, and more plausibly, argue that the best teacher for understanding how to survive real-world violence might be someone in law enforcement, a bouncer or a counter-terrorism operative. These people all have practical combatives experience, and they are not criminals.
I can only guess that this might not occur to someone who
is a criminal.
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