State sues nonprofit for health claims of products

PORTLAND – A nonprofit healing organization that calls itself the Gentle Wind Project is being sued by Maine’s attorney general for allegedly violating the Unfair Trade Practices Act by making false claims about its products.

The items range from small laminated cards to hockey puck-like disks, which the Gentle Wind Project claims have been proven to be effective in hospital settings as healing instruments and have been subject to rigorous scientific testing.

The defendants, who include five members of the Gentle Wind board and their bookkeeper, have been charged with violating laws regulating charitable organizations. They could be forced to repay sales tax that was never collected.

According to a complaint signed by Attorney General Steven Rowe and filed in York County Superior Court on June 29, there was no scientific testing and the medical professionals who endorsed the products had undisclosed financial relationships with the Kittery-based nonprofit.

A telephone message left for the organization Tuesday morning was not immediately returned.

In 2003, the organization sued former members Judy Garvey and her husband Jim Bergin of Blue Hill for defamation after the couple published autobiographical essays about their 17 years in the Gentle Wind Project, which they compared to a “mind control cult.”

A suit against the couple and the operators of some Web sites that published their work was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Gene Carter in January. The suit was filed again in state court.

Bergin and Garvey’s lawyer, Jerroll Crouter, said many of the statements the couple would have to defend in court have now been made by state authorities.

“The state is alleging that Gentle Wind Project [officials] are acting deceptively regarding their healing instruments, and that’s exactly the same claims that Bergin and Garvey have been making on their Web site,” he said.