PUBLIC STATEMENT

One handed hand on belt seoi throwing drill

My name is Barron Shepherd (recent picture above), I have a 35 plus year career in judo and have trained in the martial arts for 45 years. I have written three books in the past two years to date, two on the subject of combat judo, both published, the third will be published next year in 2023. My books have sold out and have been lauded and endorsed by former Olympic Judo coaches as well as retired US military officers and experts in their fields, such as Dr. Mike Simpson, US Army Special Forces Maj. ret. and author of the book, "Honed" and Col. George Bristol USMC retired, developer of the US Marine Corp Martial arts Program (MCMAP) as well as other notable experts in the fields of judo and combatives. I attest that the following is true. 

In 2020 Brett Gordon wrote a defamatory article about my martial art background. Gordon ignored all then current credentials then purposely and maliciously attempted to paint me as a fraud. The following are true statements made by me to be presented as a public record of the extent to which Mr. Gordon purposely and willfully fabricated his entire article regarding my background, my instructors and myself personally in an attempt to damage not only my reputation but my instructors' as well. 

Judo 

Bret Gordon skirted pertinent information of my background and intentionally presented false information in his 2020 article entitled Pot meet Kettle. He stated that an expired USJA coaching credential earned in 1998 was fake. Gordon used this then expired credential to build his bed of false information concerning my back ground. The dated USJA coaching credential from 1998 was not listed as current and was among credentials that were listed online and dated in chronological order of when they were earned. 

Split entry Ippon seoi nage off armpit grip 

Bret Gordon ignored all of my then current coaching credentials and rank certificates from USA Judo (formerly USJI), one of the National Governing Bodies (organizations) for judo in the US. These credentials included coaching credentials and ranks earned, verified and recognized by USA Judo. These credentials showed a recorded and verified history of years of study in judo attaining ranks of shodan, nidan and sandan over many years. The sandan of which had been earned in 2018. To this day my judo ranks and judo affiliations are visible on my sites and blogs. 

Bret Gordon then went on to write that my original judo instructor, Terry Tucker, was a fictitious non existent person and that I owned the Winter Haven Judo club and simply promoted myself using forged signatures of  the person(s) who Gordon stated were fictitious.  The following information is found easily online by simply searching Winter Haven Judo club. http://winterhavenjudoclub.blogspot.com/2008/01/newspaper-article-on-judo-club.html 

Bret Gordon ignored the Winter Haven judo club's blog where there were pictures of myself and Mr. Tucker online in a 2008 blog post. Terry Tucker was clearly identified in the 1997 news article, that was in the post and shown to be my instructor and myself as his assistant instructor (below).  Additionally, in 2020 Mr. Tucker was contacted by others and his back ground verified.   

1997 Winter Haven News Chief article

Also the Judo program was not "owned by me" as Gordon stated in his article. It was a city recreational program that was started in the early seventies by Sensei Ro who Gordon stated was also a fabricated person. It was clearly stated in the news paper clipping (above) directly under the pictures in the article that the program was offered thru the city of Winter Haven. No one at the city was contacted by Gordon and if they were Bret Gordon did not acknowledge it. Instead he chose to make up the story that I owned the judo school and promoted myself. 

Coaching and member Credentials USA Judo and USA Boxing 

Bret Gordon purposely made zero mention of  the then current USA judo coaching and rank credentials, USA Boxing coaching credentials, NASM credentials or others. Not a single place in his article did Bret Gordon acknowledge or mention any current verified credentials that I had earned in other self defense and combatives programs. Instead he chose to make it appear in his article that I had no legitimate back ground or rank in anything. 

At the time Bret Gordon wrote the defamatory and slanderous article about me he was claiming to be a 5th degree black belt in judo. A rank that seems to had magically appeared out of thin air. A rank in judo that is too high for someone as young as Bret to have attained. Oddly, since this time, his claim of what rank he is in judo has changed multiple times from 5th down to 4th and ultimately down to a 2nd degree black belt rank in judo. 

Even when corrected and presented with facts from various sources, Bret Gordon did not make proper corrections to his "hit piece". Each correction that he himself made he stopped short of admitting to being wrong or acknowledging that he was wrong regarding his article about my back ground. Example: In one of his corrections he admitted to Terry Tucker being an actual person but stopped short of admitting that Mr. Tucker was indeed my judo instructor.

USA JUDO - SANDAN - AUG. 27 2018

In another correction he tries to imply that I "obtained the rank that I previously claimed to have" implying that I just had gotten or bought my sandan rank from the USJA in 2020, one of the national governing bodies of judo in the US.....This was not the case...... the rank was not gotten or bought. My sandan rank was already validated, verified and recognized thru USA Judo in 2018, two years prior to Bret Gordon's article (circled in red above). USA Judo like the USJA is one of the three national governing bodies for judo in the United States recognized by the International Judo federation and The Kodokan, the headquarters and birthplace of Judo in Japan. No other organizations in the US except for the three National Governing bodies (USA Judo, USA and USJF) are recognized by the Kodokan or IJF. As mentioned before Bret Gordon purposely ignored nor acknowledged any of the then current USA Judo credentials.  

USJA and USJF

Within the three NGBs there is a rank verification process. The USJA along with the USJF both verified my sandan rank thru the preceeding National Governing Body, USA Judo. Upon verification both the USJA and USJF recognized my sandan rank and the USA Judo award date of Aug 2018 (cirlced in red above) when I rejoined the USJA later that year in 2020. 

Kenpo 

Gordon also stated in his article that another one of my instructors, Sam Lonewolf, claimed several tenth degree black belt ranks. Sam Lonewolf made no such claims to several tenth degree black belts. Nowhere is this statement found online...except in Brett Gordon's article. Bret Gordon himself in his article admitted that he could not find much online about Sam Lonewolf. I believe this is why Bret then decided to make up a story and state that Sam had multiple tenth degree black belts. In fact, Sam Lonewolf was only an 8th degree black belt and publicly only claimed as such, even in his own "First Nations" system, he did not claim to be a grand master or claim to have multiple tenth degree black belts as Gordon falsely claimed. 

Bret Gordon also stated that Sam Lonewolf was never a black belt under the Tracey Kenpo system. Shortly after Bret Gordon's article, links to sites proving Sam was indeed a senior black belt in the Tracy system were provided. One link showed a date of promotion along with the certificate number of Lonewolf's promotion certificate indicating he was promoted by Mr. Tracey himself. Lonewolf's name later disappears from the family Tracy tree around 2012 or 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20040620102236/http://www.tracyskarate.com/Tracytree/Rokudan.htm 

3rd from bottom - Sam Lonewolf 

Gordon, who states that he is a "good  and respectable journalist", has been presented with all such information proving martial art legitimacy but has made no appropriate corrections to his article. 

As recently as a couple of months ago Bret Gordon was contacted by the Lonewolf family themselves regarding the falsehoods in his article. Gordon has made no actual corrections, not one regarding the article. Gordon refuses to post anything that proves my back ground and seems content to leave his lies up for his readers to see.  

To further prove Bret Gordon's only purpose for this article was to defame me and my instructors, he stated in his article that someone by the name of Gary Lee was contacted.  Bret Gordon wrote in the 2020 article that Gary Lee, had "inherited Sam Lonewolf's system and stated that there was no record of me ever training with Sam Lonewolf". He apparently did not actually verify this information. Gary Lee however sometime this year contacted Bret via email and let Bret know that he, Gary Lee did not actually inherit Sam Lonewolf's system. 

It was discovered, through the Lonewolf family, that Gary Lee in fact was not knowledgeable of Sam Lonewolf's system and had never actually trained with Lonewolf. Bret Gordon was made aware of this as well. In addition to this, Gary Lee also sent a statement via email to the Lonewolf family apologizing for his false claims. He also apologized mentioning me by name specifically for his statement that "there was no record of me training with Sam Lonewolf". https://lonewolfs7th.blogspot.com/2022/08/sam-lonewolf-setting-record-straight.html  

Forwarded email of apology from Gary Lee 

Bret seems to have made a current correction pertaining to being lied to by Gary Lee but again stopped short of recognizing it as proof of my actual training under Sam Lonewolf, nor did he remove any original statements in the article. 

Bret Gordon stated in his article that I made up First Nations Kenpo. The Lonewolf family has also stated that First Nations was what Sam Lonewolf called his system and that I had  Sam's permission to use First Nations. The Lonewolf family has also vouched for me and my long standing with Sam Lonewolf starting in the mid 90's earning my shodan from him in 1998. The Lonewolf family has made all this information available publicly online for months. https://lonewolfs7th.blogspot.com/2022/09/setting-record-straight-mr-bret-gordon.html 

In addition, I have multiple statements from not only the Lonewolf family but Sam Lonewolf's longtime friends, colleagues and those who trained with Sam, as well as Sam himself that verify my background and training history with him. Bret Gordon was not interested in clarifying anything that remotely pointed toward my legitimacy or expertise. 

Bret Gordon then attacked another aspect of my Kenpo training claiming it was non existent. I had been training for sometime under Rick Brumby, of Premier Kenpo in St. Cloud Florida. At the time Mr. Brumby operated under Paul Mills' American Kenpo Karate International (AKKI), The AKKI was/is the best Kenpo organization in the country by far. I took instruction from Mr. Brumby personally, Mr. Brumby was the best of Paul Mills' instructors at the time, this is why I sought him out to elevate my skill in kenpo. This statement was also made available and validated publicly by other parties, however Gordon made no attempt to make any correction. https://greysmithinvestigations.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-log-in-your-eye-by-gerald-greysmith.html

Gordon even attacked a personal relationship that I had with Sensei Ronald Duncan and his son Sensei Gregory Duncan. He attempted to imply that I had no dealing with the Duncan family. I believe he knew this was legitimate as well as I had written a lengthy memorial about Sensei Duncan for the family shortly after he passed away. This memorial and detailed biography is online on Gregory Duncan's website Duncan Martial arts and can easily be found in a web search. Bret Gordon had no intention of mentioning anything in his articles that would remotely point at anything that was actually truthful about my background. https://duncanmartialarts.com/2013/12/26/koga-magazine-publication-biographic-tribute-to-osensei-ronald-duncan/      

Legally I could have Bret Gordon's blog taken down for violating the DMCA, the Digital Millenium Copyright act as ALL my materials, pictures, words, text etc on my blogs and websites are copyrighted and cannot be used without my express permission. This notice is visibly posted on my sites and blogs. I chose not to take this route and gave Bret Gordon every opportunity to remove his false misleading article and apologize. Despite everything presented however to this day he hasn't. 

Bret Gordon also in his article stated that he did not know me or know who I was. Gordon did indeed know who I was and what I was teaching. Three years prior to writing his article, Gordon sent a private message to me on Facebook in 2017. 

2017 FaceBook message from Bret Gordon

He asked me if I could write articles specifically for his blog to share my knowledge and expertise. I believe this further shows and validates that he was well aware of my credentials and intentionally skirted them in his 2020 article. 

Even when it came to making his so called later corrections at the bottom of his article, http://www.join-usama.com/blog/pot-meet-kettle, Bret Gordon purposely ignored multiple credentials from legitimate and prestigious organizations and national governing bodies. The sole purpose of his article was to paint me as a fraud and or put my reputation under scrutiny regardless of my legitimate licensed credentials, the depth of my knowledge and expertise. He seems to insist that his totally fabricated and very inaccurate article is representative of the truth and not that of hate, disdain and pure unadulterated jealousy of those who have trained hard for many years and made accomplishments in our fields, something that he is unable to do or attain. 

At any point, at any point in the past two years, Bret Gordon could have simply stated that he received the wrong information and made the proper corrections, or could have simply and quietly removed the article. However, he hasn't taken any real corrective measures to this day. Bret Gordon's entire article was debunked almost immediately after he wrote it in 2020 and even more so now in recent months by others including, as mentioned before, one of his own sources, Gary Lee. 

Gordon has repeatedly implied that he has an affiliation to Kodokan. He was claiming to be a 5th degree black belt in judo about three years ago, teaching judo as Kano intended. Today however he claims to be a 2^nd degree black belt connected to the Kodokan through some organization called the USA TKJ. Regardless of his claims Gordon has no affiliation at all with the Kodokan, the All Japan Judo federation or any of the Kodokan recognized NGBs or through his instructor. He has no verifiable training or a "lineage" to Mifune or the Kodokan through, Jack Stern, a person whose judo training is also unverifiable. Bret Gordon is unable to verify ANY of his own martial arts claims and ranks in them AT ALL. 

Bret Gordon certainly has not verified them to the extent that I have verified EVERY one of mine (not even to the extent that I have verified mine in this statement). He cannot even produce a single picture of any early judo training. Despite Bret Gordon's attempted character assassination, I am a sought after instructor and I am regarded as an expert in my fields.