To Whom It May Concern,
I have been working closely with Ed Fallon off and on since March of 2014 when I worked on the Great March For Climate Action (Climate March). We worked, camped, marched, and were in close contact for a solid 8 months from California to Washington DC. Since then, we have worked on two different marches locally up until the fall of 2018. While Ed and I have had our differences over the years regarding logistics and march details, I have never witnessed Ed saying or doing anything that I found sexually offensive. In the rare event that Ed has said anything that made me even remotely uncomfortable, I have told him so, and he has apologized and stopped immediately.
Over the months, thousands of miles, and hundreds of camping locations, many of us shared tents for warmth and efficiency. On one of our scouting trips before a march Ed and I needed to share a tent. There was no time where Ed made any advances, nor was I made to feel uncomfortable or like I was with anyone other than a business friend.
I met Heather Pearson and Jessica Fears at Ed Fallon’s house back in 2017 and remember how infatuated Heather seemed with him. She and Jessica were on our Climate Justice Unity March during April of 2018. They didn’t march much but drove Heather’s van to support the marchers. One morning, 3-4 days into our week-long march, it was brought to my attention that Heather was upset, claiming that one of the male marchers had touched her inappropriately the night before, while they were in her van. I was upset and sad to hear this, as I knew both parties involved. The accused male was adamant that he had not acted inappropriately, and he was very upset at the accusations. It was a horrible situation, and I was caught off guard, as nothing like this had happened on the Climate March. In addition to being triggered by my own abuse history, I was mad at myself because I felt I might have been able to prevent such a situation by somehow stopping the partying that I heard coming from Heather’s van when the alleged incident occurred. The partying had involved pot, which by the way was not allowed on this march. In any case, when our march group convened to discuss the incident, Ed concurred with the decision of the group to remove the male from the march, and Heather and Jessica continued on with us.
One other incident to note from that march was that I overheard a different male tell Heather and Jessica that, if the line for the women’s shower was too long, they were welcome to join him and Ed in the men’s shower, at which both women laughed. Heather and Jessica eventually began reporting these words as Ed’s, and indicated that he had tried to “lure them into the shower.”
During the spring of 2019 I got word from a source that Heather was upset again, claiming that Ed had behaved inappropriately while they were in Washington DC with a group of people in 2017. I asked Heather to call me so I could learn first-hand what happened from her perspective. Heather informed me that she and Ed had shared a room with some other people and that Heather and Ed shared one of the beds. She admitted she had been smoking a lot of pot that evening (not unusual for her) and that she and Ed had some wine. She went on to say that things happened that Heather was upset about the next morning because it was more than she felt comfortable with, and because she was married. Again, as with the first incident, I told her how sorry I was and asked her what she needed from me specifically. For one, she said she needed me to see if any other women have had this kind of experience. I did know one woman who I thought was upset with Ed regarding an incident which she found him to be inappropriate. I told Heather I would follow up with that, which I did. This woman said that she hadn’t found Ed to be personally inappropriate, but that the timing of his conversation seemed inappropriate. I let Heather know that I could not support her story with any other experiences from women I know.
I soon started to hear of and read Heather’s and Jessica’s social media posts, in which they were naming Ed as a “predator,” often tagging him and/or one of his organizations such as Bold Iowa. They were also calling out me and other women who refused to speak out against Ed, and accusing us of enabling “rape culture.” A year and a half ago, I also received emails from Heather and Jessica that I felt were accusatory. I didn’t respond to these emails because I felt I had nothing to contribute. I decided to erase the emails and wash my hands of the whole thing.
I recently saw a conversation on Facebook in which Jessica was degrading Ed and harassing a woman. I did report the conversation to Facebook as harassment.
Just a few weeks ago, Ed interviewed me on his talk show, The Fallon Forum, regarding an art action I had done on Tiananmen square back in 1990. That interview was posted on The Fallon Forum’s Facebook page. During a stay at a friend’s, I awoke to my phone ringing at 1:30 in the morning, alerting me I had been tagged in some posts on The Fallon Forum’s FB page where my interview was posted. Jessica had written in big letters “What if the perpetrator were standing on your head Sarah Spain!” I was so shocked at this and traumatised because this was on a post regarding my personal art action. I asked her to call me, not expecting it to be immediately. I took the call thinking we could resolve this as quickly as possible. Instead, she was filled with rage and screaming at me, accusing me of ignoring her and Heather’s emails for the past two years. I have not received any for over a year and a half.
I do not know what these women want. I don’t know why they go about harassing people in the middle of the night and on social media. They seem to think that it is ok for them to degrade others’ well-being, and destroy others’ lives for no point other than to get some attention. I told Heather and Jessica repeatedly that, if they truly felt wronged, to file a report with the District Attorney. That is how it’s done, not by invading other people’s privacy, work and lives.
Furthermore, I certify under penalty of perjury and pursuant to the laws of the state of Iowa that the preceding is true and correct.
Sarah Spain, March 19, 2020