After allegations came out that Bethany Sherman of OG Analytical is involved with white supremacist groups, Sherman told several news outlets that she was stepping down from her CEO position at the company and said she would sell the business. But sources inside the company say she instead fired all the employees and may not be resigning at all.
An ex-employee of OG Analytical who wishes to remain anonymous for her own safety says she and the entire staff were fired on Wednesday, Dec. 6 after a confrontation at the office. “We all met,” the source says. “It sounded like she was going to step down, she sent out a text that she was going to resign.”
But when Sherman arrived at the office to sign over operations to another employee, the ex-employee says “She was screaming emotionally out of control, I was talking firmly that she had put us all in danger and buried herself with what she sent to The Oregonian.” This account was corroborated in an Oregonianinterview with Rodger Voelker of OG Analytical.
That recent Oregonian article quoted Sherman saying, “I admit, I am proud that I am white, and I’m not ashamed of my heritage,” though she says she’s not a part of any neo-Nazi organization. Her beliefs were made public after a Eugene Antifa and Rose City Antifa article was published tying Sherman and her partner to messages in a Discord chat group and to two Twitter accounts that espouse white nationalist beliefs.
Before these allegations came out, Sherman was seen by many in the cannabis community as a woman leader, but her personal beliefs did not match the façade, according to the ex-employee. “I mean she was showcasing as a feminist, but she’s not, she’s mad about the feminist movement.”
The ex-employee at OG Analytical says she was surprised by Sherman’s white supremacist views coming out, but now says she looks back and sees some signs. She says she is considering filing complaints about some of Sherman’s work practices with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI).
The source says she’s afraid for her life after the confrontation on Wednesday. “They’re radicals, you can’t put anything past these guys,” she says. “I’m literally looking for an AR [-15] pointed at my head when I’m walking around.”
“I’m sure there’s more of her in our community than we’re aware of,” the ex-employee says. “I’m just not feeling like I can trust anybody.”
Sherman did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
In response to the Sherman debacle, Christina Ketchum of GreenSea Distribution has pulled together a statement of nondiscrimination by Eugene and Portland area cannabis businesses to “ address the recent news our local cannabis industry has been presented with.”