Peabody Woman Recounts Shakedown By North Shore Eats Founder

BEVERLY, MA -- When Greg Bates approached Gina Goodwin about promoting her catering and party planning business on North Shore Eats, it sounded like a good deal. For $150 a month, Bates would let her promote G Parties on the Facebook group, which has 36,000 members who actively discuss restaurants and food-related businesses on the North Shore. Goodwin, who has six adopted children and works full-time as a nurse, thought the price was steep for what is more of a hobby than a business, but agreed in hopes of growing her side hustle.

Now Goodwin is regretting the decision to deal with Bates. She says Bates asked for cash or checks made payable to his girlfriend, but she refused and made them payable to Bates. He balked when she started putting "advertising" in the memo line of his checks. She learned that five $50 gift certificates she had donated for a fundraiser to North Shore Arc were later resold by Bates for $25, who pocketed the money after assuring her "every cent" would go to the charity.

In a series of messages sent to Patch after this story was initially published, Bates denied most of Goodwin's allegations. At one point he said "I never bad-mouthed her" just minutes after sending a screenshot of an instant message exchange where he had disparaged Goodwin and her business. He also said he has been getting threats since questions were first raised about his practices.

"I'm not sure why gina is afraid... I never did a thing to make her concerned... however I am now getting threats because of this," he said.

>>>Related: Beverly Man Accused Of Pay-For-Play Restaurant Reviews

Goodwin said Bates called her demanding money when her nine-year-old son, who is terminally ill, was being taken by helicopter to a Boston hospital. When she said she was going to take a break from posting on North Shore Eats to focus on her family, Bates started badmouthing her.

"I'm not going to lie -- I fear him," Goodwin said in a phone interview. "When I cut ties with him he started telling people I cooked food in a bathtub and didn't have insurance."

Bates said he never said that Goodwin "cooked" food in a bathtub, then sent Patch a screenshot of the message exchange in which a poster on his site said "Do you really want food prepared in someones [sic] bathtub???"

Goodwin said after she stopped paying him, Bates sent her a message telling her she was being investigated by Peabody Police. Goodwin called the police officer who was allegedly investigating her and was told that the claim was not true. Still, Bates continued to tell Goodwin "just send me a check and I'll make the police go away." When she still refused to pay, Bates allegedly sent a message to a North Shore Eats member who had asked him about her services saying she was a "whore" and used a racial slur to describe her adopted children, who are African American.

Goodwin provided the following screen shot of a message from Peabody Police Sergeant Harkins:

Bates denied using the slur or calling Goodwin a whore. He also said he met with Harkins "to let him know I was horrified that his name got involved with this...he had nothing to do with it."

Earlier: Beverly Man Accused Of Pay-For-Play Restaurant Reviews

Never miss another local news story: Get free local news alerts right to your inbox.

Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).