Tony Ortega's Blog, page 364

“The Roman Catholic Church, somewhere along the line, through watching the dramatizations of people, picked up some little fragments of R6, and they make it look like it’s continued forward into present time. But the truth of the matter is that the loyal officers were not all killed. Xenu missed. And they were not all killed. Not by a long way…Somebody, somewhere on this planet, back about 600 BC, found some piece of R6. And I don t know how they found it, either by watching mad men or something, but since that time they have used it and it became what is known as Christianity. The man on the cross. There was no Christ, but the man on the cross is shown as every man so of course each person seeing a crucified man has an immediate feeling of sympathy for this man. Therefore you get many PCs who say they are Christ.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 3, 1968

——————–

“Personally I think that there has been a coordinated effort by certain factions in the Government for reasons of ‘National Security’ to invalidate the state of OT at least publicly and that the Church currently is playing along in this game. It is my opinion that the success of the Remote Viewing Project scared the bejesus out of them and now there is an ongoing effort to put the Genie back in the bottle. But that is my opinion and I can’t prove it. Though what I can pretty much prove is that the Church has now veered away from those abilities covered in the earlier lectures on the State of OT. For instance the original OT IV if run correctly will produce a Thetan Exterior, V and VI give the thetan familiarity with operating outside of the body. Yet these levels are no longer part of the Bridge. Why is that? There is no HCOB or Policy that canceled those levels yet they are no longer considered part of Church doctrine. Omitted levels is a definite out point. One big enough to drive not just a Sherman Tank but a few very large semis through.”

——————–

1998: Kristi Wachter reported a picket in Palo Alto, California. “I was revenge-picketed today. I returned home to find a lone picketer in front of my apartment building. I snapped a few pictures, then joined him on the sidewalk. I introduced myself, and he said his name was Ben. I asked him what made him think I was a religious bigot, and he said I was acting like one. He said that I didn’t know anything about Scientology and that I hadn’t read any books. I told him that I DID know a fair amount about Scientology and that I HAD read some books – that I’d read a bunch of the tech and admin manuals and that I’d read Dianetics cover to cover. He said ‘You have not!’, but I assured him that I had. Indeed, I told him, I had my copy in my backpack. He mentioned that he’d been a Scientologist for, I believe, 22 years. He called me a ‘silly girl’ and a couple of times made sarcastic comments about how I thought I was being ‘so noble.’ Ben checked his watch a few times and, as soon as he’d put in his time, he took off. I held out my hand, but he declined to shake it. He said he was sure he’d be back; I wished him a good weekend.”

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“I was just watching a documentary about ISIS, and they put out a monthly magazine and annual report (400 pages long) that is way more slick and professional than anything I’ve seen by the unchurch of Lientology. Even the crazy jihadis have their act more together than Scientology.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY, but asking for a 3-week postponement. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Oct 5 (Serving Miscavige by publication), Oct 6 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, and Juliette Lewis]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientologist removed from L.A. court again after screaming at judge in fraud hearing
[TWO years ago] Jesse Prince talks about the grieving after L. Ron Hubbard’s death — and the partying
[THREE years ago] Rerun Tuesday: ‘Leah Remini’ participants tell us what the series has meant to them
[FOUR years ago] L. Ron Hubbard in exile: When Scientology’s leader ran things while on the lam
[FIVE years ago] ‘Going Clear’ Q&A: Mike Rinder and Sara Goldberg take heat from Scientologists
[SIX years ago] What VICE magazine got wrong about Scientology in the UK
[SEVEN years ago] LIVE FROM TAMPA: The Garcia v. Scientology Federal Fraud Lawsuit Mini-Trial!
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology’s Meltdown: A Story Told in Pictures

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,078 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,582 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,102 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,122 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,013 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,320 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,188 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,962 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,766 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,082 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,648 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,567 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,735 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,316 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,577 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,615 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,328 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,853 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,383 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,943 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,083 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,403 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,258 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,377 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,733 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,036 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,142 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,544 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,416 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,999 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,494 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,748 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,857 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 3, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

Haney v. Scientology: Amicu… by Tony Ortega

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Published on October 03, 2020 04:00

New in court docs: Scientology bashes victims’ rights group, trashes Mike Rinder

[RTC lawyer Matthew Hinks, and Mike Rinder]

Last week, we reported that Valerie Haney had filed a petition with a California appellate court, asking for a writ so she could appeal the ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge who derailed her lawsuit in favor of Scientology’s internal “religious arbitration.”

Valerie had told us that she was against the idea of submitting to what is essentially a religious ritual in a church she no longer belongs to, and now she wants an opportunity to argue that before an appeals court.

However, at this stage she can only get that appeal if she is granted the writ, which rarely happens. But bolstering her chances are a couple of “friend of the court” letters (amicus curiae briefs) filed by two victims’ right groups that are urging the California 2nd Appellate District to give Valerie an appeal.

The first of those two groups is the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), which submitted a detailed, compelling letter putting Valerie’s case in the context of someone who had been subjected to a lifetime of coercion and control. Scientology responded by taking the unusual move of filing their own amicus reply, saying that NCOSE should butt out of a case it has nothing to do with.

The second group was the National Crime Victim Bar Association, which said that Haney shouldn’t be forced to sit before a panel of Scientologists because she was convinced to sign an agreement under coercion…

As part of its tactics to control and manipulate Ms. Haney, CSI procured her signature on numerous documents, several of which mandated binding religious arbitration for all disputes arising between Ms. Haney and CSI before a panel of committed Scientologists. Compelled religious arbitration in cases arising from intentional tortious acts violates public policy, and agreements that purport to require it are unenforceable.

In both letters, these genuine victims’ rights groups are portraying Scientology as manipulative and abusive, despite Scientology’s strategy of using front groups to pretend that it’s actually a champion of human rights.

Now, Scientology has filed yet another amicus reply to the NCVBA’s friend of the court letter, and it’s as pugnacious as its other filings. We knew you’d want to see it.

This time, Scientology attacks the NCVBA for submitting the amicus brief by saying that it’s actually an operation being orchestrated by Haney’s attorneys, who are led by Philadelphia-based lawyer Brian Kent.

The letter brief submitted by the National Crime Victim Bar Association (“NCVBA”) is not an amicus brief: it is nothing more than a cynical attempt by Petitioners’ lawyers to submit a second brief raising issues not properly before this Court. NCVBA is an ally of Petitioner’s attorneys; it is no “friend of the court.” Moreover, this case has nothing to do with NCVBA’s purported interests. As noted below, this case arises out of Petitioner’s time as a volunteer member of a religious order serving on the staffs of Real Parties. No “crime” has been committed and nobody has been charged with a crime, much less convicted of one. NCVBA claims to be an association of attorneys and expert witnesses who represent crime victims. Among its Advisory Board is Petitioner’s lawyer, Brian Kent from the Laffey, Bucci & Kent law firm in Philadelphia. Another one of Petitioner’s lawyers, Jeffrey Fritz of the Soloff & Zervanos law firm, also in Philadelphia, is a charter member of NCVBA, also a member of NCVBA’s Advisory Board, as well as a past President of the organization. Yet another one of Petitioner’s lawyers, Guy D’Andrea, also from the Laffey, Bucci & Kent law firm, is the Chair of NCVBA’s Young Lawyers Council. Mr. Kent, Mr. Fritz and Mr. D’Andrea all filed applications in the Superior Court in this case to appear pro hac vice and all appeared on the caption in documents filed by Petitioner in the Superior Court, including her opposition to Real Parties’ motions to compel arbitration.

We’re shocked, shocked, that Valerie Haney’s attorneys know people and stuff.

Anyway, we have the full document for you below. But that’s not all we have for you in the way of Scientology litigation. This week a new declaration came in from former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder, who was helping out with the lawsuit filed by Danny Masterson’s rape accusers.

If you remember, one of the things going on in that lawsuit is that Chrissie Carnell Bixler and the other plaintiffs are still, more than a year after they first filed the lawsuit, trying to get Scientology leader David Miscavige served and officially named a defendant. It’s come to the point that they’re asking Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven Kleifield for permission to serve Miscavige by publication as a last resort.

Part of their argument is that Scientology has been playing games, setting things up at the Hollywood Guaranty Building so that it’s extremely difficult to serve Miscavige, who has an office on the 11th floor. In his declaration Rinder says this is part of a long tradition in Scientology, where founder L. Ron Hubbard had established policies to make it hard for process servers to reach their intended targets.

There is an “attempted service of process” protocol that all personnel in Religious Technology Center, the Office of Special Affairs, security staff manning the front desk and ALL personnel working in that building are required to learn and follow in order to ensure David Miscavige is never served. Nobody is allowed to admit that David Miscavige is in the building, or that he is EVER in the building, or that he has been seen there at any time. All process servers or even someone asking questions are to be directed to the security guards at the 6331 Hollywood Blvd entrance. Those security guards, though responsible for the security of the Religious Technology Center offices are deliberately not employees of RTC to add a further layer of deniability concerning service of process.

Naturally, Scientology is unhappy that Mike Rinder is submitting something in the case, and RTC lawyer Matthew Hinks is in high dudgeon…

Mr. Rinder even lacks the proper foundation to speculate as to what would happen if the Plaintiffs ever attempted service. He states that he is a “former Scientologist” who was with the Church until the age of 52. He tellingly avoids saying when he left the Church. In a separate declaration filed with this Court, Michael Rinder admitted that he left the Church of Scientology 13 years ago in 2007. Since then, Mr. Rinder has devoted his life to 1) attempting to establish a “competitor” church to the Church of Scientology and, when that failed for lack of parishioners, 2) publicly criticizing the Church and its leadership through false and malicious attacks. But as Mr. Rinder has not been a part of Scientology for over 13 years, there is no foundation for any statement that Mr. Rinder makes with regard to the current practices. procedures, or Board of Defendant RTC. Furthermore, Mr. Rinder never states that he was an employee, officer, director, or otherwise ever held any position with RTC, thus all of his statements regarding RTC’s supposed practices, procedures, and the constitution of its Board are without foundation. In the end, all of Mr. Rinder’s statements regarding the supposed RTC procedures at 6331 Hollywood Boulevard and how they are designed to prevent service of Mr. Miscavige are speculation without foundation and irrelevant.

But wait! Hinks is just warming up…

Mr. Rinder also offers his opinion that, while Mr. Miscavige holds the title of Chairman of the Board of the RTC, this is just a “sham.” This absurd opinion is tantamount to answering “No” to the old line, “Is the Pope Catholic?” Anyone with any familiarity with Scientology knows that Mr. Miscavige is commonly known as the “Chairman of the Board RTC” and is the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion.

So there!

Seriously, Scientology litigation is so fun, and David Miscavige is paying top dollar for this stuff. We’ll see on Monday whether Judge Kleifield agrees to allow Miscavige to be served by publication.

As for Valerie Haney’s petition, we’re watching the appellate court, and we’ve been told a decision might come fairly soon.

Here’s Scientology’s amicus response to the NCVBA’s friend of the court letter…

Here’s Mike Rinder’s declaration about the way Scientology shields David Miscavige from process servers…

Bixler v. Scientology: Rind… by Tony Ortega

And here’s Scientology’s objection to Mike Rinder continuing to draw breath…

Bixler v. Scientology: Obje… by Tony Ortega

——————–

Christie’s auctions L. Ron Hubbard letters

There’s an auction of L. Ron Hubbard letters going on at Christie’s, and it represents an odd confluence of things that are related to the Underground Bunker.

The objects on sale are from the estate of Mario Feninger (pictured), a musician who was the subject of one of our favorite stories from 2013, which told Feninger’s story from the perspective of one of his former piano students, playwright Allen Barton, who today runs the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

Feninger died at 94 in 2016, and his large collection of Hubbard and Scientology materials, and his music collections, are being offered by another familiar figure. Some of you might remember another of our favorite stories, this one from 2014, about Richie Acunto, the former insurance mogul, who had fallen on such hard times his Patron Laureate and other trophies were being offered in an eBay auction. That same seller contacted us to let us know he was offering the Mario Feninger items at Christie’s.

We turned to Feninger’s former student, Barton, for his thoughts on the sale.

It’s definitely strange to click through some of the photos and recognize items from that old rambling apartment on Ivar. It makes me wonder what happened at the end, what circumstances led to everything being packed into a storage facility that could then be purchased and auctioned? Time warp. Images. The two hours I spent once, circa 2006, running through a recital for both Mario and my other mentor Milton Katselas at Milton’s house, the two of them connecting with each other for the first time in decades while offering me feedback. If one thing can be said for Scientology, it is that it brought together some incredibly interesting and vivid personalities — as I look in the rearview mirror at that whole era receding in the distance, I shall try to hang on to the memories of good times with those people. Objects, rendered sterile and cold by the passing of their owner? Maybe not so much.

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Sky’s the limit

[Sky Dayton]

Follow the bouncing ball.

1994: Scientologist Sky Dayton (Delphian School class of 1988) founds dial-up Internet service EarthLink. Some of the young company’s other top officials are also Scientologists, and many of the initial customers also belong to the church. Over time, as questions arise about the relationship between EarthLink and Scientology, the company distances itself from the church as it explodes in size.

2001: Evercore Ventures entrepreneur Austin Beutner is appointed to Earthlink’s board of directors. Evercore is also an investor in Dayton’s new wireless startup, Boingo Wireless, and Beutner becomes a director.

2009: Dayton is named Platinum Meritorious by Scientology for $2.5 million in cumulative donations to its membership organization, the IAS.

2011: Dayton co-hosts an event for Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, who has launched an independent bid for mayor in the 2013 election. Dayton donates the maximum $1,000 to Beutner’s campaign, which is unsuccessful.

2015: Beutner is fired as publisher of the Los Angeles Times by the newspaper’s Chicago owners, marking a nadir in LA Times history under out-of-town ownership.

May 1, 2018: Beutner becomes the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

May 26, 2020: Sky Dayton’s new biotech venture SummerBio is first incorporated, intending to produce rapid Covid-19 testing.

Oct 1, 2020: The Los Angeles Times, where Beutner was formerly publisher, breaks the news that the LAUSD has awarded a no-bid contract good for nearly $50 million to Dayton’s four-month-old startup SummerBio to provide Covid-19 testing to the school district.

The 1,600-word story in the Los Angeles Times announcing the contract and examining Dayton’s past relationship with Beutner does not contain the word “Scientology.”

Weird.

——————–

“‘Be three feet back of your head.’ Please tell me why nobody ever said this in the last ump-thousand years. This is fantastic. Because 50 percent, at least, of the people who come in and sit down, I don’t care what their age is — something like this — you say, ‘Be three feet back of your head.’ Sometimes you get the reaction, ‘Why?’ ‘Well, it might be more comfortable outside.’ ‘Might be more comfortable outside! You mean people are inside their heads!’ You would be just amazed how often one gets that reaction. One girl I know was given 125 electric shocks because the psychiatrist found she was outside of her head. Too sane for him.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 2, 1953

——————–

“Case in point was an LRH lecture where he found himself up in the Van Allen belt, so the Church of Scientology pulled it, telling Ted Koppel it’s no longer part of current Scientology to appease extant scientific data. With the more recent discoveries, are they going to reissue it? Same when LRH stated he nearly got run over by a train on Venus. No one is going to disagree there are no trains on Venus, but the lecture still nicely correlates and furnishes insight what goes with the case as LRH was about to unravel the implant data on the CC and OT II among other findings. To me, the lecture was a perfect delineation on the power of the case over one’s perceptions.”

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Past is prologue

2001: E-mails were sent to Scientologists to update them on efforts to have Scientology’s volunteer ministers join the relief effort at the World Trade Centers in New York. “We are the only people on Earth with a workable technology for keeping people going to keep things going after the crash, after the attack, after the catastrophe, even after the Atomic War that will happen if enough people get to stomping on the War/Peace button. We, are the Auditors of Earth and its life forms. We, are the ministers to the people of Earth. Your families and friends, your fellow countrymen and countrywomen and all of the generations to come are depending on your knowing and being able to apply the full Technology of Dianetics and Scientology including Administrative and Ethics and Justice Tech, along with the Auditing Tech and the delivery of the bridge during times such as these, and the uncertain times to come. ARC, Dennis H. Clarke”

——————–

“I’ve been in a ‘Is that all there is to Scientology?’ mood lately. It comes with the territory.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY, but asking for a 3-week postponement. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Oct 5 (Serving Miscavige by publication), Oct 6 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Stacy Francis, Jason Dohring, and Anne Archer]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientologists led away in handcuffs after stunning evidence of fraud heard in L.A. court
[TWO years ago] Clear body, wiped mind: Another woman comes forward about forced abortion in Scientology
[THREE years ago] Another Scientologist becomes instant star with Trump supporters, this time in Puerto Rico
[FOUR years ago] How Scientology plans to take over the world: By boring us to death, apparently
[FIVE years ago] An email that demonstrates how much Scientology loves going after the ‘evil psychs’
[SIX years ago] Q&A with Mike Rinder: Understanding the sudden changes at Scientology’s LA complex
[SEVEN years ago] FORMER SCIENTOLOGY SPOKESMAN TOMMY DAVIS SUBPOENAED BY MONIQUE RATHBUN
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology’s Georgia Drug Rehab Hit with Double-Barreled Media Onslaught

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,077 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,581 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,101 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,121 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,012 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,319 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,187 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,961 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,765 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,081 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,647 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,566 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,734 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,315 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,576 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,614 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,327 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,852 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,382 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,942 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,082 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,402 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,257 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,376 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,732 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,035 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,141 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,543 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,415 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,998 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,493 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,747 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,856 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 2, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

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Published on October 02, 2020 04:00

SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS, Episode 8: The secret Paul Haggis shared with the wrong person

‘Betrayal,’ the eighth episode of ‘Scientology Black Ops,’ a special 7NEWS Australia investigation that was cancelled by the network in July, has been leaked to the Internet.

Ten episodes were scheduled to be published to the 7NEWS website on July 14 when the network changed its mind, cancelled the program, and also pulled down a trailer it had made for the series. On August 31, we found that the first episode in the series had been leaked, and we embedded it along with a transcript we prepared. We also did the same for the second episode, ‘Witness X,’ on Sept 4, the third episode, ‘Taken,’ on Sept 11, the fourth episode, ‘The Star,’ on Sept 14, the fifth episode, ‘Always Attack,’ on Sep 17, the sixth episode, ‘Dirty Tricks’ on Sept 21, and the seventh episode, ‘Celebrity’ on Sept 27.

We’ve done the same for the eighth episode, in which 7NEWS reporter Bryan Seymour learns that Paul Haggis was writing a television series to portray Scientology’s history of spying and sabotage, but that he shared his secret plans with someone he shouldn’t have, former Scientology enforcer Marty Rathbun.

Here’s the video, and then the transcript. (For those confused by the length of these short “episodes,” please keep in mind that this was a nightly news investigation and these segments were created to run during a news broadcast, not as longer shows on their own.)

Episode title: BETRAYAL

Bryan Seymour: Heroes and villains. Do you think much about that when you’re writing these characters, and do you draw from people you know, particularly people in Scientology?

Paul Haggis: I have. And I have of recent.

Seymour: Do tell.

Haggis: OK, no one knows this…

Seymour: In 2015, Paul Haggis decided to try his hand at television again. The dual Oscar winner had an idea for a streaming series.

Seymour: I decided to tell the true story of the Guardian’s Office and the Office of Special Affairs, starting in the 60s and 70s. And this, as you may know, I’m sure you do know, was formed by two women who desperately believed that Hubbard was about to save the world. One was his wife. And these two women did incredible things in defense of Scientology, destroying their enemies and infiltrating the US government and a lot of other governments. In fact they ran the single most effective spy operation and infiltration of the American government of all time. The Russians, the Israelis, no one’s ever got close to what they were able to do.

Seymour: You’re talking about Operation Snow White.

Haggis: Yes, yes. And that I found remarkable and decided to tell that story. So I, I didn’t tell my agents, it was too risky. I didn’t tell my producing partner, Michael. I didn’t tell anyone. Except, I told Marty. Because Marty I trusted. He’d left Scientology, he was criticizing them, he had a blog. He’d helped me personally.

Seymour: That was a critical mistake. Marty Rathbun was David Miscavige’s henchman, his top lieutenant, who had a reputation for brutally enforcing his leader’s will.

Bert Deixler: Well, would you read into the record…

Marty Rathbun: This is an internal Scientology record.

Seymour: Rathbun left Scientology in 2004 and became its fiercest ever critic, blowing the lid off the violent, abusive behavior of David Miscavige and detailing a string of explosive revelations, including the filming of Tom Cruise’s private intimate confessions, wire-tapping Nicole Kidman, and numerous operations to attack and silence critics.

Squirrel Buster John Allender: Come on, Marty. Got anything to say?

Seymour: Marty himself came under intense attack from Scientology’s goons called ‘Squirrel Busters.’

Allender: I’m with Squirrel Busters Productions doing an investigation on you.

Rathbun: I say get off my property, boy.

Squirrel Busters: Marty, you can’t do that. Marty!

Rathbun: I just did it.

Izzy Chait: You’ve always been important, you need to start being important again to us.

Jenny Linson: Nobody gives a fuck about you, that’s the truth. Why don’t you do something with your life? You’re an embarrassment. An embarrassment to the fact that you were ever, ever connected to us.

Seymour: But in early 2017 Rathbun stunned those who escaped Scientology by starting to appear in videos online…

Rathbun: Spineless coward.

Seymour: …supporting Scientology, and attacking those he’d previously stood with, including Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, and Tony Ortega.

Rathbun: Leah would act as if she were being persecuted by Scientology for disagreeing with it and for having all this scandalous quote-unquote information about it.

Leah Remini: When Marty Rathbun left and was speaking out against, you know, Scientology abusive practices, Scientology of course put a website up of Marty, went to destroy Marty, right, following the Fair Game policy. All of a sudden Marty turns, is back in good graces with Scientology, where are the attacks from Scientology?

Seymour: They’ve gone, disappeared.

Remini: Interesting.

Seyour: Coincidence?

Remini: Isn’t that crazy how that happens? I think not.

Tony Ortega: Marty Rathbun in particular is so interesting because he’s going on these new videos, but we have him on the record from before…

Seymour: Saying the opposite.

Ortega: …in court documents saying the exact opposite.

Seymour: Marty’s back-flip was a stunning betrayal of many, including Paul Haggis. This happened right before Paul Haggis was first accused of sexual misconduct. It could be a coincidence. Or, it could be something more. Do you remember when you approached Marty and told him about the idea you had for this show?

Haggis: Yeah, I think I sent him the email and the outline for what became the Guardian’s, the end of 2015. There’s another famous story, infamous story of a murder, well, a death in Los — in Florida, and that, and I knew two of the people who had been involved in the coverup.

Seymour: You’re talking about the Lisa McPherson case.

Haggis: Yes.

Seymour: In 1995, a Scientologist named Lisa McPherson died in Clearwater, Florida. She had been denied medical treatment for weeks. She was dehydrated and comatose until she finally died from a pulmonary embolism. The medical examiner found her death was a negligent homicide. Scientology settled a civil case with her family. It’s a dark stain on Scientology’s history. Marty Rathbun was right in the middle of it. He admitted to destroying evidence to protect Scientology.

Haggis: He went in and by his own admission destroyed evidence, covered up a case, and this is a criminal case he’s destroying evidence, and he admitted this, he’s admitted this…

Seymour: The death of a young woman.

Haggis: Yes.

Seymour: Denied medical treatment.

Haggis: Yes. And starved to death.

Seymour: So they had the whole outline of your show about the Guardian’s Office.

Haggis: Yes, yes. Well, the Lisa McPherson case and, it was the center of it, and how the Office of Special Affairs covered that up and covered up her death and destroyed evidence and all that, and then, yes, they had it all.

Seymour: But why did you need to tell anyone, let alone Marty Rathbun.

Haggis: Marty was part of it and I wanted it to be authentic. I didn’t want it to be sensationalistic, I wanted it to be the truth.

Seymour: Right, so you wanted him to help, with…

Haggis: Yes, consulting the project.

Seymour: …getting the story right.

Haggis: Absolutely. I was thinking of taking it to HBO because I’d really enjoyed my relationship with HBO, and that’s what I was going to do. So, so I told Marty and I got a very odd response from Marty. He wrote back and he said, you know you got it all wrong, you’re just being an anti-Scientologist at this point, and I went, well that’s weird. You know you told me this story.

Remini: Scientology called him a psychopath when he first left. They were right about that. So, so the psychopath is OK now, back in?

Seymour: Marty Rathbun’s re-entry into the Scientology fold, Haggis believes, means he would certainly have informed the leader, David Miscavige, about his plans to serialize the true sordid story of Scientology’s past, its founder, and first lady.

Haggis: About six months after I sent that, Marty started doing some very strange videos online. And so he’d obviously turned over all of my communication. Everything he turned over to the church, so they knew exactly what I was doing. Here I was thinking I was being so smart.

Title card: NEXT

Priya Chaudhry: This did not happen the way Haleigh Breest says it happened. It happened the way Paul Haggis says it happened.

Seymour: Paul, did you rape Haleigh Breest?

——————–

“We could bring people in off the streets and have them walk down the hall and stop in Office 1 where a little sign says, ‘Glasses removed here.’ We wouldn’t have any couches or anything cluttering the place up like that, and we could just walk them around the hall and at each station there would be another auditor and he would just ask standard questions. The people coming in would walk all the way around and then out on the street again. Of course, they would stop at the desk before they went out and write out a check for the equivalent amount of medical treatment, which would come to $8,687,962.05! There is some slight possibility that we may be at that stage. I don’t want to over evaluate anything, however.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 1, 1951

——————–

“Frankly, I don’t think ‘discussions’ about history or any other topic ever produce much of any value. Debate is vastly overrated as a way to come to realistic conclusions about anything. Discussion is fun and occasionally someone says something that makes you cognite about something. But it rarely resolves anything. Online discussions also have a value in knitting together a community. In our case, we can’t all descend on the corner bar and have beers together. Now I know of a variety of trained and reliable ‘with-LRH’ people. And hopefully more will follow. Because God knows, there are few enough of us out here as it is.”

——————–

1997: Former Scientologist Robert Vaughn Young this week described attacks by Scientology on an animal sanctuary he and his wife Stacy run in Seattle, Washington. “We soon identified the attack as coming from Scientology when a private investigator, David Lee, began to call around Seattle, using the same allegations that appeared in the anonymous flyer. He also told people he was investigating us for ‘animal abuse,’. He said he was working for LA Private Investigator Eugene Ingram, widely known to work for Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon. After no complaints to the city in two years, they were pouring into city officials on a daily basis. Calls were made to various Seattle City offices, including Animal Control, from people who asked to ‘remain anonymous.’ According to officials we spoke with, the callers said the house was filthy and our cats were diseased with ‘open sores.’ Besides calling various agencies, they also called city council members to complain that the agencies were not acting fast enough against us, urging political pressure.”

——————–

“The only place D.M. is taking his ass if the seat gets too hot is to Tahiti or the Russian Riviera. He’s a gangster, not a fanatic.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY, but asking for a 3-week postponement. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Oct 5 (Serving Miscavige by publication), Oct 6 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Jenna Elfman, Giovanni Ribisi, and Greta Van Susteren]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] SCIENTOLOGIST ARRESTED IN L.A. COURT: Narconon fraud defendants in wild scene
[TWO years ago] Dispatches from our far-flung correspondents agree: Scientology still sucks
[THREE years ago] Scientology celebrates its disaster response in Florida, but struggles in Puerto Rico and Mexico
[FOUR years ago] Atack: Scientology advocates serenity, so why are so many Scientologists angry jerks?
[SIX years ago] Scientology’s drug rehab network hit with lawsuit number 22 by attorney Ryan Hamilton
[SEVEN years ago] RAY JEFFREY 1, SCIENTOLOGY 0: Disqualify Motion Denied in Harassment Lawsuit
[EIGHT years ago] Secrets of The Master: Elements of Scientology That Didn’t Make It into the Film
[NINE years ago] Scientology Internal E-Mails: Even More Depressing Than You Might Assume

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,076 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,580 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,100 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,120 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,011 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,318 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,186 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,960 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,764 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,080 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,646 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,565 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,733 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,314 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,575 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,613 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,326 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,851 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,381 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,941 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,081 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,401 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,256 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,375 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,731 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,034 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,140 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,542 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,414 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,997 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,492 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,746 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,855 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 1, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

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Published on October 01, 2020 04:00

Clare Bronfman, who funded Nxivm’s attacks on enemies, gets 6.75 years in prison

[Clare Bronfman during the trial]

Today Clare Bronfman was sentenced to 6.75 years in prison, which was more time than the prosecution was seeking. She was handcuffed in court and taken away.

I was unable to be in court today, but here are my thoughts on her sentence. Letters written to Judge Garaufis in Clare Bronfman’s favor paint a picture of an extremely hard worker, perhaps even a workaholic. Possibly her extreme dedication is an inherited trait from the family patriarch, Samuel Bronfman, who built his business into a powerful international conglomerate. Certainly Clare had the same ambition for NXIVM.

According to the FrankReport, high-ranking NXIVM member and reported current NXIVM leader Edgar Boone wrote to the judge, “I saw her working very hard. Once Clare made a commitment, I would see her work at it, day in and day out, until she would complete the project.”

Former Battlestar Galactica actress Nicki Clyne wrote, “I will explain why. Clare is one of the most hard-working and disciplined people I have ever met. As a showjumper, she worked tirelessly at her sport and put all of her mind, body and soul into being excellent. That meant doing everything from training to mucking stalls, and no type or amount of work was beneath her.”

Clare’s sister Sara Bronfman went even further, writing, “She lives a rather ascetic life – she would probably be well suited to being a nun.”

Clare’s dedication was clearly reflected in the victim statements in court today. Clare bankrolled expensive litigation against NXIVM members who defected, particularly if they spoke out. Some of them spoke in court today. According to the Daily News, Toni Natalie, former lover and business partner of Keith Raniere stated, “I was not scorched. I was incinerated.”

In her letter to Judge Garaufis ex-NXIVM member and Keith Raniire’s former girlfriend Barbara Bouchey stated:

Your Honor, this has been 20 years of having NXIVM in my life in a significant way. Most years were wrought with enormous abuse and devastating effects resulting in damages of $14 million as documented in my Declaration of Victim Losses submitted December 12 2019.

I am a victim of Clare, who has:

made false allegations bringing five civil lawsuits in two state against me·
had my Certified Financial Planning (CFP) Ethics Board perform a year-long investigation;
had me arrested under a false felony charge
made attempts with five government agencies to have me arrested under a false extortion demand
but got one filed in Mexico (still pending);
and dragged me into six litigations against detractors labeled a “hostile witness” accused of being the ‘ring- leader” conspiring with their adversaries and the media to destroy them.
NXIVM and Bronfmans each filed $10 million defamation claims

It is important to note that my CFP Ethics Board had a Tribunal Trial and closed their investigation ruling in my favor. All civil lawsuits were dismissed with no wrongdoing cited.

The criminal charge was dropped. This litigation lasted eight years costing me $700,000 to defend myself. At times, I was unable to afford an attorney, and represented myself in five litigations – which was a frightening, daunting task.

Letters to Judge Garaufis in Clare’s favor depict many acts of generosity toward her NXIVM friends. In one instance, NXIVM member Jim Del Negro stated that Clare paid for his plane ticket to come from California to Albany in order to play an important volleyball game. Del Negro does not state if this was game organized by Keith Raniere. But the reference to volleyball does not do Keith or Clare any favors. NXIVM watchers know that Keith’s late-night volleyball games were a chance for NXIVM members to meet with Keith, particularly young, attractive slender female members.

I believe Clare thought she was benefitting humanity, and following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather’s philanthropy. However, Clare doesn’t help her cause in her own letter to the judge by writing, “Many people, including most of my own family, believe I should disavow Keith and NXIVM, and that I have not is hard for them to understand or accept. However, for me, NXIVM and Keith greatly changed my life for the better.”

NXIVM loyalist Suneel K. Chakravorty wrote to Judge Garaufis, “I humbly request that you grant her the most lenient possible sentence so that she may use her considerable skills and resources for the betterment of others.”

That is just what I am afraid of. That is exactly what her victims fear. Bronfman supporter Edgar Boon stated that Clare would work day in and day out until she completed a project. Clare’s project for the betterment of humanity hurt many people. I hope, for the sake those hurt by Clare, that her future behavior follows more along the lines of what Sara Bronfman ended her letter with, “Clare has made errors in judgement, yet rather than blame the people or circumstances she misjudged, seeks to learn from and correct her mistakes. Furthermore, knowing her as I do, she will likely go on to dedicate the rest of her life to helping others not make the same mistakes she has.”

However, the longer than expected sentence implies that the judge was well aware of the danger of Clare being a free woman anytime soon. Clare, with her considerable financial resources, will probably appeal. But no doubt her victims are breathing a huge sigh of relief right now.

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Published on September 30, 2020 15:28

Could Danny Masterson’s odd legal fight over his Hollywood house endanger his freedom?

[Masterson’s Hollyridge house is notable for the loop it sits in at the base of the Hollywood Hills]

A few days ago we were doing some random online searches of court records, as we do, when we had a thought.

We have been closely following Danny Masterson’s criminal and civil litigation, which is all based at Los Angeles Superior Court. But out of curiosity we wondered if Masterson was involved in any federal lawsuits.

We were surprised to learn that since 2013 Masterson has filed a series of bizarre lawsuits without the help of an attorney against the Bank of New York Mellon and the Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems (MERS) in regards to the financing of his Hollywood Hills home.

These days, Masterson and his wife Bijou Phillips live in a house they own in Santa Ynez, a town in Santa Barbara County, and they rent out the Hollywood Hills residence, which is on Hollyridge Drive just a few blocks north of Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre, and was once owned by rock legend Chuck Berry. Masterson bought the 4,323-square-foot house in 2007 for $2.995 million, with a promissory note of $1.995 million, according to court records. (Zillow says it’s worth about $4.4 million today.)

In the lawsuits that Masterson has filed, some with himself as sole plaintiff, others with Bijou, he argues that BNY Mellon and MERS have filed faulty paperwork and that it means he is under no obligation to continue making payments. And this assertion is buried under a mountain of verbiage that is extremely difficult to follow.

When a 2014 lawsuit was dismissed, US District Court Judge Dean D. Pregerson noted wearily that Masterson’s second amended complaint suffered substantially from the problems that had existed in a first amended complaint that Pregerson had previously dismissed. And the judge noted that Masterson, in his opposition to the most recent motion to dismiss, “fails to address several of the arguments raised in the motion, while also raising arguments not applicable to this case.”

This was a judge’s polite way of saying that Masterson, representing himself, was clogging up the court with a lot of irrelevant nonsense.

An appellate court affirmed Pregerson’s ruling, but remanded it over a technicality. So Masterson filed a fifth lawsuit in 2018, again submitting an impenetrable complaint.

“Plaintiffs appear to be merely throwing arguments up against the wall with the hope that they can formulate some basis for cancelling their mortgage loan without full repayment,” wrote attorney Douglas Stastny for BNY Mellon in yet another motion to dismiss.

The picture that emerges in the court documents is that Masterson has been playing courthouse lawyer in what his bank alleges is just a desperate attempt to keep his house from being foreclosed on.

In the most recent lawsuit, Masterson and his wife make a “prayer for relief,” asking for $5 million in damages and injunctive relief to prevent any “claims against Plaintiffs’ property.” In other words, hands off the house and forget any payments on it while it’s tied up in litigation.

Previously, we’ve noted that the Masterson family has made other odd appearances in the legal arena. In 2017, Masterson’s stepfather Rusty Tweed was banned from trading securities for life after the SEC sued him for fraud, alleging that he’d run a Ponzi scheme. And Danny isn’t the only one to represent himself in court: For several years, his mother Carol Masterson has been engaged in a similarly quixotic legal fight with the mortgage holder of her Park City, Utah home. In fact, that case looks very similar to Danny’s, where impenetrable filings make rather crazy claims about deed documents. Like her son’s lawsuits, Carol’s case has been dismissed and an appeal upheld.

Now, one might be tempted to write all this off as the follies of the rich and famous and their sense of entitlement.

However, there’s a reason why this may become more than merely a curiosity dug up by a bored reporter.

Once we started asking around for comment on the situation, it apparently set off some minor earthquakes.

You see, when Danny Masterson was charged with three counts of forcible rape in June, a criminal case that has him facing 45 years to life in prison, he put up a bond for $3.3 million in order to keep himself out of custody while he awaits trial.

If that bond was secured at least in part by his Hollyridge Drive house, the fact that the property is tied up in a fight over its mortgage in federal court could become an issue in his criminal case.

We called the bail bond company that had issued Masterson his get out of jail card, Bail Bond Professionals in Tustin, and spoke to owner Jason Meyerson. He politely told us that he couldn’t comment on the situation. We also sent detailed messages to Masterson’s criminal defense attorney Tom Mesereau and civil litigator Andrew Brettler, asking them for comment.

With hearings looming in both the civil and criminal cases, this is a particularly sensitive time, and we’re hearing that Masterson’s legal adventures in federal court are now being looked at carefully by both sides. We should know in just a few days if there are any repercussions in court.

For you document hounds, we know you’re going to want to dig into Danny Masterson’s pro se complaint for its sheer nuttiness…

Masterson v. CWALT et al by Tony Ortega

——————–

Bonus items from our tipsters

Get in the loop! We have a feeling that whatever this new briefing is about, its payoff will include this photoshoot.

——————–

“There is cyclical illness which is dictated in the various R6 implants. A fellow was forced to get sick at the age of five, followed multiples of five, and he’s supposed to get sick from this and from that, and from the other thing. Measles and, you know he’s supposed to have and that’s certain. They predict his health, in other words. When he’s fifty he’s supposed to something or other. What they’re trying to do is make a body cave in. See?” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 30, 1968

——————–

“I’ve never seen ANY cause to attack, criticize, blame, and otherwise malign and impugn LRH. I personally went through extreme hell as a result of writing up GAT as a technical degrade when I was Snr C/S of my org, but I never lost my integrity and affinity for the old man, nor his tech. All the reverse sec-checking, imprisonment, wrong indications, etc., never alloyed my affinity. So I’ve little tolerance for that or the badmouthing of Scientology.”

——————–

2000: Pinellas/Pasco Medical Examiner Dr. Joan Wood has left office after resigning due to controversy over the Lisa McPherson case. From the St. Petersburg Times on September 30: “Chief Medical Examiner Joan Wood, the embattled doctor who swore never to resign after 18 years at the helm, finally closed out her last autopsy, cleared out her office this week and headed for a new start. Wood, 56, was forced out of office after prosecutors earlier this year dropped charges against the Church of Scientology, blaming Wood’s reversal in the death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson for hopelessly damaging their criminal case. Wood’s credibility with prosecutors may have been irreparably damaged and, after insisting she would never willingly leave office, she quietly handed in her resignation in June, effective today. Wood has not returned repeated calls for comment over the last week, and few know her plans.”

——————–

“I realized this maybe six years ago when I first read about TR-Alice. I was gobsmacked at how obvious it was. I’ve read numerous examples of Hubbard having a laugh at his followers’ expense since then.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Oct 5 (Serving Miscavige by publication), Oct 6 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Elisabeth Moss, Michael Peña, and Laura Prepon]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology tried to sell ‘Daily Mail’ on story she was a sexual abuser, Leah Remini says
[TWO years ago] Scientology going ‘Ideal’ with drug rehabs too, and will replace an ailing clinic
[THREE years ago] Never before seen: Video from the first ‘LRH Birthday’ aboard the Scientology ‘Freewinds’
[FOUR years ago] When L. Ron Hubbard briefly let down his guard and admitted Scientology was all a con
[FIVE years ago] JIM CARREY’S SCIENTOLOGIST GIRLFRIEND ON ‘SRD’ WHEN SHE KILLED HERSELF: FRIENDS
[SIX years ago] Does a judge’s order in the Garcia fraud lawsuit suggest trouble for Scientology?
[SEVEN years ago] Meet the New Editor of Scientology’s Propaganda Magazine, Freedom!
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies!
[NINE years ago] Scientology’s SF Leaker Talks: We Ask Amy Scobee to Interpret

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,076 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,580 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,100 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,120 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,011 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,318 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,186 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,960 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,764 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,080 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,646 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,565 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,733 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,314 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,575 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,613 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,326 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,851 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,381 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,941 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,081 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,401 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,256 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,375 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,731 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,034 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,140 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,542 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,414 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,997 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,492 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,746 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,855 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 30, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

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Published on September 30, 2020 04:00

Leah Remini podcast: Attorney Ray Jeffrey on Marty Rathbun’s betrayal

Leah Remini and Mike Rinder have one of our favorite people on their podcast this week, Texas attorney Ray Jeffrey, who has made plenty of Scientology lawyers break out in a cold sweat.

It was Ray who defended Debbie Cook when she was sued by Scientology in 2012 for merely writing an email about her dissatisfaction with Scientology and its leader David Miscavige. Scientology argued that Cook was looking at potentially millions in liability for violating the terms of draconian nondisclosure agreements she had signed. But after Ray put her on the stand for a single day of testimony in a preliminary hearing, her words were so damaging Scientology killed its own lawsuit and reportedly paid Debbie millions to go away and say no more.

It was one of the most stunning victories against Scientology ever, and Ray was just getting warmed up. We flew back down to Texas to spend time with him as he took on his next case, representing a couple of Scientology’s master spies who had decided to sue the church after it stopped paying them. After we and the Tampa Bay Times guys spent a day talking to those private eyes, Scientology once again put up the white flag and paid a large sum to make the case go away.

Ray then took on the harassment lawsuit of Monique Rathbun and for more than two years fought tooth and nail against Scientology’s dirty legal tactics — such as trying to get him disqualified by sliming him as an unethical litigator — but by late 2015 his team had won a huge appellate victory in the case and Monique appeared to be in the driver’s seat. Then, early in 2016, Monique mysteriously fired Ray, smeared him in official court documents, and dropped her winning lawsuit without a word of explanation.

Ray describes how, while they were waiting for the appellate ruling in 2015, the Rathbuns had quietly moved back down to the Ingleside area, and how Marty’s blog had changed. And please see our history of the way Marty’s blog changed over its entire history as we traced his strange trajectory from Scientology rebel to David Miscavige lapdog. Also, there’s our list of facts that you need to account for if you’re going to speculate about Rathbun’s turn.

In 2017, as Ray explains, he and his colleagues attempted to get a court to force the Rathbuns to give depositions and explain what was going on, and we were in court that day in San Antonio as that effort failed. After that, Ray tells Mike and Leah, he assumed that the church was backing the Rathbuns judging by the attorney they had hired and further litigation wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

Since then Ray has continued to be a valuable resource for people suing Scientology and their lawyers, and we’ve still never seen anyone in court who is smoother in the face of Scientology’s infuriating tactics.

Have a listen as Leah and Mike talk with this singular figure who strikes fear in the black heart of Captain Miscavige….

——————–

Hearing in Masterson civil case postponed

We were gearing up for a big day in the Danny Masterson civil litigation as his “demurrer” was scheduled to be ruled on today at Los Angeles Superior Court. But that event has been delayed, and we’re still waiting for a new date.

——————–

“The history of Guk should be known to you. For a long time we had been scouting for the one-shot Clear, whereby a person walks in, you take a hypodermic syringe and shoot it in his arm, he goes up against the ceiling and comes down Clear. And we had been talking about this for some time as something feasible. Around 15 July 1950 a chemical engineer (the ex-director of research at the Bloch Chemical Company) told us about an atropine derivative that might be used.” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 29, 1950

——————–

“We have great news — the Theta-Meter app for Apple Watch has been released. Now you don’t even need the phone to do auditing. Happy owners of bluetooth Theta-Meter e-meter, you can download Theta-Meter Watch program to your Apple Watch in the AppStore!”

——————–

1996: British TV show ‘cyber.cafe’ airs a segment with researcher Martin Poulter: “What I’ve done is collect together the information that Scientology doesn’t want people to read. I’ve collected many first-hand accounts from ex-Scientologists, many documents from legal cases, several documents that were seized by the FBI when they raided Scientology headquarters and many of the postings from the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. It’s a big fight in cyberspace really. There are some pro-Scientology posters. Some who seem to be authorised by the church, and there’s many people who are protesting. Many ex-Scientologists who are speaking about their experiences. Many people who’ve joined in the debate because of concerns about civil rights.”

——————–

“More people are killed by domestic pigs around the world annually than are killed by sharks.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Sept 29 – DELAYED (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[The Big Three: Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kirstie Alley]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Who had the biggest booth at the Black Caucus DC confab this month? Scientology, that’s who.
[TWO years ago] Inside Jesse Prince’s book about Scientology: Doing L. Ron Hubbard’s dirty work
[THREE years ago] Turning hurricane chaos into gold? Scientology might learn something from L. Ron Hubbard
[FOUR years ago] ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ audiobook on sale, and we’re doing a Reddit AMA at noon
[FIVE years ago] O Canada: We’re in Vancouver today, getting our British Columbia on. Let’s talk Scientology!
[SIX years ago] Jon Atack takes his presentation — ‘Scientology: The Cult of Greed’ — to Russia
[SEVEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: Nothing But Unstoppable Scientology Expansion in Every Direction!
[EIGHT years ago] Michael Lewis (Johnny’s Dad) Scheduled for Scientology Event Tonight
[NINE years ago] Scientology High School, Dating, and Super Powers! A Post-Countdown Roundup

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,075 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,579 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,099 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,119 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,010 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,317 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,185 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,959 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,763 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,079 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,645 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,564 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,732 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,313 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,574 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,612 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,325 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,850 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,380 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,940 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,080 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,400 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,255 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,374 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,730 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,033 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,139 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,541 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,413 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,996 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,491 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,745 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,854 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 29, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on September 29, 2020 04:00

Hip, hip hooray! Scientology success stories you weren’t meant to see

We’re dipping into the Scientology social media stream again, bringing you communications that Scientologists are sending to each other, so we can get another glimpse of how things are going in David Miscavige’s fun house.

Now that orgs have been opening up again, Scientologists are doing their best to encourage each other with their “wins.” The success stories just keep coming!

——————–

The campaign that wasn’t

We hope that Brad Parscale gets the treatment he needs after the scary scene yesterday when the former Trump campaign manager barricaded himself in his Fort Lauderdale home and apparently threatened to harm himself. Police managed to talk him down enough to take him into their custody and get him to a hospital.

Just a few days ago, we received this video from one of our tipsters, and we offer it as a cautionary tale: If you’re spending time with Scientology’s professional ham hock Grant Cardone, you might be on the wrong path in life…

——————–

Biggest little org in the world

One of our readers snapped this shot of the storefront mission in Reno, Nevada, which calls itself the “Mission of Sierra Nevada.”

Looks about as busy as the rest.

——————–

“The faults I find with Scientologists is they very often will see somebody fall on his head, get run over by a truck, and do some kind of a light touch assist and say ‘That’s that.’ And then wonder why the guy is limping. And then they sort of say, ‘Scientology doesn’t work.’ Man, I’ve got a word for you. That auditor is afraid of work. Do you see?” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 28, 1968

——————–

“I was always aghast at many Scientologists’ willingness to accept verbal tech and policy or the staff’s willingness to follow illegal orders. Most ‘Scientologists’ including many ‘OTs’ are untrained morons and thus are vacuums for verbal tech and policy and false data. Most staff these days haven’t even completed Staff Status II, never mind any actual hatting. Then of course there is what they call ‘Instant Hatting’ which was supposed to be a temporary solution but has become an excuse for verbal policy and tech. Worse there is false tech and policy included like GAT and such things as ‘Message to Garcia’ and so called ‘SRAs’ and what are called ‘Seances’ which are straight out of Communist China’s Cultural Revolution and what was called Brain Washing.”

——————–

“Human rights education brought to you by slave labor and the church of ironictology.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Sept 29 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Alanna Masterson, Terry Jastrow, and Marisol Nichols]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Answering Scientology’s smears with truth: Phil Jones takes a STAND
[TWO years ago] US Government ‘adopts’ Russian Scientologist in religious rights protest
[THREE years ago] ‘Aftermath’ fan gets into party at Scientology’s ‘Int Base,’ brings Karen Pressley’s book along
[FOUR years ago] DRONE FLYOVER: First images of Scientology’s Gold Rush mine in California
[FIVE years ago] If it’s Monday, it must be Seattle: Let’s talk Scientology!
[SIX years ago] Celebrating two years in the Bunker: Jonny Jacobsen on Russia, and Sunday Funnies!
[SEVEN years ago] Blood Relation, Blood Ritual: A Hubbard Family Occult Mystery
[EIGHT years ago] Talking About The Master on Public Radio
[NINE years ago] The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 1: L. Ron Hubbard

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,074 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,578 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,098 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,118 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,009 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,316 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,184 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,958 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,762 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,078 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,644 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,563 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,731 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,312 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,573 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,611 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,324 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,849 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,379 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,939 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,079 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,399 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,254 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,373 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,729 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,032 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,138 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,540 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,412 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,995 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,490 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,744 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,853 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 28, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

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Published on September 28, 2020 04:00

SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS, Episode 7: Celebrities who seek godhood through David Miscavige

‘Celebrity,’ the seventh episode of ‘Scientology Black Ops,’ a special 7NEWS Australia investigation that was cancelled by the network in July, has been leaked to the Internet.

Ten episodes were scheduled to be published to the 7NEWS website on July 14 when the network changed its mind, cancelled the program, and also pulled down a trailer it had made for the series. On August 31, we found that the first episode in the series had been leaked, and we embedded it along with a transcript we prepared. We also did the same for the second episode, ‘Witness X,’ on Sept 4, the third episode, ‘Taken,’ on Sept 11, the fourth episode, ‘The Star,’ on Sept 14, the fifth episode, ‘Always Attack,’ on Sep 17, and the sixth episode, ‘Dirty Tricks’ on Sept 21.

We’ve done the same for the seventh episode, in which 7NEWS reporter Bryan Seymour digs into the celebrities who are the public face of Scientology, explaining their dedication to it and what it is they hope to get out of it. And that includes the wonderful footage of Nancy Cartwright explaining that through Scientology she’s trying to become a god.

Here’s the video, and then the transcript. (For those confused by the length of these short “episodes,” please keep in mind that this was a nightly news investigation and these segments were created to run during a news broadcast, not as longer shows on their own.)

Episode title: CELEBRITY

Bryan Seymour: This is Chinese Grauman’s Theater in Hollywood, one of the oldest establishments of the entertainment industry. All the people come to see the stars on the Walk of Fame here, and the footprints and the handprints. But it’s also an epicenter for Scientology. Scientology and Hollywood have always been intertwined. They used it for decades as a way of promoting themselves. But now, it could be the reason for their undoing. It was done by design, not chance. L. Ron Hubbard realized early on that celebrities could be walking billboards…

L. Ron Hubbard: You know?

Seymour:…advertising his newly invented Scientology to millions for free. In 1955 he drew up a list of celebrities to target, including Pablo Picasso, Walt Disney, Ed Sullivan, Orson Welles, and Ernest Hemingway. To this day, celebrities play a major role within the church, some of the biggest names in Hollywood are Scientologists.

Deborah Rennard: The celebrities, especially the very big celebrities, are treated completely different than anyone else in the church. You know, they have their own special areas that they are, they receive services, there are only certain people who are allowed to communicate to them. I mean, they do not associate with other people, and you know, what they are told and what they are shown and all of that is, it’s like a bubble. You know, they’re over here. Paul and I, we were in there for many years, and we were celebrities, so you know, I get it.

Leah Remini: Scientology went from being this innocuous, you know, little, I think, fad, people saw it as like a celebrity innocuous self-help group that wasn’t really harming people, to people really seeing this is a $3 billion dangerous money-making cult.

Seymour: Scientology’s first Celebrity Centre was set up by an Australian woman, Yvonne Gilham, who recruited John Travolta. I heard John Travolta recently say, well, I don’t believe any of this stuff. I’ve never seen it. It works for me, I wouldn’t be where I am if it weren’t for Scientology, so I’m not going to address, I’m just not going to address those concerns. Is that good enough?

Mike Rinder: Obviously not. That’s ridiculous.

Remini: And the thing is that John knows the truth. I mean I’ve sat with John. John knows the truth. John said I don’t give a shit. It’s helped me. You live in a little bubble. You have been brainwashed thoroughly that without Scientology you will die, your career will die. You attribute everything that happens to you good, to Scientology, anything bad that happens to you is your fault. It’s bigger than celebrity.

Tony Ortega: Are they turning a blind eye to it? I’m not sure if that’s the right term. People like Tom Cruise believe that this is a prison planet, and that Scientology is literally this planet’s only salvation.

Seymour: A prison planet.

Ortega: A prison planet, right.

Seymour: On a prison planet. And David Miscavige is the warden?

Ortega: No, no, no. He’s trying to help us, you know, break out of this prison. The wardens of the Earth prison planet are the Marcabian invader forces that came to Earth tens of thousands of years ago and have bases on Venus and Mars. They’re the ones that are keeping us down.

SNL ‘Neurotology’ video: Religion and science intertwined, aliens live inside of our minds. A billion-year contract…

Seymour: A sign of Scientology’s declining grip on Hollywood is the growing number of comedy spoofs.

SNL ‘Neurotology’ video: We’re in this forever, never to leave it until our last breath. We are here, our path is clear, we are finally free with Neurotology.

Seymour: And here we are.

Tommy Davis: And here we are, exactly.

Seymour: OK. I was a welcome guest in 2010, when Scientology tried to win me over, granting me the unique privilege of interviewing some of their celebrities, including Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, who gave Scientology $10 million in 2007. Today she has handed over more than $17.5 million in donations.

Nancy Cartwright: Yeah, I believe in God. I believe that there is a power that I am striving for. I think the best way to describe that would be to name that ‘God,’ you know. And ideally I would have to say that I am striving to be that god.

Ortega: Tom Cruise worships David Miscavige like a god. That’s what people need to keep in mind. He’s not in Scientology because he’s being blackmailed or he can’t leave. Tom Cruise is in Scientology because he believes that L. Ron Hubbard was the greatest human being that ever lived and that David Miscavige is the greatest person living on the planet today. He really believes this stuff.

Remini: He’s very, very protected, as most celebrities are protected, but Tom particularly. Like, Kirstie Alley’s not protected like Tom Cruise is protected. Not even John Travolta is protected like Tom Cruise is protected. When you meet people, and I’ve met many people who’ve worked with Tom, they go he’s the nicest guy, I go, bullshit. Tom is an awful human being to Scientologists. If Tom was in the real world, with real assistants, not Scientology assistants, real hair and makeup people — like, somebody would have punched him the fuck out. I don’t care who he thinks, he would not be able to do what Tom Cruise does in the Scientology world in the real world. And that’s why he lives in this very crazy world that is unlike any world you, me, it doesn’t matter, Jennifer Lopez. I mean, this is a kind of crazy power that would be like into, like…

Mike Rinder: A king.

Remini: A king, yes, yes.

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Emmy presenter: And the Emmy goes to Leah Remini, Scientology And The Aftermath!

Remini: Mom, she’s here tonight. Thank you. Thank you for believing in me. I wouldn’t be doing my life’s most important work, and you are officially forgiven for getting us into a cult.

Seymour: When Leah got her Emmy for best factual series, Elisabeth Moss walked out of the room, presumably because it was a slight against Scientology.

Paul Haggis: Yes.

Seymour: What should Elisabeth Moss do at the next press conference?

Haggis: Well the first thing she should do is open her eyes and look. I mean, you don’t stand up and walk out of an awards ceremony, if that’s what she did, unless you have a very strong feeling about something.

Ortega: I wrote this open letter to Tom Cruise to explain to him that this is going to stick to you eventually. You know, if you keep becoming, if you’re still the symbol of this organization, you will be the symbol for this behavior. The man is a Scientologist. He is trained not to believe a word that you or I say.

Seymour: So he’s simply not going to believe any of this is true.

Ortega: He won’t.

Seymour: I mean, if he doesn’t know this operation was carried out, when he hears this, or he’s told about this, what do you think he’ll think about this. What do you think he’ll do?

Ortega: He’ll ask Dave what to believe. He won’t believe anything you say.

Seymour: David Miscavige.

Ortega: Yes, he’ll ask David Miscavige what to believe.

Seymour: Paul Haggis said to me that both Cruise and Travolta will die in Scientology.

Ortega: I think he’s probably right about that. That would be huge if Tom Cruise or John Travolta left and spoke up and acknowledged that they had seen some abuses. That would be absolutely huge and it would help the government, you know, do something. But I just don’t see it at this point. I think that both Travolta and Cruise have shown as much dedication as ever.

Seymour: So, Tom Cruise and John Travolta, the big two, what should they do? What morally should they do?

Haggis: They should admit the truth. They should at least admit the truth. Start there.

Seymour: Next, a stunning revelation.

Haggis: OK, no one knows this. He went in and, by his own admission, destroyed evidence, covered up…

Seymour: On the death of a young woman.

Haggis: A murder.

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——————–

“The zygote is very easily injured. Every abdominal pressure affects it. However, an auditor should run the ovum-sperm series three or four days before conception. Although this hasn’t been checked objectively, cases respond much better if you get that series. The time up to before the first missed menstrual period has been checked objectively, because somebody else has this material too, but it is not easy to check conception objectively. Conception is a specific moment and you are not quite sure when it arrives. However, until the time this data is checked objectively, the reality of it is strong.” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 27, 1950

——————–

“Even the type of wins as an Indie are different, much wider in scope, and MUCH MORE UNIVERSAL AND LESS CULTISH! What a tasty level this NOTs! Endless dishes and menus, some fantastic, some hard to digest (oh yes!), some a piece of cake, but all of them life shaking, life changing. And mood and tone altering, oh BIG time. I started slow and half blind, then got better, and better. And then I was doing difficult, elusive things correctly and more and more RIGHT!”

——————–

“If you leave or get kicked out they have a big ray gun device called the Hubbard Engram Re-Stimulator that can locate you anywhere on the planet and zap you with a beam that re-implants all the charge you blew.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Sept 29 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, and Nancy Cartwright]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] The rise and fall of a Scientology mogul just took another mysterious twist
[TWO years ago] What a train wreck: The ignominious fate of Scientology’s original flagship, the ‘Apollo’
[THREE years ago] Bernie Feshbach, 1923-2017: A man who fought against Scientology in his own way
[FOUR years ago] ‘Horrifying’ autism ‘cure’ exposed by BBC turns out to be Scientology: Now, the inventor speaks
[FIVE years ago] Our Pacific Northwest adventure begins this afternoon with a stop in Portland
[SIX years ago] Ryan Hamilton files lawsuit number 21 against Scientology’s drug rehab network
[SEVEN years ago] Federal Judge Orders Evidence Preservation Based on Narconon Georgia’s “Misconduct”
[NINETEEN years ago] Sympathy for the Devil (The Tory Christman story)

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,073 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,577 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,097 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,117 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,008 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,315 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,183 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,957 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,761 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,077 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,643 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,562 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,730 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,311 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,572 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,610 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,323 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,848 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,378 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,938 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,078 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,398 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,253 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,372 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,728 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,031 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,137 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,539 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,411 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,994 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,489 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,743 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,852 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 27, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on September 27, 2020 04:00

Scientology ex-Sea Orger with ties to dark secrets running for city council in Oregon

We’re always interested when a Scientologist runs for political office. It doesn’t happen very often, and in recent years it’s been particularly rare. There was a married couple who each ran for office in Nevada (one of them, Brent Jones, did serve as a state legislator but failed in his bid to move up to lieutenant governor). And there was a county clerk in Texas who left office last year, and he is now running for Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector.

It’s uncommon for Scientologists to run. But in Oregon, there’s an even more unusual situation that has us excited. A former Scientology Sea Org worker is not only running for city council, she has some fascinating ties to some of Scientology’s darkest secrets.

Brittany Ruiz is an anti-vaxx mom who is trying to unseat McMinnville, Oregon Council President Kellie Menke in Ward 2 in the election that will be held on November 3. There hasn’t been much press coverage of this race, even locally, with just one article we could find describing Ruiz as one of several candidates who are conservatives trying to unseat more moderate Republicans.

So even locals in McMinnville apparently don’t realize what a fascinating candidate they have in Ruiz. She was Deputy Executive Director at the Advanced Organization of Los Angeles (AOLA), one of the special locations where wealthy Scientologists come to be initiated into the secrets of the “Operating Thetan” auditing levels, costing tens of thousands of dollars. But then, after leaving the Sea Org, she was known for what a hardcore Scientologist she remained, especially on social media, where she kept other members in line.

Both Jefferson Hawkins and Tiziano Lugli, well known figures here at the Underground Bunker, wrote about Ruiz, then known as Brittany Sierra Garrett, enforcing discipline at Facebook a decade ago. Lugli, in 2010, wrote about what he said was a slander campaign being run against him after he had left the church…

As we started receiving calls from the rest of our very close group of so-called friends, the FaceBook Enturbulator I/Cs were already on the move. The good old JoJo Zawawi teamed up with Brittany Sierra Garrett (old D/CO of AOLA and 2D of Javier Ruiz whom I personally helped extensively to get on his feet after he left the SO). They started an amazing rumormongering campaign against us with vicious lies given by Tom Davis regarding our standing which apparently is “We’re declared SPs attacking the Church joined with squirrel groups and trying to get upstat Scientologists to follow us.”

Here’s another fun example, Brittany in 2011 posting a comment at a Scientology parenting blog, enforcing discipline about the barley formula that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had come up with for feeding infants…

Now that’s hardcore fundamentalist Hubbardism!

But Brittany Ruiz is even more interesting, because we hope she can help us solve one of Scientology’s enduring mysteries, involving her husband Javier Ruiz and the whereabouts of his previous wife, Barbara.

All the way back in 2012 at the Village Voice, we wrote about the troubling ties between the “L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future” contest and Scientology’s infamous abuses. Namely, that in 2004 a woman named Barbara Ruiz, who at that time was running the writing contest, had also been seen running Scientology leader David Miscavige’s notorious prison at Gold Base known as “The Hole,” which had just been created that year.

For those science fiction writers who insisted that the contest maintained a firewall between it and the church, we pointed out the inconvenient fact that the person who ran the contest had also been seen running Scientology’s notorious concentration camp for its top executives. And not only that, but after Barbara Ruiz ran that 2004 contest, she then vanished and has never been seen since.

[Javier Ruiz, from a 2013 Bunker story, and from a 2020 news article about his McMinnville business]

Barbara was married to Javier Ruiz, who was also a Sea Org official and the president at Author Services, Inc., the Scientology subsidiary that acts as L. Ron Hubbard’s literary agency and that runs the Writers of the Future contest. Last year Leah Remini told us that near the end of her time in Scientology, she asked Javier about Barbara, trying to find out what had happened to her friend.

“I told him I was worried about what was going on in Scientology,” Leah says. She told him that Shelly didn’t seem to be around, and Barbara had also seemingly vanished.

“We’re divorced. What do I give a fuck where Barbara is?” Javier told her. And soon after that conversation, Leah found herself being called down for a meeting.
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“I was called in and confronted by Shane Woodruff, Todd Woodruff, Hansuli Stahli and Mike Sutter — Hansuli and Mike are Miscavige’s henchmen,” Leah says.

She learned that Javier Ruiz had dropped a dime on her.

“He wrote a Knowledge Report, an internal report on me, saying I was trying to start a mutiny because I wanted to know where Shelly and Barbara were. They confronted me with the KR and wanted to know if I was trying to start a mutiny. That is where the beginning of the end started for me,” Leah says.

[Leah Remini with her vanished friends, Barbara Ruiz (left) and Shelly Miscavige]

We sent an email to Brittany Ruiz on Thursday, telling her that we were always interested when Scientologists ran for office. And we asked her if she could help clear up what had happened to her husband’s previous wife, Barbara Ruiz, the former Scientology executive who, like Shelly Miscavige, simply vanished.

We hope Ms. Ruiz gets back to us.

——————–

“You could teach people quite a bit about just any one of these Security Checks, you see. Like the children’s check. Teaching them how to use a children’s check. That’s quite interesting. You, of course, mustn’t ask a question which the child can’t understand because you will have an immediate ARC break. He thinks he’s being accused of something; he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. So you have to rephrase all of the questions in the child’s Security Check, you see, so as to reach the comprehension level of a child.” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 26, 1961

——————–

“This is my 50th year on the bridge and most sessions are best ever! Up to OTVIII in the Church, Ron’s Org. Grenchen these days. Just translated LRH lecture Beingness (Dec. 1953) into German and highly recommend it. Lot’s of OT data in there!”

——————–

“Vallarrr use to blather on about how if someone had an irrational fear of spiders and they did some auditing and that fear was gone that was proof of auditing working.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Sept 29 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, and Juliette Lewis]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] City councilman demonstrates why Scientology puts so much effort into its front groups
[TWO years ago] A conversation with Nathan Rich about the unique Scientology hellscape he survived
[THREE years ago] To help you through withdrawals tonight, take our poll on Leah Remini’s Season Two so far
[FOUR years ago] SCIENTOLOGY’S TOP 20 CELEBRITIES — in order of those most likely to defect
[FIVE years ago] ‘Darth Xander’ files motion challenging Scientology’s anti-protesting injunction
[SIX years ago] Scientology prepares for its big party in England, Maureen Bolstad on the Purification Rundown
[SEVEN years ago] Shut-Down Scientology Drug Rehab Claiming It’s Full, Says Mother of Insurance Fraud Victim
[NINE years ago] The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 3: Marty Rathbun

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,072 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,576 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,096 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,116 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,007 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,314 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,182 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,956 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,760 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,076 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,642 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,561 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,729 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,310 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,571 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,609 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,322 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,847 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,377 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,937 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,077 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,397 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,252 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,371 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,727 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,030 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,136 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,538 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,410 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,993 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,488 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,742 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,851 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 26, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

Bixler v. Scientology: RTC … by Tony Ortega

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on September 26, 2020 04:00

Serve Miscavige in an ad? Scientology honcho: ‘But you haven’t tried hard enough to find me!’

More than a year after Danny Masterson’s rape accusers filed a lawsuit claiming that they’ve been harassed by the Church of Scientology since coming forward to the LAPD in 2016, Scientology’s leader David Miscavige, who was named in the suit, still hasn’t been served to make him an official defendant.

Last time we checked, the plaintiffs had asked the court to serve Miscavige by publication, which would entail taking out an ad in a newspaper as a last resort.

And now Scientology’s entity the Religious Technology Center, where Dave is chairman of the board, has filed a typically shrill opposition, and we knew you’d want to see it.

Scientology’s main argument is that the court shouldn’t allow service by publication as a last resort because the plaintiffs and their attorneys haven’t tried hard enough to find Miscavige.

RTC attorney Matthew Hinks says that since the second amended complaint was filed six months ago, the legal team for Chrissie Carnell Bixler and the other women haven’t tried at all to serve the Scientology leader.

Plaintiffs purport to justify the motion on the sole basis that its prior service attempts have been unsuccessful. That is not sufficient grounds to permit service by publication. Plaintiffs have not shown, as they must under CCP § 415.50(a), that Mr. Miscavige “cannot with reasonable diligence be served in another manner” because there is little question that Plaintiffs have not been diligent at all. In connection with the Court’s ruling on Mr. Miscavige’s motion to quash in March 2020, this Court held that Plaintiffs never served Mr. Miscavige with the original summons and complaint. At the conclusion of that hearing, Plaintiffs’ counsel represented to the Court that he will “get Mr. Miscavige served.” But, in the subsequent six months, Plaintiffs took no steps to effectuate service, either personally or through substitute service.

(Emphasis in the original.) What that argument leaves out, of course, is that in those last few months, Scientology was playing games over whether they’d just sign a document accepting service on behalf of Miscavige, which they ultimately didn’t do.

And to remind you of what we reported earlier, Chrissie’s attorneys originally attempted to have Miscavige served at 6331 Hollywood Blvd, also known as the Hollywood Guaranty Building, where Miscavige has an office on the 11th floor. Former Scientologists have told us that he also has a place to spend the night there, and Leah Remini said that when she mailed cards to Shelly Miscavige before Shelly vanished in 2005, she was told to use that address.

However, Scientology objected to that attempt at service, saying that Dave’s RTC office is actually located at 1710 Ivar Avenue, and we pointed out that this is simply a different entrance to the same building. As Chrissie’s attorneys have explained to the court, the 6331 Hollywood Boulevard entry has a lobby and a reception desk, but 1710 Ivar Ave has only a locked door going into an elevator, and no person that papers could be left with.

In other words, Scientology has been playing games all along, and we wonder how long the judge is going to put up with it. In this latest brief, they’re saying that since the attorneys for Chrissie “confirmed” Miscavige’s 6331 Hollywood Blvd address with a BeenVerified search, then that actually disqualifies their ability to do service by publication which can’t be done, they say, if you know the person’s address.

This is all very cute and entertaining, but for how long will Judge Kleifield put up with Scientology’s nonsense?

Here’s the document itself. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on it…

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We doubted it, but here’s evidence that the Sea Org is taking over remote orgs

On Sunday we had a conversation with Chris Shelton about reports that the Kansas City Scientology Ideal Org had been denied the use of a Kansas City, Kansas building that it wanted to turn into a dormitory for its workers. The two of us said it was another sign that Scientology is hurting, and that its own workers have to be flown in from other places and can’t afford housing prices when they’re being paid so little.

But we each doubted the speculation by some that it meant that the KC org was becoming a “Sea Org Org,” and that the dormitory was needed for Sea Org workers who make only pennies an hour. It seemed far-fetched to us that Scientology leader David Miscavige would be in such straits that he’d need to send Sea Org lifers to run such a remote org as the one in Kansas City.

This week, however, we got a look at more postings in an internal Scientology social media feed, and found this item, which has us rethinking our earlier position…

Seventy Sea Org staffers at an Ideal Org in Columbus, Ohio? Well now, maybe it isn’t so far-fetched that Kansas City has also become a Sea Org Org, and Scientology needs housing for its dedicated lifers who make pennies an hour.

And imagine signing a billion-year contract in order to join Scientology’s war to take over the world, and you’re assigned to route in bodies for Comm Courses in places like central Ohio and Kansas City.

This planet will be cleared in no time.

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“Somebody made a horrible mistake over at the FCDC the other day, by mentioning ‘between lives’ during the church service and learned immediately that he should have kept his mouth very shut.” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 25, 1963

Advertisement

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“The USA Democratic supporters have got the R6 implant keyed in. And to think that some people want to skip OT III.”

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“I’m guessing the Urban Land Institute isn’t aware they’re dealing with a posse of lunatics.”

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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for a writ of mandate filed with Cal 2nd Appellate District, Sept 10.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Sept 29 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.

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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

[Stacy Francis, Jason Dohring, and Anne Archer]

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Hiding in plain sight: how Scientology nearly got away with its 1970s espionage campaign
[TWO years ago] Scientology rewards the celeb who bolted when her co-star went rogue
[THREE years ago] Paul Haggis: Rathbun does what I feared, and outs ex-Scientologist we vowed to keep secret
[FOUR years ago] Scientology in Ireland is nearly dead: Here’s how Tom Cruise & the gang plan to bring it back
[FIVE years ago] Scientology’s showdown in Belgium: Here’s our plan to cover an epic battle
[SIX years ago] What the Boston Globe left out of its story on Scientology yesterday
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology Drug Rehab Shut Down in Georgia, Ordered to Turn Over Records in Oklahoma

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,071 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,575 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,095 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,115 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,006 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,313 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,181 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,955 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,759 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,075 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,641 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,560 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,728 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,309 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,570 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,608 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,321 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,846 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,376 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,936 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,076 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,396 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,251 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,370 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,726 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,029 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,135 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,537 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,409 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,992 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,487 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,741 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,850 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 25, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele