2011-06-02

Australian Scientology leader arrested for coercing 11 year old girl to lie to police about sex assault, told it was her fault



The Australian - May 31, 2011

Scientologist charged for 'intimidating' alleged sex abuse victim

by Leo Shanahan



A SENIOR member of the Church of Scientology has been charged by police for intimidating a young girl who wanted to report sexual abuse allegations within the church.

Jan Eastgate, the head of the church's "International Commission on Human Rights" which attacks psychology, has been charged by NSW Police with perverting the course of justice.

According the ABC TV's Lateline, police have alleged Eastgate intimidated a then 11-year-old Carmen Rainer to provide false statements about sexual abuse by her stepfather.

Ms Rainer has alleged that Ms Eastgate, who was then head of the church's citizens' commission on human rights in Australia, told her she should deny any charges of the sexual abuse or she and her brother would be taken away by social services.

Ms Rainer's mother Phoebe has also admitted Ms Eastgate told both of them what to say and to lie to police and in an interview with the Department of Community Services. Ms Eastgate previously called the allegations "egregiously false".

She she has not commented since being charged.

Ms Eastgate has been asked by NSW police to surrender her passport.

Ms Rainer had previously said that she was told by senior Scientology members that abuse was punishment for being bad in a previous life.

"She said, 'Just say no, keep repeating that'," Ms Rainer told the ABC in an interview last year.

"They told me it was my fault because I'd been bad in a past life. I believed them."

Ms Eastgate was the recipient of the Church of Scientology's Freedom Medal for her work with human rights, primarily aimed at uncovering problems with psychology treatments.

The news comes after the Australian Securities & Investments Commission earlier this month launched an inquiry into the business dealings of a Sydney property developer and senior Scientologist over a series of property deals.

The inquiry by ASIC into Carly Crutchfield was launched after independent senator Nick Xenophon - a vocal opponent of Scientology - sent a dossier to the corporate watchdog last month.

Senator Xenophon is calling for a judicial inquiry into the church.

The South Australian senator is asking that the organisation be stripped of its official religious status as a church, which means among other things its earnings aren't taxed. Scientology is founded on the teachings of American science fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard, who taught that human psychological problems are a result of an ancient alien leader called Xenu, who attacked the planet Earth and left behind traumatised spirits of the former Earth race.

This article was found at:


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33 comments:

  1. Ex-league star damns 'toxic' Scientology leader

    by Steve Cannane September 22, 2011

    A former Australian rugby league star who abandoned his sporting career for a life in the Church of Scientology says its head is a "violent" and "toxic" individual.

    Former St George captain and player of the year Chris Guider walked away from his league career in 1986 at the age of 24.

    After spending more than 20 years in the church in both Australia and the US, working closely with Scientology leader David Miscavige, Mr Guider has now left the movement, which he says is more about money and control than anything else.

    "I would go through the day looking for people that weren't following policy properly or weren't in the right space they were supposed to be or the right area they were supposed to be in and then handling those people so they got back to what they were supposed to be doing," Mr Guider said of his time as an honour guard, or RTC, for Mr Miscavige.

    "I'd report directly to Miscavige on what I did that day."

    Mr Miscavige became the leader of the Church of Scientology soon after the death of its founder L Ron Hubbard in 1986.

    He was active in recruiting Tom Cruise to Scientology and was best man at his wedding.
    But Mr Guider thinks Mr Miscavige is not the kind of person who should be the head of a religious movement.

    "He's a violent individual. He is and there are accounts of him being physical with people," he said.

    "I've seen him physically beat one staff member, Mark Fisher, who was formerly an executive in the RTC, worked very closely with Miscavige for a lot of years, and I witnessed him beating him."

    read the full article at:

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-22/ex-league-star-says-scientology-head-violent-toxic/2911988/?site=sydney

    ReplyDelete

  2. Here are links to a series of reports in Florida's St. Petersburg Times

    About the latest St. Petersburg Times investigative series on Scientology

    November 13, 2011

    Staff writers Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin have published 13 major investigative stories about the Church of Scientology since June 2009. This series is the product of a year's reporting on the church's fundraising practices.

    They conducted hundreds of hours of detailed interviews with nearly 50 current and former church members. Many provided supporting documents such as church invoices, annual parishioner statements and "Knowledge Reports," complaints to church officials. The reporters also examined court records, IRS documents, and church publications and policies.

    Times photojournalist Maurice Rivenbark conducted video interviews, which can be seen at tampabay.com.

    Because speaking with journalists without permission is considered a "suppressive" act in Scientology, the reporters asked for access to the staffers whose names came up in the accounts of former members. The reporters requested interviews with those staffers and with Scientology leader David Miscavige.

    The church declined all interview requests and provided 144 pages of written response.

    Joe Childs, Managing Editor/Tampa Bay, has been reporting and editing stories about Scientology since 1993. He can be reached at childs@sptimes.com.

    Thomas C. Tobin has covered the Church of Scientology off and on for the Times since 1996. He can be reached at tobin@sptimes.com.

    Maurice Rivenbark has been a Times photojournalist since 1981 and has worked on previous Scientology coverage. He can be reached at rivenbark@sptimes.com.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/about-the-latest-st-petersburg-times-investigative-series-on-scientology/1201476

    Former Scientology insiders describe a world of closers, prospects, crushing quotas and coercion

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1201166.ece

    A young man looked for answers, found a 'money-hungry cult'

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/a-young-man-looked-for-answers-found-a-money-hungry-cult/1201168

    Church of Scientology responds to St. Petersburg Times series

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/church-of-scientology-responds-to-st-petersburg-times-series/1201167

    About 'Flag': Scientology has 67 properties in Clearwater

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1201169.ece

    ReplyDelete

  3. More expose articles in the St Petersburg Times:


    How Scientology generates revenue on multiple fronts

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/how-scientology-generates-revenue-on-multiple-fronts/1201286


    Scientology couple who gave $1.3 million: Church mission 'has been corrupted'

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/scientology-couple-who-gave-13-million-church-mission-has-been-corrupted/1201187


    Pervasive pitch: Scientology book and lecture series, 'The Basics,' unleashes a sales frenzy


    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1201177.ece

    ReplyDelete

  4. More expose articles in the St Petersburg Times:

    Church of Scientology responds: Parishioners donate 'because they enthusiastically support their chosen faith'

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/church-of-scientology-responds-parishioners-donate-because-they/1202000

    Church of Scientology runs afoul of widely accepted best practices for fundraising

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/church-of-scientology-runs-afoul-of-widely-accepted-best-practices-for/1201998

    Scientology amped up donation requests to save the Earth starting in 2001

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/scientology-amped-up-donation-requests-to-save-the-earth-starting-in-2001/1201989

    Some Scientologists give until they're bankrupt

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/some-scientologists-give-until-theyre-bankrupt/1201990

    ReplyDelete

  5. More expose articles in the St Petersburg Times:


    Giant 'Super Power' building in Clearwater takes a pause, yet millions keep flowing in

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1202006.ece

    IRS should review Scientology tax-exempt status

    http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1202497.ece

    ReplyDelete

  6. Tax experts: Church's money-raising practices don't appear to threaten tax-exempt status

    By Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin, St Petersburg Times November 21, 2011

    FOR 40 years beginning in the 1950s, IRS officials sorted through the maze of corporate entities that compose Scientology, trying to make sense of the organization. So when the church made a bid in the early 1990s to have its tax-exempt status reinstated, the agency had questions.

    What about all those lawsuits against the church, including many saying it was slow to refund parishioners' money?

    If so many of Scientology's staff members and so much of its writings were devoted to making money, wasn't it really a business?

    How close is the relationship between the church and its well-financed membership group, the International Association of Scientologists?

    The church answered emphatically:

    Refunds were granted — no problem.

    It wasn't obsessed with making money.

    The IAS wasn't part of the church, and joining it was voluntary.

    Scientology got its exemption in 1993. But former church insiders told the St. Petersburg Times that none of those answers holds true today.

    • Many say the church is still slow to grant refunds. And its practices differ from what it told the IRS. The church now says refunds are granted only in "certain circumstances" and the law does not require they be returned at all.

    • Former insiders say large numbers of church staffers are involved in raising money. That's not the impression the church left when it answered the IRS's questions. For example, it said, only 4 percent of its staff worked in the finance department.

    • Membership in the IAS is not voluntary for practicing Scientologists, many former church members say. Parishioners are told it is a necessary step toward the church's upper levels of spiritual awareness.

    "It was assumed and expected that every person doing services was a member (of the IAS)," said Hy Levy, who worked for 16 years as a church "registrar" in Clearwater, signing up parishioners for services. "And it was gasps of 'Oh, my God!' if they weren't."

    The church told the Times there is no conflict between what it does today and what it told the IRS 20 years ago.

    IRS spokesman Mike Dobzinski said the agency does not comment about individual taxpayers or tax-exempt groups. But tax experts said the church's money-raising practices don't appear to put its federal tax exemption at risk.

    If aspects of Scientology's operations have changed, "it's not of interest to anyone" as long as the church is still pursuing a charitable purpose, said John D. Colombo, an associate dean at the University of Illinois College of Law and a professor specializing in tax-exempt organizations.

    "If they're just being aggressive, but they haven't crossed the line into illegality, then the answer is nothing (can be done)," he said. "The answer is, if you don't like it, drop out of the church and go somewhere else."

    Scientology's original main church, the Church of Scientology of California, was granted tax-exempt status in 1957, three years after it was formed. But the IRS revoked the exemption in 1967, saying the church's activities were commercial and founder L. Ron Hubbard was profiting.

    The IRS and the church feuded for years after that, with Scientology working to discredit the agency and cast its officials as biased. Some court rulings said the IRS had indeed been unfair. In the mid 1970s — years before current church leader David Miscavige took power — Scientology operatives infiltrated the IRS and Department of Justice, and broke into an IRS office seeking the government's secret files on the church. Eleven Scientologists were convicted and Hubbard was named an unindicted co-conspirator. ...

    read the rest of the article at:

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1202009.ece

    ReplyDelete

  7. Woman alleges imprisonment by Scientologists

    ABC Australia 28/11/2011

    Reporter: Steve Cannane

    An Australian woman has alleged she spent years imprisoned on the Church of Scientology's cruise ship, The Freewinds.

    ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: An Australian resident has told Lateline the Church of Scientology imprisoned her on its cruise ship, The Freewinds.

    Valeska Paris says the Church of Scientology's leader, David Miscavige, sent her to the ship when she was 17 to prevent her mother taking her away from Scientology.

    Ms Paris says she ended up being on the ship for 12 years and was unable to leave The Freewinds for the first six years without an escort.

    She's described the Church's leader as a psychopath and says he should be put on trial.

    Steve Cannane has this exclusive report.

    STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: Valeska Paris was born into a Scientology family in Switzerland. At the age of six she moved to Scientology's headquarters in the UK and was placed in its then youth wing, the Cadet Org.

    At 14 she joined the Church's elite Sea Organization, signing a contract binding her for a billion years.

    It was a commitment that would override her bond with her own family. Valeska Paris says at seventeen the Church told her she could no longer see her mother.

    VALESKA PARIS, FORMER SCIENTOLOGIST: I was basically pulled in and told that my mum had attacked the Church and that I needed to disconnect from her because she was suppressive. And ...

    STEVE CANNANE: And what does that mean, to disconnect?

    VALESKA PARIS: It means no connections at all with her or with anyone that she's connected to.

    STEVE CANNANE: Her mother had denounced Scientology on French TV after her ex-husband, Albert Jaquier, had committed suicide. A self-made millionaire, his last days were spent in poverty. In a diary he kept, he blamed the Church of Scientology for fleecing him of his fortune.

    Valeska Paris says the Church was so worried her mother would take her away that Scientology's leader David Miscavige intervened, ordering she be taken to the Church's cruise ship, The Freewinds.

    VALESKA PARIS: He decided the ship. And I found out two hours before my plane left - I was woken up in the morning and I was sent to the ship for “two weeks”.

    STEVE CANNANE: And how long did that end up lasting?

    VALESKA PARIS: 12 years.

    STEVE CANNANE: Valeska Paris says she was held on The Freewinds against her will.

    VALESKA PARIS: I did not want to be there. I made it clear that I didn't want to be there. And that was considered bad ethics, meaning it was considered not right.

    STEVE CANNANE: Did you try to escape?

    VALESKA PARIS: No, no.

    STEVE CANNANE: Could you escape?

    VALESKA PARIS: No. They take your passport when you go on the ship, so - and you're in the middle of an island, so it's a bit hard. And I was like - by that time I was 18. So, I didn't really - I'd been in Scientology my whole life. It's not like I knew how to escape and ... .

    STEVE CANNANE: The Freewinds is used as a base to deliver Scientology's highest level counselling course, known as Operating Thetan Level Eight.

    It cruises around the Caribbean, docking at small islands. The Church says ships have religious significance to Scientologists because its founder L. Ron Hubbard had researched and ministered the first Operating Thetan levels aboard a ship.

    But for Valeska Paris, there was no freedom on The Freewinds. She says she was not allowed off the ship for the first six years without an escort and was forced to do hard labour in the engine room. ...
    ...

    STEVE CANNANE: The Church of Scientology in the US refused to be interviewed for this story. Their lawyers sent Lateline a letter threatening legal action over a breach of a confidentiality agreement between the Church and Valeska Paris. Valeska Paris says she signed this agreement under duress. ...

    read the full article and Scientology statement at:

    http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3378641.htm

    ReplyDelete

  8. Cult information charity faces Charity Commission curb after Scientology complaint

    After 25 years in operation, the Cult Information Centre fears it may no longer be able to work effectively

    by Lynne Wallis, The Guardian UK Friday 13 January 2012

    More than 160,000 charities in England and Wales are registered with the Charity Commission, thereby qualifying for charitable status and the tax relief and fundraising advantages that brings. So what happens when a registered charity is deemed to be in breach of the commission's stringent criteria? While the commission can't withdraw charitable status, it must investigate any alleged breach of the conditions of charitable status and ensure the charity is compliant.

    The Cult Information Centre (CIC) was granted education charity status in 1992 but has recently run into difficulties with the commission after complaints were received in 2007 that it is in breach of the rules governing status. Specifically, it is alleged that the CIC isn't neutral concerning its educational work, which means it could be deemed to be a campaigning or political organisation. A commission spokeswoman explained: "The problem is that the CIC's education work seems to be coming from a pre-conceived standpoint whereas, when we granted charitable status, we specified that any educational work needs to be objective and factual. There has been ongoing correspondence, and the charity's trustees have offered to conduct a review into the charity's work and practices."

    The CIC, set up 25 years ago, offers information on cults and new religious movements to the general public, including families who have lost relatives to such groups and former cult members trying make sense of what their experiences. Ian Haworth, who runs the charity, also gives talks to schools and other organisations on the psychological techniques cults use to recruit people and the threat that cults can pose to young lives; it is this educational element of the charity's work that has been under the spotlight.

    The commission has not revealed who is behind complaints, but an official let slip at a meeting attended by Haworth and some CIC trustees that it was the Church of Scientology. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the commission has received complaints from numerous cults ever since the CIC was awarded charitable status, and Haworth is at a loss to understand why the commission is only now flexing its muscles. He likens the restrictions the commission is trying to impose to a drugs awareness charity being told it can still operate, as long as it never says drugs are bad.

    Haworth said: "We were awarded charitable status 20 years ago in spite of complaints from the Moonies, Scientology and the Hare Krishnas, which the commission was prepared then to override. Meanwhile, the commission continues to award charitable status to some very sinister and suspect groups whose contribution to the public good is arguable, and now the CIC is being told it can't operate effectively.

    "The commission has got it all so wrong, while the whole business has distracted us from our core work. Our website content is now problematic, and we can't fundraise properly or talk openly to the press about groups, which is particularly worrying given that the vast proportion of stories go untold because cults are so litigious.

    "An educational charity must, they say, be neutral, but how can we be neutral about the dangers of the coercive psychological techniques cults use to recruit?"

    continued in next comment:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2012/jan/13/charity-fall-foul-commission-scientology

    ReplyDelete

  9. continued from previous comment:

    The commission suggests the CIC may have to "change its objects" which, in non-commission-speak, means it must maintain its status by using different qualifying criteria, ie, not claim to be an educational charity.

    The CIC argues vigorously that its work is beneficial to the public, and the thousands of people Haworth has helped over the 25 years would, he says, undoubtedly agree, but the charity will get into hotter water still if it doesn't toe the line on neutrality. The Church of Scientology was famously refused charitable status in 1996 on the grounds that any organisation claiming public benefit under the banner of "advancement of religion" must believe in a supreme being and/or worship to express its religious belief, neither of which is the case for Scientology. Had it made its claim on other grounds, it might have been successful.

    Since the 2006 Charities Act, the criteria under which organisations may apply has expanded hugely from the very narrow relief of poverty, advancement of education or religion, and a general "public-benefit" umbrella, to the advancement of anything from from amateur sports to human rights.

    The irony for the CIC is that many of the sorts of groups the charity has been warning young people about before they go off to university have themselves achieved charitable status. The world famous Unification movement, for example, more commonly known as the Moonies, has enjoyed charitable status since 1974. If the CIC is prevented from raising awareness about the dangers of cult recruitment, there is precious little else out there for concerned parents or others needing to find out about cults. One thing is certain: any forthcoming information resulting from contacting a cult group directly to find out what they are about would very definitely not be neutral.

    The CIC was the first port of call in 2003 for a teacher from Liverpool who can't be named for fear of reprisals from the group who recruited her son. She said: "The CIC are unique because they have a wealth of information and contacts at their fingertips. They put me in touch with an expert in the particular field our son was involved with, who swiftly identified the supposedly buddhist group our son had joined as fake. The CIC put us in touch with the charity Catalyst who gave us invaluable legal advice, and we used CIC literature to hand out to police and other concerned agencies – their book is brilliant, and it was the most efficient way to convey what had happened to our family. It was also very comforting to talk to someone who understood and didn't think we were crazy. The Charity Commission shouldn't stop the CIC doing this important work."

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2012/jan/13/charity-fall-foul-commission-scientology

    ReplyDelete

  10. The article in the previous comment was amended on 13 January 2012 after I placed it in this archive. The original article said that "an official [from the Charity Commission] let slip at a meeting attended by Haworth, and some CIC trustees that it was the Church of Scientology" which had made the complaint to the Charity Commission about the CIC. This is denied by the Charity Commission which has asked [The Guardian] to make clear that it is the commission's policy not to reveal the source of any complaint and that the complaint came from an individual who did not claim to be making the complaint on behalf of any one else or any other organisation.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2012/jan/13/charity-fall-foul-commission

    ReplyDelete

  11. Scientology's First Amendment rights and wrongs

    Tampa Bay Times Editorial

    Wednesday, February 1, 2012

    The Church of Scientology relies heavily on First Amendment religious freedoms to shield itself from scrutiny in this country, but it is awfully quick to suppress freedom of speech that enjoys the same constitutional protections. The same church that raises the specter of Nazi oppression whenever it faces inquiry from German and French officials, expects its former, hardworking employees in the United States to sign away their free speech rights for as little as $500 in severance. The First Amendment is not a buffet where some rights are recognized and other inconvenient ones are ignored.

    The hypocrisy is clear in the church's latest retaliation against a former employee who dared to speak out even as she attempted to provoke reforms from within. Debbie Cook, the church's former longtime leader in Clearwater, is now facing a lawsuit in Texas for allegedly violating her 2007 severance agreement. On New Year's Eve, her letter urging Scientologists to work internally to reform the church's aggressive fundraising tactics and other practices reached thousands of church members via email and became widely publicized, including in the Tampa Bay Times.

    But Cook and her husband, in order to receive $50,000 each in severance, had signed a nondisclosure clause — apparently a standard operating procedure for the church. Cook had been a Sea Org employee for 29 years, 17 of which were as the top Clearwater official where she presided over an operation that brought in more than $100 million annually for the organization. Several former church members told the Tampa Bay Times' Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin that severances of $500 to $5,000 were more common but also frequently required nondisclosure agreements.

    Previous Times stories have detailed how Sea Org members have extraordinary work schedules for little pay and how the church's fundraising tactics have included encouraging church members to borrow thousands of dollars, hit the limit on their credit cards and mortgage their homes to pay for church texts or courses. Yet First Amendment religious protections have blocked serious, formal scrutiny. Just two years ago, the church escaped allegations it violated labor laws and engaged in human trafficking and forced abortions when a federal judge dismissed two lawsuits by former Sea Org workers, saying the suits would violate the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion. And the church also benefits from tax-exempt status, another manifestation of the First Amendment's religious protection.

    The lengths the church goes to protect its secrecy is remarkable. Cook and her husband had an additional clause in their agreement with the church that they could be liable for at least $100,000 for each disparaging Internet posting, television broadcast or newspaper article. If this case moves forward, the judge should ensure that all depositions, court filings and court hearings are public. The public should be able to observe how the Church of Scientology seeks to wrap itself in First Amendment protections to avoid scrutiny and strip those protections from members of the church who were seeking to reform it.

    http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1213244.ece

    ReplyDelete

  12. French court upholds Scientology fraud conviction

    By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD, Associated Press

    February 2, 2012

    PARIS, France (AP) --

    A French appeals court on Thursday upheld the Church of Scientology's 2009 fraud conviction on charges it pressured members into paying large sums for questionable remedies.

    The case began with a legal complaint by a young woman who said she took out loans and spent the equivalent of euro21,000 ($28,000) on books, courses and "purification packages" after being recruited in 1998. When she sought reimbursement and to leave the group, its leadership refused to allow either. She was among three eventual plaintiffs.

    "It's a severe defeat for the Church of Scientology, which is hit at the very heart of its organization in France," Olivier Morice, a lawyer for the National Union of Associations Defending Family and Individual Victims of Sects, told reporters after the decision.

    Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for the church in Los Angeles, denounced Thursday's decision, calling it a "miscarriage of justice."

    She said the group would appeal the decision to the Court of Cassation and plans to bring a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. Another complaint is pending with a U.N. special rapporteur.

    About 50 Scientologists — holding signs saying "No to a heresy trial" and "No to justice under pressure" — protested outside the Paris court hours after the decision.

    During the appeals process, the prosecution had asked for the church to be fined at least euro1 million ($1.3 million) and its bookstore euro500,000. But the appeals court on Thursday instead ordered the same fines as the trial court, euro400,000 ($530,000) for the church and euro200,000 for its bookstore.

    Five members of the church who were convicted in the first trial were ordered to pay fines ranging from euro10,000 to euro30,000. Four of them were also given suspended sentences between 18 months and two years.

    In the original trial, prosecutors had tried to get the group disbanded in France, but the court declined even to take the lesser step of shutting down its operations, saying that French Scientologists would have continued their activities anyway.

    Pouw said Thursday that the church was continuing its missions without any restrictions.

    "The environment in the court was so prejudicial that defense attorneys walked out of the proceedings in protest, refusing as a matter of conscience to participate in proceedings that had degenerated into a charade," she said by phone.

    While Scientology is recognized as a religion in the U.S., Sweden and Spain, it is not considered one under French law.

    Founded in 1954 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the church teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims 10 million members around the world, including celebrity devotees Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

    Belgium and Germany have been criticized by the U.S. State Department for labeling Scientology as a cult or sect and enacting laws to restrict its operations. France also considers Scientology a sect.
    __

    Associated Press producer Masha Macpherson contributed to this report.

    San Francisco Chronicle

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/02/international/i002850S83.DTL

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  13. Scientology tiff hits Bexar court

    By John MacCormack, San Antonio Express February 4, 2012

    [...] With a trial set for next week on the church's suit against Debbie Cook and her husband, Wayne Baumgarten, Judge Janet Littlejohn declined to lift a temporary restraining order after being assured it will not cripple their defense.

    “There is no reason you cannot accumulate evidence and talk to witnesses for trial next week,” she told Cook's lawyer, Ray Jeffrey.

    “Other than that, they are restrained by the order,” she added.

    Jeffrey had argued unsuccessfully that the church cannot muzzle Cook and Baumgarten, without proving specific damages, regardless of any agreements they signed.

    “Prior restraint of speech is presumptively unconstitutional,” he argued.

    “She didn't defame anyone. She sent out a message that was laudatory to Scientology and urged Scientologists to remain true to their faith,” he added.

    Littlejohn left that for the trial judge to resolve. She left the prohibition against talking to the media intact, and both defendants left the courtroom without commenting.

    The legal fight here is part of a larger, ongoing church struggle that has included the departure of various high church officials and the emergence of self-styled reformers.

    [...]

    In the courtroom Friday was Mark Rathbun, another former high church official, who now lives in Ingleside on the Bay, and maintains a blog highly critical of church leaders.

    “This is huge. These draconian silence agreements are really protecting the most heinous actions going on the upper levels of the church,” he said.

    “This is a test case as to whether these agreements are legally binding and enforceable,” added Rathbun.

    All told, Cook spent 29 years in the church, rising to become the leader of its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Fla.

    But when Cook and Baumgarten left in 2007, each accepted a $50,000 payment and also signed a strict and comprehensive nondisclosure agreement.

    “Mrs. Cook is one of the most recognizable faces of Scientology to followers in the United States and overseas,” Jeffrey said at the Friday hearing.

    “She managed more than 1,000 employees and a budget of over $100 million a year,” he added.

    In response to e-mailed questions, church spokeswoman Karin Pouw said the dispute is no more than “a breach-of-contract case.”

    “Debbie Cook wants to divert attention away from her lack of compliance with the terms she voluntarily agreed to in signing the contract,” she added.

    Pouw said Cook has been expelled from the church and never held an important post.

    “She has not attended church in years and has become a squirrel. A squirrel is someone who alters Scientology Scripture; a heretic,” she added.

    And when Cook sent an e-mail to other Scientologists questioning church practices and calling for a return to the true path, it triggered a quick response.

    On Jan. 27, the church sued the couple in Bexar County, where they live, accusing them of violating the confidentiality agreements by sending out a “disparaging e-mail.”

    Since then, the suit notes, the e-mail has been widely copied and also reported in the national and international media, including the Tampa Bay Times, NPR News and “Good Morning America.”

    The suit claims damages of at least $300,000 and asks that the couple be ordered to comply with their nondisclosure agreements.

    In arguing for keeping the restraining order, George Spencer Jr., representing the church, said the issue was a simple contractual violation.

    “People can, by contract, agree to injunctions that would otherwise violate their constitutional rights,” he argued.

    “The defendants each expressly promised to refrain from doing certain things. When Mrs. Baumgarten sent her e-mail out on New Years Eve, she violated that agreement.”

    read the full article at:

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Scientology-dispute-hits-Bexar-courts-2996788.php

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  14. Church lawyer tells judge only Scientology law applies

    By Joe Childs & Thomas C. Tobin, Tampa Bay Times Staff Writers February 4, 2012

    CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology, defending itself against a $35,000 refund claim, told a Pinellas judge Friday that the courts cannot meddle in its religious affairs.

    Citing the First Amendment as it has in numerous court cases, the church told Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge John A. Schaefer that two former parishioners from Seattle must submit to an internal Scientology arbitration procedure to get any money back.

    Bert Schippers and Lynne Hoverson, longtime Scientologists who left the church in 2009, sued two of the church's Clearwater entities in November after they requested their money back and didn't receive it.

    As is common in Scientology, Schippers left the money "on account" with the church to pay later for spiritual counseling. But he never used it.

    The church argues the couple first must submit to "binding religious arbitration" as laid out in a standard church contract Schippers signed before giving the money. The contract calls for a panel of three Scientologists in good standing to decide what would be fair.

    Schippers' lawyer, Brian Leung of Tampa, told Schaefer the arbitration process is inherently unfair because Schippers and Hoverson are estranged from the church and considered "suppressive." Scientologists in good standing consider them heretics. The three-member internal panel would be unlikely to give them a fair hearing, Leung said.

    The contract Schippers signed — the same one signed by all Scientologists before taking services — is extreme and unenforceable, Leung said.

    Church lawyer F. Wallace Pope Jr. of Clearwater said none of that matters. Numerous courts have held that the First Amendment shields religions from judicial intrusion. To rule on the merits of the contract, Schaefer would have to entangle himself in religious issues, Pope said.

    He argued: "Only Scientology law applies."

    Pope also said the law does not require charitable organizations to return donations.

    "A gift once made cannot be revoked by the donor," he said, citing Florida case law.

    Even so, Scientology has a process for returning donations, Pope said.

    He argued that Schippers would have his money back by now if he had completed that process, which requires parishioners to get signatures on a "routing form" from several church officials.

    Schippers started the process more than a year ago but sent the church an incomplete routing form in January 2011.

    "The whole goal of this form is to get you back into services at the church," Schippers said. "Therefore, it's incompleteable."

    He and Hoverson were among several former church members featured in a recent Tampa Bay Times series "The Money Machine," which detailed Scientology's aggressive and intimidating money-raising practices.

    Schaefer said he will rule on the issue later this month.

    In contrast to the church's stance Friday in Pinellas, it is asking a Texas court to get involved in an internal matter there. It wants the court to force a former church executive to abide by a confidentiality agreement she signed with the church in 2007.

    The church last week sued Debbie Cook, the highest ranking church official in Clearwater for 17 years, saying she violated the agreement on New Year's Eve when she questioned church management in an email to fellow Scientologists.

    A key hearing in that case is scheduled for Thursday in San Antonio, Texas.

    Joe Childs can be reached at childs@tampabay.com. Thomas C. Tobin can be reached at ttobin@tampabay.com.


    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/lawyer-tells-judge-only-scientology-law-applies/1213941

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  15. Senior scientologist charged with perverting justice

    ABC Online - Australia February 08, 2012

    One of the Church of Scientology's senior international figures, Jan Eastgate, has been charged for a second time in Sydney.

    Last year, Ms Eastgate was charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to allegations that she coached an 11-year-old girl to lie to police and community services about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her Scientologist stepfather.

    The allegations were raised publicly for the first time on Lateline in 2010.

    On Monday, she was charged with another offence relating to perverting the course of justice.

    Eastgate is the international president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an organisation founded by the Church of Scientology. She was awarded the Church's Freedom Medal for promoting human rights in 1988.

    Eastgate is due to appear at a committal hearing at Sydney's Downing Centre on May 15.

    She has yet to enter a plea.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-08/senior-scientologist-charged-with-perverting-justice/3817092

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  16. Ex-Clearwater Scientology leader claims kidnapping, torture before she left church

    By Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin, Tampa Bay Times Staff Writers February 09, 2012

    SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Debbie Cook, the Church of Scientology's top authority figure in Clearwater for 17 years, said in court papers Thursday that the church kidnapped and tortured her before she signed a nondisclosure agreement with Scientology in 2007.

    The papers, filed late Wednesday in a district court in San Antonio, argue that the nondisclosure agreement is not enforceable because Cook signed it under duress.

    The church did not immediately respond to the filing, but it has said in court papers that Cook's public statements pose "substantial risk of imminent harm and irreparable injury" to the church.

    Scientology has been in many legal fights in its 57-year history, but its face-off with Cook has the potential to be among the most dramatic and divisive. As captain of Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Cook was widely respected and admired by church members worldwide.

    Many people who have defected from the church in recent years descended on San Antonio on Thursday to attend a hearing in the church's lawsuit against Cook and her husband. The defectors have also contributed to a legal defense fund.

    Cook, 50, and her husband, Wayne Baumgarten, resigned from the church's religious order, the Sea Org, in October 2007 in Clearwater. Each signed a 10-page agreement provided by the church. They waived their First Amendment rights to free speech and said they would never, "in perpetuity," disclose any information about the church, its staff or former staff.

    In exchange for signing, Cook and her husband each received $50,000.

    But in an email on New Year's Eve sent to Scientologists, Cook said the church had deviated from the policies of founder L. Ron Hubbard. Calling herself a Scientologist in good standing, she urged fellow church members to stand up to Scientology's aggressive fundraising efforts and other practices that don't conform with Hubbard's writing.

    Cook sent her letter six weeks after the Tampa Bay Times published "The Money Machine," a four-part series describing how Scientology pressures and intimidates parishioners to make donations and purchase church services.

    The church sued Cook and Baumgarten in January, saying the email breached the confidentiality agreement. The church asked the court to enjoin Cook from talking and to impose a $300,000 judgment.

    That case is being heard in San Antonio, where Cook and Baumgarten moved after leaving the Sea Org.

    continued in next comment...

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/ex-clearwater-scientology-leader-claims-kidnapping-torture-before-she-left/1214690

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  17. continued from previous comment:

    In the court papers made public Thursday, Cook and Baumgarten said the church held them against their will until they signed the agreements. They were kept under constant surveillance by church security and feared physical and mental abuse, they say.

    "Such physical and mental abuse was commonly used by the Church of Scientology to secure obedience from church insiders," according to the court papers.

    Cook said she was subjected to beatings, torture, mental and emotional abuse and was denied medical care. The papers don't say where this occurred.

    Cook's health declined to the point where her "free agency was effectively destroyed," the papers say.

    Cook and Baumgarten believed that if they left the church but did not sign the agreements, they would never be permitted to communicate with family members who remain in the church. Baumgarten's mother was in a church-funded nursing home.

    "Simply stated, Ms. Cook and her husband would have signed anything they were required to in order to be free from their captivity and danger, and they were rendered powerless to resist signing the agreement," Cook's attorney, Ray Jeffrey of Bulverde, asserted in the court filing.

    The pleadings indicate that beyond duress, there are several other reasons the nondisclosure agreement should be declared unenforceable. Cook and Baumgarten say the agreement is extreme and unreasonable in that it violates their freedom to practice their religion as Scientologists.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/ex-clearwater-scientology-leader-claims-kidnapping-torture-before-she-left/1214690

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  18. Ex-Clearwater Scientology officer Debbie Cook testifies she was put in The Hole, abused for weeks

    By Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin, Tampa Bay Times Staff Writers February 10, 2012

    SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Scientology executive Debbie Cook was on the phone with church leader David Miscavige when she heard someone pounding at her office door at a church compound in California.

    Not wanting to hang up on her angry boss, who was complaining about her performance, she didn't answer the knocks. The pounding stopped, but someone was prying open her office window. Two male church employees crawled in.

    "Are they there?" Miscavige asked.

    Yes, Cook answered.

    "Goodbye," the church leader said.

    The men took Cook away to a place called the "The Hole," two doublewide trailers on the church's 500-acre California compound where, other high-ranking church defectors have told the Tampa Bay Times, Miscavige sent underperforming executives. The windows were covered with bars, and security guards controlled the only exit, Cook said.

    Cook said she was held there seven weeks with more than 100 other Scientology executives. They spent their nights in sleeping bags on ant-infested floors, ate a soupy "slop" of reheated leftovers and screamed at each other in confessionals that often turned violent. For two weeks, she said, Miscavige had the electricity turned off as daytime temperatures in the desert east of Los Angeles topped 100 degrees.

    Cook testified Thursday that the experience in the summer of 2007 gave her nightmares and was part of the reason she was so eager to leave the Scientology staff later that year and sign a severance agreement never to speak ill of the church.

    "I would have signed that I stabbed babies over and over again and loved it. I would have done anything basically at that point," she said during several hours of sworn testimony in San Antonio district court.

    The church is suing Cook and her husband for violating the terms of the agreement when she sent a New Year's Eve email urging fellow Scientologists to help reform the church's fundraising tactics and other practices.

    Thursday night, church spokeswoman Karin Pouw said Cook's testimony is false. Cook voluntarily entered into the agreement, Pouw said, and "now clearly is bitter and is falsely vilifying the religion she was once a part of."

    The church and Cook agreed to certain obligations, Pouw said. "Miss Cook and her husband have breached that agreement. The defendants and their lawyer are trying to divert the court with false claims and wild tales."

    Church lawyer George H. Spencer Jr. said Cook's testimony was irrelevant and argued that regardless whether her statements were true, she ratified the contract by accepting $50,000.

    "This is a straightforward contract case," he argued before District Judge Martha Tanner. Testimony continues today.

    Cook's attorney, Ray Jeffrey, argued the duress she suffered in the years and months before signing the agreement rendered the document unenforceable.

    Cook's testimony took listeners through an extraordinary tale: from the church's "Hole" in the California desert, to the Clearwater campus that is home to Scientology's spiritual mecca, to her escape in 2007 that ended when a church team tracked her to a South Carolina restaurant and boxed in her car in the parking lot.

    Once the respected head of the Clearwater operation and known to Scientologists worldwide, Cook said she was "basically imprisoned" in Clearwater during her final months with the church.

    continued in next comment...

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/ex-clearwater-scientology-officer-says-church-leader-miscavige-ordered/1214690

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    She said she was confined to the church's Hacienda Gardens residential compound on Saturn Avenue, prevented from leaving by guards, gates, high fences, motion detectors and security cameras. At work in Scientology's downtown buildings, she said, she was followed during her daily routine by a church official assigned to make sure she didn't escape; she was even followed into the restroom.

    Through the years, Cook said, she witnessed physical attacks and mental abuse on church executives by Miscavige or by those acting on the leader's orders.

    She described a 12-hour ordeal at the California base where she was made to stand in a trash can while fellow executives poured water over her, screamed at her and said she was a lesbian.

    She said she saw Miscavige attack church executive Marc Yager, punching him in the face and wrestling him to the ground. She also recounted how church executive Mark Ginge Nelson was punished for objecting to violence he saw in "The Hole."

    Cook said she saw Nelson taken to another room, where he was beaten by a Miscavige assistant and two other men for two hours. She said Nelson also was made to lick a bathroom floor for at least 30 minutes.

    Cook said Miscavige once ordered his secretary to slap her, and she fell over into some chairs. She said he also ordered his communication officer to break her finger. The officer bent it back, she said, but did not break it.

    Another time, she said, Miscavige marched around a large conference table looking as if he wanted to choke her but ended up grabbing her shoulders and yelling at her.

    In May 2007, Cook got a reprieve from "The Hole" when she was summoned back to Clearwater to help Miscavige prepare for a major church event that would attract 2,000 Scientologists to Ruth Eckerd Hall. She worked there several more weeks, rejoining her husband, church staffer Wayne Baumgarten, but not telling him what happened in "The Hole." She said it would have been "very treasonous" to say anything.

    Later that summer, Cook said she and her husband said they had had enough. One morning, a church staffer drove them to the church dining hall in downtown Clearwater and went inside to get them some breakfast. Cook jumped into the driver's seat, drove to a rental car company and left the church vehicle in the lot.

    In a rental car, the couple drove to see Cook's father in North Carolina but were intercepted and persuaded to return to Clearwater to properly separate from the church staff. If they didn't go along, she said, a church official said her husband's Scientology relatives would sever all contact with him.

    Cook said they were told the process would take a couple of days. But after three grueling weeks, Cook told her guards that she had called her mother and told her to call Clearwater police if she wasn't released in three days. She also conveyed in a letter that "if that didn't work I would take whatever steps necessary, like slitting my wrists."

    The church's legal team sought to counter Cook's duress argument by showing a video of Cook initialing the contract, agreeing with a church attorney that the church had helped her and accepting a $50,000 check that was later deposited in her account. She agreed she was under no pressure to sign. She also acknowledged she had criticized church leadership and disclosed information she knew about the church and its staff.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/ex-clearwater-scientology-officer-says-church-leader-miscavige-ordered/1214690

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  20. Scientology hearing ends abruptly

    by John MacCormac, San Antonio Express February 10, 2012

    A legal battle between the Church of Scientology and a former top church official that has included accounts of abuse and harsh treatment ended abruptly Friday. “We have elected to withdraw our request for an injunction at this time,” Scientology lawyer George Spencer Jr. told Judge Martha Tanner. “Going forward in the case this way will prevent the defendant from using the court as a pulpit for false statements.”

    And while Spencer expressed confidence that his client would prevail by filing for a summary judgment before trial, it was also clear that the church's legal strategy of suing Cook had backfired badly. Her sworn testimony Thursday included lurid accounts of beatings, confinement and forced confessions under the alleged direction of longtime church leader David Miscavige. It was clear from Spencer's remarks to the judge that the church wanted to avoid more bad publicity.

    Cook, 50, spent 29 years with the church, rising to become its top official in Clearwater, Fla., the church's spiritual headquarters, before leaving under adverse circumstances in 2007. According to a church spokeperson, she was treated with dignity and respect, until she was expelled in 2007, and has since become a heretic spreading lies and false stories. Her account from the stand Thursday was somewhat different.

    Her testimony also included accounts of being confined against her will by church officials on at least three occasions, including a horrific seven-week stint in “The Hole,” where church leaders were sent after falling out of favor. After a later confinement, she testified that she was finally allowed to leave after threatening to commit suicide or bring in the police. Church officials had her and her husband, Wayne Baumgarten, sign extensive non-disclosure agreements. Each was also given $50,000, which the church argued made the agreements binding.

    Her lawyer, Ray Jeffrey, argued Thursday that the contracts were non-binding because they were imposed under “extreme duress.” Soon after, the pair moved to San Antonio, and for the next five years, they kept a low profile. That ended in late December when they sent out a lengthy email to several thousand Scientologists that was mildly critical of church leadership. Claiming she had broken the contract and disparaged the church, the church responded by suing her in Bexar County, seeking at least $300,000 and enforcement of the non-disclosure contract. The church also obtained a temporary restraining order, prohibiting them from talking about the suit or about Scientology, and that was the matter being heard this week by Tanner.

    continued in next comment...

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Scientology-trial-ends-abruptly-3241791.php

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  21. continued from previous comment:


    When the hearing ended Friday, Spencer declined to comment. Jeffrey, however, who had been expected to put witnesses hostile to the church on the stand, declared the outcome “a victory.”
    “I'm exhausted but I feel good about it. We've won,” he said, declining further comment.

    Yvonne Schick, 63, of Austin, a former church member watching the proceedings, said she was not surprised by the church's decision to end the proceeding. “They miscalculated by letting things get to the point where Debbie Cook got on the stand and testified, although I don't know that it could have gotten any worse than it was yesterday,” she said. “Because of how well-known and respected she was by people inside the church, this will be bad for morale and cause more people to exit,” she said.

    Steve Hall, another former church member, who was also involved with the elite Sea Org group, agreed that the church had blundered by bringing suit against Cook and Baumgarten. “I was a friend of Debbie Cook and still am. And I worked for David Miscavige for a long time,” said Hall, who maintains a website highly critical of the church. Hall said he left the church in 2004 because he was disturbed by the rising levels of abuse and violence.

    “I saw David Miscavige physically attack people on four occasions, and others where he ordered people beaten,” he said. And he said, the church leader probably reacted badly at how the hearing had gone Thursday. “Knowing David Miscavige, there was a spectacular meltdown yesterday. I bet he went berserk,” he said.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Scientology-trial-ends-abruptly-3241791.php

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  22. Australia's child labour camp

    Bryan Seymour, Today Tonight February 14, 2012

    In the middle of suburban Australia is a secret compound that's labelled 'degrading' and 'inhumane', with allegations of keeping children prisoner.

    Right in the middle of a quiet suburb is a place where children are separated from their parents, and forced to work full time for no pay, and live in squalid conditions.

    Those who've survived this place say they were brainwashed into believing they could not leave, and that they deserved the shocking treatment dished out.

    A young man who escaped the place with the help of his father, Shane Kelsey says “I lived in that garage for about a year and a half, maybe two years.”

    Shane is now 21-years-old. Until just over a year ago he had never used the internet, watched television or followed the media.

    “You're not allowed to read any books other than scientology books, you can't read newspapers, no radio, no movies, nothing,” Shane said.

    Shane says he was held captive and groomed to see all of us on the outside as pathetic, useless and stupid.

    “So I lived in a garage until that got flooded by a storm, and my mum got really pissed off and said 'what the hell' and so I got moved into a closet. It is a closet under the stairs - maybe two metres long and a metre wide,” Shane said.

    The true Australian headquarters of the Church of Scientology are located in the Sydney suburb of Dundas. The RPF base - which stands for Rehabilitation Project Force - is where Scientologists are sent for punishment and training, for crimes that most of us would regard as trivial.

    More than 50 requests for interviews on camera with representatives from the Church of Scientology have been flatly refused.

    The bottom line is they don't want people to know what's going on inside the centre, and those who've lived in there, like Shane, say it's like a gulag, or a prison. Yet it's in the middle of a suburb, which could be any suburb in Australia.

    People would he horrified to know what has been going on in there for so many years, and continues to this day.

    Shane Kelsey's mother and father were dedicated Scientologists in Sydney, so they put their son Shane into its highest core at the age of six - little Shane moved into a tiny room with eleven other children.

    By the age of seven Shane says “we'd go down the streets and there'd be eight of us, ten of us, young as, and we'd go down and pledge people up to ‘drug free lives’.

    “I signed my contract when I was eight-years-old. It was a billion-year contract, which means you're volunteering or servicing the Church for the next billion years,” Shane said.

    “We used to do marching, close order drilling, things like that. Just because it was a form of discipline,” he said.

    Shane saw his parents once a week. His mother and father would soon separate, and his dad Adrian moved overseas, and then left Scientology.

    Meanwhile, the work schedule for children was fulltime, hard and without reward.

    Working 35 hours a week when he was eight-years-old, by the time he was fourteen, the work changed to kitchen duty.

    A military muster every morning required marching and saluting to the cause of saving mankind from the intergalactic ravages, described by the Church’s science fiction founder L Ron Hubbard.

    The kids wore all black uniforms, and were always required to run, never walk.

    So-called home schooling was provided in fits and starts, taking a back seat to hard labour and brainwashing.

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    “As soon as you turn fifteen, anyone, you're straight out of school. It doesn't matter what grade you're in, what level of maths, what level of anything, you're straight out," Shane said.

    The mess hall served food priced at 30 cents per meal, mostly beans and rice. The adults ate first.

    “They would all come in and eat whatever they wanted, and then we went after them to take what's there - sometimes there wouldn't be much, so you'd get little bits of food, and it wasn't really sufficient,” Shane said.

    Those who dared question the brutality of this place were dealt with swiftly and severely.

    “They used to live under our squash courts - it's a mud, dirt floor,” Shane recalled.

    “We put people in there and they live in there, when they're on the RPF they'd sleep down there, and they'd study down there.”

    Why would you put people in a dank, mouldy, sinking foundation underneath a squash court?

    According to Shane it’s “because you're a bad person, you have to be segregated from everyone.”

    By the age of fifteen Shane was living a nightmare even he now struggles to believe.

    “As soon as I turned fifteen I was working seven days a week, fourteen hour days.”

    That's 100 hours a week spent in a commercial kitchen. Shane and other children slaved away - cooking meals all day, every day, studying and snatching what little sleep they could.

    “We'd get anywhere between $4 pay to $35 a week,” Shane said.

    Among those who needed to be fed was billionaire James Packer. For several years beginning in 2002, Packer came to the Church of Scientology in the early mornings to receive auditing and instruction.

    There is no suggestion Packer had any idea who was preparing his meals, or their work conditions.

    Packer left scientology around 2008. It would be more than two years until Shane made his break for freedom.

    In late 2010, Adrian Kelsey decided to rescue his son.

    He invited us to document his attempt, and informed police of his plans to go to the compound and demand his son's release. He had protest signs ready if they refused to let him come out. When Shane came out to meet his father it was the first time they’d seen each other in four years.

    Shane and Adrian were followed by Scientology ‘enforcers’, so Shane reluctantly returned to the compound to avoid trouble. One week later he was sent to work near the compound's boundary, and made a break for it.

    “Scientology have no right to mess with family,” said Adrian Kelsey.

    It took Shane fourteen months to shake off Scientology, discover the truth, learn about the real world and tell his story.

    “One thing that would be good is if they actually just stood up and said ‘sorry, it wasn't right, we're going to change it’, but that is just not going to happen,” Adrian said.

    Peta Obrien, who lived at the RPF base between 1997 and 2000 confirms Shane's account of the appalling conditions.

    “You do two hours of work, then you go and study for two and a half hours in the RPF. It was five hours, and then you go to work again - hard labour, picking with a rock pick, chipping away at rocks till they erode,” O’Brien said.

    Now a successful architectural designer, O’Brien believes Scientology has nothing of value to offer the community.

    “Close it down, doors shut and all the staff members going back to their families, and living their lives,” O’Brien said.

    “I was there for ten years all up in the Church of Scientology as a staff member, and how could I inflict that on my children? Which I'll forever feel like I have to make up,” she said.

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    Perth-based lawyer Grainne O'Donovan has devoted her time and expertise to helping survivors of the cult seeking justice.

    “There's not a law in New South Wales that makes it illegal to work a child for those hours. That's extraordinary, but that's the case,” O’Donovan said.

    O’Donovan has also campaigned with the internet-based activist group Anonymous that has raised awareness about Scientology.

    “This is degrading and inhumane treatment,’ O'Donovan said.

    “At some level they (Scientologists) have become convinced, I suppose, that it's appropriate, and that the group is more important than the individual,” she said.

    RPF bases like the Sydney compound exist in other countries. Those who've escaped from them tell similar stories – of having fingers broken on the orders of the leader of Scientology, screamed at, and slapped for twenty hours straight, whilst having cold water poured over their head, and much more.

    Independent Federal Senator Nick Xenophon has championed a campaign to shed light on the darkness at the heart of this group.

    “Shane's story is one of shocking abuse, child abuse, it's one of a child being enslaved,” Senator Xenophon said.

    “The authorities need to investigate this urgently. This is something that requires police investigation,” he said.

    “What makes this worse is that this organisation is being subsidised by Australian taxpayers because it doesn't pay any tax.”

    Meanwhile Shane has his father back, yet his mother Lesley remains inside Scientology.

    “I hope she hears word of this and sums up the courage to actually find it and watch it,” Shane said.

    “She will have to escape. They won't let her go. Leaving's not an option, so she will have to escape,” Shane said.

    The Church of Scientology refused to be interviewed for this story. In a written response scientology denied any mistreatment of its members.

    The response also declared that anyone on the program is there because they want to be there, and that they are completely free to withdraw at any time during induction or later.

    “When Shane left the church in late 2010, he simply got his bag and walked out the door,” said the statement.

    The celebrities used to advertise Scientology likely have little idea that people like Shane Kelsey even exist, but now they do.

    Adrian and Shane hope they do something about it for the sake of other families.

    Senator Xenophon says he's taking this story to Bill Shorten, the Federal Minister for Workplace Relations.

    If you have any information we should know about Scientology, let us know.

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/latest/article/-/12905379/australia-s-child-labour-camp/

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  25. Church of Scientology demands right to underpay workers

    by Joe Hildebrand, The Daily Telegraph February 23, 2012

    SCIENTOLOGISTS have asked the Federal Government for an exemption to the Fair Work Act so they do not have to pay workers the minimum wage.

    In a submission to the Fair Work review, public affairs director Reverend Mary Anderson said the Church of Scientology, which believes Earth was founded 75 million years ago by an alien tyrant called Xenu, should be exempt from workplace law because it was a legitimate religion.

    "There is nothing wrong with the concept 'a fair day's pay for a fair day's work' but it is misdirected when applied to religious volunteers whose focus is not on pay but on service to a spiritual cause," Ms Anderson wrote.

    "Historically, members of religious orders have taken a vow of poverty.

    "At the present time, there are church volunteers who are not vowed to poverty but who do volunteer their time and effort to church work, without focus on financial reward."

    Ms Anderson said making non-profit organisations pay award wages was "a violation of human rights".

    The submission disappeared from public view after it was exposed on the website Workplace Express but Ms Anderson said she did not remove it.

    ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said the submission read more like exploitation than religion. "The Scientologists' submission reads like they have been putting their heads together with Australia's employer groups, who would like nothing more than to remove workers' basic rights and conditions in their lust for profits," he said.

    "The Fair Work Act review process should not be treated as an opportunity to air extremist and farcical viewpoints devoid of facts.

    "This attitude that an employer should have complete free rein to pay and treat their staff however they want has no place in the modern Australia."

    When contacted by The Daily Telegraph, Ms Anderson said the submission was her personal one, even though it was sent on a Church of Scientology letterhead and signed "Reverend Mary Anderson, Director of Public Affairs, Church of Scientology".

    Another Scientology spokeswoman said the church had made an official submission but it was confidential.

    "Nevertheless, what Mary says lines up to a small degree with the Church's past public statements," the spokeswoman said.

    "The Church's submission to the Fair Work Act Review is confidential to avoid any unnecessary interference from critics seeking to pre-empt the Review's findings."

    The Church of Scientology was investigated by the Fair Work Ombudsman last year for claims some adherents worked up to 72 hours without a break and for as little as $10 a week. However, it was deemed that some of these workers were volunteers.

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/church-of-scientology-demands-right-to-underpay/story-fn7ki14e-1226278848377

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  26. Charges dropped for Scientologist - police felt they were being used in church case

    by Janet Fife-Yeomans, The Daily Telegraph Australia April 25, 2012

    POLICE who laid criminal charges against one of the world's leading members of the Church of Scientology believed they were being used as part of a campaign by senator Nick Xenophon.

    As prosecutors yesterday dropped the two charges of perverting the course of justice against Jan Eastgate, internal police documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws have revealed officers' concerns.

    The charges alleged that in 1985, Ms Eastgate intimidated an 11-year-old girl and her mother into not reporting sex abuse allegations within the church. The girl's stepfather pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault in 2001.

    When the victim went to Balmain Police Station in May 2010 to make a complaint against Ms Eastgate, she was accompanied by Mr Xenophon, the independent Senator from South Australia, and the media. Mr Xenophon had been pushing for an inquiry into Scientology beforehand.

    When the woman returned four days later to Balmain Police Station to make her statement, she was accompanied by Mr Xenophon's then-political adviser Rohan Wenn.

    The police recorded that ABC's Lateline, which had interviewed the woman, was screening the following week .

    "(Senator) Xenophon is pushing for a senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology," said the police in their internal report. "Following this interview (with the woman), investigating police are of the view that this matter ... will be used as a political tool to push towards a Senate inquiry being held."

    An Office of the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions spokeswoman said yesterday the charges were dropped "because there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction".

    Ms Eastgate, who left Sydney in 1993 and is now international president of the Scientology-linked Citizens Commission on Human Rights, based in Los Angeles, said she had always maintained her innocence. Mr Xenophon denied he had been using the police or the woman because parliament had already refused his call for an inquiry into Scientology.

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/charges-dropped-for-scientologist-police-felt-they-were-being-used-in-church-case/story-e6freuzi-1226337017187

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  27. Former Clearwater Scientology leader Debbie Cook settles lawsuit with church

    By Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin, Tampa Bay Times Staff Writers April 24, 2012

    Only weeks ago, after delivering hours of damaging testimony about the Church of Scientology, former church official Debbie Cook sounded as if she was just getting started.

    She said she had much more to tell. She hoped out loud that raising the curtain on church abuses might spark "a reformation from within."

    This week, her voice went silent.

    Cook and Scientology settled a church lawsuit that backfired when she took the stand Feb. 9 in San Antonio, Texas.

    Cook gave a riveting account of how she and other religious workers were physically and mentally abused at Scientology's desert compound near Los Angeles. She said she was detained and otherwise controlled when she and her husband, also a former church staffer, tried to leave the church's Clearwater campus in 2007.

    The next hearing in the lawsuit was scheduled for May 7. Now Cook, the church and their respective attorneys have laid down their arms. The agreement dated Monday allows both sides to essentially call it even and go their separate ways. Neither pays the other side money, and Cook and her husband are legally prohibited from ever again speaking ill of the church.

    The church walks away having suffered through a day of brutal testimony that remains in the public record. Cook and her husband are back where they started before Cook sent out a New Year's Eve email to thousands of Scientologists that criticized the church's money raising tactics, questioned church management and called on parishioners to push for reforms. The church filed its lawsuit Jan. 27, alleging she violated a confidentiality agreement she signed when she left the church staff in 2007.

    Reached by email Tuesday night, Cook declined to comment on the settlement. Church spokeswoman Karin Pouw declined to comment as well, saying the document speaks for itself.

    Under a judge's order it requires Cook and her husband, Wayne Baumgarten, to refrain from disclosing anything they know about the church to anyone, be it in conversation, an Internet posting or any other communication. Nor can they have any contact with anyone who has disparaged or intends to disparage the church.

    Cook's personal website was shut down by Tuesday afternoon. Her Facebook page was dark as well.

    Some in Cook's camp say the four months she spent as a vocal church critic — highlighted by the three hours of sworn testimony she gave Feb. 9 — accomplished her aims.

    "Coming from her, the altitude she had with parishioners and the fact that she was able to make her statements in court under oath, it had a lot more power than someone's public statement,'' said Yvonne Schick, a 23-year Scientologist who left the church last year with her husband, Ken, frustrated with the actions of church leader David Miscavige.

    Cook "exposed the truth about what's going on — how (Miscavige) is abusing people physically, mentally and spiritually,'' Schick said.

    Marty Rathbun, a former church official who leads a movement of "independent" Scientologists critical of church management, declined to comment but offered an analysis of the settlement on his web site.

    He said the church had nothing to gain but a six-figure judgment it had little chance to collect, and Cook had effectively spread her message about church abuses. He said her testimony "was for the most part all that the world at large would be interested in hearing from her … and that toothpaste can't be put back into the tube."

    As recently as early March, Cook appeared ready for a long legal battle. In a message on her website, she thanked supporters and referred to herself as "the girl who kicked the hornet's nest." She said problems with church management "can't be allowed to just go on," and closed with this passage:

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    "Deep down you always believe that truth and good wins in the end, but when you look around in life that often doesn't really seem to be the case. Those who can afford top legal defense certainly have a way of getting away with murder. So we definitely have our work cut out for us ... We have a ways to go to win. But it can be done!"

    Well-known and respected by Scientologists worldwide, Cook served 17 years as the top ecclesiastical figure at the church's spiritual center in Clearwater, known as "Flag."

    In early 2005, Miscavige called her to work at Scientology's compound 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles, home to Scientology's international management team.

    Cook testified she soon learned that dozens of managers were being held under guard, day and night, in a building derisively nicknamed "The Hole.'' They had underperformed in Miscavige's view and were collectively confronting and confessing their failures, Cook said.

    Later, she said two male staffers came to her office and escorted her to The Hole, where stayed for seven weeks, sleeping on the floor with the rest of the management team and eating "slop.'' They were marched in small groups by church security guards to nearby showers and then marched back.

    She said the managers demanded she publicly confess her transgressions, once forcing her to stand in a trash can for hours while they poured water over head.

    During her months at the compound, where hundreds of church staffers live and work, she said she saw church workers physically attack one another several times. Miscavige punched one of his top deputies and wrestled him to the ground to punish the man, she said. Miscavige also grew displeased with her work, she testified. At his direction, one of his assistants slapped Cook so hard she fell into chairs, she said.

    In May 2007, she was freed from The Hole, she testified, and transferred back to Clearwater but was constantly watched. After trying to leave, she and Baumgarten were "basically imprisoned'' there for three weeks, she testified.

    Church officials allowed the couple to go after they signed non-disclosure contracts. A church attorney handed them $50,000 each as compensation for not speaking out against the church. They stayed silent for four years, until Cook's Dec. 31 email blast rocked the Scientology community.

    The email was instrumental in a decision by Clearwater businesswoman Marsha Friedman to leave the church after 43 years. She said she forwarded it to three Scientologist friends, adding she shared Cook's concerns about the church.

    Friedman said Tuesday she admired Cook's courage, adding: "I felt it would take someone of her stature to create awareness among Scientologists to look at what she was saying.''

    Friedman and her husband, Steve, announced in March they had left the church. The three Scientologists to whom Friedman forwarded Cook's email later told Friedman they would have no more contact with her. In the language of Scientology, they "disconnected.''

    After the church lawsuit accused Cook and Baumgarten of violating their agreements, the couple said the agreements were invalid because they signed them under duress. Citing her fear of being reassigned to The Hole, Cook testified she was so eager to leave, "I would have signed that I stabbed babies over and over again and loved it.''

    Church attorneys had called Cook to the stand to testify about breaking her non-disclosure agreement. But a judge allowed Cook's attorney to question her as well, resulting in the damaging testimony.

    At the time, church spokeswoman Pouw called Cook's testimony a collection of "wild tales" by a bitter apostate.

    Cook said it represented only a small part of what she wanted to say, "the tip of the iceberg."

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/former-clearwater-scientology-leader-settles-lawsuit-with-church/1226702

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  29. Abuse fits into teachings of L. Ron Hubbard

    By Brian Chasnoff, San Antonio Express-News columnist April 28, 2012

    Last month, I thought the powerful Church of Scientology had finally placed its own head beneath a blade, and right here in Bexar County.

    That the church had done so would not surprise anyone familiar with the doctrine of its late, paranoid founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

    “The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK,” Hubbard wrote more than five decades ago.

    It was unsurprising, then, that the church had sued a high-ranking former member, Debbie Cook, accusing her of violating a nondisclosure agreement when she sent an email to thousands of Scientologists, questioning the church's practices.

    But Hubbard's doctrine of defense, beyond antagonistic, is also unwise. This was revealed in a Bexar County courtroom, where Cook at a pretrial hearing recalled on the stand a series of abuses she endured as a church executive.

    These included imprisonment for weeks at “The Hole,” a series of double-wide trailers at a desert base in California, where Cook testified she was beaten and made to sleep on the floor with ants and stand for hours in a trash can while being doused with cold water, among other forms of torture.

    Cook's lawyer, Ray Jeffrey, argued that she'd signed the nondisclosure agreement after church officials had tortured and kidnapped her, rendering the document not valid.

    What made the case so fascinating — and what inspired me to read Janet Reitman's recent exposé of the church, “Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion” — was that it could have forced the church to defend publicly the apparent cruelty it inflicts on its members.

    Jeffrey certainly seemed ready for Battlefield Bexar County.

    “Our response will be huge to this,” the Bulverde attorney said last month. “We're soliciting affidavits from (church defectors) all over the world.”

    With the church demanding a large sum from Cook, Jeffrey told me, “It's not about money. It's about shutting her up. And I just find that offensive.”

    He added, “A church is not allowed to commit crimes.”

    Although Jeffrey suspected the church had placed his own office under surveillance, he remained primed for battle.

    I was disappointed, then, to learn the case was dropped this week when Cook agreed never again to communicate about the church.

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    Before the settlement, she'd blamed the church's abuses on its leader, David Miscavige, who ascended to power after Hubbard's death.

    Cook claimed Miscavige is subverting Hubbard's teachings.

    “If you take it per the writings of the work within the church, it's good, it's kind, it's caring,” she told me. “And that's what's so upsetting. It's been turned into this wicked, vicious scenario.”

    I should have known better.

    In her book, Reitman stresses that Hubbard's philosophy of “ethics” has long been fundamental to Scientology.

    Anyone who misbehaves is considered “out-ethics” — “impediments, or even enemies, of the group, malfunctioning cogs in the Scientology machine,” she writes.

    Commanding his private navy in the late 1960s, Hubbard on the high seas punished such cogs in ways as abusive as those alleged by Cook decades later.

    Crew members were made to wear heavy chains and stay confined for weeks in a dark locker. Some even were cast into the sea, Reitman writes.

    Despite such revelations dropping like blades, the church has survived for decades like a hydra, selling itself anew while revering its founder's dogma.

    In Cook's case, the doctrine backfired, and her damning testimony has woven its way into the history of Scientology.

    But I suspect the church achieved its single-minded goal — her silence — by sticking to Hubbard's canon, which prizes survival above all else.

    A decade after urging “ATTACK,” the founder clarified his position on the church's enemies, who “may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist.

    “May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/news_columnists/article/Abuse-fits-into-teachings-of-L-Ron-Hubbard-3517061.php

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  31. Scientology cult ordered me to have an abortion

    By DAVID LOWE, Deputy Features Editor The Sun May 20, 2012

    A BRITISH mum who escaped Scientology after 20 years has revealed her hell in the clutches of the weird secretive cult that targets Hollywood celebs.

    In a startling expose of the sci-fi inspired church — which boasts Tom Cruise and John Travolta as leading members — brave Sam Domingo, 45, from Kent, says they:

    FORCED her to have an abortion when her husband got her pregnant because cult leaders didn’t approve

    PUNISHED her for disobedience by making her dig a huge hole in frozen earth with a pickaxe for two weeks

    SENT her to indoctrinate rich stars at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood

    TOOK her passport away so she couldn't flee and fly home

    MADE her scrub a tunnel full of rats and cockroaches for being “disloyal”.

    Mum-of-three Sam, who was once married to opera legend Placido Domingo’s son, said last night: “Some of the things I went through really pushed me to the edge of insanity.

    “Now I just want to see the Church of Scientology crumble. It is a cancer, rotten to the core. It was all a big con.”

    Sam was 21 and looking for the meaning of life when she first became a member.

    She said: “I fell in love with it because it had all the answers I was looking for. The goal was to make the world a better place.

    “I thought at last I’d found a higher purpose for my life.”

    After training at their UK headquarters — Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, West Sussex — she was shocked when she was told she was being sent to Hollywood to work at the cult’s top-secret celebrity centre.

    Located on Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, it was like stepping into a five-star hotel, complete with fine paintings, crystal chandeliers, a top-class restaurant and plush carpets.

    And she found herself rubbing shoulders with some of the hottest names in showbiz.

    Sam recalled: “I was a supervisor in the course room for the newest celebrity recruits.

    “Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley were already members, so I looked after people like the actress Juliette Lewis and the musician Isaac Hayes.

    “Juliette was utterly charming and Isaac was adorable.”

    Lewis starred in Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers. Hayes was the voice of the chef in South Park and had a No1 with the song Chocolate Salty Balls.

    After gruelling ten-hour days Sam would be bussed back to the squalor of the cult’s dormitories in an old dilapidated hotel.

    She said: “The heating didn’t work, the food was awful and we were kept in dire conditions.”

    Lonely and far from her family, Sam found herself falling for a colleague called Michael and they married. Despite being on the pill, she got pregnant. The church’s response chills her to this day.

    She said: “I was told in no uncertain terms this was not to be — and to have an abortion as it was for the greater good.

    “It felt like I had just committed a criminal act, the way they reacted. I was full of shock and horror. As I believed in this organisation at the time, the only option was utter compliance. My passport had been taken from me, so I couldn’t just pack up and fly home.

    “An ‘ethics officer’ helped arrange an abortion at a free clinic and I was given a week off to recover and then I was back on post as if nothing had happened.

    “Michael and I divorced a short time later.”

    Recalling how she originally fell under the church’s spell, she said: “When I first became a Scientologist my mother said it was a cult. I told her not to worry, I wouldn’t shave my head and start wearing orange robes. But looking back it led me to do even stranger things.”

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    Sam worked for the church full-time in England. She joined its elite Sea Org division and even signed a ludicrous “billion-year contract” which is standard for all members of the unit.

    She was subjected to “auditing” sessions, in which she was grilled in detail about every part of her life. And there were strange punishments for anyone who broke any of the rules. She said: “In Sea Org you start off as a ‘swamper’ and wear a naval-style uniforms.

    “The ranks include petty officer, captain and lieutenant. I earned around £10 a week and the conditions were terrible.

    “At one point we were surviving on nothing but dried oats, powdered milk and water.

    “I took an unsanctioned visit to see my mother in Derby one Christmas and she gasped when she saw how pale I was.

    “She thought I looked like a plucked chicken. When I got back I was told to dig a hole with a pickaxe as a punishment. It was January and the ground was frozen solid, I spent two miserable weeks outside battling to dig through the hard soil. It was a useless exercise that left me exhausted.”

    It was soon after that when Sam’s superiors informed her she was being sent to Los Angeles — and then began the period of her life that led to the abortion.

    Back at Celebrity Centre after her baby heartbreak and marriage break-up, Sam met a recent Sea Org recruit, Placido Domingo Jnr, son of the star tenor.

    The pair clicked immediately — but church officials tried to ban them from seeing each other. Placi, as Sam calls him, was outraged and they escaped for two days. After their sheepish return to the church, Sam soon learned of the consequences of their disloyalty. She said: “I was placed on the Rehabilitation Project Force, which is for Sea Org members who are in trouble.

    “Someone was assigned to watch me 24 hours a day — they even stood outside the bathroom door.

    “You wear a black boiler suit and have to run everywhere.

    “But the worst part of my punishment was being made to clean a small tunnel under the kitchens in the Sea Org headquarters known as Rats’ Alley. You are given a board with wheels and have to slide in on your back with a bucket and disinfectant.

    “It’s full of cockroaches, silverfish and hardened grease. I spent two weeks down there. It’s not an experience I’d ever care to repeat.”

    Cracks

    But Sam went on to marry Placido in 1996. Although they are now divorced, they are on friendly terms and have three beautiful daughters — Paloma, 16, Victoria, 14, and Daniela, ten.

    It was when Sam and Placido’s marriage ran into difficulty that irreparable cracks also began to appear in her relationship with the church.

    She explained: “I had become aware of several high-level Scientologists having affairs. The high moral fibre and ethical standards that attracted me to the church were lacking.

    “I realised deep down many Scientologists aren’t happy.

    “They were deluding themselves wearing silly fixed grins. Underneath the surface I saw insanity.”

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    Ban

    Sam, who donated £250,000 to the cult in her 20 years, walked away from the church in 2009.

    Her husband left soon afterwards after they tried to ban him from seeing his ex-wife and children.

    During her time as a Scientologist, Sam progressed to the extremely high spiritual grade of Operating Thetan Five — or OT5 — on the sect’s unique faith scale. She believes Tom Cruise is currently at OT7, meaning he only has one more level to go to reach the highest state, OT8. She is now back in England with her three daughters.

    They want nothing to do with Scientology — and Sam is praying for the collapse of the cult that ruled her life.

    She said: “When I think back to all the celebrities I helped bring into Scientology, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until they leave.

    “Lisa Marie Presley is rumoured to have quit recently. She appears to have woken up and removed all mention of Scientology from her website.

    “So Lisa Marie Presley has left the building — and more will follow.”


    Sci-Fi writer dreamed it up

    SCIENTOLOGY was founded in 1952 by the late L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer from the US.

    His best-selling book, Dianetics, is a key text for those who follow the faith.

    He claimed humans are really spiritual beings called Thetans, which have lived for trillions of years and are constantly reincarnating.

    As well as attempting to explain the power of the mind, it promotes a unique counselling technique Scientologists call “auditing” to enable individuals to deal with their past.

    The controversial cult has several high-profile converts who are thought to hand over large sums of money to it.

    Hubbard bought Saint Hill Manor as Scientology’s British headquarters at East Grinstead, West Sussex, in 1959.

    In October 2006, a multi-million pound Scientology centre was opened in London, with Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Juliette Lewis in attendance.

    The church claims to have 123,000 followers in the UK.

    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4327371/Scientology-cult-ordered-me-to-have-abortion-Brit-mum.html

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