Scientology fires back at the Garcias, but reveals absolutely bonkers ‘arbitration’ instructions

In October, the Church of Scientology held its first-ever internal arbitration procedure. It heard the case of Luis and Rocio Garcia, former members who had given about a million dollars to the church and wanted a good portion of it back.

The Garcias sued the church claiming fraud, but a Tampa federal judge, James Whittemore, stayed their lawsuit and agreed with the church that contracts the Garcias had signed as Scientologists obliged them to take their grievance to the internal arbitration — even though the church had never actually carried one out before.

The arbitration was held October 23 and 24 in Los Angeles, and the panel of three Scientologists decided to give the Garcias $18,495.36 — money that reflected what the couple had put on account for accommodations at the Flag Land Base in Clearwater and for the Freewinds cruise ship but that they will never use.

The Garcias refused the money, and then filed a motion in Whittemore’s court calling the procedure a farce. It also accused the church of lying to Whittemore about how the arbitration would be run.

Now, Scientology has fired back with a filing that counters the objections raised by the Garcias, but we noticed that its answer included some pretty interesting admissions. Will they matter to Judge Whittemore? We really don’t know.

The Garcias complained that they had turned over hundreds of pages of evidence they wanted the panel to examine, but the “International Justice Chief,” Mike Ellis, refused to give the panel all but 70 pages of it. In its response, Scientology argues that Ellis was merely removing material that was “irrelevant” to the procedure.

The Garcias pointed out that Judge Whittemore had told Scientology (and the Garcias, for that matter) not to try to influence the panel in any way. But the entire first day of the two-day arbitration was taken up by Ellis “hatting” the panel, the Garcias complained. In its response, Scientology says Ellis only spent about an hour with the panel.

The Garcias were told they couldn’t bring their attorney, Ted Babbitt, to the proceeding, but Luis’s smartphone revealed on the afternoon of the second first day that Scientology’s attorney, Gary Soter, was somewhere in the building running a wifi hotspot. In its response, Scientology conceded that Soter was on the premises, but claims that he was there — late on the first day — in order to answer questions in case Ted Babbitt had come (even though the Garcias had been told not to bring him).

The Scientology response is slick, as you can see for yourself below, but will it satisfy Judge Whittemore? What the Garcias could use at this point is the judge ordering an evidentiary hearing to probe both sides about what happened at the arbitration.

If that happens, the central question will be this: Did the Garcias get a fair hearing from the Scientologists on the panel, or was it such an unfair miscarriage of justice that Judge Whittemore is convinced that the Garcia lawsuit should be revived?

As to the arbitration’s fairness, Scientology submitted a document written by Ellis which included his instructions to the arbitrating panel. And wow, it’s a doozy.

Just get a look at the Scientologese in this wacky instruction to the panel, telling them essentially, “we know we’ve been telling you that suppressives like the Garcias are evil fuckwads with lots of secret evil intentions (‘withholds’), but you need to set that aside and pretend that the Garcias are not fire-breathing alien devil-bats from the planet Exnoo and give them a fair shake.”

Here’s the IJC’s actual language…

This proceeding is to be conducted in accordance with the Scientology Justice Policies as written by L. Ron Hubbard using Scientology justice procedures. Only relevant data, presented in accordance with Church policy, will be considered. Any questions of relevance will be decided by me pursuant to Scientology justice. Added inapplicable data, hearsay, third party, entheta or other irrelevance will not be admitted. Keep your TRs in while dealing with persons declared Suppressive, who dramatize missed withholds. It is unfortunate that no-gain cases generalize entheta and attempt to ARC break others; their overts are continuous, they have withholds and they cannot communicate freely. With good 8C and a good comm cycle, you can get the job done. This will require not allowing added itsa or the commission of further counter-survival acts across the dynamics, such as spreading rumors about prominent persons in Scientology, giving fragmentary or generalized reports about entheta, non-compliance with instructions or snarling about justice. It is expected that this arbitration will be carried out in alignment with L. Ron Hubbard policies on refunds and justice without alter-is.

You are to conduct this arbitration in a fair and neutral manner, notwithstanding the Garcias have been declared.

 
Come on now — that has to go down in history as one of the all-time most messed-up Scientology utterances of all time, doesn’t it? We can’t wait to see Judge Whittemore’s reaction to it.

Here’s the Scientology response itself…

Garcia v. Scientology, Def. Opposition to Vacate by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
And the arbitration instructions that Ellis gave to the panel…

Garcia v. Scientology, Exhibit: Arbitration Instructions by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
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Scientology scores a victory in Hungary, but not the battle we’ve been watching

You might have seen some reports on social media yesterday that the Church of Scientology had won a court victory yesterday erasing the gains made by police there. We asked our man in Budapest, Péter Bonyai, to explain what’s going on…

According to the new article, the original search warrant that authorized the police raid has been cancelled by the appellate court, citing that the police presence and actions were disproportional and excessive when compared to the nature and gravity of the accusations and suspicions. As a consequence, the police have to give back every document and device seized during the original raid.

But note that there are three separate official investigations directed against the Church in Hungary.

The police investigation has definitely suffered a setback with this.

But the Church is also being investigated for tax fraud. This is separate from the police investigation, not affected by this ruling and conducted by the National Tax Authority. As far as I know, they are making progress and even conducted a no-notice inspection last week. The main point of contention is reportedly the validity of Scientology’s claims regarding the religious nature of the services offered (if the services are deemed to be commercial in nature, the Church will face a huge tax bill due to having to apply VAT to all payments made for services for the last five years).

The third is the procedure initiated by the data protection (privacy) agency. The Church has appealed against the 129-page resolution and it will most probably turn into a lengthy court battle.

— Péter Bonyai

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 24, 2018 at 07:00

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