Scientology’s Brent Jones & ‘Real Water’ horror: kids needed liver transplants, attorney says

 
This story out of Nevada is much, much worse than you may have already heard.

We spoke with Will Kemp, the Las Vegas attorney who filed a lawsuit for a family whose child’s liver nearly failed, and they are accusing the makers of “Real Water,” an alkaline water we’ve told you about many times in the past, of being the cause.

The news that Real Water is being blamed for some sicknesses and that a lawsuit has been filed by Kemp has been reported in outlets like the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Gizmodo, but for some reason only the story by the Associated Press named the company’s owner, former Nevada legislator Brent Jones.

Jones told the AP that he’s asking stores not to sell Real Water until the problem is resolved. “Our goal is to diligently work with the FDA to achieve a swift resolution,” Jones said in a statement.

However, what Kemp tells us hasn’t come out yet in any of the other stories is that among the children who “recovered” from the contamination there were at least two who underwent liver transplants.

Kemp says he’s filing lawsuits on their behalf later this week.

Over the years we’ve written numerous times about wealthy Scientologist Brent Jones and his political aspirations in Nevada — he served one term as a state legislator but then failed in his bid to become lieutenant governor — as well as his wife Aimee’s unsuccessful run for his old Assembly seat, and the company that keeps them flush, Affinity Lifestyles.com, which puts out Real Water.

Although the political careers of the Joneses ended in 2018, Real Water has been a major juggernaut for them. But now, their moneymaker has hit a major snag.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported that not only did the FDA put out a warning about Real Water being contaminated and causing a hepatitis outbreak, but that the family represented by Will Kemp has filed a lawsuit against the company. We have a copy of the lawsuit below.

That story was picked up by other Las Vegas news outlets, but only the AP story named Jones, and none of them mentioned that the Real Water “alkaline” flim-flammery is the work of longtime Scientologists.

Brent Jones and his chicanery goes back decades.

Way back in the year 2000, our colleague Ron Russell at New Times Los Angeles wrote about Jones’ involvement in the sad case of Raul Lopez, a Southern California man who received $1.7 million in a settlement after suffering brain damage in a car accident. Scientology pounced on the suddenly wealthy young man, finding creative ways to get him to part with his money, including investing in ostrich eggs, which Jones, his attorney, helped facilitate.

Back then, Jones and his ostrich egg scheme was known as “Affinity Foods.”

(And “affinity,” by the way, is a key term in Scientology, part of the “Affinity – Reality – Communication” or “ARC Triangle” of L. Ron Hubbard foolishness.)

Affinity Foods gave way to Affinity Lifestyles.com (yes, the .com is part of the official company name), which was first registered in 1998. And according to the Nevada Secretary of State website, Brent Jones is still president, secretary, treasurer, and director.

In 2011, the Guardian pointed out that not only were Real Water’s health claims bogus, but that it was making ridiculous claims about “adding electrons” to water.

And not just any water. Local news outlets revealed that Jones was merely repackaging Las Vegas tap water, which would be bad enough anywhere else, but in a water-starved desert? Incredible.

Then, in 2016, Jones and Real Water made the news again when a woman filed a federal lawsuit saying she had been forced to watch Scientology videos when she went to work for Real Water.

But people are suckers for anything that claims it “detoxifies” (which your kidneys already do for free), and so the Joneses have been able to charge high prices for their repackaged Las Vegas tap water with added electrons.

Could there be a more Scientological business?

Anyway, on Tuesday the FDA put out its warning, saying that the common element between several people in a hepatitis outbreak was that they were all drinkers of Real Water.

On March 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was alerted to five cases of acute non-viral hepatitis (resulting in acute liver failure) in infants and young children that occurred in November 2020 with an unknown cause reported to the Southern Nevada Health District. All five patients had been hospitalized but have since recovered. All patients were reported to have consumed “Real Water” brand alkaline water. These patients came from four different households. Additional people in the households were reported to have experienced less severe symptoms. Less severe symptoms included fever, vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite and fatigue.

Also on Tuesday, Kemp filed a lawsuit on behalf of Christopher Brian Wren and his wife Emely, also listing their young son Christopher Noah as a plaintiff. From the Review-Journal’s story:

In November, the boy was taken by emergency jet to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City after doctors at Summerlin Children’s Hospital noticed signs of liver malfunction, the lawsuit said. The child was treated and released from the hospital. Around the same time, Emely Wren suffered from extreme nausea and fatigue, according to the suit. The boy’s father had been hospitalized for several days in Las Vegas after showing extremely high levels of alanine transaminase, or ALT, an enzyme found in the liver that releases into the bloodstream after the liver is damaged. According to the lawsuit, Christopher Brian Wren was interviewed by an investigator from the Southern Nevada Health District and was told that Real Water was believed to be the cause of his liver damage.

When we talked with Kemp, he told us about how much worse it really is.

“We have two more cases we’re going to be filing on, and these were kids that needed to have liver transplants.”

Incredible.

Will this Scientologist-owned quackery ever get its comeuppance? We’ll be watching how these lawsuits unfold.

 
Here’s the Wren family complaint:

Wren v. Affinity Lifestyles… by Tony Ortega

 
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Source Code

“DAILY REPORT: Well, we got out of there all right. This rocking and rolling is done to condition people for the latest dance — The Wriggle and Dive. TWO WAY COMM: It was stated in yesterday’s OOD that Two Way Comm was out in Div 2 and Qual. But it even got typed wrong. ‘Ack’ was used instead of ASK. The sense of it was nobody in Div 2 or Qual ASK (not ack) anybody what it’s all about. So Two Way Comm was out all around. But all joking aside this, the most basic process we ever had, dropped out and must be gotten into action.” — L. Ron Hubbard, March 18, 1970

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“Flag auditors are easily the best in the world. They don’t kid around with cases. They know what they can do. The people audited on Flag go out of here to confront the ohs and ahs of their former areas on how changed and great they are. Any org could eventually achieve this stellar level of result. That isn’t just what FLAG does. It’s what any org could do if they really taught their courses and crammed their HGC auditors. Flag is a shining example of what CAN be done with Tech. Not new tech. Just tech. We saved a life last week with 1956 tech and an excellent auditor. That’s the way it must be, will be over the world if we here on Flag do our jobs.” — The Commodore, March 18, 1971

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“Most of the people that actually natter on about Scientology and Scientologists are talking about ‘things they’ve heard’ or ‘things they’ve read from sources’ or ‘my best friend said LRH was xyz,’ and when I ask for policies LRH actually wrote, they can’t provide it. So far, there are about three policies (and I’ve already read thousands of policies) that may be controversial or questionable, and two of the three were canceled. These two of three are the only things they ever go on about that was ‘so bad’ and the rest were third party crap.”

Past is Prologue

1998: Attorney Graham Berry’s neighbors were leafleted with a Dead Agent pack following the Los Angeles picket. “The rehash of earlier DA Pak material was expressly justified because I had ‘spent much of [my] weekend harassing a peaceful church by picketing it together with a handful of other bigots. Men who denigrate and seek to harm others’ religion often have highly questionable morals. Graham Berry should know by now that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.’ Strategically it was a bomb because now three blocks of neighbours, and all their extended contacts, and their extended contacts, get to see scientology’s standard tech up real close!”

 
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Random Howdy

“I found a notebook on the street back in the 90’s and it was the diary of someone who was obviously mentally ill, probably schizophrenic, and in parts it read just like a lot LRH’s ‘writings,’ like the stuff in today’s article. Looking back, I’m guessing most prophets were either schizo or con men or both, like LRH. That would explain a lot history-wise.”

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson arraigned Jan 20. Next conf to set prelim, March 24.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed to April 13.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Charged in Brooklyn federal court on Feb 4. Arraigned on Feb 9. Pretrial conference set for Apr 29.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.

Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.

 
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks

The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.

SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.

LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH

An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.

SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

 
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology in the time of plague: Turning to Hubbard’s words on radiation for guidance
[TWO years ago] Michael Jackson and Scientology: When the Hollywood Celebrity Centre went on lockdown
[THREE years ago] Noted Scientology critic Arnie Lerma shoots and injures wife, then kills himself
[FOUR years ago] Scientology goes into full smear mode in reaction to Leah Remini getting 2nd season
[FIVE years ago] Monique Rathbun waives a response: Will the TX Supreme Court take up Scientology’s appeal?
[SIX years ago] Another ‘Secret Lives’ outtake: The neighbor who knew L. Ron Hubbard and his first wife
[SEVEN years ago] DOX: Monique Rathbun’s response to bid by Scientology to stop the Miscavige deposition
[EIGHT years ago] Former Executive’s Tell-All Adds to Scientology Rehab Program Meltdown
[NINE years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: RON the Encyclopedia — Get Yours Now!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 17, 2021 at 22:40

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