[UPDATE: Saying the case made his blood boil and that he wanted to send a message about how much Jay Spina’s fraudulent scheme had betrayed the health care system, Judge Kenneth Karas sentenced the chiropractor to 9 years in prison today, almost the maximum of what prosecutors had been asking for. It was a dramatic day in court, and we’ll post a full report about it below.]
More than a year after it was first scheduled, the sentencing of Middletown, New York chiropractor Jay Spina is slated to happen today at the federal courthouse in White Plains. We are hoping to attend the proceeding and give you an account of it as soon as possible. (Electronic devices are not allowed in federal court, so we won’t be able to live-blog it as it is happening.)
We’re very curious to see what sentence Judge Kenneth M. Karas hands down today. Spina’s attorneys have worked hard to minimize his crimes, and letters have poured in from friends and family supporting him and asking for leniency. But the feds are asking the judge to sentence Spina to ten years in prison not only for using elaborate ruses to rip off Medicare, but also for what a house of horrors his clinic was.
We first learned in 2018 that Spina and his brother Jeff were being charged for an $80 million Medicare scam that they ran out of their Middletown clinic. The facility went by several names, but most often as Dolman Avenue Medical (DAM) during the period under investigation. Two others who worked at DAM were also charged, one of whom was their sister Kim Spina. Separately, a physician who worked out of the clinic, Dr. Charles Bagley, pleaded guilty to fraud.
The Spina brothers are longtime Scientologists who gave a lot of money and time to Scientology front groups like the Foundation for a Drug-Free World. And as you can see in the image above, Jay Spina was celebrated by Scientology leader David Miscavige for his service.
According to the government’s initial press release about the charges, the Spina brothers used elaborate plots to hide their involvement in the scam, but multiple law enforcement agencies worked together to investigate and uncover their crimes. Then, in a pre-sentencing document, prosecutors asked for a 10-year sentence, and detailed stunning allegations of wrongdoing.
To help hide what they were up to, the Spina brothers ran at least nine different corporate entities out of the DAM facility, and used other owner-physicians as fronts. When one of those physicians died in 2017, they panicked that their ruse would be exposed. They then concocted an illegal stock transfer to put the company that had been in the dead physician’s name into Bagley’s name.
The reason for having so many fictional businesses, the document explains, was that they could separately bill Medicare multiple times for the same patient. And Jay Spina had prepared scripts for the physicians fronting the separate companies, instructing them what to say if they were asked about it.
Prosecutors also accused Jay Spina of pushing risky pain injections on patients, and relying on Bagley to administer them, even though Bagley admitted he had used YouTube videos as training for the specialized injections. That reckless behavior resulted in at least one patient death. And when the son of the woman who died tried to complain, Spina unleashed a very Scientology-like retaliation campaign on him.
“Spina knew that his patients were getting harmed, yet he continued to encourage his doctor to continue on with the damaging treatment. The betrayal of Spina’s role as a medical practitioner and the harm he caused are dispositive factors in this case. We believe a lengthy prison sentence is warranted in order to provide justice to the victim, punishment to the defendant, and to communicate a message of general deterrence to others that this type of behavior is intolerable,” the prosecutors wrote.
Will Jay Spina get that kind of message today? We’ll let you know as soon as we can.
OUR REPORT FROM THE COURTROOM
Wow, what a day in court. Easily one of the most interesting we’ve ever witnessed as Jay Spina’s high-priced attorney tried to convince the court to give him a slap on the wrist of 18 to 24 months in prison, but Judge Karas was in no mood for it, repeatedly expressing his displeasure, and even saying at one point that the case made his blood boil. And in particular, what seemed to bother Karas most was the part of the case we would say was most Scientological — the way Spina tried to retaliate against the son of a woman who died at his clinic.
OK, here’s how it went.
When we arrived at the federal district court in White Plains and prepared to run the security gauntlet, we were surprised to see that Jay Spina was right in front of us, going through the metal detector.
We knew he was tall, but wow. What a beanpole. Towering way above 6 feet and very slender, and the thing that really threw us, he was beaming. He even looked right at us with his big grin.
Once we got through the detector and went upstairs, we saw him again, this time with the supporters that had come to court, which included both family members and patients. There was no other word for it, Spina was bouyant. Was he just naturally this unaffected, or did he know something about what was about to go down?
The court was observing social distancing, so only 12 of us were allowed in once the doors were opened up. As far as we could tell, we were the only one taking notes.
Jay came up and greeted the man sitting a couple of rows ahead of us, who apparently was a patient there to show his support. “How’s your back?” Jay asked him with a grin and a handshake.
Defense attorney Michael Burke was there with his client, while for the prosecution there was Nicholas Bradley from the US Attorney’s Office, as well as an FBI agent and a couple of others representing New York state agencies…
Judge Karas arrived and let them know that he had read all of the many submissions, which not only included hundreds of letters from Spina’s supporters but also some 75 videos recorded by his patients expressing their admiration for him. (And as the hearing went on, it was clear that Karas was extremely well versed in all of the evidence of this case. Impressively so.)
In a case like this, a lot of elements go into a sentence, and the judge explained that both sides were in agreement with all of the various things that went into it, including various “enhancements,” except for one. There was still disagreement over whether the government could show a minimum of $1 million in fraud specifically from Medicare, which would add another enhancement to the sentence.
When Spina was first arrested, the government accused him of $80 million in Medicare fraud, but in the couple of years since then, and as part of his plea deal, the two sides had settled on agreeing that there had been $3.5 to $9.5 million in losses. But how much of that was specifically from Medicare? This is what they would now argue about.
Burke, representing Spina, now started laying out a scenario he would come back to again and again today, that Dolson Avenue Medical had delivered good health care to thousands of patients, and that the care delivered under Medicare had been for post-surgery patients who had been referred by outside doctors.
The government and the judge both expressed some real frustration at this characterization, but after going back and forth a few times, the judge decided to be conservative and say that he was not going to add the Medicare enhancement. In the end, we don’t think it mattered much anyway.
But the pattern was set: Spina’s attorney was doing his best to minimize the crime, maximize the idea that good health care was delivered, and the judge and prosecutor were both not having it….
The next argument lofted by Burke was that the “fraud loss” was an unfair indicator. What he was saying was that Spina should be judged by the kind of crime, rather than the amount it represented. Wow. Talk about privilege. Yeah, this is just a simple robbery, officer, just ignore that the thief literally got away with MILLIONS. That shouldn’t matter.
Amazing. And he cited other cases, claiming that it made sense to ignore the dollar amounts and sentence his client to only a couple of years or less. He cited cases from zero time in prison up to a year.
And again, he wanted the judge to believe that this was a minor technicality in billing.
When we realized that Spina was in real trouble, however, is when Judge Karas had had enough of Burke’s excuses and pulled out an email from the case which showed how Spina had set up sophisticated nesting businesses so he and doctors could refer patients to each other and double bill them.
“You’re interested in surgery, we’re interested in physical therapy. But if we can work together as a team…” Spina had written in one of the emails.
It was a smoking gun, and Karas repeatedly referred to the email, sounding astonished by it.
Things were not going well for Spina…
As much as Burke kept trying to bring it back to confusion about billing, Judge Karas kept reminding him that the case was about kickbacks, unnecessary claims, and falsification of documents.
Karas was making prosecutor Bradley’s points for him better than Bradley himself.
And it was becoming obvious that the sentencing enhancement that most moved Karas was the one that added on time because the fraudulent scheme had put people at risk of death.
Yeah, uh, that did seem pretty important…
In the end, Judge Karas allowed Burke to go on for more than an hour, and it had all seemed to be for nothing.
Burke finally moved on to some other things, noting, for example, that Spina was now a single father since his wife had divorced him over this case. (We hadn’t heard that.)
And Burke ended up with his pitch: Ignore federal guidelines and give his client only 18 to 24 months in prison. He cited Jay’s commitment to charity over the years (he didn’t bring up Scientology’s front groups), and said that even since Jay was arrested he’s continued to do hundreds of hours of volunteer work at a homeless shelter in Middletown.
And then Burke tried to minimize the death of the patient who received a facet injection in the neck from Dr. Bagley, who had worked at the clinic. (And facet, we learned, is pronounced “fuh-SET”.)
But as soon as Burke tried to do that, saying that it was Bagley who did the injection, not his client, Judge Karas jumped ALL OVER HIM…
“Bagley had no formal training for facet injections, right?” Karas interrupted.
Burke had pushed too far, trying to separate Spina from the Bagley injections, and Karas pushed back.
Not only did Karas remind him that Bagley had no training and had used YouTube videos to learn how to do facet injections, but prosecutor Bradley added that they had interviewed experts who told them not only were facet injections a highly specialized practice, but even the experts were wary of neck injections, the most risky. And here Bagley was doing it after watching YouTube.
After some patients had bad reactions, Spina had pushed Bagley to do even more because they were so lucrative. And then a few weeks later the patient, referred to only as “D.D.” in court, died.
Judge Karas pointed out that when D.D.’s son started making noise about the clinic killing his mother, Spina then hired an attorney to dig up dirt on the guy, and used the same “Better Call Saul” (yes, the judge called him that) who had set up the fraudulent rental businesses that were used to overbill Medicare. (How, we wonder, has that attorney not been disbarred? We’ll have to look into it.)
But Burke just kept pushing, because that’s what Spina was paying the big bucks for…
Now Burke tried to make the point that it was only two times that undercover agents had witnessed fraudulent billing practices.
Karas really didn’t like that. “We’re supposed to believe that the only examples of fraud were when the two undercover agents went in?” He reminded them that they had pleaded guilty and had agreed that the fraud amounted to $3.5 million to $9.5 million. That’s a lot of fraud, he pointed out.
“The question is not was it fraudulent. He’s agreed to between three and nine million in fraud!” the judge said.
During this period they mentioned that the government had seized about $4 million in assets from several of Spina’s retirement accounts — but now that his wife had divorced him, only part of it was his anymore.
When it was the prosecution’s turn (finally!) Bradley got the case back to reality, pointing out that what the federal guidelines and enhancements called for was 9 to 10 years in prison (108 to 120 months)…
Bradley talked about what a calculated, premeditated, and sophisticated crime this was. An incredibly serious offense, and not a technical offense. It was a betrayal of Spina’s profession, his employees, and his patients. Jay Spina was the mastermind of a longstanding scheme, one that undermined confidence in the health care industry.
It was such a difficult crime to unravel, it had taken three different government agencies on the state and federal level to piece together what this family had done.
And the judge chimed in at that point “Somebody’s going to pay these costs,” he said.
We marveled at the judge stepping in to help the prosecutor make his point.
Bradley then went into the injections that had cost D.D. her life. And he said he was troubled that Spina’s attorney was now trying to lay the blame at some lawyers who weren’t even in the case for setting up the complex businesses, and this was after Spina had already pleaded guilty. We thought it was a good point…
In fact, and we thought Bradley was pretty clever here, he wanted Judge Karas to consider Burke’s attempt to minimize the crime as a sign of how much Spina deserved punishment! Wow.
At this point, it was 1 pm and the judge called for a 15 minute break. We got the distinct impression from several people in the courtroom that no one had expected a simple sentencing hearing to last three hours.
Soon, everyone was back in the courtroom. And once again, it was Burke’s turn, this time to respond to what Bradley had said.
Mercifully, he kept it short this time….
Then, the judge asked Spina if he wanted to say something, and Jay said he did.
And what he said, well, it pretty much blew us away.
“I accept full responsibility for my actions,” he said. And he then went on to speak for about 15 minutes, blaming himself for making poor decisions and betraying his family, friends, and patients.
It was a powerful statement of contrition, and one of the things that gave it impact was that his attorney had just spent more than an hour minimizing things. We give Spina credit for having the guts to stand up and take this all on himself.
“I spent years thinking that my generally good intentions would excuse what was going on,” he said.
He talked about being raised by a father who was a chiropractor and whom he admired (and who is still alive, apparently), and how much he had let his father down.
Jay said he had grown up believing that the best thing you can do is to help other people. And he then said that he followed the words of a philosopher who said, “We are as valuable as to how we can help others.”
At that point, we did a double take. Did Jay Spina just quote L. Ron Hubbard right here at his sentencing?
He then apologized to his ex-wife and his two daughters (who were not in the courtroom, as far as we could tell). “I hope they can someday forgive me for what I put their mother through,” he said.
He added that he would dedicate his life to “serving my fellow man,” and said he planned to do more charitable work.
It was a well done statement, no question about it.
So now it was Judge Karas’s turn…
Karas warmed up by again saying that he had reviewed all of the factors, all of the documents, and all of today’s testimony. He cited the guidelines that he received from higher courts.
He added up the factors. Six years for the base offense. Then various enhancements: The amount of money lost ($3.5 million to $9.5 million); that there were 10 or more victims; that it was a sophisticated scheme; that there was a risk of death or bodily harm for the victims; and that Jay had been the ringleader with at least five accomplices.
All of these added up to a guideline of 108 to 120 months (9 to 10 years). “That’s the math,” Judge Karas said.
This is complicated, he said. He said that Spina had a family history in the health care business. That he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. And that his father must be disappointed in how things turned out.
And Jay clearly has a tremendous amount of support, he said, with videos and letters coming from family members and admirers.
But he said that Jay Spina clearly had a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on.
“I do think that good deeds should be considered. But it’s not the mitigating factor people think it is,” he said about Spina’s charitable works.
“This is not a case where a person says he’s had a tough life. On the contrary. There is no explanation that can explain this conduct other than GREED.”
Whew. And Karas was just winding up….
He described how well thought out the crime was, how long running (seven years at least) and sophisticated.
“This was, ‘What can I do to squeeze the most out of the weaknesses in this system’,” Karas said.
The victims of this crime, he added, were “anybody who gets health care.”
The criminal conduct was what struck him, Karas said. “How expansive this crime was.”
It was multidisciplinary. And it was a lot of money!
The kickbacks. The injections.
As for those 75 videos submitted by patients supporting Jay?
“D.D. is not in a video, because D.D. is dead.”
And that’s when he said it: “This case boils my blood.”
Whoo boy.
After there were adverse reactions to the injections, it was then that Spina had pushed for more of them, which then resulted in D.D.’s death. And when D.D.’s son raised a stink…
“Spina has the gall to say he has nothing to do with it, and says ‘let’s do some oppo research on the kid.’ That’s what makes this case different,” Karas said.
He said there was a deterrence factor, and this sentencing needed to send a message.
So, the prosecution wanted 108 to 120 months.
Karas said he was taking Spina’s good deeds into consideration, and that’s why he was getting the lower end, 108 months. Nine years in prison.
And restitution? $9.76 million.
Wrapping up, Burke asked for a couple of things for his client. First, he asked that the judge recommend he be sent to “Otisville,” which apparently is some happy camp for white-collar criminals.
And second, he asked that Spina be given until SEPTEMBER to turn himself in to the Bureau of Prisons so that he has time to get vaccinated.
Um, say WHAT?
He didn’t even have his first jab? No, your honor. Why not?
He hasn’t been eligible.
He’s 63! Judge Karas said.
Yeah, this was malarkey.
He’ll get the standard three months. He will report for prison in JULY, the judge said, and very forcefully.
OK, so one more detail…
Spina’s family and supporters got out of there pretty fast, and then Jay himself began filing out. I positioned myself in the passage leading to the door, smiled at Jay, he smiled at me, and I said, “You quoted a philosopher during your heartfelt statement…”
And then, suddenly, he apparently realized what was going on, mumbled something, the smile left his face, and he walked hurriedly past me.
And so to his back I asked the rest of my question…
“Was that Hubbard?”
Well, what a day. Glad we got to see it. And we thank our readers for being patient and waiting for us to get back to the keyboard to put these notes down.
And hats off to Judge Karas, who didn’t allow himself to be played by Jay Spina’s expensive attorney.
(Update: We’ve heard from several of our experts who all say that yes, Jay Spina did quote Hubbard during his statement today. Um, wow!)
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Leah Remini podcast: Chris Shelton, part 2
Says Mike: “This week’s episode is a continuation from last week with Chris Shelton. We take a deep dive into the the “Truth Rundown” and Rehabilitation Project Force, but of course touch upon other things in doing so. If you want to hear more of Chris’ insights, you can tune into his Sensibly Speaking Podcast. There is a wealth of material there.” Listen to the episode here…
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“We are processing as close to definitions as possible. This has always been true in the Advanced Course — in these Clinical Courses. We process as close to definitions as possible. And when we’re right on the button with definitions, we see that space is a viewpoint of dimension, we of course have the basic of any universe. Of any actually created universe, the basic is that there must be somebody there to be the central viewpoint of it. Well, whose postulates would hold in that universe? Of course, the person whose viewpoint it was. That person’s viewpoint would hold. Therefore, we have the god concept. Now, the other things that are manifest here that aren’t mentioned on this data sheet — down here we see the Know to Sex Scale is something that you could use for diagnosis and hasn’t been gone into here very thoroughly. Now, here we have know, look, emote, effort, think, symbols, eating and sex.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 13, 1954
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“GOOD NEWS: Indications are that we will have won the war with Smersh in a year or two. They have lost further ‘prominent leaders.’ We have directly traced and documented their origin to East Germany and have found the crimes they sought to hide. Lesser lights in their ranks are turning to us for guidance. Their network is collapsing under the various stresses to which they have been subjected. They may fight more skirmishes through men they control in govts but it is obvious we will win the war.” — The Commodore, April 13, 1971
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“One of the ideas that Hubbard most frequently said of exteriorization is quite stupid: that a great part of people can exteriorize easily and the rest can easily be audited into it. False. Quite false! I’ve had experiences where I almost come out of my body. Or, once, I had an experience when I woke up floating above my body! But it was startling. And scary. It feels like you’re going to die. This fear is quite common among people. And Hubbard barely mentions it. I also can say I’ve had other experiences where I am expanded, more brilliant, disconnected from case or exteriorized from space or time. Those experiences are also quite recognizable. But they are not ‘exteriorization’ as defined by Scientology. Perhaps the road to exteriorization is to audit out the fear involved, all the bad things going exterior can be associated with, and case linked to it in general. To audit it directly, instead of expecting that general auditing will (for real) get you exterior.”
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1996: The Bakersfield Californian published an article about a bomb suspect involved in Scientology. “[David Lee] Enteman, the ex-Marine police believe blew up his van Feb. 9 – setting himself afire and flinging metal shards over two city blocks – was represented by two Southern California attorneys retained by his father….Detectives believe Enteman was a disgruntled Church of Scientology member who was driving to Southern California [with] the intent to harm church officials. A woman who once dated the defendant told detectives that Enteman ‘felt (church members) were involved in the programming and deprogramming of his mind,’ the woman testified.”
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“Have you ever destroyed a planet with a jim-dandy whizzer?”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Discovery hearing on April 20, prelim set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed to April 13.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next hearing scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: 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.
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 really reaching in latest attempt to keep Philly lawyers out of Masterson lawsuit
[TWO years ago] Scientology and evolution: The otherwordly experience of reading ‘A History of Man’
[THREE years ago] Returning to Clearwater with a Miscavige cutout and memories of the Lisa McPherson Trust
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s celebrities to the rescue! John Travolta shills while Jenna Elfman melts down
[FIVE years ago] Class action lawsuit against Scientology’s drug rehabs refiled with new plaintiffs
[SIX years ago] If you want the IRS to re-examine Scientology’s tax exempt status, it’s time to get real
[SEVEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: The Writers of the Future and more success stories!
[EIGHT years ago] The Saga of David Mayo: Scientology’s Banished Tech Wizard
[NINE years ago] Scientology Admits Connection to Slimy Anonymous Attack Websites
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,270 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,774 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,294 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,314 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,205 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,512 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,380 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,154 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,484 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,958 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,274 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,840 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,759 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,927 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,508 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,769 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,807 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,520 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,045 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 400 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,575 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,126 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,275 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,595 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,450 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,569 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,925 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,228 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,334 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,736 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,608 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,191 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,686 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,940 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,049 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 13, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
