The Los Angeles Police Department revealed yesterday that it had arrested a 40-year-old man named Mark Lucian Feigin on October 19 for making two calls to the Islamic Center of Southern California and threatening to kill people there. A search at Feigin’s home turned up a large arsenal of rifles and ammunition, and police also released tweets and Facebook posts by Feigin that contained disturbing threats against Muslims.
But Feigin has another secret that the police and the media hasn’t talked about yet: He’s been a Scientologist since 2004.
We received tips from two readers, one of whom knows Feigin personally, that Mark Feigin is the same man who is listed in Scientology’s publications as taking courses in 2004, and who has posted online statements about his involvement in the church in the years since then.
We reached Feigin by text last night, but after we identified ourselves and asked about his criminal charges, he didn’t respond. [Update: He did respond today, making clear that he’s still a Scientologist. See below.]
The LAPD said at a press conference yesterday that the first threatening phone call to the Islamic Center had been made on September 19 in the form of a voice mail. The next day, the same man called and spoke to someone who answered, threatening to kill people at the center.
“The male caller threatened to kill the person who answered the phone along with other members of the center because of the caller’s hatred for Muslims and his belief that Muslims will destroy the United States,” LAPD Commander Horace Frank said at the press conference. “The right to free speech is a hallmark of our society. But that right is not and cannot be unabated. Mr. Feigin broke the law when he threatened the lives of the individuals at the Islamic Center.”
Cmdr. Frank didn’t give details on how the LAPD had connected Feigin to the phone calls, but he did say that Feigin was picked up on a traffic stop on October 19. Feigin was arrested and charged with making criminal threats and with committing a hate crime, and the search of his Agoura Hills home turned up a large collection of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition held in buckets.
The weaponry was seized, but Feigin himself didn’t stay in custody after making bail with a $77,500 bond. His next court appearance will be an arraignment on November 10.
Feigin, who also goes by the name Milosz, has tried his hand at several pursuits, including acting. In 2004, at the same time he was first getting into Scientology, Feigin enrolled in acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. (The BHP had once been a conduit between Hollywood and Scientology under legendary acting coach Milton Katselas. But by 2004, Katselas was already moving away from Scientology. He died in 2008.)
According to an online bio and headshot he posted, Feigin is fluent in Chinese, Polish, and Russian, and he has a bachelors degree in economics from UC Santa Barbara. His acting credits were mostly student short films, including his role in the lead of “Stoked, Coked, and Smoked,” out of USC Film School.
More recently, Feigin was listing himself as a realtor. “Feigin has a real estate license. NBC4 found a flier with his picture advertising a free AR-15 assault rifle to anyone who buys a home from him,” wrote one local television station.
Feigin also tried his hand at inventing….
Feigin’s attorney Daniel Perlman said in a prepared statement that Feigin was a ‘good, decent man who believes in brotherhood,” and “Anyone who says anything to the contrary simply doesn’t know him.”
Feigin’s voluminous online footprint suggests otherwise.
In 2007, he tangled with Scientology critics online, and wrote the following addressed to Carnegie Mellon professor David Touretzky…
I have been in scientology for three years. I had a history of depression, which is now gone, I no longer get depressive symptoms. I used to get sick all the time. I haven’t been sick for three years, what is the most amazing thing that has come out of my auditing experience, is that for the first time in my life I find my life to be happy, I used to think scientology was bogus, but I can tell you it really improved my life in all areas, I found ur article and research to be completely full of shit, ur not a professor ur a moron go take some psych drugs maybe
they will fry your brain enough for you to do something less harmful than criticize something you don’t even understand. Scientology works, it is amazing, and ur not too smart. Good night moron.
and
I would love to see u criticize islam the way you criticize scientology u ugly pig. A couple muslim boys would show up at your door and slit your dirty throat, watching you bleed to death. You are a coward and only criticize scientology because scientologists won’t come after you the way muslims would and should. Coward! Critics of religion all share the same thing an inner hatred for mankind u are scum and shit.
In 2012, Feigin briefly made use of a Disqus account, and used it to post some disparaging comments about Kristi Wachter — the woman behind the online record of Scientology’s completions — and about Dana Kennedy, who has covered Scientology for the Hollywood Reporter.
More evidence that Mark currently considers himself a Scientologist came through in a text to us today: “Please don’t contact me you are on sp list,” Feigin wrote, referring to “suppressive persons” or “SPs,” who are considered enemies of the church.
Another person Feigin tangled with online was Imraan Siddiqi, who is executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Arizona. Siddiqi saved a few of Feigin’s most disturbing tweets…
Feigin shut down that Twitter account, but we found a secondary account that he was also using. As you look through it, you can see Feigin getting more unhinged as his arrest date neared.
We’ve noted in recent coverage that Scientologists and ex-Scientologists tend to be supporting Donald Trump in the election, which is a bit of a paradox, since Bill Clinton was the best friend Scientology ever had in the White House.
Islamic Center of Southern California spokesman Omar Ricci says he’s concerned that Feigin was allowed to make bail and that he’s not in custody.
“He could have very easily barged into our facility, with the innocent parishioners, constituents,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “The worst comes to mind.”
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 26, 2016 at 07:00
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