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On Friday, Scientology filed a motion to disqualify the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their federal fraud lawsuit against the church. We very rapidly posted the motion and several supporting declarations with only a brief description of their contents. We’ve had some time now to digest the church’s motion, and we thought we’d take a closer look at its argument and whether it has a chance to disqualify attorney Ted Babbitt from this case, which would seem to be a devastating blow to the Garcias. In the motion, the church argues that Babbitt has inappropriately relied on the help of Robert Johnson, an attorney who represented the church in numerous actions between 1983 and 1999. Johnson’s apparent conflict taints Babbitt, the motion says, and should disqualify him. We asked attorney Scott Pilutik to give us his thoughts about the motion. We also have more information about Brian Culkin, whose declaration the church believes supplies the key evidence for its position. And we’ve heard from Ted Babbitt himself, whose comments follow Pilutik’s. Continue reading Will Scientology’s Motion Demolish the Garcias’ Federal Fraud Lawsuit?
[UPDATE: See our Editor’s Note, below.] Yesterday’s events in Portland turned out to be a riot here at the blog as we followed the adventures of Mark “Wise Beard Man” Bunker. Bunker was there to witness David Miscavige (right, on stage) open up the newest “Ideal Org,” the Scientology leader’s program of acquiring and renovating expensive downtown landmarks even as the church is suffering internal schisms and dwindling membership. We have more photos of yesterday’s event, and then our usual Sunday collection of wacky Scientology mailers and fliers sent in to us by our network of tipsters. Continue reading Scientology Sunday Funnies: Portland Is Now Cleared, On to the Rest of Earth! UPDATE: PHOTOSHOPPING? Advertisement
 Mark Bunker We’re very disappointed to learn that Mark Bunker was prevented from filming today’s Ideal Org event from what appeared to be the perfect perch. Yesterday, Bunker sent us a photo from the window he had arranged to film the event. He had secured permission from the owner of the building, which houses the outdoors goods store across the street from the Scientology building. But today, as he arrived with his equipment, he was greeted by Scientology operatives and a number of Portland police officers. The officers told Bunker he had every right to film from the location — but the owner, Bunker says, had been so intimidated by Scientology employees, he had rescinded Bunker’s permission. Continue reading PORTLAND LIVE: Mark Bunker at Scientology’s “Ideal Org” Event
 Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He now has a new edition of the book out, and on Saturdays he’s helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet.
Yesterday, we pointed out that Scientology is pulling out all the stops for today’s grand opening of a new “Ideal Org” in Portland, Oregon. For some reason, church leader David Miscavige seems to believe that these manufactured events somehow can help Scientology with its miserable public relations problem. (They won’t.) But there’s something about Portland that Miscavige would like to capitalize on — it does have a special place in church history. We decided to ask Jon Atack to help us understand that. Continue reading Jon Atack Helps Us Remember Scientology’s “Religious Freedom Crusade”
 Brian Culkin The Church of Scientology has filed a motion to disqualify the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their federal fraud lawsuit against the church. Scientology has a long history of this kind of legal maneuver, and it’s not surprising that they would make a motion like this in a case which has not gone their way to this point. (At any moment, we were expecting a ruling from federal Judge James Whittemore about the church’s argument that the case go to its internal arbitration and be dismissed from federal court. Whittemore hadn’t given away which way he was leaning, but the church may have felt it was about to be denied.) In its motion, the church says that Garcia’s counsel — led by Ted Babbitt — has improperly relied on the help of an attorney who formerly represented the church, Robert Johnson, and two former church executives, Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder. And the church’s star witness in this motion? Brian Culkin, a former church member who until just a few weeks ago was telling us he was trying to get his own refund from the church. Continue reading SCIENTOLOGY FILES TO REMOVE GARCIA ATTORNEYS FROM FRAUD LAWSUIT
Scientology leader David Miscavige began opening “Ideal Orgs” about a decade ago. In each case, local church members are pressured to raise huge amounts of money to replace perfectly adequate church facilities with much larger, more elaborate palaces that tend to stand empty. It’s a controversial plan that has exacerbated splits in the church membership — there’s lots of evidence that founder L. Ron Hubbard actually preferred more modest facilities and always stressed the need for new members, not new buildings. But for whatever reason, Miscavige has banked the future of the church on his Ideal program, and seems to think tomorrow’s grand opening in Portland is the most important one yet. We’ve been marveling recently at the effort going into tomorrow’s big show, and we have some more updates for those thinking of stopping by for a gander. Continue reading Countdown to Portland: Scientology Planning a Rager on Saturday
 Jodie Fleischer at WSB-TV in Atlanta revealed today just how extensive authorities in Georgia believe the insurance fraud was at Scientology’s Atlanta drug rehab center.
State and county law enforcement officials raided Narconon Georgia on April 26 and hauled away a truckload of documents and computer equipment. As the coordinated local news team of WSB Radio, WSB-TV and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been reporting, state regulators yanked the facility’s license (pending appeal) and now are investigating Narconon for both insurance and credit card fraud. In the affidavit for the search warrants that law enforcement officers were armed with, we can see just how extensive the false billing of doctors is suspected to be. Continue reading Search Warrant Affidavit: Scientology’s Atlanta Drug Rehab Billed $3 Million in Insurance Fraud
 Laura DeCrescenzo [ALSO, BELOW: The EEOC files a civil rights lawsuit against a Miami chiropractor for forcing his employees to take Scientology courses.] Wow — Dianetics Day 2013 just gets more and more interesting. We just heard from Laura DeCrescenzo, who updated us on the latest going on in her forced-abortion lawsuit. The Church of Scientology is fighting tooth and nail against a court order that it turn over thousands of documents that were compiled while DeCrescenzo was a “Sea Org” member and undergoing intense confessional interrogations. Scientology has petitioned the California Supreme Court, arguing that being forced to turn over those documents is unconstitutional because it would violate the church’s priest-penitent privilege — even though it’s the penitent (Laura) who is asking for them. We’ve just learned that the Supreme Court asked Laura’s team for a response to the church’s petition, and we have the document that her attorneys filed. Continue reading CA SUPREME COURT ASKS FOR LAURA D.’S RESPONSE TO SCIENTOLOGY PETITION Advertisement
 We were the first to break the news last year that Ron Miscavige Sr., father to Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, had managed to escape from Scientology’s secretive International Base in an embarrassing blow to his son and another sign of crisis in the organization.
Ron Sr. traveled to Virginia, where he joined another Miscavige church defector, his oldest son, Ron Jr. Since then, we’ve been told that Ron Sr. has been adjusting to life outside a church he belonged to for 35 years. His granddaughter, Jenna Miscavige Hill, told us that he was doing well when we met her as she was touring for her recent book, Beyond Belief. And now, Ron Miscavige Sr. is speaking out for himself. Continue reading FATHER OF SCIENTOLOGY LEADER PENS MEMOIR AFTER ESCAPING FROM CHURCH
 Lori Hodgson and her mother, Dee McMurdie, parked their rental car, walked into Woods Fun Center, and went straight for the counter at the back, where they knew they’d find the parts department of the Austin, Texas motorcycle shop.
At the counter were two employees. Lori walked up to them and said, “Is Jeremy here?” As soon as she did, she spotted Jeremy Leake — her son — in a side room, eating his lunch. “He was completely suprised. He was shocked. He looked like he almost choked on his food,” Lori told us last night in a telephone call. Continue reading Lori Hodgson Defies Scientology’s “Disconnection,” Surprises Her Son in Texas
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