[NOTE: Please see our new story about this incident, with our experts discussing the strange circumstances around a Sea Org guard being killed at Australia’s Advance Org.]

Our first instinct when we heard the news breaking out of Sydney that two men had been stabbed at Scientology’s Advanced [...]]]>

[NOTE: Please see our new story about this incident, with our experts discussing the strange circumstances around a Sea Org guard being killed at Australia’s Advance Org.]

Our first instinct when we heard the news breaking out of Sydney that two men had been stabbed at Scientology’s Advanced Org, one fatally, was to contact journalist Bryan Seymour to see if he had any inside information about what was going on. But Bryan is here in New York on vacation at the moment — we just spent time with him here yesterday. However, he tells us his newsroom back at home is on the case and he’ll get us an update as soon as he hears something.

At this point, we haven’t learned much more than what was first reported, that a 16-year-old boy was taken into custody for allegedly stabbing two men, apparently on the grounds of the Advanced Org in Chatswood, a Sydney suburb. The Advanced Org is where wealthy Scientologists go to receive upper-level auditing which can reach $1,000 an hour. It opened in September 2016, replacing another facility, and Seymour covered it for us live.

We are still waiting for any details about who the assailant was, who the two victims were, whether any or all of them were Scientologists.

UPDATE: Australian police are saying that the 16-year-old was on the grounds for “a legal reason”, but then was asked to leave. When he was being escorted out, he produced a knife and stabbed a 24-year-old Taiwanese man, a staff member of the facility, in the neck, who later died. An older man was also lacerated.

The 16-year-old was also apparently involved in some kind of “domestic” incident yesterday that was in some way related.

According to the Guardian: “Police said they believe the 16-year old had a family member who attended the church, and that that family member was there on the day.”

We’ll add more details as soon as we get them.

UPDATE: Still very preliminary, and we want to be careful about this. But so far, based on police statements, this was a 16-year-old child in a Scientology family who had some kind of “domestic” incident yesterday, and today was on the grounds of the AO where his family member apparently worked or was getting services. He was asked to leave the premises, and was being escorted off the grounds by two Sea Org workers when he pulled out a knife and stabbed one of them, a 24-year-old Taiwan national, in the neck, fatally. The other SO worker, approximately 40 30 years old, also received some lacerations.

And yes, we have to agree with Observer: Getting an Elli Perkins vibe here.

More details when they come.

One question we haven’t seen the press bring up yet. Is it unusual for the AO to have a Taiwanese national on staff? No, not at all. Scientology is dying in Australia, and so they have had to import a lot of Taiwanese workers to keep the facilities there staffed.

What is unusual is that any activity happened at the AO at all. Scientology spent something like $40 million to turn a former national acoustics lab into its new Advanced Org that would serve Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. But even in its own planning papers it admitted that traffic at the facility would be light. And we would be surprised if at any time there were more than a couple dozen people — workers and Scientologists there to get services — on the campus at any one time.

Opening the AO in such a vast, lavish facility was purely for show, another part of David Miscavige’s attempt to convince his wealthy donors that Scientology is actually booming, when it isn’t.

None of that — the small number of people there, the presence of Taiwan nationals — may have had anything to do with today’s incident. We still are hoping to learn more about this Scientology family, what the “domestic incident” was about that happened the day before, and what the 16-year-old’s upset was about.

UPDATE: The fatally stabbed Sea Org worker was a Taiwan national, and police say that the assailant was also of Asian descent and “might need an interpreter.” We still don’t know if the family member they had a “domestic” dispute with the day before was someone who was working at the Advanced Org or was getting services there. But this is not the first time that the Scientology facilities in Sydney had problems from their tendency to bring people in from Taiwan.

Steve Cannane in 2013 covered the case of Alice Wu, a woman who claimed she had been trafficked from Taiwan to a Scientology center in Sydney, and who ended up having a mental breakdown.

We hope police in Australia are aware of this history and are asking pointed questions about all of the people involved in today’s incident about their association with the Scientology Advanced Org.

 
UPDATE (Jan 3, 1:15 PM): We know that the Daily Telegraph in Australia has reported that the family member was the assailant’s mother, and that there was a “feud” between them, and this is now being picked up by other news organizations. But as far as we can tell this did not come from the police, and we worry that this might have been sourced to something confusing that a bystander said about access to his own mother at the compound. For that reason we’re going to hold off on repeating the Daily Telegraph’s detail until we hear more from the police.

Things are still very preliminary — the dead Sea Org guard has not even been identified yet, and the Taipei Times reported that Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been unable to identify the victim, who was reported to be a Taiwan national. Scientology’s habit of locking up the passports of its Sea Org workers might be contributing to that situation.

 
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Start making your plans!

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

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 our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology’s original case of ‘disconnection’ — L. Ron Hubbard and his doting mom and dad
[TWO years ago] David Miscavige has plenty of new Scientology buildings set to open in 2017
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s 2016: CNN plans to give L. Ron Hubbard his best press in decades
[FOUR years ago] LEAKED RENDERINGS: What Scientology’s (post-KCET) new media center will look like
[FIVE years ago] THE TOMMY DAVIS DEPOSITION: Scientology asks judge to reconsider
[SIX years ago] Scientology Brings Hope to Africa!
[SEVEN years ago] Mark Bunker and Mike Rinder Give Us a Preview of Enturbulation To Come

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 2, 2019 at 22:30

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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2017), 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, ten 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…

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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

In October, Rathbun posted video of three top Scientology officials ambushing him at the gate of [...]]]>

Marty Rathbun has been ambushed by odd Scientologists asking strange questions yet again, and this time Marty not only managed to catch them in his short video of the encounter, but filmmaker Louis Theroux can also be seen in it.

In October, Rathbun posted video of three top Scientology officials ambushing him at the gate of a terminal in Los Angeles International airport. He managed to capture a blurry video of the three executives telling him to get a life while carrying cameras of their own.

Last week, former church official Marc Headley got the treatment outside Scientology’s secretive International Base.

And now, Marty has posted video from a recent trip to Los Angeles. At his blog, Rathbun says it’s from a “second wave” of attempted intimidation of a documentary being filmed in LA, but we’re not sure whether this video was shot during the same October trip or at a more recent date. UPDATE: This video was shot yesterday, on Saturday Dec. 13.

Rathbun indicates that the action is taking place outside a movie studio, and at the 1:00 mark you can just make out BBC broadcaster Louis Theroux filming with his own smartphone…

 
At his blog, Rathbun asked for help identifying the two men who are seen asking him questions (there’s a third man operating a camera). Are these Scientologists, or private investigators hired by the church?

The principal man keeps asking about how much Marty is being paid for “fostering” a child and for working on Theroux’s film.

Actually, Marty and Monique Rathbun adopted a child last year, but it’s just like Scientology to try to make something like that sound unseemly.

We’d like to know if you recognize either of the men.

As we indicated previously, HBO isn’t the only outfit planning a major film about Scientology. HBO’s documentary, “Going Clear,” directed by Alex Gibney, will open at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25.

But another major film, aimed at theatrical release, is in the works, produced by Oscar winner Simon Chinn, directed by John Dower, and starring BBC broadcaster Louis Theroux.

Marty has been hinting at big things in 2015. He was apparently talking about the two films. And now we learn what he was doing in Los Angeles when he was ambushed at LAX — shooting scenes for the Theroux movie.

Judging by the reactions of Scientologists to Rathbun and Headley (who has also been involved in the films), Scientology is very worried about these two movies.

 
UPDATE: Is Scientologist #2, the one by the wall, CCHR filmmaker Randy Stith? Here’s the man on the video…

 
And here’s Randy Stith, from his website…

 
UPDATE: We just talked to Marty Rathbun, who tells us this video was shot yesterday in Los Angeles.

We told him that we might have ID’d the second man in the video. And Marty tells us he eventually remembered the man doing most of the talking.

“For the last day I’ve tried to imagine him without glasses or a beard. I couldn’t remember him. But then it turns out I had met him before. This is the guy who ambushed us at the Corpus Christi airport in 2010,” Rathbun says. “Tony, this guy did the same stunt four years ago and I didn’t recognize him, he’s aged so much.”

Rathbun says the man’s name is Chris Smith, and he’s a public Scientologist (non-staff) who works on scripts for events.

We asked him how he felt about his adopted son being the subject of this intimidation attempt.

“I really took that as sending a message. There was no reason to mention that except to say, he [Marty’s son] is now in the mix.”

We told him that these ambushes appear to be related to the two films being made.

“I think they ought to be, because they couldn’t have more credible filmmakers on both teams,” Marty says.

Christopher Smith, from his Facebook page…

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 14, 2014 at 17:45

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Hoffman received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the Hubbard analog Lancaster Dodd, his fourth nomination. He won [...]]]>

Philip Seymour Hoffman, the supremely talented actor who played a character based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 2012’s The Master, was found dead in his apartment today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon.

Hoffman received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the Hubbard analog Lancaster Dodd, his fourth nomination. He won an Academy Award for his portray of Truman Capote in 2005’s Capote.

He was 46 years old.

The New York Post is reporting that Hoffman succumbed to a drug overdose, according to a law enforcement official. Hoffman had struggled with drug abuse problems, and had checked into a rehab facility last year, the Post says.

The Journal is reporting that Hoffman was found in his Manhattan apartment bathroom with a needle in his arm.

The New York Times has put up a slideshow of Hoffman’s film appearances over the years. It also profiled Hoffman for its magazine in 2008.

Posted by Tony Ortega on February 2, 2014 at 13:37

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

On Monday night, the Garcias filed numerous damning declarations by former church members and officials who say that the church has created a situation that makes it impossible for excommunicated members to obtain [...]]]>

Federal Judge James Whittemore today denied the Church of Scientology’s request to bolster its response to Luis and Rocio Garcia’s fraud lawsuit.

On Monday night, the Garcias filed numerous damning declarations by former church members and officials who say that the church has created a situation that makes it impossible for excommunicated members to obtain refunds. (Scientology courses are extremely expensive and it’s not unusual for members to put tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on account for future services which may never be undertaken.)

The church — which had already used up its 25-page limit to respond to the lawsuit — asked for an exception to local rules to file an additional 10-page memo and a set of its own declarations that it said would prove its arbitration policies are fair.

Today, Judge Whittemore denied Scientology’s request to file more pages, which may indicate that he’s close to a decision about Scientology’s motion that the case be moved to internal church arbitration and dismissed from the federal court.

“That was a world land speed record for a decision,” says Ted Babbitt, attorney for the Garcias. “But that could be good or it could be bad,” he said with a laugh in a telephone call today.

Last night, Babbitt filed an objection to Scientology’s request to add a memo and declarations. Once again, he argued that this case is about fraud, not about religion.

But he cautioned about reading too much into Whittemore denying Scientology the ability to file more evidence at this point.

“A lot of federal judges don’t want more than the minimum amount of briefing,” he says. “I don’t think it means anything other than he’s just following the rules.”

We asked him about the church’s strategy so far.

“They’re trying to make this a First Amendment issue and I don’t understand how it could be. If you’re the Catholic Church or a Buddhist church, you can’t defraud people. If the Catholic Church took your money for a specific purpose and that purpose never really existed, the purpose was made up, then that’s fraud,” he says.

The church responded in its briefing, however, that the Garcias’ complaints about their donations should be resolved by an arbitration panel made up of Scientologists in good standing, and that it was a violation of Scientology’s First Amendment rights to hear the case in a civil court.

The Garcias answered back Monday night with declarations by ex-church members and officials who described a real Catch-22 in the way excommunicated members — called “declared” members in Scientology jargon — are told they don’t have the right to even ask for refunds.

“It’s beyond a Catch-22. The animosity the church encourages against people who are declared is astounding,” Babbitt says.

So what’s next from Whittemore?

“I would expect a ruling pretty quickly. He obviously understands the case. He has the case somewhere near him. And he has a reputation for being very timely,” Babbitt says.

Babbitt expects a ruling from Whittemore in the next two weeks on Scientology’s motion to compel arbitration and dismiss the case from federal court.

If Whittemore denies Scientology’s motion, Babbitt expects the church would then file a direct response to the complaint, which would be a motion to dismiss — probably on First Amendment grounds.

And if Whittemore denies that motion as well?

“Then we’re off to the races — discovery,” Babbitt says.

“I think we’re going to have a response fairly quickly. I have confidence that we’re going to win, but you never know.”

Our attorney, Scott Pilutik, also thinks a decision will come quickly…

“I would take this as a good sign that the judge doesn’t see this as a close question. Like I said, replies are commonly granted. But he feels he knows enough already, I guess. It’s speculative to conclude, though, that the court’s certainty as to where it sits on this question is good or bad for either side. It basically just means that the court feels that it can decide the arbitration question without further argument — it knows how it’s going to rule,” he says.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 25, 2013 at 14:30

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

If you’d like to help support The Underground Bunker, please e-mail our webmaster Scott Pilutik at BunkerFund@tonyortega.org

Marty Rathbun in his RTC days

Robert “Murph” Murphy

The NAFC’s CEO and president, Karla Taylor, confirmed today that her organization has sent out letters that suspend or revoke Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor [...]]]>

The Underground Bunker has learned that Gary Smith, CEO of Scientology’s flagship drug rehab facility, Narconon Arrowhead, has been stripped of his drug counselor certification by the National Association of Forensic Counselors.

The NAFC’s CEO and president, Karla Taylor, confirmed today that her organization has sent out letters that suspend or revoke Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor (CCDC) certifications to numerous employees of Narconon programs in Oklahoma and Georgia — two facilities that have been the center of controversy after patient deaths, criminal investigations, and multiple lawsuits. Taylor says she has confirmation that Smith has received his revocation notice.

Mary Rieser has also lost her CCDC, but the former Narconon Georgia executive director may have bigger problems with the state continuing a criminal insurance fraud probe of the facility.

In Narconon Arrowhead websites, Smith is usually identified as “Gary Smith, CCDC” and no other license or certification identifies him as a professional in the counseling business. We left a message with him this afternoon, hoping to find out how he’s going to respond to the revocation, and to see if he has any other professional certifications.

If not, it’s a bad time for the CEO of Scientology’s flagship operation to lose his professional standing. After three deaths over a nine-month period (the last in July, 2012), Narconon Arrowhead has been the subject of local and state criminal investigations, it’s being sued by the families of deceased patients, and the state of Oklahoma is this very month considering legislation that might put the facility’s own licensing in question.

The NAFC took this action after receiving formal complaints from former employees that Taylor has not identified. But Eric Tenorio and Luke Catton tell us that they’re the former staffers who came forward to complain that Narconon staffers fraudulently obtained their CCDC certifications. Catton and Tenorio say they were among staffers who were given answer keys in order to pass a test to get their CCDC certifications even though they weren’t really qualified, and they claim that all Narconon employees used similar methods.

Taylor told us earlier that she was stunned to learn that the Oklahoma and Georgia facilities had been the subject of controversy because of patient deaths and lawsuits. None of the CCDC-certified employees at either facility had notified the NAFC of those controversies, which they were required to do by the ethics code of their certifications.

We asked Taylor if that’s why Rieser and Smith had their certifications revoked rather than only suspended. She said she could not comment on specific cases, but she said the multiple letters the NAFC sent out with revocations were based on “severe” and “incontrovertible” evidence.

Although Smith has not returned our calls, there’s evidence that the staff at Narconon Arrowhead and other facilities are reacting to the NAFC’s crackdown. The NAFC was also unhappy that Narconon facilities were falsely implying that the NAFC had approved the Narconon program by use of its logo. In recent days, those web pages have been disappearing.

Another interesting change is that suddenly, Gary Smith is no longer touting the CCDC certifications in an open letter he posted to the web last year. You can see the original version here which boasts of 20 CCDC certs (in a post complaining about the “terrorist group” Anonymous), and now a new version which omits it.

Also, Narconon Arrowhead seems to have pulled down its staff page, which used to feature photos of the staff and which ones have CCDC certification.

We managed to save images of that page, and when we can figure out a glitch here in the blog engine, we’ll put up a few images to show how much the “CCDC” title figured in them.

More information when we get it.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 7, 2013 at 14:45

Kevitt was riding a bicycle near LA’s Griffith Park when a person driving a van hit him, then dragged him onto the middle [...]]]>

On Sunday February 17, a man named Damian Kevitt, 36, was nearly killed in a gruesome hit-and-run incident that left him with what one doctor called the worst non-fatal injuries he’s ever seen.

Kevitt was riding a bicycle near LA’s Griffith Park when a person driving a van hit him, then dragged him onto the middle of a freeway. Conscientious drivers stopped to protect Damian from getting run over by other cars, but his injuries were terrible: he’s already lost one leg and may lose another. Both of his arms are broken, a shoulder needs replacing, and he was so scraped up, an infection might come at any time that could kill him.

And without health insurance, the costs for his care are going into the millions, his uncle tells us. His uncle also confirmed for us that his nephew is the Damian Kevitt who is listed as a Scientology Sea Org worker in a 2005 document online. We have asked the church for a comment, but we don’t expect a reply. So we’re asking our correspondents to help us find out: Was Damian Kevitt still a Sea Org worker when he was injured, and is that why he has no health insurance when he needs it most?

We spoke yesterday with Dane Evans, Damian’s uncle, who says his nephew is conscious and has even showed a sense of humor about his condition. But his situation is dire. Evans says Kevitt has already had four surgeries and doctors expect that he will face more than a dozen more.

“If he gets an infection, it could kill him,” Evans says.

We told Evans that the name “Damian Kevitt” shows up on a 2005 list of Sea Org workers who were employed at ASHO, the American Saint Hill Organization — part of the “Big Blue” complex on Fountain Avenue that is Scientology’s headquarters in Los Angeles.

Evans confirmed that his nephew did work for the Church of Scientology, but he didn’t know if that was still the case.

“I don’t know if he’s still working for them or not,” Evans says.

We then heard from Lisa Hamilton, a former Sea Org senior official. She tells us that Damian Kevitt was still in the Sea Org when she left the church in 2008 2010, and that he had been in the Sea Org for at least 15 years.

The Sea Organization has been the focus of many of the controversies dogging Scientology in recent years. The church recruits young people — some as young as 6 years old — to join the Sea Org and sign billion-year contracts, and they promise to come back lifetime after lifetime as Scientology’s most fanatical believers.

Sea Org workers put in amazing hours, with 100-hour weeks standard. They grab only a few hours of sleep a night, and get paid only about 40 cents an hour. They live communally, in dormitories, and almost never get any time off. Sea Org workers can go years without seeing their non-Sea Org family members, even if those family members are Scientologists.

Former Sea Org members tell stories not only of long hours, poor food, and zero privacy, but also of harsh punishments and prison details for those considered disobedient. Sea Org members who marry are prohibited from having children, and numerous women who have left the Sea Org say they were forced to have abortions when they became pregnant. They also say they would be compelled to go to free clinics to have the abortions, claiming to be indigent. In the Sea Org, they say, there is no health insurance.

We talked to Marc Headley, a former Sea Org worker who, with his wife Claire, escaped from their jobs at the International Base east of Los Angeles in 2005. We asked Marc if Sea Org workers, despite their incredible dedication, get health insurance from Scientology.

“No. No way,” he says. When Marc was injured at one point, the church filed a worker’s compensation claim, he says. They did the same when his wife Claire broke her leg.

“She had a motorcycle accident and broke her tibia and fibula and nearly lost her foot. The security workers at the base crammed her into a Honda Civic and took her to the hospital. The emergency workers were livid that they brought her like that.”

Headley says that there are numerous cases of Sea Org workers simply being dumped by the church when they could no longer keep up with the 100-hour weeks at their jobs.

“If you mess up, they drop you completely. Got hit by a car? See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya. That’s the Sea Org overriding policy,” he says.

Several former Sea Org executives pointed out to us that the only time Sea Org workers can get a little time to themselves is a few hours on Sunday mornings.

Damian Kevitt was run over while on his bicycle at about 11:35 on a Sunday morning. And he was reportedly riding with his wife Grace, who fortunately was not involved in the incident.

We’re checking with our sources inside the church who may be able to tell us if Damian was still on staff at ASHO or at some other Sea Org post when he was injured.

We’ve also sent a message to Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw, asking her if the church plans to have any involvement in Kevitt’s recovery or in helping defray his costs. We’ll let you know if she gets back to us.

UPDATE: Some Scientologists have started an online fund for Damian at a website which features a photograph showing him in his Sea Org uniform; the photo looks contemporary. So far, his fellow church members have raised $520.00. (Since we wrote that, the photo has been changed to one that doesn’t show Damian’s Sea Org outfit. However, he’s still standing in front of Big Blue, the Scientology complex, in the new photo.)

2nd UPDATE: We’ve now heard from two independent sources inside the Church of Scientology who tell us that Damian Kevitt was still a Sea Org worker when he was injured on February 17. An online posting shows that he signed the SO contract at 18, which means he’s been in the Sea Org for 18 years.

 
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GRETA VAN SUSTEREN’S HUSBAND FIGHTING CANCER THE NON-SCIENTOLOGY WAY

Greta Van Susteren’s husband John Coale is fighting cancer the way most folks of means probably would: with every possible advantage afforded by modern medicine.

As Van Susteren revealed yesterday, Coale was diagnosed in December, and since then has undergone multiple surgeries as well as radiation treatment. She’s been at his bedside every day, and she says his cancer is curable.

We wish Mr. Coale the best, and we feel for Van Susteren as they go through this ordeal.

It’s interesting, however, to note that these two high-level Scientologists are apparently not trying to “handle” this illness by relying only on auditing and assists.

Van Susteren is a loyal church member, but it’s been pointed out that her own sister is a major part of the “evil psych” community that Scientology loathes. Coale, meanwhile, is a political power player, and at one time was trying to create FLAGG PAC, a political action committee that would raise funds to help Scientology lobby Washington. More recently, he was advising Sarah Palin on her political career.

Coale has reportedly topped out at OT VIII, meaning that he’s reached the highest level of Scientology spiritual enlightenment, and he should have the ability to manipulate matter and energy solely with the power of his mind. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard also claimed that “Operating Thetans” would be impervious to disease. But as we see time and again, these promised abilities turn out to be as real as you would expect them to be. At least, in this case, Van Susteren and Coale have enough sense to rely on more tangible strategies to fight disease.

For other Scientologists, that isn’t always the case.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 1, 2013 at 14:00