Fair Game &#8211; The Underground Bunker

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links as Danny faces a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. NOW WITH TRIAL INDEX.

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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack [16] Mirriam Francis [17] Bruce Hines on MSH

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

[18] Trial special with Chris Shelton [19] Trial week one [20] Marc Headley on the spy in the hallway [21] Trial week two [22] Trial week three [23] Trial week four [24] Leah Remini on LAPD Corruption [25] Mike Rinder 2022 Thanksgiving Special [26] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part One [27] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part Two [28] Claire Headley on the trial [29] Tory Christman [30] Bruce Hines on spying [31] Karen de la Carriere [32] Ron Miscavige on Shelly Miscavige [33] Karen de la Carriere on the L’s [34] Mark Bunker on Miscavige hiding [35] Mark Plummer [36] Mark Ebner [37] Karen Pressley [38] Steve Cannane [39] Fredrick Brennan [40] Clarissa Adams [41] Louise Shekter [42] John Sweeney [43] Tory Christman [44] Kate Bornstein [45] Christian Stolte [46] Mark Bunker [47] Jon Atack [48] Luke Y. Thompson [49] Mark Ebner [50] Bruce Hines [51] Spanky Taylor and Karen Pressley [51] Geoff and Robbie Levin [52] Sands Hall [53] Jonny Jacobsen [54] Sandy Holeman [55] Mark Bunker [56] Trish and Liz Conley [57] Trish Conley [58] Alex Barnes-Ross [59] Alex Barnes-Ross [60] Alex Barnes-Ross [61] Alex Barnes-Ross [62] Alex Barnes-Ross [63] Alex Barnes-Ross [64] Tory Christman [65] Tammy Synovec [66] Dennis Erlich [67] Alex Barnes-Ross [68] Valerie Ross [69] Kat in Austin [70] Mark Bunker [71] Phil Jones

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“One of the things which I am very pleased to announce immediately is that we have seldom failed in recent months to raise the intelligence quotient of any individual undergoing 25 hours of processing, at least 10 points. And for those who have undergone as much as 75 hours of processing, we have raised it as much as 35 points and consider it routine 25 points. This is something that has never happened before, and therefore it is an important thing that we take a look at this. According to psychology, this is an impossibility — completely impossible.” — L. Ron Hubbard, June 3, 1955

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“Commodore’s Transport is transferred to Div IV, Transport Section. Ship’s boats, all cars aboard are included in its activities. Des Popham and Arthur Hubbard are transferred to this Transport Section. The 1st Mate is now responsible for care and routine checks on vehicles as well as lifeboats, their lowering gear, sleds and motor handling.” — The Commodore, June 3, 1970

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“We have made it clear from the onset that we are Scientologists who are all about Ron’s brand. If people want to hear lies about the Founder, or natter about other Scientologists or staff — then this is not the place to frequent. If they do want to hear about standard delivery in the field, the training of auditors, the unsnarling of out-tech, and the resolution and debunking of technical and administrative arbitraries, then yes, we can provide information.”

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1995: Dennis reported new acts of harassment this week. The JJ Gaw, cos investigator, visited his landlord, looking for dirt. Also, the company that holds the mortgage on Dennis’ house was hit for some documents, billed to the landlord. More random acts: “Two nights ago I noticed that the automatic lights in front of my house didn’t turn on when I approached. Checking the bulbs, I found them to have been screwed out 2 turns. “Three weeks ago someone came by and sanded the street # off the curb in front of the house. No other houses on the block got this treatment.”

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“There’s no shortage of angry disaffected white people in this country. It’s scary.”

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Found guilty on two counts on May 31, remanded to custody. Sentenced to 30 years to life on Sep 7.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing May 31, 2024.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.

Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Some defamation claims were removed by Judge Hammock. Leah seeking to amend her complaint.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: motion to file new complaint, hearing on May 29.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Scientology moves for religious arbitration, on hold until appeal over new judge heard.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Ordered to mediation.

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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.

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.

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

Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. 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] Exclusive: Danny Masterson’s former stepdad on what the family can expect from Scientology
[TWO years ago] What Scientology’s nutty ‘OT 3’ — the Xenu tale — taught one member about Sea Org slavery
[THREE years ago] Not only did Scientology get PPP loans: Check out these Scientologists who got bailouts too!
[FOUR years ago] Kirstie Alley lets her Scientology hang out and fans react with predictable hilarity
[FIVE years ago] Reader, can you help this father who wants to keep his son out of Scientology?
[SIX years ago] The US government continues to fret over how other countries treat Scientology
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology to federal court: A judge calling our members directly? Are you nuts?
[EIGHT years ago] ‘Ross & Carrie’ conclude their Scientology investigation by calling it ‘ridiculously creepy’
[NINE years ago] Scientology routed: What the national press hasn’t figured out about the Trout Run defeat
[TEN years ago] Federal judge again declines to intervene for Ken Dandar, but leaves a door open
[ELEVEN years ago] L. Ron Hubbard Intends to Rid You Of a 43-Trillion-Year-Old Implant. What Was That Like?

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Tammy Synovec has not seen her daughter Julia in 2,920 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 3,415 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,930 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,480 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,470 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,351 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,655 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,526 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 5,078 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,419 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,986 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,905 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 5,073 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,654 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,915 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,951 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,667 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 3,231 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,546 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,721 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 7,272 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,403 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,741 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,594 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,715 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 3,071 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 7,374 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,480 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,878 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,754 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,319 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,832 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 4,086 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 15,194 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 3, 2024 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, 1995-2023 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2023), 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

SCIENTOLOGY PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR UNDER OATH: Quizzed about following Leah Remini

Tony Ortega — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 11:00:26 +0000

It’s not every day that we get a Scientology private investigator under oath, and so we’re grateful to David Smith and Susanne Gold-Smith that they deposed former NYPD detective Yanti Michael Greene this week, and then we got ahold of some of the footage

Yanti, who has legally changed his name to “Michael Moretti Ford Cruz” since he was sued by the Smiths, is someone we’ve been watching for quite a while.

Back in December 2017, a source we have never identified happened to come across Greene as he was staking out Leah Remini in Manhattan, and asked him what he was doing.

Following Leah Remini, he said. He told our source that he was working for the Church of Scientology, and his assignment was to watch Remini for twelve hours a day, Monday to Friday, for two weeks.

So we then called up Greene, who denied that he’d ever said any such thing to anyone.

At the time, Greene was working for a company called International Investigative Group (IIG), and later IIG and Greene got in a lot of hot water when they were hired to follow a woman (Susanne Gold-Smith) that Greene and other IIG private eyes befriended and even had unwanted sex with. The subsequent lawsuits over that have gone on for years, and in that process Greene’s phone texts were acquired, showing him talking about stalking Remini for Scientology.

This week, Greene was deposed for several hours in the Smith lawsuit, and for a few minutes Smith’s attorney Daniel Szalkiewicz asked him about stalking Remini, and about talking to us. We thought you’d find it interesting. How often, after all, do we ever get this opportunity?

Yanti Michael Greene/Michael Moretti Ford Cruz: Other cases include, let’s see who was it. Again, you know her name, a celebrity, Leah something. We were tasked with conducting surveillance on her. And someone else. I forget who the other person was.

Szalkiewicz: And in these other cases you reference, did you ever interact or communicate with any subject you surveilled?

Yanti: No.

Szalkiewicz: With these other cases, did your employer ever direct you to communicate with the subject that you were surveilling?

Yanti: No.

Szalkiewicz: And specifically relating to Leah Remini, I believe you said, what were you tasked to do with her?

Yanti: Just conduct surveillance.

Szalkiewicz: What sort of surveillance?

Yanti: Covert surveillance.

Szalkiewicz: What does that mean?

Yanti: We were just surveilling her, you know taking pictures, video, of her whereabouts, which was very different from this case [referring to the Smith lawsuit]. In this case the surveillance we conducted was overt and not covert. So just a very big difference between the two.

Szalkiewicz: What was the purpose that you were surveilling Ms. Remini for?

Yanti: I don’t recall. And I’m not sure if we were told.

Szalkiewicz: During this surveillance, do you recall whether you ever acquired her production schedule?

Yanti: I don’t recall.

Szalkiewicz: Do you recall if you ever received any information from third parties regarding her schedule?

Yanti: I don’t recall.

Szalkiewicz: As part of your surveillance of her did you ever trail her vehicle?

Yanti: Yes.

Szalkiewicz: Do you know for approximately how many days you were trailing her?

Yanti: I don’t recall.

Szalkiewicz: Do you know whether IIG was hired by the Church of Scientology to follow her?

Yanti: Yeah, I heard that. Did I confirm it or seek to confirm it? No. But I heard that, yes.

Szalkiewicz: And who did you hear that from?

Yanti: I don’t recall.

Szalkiewicz: Did you have any communications with any reporters, such as Tony Ortega while you were following Ms. Remini?

Yanti: So Tony Ortega, I wouldn’t really call him a reporter. More of a blogger. But, you guys have hired him to write some stuff about me. But I believe he contacted me, and I believe we had one conversation on the phone, I believe.

Szalkiewicz: This would have been in 2017 or 2018?

Yanti: Somewhere in that time frame.

Szalkiewicz: Do you know, if you were conducting covert surveillance, how he knew to contact you?

Yanti: No.

Szalkiewicz: Did he tell you why he was contacting you?

Yanti: Yes.

Szalkiewicz: And what purpose was he contacting you for?

Yanti: Because unbeknownst to me, he’s pretty fixated in the Scientology world. I know he’s a former disgraced editor from the Village Voice, and he just seems to be engulfed and embedded in the Scientology world and what’s going on with Scientology. He just wanted related information from me.

Szalkiewicz: When you were trailing Ms. Remini, was she alone or was she with anybody else?

Yanti: It was more than one day, so I forget if on any given day she was alone or not.

Szalkiewicz: Did you ever follow her when she was with her children?

Yanti: I don’t recall. I don’t even know if she has kids, but I don’t recall, no.

Szalkiewicz: And, going again how this person contacted you when you were performing covert surveillance, would that lead you to believe that someone had identified you as following her at the time?

Yanti: Oh, at some point we were aware that yeah, they had become aware. Yeah.

Szalkiewicz: And how did you become aware of that?

Yanti: I mean, at least on one occasion we saw them, like, looking at us. They spotted us.

Szalkiewicz: By we, do you know if there were any other investigators from IIG that were trailing her?

Yanti: Yes.

Szalkiewicz: And who were those investigators?

Yanti: I don’t know if there were more, but one was definitely Saul Roth.

Szalkiewicz: When they became aware that you were following them, the subjects I guess spotted you, were you removed from the case?

Yanti: I don’t recall.

Szalkiewicz: Were you penalized in any fashion by IIG?

Yanti: Not that I’m aware of. You don’t really get penalized if people, you know, spot you. You try not to be spotted, but that happens to the best of investigators.

Szalkiewicz: When you were spotted, did you have any communications with the subjects at that time? I’m talking about this case, by the way, not this case but the Ms. Remini case that we’re discussing.

Yanti: Oh, Remini case. Can you repeat the question?

Szalkiewicz: So you said that they had become aware at some point that you were, that they were being followed. Right?

Yanti: Yes.

Szalkiewicz: Did you have any communications with them at that point?

Yanti: I believe no.

Szalkiewicz: Do you recall whether or not she was with Jennifer Lopez as well at the time?

Yanti: I believe maybe on one occasion, if my memory is right.

That’s some good stuff. If you remember, in our previous reporting on these lawsuits, Greene was found to be in criminal contempt of court to the tune of $300,000 when a judge ruled that he had tried to keep from the court video evidence of his sexual assault of Susanne Gold-Smith. He had video recorded himself assaulting her, but then had turned in a small, misleading amount of footage trying to convince the court that she had assaulted him.

The court didn’t buy it, but still, no law enforcement agency in Nassau County has filed any charges against Greene for not only sexually assaulting a woman, but recording himself doing it and then covering it up from a court of law.

And for the record: We have never been hired by the Smiths or anyone else to write about Yanti Michael Greene/Michael Moretti Ford Cruz. We have covered him as part of our work here at the Bunker, and we were paid by The Daily Beast for a story we wrote about him after the fact.

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Technology Cocktail

“All bad auditing is done by auditors who have no reality on the track, and the then-ness of pictures. These are seeking to escape and thus pull the pc into escaping, whereas clearing lies in confronting. Auditors whose pictures flick in and out and who never linger are “out of valence” on the track or are otherwise seeking to escape. The remedy is to make such, as pcs, run pictures with unknown when found, not escape from them. Several lectures cover this.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1961

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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

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“Now, we are not in conflict with the customs and philosophy of the planet or the universe. Quite the contrary. It’s not a case of everybody is out of step but Jim. It’s a case of others want people badly out of step. And they’re getting them pretty badly out of step. But if you can talk to and communicate with anybody on the subject of Scientology, he agrees with what you’d say. He agrees very rapidly with what you say, unless he misses a word. If he misses a word then he won’t agree with what you’ve said, but you are actually talking to him about things which have been with him as customs, far, far, far longer than any Johnny-come-lately psychology or mental science that has been foisted off on him in recent times.” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 15, 1964

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“With a lot of fireworks of all kinds the Great Word Clearing Festival got off to a start. There was a small amount of excitement when two lions escaped and rushed to the galley. But instead of eating the cook, he put them to work washing dishes. That’s why you had paw prints on your plates this morning.” — The Commodore, September 15, 1971

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“People of Jewish race are the almost sole promoters of 1.1 stuff like Feminism, Gay Agenda, Communism, Freemasonry, and others, though the real creators of that are a small number of Illuminati, Illuminati create them, Jews promote them.”

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1999: Keith Henson protested in San Jose this week. “I picketed the San Jose org from 6:16 pm to 7 pm. There were 33 cars when I started. Because so many left, I counted again at the end and there were only 18. No interesting confrontation, though ‘blue shirt’ (wearing an polo shirt today) did stop on his way out and yell at me for being crazy. Hey, I replied to him, *I* am not the one who thinks he is infested with murdered space aliens.”

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“Jeez, does everybody around here have a sock except me?”

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Found guilty on two counts on May 31, remanded to custody. Sentencing on Sep 7.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Trial scheduled for August 15.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.

Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Complaint filed August 2, first hearing set for Dec 4.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration. Plaintiffs allowed interlocutory appeal to Eleventh Circuit.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through sentencing of Masterson on Sep 7. Next hearing set for Sept 26.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Next hearing Nov 6.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Ordered to mediation.

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

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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Paul Haggis opposes motion to keep Scientology out of next month’s trial
[TWO years ago] Would you purchase a Scientology E-meter from this man?
[THREE years ago] Scientologist chiro Nobbe: There’s an innocent explanation, judge. Prosecutors: No there isn’t.
[FOUR years ago] Scientology reels in politicians and gets photo ops out of Hurricane Dorian
[FIVE years ago] Sharp new memoir digs into Scientology’s toxic cruelty experienced by those who grow up in it
[SIX years ago] Scientology’s newest infiltration — Rebecca Minkoff and Meghan Fialkoff at Nasdaq!
[SEVEN years ago] SCIENTOLOGY DENIED: California Supreme Court rejects appeal in forced-abortion lawsuit
[EIGHT years ago] Back where it all started: Hoping to see you in Phoenix to talk Scientology then and now
[NINE years ago] Scientology’s secret plans for world domination — even better than the last time!
[TEN years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: Texas Memories, Valley Whales, and Top Secret Plans!
[TWELVE years ago] Hugh Urban: An Interview With the Professor Who Took on Scientology

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 3,153 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,668 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,218 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,208 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,089 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,393 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,264 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,369 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,816 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,158 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,724 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,643 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,810 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,392 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,653 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,689 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,405 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,969 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,284 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,459 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 7,010 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,141 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,479 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,334 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,453 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,809 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 7,112 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,218 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,616 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,492 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,057 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,570 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,824 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,933 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 15, 2023 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.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2022 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2022), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

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.

Scientology attacked us with new social media ads, and the reactions are hilarious

Tony Ortega — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 11:00:07 +0000

[Scientology finally gave us our close-up]

For many years now Scientology has spread a lot of garbage about your proprietor, and we do our best just to ignore it. The exception we’ve made is to talk a little, for the movie Going Clear and for Leah Remini’s series, about some of the in-real-life stuff Scientology has thrown at us, with private investigators trying to intimidate our loved ones.

But most of what they do is a lot of online smears that they spread around with their various social media accounts. And for years, they paid for ads on Google so that if you searched on our name their garbage popped up at the top of the page. Yawn.

Again, we tend to ignore it and we don’t bring it up here at the Bunker. However, we thought it might be time for another exception.

We’re blocked from seeing it directly, but apparently Scientology took out a couple of Twitter/X ads about us recently, and enough was paid to get them some very prominent placement.

One of the ads was made from footage stolen from our own coverage of the first Danny Masterson trial, when we thanked Karen de la Carriere for helping us save money by allowing us to stay at her place. (We figured it was good manners to be thankful for that kind of generosity, but you know, no good deed…)

We only found out about the ads because we started to see the reactions to them, and we thought we’d share some of those reactions with you today. We figure you might find them as amusing as we did. Way to go, Scientology, thanks for helping raise the Ortega profile over at Elon’s playpen.

And why now? Was it the 60 Minutes Australia appearance? Was it our personal news, and Scientology thought we made a more vulnerable target right now? No idea. We just thought it was interesting that they tried out this new tactic against us, and it appeared to backfire.

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Technology Cocktail

“We are getting together a UK Congress that gives the Washington Congress over again and which is rigged to succeed as a Tape Congress. To begin this decade of 1960’s we are well away from the mark and have the majority of the countries with us. We now have to make a hard push on the UK to get things wheeling like we mean it.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1960

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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

——————–

“Some prenatal engrams (you find this out when you are clearing a case) will have slumbered 20 or 30 years with no reactivation, yet will be vicious engrams. For instance, in one case there must have been about 110 engrams, each one of which called for an enormously powerful migraine headache, and not one of them reactivated until the person was 22 years of age. Then, chain fashion, they all reactivated. The mysterious cause of the migraine headache was evidently an airplane crash where the person got a headache. Actually there was not even a head injury in the airplane crash, but there were about three words spoken while the person was unconscious which reactivated the chain.” — L. Ron Hubbard, August 15, 1950

——————–

“The recovery of personnel sent out is a primary duty of the Action Bureau. It is not true that the US and Europe are full of unrecalled missionaires but they sure leave their missions out long enough. Now our Brian Charlton is trying to set an all time record. A 2 day hat check out of Athena on PR became weeks. Recall at once and assign Mission Ineligible.” — The Commodore, August 15, 1970

——————–

“This planet was created for the reason to control thetans in meat bodies. If you listen through the tapes especially in the good old 50’s you’ll get the idea about the big picture. ‘Thetans were convinced a long time ago to pick up a body,’ LRH said in a lecture. If you would go to the ‘end of all things’ as I would call it, and you assumed the critical mass of the population would go up the Tone Scale and would be really stable, we would all agree to get rid of the ‘need of body’ thing and would just ‘go home’ in our native Universe where we don’t have feelings like hunger or the need to make money to survive.”

——————–

1996: Martin Hunt this week posted the story of his leaving Scientology, and the reaction of his former friends. “[S]ome three weeks after I blew I went back to Vancouver to pick up my stuff. The Scientologist I was sharing an apartment with wouldn’t let me in, as she thought I had flipped and was now a dangerous suppressive person (phobia indoctrination). I knocked on the door, but she wouldn’t answer. I called out her name, told her I knew she was home, that I just wanted to pick up my stuff, and that I wasn’t a threat of any kind to her. She still wouldn’t let me in, or even acknowledge that I was at the door, but literally hid in fear from me and pretended to not be there, even though I knew she was. I walked out to the corner and phoned her. I then said that I wouldn’t call the cops if she let me have my stuff back, and to this she told me to go to the org downtown and get an OK first and go through ethics as my only terminal, so I went back to the org I hadn’t been to or communicated in any way with for about three weeks. When I showed up at reception, the receptionist immediately called in a higher-up to deal with me, and I was frostily told to go straight to the ED, where I was given a form in triplicate to route-out properly. The ED told me not to talk to anyone, and was very cold to me despite a long acquaintance that went beyond the org; I had been to her house, met her family, seen her down in the State where she was on course while I was (she was doing the FEBC). I went through the form, and had to deal with several people on it, my superior, my division executive, the ethics officer, etc. Everyone talked to me as if I was an evil piece of shit, if they talked to me at all. It was a shocking experience to say hi to someone I thought I knew very well and considered a friend only to have them literally turn their back or walk away or just sneer at me; it was more shocking to see this repeated over and over with everyone I talked to, as if they had all been given instructions on what to do and how to shun me in the best possible manner to cause the most pain.”

——————–

“Oops, sounds like Marty had what they call in A.A. a ‘slip.’ Hopefully it doesn’t turn into a full blown relapse.”

——————–

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

Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Complaint filed August 2, hearing on proof of service on Oct 3.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration. Plaintiffs allowed interlocutory appeal to Eleventh Circuit.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through sentencing of Masterson on Sep 7.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Next hearing Nov 6.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Ordered to mediation.

——————–

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Pete Goes to Hollywood: The grim reality of Scientology servitude in La-La-Land
[TWO years ago] Underground Bunker readers assemble, and Scientology spies freak out
[THREE years ago] The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 22: Graham Norton and other celebrity strokers
[FOUR years ago] ‘Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath’ will end with a 2-hour special August 26
[FIVE years ago] A life connected to some of our biggest Scientology stories ends in a terrible way
[SIX years ago] Leah Remini goes there: Child molestation in Scientology for tonight’s ‘Aftermath’ premiere
[SEVEN years ago] Former Scientology mouthpiece Tommy Davis is settling into his new role as Hollywood exec
[EIGHT years ago] Why no one should ever join Scientology’s ‘Sea Org’
[NINE years ago] Ryan Hamilton files 19th lawsuit against Scientology’s drug rehab network
[TEN years ago] Scientology is Obsessed with Getting Books in Libraries — Here Are the Real Stats!
[TWELVE years ago] The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 21: Kendrick Moxon

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 3,122 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,637 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,187 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,177 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,058 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,362 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,233 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,338 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,785 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,127 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,693 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,612 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,779 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,361 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,622 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,658 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,374 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,938 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,253 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,428 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,979 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,110 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,448 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,303 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,422 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,778 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 7,081 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,187 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,585 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,461 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,026 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,539 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,793 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,902 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on August 15, 2023 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.

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.

Scientology spying on Amy Scobee and Mat Pesch: Cameras pointed in their home

Tony Ortega — Sun, 21 May 2023 13:00:13 +0000

[The Ebb Tide Resort in Clearwater Beach]

Alanna Warren is back with even more details about what it was like to work as a private investigator for Scientology in Florida around the year 2010. Previously, she told us some details about her task of following Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran and the people who came to their house.

But before that, she was assigned to keep a close watch on former Scientology Sea Org officials Amy Scobee and Mat Pesch. We asked her for some details on that, and we got a response from Amy herself.

When I first started working we were following Mat and Amy. We stayed in the Ebb Tide Resort off Bay Esplanade, in Clearwater Beach. Our motel room had a direct view of the backside of Mat and Amy’s apartment. We could see right through their balcony sliding door with the video camera. It was set up looking through the kitchen window of our room. There was a computer monitor connected to it displaying the feed from the video camera. It was also hooked up to a DVR system so that everything recorded could be saved and sent to the Church of Scientology.

Either I or the other intern would stay in the motel room while Dwayne Powell, Terry Roffler, and the other one of us would be positioned in our rental vehicles waiting for them to leave. We weren’t allowed to park our rental cars at the motel. We had to park down the street. So once Amy and Mat left for the day we had to quickly grab our gear and run down the street to get in our vehicle to join the others in mobile surveillance.

Even though we did this, the case was considered “overt.” The church (or as I was told, the “corporate client”) wanted them to know they were being followed.

Dwayne said the plan was to run them out of town. He tried to accomplish this by ruining their business. Mat and Amy ran a thrift furniture business out of a warehouse. Dwayne would go on Craigslist and buy as many things as he could before Mat could and then sell them himself. He had me keep records of all the stuff he bought and relisted, some of it on Craigslist. When Mat did sell something, one person would stay back and watch Amy at the warehouse while the others followed Mat to the delivery.

At that time I was still in school. Sometimes I would drive down there, work 10 to 12 hours, and then have to drive back home in the middle of the night because I had class the next day.

In the beginning of the case Dwayne actually had me stay in the apartment below Mat and Amy. He wanted to know if it was possible to hear them talking. I wasn’t able to hear anything though so I went back to staying at the Ebb Tide.

Even though this case was overt, we still switched out our rental cars often. When we got a new rental car we’d have to meet up with Dwayne down the street from the Avis outlet we were using. He had do-it-yourself window tint and he personally tinted all the windows on the rental cars.

— Alanna Warren

And from Amy Scobee: Thank you for this additional information. All of the tax-exempt money that Scientology has spent trying to intimidate and keep us silent has been a complete and utter failure. And they have never chased us out of any town, including Clearwater – where we celebrated Mother’s Day with Mat’s family. Again, we are happy that Alanna has come forward to shed light on the underbelly of Scientology’s “Fair Game” tactics against those standing up to this criminal cult. We will never run from Scientology and will not stop exposing their destructive policies, practices, and abuse of people’s human rights, until it is brought to an end.

——————–

Technology Cocktail

“When I solve a case I always ask the pc for one unnamed favor. I’ve never called these favors in. The favor I tell you now for the first time: Whatever else you are, be a good Scientologist and help me clear these Earth people.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1958

——————–

——————–

THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

——————–

“Now you get down toward the Center of this galaxy and the possibility of finding somebody without the Helatrobus Implants, of finding any foreign implant system, will probably be totally negligible. Probably nonextant, you see? But out here you got a mixed bag and we don’t know what they did in the next galaxy. See? Now, science fiction writers following the cue of some chap, I’ve forgotten his name now, Einstein, Beinstein, something like that, who said that MC squared over C wouldn’t go, man, and that the speed of light could not be excessive. And actually I was looking up some speed tables the other day, and a trillion light years per day is not full throttle on a space wagon. So there’s traffic between galaxies and there’s traffic between islands of galaxies and other islands of galaxies. Interesting.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 21, 1963

——————–

“The auditing was in general better today. Auditors go in fads — now it’s ‘feelings.’ Nobody has any aches, pains or misemotions. They have ‘feelings!’ What happened to good old PAIN. Some aren’t able to confront the flak we get into. It takes a bit of guts to be around Flag. And some get very nervous and want to leave. We have 3 or 4 good things I don’t quit. Thanks for holding the ship together.” — The Commodore, May 21, 1969

——————–

“Way before I ever got into Scientology I had total recall on having gone to the implant station and I was showed a film of Christ dying on the cross. I felt great sympathy for him because I was WAY down on the tone scale – I had just got done destroying an entire planet and torturing the people, and I felt so bad about it that I tried to kill myself by pushing myself spiritually down as far as I could go – but of course that only ends up in TOTAL Failure. Of course, even though I had total recall on everything that had happened on the implant station, the evil beings tricked me after putting me in a doll body that looked totally like the one I used to have and then they kicked me out of it with an extremely strong force of electrical voltage, shooting me out into outer space and I fell next to a big glowing white orb, which I thought was God. It spoke to me telepathically and told me I could go down to earth (the beautiful blue marble we were looking at) and do anything I wanted after asking what I wanted to do – Ha! What a lie that is!”

——————–

2001: The trial of Jesse Prince, accused of growing marijuana at his home in Largo, Florida was held this week. The jury could not reach a verdict, and the prosecutor has decided not to re-try the case. The Tampa Tribune reported that Scientology’s private investigators were involved in the investigation. “For months, a high-profile attorney for a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology has tried to show the church is behind a minor drug charge against his client. Now, on the eve of Jesse Prince’s trial on a misdemeanor charge of growing marijuana, defense lawyer Denis deVlaming has hit what he considers pay dirt. Largo police Sgt. Howard Crosby testified he quickly learned of the church’s involvement after a private detective accused Prince of being a marijuana and cocaine dealer. ‘From Day One, when they told me who these people were that were involved and what’s going on, I just wanted to get rid of this case as quickly as possible,’ Crosby said. After Prince’s August 2000 arrest on the misdemeanor cultivation charge, the private detective suggested additional charges of sale or possession of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, because a school was near Prince’s home, and child abuse, because two children lived in the home, Crosby said. ‘And I said, A marijuana plant on the back porch? I’m not going to go there.'”

——————–

“The only other ‘church’ I can think of that stoops to calling people names is the Westboro Baptist Church.”

——————–

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Mistrial declared November 30. Retrial scheduled, jury selection begins March 29. Next pretrial hearing: Feb 16.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing Feb 13.
— Rizza Islam, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for March 1 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next status conference Feb 13.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court, Scientology moving to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs filed amended complaint on August 2. Hearing November 17 to argue the arbitration motions, awaiting ruling.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Selection of arbitrators underway. Next court hearing: March 15, 2023.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through February 7.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

——————–

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] THE VALESKA PARIS DECLARATION: Here’s her full report to Clearwater PD on Scientology abuses
[TWO years ago] Day four of the Danny Masterson prelim: The arguments and a ruling!
[THREE years ago] Scientology so stoked you watched ‘Spread a Smile’ video, it’s trying to cash in tonight
[FOUR years ago] A Scientologist is brutally murdered in Peoria, but you didn’t hear it from Scientology
[FIVE years ago] Scientology’s elaborate use of child labor for pennies an hour, spelled out in black and white
[SIX years ago] Scientology may be crumbling, but around the world it’s still plotting a planetary takeover
[SEVEN years ago] Atack: Contradictions in L. Ron Hubbard’s “tech” only increase Scientology discipline
[EIGHT years ago] Leah Remini and Paulette Cooper? Scientology can start worrying now
[NINE years ago] No, LA Weekly, Tom Cruise’s career was not ruined by a GIF
[TEN years ago] Disconnection: Scientology’s Most Toxic Sacrament

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 3,036 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,541 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,091 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,081 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,972 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,276 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,147 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,252 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,699 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,041 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,607 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,526 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,694 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,275 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,536 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,572 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,288 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,852 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,167 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,342 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,893 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,024 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,362 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,217 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,336 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,692 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,995 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,101 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,499 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,375 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,958 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,453 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,707 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,816 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on May 21, 2023 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.

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.

Alanna Warren: What a Scientology PI report looked like when I was following Mike Rinder

Tony Ortega — Mon, 08 May 2023 13:00:25 +0000

[Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran going shopping, photo by Alanna Warren]

We got a huge reaction to Saturday’s story by Alanna Warren, who came forward as yet another former Scientology private investigator who regretted her work for the church.

Many of you pointed out how familiar her story sounded. That’s because five years ago, we told you the story of Cierra Westerman, another young woman who had taken PI courses at the same school — City College in Casselbury, Florida — and worked with the same mentor, Michelle Morton, got a job with Scientology’s private eyes, Terry Roffler and Dwayne Powell, and then began surveilling Mike Rinder, Christie Collbran, and many other ex-Scientologists. And also that she had, like Alanna, developed a romantic relationship with Powell.

Alanna said that her first assignment working for Dwayne Powell was to keep an eye on Amy Scobee and Mat Pesch.

We asked Amy for her thoughts on the matter…

It’s great when someone gets the courage to speak out. The PIs were very overtly following us, sometimes 3 cars tailing us at a time, including across state lines, from one end of the country to the other. Scientology was trying to scare us out of Clearwater while obtaining information on our contacts and activities. We haven’t spoken much about PI activity over the years because we didn’t want it to scare anyone who may potentially come forward with their own stories. People have become less afraid of retaliation since so many eyes are Scientology’s behavior – and the world hates bullies. I’m glad Alanna came forward. Her confirmation of what we witnessed is appreciated. I’m very glad that she has changed her profession.

We told you that Alanna has sent us a lot of material, besides photographs she shot on the job, and that it includes lengthy daily reports that she wrote while she was keeping an eye on Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran and others. And one of the most interesting of those reports was from July 4, 2010, when Rinder and Collbran had a lot of people over to their house.

We sent the report to Mike, and asked him for some thoughts.

That gathering was the first “Independents Day” and it was also the wedding of Marty and Mosey at our house (as you probably recall, I performed the ceremony — I had registered as a minister of The Independent Church of Scientology just to piss them off).
Obviously, an important part of this very expensive operation was to identify everyone associating with us. Seems to have been very important for Scientology to know who was jumping ship.
One thing I do find notable about this — the type of PI scientology gets to do its dirty work. Dwayne Powell is the bottom of the barrel. This is the third young woman he recruited from that same PI school, the third he had a sexual relationship with, and the second he got pregnant (I don’t think he was the father of Heather McAdoo’s son). Of course, in 2013 he was arrested for having a homemade, illegal silencer in the trunk of his car while stalking Ron Miscavige Sr.. Anyone who wants to protect their reputation (even in the often sleazy world of PI’s) doesn’t want to be associated with Scientology. I believe it’s the reason so many of them try to hide their identities or flee when they are “made.” When you resort to employing lowlifes like Dwayne Powell, it says a lot about you. The most ethical group on earth? A religion?

We’re going to excerpt a short portion of the report to give you a flavor of it. The date is July 4, 2010. The Rathbun wedding had been officiated by Rinder the day before, and the July 4 was the date for the gathering of independent Scientologists. It was Alanna’s job to watch the people coming and going to the Rinder house….

2:40pm- The silver Audi TT was observed arriving at the Riverview residence. Tom, Alison, and Chloe exited the vehicle and entered the residence. The white Mercury was also observed arriving at the Riverview residence, 3 unidentified white males and 2 unidentified white females exited the vehicle and entered the residence.
2:41pm- Tom, Alison, Chole, and two unidentified females from white Mercury arriving at Riverview Dr. (P4)
2:49pm- The RAV4 was observed arriving at the Riverview residence. Mike, Katrina, and the unidentified white male exited the vehicle and entered the residence.
2:51pm- Tom was observed exiting the Riverview residence; he proceeded to refill the paraffin oil in the tiki torch in the front yard.
2:52pm- The red Mustang was observed arriving at the Riverview residence; the 2 unidentified males and female exited the vehicle. They proceeded to unload fireworks from the vehicle and then entered the residence.
2:54pm- The white Navigator was observed arriving at the Riverview residence. Robert exited the vehicle and carried two plastic garbage bags inside the residence, they appeared to be heavy and contain ice.
2:54pm- Robert carrying two white garbage bags inside Riverview Dr. (P4)

2:58pm- The unidentified white male from the blue Mustang was observed exiting the Riverview residence, he appeared to be looking for something in the Mustang, and then went back inside.

3:04pm- The unidentified female from the red Mustang was observed standing outside the Riverview residence talking on her cell phone.
3:23pm- Marty, Karen, and an unidentified white male were observed exiting the Riverview residence, the Karen appeared to be upset and crying. Marty and the unidentified male appeared to be consoling her.
3:24pm- The unidentified female from the red Mustang went back inside the residence.
3:25pm- Tom and Alison were observed exiting the Riverview residence and departed the area in the silver Audi TT.
3:25pm- Tom and Alison departing Riverview Dr. in Audi TT (P4)
3:29pm- Marty was observed walking back inside the Riverview residence.
3:33pm- Mosey was observed exiting the Riverview residence, she was carrying a white trash bag and placed it with the garbage cans outside.
3:34pm- The unidentified white female from the blue Mustang was observed exiting the residence, she was carrying a white trash bag and placed with the garbage cans outside.
3:37pm- A motorcycle, the green Isuzu Rodeo, a silver Kia, and a white Honda were all observed arriving at the Riverview residence. From those vehicles Dirk, 2 unidentified white females, 2 boy children, and 5 female teenagers entered the residence, unable to verify which vehicle they exited due to obstruction of view. At this time Christie was also observed exiting the residence, she walked over to Dirk and gave him a hug.
3:37pm- Dirk and unidentified group of people arriving at Riverview Dr. from Rodeo and Honda (P4)
3:42pm- A white Ford Focus was observed arriving at the Riverview residence, Steve Hall and unidentified female exited the vehicle, he proceeded to get a backpack out of the trunk, and then they entered the residence.
3:42pm- Steve and unidentified female in Focus arriving at Riverview Dr. (P4)
3:46pm- An unidentified female and male was observed exiting the Riverview residence.
3:47pm- Christie was observed taking a white plastic garbage bag outside and placing it with the garbage cans, and then she went back inside the residence.

3:48pm- The unidentified female and male were observed going back inside the residence.
3:48pm – Vehicles and people arriving at Riverview (P6)
3:49pm- A silver Moreno and silver Mazda Miata was observed arriving at the Riverview residence. Sophia, Victor, and 2 unidentified white females exited the vehicles and entered the residence.
3:49pm- vehicles at Riverview Dr. (P6)
3:50pm- Sophia, Victor, and two unidentified females arriving at Riverview Dr. (P4)
3:54pm- A white Chrysler Sebring convertible was observed arriving at the Riverview residence, an unidentified male and female exited the vehicle and entered the residence. At the same time unidentified male and female from the black Escort were observed exiting the residence, they walked over to the Escort and got something out, and then went back inside.
3:54pm- unidentified male and female arriving in Sebring at Riverview Dr. (P4)
4:10pm- The Audi TT was observed arriving at the Riverview residence, Tom and Alison exited the vehicle; he was carrying a plastic grocery bag inside the residence.
4:10pm- Tom and Alison arriving at Riverview Dr. (P4)
4:26pm- Laura was observed arriving at the Riverview residence in the black Versa. She proceeded to unload several brown shopping bags from the vehicle and placed them at the walk-way to the front door. She then got back in the vehicle and parked it down the street.
4:27pm- Laura carrying brown shopping bags to walk-way at Riverview Dr. (P4)
4:30pm- Robert was observed exiting the Riverview residence, he proceeded to greet Laura and her child, then they entered the residence.
4:30pm- Robert greeting Laura and baby at Riverview Dr. (P4)
4:49pm- Mike, Christie, and several other people were observed standing out in front of the residence talking.

4:49pm- Mike, Christie, and several other people outside in front of Riverview Dr. talking (P4)
4:56pm- Mosey was observed exiting the Riverview residence and gave Karen a hug and said goodbye.
4:56pm- Mosey giving Karen a hug & saying goodbye at Riverview Dr. (P4)
4:58pm- Mike and Marty were observed outside in the drive-way behind the RAV4 talking.
4:59pm- Christie was observed walking over to join Mike and Marty talking behind the RAV4. PRO-5 conducted spot – check of Marina Dr. the Navigator and an antique truck were observed in the drive-way.
4:59pm – Navigator and antique truck at Marina Dr (P5)
5:03pm- Christie was observed going back inside the residence. Mike, Marty, and a couple other people were still out front talking.
5:04pm- Mike, Marty, and several other people outside in front of Riverview Dr. talking (P4)
5:15pm- The group of people talking out in front of the residence went back inside.

[The wedding, July 3, 2010]

[The independents celebrate Independence Day, 2010]

——————–

Technology Cocktail

“Mary Sue is the sweetest tempered girl you ever saw. We went into the British Museum, saw a whole bunch of jewels lying there and she went completely 1.5. She just got so mad that even I couldn’t talk her out of it. Finally I took her home, put her on an E-Meter and her total conviction was they were still safe in a tomb someplace.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1958

——————–

——————–

THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

——————–

“The nitty-gritty of the West German raid on the dollar is to be found in a proposal to form a World Central Bank that ‘adjusts all the worlds currency.’ This is about the most cold-blooded effort at world domination I’ve ever seen. A country that surrenders its currency surrenders its sovereignty. It was Nazi banking expertise that saved the Third Reich and opened the door to WW II. What we DON’T need is Nazi control of all nations. Along with that goes psychiatric control, gas chambers, obliterated ‘impure’ minority groups. Heil Hitler. For the sake of German Scientologists of which there are now many, and the rest of the world, the new Nazi resurgence must end before it winds up in another blood bath.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 8, 1971

——————–

“FB: The FB including CS-G did a splendid fast job on the program to beef things up in event of a hostile UK ‘Enquiry’ finding release. Some Enquiry! Never called on us to testify on anything. Its secretary, Miss Lee, was a member of Smersh! Correction: Sir Joseph is the Minister of Social Services. He has it now. When the cabinet okays it maybe it will be out.” — The Commodore, May 8, 1971

——————–

“LRH said that he had devised plans to survive a last effort by the SPs to end up taking over this planet. I don’t know if those plans were the underground bunkers like the one in Trementina or California that protect the technology for future generations. I would suppose those bunkers were to protect the tech against nuclear war. Now it seems that the danger of nuclear war was taken care of. So, if now the underground bunkers have to protect the tech materials from hordes of Democrats joining and supporting the ranks of BLM and Antifa, then I would say that that is an improvement on the situation of the planet. Nuclear war downgraded to BLM/Antifa/Dem hordes running around California intent on destroying every vestige of civilization.”

——————–

1995: Jeff Jacobsen posted a letter this week from Dick Weigand seized in 1977 by the FBI. Dick went to jail as part of the Snow White convictions, and is now is now in charge of the cos efforts in Colombia. “You asked for a chart of enemy lines used up to this point for CW [Clearwater, Florida] attack after research of the files was done. Attached is this chart. It looks complete to me. From this I see the areas of priority to infiltrate are: 1. SPT [St. Petersburg Times] 2. Mayor 3. Channel 13 TV 4. Snyder [TV commentator?] 5. Florida Attorney General 6. Florida State Attorney (Russell)”

——————–

“They sent me a notice for jury duty last year and I scrawled across it ‘I am a Scientologist and we do not recognize your authority in this sector of the galaxy.’ They sent me a notice back about having to get a letter from my clergyman and to bring it down to the court. I threw that in the garbage.”

——————–

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

——————–

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] YouTuber takes a deep dive into Teami Blends and its connections to Scientology
[TWO years ago] With lawsuit in limbo, Danny Masterson accusers still trying to serve David Miscavige
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s mystery sandwich: A ‘church’ where deception is a sacrament
[FOUR years ago] New York Scientologist chiropractor pleads guilty in $80 million Medicare scam
[FIVE years ago] Witness to Dianetics: For the first time, the letters of key Hubbard ally Donald H. Rogers
[SIX years ago] DRONE FLYOVER: Scientology’s Int Base and its hilltop camouflaged ‘Eagle’s Nest’
[SEVEN years ago] Giant certificates and other weirdness from Scientology in our weekly online review
[EIGHT years ago] A voice from inside the Church of Scientology: Yes, the ‘Survival Rundown’ drives you insane
[NINE years ago] OREGON SENATOR RON WYDEN ASKS IRS FOR SCIENTOLOGY REVIEW

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 3,023 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,528 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,078 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,068 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,959 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,263 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,134 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,239 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,686 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,028 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,594 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,513 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,681 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,262 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,523 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,559 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,275 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,839 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,154 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,329 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,880 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,011 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,349 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,204 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,323 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,679 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,982 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,088 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,486 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,362 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,945 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,440 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,694 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,803 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on May 8, 2023 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.

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.

Scientology PI comes forward: I was stalking Mike Rinder, Amy Scobee and many others

Alanna Warren — Sat, 06 May 2023 13:00:16 +0000

[Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran, photographed surreptitiously in 2010 by Scientology]

My name is Alanna Warren. In 2009 I started school at City College in Casselberry, Florida in the Private Investigation program, run under Michelle Morton. Several months after I started, Michelle approached me about an internship opportunity, and she had me go to Clearwater for an interview.

That is when I met Dwayne Powell and Terry Roffler. We met and had the interview at the restaurant Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill. After the interview I was hired immediately. I was told no information except that it was a big corporate case.

I was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement stating that I would not talk about anything having to do with the case. If I did so then I was subject to be sued by them, $10,000 per contract violation. I was told that Terry Roffler was the one with the client and that Dwayne Powell was the lead investigator, and I was to work under Dwayne’s supervision.

At first I was responsible for watching and following Amy Scobee and Mat Pesch. We had a motel room across from where they were living. We had a whole setup in the room, with cameras watching them. We had to watch them from the time they woke up until their lights went out.

One person would be in the room watching, while the other investigators were posted in different positions in their cars waiting for them to leave so we could follow them. We had a setup where we could watch them at their warehouse through a tiny hole in the woods that Dwayne said he personally made. I spent the first couple of days riding with Dwayne in his vehicle so he could show me the ropes.

When I first started following Amy and Mat, Dwayne said they were creatures of habit. They would leave their place at the same time every day to go to their warehouse. I was told they also liked going to either Sweet Tomatoes or Cracker Barrel for lunch. At one point we started making bets as to which restaurant they would eat at for lunch that day. At that time it was only me, another intern from City College, Dwayne, and Terry working the case. Dwayne and I would always go into the restaurants together to keep eyes on the subjects.

Dwayne and I became romantically involved shortly after I started working. At first I was hesitant because he was my boss and I was trying to start my life over with the career I had always wanted. However, he told me a story about how we had met years ago at the bar Cowboys in Orlando. The details that he told me no one would have known unless they were there that night. While we were seeing each other, we continued to follow Amy and Mat around for a few months.

[Alanna Warren and Dwayne Powell in 2010]

Once Mike Rinder moved to Florida I was told to start following him. We referred to that part of the case as “Impulse,” which was in regards to a company Mike was working for, Impulse Marketing Group. I was told that it was a fake telemarketing company that was scamming people.

Once I was moved to the Impulse case Dwayne’s brother Devin joined the case along with two other private investigators Rick and Jon. We had six investigators total (or as we were called in the reports “Pros”) following Mike, Christie Collbran, Haydn and Lucy James, and anyone else associated with them. Eventually three more investigators were added for a total of nine pros working the Impulse case.

Mike, Christie, Haydn, and Lucy were living in a house together off Riverview Drive in Tarpon Springs. We rented a place just a few houses down on the corner of the street. Devin and myself would take turns living at the house. We had a video camera and still camera set up looking through the side garage door towards their house. Either Devin or I would stay there all day and keep eyes on their house. The other investigators would be positioned in specific spots ready to follow when someone left. One time while positioned outside of the house at a park close by I was approached by Haydn. He knocked on my window and when I rolled it down he was very angry and said he knew I was working for the church and told me to stop watching and following them. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, that I worked remotely and was just taking my lunch break. I had my lunch out and made it look like I had been watching a movie on my laptop. At that point my vehicle was considered “burned” and I had to go get a new rental vehicle. I still to this day don’t know why they had me sit in such an exposed spot; it was definitely not where I personally would have chosen.

We had GPS trackers on almost every single vehicle just in case we lost them in traffic. Since Mike was well aware that he was being followed we always had to keep a good distance from them to try and stay out of sight. If we were getting too close and had to back off, Dwayne would bring up the GPS trackers on one of his laptops so that we wouldn’t lose them. I remember one time when Mike and Christie’s GPS tracking device’s battery died. We had followed them to the AMC West Shore 14 in Tampa, where they were going to see the movie Avatar. Dwayne and I went into the theater with them and sat several rows behind them. Halfway through the movie Dwayne left the theater. I continued to keep eyes on them so Dwayne could replace their GPS device with a new fully charged one. He texted me when he was done. Then I left the theater and went back to my car to wait for them to leave.

[Dwayne Powell’s stakeout gear]

During my time working for the church we probably went through hundreds of rental cars. We would change them out frequently so that we wouldn’t be “made.” Dwayne would occasionally switch out license plates from the rental cars. Those were the license plates that they found on him when he got caught following David Miscavige’s father Ron Miscavige in Wisconsin.

When Marty Rathbun and Monique came to town to visit Mike our whole focus shifted to them. The church thought he was there to speak out to news reporters about the church. We were waiting for them at the airport and started following them right away.

Other “subjects” that we followed and kept tabs on: Rebecca Backus, Laura Pinot-Lopez, Katrina James, Anthony Machalek, Tom DeVocht, Alison Edwards, Chloe Edwards, Robert and Susan Almblad, Mareka James, Victor and Sofie Lefebvre, and John Brousseau.

It wasn’t until later that I found out from a fellow intern that we were actually working for Scientology and following these people that had left the church to make sure they did not speak to any news reporters about what actually was going on within Scientology. At that point I had a huge problem with what I was being asked to do.

Also during that time I ended up getting pregnant with Dwayne’s child. Dwayne told me that once Terry found out I would be pulled from the case because I would be a liability. Dwayne manipulated me and forced me into having an abortion, which he paid for. After being forced to have the abortion on January 4, 2010, I found myself in a horrible state of mind. I couldn’t believe I had let him do that and for what? To keep following around all these innocent people just trying to live their lives?

All I wanted was to be a PI and help people. Instead I had become someone who was hurting people. So, I ended up quitting the case. Dwayne had me work a couple of domestic cases but eventually I stopped doing PI work all together.

For a long time I have stayed silent in fear of repercussions. Every time I told Dwayne I was going to speak out after quitting I was told not to because I would be sued. I was also told that Terry and a former PI co-worker by the name of Jon were following me. Dwayne even sent me a picture of my vehicle parked at my friend’s apartment to prove they were following me. I am no longer scared of the church and want to speak out about what I know.

— Alanna Warren

Please see our previous story about Dwayne Powell and another colleague who came forward, Cierra Westerman, from 2018. — ed.

——————–

Technology Cocktail

“The rate of decay of a body is not really a point in question except that a thetan will try to accelerate it if the body isn’t cared for. A thetan doesn’t much care concerning the actual disposition of the body as long as it isn’t given any more indignity than it suffered in the lifetime. He is apt to be very upset about indignities rendered to a dead body.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1958

——————–

——————–

THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

——————–

“In order to understand the third dynamic completely, you would have to understand that a thetan is confused about who is who. His basic confusion, who is who, is manifest under this: He can duplicate himself. He can put himself out there in space and be as alive out there and where he is too, at the same time, as where he is. He can duplicate himself; in other words. One thetan that can be, then, two thetans. And each one of these thetans have all the characteristics of the original thetan. And then these two thetans can duplicate themselves and have all the original characteristics of themselves but be somebody else too. So we get into valence trouble. This is one of the basic capabilities. The second we introduce duplication, however, we introduce space. So the second a thetan began to be somebody else and himself; too, there was space in the matter.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 6, 1954

——————–

“The gradual improvement of world stats is done by constant attention to DATA and gradually putting things right. Any breakdown occurs when it does because of failed or unrun missions, failure to observe and report, failure to carry out overall Flag intention. The important point is that we are gradually winning on all fronts in a world that ought to have a fence around it and seems to be dedicated to self-destruction. When you can advance into that you really have to be somebody! Any you have to know what you’re doing.” — The Commodore, May 6, 1970

——————–

“We have now entered the twilight zone. This is not a cutesy zone where interesting things happen. No, this is the zone where SPs have taken over the entire world and are just now starting to make things very suppressive for us. LRH said in HCO PL KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING, ‘This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance.’ I’m not one to take lightly LRH quotables because he is the smartest person I have EVER known, and, as you can tell from that quote and from what is happening in the world right now, he is on the money – as usual. We lost control of this planet because we failed to clear the R6 bank to the point where the world would calm down. We could have done it when we had a chance. Of that I am certain. It wasn’t DM’s fault. It was OUR fault because we LET him take over and because we were too busy having fun and enjoying freedom and being too complacent with our huge wins and knowing that nothing much can happen to us at this point because we are free. Well we’re far from free. And how about your friends and family? Don’t their lives matter?”

——————–

2000: Bob Minton posted details of his financial dealings in Nigeria, which are under attack by Scientology. “‘The Scientology Fashanu Report’ is a worthless piece of crap that even the PRESENT Nigerian Government has no interest in pursuing as it relates to anything to do with the buyback I was involved with. Scientology is feeding this bullshit everywhere, even to Washington but nobody is listening which is why you can read it all on ARS. The total amount of debt purchased for Nigeria by any companies which I or my fellow shareholders was involved with amounted to US Dollars 4,447,524,747 at a cost to Nigeria of US Dollars 1,548,577,891. That means an average price to Nigeria of 34.819 percent. The companies I was involved with made a fraction of one percent commission on the debt we purchased NOT 30+ percent. Every item in ‘The Fashanu Scientology Report’ is based on the lie that we bought at 10 percent and sold for 40+ percent to Nigeria. The Nigerian Central Bank led by the then Governor Ahmed, Deputy Governor Ismalia Usman (today, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance) and many others like a Mr. Animashawan were the most honest people I have ever dealt with. They were a credit to Nigeria and totally atypical of the African stereotype Scientology and others would have you believe. General Babangida (IBB) who was the Nigerian ruler when we did this business, made a very wise decision to approve the buyback plan we presented to the Central Bank of Nigeria. It saved Nigeria billions of US Dollars and no matter how much the Church of Scientology tries to spin it.”

——————–

“Scientologists are the Kings and Queens of semantic pedantic literalistic obfuscating weasel word games.”

——————–

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

——————–

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Danny Masterson’s new moves in rape case: Asks to dismiss one victim, separate the other two
[TWO years ago] Can’t someone ask Erika Christensen a real question about Scientology?
[THREE years ago] Scientology has thrown millions at Ireland in recent years, and here’s the amazing result
[FOUR years ago] Scientology and Nation of Islam figure picks worst week to rail against measles vaccine
[FIVE years ago] In Hollywood and in Italy, Scientology is making all your dreams come true!
[SIX years ago] Ah, the reveries of 1950: When Dianetics was in full bloom
[SEVEN years ago] When Anonymous had Scientology in a panic: A new document has us nostalgic for 2008
[EIGHT years ago] Bob Duggan, the richest Scientologist in the world, is going to love our nifty new drawings!
[NINE years ago] Leaked footage of Scientology leader David Miscavige in Sydney
[TEN years ago] Investigation of Scientology Drug Rehab Program in Georgia Shifts to Credit Card Fraud
[ELEVEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: Birmingham Raises the Odds on Ideal Orgs!

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 3,021 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,526 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,076 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,066 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,957 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,261 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,132 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,237 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,684 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,026 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,592 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,511 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,679 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,260 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,521 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,557 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,273 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,837 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,152 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,327 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,878 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,009 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,347 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,202 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,321 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,677 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,980 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,086 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,484 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,360 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,943 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,438 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,692 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,801 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on May 6, 2023 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.

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.

Former Scientology private eye wants to haul us into court in rape lawsuit

Tony Ortega — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 11:00:01 +0000

[Can Yanti Michael Greene convince Judge Francis Ricigliano to subpoena us?]

On the morning of Monday, March 27 we left our underground bunker and schlepped out to Nassau County again for another hearing in the saga involving a private investigator who at one time was stalking Leah Remini and Jennifer Lopez — and also your proprietor — on behalf of the Church of Scientology.

His name is Yanti Michael Greene, or at least it was, until he changed it legally in the middle of litigation to “Michael Moretti Ford Cruz” without informing the people who were suing him or the judge where the lawsuit was taking place. That judge, Sharon Gianelli, eventually found Greene guilty of criminal and civil contempt after he was caught trying to hide incriminating video footage from the court.

That footage, according to an expert, is convincing proof that Greene raped a semi-conscious woman, Susanne Gold-Smith, in the back seat of his SUV early in the morning hours of May 17, 2018. However, Greene, a retired NYPD detective, has never been charged with a crime for the alleged rape, and he has maintained the rather ludicrous claim that he was raped by Gold-Smith in the encounter.

We were back in court on March 27 because Susanne Gold-Smith and her husband, David Smith, were awarded more than $300,000 in the contempt order against Greene, and they’ve been trying to collect it. They deposed the former NYPD detective about his sources of income, and are asking the court to garnish his wages.

It’s a complex case with multiple lawsuits and countless motions and orders, and it didn’t help that the judge handling the hearing that morning, Judge Francis Ricigliano, had never handled any of it before. So we sat for some time as Judge Ricigliano tried to make sense of all the file numbers and how they related to each other, and which parties were present and which weren’t.

Greene was present and was representing himself, pro se. And he was surprised to learn that this did not mean that his personal company, the Moretti Group, was properly represented and was, as a result, not present.

“I wasn’t aware I couldn’t represent it,” Greene said, sounding at a loss and realizing that his company was in a position to be saddled with a default judgment for not showing up.

Leading up to the hearing, Greene had posted some fairly astounding documents with wild claims, as we’ve reported previously. Gold-Smith’s attorney, Daniel Szalkiewicz, referred to it as “cockamamie” material in his response, and Judge Ricigliano, unfamiliar with the case, asked Szalkiewicz about it.

“Cockamamie — is that a legal term?” he asked.

“Unfortunately in this case it is, your honor,” Szalkiewicz answered.

Judge Ricigliano admitted that he hadn’t actually read any of the pleadings, and that he would need to do so before rendering a ruling at some point. In the meantime, he asked the parties to sign up for dates to hold depositions, and a sheet was passed around. At some point, Szalkiewicz voiced an objection to the court, saying that Greene had not only signed up himself for a deposition but had added a couple of names of people who were not parties to the litigation.

Greene said he wanted the non-parties deposed, and he was told that would occur only under a separate authority. He could submit those names, but the court would have to approve them.

After getting the parties signed up, Judge Ricigliano scheduled a hearing for late June, by which time the depositions should be finished and they could move closer to trial.

“Does that make sense, or is it cockamamie?” the judge asked, with a smile.

Anyway, in the weeks since then, as we’ve waited to hear if the court has come to a ruling, we learned that Greene submitted not just two additional names of non-parties he’d like to get deposed, but a total of twelve people he wants the court to subpoena.

Three of those names we thought you’d be interested to see. Here they are, with descriptions by Greene, from the letter he wrote the court last week…

TONY ORTEGA: Former Editor of The Village Voice. Plaintiffs paid Tony to create, print and post online, globally false (defaming) and or negative stories about me with regard to this litigation.
JEFFREY AUGUSTINE: A private investigator and self proclaimed “journalist”, Plaintiffs pay him (to this day) to create, print and post online, globally false (defaming) and or negative stories about me with regard to this litigation.
Advertisement
KAREN DE LA CARRIERE: Married to Jeffery Augustine, and paid by Plaintiffs, she illegally took a photograph of me inside the Courtroom during a hearing then posted it online via her husband attached to yet another defaming online, global, “news article”.

Jeffrey and your proprietor have both written about this case at our respective websites. And no, this reporter has not taken a penny from anyone involved in the case. Jeffrey tells us that’s the same case with him. And Karen, we understand, has not been in New York since the 1990s. So we have no idea why Greene thinks she was skulking around the courthouse taking photos of him.

This is the second time we’ve seen Greene refer to a photo of him he claims was taken at court, but we haven’t seen such a photo.

Well, we’re told the court is not very likely to haul us into court simply because Greene wants it to. But it’s the thought that counts, we suppose.

——————–

Technology Cocktail

“Scientology is a precise commodity, something like engineering. A pc is a precise thing, part animal, part pictures and part God. We want the ability to handle things and the God, and the less unthinking responses in the pc the better off he will be. Therefore a PC WHO ISN’T COGNITING regularly is being processed beyond his ability to do and it is necessary to drop back downscale to find something he CAN DO.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1957

——————–

——————–

THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

——————–

“Under this particular zone in Scientology right now, we have, oddly enough, culminated — and this is hard to believe, because it is such a wildly embracive figure — we have culminated in anything that was desirable in the fields of religion, mysticism, spiritualism, or mental sciences. Anything desirable in those particular fields have been discovered and culminated in the field of Scientology right now. That’s why I say it’s rather hard to believe, but you look at it, that’s true. So we do have valuable subject materials. Now, that job is complete. And so, number one of these, course management, as far as we’re concerned, on a Scientology course, that is complete. We’re even throwing away material now which would have been enough to have made a complete science and revolutionized middle Europe, you know, two hundred years ago.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 10, 1959

——————–

“WOG WORLD: If you were puzzled about my ‘now in the WOG world’ jokes in yesterdays OOD — that was the way certain people were 3rd partying us. Making a horrible false impression between us and elsewhere. ‘Now in the Wog world — ” Or how great the beach is compared to the ship. At least we’re trying to get it to survive and that’s more than you can say for the ‘Wog World’.” — The Commodore, April 10, 1969

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“Hubbardian Scientological-like tricks to trap, contain, and eliminate or ameliorate the developing infidel-illogicals of humanity while promoting an advancing ‘expanding’ HS-elite gradient of Theta Clears going forward has been part of Man’s social engineering constructivities since the Golden Dawn of Civilizations. We can do better. And I suspect Hubbard thought so too with a KSW: always, eternally and forevermore.”

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2002: The Associated Press reported that Heber Jentzsch, the president of the Church of Scientology International, has been acquitted of conspiracy and fraud charges. “A Spanish court on Thursday acquitted the American leader of the Church of Scientology of conspiracy and other charges, ending a case that dated back to 1988. In December the Madrid Provincial Court had acquitted 15 members and employees of the Spanish branch of Scientology who had been charged along with church leader Rev. Heber Jentzsch. When Jentzsch did not appear for trial as it began in February, the court decided to try him separately. The court said in December there was no evidence to support prosecutors’ allegations that drug rehabilitation and other programs sponsored by the Church of Scientology in Spain amounted to illicit gatherings aimed at activities such as bilking people of money. In 1988 Jentzsch was arrested when he arrived in Madrid for a Scientology conference. He was held for 4 months before being released, but indicted in 1994.”

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“I wear shorts and combat boots to the beach. Who am I kidding, I never go to the beach even though I live right near it. It’s full of gangbangers, junkies, alkies and crackheads.”

——————–

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

——————–

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Mark Bunker reminds us that there are actually Scientology physicians out there
[TWO years ago] Recent Scientology defector: ‘I did the Purif with SNL’s Chloe Fineman’
[THREE years ago] Eleventh Circuit will hear oral arguments in key Scientology ‘religious arbitration’ case
[FOUR years ago] LEAKED: Scientology’s secret playbook for world domination!
[FIVE years ago] Before Scientology was a ‘church,’ L. Ron Hubbard said religion controlled people with lies
[SIX years ago] Why Scientology’s Erika Christensen can play a Christian convert on the big screen
[SEVEN years ago] Spider-Man goes drug-free for Scientology, and more in our weekly social media review!
[EIGHT years ago] L. Ron Hubbard’s Navy record: Chris Owen critiques the ‘Business Insider’ story
[NINE years ago] Is a Scientology front group among those fighting a European effort against ‘sects’?
[TEN years ago] Brit Writer’s 27 Years in Scientology is Suddenly News in France — Our Man in Paris Explains Why
[ELEVEN years ago] Is Lisa Marie Presley Telling Off Scientology in a Song?

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 2,995 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,500 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,050 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,040 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,931 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,235 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,106 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,211 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,688 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,000 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,566 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,485 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,653 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,234 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,495 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,531 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,247 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,811 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,126 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,301 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,852 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,983 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,321 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,176 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,295 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,651 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,954 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,060 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,458 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,334 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,917 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,412 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,666 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,775 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on April 10, 2023 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.

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.

Private eye firm that spied for Scientology throws up the white flag in sordid lawsuit

Tony Ortega — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 11:00:30 +0000

[TV polygraph expert Dan Ribacoff and his son Lance]

Yesterday we told you about a disgraced former journalist who was hired by the Church of Scientology to investigate the proprietor of this website. Today, we have an update on a disgraced private investigations firm that was also caught stalking us for Scientology.

We’re talking about Daniel Ribacoff and his firm International Investigative Group (IIG). Ribacoff got some notoriety as a polygraph expert on The Steve Wilkos Show, but over the last several years he and his firm have been caught up in a sordid lawsuit.

We’ve told you about it several times before, that IIG was hired by a wealthy Long Island man, David Smith, who wanted Ribacoff’s investigators to spy on his wife, Susanne Gold-Smith, as they were going through a separation.

Eventually, Smith and his wife reconciled. But then the two of them filed lawsuits against Ribacoff and IIG, alleging that while Ribacoff’s investigators were watching Susanne they began interacting with her in an unprofessional way, that four of the investigators ended up having some sexual contact with her, and that one of the PIs, a retired NYPD detective named Yanti Michael Greene, allegedly raped her. Smith also complained that the firm had overbilled him as IIG figured they had a rich mark on the hook.

Ribacoff denied the allegations, but as part of the litigation the Smiths obtained huge collections of data, including texts from some of the phones used by the investigators. And that’s when we got interested, because those text messages showed that IIG, besides working the case following Susanne, had also worked for Scientology.

Specifically, the texts showed that Greene and other PIs were paid to stalk Leah Remini when she was in New York filming the movie Second Act with her friend, Jennifer Lopez. And why were they following Remini for Scientology? According to the texts, Greene told his partner in the case, “Word is they want to kill her.”

We also got evidence that Greene was assigned by IIG to investigate your proprietor.

So we’ve had some interest in the case, and we’ve schlepped out to Long Island a couple of times to watch court proceedings. And now, we have some updates for you.

Namely, that Ribacoff and IIG have thrown in the towel.

Court documents tell the story that Ribacoff had sold a home in New York and moved to Florida, but the Smiths acted quickly enough to tie up the proceeds from the sale in an escrow account controlled by the court. Now, they’ve had the court release that money so Ribacoff and IIG can begin paying a confidential settlement that will remove them from the lawsuit.

In the meantime, even more evidence of IIG’s sordid behavior was entered in the court record.

In February, a retired LAPD detective and expert in date-rape drugs, Trinka Porrata, produced a report after examining the evidence in the case, which included depositions, interviews, and graphic video recorded by Greene during the encounter with Susanne.

After reviewing the facts, Porrata concluded that the behavior of the IIG investigators was beyond the pale. “The conduct in this case is shockingly unprofessional on many levels. This case involves a total violation of most types of professionally conducted surveillance procedures with open, ongoing, and even sexual conduct with targets or clients.”

Also, one of the investigators owned up to the inappropriate behavior, which in his case included socializing with Susanne, the woman he was supposed to be surveilling, and on one occasion kissing her on the mouth on a dance floor. He not only described his own actions, but provided evidence about the behavior of his IIG colleagues.

“I cannot adequately explain the total shock I experienced,” the investigator said in a sworn affidavit. “To be engaging in sexual acts with [subjects of the investigation] during what was supposed to be covert surveillance was truly beyond comprehension.”

Meanwhile, that investigator’s wife also submitted a sworn affidavit testifying to what Greene had told her about his video recording of the May 17, 2018 encounter he had with Susanne in the back seat of his SUV.

During one of our conversations Greene informed me that he possessed a video recording of himself having sexual intercourse with Ms. Gold-Smith in the back of his vehicle, along with other videos that he believed would end the lawsuits. I remember Greene telling me that Ms. Gold-Smith would be very surprised when Ms. Gold-Smith eventually learned he possessed a “sex tape.” Greene specifically said that Ms. Gold-Smith was “wasted” inside his vehicle while filming this sexual encounter and, in sum and substance, something big was coming down which would destroy her. When I asked Greene if Ms. Gold-Smith knew that she and the sexual activity had been recorded, Greene told me that she [Ms. Gold-Smith] had no idea he had recorded her or the sexual activity which took place that night.

Porrata, the date-rape drug expert, also examined the video evidence shot by Greene, and she concluded that a crime had occurred. “It is my opinion that the sexual activity which occurred in Greene’s SUV in May 2018 is consistent with a drug-facilitated sexual assault of Gold-Smith.”

We’ve previously reported that a judge, after viewing that same video evidence, found Greene guilty of civil contempt for trying to hide that evidence from the court, and awarded the Smiths more than $300,000 in damages.

Yanti Michael Greene (or Michael Moretti Ford Cruz)

But Greene has maintained his ludicrous story that it was Susanne who raped him in the back of his SUV that night, and not the other way around. And since he was saddled with the contempt order and its large penalty last year, his filings have only become more bizarre.

We can tell you, from our own observations of Greene, a retired NYPD detective, testifying in the court in Long Island, that we have never seen a witness so openly tell lie after lie under oath with impunity. It actually appears to be his strategy in the case.

We previously reported on a bizarre cross-examination Greene went through, when he had to admit that during the litigation he had gone to Delaware and lied about being a resident there in order to change his name legally from Yanti Michael Greene to Michael Moretti Ford Cruz without notifying the court in Long Island.

In a subsequent deposition, he revealed that he had created various businesses under the names Michael Moretti, Michael Ford, Michael Cruz, and Michael Moretti Ford Cruz.

The Smiths suspected he was doing that in order to hide his assets from them and to keep them from collecting the contempt of court penalty as he claimed that virtually everything he spent money on was a legitimate business expense. They noticed, for example, that he even put pet food purchases on his company credit cards and asked him about it. Here’s how he explained that in a subsequent court filing, to give you an idea of the flavor of things he puts into the court record.

I have a dog and a cat. Both were classified as “service animals in training” years ago. I am specifically training them as search and rescue service animals. Both were purchased (from kill shelters) with Michael Greene & Associates, LLC business funds, years ago. I’ve tried training my dog as a cadaver dog, searching for dead bodies. I purchased cadaver “sniffing” kits and trained him for years, but his performance level was about 50 percent. I then began training him to search for live humans (traditional search and rescue). He is still in this training. I have brought him with me during real world search missions in the State of Florida and in NYS. I have been training my cat to perform live human searches. He is still in this training. Why a cat? Because cats can fit into small places where dogs cannot. When tethered, a cat is perfectly sized to fit into small crevices, collapsed buildings, etc. Additionally, I am training both of them to be emotional support animals for crime victims and hospitalized children. Both animals are currently being trained 4 times a week and I intend to use them under one of The Moretti Group, Inc. d/b/a’s for post hurricane, post disaster, missing person and injured/victim related work.

And in his latest court documents, Greene continues to insist that he’s being victimized by the Smiths, and appeared to make a bizarre reference to your proprietor, who visited the courtroom a couple of times while Greene was testifying…

The Gold-Smith/Smith duo are well known in Nassau County Civil Supreme Court for being very litigious and incessantly lying under oath with impunity, while seeking public attention and paying social media sources to post their tales, including having one such person pose as a journalist in a Nassau County Supreme Court Courtroom and illegally take pictures during testimony in a hearing related to this current matter.

We’re not sure what photos he’s referring to, because we certainly didn’t take any.

Well, Greene is still getting away with making outrageous statements in court, and he has still escaped any kind of criminal prosecution for allegedly raping an incapacitated woman and videotaping himself while he was doing it, video evidence that a retired LAPD expert says is convincing proof that a sexual assault took place.

Such is the sort of individual that Scientology hires to chase after its perceived enemies.

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Technology Cocktail

“Neither I nor the management are responsible for cuts, contusions, violent words, or divorces resulting from attempts to run confrontingness drills by husbands and wives on each other. May you never be the same.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1957

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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

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“We need, then, a peaceful planet. So I worked this out originally as…what became the name of the project: International City Project. Well, I…finally came to the conclusion that if all the capitals of the world were located inside one city that they were not likely to bomb each other out, that they, in effect, would be very careful of declaring war. They would be close cheek by jowl enough to discuss most of their problems…Now, you take every capital of the world and treat it accordingly and then treat it in such a way that transport within the capital is very fast and so that each and every section and center of the capital has some of its own atmosphere rather easily planned up, by the way. It isn’t just a sprawling mess…So Wendell Willkie came out with something he called One World, and practically everybody shot him down in his tracks. He was a pioneer in this particular field. But nevertheless this idea has become more and more popular and it’s actually sweeping in that direction. The first step would have to be you’d have to persuade all governments to turn over all atomic weapons, stocks, control of atomic manufacturers to the United Nations at once, you see. Second step is persuade the United Nations and all governments to select a site for and construct an International City, preferably in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast where land reclamation can expand its area and where its communication lines can be easily centered for Earth. Third step: Persuade all governments to remove their capitals to International City complete with heads of government, congresses and parliaments. Prohibit a secondary capital or even a communication relay center within the country itself.” — L. Ron Hubbard, March 24, 1964

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“TELEXES are meant to be answered the same day; when answered, they go to the ‘Telexes In’ basket in the Comm Bu. Deadline 2300 hrs. Even if they cannot be answered immediately, they should be returned to this basket, as these telexes go up to LRH for his viewing after 2300. These unanswered telexes will then be returned for answering.” — Org Off Bu IV, March 24, 1971

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“Many of us left ‘official’ Scientology beginning in the 1970s. As the Sea Org advanced, we retreated. In our view, we are the keepers of ‘true’ Scientology, who apply what we know of it with reason, not fanaticism. That includes Child Scientology, in which book Hubbard expresses and encourages some very kind sentiments towards children.”

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1999: The Ottawa Citizen published an article about Scientology celebrity Jenna Elfman. “‘The most obnoxious, proselytizing Scientologist in Hollywood’ was how Movieline magazine recently described her. Asked about it, Elfman doesn’t rise to the bait. ‘I mention Scientology a lot,’ she says matter-of-factly. ‘But I never spoke to that magazine or the person who wrote that article. I never proselytized to them, so I thought the article was pretty funny.'”

——————–

“I went to the Scientology rebuttal site for ‘Going Clear’ and it’s almost as long as the book! They start fairly low-keyed and then next thing I knew they were inferring that Dave Touretzky was trying to get people to bomb Scientology orgs. They can’t control the crazy for too long.”

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

——————–

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology leader says he has 2.5 million square feet of new churches coming soon
[TWO years ago] Danny Masterson holds on to his passport as judge decides he’s no flight risk
[THREE years ago] Scientology leader David Miscavige calls the pandemic ‘planetary bullbait’ in epic briefing
[FOUR years ago] TOM CRUISE THANKED BY DAUGHTER ISABELLA IN BIZARRE SCIENTOLOGY PROMO
[FIVE years ago] Leah Remini talks ‘Aftermath,’ developing a new show, and more with Chris Shelton
[SIX years ago] DREAM LAWSUIT: ‘God of Pop’ Kuba Ka vs the Church of Scientology. THANK XENU, IT’S ON!
[SEVEN years ago] Chris Shelton: How Scientologists can use critical thinking to break free
[EIGHT years ago] ‘Going Clear’: Paul Haggis pens a description of the Scientology experience you won’t forget
[NINE years ago] Jillian Schlesinger says Scientology now ‘sneakier’ about forcing abortions
[TEN years ago] It’s Ron’s Birthday, And Your Present is More Scientology Stuff to Spend Money On!
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology 451: Commenters of the Week!

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 2,978 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,483 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,033 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,023 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,914 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,218 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,089 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,194 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,671 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,983 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,549 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,468 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,636 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,217 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,478 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,514 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,230 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,794 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,109 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,284 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,835 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,966 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,304 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,159 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,278 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,634 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,937 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,043 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,441 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,317 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,900 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,395 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,649 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,758 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on March 24, 2023 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.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2022 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

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.

Meet John Blosser, Scientology’s new shill, who is targeting Graham Berry

Tony Ortega — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 11:00:04 +0000

[John Blosser, dulcimer enthusiast and Scientology’s man of the moment]

A few days ago at Facebook, attorney Graham Berry notified his friends that he appears to be the target of a new “noisy investigation” by the Church of Scientology.

Even better, Berry also mentioned that he was the subject of Scientology “Fair Game” in an official court document in the Valerie Haney lawsuit, and as you can imagine, Scientology’s attorneys are not happy about it!

Oh, Graham. Giving Scientology heartburn for more than 30 years now.

But let us back up a bit and tell you about a man named John Blosser.

In 2021, we first learned that Blosser was asking questions about us, and in an unusual way: We heard from an old friend in Kansas City who told us that Blosser had reached out to him, asking about our tenure there. From 2003 to 2005 we enjoyed a great job as the managing editor of The Pitch, a fun and feisty alt-weekly newspaper. We wrote about local politics and other matters, and never about Scientology: There just wasn’t enough Scientology in KC to pay attention to. We also got to know a local TV reporter who did some great investigative work. We hadn’t heard from him in quite a few years when he contacted us to let us know that Blosser was asking questions about us.

Why would a reporter be looking up people we knew almost 20 years ago, and in a city where we didn’t write at all about Scientology, and why would that person not be calling us directly? Yeah, we’ve been here before. It was a classic Scientology “noisy investigation,” and we soon started hearing from some others that this reporter was contacting them.

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard explained to his followers in 1966 that they should use noisy investigations to harass and intimidate the church’s enemies:

You find out where he or she works or worked, doctor, dentist, friends, neighbours, anyone, and ‘phone ’em up and say, ‘I am investigating Mr/Mrs ………. for criminal activities as he/she has been trying to prevent Man’s freedom and is restricting my religious freedom and that of my friends and children, etc

The ideas is, you call people close to the target without actually calling the target themselves, knowing that it will get back to them they they’re being investigated. Scientology wants it to get back to them, which explains why Hubbard called it a “noisy investigation.”

After we heard that Blosser was asking about us, we learned that he had been a National Enquirer reporter who lost his job after the newspaper had to pay a huge settlement when a story he worked on turned out to be defamatory and untrue. You can read about it in this Daily News report which says that the Enquirer piece made some claims about a friend of Philip Seymour Hoffman who supposedly had given an interview about the actor’s death. The friend said he hadn’t talked to anyone, and sued the paper.

Then, in 2022, we learned that Blosser had moved on from us to another target: Leah Remini and Mike Rinder. Mike told us that Blosser was calling their former colleagues who had worked on the Scientology and the Aftermath television series.

“He actually contacted the family members of people who worked on the show!” Mike said. “Scientology operatives are constantly trying to find people who will say what horrible, rotten people Leah and I were to work with. They might have found someone who didn’t do their job and ended up leaving the production team who would say something negative, but they may have even struck out on that The core team we worked with — producers, camera, lighting, research, editors and many others remain our friends and are very loyal and hate everything about Scientology.”

After comparing notes with Mike, we realized that Blosser is the new Jim Lynch, a formerly legitimate journalist who had become Scientology’s shill, investigating each of us at different times. Lynch died at 59 of cancer in 2013.

And now, Scientology’s new shill has turned his attention on Graham Berry, who started getting messages from people about receiving strange phone calls about him.

“A ‘journalist’ just called asking me questions about you which I basically skirted around or said ‘no comment’ until I could figure out what he was getting at. Then he started asking if I or anyone else ever felt sexually threatened by you, after which I said no, of course not, this call is over. He said he was just trying to get information for a story he’s working on for his clients, which struck me as odd. A journalist with ‘clients.’ I said goodbye and hung up. Unfortunately, I didn’t get his name, sorry.”

Another friend did get the name.

“Someone from South Florida called me today about a lawsuit, someone named John Blosser? Asking about rent payment, our relationship, if you hit on people, who the money was going to… wanted to make sure you knew because he seems to be digging and implying negative of you. Wanted to let you know.”

If you know about Graham Berry’s history, you’ll recognize what Blosser is doing. We first wrote about Berry in 1999, and even then he had been a thorn in Scientology’s side for almost a decade. In one memorable early legal maneuver, he had process servers chase down Scientology celebrities at a Winter Wonderland event in Hollywood.

More recently, we’ve documented how successful Berry has been getting money back for some older Scientologists. Berry is so intimidating to the church, at one point Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon chased him down at the Stanley Mosk courthouse in Los Angeles and threw a $10,000 check at him, demanding that he take it for his client to end a case. Berry refused, and got his client a lot more money than that.

And now, Berry has stepped up his involvement in Valerie Haney’s lawsuit, and as we’ve been telling you, Scientology is hopping mad about it.

So naturally, they’re reaching back into their same old playbook.

In our 1999 story, we explained that because Berry is gay, the famously homophobic church had sent out a disgraced former cop to pretend he was on an active police investigation into sexual accusations about Berry. And now, more than 20 years later, Scientology is doing the same thing again, this time sending out a disgraced former reporter to ask Berry’s friends if they’ve felt “sexually threatened” by him.

It’s classic stuff. And Berry wanted the court to know about it.

On March 15, there was a hearing in Valerie Haney’s lawsuit, which has been forced by the court into Scientology’s version of “religious arbitration.” In the hearing, we learned that Scientology now has all three arbitrators in place, and Judge Gail Killefer has given the two sides six months to accomplish the arbitration and come back to her with its results.

In the meantime, Scientology had filed for sanctions against Haney because they were livid that Berry had gotten so involved, and had put some things into a court document (like a declaration by Mike Rinder), that they found “improper, unreliable, or inadmissible.” They asked the court to sanction Berry for his filing to the tune of $107,832.50.

Berry answered that motion for sanctions with his own broadside, but then, during the March 15 hearing, he made a remarkable concession. If you were reading our contemporary notes of the meeting, you remember what he did: Since the arbitration was set and there was nothing else to argue about in court, he offered to take back the document that had so enraged Scientology if they would drop the request for sanctions.

The judge was clearly in favor of this, and asked both sides to make the submissions necessary to accomplish it. Berry then filed a motion to withdraw his previous submission. But in it, he also happened to mention that he’s now the subject of a Scientology Fair Game attack, and attached the messages about Blosser that he’d received from his friends.

Hoo boy. Scientology attorneys William Forman and Matthew Hinks have blown a gasket over it.

While the Request purports to withdraw the offending submissions to avoid Defendants’ sanctions motion, it contains improper argument and irrelevant and inadmissible material. For instance, the Request argues that “sanctions would have been unauthorized” and Defendants’ “Sanctions Motion would have been subject to a potential cross-motion for sanctions.” Yet, the entire purpose of the submission should be to avoid adjudication of the sanctions motion, and not attempt to litigate it. The Request further claims that Defendant is currently engaged in “Fair Game” activity against Graham Berry…

As a result, the Scientology attorneys are not taking back their motion for sanctions and have asked that it be heard on June 20 as originally scheduled.

When we saw that Berry had put Blosser’s name in an official court document, we figured it was about time to go public with what we knew about him, and do what he never did while he was investigating us: We gave him a call.

The Bunker: Is it true that you’re writing for Freedom magazine?

John Blosser: I have.

The Bunker: Are you working on an article for Freedom about Graham Berry?

Blosser: Yes.

The Bunker: How’s the pay at Scientology?

Blosser: I’m not going to answer that.

The Bunker: I guess you had a problem at the Enquirer?

Blosser: No, not really. Wasn’t my problem.

The Bunker: Working for the Church of Scientology. Isn’t that the bottom of the barrel?

Blosser: I decline to answer.

Well, we thanked him for taking our call. And we are happy finally to name him and warn others that if John Blosser calls, he’s working for the Church of Scientology. What a legacy.

——————–

Technology Cocktail

“The delusions of children and death delusions are quite similar. When a person dies and starts to pull out of that body, he generally snaps in on himself a torrent of facsimiles of one kind or another. He has all sorts of weird things that go ‘boomp in the night’ present themselves at that moment. And very often you get a preclear who is suffering merely from the death shock. And he is psychotic, he’s crazy, he doesn’t know whether he is coming or going. Why? Because he’s surrounded by things he cannot understand — and that is the common denominator of all lack of orientation, of all aberration. It’s being surrounded by things you cannot understand. And a child, surrounded by these things he cannot understand, therefore can produce what we call childhood delusions. But I can’t find any real difference between these childhood delusions and the delusions being suffered by a person about to die or a person in an asylum.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1957

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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

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“I’m not down on religion. I believe in religion, except I don’t believe in limited religion. If we’re going to have two gods let’s worship two gods, that’s all. If we’ve got to have worship of gods, let’s at least worship the minimum number allowable in this universe. Now, let’s not fool around with this religion, tell people what they can’t do with religion and what they can do with religion. We’ve just got religion — if we’re going to have religion, then let’s be honest with it and look and see and find this to be the case: that everybody who starts worshiping one god and one god only, and shaping his pathway straight toward one god and only one god and good, and it’s good, and that’s all we can have anything to do with is good, winds up bad. Ever know any minister’s sons?” — L. Ron Hubbard, March 23, 1953

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“Had a good break today on Research. Cracked why one can’t be audited after exteriorization so one can. Will push OT ability up out of sight. I do get my own hats worn despite randomity!” — The Commodore, March 23, 1970

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“Isn’t science fiction surely just science that hasn’t yet been developed, discovered and refined? Almost all of the technology we take for granted now has appeared in some form or another in sci-fi works before, and it’s definitely the case that sci-fi writers have been critical to introducing the ideas that inspire scientists to create amazing things. Some of the sci-fi writers were originally physicists, engineers and industrial chemists. Therefore, is it no surprise that the development of spirituality from being a series of myths and monsters into a systematised and evidence-based approach should have been made by a sci-fi writer? I would say it is because of, and not in spite of, that.”

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1998: Following the recent Boston Herald series on Scientology, the St. Petersburg Times carried an article on Scientology’s investigation of the writer of the series, Joseph Mallia. “Church officials say their lawyers have hired a firm to investigate Joseph Mallia, a Boston Herald reporter who recently wrote a five-part series that raised questions about church practices. The investigation conflicts with statements made in 1994 by a top church official Kurt Weiland, who handles international legal affairs for Scientology. During an interview at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the St. Petersburg Times asked Weiland and church president Heber C. Jentzsch about the practice of investigating reporters. Weiland responded, ‘First of all, we don’t do that.’ He added: ‘There’s no institutional or organized campaign or effort or action ongoing to go after a reporter.’ Asked this week to explain the contradiction, Weiland said the church deals with adverse news reports on a case-by-case basis. He said Mallia’s articles were inaccurate and the church was trying to uncover what ‘sinister motive’ he had and what ‘vested interest’ he was working for. ‘It’s not a personal thing,’ Weiland said. ‘Every time a reporter steps out of his way to create damage to the church…then, of course, it’s gloves off.’ ‘No one I know goes so far as to hire outsiders to harass or try to get intimidating data on critics,’ said the Rev. Robert W. Thornburg, dean of March Chapel at Boston University and an expert on destructive religious practices. ‘Scientology is the only crowd that does that.'”

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“I remember growing up in the 60’s, and this idea that all of our problems were due to suppressed subconscious desires or traumatic incidents we had ‘forgotten,’ and if some psych could make us remember we would be miraculously whole and normal again like Liz Taylor, was the concept that was being pushed on everyone. Hubbard just took the bullshit and ran with it.”

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

——————–

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] An insider’s report on David Miscavige at Scientology founder’s birthday event 2022
[TWO years ago] Danny Masterson accusers take Scientology ‘arbitration’ to California Supreme Court
[THREE years ago] The wealthy donors keeping Scientology in business, New Year’s 2020 edition
[FOUR years ago] Carol Es on 20 years in Scientology: ‘You’re programmed to think emotions are weak’
[FIVE years ago] Stop interacting with Scientology’s Internet trolls. Here’s proof it can backfire on you badly.
[SIX years ago] State investigators fired for blowing the whistle on Scientology’s rehabs get hearing in Denver
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology attorney Bert Deixler takes another swing at Karen de la Carriere
[EIGHT years ago] ‘Going Clear’: Mike Rinder helps us understand a Scientology document that will creep you out
[NINE years ago] Three weeks out of Scientology: Fresh information from a ‘blown’ Sea Org member
[TEN years ago] Blood Brother Ron: Starting Out Life on the Wrong Blackfoot
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology on the High Seas: Posing as Archaeology Students for the Sardinians

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 2,977 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,482 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,032 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,022 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,913 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,217 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,088 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,193 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,670 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,982 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,548 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,467 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,635 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,216 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,477 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,513 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,229 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,793 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,108 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,283 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,834 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,965 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,303 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,158 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,277 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,633 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,936 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,042 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,440 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,316 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,899 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,394 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,648 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,757 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 23, 2023 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.

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

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Yanti Mike Greene contempt … by Tony Ortega

Scientology private eye found guilty of contempt after judge sees alleged rape on video

Tony Ortega — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 20:50:09 +0000

[Yanti Mike Greene/Michael Moretti Ford Cruz]

Former NYPD detective and Scientology private eye Yanti Mike Greene has been found guilty of both criminal and civil contempt by a Nassau County judge after she got the chance to view video Greene had taken of an incident a woman alleges was a sexual assault.

Finding that Greene was not credible after two days of testimony that took place in June and February, Nassau Supreme Court Judge Sharon Gianelli found for plaintiffs David Smith and Susanne Gold-Smith, penalizing Greene the maximum fine for criminal contempt, $1,000, and ordering him to pay the Smiths $21,998.83 in attorneys fees, plus additional fees that will be submitted by the Smiths.

In a February hearing, Susanne’s attorney Daniel Szalkiewicz had indicated that they would be asking for more than $300,000 in total attorneys fees and costs, and it looks like Greene may be on the hook for it all.

Greene is the same private eye who described stalking Leah Remini and Jennifer Lopez in 2017 for the Church of Scientology in texts he had to turn over in the litigation. (And full disclosure: An email showed that Greene had also been hired to surveil your proprietor and his wife.)

At one time David Smith hired International Investigative Group (IIG), a private eye firm owned by TV polygraph expert Daniel Ribacoff, to follow his wife Susanne (they were split up at the time).

Greene was one of the private eyes working for Ribacoff, and for a time he was paid to follow Susanne. But the lawsuits (there are multiple) claim that Greene, as well as three other PIs working for Ribacoff, not only followed Susanne, but befriended her and, while they were on the clock, made improper advances.

Among the allegations in the litigation is that while surveilling Susanne, Greene brought her into his car in a Nassau County parking lot at about 2 am on May 17, 2018, and sexually assaulted her.

At issue in the contempt hearing was whether Greene had intentionally held back from the court the video he had shot of that incident, and an expert hired by the Smiths testified that there were several more minutes of video than what Greene had turned over to the court. (Greene asserted that Susanne had raped him, not the other way around.)

At a February hearing, Judge Gianelli actually got to see that additional footage for the first time, and we reported that she had said “Oh gosh” in a court transcript.

In today’s order, she lets on only a bit more about what she saw on that video…

“The Court, having viewed the videos, notes the video versions discovered via the forensic examination and belatedly acknowledged, show Defendant Greene in some instances giving direction to Plaintiff while Plaintiff appears to be minimally responsive.”

That’s consistent with what Susanne had testified to, that she had lost consciousness after consuming a drink Greene had given her. This is how Judge Gianelli describes it in today’s order:

Plaintiff Gold-Smith alleges that following her consumption of the beverage, she woke to find herself lying down in the back seat of Defendant Greene’s vehicle, with Defendant Greene on top of her. Plaintiff Gold-Smith alleges that she was unable to speak at the time, but recalls seeing a light from Defendant Greene’s smartphone pointed torvard her genitals, after which she fell back into an unconscious state.

Judge Gianelli also described the lies that Greene was caught in when he was examined by skillful former prosecutor Julie Rendelman, who took him apart on the witness stand, getting him to admit, for example, that he’d legally changed his name to Michael Moretti Ford Cruz during the litigation without telling anyone.

After the testimony of Joseph Caruso, the expert, to what was on the video, we asked the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office last fall if it had seen the video and had considered charging Greene criminally for sexual assault. They told us at that time that they had interviewed Ms. Gold-Smith and were not pursuing a prosecution. Now, we’ve sent them the order by Judge Gianelli to see if the DA’s office is going to take a look at the tape themselves and consider filing a case.

This is a breaking story and we’ve put out calls for comment to various people. We’ll post the order here for you to go through. Keep in mind this is only a small part of the overall litigation between the Smiths and Ribacoff’s firm, which, we are learning, has been a major spying operation for the Church of Scientology for years.

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Sign up for a daily email when we post a new story on Scientology.

Did you know you can get an email every morning when we post our daily Scientology story? We know some of the folks who come to the Underground Bunker aren’t here to talk about the politics of the day, and that’s why we created a daily politics feature over at our other blog, The Lowdown, and we ask readers to take their political discussions over there. And if you drop us a line at tonyo94 AT gmail, we’ll put you on the list so you get a morning reminder that a new Scientology story has been posted — and only for our Scientology stories.

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“A fellow made a postulate. He said, ‘I’m going to square this all up. To be a pirate. That’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to be a pirate.’ And a few trillennia later, he sees a pig going down the road with a ring in its snout. And he faints and has a heart attack. Everybody says, ‘Look at what the hot weather has done to him.’ No! The hot weather might have assisted all this, but who did it to him? He did it to himself Way back down the track he said, to be a pirate. And, of course, pirates wear rings in their noses. There it is. Who did it? He did it. Well now, you can’t go around condemning this person for having done it to himself…you don’t have to blame him if you can eradicate it. Well, all of these causations for his ‘misfortunes’ are initially and basically resident in the GPM. Now, those of yesteryear have actually far more force on him, than those of today. These items here in present time — oh, those items are terribly important. Maybe he’s sitting in something that says, ‘Women who look like beatniks.’ You know? Maybe that’s the oppterm, see…And his wife’s a very neatly dressed girl and everything else and he’s always calling her a beatnik and she never can figure it out and he never can figure it out. And here are these items here, a chronic present time problem…He knows, you see, that the source of his ulcerous condition, you see, is because he eats too much harsh food. No, no. That’s the somatic ‘all women are beatniks.’ And what does he have to be? He has to be a Turk in order to combat this in some aberrated way. Well, there’s his ulcers and there’s his opposition. And he begins to think the whole environment is against him when in actual fact it’s just ‘women are beatniks.’ He sees some uncombed hair, he gets ulcers. Bang, bang, just like that — one, two!” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 4, 1963

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“ENEMY FINANCES: I found Scientologists do not know (and the world sure doesn’t) the size and state of the enemy. For years, our orgs have made more in a week than Swersh does in a year. Two years ago Swersh was 25,000 in debt with little income in sight. Last year it was far worse. Brock Chisholen their world leader, just died, very few key figures are left. Their mouthpiece ‘The Daily Mail’ has just folded and Peter Younghusband who caused the Rhodesian upset has been sacked. We have traced their origins to 2 years before Hitler and have traced the Nazi death camps and Nazi Philosophy to this group. There were not 200,000 members at their peak. So over the world we outnumber even their rank and file 25 to one at a very low estimate. We could buy all they own out of a week’s income and never miss it. Although a few skirmishes or even battles are still ahead of us, there is now no slightest question as to who is winning this war. The Nazi Psychiatrist and Nazi psychologist will most surely go the way of the dinosaur. No, there is no question now as to who will win this war. We will.” — The Commodore, April 4, 1971

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“Now there is the problem of governments using the virus to impose totalitarian fascist states for the World Government. What are OTs going to do? (OT Kirstie Alley is commending Trump for defending the USA, flowing power to the power as described in the ‘Responsibility of Leaders Policy Letter.’) Is this a move for a One World Government, as predicted by Captain Bill Robertson in the early 90’s in his UFO Lecture? Is the solution to postulate a New Civilization? Who are the experts at postulating? The OTs. How many are aware of this?”

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2001: Reuters reported that charges have been filed against Scientology to answer charges of extortion and invasion of privacy. “Investigating magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke also notified Marc Walter, a leader of Scientology in the Paris region, that he would face trial on the same charges, in addition to false advertising. However, Van Ruymbeke dropped charges against Martine Brochard, another Scientologist. The suit was filed by three former Scientologists who accused the church of using their names and addresses on its listings after they had left the movement. Court documents said two of the three plaintiffs had been bombarded with publicity material seeking money under false pretenses. A date for the trial was not immediately set.”

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“Some of my greatest wins have come from applying the ‘you seem kind of tense’ back rub tech. Last thing we want is for the WOGs — a/k/a Women On Guard — to become aware of this wondrous technology.”

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

Criminal prosecutions:

— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next pretrial conference May 31. Trial scheduled for August 29.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Last hearing was on January 18, referred to grand jury. Additional charges also referred to grand jury after January 5 assault while in jail.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for April 8.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Found guilty of criminal and civil contempt.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Eleventh Circuit affirmed ruling granting Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Garcias considering next move.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Valerie’s motion for reconsideration denied on March 15.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Scientology has said it will file an anti-SLAPP motion.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

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We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

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

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology social media: Does an E-meter count as a concealed weapon?
[TWO years ago] Scientology, stop being so stupid during the pandemic. We have some advice for you.
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s bogus ‘arbitration’: The Garcia appeal brief is here, and it’s a beauty
[FOUR years ago] Scientology cranks up its ‘noisy’ investigation of Leah Remini, and she fires back
[FIVE years ago] David Miscavige: Scientology TV launches by June 21, to show ‘planet’s coolest religion’
[SIX years ago] THE BILLBOARD IS UP: Scientology’s ‘disconnection’ on view in Los Angeles
[SEVEN years ago] ‘Going Clear’ subject Tom DeVocht visited by Burbank PD after suspicious anonymous tip
[EIGHT years ago] Video Vault: Hear L. Ron Hubbard unite Dianetics and Scientology in connubial bliss!
[NINE years ago] The Secret to Scientology’s “Wins” Revealed?
[TEN years ago] Mike Rinder on “The Hole,” Indoctrination, Confessions, and His Ultimate Escape

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

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 2,624 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,129 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,649 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,669 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,560 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,867 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,735 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,509 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,840 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,313 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,629 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,195 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,114 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,282 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,863 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,124 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,160 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,875 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,400 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 755 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,930 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,481 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,630 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,950 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,805 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,924 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,280 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,583 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,689 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,087 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,963 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,546 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,041 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,295 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,404 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 4, 2022 at 16:50

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.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2021 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

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.