Paulette Cooper &#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

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“We’re trying to make somebody Clear. Clear of what? Clear of his reactive bank. Now, Freud said that man had an unconscious or a reconscious or something of the sort which was subconscious under the underconscious. He thought there was something there and it was inhabited by a beast known as the censor, who kept the fellows from pulling a social faux pas. And when the censor was asleep or nulled or something of the sort by drugs, why, the fellow would do antisocial acts, and that was the whole explanation of the human mind, except it was all caused by sex. I hope you’re following me closely. But anyhow, we are actually indebted to Papa Freud, because he did say out loud that there was some kind of a mind that was kicking back on somebody. He didn’t really discover the reactive mind; we did.” — L. Ron Hubbard, July 26, 1966

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“SMERSH: Smersh just lost half of its suit on us. It was suing us for defamation of its character. The sum of the result will probably be the judge’s question ‘What character?’ Part of the evidence of the next part of the suit was a restricted issue of an Ed they stole out of an org! ‘What character?’ Charles Parselle is doing a great job on Legal in the UK. The Guardian’s Office is going at its usual TERRIFIC! over the world.” — The Commodore, July 26, 1971

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“LRH seems to have been here some centillion years. On the other hand, very big beings are here and their invalidative vibrations probably affect us. And don’t forget the entities that attach to the thetan here.”

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1997: Lawrence Wollersheim reported that FACTNet has rejected a $12 million settlement offer from Scientology. “I went to L.A. for two days about ten weeks ago and met with Monique Yingling (of the law firm of Yingling and Yingling of Washington D.C.), Marty Rathbun, and Mike Rinder. We continued to negotiate for the next four weeks. The basics of what Scientology sees in their minds as restrictions reciprocally and equally binding on both parties and a peace with dignity are as follows: That the non-profit free speech library and historic preservational archive called FACTNet be taken off the Internet and closed forever. That all FACTNet library databases containing electronic books, articles court decisions, government reports and former member debriefings about Scientology (or any other cultic organizations) contained in those databases be completely destroyed. That a total gag order be agreed to by Bob, Arnie, and Lawrence so that they can never again speak out about Scientology. That Bob, Arnie, and Lawrence are never again permitted to assist anyone in any manner trying to fight or expose Scientology. That Bob, Arnie, and Lawrence are never permitted to testify at any legal proceeding or government investigation or serve as expert witnesses concerning Scientology without service of a real adverse subpoena. That no money from the 12 million dollar package settlement could go to anyone continuing to fight or educate in any way against Scientology. That FACTNet return Scientology’s court-submitted financial records and all copies of their ‘advanced trade secret’ materials and non-original copyrighted materials. That humiliating false and self-incriminating public statements be made that imply that the FACTNet research on Scientology’s problem with members going psychotic or attempting or committing suicide while involved with their bizarre initiation rituals is not credible. That we falsely state in a public statement that FACTNet existed exclusively and solely for anti-Scientology activities. They also wanted an ‘agreement violation’ damage clause that could eventually amount to a flat penalty of $750,000 in damages against us every time they proved we have violated ANY term of the agreement no matter how inconsequentially and without showing any real damage to themselves. And finally, while Scientology corporations and fronts not bound by this agreement could sue us back to the Stone Age for alleged violations or anything else they could and would dream up, we of course, are still bound by every single other term of the agreement as far as restricting us from speaking out or working against Scientology. Scientology wanted all the Hubbard family heirs’ names included in our deal so that all probate actions to examine the fraudulent asset transfers away from the Hubbard family heirs to David Miscavige’s and Starkey’s control would be stopped. Early on in the discussion, Scientology wanted a statement retracting all statements that Miscavige’s mother-in-law’s suicide/murder might have had any connection to David Miscavige or Scientology. Scientology has once again conclusively shown me it has not changed one iota from the entrapping Gerry Armstrong, Margie Wakefield, Flynn type settlement strategies. In fact it has gotten worse in its settlement demands.”

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“Jan Eastgate is the Myra Hindley of scientology. She looks just like her.”

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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:
— 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 August 1.
— 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] Scientology tried to destroy her, but Paulette Cooper is living her best life
[TWO years ago] Miss Lovely tells us she has a birthday wish this year, and it’s about Mr. Lovely
[THREE years ago] Leah Remini blames Tom Cruise for the spiking of Aussie Scientology investigation
[FOUR years ago] Happy Birthday, Miss Lovely! And look what Paulette Cooper gave herself for a gift
[FIVE years ago] Paulette Cooper turns 76: ‘I found my best friend from the orphanage — from 70 years ago’
[SIX years ago] Paulette Cooper at 75: Still unbreakable, and still Miss Lovely
[SEVEN years ago] Hungarian tabloid’s wacky claim: Shit poured on Scientology’s leader in Budapest protest
[EIGHT years ago] Happy Birthday, Miss Lovely: A tribute to the dauntless and unbreakable Paulette Cooper
[NINE years ago] Scientology surrenders — at least partially — in seven lawsuits against its rehab network
[TEN years ago] Scientology, Your Proprietor, and the Airwaves
[ELEVEN years ago] Jamie DeWolf, L. Ron Hubbard Great-Grandson, Gaining More Notoriety for His Views on Scientology
[TWELVE years ago] Tad Reeves: More Scenes from the Life of a Scientologist

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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 3,102 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,617 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,167 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,157 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,038 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,342 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,213 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,318 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,765 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,107 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,673 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,592 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,759 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,341 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,602 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,638 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,354 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,918 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,233 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,408 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,959 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,090 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,428 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,283 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,402 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,758 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 7,061 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,167 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,565 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,441 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,024 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,519 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,773 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,882 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 26, 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.

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, 1995-2022 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)

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

Tony Ortega at Rolling Stone

Scientology tried to destroy her, but Paulette Cooper is living her best life

Tony Ortega — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 11:00:02 +0000

We love catching up with Paulette Cooper on her birthday, because she always has fabulous things to catch us up on.

This was the great contrast we lived with during the years we were working with her to write a book about her incredible life: At the same time that she had lived through harrowing adventures — surviving the Holocaust as a child while her parents did not, and in her adult years being the target of Scientology’s most storied and sustained program of terror — despite those terrible and terrifying experiences, Paulette is living and enjoying a fabulous life.

She always has projects in various stages, whether it’s books she’s published or talks she’s giving or lavish balls she’s attending. And she and her husband Paul Noble seem to know just everyone, and so they are invited to everything. And who wouldn’t want them at their event? Paul’s dry wit is legendary, and Paulette makes you feel like you’re fortunate to be part of her adventure.

For her birthday this year, she’s going with Paul to St. Augustine, Florida. And she shared with us a photo from a recent vacation to show us that they are still living it up, as they always do.

And we have a favor to ask of our readers. You know that Paulette gets into the comments from time to time. Tell her your favorite anecdote about her adventures, whether you’ve read our book The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, or her own book about herself, The Perils of Paulette, so she can see how much she means to the Bunker community.

Which birthday is this for Paulette? Well, it’s a big one. She was born in Nazi-occupied Antwerp on July 26, 1942. We’ll let you do the math!

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Hey, let’s celebrate Paulette’s birthday with some Scientology propaganda!

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Technology Cocktail

“GOAL: ‘To Sneeze’, which is used as an example.
Line One: Who or what would want to sneeze?
Line Two: Who or what would oppose sneezing?
Line Three: Who or what would not oppose sneezing?
Line Four: Who or what would not want to sneeze?
Line Five: Who or what would sneeze?
Line Six: Who or what would not sneeze?
Line Seven: Who or what would oppose opposition to sneezing?
Line Eight: Who or what would pull back somebody or something from sneezing?
Line Nine: Who or what would want to be sneezed at?
Line Ten: Who or what would oppose being sneezed at?
Line Eleven: Who or what would not oppose being sneezed at?
Line Twelve: Who or what would not want to be sneezed at?

Line Thirteen: Who or what would be sneezed at?
Line Fourteen: Who or what would not be sneezed at?
Line Fifteen: Who or what would cause somebody or something to be sneezed at?” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1962

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Scientology Files, part 5

This weekend, the fifth episode in the Scientology Files series was posted. Here’s a summary from our man in Hungary, Peter Bonyai: “The subject of this episode is the world of Scientology business clubs and business consultants. Our guest has never been a Scientologist, but for a while, he was a member of a business club ran by Scientologists. He will recount his personal experiences, talk about the infamous ‘jedi training’ offered by a Scientologist consultant, and you will find out whether the same abuses are committed in these business clubs which usually propel the Church of Scientology into the headlines.”

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“The Internet is an excellent way to collect up identities and to offer such identities books and services. But going internationally, targeting new people to Scientology is an entirely different game. The Miscavige problem would have to be under control. The Church image, or rather Scientology image internationally speaking, has to be rehabilitated first and Scientology re-positioned in the public’s mind. A lot of PR work would have to be accomplished first on the media, and the church and Miscavige positioned as something entirely different than the original tenets of LRH. In other words, as not Scientology. Then the general public, at least 80 percent of them, would support the Independent Movement as something really representing greater freedom for the individual.”

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1995: Helena Kobrin, lawyer in charge of harassment for the Church of Scientology, was busy this week sending threatening letters to a.r.s posters for quoting 5 lines from the OT7 document. New recipients this week include Bruce J. Bell, Blind Carlos, Maggie Council, ‘Jesse Garon’, James J. Lippard, Old Salt, Doctorb Science, Tony Sidaway, Tim Skirvin, Keith Spurgeon, Steve, Donna Stuckert, and TarlaStar.

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“Jan Eastgate is the Myra Hindley of scientology. She looks just like her.”

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Trial scheduled for October 11, pretrial conference August 17.
— ‘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: Readiness hearing scheduled for August 22 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for September 19.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Found guilty of criminal and civil contempt.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court, Scientology moving to compel arbitration.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Selection of arbitrators underway. Next court hearing: February 2, 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, next status hearing October 25. Scientology petitioning US Supreme Court over appellate ruling.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for December 6.
— 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.

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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!

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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Miss Lovely tells us she has a birthday wish this year, and it’s about Mr. Lovely
[TWO years ago] Leah Remini blames Tom Cruise for the spiking of Aussie Scientology investigation
[THREE years ago] Happy Birthday, Miss Lovely! And look what Paulette Cooper gave herself for a gift
[FOUR years ago] Paulette Cooper turns 76: ‘I found my best friend from the orphanage — from 70 years ago’
[FIVE years ago] Paulette Cooper at 75: Still unbreakable, and still Miss Lovely
[SIX years ago] Hungarian tabloid’s wacky claim: Shit poured on Scientology’s leader in Budapest protest
[SEVEN years ago] Happy Birthday, Miss Lovely: A tribute to the dauntless and unbreakable Paulette Cooper
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology surrenders — at least partially — in seven lawsuits against its rehab network
[NINE years ago] Scientology, Your Proprietor, and the Airwaves
[TEN years ago] Jamie DeWolf, L. Ron Hubbard Great-Grandson, Gaining More Notoriety for His Views on Scientology
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology Apocalypse! Mark Bunker and Marty Rathbun Reveal Their Ties

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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 2,737 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,242 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,792 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,782 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,673 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,978 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,848 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,622 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,953 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,426 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,742 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,308 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,227 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,395 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,975 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,237 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,273 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,988 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,513 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 868 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,043 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,594 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,743 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,063 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,918 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,037 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,393 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,696 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,802 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,200 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,076 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,659 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,154 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,408 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,517 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 26, 2022 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, 1995-2021 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.

The Perils of Paulette: My life as a Stowaway, Tabloid Reporter, Travel Writer, Scientology-Basher, Holocaust Survivor & More

Paulette Cooper writes her own story: Her struggle against Scientology and so much more

Paulette Cooper — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 12:00:56 +0000

You’ve probably (hopefully) read Tony’s book The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, and perhaps you’ve seen me on Leah’s great show, or you know my story from another source. But I have finally finished writing up the story of me and Scientology along with several other interesting tales about my life. It’s all in my new just-out memoir.

As you can see, there’s much more than just Scientology in there, which is about a quarter of the book, or 60 pages. The Scientology section has a lot of stories you haven’t heard. But you probably don’t know about most of the rest of what’s happened in my very unusual life and I hope you will buy the book – which has 55 color photos – and learn about it.

You can buy it on Amazon (put in “The Perils of Paulette”) as a paperback for $24.95 (plus tax).

You can also buy it as an e-book for $9.95

Or, you can buy the paperback directly from me [PauletteC AT aol] for the same $24.95 as Amazon and I’ll autograph it and send it to you. (Cash, checks, Paypal, and credit cards accepted.) It will take you a couple of weeks to receive it.

Enjoy the book! (You will, I promise.)

— Paulette Cooper

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Jane Doe 1’s new attorney paperwork comes through

A month ago we told you the surprising news that Jane Doe 1, one of the women who are suing Danny Masterson and Scientology in civil court and testifying against Masterson in his criminal case, had hired a new attorney to represent her.

She was dropping the vaunted Philly crew that had brought three lawsuits against Scientology in 2019 which subsequently ran into rough waters. One of the lawsuits was dropped outright, and the other two were derailed by successful motions for “arbitration” by Scientology. But then the lawsuit filed by Jane Doe 1 and four others against Scientology and Danny Masterson was revived by a stunning appellate decision in January. With the case back on track, Jane Doe 1 sought new representation.

We reported that she had hired a real heavy hitter: Bradley Edwards (pictured), a Fort Lauderdale attorney who represented some of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and helped bring down the predator financier.

Unlike the Philly team, Edwards’ firm, Edwards Pottinger, is licensed to practice in California and won’t need to hire a local stringer to file briefs. Edwards’ law partner, J. Stanley Pottinger, filed the paperwork this week to represent Jane Doe 1.

We emailed Edwards to ask about the case. We’d like to know if he’ll need to file pro hac vice to be formally admitted to the court in Los Angeles.

We expect, of course, that Scientology will oppose this, and it will be interesting to see what justification they come up with.

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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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“Way back here at origin, you get the first separation from theta. And that actually would be Incident One…It’s very patterned, and you can run it without much trouble. It simply consists of this: The race, with its bodies and so forth, inhabiting a place in THIS universe, a planet in this universe, was hit by, infiltrated by, an incoming race…This invader race came in and says – with a lot of electronics and said, ‘Boys, all you’ve got to do is take this little jim-dandy whizzer, and you know, you will be twice as thetesque as before.’ They sold you all a bill of goods…They knocked us off with a very simple apparatus, and that simple apparatus consisted of something that went around your head and across the top of your head and under your chin — under your throat — and back of your head. And everything pointed at the pineal. They turned on the juice…and your mystic powers more or less went by the boards…Long time later, maybe even a million years later, you eventually wound up before another crew. And this other crew said, ‘We don’t want you around anymore, and we’re going to send you to jail.’ And so they packaged you up and shipped you off, and that is an incident we call Before Earth — B.E….But there’s a race existing right now out in outer space, and this race is not very interested in you, not very interested. And some of you, by the way, without much trouble, can do a contact across, because some of your theta line stayed out there….I’m sorry if it stretches your credulity. I do hope, however, that it doesn’t stretch it to the point where you won’t operate on it.” — L. Ron Hubbard, March 10, 1952

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“Margo Clarke is to work 48 hours in the Income Dept preparing statements to become familiar with the rundown. INCOME IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN DISBURSEMENT. Liz Ausley is to act as Temporary Purser, check out on the new P/L on org boards and do a proper org board for Div III FAO. The WHY of any FAO disorganization or slow forming has been traced to lack of knowledge on how to post an org bd as covered by the new P/L.” — The Commodore, March 10, 1971

——————–

“People have arrived at different times on Earth ranging from the initial invasion of this part of the universe 4 billion to 5 billion years ago to the last 10,000 years up to PT. All the neighbouring civilisations including Markab, the Pleiades and Orion through Aldebaran to Sirius and countless more have been conquered, mined, cloned, implanted and programmed from 5 billion years ago up to the present date. As far as ETs go in this vicinity, there are only heirarchies of power based upon technology and OT Programming. There is no help, except from ourselves. OTIII is a recent effect-point incident which may be classed as a basic lock at Unwilling Effect. There is an 8 point Effect to Cause sequence from Unwilling Effect to Knowing Cause. When this Cause-Effect Sequence is resolved to basic, the natural EP originated is ‘Cause over Life.’ This is below the level of resolution of Right/Wrong Assignments, Substitutes, Reversals, Inversions and Compromised Theta Principles which resolve the subjective level of address.”

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1998: A German news crew flew a helicopter over Scientology’s Hemet, California base. From the Presse-Enterprise: “Federal aviation officials are investigating a complaint filed by the Church of Scientology alleging that a helicopter hired by two Germans flew too close to its school behind the Soboba Indian Reservation. The Germans, who authorities said were television reporters, later were involved in a confrontation with Scientology officials outside the school in which both sides arrested each other. Ken Hoden, general manager of the church’s Golden Era Productions, said Monday’s incident was related to the problems Scientologists have in Germany. He described the helicopter’s action as ‘a total disregard’ for the privacy and safety of the children who attend the Castile Canyon School. Scientologists believe two passengers in the helicopter were the same people who posed as German vacationers during a public tour of the church’s complex in Gilman Hot Springs on Sunday, Hoden said. They left after Hoden said he started questioning their motives because they matched the description of a couple who earlier had been ‘harassing’ the church’s headquarters in Los Angeles. Pilot Steve DeJesus said the Germans originally said they wanted to rent the helicopter to take photographs of the Soboba Indian Reservation east of San Jacinto. He said he flew within a safe distance of 300 to 500 feet above the school, disputing Scientologists’ claims that he came within 50 to 150 feet. ‘We didn’t fly over any people or over any buildings,’ DeJesus said. The children went into the buildings as soon as the helicopter appeared, he said. Arrested on trespassing charges were Ina Brockmann, 33, and Peter Reichelt, 40, both of Mannheim, Germany. Arrested on false imprisonment charges were Hoden, 51, Scientologist cameraman Francois Dejust, 35, school security guard Uwe Stuckenbrock, 34, and church employee Henry Batterton, 39.”

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“I think right now Katie’s main goal is to get Suri acclimated to the real world and to not give Tom and Bert any ammo for a new custody suit. Can you imagine if Katie got caught smoking pot or something else fairly innocuous to most sane people?”

——————–

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.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference March 25 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: Hearing held on February 15, awaiting ruling.

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 asks for March 15 hearing on motion for reconsideration.
— 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.

——————–

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] If Danny Masterson’s accusers take lawsuit to Calif. supreme court, they will have issues
[TWO years ago] Scientology mail contract worth $5 million a year says firm suing a former employee
[THREE years ago] A new drug shows promise for depression, so naturally Scientology is fighting it
[FOUR years ago] Mike Rinder answers questions about the new ‘Aftermath Foundation’
[FIVE years ago] Louis Farrakhan, Leah Remini, and a document that helps explain the Scientology-NOI pact
[SIX years ago] Reporter’s notebook: Scientology’s latest intimidation attempt is sadly familiar
[SEVEN years ago] Scenes from a ‘Going Clear’ screening — Alex Gibney at the True/False Festival
[EIGHT years ago] ‘Mad Men’ actress Elisabeth Moss’s record in Scientology is actually easy to obtain
[NINE years ago] Hurry, Scientology Needs Your PR Help!
[TEN years ago] Scientology Intervention: Commenters of the Week!

——————–

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 2,599 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,104 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,624 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,644 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,535 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,842 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,710 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,484 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,815 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,288 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,604 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,170 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,089 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,257 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,838 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,099 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,135 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,850 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,375 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 730 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,905 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,456 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,605 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,925 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,780 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,899 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,255 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,558 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,664 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,062 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,938 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,521 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,016 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,270 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,379 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on March 10, 2022 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.

He was Scientology ‘I/C’ — ‘in charge’ — of Paulette Cooper’s harassment. And now he’s dead.

Tony Ortega — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 11:00:39 +0000

[Paul Pflueger and his target, Paulette Cooper]

When we were doing the reporting for our 2015 book The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, we did our best to find Scientologists who might finally come forward and talk about what they put Paulette through from 1969 to 1985 during one of the most frightening campaigns of “Fair Game” harassment of a journalist the church ever unleashed.

Thanks to help from various sources, we did manage to find some people who took part in Paulette’s surveillance back in the day. In particular, we had the great experience of getting to know the lovely and gracious Len Zinberg, who did some volunteering for Scientology’s Guardian’s Office in the early 1970s in New York. He told us about being assigned to watch Paulette’s comings and goings at her apartment, and as we were researching our book he reached out to Paulette to apologize for what he had done.

We also managed to track down the man who went by the name “Don Alverzo” in the Guardian’s Office, and who portrayed another character, “Jerry Levin,” when he managed to convince Paulette to let him share her apartment for a while so the church could keep tabs on her. That man is now living in Long Island, and we got him on the telephone. He pretended that he didn’t know what we were talking about.

There was also another tantalizing lead, and it’s the reason we’re writing this follow up story today. While we were researching Scientology’s numerous operations against Paulette, we learned that back at headquarters in Los Angeles they literally had a unit dedicated to keeping track of all the dirty tricks schemes and lawsuits being thrown at her. Yes, there was a “Paulette Cooper Unit” at Scientology, and we learned the name of the man whose title was, believe it or not, “Cooper I/C.”

“I/C” is one of those cute Scientology acronyms that you get used to pretty quickly researching this stuff. It simply means the person “in charge.”

We learned the name of the man who had at one time been Cooper I/C, and we called him up. That resulted in the following passage in our book…

…talking with about a dozen former GO agents, it became obvious to me that even after 40 years, some of them had changed little in their attitudes about Paulette Cooper. Although some of them were entirely out of Scientology and had gained some perspective on their previous activities, repeatedly they said that Cooper was still someone they reviled.
“She didn’t deserve to be treated the way she was, but she’s a bad person,” one former GO operative said.
Another person, who had been the “Cooper I/C” – the person “in charge” of Scientology’s litigation with Paulette – said he couldn’t understand why a book would be written about her. “She’s not important,” he said, before asking never to be called again and hanging up the telephone.

It was especially disappointing to receive that reaction from former GO operatives who were no longer involved in the Church of Scientology. Why were they still holding on to their secrets?

We honored Mr. Cooper I/C’s request and never did call him back.

But now we’ve learned for the first time that this person died at the end of 2018, and so we can now reveal his identity. His name was Paul Pflueger.

Unfortunately, we never got to hear from Pflueger himself what his journey in Scientology was like, particularly when he was overseeing the operation against Paulette in the early 1980s. But we’re very fortunate that we received this report from someone who knew Pflueger very well in that period.

Paul was born in 1946 and was raised in Washington state and got into Scientology around the early 1970s. He later joined the Guardian’s Office (GO), where he was trained to be the equivalent of a litigation paralegal. At some point during this time period, L. Ron Hubbard personally awarded Paul auditing on certain processes called “Power” and “Power Plus.”
This was considered to be a big honor, because it was rare to be awarded auditing – the usual thing was to give someone training awards, but the old man considered that Paul had made some great contribution to the group and deserved auditing.
The GO, like its successor the Office of Special Affairs (OSA), was a network – it had international headquarters (WW or “worldwide” which was in the UK; each “continent” also had its headquarters, and each local org had a staff of GO people). The USGO was the “headquarters” for the US.
Paul had been posted for a couple of years in the USGO in Los Angeles; around 1979, he was sent out “on mission” to work with the GO staffers in the NY org. He headed up the Legal Bureau of the NY GO and had a couple of juniors who worked with him. He used to say that his job was to “run the attorneys.” That is the “wog” attorneys who were working for the Church, and he knew them all very well – Eric Lieberman and whoever else was working for the Church in NYC at the time.
In early 1981, Paul was called back to the USGO in LA for around a month to get “briefed” on what was to become the “Cooper Unit.” He returned to the USGO in July 1981 and became the I/C (“in-charge”) of that unit because of his extensive knowledge of all litigation and other matters related to Paulette Cooper. Scott Reily was also posted there as “Cooper 2nd” (i.e. Paul’s junior). They had at least one volunteer who used to come to their office regularly to do filing.
Paul remained on that post until the GO was busted and all GO staffers hit the decks; the GO was being overhauled at that point to re-emerge as OSA. Typically, the Church would apply “heavy ethics” to staff members in that situation, and Paul was Comm Ev’ed (put through a sort of Scientology court martial); there were recommendations to declare him a Suppressive Person (SP).
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The Comm Ev had found that Paul was guilty of “attorney overspends.” In other words, he authorized the “wog” law firms to do certain work for the church without putting in the standard “Purchase Orders” in advance that had to be approved by the finance committee of the church at their weekly meetings.
Paul justified this by saying that in litigation, you have to work fast and attack the opposition, and that it was impossible to achieve that kind of result with the whole Church purchase order system, so he bypassed it and simply ordered the attorneys to take specific actions in the various matters they were handling. (The “overspends” amounted to around $8,000 but they made a huge deal out of this in disciplining Paul.)
Later there was a Review Comm Ev that ditched the original recommendations, taking into account the fact that Hubbard had awarded him auditing. Ultimately Paul was given a couple of free intensives of the auditing processes du jour (every few years, these kept changing).
When his two free intensives were used up, the church tried to reg Paul for more auditing, but he refused.
That was the end of Paul’s involvement in Scientology.

The intense and varied harassment campaign against Paulette had started in 1969, and many, many Scientologists were involved in it over the years. Pflueger only came on to oversee it relatively late in the process. But as his friend points out, he was thoroughly versed in the history of the litigation against her, and could have been a goldmine about the strategies against her.

Like so many who do Scientology’s dirty work, however, it only resulted in Pflueger’s own scapegoating. Years later, we gave him the chance to speak with us for the book we were writing, but he turned us away.

“It’s a shame that he died with his secrets,” Paulette tells us. “But there’s still time for others to come forward and tell us what they know. I’ve waited almost 50 years to know the full truth.”

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

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“Anderson, Q.C., Melbourne inquiry. Complete gibbering psychotic idiot. Up to the gills with R-6. ‘Scientology must be wrong, because we cannot explain where all the new bodies come from. All the new spirits. Where would all the new spirits come from if everybody had a spirit, why, where would all the new spirits come from, huh?’ Actually, what he didn’t realize, this silly ass — he was disproving Catholicism. Catholicism claims there’s one spirit per body, so he was asking some silly little kid question that is asked of his own religion, Catholicism. And yet he was busy hanging Scientology because it couldn’t… You get the irrationality of it? The man occupies a perfectly valid position. He’s looked on. He’s a Queens’ consulate. Actually he’s just a gibbering idiot. You probably couldn’t even catch him to get a straight jacket on him.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 9, 1968

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“SECURE THE PORT: We are very popular in this port. Were publicized heavily before arrival. Snap up the PR. Get out your white uniforms for watches and good clothes for the beach. Make a splash here. We’ll be here 3-4 days and will push to make it heavy PR.” — The Commodore, October 9, 1970

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“I live in Perth Australia which including myself has a grand total of 3 independents that are actually doing anything and no organisation to speak of. One day I’ll be the Captain of this city but not today.”

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1999: An affidavit by Scientology leader David Miscavige was posted to a.r.s this week. It was filed in the Wollersheim case, in which Lawrence Wollersheim is attempting to have Scientology pay a multi-million dollar judgment, even after bankrupting the Church of Scientology of California. “A great deal has been made of my role and authority in the Scientology religion because of my position as RTC’s Chairman of the Board. Let me emphasize that I am not ‘Chairman of Scientology.’ It is RTC, as a whole, that is responsible for the orthodoxy of the Scientology faith. It then follows that as Chairman of RTC, its most senior executive, I am entrusted with the ecclesiastical position that has the highest scriptural authority within the religion. My authority derives exclusively from that position and extends no further than RTC’s mission. In summary, my job is to ensure RTC carries out its function of assuring the orthodox and proper use of the Scientology religious ‘technology.’ My duties are completely unrelated to, and I do not participate in, the ecclesiastic governance of the many churches of Scientology around the world. That function is performed by Church of Scientology International. As Chairman of RTC, I am not the ‘successor’ to L. Ron Hubbard. Plaintiff attempts to mislead the Court regarding Mr. Hubbard’s and my role in the religion. Mr. Hubbard was the Founder of the religion and the sole Source of its Scripture. In that capacity, he will never have a ‘successor’…”

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“This place is nuts, but not half as nuts as YouTube. It’s just a little bit more serious and astute and friendly.”

——————–

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next hearing set for November 10. Trial tentatively scheduled for February.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference December 17 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for November 19.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30, 2020 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ US Supreme Court denied Valerie’s petition Oct 4.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments scheduled for November 2.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28, 2022.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 23. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.

——————–

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 BLACK OPS, Episode 10: Bryan Seymour wraps up his series axed by Seven News
[TWO years ago] CLEARWATER APOCALYPSE! No, not really. But let’s help Scientology run its new board
[THREE years ago] What it was like last night at Scientology’s Los Angeles TV ‘season’ premiere party
[FOUR years ago] BLOCKBUSTER EXCLUSIVE: It turns out the National Enquirer is blowing smoke again
[FIVE years ago] EXCLUSIVE: Recent deaths of Scientology rehab staffers points to ongoing problem
[SIX years ago] The Scientology-Ireland connection that propelled Cathriona White to Hollywood
[SEVEN years ago] Ryan Hamilton files two more federal lawsuits against Scientology’s drug rehab network
[EIGHT years ago] Anonymous and Craigslist: Proof that Scientology Knows It’s Under Attack

——————–

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 2,448 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,953 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,473 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,493 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,384 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,691 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,559 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,333 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,663 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,137 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,453 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,019 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,938 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,106 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,687 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,948 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,985 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,699 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,224 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 579 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,754 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,305 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,454 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,774 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,629 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,748 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,104 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,407 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,513 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,911 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,787 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,370 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,865 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,119 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,228 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 9, 2021 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

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.

Miss Lovely tells us she has a birthday wish this year, and it’s about Mr. Lovely

Paulette Cooper — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 11:00:39 +0000

[Paul Noble and Paulette Cooper Noble]

Today Miss Lovely herself, Paulette Cooper, turns 79 years old. This year, she had a message for us that we were not expecting. We’ll let her tell the story.

It’s been quite a week. Monday Paul suddenly began to shake uncontrollably as if he was shaking a martini. His temperature shot up and what was really scary was his oxygen level (I have an oximeter at home) was at 85 when it should be 96-98.

I called an ambulance and at the hospital they took a fast Covid test (which they admitted had questionable reliability) and it was negative, but they thought from the symptoms he had Covid and put him in a Covid ward. They wasted the first day in the hospital waiting for results from a second, more reliable PCR test which came in negative. They said that while Paul’s symptoms were definitely that of Covid, they said they had only one patient who had been totally vaccinated (as we are) who came in to the hospital had been as sick as Paul was so that’s comforting about the vaccine working.

They took him off the Covid ward (where, by the way, patients are not allowed to leave their rooms) and he only got the diagnosis yesterday — after he went through a life-threatening situation — that he had impacted gallstones blocking his bile duct and needed immediate surgery. But until today we couldn’t get a top doctor because they were all here at the hospital treating all the Covid patients.

Through the help of a big doctor in town I wrote about a few years ago, he finally got us the top surgeon at this hospital. They decided to try an endoscopy this afternoon where they go down your throat and try to pull the stone out. So the bad news is the endoscopy this afternoon failed. Yes, they got out the big stone out that was risking Paul’s life, so that’s the good news. But there are smaller stones in there so they had to do emergency surgery Sunday morning to remove the entire gallbladder.

The good news is that they think it will be laparoscopic, which is far less dangerous than major surgery (especially on someone Paul’s age), with a far shorter recovery period.

He’s been in a lot of pain along with many uncomfortable tests this week but, as always, his spirit is good and the funny thing is that on the second day before he got the correct diagnosis, Paul ruefully said “I have a feeling I’m going to leave the hospital without my gallbladder.”

So my birthday present this year is his imminent recovery!

— Paulette Cooper

[Paul awaits surgery and catches up on the news.]

A few hours later she sent us this update:

Surgery successful. Am with him now! Coming home tomorrow hopefully. Best birthday present ever!

Today’s update:

A scare yesterday so they wouldn’t release him but better now so they will today for my birthday.

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2001: Judge Thomas E. Penick this week issued a permanent injunction to replace the temporary injunctions against Scientology and protesters in Clearwater. “The Defendants have frequently picketed, protested, and demonstrated at the Plaintiffs facilities in Pinellas County, and Clearwater, in particular. Both sides have and continue to expend vast numbers of hours videotaping and ‘spying’ on each other. Such acts have heightened the tensions and frictions between the parties. During these picketing events, physical confrontations have erupted between the parties. When violence breaks out, the Clearwater Police have had to expend many work hours and taxpayers’ dollars to return peace and tranquility to the community. The frequency of the involvement of the Clearwater Police has constantly grown…A permanent injunction is entered against the defendants, Robert S. Minton, Jr., Lisa McPherson Trust, Inc,, Jesse Prince, Grady Ward, Stacy Brooks, Jeff Jacobsen, Patricia Greenway, Peter Alexander, Mark Bunker and Tory Bezazian, their members, officers, agents, servants, employees and those persons and entities in actual concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of this injunction, enjoining them from picketing, protesting, and/or demonstrating in the areas designated in BLUE (the ‘prohibited zones’) on the diagrams of certain properties owned and/or operated by the Church, and from engaging in any of the aforementioned activities within ten feet of any entrance or exit actually used frequently on a daily basis to all Church property.”

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“Jan Eastgate is the Myra Hindley of Scientology. She looks just like her.”

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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 hearing set for August 9. Trial tentatively scheduled for early November.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference August 21 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Sept 9.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition to US Supreme Court submitted on May 26. Scientology responded on June 25.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments scheduled for Oct 5.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.

Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.

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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!

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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Leah Remini blames Tom Cruise for the spiking of Aussie Scientology investigation
[TWO years ago] Happy Birthday, Miss Lovely! And look what Paulette Cooper gave herself for a gift
[THREE years ago] Paulette Cooper turns 76: ‘I found my best friend from the orphanage — from 70 years ago’
[FOUR years ago] Paulette Cooper at 75: Still unbreakable, and still Miss Lovely
[FIVE years ago] Hungarian tabloid’s wacky claim: Shit poured on Scientology’s leader in Budapest protest
[SIX years ago] Happy Birthday, Miss Lovely: A tribute to the dauntless and unbreakable Paulette Cooper
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology surrenders — at least partially — in seven lawsuits against its rehab network
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology, Your Proprietor, and the Airwaves
[NINE years ago] Jamie DeWolf, L. Ron Hubbard Great-Grandson, Gaining More Notoriety for His Views on Scientology
[TEN years ago] Scientology Apocalypse! Mark Bunker and Marty Rathbun Reveal Their Ties

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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 2,373 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,878 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,398 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,418 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,309 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,616 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,484 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,258 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,588 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,062 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,378 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,944 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,863 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,031 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,612 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,873 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,911 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,624 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,149 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 504 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,679 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,230 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,379 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,699 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,554 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,673 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,029 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,332 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,438 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,840 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,712 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,295 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,790 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,044 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,153 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 26, 2021 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

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

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Leah Remini’s podcast: Paulette Cooper, Scientology’s ‘OG of Fair Game victims’

Tony Ortega — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 10:00:31 +0000

[Paulette in 1971, when her book about Scientology came out]

We already told you how excited we were to find out that Paulette Cooper had talked to Leah Remini for her new podcast, and in that story we provided a lengthy excerpt from our 2015 book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.

Now the podcast episode itself is out, and we’ve embedded it for you here so you can hear Paulette tell her own story of how she became, in the words of Mike Rinder, “the OG of Fair Game victims.”

What a treat this show is. And no matter how many times we’ve heard it, we’re still astonished by what Paulette went through after daring to write a critical book about L. Ron Hubbard and his movement, The Scandal of Scientology, in 1971. Sued 19 times by Scientology, from the end of 1969 until a court settlement in 1985, Paulette was the target of the most elaborate, repetitive, nasty, and most relentless campaign of Scientology intimidation and psychological warfare in history.

We’ll just expand on a couple of things that Paulette brought up during the show. First, right from the start she refers to one of our favorite experiences with her, which our longest-suffering readers know well, and that’s how we helped Paulette discover details about her own Holocaust past.

When we started digging into Paulette’s story for the first time in 2011 while editing the Village Voice, we were struck by how many gaps there were not only in what was online about Paulette’s history, but also what she didn’t know herself. Even Wikipedia, for example, repeated the mistaken idea that she’d been born in Auschwitz at the Nazi concentration camp there. She was actually born in Belgium, and her parents Chaim and Ruchla Bucholc were each, in 1942, separately sent to Auschwitz to their deaths. Paulette and her sister Suzy were also supposed to be sent to the camp, but somehow they had escaped that fate. But how? Even Paulette didn’t know.

Fortunately, after we first raised that question in a story at the Voice, within a day that question was raised by newspapers in Belgium, and soon Paulette heard from a man there who believed his father had helped rescue the girls from Nazi extermination. That led us to other evidence that helped us put together the chapter in Unbreakable about how a Nazi camp commander was bribed enough in money and goods to agree to have the girls smuggled to an orphanage rather than be shipped to Auschwitz. (We even managed to track down a photo of that commander, Philipp Schmitt, and his German Shephard, Lump.)

Another thing we wanted to follow up on was the discussion that Paulette, Leah, and Mike get into about “R2-45.” They didn’t explain the origin of this notorious Scientology policy by L. Ron Hubbard, that during a lecture in Philadelphia and referring to “R2,” one of Hubbard’s arcane theories about Scientology processing that involved “exteriorization” — the spirit leaving the body and perceiving things independent of that body — he created a scene by pulling out a pistol and fired it into the stage. He called this “R2-45” and said it was a quick way to make sure the spirit left a body. A joke, right? Well, except that later Hubbard targeted enemies of Scientology by saying they were subject to R2-45, and it didn’t appear to be a joke at all.

Was Hubbard really saying that there was a policy for murder in Scientology? We’ve written about how, while some took this as a joke, the people who were then subject to the threat of R2-45 didn’t see it as a joke at all. New documents we unearthed with the help of researcher R.M. Seibert demonstrated that in the 1960s, the threat of R2-45 was used as an intimidation method against such Scientology defectors as Jack Horner and Charles Berner.

Here’s what we said about it in a 2017 story…

Until now, debates about R2-45 — Hubbard’s idea that a person could be “exteriorized” from his body with a bullet to the head — had argued on the one hand whether Scientology actually ordered murders of enemies, or whether it was all just a joke by Hubbard.
These documents suggest that there was a third possibility: Hubbard’s references to separating the mind from the body with the use of a .45-caliber weapon was another form of intimidation he used against former members.

Whether or not these men (and Paulette Cooper, for that matter) were actually targeted for homicide, the point was that Scientology wanted them to think that they were.

As Mike explains in the show, the point of Fair Game was to create terror so that the target backed off from criticizing Scientology.

And, as Mike and Leah also point out, everything that happened to Paulette, as revolting as it was, was according to existing Scientology policy that has not changed.

“It won’t ever change,” Leah says.

Another great episode of this gripping podcast.

And a postscript: We are grateful for the mentions of our book and this website in the show, and we just wanted to add that a couple of times Leah and Mike referred to a book that Paulette did with us, but without mentioning the title: It’s Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’, and it features some of the best reporting from this website and essays by Paulette, her first writing on Scientology in decades.

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“You’ve heard time and again how dangerous it is. You mustn’t fool around with the mind! Perfectly all right to take a meat ax to the brain, but you mustn’t fool around with the mind! I got my belly so full in 1950 of psychoanalysts telling me how dangerous it was to fool around with the mind. But I finally more or less rejected it with laughter, because I looked at who was talking. And when he said fool around, man, he meant fool around, because I found out he could not study Dianetics; he could not do it. And do you know our main departure from training psychoanalysts and psychiatrists and medical doctors is not really based on the fact we are antipathetic toward them at all. It’s the fact that they can’t seem to duplicate study materials. And it’s just so hard, it’s so tough.” — L. Ron Hubbard, August 18, 1966

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“So how come you keep bashing LRH 2.0 (Justin)? Have you talked to him, have you studied the tech he is putting out, have you run the processes? I have done all three. I have known the being that is LRH for many, many years and lifetimes. I tell you and all who listen that he is LRH and this new tech of LRH’s is magic. Magic that works in days not years. His game had been to find a one-shot Clear process. He never got that, came close on SCS. But this tech is as close to a one-shot OT as has ever been created. So instead of giving your opinion get some of the facts then talk.”

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