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 Judge James D. Whittemore Federal Tampa district Judge James D. Whittemore has been preparing in a very methodical way ahead of a February 18 evidentiary hearing that could have a huge impact on the Church of Scientology. He’s already held one live hearing on this important preliminary matter, and in anticipation of next week’s event, he ordered both sides in the Luis and Rocio Garcia fraud lawsuit against the church to conduct numerous depositions. We published one deposition transcript, two video segments from another (one, two), and detailed some of the complications about scheduling a third. But there were several others which were scheduled that we haven’t had a chance to discuss. Continue reading Days before crucial hearing, Scientology pulls out a ghost to sway a federal judge
By now you’ve probably seen Danny Masterson’s interview with Paper magazine, which was posted online Wednesday evening. The piece is getting a lot of attention because Scientology’s celebrities are usually very reluctant to talk publicly about the secretive organization. The last time an actor said so much about his involvement in Scientology, and as aggressively, it was Tom Cruise in 2005, and it backfired on him rather spectacularly. But now, with Alex Gibney’s Scientology documentary, based on Lawrence Wright’s book Going Clear, airing on HBO on March 16 after its successful premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Masterson has been set loose, and with pretty remarkable results. Continue reading Fact-checking Danny Masterson’s remarkable Paper interview about Scientology
 During our time at the Village Voice one of our readers’ favorite features were the “OT Phenomena” we dug out of old copies of Advance! magazine.
Jefferson Hawkins, who at one time edited the magazine, told us that “OT Phenomena” was the most popular feature in the publication. It featured the tantalizing tales of superhuman abilities that were being experienced by Scientologists who had reached the “Operating Thetan” or “OT” levels — the highest and most expensive courses in the pay-as-you-go organization. Continue reading These are the superpowers Scientologists are paying big bucks to attain
 On Wednesday, we told you about the startling admission by Mike Rinder in his January 6 sworn deposition that Leah Remini, who defected from Scientology in 2013, has been in talks to join a federal fraud lawsuit against the church.
Now, we’re going to post the entire deposition for you to examine, and we think you’ll find a few other things in it pretty entertaining. Continue reading ‘You encourage people to leave the Church of Scientology’: The Mike Rinder deposition
 Clark Carr, where’d you go? One of our better sources said it to us several months ago, and it was so startling, we really weren’t sure what to make of it. “Narconon International is being dismantled,” he told us. Hang on. Narconon International, the Scientology umbrella group that oversees and licenses all Narconon rehab centers around the world, which sits just under another Scientology umbrella group, the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE), is going away? What made him think so? Continue reading Mark Ebner finds Scientology’s rubbish again as Narconon International vanishes!
 Ryan Hamilton We’re so used to Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton running roughshod over his opponents, this comes as a bit of a surprise. But Hamilton’s attempt to have his many lawsuits in several states against Scientology’s drug rehab network Narconon consolidated into a single federal court in Nevada was rejected on Friday. Consolidating the cases would have simplified things for Hamilton — with so many cases (27 filed in total), they’re generating many motions which are very similar to each other. Continue reading Ryan Hamilton’s plan to consolidate his lawsuits against Scientology rehabs is denied
 On Tuesday, we told you about new FDA documents which helped us fill in some gaps in Scientology history. The documents took us back to late 1957, when L. Ron Hubbard hatched a scheme to force the country’s psychiatrists and psychologists to take a “loyalty oath” he’d dreamed up, with hopes of rooting out disloyal shrinks and then sending their names to Vice President Richard Nixon for persecution.
Nixon didn’t like being named in Hubbard’s plot, and he sicced the Secret Service on Scientology, which prompted Hubbard in 1960 to tell his followers not to vote for Nixon in that year’s presidential election. And hey, Nixon lost in a squeaker! And you thought postulates weren’t effective. Continue reading An L. Ron Hubbard island fantasy: The Scientology daydream you haven’t heard
 We have another leak of raw footage from Channel 4’s excellent 1997 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard, this time with former Clearwater mayor Gabe Cazares.
The film, one of the better ones made about Scientology, contained numerous short clips from interviews of people who knew Hubbard. A source is releasing to us the full interviews with these participants for the first time. So far, we’ve seen interviews with Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, and one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox. Continue reading Scientology vs. the mayor: The full Gabe Cazares interview from 1997’s Secret Lives
 The Australian community of Warburton, in the state of Victoria east of Melbourne, has won its struggle to keep a Scientology drug rehab facility from moving into town, and now Scientology’s Narconon network finds its only Australian facility on the brink of oblivion.
Here in the U.S., Narconon centers around the country have been the subject of investigations and lawsuits after several patient deaths in recent years. What was once one of Scientology’s most reliable money makers, endorsed by its celebrity members like Kirstie Alley, Tom Cruise, and John Travolta, has turned into one of the organization’s biggest headaches. Continue reading SCIENTOLOGY DENIED: Australia’s only Narconon rehab center loses zoning fight
 In July 2013 the Underground Bunker first broke the news that Leah Remini had defected from the Church of Scientology. Now, we’ve learned that within the last year, Remini has been in talks to join a federal fraud lawsuit seeking refunds for former Scientology members, according to a sworn deposition.
Luis and Rocio Garcia of Irvine, California filed their lawsuit in Tampa, Florida in January 2013, alleging that they had been lied to and defrauded by Scientology employees in order to get them to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars that they now want back. The Garcias and their attorney, Ted Babbitt, said from the lawsuit’s onset that they were talking to other former Scientologists who also wanted refunds, and they expected some number of them to join the lawsuit. So far, none has. Continue reading LEAH REMINI IN TALKS TO SUE SCIENTOLOGY: MIKE RINDER TESTIMONY
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