French prosecutors investigating claims that a company forced Scientology on workers

Jonny Jacobsen

Our man in Paris, Jonny Jacobsen, jumped into action after news broke this week of another possible Scientology prosecution in France. Here’s his report…

French prosecutors are investigating a complaint filed by 12 employees of a building firm who say their employer forced them to take part in Scientology courses.

The case is only in its early stages and may never make it to court. But one of France’s top lawyers, Olivier Morice — a veteran of court battles with the movement — is representing the workers who filed the complaint.

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A lawsuit over counseling credentials now aims at the essence of Scientology

We have a few legal updates for you, and they involve the lawsuit filed by the National Association of Forensic Counselors against Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon, many of its employees, and Scientology’s leader, David Miscavige, as well.

A total of 82 defendants are scrambling to deal with the lawsuit, which alleges that they conspired to misuse the counseling certifications that the NAFC regulates. Masterminding the conspiracy, the NAFC alleged in its complaint, was Miscavige from his perch as the Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), Scientology’s nominally controlling entity.

Continue reading A lawsuit over counseling credentials now aims at the essence of Scientology

LIVE BLOG: The Elli Perkins story tonight on the ID Network, ‘The Scientology Cure’

Please join us tonight as we watch a dramatization of one of the most disturbing Scientology deaths, the 2003 murder of Elli Perkins by her own son, Jeremy.

Several months ago, the ID Network interviewed your proprietor for the show, and tonight we’ll get a chance to see the result. ID previously did a really good job with the story of Nancy Many, which aired last year.

Continue reading LIVE BLOG: The Elli Perkins story tonight on the ID Network, ‘The Scientology Cure’

More trouble for Scientology fundraising and recruitment in Europe

For today’s story, we turned to our helpful translators again for assistance with another article from the German press.

This item appeared in the weekly publication Kontext and provided some interesting history of Scientology in Stuttgart, saying that the local Scientologists have actually been “on the sidelines” as plans to replace a drab, poorly situated org with a gleaming new Ideal Org in a better location have stumbled, and part of the reason involves a mysterious Israeli entity.

Continue reading More trouble for Scientology fundraising and recruitment in Europe

Surviving Scientology podcast: Former treasury employee Mat Pesch spills the beans

Amy Scobee and Mat Pesch

In November 2012, we broke a big story with the help of Mat Pesch. At that time, former church executive Marty Rathbun had testified in court that Scientology had spent about $30 million in order to influence officials and get the church out of a criminal prosecution over the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. It was an explosive allegation by Rathbun, who was under oath when he said it.

Pesch then came forward and gave us corroborating information: He was the treasury secretary of the Flag Service Organization (FSO), and said he watched $20 million drained from that Scientology entity in order to fuel the campaign Rathbun was talking about.

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Sunday Funnies: Scientology has only its ‘humanitarians’ to help it refurbish eyesores

We’re heading back to New York today after our visit to the fine city of Detroit for the Netroots Nation conference.

Yes, it was a challenge to keep the blog going while we were attending the confab. Especially Thursday afternoon, when we were scrambling to post the decision by the Texas Third Court of Appeals in Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit while we were sitting in the press section at the big shindig at Detroit’s COBO center, waiting for Vice President Joe Biden to arrive and make his speech.

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology has only its ‘humanitarians’ to help it refurbish eyesores

VIDEO: L. Ron Hubbard solves the Cold War and your bad marriage

Ah, Dianetics! Our video source came through again, and we have another “quote video” of an L. Ron Hubbard lecture. In this case, it was Hubbard giving a talk on Dianetics in November 1950, about six months after his best-selling book had come out and created a craze.

To this day, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is considered “Book One” in the Hubbard canon, and it is still pushed as the introductory text to Scientology.

Continue reading VIDEO: L. Ron Hubbard solves the Cold War and your bad marriage

Ryan Hamilton files his 18th lawsuit against Scientology’s embattled drug rehab network

We’re still feeling stunned by yesterday’s decision by a Texas appeals court that got Scientology leader David Miscavige out of being deposed in Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit against the church. Austin appellate Justice Scott Field seemed a lot more interested in protecting corporate CEOs from having to answer questions in court than he was in the rights of Monique Rathbun to prove that she’s been a target of a years-long surveillance and harassment campaign.

If it’s not religious cloaking, it’s Scientology’s corporate complexity that seems to befuddle the American system of justice. It really is amazing.

Continue reading Ryan Hamilton files his 18th lawsuit against Scientology’s embattled drug rehab network

Texas appeals court gets Scientology leader David Miscavige out of testifying in harassment lawsuit

The Texas Third Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court’s order for Scientology leader David Miscavige to be deposed in one phase of Monique Rathbun’s harassment lawsuit against the church.

The appeals panel decided that Comal County Judge Dib Waldrip had abused his discretion when he agreed with Monique’s legal team that in order to prove that the Texas county court had jurisdiction over Miscavige, who is in California, he could be questioned to determine his connection to what she alleges were years of harassment by Scientology operatives. (Miscavige has never accepted service in the lawsuit, filing what’s called a “special appearance” to try and get him removed from it on jurisdiction grounds.)

Continue reading Texas appeals court gets Scientology leader David Miscavige out of testifying in harassment lawsuit

A Scientology death will be examined Wednesday night on the ID network

Several months ago, your proprietor was asked to take part in a television program about the 2003 death of Elli Perkins which will be airing for the first time next week.

Perkins was a Scientologist in the Buffalo area who was killed by her son, Jeremy, in a vicious knife attack. Jeremy was subsequently judged seriously mentally ill and was institutionalized. From the beginning, there were questions about Elli’s involvement in Scientology playing a part in her decision not to seek psychiatric care for her son, a decision that proved fatal for her.

Continue reading A Scientology death will be examined Wednesday night on the ID network

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