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 Brian Culkin The Church of Scientology has filed a motion to disqualify the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their federal fraud lawsuit against the church. Scientology has a long history of this kind of legal maneuver, and it’s not surprising that they would make a motion like this in a case which has not gone their way to this point. (At any moment, we were expecting a ruling from federal Judge James Whittemore about the church’s argument that the case go to its internal arbitration and be dismissed from federal court. Whittemore hadn’t given away which way he was leaning, but the church may have felt it was about to be denied.) In its motion, the church says that Garcia’s counsel — led by Ted Babbitt — has improperly relied on the help of an attorney who formerly represented the church, Robert Johnson, and two former church executives, Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder. And the church’s star witness in this motion? Brian Culkin, a former church member who until just a few weeks ago was telling us he was trying to get his own refund from the church. Continue reading SCIENTOLOGY FILES TO REMOVE GARCIA ATTORNEYS FROM FRAUD LAWSUIT
Scientology leader David Miscavige began opening “Ideal Orgs” about a decade ago. In each case, local church members are pressured to raise huge amounts of money to replace perfectly adequate church facilities with much larger, more elaborate palaces that tend to stand empty. It’s a controversial plan that has exacerbated splits in the church membership — there’s lots of evidence that founder L. Ron Hubbard actually preferred more modest facilities and always stressed the need for new members, not new buildings. But for whatever reason, Miscavige has banked the future of the church on his Ideal program, and seems to think tomorrow’s grand opening in Portland is the most important one yet. We’ve been marveling recently at the effort going into tomorrow’s big show, and we have some more updates for those thinking of stopping by for a gander. Continue reading Countdown to Portland: Scientology Planning a Rager on Saturday
 Jodie Fleischer at WSB-TV in Atlanta revealed today just how extensive authorities in Georgia believe the insurance fraud was at Scientology’s Atlanta drug rehab center.
State and county law enforcement officials raided Narconon Georgia on April 26 and hauled away a truckload of documents and computer equipment. As the coordinated local news team of WSB Radio, WSB-TV and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been reporting, state regulators yanked the facility’s license (pending appeal) and now are investigating Narconon for both insurance and credit card fraud. In the affidavit for the search warrants that law enforcement officers were armed with, we can see just how extensive the false billing of doctors is suspected to be. Continue reading Search Warrant Affidavit: Scientology’s Atlanta Drug Rehab Billed $3 Million in Insurance Fraud
 Laura DeCrescenzo [ALSO, BELOW: The EEOC files a civil rights lawsuit against a Miami chiropractor for forcing his employees to take Scientology courses.] Wow — Dianetics Day 2013 just gets more and more interesting. We just heard from Laura DeCrescenzo, who updated us on the latest going on in her forced-abortion lawsuit. The Church of Scientology is fighting tooth and nail against a court order that it turn over thousands of documents that were compiled while DeCrescenzo was a “Sea Org” member and undergoing intense confessional interrogations. Scientology has petitioned the California Supreme Court, arguing that being forced to turn over those documents is unconstitutional because it would violate the church’s priest-penitent privilege — even though it’s the penitent (Laura) who is asking for them. We’ve just learned that the Supreme Court asked Laura’s team for a response to the church’s petition, and we have the document that her attorneys filed. Continue reading CA SUPREME COURT ASKS FOR LAURA D.’S RESPONSE TO SCIENTOLOGY PETITION Advertisement
 We were the first to break the news last year that Ron Miscavige Sr., father to Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, had managed to escape from Scientology’s secretive International Base in an embarrassing blow to his son and another sign of crisis in the organization.
Ron Sr. traveled to Virginia, where he joined another Miscavige church defector, his oldest son, Ron Jr. Since then, we’ve been told that Ron Sr. has been adjusting to life outside a church he belonged to for 35 years. His granddaughter, Jenna Miscavige Hill, told us that he was doing well when we met her as she was touring for her recent book, Beyond Belief. And now, Ron Miscavige Sr. is speaking out for himself. Continue reading FATHER OF SCIENTOLOGY LEADER PENS MEMOIR AFTER ESCAPING FROM CHURCH
 Lori Hodgson and her mother, Dee McMurdie, parked their rental car, walked into Woods Fun Center, and went straight for the counter at the back, where they knew they’d find the parts department of the Austin, Texas motorcycle shop.
At the counter were two employees. Lori walked up to them and said, “Is Jeremy here?” As soon as she did, she spotted Jeremy Leake — her son — in a side room, eating his lunch. “He was completely suprised. He was shocked. He looked like he almost choked on his food,” Lori told us last night in a telephone call. Continue reading Lori Hodgson Defies Scientology’s “Disconnection,” Surprises Her Son in Texas
 Gov. Mary Fallin Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin today signed SB 295, turning “Stacy’s Bill” into “Stacy’s Law.” On July 19, 2012, Stacy Dawn Murphy died of an overdose at Narconon Arrowhead, the Church of Scientology’s flagship drug rehab facility near Canadian, Oklahoma. Hers was the third patient death in only nine months, and it launched county and state investigations, multiple lawsuits, and now a new law that will give the state greater oversight of the facility. Governor Fallin took less than a week to sign the bill after it was forwarded to her by the state legislature. “I think she did it because it gives the state agencies more time to formulate the new rules. And it keeps Scientology from lobbying her not to sign it,” says Stacy’s father, Robert Murphy. Continue reading OKLAHOMA GOVERNOR SIGNS LAW AIMED AT SCIENTOLOGY DRUG REHAB
 Jodie Fleischer of WSB-TV reported today that things just got a lot worse for Scientology’s drug rehab program in the Atlanta area.
When state investigators and county police raided Narconon Georgia on April 26, we knew they were looking for evidence of insurance fraud. But now Gwinnett County DA Danny Porter tells Fleischer that he’s also looking into multiple cases of credit card fraud at the facility that resulted from Narconon officials allegedly taking out cards in the names of patients without their permission — and then charging them to their maximum extent. If that sounds familiar, you may remember our story from March 21, when attorney Gary Richardson filed five new lawsuits against Scientology’s flagship rehab center in Oklahoma, Narconon Arrowhead. In one of those lawsuits, former Narconon patient Sue Anne Newman alleged that two credit cards had been taken out in her name by Narconon officials, and she was charged $14,500 without her knowledge or permission. Continue reading Investigation of Scientology Drug Rehab Program in Georgia Shifts to Credit Card Fraud
 In Salt Lake City, a retired schoolteacher and her son are suing a group of people they accuse of running a Ponzi scheme involving — and designed to benefit — the Church of Scientology in Utah.
Carol Bee and Brian Bagley are suing a group of investors in a state court action, but also have filed a complaint in the bankruptcy of Barry and Kimberly Hunter, two Scientologists who became insolvent when the financial services company they were trying to get off the ground, Portfolio Manager International, failed in 2011. The Hunters have responded in detailed court filings denying that PMI was a Ponzi scheme, and they say that Bee and Bagley were harmed not by PMI but by a man named Christopher Hales, who is currently serving 7.5 years in federal prison for bank fraud. The Hunters say that they actually tried to help Bee and Bagley once they realized Hales was acting strangely about the investments that Bee and Bagley had given him. But since the Hunters made those responses, Bee and Bagley have now filed a beefed-up amended complaint asserting that Barry Hunter and his other partners formed PMI in 2005 as a fraudulent scheme that would in part raise money for a Scientology foundation. Continue reading Lawsuit Alleges Church of Scientology in Utah Involved in Ponzi Scheme
 Yeah, we know this is a stretch Welcome to the Cinco de Mayo edition of Scientology Sunday Funnies! We really can’t think of any sort of connection between our weekly collection of wacky Scientology mailers and a meaningless American holiday that celebrates binge drinking. But what the heck! We will toast David Miscavige with our first margarita tonight. So anyway, our tipsters have come through with another collection of church come-ons, and it’s a good day for a chuckle, because we have a feeling that things are really going to heat up on the blog this week. Not only do we have several big investigative stories working, but we hear that some big legal proceedings we’ve been following are going to pop at any moment. This week is like a big fat piñata filled with little tequila bottles just waiting to burst open! All right, enough with the Battle of Puebla. Let’s get on with the Funnies.
Continue reading Cinco De Funnies: Getting Drunk on the Wisdom of Ron! Advertisement
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