GRAHAM E. BERRY ATTORNEY & COUNSELOR AT LAW 3384 McLAUGHLIN AVENUE LOS ANGELES, CA 90066 Telephone and Facsimile: (310) 745-3771 Email: [email protected]
January 5, 2009
By Fax, Email and Hand Delivery.
The Chairman and Board of Supervisors Riverside County Board of Supervisors County Administrative Center 4080 Lemon Street-Fifth Floor Riverside, CA 92501
Re: Proposed Ordinances 884 and 888: Targeted Residential Picketing Board meeting January 6, 2009, Agenda Items 3.28 and 3.29 (Supervisor Stone)
Honorable Chairman and Gentlemen:
The real purpose of the two proposed ordinances is to prevent staff employed by the Church of Scientology Sea Organization from seeing or hearing the messages of persons engaged in peaceful First Amendment protected activity outside the Church of Scientology International Headquarters and Golden Era Productions facilities at 19625 Highway 79, Gilman Hot Springs, CA 92583. Scientology senior management call the property “Gold Base” and I shall too. In that regard, I urge you do an Internet Google search of “Gold Base.” The Church’s only need for urgency is an anticipated public picket of Gold Base on January 24, 2009, and the orders of Scientology’s totalitarian, self- appointed leader, David Miscavige, that the picket be stopped irrespective of what that costs.
For over a decade, a steady stream of public pickets along the side of Highway 79 outside Gold Base have contributed to many Church of Scientology staff members finding a way out of what many ex-members describe as a forced labor and detention camp where some staff members have been confined for many years on what Scientology calls the “Rehabilitation Project Force” or the RPF, and the even more draconian RPF’s RPF. For example, it has been reported that over the past decade the number of Gold Base staff has declined from about 1,200 to about 400. Consequently, for nearly a decade Scientology’s leader has tried to deter these public protests with contrived arrests, contrived criminal charges and perjured civil claims. The flavor of some of this sordid history can be read through a Google search of the terms: Hemet Henson corruption. Indeed, an appeal of the travesty of justice in one of the Henson cases is now pending before the Fourth California District Court of Appeals. A more recent case involving Scientology entrapment, police complicity, hog tying by Scientology security goons, assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment is now commencing its journey through the Riverside criminal and civil courts.
Gold Base is not an ecclesiastical or fraternal dormitory as Scientology has argued elsewhere. It is a management, manufacturing and penal facility. There is also some related accommodation called “berthing.” Gold Base includes the offices and residences of Scientology’s senior international management staff, the RPF and RPF’s RPF which many former Gold Base staffers have compared to Soviet Gulags and Nazi concentration camps (where, ironically, work would also set the inmates free). It is credibly claimed by former Gold Base staffers that the compound includes “the hall” or “the hole” where about forty senior scientology executives, receiving punishment and/or security treatment are confined almost 24/7 and required to work punishing hours followed by a few hours sleep on the floor under their desks. Others have described being imprisoned in pig pens (labeled “pig berthing”) and some former leaders have had to run around a pole in the hot desert sun for 12 hours a day month after month. There have been suspicious deaths and there has been sworn testimony and other reports of female scientology staffers being ordered or forced to have abortions which the Planned Parenthood organization ultimately pays for. Names, contact information, witnesses and supporting documents (including affidavits and transcripts) can be provided.
Gold Base also includes the very profitable manufacturing E-Meters (a form of lie detector), film production and the publishing facility for Scientology media as well as the
2 Golden Era film studios which are also understood to be rented to non-Scientology entities from time to time. The Scientology E-Meters, which cost less than fifty dollars to manufacture, are sold to Scientologists at prices that range from a few thousand dollars to nearly thirty thousand dollars.
Gold Base is, in reality, a slave labor camp as illustrated by the separately submitted copy of a new complaint initiating a California Labor Code claim against Gold Base. Scientology staffers at Gold Base sign billion year employment contracts and work 100 hour plus weeks for about 39 cents per hour. In addition, as you can read in the enclosed news article called “Selling Scientology,” many of these so-called life-long volunteers at Gold Base have been physically assaulted by Captain David Miscavige, the leader of the para-military church and “best friend” of Scientologist Tom Cruise who himself lobbies political and governmental officials on behalf of the Scientology enterprise. As you will also read among the enclosures with this letter, Gold Base includes fortified facilities complete with an armed sniper overlooking the City of Hemet.
The existence of residential “berthing,” as the para-military Scientology calls its accommodation, should not render Gold Base a “residential neighborhood” for first amendment purposes but not for manufacturing, production and zoning purposes. Does employee accommodation on off shore oil rigs or at certain work sites render those locations “residential neighborhoods?” It was recently reported that about 10% (or 42) United States congressmen sleep on cots in their congressional offices. Does that mean the U.S. Capitol can now be deemed a “residential neighborhood” for the purpose of First Amendment restrictions? Why should Riverside County Board of Supervisors permit the Church of Scientology to make a similarly spurious argument with regard to Gold Base? Are the Riverside County Supervisors to be intimidated by a small but wealthy cult with less than 50,000 active members world wide and written scriptures on how to lie, engage in the unlawful practice of medicine, and terrorize opponents into “utter destruction?”
What happens to all the money from the sale of these E-meters, books, videos, courses, auditing (counseling) hours, etc. that are produced or processed through the
3 Church of Scientology’s Gold Base? This is how it has been recently explained including approximate amounts, percentages, etc., herein for illustrative purposes only. The Church of Scientology uses a complex communication and financial system it calls the “Incomm” system. In 1999, there was a reporting change in the Incomm system and then again in 2007 there was another change in connection with reporting book sale revenue. However, it has been explained that the 166 plus tax exempt religious non-profit corporations and for profit corporations known collectively as the Church of Scientology now use secret Merrill Lynch numbered off-shore bank accounts for these monies. Approximately 50- 75% of the money “earned” is deposited into numbered Merrill Lynch accounts in Los Angeles and then transferred offshore to Antigua. Apparently, there are about forty numbered “Pool Accounts” in secret numbered Scientology accounts with Merrill Lynch in Antigua. After its deposit into these accounts, the money is then apparently transferred elsewhere offshore. Almost all of the Scientology money goes through the numbered Merrill Lynch accounts so that there is no ordinary way to trace it. Scientology’s totalitarian leader, Captain David Miscavige, has absolute power over the money. There is also little or no accounting to anyone else within the Church of Scientology International, The Religious Technology Center or Scientology’s apex corporation the shadowy Church of Spiritual Technology. Please Google these various entities. Because the 1993 settlement agreement between the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Scientology conglomerate makes the Scientology enterprise responsible for its own tax compliance, David Miscavige and his top deputies do not have to worry about the IRS ever seeing any second set of financial records. Allegedly, the Church of Scientology has largely ignored most of the requirements of the 1993 secret tax agreement that also gives individual Scientologists, the Churches and Corporations of Scientology special tax advantages and exemptions that are not permitted to any other United States taxpayer or church. Google: Sklar v. IRS. It has also been alleged that Merrill Lynch itself is infiltrated by Scientology operatives. Recently former Scientology staffer John Duignan published “The Complex” (available on Amazon.com) in which he explains how the Church of Scientology infiltrates and corrupts local government.
4 The amount of Church of Scientology money that regularly is moving offshore through the secret numbered Merrill Lynch bank accounts is apparently in the many tens of millions of dollars. It is said there are Pool Accounts in Los Angeles, CA. and Clearwater, FL. Additionally, Bridge Publications Inc., apparently has a numbered account in Merrill Lynch New York and the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) has a numbered account at Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles. There are also secret numbered Merrill Lynch accounts in Europe; for example: Merrill Lynch in London.
In mid April/May 2003, there was another problem in the Church of Scientology “Incomm” finance system. Many longs hours were required to provide a proper paper trail to deal with all the money that was just sitting in the Incomm. “Pool” accounts. There was an “invoice drive” to create six years of invoices for things that were never received. This would be fraudulent invoicing and apparently Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon was extensively involved. It took a good deal of effort involving a big push to get all of the false invoicing completed by a certain date. Apparently, Mr. Moxon was in his office pushing the Incomm staff to get it done 24/7; to fix “the Flap,” as such problems are called in the Church. The “shore story” [what Scientology calls a false story for PR purposes] was that there was lost data and un-transferred data between the old and new Incomm. systems. It is claimed that about $25 million had to be cleaned up in this allegedly attorney supervised fraud.
Let’s use the example of a $1,000 course payment paid to a Scientology Class IV Church or “Org.” Once a week, the Org pays its revenues into the Church’s electronic “Incomm” finance system where it is transferred to the Treasury Secretary at the Flag Banking Office. Some money is retained at Flag for the provision of services. The rest of the money goes to a “Pool Account” which is a numbered account inside the Scientology Finance System. The payment itself is also assigned a number. Donations, invoiced payments and debits are then paid into different secondary accounts within the numbered Merrill Lynch accounts. Returning to our $1,000 course payment example, $500 would be deposited “on account” into a Services account and the other $500 for an OT package (usually costing many thousands of dollars) into the “Pool Account.” Of this, 30% would
5 be transferred via Merrill Lynch to the Religious Technology Center (“RTC”) secret numbered account in Los Angeles for the various RTC licensing fees [then up to Church of Spiritual Technology or CST]. The other 70% would also be paid into a Merrill Lynch numbered account, but transferred offshore to another numbered Merrill Lynch account in Antigua.
The frequent and numerous Scientology “special events” also provide a vehicle for pushing money around offshore in numbered accounts. For example, there may be a M.V. Freewind’s event. Some of the money would be paid to the Org and transferred into the “Pool Account.” Thirty per cent of that might be paid to RTC for its license fees. The rest of the money would be paid to the ship’s account offshore from which another 30% would be paid to RTC for its license fees. Here we see that RTC is, in effect, “double dipping.” Thus from a $10,000 payment, $5,000 would be paid to the Org from which $1, 500 (30%) would be paid to RTC and $5,000 would be paid offshore to the ship from which about $1,500 would also be paid to RTC.
There is also a great deal of money flowing into the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (“WISE”) every week. WISE comprises most Scientologist owned businesses (such as Executive Software systems) and many non- Scientology businesses using the L. Ron Hubbard management technology. These businesses pay license fees to WISE. Although some of the money stays in the local WISE chapter for operating costs, most of the money goes to WISE Int. (International). From WISE Int., (1) a variable amount (more than 30%; likely 40-50%) goes to RTC; (2) the rest is paid into the WISE Chapter “Pool Account.” It is used for buying church buildings and for forming real estate companies to buy buildings (e.g. Waterfront, Inc., in Hamburg, Germany). Consequently, tax exempt IRS section 501 (c) (3) religious monies are allegedly being paid into offshore numbered Merrill Lynch bank accounts and then invested into various for profit projects and into for profit corporate accounts. It has been alleged to me that many of these companies (false fronts) then declare bankruptcy, the documents disappear and on the WISE account books you merely see “company ceased operations.” In this manner RTC receives (through WISE) a percentage of the gross profit
6 earned Scientologist owned businesses and it also receives fees for Scientology courses and auditing from the mostly scientologist employees (through the Church of Scientology International).
All Scientologists must also belong to the International Association of Scientologists (“IAS”) which has multiple levels of very expensive memberships. Officially the IAS monies are paid to the U.K. but this is another “Scientology shore [or false] story” for the United States tax authorities. In fact, IAS monies get bundled and are paid into a Merrill Lynch Pool numbered bank account, one of about forty different numbered Merrill Lynch pool accounts maintained by the Church. For example, there is might be an IAS membership drive requiring every Org to raise $20,000-$30,000 [for example, to provide funds for a major court case]. A total of five million dollars is bundled. A certain amount of that bundle is transferred to the Church accounts in the U.K. The Church then waits until the currency exchange rate is as high as possible. However, as between IAS [CoS] and Merrill Lynch there is an agreement that currency exchanges and transfers will be made at a fixed exchange rate. Allegedly, only the lower rate is reported to the U.S. IRS. The IAS has a trading account with Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch has one with Travel Ex (on behalf of the Church of Scientology). Subsequently the difference between the higher exchange rate and the lower exchange rate is transferred to the numbered Merrill Lynch accounts in Antigua. The rest of the money [of say $5 million] from the IAS drive [say $2.5 million] goes to the IAS goal drive. So the Scientology public is [fraudulently] told that all the money goes to the U.K. but in reality it is only a small percentage of what is actually raised. Most of the money has been transferred to a secret numbered Merrill Lynch offshore bank account in Antigua (and other favorable havens).
The next step of one of these alleged frauds may well go like this: IAS might launch a new campaign by the Scientology front-group Citizen’s Commission for Human Rights (“CCHR”) a Scientology front group opposed to the mental health profession. It requires publications and videos which will be produced by Gold Base at Gilman Hot Springs, CA. For example, Gold Base might charge the IAS $2 million for the video but
7 the actual cost to the IAS will be only $1 million. So there is the invoiced amount and the amount actually paid. Then, say $1 million is paid by Gold Base to RTC for the use of the LRH copyrights. The same type of scheme is used for the Hubbard book sales by Bridge Publications (BPI).
Other sources of Scientology income are also amendable to this alleged fraud by the Church. For example, the Scientology “chapel” might be rented out for cash, say $1,500 per month. This cash all goes into the “Pool Account” and then to one of the secret Scientology offshore numbered Merrill Lynch bank accounts in Antigua. Meanwhile, for operating purposes, the Church of Scientology maintains many local bank accounts. For example, with Bank of America and Washington Mutual.
Finally, let me give one recent example to those celebrity opinion leaders who say the Church of Scientology is a harmless mainstream church that should be ignored and allowed to go about its business of making money. In my opinion, this one recent example of Scientology conduct illustrates how insidious and despicably deceitful, dangerous and deadly this faux church is, even to its own celebrity members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
In 1987, the Church of Scientology bought the 5,000 ton cruise ship the M.V. Freewinds. At the time, the Church of Scientology knew that the ship was riddled with blue asbestos. It said this all over the plans and they were told that by the engineer in charge of converting the ship to Scientology use. David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology intentionally and negligently ignored the warnings. Why? Because the ship would be used by upper level Scientologists who are immune to all disease or injury, and because Scientology E-meter auditing will cure all injuries or illnesses anyway, including, by way of example, autism and cancer, and since Hubbard never wrote that asbestos can cause cancer, it cannot be true that blue asbestos might cause cancer. In 1991, there was another reminder that the M.V. Freewinds was a killer ship exposing its passengers and crew to deadly cancer causing blue asbestos. The affidavit of Lawrence Woodcraft, the man who advised Miscavige of the cancer causing blue asbestos was
8 posted on the Internet. Six months ago, the Scientology killer ship, M.V. Freewinds, was arrested in Curacao, because of asbestos contamination. Experts say the ship cannot be fully stripped of the deadly substance. Scientology is stripping away what asbestos it can, with its slave labor who believe that Scientology will protect them from asbestosis.
Today, Scientology staff is callously still being exposed to deadly cancer causing agents. Asbestos is being dangerously dumped in off-shore landfills. This is a public health and safety outrage involving thousands of people knowingly and intentionally being exposed to asbestos and the potential of Asbestiosis. Tom Cruise, John Travolta and all of the other Scientology celebrities have been intentionally, knowingly and negligently exposed to cancer causing blue asbestos, which is the very worst sort of asbestos. Scientology has ignored the problem. Scientology denies it. Scientology is now selling cruises and Scientology courses on the Freewinds in spite of the asbestos contamination. This is a public health and safety threat, and a huge looming public health cost. The Riverside County Supervisors should not be supporting the Church of Scientology in its attempts to prevent its staff members at Gold Base from receiving information and regular monitoring for asbestosis. Suppressing freedom of speech to prevent Scientology staffers from learning, among other things, of their potential exposure to deadly blue asbestos is despicable.
I urge each of you vote against the proposed ordinances in any form that might arguably be applied to limit the proximity of public protests along the edge of Highway 79 outside the Church of Scientology’s Gold Base at Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet.
In addition, I urge each of you to introduce and/or support a full, transparent and public investigation, with public submissions and public hearings, into any actual unlawful activities, unlawful conduct or human rights/civil rights/labor rights violations that have occurred in, and in connection with, the Scientology facilities known as Gold Base. Remember Jonestown, Waco and Heavensgate. Your oaths of office require nothing less.
9 Respectfully,
Graham E. Berry
Map of Scientology’s International Headquarters: http://www.portlandmercury.com/extras/pdf/feature/base-map.pdf from: Selling Scientology, A Former Scientologist Marketing Guru Turns against the Church by Matt Davis http://www.portlandmercury.com/news/selling_scientology/Content?oid=862344 www.grahamberry.com
Enclosures: Per separate list.
Ccs: And as per separate list.
And from TomVorm of www.whyweprotest.net/ “Re: BERRY LETTER ON RIVERSIDE ORDINANCE. PLEASE SUPPORT.
Are the Supervisors aware, of the suspicious Gold Base deaths of Ashlee Shaner in May 2000, and of Stacy Moxon Meyer in June 2001, (reported at: http://www.xenutv.com/print/riversid...n-062800.htm)?
Are the Supervisors aware, of allegations about weapons stockpiling at Gold Base (made in an affidavit by Andre Taboyoyon in 1994, available online at: http://www.whyaretheydead.net/krasel/aff_at.html)?
The Riverside Press Enterprise covered RPF abuse allegations also, in April 1980 (at: Scientology at Gilman: Hubbard said at ex-resort, defector speaks out - Riverside Press) and in Jan 31, 1999 (which in part, follows below):
From: Scientology --- Bitter Partings - 1999 Riverside Press-Enterprise
Subject: Bitter Partings - 1999 Riverside Press-Enterprise THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE (RIVERSIDE, CA.) January 31, 1999, Sunday , ALL ZONES
Bitter partings; Some former Scientologists say life at the church's Gilman Hot Springs complex resembles a slave labor cam. Church officials say its enemies are out to destroy the organizations.
NOTES: Includes info box; see sidebars "Church's roots run deep in the Inland area" and "Ex-church member fights for right to speak out"
10 By Susan Thurston, The Press-Enterprise
GILMAN HOT SPRINGS -- Getting a job at the Church of Scientology's movie-making complex in Gilman Hot Springs is no easy feat. The church says it takes years of hard work and dedication, and even then, only the most talented church members receive the call.
Scientologists say the sprawling rural complex offers the ideal setting for professional and spiritual growth. Employees can focus on furthering the goals of Scientology, miles from the distractions of big-city life but not too far from the church's headquarters in Los Angeles.
Employees at the complex crank out training and promotional films aimed at appealing to the masses in the same way that blockbuster hits from church members John Travolta and Tom Cruise do.
All sign billion-year oaths of service to the church, which believes that everyone has lived several lives, dating back millions of years.
But church critics, including some who have left the church after working at Gilman Hot Springs, say life there is not what it's cracked up to be. In court documents and interviews, they paint images of a slave labor camp where employees work grueling hours for a pittance and have no life outside the church.
Some say they believe the tranquil San Jacinto Valley location is really the world headquarters of the group that has been under attack in several countries for suspected civil-rights abuses and tax evasion.
Others claim that a former church leader is being held captive at the church's Castile Canyon School a few miles from the main complex, although Riverside County investigators say they have found nothing illegal.
Scientologists deny the charges, contending that their critics are conspiring to destroy the organization. "All of the people who have stories, there's money connected to them," said Ken Hoden, general manager of the church's Golden Era Productions, known as Gold, at Gilman Hot Springs.
He said former members often take aim at the church in the hopes of collecting hefty court settlements.
=== The Rehabilitation Project Force. Both the church and its critics agree that working at Gilman Hot Springs isn't for everyone. It requires devotion and sacrifice for the good of the organization.
Messing up can have severe repercussions for employees, according to former members like Jesse Prince, who held various jobs at Gilman Hot Springs for 10 years. At the
11 pinnacle of his career he served as director on the board of the Religious Technology Center, which preserves the church's orthodoxy.
Prince and several ex-Scientologists claim they were mentally and physically abused while assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force at the movie-making complex and nearby school, known by critics as Happy Valley.
Scientology's founder, the late L. Ron Hubbard, created the Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF, in the 1970s as a way to spiritually and professionally redeem high-ranking employees who made mistakes. Employees are removed from their regular jobs to do less stressful tasks, such as landscaping or carpentry.
Rehabilitation typically lasts for a year. Church policy states that, in order to graduate, a member must help another person on the program advance spiritually.
Church officials compare the program to religious practices for monks, priests or nuns. They say participation is voluntary.
"(It) is an opportunity where, rather than get fired, you get yourself fixed," said Aaron Mason, director of public affairs for the Church of Scientology International.
The prescribed daily schedule includes about eight hours of labor and/or exercise, five hours of studying or counseling, seven hours of sleep, 30 minutes for each meal and 30 minutes for personal hygiene, church officials said. The force's motto: "The RPF is what we make it. The RPF is where we make it. "
Mason said the program is therapeutic, based on his experience in the RPF after he made some mistakes that cost the church a lot of money. The majority of people like it, he said.
Opponents of Scientology say the organization uses the rehabilitation program to get employees to accept its beliefs through strenuous labor, forced confessions, food and sleep deprivation and intense study.
"If the RPF accounts are true, then Scientologists have been abusing some of their committed members for about a quarter-century.
No mainstream religions in a long time have done anything this abusive," said Stephen Kent, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The Canadian scholar did a study on the RPF released in December 1997.
=== Roots of the religion
Scientology took off in the 1950s with the publication of Hubbard's "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.” It seeks to help followers overcome emotional traumas and live happier lives through intensive counseling known as auditing that can cost thousands of dollars.
12
Scientology is practiced in 125 countries. It boasts 8 million to 10 million members worldwide, including movie stars Travolta and Cruise, who occasionally visit the Gilman Hot Springs complex to advise on films. Critics estimate church membership anywhere between 50,000 and 200,000.
The organization says it has about 25,000 employees, including 5,000 members of the Sea Organization. The Sea Org, as it's called, is an elite fraternal order of Scientologists who pledge to serve the church for eternity.
All of the 750 employees at the Gilman Hot Springs complex are Sea Org members. They receive housing and meals, money for clothing, medical care and weekly allowance of $50, church officials said.
They work at least eight hours a day, six days a week with Sundays off. They also spend three hours a day studying Hubbard materials.
Sea Org members are provided basic household necessities, including furniture. Critics, like Prince, contend employees must sell all of their belongings and spend the proceeds on counseling sessions.
Church officials say Sea Org members are not forced to sell their possessions, but rather can put them in storage or bring them along.
Mason, who said he sold a lot of his furniture when he signed up, said worldly possessions play a fairly insignificant role to members of the Sea Org.
===
Castile Canyon School
In the early 1980s, the Church of Scientology bought the Castile Canyon School adjacent to the Soboba Indian Reservation east of San Jacinto. It was opened as a boarding school in 1992 for children whose parents work at the Gilman Hot Springs complex.
The school is hidden from the public eye and not easily accessible. Motorists must drive through the reservation and take a long road owned by the church to get to the campus, which has a gate in front.
The campus houses 71 students from kindergarten through 12th grade who see their parents on weekends and special occasions, church officials said. The students live in dormitories on the 500-acre site, which is mostly mountainous.
The site previously served as a convent and school for delinquent children. Scientology uses about 40 acres for growing a variety of fruits and vegetables. The school's 10- member staff and students tend the crops, which are served with meals at the Gilman Hot
13 Springs complex.
Scientologists say it's the perfect place to educate children, who live, work, study and play as a community.
Church critics say it's the perfect place to imprison members who have misbehaved or gone astray.
Some church opponents in Germany, where Scientology is under intense scrutiny for alleged civil-rights abuses, say they suspect Wiebke Hansen, the former head of the group's church in Hamburg, is being held at the school against her will.
In March, German television journalists Peter Reichelt and Ina Brockmann came to investigate. They were placed under citizen's arrest by Scientology guards after they tried to get onto the property. They, in turn, made a citizen's arrest of the Scientologists, alleging false imprisonment. The cases were forwarded to the Riverside County district attorney's office, but no charges were filed.
"This is something we don't need to use the criminal venue to take care of . . . This is better taken care of in civil court," said Assistant District Attorney Randy Tagami.
Deputy DA Alina Freer said she inspected the school and film studios and found no evidence that people were being held against their will. She said Reichelt never mentioned Hansen by name.
"It appeared to be a private school and studio that is fully operational. I asked to see a lot of it. I saw the kids' dorm rooms.
There was not a building left unturned," she said.
Reichelt said Scientology officials at the Hamburg mission told him Hansen is being held at the school for rehabilitation. He said Hoden of Golden Era Productions confirmed her whereabouts during the standoff.
Hoden denied that.
"She's not there," he said. "The DA went out there with me and we toured the place. There's nothing funny going on out there. It's a school for kids," he said.
Reichelt, who wrote a book criticizing Scientology, said Hansen was sent to the school in the fall of 1995 when she was removed from her post because her mission's income had plummeted. Her only contact with her family has been through occasional letters, Reichelt says.
Hansen said she did not want to be interviewed.
14 Hoden, however, said Hansen has worked at Golden Era for several years as an artist, painting sets and backdrops for the studios. He accused Reichelt of fabricating the story in order to further the German government's claim that Scientology is a highly profitable business, not a tax-exempt religion.
Scientology's tax status also was the subject of contentious litigation in the United States until 1993, when the Internal Revenue Service recognized it as a tax-exempt religion.
===
Prince's story
Prince, a member of the church from 1976 to 1992, said he was sent to the rehabilitation project at the Castile Canyon location in 1987 after Hubbard had died and David Miscavige, chairman of the Religious Technology Center, succeeded him.
"I was removed from my position and put under armed guard at Happy Valley. . . . After a few months, it was decided that I would not escape and I was given various jobs at Gold but kept under watch," he said in an affidavit filed in a Riverside County lawsuit against the church.
Prince said Miscavige was getting rid of anyone aligned with Hubbard's closest aide, Pat Broeker, whom Miscavige considered a rival.
"I was considered one of the bad guys because I didn't want to work for Miscavige. I didn't want to be a pawn," he said in a subsequent interview.
While undergoing rehabilitation, Prince said he dug trenches for hours at a time and pulled weeds under the supervision of armed guards. He said he slept on a wood floor for three weeks and was denied medical treatment when he had a fever.
"It's like a complete slave concentration camp. You can't talk and you get very little food and very little sleep. They just work you to death. It's designed to be pure torture," said Prince, 44.
Hoden denied the claims, stressing that no one carries guns. He said employees can leave the program if they don't want to participate.
"It's purely 100 percent voluntary. It always has been. Always.
The people who say otherwise fabricate stories for their purpose," he said.
He said Prince is being paid to lie about the church by defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by Scientology against FACTNet Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network) in Denver. The defense is being funded mainly through the largess of millionaire Bob Minton, a fervent church critic who has helped Prince with expenses and living
15 arrangements since Prince began talking publicly last year.
Scientologists have threatened to sue Prince for speaking against the church because he signed a vow of silence when he left the organization. Prince, in turn, filed a lawsuit in Riverside County seeking to have the document invalidated. He dropped his suit after a judge in the Denver case ruled said he could testify.
RPF accounts
Mary Tabayoyon, a Scientologist for 23 years who lives in Mesa, Ariz., said she volunteered to go into the rehabilitation program at the school in 1988 so she could get out of her job as a cook at the Gilman Hot Springs complex.
"I was going insane. My mind was not functioning. Deep down inside I knew that this stuff wasn't working," she said in an interview. "I thought I would be better off. "
While in the program, she said she was barred from speaking to anyone unless addressed first and had to run everywhere. She said she typically slept six hours a night on bunk beds stacked three high in a crowded room.
"It was very degrading. There was constant yelling and constant accusations of what you were doing or feeling. There was no kind of rehabilitation for me. It was a nightmare," said Tabayoyon, 48.
Tabayoyon said she and the others in the rehabilitation program were bused daily from the school to the studio complex to do landscaping or other manual labor. Members at risk of escaping were assigned a guard and not allowed to leave, she said.
Employees in the rehabilitation program had to keep a low profile because celebrity members were often present, she said. Tabayoyon said she was let out of the program after a year when actor Cruise inquired about the group during one of his visits to Gilman Hot Springs. His questions prompted the higher-ups to reassign them to regular posts, she said.
Hoden said members in the program live in comfortable quarters, get adequate rest and eat well.
He said the rehabilitation program has been used at Gilman Hot Springs on an as-needed basis, but not in the last few years. In the past, participants have slept in rooms that have since been turned into offices, he said.
Church officials said the school also has been used to house members in the RPF. Participants sleep in one of the several structures on the site, they said. The last group went through the program one year ago, said Mason of the legal affairs office.
Tabayoyon and her husband, Andre, got out of the church in 1992, leaving behind their
16 only son, Casavius, who was 18. She said they have made several efforts to get in touch with him at Gilman Hot Springs, but all have failed.
Hoden said the church has been unfairly caught in the middle of a family dispute and chooses not to intervene.
He said Casavius has told church officials that he does not want any contact with his parents because they have been critical of the church. He also does not want to speak with relatives or members of the media because they could be influenced by the Tabayoyons, Hoden said.
Vicki and Richard Aznaran filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in 1988 alleging, in part, that they were abused while assigned to rehabilitation programs in Gilman Hot Springs, the nearby school and Los Angeles.
Vicki Aznaran, who was a Scientologist from 1973 to 1987 and held various high- ranking posts including president of the Religious Technology Center, said in the suit she was ordered to the rehabilitation program at Gilman Hot Springs in 1982 after disagreeing with a plan to restructure the church's finances.
She said she was forced to run around an orange telephone pole from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. for about 120 days with 10-minute breaks every half-hour and 30-minute rests for lunch and dinner. She said she was deemed rehabilitated after about seven months.
Aznaran said she was reassigned to the program at Happy Valley in 1987.
She said a guard followed her every move and, at night, furniture was stacked in front of her door to prevent her from escaping. She was forced to wear rags, sleep on the ground, dig ditches and undergo hours of indoctrination, she said.
The Aznarans alleged the ordeal caused physical and mental pain that resulted in some permanent disability. The lawsuit, which sought tens of millions of dollars in damages, was settled in 1992 for an undisclosed amount. In settling, the Aznarans agreed to never discuss the case.
Church officials said the Aznarans' claims were untrue. They said Vicki Aznaran recanted her statements in an affidavit filed in 1994, although the document does not address the specific allegations concerning the RPF.
A church-commissioned study by Lonnie Kliever, professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said stories from disgruntled ex-members lack credibility because they try to blame the church for their actions.
"There is no denying that these dedicated and diehard opponents of the new religions present a distorted view to the public," he said in his 1995 study.
17 Scientology officials said, if any allegations were true, more members would have quit and the organization would cease to exist.
Local authorities have heard the charges as well but, so far, none has triggered prosecution.
"If 1 percent of whatever is said about us is true, we wouldn't be able to do all of the things that we do now," Hoden said. "We're guilty of nothing other than creating the most beautiful setting in the valley.”
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CCs: Supervisor Roy Wilson, Chairman Riverside County Board of Supervisors 4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor Riverside, CA 92502
[email protected] Fax: (951) 955-2194
Tel: (951) 955-1040
Supervisor Bob Buster Riverside County Board of Supervisors 4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor Riverside, CA 92502
[email protected] Fax: 951-955-1019
Phone: 951-955-1010
Supervisor Marion Ashley Riverside County Board of Supervisors 4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor Riverside, CA 92502
[email protected] (951) 955-1050
Supervisor John Tavaglione Riverside County Board of Supervisors 4080 Lemon Street, 5th Floor Riverside, California 92501
(951) 955-1020
Supervisor Jeff Stone Riverside County Board of Supervisors 4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor Riverside, CA 92501
[email protected] Faxes: (951) 955-2194, (951) 301-8571, (951) 791-3465
(951) 955-1030
Press Enterprise: Riverside News Fax (951) 368-9023; Hemet News Fax (9510) 763-3450 Los Angeles Times: [email protected] [email protected]
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