ELDORADO, Tex. — One of the leaders of a polygamist sect was convicted Thursday night of sexually assaulting an under-age girl whom the church elders had assigned to him as one of his nine wives.

A jury of seven men and five women deliberated 2 hours 20 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty in the first trial of a dozen members of the Yearning for Zion Ranch just outside this rural hamlet in West Texas.

The defendant, Raymond M. Jessop, 38, seemed unperturbed as Judge Barbara Walther of State District Court read the verdict. Mr. Jessop was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody by the Schleicher County sheriff. He smiled and nodded to several other men in his religious group, who sat grave-faced as he was led away.

Mr. Jessop will be sentenced after a second hearing before the jury on Monday. He faces penalties ranging from 2 years’ probation to 20 years in prison.

His lawyer, Mark Stevens, declined to say if he would appeal, though the defense had argued in hearings before trial that the state illegally seized the church documents that were crucial to the case during a raid on the ranch in April 2008.

Mr. Jessop is one of the most prominent members of a breakaway sect that has at least four other communities in Arizona and Utah. He is close to Warren S. Jeffs, the self-styled prophet and leader of the sect.

Mr. Jeffs has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape, a charge related to his role in ordering the “spiritual marriage” of an under-age girl to one of his followers. He is in jail in Arizona awaiting trial on similar charges and has been charged in Texas with sexual assault and bigamy.

The trial of Mr. Jessop offered a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group that split from the Mormon Church. Followers believe polygamy brings heavenly rewards and treat Mr. Jeffs as a modern-day prophet.

The ranch first came to national attention a year and a half ago when the Texas authorities descended on it, seeking a girl who had complained in a telephone call to a San Angelo women’s shelter that she was being sexually abused. The girl was never found, and the Texas Rangers acknowledge that the tip was a hoax.

But in the course of executing search warrants, social workers and the Rangers uncovered evidence that at least a dozen girls had been coerced by church elders to serve as wives to older men. Seven had borne children.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols, put several Rangers on the stand along with a former member of the church to introduce several church documents seized from a vault on the ranch.

Since the woman said to be the victim, who is now 21, did not testify, Mr. Nichols used the documents, along with her photo album, to prove she lived with Mr. Jessop as one of his wives and was impregnated by him when she was 16.

The state’s case also rested heavily on genetic evidence that showed there was a 99.9 percent chance Mr. Jessop was the father of the child, who is now 4.

In his closing argument, Mr. Nichols attacked the theory that the teenager had consented to be Mr. Jessop’s wife. “Any act of sexual assault is a horrendous crime,” he said, “but an act of sexual assault on a child is of such an extreme nature we don’t even consider whether the victim was able, much less did, consent.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence presented in court was a written record of Mr. Jeffs’s instructions in August 2005 not to take the girl to a hospital even though she had been struggling in labor for three days at a clinic on the ranch.

“I knew the girl, being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there,” Mr. Jeffs was quoted as saying.

Some of the most revealing testimony came from another witness for the prosecution, Rebecca Musser, a former member of the church who had been married to Rulon T. Jeffs, the sect’s founder and the father of Warren Jeffs. She left the church in 2002 after the elder Mr. Jeffs died.

Ms. Musser testified that Mr. Jeffs had controlled every aspect of the women’s lives, including how they dressed and what they ate. He also controlled whom they married and when.

“Age was not a factor,” she said. “It was when the prophet deemed she was worthy.”

Mr. Stevens mounted a technical defense, arguing that the state could not prove the crime had taken place in Texas since the evidence it had was purely circumstantial. He did not present any witnesses.

“It’s dangerous when we start trying to convict people based on documents and we are not sure where those documents came from,” he said. -James McKinley Jr., New York Times, Nov. 5, 2009

and from the The Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 5, 2009 -Brooke Adams…

Eldorado, Texas » A Schleicher County jury took about two hours to find a polygamous sect member guilty of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 2004.

Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, stood as 51st District Judge Barbara Walther read the verdict reached by the seven men and five women who heard the case. He was immediately handcuffed and escorted across a lawn by at least four law officers to the Schleicher County Jail to await sentencing on Monday.

Jessop did not react as the verdict was read. As he left the courtroom he gave a slight smile and nodded his head at six FLDS members seated in the audience.

None of the attorneys would comment until a sentencing phase concludes Monday.

Willie Jessop, spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also declined comment.

The jury will decide on a sentence after hearing additional witness testimony on Monday. Jessop’s attorneys will likely push for probation, something they asked jurors about during the selection process.

Jessop’s attorneys will likely push for probation, something they asked jurors about during the selection process.

The second-degree felony crime is punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

As the jury returned to the courtroom for the verdict, one of the original 12 jurors — a woman whose husband served as foreman of the grand jury that indicted Jessop — wasn’t among the group. An alternate juror had been substituted in the missing woman’s place. Court Clerk Peggy Williams
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would not comment as to why the juror had been replaced.

The grand jury indicted Jessop last summer based on evidence gathered during an April 2008 investigation at the Yearning For Zion Ranch, located about three miles from the courthouse. The ranch is home to FLDS members.

The state’s investigation was triggered by a call now acknowledged as a hoax but Walther ruled in September that evidence was taken legally from the ranch.

The jurors, selected from a pool of 300 county residents, heard a week’s worth of testimony.

The state used birth records, a marriage certificate and FLDS church records to show Jessop, already married, took the girl as a spiritual wife in 2004 when she was 15.

She conceived a child several months later and gave birth to a daughter in August 2005. DNA experts testified there was virtually no doubt that Jessop is the child’s father.

Prosecutor Eric Nichols told jurors Thursday in his closing argument that the best evidence that Jessop was guilty of sexual assault is that child, whose face was projected on a screen during his remarks.

The girl, now four, is the “snow on the ground, the pools of water on the ground, that represents the terrible crime of sexual assault,” said Nichols, who used a storm metaphor to validate the state’s reliance on circumstantial evidence.

Nichols pointed at Jessop repeatedly as he tried to seal jurors’ opinions, reminding them of the DNA tests that had so many 9s he couldn’t keep track of them all. There also was corroborating evidence that confirmed the test results, he said.

Earlier Thursday, jurors heard testimony from Texas Ranger Nick Hanna about dictations made by FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs’ that discussed Jessop’s marriage to the victim, now 21; three-day labor in August 2005; the name bestowed on the baby; and Jessop’s assignments at the ranch.

Nichols said the state did not have to prove an exact date for the sexual assault under Texas law, only that the crime occurred before Jessop was indicted in July 2008 and before a statute of limitations expired.

“Common sense, common experience” provided an estimate that it occurred on or about Nov. 19, 2004, he said.

“Children are our most precious resource and we would never impose on a child the responsibility associated with consenting to being placed in a spiritual marriage . . . much less consenting to an act of sexual violence,” he said.

The defense objected to much of the state’s evidence on constitutional grounds and tried to raise doubt with the jury about the DNA test linking Jessop to the victim’s child.

Defense attorneys Mark Stevens and Brandon T. Hudson told jurors the state did not prove the “most obvious” element of the charge: that Jessop was in Schleicher County, let alone at the ranch, at the time the crime was alleged to have occurred.

Stevens called the trial a “paper case” and said there was no evidence that Jessop ever saw, contributed to or commented on documents, such as the dictations, the state seized from a locked vault in a Temple Annex at the ranch.

“It’s dangerous when we start trying to convict people on documents and we’re not sure where the documents came from,” Stevens said.

“Can you guess a man into a guilty verdict?” he asked, then added that despite the state’s huge mass of documents, “it is not proof of a crime.”

Hudson told jurors the state “didn’t bring you what you need.”

“There is not one piece of evidence in that entire box, on all those computers, in that DNA [that tells you] where Raymond was” in November 2004, he said.

But Nichols, who gave the final statement to the jury, said the state’s allegations weren’t a paper case at all but one “based in flesh and blood” — that of the child and her mother.

“Crimes that are committed behind locked metal gates and fences and walls are just the same kind of crimes that occur out on the street corner,” Nichols said.

The important thing is that law officers are able to get whatever evidence they can to bring to jurors, he said, to address serious crime.

Jessop was one of 12 men indicted by the grand jury last summer. Walther has scheduled their trials one after another over the next year. Allen E. Keate is scheduled to stand trial beginning Dec. 7 on the same charge Jessop faced — sexual assault of a child.

A man who stopped a reporter in the parking lot of the county complex to ask if the jury had reached a verdict responded with just one word when told the outcome.

“Good,” he said.

and from Michelle Roberts at the Associated Press, Nov. 5, 2009

ELDORADO, Texas — The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following last year’s raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called “spiritual marriage.”

Raymond Jessop, 38, didn’t visibly react when the verdict was read after just more than two hours of jury deliberations. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Jurors were expected to return to court Monday to begin deciding his sentence on the child sexual assault conviction. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Lawyers in the case declined to comment on the verdict Thursday.

Jessop allegedly has nine wives. He also faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later. The girl in the assault case, now 21, was previously in a spiritual marriage with Jessop’s brother before being “reassigned” to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch. She became pregnant at age 16.

During closing arguments, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols stood before photos of the young mother and toddler in prairie dresses.

“There is a sound foundation based not just in documents — based in DNA evidence for which the documents serve as corroboration … that Raymond Merril Jessop behind those gates, behind that guard house, behind those walls, sexually assaulted” the then-teen, he said.

Forensic experts who testified during the trial, which began with the largest jury pool in the small county’s history on Oct. 26, said there was a nearly 100 percent probability Jessop was the father of the woman’s daughter, who is now 4.

Jessop’s attorneys had argued that no witness placed Jessop in Schleicher County at the time of the alleged assault in November 2004. They said prosecutors instead relied on only small snippets of documents to place Jessop and the teen at the ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the time. Many of the documents were seized from enormous cement vaults inside the temple and temple annex at the ranch.

“It’s dangerous when we start trying to convict people based on documents and we’re not sure where the documents came from,” said Stevens, noting there was no evidence Jessop ever had seen the documents prosecutors used to place him at the ranch in 2004 and 2005.

But the defense offered no witnesses at trial and provided no evidence Jessop was elsewhere.

Nichols used a photo album, family records and dictations by jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs to establish a time line that put Jessop and the teen at the ranch when she became pregnant. The records covered parts of 2004 and 2005, but not specifically the time of the alleged assault.

The woman was on the prosecution’s witness list, but did not testify.

Generally, under Texas law, no one under 17 can consent to sex with adult.

“Any act of sexual assault is a horrendous crime, but an act of a sexual assault of a child is of such an extreme nature we don’t even consider whether the victim was able — much less did — consent,” Nichols said.

Documents given to the jury were heavily redacted to minimize any references to plural marriages. The jury was told Jessop was legally married to another woman before entering the spiritual marriage, but only as proof Jessop could not have been legally married to the teen.

In all, 12 FLDS men have been indicted on charges ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault since authorities raided the ranch last year. The 439 children taken from the property and placed in foster care following the raid all have been returned to their parents or other relatives.

Jeffs, revered by the FLDS as the group’s prophet, was convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape. He awaits trial in Arizona on charges related to underage marriages there. He’ll then face separate sexual assault and bigamy charges in Texas.

The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago and does not recognize the FLDS.

Historically based around the Arizona-Utah state line, the FLDS bought a ranch about 150 miles northwest of San Antonio, in Eldorado, six years ago, and began building massive log homes and a towering temple.

The raid of the insular group made national headlines as women in prairie dresses and braids were moved off the ranch, and child welfare officials took custody of their children in one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history.

IMHO
FACTNet

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ABOUT THIS SPECIAL REPORT ON SCIENTOLOGY:
Mark C. “Marty” Rathbun left the Church of Scientology staff in late 2004, ending a 27-year career that saw him rise to be a top lieutenant to Miscavige in the organization. For the past four years, he has lived a low-profile life in Texas. Some speculated he had died.

In February, Rathbun posted an Internet message announcing he was available to counsel other disaffected Scientologists.

“Having dug myself out of the dark pit where many who leave the church land,” he wrote, “I began lending a hand to others similarly situated.”

Contacted by the St. Petersburg Times, Rathbun agreed to tell the story of his years in Scientology and what led to his leaving. The Times interviewed him at his home in Texas, and he came to Clearwater to revisit some of the scenes he described.

Seeking to corroborate Rathbun’s story, the newspaper contacted others who were in Scientology during the same period and have left the church: Mike Rinder, one of Rathbun’s closest associates for two decades; Tom De Vocht, who Rathbun named as key to his decision to leave; and later, Amy Scobee.

Rathbun and Rinder were well known to the reporters, who had interviewed them dozens of times, sometimes combatively, through years of controversy in Clearwater. They also hosted the reporters in Los Angeles in 1998, when Miscavige granted the only print media interview he has given.

Two reporters met Rinder in Denver, where he now lives, but he declined to be interviewed. About a month later, two Washington-based lawyers who work for the church showed up unannounced in Denver, informed Rinder that they had heard about the newspaper’s visit and asked what he had revealed.

They reminded him that as one of the church’s top legal officers, attorney-client privilege did not end when he left the church. They told him he could hurt the church by going public.

Weeks later, after the church provided the newspaper with a 2007 video of Rinder heatedly denying that Miscavige hit him and others, Rinder decided to talk to the Times.

De Vocht was interviewed in Winter Haven. Scobee was interviewed in Pinellas County, when she and her husband came to visit relatives.

The reporters interviewed the four defectors multiple times, and met with church spokesmen and lawyers for 25 hours.

Joe Childs, Managing Editor/Tampa Bay, ran the Times Clearwater operation dating to 1993 and supervised the newspaper’s Scientology coverage. He can be reached at childs@sptimes.com

Thomas C. Tobin has covered the Church of Scientology off and on for 20 years. He can be reached at tobin@sptimes.com

The result of the Times’ reporting is this multi-part special report, the latest in a long history of Scientology coverage by the Times. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for a 1979 report on Scientology. And in the years since, with the church’s Clearwater headquarters in the Times’ prime coverage area, the in-depth reporting has continued. This project, as you will see, features the three days of in-depth reports from the St. Petersburg Times, as well as additional content for this Web presentation. Those additional pieces include video; a photo gallery; and links to previous coverage in the Times, including the Pulitzer-winning coverage.

SEE THE WHOLE ARTICLE, ALL 3 PARTS, WITH VIDEOS…

TAMPA — Steven Hassan remembers reflecting on his own brainwashing experience the day two planes slammed into the World Trade Center.

“I thought, ‘I would have done that,’ ” Hassan told several hundred people gathered for the National Amber Alert Training Symposium at downtown Tampa’s Hyatt Regency. “That’s how far gone I was.”

Hassan, a licensed mental health counselor from Massachusetts, has spent the last three decades using his two-year experience in a cult to dissect brainwashing that occurs when someone joins a cult or is abducted. He shared his story Wednesday during a speech titled “Psychology of Mind Control Over Abducted Children” at the symposium, which wraps up Thursday and is sponsored by the Justice Department.

In the late 1970s, Hassan spent two years following Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon. At 19, Hassan said, three attractive women approached him on campus and invited him to a dinner. That’s where he first learned about Moon. Two weeks later, he said, he had dropped out of college, donated his bank account and become a follower.

Hassan said Moon talked about ascending to national power and making it a capital offense to have sex with someone other than the person assigned to you by the church.

“And I, a Jew, educated about the Holocaust, said, ‘yes, Father,’ ” Hassan said.

He soon rose in rank through Moon’s Unification Church and began recruiting others to join the cult.

“I believed Moon and his wife were my real father and mother, and I believed my real parents were satanic,” Hassan said.

His parents later staged an intervention to deprogram Hassan. He said the guilt he felt for bringing others into Moon’s cult fueled his desire to become a crusader against those who continue to do the same thing.

“There’s a lot of very slick, manipulative stuff being transmitted out there,” Hassan said. “Ethical people don’t take advantage of other people.”

He said hypnosis and mind control are real. Abducted children or individuals recruited into cults are brainwashed into forsaking their family and friends. The same thing happened to Hassan when he was a “Moonie,” he said.

“I had been mind controlled even though I was manipulated to believe that I had made my own decisions,” he said before adding, “Mind control and brainwashing does not erase a person’s core identity.”

To Hassan, that means there’s still hope at reaching someone who has been brainwashed through a cult or by some other form of abduction. He encouraged listeners who see a cult recruiting taking place to approach the person attempting to do the brainwashing and talk with them.

“Keep in mind that’s somebody’s kid, and their parents may not have seen them in 10 years,” Hassan said.

Approaching a cult member with kindness instead of ridicule may sometimes lead to pulling them back into reality, he said.

FACTNet blog editor’s note: Here is a warning to all parents about possible “brainwashing” being done by predators on-line…

IMHO
FACTNet

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In his first detailed interview since walking off Nightline last week, church spokesman Tommy Davis talks about Paul Haggis’ public defection, addresses drug allegations—and explains his relationship with Tom Cruise

Tommy Davis has been busy lately. In the past week, the spokesman for the Church of Scientology tore off his lapel microphone and stormed out of an interview when Nightline correspondent Martin Bashir tried to question him about whether he believed in the intergalactic warlord Xenu—a central figure in the church’s theology. And over the weekend, Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning director of Crash, made news when his angry resignation from Scientology—addressed to Tommy Davis—became public.

Here is the best Scientology has…

In his letter, Haggis claimed Davis had assured him the church would publicly denounce the organization’s San Diego chapter for supporting Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriage in California. That denunciation never came and Haggis said the church’s refusal to take a stand was “cowardly.” Then he took Davis to task for denying in a CNN interview that the church has a policy of “disconnection”—requiring members to cut off contact with family members who run afoul of Scientology or its policies. Haggis said he knew that statement was false because his wife was ordered to disconnect from her parents after they had committed some “absolutely trivial” offense in the eyes of the church.

“To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: What else are you lying about?” Haggis wrote.
In his first extensive interview since the resignation, Davis says Haggis’ letter is based on a series of misunderstandings. The church’s San Diego branch was erroneously named as backing Prop 8, he says. And he argues that his comments on CNN about disconnection have been mischaracterized. He declines to say whether, in light of his explanations, he believes Haggis might become reconciled to the church. Haggis did not respond to a request for comment.

For Davis, the 37-year-old son of actress and longtime Scientologist Anne Archer, the Haggis flap isn’t the only controversy he’s fending off–he’s had to answer questions about his own standing in the church, his past use of pot, and his relationship with Tom Cruise. “I guess I’m the most popular boy in school right now,” he says good-naturedly.

Claire Headley, who has known Tommy Davis for many years, grew up in the church, and worked in its internal affairs office until she left the organization five years ago. She says Davis was “a happy-go-lucky” teenager who got into a fair amount of mischief, including some that would violate Scientology codes. That didn’t stop him from eventually becoming Tom Cruise’s “personal, full-time, assigned Scientology handler,” she says, explaining, “He filtered everything, reported on what [Cruise] was doing to [Church of Scientology leader] David Miscavige.” Officially, Davis was assigned to the church’s president’s office in the Celebrity Centre, she continues, but he was essentially with Cruise full-time from the late 1990s until 2005.

Davis was quickly returned to the fold and sent to the church’s offices in Clearwater, Florida, where he was required to clean toilets with a toothbrush for a week.

When Cruise visited Scientology headquarters in Hemet, a desert town about 90 miles from Los Angeles, in 2004 Headley says Cruise and Davis used an office in the Religious Technology Center building that—despite its considerable size—was occupied only by Miscavige and his personal staff. That same year, Miscavige labored to produce a video that was to be played when Cruise received the Freedom Medal of Valor award at an annual gathering in England.

“Tommy Davis was there full-time for that,” she says. “We’re talking 24/7—through the night. Both of them and probably like, 60 other staff, running for them.” (The video was eventually leaked and made quite a sensation on the Internet because of Cruise’s unusual affect.)

Davis denies essentially all of this. He says he worked with Cruise but not full-time. He says he never worked in an office at the Hemet facility. Initially he denies having worked on the video but then acknowledges that he did.

At one time, according to Claire Headley, Davis tried to recruit her into the Scientology management organization called the Sea Org. (Though he did not succeed, she joined some time later.) She recalls that Davis has had some difficult moments within the organization. Years ago, after he had begun to receive Scientology training and counseling, she says, Davis smoked some pot. That put him at odds with the organization’s “executive posting qualifications,” which in theory made him what Scientology calls a “drug revert.”

That status should have made Davis ineligible to work in a high-level position, according to Headley. “But if you work with Tom Cruise for a number of years and Anne Archer is your mother, people might look the other way,” she says.

Davis denies this account. “I am not a drug revert,” he says, adding that it is “absolutely untrue” that the church gave him special treatment because of his connections. “I’m in the position I’m in because of my accomplishments and my ability to do my job,” he says.

A couple of years ago, Headley says, Davis got into a heated on-camera exchange with BBC journalist John Sweeney, who was doing reporting on Scientology. Apparently the church did not want that footage to air and it dispatched its then-spokesman, Mike Rinder, to England to deal with the situation. Rinder could not dissuade the BBC from broadcasting the interview. According to Headley, and her husband, Marc, who worked in Scientology’s film-production studio from 1989 until 2005, both Rinder and Davis “blew” at that point. (In church parlance, that means they went AWOL.) Rinder has not returned and has since gone on the record with the St. Petersburg Times, accusing church leader Miscavige of physical abuse and other misconduct. (Scientology officials denied the accusations, claiming Miscavige never hit a church staffer.)

Headley says informed former Scientologists told her that Davis was quickly returned to the fold and sent to the church’s offices in Clearwater, Florida, where he was required to clean toilets with a toothbrush for a week. Davis acknowledges that he spent about a year in the Florida offices after the BBC interview but says he never “blew” and was never ordered to clean toilets.

Claire Headley rose relatively high with her church studies, becoming what Scientology calls an “OT 5″ (”OT” stands for “operating thetan”). She says she doubts that Davis is nearly as versed in Scientology because his work has been too demanding. “When you’re staff and you never sleep, there’s very little time for that sort of thing,” she explains. (Scientology’s training demands for staff seem lax in some instances; indeed, Marc Headley says, “I was there for 15 years and I never even read Dianetics”—a reference to founder L. Ron Hubbard’s bestseller.)

Headley suspects Tommy Davis has never participated in upper-level training in which the story of Xenu would have actually been revealed. She thinks that may be why he walked out of the Nightline interview when asked about it. “In Scientology, no one can talk about it, whether you’ve done it or not,” she says. “If you talk about it when you’re not up to that level, you can be banned from ever doing it.”

Davis refuses to say exactly how far up Scientology’s “bridge to total freedom” he has gone. “I never discuss my personal progress in the church,” he says.

The Headleys say they believe that Davis may be in somewhat over his head. With the departure of Rinder as spokesman and other key Scientology personnel, Marc Headley says Davis has been thrust into the spotlight without necessarily having undergone sufficient training. “There’s a whole series of courses you have to do,” he says. “It’s very unlikely that he did all that… [But] he’s rich so he can afford to buy himself thousand-dollar suits and he rolls up in his 7 Series BMW—and he doesn’t have any reason not to be there.” (Headley says other low-paid Scientology staff members “could barely afford gas for that BMW.”)

Davis says it’s “crap” that the former church members are attacking him. As for Marc Headley, Davis says, “It’s no mystery why he’s vicious about the church and the church spokesman when he’s somebody who sells stories to the media and is currently suing the church.” Marc Headley admits he has written some stories for Life & Style magazine and acknowledges that he is suing the church. For the record, he has never attempted to sell a story to The Daily Beast.

Tommy Davis lies to CNN, caught by KESQ TV in Palm Beach, CA

IMHO
FACTNet

This editorial/opinion/news alert has been provided or distributed by FACTNet, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network.) Please visit our web site at http://www.factnet.org if you would like to comment on this editorial/opinion/news alert or to share your personal experiences. Re-distribution and re-posting of this document using proper net etiquette when doing so, is appreciated! If you have something you would like Factnet to consider posting in our editorial/opinion/news story email it to manage@factnet.org . Be sure to put Factnet Story Submission in the subject line so it gets to the proper editors.
Factnet’s mission is to be the largest online news and referral service as well as research archive for defending freedom of thought and mind from all forms of unethical influence tactics, mind control and mental coercion/torture used in destructive cults and fundamentalist groups. Since 1993 millions have been helped. FACTNet is a tax deductible, IRS Approved 501(c)(3) non profit organization. For breaking news, personal stories, recovery information, support groups, and expert referrals relating to our mission please visit our web site at http://www.factnet.org If you would like to view over 350,000 postings on various cults, comment on this editorial/opinion/news or to share your personal experiences, go to one of our many various message boards at http://www.factnet.org/vbforum
F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. PO Box 1315 , Ignacio, CO. 81137 USA, E-mail: manage@factnet.org

Raymond Gellner- Examiner.com Tues., Oct . 27, 2009

Paris, France – On Tuesday a French court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and ordered it to pay fines in the amount of 600,000 euros (approximately $900,000). Prosecutors had wanted the group banned from operating in France, but due to a legal loophole the group escaped this ruling. Although, there is a ruling now in place that if the group is again convicted of fraud, it could be banned from the country.

If France was to ban Scientology, it would not be alone. Greece has banned it since 1997, and Germany is considering a ban on it.

Individuals within the organization had previously been convicted of fraud. However, this marks the first time that the group itself has been thus convicted.

In addition to Scientology’s French Office and its library, six leaders were also found guilty by the three-judge panel. According to CNN, one of the judges stated that if Scientology wishes to continue its activity, it must be “on the correct side of the law.”

The organization is expected to appeal the ruling.

Excellent Youtube News piece HERE

Two of the plaintiffs in the case were women who were recruited into the group, then forced into spending tens of thousands of euros on products from the group. A third plaintiff was a woman who was fired by her Scientologist boss after she refused to undergo the Scientology tests and join the courses.

Followers of the organization contend that this court ruling amounts to religious persecution. Eric Roux, a spokesman for the group stated, “It’s run like an Inquisition, [as] if some people did not wake up from the Inquisition time.”

The Church of Scientology was founded in December of 1953 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. This is not the first time that the organization has had legal problems. In 1979 in the criminal case of United States vs. Mary Sue Hubbard et al. several members of the group including Hubbard’s wife were convicted of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property.

In France as in several other European countries, Scientology is not seen as a religion, but rather as a sect. According to Emma Jane Kirby of the BBC, France sees Scientology as “a purely commercial operation designed to make as much money as it can at the expense of often vulnerable victims.” In the United States Scientology is allowed registry as a religion which gives it all of the tax privileges therein.

CNN Report

IMHO
FACTNet

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A Class action lawsuit was filed 10/24/09 against Amway Global in Montreal Federal Court Case T-1754-09 alleging deceptive trade practices. Eric Scheibeler, America’s “Opportunity Fraud” Expert available for interview.

Williamsport, PA October 26, 2009

A class action litigation was filed against Amway Global on behalf of defendants alleging a loss in excess of $15,000. The complaint states that “The Defendants sell dreams of wealth, independence and success when in fact the overwhelming majority of distributors recruited into this dream world lose money and over half give up within one year”.

Eric Scheibeler is no stranger to this industry. He was a former government auditor and high level leader in the multi level marketing industry when he himself discovered massive, systematic fraud. He is an expert in the area of multi level marketing fraud and is the author of the book, Merchants of Deception which exposes the industry from within.

Scheibeler has been contacted by thousands of victims defrauded in multi level marketing frauds from over 30 nations. He has been interviewed by or consulted as an expert with the UK Government, Law enforcement in India, Dateline NBC, Business Week, the FBI, the IRS, ITV and class action firms taking action on behalf of victims. He advises, “The industry of Business Opportunity Fraud is growing at an epidemic rate. Those promoting various multi level marketing schemes fraudulently proclaim their ‘business’ is a beacon of hope for millions of consumers weakened and desperate from the housing collapse, declining wages, shrinking income and unemployment.”

Scheibeler details how the multibillion dollar fraud is spread virally, out of sight of the media, in the privacy of homes, between friends and family members. The euphoria and belief of victims are based upon high level leaders’ fraudulent promise that each new investor can find wealth and security by recruiting other investors, all of whom can do the same, in a chain that will expand forever.

The author will share with your audience the following:

1. How a product based Ponzi scheme functions in near exact parallel to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
2. The Four Red Flags to look for when approached by a friend or colleague with an “opportunity.”
3. Documentation of loss rates of almost 99% for those who invest in a multi level marketing business.
4. Interviews with countless victims who have lost in excess of ten thousand dollars.
5. An educational inoculation to protect people from falling prey to these very well presented schemes.

“Mr. Scheibeler’s book is a chilling portrayal of the process by which intelligent people can persist for years in pursuing the Amway dream while making no money. It is all the more significant because he earned his way to one of the highest distributor levels in the Company . . . I learned of similar experiences from ex-distributors when I interviewed them for the State of Wisconsin’s Amway litigation in the early 80’s. Such conditioning may explain why the tax returns (obtained for this litigation) of all active Wisconsin Direct Distributors, the company’s top 1%, showed an average net income of minus $900. Why did these men and women persist . . . under these economic circumstances? Eric Scheibeler’s book answers this question for those whose minds are clear enough to read its pages.”

- BRUCE A. CRAIG, retired Assistant Attorney General,
Wisconsin Department of Justice – Office of Consumer Protection
(This statement is my own and not that of the State of Wisconsin.)

This economy has driven recruitment into the industry of “business opportunity” to new highs and unlike the Madoff scheme, those who can afford to lose the least are defrauded.

Media http://www.merchantsofdeception.com
Victim testimonials http://merchantsofdeception.com/mod/wordpress/

The book Merchants of Deception and it has finally been published! (Today)
Please go to http://www.merchantsofdeception.com and get a copy and share the web site with any and everyone who you think could benefit from this.

Haggis, whose 2005 film Crash won two Oscars, said that he could no longer remain part “of an organisation where gay-bashing was tolerated”.

In a lengthy resignation letter leaked to the press, Haggis attacked the church’s support for Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

The letter was addressed to the church’s official spokesman Tommy Davis, accusing him of failing to act on promises to distance the organisation from homophobic statements made by its San Diego branch during debates over Proposition 8 last year.

“I called and wrote and implored you, as the official spokesman of the church, to condemn their actions,” he wrote. “You promised action. Ten months passed. No action.”

He added: “The church’s refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly. I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.”

Haggis, a Canadian-born filmmaker who wrote Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby before writing and directing the acclaimed Crash about racial tension in Los Angeles, also claimed that his wife suffered “terrible personal pain” after cutting ties with her parents – former church members – last year.

The director went on to lament his own failure to challenge the church hierarchy earlier in his membership.

“The great majority of Scientologists I know are good people who are genuinely interested in improving conditions on this planet and helping others,” he wrote.

“I have to believe that if they knew what I now know, they too would be horrified. But I know how easy it was for me to defend our organisation and dismiss our critics, without ever truly looking at what was being said; I did it for thirty-five years.”

Haggis’s resignation caps a difficult few days for the Church of Scientology, which was founded by the science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard in 1953.

On Saturday Davis walked out of an interview with Martin Bashir on the ABC network’s Nightline programme after being asked whether the church believed that the earth was populated by an alien lord called Xenu 75 million years ago.

The Church of Scientology was not immediately available for comment. But Mark Bunker of Zenu TV was!!!

Paul Haggis Resigns from Church of Scientology

http://www.scientology-cult.com/ Friday, 23 October 2009

Paul Haggis is the Academy award winning filmmaker who, in 2006, became the first screenwriter, since 1950, to write two Best Film Oscar winners back-to-back – “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, and “Crash” (2005) which he himself directed. For “Crash,” he won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The film also received an additional four nominations including one for Haggis’ direction. “Crash” reaped numerous awards during its year of release from associations such as the IFP Spirit Awards, the Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA.

In 2006, Haggis’ screenplay collaborations included the duo Clint Eastwood productions “Flags of our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” the latter earning him his third screenplay Oscar nomination. He also helped pen “Casino Royale,” which garnered considerable acclaim for reinvigorating the James Bond spy franchise and has written the screenplay for the next Bond production “Quantum of Solace.”

Haggis’ directorial follow-up to “Crash” was “In the Valley of Elah” which he wrote, directed, and produced, for Warner Independent Pictures. The film, which starred Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon, was a suspense drama of a father’s search for his missing son, who is reported AWOL after returning from Iraq. Jones earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in the film.

Most recently, Haggis and his partner Michael Nozik formed Hwy 61 Films, based at United Artists. Their first venture is an adaptation of the celebrated Australian novel “The Ranger’s Apprentice.”

Haggis was born in London, Ontario, Canada and moved to California in his early 20s. For over two decades he has written, directed and produced television shows such as “thirtysomething” and “The Tracey Ullman Show,” and also developed credits as a pup writer on many Norman Lear sitcoms. He created the acclaimed, if short-lived, CBS series “EZ Streets” which the New York Times cited as one of the most influential shows of all time, noting, that without it “there would be no Sopranos.”

Haggis is equally committed to his private and social concerns. He is co-founder of Artists for Peace and Justice, a working board member of EMA (The Environmental Media Association) as well as the advocacy group Office Of The Americas, among others.

He is married, the father of four children, and splits his time between residences in Los Angeles and New York.

– from IMDb Mini Biography by: zkozlowski

Paul Haggis’ Letter to Miscavige Mouthpiece, Tommy Davis

Tommy,

As you know, for ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego. Their public sponsorship of Proposition 8, a hate-filled legislation that succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California – rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state – shames us.

I called and wrote and implored you, as the official spokesman of the church, to condemn their actions. I told you I could not, in good conscience, be a member of an organization where gay-bashing was tolerated.

In that first conversation, back at the end of October of last year, you told me you were horrified, that you would get to the bottom of it and “heads would roll.” You promised action. Ten months passed. No action was forthcoming. The best you offered was a weak and carefully worded press release, which praised the church’s human rights record and took no responsibility. Even that, you decided not to publish.

The church’s refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly. I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.

I joined the Church of Scientology thirty-five years ago. During my twenties and early thirties I studied and received a great deal of counseling. While I have not been an active member for many years, I found much of what I learned to be very helpful, and I still apply it in my daily life. I have never pretended to be the best Scientologist, but I openly and vigorously defended the church whenever it was criticized, as I railed against the kind of intolerance that I believed was directed against it. I had my disagreements, but I dealt with them internally. I saw the organization – with all its warts, growing pains and problems – as an underdog. And I have always had a thing for underdogs.

But I reached a point several weeks ago where I no longer knew what to think. You had allowed our name to be allied with the worst elements of the Christian Right. In order to contain a potential “PR flap” you allowed our sponsorship of Proposition 8 to stand. Despite all the church’s words about promoting freedom and human rights, its name is now in the public record alongside those who promote bigotry and intolerance, homophobia and fear.

The fact that the Mormon Church drew all the fire, that no one noticed, doesn’t matter. I noticed. And I felt sick. I wondered how the church could, in good conscience, through the action of a few and then the inaction of its leadership, support a bill that strips a group of its civil rights.

This was my state of mind when I was online doing research and chanced upon an interview clip with you on CNN. The interview lasted maybe ten minutes – it was just you and the newscaster. And in it I saw you deny the church’s policy of disconnection. You said straight-out there was no such policy, that it did not exist.

I was shocked. We all know this policy exists. I didn’t have to search for verification – I didn’t have to look any further than my own home.

You might recall that my wife was ordered to disconnect from her parents because of something absolutely trivial they supposedly did twenty-five years ago when they resigned from the church. This is a lovely retired couple, never said a negative word about Scientology to me or anyone else I know – hardly raving maniacs or enemies of the church. In fact it was they who introduced my wife to Scientology.

Although it caused her terrible personal pain, my wife broke off all contact with them. I refused to do so. I’ve never been good at following orders, especially when I find them morally reprehensible.

For a year and a half, despite her protestations, my wife did not speak to her parents and they had limited access to their grandchild. It was a terrible time.

That’s not ancient history, Tommy. It was a year ago.

And you could laugh at the question as if it was a joke? You could publicly state that it doesn’t exist?

To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?

And that is when I read the recent articles in the St. Petersburg Times. They left me dumbstruck and horrified.

These were not the claims made by “outsiders” looking to dig up dirt against us. These accusations were made by top international executives who had devoted most of their lives to the church. Say what you will about them now, these were staunch defenders of the church, including Mike Rinder, the church’s official spokesman for 20 years!

Tommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil rights violations. It is still hard for me to believe. But given how many former top-level executives have said these things are true, it is hard to believe it is all lies.

“…the same face that denied the policy of disconnection”

And when I pictured you assuring me that it is all lies, that this is nothing but an unfounded and vicious attack by a group of disgruntled employees, I am afraid that I saw the same face that looked in the camera and denied the policy of disconnection. I heard the same voice that professed outrage at our support of Proposition 8, who promised to correct it, and did nothing.

I carefully read all of your rebuttals, I watched every video where you presented the church’s position, I listened to all your arguments – ever word. I wish I could tell you that they rang true. But they didn’t.

I was left feeling outraged, and frankly, more than a little stupid.

And though it may seem small by comparison, I was truly disturbed to see you provide private details from confessionals to the press in an attempt to embarrass and discredit the executives who spoke out. A priest would go to jail before revealing secrets from the confessional, no matter what the cost to himself or his church. That’s the kind of integrity I thought we had, but obviously the standard in this church is far lower – the public relations representative can reveal secrets to the press if the management feels justified. You even felt free to publish secrets from the confessional in Freedom Magazine – you just stopped short of labeling them as such, probably because you knew Scientologists would be horrified, knowing you so easily broke a sacred vow of trust with your parishioners.

How dare you use private information in order to label someone an “adulteress?” You took Amy Scobee’s most intimate admissions about her sexual life and passed them onto the press and then smeared them all over the pages your newsletter! I do not know the woman, but no matter what she said or did, this is the woman who joined the Sea Org at 16! She ran the entire celebrity center network, and was a loyal senior executive of the church for what, 20 years? You want to rebut her accusations, do it, and do it in the strongest terms possible – but that kind of character assassination is unconscionable.

So, I am now painfully aware that you might see this an attack and just as easily use things I have confessed over the years to smear my name. Well, luckily I have never held myself up to be anyone’s role model.

The great majority of Scientologists I know are good people who are genuinely interested in improving conditions on this planet and helping others. I have to believe that if they knew what I now know, they too would be horrified. But I know how easy it was for me to defend our organization and dismiss our critics, without ever truly looking at what was being said; I did it for thirty-five years. And so, after writing this letter, I am fully aware that some of my friends may choose to no longer associate with me, or in some cases work with me. I will always take their calls, as I always took yours. However, I have finally come to the conclusion that I can no longer be a part of this group. Frankly, I had to look no further than your refusal to denounce the church’s anti-gay stance, and the indefensible actions, and inactions, of those who condone this behavior within the organization. I am only ashamed that I waited this many months to act. I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.

Sincerely,

Paul Haggis

Ps. I’ve attached our email correspondence. At some point it became evident that you did not value my concerns about the church’s tacit support of an amendment that violated the civil rights of so many of our citizens. Perhaps if you had done a little more research on me, the church’s senior management wouldn’t have dismissed those concerns quite so cavalierly.

While I am no great believer in resumes and awards, this is what you would have discovered:

* Founder, Artists For Peace and Justice,
- sponsoring schools, an orphanage and a children’s hospital in the slums of Haiti
* Co-Founder, BrandAid Foundation and BrandAid Project
- marketing the work of artisans from the poorest countries in the world,
* Board Member, Office of The Americas
- supporting peace and justice initiatives around the world
* Board Member, Center For The Advancement of Non-Violence
* Member and active supporter, Amnesty International
* Member, President’s Council, Defenders of Wildlife
* Member and fundraiser, Environment California and CalPirg
* Member and Award Recipient, American Civil Liberties Union
* Member and supporter, Death Penalty Focus
* Member and supporter, Equality For All
* Fundraiser, NPH (Our Little Brothers) – for the children of the slums of Haiti
* Member, Citizens Commission on Human Rights
* Patron with Honors, IAS
And formerly:
* Trustee, Religious Freedom Trust
* Board Member and fundraiser, Hollywood Education and Literacy Project
* Board Member and fundraiser, For The Arts, For Every Child
– supporting art and music in public schools
* Board Member and fundraiser, The Christic Institute
- supporting Human Rights in Central America
* Founding Board Member, Earth Communication Office
* Working Board Member, Environmental Media Association
* Fundraiser, El Rescate – Human Rights for El Salvador
* Fundraiser, PAVA – Aid and Human Rights in Guatemala

Awards for outspoken support of Civil and Human Rights:

* Valentine Davies Award – Writers Guild of America
“for bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere”
*Bill of Rights Award – American Civil Liberties Union
*Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award – Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
*Peace & Justice Award – Office of the Americas, presented by Daniel Ellsberg
*Signis Award, Venezia, World Catholic Association
*ALMA Award – National Council of Latino Civil Rights
*Ethel Levitt Award for Humanitarian Service – Levitt & Quinn
*Prism Award – Entertainment Industries Council
*Humanitas Prize (2) – Humanitas
*Legacy Award, for Artistic and Humanitarian Achievement
*Environmental Media Award – EMA
*EMA Green Seal Award – EMA
*Image Award – NAACP
*Creative Integrity Award – Multicultural Motion Picture Association
*EDGE Awards (2) – Entertainment Industries Council
*Artistic Freedom Award – City of West Hollywood
*Catholics in Media Award – Catholics in Media Associates

And many dozens of fundraisers and salons at our home on behalf of Human and Civil Rights, the Environment, the Peace Movement, Education, Justice and Equality.

This letter was published online by Marty Rathbun on his blog after he received a copy from a third party recipient of the letter. After verifying it’s authenticity with his source, Marty decided to publish it so that the import of the issues it covers are fully aired and considered by readers. Marty hopes that the author of the letter will understand that by publishing the letter we mean no disrespect. Quite the contrary, it is our level of respect for the author’s life work and integrity that makes us confident many people will benefit from the author’s example, others will feel vindicated, and great strides will be made in ending the abuses the letter details. — Thoughtful

IMHO
FACTNet

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