| Lawrence 2003-02-07, 1:24 pm |
| Here are some hard won facts about the Church of Scientology, presented to
you as a public message for your protection.
In 1975, I was a 16 year old New Jersey high school sophomore. I found a
copy of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, by L. Ron Hubbard,
in a box in our family basement. I read the whole book and understood it.
So, I wrote to the Church of Scientology (a.k.a. Hubbard Dianetics Research
Foundation) in N.Y.C. for more information and was written back within one
week. I phoned the church, and was invited to come in so I went there
instead of going to school one morning.
I spoke to a registrar (a person who takes money and signs people up) named
Debbie Kagan, when I got there. Later that morning, I took some written
tests and was given an interview on a special meter. The result was a
technical estimate that stated I needed 275 hours of auditing (counselling
by an auditor) to be a more happy, healthy, high I.Q. individual. 25 Hours
of auditing at that time, was about $2,500.00.
I took the technical estimate home to my parents, and explained I wanted to
be audited. My father drove my mother and I to the church and the three of
us spoke to a few staff members at the church who explained more about
auditing, auditor training, and church jobs to us. Our family did not have
enough money for auditing and training so, I agreed to come back when I was
18 (the legal adult age) and start over.
The next week Debbie Kagan, the registrar, came to our house in the middle
of the week, without letting us know in advance and stayed for almost 2
hours. She used $10.00 of her own money, (so she said) as payment to an
account opened using my name by her as a favor, at the church for a
Communications Course. I went back with $10.00 and repaid her the following
week and started the course while I was supposed to be in school.
I was taken off the course by Sally Allerdice, a church chaplain because I
was supposed to be in shcool. When I became 18, or if I had an adult to
accompany me before then, I needed to see Sally for an OK to go back on
course.
I finished school and turned 18 in 1977 and went back to see Sally Allerdice
while I was out looking for a job. I was told by Cathy MacMurray and Susan
Davis, whom I saw instead, that Sally had left for the day when I got there.
Cathy and Susan were another church registrar and a Treasurer respectively.
They told me, it was not necessary for me to speak with Sally, because they
could see the kind of person that I was.
Cathy and Susan worked for a different group in the church than Sally did,
called the Foundation (FDN). Sally worked for a group in the church called
the Day Organization (D). These are two financially separate church staffs
and a fact not revealed to me by Cathy, Susan or Sally.
Susan Davis then stole my NY D account from that groups files and
"transferred" it to the NY FDN files as her own paid new customer. I was
taken back to the course I was on previously by Cathy MacMurray and
restarted and this is how I got into Scientology.
I received the Student of the Week award after 2 weeks, for perfect
attendance and academic achievement and was offered a job on staff with the
NY FDN. I did Staff Status 0, a staff only training course and started the
Student Hat Course (a course about studying) and began working in HCO
(Hubbard Communications Office) as an expediter or messenger. Bob Cucarullo
was the senior person in that department at the time or my boss.
The HCO office had a huge window in it, able to be seen from many other
buildings on the block. The window was draped with a U.S. Confederate flag.
One evening I got "auditing" from Bob Cucarullo in this office. I was
becoming upset recalling a past experience I had. During the "auditing
session", my eyes opened and Bob Cucarullo was seated in front of me, with a
confused expression on his face. Because he was a "bad" auditor I was left
with an emotional scar from that experience. In August 2001, I saw Bob
Cucarullo crossing an intersection in NYC. We spoke for a few minutes for
the first time in over 20 years. He said he was "not in Scientology any
more, since about 20 years ago, around the time he met me". He talked a
little bit about "his" auditing and we said goodbye.
My FDN church job hours were 3:30 P.M. to 5:30 P.M. M-F (Study time) 6:00
P.M to10:00 P.M. M-F (Work time) 9:00A.M. to 6:00 P.M. S-S (Work time). I
was offered a second job for during the day weekdays, at a Scientologist
owned and operated company called Livingcraft, that manufactured pillows. A
NY FDN staff member, and admitted former heroin addict, named Frank Tiernan
already worked there and offered me the job. One of the owners of
Livingcraft, was Raymond Baiardi, also a former drug user and the Executive
Director of the NY FDN church at the as well. He was partners in the company
with a man named Marcel Femine, who was a NY FDN student. Raymond Baiardi
did not approve of taking government state and federal taxes out of any
employees wages, so I did not like the illegal nature of this job. I told
Raymond Baiardi I was not happy there and began looking for a new job.
I was introduced to NY FDN student Susan Cox one weekend, who lived about 10
minutes from my house. She offered me a ride home and told me on the way
home she can smoke marijuana and study Scientology at the same time.
I got a new job for during the day at another Scientologist owned company in
N.Y.C., 3 blocks from Livingcraft called Loftcraft, that manufactured
bedding and bedroom furniture. A NY FDN staff member hired me as her
replacement there.
My Loftcraft supervisor, Marcia Valente Cruz, oriented me about employees
with whom I was allowed to discuss Scientology and ones with whom I was not.
Several people came in to the church, to route off courses and staff at
different times. These men and women were given a real rough time verbally
and physically, by the church staff they had to deal with in order to leave.
When I asked honestly of other staff that knew these leaving people "Who are
they and why are they leaving?", I was told they are "troublemakers", and I
should have nothing to do with them.
Loftcraft was owned by Randolph Parsons, a NY FDN student, and his wife
Isabelle Szuldiner Falcaro Parsons, a NY FDN auditor. Loftcraft was co-owned
by George Goodrich, who was a Scientologist with his wife Dina. Loftcraft
deducted state and federal governement taxes from my wages, so I worked
there during the day when not at the church.
One morning, Isabelle Parsons sent me to the Division of Motor Vehicles in
downtown Manhattan to register her car. I was denied permission by the DMV
clerk to register her car, because Isabelles signature, not mine, was needed
in order to make the registration document legally binding. I did not own a
car at that time, and commuted by train into the city and so was not
experienced with registering cars. She sent me on this errand, not because
she needed to have her car registered, but rather to create a reference
other people she had to deal with at the church higher up than herself could
use as proof of how suggestible of a person I really was.
While I worked there, Loftcraft got cited by the City of New York for 65
active building code violations. Isabelle appointed two staff members of
hers, Tina Small Kott and her husband Jim Kott to handle the city. The city
inspectors needed to re-verify the violations were being corrected and
offered assistance getting them corrected with a surprise followup visit.
Before the visit, I was ordered to remove from the building walls, desktops
and visible areas, all Dianetics, Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard materials
and references of any kind. Job applications had been rejected by the
company from people who had degrees and training the company was looking
for. The jobs were given instead to church staff that had no such degrees or
training. The Loftcraft management did not want the city accusing them of
discrimination in addition.
After 2 months of perfect attendance and good reports about me, Isabelle
fired me without notice, "for being a potential trouble source."
I picked up my last check from Loftcraft the following week. That evening I
went to the church and while I was on course, I was sent to Reverend Nancy
Levin, by Bob Cucarullo. Nancy Levin, was one of Loftcraft's veteran
employees and a church chaplain and ethics officer (one who reviews other
peoples ethics for compatibility with Scientology). She and Bob took me into
a private office and told me that, I was PTS (potential trouble source), and
needed to petition the church for permission to be on course, on staff and
get auditing. They both briefed me on how and what to write to the church
Guardian in the Guardians Office (GO). This is a former church office, now
called the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) that fights church threats
legally. They reviewed the petition and gave me an OK to place it in the GO
IN basket. Bob Cucarullo was then immediately hired by Isabelle as my
replacement at Loftcraft.
Raymond Baiardi transferred me to a Dianetics Center downtown on 6th Avenue
in N.Y.C. to await my reponse from the GO. The center was owned by Mr. and
Mrs. Howard and Mary Rower, both very wealthy N.Y.C. Scientologists. I
worked there part time for David Simon and George Chelekis, both of whom
seldom came in. I did general office clerk/typist type duties to boost
Dianetics book sales from the center. 2 months later my petition had still
not come back. I went to the church every evening to check if it had been
picked up yet. At first, more documents were being piled on top of it each
day, in the basket where I left it, but one evening it was gone. During a
visit to the GO to check on the petition, Raymond Baiardi was standing at
the bottom of the stairs leading to the GO, which was on the 4th floor of
the church, talking to a staff member. As I went past him he tried kicking
me with his right foot and then returned to his conversation and made some
remark about me.
So, while I was checking on this petition this way, I was asked on one of
these visits by Debbie Kagan Ward and Susan Becher to work for the GO.
Debbie Kagan married GO staff member Pat Ward. Susan Becher was married to
Wes Becher. All 4 of these people were church GO staff. They needed someone
part time so I signed a $10,000.00 bond as an employment contract. It stated
that if I reveal the activities of the GO or my work in the GO, to anyone
outside the GO, that I will be obligated to pay the GO $10,000.00. They
could in turn then use any means available to them to collect it, so Susan
Becher and Debbie Ward signed the bond as witnesses and I started working
part time for the GO.
I typed into documents for the GO, many hours of secretly recorded telephone
conversations between GO staff, and N.Y.C. and N.Y. state government
officials, as well as executive persons from other religious groups. I wore
headphones to prevent others from hearing what I was typing. These recorded
people were interviewed making statements that Scientology is not qualified
to operate the facilities it is asking for licenses to open. Narconon and
Applied Scholastics are two of these facilities.
The GO upon receipt of this information then "authorized" people to call,
write, visit, and sent me, for example, on projects to, from and regarding,
the offices and residences of these "outspoken" people. These people were
badgered, confused or intimidated into issuing licenses to the church to
open its desired facilities, one way or another.
The GO for example, announced that the French based police organization
Interpol, had been infiltrated by the GO, and discovered to be a drug
smuggling ring not a police organization. Raymond Baiardi delivered this
message to all the staff one afternoon at a special meeting, with several
members of the GO present with him in the room. Aside from his announcement,
I never ever heard anything else about it again, ever, from anyone anywhere
outside the church. It was not on TV or in the newspapers. Information such
as this would be used by the GO to blackmail people into submission.
The F.B. I. raided several churches of Scientology around the country in the
early morning one morning and confiscated church books, records and
materials around this time. Several staff of these churches were arrested
and jailed.
The GO organized a protest, involving busloads of Scientologists ,over 250
of them, that traveled from N.Y.C. to Washington D.C. to protest these
raids. A picket line was set up on the sidewalks surrounding the F.B.I.
building. I was asked to participate in this event and was there. The event
was televised on national TV. The trip was co-paid for by Howard and Mary
Rower.
Sometimes no one was in the GO at night to supervise me and I was sent into
the church Academy (school) by other church staff, to work with church
public. I was often assigned to "word clear" student public.
I have never been trained and interned as a word clearer, (one who helps
students to clear up misunderstood words on materials they are reading). I
was asked to word clear public students anyway. The materials I word cleared
people on, were levels above my own training level and were also materials
that I had not previously read or sometimes heard of yet.
Public came into the church buying training courses and auditing at
professional rates. The public who bought training were "word cleared" by
me, so as to get them through their training faster, so they could be put on
an internship and graduate, and start their next training course sooner. The
people who bought auditing were turned over to these untrained student
interns to be audited, so the interns could graduate. In this way, the
church made money, looked productive, and the public never ever got what it
paid for. This is how staff become elgible for the free church services that
come with their jobs, is by these "fake production statistics". The false
statistics are reported to someone at the church who in turn gives the
church credit towards its staffs free elgible job auditing and training for
their work. Auditing is very expensive and most staff members do not have
money to buy these services themselves, they must earn them.
Some staff are given a bill, by the church, in the amount, of the total
dollar value of all free auditing and training they got on their jobs. This
is called a Freeloaders debt. It is much like a court summons as far as
progress in Scientology is concerned. You may not continue until it is paid
in full. If you are released from your church job for negative reasons or
leave it first without authorization you may get a freeloaders debt. Because
I was not permanently posted in the church ever, this did not apply to me.
During the time I was "employed" at the church, I was paid about $4.00 per
week. During that time, I saw Sally Allerdice almost every day, and spoke to
her all the time. She never once asked me why I did not come back to see her
as she had asked me to.
I never heard back on my petition and was instructed by Bob Cucarullo to
resubmit it to a higher GO officer and/or LRH (L. Ron Hubbard, founder of
Dianetics and Scientology) for approval.
I got a job with a non-Scientology N.Y.C. fashion designer, and ceased
working for the church.
I sent a new petition to LRH and did not hear back after 1 month, so I wrote
LRH asking him why he had not responded yet. I gave my home address instead
of the church as the return address.
I heard back from LRH within 14 days. He stated, he had already approved my
petition and sent it back to me weeks ago, at the NY FDN. He sent me a copy
of the letter he had sent me containing the approved petition. In the letter
it stated that the reason he was sending me this copy was in case I still
had not received his first letter to me yet. He told me to make the most of
this good news and said good luck.
I never agreed that this petition was correct for me to be doing, in the
first place, it was just the only route to auditing and training being
offered to me by the church. Secondly, I was completely unaware that LRH had
written to me earlier, with an approved petition, because I never got it, it
mysteriously vanished somewhere. I later learned that it had not
mysterioulsy vanished along with my petition to the GO, but that both of
these items had been intercepted and stolen, on the way to their destination
or on the way back by the same NY FDN staff member that also came up with
the idea of what to do with the information in them.
Around this time I was asked to work for another Scientology church in
Florida called Flag, and asked to do a Hubbard Personal Ethics and Integrity
Course by another church in California called the American Saint Hill
Organization Foundation of the Church of Scientology of California. These
people called my house and wrote to me. I paid for the course at the church
in L.A. and went there to do it.
I arrived in L.A and was confused by the staff, into joining the Flag
Operations Liaison Office Church of Scientology there (FOLO), instead of
doing the course I had paid for. FOLO church is now called Continental
Liaison Office (CLO).
A FOLO job was different than a N.Y.C. church job because the FOLO was
staffed by an elite group of people called the Sea Organization (SO). SO
members receive free room and board, meals, training, auditing,
transportation, time off, pay and vacation with their jobs, unlike ordinary
staff members.
In the SO, we slept men with men, and women with women only, several each to
a room, in a rundown hotel called the Hollywood Inn on Hollywood Boulevard.
We carpooled each day to the main complex on Fountain Avenue in Hollywood,
where we worked and were fed. My job consisted of full time manual labor.
The food served in the SO was rationed, unhealthful and not sufficient
enough in amount to nourish anyone. For the more than one month I was there
I was not paid one cent for one hour of work I performed. I started work at
9:00 A.M. and finished work at 10:30 P.M. every day. I was given 1 day off
every 13 days by request only for good behavior. I had to buy my own uniform
which I was required to wear under penalty. I bought most of my meals
outside the church at local diners and stores with my own money and not with
church pay.
I sometimes ate at a restaurant named George's New York that was located
across the street from the main complex. It was owned by George and Dina
Goodrich, and Randy and Isabelle Parsons were regulars there almost every
day. The 4 of them were in L.A. to get more advanced church auditing
available only at SO churches in L.A. following Loftcraft's bankruptcy.
I was assigned to the Flag Readiness Unit (FRU) in the FOLO. This was a
barely surviving church group. I received an ethics interview, and was
placed on my New Era Dianetics Drug Rundown to qualify me as ready to be
shipped to work at the main church called Flag in Clearwater, Florida.
I was once ordered to mop the floor of the FOLO office. There was no money
for detergent, so I used plain water and the floor would not come clean. I
asked the boss, Grace Brown "What should I clean the floor with?", and she
said "Try using hot water." Meanwhile, her boss started complaining to her
that the floor was dirty.
Sometimes I was driven to work sites, such as Celebrity Center Church of
Scientology of L.A., but always for labor type duties.
Grace Brown finally states that I am to be hired as a full time auditor
trainee by Flag. I was told to go next door to the other church where I had
paid for the course and buy a full set of auditor reference volumes and an
auditing meter with my donations in preparation for being sent to Flag.
I did not need to show any I.D. to the bookstore officer to use any or all
of the money on my account. The bookstore officer pretended he knew who I
was and what I was doing there. Anyone could have gone there and said they
were me and used hundreds of dollars in my account to buy things and walk
home.
Church policy, U.S. and international law says, that auditing meter
(E-Meter) sales are restricted to Scientologists only, who are, ordained
ministers of the church and enrolled students training on church courses
that require an E Meter. I am not now, nor have I ever been, qualified to
own an E-Meter. That church bookstore officer broke the law with my own hard
earned money right to my face!
The lack of pay is what really prompted me to leave. One evening I went
roller skating in Hollywood instead of showing up for a staff muster. The
next day, when I came back, I was not allowed to enter the church and was
told that because I had gone roller skating without authorization that I was
released from my job and required to vacate the Hollywood Inn.
I started packing, and realized the books I bought were too big to bring
home in my luggage. So, I left them behind to the church staff. I slept in
the Hollywood Inn "without permission", for 2 days, while waiting for money
from home and left as soon as it came. I brought the E Meter home and showed
it to my family. I never heard from the FOLO again, except for when my
auditing folder was mailed to me at home 2 weeks after I left L.A. with
instructions to turn it in to Cathy MacMurray at the church in N.Y.C. After
dropping the folder off to Cathy I went to see a representative of the Flag
church who was in N.Y.C.
This representative, called a Flag Service Consultant (FSC), was a woman
named Kitty Kahn, whose job it is to accept advance donations from people
who want to go to Flag as public for auditing and training. I explained my
situation to her because I thought Flag services were right for me but she
would not open an account for me at Flag because I was not financially well
off enough. She would not give me any brochures available about Flag to read
and learn more from, because these were reserved for more privileged
customers too. Over 2 years passed from the time my money was "turned down"
by her, to the time I actually questioned Flag myself about opening an
account. I had to telephone Flag, write to them and then send my donations
"secretly", without involving the Flag Service Consultant in any way, in
order to open a Flag account. I was told by the person at Flag I was opening
the account with, that anybody is welcome to open an account anytime,
anywhere for any amount at Flag.
While I was working at the FOLO in L.A. I also worked sometimes in the
office of the FSC there, whose names were Fred and Gretchin Schwarz, so I
knew a little bit about Flag and its clientele. This is why I went to see
the FSC in N.Y.C.
There was an event at the church in N.Y.C. later that year. Scientologists
from N.Y.C. who had received newly released auditing at Flag came back, and
talked about gains they experienced from their auditing. I was invited and
went to the event.
Howard Rower was a guest speaker at this event. Howard Rower was thrown out
of the church in 1982 and lost the mission for having an adulterous
relationship for 7 years with a subordinate staff member at his mission. He
opened a disco instead after losing status in the church. His relationship
with his wife was never stable the whole time I knew the both of them
anyway, regardless of how they tried to cover it up. He died in November
2000.
Kitty Kahn was the hostess of this event. The event kicked off with her
walking onstage in the church auditorium, filled with about 500+ standing
room only guests, and beginning a confession of her crimes to the audience.
She confessed being guilty of crimes while in Australia, where she was sent
by the church with her lady friend Jody Marshall, on a special mission
earlier in the year. Jody Marshall was also present that evening. Kitty
concluded by informing us who all should have known about her crime besides
us. This allegedly enlightened the audience somehow.
Kitty then introduced adulterer and soon to be expelled church member,
Howard Rower as "the funniest man on the planet" to the audience.
She then described "tear jerking experiences" he and she had when she was
selling Flag auditing to him, and then he spoke. After Howard the other
guests Amanda Ambrose, Helen Geltman and Jody Marshall spoke, and then Kitty
did a questions and answers with the audience about Flag and LRH and was
annoyed by people asking her questions.
Before the show, Amanda Ambrose, a singer and acquaintance, asked me to set
up the stage for her performance which was to be part of the event that
night. She asked me backstage after her performance to thank me personally
for helping her. As we were talking, Kitty Kahn came backstage, and burst
out laughing about me in my face while I was talking to Amanda and told
Amanda that I was a joke.
After returning from L.A., I lost my job in N.Y.C. with a fashion designer.
My boss would not accept Scientology as a good enough reason to have left my
job that would have eventually been worth over $200,000.00 a year to me. The
import office where we worked that I was being trained to take over, was
closed. 1 year later my former boss remarried and moved to New Haven,
Connecticut. The two of us after being good friends socially and good co
workers, still have not spoken to each other since. When I left L.A., I
still had about $10.00 left in my account at the church. So, I gave up the
idea of working in N.Y.C. and paying for my own auditing and training. All
this while still living at home with my family at just 18 years old. Thanks
to the Church of Scientology.
In the fall of 1979, I received a letter from the N.Y.C. church chaplain,
asking me to come in for an interview, to discuss my departure from the
church. I was interviewed by more than 4 different staff over a period of 8
weeks, each one with his or her own individual understanding of my
situation. I am told I must confess my crimes on Scientology and accept
"Amnesty" from the church.
I came in each weekend for several weeks and wrote up all the "hidden"
crimes of my life and turned them in to any one of the several staff members
I was being reviewed by each week and accepted the church Amnesty or
forgiveness progam when finished. I had no Scientology crimes to report so,
I was only able to write up things that happened before Scientology, around
the ages of 5 to 16. Example: accidentally breaking my fathers record player
when I was 12 and not telling him causing a fight to break out. Nothing to
do with Scientology whatsoever.
After attesting that I was free of hidden crimes, Anna Balash, one of the
chaplains, called me into her office for a "special cycle" she said we were
had to do.
She stated, in her findings on me, that I: (19 years of age at the time of
this "cycle")
1. Was a former and possibly still a current member, of the Church of Satan
in San Francisco, CA, which is at least 5,000 miles from my house.
2. Had attempted suicide several times, not just with a handgun, but
dangerous barbiturates as well.
3. Was a potential source of trouble to the church.
4. Had left a N.Y.C. FDN church job and training course without permission.
(and had a possible freeloaders debt).
5. Had left the 6th Avenue center job without permission.
6. Had left the GO job without permission and possibly owed them $10,000.00
on a broken bond.
7. Had committed various other crimes around the church in addition to what
was already "reported".
8. Had altered my auditing folder to confuse the church staff about me.
10. Had engaged in sexually questionable acts.
First of all, the things I wrote up for the church, did not even vaguely
resemble what Anna Balash accused me of hiding from others and the church.
The proof is that people who attempt suicide, must be tried in court first
for doing that and are then normally sent to a psychiatrist for review and
treatment as justice. According to Anna Balash, I hid my suicide attempts
and membership in the Church of Satan, from my family, my school, the law,
and the church to avoid being found out. She claims others were lying to me
as well, to confuse me about what the truth really is, to stop the church
from doing its job of helping people.
I was "ordered" by her in writing to do the following if I wanted to
continue thinking about getting auditing and training.
1. A complete life history write up.
2. Notarization of an affidavit stating that the churches findings about me
were true. (This was to demonstrate to others that I was crazy and believed
these "findings" could be proved).
3. A Guardians Office World Wide Form 5 Green Form Security Check, to be
delivered to me as auditing at professional church rates.
4. A new petition to the GO.
5. An additional, hidden crime write up of any or all other hidden crimes I
accumulate during this process.
When this was done, all the information would be sent to the GO as a
package. This package would then be approved or disapproved, regarding
allowing me to get aduting and training or be on staff. Anna Balash would
then inform me of the GO's answer to "our package" when she gets it and
advise me on what my next step is going to be.
I showed Anna Balash the petition LRH had approved for me. She stated that
LRH's approved petition was not valid in this particular matter.
After this briefing she took me to the registrar to begin paying for the
audited Security Check portion of the procedure, for which I was asked to
purchase at minimum of 12 1/2 hours of auditing. The registrar was now
Raymond Baiardi, former Executive Director of the church. Anna explained to
him that my "cycle" should go smoothly.
I wanted to report this "smooth cycle" to the Police, as church crime in
progress, but, I did not know enough about the law at that age, I was never
a big lawbreaker anyway, and did not know anyone responsible enough to
discuss this with, so it never got reported.
Raymond Baiardi said he needed $2,800.00. I gave him $11.00. The following
weekend I came back and gave him $10.00. He gave me receipts for both these
amounts. I never finished giving him $2,800.00 because I could not see how
it was worth it to do so.
I explained this to my parents and family, who were in disbelief and shock.
I went back to the church in 1985 when NY FDN Treasurer Joan Woods, called
me on the phone wanting $1,100.00 for a freeloaders debt she said I had. I
told her I had never even worked for the church yet on contract. She seemed
to think I was confused, and said she would look into the matter further and
get back to me.
I did stop by the church several other times to talk to staff, and while
there on one occasion, I was asked to go and please get a guy named Richie
who worked there. I did not know Richie and asked this staff member named
Megan, where he was, because she had said to please go and get him. She said
"He's in the back of the auditorium". I went to the back of the church
auditorium and found Richie's "house".
Richie, lived in the crawlspace between a floor and a ceiling in the back of
the church auditorium. Just to clarify this: a crawlspace is a space about
16" high that is located between ceilings and floors that are next to one
another in a structure. It is usually reserved for electrical wires,
insulation, small support beams, rodents and insects.
Anna Balash and Raymond Baiardi wrote me and called me several times, as did
other staff, asking me what was the matter?, how come I had not come back?
what about my cycle?
I was later conned by the bookstore officers at two churches, into buying
thousands of dollars in LRH books. A complete LRH library of over 72 volumes
I wound up throwing in the garbage along with the illegal E Meter.
From January 1980 to March 1986 while I had problems getting the church to
review my actual qualifications as a Scientologist, I felt that without
enough money I would never get any auditing at all.
I had limited time and money, and was restricted to activities at the church
in N.Y.C. So, I engaged in weird acts to try and pay for auditing and
training and then mailed detailed written accounts of these acts to Anna
Balash at the church in N.Y.C., once or twice a week for 6 years, even when
she no longer worked there. I sent these reports to her because what I was
doing to get the money scared me and I felt as though I needed to discuss it
with someone. These writeups were usually 5 to10 pages long, on both sides
of a sheet of paper and really worried my family, friends, and associates
that knew about them. I once observed a church staff member named Lucille
Femine, reading one of these writeups I had sent in to Anna Balash in a dark
area of the church. She was the wife of Marcel Femine, former partner in
Raymond Baiardi's illegal company.
An example of what was contained in these writeups is, is allowing myself to
be drugged and then raped by homosexual men I found unusual ways to meet.
These men told me they were from Broadway or Beverly Hills or Hollywood,
that they knew people, had money, had jobs and houses I could stay at, and I
was going to be a star. I expected to inherit millions from these guys that
was not only going to make me rich, but the church too. When things like
this did not work out, I wrote them up and sent them in to the church so as
not so suffer any ill effects from having such acts on my conscience. The
church in exchange sent me spiritual guidance in the form of Hubbard
scriptures and personal advice from staff, to help me to streamline my
activities and sometimes called me on the phone just to chat.
If I thought someone was opposed to Scientology for example: Then I once
punched a stranger, in the face at a bus stop in front of a dozen witnesses
at 7:30 A.M. and stood there yelling "Come on! Come on!" suspecting that he
was antagonistic to me paying for auditing and training. If it turned out
that this did not help me to get auditing and training, I wrote it up to the
church, so I could keep my nose clean.
In 1985 I moved to an apartment in NYC with a buddy of mine Gordon Needham.
I had a nervous breakdown from these written up experiences. This prompted
me to try and do something about it.
In June of 1986, I secretly packed my bags, and flew to Clearwater, Florida.
I got my own place, my own job, and lived there for 3 years in what was
intended to be peace and quiet. With the help of my neighbors in Clearwater
and my family, I was able to get the time and money needed to rest and
become a stronger individual, and I eventually came to my senses and ceased
these write ups.
I am forever indebted to them, for stopping me, and pointing out this
activity I was involved in with the church to me and helping me to save my
own life.
The church will not comment on the fact that they no longer receive such
communications from me even though they were very open about them in the
past.
So, one afternoon, without telling anyone I went to Flag because it was
right up the street from my house. I had never been there before and knew no
one there and was expecting to handle my whole "situation" and go home a
free man spiritually.
Of the first people I see, one is Kitty Kahn the FSC from N.Y.C. because she
works at Flag and, two days later I meet Anna Balash as she is sitting on a
balcony railing swinging her feet, drinking soda, and pretending to be
staring at me. All of this is in the Scientology main hotel called the Fort
Harrison (FH). Kitty Kahn "could not" see me, so my FSC was a man named
Christian.
I stayed in very close communication with my family in New Jersey the whole
3 years I lived in Clearwater. At first I was at Flag every day for a couple
of months. I signed up for training and intern auditing. When I was not
training, I ran free errands for staff, wrote hundreds of letters out to
their customers for them each week and generally got acquainted with the
place and its people.
A Greek female SO member in charge of the "estates renovation" project, that
was remodeling the FH at the time, offered me a job I turned down. It was to
work for 6 weeks on temporary contract and live in the church for those 6
weeks, while remodeling the FH with other Scientologists. At the end of the
six weeks, I would be given a $2,200.00 credit on my Flag account for
whatever services I wanted to do there. I did not trust this woman from the
start. She suddenly tells me, that the U.S. Immigration Service is seeking
to deport her because she joined the SO while in the U.S. on a tourist visa.
I went to the beach almost every day for those three years and played on the
Gulf of Mexico where there were few distractions. A big fat goose once let
me catch her and play with her after a 45 minute foot chase. I came home
after sundown avoiding unnecessary contact with people.
Suddenly in town, to my astonishment, I began being told I was not welcome
by Scientologists at their businesses which I sometimes went into. I was
never given a true explanation why and I did not want to discuss the matter,
so I patronized other businesses where I was always welcome.
The church never once, phoned, wrote or visited me at my house 3 blocks from
Flag the whole 3 years I lived in Clearwater.
One afternoon at Flag, Kitty Kahn was sitting at her desk calling me "a
queer" out loud. A while later, she was walking down Pierce Street, behind
the FH, laughing out of control to herself out loud. I saw her walking
around in town, in restaurants, and she would see me and never once say hi.
Once she commented that I needed a "security check" to one of her girl
friends, but always in an out loud fashion. One of the auditing case
supervisors at Flag, a guy, got into the habit of referring to me as "gay"
in public around other people, much in the same manner that Kitty Kahn
would.
I passed Flag every day on my way to and from the beach, and at night, there
were loons walking around on the balconies, saying out loud to themselves,
"I'm free, I'm free" at one of their other hotels up the street from my
house called the Sandcastle.
If you had a complaint about a Scientologist, and told it to the
authorities, they would seldom help. An example is church people that would
deliberately walk into you and physically strike you in a deranged manner,
while crossing an intersection with them by coincidence, and then walk away
as if they had a right to be angry.
I saw a motorist once, get out of his car and run up to a church guest and
punch the man savagely in the head and face right in the front door of the
FH and the get back in his car and drive off.
I was sitting on a bench across the street from the FH one evening, and a
Scientologist came out of the FH and exposed his genitals to me and then ran
back inside.
At the Park Diner one morning, I spotted a neighbor and sat down with her.
We were eating, when a man, a stranger, in a Scientology church uniform,
walked up to our table, and stood there. He interrupted us to ask "Did one
of you just say something BAD about Scientology?" He claimed he overheard us
talking from the next booth. I asked why he was interrupting us this way and
finally asked him to leave in a firm manner. The owner of the restaurant and
his son questioned me about the Scientologist before I left.
In Scientology businesses it can be normal for a fight to break out. Other
Scientologists will come into other Scientologists businesses and scream at
other Scientologists "Why aren't to pay for your next church service yet!"
not always in those words but to that effect. Other Scientologists show up
and intervene. Scientologists do this, to give the impression of being
sincere about their religious beliefs.
I sent money to Flag that never reached my account. I believe the money was
"filtered out" by the people that it passed through en route.
I reported the problems I was having to church management and to LRH when he
was alive. I was never answered back, except for LRH who wrote back and said
"to go to the church and talk to someone" and the church Justice Chief who
said she was "unaware I was having any real problems". I moved back home to
New Jersey from Clearwater in 1989 after my house was sold.
In June of 1989, I telephoned the American Saint Hill Organization where I
had purchased the illegal E Meter in L.A., to use up the money left on my
account there. I spoke to Larry MacDonald in the Treasury Office. He said, I
had no money left on account. He said the money left on the account was
transferred to Flag. I had a copy of my account statement from him, and it
said in WRITING on the statement, that my money had been sent to Flag. I
told him I had a copy of my Flag account statement in my other hand, with
date and amount of all transfers into and out of the account and that this
transfer he said took place never took place. He promptly credited my
account in the exact correct amount. I made a purchase in the full amount of
what was left on the account bringing the account to $00.00, where it has
remained to this day.
I did the same thing at the remaining churches in L.A. where I had money
left on account and those churches promptly assisted me to bring my accounts
to $00.00, where they have stayed to this day.
I contacted Flag, and both NY churches next to use up the remainder of the
money that was left on my accounts at these churches too.
The NY Day church Treasurer Donna, invited me to see her after I phoned her.
My sister Lorraine went with me. Donna found all my records and allowed me
to bring my balance to $00.00 where it has stayed to this day .
I called the NY FDN church to inquire about my account. Raymond Baiardi was
put on the phone and said "Hi crazy" and hung up the phone. I telephoned the
church the next day and asked to speak to Raymond Baiardi again. Raymond
Baiardi was again put on the phone to talk to me. He said "Look, Mr.
Toomajan, if this is about your church declare or something, why don't you
just XXXX off!", and hung up the phone.
When I telephoned Flag to inquire about my account, Kitty Kahn responded to
my call. I asked her about my account and did the church have my current
address. She promptly yelled into the phone at me "Oh, she doesn't work here
anymore!", and hung up phone. I have not been able to access any account
records or leftover funds at NY FDN or Flag yet.
In October 1993 my mother and I had gone to a Halloween parade in the center
of Linden and sat down in a restaurant after the parade. I noticed NY FDN
staff member Jennifer Cox, standing on line at the cash register in the
restaurant. She spotted me as she was leaving and came over to my table to
talk. She said she was still a Scientologist, and was training at the church
in NY with her kids, and that she had not seen me in a while and was
wondering what was going on with me and that she had opened an art business
on the highway not too far from there, and was selling art goods. After she
left, I explained to my mother who she was.
I went down to the highway about a week later, to see if she was telling the
truth and I found her store. I bought a picture of the New York City skyline
from her and left in good faith.
The businesses landlord is a city councilman named Charles Crane. I asked
Charles Crane if I could speak to him. He was not aware of any previous
dealings between myself, this church and his tenants. Charles Crane lives
right next door to the Scientologists art business on another piece of
property he owns. I explained that the Church of Scientology has been
harassing me and that his tenants were from the church that is harassing me
specifically. He asked me to please write the matter up for him, which I
did.
One of Charles Cranes other Scientology tenants, Larry Broncato, also
remembered me from the 6th Avenue Mission where he and I worked once, and
told me so. Susan Cox, who told me years ago, while she was giving me a lift
home from the church, that she smoked marijuana and studied Scientology, was
also employed there and also told me that she recognized me. She also told
me that Charles Crane had confronted them with the matter I wrote to him
about.
Charles Crane sent me a summons to go to court in response to what I wrote
to him. I told the judge: I told Charles Crane, verbally and then in writing
at his request, that his tenants were harassing me. I did this to gain
insight into what to do about the situation. I had to go to Charles Cranes
property a total of 3 times to complete the task. That is all there was to
tell the judge.
Charles Crane, his son, his stepson and a lawyer, ganged up on me in court.
I was not aware that I had done something requiring the services of an
attorney. The Cranes stated, that I had been told by each member of the
family present in court, not once, but several times on many occasions, not
to trespass on the property. The Cranes claimed that in spite of these
repeated consecutive warnings, I deliberately went back to their property
anyway, and against their wishes, not once, but several times, made trouble
not just for them, but the Scientologists too.
I had to a pay a $250.00 fine and got a criminal record for reporting his
tenants crimes against me to him, to learn what I can do about it and was
forbidden by the judge from ever setting foot on his property again.
The staff of the business on Charles Cranes property has changed hands more
frequently than the pictures for sale on their walls, and is always
Scientologists. They have listed themselves in the phone book as:
1. The Profit Center
2. The Art and Picture Warehouse
3. some Auto Body Shop,
And other different business titles concurrently.
One time, I left a $30.00 deposit with Larry Broncato there, for a picture
that needed a custom sized frame built for it. I told Larry Broncato on the
phone I did not want him to make a special framed picture for me any more
and would like my deposit back. At first, on the phone, he said OK, that he
had not yet started working on my picture anyway. But, then when I got there
to get the deposit back, he refused to refund any of my deposit, even with
the receipt and claimed it was because of his "tax situation". He offered me
a used picture, that looked like it had been picked off a garbage heap and
brought there to be sold. He told me that this item, was normally $37.00,
but that he would give it to me instead of my deposit as an exchange. My
mother went over there and got it.
In March 1994 Raymond Baiardi contacted me after I had phoned the church 10
times and left messages for him to call me, to discuss my account. He asked
me to come in to the church and see him. I went, on a Sunday, March 13 in
the late afternoon. Raymond Baiardi was in an office on the second floor.
Even though he had given me invoices for these donations, we talked and he
said he did not "remember my donations" because his "recall is not that
good".
I asked him to get his copies of the invoices on file since he found me hard
to believe. He came out from behind his desk and motioned with his hands and
two unidentified men entered the room. The first man said "I think it is
time for you to leave". I said "I am in the middle of discussing something
with Raymond, and as soon as we are through I will be on my way". The man
yelled "NOW!", and threw a manila folder he was holding to the floor, and
leaped 3 feet through the air across the room onto me, so that both of his
hands landed around my neck. At which point, he forced me to the floor,
smashing my head into a desk behind me in the process. He placed his knee on
my throat making breathing and speaking impossible and pinned my arms, while
the second man jumped on my legs nearly busting them.
Raymond Baiardi told someone else there to call the police while this
assault was in progress, and report that a maniac had forced his way into
the church and was being detained by two of the other staff for the police
after assaulting someone in the building. The two men casually got off me
and said "Good Bye" as if we were friends the whole time.
I got up and walked passed them, out the door, down a flight of stairs, and
out the front door, where the police were just arriving. I stopped them and
asked them if they could help me. The police went inside the church where
Raymond Baiardi was nowhere to be seen and I waited by their patrol car. 10
or 12 staff members surrounded the police talking to them all at the same
time. The police came out and asked me to go with them to the Emergency Room
and make sure I was OK, because I was bleeding in a few spots. I was
examined by a nurse, treated and released. The visit cost me $420.00. I was
instructed after the hospital exam by the police to file a criminal
complaint.
I went to the Midtown North police precinct on West 52nd Street in
Manhattan, and spoke to 4 detectives after leaving the emergency room. They
interviewed me for almost 2 hours. I filed a criminal complaint against the
attackers before leaving the precinct. I did not know the two attackers or
their names so I gave Raymond Baiardi as the contact person. The church
never filed a complaint. It is likely that the NYPD still has the 911 call
the church made that day, in it's recorded telephone archives.
I was telephoned at work, 4 days later by Detective McKay of the NYPD. He
wanted me, to go with him and another detective, to the church to see
Raymond Baiardi and place the two attackers and possibly Raymond Baiardi
under arrest as an accomplice. I was at work and could not go that
afternoon. The detective telephoned me at home, two days later, requesting
another opportunity to make an arrest with me. He volunteered his services
on a Sunday as well in case this was more convenient for me. I was concerned
about needing a lot of time off from work, if the case dragged out over
several days in court. I told the detective that if they gave me a problem
locally, I would call the Police here in my area and do something about it
then. He left the complaint open for 1 year, rather than dismiss it, in case
I changed my mind.
I had to take my clothes to a tailor after this attack for repairs, because
the Scientologists damaged them. I no longer have the invoices Raymond
Baiardi stole. I did not make copies of these invoices, never imagining
violence coming about as the result of a donation. I received several phone
calls afterwards, from different church staff, saying an investigation into
my missing funds had been launched and what the prognosis was of finding the
money and how would I like to come to a church event instead.
In August 2000, I was studying vegetarianism, exercise and nutrition and was
curious about a Hubbard book called "Clear Body-Clear Mind. It was $17.10 at
Barnes and Nobles in Springfield, NJ. I called and asked the price.
My sister Lorraine came home from school that day and told me that a
Scientology center had opened about 1 block from the college on Morris
Avenue, in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
On my way to Barnes and Nobles, I spotted the center and went in. Bruce
Dobin, a former NY FDN church staff member whom I recognized, but had never
had any real contact with in the past, was the centers director (owner) and
introduced himself to me. I told him that I wanted to buy a copy of this
book. He said he didn't have one and offered to order one for me for $35.00.
Barnes and Nobles was an additional 25 minutes ride from the center, so I
said OK. He gave me a receipt for the book and I left.
I came home to discover him on the phone interrogating my mother and asking
her, What's her phone number? How old is she? What's her real address? Does
Larry live there? Who else lives there? How long have we lived here? What is
Larry's real name? and lots of questions. My mother told me after she had
finished talking to him that he called her and said that I had purchased a
book from him and that he needed more information on me.
Bruce called me 2 days later to say my book had not come in yet, and he
would ship it to me when it came in. He asked me, would I like to go to an
open house party the following Monday night, that he and his wife Sharon
were having at the center. I said yes and went.
There was a guest speaker there who had gotten hundreds of hours of
auditing, after that Bruce spoke. Refreshments followed, and then a
registration period for guests to buy auditing, training, books and videos.
No one bought anything. I was standing at the table where the staff were
seated trying to sign the guests up. As I was standing there, I saw 2 copies
of the book I had ordered, on a bookshelf behind the staff. I was told this
book had not come in yet. I was now certain I was being lied to by the Bruce
Dobin and his staff.
All the staff of this center are former NY FDN staff members, or were at the
time. I recognized them, knew their names, and specific history about them.
Before I left, Bruce Dobin told me that he is going to Flag on Friday, for
two weeks. He said he will talk to me when he comes back about if my book
came in. So, I called him about two weeks after that (3 weeks after I had
ordered the book), and he said the book had not come in yet.
1 week later Bruce called me at about 10:30 P.M., while I was sitting on my
front porch with my sister Lorraine. I had a cordless phone with me and we
talked in front of her. He called to tell me that my book had still not come
in, and that it would be shipped to me as soon as it arrived. He then said
he had received data on me from the church. And, I was not to come to the
center any more because I was not welcome there any more. He asked me not to
phone the center ever again, or make any attempt to "engage in any kind of
communication" with any of the center staff including him. He mentioned
calling the police if I attempted to contact him or the center staff. He
refused to be specific in any way about what information he had received
about me from his church and hung up the phone.
I telephoned the center about one week later to ask about my book. I left
several messages on the answering machine, because no one ever answered the
phone when I called or returned my messages. I finally called Bridge
Publications in L.A. which is the organization that prints all of the
churches books and materials.
I complained to a woman at Bridge, that it was taking over 5 weeks to get a
copy of a Hubbard book out of Bruce's center that was available at Barnes
and Nobles for half the price. The person at Bridge, apologized to me, and
sent me a free copy of the book, UPS 3 Day Select, which arrived 3 days
later from L.A. I read through the book for what I needed to know and put
the book away.
Suddenly, about 4 days after the complimentary copy of the book arrives from
Bridge, a package arrives from Bruce's center with a letter taped to it. My
book (which I had ordered from him 6-7 weeks earlier) was in the package. In
the letter he stated that he knew all about my call to Bridge Publications
and was not too happy about it, and said so.
His letter stated that I "was no longer welcome at his center", that I was
"totally bad news", that I was not to "call there again or show up there for
any reason". He further wrote, that when my "free" book arrives from Bridge
Publications, that I am to "return it" to him, and the shipping cost is to
be paid by me, because I am not entitled to a free copy of an L. Ron Hubbard
book under any circumstance.
I donated both copies of this book to the Linden Public Library, and the
library threw them in the garbage. They no longer accept book donations from
the public and I was not told this until after I had dropped the books in
the book drop off by the Librarian after I tried to donate some other books
another time in the same manner.
In October 2002, I stumbled upon some information on the internet by sheer
luck. I found the transcripts of Scientology's much guarded confidential
upper auditing levels called OT Sections 1 to 8, and read them for the first
time.
As a result of reading these OT levels, every question I have ever had in
the past or might ever ask in the future about Scientology, was answered
fully.
It became real to me for the first time ever, how confused I was about
Scientology, and not even aware of it. Instead of being given facts, I was
swindled and lied to and cheated, by the church staff, looking for a quick
profit to wreck someone elses life with forever and the lives and happiness
of others around that person.
Helena Kobrin, an attorney for the church, is fighting on the internet, and
in court, to prevent people who are not authorized by the church yet, from
owning or reading these confidential upper level auditing materials. I was
given examples of what has happened to people in the past that have
distributed this information without permission from the church and been
caught. I was not sure if these OT levels were authentic, having never seen
them before or been suspicious of what they might be. Her law firm was sent
a copy of what I had read and was asking about so as not to confuse anything
in any way. Apparently, based on Helena Kobrin's reponse, they are the real
thing, probably stolen from the church and released illegally to the public,
by the same kind of staff members that claimed to be helping me the whole
time I was looking to the group for answers.
When I first got involved in Scientology, friends from school, or friends of
friends from school, said my communication skills had improved since doing
the Communications Course. 3 of my friends, Richard Kelly, Annette Soucy,
and Jamie Venditto, read and bought books by Hubbard, and went to the church
in NY for more information with me. Richard Kelly and Annette Soucy, bought
and started Communications Courses, and studied weekends. They never
completed the courses and the church has not asked them to come back and
finish, according to Richard Kelly and Annette Soucy themselves. In
addition, I was never paid the 10% commission on their course donations that
the church says anyone who brings anyone else in is supposed to get.
Richard Kelly and I are of course friends and have both lived in Linden for
30 years. He lives 1 block from Charles Cranes property.
In addition, one of two Tae Kwondo students, that rents the other apartment
in our house, Kenneth Bolomey, is also a Tae Kwondo instructor and personal
friend of mine. Kenneth has a Martial Arts school of about 150 students and
has been an instructional black belt for over 20 years. He also owns a
second business, an auto body, 3 doors down from Charles Cranes property and
obviously knows Charles Crane. Richard Kelly is also acquainted with
Kenneth.
George Chelekis from the defunct 6th Avenue center in N.Y.C., is currently
wanted in Florida by 3 or 4 government agencies there for contempt of court
and fraud, according to the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper of St.
Petersburg, Florida. He is also friends with Larry Broncato from the art
business on Charles Cranes property out on the highway.
I now understand Scientology better than most of the people in the world who
are and are not members of this church.
A few years ago a Scientologist tried to sue N.Y.C. television talk show
host Sally Jesse Raphael for $72,000,000.00 (seventy two million dollars),
after Sally Jesse Raphael revealed how much the Scientologist earned each
year for a living on TV. The plaintiff was invited as a guest on Sally Jesse
Raphael's talk show.
Meanwhile, as Raymond Baiardi is ripping me off, a boy named Noah Lottick
who was a Scientologist at the church in N.Y.C., jumped off the roof of the
Milford Plaza Hotel two blocks away from the church, and killed himself.
Noah left behind a very sad mother and father. It is for them that I share
this story with you.
Lawrence Toomajan
February 2003
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