Tragic Death of Kyle Brennan

Posted on May 12, 2015 in City, Nation, Radio, State, World | Comments Off

In this special, extended edition of Inside Charlottesville, Victoria and Rick Britton discuss the tragic death of 20-year-old Kyle Brennan at the home of his Scientologist father, Tom Brennan, in Clearwater, Florida in February 2007. Victoria is Kyle’s mother and Rick is his step-father. There are a number of mysteries and still-unanswered questions surrounding Kyle’s tragic death. Was this a suicide or something elese?  “Truth for Kyle” website.
Rick begins the program with this preface: “My 20-year-old step-son Kyle Brennan died eight years ago—the evening of February 16, 2007—under extremely suspicious circumstances in the Clearwater, Florida, apartment of his Scientologist father Tom Brennan. (In downtown Clearwater, the nearby Fort Harrison Hotel is the worldwide headquarters of the Church of Scientology.) This path that my wife Victoria and I are on started eight years ago with Victoria asking questions of the Clearwater police. Eight years later many of those basic questions are still unanswered. Thanks to all the lying done by the police, the medical examiner’s office, and the Scientologists involved, we still don’t know how Kyle died, or even whether he was murdered. Of one thing we’re certain—presented with the facts of the case, and proof of the numerous lies told, any reasonable person would conclude, as we have, that something other than what was reported by the police took place in Tom Brennan’s apartment the evening Kyle died. Innocent people don’t lie.”

ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: Tuesday, May 12, 2014.

Tragic Death of Kyle Brennan | InsideCville.com

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Tragic Death of Kyle Brennan | InsideCville.com

Scientology: Enough is Enough - Victoria Britton, The death of Kyle Brennan

Scientology & the Perversion of Justice -

Mrs. Britton, I’m not trying to say anything. You have indictated in your testimony yesterday and today that you were upset with a variety of different law enforcement agencies and people because they did not conduct a very good investigation into the events surronding Kyle’s death. And I’m asking you what investigation did you conduct and what did you do to preserve the findings of that investigation and inquiry–Attorney Lee Fugate

https://youtu.be/ynkG60M49pI

 

 

My youngest son, Kyle Brennan, was declared dead from a gunshot wound to the head just past midnight on February 17, 2007, in the Clearwater, Florida, apartment of his Scientologist father, Tom Brennan. The circumstances of his violent death were—and still remain—extremely suspicious. The reasons are many: The horribly mismanaged police investigation during which crucial evidence was either not gathered, not processed, or purposely lost; The numerous lies told by Police Detective Stephen Bohling (lies to our family, lies strategically placed in his police report); And the innumerable lies told by the defendants—celebrity Scientologists Kyle (who was not a Scientologist) had the extreme misfortune to be surrounded by in the last days of his young life.

 

 

Clearwater is the Church of Scientology’s worldwide headquarters, and Tom Brennan’s Cleveland Street apartment was in close proximity to Scientology central—across the street from the Coachman Building (a Scientology training center), and just one block from Scientology’s main building, the Fort Harrison Hotel. Just as Scientology structures dominate downtown Clearwater, the religion also dominated the subsequent police investigation, and the wrongful-death lawsuit filed in February 2009 on behalf of the Estate of Kyle Brennan. Listed as defendants were: Scientologists Tom Brennan (Kyle’s father), Denise Miscavige Gentile (twin sister of Scientology’s controversial leader, David Miscavige), her husband Gerald Gentile, the Church of Scientology itself, and Flag Service Organization, Inc. (or FSO, the Church’s so-called “spiritual headquarters”).

In the years since Kyle’s death—residing in a new world-turned-upside-down—I’ve struggled with the grief over the loss of a child, and the arduous challenge of suing the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology, as most people realize, is a very wealthy and litigious organization. Based on the writings of founder L. Ron Hubbard, they have no qualms whatsoever about using the most ruthless and heinous tactics when it comes to the law. To high-ranking Scientologists, lawsuits are not merely dispute resolutions, they’re acts of war. The Church of Scientology is ever willing to twist the law in order to destroy those it perceives as opponents. (Kyle was considered by Scientologists to be an “enemy of the Church” simply because he was seeing a psychiatrist and was taking psychiatric medication. See the blog post entitled “Heart of Darkness (Part I): The ‘Handling’ of Kyle Brennan.”)

“The law can be used very easily to harass,” wrote Hubbard in The Scientologist, a Manual on the Dissemination of Material, “and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway . . . will generally be sufficient to cause professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.”

This is the stratagem they used against me. Despite the fact that they’d stopped our wrongful-death lawsuit—effectively muffling anything said legally on behalf of my dead son—they proceeded, after their victory, to sue me for just under $1 million. Fortunately the judge threw this attempt out.

Who pays the price when the rule of law is purposely distorted in order to bully honest citizens into submission? And what of Scientology’s next set of victims? How many more will suffer because the bullies haven’t been stopped?
On August 27, 2008, defendant Denise Miscavige Gentile, with her attorney in tow—Lee Fugate from the law firm of Zuckerman, Spaeder, LLP—arrived at the Clearwater Police Department for her first and only police interview. It was conducted by Detective Stephen Bohling (who headed-up the investigation into Kyle’s death). Eighteen months had passed since Kyle had died.

In the recorded interview’s opening, Detective Bohling and lawyer Fugate engage in casual conversation. Then the attorney explains that he’d told Denise that if the detective asks her a difficult question she could talk with him—Lee Fugate—before replying. “[B]ut,” Fugate adds, “I don’t think you’re gonna have anything like that.”

Bohling—forgetting that the conversation is being recorded—says: “No. And I’m more than willing to work with you, as I said, on this case.” Obviously pleased, Fugate says: “Well, that’s—that’s fine.”

This statement by Bohling—“I’m more than willing to work with you . . . on this case”—might seem innocuous, but it was made by a detective who subsequently falsified police information, committed perjury, and seemingly aided and abetted the defendants in the evasion of justice.

Extremely troubling, too, is that during this recorded interview Fugate refers to a previous conversation with Bohling, perhaps a phone conversation. The fact that this attorney/detective communication was not documented raises additional questions.

Bohling’s subsequent lie-filled police report was attached to Denise Miscavige Gentile and husband Gerald’s answer/response to the wrongful-death complaint filed by attorney Lee Fugate, and later used in court documents filed in federal court by the defendants. This is how the defendants weaseled their way out of the wrongful-death lawsuit. This is how they escaped justice. It all began with Detective Bohling helping these celebrity Scientologist defendants.

He later falsified information when he wrote his police report. Under the very important heading “Investigative Conclusion,” for example, Bohling wrote that Kyle “had been exhibiting early signs of Schizophrenia to include paranoia and delusions and that Lexapro had been prescribed. Kyle’s doctor, Dr. [Stephen] McNamara advised that Lexapro should be administered on a long term basis in order to attain the proper results. . . . Dr. McNamara also advised that he was not aware of any major side effects if one was to suddenly stop taking the medication. . . .”

Here are the documented facts: Dr. McNamara was deposed on June 16, 2010. Under oath Dr. McNamara expressed astonishment at the lies told by the police detective, perjury committed at the expense of an innocent twenty-year-old.

“I—I’m perplexed and dumbfounded,” stated Dr. McNamara. “Number one, I’m bound by confidentiality” to not reveal “information about someone’s treatment. . . .”
“Number two, I’m—stated here [as] stating that Kyle had a diagnosis that I did not make.”

“And lastly,” this statement regarding “major side effects if one was to suddenly stop taking Lexapro. . . . [W]e all, as a profession, have known this since the ‘90s. This—this is not something I would ever say.”

Moments later, Dr. McNamara stated under oath that he’d never spoken at all to Detective Bohling about Kyle.

Detective Bohling also omitted important information from his police report. In the first phone conversation I had with him, for example, the detective told me that the night Kyle died Scientologist Gerald Gentile was inside Tom Brennan’s apartment prior to the police. When I questioned this, Bohling said that Gentile had a right to be there. This crucial piece of information was left out of Bohling’s narrative of that evening’s events. (For more information about the numerous lies Bohling incorporated into his police report—an assertion that’s easily verified with testimony and documentation—see the blog post titled “Clearwater Police Department; The Fox & the Henhouse and Kyle’s Story; A Summary of the Lies & Deception.)

Truth is what drives our judicial system. Everything is based on this simple, and very necessary, virtue. For this reason, the public is always willing to give a police officer, or police detective, the benefit of the doubt. This despite the unfortunate fact that public servants sometimes lie, commit perjury, and obstruct justice. When an officer betrays his responsibilities—betrays his Oath of Honor–in this fundamental way, he makes a mockery of our judicial system. Criminals escape justice, lives are ruined and lost, families are crushed. Unfortunately, this illegal behavior by Stephen Bohling had a direct impact on the outcome of my wrongful-death lawsuit.

What became of Detective Stephen Bohling? He quietly retired from the Clearwater Police Department.

Five years after Kyle’s death, an interesting story was reported by WTSP News in Tampa. On November 9, 2012, Mark C. Rathbun—Scientology’s former number-two man—gave sworn testimony accusing Clearwater-area judges and lawyers of criminal wrongdoing regarding another Scientology-related lawsuit.

Statement of Mark C.  Rathbun, former senior executive of the Church of Scientology.

http://www.wtsp.com/investigators/article/282987/34/Federal-suit-Scientologists-spent-30-mil-to-cover-death



Token from Lisa McPherson’s services after her death in 1995.

Rathbun alleged that the Church of Scientology spent at least $30 million to cover up the tragic 1995 death of a woman in Scientology care. This was Scientologist Lisa McPherson, who, after a minor traffic accident, told fellow Scientologists she needed psychiatric help. Instead they took her to the Fort Harrison Hotel—the religion’s headquarters—where McPherson died seventeen days later. Her family sued the Church of Scientology saying they’d simply let her die. Criminal prosecution was brought by the Pinellas State Attorney’s office.
According to WTSP News: “The Church was charged with a second degree felony for practicing medicine without a license, and [the] abuse of a disabled adult. However, the charges were dropped after Pinellas Medical Examiner Joan Wood changed the cause of death from unknown to accidental.”

Rathbun, however, alleged that the cause of death was changed because the Church of Scientology “showered gifts on the Medical Examiner’s attorney.”
And Rathbun had something to say about attorney Lee Fugate. In his sworn testimony, Rathbun stated that Fugate, a former prosecutor, was hired by he and Scientology leader David Miscavige to have illegal ex parte meetings with judges involved in the McPherson case. (“Ex parte,” means one-sided, partisan.) According to Rathbun, those extra-legal meetings, plus the liberal rewarding of “at least $30 million,” got the charges dropped and lessened the damages in the civil suit. WTSP News claimed that the story had many other twists and turns. “Stay tuned,” they said. Unfortunately, WTSP News never provided a follow-up.
(In the case of Kyle’s death, similar wrong-doing was perpetrated by personnel in the Medical Examiner’s office.

The Medical Examiner ruled Kyle’s cause of death a suicide saying that police officials told her a suicide note had been found on his person. The police later admitted there’d been no note. And—like Detective Bohling—Medical Investigator Martha Scholl lied about having contact with Kyle’s psychiatrist, Dr. Stephen McNamara.)

During my deposition in 2010 I had an interesting exchange with Lee Fugate. Following my complaint about the pathetically poor police investigation into Kyle’s death, attorney Fugate had the gall to ask: “[W]hat investigation did you conduct [Mrs. Britton] and what did you do to preserve the findings of that investigation. . . ?” Evidently, Fugate believes that in Florida private citizens are required to conduct their own police investigations. He believes that it’s a grieving parent’s responsibility to investigate the suspicious death of their child.

In the summer of 2012 I had a highly qualified expert in the field of criminology and police procedures analyze Detective Bohling’s investigation. “It is my conclusion,” he wrote, “that the [Kyle] Brennan investigation was a farce. It is clear to me that there is some connection between the Church of Scientology and [the] Clearwater Police Department, including the relationship between Detective Bohling and the [Church of Scientology], and that this investigation is replete with conflicts of interest and mishandled investigative procedures.”

In perfect lock-step with L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings, this is how the rule of law is contorted by Scientology’s lead counsellors. This is how the morally bereft and aggressively litigious Church of Scientology continuously manages to get its way legally, even when it appears that its opponents have strong cases. Lying, victim-blaming, obstructing justice–it appears that any tactic is perfectly acceptable in the defense of the Church of Scientology.

Detective Stephen Bohling











Dr. Stephen McNamara








In the summer of 2012 I had a highly qualified expert in the field of criminology and police procedures analyze Detective Bohling’s investigation. “It is my conclusion,” he wrote, “that the [Kyle] Brennan investigation was a farce. It is clear to me that there is some connection between the Church of Scientology and [the] Clearwater Police Department, including the relationship between Detective Bohling and the [Church of Scientology], and that this investigation is replete with conflicts of interest and mishandled investigative procedures.”




Deposition of Mark C. Rathbun


deposition-of-marty-rathbun

Deposition of S. Brennan
























In 2007 my forward-looking 20-year-old son, Kyle Brennan, died in Clearwater, Florida, under extremely suspicious circumstances while visiting his Scientologist father. (Clearwater, of course, is the site of Scientology’s headquarters.) We lost the subsequent wrongful-death lawsuit we filed against Kyle’s father, prominent Scientologists who were involved, and the Church of Scientology itself. Because of the legal expenses incurred, we’ve yet to purchase a proper headstone for our beloved son. Will you help us?

 

 

 

                          Kyle Brennan’s Death & the Church of Scientology

·        Kyle Brennan - Born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1986, my youngest son Kyle was bright, creative, and outgoing. He loved his family and was very fond in particular of a young niece who lived nearby. He was fascinated by Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species and enjoyed taking long walks with his step-father. He was attending Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He had dreams for his future. Like many youngsters his age, Kyle suffered from mild anxiety and depression. He was prescribed Lexapro, a well-regarded psychiatric medication, by his psychiatrist. Kyle was not a Scientologist.

·        Scientology and Psychiatry – The Church of Scientology’s hatred of psychiatry is extreme and vicious. One of the organization’s major tenets is that psychiatry and psychiatric medications are evil.  “Scientologists,” according to BBC reporter John Sweeney, “believe that psychiatry is Nazi pseudoscience. They believe that the Holocaust was planned and carried out by psychiatrists.” Scientology considers itself at war with psychiatry. Scientology teaches that it alone can save humanity from psychiatry.   

·        Scientologist Tom Brennan – Kyle’s biological father, Tom Brennan, is a talented chef prone to violent outbursts. A longtime Scientologist, Brennan in 2007 was living in Clearwater, Florida, world headquarters of the Church of Scientology. He was working for the Church, and living in an apartment across the street from the Coachman Building, a Scientology training and counseling center. Brennan’s Scientology “auditor” (or spiritual advisor) at the time was Denise Miscavige Gentile, twin-sister of the organization’s controversial leader, David Miscavige. (He referred to her, in fact, as “chaplain Denise.”) Brennan was pushing Scientology on Kyle: Kyle was resisting. When visiting Brennan in the summer of 2006, Kyle was told that Scientology was all he needed. He didn’t need to go to college. During this visit he heard Brennan’s new wife, also a devout Scientologist, refer to him as a “Suppressive Person”—someone to be reviled—an “enemy of the Church.”

·        Kyle’s 2006-2007 Travels – Just after Thanksgiving 2006, Kyle left Charlottesville to travel the country. Kyle first hopped a plane to Waterloo, Iowa, where he was looking into a community college. He traveled to California where he stayed with a paternal aunt. He flew to Maui in Hawaii where he camped on the beach. Just before he left, I had filled his Lexapro prescription. In preparation for his trip, Kyle purchased another bottle’s-worth of his psychiatric medication. Kyle took along two small duffel bags full of clothing, camping gear, an iPod, and his Dell laptop computer.

·        Kyle in Clearwater – Kyle arrived in Clearwater February 8, 2007. He’d decided to visit with his biological father before returning home to Charlottesville. Just prior to arriving, Kyle and a maternal uncle had a long telephone conversation during which Kyle talked about his plans for the future. In Clearwater, Tom Brennan put Kyle up in his downtown apartment and gave him his own room. I spoke over the phone with Brennan during Kyle’s stay, at one point asking him to make sure Kyle took his medication. Brennan said he would. Instead Brennan continued pushing Scientology on Kyle, telling him that Scientology-recommended vitamins would be better for him than his Lexapro. On Thursday, February 15, Kyle walked three miles to a branch of his bank and deposited money into his savings account to keep it open. On the evening of Friday, February 16, Kyle called a number of Clearwater-area personal injury lawyers seeking assistance. (This we know from his cellphone records.) 

·        Kyle’s Death – Kyle died of a gunshot wound to the head the evening of Friday, February 16, in Brennan’s Clearwater apartment. The EMTs found Kyle’s body in what Brennan said was his bedroom, not Kyle’s. Alongside him was a Taurus .357 Magnum revolver. Kyle’s head they found lying inside a laundry basket. Kyle’s Lexapro was found locked in the trunk of his father’s vehicle. Based on what we were told initially, we believe Kyle died at approximately 11 p.m. Brennan called 911 for help at 12:10 a.m. after first calling “chaplain Denise” for advice. The 1:00 a.m. phone call I received telling me of Kyle’s death was made—not by Kyle’s father, Tom Brennan, not by the Clearwater police—but by Gerald Gentile, Denise Miscavige Gentile’s husband. They’d driven to Brennan’s apartment that night.

·        Scientology “Handling” – In 2010 we learned that Kyle’s death had taken place only 36 hours after Tom Brennan had been given written orders to “handle” Kyle by Scientology’s “Flag Service Organization, Inc.” (the Church’s “spiritual headquarters” located in Clearwater’s Fort Harrison Hotel). “Handling,” as per Scientology, means taking care of a situation, removing a problem. To Scientologists, my son was an “enemy of the Church” simply because he was consulting a psychiatrist and taking Lexapro. Along with its vicious hatred of psychiatry, Scientology teaches that ethics don’t apply when it comes to “handling” an “enemy of the Church.” As founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “An enemy . . . may be deprived of property or injured by any means. . . . [They] may be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” Brennan was ordered to “handle” his son or face the consequences. One part of this Church-mandated “handling,” we believe, was the seizure of Kyle’s psychiatric medication, but how far did Scientologist Brennan go to stay in the Church’s good graces?   

·        The Criminally Mismanaged Police Investigation – Clearwater policemen and emergency medical personnel arrived at Brennan’s apartment within minutes of his 911 call. Rookie patrolman Jonathan Yuen, despite being outranked by other police officers present, was put in charge of the crime scene. The following day, Detective Stephen Bohling took over the investigation. He never visited Brennan’s apartment. Bohling told our family that the police “never processed the weapon or the scene for fingerprints.” He lied. The police report revealed that Kyle’s hands had been tested for gunshot residue (or GSR). That test was withheld from further analysis by the detective. The weapon too had been tested for fingerprints. That test came back negative—there were no fingerprints or ridge detail on the Taurus .357. There was no blood on it. Someone had wiped it clean. The bullet that killed Kyle was never found. (The Taurus .357 found alongside Kyle held four unfired bullets and one casing. Five more rounds were found in one of Kyle’s pockets. No fingerprints or ridge details were found on any of these cartridges—not even Kyle’s fingerprints.) The medical examiner ruled Kyle’s death a suicide saying that a suicide note was found on his person. (The police later admitted that there was no note.) With a missing bullet, no GSR test, and a weapon negative for fingerprints it cannot be determined who pulled the trigger on the weapon that killed my son, or even if he was killed by the weapon found at the scene.

·        Lies Tom Brennan Told About the Weapon & Ammunition – Brennan told many contradictory stories about the Taurus .357 Magnum and its ammunition. He told patrolman Yuen: That the gun was unloaded; it was kept in a green bag; he didn’t know where the ammunition for it was; and that Kyle didn’t know it was in the apartment. Then he told Detective Bohling: That he did know the whereabouts of the ammunition, it was stored in the green bag with the weapon. Under oath, in his deposition, however, Brennan stated: That he didn’t know if the weapon was loaded or unloaded; that the ammunition was not in the green bag with the weapon; and that Kyle not only knew about the Taurus, but that Brennan had showed it to Kyle just prior to taking Kyle and his older brother Sean to a local firing range. That’s where Brennan claimed he’d purchased the bullets. Sean, however, swore out an affidavit stating that: The three had gone to a Fort Myers-area firing range, Fowler’s, but had not taken the Taurus .357. They instead rented a Heckler & Koch USP .45 and Fowler’s provided the ammunition. Obviously, the .357 caliber and .45 caliber ammunition are not interchangeable, so where were the .357 bullets for the Taurus purchased? The green bag was not retrieved from the crime scene.

·        Tom Brennan’s Various Timelines – Brennan first told Kyle’s Virginia family that the evening Kyle died he’d arrived at his apartment at 10:30 p.m. after having dinner with friends. He later changed his story, saying he’d arrived home between 11:10 and 11:15 after spending the day selling books at the State Fair, and stopping by Denise’s to borrow a book. His first story places him in the apartment when Kyle died. And it’s obvious that he changed his tune to distance himself from his apartment and Kyle’s death. But even if the second story were true, why had it taken an hour for Brennan to dial 911? What was he doing during that hour? Why did he lie about his whereabouts? Detective Bohling was told about Brennan’s contradictory stories, but he never challenged Brennan’s veracity. In fact Bohling, in the subsequent police report, improved on Brennan’s alibi, saying: “Thomas Brennan returned home near midnight. . . .”

·        The Wrongful-Death Lawsuit – On behalf of the Estate of Kyle Brennan, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division on June 17, 2010. Listed as defendants were: Tom Brennan, Denise Miscavige Gentile and her husband Gerald Gentile, the Church of Scientology, and “Flag Service Organization, Inc.” (or FSO, the Church’s so-called “spiritual headquarters”). The Estate was represented at varying times by Clearwater First Amendment lawyer Luke Lirot and Tampa attorney Kennan Dandar. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, and that was granted by federal judge Steven D. Merryday on December 6, 2011. We appealed this ruling but we lost.

·        Lies Told by Denise Miscavige and Gerald Gentile – In order to distance themselves from Kyle’s death, the Gentiles told numerous lies. They at first denied their relationship with Brennan, denied that Denise was a Scientology “auditor,” and denied that Denise was Brennan’s “auditor.” They also at first denied that Denise rode down to Brennan’s apartment the night Kyle died. And they claimed that Gerald’s call to me was placed from their home. All of these statements were later shown to be lies: Scientology documents prove Denise’s status as a “chaplain,” and that she was indeed Brennan’s “chaplain”—meaning they’d had a very close relationship. Gerald Gentile later admitted that both had gone to Brennan’s apartment and that the call was made from that location. Pressed for details concerning the “book borrowing” alibi, Denise and Brennan made contradictory statements. Denise claimed Brennan had borrowed her Scientology e-meter manual, while Brennan said he’s gotten Gerald’s electrical handyman repair book.

·        Kyle’s Laptop Computer – Suspiciously, Kyle’s computer—instead of being taken into police custody as evidence—ended up at the Miscavige-Gentile home soon after he died. When the laptop was returned to Virginia, Kyle’s sister-in-law, a U.Va. grad now working in Internet technology, analyzed its content. She found that it had been accessed but a few hours after Kyle’s death, on Saturday the 17th, and files had later been deleted.

·        Lies Told by Police and the Medical Investigator - Detective Bohling and Medical Investigator Martha Scholl lied about contacting and consulting with Kyle’s psychiatrist, saying in the police report that: “The doctor confirmed that Kyle had been exhibiting early signs of schizophrenia to include paranoia and delusions and . . . advised that he was not aware of any major side effects if one was to suddenly stop taking Lexapro.” However, Kyle’s psychiatrist, under oath, stated that he had absolutely no contact with either Bohling or Scholl. “Perplexed and dumbfounded” by their statements, he said he was “bound by confidentiality” not to release “information about a patient’s treatment.” Under oath, he stated that “Kyle’s diagnosis was mild anxiety and depression,” and that there are major side effects from the sudden termination of taking Lexapro, especially for someone Kyle’s age.

·        Destroyed Police Evidence - Tom Brennan was never closely interviewed by the police. Patrolman Jonathan Yeun, the police officer in charge of the crime scene, testified that he only conducted a “short-short” interview with Brennan. He stated that he shredded the notes from this encounter. Detective Bohling also destroyed the notes of his first interview with Tom Brennan. Martha Scholl, told to bring her notes to her deposition, said that she had forgotten to do so.

·       In Conclusion – So many lies and glaringly contradictory statements were told by the defendants—and Clearwater-area public servants—that any reasonable person is left confused and extremely suspicious. What really happened in Brennan’s Clearwater apartment on February 16, 2007, the night Kyle died?  Anybody would have to conclude that in the State of Florida justice cannot be found when it involves the Church of Scientology.

 

In 2007 my forward-looking 20-year-old son, Kyle Brennan, died in Clearwater, Florida, under extremely suspicious circumstances while visiting his Scientologist father. (Clearwater, of course, is the site of Scientology’s headquarters.) We lost the subsequent wrongful-death lawsuit we filed against Kyle’s father, prominent Scientologists who were involved, and the Church of Scientology itself. Because of the legal expenses incurred, we’ve yet to purchase a proper headstone for our beloved son. Will you help us?



If you have any questions contact Victoria at: vbreton2062 (at) aol.com.
(For more information regarding the highly questionable events surrounding Kyle’s death, the extremely mishandled police investigation, and the perjured testimony given by the defendants please refer to “The Truth for Kyle Brennan” blog at vbreton2062.wordpress.com.)

Heart of Darkness (Part II)

In the eight years since losing my son Kyle, I’ve never been able to understand the unfeeling behavior of Kyle’s biological father, Tom Brennan. His lack of caring—along with his seeming lack of emotion—went far beyond the boundaries of normalcy. The core of one’s humanity, in my opinion, is not difficult to define: It includes the ability to reason, to decipher between right and wrong, compassion toward others, and of course emotion and the ability to express it.

In the first few days following Kyle’s death, Tom Brennan’s indifference—his detached state of being—were obvious to family members. His inhumanity was “chilling and unnerving.”

Within hours of Kyle’s death, Kyle’s step-brother Scott contacted Tom Brennan by phone. Scott wanted to understand what had gone so horribly wrong in the last days of his younger brother’s life. (Remember, we’d been told by the medical examiner’s office that Kyle had committed suicide.) Why had this forward-looking twenty-year-old taken his own life?

Scott was immediately taken aback by how his step-father came across. Expecting him to be shaken, engulfed with grief, Scott was shocked when Tom Brennan answered the phone in a celebratory mood. “[W]hen I called him . . .” stated Scott in his deposition, “he thought I was a different person. . . . When Tom picked up, he said ‘hey, Scott, how’s it going, what’s going on, buddy?’” Evidently, when Brennan realized which Scott he had on the phone—his step-son and not some everyday acquaintance—“[h]is voice became somber. . . .” Scott explained how this “threw” him at first, “because it sounded like he had won the lottery, and I just couldn’t figure [it] out . . . of course I was grief stricken at the time.”
“He told me at least twice,” said Scott, “that he didn’t understand how it could happen, that he hadn’t pushed or talked about Scientology with Kyle and that Scientology didn’t have anything to do with it [Kyle’s death]. It struck me as being very odd because it [Scientology] was the furthest thing from my mind, and I had never brought it up. I didn’t bring it up, and he kept injecting it [Scientology] into the conversation.”

It was so soon after the death of his only son, and yet Tom Brennan, an employee of the mega-wealthy Church of Scientology, had already returned to work. (It’s important to note that Tom Brennan lied repeatedly in this conversation. He had indeed “talked about Scientology” with his son, and he had indeed “pushed” Scientology on him. When Kyle visited Brennan in Clearwater, Florida, in the summer of 2006, Brennan told him that Scientology was all he needed in life, he didn’t need to go to college. Brennan also “pushed” Scientology on his son in February 2007 by seizing Kyle’s prescribed psychiatric medication, his Lexapro, and locking it in the trunk of his vehicle. Tom Brennan lied about “talking” up and “pushing” Scientology on Kyle, so why should any reasonable person believe that “Scientology didn’t have anything to do with” Kyle’s death? Just as William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet in 1602, Tom Brennan “doth protest too much.” It’s obvious that he kept injecting these statements into his conversation with Scott Brennan because he was trying to convince Scott of these lies.)

Life does not prepare you to lose a child, it’s a blow that brings you to your knees and leaves you with lifelong bruises. It’s a heartache like no other.

During those first months after losing Kyle, I could not wrap my head around how or why Tom Brennan behaved so coldly toward him.

I knew that Brennan was with Kyle when he died. Tom Brennan first told Kyle’s Virginia family that he’d arrived home the night of February 16, 2007—at his Clearwater, Florida, apartment where Kyle was staying—at 10:30 p.m. He later changed his time of arrival to 11:15. Brennan’s 911 call for help did not go out until 12:10 a.m. How can a parent be so disconnected from their child—and from their own humanity—to not call immediately for help? And what was happening in Brennan’s apartment between 10:30 p.m. and 12:10 a.m. anyway? I am no closer to finding answers to these questions than I was eight years ago.

On the police recording of Brennan’s 911 call his voice is flat, without emotion. Ken Dandar, a lawyer representing the Estate of Kyle Brennan, described it as “a voice of depravity.” Dandar told me that “Brennan was cold, unemotional, not what you’d expect to hear from a parent who’s calling to say their child is dead. It sounded like Brennan was ordering a pizza.”

In my darkest days after Kyle’s passing, I was extremely troubled, haunted by innumerable questions. I couldn’t grasp how the horrific tragedy in Clearwater had unfolded. I couldn’t understand Brennan’s behavior. Broken, overwhelmed with grief, I searched for a counselor who could help me understand. How does someone lose their humanity? Why were Brennan and his fellow Scientologists—the people around Kyle on his final days—so cold and unfeeling?

Not knowing anything about the Church of Scientology, I looked online and found the phone number of cult expert Rick Alan Ross. Private consultant, lecturer, and cult-intervention specialist, Ross began working as an anti-cult activist in 1982. Since then he’s worked with the FBI, and has been qualified and accepted as an expert court witness in eleven different U.S. states. He’s also worked with the governments of Israel and China. (For more information see www.culteducation.com, the web-site of the Cult Education Institute founded by Ross in 1996.)

Over the phone I asked Ross why Scientologists behaved the way they did. Why was Brennan so unfeeling? Before answering he asked how long Tom Brennan had been involved with the Church of Scientology. (The answer was at least eight years.) Ross then explained that, after being involved for so long, Brennan’s main concern in life would be the Church. As a devoted follower, Brennan put Scientology first in his life. Everything else was secondary, including his only son’s well-being.

Compassionate yet blunt, Ross told me—and I now understood for the first time—that Kyle would have been unwanted, a problem source for his father because of his medication and connection to psychiatry. Ross explained, too, why Kyle’s death meant so very little to his father. From a Scientology point-of-view, it meant merely that Kyle had “dropped his body.” He could pick up another one soon.

The Church of Scientology’s dictatorial control over its adherents is not just deeply disturbing—it’s also immoral and dangerous. Brainwashed by their religion, Scientologists seem to lose concept of the boundary separating right from wrong. They’ve been told by the Church’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, that in the pursuance of a “just cause”—Scientology, of course—it’s perfectly acceptable to step across that boundary at will. They’ve been taught that the collective, the organization—the Church of Scientology—comes first. It comes before them, before their families, and sometimes even before the lives of their children.



Kyle at two years-old

In 2007 my forward-looking 20-year-old son, Kyle Brennan, died in Clearwater, Florida, under extremely suspicious circumstances while visiting his Scientologist father. (Clearwater, of course, is the site of Scientology’s headquarters.) We lost the subsequent wrongful-death lawsuit we filed against Kyle’s father, prominent Scientologists who were involved, and the Church of Scientology itself. Because of the legal expenses incurred, we’ve yet to purchase a proper headstone for our beloved son. Will you help us?

 

 If you have any questions contact Victoria at: vbreton2062 (at) aol.com. (For more information regarding the highly questionable events surrounding Kyle’s death, the extremely mishandled police investigation, and the perjured testimony given by the defendants please refer to “The Truth for Kyle Brennan” blog at vbreton2062.wordpress.com.)

"Lies of a Scientologist Father"

Fair Game; May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed (ref: HCO Policy letter of 18, October 1967, Issue IV)

https://vbreton2062.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/church-of-scientology-letter-001.jpg

 My twenty-year-old son, Kyle Brennan, died in the Clearwater, Florida, apartment of his Scientologist father, Tom Brennan, on the evening of February 16, 2007. The Clearwater Police Department (the CWPD) ruled it a suicide, but the circumstances surrounding his death were, and remain, highly suspicious. Over the course of the subsequent investigation, for example, Tom Brennan, his Scientologist associates—and the Clearwater police—changed their descriptions of what had transpired that fateful night. Brennan told one of the first policemen on the scene that he had taken control of Kyle’s psychiatric medication, his Lexapro. He later recanted, saying that Kyle had voluntarily handed it over. The CWPD at first claimed that Kyle had left a suicide note. They later admitted there was no note. And thanks to what we believe to be criminally mishandled police procedures it’s actually impossible to identify the weapon used, and—most importantly—who pulled the trigger. For these reasons, we’re certain that the actual events of the evening of February 16, 2007, were very different from those detailed in the Clearwater Police Report.

Medical Misinformation (Part II)

As described in “Medical Misinformation (Part I),” the Estate of Kyle Brennan filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in February 2009. Named as defendants were: Tom Brennan; Denise Miscavige Gentile, Brennan’s Scientology “auditor” (or advisor); Denise’s husband, Gerald Gentile; the Church of Scientology; and Flag Service Organization, Inc. (hereafter referred to as “Flag”). In June 2009, Flag’s lawyers filed a motion for Rule 11 sanctions against the Estate of Kyle Brennan and the Estate’s legal representative, Kennan “Ken” G. Dandar.
Flag’s motion states that: “Thomas Brennan advised that Kyle had not been taking the Lexapro on a regular basis prior to his arrival in Clearwater, Florida.” (This assertion we disproved in “Medical Misinformation [Part 1].” See.) In this piece we’ll cover a few of the other Lexapro lies.

“There is no evidence to the contrary,” the motion continues. “Nor will there be. The two witnesses to what transpired with respect to the medication are Thomas Brennan and Kyle Brennan. Kyle Brennan is deceased and Thomas Brennan has already provided the police with the facts about what happened to his son. No witness exists who is competent to contradict him.” The “facts,” according to Flag’s motion, “do not support the allegation that Thomas Brennan took away his son’s Lexapro without his knowledge and consent.”

But “facts,” like chameleons, can very often change their appearance—especially “facts” concocted by pathological liars seeking to escape culpability.

Flag’s assertion that Kyle’s father “provided the police with the facts” is laughable, absolutely preposterous. Irrefutable is the fact that Tom Brennan lied—repeatedly, and evidently without conscience. Tom Brennan’s stories regarding the circumstances surrounding Kyle’s death are riddled with lies and inconsistencies. In his various recountings of the events of February 16, 2007, for example, Brennan changed his whereabouts, changed his purpose for going out that evening, and changed the time of his arrival home (making sure, of course, that it was later, after Kyle passed away). He also lied about calling Kyle that evening—no call was recorded—and he told numerous lies about the weapon and its ammunition. (For more information regarding Brennan’s lies, see “Kyle’s Story; A Summary of the Lies & Deception,” and “A Weapon and Bullet List of Contradictory Statements.) Tom Brennan lied about so many things: Why should anyone believe what he said about the Lexapro?  

The Church of Scientology’s claim that there is no witness “competent to contradict” Brennan is also ridiculous. In reality, no other witness is needed: Because Brennan did a startling job of contradicting himself. Reading through his various statements—to Kyle’s family, to the various policemen, his deposition under oath—one is immediately taken by the fact that they don’t add up, they’re amazingly inconsistent. These lies are boldfaced—not secretive, not creative—and yet the fact that he told wildly differing stories was not questioned by the police. Why not?

In the early stages of the investigation, Kyle’s family was told by Clearwater Police Detective Stephen Bohling, the lead investigator, that Brennan had in fact taken away Kyle’s prescribed psychiatric medication. (One of the precepts of Scientology is that psychiatrists and psychiatric medication are evil: they’re forbidden.) Police Officer Jonathan Yuen—one of the first to arrive at the crime scene—stated in his 2010 deposition that Brennan, on the night Kyle died, “advised that he [Brennan] took the prescription bottle from him [Kyle] about three days ago.”

Yuen also said, under oath, that Brennan admitted that “he did not believe in psychiatric medications based on his beliefs,” and claimed that Kyle “was not taking his medication.” If Kyle wasn’t using his Lexapro, why was it necessary for Brennan to lock it in the trunk of his vehicle? Why wasn’t this obvious line of questioning pursued by the police?

During his deposition, Officer Yuen was asked the following: “Did you ask him [Brennan] further about the circumstances surrounding the taking of the [Lexapro] prescription bottle?” Yuen response was, “I didn’t get into a full discussion about that.”

Then the attorney representing the Estate of Kyle Brennan asked Yuen: “Did it make any sense to you as the on-scene officer [what] Thomas Brennan [was] telling you; Kyle didn’t like to take his medicine, but the medicine is locked in his trunk? Did that make sense?”

Yuen reply was, simply, “I don’t know.”

When Tom Brennan was deposed in 2010, his Lexapro story took a sharp turn from what Kyle’s family had been told three years earlier. Brennan stated under oath that “Kyle gave him the medication.” Without hesitation, the morally challenged Brennan concocted a crude, false, and damaging impression of his only son when he claimed that Kyle stated “I hate this shit” as he handed over the Lexapro. 

Unfortunately, Brennan’s fabricated Lexapro story dominated the court documents, the oral arguments, and the pleadings presented by the defendants in both the United States District Court (Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division) and the United States Court of Appeals (for the 11th Circuit).
What’s obvious is that Brennan’s fictionalized Lexapro story was created to avoid liability. And yet the Clearwater Police Department—amazingly—decided that Brennan was telling the truth. Then they proceeded to hide proof to the contrary: Officer Jonathan Yuen—contrary to recommended police procedures—shredded the notes of his first interview with Kyle’s father. Detective Stephen Bohling—who took over the investigation the day after Kyle died, and never visited the crime scene—also destroyed the notes of his first interview with Brennan.

In September of 2007, Clearwater Attorney Luke Lirot (representing the Estate of Kyle Brennan) had his first and only interview with Detective Stephen Bohling. In an e-mail written the next day, attorney Lirot stated that Bohling told him that “the medication was either taken away by the father [Tom Brennan], or the father ‘influenced’ Kyle to abate the use of the prescriptions” (sic). Kyle’s family believes that some of Brennan’s earliest statements are the most accurate. And the information gleaned from this Lirot-Bohling interview is faithful to the first Lexapro story told by Tom Brennan to Kyle’s Virginia family.

Undebatable, too, is the simple revelation found in the statement: “to abate the use of the prescriptions.” It clearly means that Kyle was taking his Lexapro. If Kyle was not taking the medication—if he indeed “hated this shit”—there would be no need for Brennan to have a conversation with him trying to get him to stop taking it.

Brennan’s lying knew no bounds when it came to the events surrounding Kyle’s death. In his 2008 deposition, Tom Brennan admitted that he’d lied to me over the phone. The attorney then representing the Estate of Kyle Brennan, Ken Dandar, asked him: “Did you ever have a conversation with her [Victoria Britton] where she told you to make sure Kyle had his Lexapro and was taking it?” Brennan’s response was “Yeah, she said something like that. She said make sure Kyle is taking his Lexapro.”

Dandar’s next question was: “So you decided not to follow her request; is that right?”

“You’re right,” was Brennan’s answer.

Lying, evidently, comes easily to the likes of Tom Brennan. It’s striking, too, that he showed no remorse for the outcome of his behavior.

The most pernicious and injurious of the Lexapro-related lies, however, is found in the Clearwater Police Report: It’s a concocted story concerning Kyle’s psychiatrist—Dr. Stephen M. McNamara—and his diagnosis of Kyle’s condition. Detective Stephen Bohling and Medical Investigator Martha J. Scholl lied about contacting and consulting with Dr. McNamara, saying in the police report that: “The doctor confirmed that Kyle had been exhibiting early signs of schizophrenia to include paranoia and delusions and . . . advised that he was not aware of any major side effects if one was to suddenly stop taking Lexapro” (emphasis added).

Dr. McNamara, stated emphatically under oath, however, that he had absolutely no contact with either Bohling or Scholl. Not only had they lied about contacting and consulting with him, they had also fabricated a diagnosis.

“Perplexed and dumbfounded” by their statements, McNamara said he was “bound by confidentiality” not to release “information about a patient’s treatment.” He said that “Kyle’s diagnosis was mild anxiety and depression”—not schizophrenia and paranoia—and that there are major side effects from the sudden termination of taking Lexapro, especially for someone Kyle’s age (emphasis added).

Dr. McNamara was perplexed and dumbfounded, but that doesn’t begin to describe the outrage Kyle’s family feels over the contemptible treatment he received at the hands of a police detective and a medical investigator—supposed public servants. They evidently had very little regard for either Kyle or their duty. They chose instead to protect a line-up of defendants that included powerful members of a very wealthy, and litigious, religious organization. We’re left with an important question: What was in it for them?

Plea for Information!

                                                         Kyle Brennan

                                           April 2, 1986-February 16, 2007

Since the suspicious death of my twenty-year-old son Kyle on February 16, 2007, I’ve been trying to discover what really happened that evening. Kyle passed away in the apartment of his Scientologist father, Tom Brennan, in Clearwater, Florida, site of the headquarters of the Church of Scientology. The Clearwater police claimed Kyle’s death was a suicide. All of the actual evidence, however—or rather the conspicuous lack of evidence—leads to another conclusion. What evidence was lacking? My son’s fingerprints weren’t on the weapon. In fact, there were no fingerprints on the weapon. Kyle’s hands were tested for gunshot residue—a GSR test—but the lead investigator blocked the test from being processed. Additionally, the bullet that ended my son’s life was never found. Without fingerprints on the weapon, without the GSR test results, and without the bullet, it’s impossible to know for certain who pulled the trigger. Without that evidence it’s also impossible to say that the weapon found at the crime scene was the actual weapon used.

The investigation into Kyle’s death conducted by Detective Stephen Bohling was riddled with conflicts of interest and mishandled police procedures. Bohling’s subsequent police report is full of half-truths and outright lies. Facts critical to the case were omitted.

In 2012 I had an expert criminologist analyze Detective Bohling’s work, how the investigation was conducted and the conclusions that can be drawn from his police report. He concluded that Bohling’s investigation was a farce. He noted that, because of Bohling’s seemingly purposeful mishandling of the case, and the myriad sophomoric lies told by the defendants—obvious lies that were unquestioned, unpursued by the police—“it is evident that there is a connection between the Church of Scientology and the Clearwater Police Department.”

The Clearwater Police Department’s investigation into my son’s death was a travesty of justice. Of that there is no question.

Also indisputable is the criminality of Tom Brennan and two of the other defendants: Gerald Gentile and Denise Miscavige Gentile (the twin sister of the Church of Scientology’s leader, David Miscavige). These three miscreants lied to police officials, gave incorrect and false information, tampered with evidence, and committed perjury.

Irrefutable documentation regarding the mishandling of the case and the criminal actions of the defendants has been submitted to the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (the FDLE), and the head of Florida Governor Rick Scott’s legal department, Susan Smith.

My son Kyle deserves to have his day in court. To this day, the combined efforts of the Church of Scientology and the Clearwater Police Department have succeeded in silencing anyone speaking up on his behalf. Every day that passes, my heart breaks anew over my son’s sad fate, and especially the shabby treatment he received at the hands of those sworn to “serve and protect.” There needs to be accountability for those who believe they’re above the rule of law.

It is my hope that someone with new information pertaining to the events of February 16, 2007, will step forward. If someone has information—no matter how trivial—pertaining to Kyle or the above defendants, please contact me. What you know could make a huge difference.