Saturday, March 21, 2015
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
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.
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.)
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