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.)