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.)

The Clearwater Police Report; Lies of Omission

Kyle Brennan

1986-2007

 

The simple truth about lies is that there are many different types. Some, such as bold-faced lies, are so outrageous that they’re obvious to all within earshot. Another category comprises lies that are not so obvious—they lie hidden among the reams of information we ingest daily. But though these lies are obscured from sight, they’re no less pernicious. These are lies of omission—lies that represent an intentional failure to “tell the whole truth” in a situation requiring complete disclosure. Lying by omission is particularly destructive, of course, in legal and criminal matters.

Are the members of the Clearwater, Florida, Police Department guilty of lying by omission? You be the judge.

Clearwater policeman Jonathan Yuen was one of the first officers on the scene the night my son Kyle died under very suspicious circumstances at the apartment of his biological father, Tom Brennan, on Friday, February 16, 2007. At the time, Officer Yuen had been with the department only eighteen months. He’d been hired right out of college. Despite this fact, however—and despite the fact that higher-ranking officers were present at the time—Yuen was placed in charge of the crime scene.
   
Normally, one would expect a rookie cop to follow police procedures by the manual. One would expect a young officer to try really hard, to be attentive to every last detail. In reading other Clearwater Police Reports, for example, you’ll find an amazing amount of detail. Crime scene details are extremely important. Even the tiniest bit of information, of course, can be the determining factor in a criminal investigation. People have been convicted because of tiny details. And, of course, people have walked away from criminal acts because of the lack of a tiny detail.

In the Clearwater Police Report regarding my son’s death, Officer Yuen’s one-page narrative of the events of February 16/17 is remarkable for its inattention to detail. Later, when Yuen was deposed by attorney Ken Dandar—the lawyer representing the Estate of Kyle Brennan—his brain fog surrounding the details of that evening is incredibly suspicious.

First the big lie of omission. In his contribution to the Clearwater Police Report, Yuen omitted the fact that present at Tom Brennan’s Cleveland Street apartment the evening of Kyle’s death were two important members of Scientology’s first family—the twin-sister and brother-in-law of the church’s worldwide leader, David Miscavige.

Denise Miscavige Gentile, David Miscavige’s twin-sister—whom Tom Brennan referred to as “Chaplain Denise”—was Brennan’s Scientology auditor, his spiritual advisor or spiritual counsellor. Her husband’s name is Gerald “Jerry” Gentile. In spite of the fact that they both at first lied about Denise being at the Cleveland Street apartment that night, during their depositions Denise and Jerry finally admitted that they were both there. Jerry Gentile stated that Denise waited outside near their parked vehicle. Denise claimed she didn’t go inside because she was wearing pajamas.
 
Amazingly, Yuen left them completely out of his narrative. When questioned later, under oath, about people arriving at the crime scene, Yuen responded: “I believe I advised a couple of people showed up.”

“What did they do?” asked attorney Dandar.

“Basically spoke with Thomas [Brennan] and gave him some counselling or, you know, support.”

In the first few months following my son’s death, it was believed that Gerald Gentile was Tom Brennan’s roommate at the Cleveland Street apartment. This was assumed as it seemed the logical explanation for Jerry Gentile’s early presence at Brennan’s place the night Kyle died.

 Information pertaining to Gentile’s early appearance at the Cleveland Street apartment was omitted from the police report. No information regarding Jerry, in fact, was provided by the Clearwater Police Department, either in the police report or in the first phone interview Kyle’s Virginia family had with Detective Stephen Bohling (who took over the case on Saturday, February17). Kyle’s older brother—wondering who the elusive “Jerry” was who called our home to tell us of Kyle’s death—asked Bohling about him. (Some of our questions, naturally, were things like: Why didn’t Tom Brennan call us? Why didn’t the police make this important call?) Bohling’s response to the question about Jerry’s identity? “Some Scientology guy.”
 
Denise Miscavige Gentile was simply referred to as “Chaplain Denise.”

Why were these two members of the Clearwater Police Department—Officer Jonathan Yuen and Detective Stephen Bohling—not forthcoming or truthful about the presence of the Gentiles at the Cleveland Street apartment that night?

Why would they not identify these high-powered Scientologists? Were these members of the police department deliberately lying by omission in order to protect two individuals with extremely close ties to the very top leadership of the Scientology organization?

Attorney Ken Dandar deposed Officer Yuen on June, 11, 2010. Yuen’s deposition lasted just over one hour.

Officer Yuen stated during his deposition that he left the crime scene in the early morning hours of February 17, and had no further involvement in the investigation.

Then he was asked: “Did you ever discuss the matter with Detective Bohling? Did he ever contact you?”

“No” responded Yuen.

(It’s important to note here that Detective Bohling never visited the crime scene. Never. So, in other words, Officer Yuen was in charge at the Cleveland Street apartment the night Kyle died—even though other officers present outranked him—and wrote the narrative of that night’s events. He then simply handed that in, and never again spoke of the matter with the police detective who took over the case. And that man—Detective Stephen Bohling—never went to the Cleveland Street apartment. Why the disconnect between Yuen and Detective Bohling? Was it done this way in order to insure Bohling’s future plausible deniability?)
 
During Officer Yuen’s brief deposition, he responded 28 times with either “I don’t recall” or “I don’t remember.” And it’s interesting that Officer Yuen’s memory deficit only occurred when he was questioned regarding fellow police officers, medical investigator Martha J. Scholl, or the presence of that mysterious “couple” who arrived at the crime scene during his “short-short” interview of Tom Brennan.

And amazingly, Yuen destroyed the notes he took during that interview.
Ken Dander asked him: “Did you take notes during the interview [of Tom Brennan]?”

“Yes, I did” responded Yuen.

“What do you take the notes on?” was the next question.

“I have a note pad that normally I document all my cases on,” was the answer.

“Do you save those?”
“No, I do not.”

Unfortunately, Officer Yuen, a college graduate, doesn’t really understand what the verb tense “to document” means.

What about these two members of Scientology’s first family—Denise Miscavige Gentile and her husband Jerry?

According to a Tampa Bay Times article written in the summer of 2013, the couple married in 2000. They lived in Maryland for two years, then moved back to Clearwater “where Flag Land Base, Scientology’s spiritual headquarters, dominates the downtown skyline.” It was then that Jerry joined the church. Denise at the time was working at a small Scientology mission in Bellair. He continued working his Maryland technology job, commuting back and forth every week.

That tech position, however, wasn’t Jerry and Denise’s only source of income. A police investigation revealed that Jerry Gentile was the owner of a notorious drug-selling establishment—or “drug house”—located in St. Petersburg, Florida. It comprised a house on 15th Street North, and three detached apartments next door in a duplex and a separate cottage.

According to the article, “drug sales at the Gentile property got so bad police raided it twice in 14 months, busting up a marijuana den and what police called a cocaine sales operation.” Following the first raid, the city contacted the Gentiles asking them to “curb the drug activity.” Nothing changed. In fact, it appears the Gentiles had good reason not to improve the situation at their St. Petersburg pot house.
According to tenants, it was Denise who’d stop by monthly for the rent or for money to cover the water, sewer, and trash bills. If cash wasn’t readily available—according to former tenant Roreco “Rico” Currie—Denise was happy to accept marijuana “blunts” instead. (Blunts are small cigars converted into fairly large marijuana cigarettes.) Currie, during this period, was distributing marijuana from the Gentile property. Denise had discovered this illicit activity but had decided to let Currie remain.
  
If that wasn’t enough, Currie eventually converted the cottage into an impromptu strip-club. Exotic dancers performed routines as onlookers tossed money onto the dingy floors. Admission was $10, more after midnight. Currie proudly claimed this business was “by appointment only.”

He was arrested in October 2012 on several charges. He pleaded guilty and is currently serving a 38-month sentence. Denise Miscavige Gentile pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the activities at the Gentiles’ 15th Street North property. She denies receiving drugs in lieu of rent or bills.

The Tampa Bay Times piece is an extremely unflattering portrait of this Scientology celebrity couple.
  Obviously, in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, the rule of law simply does not apply to Denise Miscavige and Jerry Gentile.

These are the people the Clearwater Police Department shielded, it appears, in order to protect the Miscavige name from scandal.
The Gentiles’ involvement with Tom Brennan should have raised numerous questions. Why, for example, weren’t they pressed about the obvious lies they told regarding Tom Brennan and the night of February 16/17?
Denise at first lied about being Tom Brennan’s auditor; she lied about her relationship with Brennan; and she lied about her presence at the Brennan apartment. Jerry, too, at first lied about his wife’s presence that evening.

Particularly troubling as well is the fact that my son’s laptop computer ended up in the hands of Jerry Gentile. Why wasn’t Kyle’s computer taken into custody by the police?

My son Kyle deserved to have a fair and unbiased investigation. He deserved to have his day in court. Thanks to the defendants’ multitudinous lies—and thanks to the police report’s lies of omission—he got neither.

Excerpts from the Deposition of Officer Jonathan Yuen





















Excerpts from the Deposition of S. Brennan













Officer Jonathan Yuen’s Clearwater Police Report Narrative



A sample of the careful narrative and abundance of detail within a Clearwater Police Report. When reading the report the negligence of the Clearwater police on the scene the evening Kyle died becomes glaringly obvious.

This is the html version of the file http://www.artharris.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/nick-bollea-clearwater-police-report1.pdf.
Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.

The Clearwater Police Report: Lies of Omission

 The simple truth about lies is that there are many different types. Some, such as bold-faced lies, are so outrageous that they’re obvious to all within earshot. Another category comprises lies that are not so obvious—they lie hidden among the reams of information we ingest daily. But though these lies are obscured from sight, they’re no less pernicious. These are lies of omission—lies that represent an intentional failure to “tell the whole truth” in a situation requiring complete disclosure. Lying by omission is particularly destructive, of course, in legal and criminal matters.

Are the members of the Clearwater, Florida, Police Department guilty of lying by omission? You be the judge.


Clearwater policeman Jonathan Yuen was one of the first officers on the scene the night my son Kyle died under very suspicious circumstances at the apartment of his biological father, Tom Brennan, on Friday, February 16, 2007. At the time, Officer Yuen had been with the department only eighteen months. He’d been hired right out of college. Despite this fact, however—and despite the fact that higher-ranking officers were present at the time—Yuen was placed in charge of the crime scene.
   
Normally, one would expect a rookie cop to follow police procedures by the manual. One would expect a young officer to try really hard, to be attentive to every last detail. In reading other Clearwater Police Reports, for example, you’ll find an amazing amount of detail. Crime scene details are extremely important. Even the tiniest bit of information, of course, can be the determining factor in a criminal investigation. People have been convicted because of tiny details. And, of course, people have walked away from criminal acts because of the lack of a tiny detail.

In the Clearwater Police Report regarding my son’s death, Officer Yuen’s one-page narrative of the events of February 16/17 is remarkable for its inattention to detail. Later, when Yuen was deposed by attorney Ken Dandar—the lawyer representing the Estate of Kyle Brennan—his brain fog surrounding the details of that evening is incredibly suspicious.

First the big lie of omission. In his contribution to the Clearwater Police Report, Yuen omitted the fact that present at Tom Brennan’s Cleveland Street apartment the evening of Kyle’s death were two important members of Scientology’s first family—the twin-sister and brother-in-law of the church’s worldwide leader, David Miscavige.
 
Denise Miscavige Gentile, David Miscavige’s twin-sister—whom Tom Brennan referred to as “Chaplain Denise”—was Brennan’s Scientology auditor, his spiritual advisor or spiritual counsellor. Her husband’s name is Gerald “Jerry” Gentile. In spite of the fact that they both at first lied about Denise being at the Cleveland Street apartment that night, during their depositions Denise and Jerry finally admitted that they were both there. Jerry Gentile stated that Denise waited outside near their parked vehicle. Denise claimed she didn’t go inside because she was wearing pajamas.
 
Amazingly, Yuen left them completely out of his narrative. When questioned later, under oath, about people arriving at the crime scene, Yuen responded: “I believe I advised a couple of people showed up.”

“What did they do?” asked attorney Dandar.

“Basically spoke with Thomas [Brennan] and gave him some counselling or, you know, support.”

In the first few months following my son’s death, it was believed that Gerald Gentile was Tom Brennan’s roommate at the Cleveland Street apartment. This was assumed as it seemed the logical explanation for Jerry Gentile’s early presence at Brennan’s place the night Kyle died. Information pertaining to Gentile’s early appearance at the Cleveland Street apartment was omitted from the police report. No information regarding Jerry, in fact, was provided by the Clearwater Police Department, either in the police report or in the first phone interview Kyle’s Virginia family had with Detective Stephen Bohling (who took over the case on Saturday, February17). Kyle’s older brother—wondering who the elusive “Jerry” was who called our home to tell us of Kyle’s death—asked Bohling about him. (Some of our questions, naturally, were things like: Why didn’t Tom Brennan call us? Why didn’t the police make this important call?) Bohling’s response to the question about Jerry’s identity? “Some Scientology guy.”
 
Denise Miscavige Gentile was simply referred to as “Chaplain Denise.”
Why were these two members of the Clearwater Police Department—Officer Jonathan Yuen and Detective Stephen Bohling—not forthcoming or truthful about the presence of the Gentiles at the Cleveland Street apartment that night? Why would they not identify these high-powered Scientologists? Were these members of the police department deliberately lying by omission in order to protect two individuals with extremely close ties to the very top leadership of the Scientology organization?

Attorney Ken Dandar deposed Officer Yuen on June, 11, 2010. Yuen’s deposition lasted just over one hour.

Officer Yuen stated during his deposition that he left the crime scene in the early morning hours of February 17, and had no further involvement in the investigation.

Then he was asked: “Did you ever discuss the matter with Detective Bohling?

Did he ever contact you?”

“No” responded Yuen.

(It’s important to note here that Detective Bohling never visited the crime scene. Never. So, in other words, Officer Yuen was in charge at the Cleveland Street apartment the night Kyle died—even though other officers present outranked him—and wrote the narrative of that night’s events. He then simply handed that in, and never again spoke of the matter with the police detective who took over the case. And that man—Detective Stephen Bohling—never went to the Cleveland Street apartment. Why the disconnect between Yuen and Detective Bohling? Was it done this way in order to insure Bohling’s future plausible deniability?)
 
During Officer Yuen’s brief deposition, he responded 28 times with either “I don’t recall” or “I don’t remember.” And it’s interesting that Officer Yuen’s memory deficit only occurred when he was questioned regarding fellow police officers, medical investigator Martha J. Scholl, or the presence of that mysterious “couple” who arrived at the crime scene during his “short-short” interview of Tom Brennan.

And amazingly, Yuen destroyed the notes he took during that interview.
Ken Dander asked him: “Did you take notes during the interview [of Tom Brennan]?”

“Yes, I did” responded Yuen.

“What do you take the notes on?” was the next question.

“I have a note pad that normally I document all my cases on,” was the answer.

“Do you save those?”

“No, I do not.”

Unfortunately, Officer Yuen, a college graduate, doesn’t really understand what the verb tense “to document” means.

What about these two members of Scientology’s first family—Denise Miscavige Gentile and her husband Jerry?

According to a Tampa Bay Times article written in the summer of 2013, the couple married in 2000. They lived in Maryland for two years, then moved back to Clearwater “where Flag Land Base, Scientology’s spiritual headquarters, dominates the downtown skyline.” It was then that Jerry joined the church. Denise at the time was working at a small Scientology mission in Bellair. He continued working his Maryland technology job, commuting back and forth every week.

That tech position, however, wasn’t Jerry and Denise’s only source of income. A police investigation revealed that Jerry Gentile was the owner of a notorious drug-selling establishment—or “drug house”—located in St. Petersburg, Florida. It comprised a house on 15th Street North, and three detached apartments next door in a duplex and a separate cottage.

According to the article, “drug sales at the Gentile property got so bad police raided it twice in 14 months, busting up a marijuana den and what police called a cocaine sales operation.” Following the first raid, the city contacted the Gentiles asking them to “curb the drug activity.” Nothing changed.

In fact, it appears the Gentiles had good reason not to improve the situation at their St. Petersburg pot house. According to tenants, it was Denise who’d stop by monthly for the rent or for money to cover the water, sewer, and trash bills. If cash wasn’t readily available—according to former tenant Roreco “Rico” Currie—Denise was happy to accept marijuana “blunts” instead. (Blunts are small cigars converted into fairly large marijuana cigarettes.) Currie, during this period, was distributing marijuana from the Gentile property. Denise had discovered this illicit activity but had decided to let Currie remain.
  
If that wasn’t enough, Currie eventually converted the cottage into an impromptu strip-club. Exotic dancers performed routines as onlookers tossed money onto the dingy floors. Admission was $10, more after midnight. Currie proudly claimed this business was “by appointment only.” He was arrested in October 2012 on several charges. He pleaded guilty and is currently serving a 38-month sentence. Denise Miscavige Gentile pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the activities at the Gentiles’ 15th Street North property. She denies receiving drugs in lieu of rent or bills.

The Tampa Bay Times piece is an extremely unflattering portrait of this Scientology celebrity couple.
 Obviously, in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, the rule of law simply does not apply to Denise Miscavige and Jerry Gentile. These are the people the Clearwater Police Department shielded, it appears, in order to protect the Miscavige name from scandal.
 
The Gentiles’ involvement with Tom Brennan should have raised numerous questions. Why, for example, weren’t they pressed about the obvious lies they told regarding Tom Brennan and the night of February 16/17? Denise at first lied about being Tom Brennan’s auditor; she lied about her relationship with Brennan; and she lied about her presence at the Brennan apartment. Jerry, too, at first lied about his wife’s presence that evening. Particularly troubling as well is the fact that my son’s laptop computer ended up in the hands of Jerry Gentile. Why wasn’t Kyle’s computer taken into custody by the police?

My son Kyle deserved to have a fair and unbiased investigation. He deserved to have his day in court. Thanks to the defendants’ multitudinous lies—and thanks to the police report’s lies of omission—he got neither.

Excerpts from the Deposition of Officer Jonathan Yuen





















Excerpts from the Deposition of S. Brennan













Officer Jonathan Yuen’s Clearwater Police Report Narrative



A sample of the careful narrative and abundance of detail within a Clearwater Police Report. When reading the report the negligence of the Clearwater police on the scene the evening Kyle died becomes glaringly obvious.

http://www.artharris.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/nick-bollea-clearwater-police-report1.pdf.