We can tell you that Thomas Mesereau’s attorney Edith Matthai was not very happy when she saw that Judge Charlaine Olmedo had a 30-page ruling ready to issue after yesterday’s evidentiary hearing about the leak of prosecution discovery material to the Church of Scientology.
Give Judge Olmedo the props she deserves. She used her gavel to whack the leakers and I can see some of this spilling over to the civil trial. Thirty pages??? The Judge didn't come loaded for bear, she came with a jack hammer and cracked the concrete that the Clampire tries to hide behind.
Worth reading the entire 30 pages! I forgot that Vicky P and her representatives had been in court during the Masterson trial. Ooooh. “Fishing expedition.” Aaaah. “.... the First Amendment does not render religious practices immune from criminal prosecution where such practices are in violation of state law or is relevant to the consideration of evidence in the criminal jury trial.” I hope this gets applied to the civil case coming up. Judge Olmedo certainly has all her duckies in a row.
I do love me a meaty order from a Judge! There are some specific things I want to comment on, making my comment almost as long as the order, so here’s the Tl/dr version: Judge Olmedo left doors open for other people to take other actions. Portions of her ruling will probably be cited in cases in the future. Scientology is best understood by a Judge used to dealing with gangs.
Now for specific quotes with my comments:
“The First Amendment embraces two concepts: the freedom to believe and the freedom to act. The freedom to believe is absolute. The freedom to act is not. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society.”
Believe what you want, it doesn’t give you the right to break the law. My great grandfather was LDS. I was born LDS, have not attended for 53 years. My great grandfather served prison time because he violated the law. He married his sixth wife after polygamy was illegal. All his family knows this. It was not religious prosecution, the church leaders actually told the members to obey the law. I am not defending their religion, just saying that he served his time for violating the law. He acted in violation of the law and was punished for that.
Next: these two paragraphs! I sincerely hope the civil suit attorneys use them to their advantage.
“The defense now argues that once a court conducts such a balancing test and orders the production of discovery pursuant to Penal Code Section 1054 to a criminal defendant, the defense becomes the gate keeper of the discovery and information contained therein and may disseminate it to whomever and however he or shee sees fit. Thus, the defense position stands for the proposition that a criminal defendant, whose interest are in fact inapposite of the victims' and witnesses' interests, now has gained, in essence, a proprietary interest in the information and so long as there is no expressly written protective order in place, he or she can do with the information as he or she wishes. Arguably, a criminal defendant could sell the information to a tabloid, publish it in a local newspaper, give it to other individuals with adverse interests to those of the victims or witnesses such as an ex-spouse, or as here, share it with other litigants in other noncriminal, legal matters who otherwise would not be able to obtain the same information.
This Court cannot find any statute or caselaw that gives a criminal defendant such a proprietary interest or broad right of control over the private information of other individuals nor such a free exercise of dissemination of any discovery provideed to comment on:through the statutorily prescribed criminal discovery process. To follow the defense position to its logical end, a court would have to issue a protective order pro forma, in every criminal case, in order to stop any abuse of the discovery process otherwise a criminal defendant wouuld be free to disseminate, in any manner, the private communications, photos, texts, police reports, statements, lab results, medical records and any other item of discovery by the People in the course of a criminal prosecution. This is antithetical to the legal reasoning supporting the criminal discovery statutory scheme. Thus, this simply cannot be the default position.”
And finally, this: Judge Olmedo encourages the civil attorneys to take action against the oversharers as well.
THE COURT FINDS that the Court issued numerous orders and directives to prevent the sharing of discovery between the attorneys for the criminal case and the civil case. Specifically, the Court repeatedly admonished the criminal attorneys that the criminal defense team was attempting to use the criminal discovery process to obtain discovery for the civil case, material that the civil defendants were not entitled to, and that the criminal discovery process would not be used for such a purpose. This language constitutes a lawful court order prohibiting the sharing of criminal discovery by the criminal defense team for the purpose of assisting the defense in the related civil case. Thus, the sharing of discovery and information between any of the attorneys for the criminal defense team with the civil defendants or their lawyers violated this Court's specific orders and directives.
It appears that this possession of criminal discovery may assist in the civil defense preparation or litigation, despite teh fact that such sharing of documents was in direct contravention to this Court's repreated orders and directives. Whatever the reason, the Church of Scientology International's possession of these documents by and through its attorney Vicki Podberesky, resulted from a violation of this Court's order. This Court specifically leaves for the trial court presiding over the pending related civil matter, the determination of the impact or effect on the civil litigation and parties and in accordance with that finding, the further determination of any remedies and/or the imposition of any sanctions regarding the civil attorneys or civil parties, as deeemed appropriate by that court.
Appealing this Order will be a long hill to climb. She documented very well the entire history of this case.
Judge Olmedo and her court are shining examples of our justice system working correctly with fairness and impartiality.
Here is a quote from L. Ron Hubbard in the the front of the original ETHICS BOOK. This is his view of the justice system.
“Man of course has a tremendous reaction to something called justice or what he laughingly calls justice. But Man has no understanding to back up any of his hangings that he commits himself to and in fact has no real justice to back up any of his hangings that he commits himself to and in fact it has no end product. Its total end product. if you call it one, is punishment.
That it doesn't straighten out the community is manifest.”
Scientology thinks it’s the only organization in the world that has the right to administer Justice. And only on the basis that it protects its organizations, members and its doctrine. It does that by using the court system to bully, attack, destroy and bankrupt those who would expose its fraud and abuse. And this on the basis that “anyone who would attack Scientology has to have crimes they have committed”. Hubbard stated this as a MAJOR truth.
Now here is a short excerpt from Judge Olmedo’s ruling. And it is worth reading her whole ruling. She exposes lays out the bad conduct of the cherch and their lawyers.
“THE COURT FINDS that the Church of Scientology Internationl, by and through its attorney Vicki Podberesky, has attemped to involve itself in the criminal proceedings before this Court and the retrial in the above-captioned case by filing pleadings in the criminal case to which it had no standing and by making complaints that it should have more appropriately made months earlier, but certainly not in the middle of the retrial. Detective Myape was scheduled to testify just days after Church of Scientology International's attorney met with Chief Moore to lodge complaints about the Detective. THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the timing of this complaint, based on the long delay of time between Detetive Myape's testimony in the first trial and when the complaint was actually made while the retrial was in fact in progress, was calculated. However, THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the Church of Scientology International's complaint had no impact on the progress of the retrial nor impact on the testimony in the retrial and further that the second jury was unaware of these actions.”
That sums up the church’s conduct. After over 60 years of Scientology’s Guardians Office(GO) and currently The Office Of Special Affairs (OSA) using the court system’s to destroy victims and whistleblowers, it is finally being exposed for forwarding L. Ron Hubbard’s grand hypocrisy.
All David Miscavige’s money will do nothing to remedy the public’s dim view of this evil quasi-religious institution.
“However, THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the Church of Scientology International's complaint had no impact on the progress of the retrial nor impact on the testimony in the retrial and further that the second jury was unaware of these actions.”
They literally can't learn. They can only FOLLOW-zealously, slavishly, literally, and without doubt-the words and policies of El Wrong Blowhard. They are predictable. They are arrogant. They are rigid and dogmatic and plain STUPID.
They are doomed to fail. Let's keep popping popcorn as we watch the high-haired, illiterate, spiteful sociopath(Miscavige) continue to do his typical dumb shit...and hope that he and his cult succumb sooner than later, so that fewer lives are traumatized, ruined, and lost due to his maniacal criminality.
I'm trying to figure out why Mesereau et all will even appeal: the costs will be *far* beyond the $950 sanction, and this isn't even reportable to the state bar (aka: no professional consequences?)
I wonder if Judge Olmedo's setting the value just below the reporting threshold is a kind of warning: if you appeal this and lose, the sanction will be increased.
I also wonder what Miscavige thinks about all this?
"THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the timing of this complaint, based on the long delay of time between Detective Myape's testimony in the first trial and when the complaint was actually made while the retrial was in fact in progress, was calculated."
I am looking forward to Bunkerlawyercorps' analysis of this reading, and your thoughts regarding the possibility of lawsuits filed against Mesereau and Applebaum (not withstanding possible filings or motions in the actual civil court case)
What a great read I was very impressed with how thorough the judge was going from beginning to end I don't think Scientology realized that she was going to make sure she covered everything. It's clear since the trial's over with that she realizes they're dangerous that they're manipulative and destructive entities that need to be stopped. The amount of BS that she watched going on in her courtroom did not do that cult any favors. I hope this sinks that cult like a stone straight to the bottom of the ocean.. Her job was to do everything according to the law and in my opinion she nailed it!!!
Give Judge Olmedo the props she deserves. She used her gavel to whack the leakers and I can see some of this spilling over to the civil trial. Thirty pages??? The Judge didn't come loaded for bear, she came with a jack hammer and cracked the concrete that the Clampire tries to hide behind.
Worth reading the entire 30 pages! I forgot that Vicky P and her representatives had been in court during the Masterson trial. Ooooh. “Fishing expedition.” Aaaah. “.... the First Amendment does not render religious practices immune from criminal prosecution where such practices are in violation of state law or is relevant to the consideration of evidence in the criminal jury trial.” I hope this gets applied to the civil case coming up. Judge Olmedo certainly has all her duckies in a row.
I do love me a meaty order from a Judge! There are some specific things I want to comment on, making my comment almost as long as the order, so here’s the Tl/dr version: Judge Olmedo left doors open for other people to take other actions. Portions of her ruling will probably be cited in cases in the future. Scientology is best understood by a Judge used to dealing with gangs.
Now for specific quotes with my comments:
“The First Amendment embraces two concepts: the freedom to believe and the freedom to act. The freedom to believe is absolute. The freedom to act is not. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society.”
Believe what you want, it doesn’t give you the right to break the law. My great grandfather was LDS. I was born LDS, have not attended for 53 years. My great grandfather served prison time because he violated the law. He married his sixth wife after polygamy was illegal. All his family knows this. It was not religious prosecution, the church leaders actually told the members to obey the law. I am not defending their religion, just saying that he served his time for violating the law. He acted in violation of the law and was punished for that.
Next: these two paragraphs! I sincerely hope the civil suit attorneys use them to their advantage.
“The defense now argues that once a court conducts such a balancing test and orders the production of discovery pursuant to Penal Code Section 1054 to a criminal defendant, the defense becomes the gate keeper of the discovery and information contained therein and may disseminate it to whomever and however he or shee sees fit. Thus, the defense position stands for the proposition that a criminal defendant, whose interest are in fact inapposite of the victims' and witnesses' interests, now has gained, in essence, a proprietary interest in the information and so long as there is no expressly written protective order in place, he or she can do with the information as he or she wishes. Arguably, a criminal defendant could sell the information to a tabloid, publish it in a local newspaper, give it to other individuals with adverse interests to those of the victims or witnesses such as an ex-spouse, or as here, share it with other litigants in other noncriminal, legal matters who otherwise would not be able to obtain the same information.
This Court cannot find any statute or caselaw that gives a criminal defendant such a proprietary interest or broad right of control over the private information of other individuals nor such a free exercise of dissemination of any discovery provideed to comment on:through the statutorily prescribed criminal discovery process. To follow the defense position to its logical end, a court would have to issue a protective order pro forma, in every criminal case, in order to stop any abuse of the discovery process otherwise a criminal defendant wouuld be free to disseminate, in any manner, the private communications, photos, texts, police reports, statements, lab results, medical records and any other item of discovery by the People in the course of a criminal prosecution. This is antithetical to the legal reasoning supporting the criminal discovery statutory scheme. Thus, this simply cannot be the default position.”
And finally, this: Judge Olmedo encourages the civil attorneys to take action against the oversharers as well.
THE COURT FINDS that the Court issued numerous orders and directives to prevent the sharing of discovery between the attorneys for the criminal case and the civil case. Specifically, the Court repeatedly admonished the criminal attorneys that the criminal defense team was attempting to use the criminal discovery process to obtain discovery for the civil case, material that the civil defendants were not entitled to, and that the criminal discovery process would not be used for such a purpose. This language constitutes a lawful court order prohibiting the sharing of criminal discovery by the criminal defense team for the purpose of assisting the defense in the related civil case. Thus, the sharing of discovery and information between any of the attorneys for the criminal defense team with the civil defendants or their lawyers violated this Court's specific orders and directives.
It appears that this possession of criminal discovery may assist in the civil defense preparation or litigation, despite teh fact that such sharing of documents was in direct contravention to this Court's repreated orders and directives. Whatever the reason, the Church of Scientology International's possession of these documents by and through its attorney Vicki Podberesky, resulted from a violation of this Court's order. This Court specifically leaves for the trial court presiding over the pending related civil matter, the determination of the impact or effect on the civil litigation and parties and in accordance with that finding, the further determination of any remedies and/or the imposition of any sanctions regarding the civil attorneys or civil parties, as deeemed appropriate by that court.
Appealing this Order will be a long hill to climb. She documented very well the entire history of this case.
Shazaam, ma'am! LOVE THAT OPENING PARAGRAPH SUMMATION:
"Scientology is best understood by a judge used to dealing with gangs."
Yes, whether they be Farsecian Fuckwits or Thetanic Teegeeackian Twats or
Arslykan Asshats...
Thanks so much Tony for posting the entire masterpiece from Judge Olmedo, may her life be forever blessed by good fortune 😁
Judge Olmedo and her court are shining examples of our justice system working correctly with fairness and impartiality.
Here is a quote from L. Ron Hubbard in the the front of the original ETHICS BOOK. This is his view of the justice system.
“Man of course has a tremendous reaction to something called justice or what he laughingly calls justice. But Man has no understanding to back up any of his hangings that he commits himself to and in fact has no real justice to back up any of his hangings that he commits himself to and in fact it has no end product. Its total end product. if you call it one, is punishment.
That it doesn't straighten out the community is manifest.”
Scientology thinks it’s the only organization in the world that has the right to administer Justice. And only on the basis that it protects its organizations, members and its doctrine. It does that by using the court system to bully, attack, destroy and bankrupt those who would expose its fraud and abuse. And this on the basis that “anyone who would attack Scientology has to have crimes they have committed”. Hubbard stated this as a MAJOR truth.
Now here is a short excerpt from Judge Olmedo’s ruling. And it is worth reading her whole ruling. She exposes lays out the bad conduct of the cherch and their lawyers.
“THE COURT FINDS that the Church of Scientology Internationl, by and through its attorney Vicki Podberesky, has attemped to involve itself in the criminal proceedings before this Court and the retrial in the above-captioned case by filing pleadings in the criminal case to which it had no standing and by making complaints that it should have more appropriately made months earlier, but certainly not in the middle of the retrial. Detective Myape was scheduled to testify just days after Church of Scientology International's attorney met with Chief Moore to lodge complaints about the Detective. THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the timing of this complaint, based on the long delay of time between Detetive Myape's testimony in the first trial and when the complaint was actually made while the retrial was in fact in progress, was calculated. However, THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the Church of Scientology International's complaint had no impact on the progress of the retrial nor impact on the testimony in the retrial and further that the second jury was unaware of these actions.”
That sums up the church’s conduct. After over 60 years of Scientology’s Guardians Office(GO) and currently The Office Of Special Affairs (OSA) using the court system’s to destroy victims and whistleblowers, it is finally being exposed for forwarding L. Ron Hubbard’s grand hypocrisy.
All David Miscavige’s money will do nothing to remedy the public’s dim view of this evil quasi-religious institution.
“However, THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the Church of Scientology International's complaint had no impact on the progress of the retrial nor impact on the testimony in the retrial and further that the second jury was unaware of these actions.”
Bam!
All that blustering for nothing. When will the cos learn?
To learn on must have some critical thinking.
They literally can't learn. They can only FOLLOW-zealously, slavishly, literally, and without doubt-the words and policies of El Wrong Blowhard. They are predictable. They are arrogant. They are rigid and dogmatic and plain STUPID.
They are doomed to fail. Let's keep popping popcorn as we watch the high-haired, illiterate, spiteful sociopath(Miscavige) continue to do his typical dumb shit...and hope that he and his cult succumb sooner than later, so that fewer lives are traumatized, ruined, and lost due to his maniacal criminality.
I'm trying to figure out why Mesereau et all will even appeal: the costs will be *far* beyond the $950 sanction, and this isn't even reportable to the state bar (aka: no professional consequences?)
I wonder if Judge Olmedo's setting the value just below the reporting threshold is a kind of warning: if you appeal this and lose, the sanction will be increased.
I also wonder what Miscavige thinks about all this?
It IS reportable to the bar. It just falls short of the mandatory reporting threshold. Any party harmed by the misconduct is free to file a complaint.
"THIS COURT FURTHER FINDS that the timing of this complaint, based on the long delay of time between Detective Myape's testimony in the first trial and when the complaint was actually made while the retrial was in fact in progress, was calculated."
I am looking forward to Bunkerlawyercorps' analysis of this reading, and your thoughts regarding the possibility of lawsuits filed against Mesereau and Applebaum (not withstanding possible filings or motions in the actual civil court case)
What a great read I was very impressed with how thorough the judge was going from beginning to end I don't think Scientology realized that she was going to make sure she covered everything. It's clear since the trial's over with that she realizes they're dangerous that they're manipulative and destructive entities that need to be stopped. The amount of BS that she watched going on in her courtroom did not do that cult any favors. I hope this sinks that cult like a stone straight to the bottom of the ocean.. Her job was to do everything according to the law and in my opinion she nailed it!!!