Leaked document: How Scientology plotted to destroy Bruce Hines
In court documents, Scientology’s attorneys invariably do their best to describe the church as an embattled victim of bigotry, an organization dedicated to spiritual matters and social betterment that is under attack from former members and the press.
Scientology’s internal documents paint a different picture. As Leah Remini and Mike Rinder have tried to explain to courts and judges, Scientology is a ruthless organization with an entire secret service dedicated to investigating and retaliating against a whole host of perceived enemies, including former members who dare to speak out. Scientology is anything but a passive organization.
We have another new example of this for you today, a document that takes us right into the dark heart of Scientology’s retaliatory schemes.
At the time it was written, two new defectors were making Scientology very nervous about what they might tell the world.
Bruce Hines had been a major auditor who had counseled a large number of important Scientologists, including Nicole Kidman when she was married to Tom Cruise, and Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Scientology was panicked about what Hines might reveal that he had learned in confidential sessions with these figures, and after leaving the church Bruce had begun to give press interviews.
Meanwhile, Karen Pressley had left the church after helping to run the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, and she had an enormous amount of information about Scientology’s famous members.
In a document dated January 14, 2006, Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs described one plan to scare Hines and Pressley out of saying anything else. Namely, to have two of Scientology’s lackey lawyers, Gary Soter and Kendrick Moxon, send threatening letters and plan to sue Bruce.
“I left the Sea Org and New York City in April 2003,” Bruce said when we asked him for how things had gotten to this point. “Gradually, not right away, I started reading things about Scientology on the Internet. I read some things by Chuck Beatty, whom I had known for years. I contacted him and he told me about former Sea Org members, including one particular guy who had been at the Int Base who had posted negative things online and that they had received no backlash. This would have been some time in 2004. Then in 2005, Chuck connected me with Richard Leiby of the Washington Post, who was doing a story about the CST facility with the vaults in New Mexico. Leiby interviewed me for that and then quoted me in the piece he wrote. Then I was interviewed by Anderson Cooper for his 360 show on CNN. I don’t remember the sequence or the timing, but I then appeared on Anderson Cooper’s show again, on Nightline, on Dateline NBC, two different German documentaries, and a French documentary.”
Bruce tells us that although he had been emboldened to speak out about the abuses he had seen, he never intended to break the confidence of the Scientologists he had audited, which are called “preclears” or PCs in Scientology. (And he never has.)
But OSA was clearly alarmed that Bruce might dish about what his auditing subjects had said, and they were planning to use it against him.
“We will put together the full list of Hines’ pc’s and select the best ones from that list. Even if they have not been harmed, they could sue to prevent their feared disclosure, although a suit by someone already harmed is stronger,” the 2006 document says.
The document discusses having someone contact Bruce's relatives. But the biggest focus is on having attorney Gary Soter “getting Hines into an amenable frame of mind” before filing a lawsuit.
Soter recommends that we send Hines a cease and desist letter to set up the suit. The reason this is important (in addition to getting him to worry about litigation) is that one of the elements needed for an injunction is the likelihood of continued harm in the future. Therefore, if you can show either a negative response to a cease and desist letter, or a refusal to response, this gives a stronger showing of future harm — as opposed to saying that we think he will do it again because he has done it in the past. Gary says this is an important point for some judges.
What’s interesting here is the idea that Scientology knows that a cease-and-desist letter is just bait for a later trap. They’re expecting that Bruce would ignore the letter, which they would then use to their advantage in court. Or, even better, that Hines might mouth off about it online.
If Hines defiantly mouths off on the message board, we can attach those postings as powerful evidence of intent to continue breaching the agreement. Moxon drafted a letter, which is attached. Drescher agreed that this is a good idea. I think this should be done to give us a stronger argument for the injunction.
The document then lays out the planned steps to shut up both Bruce Hines and Karen Pressley:
1) Invest actions to begin — sending the appropriate messages, etc.
2) Cease and desist letter sent to Pressley.
3) Concurrently cease and desist letter to Hines.
4) Suit filed against Hines.
5) Make sure Pressley hears of the Hines suit, and she will now have to think that she's next.
The document indicates that Moxon had already drafted an application for a temporary restraining order, and that the plan was to go for expedited discovery, which “will include at a minimum a doc [document] request to Hines for all communications he has had with the media, all emails with anyone where he disclosed information about his employment with CSI, etc.”
Meanwhile, the church would also file a motion for a subpoena of Bruce’s good friend Mick Wenlock in Colorado, who ran the XSO message board.
This subpoena will ask for all messages to or from Hines, from anyone who has communicated with him, etc. This will have a devastating effect on the message board.
The document is signed, “ML, Neil.”
The “ML” is the usual “much love” sign-off of the Sea Org. As for Neil, Mike Rinder suggests that it was probably his OSA colleague Neil Reilly.
Attached to it is the cease-and-desist letter that Moxon had drafted for Gary Soter to sign and send out.
We figured you might be interested in seeing the whole thing...
Bruce Hines
Dear Mr. Hines:
I represent the Church of Scientology International.
As you know, over the past month, print media sources have published statements attributed to you respecting the Scientology religion, its members, its staff, and its properties. You have also appeared on television shows making comments and providing information on these same subjects.
The public statements made by you unambiguously violate the expressed terms of an Agreement and General Release you signed in July of 2001. You have indicated your awareness that the Agreement constituted a binding legal contract, and that you would be liable for damages for breaches of that contract. You have further indicated in that contract that you would be liable for the payment of attorneys fees expended to enforce the terms of the contract.
You have also revealed confidential personal information concerning Church staff and parishioners which you were sworn to protect by your oath, and are required to protect by California law and the law of every other state in the union. Former ministers simply may not reveal personal, technical information concerning parishioners they have counseled, or information they have acquired in a supervisory role as a Case Supervisor or other technical staff member.
In short, you have flagrantly and knowingly breached the contract you entered with the Church, and you have flagrantly violated the rights of Church staff and parishioners.
This letter is a demand that you cease and desist from such tortious
acts, and to provide some proof, in writing, that you have done so and promise in the future to abide by your contractual and fiduciary obligations. Absent receipt of such proof within 48 hours, the Church will have no option but to seek legal recourse in a California court, ordering you to comply with the terms of the Agreement and General Release, ordering you to maintain parishioner confidences inviolate, and compensating the Church for the expenses of the litigation and damages.
Sincerely,
Gary Soter
“I never got a cease-and-desist letter,” Bruce tells us. “I remember once getting a phone call from one of the Scientology lawyers reminding me that I had signed some agreements and should stop talking to the media. I was probably a bit naive, but I didn’t take it seriously.”
He also points out that a lawsuit was never filed against him.
We assume that OSA plans many more actions than it actually carries out. But there’s no question from the document that Bruce Hines and Karen Pressley in 2005 and 2006 were surveilled closely, people they knew were contacted, and legal plans were assembled.
“Everything sort of quieted down,” Bruce remembers, after his media appearances. “In 2006 was when Marc Headley started posting as ‘BFG,’ and then Mike Rinder blew. I thought they were more worried about those people.”
But he knew he was being watched when he decided to speak out.
“They wanted to shut me up to make an example of me for the others. It's all pretty strange.”
What did he think about this new document that confirms what he suspected at the time?
“They're really paranoid. They have to follow L. Ron Hubbard policy to make life miserable for anyone critical of them. And they go to great lengths and have a lot of resources, like these lawyers and stuff.”
Soter may not have sent this letter, but it’s really interesting to see that OSA had Moxon draft something for him to send out.
We can’t help thinking about the horrific letter that Soter sent to the A&E Network just before Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath was about to have its series premiere in 2016.
That first episode featured Amy Scobee and her mother, Bonny Elliott. In it, Amy revealed that she had been raped at 14 while working at a Scientology mission by another employee who was a 35-year-old married man.
Soter tried to stop the airing of the episode by claiming that Amy had been 16 at the time, not 14, and that she had been the “sexual aggressor” in the incident.
(Amy responded by explaining to us her evidence that she had to have been 14 at the time, not 16.)
It was one of the most horrific things we’ve ever seen a Scientology lawyer do. And now, we can’t help wondering if OSA wrote the letter for Soter and he simply put his signature on it.
What a life, being a Scientologist lawyer for the Church of Scientology.
Jon Atack on Scientology
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Amy was 14. I know this because I was in Bellevue when she was. My husband and I lived in the same house as his older brother and his wife. This is significant because his older brother was her attacker. Amy and I have talked in the last few months. Here is the reality of Scientology. Amy and I were what would pass as friends in Scientology. We talked, we spent time together. She was even in the house where we lived.
However, a friend in Scientology is not like a friend IRL. We didn’t whisper secrets to each other. There were entire pieces of each of our lives that were unknown to the other person. She didn’t know my husband was an abuser. She didn’t know I had been in Sea Org or GO. I didn’t know what was happening between her and my BIL.
This sounds strange to even say these days, but it’s important to point out that as a Scientologist, certain things were just not said.
OSA is bringing things to light with their bullying letters that most people brainwashed by Scientology probably would never have talked about had they not been told to keep quiet. Yet it is policy that they shoot themselves in the foot.
For every person they scare, they empower ten. I’m glad they have their hands tied by policy. Keep up the good work OSA. It is my hope that each individual attacker will eventually bumble their way into the light.
IMO things have changed quite a bit since 2006. OSA has lawsuits and continuous bloggers and YouTube personalities covering what’s happening in Scientology. It has to be whack-a-mole time 24/7 for cult lawyers and their member minions. That being said new abuses keep popping up in the organization dedicated to freeing mankind from the reactive mind.