She was branded a Scientologist villain by some online. But is she a villain at all?

[Grace Hunter and Anthony Tardugno]

Last summer, there was a small news item in Clearwater, Florida about a 75-year-old woman named Grace Hunter who had been arrested after a hit-and-run crash with her car that had left a 51-year-old cyclist dying.

Here’s how the Tampa Bay Times described it…

A Clearwater woman has been arrested in connection with an Aug. 16 hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist. Grace Hunter, 75, has been charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and driving with a license suspended or revoked causing serious bodily injury. The 51-year-old victim was taken to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg in critical condition and was pronounced dead on Aug. 19.

This was strictly a local story, and we didn’t hear anything about it. But then, a few weeks later, that news item was shared on Facebook groups that keep an eye on Scientology. The reason? Grace Hunter, the woman arrested in the hit-and-run, is an OT Scientologist who was fairly well known by former Scientologists in the area. She had also been a registered nurse.

“The bicyclist was on his way home from work at Publix. Grace is a Dianetics and Scientology ‘counselor’ and a NURSE!!” wrote one person who shared the news at Facebook.

“Well, there are certain kinds of conduct by which you can know Scientologists,” responded another person. Other comments included, “If she's at cause over MEST then this was intentional.” And “Just how unsafe can the Church be that she runs away instead of facing up and at least helping that person best she could.”

Besides the Scientology connection, there was another reason that the item interested us.

It involved the death of a 51-year-old cyclist.

Readers at the Underground Bunker know that your proprietor is an avid two-wheeler, and that we can be found on a bicycle practically every day when it isn’t raining or snowing. And as much as we try to ride on bike paths and away from heavily-trafficked roads, we have had close calls with cars, and we know there’s some risk every time we pull on our cleats. Also, data backs up the notion that cycling deaths are increasing in this country, and too often motorists pay no price for causing accidents.

In fact, just the day after the hit-and-run involving Grace Hunter in Clearwater, on August 17 Outside magazine happened to publish a story about a major research effort that found not only an alarming increase in cycling deaths in the U.S. but very little consequence for drivers.

In most of the stories we gathered information on, there were no consequences for the driver or even scrutiny of their behavior. Law enforcement rarely issued a ticket to drivers who killed cyclists. Criminal charges for the crash itself were even less common, often occurring only when a driver was intoxicated.

In this case, we were naturally curious about the identity of the cyclist. We wondered what the circumstances were that surrounded the hit-and-run. But we weren’t initially able to find anything about him, and we put the story aside for the moment.

Then, this past week, we heard from one of the Publix co-workers of the man who had died in the accident. They not only identified him as Anthony Tardugno, originally of Rome, New York, but they told us something really alarming: they claimed that charges had been dropped against Hunter, and it had something to do with her being a Scientologist.

Now we were really interested. Was a Scientologist getting away with murder? And what was known about her victim?

We started digging.

The first thing we found was that the co-worker was mistaken about charges. Grace Hunter is facing a felony count in the first degree for what happened on August 16, and she will have a pretrial hearing on February 13. She’s currently out of custody on a $10,000 bond.

Meanwhile, at a memorial page, Anthony’s Publix co-workers poured out affection for a man who had touched a lot of lives.

“Everyone at Publix loved Anthony and his amazing personality and huge heart.” “When we went mudding, or swimming at the Hyatt Clearwater Beach or just hanging out, it was all good times.” “Anthony had a wickedly loving smile for everyone. And everyone loved him, and just loved having him around.” “I thought about him often after he left Rome. I got a surprise phone call from him about a month ago. I was happy to hear his voice. He was a good friend of my family.”

What had happened to him? In the online Pinellas County docket, we found the original police report that described the accident.

At 2:55 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2022, Grace Hunter was driving her white 2017 Toyota Yaris northbound on Myrtle Avenue, an artery substantial enough to carry the designation US-19 ALT. It has two lanes going in each direction.

Grace was making a left turn onto a smaller side road, Jones Street, at an intersection that had no light. She would have had the right of way once oncoming traffic was not an issue.

But as she made her turn and began to enter Jones Street, Anthony was coming up Myrtle Ave northbound on the sidewalk and had entered the crosswalk just as Grace was turning in front of him.

Anthony, on his bicycle, ran into the side of Grace’s car just behind her driver’s side door. The collision resulted in head trauma for Anthony.

We have created this simple diagram to help you visualize the incident. The photo is taken from Google Street View, so please ignore the automobiles seen in the image.

The report states that after the collision occurred, Grace drove for about 100 feet more and then stopped. Witnesses told police that she stayed for a moment, and then drove on.

Video taken from her condo complex showed her arriving home after the incident, and exiting the driver’s seat of her car.

She is facing a first-degree felony count according to an information filed by the district attorney on Monday, for leaving the scene of a crash involving a death.

The police report does not indicate whether Anthony Tardugno was wearing a helmet when he collided with Grace’s Toyota Yaris.

But as religious as your proprietor is about wearing a helmet any time we’re on the bicycle no matter how long or where we’re riding, we know that there’s only so much protection that a foam hat will provide in a hard crash.

Looking at Anthony’s own legal record, he seemed to be a bit of a traffic ticket magnet, picking up citations once or twice a year going back to the late 1990s. Most recently, he had been cited three times in 2020 for red light violations, and had been getting around on a bicycle since then.

Was he a risk taker, and was he reckless on the afternoon of August 16? Going against traffic on a sidewalk and then diving into a crosswalk was not the safest maneuver, and neither he nor Grace may have had time to evade each other once they realized they were on a collision course.

Grace should have stayed to be on hand for police. She could have explained that Anthony had run into her and not the other way around. But with her license either suspended or revoked, she must have panicked at seeing the injured man on the ground.

Anthony Tardugno was a well-loved man, very popular with his coworkers, and a cyclist. We wish he had taken a safer way home that day and had traveled in the direction of traffic, giving drivers a better chance to see him.

Grace Hunter should not have been driving on a suspended license, if that allegation is true. But it’s hard to see from the description of the event that she was driving recklessly or intended harm to anyone.

Yes, she is a Scientologist. And we hope that she reconsiders her association with that controlling, extortionate organization.

But she is not a villain. And neither was Anthony Tardugno.

---

Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

Here’s the link for today’s post at tonyortega.org

And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning…