William T. Drescher
23679 Calabasas Road, Suite 338
Calabasas, California 91302
(818) 591-0039Michael Lee Hertzberg
740 Broadway
New York, New York 10003
(212) 982-9870Attorneys for Non-Party
DAVID MISCAVIGEUNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, a California Non-Profit Religious Organization,Plaintiff, vs.
STEVEN FISHMAN and UWE GEERTZ,
Defendants.
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)CASE NO. CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx) DECLARATION OF DAVID MISCAVIGE1
I, DAVID MISCAVIGE, declare and say:
[…]
52. Next, I was subjected to a two and a half year criminal investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Ironically, the very people I had kicked out of the GO exploited the government’s concern over acts the GO had committed to make me the target of an investigation based on the very acts they had committed. Of course they didn’t make their previous associations with the GO known. In fact, the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division (“CID”) was based on specious allegations filed in civil litigation and spread in the media. The thrust of the investigation was an alleged criminal conspiracy begun in 1966 to impede the Internal Revenue Service. I was the primary target of this investigation even though I was only six years old when I began the “conspiracy.”
53. The CID’s massive investigation was ultimately rejected outright by the Justice Department. However, the IRS dossier on me, an accumulation of over 100,000 pages of documents — the largest in the Service’s history — was filled with falsehoods from a handful of bitter former Scientologists and ex-GO like Mr. Young. It contained the same allegations that have been repeatedly disproved, but which are nevertheless being made again in this case.
54. For example, Mr. Young repeats the allegations made by Gerry Armstrong that the Church practices “Fair Game”and that Gerry Armstrong was in “fear of his life.” To bolster the validity of this allegation, Vaughn Young refers to the Breckenridge decision. 2 What Mr. Young fails to disclose, however, is the fact that following that opinion, Armstrong was proven a liar. In a police-sanctioned investigation,3 Gerry
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Armstrong was captured on video tape acknowledging his real motives, namely a plot to overthrow the Church leadership and gain control of the Church. On those very video tapes, Armstrong acknowledges he not only isn’t ” afraid,” but that he “will bring the Church to its knees.” While plotting his overthrow attempt he gives advice that the Church should be accused of various criminal acts. When told no evidence exists to support such “charges,” he responds, “just allege it.” It should be noted that while Gerry Armstrong had been an “informant” during the IRS criminal investigation, based on these tapes and statements, the IRS dropped him as a witness, thereby repudiating his credibility. Vaughn and Stacy Young were fully aware of these facts as Stacy wrote the cover story in Freedom Magazine 4 that exposed Armstrong’s plot. 5
55. The steady barrage of such falsehoods poisoned the IRS with respect to the Church generally and me personally. Years later, IRS Internal Security agent Keith Kuhn filed a declaration in several cases, falsely accusing me of threatening another IRS agent with whom I had never spoken in my life. That declaration was stricken as unsupported and scurrilous, and the IRS was ordered by Judge Keller of this Court to pay sanctions for having filed it at all. [Ex. 8, Order and transcript, Church of Scientology of California v. IRS, No. CV 90-5638 WDK (C.D.Cal.)]
56. The attempts to harass me in litigation have extended to creating not just false allegations, but false documents as well. In 1984, a former staff member, who was employed by a splinter group that was seeking to pull Scientologists away from the Church for the splinter group’s profit, created a forged
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document entitled SMASH THE SQUIRRELs which was allegedly written by me and which purported to show that I intended some form of harassment towards apostates of Scientology. One would normally ignore such wild incidents, except this document was continuously used against me in litigation, most particularly to prevent me from gaining access to government files on me. I have had to fight this issue for years and only last year was this matter put to rest. This document was recently examined in a Freedom of Information Act case, Miscavige v. IRS, No. CV 88-7341 TJH (C.D.Cal.) by Special Master Jack Tenner, who found that it was, in fact, a forgery and could not be used in court. That decision was affirmed by Judge Hatter of this Court. [Ex. D, Order of Judge Hatter.] Even though this document has been ruled to be a forgery, Geertz’s attorneys have now referred to it and seek to use it in this case as if it were real.
57. Perhaps the most telling indication that the allegations made by Mr. Young and other apostates regarding corporate and financial affairs of various Church entities are false, is the recent recognition of the tax exempt status of all Scientology Churches in the United States by the IRS. This recognition of exemption followed the most exhaustive review of financial records and corporate structure of any exemption application ever filed. That process is described in detail in the accompanying declaration of Monique E. Yingling. [Ex. C.] As part of the exemption process, the IRS also considered and rejected virtually all of the same allegations that are now being made against me in this case. These discredited and untrue charges should not have to be dealt with time and time again. After the most extensive
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review in IRS history, to have uninformed apostates second-guessing the IRS’s determination, and regurgitating false claims that the IRS and Courts have rejected again and again, putting me in the position of defending against the same old allegations, is ludicrous! This has to end somewhere, as it is not just wasting my time, but the Court’s time as well. All the while further false accusations are made that the Church likes litigation. Magistrate Tassopulos stated on January 4, 1994, “You know you people enjoy the fight…” To the degree this statement is directed at me, she is just wrong. I despise litigation and in fact know of no Scientologist who enjoys it. However, we have been forced to defend ourselves because of unfounded allegations the courts seem too willing to accept or which they are incapable of preventing.
Notes
- Excerpt retrieved from http://gerryarmstrong.org/50k/legal/related/3128.php. ↩
- See Breckenridge decision ↩
- See Los Angeles Police Department: Announcement by LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates ↩
- See Freedom April/May 1985 ↩
- See: Armstrong Declaration 02-22-1994 ↩