Scientology & the Death of Kyle Brennan

The Truth for Kyle

Judge Steven D. Merryday & Robert Beach Information

Judge Robert Beach 

Judge Steven D. Merryday  &  Robert Beach Information

Tampa, Florida — Blockbuster charges in a Federal Suit involving the Church of Scientology. It involves accusations of impropriety and some of the most respected judiciary and legal profession members.

The allegations are coming from the former number-two man in the organization and involve what he says is a multi-million dollar cover-up of the death of a woman in Scientology care.

The woman at the center of it all is Lisa McPherson, who died in 1995 after being involved in a minor traffic accident.

At the time of the accident, McPherson who was a Church of Scientology member said she needed psychiatric help. Instead, the church members took her to the Ft. Harrison Hotel to care for her.

Just 17 days later, Lisa McPherson was dead.

McPherson’s death spawned emotional protests near Scientology headquarters in Downtown Clearwater, a lawsuit from her family – as some charged they let her die and watched her die – and criminal prosecution from the Pinellas State Attorney’s office.

The Church was charged with a second-degree felony for practicing medicine without a license and 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.

Marty Rathbun, the former number-two man in Scientology, alleges that the organization showered gifts on the Medical Examiner’s attorney, Jeff Goodis, to influence her to change the cause of death.

Link: Rathbun’s full Scientology testimony, Lisa McPherson case 

Once that happened, the criminal case fell apart.

In addition, Rathbun says the Church hired another attorney, former prosecutor Lee Fugate, to have illegal Ex parte meetings with judges involved in the case.

Rathbun says,” Listen. Lee Fugate his value was to schmooze. As a matter of fact, that’s what David Miscavige and myself used to say. Let’s get lee to schmooze; let’s get Lee to schmooze.”

In the suit, Rathbun contends the Church of Scientology spent at least $30 million to get the charges dropped and mitigates the damages in the civil suit.

Jeff Goodis denies the charges, and Attorney Lee Fugate says he can’t comment on a federal suit, but it would be shocking to believe that some of Pinellas’ top judges could be involved in illegal activity like this.

However, Ken Dandar, the attorney who represented McPherson’s family against the church, says, “Maybe Mr. Rathbun doesn’t know what he is talking about, and maybe it’s all his imagination. I don’t think so…”

Dandar says the organization has come after him. He says attorney Wally Pope and Judge Robert Beach have illegally claimed the settlement papers in the McPherson case.

Papers that included what’s called a “practice restriction” so Dandar could never sue Scientology again.

Dandar adds,” If what I’ve been told is correct, I will go after the people who have corrupted the system, and I will go after the members of the system that have been corrupted.”

We couldn’t reach Judge Robert Beach or any of the Judges named in the lawsuit.

Attorney Wally Pope told us he wouldn’t comment to the media and no one from the Church of Scientology returned our calls.

But, late Friday, Pope filed a lawsuit on behalf of Scientology to have all of Marty Rathbun’s testimony thrown out.

There is an emergency hearing in Federal Court Monday.

Robert Beach Information; Mark Rathbun Deposition Excerpts 

Mark Rathbun, Judge Robert Beach 001

Judge Robert Beach, Clearwater Corruption 001

Judge Steven D. Merryday; Investigator Ray Emmons

Judge Robert Beach, Ray Emmons-Steven D. Merryday, Federal Judge 001

Attorney Luke Lirot's-response to Steven D. Merryday ruling-Estate of Kyle 001

Jude Steven D Merryday Ruling; Ignoring the plaintiff’s evidence.

The record is clear that Kyle soon relinquished his Lexapro to his father, who is the sole source of testimony about the attendant circumstances, Merryday wrote. The father reports that Kyle acting unilaterally and voluntarily presented the Lexapro to his father and said, I hate this shit. It makes me sick.

CWP Officer Jonathan Yuen-Control of medication 001

When Ken was forced off of Kyle’s case, I pleaded with Luke to help me. The judge had given me two weeks to find a new attorney. If I wasn’t successful, he’d dismiss the case. I suspected that’s what he was hoping for. A convenient way to unburden himself from a contentious case ( leaving me alone to fend for myself against a ruthless and vindictive adversary).  I pleaded with Luke to take the case.

Judge Stephen D. Merryday, Kyle Brennan, Scientology, 001

Judge Robert Beach and Steven D. Merryday, Frank Hull- 001

Steven D. Merryday

In January 1994, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday was arrested for DUI near his home in Palatka. A Florida State trooper saw Merryday driving erratically near construction on U.S. 17. Merryday, then a federal judge for two years, declined interviews but offered an unambiguous statement after he was released from jail.

“I made an inexcusable and dangerous mistake in judgment, for which I accept full responsibility,” he said. “I apologize to my family and friends, as well as the public, for this incident.”

Merryday vowed that his first offense would be his last. He said he was “committed unalterably to remaining free at all times from any and all intoxicants.”

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year’s probation, ordered to pay $688 in fines, perform 50 hours of community service, attend DUI school and give up his driver’s license for six months.

Steven D. Merryday Court Document 001

Judge Robert Beach, Steven D. Merryday, Victoria Britton Declaration page 1 001

Judge Robert Beach, Steven D. Merryday, Britton Affidavit 001

Judge Steven D. Merryday, Judge Robert Beach, Britton Affidavit 001

Judge Steven D. Merryday, Judge Robert Beach, Britton Affidavit 001

Britton Affidavit, Page five 001

 

 

                                

Judge Robert Beach, Judge Frank Hull, Luke Lirot-No Justice for Kyle 001

Rush to judgment; Steven D. Merryday 
 
Judge Merryday’s ruling had ignored crucial facts in the case, Lirot argued.
 
It never properly addressed the implications of Scientology’s dogmatic opposition to psychiatric drugs and the authoritarian nature of its ethics system governing members’ behavior.
 
And it had concluded that there was “no genuine issue of material fact” to put to a jury.
 
But the plaintiff’s contention that Tom Brennan had confiscated his son’s medication was not groundless speculation. It was supported by Brennan’s own initial statements to the police.
 
“His testimony is inconsistent, and the District Court, painfully, disregarded these inconsistencies….,” wrote Lirot.
 
“Under any analysis of the record, in this case, the ‘voluntariness’ of the disuse of Lexapro is a disputed issue.”20
 
Judge Merryday had also ruled that those targeted in the lawsuit had no duty of care to Kyle Brennan.
 
But Lirot argued: “Kyle’s psychiatric ailments were known, the importance of his continual taking of Lexapro was communicated, and the results of this tragedy were foreseeable.”(Lirot’s emphasis)21
 
And if there was any dispute over the question of foreseeability, well – that too should have been left for a jury to decide, he added.
 
Citing case law, Lirot argued: “A judge should only remove the question from the jury if there is ‘a total absence of evidence to support an inference that the intervening cause was foreseeable.’”22
 
That was not the case here, he wrote.
 
Scientology’s legal team had cited a wealth of case law in defense of their clients, Lirot noted. But certain aspects of this affair made it unique.
 
For one thing, he argued, “…none of these cases involved an ‘International Church’ with a well-known and militant aversion to psychotropic drugs.”
 
For another, he argued: “Taking away important psychiatric medication and negligently leaving a handgun and easily available ammunition accessible to a person with known psychological problems creates an entirely different factual scenario.”23
 
The plaintiffs did not dispute the right of Scientologists to their beliefs and their right to express their anti-psychiatry views, wrote Lirot.
 
But those beliefs could not be imposed on non-believers. And this, he argued, was exactly what had happened here, with tragic consequences.
 
“This is a case about negligent and invasive conduct, not religious freedom. The District Court erred by glossing over this huge fact.”24

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