Declarations

Excerpted declarations from people that knew Mark Rathbun and Mike Rinder:

DECLARATION # 1

“I witnessed Marty Rathbun physically attack Mike Rinder several times in the office next door to mine. Mike’s desk was adjacent to the wall where my desk was, so each time Marty body slammed Mike against the wall, the penetration through the wall was such that I feared the wall was going to come down on me while sitting at my desk. The ceiling tiles shook and the dust came flying down it was that hard. I once ran to the next room and Mike was slumped over his chair in pain. At one point I had to remove other staff from the hallway area to prevent their fighting spreading around. Shortly after the above occurred, Mike Rinder needed to receive counseling and I saw him being counseled in the auditing room five doors down from my office, to help him recover from the fear and pain Marty instilled. These physical altercations created wall damage in Mike and Marty’s office.”

“My next dealing with Marty Rathbun was in late 2003. … He explained that he would not be able to hold a new position, as he could not create things, his only experience was fighting and harming others. He explained that he was a squirrel [someone who alters L. Ron Hubbard’s standard technology and procedures] and had grooved in a horrible pattern of ethics investigations used on staff members, stating that he had made it seem like it was Mr. Miscavige who was training him to do it, when this was not the case. … He explained his repeated “crazy” desire to hold a Legal post in the Church only so as to maintain his position as a ”fighter”.

“I have known Mike Rinder since 1998 … While occupying the same office as Mike, I had to wake up Mike from sleeping on the job at least twice per week. He was so disinterested and disdainful towards his job and his co-workers he would often sleep at his desk and accomplish nothing.

“Mike’s reputation in the Church was one of arrogance, disdain and condescending relations.

“Mike stated to me in 2005 what an awful and hard time he had in dealing with any media, and touted this hardship as something none of his lowly peers (everyone else who didn’t work on media relations was considered a lowly peer) would ever have to experience and used the behavior of media and newspaper columnists to excuse his failings.”

“I have known Tom De Vocht since 1989. I worked with him throughout this time and extensively at the Flag Land Base up until 2000. I worked with him later in 2003 and 2004 up until he left. I sat in the same office as Tom for at least four years. Tom’s allegations are lies and he knows it.”

“Each and every statement and allegation now being made by Marty Rathbun, Mike Rinder, Tom De Vocht and Amy Scobee is not only categorically and utterly denied as false based on my personal observation and accounts (I was there), these allegations serve to show the levels that spiteful individuals will stoop in concocting the most outrageous lies I have ever heard of just to gain fame and make their quick buck.”

DECLARATION # 2

“Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder walked in one afternoon and told the then-head of Golden Era Productions [name deleted] and myself to follow them to a small office that had one wall lined up with metal file cabinets. Rathbun closed the door, pushed both [name deleted] and myself against the file cabinets. And without any warning, Rathbun suddenly punched me in the stomach with full force and did the same to [name deleted]. Rinder was standing at the side of Rathbun, most definitely endorsing his actions. Both then walked out, paying no attention whatsoever to us and our physical condition after Rathbun’s punches.”

“A few weeks later, Rathbun walked into my office. He appeared upset with me, closed the door behind him and suddenly punched me in the stomach with full force, throwing me across the room, where I collapsed against my desk, and he walked out.”

“A few days later, Rathbun walked once again into my office, closed the door, began berating me for something I had allegedly done wrong and again suddenly threw me against the wall of my office using his full force.”

“Also in that same period, I was in the office of one of my assistants, going over a project. Rinder and Rathbun again walked in and without warning Rathbun pulled me by one of my ears and dragged me out of that office and all the way back to my own office. This meant going outside, crossing a path and walking into a separate building-roughly a distance of 90 feet. Rinder was at Rathbun’s side throughout the incident, fully endorsing Rathbun’s actions.”

“I knew Mike Rinder for many years. In fact, he was my own senior when I first came to work in the Church of Scientology International in the United States in 1982. I was immediately struck by the fact that he was a vulgar individual who would mock others to make them feel ill at ease and especially those who were weaker and in a lower position than his own, particularly women. He was also vicious with junior staff, harassing them repeatedly. He was a bully who was polite to those senior to him and mean to those below him. My staff were scared of him, as they knew he was a two-faced person who could not be trusted.”

“Rathbun and Rinder were known for accusing others of the very things they were themselves doing so as to distract investigations off them. Both have admitted in writing that they were consummate liars and had lied for years about disasters they created on the legal lines of the Church. Tom DeVocht also admitted in writing how his fundamental approach to life was to lie and to do everything to not get caught lying.”

DECLARATION # 3

“The allegations of Mike Rinder, Marty Rathbun, Tom De Vocht and Amy Scobee are blatant, despicable lies. These apostates are no longer Scientologists and they are filled with hate. They left in disgrace and have teamed up with avowed enemies of the Church-people who have openly
stated they are out to destroy Scientology. They are bitter and are telling lies to forward their own ends. In my 50-year career in Scientology, I’ve seen apostates like this come and go. After they leave, things invariably get better. ”

“As I was the target of repeated physical attacks by Mark Rathbun, this entire period sticks in my mind as a concatenation of consistent and virulent physical harassment. When he didn’t hit me, Rathbun had a habit of clenching a fist and threatening me, which he did at least a dozen times, usually in his office, sometimes getting up and coming around the desk menacingly, indicating he was going to punch me out. Several times Rathbun would use me as a vehicle to exhaust his rage. I developed a dread of Rathbun and what he would do next, because his violence was so spontaneous and unpredictable.”

“One particular day, I had gone to work on the project in another building when Mark Rathbun phoned me up in a rage and demanded I “get my ass up to his office immediately.” When I got there, he wanted to know the status of the project and when my answer didn’t satisfy him, he lunged at me from behind his desk. He came at me with both fists flying and punched me in the chest and ribs several times. I was hurting for several hours. During a second, similar incident, while I was still overseeing this particular project, Rathbun’s punches were so hard that the blows knocked me back against a counter and my head smashed against a bookshelf and severely hurt me.

“On at least four more occasions between the years 2000 and 2002, usually during a conference when production planning for the day was agreed upon, Mark Rathbun turned into psychotic rages because one project or another was not fully completed yet. Each time he would come flying at me, sometimes concurrently expressing vitriolic expletives, and hit me hard and pushed and shoved me back and forth; on at least one occasion during this series of incidents the force of his attack caused my chair to topple over so that I landed on the floor. I remember distinctly that during one of those assaults, he kicked violently at the side of my body and hurt me while I was on the ground.”

“During this same time period, Rathbun’s fits of uncontrolled anger would often cause him to smash and kick things.”

“One day in 2001, Rathbun came storming into the same office area and without warning kicked me from behind while I was sitting in my chair with my back to him. The kick was so vicious and hard that the chair I was sitting on went flying and I fell to the floor.”

“After physically assaulting me one day in 2002, Rathbun saw me several hours later and instead of apologizing (which is what I thought he was going to do), he, incredibly, told me that I was the cause of it all and it was all my fault, because I was provoking him — that he really didn’t want to hit me, but that I was actually making him hit me and thereby committing a transgression against him.”

“When Mr. Miscavige returned to the Base and found out about Rathbun’s physical violence. Mr. Miscavige immediately put a stop to any and all physical assaults from Rathbun and Rathbun was soon thereafter removed from post after which any sort of physical violence on the Base ended entirely.”

DECLARATION # 4

“I accompanied Mr. Miscavige in 1990 when he visited Mark Fisher, at the time an employee of Golden Era Productions, who was working in the Estates building. I witnessed the brief meeting, beginning when Mark Fisher was on a ladder, to the end when Mr. Miscavige left. At no time did Mr. Miscavige strike or otherwise harm Mark Fisher. In fact, it was quite the opposite as Mr. Miscavige was encouraging Fisher to use Scientology technology to assist himself. Mark Fisher did not take that opportunity and instead left the Church shortly thereafter, over 19 years ago. That he is making this allegation almost two decades after the incident supposedly occurred and after he has engaged in demonstrations against Scientology Churches with the cyber-terrorist hate-group Anonymous evidences that there are sinister motives for this fallacious statement.”

“Rathbun was volatile. At one point, in January 2004, he lunged at me and dragged me across a room, punched me and banged my head into a wall. I was bleeding from the incident and had a fat lip. I was stunned by his unprovoked actions.”

“Within days, I saw Rathbun jump on Mike Rinder and drag Rinder to the ground, straddle him and choke him while simultaneously asking some question which I could not discern. I saw Rinder grabbing Rathbun’s arms and having trouble breathing. Rathbun was shouting but it was impossible for Rinder to respond. I, along with others, pulled Rathbun off of Rinder. He speaks of violence, there’s your violence-and he was the chief perpetrator.”

“I never conceived either of the above acts, or other acts of violence I experienced from Rathbun to have been perpetrated by anyone other than himself. They were uniformly done when Mr. Miscavige was thousands of miles away. None were ever done in his presence. Rathbun personally told me that he was a “warrior” — his word, not mine.”

DECLARATION # 5

“I have known Marty Rathbun since 1984. In the entire time that I knew Rathbun as a Church staff member, which was from 1984 until he deserted the Church in 2004, he was always working either on external affairs of the Church or internal investigations, such as to find out why a project or program was overdue. He chronically fouled up legal and other external matters he was meant to handle and, on ethics matters within the Church. … Rathbun would often use intimidation and physical violence, though the Scientology ethics codes are clearly against such actions. He routinely acted like a bully towards his fellow staff members, using physical force and threats of physical force to intimidate people — usually on persons who were of a smaller physical size than he.

“In one instance, as I was leaving an office and stepping onto the sidewalk, Rathbun walked up to me. I thought he was coming up to say something to me, and I paused in front of him. Without any preamble or warning, he punched me in the jaw with his fist. He then turned and walked away without saying a word. I thought he must have gone completely psychotic.”

“In another instance, in 2003, I observed Rathbun in a rage, throwing an executive up against a file cabinet repeatedly while screaming at him. He then stormed out of the office, leaving the executive shaken, upset and confused. Rathbun was not investigating anything or doing anything even vaguely resembling an application of Scientology ethics policy, nor did his action facilitate getting a project completed or a report submitted. He was terrorizing an executive, period.”

“In the main conference room in the International Management space, in early 2004, I witnessed Marty Rathbun stride up to Mike Rinder while Rinder was speaking to a group of about 40 other staff, and violently tackle him to the floor. Once Rathbun had him down on the floor, he straddled his body and proceeded to choke Rinder, while asking him some question I could not discern. Rathbun kept on choking Rinder, while also pounding his head against the floor repeatedly and demanding that he answer the question. Finally several men had to forcibly pull him off.”

“Looking back on this I note the pattern is that Rathbun conducted his acts of physical violence when Mr. Miscavige was away from the International Base.”

“In November of 1993, after creating messes on external matters that others had to clean up, Rathbun had another one of his psychotic tantrums. He abandoned his wife and all post responsibilities and departed from staff unannounced. He went off on his motorbike across country, stopping at bars to get drunk, and a few days later phoned in, tearfully asking for help. Instead of the “good riddance” response most people would have given him, certainly in organizations outside of Scientology, Mr. Miscavige had such compassion and was so concerned about Rathbun’s mental state that he arranged for him to have a sabbatical in the Caribbean aboard the Freewinds and also arranged for me to go there and give him auditing. I went there and spent a full year of my life caring for this person.”

“I have known Mike Rinder since 1979. My contact with Rinder was primarily during the years 1984-2007.”

“Rinder has had a long unchanging characteristic of arrogant contempt and disdain for other people – something I witnessed first-hand on many occasions when in meetings and working on projects he was involved in. Between 1989 and 2007 I observed hundreds of instances of Rinder speaking to other staff members condescendingly and in a way that was intended to embarrass the person, making sick jokes and cracks about the person’s appearance or intelligence that were always barbed and done with the purpose of making the other person feel useless and unwanted, never in an encouraging manner or giving anyone constructive advice.”