Subject: UN-FAIR GAME, TOO From: Julie Mayo Date: 1996/06/11 Message-Id: <4pk7jv$5g3@light.lightlink.com> Sender: electra@light.lightlink.com Organization: Art Matrix - Lightlink Electra Gateway v2.4 Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology [reposetd 06/11/96 due to Scn spam] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- During 1994 and 1995, my husband, (David Mayo), and I were persecuted in the Dominican Republic by Scientology acting through INTERPOL, DNCD, (Dominican Republic equivalent to U.S. DEA, Drug Enforcement Agency), US DEA, (or someone purporting to be a DEA agent), and someone purporting to be working for the FBI. Due to this persecution, we have been driven out of our home. BACKGROUND David and I were former members of the Church of Scientology and left it in 1983 due to disagreements with it. We had tried to reform it from within and had been falsely imprisoned for several months (from August 1982-February 1983) after we had expressed disagreements. After we left the Church of Scientology, we were involved in a reform movement which resulted in the Church of the New Civilization being formed in July of 1983. The Church of the New Civilization started an Advanced Ability Center which was closed down in April of 1986 after extensive harassment by RTC/Church of Scientology, such as: In 1984, Private Investigator Al Bei did a noisy investigation of David Mayo and the AAC for Scientology (operating under Eugene Ingram's private investigator license), in which Al Bei had business cards printed and distributed that claimed he was a "Special Agent" working on a "Task Force against White Collar Crime and Drugs." Private investigators operating under Eugene Ingram's license called up parents of AAC staff clients of AAC, the bank for the AAC, neighbor's of the AAC's attorney (Gary Bright), the AAC's travel agent and asked questions about David Mayo's involvement with drug smuggling, gun smuggling, the Italian terrorist group, (The Red Brigade), whether the AAC was doing money laundering for the Mafia, and so forth. These were all false accusations, but the noisy investigation adversely effected the AAC. Additionally, in 1984, Al Bei contacted the FBI, INTERPOL, and the local Santa Barbara sheriff's department to try to get something to get David Mayo "jailed". Al Bei informed the FBI that he was waiting for evidence from Denmark concerning David Mayo's involvement with Robin Scott's theft of "stolen documents", but that no evidence in David Mayo's involvement ever arrived. RTC/Church of Scientology went on to file 4 lawsuits against the AAC and David Mayo alleging that David Mayo had received "stolen documents". All of these lawsuits were dismissed and Scientology was sanctioned heavily for abusive litigation in 1993. (The AAC had already been closed in 1986 due to harassment and abusive litigation by the Church of Scientology/RTC.) In June of 1994, Monique Yingling and Bill Drescher (Scientology lawyers), Mike Rinder (head of OSA), and Gerbode's lawyer paid a surprise visit to our lawyer, Jerold Fagelbaum. After a series of meetings between Miscavige and Gerbode, Miscavige and his lawyers had managed to get Gerbode to break his contract with CNC/David Mayo, and our lawyers. At that time, Gerbode had been the major contributor to the Mayo/CNC Legal Defense Fund. (Per Gerbode, the settlement was to end the harassment of him by Scientology.) Furthermore, as part of a secret settlement between Gerbode and Scientology, Gerbode had assigned over a canceled and superseded agreement to Scientology's C.O.S.T. corporation, (Church of Spiritual Technology), which C.O.S.T. was going to value at an enormously inflated 5.5 million dollars. We didn't cave in. Toward the end of July 1994 our phone rang in our home in the Dominican Republic. It was Mike Rinder, head of OSA. He wanted to arrange a meeting between OSA and David, with no lawyers present. David told him to send a proposal to our lawyer, Jerold Fagelbaum. Mike Rinder didn't want to do that. On August 4, 1994 I flew to Miami on personal matters. When I got to Miami I received an urgent message from the Perdomos, who managed the residential community where we lived in the Dominican Republic. DNCD agents had surrounded our home and had held Juan Perdomo in jail for several hours until David was located. Our home was searched and David had been taken off in hand cuffs by the DNCD. Noone knew why or where he had been taken. Guido Perdomo had only been told that it had been ordered by General Ventura Bayonet, the top DNCD person in the country. Guido was shaken up about it but told me there was nothing that could be done that day, and probably not until after the weekend. (It was Thursday, but he didn't think anything could be done about it on Friday because it was some sort of a holiday.) I was very upset and worried that David had been framed somehow by Scientology. I was also worried that my phone might be bugged, so I went to the nearest hotel and checked in. I was on the phone almost constantly that night and the next morning. I contacted Bill Kirkman, the American Consular Representative for the North Shore of the Dominican Republic. He was very helpful, but told me that there was nothing that could be done about it that night. He would contact the American Embassy in the morning. He assured me that he had known us for several years, (he lived down the road from us), and that he knew we didn't have the lifestyle of drug smugglers. (We lived in a modest home and didn't even have a car.) I called a lawyer I knew in L.A. who had represented someone in the Dominican Republic. He couldn't do anything, but got me in touch with someone he knew in Santo Domingo. The conditions in the Santo Domingo jail were awful. He told me that his client had contracted TB in jail after being held there for 3 weeks without being charged with anything. This worried me even more. The next day, Bill Kirkman phoned me and told me that David had been located. He was in the section for drug smugglers of the Santo Domingo prison. Good news, he was going to be released that day. I waited and waited. Still no word. I called the American Embassy in Santo Domingo and spoke with Carlos Medina. I was told that they had gone over to the prison and seen David's personal effects, including his credit cards, so he knew he was there. But he hadn't been allowed to see David or talk to him. Carlos Medina told me that the incident never had anything to do with drugs, David had been accused of "practicing Scientology without a license." INTERPOL had called the head of the Drug department, Ventura Bayonet. David would be released that day without being charged with anything as he had not committed any crime. Carlos Medina suggested to me that maybe David had taken on too much in trying to expose Scientology. I also spoke with Pat Alsup at the American Embassy.. Something strange had happened the day before. Someone who identified himself as a lawyer representing the Church of Scientology, named Aldrich, had called asking for the Mayo's address in the Dominican Republic. Aldrich had been told that they couldn't give out this information, but a half hour later someone who worked for the US DEA had phoned asking for the same information. 5:00 PM on August 5th, and I still hadn't heard from David. The American Embassy assured me that by now he should have been released. I was worried that there had been foul play. Finally, at midnight I received a call from David. They had released him that night. Relief. September 1994. We received several phone calls from friends or clients that a private investigator, named John Bertrant, had contacted them and asked them if they knew David Mayo was in jail. Bertrant told one client that Bertrant had done contract work for the government, including the CIA. (But he couldn't disclose who his client was in this case, only that he was working for a "group".) September 1994. Church of Spiritual Technology (C.O.S.T.) filed a lawsuit against David and I, as individuals, and the Church of the New Civilization in San Mateo County in California. David and I hadn't lived in that area since 1988, (we had lived in Redwood City between 1986-1988, but had lived in the Dominican Republic since 1988), and the CNC had never operated there. (The Advanced Ability Center had operated in Santa Barbara until it was closed in 1986.) Our lawyers were in Santa Barbara and L.A. Scientology's C.O.S.T. corporation immediately moved to attach the 2.9 million dollar sanction, so that it would be tied up if we were able to collect it in the lawsuit in the Central District of California. October 1994. Margaret Dellerson, C.O.S.T. private investigator, came to our home in the Dominican Republic at night while we were in Miami with two off-duty policemen that she had hired. She wanted to break into the house, but was stopped by Chago, who was watching the house for us. Chago got his machete and held it in front of her so she couldn't progress up the driveway. Chago had been drinking coffee with a German lady, (who was our neighbor), a German man, who was staying in her house, and her "sereno." Dellerson wrote in a declaration, falsely, that there were two armed guards with shotguns guarding our house. The two off-duty police agreed with Chago that what Dellerson was doing was incorrect and the three of them left. January 1994 -March 1994. More harassment. In January by the DNCD who believed that they were working from instructions from the FBI -- but when we checked with the American Embassy, the word came back that apparently the FBI wasn't doing an investigation. See David Mayo's posting for the details of this and for details of the harassment by the DNCD in March of 1995. . On May 15, 1995 I flew back home to the Dominican Republic to pick up a few things and try to take care of some personal matters. I was worried about my pets and brought more food for them. Chago informed me that Margaret Dellerson, the Scientology private investigator from Florida, had been around with a couple off-duty police that she had paid to accompany her. He didn't know why. He advised me to not leave the house alone. This news made me nervous and I was afraid that there might be another dirty trick about to happen. I decided to cut my trip short and leave the next day. May 16, 1995. As I was going through passport control I was stopped. A DNCD official, named Medina, looked at my passport then back to the sheet of paper he had before him. He had a picture of me. He seemed as surprised as I was. I was escorted to the airport office of the DNCD. There began the interrogation. "Had I ever been arrested for drugs?" "Never." I was angry and frustrated, but that made them even more edgy. There were 5 DNCD agents in the office and me, alone. I wanted to make a phone call to the American Embassy. No. I couldn't make any phone calls. I knew I was in trouble because I had changed my plans and had told no one that I was flying out that day. I hadn't even told David. The American Consular Representative had told me that he was flying to Miami earlier that same day and he wouldn't be back for a week. They got my suitcases off the flight and searched them. They didn't find guns or drugs or money. They found a small amount of money in my purse which Medina announced as poverty level. Bautista wanted to know where my husband was -- out of the country. The questioning went on for 5 hours. Shortly after it started, they demanded I speak in Spanish, so the next 5 hours I struggled on in my poor Spanish, trying to answer their questions and explain the situation. Bautista told me they were going to take me to Santo Domingo and put me in jail overnight for questioning. (5 hours away.) Bautista and Medina drove me to my home, in a shiny new DNCD jeep -- to look at it and see if there was anybody else there. (I was told that the DNCD is largely funded by U.S. DEA.) Finally, around 7 PM, Medina told me that they were going to let me go. It had been a case of "mistaken identity". Medina confided to me that he didn't think it was a mistaken identity, though, because he had a picture of me windsurfing and I had just spent the last half hour telling him about Dominican Republic windsurfing conditions, (some of the best surf sailing conditions in the world). Medina also told me that I was right in thinking that Scientology was involved in the DNCD investigating me. Medina warned me that my name and picture were still at passport control, so I might have trouble getting out of the country the next day. He gave me the phone number of "Corcino", one of the DNCD agents, and told me to call him before I went through passport control. I had the impression that they had decided to let me go after their superiors had gotten off work. The situation might start all over again the next day, if I was still in the country when his superiors reported to work, or so I thought. Medina wanted to know which flight I was going out on. I said the first one, 8AM. He helped book me on it at the American Airlines counter. I took a taxi home. But now not only was I worried about Dellerson and her off-duty cops but the DNCD changing their minds before the morning. I felt that with all the persecution that had been happening that it wasn't safe to stay in the country. I didn't sleep at all that night. I kept packing and re-packing my suitcases. I didn't know if I would ever be able to return. I felt like I knew what it must have been like for the Cubans when they fled from Cuba. I was sad about my cats and dogs. They needed care. My cats had a skin problem and my female dog was pregnant again. May 16th, 1995. I was in a taxi on my way to the airport by 6AM. I checked in and decided to call Corcino, as I had been told to do. No one answered the phone. I went through passport control without being stopped. The flight started to board around 7:45. I thought I had it made until I saw 4 DNCD agents checking passports just before the door to the plane. The woman in front of me wondered what it was all about but I marched right up and stuck my passport out. The DNCD agent looked at me hard, but let me go through. I wondered if they were looking for David. We haven't been back home since, now over a year later. Most of the time we have stayed with friends who have been very charitable in letting us stay with them. I try not to think what has happened to our pets and the garden. I hope Chago was able to give them away to good homes. The food in the refrigerator is undoubtedly a bit moldy by now. I keep hearing stories that someone is telling our neighbors that David is in jail. We had a very good decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal on April 11, 1996-- the 2.9 million dollar sanction was affirmed and our counterclaims reinstated. But the CofS/RTC has requested for a rehearing en banc. In the meantime, the San Mateo case is scheduled to go to trial in a couple weeks. Julie Mayo -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMbvAwKUzTdUDYOWNAQGYqwQAvWFl7zcclZo84K9CTI72rNVWFAJvpoDs o67058lGDdhVMGdVd5Udj5HcQ045wd1SuIlYNeQ2Y7l6wjC3EiuI3ZbW1VcN56Vs Bj223cZ4HQQHg3WLyJ6iliAD4GrEnD7XRrjMYatn/WI6D28ZFP5MIHS1xyNL9q4u SO5SXx1wuP8= =BD2w -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----