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FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT NO. 57 HON. PAUL G. BRECKENRIDGE, JR., JUDGE
REPORTERS' TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS Thursday, May 3, 1984
APPEARANCES:
VOLUME 4 Pages 431 - 597
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431
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1984; 9:15 A.M. -o0o-
Robert N. Harris, H-a-r-r-i-s, and I have been associated in representing the Church of Scientology of California.
going to present at the present time. |
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am not going to rule on it at this time. I'll simply it off calendar -- on second thought, I won't put it off calendar. I'll deny it without prejudice. I'm not disposed to do that.
in presenting this thing for the plaintiff? Let's try to get our act organized.
the opening, I'll present an opening on behalf of both plaintiffs. Our plan with respect to direct, one of the other counsel will present the direct on this particular witness.
be the only lawyer that will be permitted to object on cross-examination or argue to the court on rulings. I don't want a triumverate of lawyers arguing each objection for one side or the other. It is the same rule for the defense as well.
would like to make clear, Your Honor. One of the reasons there is separate counsel for the church and Mrs. Hubbard is we feel the way the case is framed, there are separate issues that apply to each. We'll designate one counsel for each plaintiff to act. And we'll not -- essentially the person who handles the direct will be the main lawyer on the plaintiff's side to take responsibility for that. But I don't want to be precluded or have Mr. Harris precluded from being able to act with respect to the particular client that is being represented on a matter that comes up. That is |
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433
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all.
In terms of presentation of the evidence, it is my under- standing that the plaintiff should go first; present its case and then the intervenor should proceed and present her case.
evidence would overlap anyway. I don't really see that we should try to departmentalize the evidence. I'll let the plaintiff present their evidence as they see fit.
of witnesses, Mr. Flynn? |
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434
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maybe to clarify a little more, in other words, rather than the plaintiff proceed, the defendant conduct the cross, the intervenor proceed and the defendant conduct the cross, I was wondering what the court had in mind?
witnesses, then the intervenor examine the witnesses and then me?
We don't intend to have Mr. Harris do a direct and then me do another direct or a cross or whatever. So that is not a problem.
witnesses, depending on the circumstances, both counsel for the plaintiffs may examine at that stage, but in terms of our case that is not our intention.
Mr. Litt, then you can conduct your examination, and I will ask Mr. Harris if he has any additional questions he wants to elicit on direct examination at this point because the interests are basically allied, and than defense will have an opportunity to cross-examine, and there will be rebuttal.
entire trial unless I am called as a witness, in which event Miss Dragojevic will conduct that part of the trial when I am on the witness stand. |
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435
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identified by the parties as exhibits they, at least initially intend to use in this trial; are they up here? Shouldn't we order these up here now at this time so we have them available or are we going to be needing them?
not to introduce any documents that are under seal, at least until such time as that court has admitted them by the defendant over our objection. The court is obviously aware of the reasons for that, so we don't see the necessity of them at this time, at least.
open the door from the beginning by trying to bring them in through our witnesses.
I don't know. With reference to some of these exhibits, I don't know.
out from the bulk of the documents? Are they in a separate box now?
additional, are they in envelopes as I understand it or something?
defendant, and at the end of the day yesterday, I believe, the |
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436
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plaintiff
was in one box and the defendant was in another.
exhibit list of the exhibits that have been designated?
clerk?
and I should have a copy.
identified as ones they propose to use, possibly use.
We pulled the ones that we thought were relevant to the issues in the case.
I am with you up to double Z and then you have got 3-A, 3-B, 3-C.
letter system, we would have had to go to four A's and then put four A's in a row on a piece of paper, so rather than put four A's, we put 4 dash A.
list? |
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437
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Honor. It is no different. We submitted a separate list of sealed documents, separate frown our regular exhibit list.
they are just sequentially numbered. My suggestion would be that any such sealed documents begin instead of with 1, with 101 and then we will have from 1 to 100.
Your Honor.
will introduce is the letter from Mr. Hubbard. That is presently in the court file. The original, I don't believe, is up here.
agreeable to the court and the defendant or we can order the original up, but the court will have to do that.
the issue of its admissibility in terms of the availability of Mr. Hubbard. We are in the process of subpoenaing a witness who we think will be pretty much able to provide the court conclusive evidence of Mr. Hubbard's availability so as to make the document inadmissible. If the court was going to take it de bene and until we had the opportunity to put on our evidence with regard to his availability, that is a possible point of procedure. But we would object to its admissibility at this point in time if for no other reason on the grounds of the availability of Mr. Hubbard. |
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438
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a word which I didn't understand which was "de bene." Is that a legal word that Your Honor is familiar with?
that during the pendency of the trial temporarily to be ruled on at the end of the trial as to whether it is finally admitted into evidence. |
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439
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can identify it.
Has Judge Cole specially marked it?
it placed in the file. The date of it is February, '83, to the extent that that helps find where it is.
specially by the clerk.
here alone with the other exhibits.
get these exhibits up here and see what order they are in so that the clerk can get an opportunity to see how we can handle these up here at least mechanically.
gentlemen?
these exhibits up here.
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440
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the record reflect that all counsel are present.
the exhibits identified by the parties are now in court and are available to the parties if and when there is a request for such.
statement?
statement brief. One advantage of having waived a jury is that I don't have to explain to the court, obviously, how some of the evidence works. But I do want to summarize for the court the evidence that we'll present which will establish that Mr. Armstrong has committed the torts which we have claimed in the complaint and which will establish that we are entitled to receive back the originals and copies of all of the materials presently under seal. |
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441
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a story of the betrayal of a sacred trust held by Gerald Armstrong who was entrusted by the Church of Scientology to care for the very private papers and archives held by the church, mainly composed of the private papers of L. Ron Hubbard, also of many private papers of Mary Sue Hubbard and of the church itself.
these papers, many originals and copies of these papers, gave then to Michael Flynn for the purpose of using them to attack the Hubbards, to invade their privacy, and in an effort to discredit by using their most personal and private materials.
revered founder of the religion of Scientology, and within Scientology he is revered as the man who has developed the religion which is followed by millions of people around the world.
court today with us, have been married for over 30 years. Mr. Hubbard presently is in seclusion. His whereabouts are not known. He has been in seclusion for the past four years and he is not personally available.
within the Church of Scientology known as the controller post, and I will explain that more. I just want to briefly cover the parties and the actors so that we are all clear on who they are. |
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442
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which is the other plaintiff along with Mrs. Hubbard, is a religious corporation which was founded in 1954 and bases itself upon the philosophy and religious views of L. Ron Hubbard
a staff member for the period when he held the post of archivist. When Mr. Armstrong held that post, he believed in Scientology, was a dedicated member of the Church of Scientology. Later after he left the church, he went and obtained copies of the materials that he had gathered as I have described.
action, is an important actor in the action. Mr. Flynn is involved in extensive litigation throughout the United States in suing Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard and Mary Sue Hubbard. |
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private papers. He gave them to him so that Mr. Flynn could use them in the way that I described previously, in an antagonistic way.
church and of the Hubbards. And Mr. Flynn has millions of dollars at stake in this litigation. He represents plaintiffs who are suing for many millions of dollars.
Mr. Flynn was in furtherance of an effort to use these -- to gain these millions.
which are the subject of this action, encompass approximately 8- to l0,000 pages. There are many private materials, including letters between Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard, letters between Mr. Hubbard and his first two wives, letters between Mr. Hubbard and his parents, letters from his parents to Mr. Hubbard, and to Mrs. Hubbard, and material relating to Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard's children; a premarital agreement between Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard; private journals and diaries; letters to attorneys; internal church matters, business correspondence, and a variety of other personal and private materials.
have a value that in straight economic terms -- which is not their only value from the church's and from the Hubbard's point of view -- that is in the millions of dollars.
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444
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hundreds
of thousands of dollars including an original
unpublished manuscript carbon which by itself has a value which is hard to calculate which is a book called Excalibur which is legendary within Scientology and has never been published and considered the first writing of Mr. Hubbard on the subject of the spirit.
the story of these materials in some ways begins when they packed up materials at the time that they were living in Washington D.C. which was in approximately 1959; the Hubbards moved around a great deal.
abroad. At this point Mrs. Hubbard personally packed the private possessions that she and her husband had collected over the years including many materials which were her husband's from prior to their marriage. These were stored in Washington D.C. and they were stored there for some 17 years or so until the middle to late '70's when the materials were moved from the storage to Church of Scientology facilities; subsequently to facilities called Gilman Hot Springs.
private storage of the Hubbards. It was called R storage, R referring to Ron, Mr. Hubbard. Not only did it have the various -- many of the various private materials that I have described, it had furniture, clothing, and a whole range of private possessions of all types that were maintained there. That is the origin of one of the sets of materials under seal as I'll further describe. |
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runs from the mid 1960's to the 1970's that were gathered up from England. These mere materials of a similar nature, private materials of the Hubbards that had been gathered over the years that they had spent primarily in England.
called the Apollo which was a ship that the Hubbards and many Scientologist spent several years on. These materials at the time that the ship finally stopped sailing, which was in approximately 1975, they were brought from the ship and was stored with the church under Mrs. Hubbard's direct control.
controller's archives, as I mentioned before.
controller which is not a financial position as one might think in terms of determining corporations, that it was a post that involved coordinating external affairs and the internal management of the churches. There are many private materials from these controller archives, many originals which have ended up before the court. And in addition, there are a variety of materials from other files, personal files maintained within various church organizations concerning the Hubbards.
And he held a variety of positions which I will not detail except to say that in early 1980 he sought the post to gather up materials relating to Mr. Hubbard. |
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within the Scientology structure that he be permitted to hold this post and he was assigned to this post. The function of this post was to gather and preserve materials relating to Mr. Hubbard.
many of which I have already described. These materials were, in fact, we will demonstrate not known to Mrs. Hubbard and from what we can determine to Mr. Hubbard to, in fact, be taken by anyone. Mrs. Hubbard, who was supposed to be told about activities relating to her and her husband's storage, was not informed that Mrs. Hubbard -- I am sorry, that Mr. Armstrong was gathering the private and personal materials that had been stored by them over the years, nor would she have given her permission for Mr. Armstrong to do so.
church this was not known and we do not contend that what Mr. Armstrong did in and of itself in taking the materials and gathering them was wrongful. Mr. Armstrong put these materials together at a Church of Scientology facility at what is called the Cedars Complex which is where they were moved to. He gathered up the materials from Gilman Hot Springs, some 25-or-so boxes. He moved them to church facilities at the Cedars Complex. He organized them. He took extreme precautions to maintain their confidentiality, their security and their safety. He was provided church moneys to do so. He was provided church moneys to purchase |
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447
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additional
materials for these archives which he expended.
various binders. The doors were always locked. It was extremely difficult to get access. Normal church staff members could not have access to this. Only a very small number of people could have access because it was recognized that these were private and confidential papers and that they were very valuable papers and that they were to be treated with the greatest care.
1981 Mr. Armstrong got from the controller's archives a small number of materials with Mrs. Hubbard's approval. These controller's archives were materials for which there was an archivist in charge of them who will testify, and he had been informed by Mrs. Hubbard that in these materials, which had come from the ships originally and then had been added to their, were what were rightfully archive materials and there were also personal materials that were not rightfully archive materials that were personal storage materials.
for what Mrs. Hubbard thought was a museum, materials of historical interest because there was a plan to develop a museum concerning Mr. Hubbard.
charge of the controller's archives whose name was Tom Vorm and requested some materials.
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448
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materials
and the materials themselves for her personal
review to determine whether or not they had been provided to Mr. Armstrong. After she reviewed them, Mrs. Hubbard approved those and, as the court will see, the list of those materials are materials of the type that would be of use to a museum or of general historical interest.
fall of 1980, a contract concerning a biography of L. Ron Hubbard was entered into. This contract was entered into between a corporation called AOSH-DK which was a Scientology -- not a Church of Scientology of California corporation, but a Scientology corporation located in Denmark, and Omar Garrison who was to be the biographer.
it up included the fact that the biography to be drafted by Mr. Garrison was subject to the approval of the publisher, and it was the understanding of the parties that that would include submission to Mr. Hubbard and to Mrs. Hubbard for review and approval. If the biography was not satisfactory, there was a provision that the book would not be published and Mr. Garrison would be paid a certain amount of money if an agreement could not be reached as to what the text of the biography should be and what should be in it and what should not be in it. The biography contract contained a clause that in writing the biography, there shall be no invasion of anyone's privacy.
agreement, it contacted the Church of Scientology of |
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California
because part of the terms of the contract, which
by the way Mrs. Hubbard was generally aware of, she was not involved in any negotiations but she was kept apprised of what was going on in general with respect to the contract. The Denmark company, the AOSH-DK Denmark corporation had agreed that it would make an effort to provide various previously unavailable materials concerning Mr. Hubbard and provide a research assistant and an office for Mr. Garrison to work out of.
Scientology of California requesting that the the Church of Scientology of California provide an office and provide a researcher. The Church of Scientology of California agreed and passed a Board minute pursuant to that agreement.
Scientology of California to assist Mr. Garrison. Indeed it was contemplated even before that that Mr. Armstrong would assist Mr. Garrison if the biography, in fact, developed.
materials that he had gathered and provide them to Mr. Garrison. He provided these to Mr. Garrison on a confidential basis. That is Mr. Garrison's testimony. That is Mr. Armstrong's testimony. He considered the materials extremely private. In fact, Mr. Garrison describes the materials; he said that if he had to give a one-line description, they would be the private papers of L. Ron Hubbard.
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provided
included not only materials of Mr. Hubbard but also
materials of Mrs. Hubbard's end of the church. These materials were given to Mr. Garrison for one purpose and one purpose only, for use in drafting the biography and for no other purpose. Both Mr. Garrison and Mr. Armstrong attest to that.
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as he perceived it was to compile the archives and provide materials to Mr. Garrison and that he had no authority to do anything else with them.
up, that there were policies with respect to how to handle them; that originals could not be removed; although Mr. Armstrong in fact did so. And we'll show that it was the understanding of all of the parties and every person who is before the court and every party that had anything to do with any of these transactions that these materials were completely private; that they would be returned at the end of Mr. Garrison's work on the biography; that Mr. Armstrong had no right to them and that the whole biography relationship was based on a long working relationship of some 10 years in which, as Mr. Garrison described it, there was a high degree of mutual trust based upon this prior working relationship.
of these private materials were provided by Mr. Armstrong to Mr. Garrison, most of it from the Hubbard's private files; included in them were materials that Mr. Armstrong obtained after Mrs. Hubbard had left her Scientology post of controller.
middle of 1981. And the controller archives, which contained both materials relating to the subjects of Scientology and Dianetics, archives that were lodged with Mr. Vorm which were taped materials and handwritten manuscript materials of Mr. Hubbard as well as these materials that I have described |
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remained
there. Mr. Armstrong sought from Mr. Vorm that
these materials be given to him. He said they were urgently needed for the biography.
him. He attempted, but was unable to reach Mrs. Hubbard.
post of controller that Mrs. Hubbard had previously held and he was told to provide them to Mr. Armstrong and he did so; although with many things, he still refused to provide the original copies and only provided Xerox copies.
materials would not be used in a way that would violate the privacy of them and that Mr. Garrison needed them to review, but that there should be no concern about using them in a way that would intrude into the Hubbard's privacy. So they were given to him. Many of the originals which are under seal with this court come from those material which Mr. Armstrong obtained after Mrs. Hubbard was no longer acting as the controller.
reached a decision to leave the Church of Scientology. According to his testimony, he reached that decision by approximately December 1st.
ordinary range of activities of copying as many materials as he could to provide to Mr. Garrison. And in a 12-day period of December 1 to December 12, he flooded Mr. Garrison with thousands of pages of additional materials.
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452
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many originals which either was taken by his at that time or which he bad gives to Mr. Garrison -- it is not completely clear -- but which originals were never permitted to have been given to Mr. Garrison for, among other reasons, their extraordinary value and the fact that Mr. Armstrong's function was to gather up originals, not to give anybody else the originals.
1981 he continued to have contact with Mr. Garrison. And he continued to have access to these materials. And he, apparently, had many of then with him in his possession.
matter with Mr. Garrison, Mr. Armstrong went to Clearwater, Florida and met with Michael Flynn.
Mrs. Hubbard to Mr. Hubbard from the early 1950's which we do not intend to introduce into evidence, but which Mr. Armstrong has ascribed as a particularly personal letter. And this was one of the documents that he took to show to Mr. Flynn at that tine.
letter.
Clearwater, Florida.
about the archives materials and what was in them. Within a period of approximately three weeks,
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453
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Mr. Flynn
came to Los Angeles to the Bonaventure Hotel and
he there met with Armstrong again.
from Clearwater, went to Mr. Garrison and persuaded Mr. Garrison to let him have copies of many materials from these archives which had been provided originally to Mr. Garrison by Mr. Armstrong when he was acting for the church on the archives post.
for evidence, although there was no suit against him by anyone.
on this subject he requested letters between Mr. Hubbard and his first wife, letters between Mr. Hubbard and Mary Sue Hubbard and naval records of Mr. Hubbard. He made copies of these materials.
the meeting at the Bonaventure Hotel -- he brought him approximately 1,000 pages of materials; then copied them and sent them to him. |
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454
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is not going to seek the advice of any lawyer. This is going to seek the advice or to provide materials, which is the real situation, to the attorney in the United States who is more active in litigation against various Church of Scientology and against the Hubbards than any other lawyer in the country.
knew that Mr. Flynn represented a variety of plaintiffs. He agreed with Mr. Flynn that he would act as a witness for Mr. Flynn. He agreed that Mr. Flynn could use the materials that he was providing in his other litigation. Mr. Armstrong prepared affidavits for use in suits in which he reviewed and used the private materials that he had not taken originals or copies of and given to Mr. Flynn, and when he did all of this by his own testimony he did not believe that it was pursuant to the conditions under which he had been permitted to gather them up.
months or so Mr. Armstrong sent to Michael Flynn approximately 3,000 pages of original materials, sent to Contos & Bunch approximately 2,000 pages of original materials and sent thousands of other copies of materials as well. He was clearly engaged in a systematic gathering up of materials. He had free access to Mr. Garrison's materials which he would go into and copy what he wanted and send on to Mr. Flynn or toward the end also to Contos & Bunch.
of Mr. Armstrong as to whether he was engaging in this |
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455
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improper
conduct. John Peterson, an attorney for the church,
sent a letter to Mr. Armstrong asking that he return anything that had been taken while he was a church employee. Mr. Armstrong responded that there was nothing, although the materials under seal are original materials which Mr. Armstrong had in his possession which were ultimately delivered to the church and which come from the archives as originals.
Mr. Armstrong's response he said nothing about the fact that he had been copying materials or taking materials from Mr. Garrison.
concerned about whether or not either originals or copies of the archives materials had been taken, set about a reasonable course of retaining private investigators through Mr. Peterson and others to engage in surveillance of Mr. Armstrong in an effort to determine whether or not he had archives materials which he was not entitled to. The surveillance was extensive and involved substantial expense suffered by the church in an effort to recover its property.
restraining order and then a preliminary injunction was issued and the materials which are now under seal were returned pursuant to court order from the firms of Michael Flynn and Contos & Bunch. The order required that all materials or copies of materials from the archives be provided to the court. |
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456
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after the court suit itself had begun. She was not aware that any of this had occurred. She was quite upset to hear that hers and her husband's private materials were being gathered up and extremely upset to hear that Mr. Armstrong, whom she had known, had not only gone into her private storage but more to the point, then sent these materials to Mr. Flynn.
to this whole matter had been resolved. Mr. Garrison and the publishing company with whom he originally entered into a contract or successor to that contract actually, entered into a settlement agreement. In that settlement agreement Mr. Garrison agreed that he was not going to publish a book. He returned all materials from the archives that he had and he forgave any possessory claim that he may have had or presently had with respect to any other materials that had been provided to him in connection with his biography research. |
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457
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available, has sent a letter expressing his wishes that these materials be returned to the custody of the church. We'll authenticate that letter and show that it is a genuine letter from Mr. Hubbard.
that any description hardly begins to give a comprehension of just how extensive and how private both from the point of view of the Hubbards personally and from the point of view of the church because many of the materials relate to internal church matters or Scientology matters.
many letters from Mrs. Hubbard to Mr. Hubbard and some from Mr. Hubbard to Mrs. Hubbard; materials relating to the tragic death of one of the sons of the Hubbards that Mr. Armstrong sent to Mr. Flynn.
been even discussed with other people which Mr. Armstrong sent.
Mr. Hubbard and Mrs. Hubbard, extensive correspondence between Mr. Hubbard and his first two wives and private financial materials relating to that; extremely personal journals kept by Mr. Hubbard which speak to his innermost thoughts and which are part of the early bodies of self- research in the development of Scientology and Dianetics which have not been published and which he has never provided to anyone until Mr. Armstrong took them and gave |
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458
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them to
Mr. Flynn; Naval records obtained and put in the
archives; unpublished manuscripts of extraordinary value which Mr. Hubbard had never indicated should be published; tax and financial records of the Hubbards; wills, correspondence with friends, correspondence with Scientologists, correspondence with business associates, correspondence with attorneys; records of attorney-client conferences. The list goes on and on. And one could spend an hour describing the range of these materials which were taken.
present that Mr. Armstrong was a church employee who had access to the private and confidential material of the Hubbards and the church; that after leaving, knowing their privacy, knowing their confidentiality, he wrongfully went and obtained them for unauthorized purposes which he knew to be unauthorized, but in fact which were not only unauthorized, but hostile; that he took materials that he had no right to have at that point; that he had no right to have access to; that he took them, sent them to an individual antagonistic of the Hubbards and the church and did so for antagonistic reasons and in furtherance of his scheme of collecting multi-million dollar damage claims; that he used the materials to prepare documents in other cases than his own case and gave the same permission to Mr. Flynn to do so; that he was not entitled to do any of this and that any claim he makes to justify his conduct -- we'll not address factually those issues in this opening |
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459
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statement
-- but we'll say that any claim that he makes to
justify his conduct will be shown to be misleading and false and which cannot be shown to justify his conduct in any way, shape, or form.
the act of voyeurs pouring through the private lives of other people to find any and everything they can to spread about them in an effort to discredit them in order to collect through lawsuits large amounts of money; that it will be shown that this supposed justification defense that the defendant presents will come down to nothing but self- serving vigilanteism of the worst kind.
converted these materials for his own use; that he enormously invaded the privacy of Mrs. Hubbard, Mr. Hubbard and the church and that he breached confidences that he had been given and that he completely, disloyally, and without justification breached his fiduciary obligation to both the church and the Hubbards to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the archives materials.
wanted to add?
I'll waive.
statement at this time?
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460
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
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my motion
to dismiss for failure to join indispensible
parties. I'll be very, very brief.
that Mr. Litt referred to, AOSH-DK Publications of Denmark; New Era Publications which he did not mention, but which Your Honor is going to find is one of the most significant parties in this lawsuit. And the most significant party, without doubt, is L. Ron Hubbard.
the entire biography project was predicated and given to L. Ron Hubbard.
of the interests in this lawsuit, the rights, liabilities, and duties of any of the parties to this lawsuit without Mr. Hubbard coming forth and giving testimony as to what those rights, liabilities and duties are within the context of the contracts and, specifically, the final biography project with regard to Mr. Garrison was predicated upon Mr. Hubbard's approval.
admitted by Mr. Litt, there is no evidence and there will be no evidence before this court that Garrison didn't properly maintain possession of the documents and could have published them on his own; disseminated them across the United States on his own, given them to people like Mr. Armstrong; given them to anyone he wanted as well as published them in the book. That final approval lay with Mr. Hubbard. |
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461
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indispensible party before the court.
specifically states that Mr. Garrison has the right to use the documents; create video tapes and promotional material prior to even publishing the biography; to travel throughout the world and publish the biography.
Mr. Litt is that Mr. Hubbard's approval is required for all of that, it will be impossible, without hearing evidence from either the two corporations or from Mr. Hubbard as to what should have been done with the biographical materials that were collected by Mr. Armstrong, what should have been done with the book and what in the future can be done with the book, with the documents or with Mr. Armstrong's right to publish the contents of the documents. |
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462
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of the trial we will provide a memorandum to the court. I am again renewing my motion for failure to join an indispensable party. I think that the rights, liabilities and duties in this case are governed by two contracts, two written contracts, only one of which has been introduced, the second of which we will call for production during the trial. All of which require the final approval of Mr. Hubbard and with that I will make my opening statement.
guess. For the reason previously stated, I will deny your motion without prejudice. You can renew it later on.
states that this case involves a sacred trust. However, the sacred trust is a trust that Mr. Armstrong owed to himself and a trust that he owed to thousands of people who, together with him, were victimized by L. Ron Hubbard.
because of the representations made by L. Ron Hubbard about himself which representations were disseminated and promoted in a very commercial manner to obtain money. Indeed the evidence that the court will see will specifically address the promotion of L. Ron Hubbard as having certain credentials, character, integrity, academic qualifications, military background on which he sold himself to the public, such as Mr. Armstrong, in order to obtain money.
that threads through the entire case, and I submit at the |
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463
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close of
this evidence Your Honor will see very clearly
that these characteristics do not relate to Mr. Hubbard as a founder of a revered religion. They relate to intrigue, greed, misrepresentation, fraud and criminology, criminology and fraud permeated not only Mr. Armstrong's entire involve- ment with Mr. Hubbard but begins virtually from the age of 12 with Mr. Hubbard which Mr. Armstrong discovered.
within written lies, within written lies, within written lies become self-evident in these documents which will become blatantly clear in testimony of Mr. Armstrong will indicate that the sacred trust that was owed was fulfilled by Mr. Armstrong, not only to himself but to this court and to other Scientologists.
Mr. Armstrong would be structured within the position of the church. The court will hear the following evidence: That when Mr. Armstrong joined the Church of Scientology in 1969 he thought be was joining something which was represented to him as not being a religion. In fact, that representation was universally made.
called the Sea Organization. The evidence which is in the documents and which you will hear from the mouth of Mr. Armstrong is that he went on board a ship which was owned by a succession of for profit corporations, and the for profit corporations are the Hubbard Explorational Corporation, O T S and O T C. |
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464
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the individuals who worked on the ship worked for Mr. Hubbard in a for profit corporation. In fact, the testimony will be from Mr. Armstrong that in connection with the duties in the port captain's office on board the ship, he was required to go into each port and tell the people in the port that they were a business corporation called O T C conducting business research in management.
made from 1970 through 1975 as to who Mr. Armstrong worked for was that he worked for a corporation called Operation Transport Corporation. The documents show it and Mr. Armstrong will so testify.
to state to whoever asked that he was not connected with the Church of Scientology but he worked for that corporation. Following Operation Transport Corporation he was instructed when they landed in Clearwater, Florida to tell everyone that he worked for an organization called the United Church of Florida.
to the public, the press and the media that he worked for an organization called The Friends of Norton Karno doing business research, then it became the Friends of Mr. Snyder's Uncle.
way down to an organization called Author Services Incorporated, which is now a for profit organization which encompasses the people that Mr. Armstrong worked with who are now all earning |
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465
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money,
wages doing the identical duties that Mr. Armstrong
did for the period of 12 years.
in the personal office of L. Ron Hubbard. The documents will show that the personal office of L. Ron Hubbard was a for profit undertaking and that Mr. Armstrong and the others were working in Mr. Hubbard's office were continually told and, in fact, the evidence will be that Mr. Hubbard told then that he worked for them and Laurel Sullivan, Mr. Armstrong's senior, worked for L. Ron Hubbard and not for the Church of Scientology.
become critical and there is extensive evidence which I am not going to go into at the present time in order to keep this brief, but that evidence is extensive and it will show fact upon fact upon fact that in the mind of Mr. Armstrong, he always worked for L. Ron Hubbard. In the mind of L. Ron Hubbard, the parties to this contract, Armstrong always worked for L. Ron Hubbard.
1980 the Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard and Mary Sue Hubbard, a party in this case, were being investigated by numerous state and federal agencies. In fact --
what is the relevance of that to the issues in this case?
why he took these documents, what was done, how it came into his possession. |
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466
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on the premises here is Los Angeles of the Church of Scientology and some 80,000 documents were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The contents of those documents I won't go into. They eventually led to the indictment of the 11 highest officials of the Church of Scientology, including Mary Sue Hubbard, and their subsequent conviction.
that there was going to be another raid. They were fearful that this raid would tie Hubbard into several operations, including Operation Snow White which was the subject of the indictment of Mary Sue Hubbard. For that reason they mustered between 150 and 250 people. They rented a paper shredder which they designated Igor, and they proceeded to shred some 5- to 600,000 potentially documents. No one knows what the final amount is.
using five ton trucks.
shredding operation, which becomes critical evidence in this case, was to one, remove all evidence that connected L. Ron Hubbard to the Church of Scientology, and two, remove all evidence that connected him to the property at Gilman Hot Springs. The evidence will be that under that criteria, the criteria under which the shredding was conducted, the documents should have been shredded. The documents were |
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467
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not shredded
because Mr. Armstrong thought at that time
they had value as L. Ron Hubbard's personal documents and private documents. |
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468
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the criteria for shredding, they should have been shredded. And that will be the evidence.
essentially encompass the documents that are under seal with additions. The value of those documents, the evidence will be, was lost over the next year and a half because of the contents of the documents.
Scientology, Mary Sue Hubbard and L. Ron Hubbard held out L. Ron Hubbard to be for 30 years and if he was in fact what was set forth in numerous biographical publications about him and his organization of this religion, then they may have had value.
outset, will reveal precisely the opposite. And they lost during that period of time all their intrinsic value as pieces of paper. And as they lost their intrinsic value as pieces of paper, they gained value with regard to their informational content.
the evidence, it is the content of these documents and the perspective of Mr. Hubbard's involvement with this organization which is the critical issue before this court and which is the only issue relating to value.
Mr. Armstrong contracted with L. Ron Hubbard by submitting a petition to Mr. Hubbard to collect materials to work on the |
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469
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biography
project. There were no restrictions placed upon
his collection of the materials; in fact, the evidence will be that over the next year and a half he collected literally hundreds of thousands of pages and that the documents under seal represent probably 2 percent of the documents collected. And, in fact, the evidence will be that of the documents under seal, contrary to Mr. Litt's representation to the court that Mr. Armstrong scurried around and copied thousands of documents in the last days before he left the organization, of the documents under seal the copying that was done in the last few days probably represents less than 5 percent of the documents that were copied throughout that period of time.
started and that the mid-1970s; the person most instrumental in the biography project was Laurel Sullivan.
obtained approval from L. Ron Hubbard, he went to Laurel Sullivan. Laurel Sullivan contacted Mr. Hubbard and the biography project at this point probably became reborn for the third time.
attempted to do it. The authors found so many discrepancies in the biographical data on L. Ron Hubbard that they were unable to proceed. Now for the third time the project is reborn.
the documents to support a legitimate biography of L. Ron |
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470
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Hubbard.
For that reason a lot of wheels are placed in
motion. Contract negotiations began.
testimony will be that Mary Sue Hubbard didn't represent her husband in those contract negotiations, but as she testified in those depositions, she represented the interests of the Church of Scientology.
contract was entered into in October of 1980. The contract was entered into between what we called the PDK and Omar Garrison. That contract, we submit, will be one of the most critical pieces of evidence in this case, a provision with regard to whether the documents could be revealed to third parties or disclosed to anyone outside the people who were immediately involved; namely, Gerald Armstrong, Laurel Sullivan and Omar Garrison were specifically excluded from the contract because it would have voided the contract as a violation of public policy under the restatement of contracts and under several cases that have been decided in California.
I'll make it here.
information Laurel Sullivan may or may not have given to Mr. Flynn. I don't know exactly what he is referring to, but if I had to put my money down, it would be that she has been talking to him about advice that she gained from a Church of Scientology staff member -- about advice -- |
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471
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something in the contract.
association on the --
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472
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in the contract. The defense submits that that is one of the critical items of evidence in this case with regard to the rights and liabilities of Omar Garrison from which Mr. Armstrong got the documents and, in fact, if they had put it in, it would have been void as against public policy.
into, a contract was entered into between L. Ron Hubbard and PDK with regard to the publication rights in the biography. Under the biography proposals that were negotiated at the time, L. Ron Hubbard was to make $10 million from the publication of this book. The evidence will be that that is a for profit purpose, and Mr. Armstrong was working in connection with that for profit purpose. Under that contract Mr. Hubbard had final approval over every item relating to the biography project. That contract has never been produced.
go into the misrepresentations, I will simply itemize for the court some of the areas without stating what the evidence will be from the documents at this time in order to obviate Mr. Litt's objection. Some of the representations that were made about L. Ron Hubbard which became the critical focus for Mr. Armstrong in the collection of the documents are as follows, and as the evidence will be, these became absolutely the fundamental basis upon which most people paid money and joined this organization.
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473
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That he
was a medical doctor. That he was a scientist.
of World War II. That he served in five theaters. That he was a commander of squadrons of Corvettes.
That he was twice pronounced medically dead. That he was the first casualty of the Far East.
Secretary of Navy's personal airplane. That he received 28 medals and palms.
he is Mr. Roberts, the subject of the movie. That he served in the amphibious forces in the South Pacific in connection with his "Mr. Roberts" activities on the U.S.S. Algol.
combat duty after World War II as a result of his discoveries, scientific discoveries of Dianetics. That at one point he was returned to combat without rest in order to command a Corvette. That he served the remainder of that year with British and American anti-submarine vessels in the North Atlantic.
permanently disabled physically. That his naval record states that this officer has no neurotic or psychotic tendencies whatsoever.
duty in the North Pacific. That in the space of two years he worked himelf back to fitness and strength. |
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474
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several years when he was blind and couldn't see. That he resigned his commission in the Navy rather than assist government research projects. That he worked for naval intelligence in breaking up a black magic ring.
in the Pacific and relieved by 15 officers of rank.
age of 12 who vas a student of Sigmund Freud. That he was a civil engineer with a Bachelor of Science, with a Ph.D. That he was an atomic physicist, an anthropoligist.
University in mathematics and engineering. That be excelled in his subject.
biographical sketches of L. Ron Hubbard.
post-graduate. That he was involved in the first course in nuclear physics.
honors. That he excelled in his subjects in high school.
by a nuclear physicist and a medical doctor, which is purportedly him.
in Asia and studied under Llamas and learned the wisdom of the Far East under four years of intense study. |
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475
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had conducted a Carribbean motion picture expedition; conducted extensive underwater photography in connection with that expedition; that he did it for the Hydrographic Office of the Navy and that he provided the materials for that expedition to the University of Michigan; that he led three expeditions to study savage peoples; that he led an expedition into Central America; that between 1933 and 1941 he visited many barbaric cultures; that he did the first complete minerological survey of Puerto Rico; conducted the Alaskan Radio Expedition for the government; rewrote the Alaskan Pilot charting the coastline of Alaska; was the originator of LORAN in connection with that expedition; that he claimed he led an expedition to the Red Sea to investigate and research underwater civilizations; that he was involved in an around-the-world flight.
because of Dianetics, he represented the supremely healthy and perfect human being.
health after World War II through the 1950s and into and throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s; that he was a blood brother of the Black Feet Indians; that he wrote the book Treasure Island; that he was -- that he was a Hollywood director; that he wrote several books and Hollywood scripts; that he is a member of various organizations relating to all of his academic and professional qualifications.
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476
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representations
are uniformly false.
triggered this entire matter was that Mary Sue Hubbard and the other individuals who were under indictment were trying to raise funds in connection with the Church of Scientology to defend themselves in a criminal case. In connection with raising those funds, promotional material was sent out throughout the United States; that the movie, the Dive Bomber, a movie that was produced in the 1930s, was written by L. Ron Hubbard; the screenplay was written by L. Ron Hubbard and that thousands of people in connection with extensive promotional materials that earned somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand dollars was sent out to have people come in and see the movie on the basis that it was written by L. Ron Hubbard and on the basis that all of the people that were to go to see the movie believed all of those biographical representations that I laid out to the court.
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477
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in as the researcher simply began to conduct research into this very initial subject as to whether or not L. Ron Hubbard had written the "Dive Bomber." He went to the library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and he could find no credit for L. Ron Hubbard. He found that L. Ron Hubbard had written a very short story called the "Dive Bomber" in the 1930's and he read the entire screen play of the movie and the "Dive Bomber" and the were 180 degrees opposite, and one had nothing to do with the other.
to thaem that the promotional material was false based on what he had found and he didn't think that L. Ron Hubbard had written the "Dive Bomber" and it couldn't be proved.
to try to explain the discrepancy in these basic facts upon which thousands of people were about to pay between 20 and $40,000 to defend Mary Sue Hubbard.
which is under seal, and the communication states that the reason they couldn't find his credits was because someone at Warner Brothers tried to gyp him out of the money, that he really did, in fact, write it and they paid his $10,000 under the table, and this is on the sealed document, that L. Ron Hubbard was paid $10,000 under the table, and then he took the $10,000 before the war started and put it into a safe deposit box, and then when the war ended, he used the $10,000 to go on a cruise in the Carribbean. |
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478
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focused around this matter because Mr. Armstrong had remembered in the collection of materials that he read that Hubbard had said he was crippled and blinded after World War II, abandoned by his family, penniless, broke, destitute, cured himself with Dianetics, and not until he wrote the book "All About Dianetics" in 1950 did he have any funds.
that between 1945 when Mr. L. Ron Hubbard got out of the Oak Knoll Military Hospital as a inpatient and 1950 prior to writing "Dianetics, The Modern Science To Mental Health"; not only did he not have $10,000, but he was throughout the five years writing to the Veterans Administration saying he was broke, claiming that he vas a victim of war wounds to get a pension.
those documents, it shows that there were no war wounds. That he was destitute and broke and whatever it showed Mr. Armstrong in 1980 was that the letter that Hubbard had written in 1980 about what he had done is 1945 through '47 was false. Then as Mr. Armstrong got into the naval documents, he found out that virtually everything that was said about Mr. Hubbard with regard to his naval career was false, which led him into all of the other documents.
on-going conversations with members of the organization and with Omar Garrison. He explained to Garrison, he explained to members of the organization what he was finding. Garrison |
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479
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realized
after a period of time, and the evidence will be
from Mr. Garrison's mouth, that the biography could not possibly be written. That it was subject to Hubbard's final approval, and that they were being told that Hubbard could not even be communicated with. So Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Garrison both realized that they were in a box.
individual who was involved in an organization which had a doctrine called the "Fair Game Doctrine." The evidence will |