STATE OF FLORIDA County of Hillsborough |
) ) ss. ) |
AFFIDAVIT
Before me, the undersigned authority, personally appeared
LaVenda (Van Schaick) Dukoff who, upon being duly sworn,
deposes and says:
1. I reside in Tampa, Florida. I am executing this
affidavit voluntarily and of my own free will. The statements
herein are made of my own personal knowledge and, if called
as a witness, I can and will testify competently thereto.
2. In or about June, 1979, attorney Michael J. Flynn of
Boston, Massachusetts was retained as my attorney. He was
retained to secure for me a refund of monies I had paid to the
Church of Scientology. This resulted in the filing, on or
about December 13, 1979, of a suit on my behalf seeking
$200,000,000.00 in damages; LaVenda Van Schaick v. Church
of Scientolgy of California, et al., U.S.D.C. Mass. Civil
Action No. 79-2491-G. This suit was subsequently settled, on
the verge of trial, on or about June 10, 1985.
3. On July 4, 5, 6, and 7, 1982, my deposition was taken
in the Van Schaick case in Boston, in the law offices of
Silverglate, Gertner, Baker & Fine. (See cover pages to
deposition transcripts, attached hereto as Exhibit "A".)
4. On one of these four days, although I cannot now
recall specifically which date, I was given access by Mr.
Flynn to a number of documents being kept on the third floor
of his law offices at 12 Union Wharf in Boston. These
documents were maintained in boxes, some of which had no tops
at all and others of which had tops sitting underneath the
box. The boxes were scattered around the third floor, and
were openly available to anyone with access to the office area.
5. On this occasion, Mr. Flynn pointed these documents
out to me. He stated that I would find them very interesting
due to my own case against the Church of Scientology and L.
Ron Hubbard, the Founder of the religion of Scientology. He
stated that the documents included information concerning
Mr. Hubbard's record as a Naval officer during World War II, Mr.
Hubbard's personal relationships with his wives and other
persons, personal writings by Mr. Hubbard, and information
concerning the death of Mr. Hubbard's son, Quentin Hubbard.
Also present with Mr. Flynn and myself in the office during
this conversation was Boston attorney David Banash.
6. Following Mr. Flynn's introduction of these documents,
and with his full knowledge and permission, I spent
approximately one and one half hours reviewing and making
xeroxed copies from these documents. I then took the copies
I made home with me, again with the full knowledge and
permission of Michael Flynn.
7. In or about February, 1984, I discussed one of the
documents I had obtained from Mr. Flynn's office with Warren
Friske, another former member of the Church of Scientology,
and learned that he, too, had seen this document.
8. On September 20, 1984, pursuant to an order in the
Van Schaick case, I underwent a psychiatric examination in
Boston, Massachusetts. (See cover page to examination
transcript, attached hereto as Exhibit "B".) I had arrived in
Boston early the previous day, September 19th, and had gone to
Michael Flynn's office at 12 Union Wharf.
9. Upon entering Mr. Flynn's personal office on the
third floor, I noted the same documents I had seen in July,
1982 were still present. They were contained in approximately
twenty boxes, located in Michael Flynn's personal office and
in the office on the same floor which had previously been
occupied by his brother, Kevin Flynn. As before, the boxes
were without tops or had tops sitting underneath them, leaving
them in plain view. The boxes were labelled "Armstrong Case",
which I understood to refer to a case in Los Angeles involving
Gerald Armstrong.
10. On this occasion, Mr. Flynn stated to me that he had
obtained additional documents since my previous visit. He
told me that I should look at these newly obtained materials
since I had not seen them before. He also indicated three
particular boxes of these documents to me, and stated that
they contained financial records which he was still going
through. Mr. Flynn told me that he was working with the
Internal Revenue Service on those particular documents and
that he would rather that I did not look at them. He stated
that they were complicated and that I would not understand
them. He told me, though, that if I did look at them, to keep
them in the same order due to his ongoing work with them.
11. I then spent approximately four and one half hours
reviewing and making xeroxed copies of these new documents. I
copied approximately 3,500 pages worth of documents. Mr.
Banash was again present for much of the time while I was
making these copies which I did, as was the case before, with
the full knowledge and permission of Michael Flynn. In fact, when
I completed my xeroxing, I placed these copies in three
suitcases that I had brought with me for my stay in Boston. At
the end of the day, around 5:00 p.m., Michael Flynn and David
Banash both assisted me in carrying my suitcases out to Mr.
Flynn's car. Both Mr. Flynn and Mr. Banash commented as to
how heavy my suitcases were, and I told them that they
included the copies of the documents which I had made that
day. Michael Flynn then drove me to my hotel and assisted me
into MY HOTEL [initials
LVD]
in carrying my suitcases up to my room.
When I returned to my
home following the psychiatric examination, I took these
copies with me.
12. Although the great majority of the documents which I
copied in Mr. Flynn's office were themselves xeroxed copies,
at least one particular and personal document pertaining to Mr.
Hubbard was an original document. It was handwritten on
parchment paper which, due to its age, was beginning to
crumble at the edges and was extremely difficult to copy.
13. I did not make any copies of the materials
contained in the three boxes specifically indicated to me by
Mr. Flynn, but I did review their contents. As he had stated,
they contained financial documents referring to transfers of
funds between Church of Scientology organizations, bank
accounts in foreign countries, Hubbard Communications Office
book accounts, and six or seven cassette tape recordings. Also
contained in one of these boxes were several documents which
might have been transcriptions, and which I recall contained
the acronym "MCCS".
14. Within just a few days of my return home, David
Banash called me and asked me to return the copies that I had
made. He told me that the documents were sealed, and that I
should not have them. I decided not to return the documents,
and did not return them, because I knew something was wrong.
I had been given completely free access to these documents by
Michael Flynn, and it did not make sense to me that I would
have to return them. I felt that Mr. Banash was either
confused or was trying to hide the fact that either he or I
had these documents, and I was unsure what the best course
was for me to take. I felt that I would be safer to keep the
documents, and try to find out the facts, than to return them
at that time.
15. Within several weeks of my return home, in either
late September or early October, 1984, I mailed copies of one
of the documents I had obtained from Mr. Flynn's office to
Eddie Walters in Las Vegas, Nevada and to Scott Mayer in Los
Angeles, California. I also discussed this document with Janie
Peterson, who had not seen it. In addition, I also sent
copies of several others of these documents which I had
obtained from Michael Flynn's office to Eddie Walters.
16. Several months later, in approximately December,
1984, Michael Flynn called me and also asked me to return the
copies I had made. Since I had made duplicate copies of the
documents when I had originally copied them in Mr. Flynn's
offices, I simply pulled out about 45-50 pages of such
duplicate copies and mailed these back to Mr. Flynn. I
continued to retain copies of these documents in my possession.
I did not return all of the copies that I had because I still
felt that something was wrong, and I had begun to believe that
he was only trying to hide the fact that he had these
materials and had given them to me. I did not want to be
involved in such a scheme, and I decided to keep the documents
until I could decide what to do with them.
17. In June, 1985, I went to Boston for the scheduled
trial of the Van Schaick case. While in Boston, I told
Michael Flynn that I still had copies of the documents that I
had made in his office, but he did not ask for their return.
My case was then settled, without going to trial, and I
returned home following a severe disagreement with Mr. Flynn
regarding his handling of this settlement.
18. Several months later, in August, 1985, Michael Flynn
called me and requested that I return to him all of the copies
that I had made of the documents. He told me that he had made
a mistake; that he should not have allowed me to have access
to the documents as they were under seal and he or I could go
to jail. I did not return any of my copies to Mr. Flynn as his
call confirmed for me that it was illegal for either of us to
have these documents, and that he only wanted to cover up his
actions. I no longer trusted Michael Flynn and was frightened
that he might try to place all the blame on me if anything
went wrong. Mr. Flynn's call convinced me that I was going to
have to find my own solution to this problem in which he had
gotten me involved.
19. On or about June 2, 1986, I called Michael Flynn's
law offices. He was not present, so I spoke with Gerry
Armstrong. I told Mr. Armstrong that I had documents which I
had obtained from Mr. Flynn's offices, and I described some of
these documents to him. I told him of my intention, at that
time, to take these documents to representatives of the press.
Mr. Armstrong obviously recognized these documents as he
became very upset. He told me that exposure of the
dissemination of these documents would destroy his court case
against the Church of Scientology. Approximately twenty
minutes later Mr. Flynn called me. I then told Mr. Flynn that
he had better treat his other clients more fairly and
ethically than he had treated me, and told him that I was
taking these documents to representatives of the press. He
accused me of extortion, although I had not requested money or
anything else from him. He threatened to have me arrested by
the Florida State Attorney's Office. His threat was the final
proof to me that I had been right in believing that he would
attempt to shift the blame for his illegal actions to me.
20. I believe that the documents which I obtained from
Mr. Flynn 's office are personal documents which properly
belong to the Church of Scientology. Based on the facts
recited above, I also believe that Michael J. Flynn has
involved me in a knowing and willful violation of the law
which could result in civil or criminal liability for me.
Although he was my attorney for much of the time period
related above, he deserted me and left me to determine for
myself what my potential civil and criminal liabilities might
be for the possession of these documents, and of having to
extricate myself from this position.
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This document in .pdf format
See also:
Michael Flynn Declaration07-31-
1986
Armstrong Declaration 08-02-1986
Breckenridge Minute Order of 08-18-1986