Reporters' Transcript of Proceedings

Armstrong 4

16

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF MARIN

HONORABLE GARY W. THOMAS, PRESIDING DEPARTMENT 1

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL,
Plaintiff,
vs.
GERALD ARMSTRONG, ET AL.,
Defendants.

No. 157680

REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

April 7, 1995

APPEARANCES:
For the Plaintiff: Laurie Bartilson, Attorneys at Law

For the Defendant: Gerald Armstrong Pro per

REPORTED BY: JANICE M. KNETZGER, CSR#4434

17

April 7 , 1995

P R O C E E D I N G S

--o0o---

THE COURT: Church of Scientology and Gerald Armstrong.

MS. BARTILSON: Laurie Bartilson on behalf of the plaintiff Church of Scientology International.

MR. ARMSTRONG: Gerald Armstrong.

THE COURT: Mr. Armstrong.

MR. ARMSTRONG: I am in front of you again this morning, Your Honor, to request an extension of one week. I'm grateful for the extensions which you have given me in the past and I have a number of reasons which are grounds which are very important and I think merit another extension and I will go over those now.

Much of, you know about, the two prior extensions and that I applied for two weeks last time and you gratefully gave me a week.

In that week, I have obtained a fax machine. I have communicated with all of the witnesses who I need for support of declarations and I lack four which are very important and I'll go over those now.

First one is Michael Flynn. He is my former attorney, as you know, and I have in this last week and particularly the last three days had a series of communications with him and he has both expressed great

18

sadness and concern over what has transpired and that he wants to help me.

He said that he will provide a declaration but that he believes that he will be sued by Scientology, will be dragged back into the fight with Scientology and attacked in various ways.

I, therefore, requesting that in addition to the extension which I need for the reasons which I'm discussing, I'm requesting an order from the Court that Mr. Flynn be freed from any contractual obligations Scientology believes that it has which will prevent him from giving me a declaration and also ordered to not retaliate in anyway as a result of his providing such a declaration.

I think that due process clearly mandates that such an order be given by the Court to make it possible for me to obtain the testimony of somebody on whom I depend for my defense in this very serious matter. These are the things that Mr. Flynn will testify to if he is freed to do so: That during the time and prior to the time that he was involved in litigation, Scientology used the legal system and force against perceived enemies and targeted enemies to eliminate men.

This went under the heading of fair game including the concepts of attack the attacker and black propaganda.

19

He will testify that Scientology swore to give up these practices and beg for a settlement. As a means of obtaining an opportunity to prove that it had given up these practices, he will testify that but for Scientology's promise that it was giving up all fair game practices he would never have agreed to sign, nor had me or any other client agree to Scientology's settlement documents.

He will testify that the depth of his and my principles and extent of desiccation [dedication] to the truth is manifested by the successful litigation what is known as the Armstrong one case.

He will testify that intrinsic to the agreement was the recognition that the Armstrong cross-complaint was about to go to trial and that Scientology had substantial liability and the recognition that there had been a verdict of $30 million against Scientology in the case of Wallersign [Wollersheim] (,phonetically spelled) versus Scientology also in L.A. Superior Court within less than five months of the December 1986 settlement.

He will testify that he was the subject of fair game from 1979 through 1986, had been sued 15 times by Scientology, had been harassed unmercifully, framed, threatened, his marriage ruined, and his family and career threatened.

20

He was desperate to bet [get] out of the fair game threat.

He will testify that there were no negotiations concerning the liquidated damages of the Settlement Agreement that there were no negotiation also involving me and he believed that despite Scientology's refusal to not include the condition it was and is unenforceable and told me so at the time and that there is no reasonable relationship between Scientology's actual damages and the liquidated damages and further that the bargaining power of the parties was lopsided in Scientology's favor.

He will testify that there was supposed to be a clean slate and that if Scientology published anything about me after the settlement, I was free to respond to such post settlement statements.

I am, therefore,requesting this Court's assistance and an order freeing Mr. Flynn to provide this key testimony.

Lawrence Wallersign (phonetically spelled) [Wollersheim] seeks an order which reads in part: Within 20 days of the issuance of this orders, Armstrong shall remove all material concerning Scientology the church and/or any person or entity referred to in Paragraph 1 of the mutual release of all claims and Settlement Agreement of December 1986 from any and all data basis, electronic or otherwise,

21

within the possession, custody, or control of Faxnet (phonetically spelled). [FactNet]

Mr. Wallershine (phonetically spelled) [Wollersheim] is the founder and manager of Faxnet (phonetically spelled) consults abuse victims advocacy organization which collects, preserved, and make available information on groups and organizations which employ sophisticated and dangerous technicians of mind control.

He will testify that I was not involved in Faxnet's (phonetically spelled) management or operations. He did testify that Scientology is seeking an order allowing the removal and/or seizure of materials from a public library and archive.

That the described materials are not those I provided and exceed by hundreds of times whatever I provided to Faxnet (phonetically spelled) and that they are public domain materials.

He's not been available to give me a declaration until recently and because the order that Scientology is seeking in this case the Armstrong case affects Faxnet (phonetically spelled), he wants to obtain a legal opinion and run whatever he can provide me by a lawyer, but that is set to happen this weekend.

Marjorie Wakefield versus Scientology supports its motion with a ruling in the Wakefield versus Scientology case.

22

Ms. Wakefield had a Settlement Agreement which is similar to mine.

I was unable until recently to locate Ms. Wakefield. I have now done so and she has agreed to despite the clear danger to her of doing so to provide me with the declaration and I expect to get that within the next few days.

There is another witness and this person specifically asked that the witness not be identified at this time but will provide a declaration and I expect to get that declaration also within the next few days. This is a person who was key to actions which I took at a particular time when in the early days of what Scientology calls my breaches of the Settlement Agreement.

THE COURT: Now is there anything in response.

I've heard enough now.

What do you want to say?

MS. BARTILSON: I would like to say, Your Honor, that Mr. Armstrong has, to date, in this case engineered 636 days of delay. Our trial date is May 18th. The Summary Judgment motions in question are already set for hearing on April 21st which is only 27 days before trial. If we move them another week as Mr. Armstrong would like, we will be 20 days before trial.

23

I don't think that's a good position for anyone. My client is certainly unwilling to move the trial date yet again for Mr. Armstrong's convenience. He's already had three weeks of extensions from Your Honor based on exparte applications.

Today is the day his oppositions are due and we are here on the very day he is due to file them asking for more time.

As far as his witnesses go, he's known about Mr. Flynn as a witness since the inception of the case and he's noticed his deposition twice and taken it off calendar.

Why he hasn't gotten a declaration from the man or taken his deposition until now is a mystery to me if Mr. Flynn will actually say all the things that Mr. Armstrong thinks he will say.

Unfortunately for Mr. Armstrong, I don't think that's the case.

When he came before you, before he told you that he couldn't get help from his friends Mr. Walden and Mr. Douglas because they were, quote, terrified of my client.

Both of those gentlemen have since sent Mr. Armstrong -- they copied me -- objecting to Mr. Armstrong's false statements to the Court saying there

24

was no such terror. They simply were unable to help him at the time.

Those are attached to my declaration. I didn't ask them to do those letters. They sent them to me.

I think it's a lot of hot air, Your Honor. I really want those motions to go forward.

If Mr. Armstrong is willing to stipulate to the entrance of a temporary injunction in line with the permanent injunction that we're requesting in our Summary Judgment motion until after the Court has heard the permanent injunction, then I would be willing to grant a week's extension -- no problem.

But unless he's willing to enter into that injunction, I can't see it -- it makes no sense to me. Time after, time after time we have been here.

THE COURT: Mr. Armstrong, there is no good cause to grant you another extension of time.

MR. ARMSTRONG: Your Honor, may I respond?

THE COURT: Time is up. Time is up. The hearing is going forward. That's it.

MR. ARMSTRONG: I think what Your Honor is doing is hamstringing me and one week makes no difference to Scientology in the huge scheme of things. It is only a week.

25

THE COURT: But as they have indicated --

MR. ARMSTRONG: You first granted --

THE COURT: This matter has been going on some 636 days already. Time is up.

MR. ARMSTRONG: Your Honor, the pending motions have not been going on 636 days.

It is ludicrous that she declares that there were 636 days of extensions and delay in this case.

That is simply not the case.

There is already an injunction in place in this case. She has agreed.

THE COURT: We're not going on any further.

---o0o---

(Whereupon, the exparte matter concluded.)