On Tue, 07 May 2002 06:11:05 GMT, jstephen2@msn.com (Stephen Jones ) wrote:

>On Mon, 6 May 2002 19:48:54 +0100, "Steve Walker" <spam-trap@beeb.net>
>wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>>I'm sorry, but I just don't understand the howls of condemnation being
>>heaped upon him now. It seems to me that Bob is the moral equivalent of a
>>brave soldier who has been captured and tortured - obviously that means that
>>any projects he was aware of may now be compromised, and also that he can no
>>longer be trusted, but why is it necessary to heap all this shit on his
>>head?
>
>Hi, Steve. I've been reading ars for many years. I'm beloved by all,
>disliked or ignored by none and my opinion is considered to be the
>benchmark for all rational criticism. Of course, no one will confirm
>this because they are all very, very ugly people.

LOL!

>Why heap shit on Minton's head?
>
>Here is what Minton said about another person who stood up to
>Scientology, a guy who didn't have the protection and peace of mind
>that wealth can buy, a person who didn't always know if he could find
>legal representation or if he could even afford the expenses required
>to meet with them.
>
>Here is what Bob had to say about one such man, Dennis Erlich, when
>someone asked a question similar to yours, "How dare Grady Ward or
>anyone attack Dennis Erlich for making the settlement he did?"
>
>Bob says:
>"Because Dennis misled people into believing he would never sell-out
>and be gagged by Scientology. He can't testify without a subpoena,
>can't talk to the press, he's not here on ARS, no TV, no radio. He
>can't contribute his intimate knowledge and extremely valuable
>experience to this movement. Dennis made that choice for himself and
>that is clearly his right. But he betrayed the faith and trust that HE
>elicited from others with respect to his integrity. Dennis is the
>latest in a long line of people bought off by Scientology; but Monica,
>make no mistake that Dennis sold out for the money."
>
>"Grady's expectation was only that Dennis would be faithful to his
>integrity. He was not and is justly being criticized. Dennis had
>choices. He took the money and betrayed himself in my opinion. In the
>long run, the resolution of this decision will be his cross to bear.
>It was a Faustian bargain IMHO and I imagine in Grady's mind as well."

I recently was told some of the details about how the Erlich settlement came about. According to my informant, Dennis had far fewer choices than was believed at the time and it reveals one of the "business" methods of scientology which is only slightly less bizarre than the Ms Blood business.

Scientology was facing a very good large law firm, MoFo, who were representing Dennis pro bono. The case dragged on with endless depositions, filings, hearing, travel, etc. from 95 to early 98 when it was ready to go to trial. It was not entirely obvious they would win the case and they had to their amazement spent $4.3 million on it!

Now, MoFo is a *very large law firm.* It has about 1000 lawyers of which 320 of them are partners, i.e., they share in the net profit of the firm. Well, 4.3 million/320 is close to $135,000 each. Pro bono work is just not supposed to put that kind of a dent in the bottom line for so many lawyers!

There was, as you can imagine, huge internal pressure to do something about a situation which had already cost the equal of fair sized sailing vessel for every one of the partners.

As I understand it (and I think I have the general outline if not all the details), on the eve of trial scientology offered to pay MoFo's expenses of $4.3 million as part of the settlement. The pressure from MoFo's partners to recover from this money sink was enormous.

I didn't get any details on what kind of pressure was brought on Dennis. It might not have taken too much, he had medical problems at the time, but Dennis could not tell people like Bob (who had just given Dennis $25k to set up a web site) why he (or rather the lawyers) had settled.

Dennis was "taken care of" but on scientology's terms. He got a trust fund set up which owns his house and his car and pays living expenses.

Scientology administers the fund and can cut him off in a heartbeat if he ever says a word about them.

As you may be able to see from this, Dennis had relatively little choice he could make on the terms of the settlement. (The implied--if not stated--threat was that he and some first year intern would be facing Rosen in court.) He couldn't even tell people why he was bailing after telling them he would stick it out. But that is not the interesting point.

Scientology used a flood of money, perhaps 2-3 times what MoFo spent to set up this situation. What to do when a large law firm steps in pro bono? Run up the cost so high that the partners start screaming to get out.

In the legal arena having more money than your opponent can spend is a highly effective weapon--as Bob has found to his distress.

When you think about it, this is scientology's general litigation method, spending a ton of money on lawyers to punish the other side.

They did this to FACTNet and to Time.

Long as the courts let them get away with it, the courts are simply worthless as a way to deal with this class of evil. Worse yet they are *part* of the evil.

Keith Henson

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