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---------------------------------------------- Operation Clambake Forum: Opinions & Debate: The CO$ defends itself against...a rock band ---------------------------------------------- By Ronisxenu (Ronisxenu) on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 - 06:34 pm:

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"Hey, guys! You can forward this to everyone. It's time that people know what's up.

But here is the text:

I was harrassed by the Sci_fi religion a couple of years ago for having a band named El Ron Hitler (which was merely a surrealist thought). We recorded some tracks in late 1999/early 2000 and put them up on MP3.com and then started playing some live shows around town at parties and clubs.

I started receiving strange calls from a woman who claimed that I was the "missing ingredient" for an all boy band "like N'Sync." Since I "was Mexican" (she assumed) I would be perfect. And she was wondering "Are you in El Ron Hitler?"

Right away, I knew that something was not quite right. Since I'm Spanish, not Mexican, I knew that they were trying to gather information on me--a clever tactic used by the Church Of Scientology.

One morning I was awakened by call from the "attorney" for the Church Of Scientology (who sounded alot like the person that had "offered" me to join the all boy band) telling me to stop using the name El Ron Hitler and that they were threatening to sue me for taking their founder, L.

Ron Hubbard's name in vain. I couldn't believe this. I told her to leave me alone and hung up the phone.

Shortly thereafter, I found a letter sitting underneath my door at my apartment. I thought it was strange since you need a set of special keys to get up to my apartment. I opened the letter and it was a "cease and desist" letter from the attorney. The letter stated that El Ron Hitler's music will cause their Scientology "parishoners" to be attacked both verbally and physically by our fans. And the letter also stated that the name of the band is a direct insult towards their founder--L. Ron Hubbard.

I couldn't believe this once again! I had been a fan of X-Files and thought that something like this could never happen to me.

In the "cease and desist" letter was a business card left by the "private detective" that was hired by the Church Of Scientology's lawyers. He had scrawled "Call me Immediately" on a post-it note like a forceful teacher would write on a bad test score and stuck it on the back of his business card.

I decided to do some more detective work of my own and found lots of dirt on this so-called "detective." He was kicked off the LAPD back in 1981 by Chief Daryl Gates for running a house of prostitution and for calling up gang members before they were going to get busted by a drug squad. Lovely.

He had warrants out for his arrest in counties of both Florida and Oklahoma for impersonating a police officer and carrying a loaded weapon without a license. Here is more info:

http://www.primenet.com/~lippard/pis.html

I even received some fan e-mail from this guy that asked when El Ron Hitler was going to play again--"You're Hot Hot Hot!" the e-mail said.

We traced it back to Ingram thanks to some hacker work from a band member.

I started getting more voice mail messages the next day and immediately called an attorney that a fellow friend and local club booker had pointed me towards--Carol Sobel (ex-ACLU). I faxed her the letter that the COS's lawyers had sent me and e-mailed her everything that I had on the "private detective." She was quite impressed with my own detective work.

I also forwarded the information to the LAPD and they called me (a few weeks afterwards) and told me that they had gone to give Ingram a nice little visit and they assured me that he would never bother me again.

I decided to use the voice mails that Mr Ingram had left into a song and I did. The result is "Careful With That Badge, Eugene" (a little ode to Pink Floyd, I guess..).

The calls stopped coming, but the lawsuit was still pending. My attorney was telling me that the COS had sent some people to her office to "make sure that she recieved the faxes" that they were sending. These people are relentless!

I then decided to change the name from El Ron Hitler to NostraDumAss. I decided to do this since I didn't want either my bandmembers or our families harrassed by them. And, of course, I haven't been harrassed since. I had no secret messages in our songs and the name El Ron Hitler was, like I said, a surrealist thought. Period.

The Church Of Scientology is in trouble, though. Check this out:

http://www.slatkinfraud.com/ This is one of the individuals that was responsible for putting together Earthlink. Ever heard of that company?

Anyone have thoughts on what happened to me? Has this happened to anyone else?

Peace, Cake NostraDumAss (formerly El Ron Hitler) http://www.mp3.com/NostraDumbAss"

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