I received the following private message from another former Flag public Scientologist who was subjected to Charmaigne's brutally coercive techniques.

Charmaigne is the subject of Maria's declaration #3, which I am reposting below for those who missed it. As for the question in the first line of this message, I assure you that Maria Pia Gardini is far from soft-minded and has a very strong will. At some point there are going to be enough of these horror stories for people to realize that the problem is not that Scientology's victims are all soft-minded and without willpower. The problem is that Scientology is a relentless, amoral, ruthless machine that will stop at nothing to get what it wants.

Here is the message:

Stacy, Wow! But how could signora Gardini be so soft minded and without any apparent willpower of her own through all this and for so long? I think though that I can understand. I had my own run-ins with some of those tough bully hounds at Flag mentioned in her story, particularly that Charmaigne bitch, who was without doubt the most vulgar, foul mouthed, low life, single mindedly aggressive fanatic female I have ever had the misfortune to meet in my life. She was like some horrible bloodsucking leech as long as she smelled any prospect of money. Her favorite marks were newly arrived innocents, on the assumption that they still must have had some money left for her to leech. In the end, I just had to tell her to fuck off, because that was the only language she understood. I can imagine the combined effect of these ruthless blackmailing extortionists at Flag on the mental state of a genteel Italian lady trapped in an awful emotional trap of her own making. Poor signora Gardini! What a horrible story.

name withheld
DECLARATION #3 OF MARIA PIA GARDINI I, Maria Pia Gardini, declare as follows:

1. I am over the age of 18 years.

2. The statements herein are of my own personal knowledge and if called upon as a witness I can testify competently thereto.

3. On January 1, 1992 at twelve thirty in the afternoon I was sitting at table for lunch with some friends i.e. Franco Baggio, his wife Marilena and his son Alessandro, Masimo Cavadenti (now deceased) and Letizia Pizza, when a taxi entered my garden. Four people emerged. My butler came to table to inform me of the visitors, as they were quite unexpected. In Italy, you don't just drop in on people on the first day of the year. It is to be spent with family and close friends.

4. I went to the window to see who it was. It was Charmaign (last name unknown), who was the Super Power registrar In Charge in Flag Service Org in Clearwater, Fl; her husband; a staff member from CLO Italy named Simonetta; and a public from Los Angeles, a blond haired woman whom I never seen since.

5. Charmaign stood in my garden yelling for me to come down and pay for the taxi, as they didn't have a penny. Mr. Baggio went instead of me. They then came upstairs to the dining room and I asked why there were there. Were they lost or what? Charmaign said no, she had come expressly to me to talk to me about Super Power.

6. All four people then sat at the table and began to eat our meals. I was shocked by their horrible manners and even smacked Charmaign's hand when she tried to take food from my plate. This woman was in full Sea Org uniform with stripes and everything. My butler was looking quite shocked.

7. This was my first year alone since my daughter and mother had died and my friends and I were shocked that they had come on this day to reg me for money. Charmaign told me they were in Italy and came to "get their stats up."

So, they start telling me all about Super Power project until Franco Baggio asked them to stop so they could at least eat and they would discuss it afterward.

8. At this point, Charmaign began drinking wine, lots of wine until she became totally drunk. We had to put her in bed in the guest room with her husband. The rest of us went into another room to talk socially.

9. At 6:00 p.m. Charmaign woke up. She was yelling and screaming, "Why did you let me sleep!" We told her she was so drunk she couldn't stand up from the chair. She then started right in telling me she wanted $35,000 from me for a Cornerstone donation to the project. She told me she would not leave the house until I paid. This went on until 8:00 p.m. as I tried to resist her in every way, even locking myself in the bathroom for half an hour with her banging on the outside saying she would never leave.

10. My butler then came in and told us that dinner way ready. I did not want Charmaign and company to stay for dinner as I had other family arriving.

Franco finally told me to give her something so she would get out, so I offered her a check for $10,000 to leave. I told the butler to take one of my cars and take them to the train station and put her on any train he could find.

11. I was still a staff member of Flag at this time and Charmaign was a senior officer to me. This is one thing that made it very difficult for me to kick her out of my home. I would have been in very strong ethics problems if I had over stepped my limit in how I treated an officer.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America and the state of Florida that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed in Clearwater, Florida this 19th day of January 2001.

Maria Pia Gardini

Go Back