Since I had someone hunt up the Scarff deposition, I thought I would share a few parts of it here. I've reformated it for easier reading.

Could someone tell me what case this deposition is/was part of and what outcome there was?

***quote begin Books Critical of Scientology Stolen and Destroyed.

"Q. Mr. Scarff, have you now located the two exhibits that you had tried to locate with reference to stealing library records?

"A. Yes, sir, I did.

"Q. Turning your attention to Exhibit-99, what is that?

"A. This is a letter that I sent to Ginnie Cooper, the Director of Libraries for Multnomah County, which is the county where Portland, Oregon rests. And it is concerning an operation in which I was a part of a -- part of which has been a long time policy within the Church of Scientology to eradicate not only from what I have spoken to already on court files but eradicating from library systems throughout the country, any information that is critical or adverse to the Church of Scientology.

"And specifically within the library systems within the City of Portland, Oregon, I as well as other individuals within the Church of Scientology just as a matter of policy were ordered to destroy any and all critical materials adverse to the Church of Scientology. And this letter is to the Director of Libraries informing her that all of such books that are on file at the library which have been listed as "lost" are not lost. They had been destroyed. And I list six books there.

"Specifically one book refers to -- entitled "A Piece of Blue Sky" by Jon Atack, who is a former high ranking member of the Church of Scientology who wrote an expose on Scientology.

"And I recall there were approximately four to five copies of this book in the library all which were listed as lost. And this letter explains to Ms. Cooper, basically, that the Church of Scientology destroys materials on a regular basis which they consider to be adverse, including if she were to check the library's copy of Time Magazine dated May 6th of l991 they will notice that that article had been cut from the magazine because the Church of Scientology considered it to be adverse.

"Exhibit-100 is a response to me from this library director in which she did a full inventory of the books that they had and claims that several of the books appear to be out of print now and the library currently has no copies. I refer to one, the book entitled "Inside Scientology" by Robert Kaufman. She said the library has no copies.

"No. 2, "The Scandal of Scientology" by Paulette Cooper. She responds the library currently has no copies.

"No. 3, "The Hidden Story of Scientology", by Omar Garrison. She responds there are two copies in the library and there are no copies at the central library. And it is out of print.

"No. 4, book entitled "L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?" by Bent Corydon. She responds there are supposed to be currently 13 copies in the library. However, seven of these copies are currently listed as lost and there are two copies on order to replace the two copies lost at the central library.

"No. 5, book entitled "Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard" by Russell Miller. "She responds there are supposed to be four copies in the county library, two of the four copies are listed as lost.

And the book is out of print.

"No. 6. "A Piece of Blue Sky", she responds there are supposed to be three copies in the county library, two of these three are currently listed as lost.

"She refers to the Time magazine article dated May 6th of 1991 and claims that the article is on microfilm and therefore the issue can be found in microfilm, but the print copy is missing.

"She also states that she instituted safeguards to protect reordering these books based upon the letter that I sent her.

"Q. Now, turning your attention to Exhibit-99, the last paragraph on that document, that letter states: 'These missing books were in fact stolen from the library and destroyed in fulfillment of an internal directive by the church which instructs its members to eradicate all published materials critical of Scientology and to replace it with pro-Scientology materials.

"A. That's correct.

"Q. How do you know that these missing books were in fact stolen from the library?

"A. Because I was very much a part of the effort to steal the books from the library and destroy them.

"Q. Was anyone else involved in that effort?

"A. Gwen Mayfield was involved. Angie Mann was involved. I know that her husband Charles Mann to have been involved. Like I said, this was an effort that Scientology has long had. I even recall back in '82 that John Carmichael had talked about removing stuff from the library and destroying it. And it was Gwen Mayfield who told me how to remove a book from the library. She showed me that within the binding of a hardback book there is a long, thin, metal strip which sets off an alarm when something like that goes through the sensors in the library and she said all you had to do was take a razor blade, slice along the bindings of the book, pull out the metal strip, rub it into a little ball and flick it away takes away the security aspect of this book. It was very easy to get away with it by ripping out the little metal band.

"Q. Gwen Mayfield is part of the -- "A. Gwen Mayfield is an official of the Church of Scientology and director of the Office of Special Affairs whose job in part is to do such activities as I have just described. This would be considered a covert operation.

"This is not the first time this has happened although not in a library situation. When Julie Christofferson had her trial in Portland in 1985 one newspaper by the name of Willemette Week published an expose of the Church of Scientology in which the newspaper later learned that approximately, I think the number was, 10,000 copies of the newspaper had been stolen from different places throughout the city because of the desire from the Church or officials of the church not to have any of the readership within the general public to have access to these newspapers.

"And it is my understanding that the newspaper later sued the church and the church chose to end and settle the case.

"Q. How do you know about that activity?

"A. It was common knowledge within the church. It was common knowledge in the church at the time because I was involved in one other operation with John Carmichael at that time against Julie Christofferson and you have to understand that within the OSA and any time someone succeeds in pulling off a covert operation, people don't sit around a table and talk seriously about what just happened. It is a celebrative occasion. It is like somebody needs to pull out the wine and cheese and we will all celebrate because everyone was laughing and John Carmichael thought it was quite comical that people would try to look for a copy of the Willemette Week and there would be none found anywhere within the city.

"Q. Were you involved in the removal of those newspapers?

"A. Yes.

"Q. In what manner were you involved?

"A. I would go to 7-Elevens where at that time I believe they were being sold for like a buck apiece. And I would grab a whole stash of them and I would walk out of the store with them and destroy them.

"Q. And what was the purpose of doing that?

"A. To get them out of the store so no one could see them.

"Q. Why didn't you want anyone to see them?

"A. Because there was information in there, although not confidential, but it was critical of the Church of Scientology. And anything that is critical of the Church of Scientology does not deserve to be in the public. The Church of Scientology takes a very strong stand on constitutional rights, but they believe that constitutional rights only apply to them and nobody else. And it is okay to have positive information about Scientology out there, but if anyone dares to publish anything critical, then it has to be eradicated. It can't be seen.

"And in response to the library operations, you can go into the libraries where these books have been stolen and you will notice a whole slew of pro-Scientology books that have been donated to the library. The Multnomah County Library has scores of Scientology courses that are offered on a correspondence course level that are in the libraries listed as donations, but anything critical has been eradicated."

(Deposition of Garry L. Scarff, at p. 333, in. 1 - p. 340, in. 24.)

***end of quote

Go Back