On Sat, 07 Sep 2002 00:40:13 GMT, hkhenson@cogeco.ca (Keith Henson) wrote:

snip

Arel Lucas 302 College Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94306

415-806-4386 arel@pacbell.net

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

RELIGIOUS TECHNOLOGY CENTER Plaintiff, vsH. KEITH HENSON, Defendant )))))))))) Case No. D 96-20271 RMWLEAVE TO FILE AMICUS BRIEF, AMICUS BRIFE RE RELIGIOUS TECHNOLOGY CENTER'S MOTION FOR ISSUANCE OF AN ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE RE CIVIL CONTEMPT Date: Sept. 13, 2002Time: 9:00 amCourtroom: Hon. Ronald M. Whyte Since my husband, Keith Henson, does not have an attorney, cannot find one willing to take his case, and has not pointed out his circumstances to the Court, I feel that I must take on this task.

I request leave of the court to file the below amicus brief:

Samuel Rosen, attorney for "Religious Technology Center" (RTC), the litigation arm of the "Church" of Scientology, has tried to make it seem as if Mr. Henson is just an ordinary fugitive who has fled the long arm of the law--only a misdemeanor conviction at that. Mr. Rosen is doing this with the coaching of his colleague Helena Kobrin, a Scientologist who is additionally a staff member of the Office of Special Affairs.

The Office of Special Affairs (OSA) of Scientology is well known for its viciousness in persecuting those it declares as its enemies, and is believed to have been responsible for murder and forced suicide. (The "church" has been convicted of forcing suicide in France.) Since Mr. Henson became active in attempting to expose the "Church" for the crime syndicate it is, he has been:

1) Sued for copyright in your court for attempting to bring to public attention a two-page document that makes it clear that the so-called e-meter (ohm meter or lie detector marketed by the "Church") continues to be mandated to treat physical illness. During this action he was denied all the usual defenses against copyright infringement, a videotape of his deposition edited to make him look flippant and irresponsible, he was harassed, picketed, bankrupted, slandered and libeled so that he was unable to obtain work, and his attorney was threatened in my sight in your courtroom by Mr. Rosen, with resulting declarations by at least one other person who both saw and heard the threat.

2) Proceeded against with a resultant temporary restraining order that was supposed to prevent him from getting close to a man he didn't know who claimed to fear him, but who was perfectly willing to ride two steps ahead of him without looking back, on an escalator to the hearing to obtain the said order. While picketing, Mr. Henson was repeatedly surprised by this person, a "Rev." Barton often used by the "Church" to further its ends, who jumped out at him from any organization where Mr. Henson was exercising his peaceful First Amendment rights. During one such incident, Mr. Barton and a person later identified to us as a private investigator, Edwin Richardson, jumped Mr. Henson along with 4 other people and proceeded to assault him until Mr. Henson could call the police passing by. The videocamera Mr. Henson was carrying recorded the incident right up to the time when, after he dropped it during the assault, it was picked up and turned off by one of the assailants. Bruises on Mr. Henson's body were recorded by camera and subsequently posted to the Internet. It is my belief that, had the police not happened by, Mr. Henson would have sustained severe damage and/or been left for dead in the street. Since Mr. Richardson had a choke hold on Mr. Henson and before he could pass out, Mr. Henson managed to bite down on Mr. Richardson's arm that was in his mouth. Mr. Richardson subsequently pressed charges for assault that were, I'm happy to say, dismissed.

3) Nearly run off the road in his rental car while passing by Scientology's Gilman Hot Springs headquarters and paramilitary compound.

4) Arrested, then "unarrested" by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, who detained, handcuffed him, interrogated him for two hours, after which they released him to paramedics, having recognized that he was in distress from being denied his hypertension medication. Against his will and under threat from the paramedics that he would be "beaten up" by deputies if he did not comply, he allowed himself to be driven some 30 miles to an emergency room where he was told to take his medication and released. Abandoned, alone and with a blood pressure that had been measured at 200/130, Mr. Henson finally managed to get in touch with me, learn no one could pick him up, and call a taxi to get back to his medication. When charges were finally brought, he was not properly informed of the arraignment.

5) Forced to jump aside when one of Scientology's agents drove his car straight at him. I witnessed this event, and so did a friend. We both wrote declarations about the incident, and the attempt is also recorded on the videotape Mr. Henson was taking at the time of the driver. Both Mr. Henson and I attempted to bring charges against the assailant in Hemet, the jurisdiction in which the incident happened, but the police refused, saying Mr. Henson did not appear to be frightened enough on his video.

6) Threatened with death or maiming under the circumstance--which he was assured would happen--that he was sentenced to jail for the misdemeanor of "interfering with a religion," the charge from which he is said to be a "fugitive" at this time.

7) Convicted of threatening to launch an ICBM at a heavily armed compound which for the first time in its history was claming to be a "church," the headquarters of Scientology International with a never-used chapel with an inside-out rose window where RTC "president" Warren McShane claimed residence along with 734 other "staff" members. This "threat" consisted of a two-line addition to a joke "thread" or continued conversation on a usenet Internet group about a "Tom Cruise missile."

He and his attorney were denied the right of defense by in limine motions granted by the third judge in the case, a mercenary who has no criminal experience whatsoever (usually an arbitration judge). One of the previous judges said openly in chambers, in front Mr. Henson's attorney and the Deputy District Attorney, that he was afraid of Scientology. The first two judges found ways out of the case, including one judge who recused himself because he knew a prosecution witness, without objection by Defense, under an objection by the Prosecution.

The jury was deliberately confused about the protocol of posting on the Internet and led to believe that Mr. Henson had "posted" or written comments that he had not, and some jury members indignantly asked following the trial why no defense had been mounted. At least one member was clearly a scientologist staff member working at the compound in question, and I believe that the jury was "packed," since jury questionnaires were not released to Defense.

Immediately following the verdict, the judge greeted the attorney who coached the deputy district attorney through the case, an attorney who had attempted to intimidate Mr. Henson and his attorney at the courtroom door at the start of the case, and warmly told him in front of witnesses, including me, that he had not mentioned that they knew each other "for obvious reasons."

That attorney, Eliot Abelson, is an ex-Gambino (Mafia) family attorney to whom the deputy district attorney literally looked for every move he made. Prosecution motions were written by Scientology attorneys, and the modus operandi of the case was the same as their usual method of attempting to convict those who try to expose them. (See Exhibit A, a condensed timeline of some of those whom Scientology has persecuted, ruined, driven from the United States, and so on.)

8) Arrested in Canada when Scientology agents falsely reported that he was armed and dangerous, and spent 8 additional days in jail after his first hearing because other agents lied to the immigration judge, saying that they were missing information that their files show they had at the time. (When the FBI conducted its raid on Scientology headquarters in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. in 1978, they found personnel files stolen from Canadian government.

When scientology was raided in Canada, 40 file cabinets of stolen government documents were recovered. Scientology is a convicted corporation in Canada due to these thefts, infiltration of the Toronto police and other government agencies.) Mr. Henson again suffered from lack of medical treatment during this time.

Mr. Henson's decision to seek refugee status in Canada was not an easy one, nor has he or his relatives taken it lightly. He crossed the border on May 12 with a single small overnight bag, having accepted an invitation to picket the scientology organization in Toronto with a friend. I had arranged to pick him up at the airport upon his return the following evening, May 13. It was during this time that someone "posted" on an Internet newsgroup that he had better be sure to show up for his hearing in Riverside on May 16.

He returned laughingly that he would be very stupid to show up in Riverside (because the hearing was in Hemet). Office of Special Affairs agents, including Mr. Rosen, have made much of this, implying that Mr. Henson meant to seek asylum in Canada much earlier than his decision was actually made. He did not inform me until the morning of May 16 that he had consulted an immigration lawyer and on his advice intended to stay and apply for refugee status.

Given that:

A) There have been several attempts on Mr. Henson's life by agents of Scientology

B) Law enforcement officials to whom we have reported these events, including police, sheriffs, the FBI and state police, have not been interested in investigation, apologizing with "We don't have the budget to go after Scientology"

C) We have, since 1995, heard and read scores of personal stories, declarations and affidavits of those whose lives have been threatened and ruined by this "Church," along with personal witness of murder, suicide, framing, false accusations, fraud on courts, and other crimes and unethical behavior, including those by officers of courts

D) That the attorney constantly accompanying and coaching the district attorney in charge of Mr. Henson's one conviction is a Mafia attorney

E) That Scientology maintains an organization ("Criminon") in prisons that acts as both a recruiting and enforcing group, according to ex-scientologists who were formerly in high places

F) That we personally know at least one other person who was nearly run down by an agent of Scientology and another case where a person's car was purposely hit by Scientology agents

G) That we, our family, neighbors, employers and prospective employers personally have been the objects for years of vicious persecution by agents of Scientology;

We took the emailed and posted threats to Mr. Henson's life seriously. This is why Mr. Henson is in Canada. We made serious and thought-out preparations for what we believed would be a jail term given Scientology's obvious hold over law enforcement and the courts, particularly in Hemet, California and Clearwater, Florida. However, Mr. Henson's friends finally convinced him that it was not necessary to become a martyr for the cause of freeing the 734 staff members held as slaves at Gilman Hot Springs and of informing the public about this crime syndicate.

I ask you please to reconsider allowing Mr. Henson to appear by some other means than personally at the September 13, 2002 hearing in your court. For one thing, a hearing on the action brought by Mr. Henson and the other detainee in his arrest in Canada has been scheduled for the same day. For another, it is possible for him to appear by videoconference or by Webcast via the Internet. Under both those circumstances, he could be cross-examined.

Surely it is not necessary to force Mr. Henson to choose between appearing at the risk of his life at a proceeding in which his liberty is once again at stake, and not appearing and risking being sentenced once again for something he did not do. It is repeatedly our experience that attorneys will not take cases involving Scientology since they have before them the purposely publicized spectacle of the unfortunate persecution and ruination of Mr. Henson's former attorney, Mr. Graham Berry. If you do not allow him to appear in his own right using technology that will allow him to be seen in interaction, I cannot see how justice would be served.

I certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the facts stated here are true to the best of my knowledge..

Respectfully submitted,

Arel Lucas Dated Sept 4, 2002