Took that ride through the looking-glass again this morning as I appeared before the judge for another pre-trial hearing over the charges leveled at me for pointing a camera at Scientology.

Once again in attendance was Elliot Abelson and this time Sylvia Stannard was along from Washington D.C. I knew she would be there since I had dinner with the Zizic's the night before and they told me she had come in to settle the Zizic's claims and was pushing hard to make this happen fast.

When we first heard from the Zizics, they were trying to get $20,000 back for courses they prepaid but never used. This is their own damn money and the church wouldn't give it back. The cult stalled them for two years before the Zizics made a call to the LMT. From the time of their contact with the Trust, the Zizics were suddenly being offered that money back if they signed a waiver.

Now, with my arrest and the possibilty of sending me away for 10 - 25 years, the church is pushing even harder to settle with the Zizics, my only witnesses. Now the church is willing to give back all the money they defrauded from the Zizics. They are offering over $100,000... but... they still have a waiver they must sign.

In this waiver they have to agree to shut up and not assist anyone with any litigation against Scientology whether as a plaintiff or as a defendant. They may do so however if compelled by a subpoena. That's no problem.

They have another sword hanging over the Zizic's heads however. The church says that the money has to come in monthly installments instead of one lump sum... so whenever my trial gets underway, there's always a chance the cult could be displeased by their testimony and forget to make the payments.

Do you trust the most ethical group on the planet?

Back to my appearance in court, it was a very brief affair with Juliet Boyd of Komie and Associates filling in for Steven Komie who was otherwise engaged. The prosecutor was outraged by my appearing in Stamford at the Leo J. Ryan Conference and demanded once again that bail be raised and that I be restricted in my travel but the judge denied that motion allowing me to travel freely for my work.

The prosecutor also said that they intend to treat this as a hate crime. If I truly hated Scientologists why would I give a warm smile and a wave to Sylvia when she entered the courtroom? I'm happy to say that she reciprocated. BTW, she was not in the coutroom for the hearing as the room was too crowded so the bailiff had to ask her to leave almost immediately after our waves. I was sorry to see her go and wished there was something I could have done to help her.

The prosecutor was not prepared to go ahead with the case today so she (not my attorney as was reported earlier) set our next court date as April 26th.

The Zizics have assured me that they will be there when needed to testify on my behalf and I know they will. They are terrific people and it has been a pleasure getting to know them and their kids. I look forward to seeing them again soon. They are going to the focus of a lot of Scientology's attention as this progresses and I wish them well.

Looks like I will be spending quite a bit of time in Chicago in the coming months and I must say, outside of my experiences with two cops, I love the city.

Thanks for all your interest and support and thanks to everyone at the Trust as well who on a daily basis are helping people deal with the dangerous group known as Scientology.

From: "Mark Bunker" <markbunker@lisatrust.net>
Subject: Re: Mark Bunker in Wonderland (formerly Chicago)
Message-ID: <FELG4.1143$hh2.61974@news.flash.net>
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 18:32:05 GMT

colette <cdm@nwu.edu> wrote in message news:cdm-0504001132180001@bob.sesp.nwu.edu...

> Mark, if I had any furniture to serve you dinner upon, I
> would offer to make you a fabulous and well-deserved
> white-wine lemon chicken served on a bed of fresh dill
> and walnut rice while you're in my Windy City for this
> silliness, but alas I do not.

Thanks, Collete. I am prepared to sit on floors and sleep on slabs. After all, the cult wants me to do this in a small cell for a very long stretch... so one dinner couldn't hurt.

How are you at baking files into cakes?