"Legal" Raid on LMT records -- hearing set for 9-28-01

From: Bob Minton <bobminton@lisatrust.net>
Subject: "Legal" Raid on LMT records -- hearing set for 9-28-01
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 11:48:44 -0400
Organization: Lisa McPherson Trust, 33 N. Fort Harrison Ave., Clearwater, FL 33755 Tel: (727) 467-9335
Message-ID: <obi6rt0t567ml2thivt37un99rsnsp2lul@4ax.com>
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR PINELLAS COUNTY, STATE OF FLORIDA GENERAL CIVIL DIVISION ESTATE OF LISA MCPHERSON, by and through the personal Representative, DELL LIEBREICH, Case No. 00-5682-CI-11 Plaintiff, Division 11 vs.

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY FLAG SERVICE ORGANIZATION, JANIS JOHNSON, ALAIN KARTUZINSKI and DAVID HOUGHTON, D.D.S., Defendants. AND RELATED COUNTERCLAIM.

l EMERGENCY MOTION OF CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY FLAG SERVICE ORGANIZATION FOR APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL MASTER TO EXAMINE LMT, INC. RECORDS AND FOR AN ORDER PRESERVING RECORDS The Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization ("the Church"), by its undersigned counsel, moves for an order appointing a special master to examine hard copy and computer records of LMT, Inc. and to ensure the preservation of such records within this jurisdiction. The grounds for this motion are as follows: ?

At a hearing on August 31, 2001, this Court ordered LMT, Inc. to provide a description of all records, in any form, it had destroyed within the purview of Judge Moody's order of production dated July 18, 2001. After four weeks, LMT has failed to comply with that Order.

The Court also ordered that LMT is prohibited from disposing of any records until further order of the Court.

By Order dated September S, 2001, this Court ordered:

The Lisa McPherson Trust, Inc. shall not dispose of any records in any form of recording whether it be computer, video or other forms that may be in its control directly or indirectly, of financial records or videos of witnesses until further order of this court.

(Ex. 1, ~ 3.)

The instant motion is brought on an emergency basis, because it has been learned that LMT, Inc. is also violating this part of the Court's Order.

Church counsel has learned that this week, approximately 10 banker's boxes of records have been shipped from LMT to parts unknown. On Monday, September 24"

and Tuesday, September 25", a truck from Federal Express picked up a large number of boxes from the back door of LMT. (Ex. 2, Affidavit of Alger Avila.)

This transfer of property and presumed records was observed by Church security guards who are positioned at the Church's dining hall to protect Church staff coming and going from that location.(1) (1)There have been a number of threats and acts of violence against Church members and staff in Clearwater, including threats from LMT staff member Jesse Prince and acts of violence by its owner, Robert Minton. These threats are taken seriously, as some of the completed acts have been violent, including someone driving a truck through the front doors of the Church, a staff member being shot with a dart gun, shots fired from a passing car into buildings, and an exploding acid bomb thrown onto Church property as well as two physical instances of physical assault by Minton against Church staff. (See, Ex. 3, Affidavit if Paul Kellerhals.) The Church has also hired part time off?duty police to guard the Church's dining facilities. Other bomb threats have also been received by the Church, resulting in the emptying and search of buildings.

(Id.) And, as was discussed at Mr. Minton's deposition, one of the Advisory Board members of LMT, Keith Henson, was recently convicted for threats against a Church of Scientology and has fled the country. (Ex. 4, Minton Depo., pp.

238?239.) As the Court will recall, Mr. Minton asserted his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to reveal his assistance to Henson. (Id.)

Ms. Brooks also permitted an LMT employee, Mark Bunker, to remove all of the videos he has taken over the past two years out of LMT's possession and custody. (Ex. 5, Brooks Depo. as LMT Rep., Sept. 7, 2001, pp. 13?22, 34?36.)

Ms. Brooks also claims she doesn't know where any of the videos are from which excerpts of Jesse Prince were drawn and earlier produced in a composite CD (id., pp. 27?33), which was ordered produced by Judge Moody in the May 2000 and July 2000 Orders. (Exs. 6 & 7.)

Moreover, Ms. Brooks admitted that CDs of scanned records, including at least all of Ms. Summer's letters to various government agencies regarding the church and church witnesses, were scanned onto CD and the hard copy documents shredded. (Ex. 5, pp. 8490.) These CDs were then sent to Mr. Minton. (Id., pp.

88?90.) These CDs have since been "sent to someone else" by Mr. Minton, and he has asserted a Fifth Amendment selfincrimination privilege to refuse to identify where the evidence was sent. (Ex? 4, p. 21.)

Ms. Brooks also testified that she causes all e?mails to be destroyed periodically, (Ex. 5, p. 78), notwithstanding the Orders of May 15, 2000 and July 18, 2000, requiring production of such information by any of the witnesses ? which include nearly all of the LMT staff. Indeed, the Court ordered on August 29, 2001 that all records be preserved, but Ms. Brooks admitted on September 7, 2001 that all e?mails "to the present" had been deleted. (Id.)

Mr. Minton has also testified that he has destroyed all of his own financial records, which would include payments to witnesses. (Ex. 4, p. 5.)

In short, the apparent transfer of records yesterday and the day before, and the summary background information above, warrants that remaining evidence be preserved.

This Court also indicated both at the hearing on August 29, 2001 and in its written Order of September 5, 2000, that it may appoint an independent examiner to examine the records of LMT to determine if all information has been produced. The Church urges that this is more than appropriate in light of the circumstances. Current computer technology permits the examination of computer hard drives to locate information which has been "deleted," and an independent expert can be retained by the masterlexaminer to perform this function to restore deleted files.

WHEREFORE, the Church requests that the Court appoint a special master to forthwith take possession of LMT records and computers, including records in the possession of LMT employee, Mark Bunker, for the purpose of examining the materials to locate responsive information, and more importantly, to assure that other material is not lost or destroyed.

Dated: September 26, 2001 Respectfully submitted, MORON & KOBRIN 1100 Cleveland Street, Suite 900 Clearwater, Florida, 33755 Telephone: (727) 443?5620 Facsimile: (727) 443?5640.

Michael Lee Hertzberg 740 Broadway, 5th Floor New York, New York 10003 Telephone: (212) 982?9870 Facsimile: (212) 674?4614