My name is Patty Pieniadz, I am an Ex-Scientologist and I've been an on and off lurker on a.r.s. for a couple of years.

After reading what OSA has been doing to Chuck Beatty and witnessing his strength and courage, I have decided to delurk and tell my stories.

This post is my "short story". I have written up more of my stories in Scn and will post them soon.

I became involved with Scn in 1973 at the Narconon program in New London, Connecticut. I was 18 years old at the time. I had been accepted to the University of Connecticut but I dropped out and joined the VISTA volunteers, which was a sort of a Peace Corps program for the impoverished areas of the US.

I became a heavy drug user and came to a point in my life where I realized I had to handle my drug problem. That decision led me to Narconon and then directly to Scientology.

At that time (1973) NN didn't hide the Scn connection. It was quite open and the Narconon Course packs were the actual HCOB's and PL's and not the glossy Narconon packs that you see today. The Narconon Objectives Course was called the HQS Course or the Hubbard Qualified Scientologist Course when I joined up in 1973.

After a few years I became the ED of Narconon Connecticut (NN CT) and then was recruited into the Boston Guardians Office (GO) in 1979. I held the post of Dir of Rehab, Social Coordination Boston, and ran the Narconons, Applied Scholastics and Schools (Apple and then Delphi) in the New England area.

I left the GO in 1981 to have a family. I did not want to raise children while on Church staff and year or so after I left the GO it was disbanded for being a "suppressive group".

I stayed off lines for several years but then eventually found my way back and was recruited as an "OSA volunteer". At first I did overt data collection for OSA Boston and then after a while I was involved in more "covert" activities such as infiltrating a "squirrel group", stealing trash and other OSA "ops". I did this kind of volunteer OSA work for approximately 14 years on and off and will be writing more detailed accounts of my activities as an OSA volunteer.

It's nothing I am proud of, it's just information that I think should be made known.

I don't remember what it was that got me interested in reading critical sites but one day I just jumped in and started reading. After a while I came to realize that current C of S was not the same C of S that I joined in 1973. I decided that I would no longer support the C of S and slowly drifted away.

In Sept, 2003, Maureen O'Keefe, a woman that I recruited into Scn and one of my closest friends showed up at my home unannounced and uninvited. Maureen was the Invest Dir for OSA Boston and she brought along a woman named Kathy True, from OSA Int. They arrived on a Saturday night around 9:00.

When they arrived I had already fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV and so their knocking at my front door startled me. I invited them in, after all Maureen was a good friend and her mother lives only a few towns away from me so it sort of made sense that she might drop in to see me, but it was strange that she hadn't called first.

It didn't take long for me to find out that it was not a friendly uninvited drop by. They were there on official business and accused me of sending out OT III data from my yahoo account to a Scn mailing list.

I told them no way, this was not possible, and that I would never do such a thing. I was told that if they could just have access to my computer they could clear this entire matter up. I realized they expected me to just let them have access with no questions because if you are a good Scientologist, and you were innocent of any "crimes" you would not hesitate to do what OSA wanted you to do.

My computer was located in my bedroom and at that moment my husband was asleep in bed and there was no way I was going to have them go in there and start looking around and disturbing my husband. I don't know about you, but I don't like people in my bedroom. And I knew my husband wouldn't appreciate it.

Kathy True told me that they had a computer expert look at the email and he concluded that the OT III information definitely was sent from my account. Of course they brought no proof of this.

I told them someone must of hacked into my account and done this and that I would close the account and inform hotmail of what was going on.

I refused them access to my computer not only because it would have disturbed my husband, but also because this whole caper stunk and I knew they were lying but I couldn't figure out why. I had worked for OSA long enough to know that they were running some kind of crazy con on me and I was a bit upset that they were not forthcoming with the real reason why they were there. Maureen O'Keefe knew me and knew I would never mail out OT III data but she sat there and lied to my face. It scared the hell out of me that a woman that I loved and trusted for so many years would do this to a friend.

Maureen O'Keefe, the woman I recruited into Scn, the godmother to my son, the woman that was a bridesmaid in my wedding, this same woman who called herself my friend was in my home and lying to me and running some kind of OSA op on me. Why?

Finally I told them I was tired and they got me to agree that they could discuss this further with me on the next day.

Maureen and Kathy showed up the next day but ran into the problem of it being Sunday and the only thing that happens on a Sunday afternoon in the fall/winter in the Pieniadz house is eating, drinking and watching football and/or watching UConn basketball. I forgot that I had invited friends over to watch with us and so Maureen and Kathy walked in on a little football party and seemed none to pleased.

Maureen and Kathy wanted to talk to me privately but I explained to them that I told my friends about the problem of my hotmail account being hacked into and that confidential data sent out from it and so they could freely discuss the matter with my friends (Wogs) in the room.

Maureen proceeded tell me that the problem was all solved! All I had to do was give them my computer and then they would put in a PO (purchase order) for me to have a brand new computer. These two girls must have thought I just fell off the turnip truck. I am going to give them my brand new computer and THEN they will get a PO approved? Right, sure! The chances of them getting a PO approved for a brand new computer for someone they suspect is sending out OT III materials is about triple zero. None, nada, no way, forget about it.

I told them NO WAY it wasn't going to happen and they both were a bit miffed at my refusal to their brilliant idea. I invited them to stay, have lunch and watch the football game but they declined.

I noticed a few months later that I stopped getting Scn magazines and Scn junk mail, and thought it was weird but figured they were mad a me and this was how they were letting me know.

Nine months later I got my official SP declare in the mail and just for good measure they declared my husband as well. I'll get it posted as soon as I figure out how.

I have to say I was rather ambivalent when I got that declare. I was sort of curious as to what it was all about but I had no interest in querying it or getting copies of these KR's that were never sent to me and that might explain what exactly my "crimes" were.

It proved my point that my friend Maureen was lying to me because the declare said nothing about sending out OT III data but instead accused me of passing on information to critics.

I was actually relieved when I received that declare because I would never have to answer up or explain why I wasn't following one of the many Scn's rules of life. I was free to pursue whatever interests I wanted to and was no longer restricted in looking and learning in life. I was free of them and was happy that I would not have to deal with them ever again.

Then a few days before Christmas 2004, Maureen O'Keefe showed up at my work. Yes, I work in donut shop!

I am an OT III that works in a donut shop. I spent all of my adult life in Scn and after 30 years of being with them the only skill I had was being a Scio and working in a Scio company. The only thing available to me was minimum wage because I had no real prior experience in anything else.

So I took the job of working in the donut shop with my mom and we have lots of fun. That photo of on the Scn website (Religious Freedom Watch) was taken on what is known as "wacky Wednesday". That was a day that we had a great time and everyone at work dressed up kind of wacky. So of course, in true Scn style, one of Scn's PI's or "volunteers" came to my work that day and took the picture. Scn has a very perverted sense of "fun". Only they would use something theta like a bunch of women having fun and dressing up funny, and using it to belittle that person.

But just recently the local paper did a feature article on me and mom. I'll also post that article as soon as I figure how to do that.

I think OSA thought that it might embarrass me to work in a place like that but it doesn't. I love that job and have a great deal of fun there. I know hundreds of people from working there. I can't go anywhere in town without seeing 4 or 5 people I know and we say hi or stop and chat. It was never like that when I was in Scn. I work with wogs now and we all get along and we even do things together outside of work. I don't have to worry about stats or conditions or fake status levels.

Maureen O'Keefe showing up at work right before Christmas kind of surprised me. I was curious as to why she was there and realized she must have gotten some sort of special OK to speak with me now that I was a declared SP.

Maureen took me out to lunch (Dutch treat, of course) and we chit chatted about friends and family and then Maureen asked me why I thought she was there. I told her I thought that she must be here because she cared about me and want to talk me into doing my A to E.

She was seemed a bit surprised by my answer and said, "well actually, no, that would be nice, but I am here to tell you that we know you are posting to the internet as Cerridwen and that we can't have you do that". She did not wait for a reply but instead just started what appeared to be a scripted talk about how she knows that I might have disagreements but she knows that I loved Scn as much as she does and she can't understand why I am doing this and if I continued posting to ars that she would be forced to apply the PL on handling critics.

We talked for about 2 and a half hours and when I asked what proof she had to say that I was posting, she said that it was done through a process of elimination, whatever that means.

I didn't bring in up at the time but it occurred to me that Cerridwen posts reports on the C of S events and I haven't been to an event in years and OSA knows that because they keep lists of who attends.

Maureen was trying to "pull strings" to find out when and why I became disaffected. She said something about having spent a lot of time with my folders and putting together a time track of me but she still just couldn't figure it out.

Well of course she couldn't figure it out. Maureen O'Keefe is a very indoctrinated Scientologists and couldn't figure her way out of a paper bag without Hubbard telling her how.

It finally came down to Maureen saying. "If you don't stop posting, we will apply the policy on handling critics". I told her if she did apply those policies against me I would forgive her.

A few days after our lunch together, Maureen called my house and left a message for my husband Bobby. Bobby has no interest in talking with Maureen or any one from the Church as he had already left the Church years before me.

We had a family conference with my son Derek and decided that we would just write a letter of disconnection to Maureen and the C of S and tell her to just leave us alone. The day after I sent the letter of disconnection, they put up a webpage about me on Religious Freedom Watch.

I currently suffer from several autoimmune diseases that I am working hard on getting under control and getting myself healthier. I finally started doing something about these diseases once I left the church and rid myself of my agreement with Scn's viewpoint on the medical profession and that all illness stems only from ptsness and spiritual problems. I finally got rid of the false information that I truly believed in . That false information assisted in me neglecting my health for a very long time thinking Scn tech (the OT levels) would handle it.

And as far as all my "finance crimes" -- I swear I was just following LRH finance policy!;)

I figure any critic with one of those disgusting pages already knows that they are filled with half truths and lies. I'm not going to even bother to explain the real truth behind them. I don't really care what they say about me. They are only words and lying words at that. They have no power over me any more.

I have a lot more to report on and give my permission for this and my other stories to be webbed by critics of Scientology.

Patty Pieniadz