Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (2016) s03e09 Episode Script
Buying A Town (Part 1)
Clearwater, Florida, is, like, the Mecca of Scientology.
That is where Scientologists go to receive the upper-most coveted levels of Scientology.
It is also the place where Scientology is almost achieving its goal of buying a town, make it a Scientology city, then use that as an example for the rest of the world.
I am the writer of the textbooks of Scientology.
The aim and goal is to put man in a mental condition uh, where he can solve his own problems.
Without any Scientology organization, things are not going to change on this planet.
After years of slowly questioning Scientology Leah Remini and her very public break with Scientology.
Scientology, what they do.
Trying to destroy people, trying to destroy their families when they leave, they create a lot of people who are willing to fight against them.
Scientology takes tax-free dollars, and ruins people's lives.
This is not the life I want to live.
I wanted to end my life.
Some people, it takes a year.
Some people, it takes ten years of just peeling that onion of how you were manipulated and made to think.
This season, we really needed to focus on the reason why Scientology is able to do the things that they do is because they have tax-exempt status.
The people who have bravely come on and told their stories have not told those stories in vain.
They are having an impact.
We're presenting our case to the world.
To the FBI, to the IRS.
The most important thing that has to be done is the persistent telling of the truth, and that's what you're doing.
You have to continue to fight.
You have to continue to fight for what's right.
I mean, it's not hard for you to live here? - Not at all.
- Doesn't bring back any Well, I guess you have memories here - that are now replaced - Well, that's true.
For yourself.
It makes me uncomfortable, because here we are, driving by, so now they know we're filming here, you know? - Right.
- And now, they're going to be doing their bullshit with us here.
Like, oh, my God, I'm getting emotional.
I don't know why.
Leah.
I feel so bad when you get so upset.
I do.
I don't like it.
I was, I would say, raised kind of normally.
It was me and my mom and my sister, Nicole, and we were born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
And then, my mom and dad got divorced.
And Dennis came into our lives, and he was funny, and we were happy to have him.
And then, my mother and Dennis got into Scientology.
We were told that we were going to go off to a very special mission to clear the planet in Clearwater, Florida.
My stepfather was going to stay behind and sell everything that we had because we weren't allowed to bring anything.
We were leaving everything to go and fulfill this mission.
We go to Florida thinking we're going to an amazing place.
The Mecca of Scientology.
And we arrived to a run-down motel infested with roaches, infested with rats.
We were separated from our mom, who was, at the time, eight months pregnant, and we were living in a dorm with, like, eight other girls.
My stepfather never came.
He never came.
Oh But I just kind of pushed that aside.
But my mom was alone, we were alone, and we didn't have anybody but the Sea Org now.
The Sea Org was our family, and our father, and our mother.
And my little sister was born there.
My little sister, Shannon.
Why I'm so emotional about Clearwater.
It, in a way, destroyed a lot of this family that we had.
I just look at all these families, Mike, you know, on the beach.
Laughing and having a good time, and people having dinner or lunch with their families.
And, you know, there's people at Flag right now like, working very hard and very "We got to get this done!" You know? And having the mentality that the planet - Is depending on them.
- You know is dep right.
And they're accomplishing absolutely nothing.
Right.
They're giving up their lives.
They're giving up their family members because they've been completely brainwashed and lied to about what they're doing.
- Yes, exactly.
- You know? And then, you know, here we are.
It's, like, this area makes me want to throw up now, you know what I mean? I remember walking these streets.
I was wearing a lanyard, and walking down the streets of Clearwater, and people are screaming out of their car windows.
"Cult! Cult member!" And I'm like, "what?" I'm not a cult member.
I'm sacrificing my life for this".
So it it was just a weird moment, you know what I mean? Because I'm, like, "I'm here to save you".
And now, I'm kind of on the other side of that going "I'm here to save you".
Like everybody else around here, I don't like being in Downtown Clearwater much.
- Right.
- Just because the whole place is creepy.
It's empty.
It's it feels like people are watching you.
That's kind of creepy.
You know, this reminds me of you standing out here trying to talk to your son.
Yeah.
I was alerted by Joe Childs from the "Tampa Bay Times" that he had been told by Scientology that I was a terrible parent because I had not tried to help my son who had contracted cancer.
I had no idea.
The next day, I went to the Fort Harrison to try and see my son.
My son had cancer.
Of course I'm going to go and try and see him and see if he's okay, and find out what's happening, and It was it was a futile effort.
I feel like I'm in this movie where the villain is always winning.
Well, the villain isn't going to win forever.
Well, I'd like to see something happen.
- Promise you.
- In our lifetime, Mike.
I don't think this story of Scientology in Clearwater - has ever been actually told.
- Yeah, I don't think it has.
Like, there's been bits and pieces, and certainly, the "Tampa Bay Times" has covered it, but that's for people in Pinellas County.
- Right.
- Outside, the whole world doesn't know.
It's a story worth telling, for sure.
Yeah.
In the early 70's, L.
Ron Hubbard was running the Scientology world from a ship called "The Apollo".
I was on board "The Apollo" with L.
Ron Hubbard from 1973 until 1975.
The ship had been thrown out of various countries.
He tried to bring "The Apollo" to the United States in 1974, and he discovered that the FBI, IRS, DEA, and various other government agencies were waiting on the dock.
For the next year or so, we sailed around in ports in the Caribbean.
Hubbard at one point had a heart attack in Curacao.
The treatment wasn't the, like, advanced medical treatment available.
And he decided, "Okay, the time has come to move the operations to the United States".
He sent a whole bunch of people out up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the US to find a location to move to.
There were various requirements.
It had to have an international airport.
It had to be in a relatively warm climate.
It had to be a facility that was big enough to accommodate all the people, but was cheap.
Ultimately, he settled on Clearwater, Florida, and the Fort Harrison hotel, and the adjacent Clearwater Bank building, both of which were going bankrupt.
I was one of the first people that arrived in the Fort Harrison.
When Hubbard moved the headquarters of Scientology to Clearwater, it logically followed that the plan would be to take over Clearwater and turn it into a Scientology city.
This Clearwater was supposed to become and is supposed to become the Salt Lake City of Scientology, or the Mecca of Scien In fact, they even called it the Mecca of Scientology.
Scientology moved in here in 1975, and at the outset, came here under false pretenses.
When we arrived in Clearwater, we actually lied.
Tried to pretend to everybody in the community that this was some other Christian organization called the United Churches of Florida.
Everybody was briefed.
"This is what you're to say.
You're to explain what the United Churches of Florida is".
Which nobody really understood, because it didn't exist.
It was just a name.
And you know, in the mid-'70s, we didn't know what Scientology was.
I lived I lived here, and we all wondered.
"Who are these people? Who's the United Churches of Florida?" And it slowly came out, it's not the United Churches.
It's the Church of Scientology.
Once again, we're looking at each other, going "well, who is that?" When this came out, Gabe Cazares, Mayor Cazares, started to question them and criticize them, and "who are these people?" One reason that Gabe was suspicious is after they bought the The property as United Churches of Florida, suddenly, there were armed security guys on the top of the Fort Harrison hotel.
He said "who does this? What is this group?" Had they just moved in as a regular church - Right.
- It would have been nothing.
But, you know, the mayor is He's kind of He's a leader of the community, and he's No wonder he was curious about it, and he should be.
- Right.
- He should be the one looking into it.
What is this? Why are they hiding their real cards? They came into our community, and they lied.
They lied to the public officials.
They said "oh, we're United Churches of Florida".
This is unforgivable.
I I don't know what kind of ethics is involved here.
He was very brave to speak out, because no Most politicians don't.
Slowly, it's coming out.
This town is being taken over.
They have chosen us to be their spiritual headquarters, and they are going to buy up our town.
When Gabe Cazares came out and basically called them a cult, we then we started saying "tell us more".
L.
Ron Hubbard has stated that Scientology has the money to buy cities and even countries.
That destructive cult has to know that sparking Clearwater is not for sale.
I'm glad he did that, but he paid a price for it.
- He did.
- The Catholic Church, the synagogues, the mosques.
If somebody wants to be critical of them, that's their First Amendment right, they can say it.
But in in the case of Scientology, if you are a critic of the church, you are their enemy.
And so, when people did speak out And of course, it was our mayor.
He was the front man.
He was the one "tell us, Mayor, you know, what's going on".
And then, we started reading what they were doing to him.
Scientology did some of the most heinous Fair Game tactics against Gabe Cazares.
There's a whole bunch of these documents that ultimately came out when the FBI raided Scientology that explain and detail the activities that were taken against him.
Scientology embarked on a campaign of Fair Game to cost Gabe Cazares his job, and to completely discredit and destroy him.
There were a number of operations that were conducted against Gabe Cazares, and those documents came out after the FBI raid.
And they had bizarre names.
Uh, they detail the exact steps that were to be taken.
These things are incredible.
Project Taco-less.
"It was a plan to dig up dirt to "ruin his political career and remove/restrain him as an opponent of Scientology".
Then, there was Project Speedy Gonzalez.
That was designed to ruin his career with a political sex scandal.
A fake college student wearing a St.
Pete Junior College T-shirt was to spread a rumor about Cazares having an affair with someone's mother.
Operation Italian Fog was intended to create documents that would "prove that Gabe Cazares was a bigamist" by planting fake documents that he was married to some woman in Mexico.
Perhaps the the most outrageous of all was called Project Keeler, where Gabe Cazares was set up with a fake hit and run accident in Washington DC when he was attending a mayor's conference.
They documented the fake hit and run with someone jumping out in front of his car on a dark road, and that was now going to ruin his political career.
These documents are perhaps only the tip of the iceberg.
That's not necessarily all that was done or all that was planned.
It's just the documents that were gotten from the raid.
And what was the time frame that Gabe was being targeted - and Fair Gamed? - That was years.
It was years.
They wanted to make sure that a lawsuit was filed.
A lawsuit was filed very quickly to shut him up.
And it ended up dragging on for - In federal court? - Yeah, in federal court - for a number of years.
- Yeah.
Gabe did sue them, and here's one of the fascinating things about it.
He hired an attorney that he met at his country club.
And this guy befriended him and said "Hey, hey, you know what? You should hire me to handle this case".
Merrell Vannier, I think was her his name.
That's his name, that's for sure.
And this guy was hired by Gabe This is a plant, a plant.
Yeah, screwed up the case, and and settled it for, like, a paltry fee, I think.
And it was only later that it was discovered that this guy was brought in by Scientology from, like, Alabama or some place.
- That was his job, to get - That was his job.
- Oh, my God.
- To befriend Gabe, and take the case.
So here you have the mayor of Clearwater.
He had every right to question what this organization was.
But then, they attack this man for exercising his First Amendment rights.
They then activate their policies of "Let's destroy anyone who's questioning us, "caught us in lies, and let's go after those people and utterly destroy them," which is Scientology policy.
But, really, they are They are leaving a destruction in their wake.
Everything that you see that has happened in the history of Clearwater, you can find the documents written by L.
Ron Hubbard that describe what that is.
You can go back and look at the policies where he says to bring governments into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology, and to control such agencies.
Like, turn them into Scientology activities.
And that wasn't that the objective - of Project Normandy? - Absolutely.
The orders, in effect, were occupation orders.
There was a secret Project Goldmine, and a Project Normandy, and these orders, in effect, very clearly, stated "move into this area", "find out who your friends are, develop them".
"Find out who your enemies are, destroy them".
And then, move into every possible area of community life, business, social, religious, education.
Project Normandy is just one example.
It's everywhere.
Scientology wants the police department and the city council operating for their benefit.
For the good of Scientology.
So back in the days of Gabe Cazares, all these Scientologists pulled a stunt that made it onto the front page of the newspapers of dressing people up in Nazi outfits and marching them down the street in front of City Hall to protest the Nazi-like treatment that Scientology was getting from the city of Clearwater.
What group behaves like that? Scientology.
- Yeah.
- True.
But it it was Sort of encapsulated the relationship between Scientology and Clearwater.
It was contentious, and Scientology did what they always do, which is attack.
- Just attack.
- Right.
For at least 20 years, Clearwater investigated Scientology.
And and a great guy, Ray Emmons, led this investigation of Scientology.
He had so much damning information about all the things that That they were up to.
And he considered it a criminal enterprise.
The Lieutenant, Ray Emmons, believed that the police department had dropped all education for the new recruits about how to deal with Scientology.
Every time there was a new group of officers that would come in, Ray would sit them down and say "this is what you need to know about Scientology".
Did he reach out to other agencies to Yeah, he went to the state officials, to the federal government, and said "We need help".
"We can't deal with this Mafia-like organization in our small town".
No one would help.
Well, we shopped it around to the federal people, to the state people, and the first question always asked by a prosecutor was "Will they harass me? Will they follow me?" "Boy, this is going to cost a lot of money".
It was a continuing fraudulent enterprise.
It still is to this day, as far as I'm concerned.
I talked to him, too, ultimately, and - Right.
- He was, like, "it's dangerous, it's dangerous" These people are dangerous, and they're dangerous to families.
They're dangerous to individuals.
They're dangerous to the community.
It's a dangerous organization in our midst, and everybody is ignoring it now.
That city commission hearing was a major watershed in the history of Clearwater, and actually, the history of Scientology, because it was the first time there had been, in the United States, at least, an actual attempt to uncover the truth about Scientology.
You know, I was here as the church person dealing with that, and that was a huge problem.
The Fair Game policy, he's had that as As long as I've known him.
That's the "attack the attacker?" That potentially could have put an end to this mess had the city then not over-reached, and tried to enact an ordinance which was designed to get Scientology out of Clearwater.
The ultimate outcome of that case put the nail in the coffin of the city's efforts by ruling that Scientology was right.
That this ordinance was unconstitutional and the city had to pay Scientology costs and fees of 600-plus thousand dollars.
At that point, the city of Clearwater basically decided "this is not a fight we can ever win," and - Crawled into a hole.
- Yeah.
"If you don't allow us to do what we want, here's what we're going to do to you".
- What happened to Ray Emmons? - Ray retired.
But he never stopped being concerned about Scientology's activities here in the city.
- Just like Gabe Cazares.
- Yeah.
Even though he had left office Was driven out of office, he never forgot what Scientology did not just to him - Right.
- But to the city.
In the case of Scientology, we would start hearing about additional properties that they were buying.
Um, and they started cherry-picking the areas so that they could be contiguous as best they can, so they could control, you know, the entire area.
And then, that spread to the commercial district, as far as downtown is concerned.
They were buying up everything they could.
Scientology started out with the two most prominent buildings in Downtown Clearwater.
The Fort Harrison Hotel, and the old Bank of Clearwater.
It then added the Sand Castle Motel, which was a big property on the water.
A very prominent, downtown landmark for "Expansion".
They purchased properties for staff to live in.
They purchased vacant land.
Everywhere you go, next door is another piece of the Scientology puzzle of downtown.
The jewel that Scientology wanted, Miscavige, in particular, was the aquarium.
When the property that is owned by the aquarium was announced to be sold to the city, David Miscavige wanted that property badly.
Not because there was any plan to do anything with the property, but because it sits across the street from the back of the Fort Harrison, and alongside the Oak Cove.
He claimed that he wanted to put a swimming pool on that property, but there was a swimming pool in the Fort Harrison hotel that nobody uses.
There's another one in The Sand Castle.
There's plenty of swimming pools around.
That began a big dispute.
The city negotiated and agreed on a price, and I think it was in the neighborhood of about $4 million.
The person that was in charge of selling the property said to Miscavige "there's a contract on it".
And Miscavige said "I will beat that price".
And went up to about 14 million.
- 14 million.
- Which is 10 million more than what it is.
Miscavige promised us the world.
"If you let me buy this property, I will renovate Downtown Clearwater".
Showed all of our commissioners.
"This is what it's going to look like, "but let me buy that piece of property.
If you don't let me buy it, I'm not".
The head of the Clearwater Aquarium, David Yates, was the one who said "We've got a deal with the city.
"I work with the city every day.
"No matter how much money you offer me, I'm a man of my word.
I'm sticking to it".
David Miscavige doesn't take kindly to people not complying with his wishes.
Scientology then started writing letters to the county.
To try and rescind his funding, saying he's overpaid.
And this is a scam, and they should be prosecuting him.
And that he's violating the tax laws.
- Like, it was astonishing.
- Yeah.
The seller said "No deal, it goes to the city".
Things pretty much shut down, as a curtain, when they dissed, so to speak, Miscavige.
Miscavige, now, he said "No renovation, no paint, nothing".
Right.
This is what a leader of a church is spending his time doing? He's punishing David Yates and the aquarium for not selling David Miscavige and Scientology the property.
The punishment is "I'm going to keep Downtown Clearwater a ghost town".
It's insane to me.
It's fucking sick.
If it wasn't for the empty storefronts, if there was more activity downtown, I think we would It wouldn't be such an impact.
What most people do is they avoid downtown.
- That's what they're doing.
- Yeah.
The fact that we can't go to restaurants like we used to be able to have, and wonderful, you know, places to visit.
They're buying up property, and and - And taking that away from us.
- Right.
They buy property that they have absolutely no use for and turn it into parks.
The do that because they want to keep the people that come in, the Scientologists that come in, from seeing the rest of the world, right? No, they want the rest of the world to not be able to see, and see what they're doing.
But also, being around, you know, "civilians," you know, is is very dangerous.
Today, Scientology has almost achieved it's objective of complete subjugation of Downtown Clearwater.
Of the city officials.
Of taking over vast tracts of the city, and turning it into the first Scientology city on Earth.
Betsy, let's fast forward to how you came to meet me for the first time, and what happened as a result of that.
Yeah, it well, you know, I got a flavor for what they can do to people.
Betsy Steg was never a Scientologist We became friends when she reached out on the blog, and I met her and her husband, and she suffered the consequences of befriending me.
You know, Mike and I met.
I had commented on Marty Rathbun's blog a long time ago, probably 2009, 2010, something like that.
But through that, I got to know you, and then, you had your wedding at my rental property, at The Cedar House.
And I thought it was a great wedding, it was beautiful.
Everything was seamed perfect.
But a couple days after that, I get a knock on my door.
I live in a gated community, and somehow, these people got to These people being Peter Mansell from the Offices from Special Affairs.
Peter Mansell, yeah, and a woman.
They said "we are sent here by the Church of Scientology" to tell me that they knew that I was friends with you.
They knew who I am.
They wanted me to know that they know where I live.
They know everything about us, and that they're going to do everything they can to destroy me.
"Harm and destroy" me was the words.
- What? - Yeah.
They continued on, saying that, "We're going to call" "every Scientologist in Clearwater, "and they're going to do everything that they can to destroy you".
I didn't even know what to do.
I I just, I was stunned.
- I was - In shock.
I yeah, I was just, like, my God.
And I shut Just shut the door on them.
- Yeah.
- And I called the cops, you know, because they're threatening to destroy me.
They know my kids and everything, you know? - Right.
- You know, the family, and everything.
So I make the call to the Clearwater Police Department.
I tell them, you know, "This is what they said.
It was Peter Mansell, and this other woman".
And the officer goes "I know who he is.
I'll go talk to him".
And he, months later, emails me back and says "Oh, yeah, I I called their attorney, "and I told the attorney "that they shouldn't do things like that, because it's bad for their public relations".
That's his email.
He's giving them public relations advice.
And at my expense.
If any of us had done that, we'd be arrested.
Recently, I had a guy that was chopping down my hedges at my rental property at The Cedar House.
He said that the city had him do this.
I think it was a Scientology neighbor who's now doing the Fair Gaming against me.
She wants to see what's going on in there.
Fortunately, I caught him removing my hedges, and chopping up the fence.
Un-frickin'-believable.
So I scoot him off the property.
I go home, call the cops.
I couldn't get them to respond to my calls once they found out that Scientology had been involved, or that I was Scientology's enemy.
So I took it down to them, wrote it up, gave them the statues that was violated, and they resisted taking that to the state attorney's office for prosecution.
They didn't want to do it.
They told me "Don't do this," you know.
And I said I was going to take it myself.
I'll drive it down to criminal courts, and have them do it there.
So they finally got the prosecutor involved, and at that point, it was a felony charge, and the judge issues a warrant to pick up the person who's been charged with a felony, and have him booked, fingerprinted, whatever.
They never did that.
It's a court order that the Clearwater police were ignoring.
They should do that in, what, a couple days? Execute the arrest warrant? So where's What's happening now? Well well, actually, I had to I called the state, and one of the prosecutors knows another guy whose brother works for the City of Clearwater Police Department, and they got him to eventually execute it six weeks later.
We had the criminal trial.
I got restitution.
They found him guilty.
Then, the city disclaimed any I mean, being involved at all in having him do it, but - Unreal, man.
- It's yeah, the fact that the Clearwater Police was so willing to ignore or just not execute a court order.
From threatening you to chopping down your trees on your property to be able to spy on you because you simply offered your home to Mike and Christie for their wedding.
Yeah, exactly.
That that is the basis of it.
And now, there's a neighbor that's constantly complaining to the city about me.
The woman who lives across from you, who lives She lives right next door to the Cedar House.
- To to your rental property.
- Yeah.
This is what a tax-exempt organization is spending their time on, is spying on you.
So disappointing that, as a citizen, I have nothing to do with Scientology.
I'm just minding my own business, and we have put up with the city playing along with whatever she wants them to do, so that's been that's the biggest disappointment for me.
Is there anything that she can do here, Dennis? I mean, it just seems this is a She did not sign up for a life of being harassed by this crazy Scientologist, and again, wasting resources of the city to work for them.
She could bring an action, but but the wave that would come back on her, and the financial obligations that she would go through, and the more harassment she would have in courtrooms based upon it, it would bring her to her knees.
Part of the problem, though, and a lot of people won't admit to this.
Uh, there's a certain amount of fear because of the last 25, 30 years, to see these things happening.
And I think, partly I now understand that you had asked other people to join us today, and they politely said no.
And I think, partly, it's because of they do understand how ruthless they can be, and they don't want to be next.
They don't want to be next.
You walk into Downtown Clearwater, and it is like walking into "The Night of the Living Dead".
- It's "The Dead Zone".
- Right.
Nothing is happening there.
Nobody's on the streets except people in uniforms, and that's it.
The sort of heart of North Pinellas County is dead.
If Scientology really cared about our community, they would be welcoming people.
The Flag Building in Downtown Clearwater is assessed at over $20 million.
It is tax exempt because it is their church.
What I'd like to ask if that went on fire, - who would put it out? - Right.
The Clear The Clearwater Fire Department.
Who pays for the Clearwater Fire Department? The taxpayers.
They're still going to put that fire out.
So they get that benefit, and yet, they're making money, and making money, and making money.
Yeah.
You guys, you know, really mean a lot to us for the work that you've done, and your instincts probably said "I've had enough of this crap with Scientology".
- Yeah.
- "I don't want - the Fair Gaming".
- Right.
But you're willing to do it.
I mean, it won't work unless people come forward, but if we live here, are they going to be protesting out in front of my law office tomorrow? - Maybe.
- There's safety in numbers.
If there were a hundred of you, they can't protest in front of 100 law offices.
And people, I think, need to start to understand that they do have the power to do something.
It's been a decades-long fight for the heart and soul of this city.
The real tragedy is that today, it's worse than ever.
Because it's still happening.
It's still happening.
It's not history.
This is the most insane place on Earth.
When it comes to Scientology, this is insanity HQ.
Yeah, there you go.
This is a big crime.
Lisa McPherson was a devout Scientologist for 15 years.
She got into a minor fender bender in Downtown Clearwater, and by the time the police came and the ambulance, she had stripped off all of her clothes, and was walking down the street naked.
And a paramedic came up to her and said "Why are you doing this?" And she said "Because I need somebody to pay attention to me".
Just as a person in this town of Clearwater, I don't think anybody really understood what was about to go down.
The last three days of her life, those records were destroyed.
Decades ago, the city of Clearwater was fighting back.
You had people willing to stand up and fight.
Bob Minton gathered a few of us to town to stand up to Scientology because the city wasn't.
We know that what Scientology does to people is not good.
Hey, Jeff, are you a woman? It's not right, it's not just.
It shouldn't be happening, and it especially shouldn't be happening here in, you know, what is supposed to be the freest country in the world.
You were in court, Stacy, when that was issued.
He was out on the street trying to get us arrested.
Go join your Nazi friends! There was violence and arrests, and it got ugly.
It got ugly for the whole town.
Got ugly for Scientology.
Bob was my hero.
He just came down to make our city better.
It was not a pretty ending.
That is where Scientologists go to receive the upper-most coveted levels of Scientology.
It is also the place where Scientology is almost achieving its goal of buying a town, make it a Scientology city, then use that as an example for the rest of the world.
I am the writer of the textbooks of Scientology.
The aim and goal is to put man in a mental condition uh, where he can solve his own problems.
Without any Scientology organization, things are not going to change on this planet.
After years of slowly questioning Scientology Leah Remini and her very public break with Scientology.
Scientology, what they do.
Trying to destroy people, trying to destroy their families when they leave, they create a lot of people who are willing to fight against them.
Scientology takes tax-free dollars, and ruins people's lives.
This is not the life I want to live.
I wanted to end my life.
Some people, it takes a year.
Some people, it takes ten years of just peeling that onion of how you were manipulated and made to think.
This season, we really needed to focus on the reason why Scientology is able to do the things that they do is because they have tax-exempt status.
The people who have bravely come on and told their stories have not told those stories in vain.
They are having an impact.
We're presenting our case to the world.
To the FBI, to the IRS.
The most important thing that has to be done is the persistent telling of the truth, and that's what you're doing.
You have to continue to fight.
You have to continue to fight for what's right.
I mean, it's not hard for you to live here? - Not at all.
- Doesn't bring back any Well, I guess you have memories here - that are now replaced - Well, that's true.
For yourself.
It makes me uncomfortable, because here we are, driving by, so now they know we're filming here, you know? - Right.
- And now, they're going to be doing their bullshit with us here.
Like, oh, my God, I'm getting emotional.
I don't know why.
Leah.
I feel so bad when you get so upset.
I do.
I don't like it.
I was, I would say, raised kind of normally.
It was me and my mom and my sister, Nicole, and we were born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
And then, my mom and dad got divorced.
And Dennis came into our lives, and he was funny, and we were happy to have him.
And then, my mother and Dennis got into Scientology.
We were told that we were going to go off to a very special mission to clear the planet in Clearwater, Florida.
My stepfather was going to stay behind and sell everything that we had because we weren't allowed to bring anything.
We were leaving everything to go and fulfill this mission.
We go to Florida thinking we're going to an amazing place.
The Mecca of Scientology.
And we arrived to a run-down motel infested with roaches, infested with rats.
We were separated from our mom, who was, at the time, eight months pregnant, and we were living in a dorm with, like, eight other girls.
My stepfather never came.
He never came.
Oh But I just kind of pushed that aside.
But my mom was alone, we were alone, and we didn't have anybody but the Sea Org now.
The Sea Org was our family, and our father, and our mother.
And my little sister was born there.
My little sister, Shannon.
Why I'm so emotional about Clearwater.
It, in a way, destroyed a lot of this family that we had.
I just look at all these families, Mike, you know, on the beach.
Laughing and having a good time, and people having dinner or lunch with their families.
And, you know, there's people at Flag right now like, working very hard and very "We got to get this done!" You know? And having the mentality that the planet - Is depending on them.
- You know is dep right.
And they're accomplishing absolutely nothing.
Right.
They're giving up their lives.
They're giving up their family members because they've been completely brainwashed and lied to about what they're doing.
- Yes, exactly.
- You know? And then, you know, here we are.
It's, like, this area makes me want to throw up now, you know what I mean? I remember walking these streets.
I was wearing a lanyard, and walking down the streets of Clearwater, and people are screaming out of their car windows.
"Cult! Cult member!" And I'm like, "what?" I'm not a cult member.
I'm sacrificing my life for this".
So it it was just a weird moment, you know what I mean? Because I'm, like, "I'm here to save you".
And now, I'm kind of on the other side of that going "I'm here to save you".
Like everybody else around here, I don't like being in Downtown Clearwater much.
- Right.
- Just because the whole place is creepy.
It's empty.
It's it feels like people are watching you.
That's kind of creepy.
You know, this reminds me of you standing out here trying to talk to your son.
Yeah.
I was alerted by Joe Childs from the "Tampa Bay Times" that he had been told by Scientology that I was a terrible parent because I had not tried to help my son who had contracted cancer.
I had no idea.
The next day, I went to the Fort Harrison to try and see my son.
My son had cancer.
Of course I'm going to go and try and see him and see if he's okay, and find out what's happening, and It was it was a futile effort.
I feel like I'm in this movie where the villain is always winning.
Well, the villain isn't going to win forever.
Well, I'd like to see something happen.
- Promise you.
- In our lifetime, Mike.
I don't think this story of Scientology in Clearwater - has ever been actually told.
- Yeah, I don't think it has.
Like, there's been bits and pieces, and certainly, the "Tampa Bay Times" has covered it, but that's for people in Pinellas County.
- Right.
- Outside, the whole world doesn't know.
It's a story worth telling, for sure.
Yeah.
In the early 70's, L.
Ron Hubbard was running the Scientology world from a ship called "The Apollo".
I was on board "The Apollo" with L.
Ron Hubbard from 1973 until 1975.
The ship had been thrown out of various countries.
He tried to bring "The Apollo" to the United States in 1974, and he discovered that the FBI, IRS, DEA, and various other government agencies were waiting on the dock.
For the next year or so, we sailed around in ports in the Caribbean.
Hubbard at one point had a heart attack in Curacao.
The treatment wasn't the, like, advanced medical treatment available.
And he decided, "Okay, the time has come to move the operations to the United States".
He sent a whole bunch of people out up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the US to find a location to move to.
There were various requirements.
It had to have an international airport.
It had to be in a relatively warm climate.
It had to be a facility that was big enough to accommodate all the people, but was cheap.
Ultimately, he settled on Clearwater, Florida, and the Fort Harrison hotel, and the adjacent Clearwater Bank building, both of which were going bankrupt.
I was one of the first people that arrived in the Fort Harrison.
When Hubbard moved the headquarters of Scientology to Clearwater, it logically followed that the plan would be to take over Clearwater and turn it into a Scientology city.
This Clearwater was supposed to become and is supposed to become the Salt Lake City of Scientology, or the Mecca of Scien In fact, they even called it the Mecca of Scientology.
Scientology moved in here in 1975, and at the outset, came here under false pretenses.
When we arrived in Clearwater, we actually lied.
Tried to pretend to everybody in the community that this was some other Christian organization called the United Churches of Florida.
Everybody was briefed.
"This is what you're to say.
You're to explain what the United Churches of Florida is".
Which nobody really understood, because it didn't exist.
It was just a name.
And you know, in the mid-'70s, we didn't know what Scientology was.
I lived I lived here, and we all wondered.
"Who are these people? Who's the United Churches of Florida?" And it slowly came out, it's not the United Churches.
It's the Church of Scientology.
Once again, we're looking at each other, going "well, who is that?" When this came out, Gabe Cazares, Mayor Cazares, started to question them and criticize them, and "who are these people?" One reason that Gabe was suspicious is after they bought the The property as United Churches of Florida, suddenly, there were armed security guys on the top of the Fort Harrison hotel.
He said "who does this? What is this group?" Had they just moved in as a regular church - Right.
- It would have been nothing.
But, you know, the mayor is He's kind of He's a leader of the community, and he's No wonder he was curious about it, and he should be.
- Right.
- He should be the one looking into it.
What is this? Why are they hiding their real cards? They came into our community, and they lied.
They lied to the public officials.
They said "oh, we're United Churches of Florida".
This is unforgivable.
I I don't know what kind of ethics is involved here.
He was very brave to speak out, because no Most politicians don't.
Slowly, it's coming out.
This town is being taken over.
They have chosen us to be their spiritual headquarters, and they are going to buy up our town.
When Gabe Cazares came out and basically called them a cult, we then we started saying "tell us more".
L.
Ron Hubbard has stated that Scientology has the money to buy cities and even countries.
That destructive cult has to know that sparking Clearwater is not for sale.
I'm glad he did that, but he paid a price for it.
- He did.
- The Catholic Church, the synagogues, the mosques.
If somebody wants to be critical of them, that's their First Amendment right, they can say it.
But in in the case of Scientology, if you are a critic of the church, you are their enemy.
And so, when people did speak out And of course, it was our mayor.
He was the front man.
He was the one "tell us, Mayor, you know, what's going on".
And then, we started reading what they were doing to him.
Scientology did some of the most heinous Fair Game tactics against Gabe Cazares.
There's a whole bunch of these documents that ultimately came out when the FBI raided Scientology that explain and detail the activities that were taken against him.
Scientology embarked on a campaign of Fair Game to cost Gabe Cazares his job, and to completely discredit and destroy him.
There were a number of operations that were conducted against Gabe Cazares, and those documents came out after the FBI raid.
And they had bizarre names.
Uh, they detail the exact steps that were to be taken.
These things are incredible.
Project Taco-less.
"It was a plan to dig up dirt to "ruin his political career and remove/restrain him as an opponent of Scientology".
Then, there was Project Speedy Gonzalez.
That was designed to ruin his career with a political sex scandal.
A fake college student wearing a St.
Pete Junior College T-shirt was to spread a rumor about Cazares having an affair with someone's mother.
Operation Italian Fog was intended to create documents that would "prove that Gabe Cazares was a bigamist" by planting fake documents that he was married to some woman in Mexico.
Perhaps the the most outrageous of all was called Project Keeler, where Gabe Cazares was set up with a fake hit and run accident in Washington DC when he was attending a mayor's conference.
They documented the fake hit and run with someone jumping out in front of his car on a dark road, and that was now going to ruin his political career.
These documents are perhaps only the tip of the iceberg.
That's not necessarily all that was done or all that was planned.
It's just the documents that were gotten from the raid.
And what was the time frame that Gabe was being targeted - and Fair Gamed? - That was years.
It was years.
They wanted to make sure that a lawsuit was filed.
A lawsuit was filed very quickly to shut him up.
And it ended up dragging on for - In federal court? - Yeah, in federal court - for a number of years.
- Yeah.
Gabe did sue them, and here's one of the fascinating things about it.
He hired an attorney that he met at his country club.
And this guy befriended him and said "Hey, hey, you know what? You should hire me to handle this case".
Merrell Vannier, I think was her his name.
That's his name, that's for sure.
And this guy was hired by Gabe This is a plant, a plant.
Yeah, screwed up the case, and and settled it for, like, a paltry fee, I think.
And it was only later that it was discovered that this guy was brought in by Scientology from, like, Alabama or some place.
- That was his job, to get - That was his job.
- Oh, my God.
- To befriend Gabe, and take the case.
So here you have the mayor of Clearwater.
He had every right to question what this organization was.
But then, they attack this man for exercising his First Amendment rights.
They then activate their policies of "Let's destroy anyone who's questioning us, "caught us in lies, and let's go after those people and utterly destroy them," which is Scientology policy.
But, really, they are They are leaving a destruction in their wake.
Everything that you see that has happened in the history of Clearwater, you can find the documents written by L.
Ron Hubbard that describe what that is.
You can go back and look at the policies where he says to bring governments into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology, and to control such agencies.
Like, turn them into Scientology activities.
And that wasn't that the objective - of Project Normandy? - Absolutely.
The orders, in effect, were occupation orders.
There was a secret Project Goldmine, and a Project Normandy, and these orders, in effect, very clearly, stated "move into this area", "find out who your friends are, develop them".
"Find out who your enemies are, destroy them".
And then, move into every possible area of community life, business, social, religious, education.
Project Normandy is just one example.
It's everywhere.
Scientology wants the police department and the city council operating for their benefit.
For the good of Scientology.
So back in the days of Gabe Cazares, all these Scientologists pulled a stunt that made it onto the front page of the newspapers of dressing people up in Nazi outfits and marching them down the street in front of City Hall to protest the Nazi-like treatment that Scientology was getting from the city of Clearwater.
What group behaves like that? Scientology.
- Yeah.
- True.
But it it was Sort of encapsulated the relationship between Scientology and Clearwater.
It was contentious, and Scientology did what they always do, which is attack.
- Just attack.
- Right.
For at least 20 years, Clearwater investigated Scientology.
And and a great guy, Ray Emmons, led this investigation of Scientology.
He had so much damning information about all the things that That they were up to.
And he considered it a criminal enterprise.
The Lieutenant, Ray Emmons, believed that the police department had dropped all education for the new recruits about how to deal with Scientology.
Every time there was a new group of officers that would come in, Ray would sit them down and say "this is what you need to know about Scientology".
Did he reach out to other agencies to Yeah, he went to the state officials, to the federal government, and said "We need help".
"We can't deal with this Mafia-like organization in our small town".
No one would help.
Well, we shopped it around to the federal people, to the state people, and the first question always asked by a prosecutor was "Will they harass me? Will they follow me?" "Boy, this is going to cost a lot of money".
It was a continuing fraudulent enterprise.
It still is to this day, as far as I'm concerned.
I talked to him, too, ultimately, and - Right.
- He was, like, "it's dangerous, it's dangerous" These people are dangerous, and they're dangerous to families.
They're dangerous to individuals.
They're dangerous to the community.
It's a dangerous organization in our midst, and everybody is ignoring it now.
That city commission hearing was a major watershed in the history of Clearwater, and actually, the history of Scientology, because it was the first time there had been, in the United States, at least, an actual attempt to uncover the truth about Scientology.
You know, I was here as the church person dealing with that, and that was a huge problem.
The Fair Game policy, he's had that as As long as I've known him.
That's the "attack the attacker?" That potentially could have put an end to this mess had the city then not over-reached, and tried to enact an ordinance which was designed to get Scientology out of Clearwater.
The ultimate outcome of that case put the nail in the coffin of the city's efforts by ruling that Scientology was right.
That this ordinance was unconstitutional and the city had to pay Scientology costs and fees of 600-plus thousand dollars.
At that point, the city of Clearwater basically decided "this is not a fight we can ever win," and - Crawled into a hole.
- Yeah.
"If you don't allow us to do what we want, here's what we're going to do to you".
- What happened to Ray Emmons? - Ray retired.
But he never stopped being concerned about Scientology's activities here in the city.
- Just like Gabe Cazares.
- Yeah.
Even though he had left office Was driven out of office, he never forgot what Scientology did not just to him - Right.
- But to the city.
In the case of Scientology, we would start hearing about additional properties that they were buying.
Um, and they started cherry-picking the areas so that they could be contiguous as best they can, so they could control, you know, the entire area.
And then, that spread to the commercial district, as far as downtown is concerned.
They were buying up everything they could.
Scientology started out with the two most prominent buildings in Downtown Clearwater.
The Fort Harrison Hotel, and the old Bank of Clearwater.
It then added the Sand Castle Motel, which was a big property on the water.
A very prominent, downtown landmark for "Expansion".
They purchased properties for staff to live in.
They purchased vacant land.
Everywhere you go, next door is another piece of the Scientology puzzle of downtown.
The jewel that Scientology wanted, Miscavige, in particular, was the aquarium.
When the property that is owned by the aquarium was announced to be sold to the city, David Miscavige wanted that property badly.
Not because there was any plan to do anything with the property, but because it sits across the street from the back of the Fort Harrison, and alongside the Oak Cove.
He claimed that he wanted to put a swimming pool on that property, but there was a swimming pool in the Fort Harrison hotel that nobody uses.
There's another one in The Sand Castle.
There's plenty of swimming pools around.
That began a big dispute.
The city negotiated and agreed on a price, and I think it was in the neighborhood of about $4 million.
The person that was in charge of selling the property said to Miscavige "there's a contract on it".
And Miscavige said "I will beat that price".
And went up to about 14 million.
- 14 million.
- Which is 10 million more than what it is.
Miscavige promised us the world.
"If you let me buy this property, I will renovate Downtown Clearwater".
Showed all of our commissioners.
"This is what it's going to look like, "but let me buy that piece of property.
If you don't let me buy it, I'm not".
The head of the Clearwater Aquarium, David Yates, was the one who said "We've got a deal with the city.
"I work with the city every day.
"No matter how much money you offer me, I'm a man of my word.
I'm sticking to it".
David Miscavige doesn't take kindly to people not complying with his wishes.
Scientology then started writing letters to the county.
To try and rescind his funding, saying he's overpaid.
And this is a scam, and they should be prosecuting him.
And that he's violating the tax laws.
- Like, it was astonishing.
- Yeah.
The seller said "No deal, it goes to the city".
Things pretty much shut down, as a curtain, when they dissed, so to speak, Miscavige.
Miscavige, now, he said "No renovation, no paint, nothing".
Right.
This is what a leader of a church is spending his time doing? He's punishing David Yates and the aquarium for not selling David Miscavige and Scientology the property.
The punishment is "I'm going to keep Downtown Clearwater a ghost town".
It's insane to me.
It's fucking sick.
If it wasn't for the empty storefronts, if there was more activity downtown, I think we would It wouldn't be such an impact.
What most people do is they avoid downtown.
- That's what they're doing.
- Yeah.
The fact that we can't go to restaurants like we used to be able to have, and wonderful, you know, places to visit.
They're buying up property, and and - And taking that away from us.
- Right.
They buy property that they have absolutely no use for and turn it into parks.
The do that because they want to keep the people that come in, the Scientologists that come in, from seeing the rest of the world, right? No, they want the rest of the world to not be able to see, and see what they're doing.
But also, being around, you know, "civilians," you know, is is very dangerous.
Today, Scientology has almost achieved it's objective of complete subjugation of Downtown Clearwater.
Of the city officials.
Of taking over vast tracts of the city, and turning it into the first Scientology city on Earth.
Betsy, let's fast forward to how you came to meet me for the first time, and what happened as a result of that.
Yeah, it well, you know, I got a flavor for what they can do to people.
Betsy Steg was never a Scientologist We became friends when she reached out on the blog, and I met her and her husband, and she suffered the consequences of befriending me.
You know, Mike and I met.
I had commented on Marty Rathbun's blog a long time ago, probably 2009, 2010, something like that.
But through that, I got to know you, and then, you had your wedding at my rental property, at The Cedar House.
And I thought it was a great wedding, it was beautiful.
Everything was seamed perfect.
But a couple days after that, I get a knock on my door.
I live in a gated community, and somehow, these people got to These people being Peter Mansell from the Offices from Special Affairs.
Peter Mansell, yeah, and a woman.
They said "we are sent here by the Church of Scientology" to tell me that they knew that I was friends with you.
They knew who I am.
They wanted me to know that they know where I live.
They know everything about us, and that they're going to do everything they can to destroy me.
"Harm and destroy" me was the words.
- What? - Yeah.
They continued on, saying that, "We're going to call" "every Scientologist in Clearwater, "and they're going to do everything that they can to destroy you".
I didn't even know what to do.
I I just, I was stunned.
- I was - In shock.
I yeah, I was just, like, my God.
And I shut Just shut the door on them.
- Yeah.
- And I called the cops, you know, because they're threatening to destroy me.
They know my kids and everything, you know? - Right.
- You know, the family, and everything.
So I make the call to the Clearwater Police Department.
I tell them, you know, "This is what they said.
It was Peter Mansell, and this other woman".
And the officer goes "I know who he is.
I'll go talk to him".
And he, months later, emails me back and says "Oh, yeah, I I called their attorney, "and I told the attorney "that they shouldn't do things like that, because it's bad for their public relations".
That's his email.
He's giving them public relations advice.
And at my expense.
If any of us had done that, we'd be arrested.
Recently, I had a guy that was chopping down my hedges at my rental property at The Cedar House.
He said that the city had him do this.
I think it was a Scientology neighbor who's now doing the Fair Gaming against me.
She wants to see what's going on in there.
Fortunately, I caught him removing my hedges, and chopping up the fence.
Un-frickin'-believable.
So I scoot him off the property.
I go home, call the cops.
I couldn't get them to respond to my calls once they found out that Scientology had been involved, or that I was Scientology's enemy.
So I took it down to them, wrote it up, gave them the statues that was violated, and they resisted taking that to the state attorney's office for prosecution.
They didn't want to do it.
They told me "Don't do this," you know.
And I said I was going to take it myself.
I'll drive it down to criminal courts, and have them do it there.
So they finally got the prosecutor involved, and at that point, it was a felony charge, and the judge issues a warrant to pick up the person who's been charged with a felony, and have him booked, fingerprinted, whatever.
They never did that.
It's a court order that the Clearwater police were ignoring.
They should do that in, what, a couple days? Execute the arrest warrant? So where's What's happening now? Well well, actually, I had to I called the state, and one of the prosecutors knows another guy whose brother works for the City of Clearwater Police Department, and they got him to eventually execute it six weeks later.
We had the criminal trial.
I got restitution.
They found him guilty.
Then, the city disclaimed any I mean, being involved at all in having him do it, but - Unreal, man.
- It's yeah, the fact that the Clearwater Police was so willing to ignore or just not execute a court order.
From threatening you to chopping down your trees on your property to be able to spy on you because you simply offered your home to Mike and Christie for their wedding.
Yeah, exactly.
That that is the basis of it.
And now, there's a neighbor that's constantly complaining to the city about me.
The woman who lives across from you, who lives She lives right next door to the Cedar House.
- To to your rental property.
- Yeah.
This is what a tax-exempt organization is spending their time on, is spying on you.
So disappointing that, as a citizen, I have nothing to do with Scientology.
I'm just minding my own business, and we have put up with the city playing along with whatever she wants them to do, so that's been that's the biggest disappointment for me.
Is there anything that she can do here, Dennis? I mean, it just seems this is a She did not sign up for a life of being harassed by this crazy Scientologist, and again, wasting resources of the city to work for them.
She could bring an action, but but the wave that would come back on her, and the financial obligations that she would go through, and the more harassment she would have in courtrooms based upon it, it would bring her to her knees.
Part of the problem, though, and a lot of people won't admit to this.
Uh, there's a certain amount of fear because of the last 25, 30 years, to see these things happening.
And I think, partly I now understand that you had asked other people to join us today, and they politely said no.
And I think, partly, it's because of they do understand how ruthless they can be, and they don't want to be next.
They don't want to be next.
You walk into Downtown Clearwater, and it is like walking into "The Night of the Living Dead".
- It's "The Dead Zone".
- Right.
Nothing is happening there.
Nobody's on the streets except people in uniforms, and that's it.
The sort of heart of North Pinellas County is dead.
If Scientology really cared about our community, they would be welcoming people.
The Flag Building in Downtown Clearwater is assessed at over $20 million.
It is tax exempt because it is their church.
What I'd like to ask if that went on fire, - who would put it out? - Right.
The Clear The Clearwater Fire Department.
Who pays for the Clearwater Fire Department? The taxpayers.
They're still going to put that fire out.
So they get that benefit, and yet, they're making money, and making money, and making money.
Yeah.
You guys, you know, really mean a lot to us for the work that you've done, and your instincts probably said "I've had enough of this crap with Scientology".
- Yeah.
- "I don't want - the Fair Gaming".
- Right.
But you're willing to do it.
I mean, it won't work unless people come forward, but if we live here, are they going to be protesting out in front of my law office tomorrow? - Maybe.
- There's safety in numbers.
If there were a hundred of you, they can't protest in front of 100 law offices.
And people, I think, need to start to understand that they do have the power to do something.
It's been a decades-long fight for the heart and soul of this city.
The real tragedy is that today, it's worse than ever.
Because it's still happening.
It's still happening.
It's not history.
This is the most insane place on Earth.
When it comes to Scientology, this is insanity HQ.
Yeah, there you go.
This is a big crime.
Lisa McPherson was a devout Scientologist for 15 years.
She got into a minor fender bender in Downtown Clearwater, and by the time the police came and the ambulance, she had stripped off all of her clothes, and was walking down the street naked.
And a paramedic came up to her and said "Why are you doing this?" And she said "Because I need somebody to pay attention to me".
Just as a person in this town of Clearwater, I don't think anybody really understood what was about to go down.
The last three days of her life, those records were destroyed.
Decades ago, the city of Clearwater was fighting back.
You had people willing to stand up and fight.
Bob Minton gathered a few of us to town to stand up to Scientology because the city wasn't.
We know that what Scientology does to people is not good.
Hey, Jeff, are you a woman? It's not right, it's not just.
It shouldn't be happening, and it especially shouldn't be happening here in, you know, what is supposed to be the freest country in the world.
You were in court, Stacy, when that was issued.
He was out on the street trying to get us arrested.
Go join your Nazi friends! There was violence and arrests, and it got ugly.
It got ugly for the whole town.
Got ugly for Scientology.
Bob was my hero.
He just came down to make our city better.
It was not a pretty ending.