Original Scientology Press Release on Lisa McPherson

Martin Ottmann · Aug 2, 2014

Again, I am not sure if the following document is widely known. Nevertheless, it is certainly an interesting read. This is the original press release by the Scientology organization after the story on Lisa McPherson broke due to an article in the Tampa Tribune. I assume that the handwritten notes on the document come from officers working at the CWPD.

Ersatz · Aug 2, 2014

Love how different this one is from the internal memo.

DeathHamster · Aug 2, 2014

Gee, why would Sgt Andrews be so insistent about wanting to talk to people who had been quickly shuffled out of the country?

That press release is so full of bullshit, it could shut down the fertilizer industry in the United States for a decade.

thesneakster · Aug 2, 2014

Good Job finding that one, Martin!

Michael A. Hobson
Independent Scientologist

Ogsonofgroo · Aug 2, 2014

Nice digging there Martin! Thank you, I had not read that doc before, mind you I read a fuc-tonne of info on it years ago so may have derp'd it. Noice!

Statement is a prime example of cult-spin, so many outright lies it is beyond pathetic, as DH said above, it is a truck-load of fertilizer. One can only hope that the whole affair remains a thorn in their sides and that eventually there will be some sort of justice.
Truth? CoS was built on a pile of crap, no escaping it, and no matter their denials, it'll smell forever.

For ever and ever, Ramen.

1716 · Aug 2, 2014

"she was driven to see the physician of HER CHOICE, but died ENROUTE."

Such BS.

Ogsonofgroo · Aug 2, 2014

1716 said: ↑

"she was driven to see the physician of HER CHOICE, but died ENROUTE."

Such BS.

Yupperz, monumental piles of it.

thesneakster · Aug 2, 2014

*Speculation Only*

I am of the belief that Lisa McPherson was dead before she was ever transported. That would provide a
better explanation (in my mind) as to why she was not transported to a closer facility and taken instead
to one with a Scientologist on duty in the ER whom OSA likely hoped could be coerced into falsely claiming
she died there.

All David "Darth Midget" Miscavige (informed and remotely managing via his RTC Reps) and the local
OSA minions would have cared about is the negative PR of Lisa dying at the Ft. Harrison impacting the
income of the FSO (Flag Service Org).

Michael A. Hobson
Independent Scientologist

DeathHamster · Aug 2, 2014

This is total BS:

That was CoS's own shore story. Why would the police conclude that in advance of the coroner findings?

In fact I think that was part of their plan to lure Joan Wood into refuting their bullshit staph claims so that they could sue for release of her finding and turn their "dream team" of quack pathologists loose on it.

Local lawyers, prosecutor defend medical examiner January 24, 1997, Thomas C. Tobin, St. Petersburg Times

The Pinellas County legal community reacted Thursday with surprise and displeasure at the comments of a Church of Scientology lawyer, who called long-time medical examiner Joan Wood a "hateful liar."

The full statement from Los Angeles lawyer Elliot Abelson: "Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Hateful Liar. That's what she is."

His comments appeared Thursday in a Times report about the case of Lisa McPherson, a 36-year-old Scientologist whose unexplained death in 1995 while in the care of fellow Scientologists is being investigated by state and local authorities.

Local lawyers Thursday vigorously defended Wood, who drew Abelson's ire by sharing with reporters her interpretation of laboratory results from McPherson's autopsy.

"I've always viewed her as a person of the highest integrity," State Attorney Bernie McCabe said Thursday. "I don't think she would compromise herself for any particular case."

Wood concluded that McPherson was unconscious for up to 48 hours before her death, that she had no fluids for 5 to 10 days and that she probably had been bitten by roaches, or possibly ants. McPherson stayed in Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater for 17 days before she was taken in a church van to a New Port Richey hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Wood's statements contradict Scientology's version of McPherson's last days. The church says she was conscious and well cared for, and that church members did what they could after she suddenly fell ill.
Abelson accused Wood of hiding information from the church while releasing it to reporters "for her own purposes." He said he suspected anti-Scientology Clearwater police officers "got to her."

But Wood said she has been careful to respond only to questions based on information brought to her. She said she has released nothing in her confidential investigative file and has simply interpreted for reporters the results that already have been made public in the autopsy report.

In her 22 years at the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's office, Wood has many times been plain-spoken about death cases, often commenting outside the cautious environment of the courtroom.

Wood, a Pinellas County native who went to Boca Ciega High School, got her state physician's license in 1974 and started at the medical examiner's office in 1975. The State Medical Examiner Commission recommended her to succeed Dr. John Shinner in 1982, when she was 37.

Wood was appointed by then-Gov. Bob Graham, but her selection was controversial. Shinner wanted a nationally known pathologist from Indiana to be his successor. But other local officials wanted Wood, saying she was a known quantity and a home grown "team player."

Wood, now 52 and living in Clearwater, was graduated from the University of South Florida and the University of Florida Medical School. She is a husky-voiced smoker who can be found wearing blue medical scrubs at the office or a business suit on the witness stand.

Her post is unique. Wood serves at the pleasure of the governor and her office runs on county money, but she is neither a state nor a county employee. She is an independent contractor in charge of a $2-million budget, up from $460,000 the year she took over.

She earns $130,000, but $41,611 of that is compensation for running the county's crime lab. Each year, her office handles about 1,500 bodies and conducts 800 to 900 autopsies.

There have been few major controversies during Wood's tenure. The most recent was in 1994 when a judge found that Wood gave inaccurate testimony to a grand jury investigating the poisoning death of a child. The judge said Wood made an honest mistake.

Legally, Wood's duties are to objectively determine the cause and manner of deaths. Her office is not aligned with any other agency.

McCabe said she is also an investigator, which often makes it appear she is an agent of the prosecutor. "But I don't think that clouds her opinion-making process," he said.

Denis DeVlaming, one of the area's top defense lawyers, called Wood a "dedicated medical examiner" who is "paid far less than what she could make in the private sector."

However, some believe she is too often an advocate for the state attorney, DeVlaming said. "And that's a frightening thing for a defense lawyer."

But DeVlaming also said Wood testified for one of his clients last year, a rare event. Her credibility was the key to winning the case, he said.

Public Defender Bob Dillinger said he often has differed with Wood on the way she interpreted evidence, but she's never fabricated anything. He said he could hardly believe Abelson's comments.

"To say she'd just make up something like that is just outrageous," Dillinger said.

By Thursday, the Church of Scientology dispatched a different team of lawyers to handle press inquiries about the McPherson case.

Elliot Abelson is a sick fuck, who was too psychotic to remain a Mafia crime family lawyer, and should be locked up for good in the Miscavige Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

DeathHamster · Aug 2, 2014

thesneakster said: ↑

*Speculation Only*

I am of the belief that Lisa McPherson was dead before she was ever transported.

*not speculation*
Perhaps we could ask Mike Rinder to clarify his clarification?

When did she die? May 9, 1997, Thomas C. Tobin, St. Petersburg Times

Was it an honest mistake, a slip of the tongue? Or was it the naked truth, carelessly uttered on camera?
A top official for the Church of Scientology told a German television crew recently that church member Lisa McPherson died in a room at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater.

On its face, the statement marks a major change in Scientology's version of events surrounding McPherson's unexplained death at age 36. It came in the presence of one of the church's top lawyers, who agreed with it on camera.

The new Scientology statement would mean McPherson was already dead when other Scientologists put her in a van and took her to a distant hospital - a profound departure from what church officials have said previously about the case.

Mike Rinder, the Scientology official who made the remark, said this week it is being misconstrued. He added that the church's account has not changed.

But Ken Dandar, a Tampa lawyer representing McPherson's family, believes otherwise: "I think he accidentally told the truth."

Dandar, who has viewed the tape, is alleging in a Hillsborough County lawsuit that the Church of Scientology is responsible for McPherson's death.

In addition to the lawsuit, local and state law enforcement authorities are nearing the end of a major investigation that began Dec. 6, 1995, the day after McPherson died. Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor said investigators have viewed a tape of the interview, but he declined to discuss it further.

Medical examiner Joan Wood has said McPherson died of a blood clot brought on by bed rest and severe dehydration. She also contends McPherson was unconscious for up to two days before her death and had not had fluids in five to 10 days.

Previously, church officials have insisted McPherson died after she left the hotel. They have said she suddenly fell ill at the Fort Harrison, a Scientology retreat where she spent 17 days after suffering a psychological breakdown.

The church also has said McPherson was speaking to her caretakers and was capable of walking when she was placed in a Scientology van at the Fort Harrison and driven 24 miles to a New Port Richey emergency room, where a Scientologist doctor was awaiting her arrival.

According to hospital records, the Scientologists who drove her there told the medical staff that McPherson stopped breathing "just as they arrived" at the hospital.

When asked why treatment was not sought sooner and why she was not taken to a closer hospital, church officials have said no one on staff knew it was an emergency.

The television interview with Rinder was conducted by German broadcast journalists Mona Botros and Egmont Koch.

During a segment concerning the McPherson case, Rinder said: "The entire subject has become a sordid, sensationalistic media event which is capitalizing on the tragedy of the death of a woman who died in a hotel room."

Realizing the statement's implications, Botros asked for a clarification: "In a hotel room?"

Elliot Abelson, the church's general counsel, responded: "Uhm hum," indicating the statement was correct.
Rinder heads Scientology's Office of Special Affairs, which is responsible for public relations and legal affairs.

"If you combine his statement with the records at the New Port Richey hospital, it leads to the inescapable conclusion that they were trying to cover up her death at the hotel," said Dandar, the attorney for McPherson's family.

In a written statement to the Times this week, Rinder sought to clarify the remark. "The point being made for a German audience completely unfamiliar with this issue was that the only connection between the church and Lisa McPherson was that she had been staying in a hotel room at the church and that, had this occurred in any other hotel or with someone from another religion, it would not have been a media event. There is no change in the facts concerning the circumstances of Ms. McPherson's death."

Koch, reached Thursday in Germany, said the church made no attempt to deny Rinder's comment after the interview. "From our side," Koch said, "we were pretty sure they meant what they said."

In Florida, it is illegal to "knowingly" fail or refuse to report a death to the medical examiner. It also is illegal to disturb or move a body "or any article upon or near the body, with the intent to alter the evidence or circumstances surrounding the death." To do so is a first degree misdemeanor.

Scientology is a worldwide organization that has its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. Though the church has been controversial since it was founded in the early 1950s, it has faced sanctions and particularly harsh criticism in Germany in recent years.

During the recent television interview, Abelson, the Scientology lawyer, accused the reporters of being agents of the German government.

The television report was broadcast in Germany on April 7; the Times obtained a copy this week. The interview with Rinder and Abelson took place in Los Angeles at Scientology's Celebrity Centre, which offers upscale accommodations and church services to actors and other artists.

Besides McPherson's death, the German reporters dealt with several other issues in what was billed as a report about the "dark side" of Scientology. The piece contains scenes in which representatives of the Church of Scientology follow the television crew in cars and vans, and stake out their hotel room at night.

In his statement, Rinder said the church was taking legal action over "falsehoods contained in their story."

JohnnyRUClear · Aug 3, 2014

If lies were oil, this cult would keep us all on the road for pennies.

Ogsonofgroo · Aug 5, 2014

A wee bump.

Just because... disgusting abusive cult of shame and horrors should never be forgotten, should never rest, should never be able to paint over their crimes or lies or hypocrisy.

Fuck you Miscavige, fuck you dead Hubbard, and fuck you OSA shills. Just fuck y'all.

Remember, remember, all those passed and gone, the victims, the victims, of ol' LRon.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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Original Scientology Press Release on Lisa McPherson

Martin Ottmann Member

Ersatz Global Moderator

DeathHamster Member

thesneakster Member

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1716

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