Gerry Armstrong--Declaration of Stacy Brooks Young 12-14-1994

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CT 7437

DECLARATION OF STACY BROOKS YOUNG

I, Stacy Brooks Young, declare as follows:

1. I am over 18 years of age and a resident of Seattle, Washington.

2. I was a Scientologist for nearly 15 years, from January 1975 until I escaped with

my husband, Robert Vaughn Young, in July 1989. From October 1975 until I left I

was a member of the elite inner circle of Scientology, an unincorporated

organization known as the Sea Organization ("Sea Org") which rules the Scientology

empire. Unbeknownst to the outside world, even to lower level Scientologists, the

head of the Sea Org and of Scientology, David Miscavige, subjects Sea Org members

to extremely abusive and degrading treatment, sometimes carried out directly by

him but often carried out by his key aides.

3. Such abuses include sleep deprivation, an enforced diet of nothing but rice

and beans for weeks or even months at a time, incarceration in Scientology prison

camps known as the Rehabilitation Project Force ("RPF") for months and sometimes

years; sexual harassment and discrimination, requiring women to undergo abortions

with the threat of losing their jobs if they refuse, enforced separation of parents and

children, enforced separation of husbands and wives, and denial of proper medical

care for people driven into psychotic episodes as a result of such abuse as described

above.

4. A year and a half ago, in July 1993, my husband and I were asked by several

attorneys to document the abuses we experienced and witnessed while in the inner

circle of Scientology. These attorneys were defending people who were being sued

by Scientology. Until that time we had kept totally quiet about our experiences

because we were aware of how Scientology intimidates and harasses anyone who

speaks out publicly about the abuses in this organization. We knew that if we began

CT 7438

to talk about what we knew our lives would no longer be our own, that Scientology

would apply their "Fair Game" doctrine against us. The Fair Came doctrine directs

Scientologists to lie, cheat and destroy anyone perceived as an "enemy." They claim

that Fair Game was canceled long ago, but they are lying. Because we had seen it

done to others, we knew that they would send private investigators to talk to our

family, friends and neighbors, that they would dredge up everything they could about

our private lives, in short, that we would be subjected to a campaign of character

assassination just as any other fascist political movement like Scientology would

conduct against its critics. However, we made the decision that it was too important

to make the truth known, no matter what the cost to our own privacy.

5. The Scientologists have lived up to our worst expectations and beyond. They

have stolen our trash, kept us under constant surveillance, sent out libelous

information, slandered us to friends and family, and done everything possible to make

us "shudder into silence," as Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard directed them to

do with critics. Our home has also been burglarized twice, and while we cannot

prove that Scientology was responsible, we pointed out to police investigators that

only our in-home office computers and disks were stolen, while other valuables in

the house were left untouched.

6. In July 1994, just this past summer, two high level Scientologists approached

my husband and me and offered to pay us money if we would perjure ourselves by

stating under oath that the information we have provided in sworn declarations is

false, which it is not, and agree never to speak or write another critical word about

Scientology again. These two Scientologists warned us that if we refused to agree to

their terms they would increase the intimidation and harassment of us, break us

financially, and ruin our reputations. We still refused to give in to their threats.

7. True to their promise, they have stepped up their campaign against us in the

last several months. It is continuing as recently as Monday, December 12, when a

CT 7439

private investigator called my mother and, under the guise that he was doing an

investigation of my husband, attempted to turn my mother against me with lurid tales

about my sex life. His attempt backfired, however, when my mother made it clear to

him that she does not care about my sex life and that his attempt at character

assassination made her sick. She demanded to know his narne and phone number,

and when he refused to give it to her she hung up on him. What they don't realize is

that people outside of Scientology don't adhere to their Draconian morality, which

especially in the Sea Org is so intrusive that people are sent to the prison camp for

their sexual practices (the only exception being Miscavige's hand-picked aides, for

whom these same laws do not apply). This same private investigator has already called

one of my sisters and my other sisters are now expecting calls from him as well. Our

family and friends are aware that this campaign is being waged against us and that it is

being done because Scientology has not been able to silence us any other way.

8. I have been shown an extract of a motion made by Church of Scientology

International in the case of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and

Geertz, No. 91-6426-HLH (Tx) (C.D.Cal.) in which CSI falsely alleges that my husband

and I committed perjury in certain declarations we have submitted for this case. The

extract is entitled Two Other Defense Witnesses Signed False Declarations. XXX[initial SBY]

XXX[initial SBY] The phrase "two other defense witnesses" refers to my husband and

me. It is false.

9. The extract is based on a certain "Rinder Declaration," submitted October 27,

1994, which is a wildly distorted, false representation of a series of meetings which

occurred over an eight-day period in July 1994.

10. In June 1994, two high-level Scientology operatives, Mike Rinder and Mike

Sutter, began to call me and my husband begging us to meet with them to "settle

our differences." These two people called one or the other of us nearly every day for

approximately a month, insisting that we meet with them and assuring us that they

CT 7440

would make it very worth our while to do so, clearly implying that they wanted to pay

us money to stop doing the legal consulting work that we have done for Mr. Graham

Berry and other attorneys whose clients have been sued by Scientology.

11. My husband Vaughn had no interest in meeting with them at all and told

them so in no uncertain terms. Rinder and Sutter continued to call him and even

arrived uninvited at our house in Corona del Mar, California, (where Vaughn was

finishing up some work in preparation for moving to Seattle,) to try to get him to

agree to a meeting. When it became obvious that Vaughn would not agree, they

began calling me at our house in Seattle.

12. Mike Sutter called me every day, telling me how important it was that we

meet with him and Rinder. Both Mike Sutter and Mike Rinder were superior to me

and had a tremendous amount of power over me when I was a member of the cult.

Sutter in particular had been assigned to "handle" me after Vaughn and I had tried

to leave the cult and had been persuaded to return. Because of this past relationship

which I now understand was based on mind control, I was still afraid of Sutter even

five years after leaving Scientology. I allowed him to engage me in conversation, and

by intimidating me he succeeded in convincing me that Vaughn and I should hear

them out. I then talked Vaughn into meeting with them.

13. My state of mind at the time was that I did not want to have anything to do

with Scientology any more. Although I did not realize it at the time, I was still under

the influence of the cult to the degree that they could still intimidate me, frighten

me, and "trigger" strong emotional reactions in me. Scientology was particularly

upset about the work my husband and I had done for attorney Graham Berry,

advising him about the destructive practices of the upper echelons of Scientology

and submitting a number of declarations relevant to CSI v. Geertz. As I explained

earlier in this declaration, because of our work for Mr. Berry and other attorneys,

Scientology considered us "enemies" and we became the targets of Scientology's

CT 7441

Fair Game doctrine, meaning that we had been harassed and intimidated relentlessly

by Scientology operatives. Although they attacked my husband much more viciously

than me, it upset me very deeply and frightened me. I did not want to have my

private life exposed and I did not want to see my husband's private life being

distorted and exposed and held up to ridicule the way Scientology had been doing.

14. Because of their relentless harassment and intimidation, I had made a

decision not to do any more work to expose the truth about the Scientology cult

and, indeed, had not done so for several months prior to the meetings with Rinder

and Sutter. I was also strongly pressuring my husband to stop so that we could regain

our privacy and peace of mind. I wanted Scientotogy to leave us alone.

15. It was in this frightened state of mind that I began to receive the daily phone

calls from Mike Sutter. Sutter assured me that the harassment would stop and made

it clear that Scientology would pay us a large amount of money if we would settle

with them. Sutter also made it clear that if we did not agree to settle with

Scientology, we would be subjected to even greater harassment than we had already

experienced, although he said that he was "sorry" and that " it doesn't have to be that

way," if we would only agree to talk to them. I felt extremely intimidated by his

phone calls and strongly pressured Vaughn to agree to talk to them. Although

Vaughn did not feel that they were being above-board about their intentions, he

agreed to it because he knew that I was very afraid of them and he did not feel he

should force me to continue in a situation that was extremely frightening to me.

16. Mike Rinder and Mike Sutter arrived in Seattle on Friday, July 8, 1994.

Vaughn also flew to Seattle on that day. Vaughn and I met with them nearly every

day for the next eight days. I was extremely gracious and cordial to both of these

Scientologists throughout the meetings, inviting them to our home and doing

everything possible to create an atmosphere of trust and honor. After reading

Rinder's declaration I feel betrayed and outraged that he has now perverted and

CT 7441

twisted things that my husband and I talked to them about during those meetings. I

do not fault these two individuals. I know that they are under the influence of

Scientology mind control and that the vicious lies Rinder has sworn to in his

declaration are part of the campaign of character assassination that he is under orders

to conduct against my husband and me.

17. However, I wish to correct the many lies and perversions of the truth that he

has told about us. I also want to make it clear that I went along with much of what

Rinder and Sutter said to us because I knew it would do no good to argue with them

about much of what they were saying. Someone under the influence of Scientology

mind control cannot change his mind about certain attitudes and beliefs, and I was

aware that because these two people were still under the control of Scientology it

would do no good to try to argue with them. Therefore, Rinder seems to have come

away from the meetings thinking that I agreed with what he said simply because I did

not refute it. The fact is that I did not bother to refute many things he and Sutter said

because I knew it would be a waste of time. Furthermore, my husband and I had

agreed to go along with them so that we could find out whatever it was they had to

say to us that was so important that they had begged us to meet with them for over a

month. The reason the meetings went on for so many days was that we kept waiting

for them to get to the point and weren't able to find out what it was until the eighth

day. (When we did finally get them to get to the point, we walked out.)

18. First and most importantly, at the very outset of these meetings we made it

clear that we would not perjure ourselves by recanting any statements made in our

previous declarations, that what we had stated was true and we would not now lie by

saying that what we had written was not true. Much to their dismay, we also made it

clear immediately that we would not in any way denigrate Mr. Graham Berry. They

tried to change our minds about Mr. Berry by suggesting that he had put us up to

writing our declarations, but we were emphatic in stating that he never did any such

CT 7443

thing and we would not say that he did. At the end of the series of meetings we

discovered that, indeed, one of their main purposes was to get us to discredit Mr.

Berry, who has been extremely successful in litigating against Scientology. A key

theme in the declarations they drafted for us to sign was that Mr. Berry had

orchestrated every aspect of our "attack" against Scientology. We refused to go along

with their character assassination of Mr. Berry.

19. Throughout the meetings they repeatedly suggested that we write

declarations but were vague about what they wanted the declarations to say. When

they would bring up the subject of these declarations we would repeat that we could

not write anything that would in any way suggest that we had lied, since we had not.

At one point Sutter asked me what I felt I would be able to say, and I replied that I

would be able to say I had written declarations as an expert witness for the defense of

Uwe Geertz and Steven Fishman and that I had written them in a way that would be

helpful to their defense. lt is utterly false that "when the Youngs -- especially Stacy

Young -- spoke frankly about what occurred here, they revealed that their

declarations, too, had been falsified." We repeatedly emphasized to both Rinder

and Sutter that nothing whatsoever in our declarations was false.

20. Many of the statements in the Rinder declaration are entirely false, while

others are treacherously misleading in the way statements we made are

misinterpreted and deliberately twisted to make me or my husband appear to be

dishonorable or unscrupulous.

21. It is completely and utterly untrue that "At the beginning of our discussion,

both of the Youngs stated that they did not enjoy manipulating the facts to attack and

embarrass their former religion, but that economic hardship had compelled them to

embark upon that course." Neither my husband nor I have ever believed that

Scientology is a religion and would never refer to it as such. Furthermore, neither of

us feel that we have manipulated facts. On the contrary, we have told the truth about

CT 7444

many destructive practices that are part of the Scientology empire in the hopes that

exposure of these conditions will lead to their being changed.

22. Rinder's opinion that "it was apparent that the reason they were talking to us

was because they found it emotionally distressing to be involved in an occupation

that required them to figure out how to manipulate and distort facts for use in

litigation" is contrived and utterly false. Moreover, I never said that I "could not stand

living a lie and wanted out." As I have explained in a previous paragraph, what I found

emotionally distressing was the campaign of harassment, intimidation and character

assassination Scientology has been waging against us ever since we began to speak

out about the abuses inside the cult.

23. Rinder's statement that I said we "tried to live off various family members

while Vaughn attempted to establish himself as a writer" is utterly untrue and a

fabrication out of thin air, as is the comment that "the family eventually balked at

that, and the Youngs were on their own." We never "tried to live off" any of our

family members and have been "on our own" all along.

24. Vaughn and I did have financial difficulties when we first left Scientology, as

do many long-term members of Scientology's inner circle (and any other totalitarian

cult, for that matter) if they are fortunate enough to free themselves from the cult's

psychological, emotional and physical subjugation. Vaughn had been a Scientology

staff member for 20 years and I had been one for 15 years. We had no résumé that

we felt would make any sense to the "outside" world, nor did we have any

references. We were considered "enemies " by Scientology, so we knew that

people still inside the cult would not say anything favorable about us. Since we had

had virtually no professional contact with anyone outside the cult for many years, we

had no references. It was literally as if we had just landed from outer space.

25. I am sorry that I told these two Scientologists about the hardships Vaughn and

I experienced as we were struggling to come out of the cult experience. I should have

have realized that they would utilize these details of our personal life in their

campaign to discredit us. Rinder has now taken this information and twisted it to

support his false argument that we are exposing the truth about Scientology to make

money. The Court should know that there are many, many other ways we could

make a living that would be much more enjoyable and more lucrative. But we feel a

moral obligation to do what we can to expose the civil and human rights violations

and serious abuses which this cult is perpetrating on its subjugated mind control

victims.

26. Rinder falsely states that "At one point in our conversation, Stacy broke into

tears and said that she and her husband only began consulting with and selling

declarations to Graham Berry because she and Vaughn were so desperate for

money. Stacy said she had been willing to say under oath whatever Berry wanted her

to say if it would result in getting paid, as she could not face continuing to live under

the financial pressure she and Vaughn were suffering. There was one point during

the meetings with Rinder and Sutter when I did, indeed, break into tears. It was

certainly not, however, for the reason Rinder states. I began to cry at one point as

Mike Sutter was attempting to address my concerns about staff conditions and

certain specific abuses I suffered while I was in the cult. Something he said triggered

some extremely painful memories for me, memories of being forcibly separated from

my husband, having our mail intercepted, being kept under guard to keep me from

escaping to find my husband, being deprived of sleep for days on end, being locked

in a room and interrogated for days at a time, being screamed at and terrorized by

Miscavige and his top aides.

27. For many former cult members, certain things someone might say or do can

trigger painful memories from their cult experience and they may find themselves

becoming very emotional at unexpected times. I found that simply being in the same

room with two members of Scientology's inner circle, two people who used to have

CT 7446

enormous power over me, stirred deep-seated emotions that I had not felt since I

escaped from the cult. Of course, I did not explain this to these two Scientologists

because I knew they would not understand. But certainly I was not upset for the

reason Rinder has stated. He is trying to paint my relationship with Graham Berry in a

scurrilous light but his accusations are utterly groundless and false. Mr. Berry never

told me what to say in my declarations and certainly never drafted a declaration for

me to sign the way Rinder and Sutter did for my husband and me. In fact it is the

Scientologists who will say whatever will further their own agenda, regardless of

whether it is true or not, just as Rinder has done in his declaration. They assume that

people outside of Scientology have the same contempt for the legal system as they

do, and that others are guilty of the same illegalities, such as perjury, which they

commit themselves as a matter of course.

28. Rinder states that "both Mike Sutter and I brought up how we could not

understand how they could tell so many lies in the declarations they had filed,

especially those in the Fishman case. Neither denied that this was what they had

done..." and repeats his character assassination of us as liars in the next paragraph

where he states, "We challenged them to explain how they could justify lying as a

way of life..." As I have stated earlier in my declaration, in fact my husband and I

both repeatedly told them that we had not lied in our declarations, although

throughout the meetings Rinder and Sutter did continue to characterize our sworn

testimony as "lying." The truth is that if either of these people ever admitted to

themselves that our testimony is true it would break the spell that Scientology has

over them. But Scientology has a self-policing mechanism built into its mind control

techniques which makes it almost impossible for someone under its influence to

break through. Rinder and Sutter both know that our testimony is true. They are

both acutely aware of the abuses we have described. But they are loyal Party

Members and are sworn to protect the Party at all costs.

CT 7447

29. Clearly the main intent of Rinder's declaration is to discredit the declarations

my husband and I have filed in CSI v. Fishman and Geertz. He seems most concerned

with a declaration submitted by me on January 3, 1994, in which I detail how

Scientology's fraudulent negligence in selling Steven Fishman nearly $200, 000 of

Scientology materials and devices could have driven him into a psychotic episode.

Rinder goes on for several pages, carefully reconstructing our conversations to make it

appear that I somehow admitted to him that what I wrote was untrue. The subject of

my January 3 declaration is extremely sensitive for Scientology and this is why Rinder

has spent so much time trying to discredit it. But what I wrote in the declaration is

true, and I attached many Scientology documents to prove it.

30. In fact, many people have been driven into psychotic episodes by Hubbard's

techniques, as Rinder well knows. Far from being "pure nonsense," what I wrote

about is one of Scientology's darkest secrets. I have personal knowledge of many

people who have been driven into psychotic episodes by Scientology's techniques.

Hubbard wrote precise directions about how to "handle" these people, including

the "Isolation Watch." Rinder is well aware of these occurrences but cannot admit to

it because it would violate Scientology policy for him to tell the truth about this

subject publicly. It would threaten his good standing as a Scientologist and might get

him sent to the prison camp, known as the Rehabilitation Project Force, where he

would be separated from his wife and children, kept under guard and forced to do

hard labor for 12 or more hours a day. Scientologists will do just about anything to

avoid being sent to the RPF.

31. Rinder falsely states that I admitted to creating a false impression in the

January 3 declaration about Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard's use of mind

control techniques. In fact, it is my firm conviction that Hubbard developed

extremely sophisticated mind control techniques, that he did so quite deliberately,

and that Scientology practices can be very psychologically damaging because of this. I

CT 7448

did not pull quotes out of context for the declaration as Rinder asserts. I would be

happy to provide more quotes from Hubbard in which he goes into even more detail

about how Scientology can be used destructively.

32. Rinder also distorted a conversation I had with him concerning Scientology's

"upper level" materials. I do know that Hubbard wanted these materials kept secret,

but I do not agree that they should be. People have the right to know that Hubbard's

science fiction story about the cosmos is what they can expect after they have been

sold many thousands of dollars of Scientology services. I do not consider a science

fiction story to be a religious scripture, nor do I believe (as Scientologists claim) that

there is any danger that anyone will get sick by reading these materials "before they

are ready." This story has been published in many, many publications over a period of

many years, and I have yet to hear of one person who has gotten sick from reading it. I

think the only reason the Scientologists are so worried about keeping these materials

secret is that they are afraid of losing money if people learn the truth. Certainly it has

absolutely nothing to do with religion.

33. Rinder attempts to use me to further his own agenda in discrediting other

former Scientologists. He falsely states that I think Gerry Armstrong and Larry

Wollersheim are both psychotic. To set the record straight, I do not think either of

these individuals is psychotic. Indeed, I think both are doing very well at recovering

from their lengthy experience with Scientology mind control. However, I do know

that Rinder and Sutter both think Gerry Armstrong and Larry Wollersheim are

psychotic. I also know that they think my husband and I are psychotic, along with

many other people who have come to their senses and left Scientology. This is

because Hubbard said so. He repeatedly stated that anyone who leaves Scientology is

psychotic. When I was still in Scientology and working for the Office of Special Affairs,

it was accepted as a basic truth that anyone who left Scientology was crazy, especially

anyone who left and then sued Scientology, which both Armstrong and Wollersheim

CT 7449

have done. The truth is that I consider Gerry Armstrong and Lawrence Wollersheim

to be good friends and very courageous individuals.

34. Rinder also attempts to use me to discredit the testimony of another former

Scientologist, Andre Tabayoyon. Rinder's version of my relationship with Andre and

his wife Mary is wildly distorted and is clearly an effort on his part to create bad

feelings between us. This is a technique called "Third Party" in Scientology, in which

someone deliberately tells lies about a person to turn friends against friends. I did

discuss an incident involving Andre, but I did so in the context of voicing concern

about a friend. I now regret ever having said a word and realize I should have known

he would use it to try to destroy my friendship with Andre and his wife, Mary. The

conversation was carried on at Rinder's urging, of course, and I was naive not to see

what he was doing. In fact, I value my friendship with Andre and Mary and think they

are both extremely courageous to have testified about the outrageous abuses they

were both subjected to while in Scientology. I hope they are progressing well in their

recovery from Scientology.

35. My husband and I never agreed to "write declarations to set the record

straight on points described above along with others." In fact we never did write any

declarations or even portions of declarations but rather waited until Rinder and

Sutter presented us with their own declarations, drafted by Scientology, for us to sign.

When we read them we discovered that they had drafted declarations which did

exactly what we had told them repeatedly we would not do. The declarations they

wanted us to sign were utterly perjurious, stating that we had lied about virtually

everything we have ever stated in declarations submitted in CSI v. Fishman and other

cases. Additionally they wanted us to sign a gag order which would have destroyed

our freedom of speech as well as our freedom of association by forbidding us ever to

speak about our experiences in Scientology or even to meet with anyone else who

was speaking about their experiences in Scientology.

CT 7449.1

36. The motion which is based on Rinder's declaration makes the wildly

ridiculous claim that we were in "serious emotional turmoil over what [we] had

done" and that we "agreed to execute new declarations undoing the false

impressions they had created for Mr. Berry." In fact, as I have already stated, we never

did execute any declarations for them at all, and the declarations they drafted for us

to sign were completely outrageous.

37. The truth is that when they showed us the declarations they wanted us to sign

I told them they were completely wrong to think we regretted any aspect of the

work we had done for Mr. Berry. Indeed, I told them in no uncertain terms that I am

very proud of the work I have done for Mr. Berry, because I feel it is extremely

important for the truth to come out about Scientology.

38. Finally, the motion claims that we "demanded" to be paid an outrageous sum

of money but that "the Church was and is unwilling to pay the Youngs to tell the

truth." In fact, they offered to pay us nearly $200,000 to sign their false and perjurious

declarations, but we refused. We told them that we would never sign their

declarations no matter how much money they gave us, because we would never

perjure ourselves nor would we become pawns in Scientology's vendetta against

Graham Berry.

39. Vaughn and I walked out of the meetings at that point, although they begged

us to stay. They continued to call us repeatedly over the next several days, imploring

us to meet with them again, assuring us that they would give us a " substantial

financial settlement," but I finally made it clear to them that there was no point in

continuing the meetings. Vaughn and I have made our decision to continue to

expose the truth about Scientology no matter the cost, and that is what we intend to

do. Rinder's blatantly false declaration is simply another part of their campaign to

destroy our reputations and our credibility, which is what they warned us they would

do if we did not give in to their demands.

CT 7450

40. During the course of our meetings Rinder commented that he couldn't think

of anything he wouldn't do to silence an enemy of Scientology, that as far as he was

concerned, the end would justify the means. Sutter and Rinder both made veiled

threats during the course of the meetings, making it clear that if we did not settle

with them Scientology would ruin our reputations, break us financially, and generally

make our lives miserable. True to their threats, Scientology is now doing everything

possible, including submitting perjured testimony to this court, to discredit me and

my husband. But all of the testimony I have submitted to this court has been true,

and it is extremely important that the information which has been submitted remain

on the public record.

I swear under the laws of the State of Washington and the United States that the

foregoing is true and correct.

Executed in Seattle, Washington, this 14th day of December, 1994.

[signed] Stacy Brooks Young
Stacy Brooks Young

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