What's new

Charges against Eastgate dropped: Gee that sucks!

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
I have no more hard info than anyone else here. But you can bet the farm on the assumption that the CofS has not been sitting back twiddling their thumbs hoping it would all come out all right (for them) in the end.

Here is a link to that excellent article, Scientology's foolproof method of judge tampering. Anyone near to the CofS in a legal arena needs to know the info in that article. It is not only applicable to a judge.

Again, I have no idea of exactly what happened leading up to the decision to drop (some or all of) the charges.

Paul
 

scooter

Gold Meritorious Patron
Charges have been dropped for whatever reason but has that changed public opinion of either the cult or Jan Eastgate?:no:


Will there be a large proportion of people who believe Jan is innocent of the charges?:no:

Will this somehow exonerate the cult for its many, varied and now very well-known atrocities?:no:

I'm sure that sighs of relief have been heard at Int and Hemet as well as CLO in Sydney, but this is just another battle that the cult has managed to stop from being totally annihilated in. They have a lot more they are fighting and not winning at, even if they manage to buy off the attack at the last minute.:yes:

The real victories are the number of individuals who walk out of the cult and never go back.

And on that front, the cult IS being annihilated.
 

Cherished

Silver Meritorious Patron
Details on Lateline tonight. Like, in a few minutes.

No settlement. No, Carmen did not withdraw her testimony.
 

Cherished

Silver Meritorious Patron
Charges have been dropped for whatever reason but has that changed public opinion of either the cult or Jan Eastgate?:no:


Will there be a large proportion of people who believe Jan is innocent of the charges?:no:

Will this somehow exonerate the cult for its many, varied and now very well-known atrocities?:no:

I'm sure that sighs of relief have been heard at Int and Hemet as well as CLO in Sydney, but this is just another battle that the cult has managed to stop from being totally annihilated in. They have a lot more they are fighting and not winning at, even if they manage to buy off the attack at the last minute.:yes:

The real victories are the number of individuals who walk out of the cult and never go back.

And on that front, the cult IS being annihilated.
Excellent post, Scoots. That's how I feel too.
 

The_Fixer

Class Clown
In addition to Nick Xenophon, A Current Affair. Would they still be interested in this business?

I would agree with Emma as well. I would have assumed it would be in the public interest to know why charges of this degree of seriousness are dropped without an appropriate public statement.

The DPP should have been aware of a public interest in this.

But the Australian legal system is an entity unto itself. Many things happen here without any rhyme or reason. Our laws can be quite different to the US sometimes.
 

Feral

Rogue male
It must be that the victim has declined to testify, for whatever reason. $$ payoff is likely, IMO.

OTOH, the crime was in 1985 when the victim was 11 years old. The victim is now 38 years old and just might have psychologically moved on. Alternatively, the court might have judged the charge(s) too old to prosecute.

It's too bad that charge(s) have been dropped, but Scientology will still have the stain of the accusation in the public's eyes.

On the bolded; Nah.

One could jump to a conclusion like that, but the truth is far, far stranger. When LateLine airs in a few minutes more shall be made clear.

This is reminiscent of the failings in the Headley wage matter, the initial French case and the Fairwork Ombudsman's case against the cult.

It's enough to make you chew your damn leg off.
 

GoNuclear

Gold Meritorious Patron
Crap. Not sure what to make of this, not being a lawyer. They wouldn't have dropped it without good reasons, surely.

The worry is that after Kingi got off on assault charges and was behaving in a menacing manner at protests, and now Eastgate is off, the Sydney Scientologists might see this as an open invitation to be violent.

An ex-anon who was recently in front of the new Castlereagh St Org was chased and threatened by staff. It appears they think they are above the law. They're not of course, they were just lucky these two times.

I posted this link before, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOQzmtU1SjM&feature=player_embedded

What is the point? The govt. puppets for the real powers that be compromise themselves. This is part of the deal so they are controllable. In return, they get all sorts of kewl perks. At some point, they might even enjoy the activities that they have to partake in to be properly compromised. Nobody gets to rat out the rest of the elite vermin, should any of them get an attack of concience. Perhaps not all the evidence is as tightly controlled as they would like it to be, and, if some of the evidence of the compromising activity fell into the hands of certain bottom feeders such as the PI's that work for the Cof$, the Cof$ could get a free ride. Or, perhaps the Cof$ sets up certain key targets with child prostitutes and then goes to work with a camera. I don't put it past them.

Pete
 

Arthur Dent

Silver Meritorious Patron
I sincerely doubt that the magistrate, Lee Gilmour, was bought off. She was a hard-as-nails judge & well-respected in the Sydney court.

Excellent report by Lateline. There is no way Jan Eastgage "looks" innocent of this.
She "won" on a technicality and the press makes that quite clear. It is a huge PR fail. We all know the church will spin this into "another legal win" of might over right, nauseating as it is. It is no better than the Lisa McPherson outcome. A legal "win" but oh, so, so messy.

It is grossly disappointing to us here on the board. But their luck will not hold out forever. The law is the law and it is there to "protect" everyone to the extent that it can be upheld, cleverly manipulated or interpreted to one's advantage. That's just how the game is played. But one day....we will indeed see handcuffs. Cheer up, it will happen!
 

Freeminds

Bitter defrocked apostate
Mud sticks.

Charged with a crime that didn't exist at the time of the offense means you don't go to jail... but that doesn't mean you're innocent.

Jan Eastgate and the Church of Scientology will be tainted by complicity in child sexual abuse for years to come. It hasn't been disproved, and it won't now have a chance to be disproved.

This is a great advert for Scientology, and for how its 'tech' can help keep families together. Oh yeah. Sure. Well done, CofS... still managing to look creepy as hell... and still making the news. And it's never a 'good roads, good weather' story, is it?

Another nail in the Scientology cult's coffin, today.

Come back Jan: [STRIKE]all is forgiven[/STRIKE] we miss our favourite chew toy.
 

Kookaburra

Gold Meritorious Patron
Thanks for the video, Zhent.

It's the most disgusting thing I've heard in at least a decade. I'm really sick of the protective attitude Australia has toward its pedophiles and their accomplices at the expense of children, particularly those that suffered the sexual abuse.
 

Idle Morgue

Gold Meritorious Patron
What is SAD :bigcry:is that Jan Eastgate will now be Miss Cabbage's TARGET:angry:...he needs target's desparately because Scientology is DEAD and no one is coming into their Idle Morgues!:yes:

Jan may be here soon! I hope she does not get a "handling" - you know, the auditing SEC CHECK like Nancy Many received! I just listened to her videos..and read her story! Wow, those fuckers! Who was her auditor and has she died yet..because she truly is an evil, evil, evil person! How could someone do that to someone else and call that HELP...really????

Nancy Many needs to be revived here...I am out in the past year and had not known about her. This story is a "need to know" for anyone lurking out there. Know what could happen to you - "science of knowing how to know"! :omg:
 

TG1

Angelic Poster
What an absolutely GREAT Lateline news report.

That news report made it absolutely crystal clear to all viewers: THOSE SCIENTOLOGY CREEPS PERVERTED JUSTICE AND COVERED UP THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD. EVERYONE WHO'S EVER HEARD OF YOU KNOWS YOU DID IT. YOU JUST GOT OFF ON A TECHNICALITY THIS TIME, YOU TEMPORARILY LUCKY S.O.B.s. YOU WILL GET WHAT'S DUE YOU, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!

Or as Tory so simply and consistently says: Tick tock, tick tock!

TG1

P.S. Carmen, stay strong. You absolutely did the right thing by going public on this and refusing to remain silent about these crimes. Thank you.
 

Arthur Dent

Silver Meritorious Patron
How convenient that the original documents from when the crime was first reported could not be found.
Lucky I guess.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
A powerful statement from Bryan Seymour here:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/blogs/article/-/13512011/scientology-leader-escapes-trial/

The Telegraph today:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...d-in-church-case/story-e6freuzi-1226337017187

POLICE who laid criminal charges against one of the world's leading members of the Church of Scientology believed they were being used as part of a campaign by senator Nick Xenophon.

As prosecutors yesterday dropped the two charges of perverting the course of justice against Jan Eastgate, internal police documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws have revealed officers' concerns.

The charges alleged that in 1985, Ms Eastgate intimidated an 11-year-old girl and her mother into not reporting sex abuse allegations within the church. The girl's stepfather pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault in 2001.

When the victim went to Balmain Police Station in May 2010 to make a complaint against Ms Eastgate, she was accompanied by Mr Xenophon, the independent Senator from South Australia, and the media. Mr Xenophon had been pushing for an inquiry into Scientology beforehand.

When the woman returned four days later to Balmain Police Station to make her statement, she was accompanied by Mr Xenophon's then-political adviser Rohan Wenn.

The police recorded that ABC's Lateline, which had interviewed the woman, was screening the following week .

"(Senator) Xenophon is pushing for a senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology," said the police in their internal report. "Following this interview (with the woman), investigating police are of the view that this matter ... will be used as a political tool to push towards a Senate inquiry being held."

An Office of the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions spokeswoman said yesterday the charges were dropped "because there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction".

Ms Eastgate, who left Sydney in 1993 and is now international president of the Scientology-linked Citizens Commission on Human Rights, based in Los Angeles, said she had always maintained her innocence. Mr Xenophon denied he had been using the police or the woman because parliament had already refused his call for an inquiry into Scientology.

Village Voice:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/04/scientology_jan_eastgate_charges_dropped.php (just a snippet from the article, click to read the rest.)

Charges Dropped Against Scientology Executive Jan Eastgate
By Tony Ortega Tue., Apr. 24 2012 at 3:31 AM

UPDATE: Perth attorney Gráinne O'Donovan answers our question about the law. She says she was interviewed by Cannane, but time constraints kept her out of the piece. Here's what she just sent me...

In 1985 it was a criminal offence in New South Wales to conspire to pervert the course of justice. That is the charge that should have been laid. The decision to lay charges under the 1990 statute was a fundamental mistake one might expect from a law student, but not from a practising lawyer.

Some months ago, Carmen was given a list of names of witnesses that the police could not locate. I spent less than half an hour with the aid of Google and whitepages online and had one of those witnesses at the other end of the phone. I had another within hours. I provided that information to the prosecution at the time. Naturally, that dented my confidence in the adequacy of the investigation.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
As usual Village Voice has some great comments.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/04/scientology_jan_eastgate_charges_dropped.php
TheHoleDoesNotExist

Of course. It takes 11 months to go Oops?! Add to this the fact that John Travolta and Tom Cruise's names are dropped in her PR statement. If the U.S. media doesn't pick up on this story now, I'm going back to 3 spoons of cream in my coffee.

The U.S. media needs to expose her criminal ass now.

So now John Travolta and Tom Cruise, why not hire Jan as your children's watchdog? What's that you say?

Denise Brennan

Time and again organized scientology's money and influence is used to defeat a legal action against them (even if such an action is justified). That may be what happened here.

And while this thing about Eastgate is disappointing, it is the truth getting out about them that is more important than even a prosecution IMO.

Scientology completely depends on lies or otherwise hiding the truth in order to exist, much less expand. And, the most potent weapon to use in stopping Scientology and their abuses is clearly the truth out as broadly as possible.I think getting the truth out about Scientology is the most important thing to defeating it, even more important than losing tax exempt status or even getting it banned or a prosecution in this Eastgate matter.

History bears this out.

For example:

(i)Scientology was once banned after an inquiry in Victoria. That was a huge blow to them and it might have put them out of business in Australia!;

(ii)After getting major IRS tax exempt recognitions, Scientology and its then “Mother church”, the Cof S of California, later had their tax exempt statuses revoked. Now all their income in the USA was to be taxed and there would be no tax deductions for contributions to them. The CID and Exempt Org Division of the IRS pretty much figured they had licked Scientology.

Scientology was hated by people high up in both IRS divisions at the National level. Furthermore the IRS took the position that there was huge inurement to Hubbard and Scientology with its "fixed donations" was engaged in commercial, and not exempt, activities. Surely that would put Scientology out of business in the USA!

(iii) In the UK, after its own inquiry, there was a devastating ban that could have financially drained Scientology there and put it out of business. That ban was to prevent foreign workers from coming into the UK to work for Scientology AND to stop foreigners from entering the UK to study Scientology. Surely that would put Scientology out of business in the UK!

(iv) In France the very top dog in Scientology revered by Corporate Scientologists, freezoners and independent scientologists (good old L Ron) was tried in abstentia and found guilty of fraud. That was devastating and could have put Scientology out of business in France.

I suggest that counting on even truly epic wins such as the above for putting Scientology out of business is naive.

For example:

- in Australia not only was the ban lifted by the High Court there but it essentially recognized them as a religion there. A huge turnaround for Scientology;

- in the USA Scientology fought for decades and got even more substantial, even unprecedented, tax exempt recognitions in 1993. Their victory over the IRS was total and they even got the US government to write to other governments proclaiming their recognition of Scientology. Some of the people in the IRS who fought Scientology and thought they had them beat actually applied for and got permanent disability for what they went through at the hands of Scientology. A complete and total turnaround for Scientology;

- In the UK, they also fought relentlessly and got both bans lifted. And in the years they were fighting the bans they got foreign students and employees in anyway with elaborate ruses to hide the fact that they were there to partake in Scientology. Now foreigners can actually get visas to study in Scientology organizations there. Another huge turnaround for the bad guys; and

- in France they carried on and even expanded for a time. Hubbard avoided extradition and hid for the rest of his life while Scientology continued on there.

On top of all that, during the 1980s and 1990s, Scientology had some major civil cases to fight, some of which were potentially devastating. Attorneys Flynn and Leopold for example had huge cases against Scientology and Scientologists, not to mention later potentially devastating cases like Lisa McPherson’s.

They fought all these tooth and nail and either won through sheer attrition or settled and gagged almost all participants.

Later, in early 2000s one of Scientology’s top attorneys declared that Scientology had won the war of the internet waged through the 1990s and had no significant opposition left to fight.

The examples of major wins against Scientology that did not stop them are many. And this includes the largest FBI raids ever in 1977 which resulted in 11 of their people going to jail. They actually managed to expand after all that as well.

This is not to say don’t plan actions and carry them out to stop Scientology and their abuses. Please do! There can be great and epic wins there and surely there will be some.

But also realize that Scientology learned from the above and its corporate structure with the religious cloaking that helps cement it in place is in fact Scientology’s Maginot line. It is designed to be used to fight and defeat all frontal assaults against Scientology, its management and its assets.

With it they eventually defeat most government actions against them. And with it and all their financial and legal assets they tend to win most legal battles.

Most people will never have the resources to take them on and beat them. But their all powerful “Maginot line” can be defeated and that is by bypassing it as a very important strategy.

Most of us do not have the resources to take it head on but in this day of the internet we all can get out the truth.

The way you bypass Scientology’s strength is to attack their weakness. And again their weakness is that they depend on lies to expand or even to exist at any real level.

So the key strategy is just get out the truth in every possible way which results in four bits of hugely important win: 1) staff end up leaving and are not there to support their efforts; 2) their public leave in droves and stop funding them; 3) the "wog" public get inoculated from their lies by getting the truth which substantially stops them getting new employees and paying public to keep their businesses going and 4) local and other governments stop supporting them.


There are great things ongoing now in the government and/or legal arenas that potentially can have a devastating impact on Corporate Scientology. These should all be supported.An example are the Headly and other California employment cases. They have amazing potential impact which could force Scientology to change how they treat and abuse Sea Org and other staff. Yes push it but realize that all the legal loss so far in these cases, has been huge win in such things as Catholic blogs, news and the like to help inoculate future potential employee victims from even going into their employ in the first place.

By gallop poll Scientology is the most hated religion in the USA. And that is because the public constantly got the truth about Scientology and accordingly most want nothing to do with it.

I think that it is likely that most non Scientology-watching public do not know about the bans, this Eastgate matter or most of the legal cases. But they do know “Scientology is crazy”.

The California labor cases are now run by a major plaintiff law firm who is in it for one thing only and that is the money as they ensure no more is published about those cases (such as more wonderful posts by "Blownforgood").

That is fine and that is good strategy for them and I hope they make a fortune but counting on those cases resulting in some huge legal precedent to save staff around the country or at least in California is being hopeful I think.

Odds are Scientology will either win the cases or settle and gag the winners as part of their loss.

Advances in the internet, the sheer number of people with access to the internet and the launch of Project Chanology Anonymous and what followed from it have changed the game allowing individuals with little physical resources to really make a difference by bypassing Scientology’s main defense and attacking its great vulnerability with truth.

While Scientology can eventually take out millionaires or even huge bodies like the IRS, their antiquated “tech” is powerless to stop an uncoordinated bunch of individuals such as found in Project Chanology Anonymous and/or in the general critic community from getting out the truth.

IMO just continuing to get out the truth in every way possible is more important and lasting than anything else when dealing with them.

Don't be discouraged by things like what seems to have happened here or if you are not doing something you consider to be "big" in stopping them and their abuses. Just by getting out the truth and sharing right here we are each of us making a difference as organized scientology continues to implode, more people get free of it and its orgs empty.

It is sad that justice seems not to be done in this matter and I feel very badly for the women who are the poor victims here as scientology seems to wiggle off the hook of justice yet again. But I hope they can find some little comfort in the knowledge that their story is out around Australia and the world and there are at least some others who will not be hurt because they had the courage to come forth and tell their story.

God bless them!

CofS Exit Zone 1 hour ago

"Carmen Rainer also says the DPP's office told her them it didn't help her case that the NSW Police could not find the police who took her original statement."

How, is that even possible? This is a despicable turn of events. My heart goes out to Carmen, her mother Phoebe and all those who helped bring this story out in the open
 

Freeminds

Bitter defrocked apostate
Scientology can't change. A similar 'handling' will be delivered to another child victim. It may be being done right now. That's the sad thing about all this.

Scientology is vile, and it brutalises many people. While we're thinking about Jan 'got off on a technicality, but not innocent' Eastgate, let's not forget the other children who have been abused in various ways, by Scientology.

Starting with a secret audio recording of Wally Hanks doing his thing at Mace Kingsley ranch...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o94E3N9SURc
This is Scientology in action.
 
Top