BULVERDE — Beginning in 2011, a defector from the top ranks of Scientology said he was followed, confronted and surveiled at his Gulf Coast apartment by a group of men and women who called themselves “Squirrel Busters” and sought to expose him as a heretic.

Finally, Mark Rathbun and his wife, Monique, had enough and moved late last year to a secluded house north of San Antonio. Rathbun also distanced himself from church affairs, and for a while, it seemed their tormenters had called it quits.

But in July, after a Reconyx Hyperfire human security and surveillance camera was discovered hidden in the brush and aimed at their house, and when a strange personality who claimed to be a writer began appearing there as well, they realized no truce was possible.

“We came here for refuge and to disengage ourselves, and they followed us. They went to extraordinary efforts to pull this off,” said Mark Rathbun, 56, who once was ranked second to Scientology leader David Miscavage in the church hierarchy.

In response, Monique, 41, who's not a Scientologist, sued the church last week in Comal County, claiming she has been the target of a merciless campaign of surveillance, intimidation and dirty tricks.

The lawsuit names the church, its leader Miscavage, and two other men whom Rathbun claims were acting as operatives for the church's Office of Special Affairs.

The OSA, the suit claims, tries to “destroy anyone identified as an attacker of Scientology.”

A hearing is set for Tuesday in New Braunfels before District Judge Bruce Bower over a request for an injunction that forbids the defendants from surveiling or bothering the Rathbuns.

As causes of action, the suit alleges the intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.

It seeks both actual and punitive damages and is unlikely to be settled quietly, according to Monique Rathbun's lawyer.

“Monique is committed to going all the way with this case. She's had three or four years of her life ruined. Now that they carried it to their new home, she wants damages,” Ray Jeffrey said.

Karen Pouw, a spokeswoman at the church's headquarters in Los Angeles, who was asked for comment after being sent a copy of the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon, did not respond to an email and phone call.

Founded six decades ago by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the author of “Dianetics,” Scientology's focus is on self-betterment and spiritual advancement. But its history is ridden with conflict and litigation, and it wasn't until 1993 that the IRS recognized it as a tax-exempt church.

In recent years, under Miscavage's leadership, it has come under increasing scrutiny amid disturbing claims by former followers of authoritarian rule, financial exploitation and harsh treatment of those seen as disloyal.

In her suit, Monique Rathbun described it as a “notorious, multibillion-dollar cult.”

Last year, the church sued longtime church official Debbie Cook in Bexar County, claiming she had violated a nondisclosure agreement when she left in 2007.

But the legal attack backfired when Cook took the stand in San Antonio and gave lurid accounts of her mistreatment, including spending seven weeks in “The Hole,” at the church's international headquarters in Los Angeles.

At “The Hole,” she testified, people slept on the floor, were denied medical attention and were given watery “slop,” served from a big pot. She told how some detainees were forced to confess to things they hadn't done and sometimes were beaten.

One man, she claimed, was forced to lick a bathroom floor after objecting to violence against others.

While a church official dismissed Cook's testimony as “false claims and wild tales,” the lawsuit was quickly dropped and a confidential settlement was reached.

According to the litigation filed in Comal County, Mark Rathbun left the organization after 27 years in 2004, after being sent to the “The Hole,” and after he says he no longer could abide Miscavige's “illegal and immoral misconduct.”

He moved to the Texas Coast, where he met Monique and lived quietly until 2009, when he began speaking out against the church and meeting with other dissidents.

According to the suit, the church reacted by sending a team of private detectives and others to South Texas to make their lives miserable.

In Scientology parlance, a “squirrel” is someone who has left the church and become a critic or heretic.

The strange public activities of the “Squirrel Busters,” who wore comical blue shirts and helmet-mounted video cameras, drew the attention of media, police and neighbors, many of whom sided with the Rathbuns.

And according to the suit, Monique Rathbun, who never was a member and didn't speak out against the church, was subjected to a range of offensive and disturbing behavior.

In an affidavit, she described after-dark visits by aggressive strangers when her husband was out of town, unwelcome contact from church operatives with her mother, father, former husband and others, and the publication of “bizarre and sometimes vile allegations, including false claims that I am a sexual pervert.”

Monique Rathbun declined to comment further.

However, in her affidavit, she said that the church's campaign “has cost me my privacy, my peace of mind, and I believe is calculated to damage my relationship with my husband.”