Lawrence

Guest





Guest The Diary of a Scientologist Quote Select Post

Select Post Deselect Post

Deselect Post Link to Post

Link to Post Back to Top Post by Lawrence on My name is Lawrence Toomajan. I was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1959, the youngest of 4 children. My father struggled financially over my mother's chronic health problems. One of my sisters was mentally ill. My other sister and my only brother abused drugs. We moved 6 times so, I went to 7 different schools before I got a high school diploma. It was hard to make new friends. There were constant upsets. I was blamed for things, abused, neglected, beaten and punished without good cause. My grades in school suffered. I was unhappy with the circumstances of my life.



In 1976, at 16, after reading a copy of Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard I was convinced it was the answer I was looking for. I wrote to a Church of Scientology in New York City for more information and got a letter back, a phone call and was invited to the church. I went there one weekday morning without telling anyone. I met Debbie Kagan Ward Murray, a registrar who worked for the Day (weekday) church. She took me around the church to meet other staff and public. I was given written exams, a personality profile test, things to read and an interview on an E-Meter. The end result was an estimate of 285 hours of counseling (called auditing in Scientology) for about $30,000.00 that would erase the sources of my problems forever. I took this information to my parents and they of course could not afford it. A week later Debbie Kagan Ward Murray came to our house unannounced to tell us how important it is that we receive auditing. She put $10 of her own money in an account under my name at the church to hold a place for me on a course called the Communications Course. I went back with $10 and repaid her the next week and started the course. But, after 3 days, I was taken off the course by a church ethics officer named Sally Allerdice and told I could not be at the church without a parent or guardian with me. So, my parents and I were asked into the church and after a meeting with 2 fraternal church staff called Sea Org members, I agreed to wait until I was 18 to do the course and see Sally Allerdice beforehand.



In 1977, I finished school, I turned 18, I called the church and I made an appointment with Sally Allerdice who was Day (weekday) church staff. I got there mid-morning on a Thursday and was told she was not there. Two other church staff Cathy MacMurray Ondrieka and Susan Christie Davis (a registrar and a treasurer respectively who worked for the Foundation [evening and weekend] church) saw me instead. They told me I didn't need to see Sally Allerdice. Susan Christie Davis stole my entire Day account and placed it in the Foundation church's records, falsely reporting that she and Cathy MacMurray Ondrieka had gotten me in, signed up, paid for and on a course, all by themselves. I was taken back to the course room by Cathy MacMurray Ondrieka and started the course.



I received an "Upstat Student of the Week" award on the course and was offered a staff job at the Foundation (FDN) church in the Hubbard Communications Office (HCO) as an Expediter (someone who helps anywhere needed until permanently placed). I was paid about $4.85 a week for over 40 hours a week. I did certain staff training, read certain L. Ron Hubbard books and was getting set up for auditing called a Drug Rundown. My immediate senior was a guy named Bob Cucarullo. He hung an oversized ripped dirty US Confederate flag over the window in our office as curtains. Visitors commented it was out of place.



In summer of 2001 I saw Bob Cucarullo crossing an intersection at 72nd St. & Broadway. We stopped and talked and he told me he left Scientology in 1981.



I needed a 2nd job to survive and many church staff worked under the table at other places. The Executive Director (boss) of the NY FDN was a guy named Raymond Baiardi who had an off the books pillow making company on W. 17th Street that paid church staff to work. I was offered a job there but I didn't want it.



Class XII is the highest auditor training level available to a Scientologist. In early 1978, I went to a church held event in New York City and was introduced to a woman named Karen De La Carriere (a Class XII auditor personally trained by L. Ron Hubbard). She was the guest speaker and made Scientology feel brand new.



Karen De La Carriere left the church in 2010 over what she termed widespread rampant church corruption and abuses.



I found a part-time job at a Scientologist owned furniture manufacturing plant on W. 20th St. called Loftcraft. I worked in the office there on weekdays and at the church evenings and weekends. Loftcraft was owned by Randolph Parsons (a NY FDN student). His wife Isabelle Szuldiner Falcaro Parsons (a NY FDN auditor) and two other Scientologists (George Goodrich and his wife Dina) helped manage Loftcraft. Per L. Ron Hubbard written policy, anyone with a terminal illness may not be audited, trained or on staff anywhere in Scientology. Randolph Parsons had leukemia and died from it while still a church member. But, he was allowed on services because he had a lot of money he could spend. My Loftcraft supervisor Marcia Valente Cruz (NY FDN staff), told me of that staff at Loftcraft that were Scientologists and the staff that were not. I was asked to use discretion if talking to the ones that were not. This was a policy at the church as well because people came in the church and asked for refunds of their donations. They were all treated rudely by the church staff so, I asked innocently who these people are that are complaining and was told "ignore them, they are fucking assholes". Isabelle Szuldiner Falcaro Parsons ordered me to go around the building one time and remove everything from sight that could be used to associate Loftcraft with Scientology (i.e. pictures of L. Ron Hubbard or his wife, books, insignia, magazines, etc.). A huge wall mounted board with all the names of the staff and their job titles called a Scientology Org Board, fell on me while being removed from a wall in the main office area and a large screw protruding from it gashed my arm badly. Loftcraft did not even offer me a Band-Aid for the inch-long deep gash. Marcia Valente Cruz (my supervisor) told me "Get your fucking TR's in!" TR's in Scientology stands for training routines or good communication practices. I used toilet paper from the bathroom to patch it up and then cared for it further when I went home at my own expense.



Loftcraft was cited by the City of New York for 65 active building code violations that forced the company into bankruptcy. Just before Loftcraft folded, Isabelle Szuldiner Falcaro Parsons fired me for being PTS. In Scientology, PTS stands for Potential Trouble Source and means a person connected to a person antagonistic to Scientology. If I were PTS my parents would not have helped me get a job at Lorftcraft. After Loftcraft went bankrupt the Parson's and Goodrich's moved to Los Angeles and opened New York George's Restaurant across the street from the church's Advanced Organization of Los Angeles (AOLA).



After my separation from Loftcraft, I was summoned to the Ethics Department at the church in NY for a review by an ethics officer named Nancy Levin (that still worked for Loftcraft). Bob Cucarullo requested the review by order of Raymond Baiardi (the NY FDN ED that offered me a job under the table I turned down). Nancy Levin said I was undesirable staff, for a group of reasons she recited to me and said that I had to petition the church's Guardian Office (GO) for permission to continue in Scientology. I was taken off my job and course to petition. I sent a written petition to the NY GO Assistant Guardian at the time, a guy whose name was Antros Savas. I had to make up a story stating I discovered based on the ethics officer's given reasons that I was not worthy of being a Scientologist and ask for permission to be one. I then waited for a response from the GO. It was degrading to me because I did not feel this way at all.



In 2017, Nancy Levin, was still working for the church but at their international headquarters in Hemet, California with her husband Neil Levin (former NY FDN training supervisor).



Raymond Baiardi transferred me to a Scientology Mission downtown on 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village to work while my petition was under review. The mission was owned by Mr. & Mrs. Howard and Mary Rower. I wrote letters, handed out literature, twinned with students on course, typed and ran errands.



In 1982, the Rower Mission was closed when Howard Rower was declared a Suppressive Person (anti-Scientologist) by the church and expelled. I stayed friends and in communication with him after he was expelled.



During one of my visits to the church Debbie Kagan Ward Murray (who now worked for the GO with her husband Pat Ward) asked me to work for the GO part-time. I agreed and signed a $10,000.00 bond that if I reveal GO activities to anyone I will pay the GO $10,000.00 So, I worked part time at the mission, the GO and the church while waiting to hear back on my petition (as I searched for a new job outside the church).



My activities in the GO were to type into documents secretly recorded telephone conversations of people that were giving the church a hard time obtaining licenses and permits it wanted. I listened with headphones attached to a tape recorder to the conversations and then typed everything I heard said by whom into documents verbatim. The documents were given to NY GO staff for review and then sent to people outside the church for a variety of reasons such as, to frighten them into giving the church what it wanted.



Meanwhile at the mission, the Rowers sponsored a GO fund raising event at their Hudson Street loft attended by church staff and public. I was there and my mother stopped by but my father stayed outside and waited for us. The FBI raided churches of Scientology in Los Angeles and Washington DC on the morning of July 8, 1977 and confiscated books, records and materials. Church staff were arrested and later tried and sent to prison including Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard. Scientologist Arte Maren who had just been released from jail following his arrest was a guest speaker at this event that night.



In 1978 (1 year after the 1977 FBI raids) the NY GO organized a public protest of the FBI. It consisted of busloads of Scientologists (over 200), traveling from NY to Washington DC to picket on the sidewalks outside the FBI building. The protest was televised on national TV. I don't support protesting the activities of the FBI. But, as a Scientologist, I was free to travel so, I was required to go. The trip was paid for by Howard and Mary Rower at whose mission on 6th Ave. I worked part time.



I was assigned as a Word Clearer in the church Academy (course rooms) if I was not busy in the GO. This is someone that helps students find and clear up misunderstood words they have in their training materials. I was never trained as a word clearer and the materials I word cleared people on were levels above my own training and auditing level. One of the people I was assigned to word clear was a woman name Vicky Farrara Marshall who was on the Hubbard Standard Dianetics course. She is the mother of actress Leah Remini. People came in the church and bought training and auditing at professional donation rates. The ones that bought training were word cleared by me to get them through their training faster and on to their next paid level. These students could then be used to audit new people that came in that paid for auditing.



I saw and spoke to Sally Allerdice (my original ethics officer) many times during these months and she never once inquired why I went back to course without consulting her first. I think it is because she really didn't care.



One afternoon in 1978 I got to the 4th floor of the church where the GO was located and the GO lobby was full of girls seated or standing. Another girl came out of one of the lobby's side office doors and showed the other girls her shoes and said "They're in style too!" They greeted her with "Hi Paulette!" and said to each other "Hey Paulette!" "Oh, Paulette!" "Paulette!" waving and laughing. At first, I just thought it was odd so many girls could be called Paulette.



Later, in 2002, I read for the first time about a former New York City investigative journalist named Paulette Cooper that Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wanted destroyed because of articles she published about the church. I had never heard of her before. The girl that came out of the side office door was Paulette Cooper's body double. The church employed her to run around NYC acting like Paulette Cooper so people would report back to Paulette Cooper what she had allegedly been observed doing, to make her think she was going crazy. The church also wrote a fake bomb threat to itself and signed it "Paulette Cooper" for which she was arrested. The FBI raids in 1977 uncovered proof of these crimes from church files. Once the FBI told Paulette Cooper she sued the church for $55 million dollars. I had no idea any of this was going on, with NY GO staff joking about it right in front of me and Paulette Cooper living not far away.



In 1983 the GO was done away with by the church and replaced by a new group called the Office of Special Affairs (OSA).



I never heard back on my petition to the GO and was told by Bob Cucarullo that it had to be re-submitted. I became suspicious so, I petitioned L. Ron Hubbard (founder of the church) instead. I did not get a response from L. Ron Hubbard (LRH) either on my petition even after 1 month, so I wrote him to inquire and told him to please send any response to me to my home address instead of the church. I heard back from LRH within 10 days. He stated, that he had already approved my petition and sent it back to me weeks before at the church and was surprised that I didn't get it. He sent me a copy of the missing letter containing the approved petition and told me to make the most of this good news and wished me luck. I later learned the reason I never heard back on the original petitions I submitted to the GO and LRH is because they were stolen by NY FDN ED Raymond Baiardi.



I got a new job full time outside the church with a NYC fashion designer that was not affiliated with Scientology and ceased going to the church, the mission and the GO. My mother told me they were calling the house looking for me.



I decided to go to Los Angeles and do the Hubbard Personal Ethics and Integrity Course at the American Saint Hill Organization Foundation (ASHO FDN). I wanted to be a more ethical person. I left my job in New York and went to LA. While I was in LA I joined the Sea Org at the Flag Operations Liaison Office Western United States (FOLO WEUS). This was an extremely impoverished church management office. I slept several to a room with other Sea Org men in a rundown hotel called the Hollywood Inn. I did not have a car and had to make my own arrangements to get to and from the FOLO WEUS to work, train, eat and be audited. For the more than one month I was in LA I was not paid anything EVER. The food served in the church was rationed and unhealthy. I ate most of my meals at New York George's Restaurant across the street from AOLA with my own money. I had to buy my own church uniforms and was assigned manual labor type jobs. I got one day off every 13 days provided I had very high production. My senior Grace Brown was paid $1.50 a week.



Here is an example of a production chore I was given to do. I was ordered to mop the floor of the FOLO WEUS with people walking all over it the whole time. The church had no money for detergent. The church had no money for bleach. I had to use plain water to mop the floor and it would not come clean. I asked Grace Brown how did she expect me to clean this floor and she said "Try using warmer water" because her senior was now complaining to her about me not being able to clean the floor.



I could not persuade Grace Brown to let me do the Hubbard Personal Ethics and Integrity course I had paid for at ASHO FDN alongside my Sea Org basic training. Instead, Grace Brown told me I was to be shipped to the Flag TTC (Technical Training Corps or full-time auditors in training) and told to go to ASHO FDN and use the money on my account there to buy an E-Meter and books instead to prepare me for the TTC. I felt like I didn't have a choice even though it was illegal for me to buy an E-Meter because I was not qualified per church policy to own one yet.



One evening I went roller skating in Hollywood instead of showing up for a staff muster. The next day I was immediately off loaded when I returned and given a 3-foot-long qualifications program of auditing and training to do if I wanted to get back into the Sea Org. I donated the books to the church because they were too heavy to carry in my luggage. I kept the E-Meter and brought it home as proof of my time in the Sea Org that was a total waste.



I got home and went to see the Flag Service Consultant in New York to discuss doing my Sea Org qualifications program or any other service at Flag. Because Flag is the only church in the world that offers all Scientology services available under one roof. The Flag Service Consultant's name was Kitti Georgius Kahn. I went to her office to speak to her. But, I did not get her name from her. She refused to give me her name. There was a NED for OT's event at the church in NY the following year that she was the emcee of and she told the whole audience her name at that event. That is how I learned her name. She would not open an account for me (even though the church accepts any sized donation from anyone). She would not give me any information about Flag services to read. She said to me point blank as if actually annoyed by me "Look. I'm really busy and I don't have time for this, OK?" She never asked me to come back and see her later either. She just kind of left me hanging.



In 1979, I got a letter from a NY FDN ethics officer, to come in for a new interview and asked where I had been all these months. I was interviewed by different ethics officers over a period of several weeks, one replacing the other, and each one with his or her own unique understanding of my "situation". I agreed to write up all my O/W's (harmful acts I had done and not told anyone about) and submit them to the ethics department. I was OK with this because I am not a wanted criminal or felon. But, this is basically the nature of the course I paid to do in LA that I never got to do. So, I came in every weekend for several months and wrote up O/W's. It took me a long time because I didn't have any experience getting a confessional in this manner. I was raised a Catholic and confessionals are handled differently.



Most Scientologists entertain the idea that they are joining the Sea Org one day for the duration of their careers as Scientologists, but they never actually join the Sea Org for some reason. In June of 1979 when I was doing my O/W write ups in New York, L. Ron Hubbard released a new church policy to all staff and public. It stated that anyone who has ever taken LSD or Angel Dust may no longer join the Sea Org. Such people can get auditing, training or be on staff at an org or mission, but they may not join the Sea Org. So, this policy effectively changed the way staff and public may interact with each other from that point on. When I was in high school I used LSD about 5 times. The truth of the matter is, it makes no sense to try and make up a reason why you are in Scientology if Sea Org members are in charge everywhere and this policy is in force.



When I was done writing up my O/W's I attested at the examiner on a meter that I had finished. One of the ethics officers named Anna Balash took over my "ethics cycle". I was 19 at the time. She stated her review of my O/W's had uncovered that:



1. I left Scientology (leaving the church is a crime in Scientology)

2. I was a member of a suppressive group

3. I attempted suicide

4. I was promiscuous

5. I had an invalid petition from L. Ron Hubbard



ABOUT POINT 1: I was only temporary staff awaiting permanent posting at both the New York Org and in the Sea Org in LA.



ABOUT POINT 2: In 8th grade, I wrote a letter to the Church of Satan of San Francisco, California for more information on their beliefs because their main bible was popular in bookstores and on TV at the time. Anna Balash said writing them a letter constitutes membership in the group. Any normal person knows it does not.



ABOUT POINT 3: When I was 16 I had smoked some pot once and took a small handgun my father owned with me to a park by our house to play with and the gun went off. I told Anna "I'm lucky I didn't shoot myself". She said, "You see, that constitutes attempted suicide and drug use". Did I smoke pot? Yes. Did I in fact attempt suicide? No.



ABOUT POINT 4: I had sex with a couple of different people while searching for a soul mate. Anna Balash told me I cannot be promiscuous and in Scientology at the same time. In Scientology, no physical contact is allowed between Sea Org men and women unless they are married, and if married they are still not allowed to have children and must get abortions if the woman becomes pregnant.



ABOUT POINT 5: My approved petition letter from L. Ron Hubbard was mailed by him directly to me at home. I never mentioned I received this letter to anyone at the church. I don't know how Anna Balash could have known about this letter unless she had seen the missing one LRH sent me at the church that I never received (the missing letter from L. Ron Hubbard that was stolen by Raymond Baiardi).



Even though this "ethics cycle" was not even a real ethics cycle, I was ordered to do the following if I wanted to continue in Scientology:



1. A complete life history write-up (not just O/W's, but every person and group I have ever been affiliated with in any way)

2. A notarized affidavit for each of the out-qualifications stating I agreed with them (this was to show I was crazy)

3. A notarized release dismissing the church from any liability with me

4. A Guardian Office World Wide Form 5 Green Form Security Check (in blocks of 12½ hours at current public donation rates)

5. A new petition to the GO



When done, everything would be sent to the GO as a package for approval that would take as long as it takes and cost as much as it costs to get approved. Per Anna Balash, this type of program must sometimes be done twice before the GO gives its approval. She took me to the registrar to start a cash flow for the audited Security Check portion of the program. The registrar was Raymond Baiardi, the former Executive Director of the church. Raymond Baiardi wanted $2,400. I gave him $22 total and got receipts from him but did not go back and give him any more money. I left it up to him to decide why.



In 1985 I got an apartment in NYC with a friend. Up until that time there were periods when I received 20 or more letters a week from Scientology asking for money for books, training, auditing and taped lectures. A NY Day church Treasurer named Joan Woods called the apartment to say I had a Freeloader's Debt of $1,100 to pay. I told her she was mistaken and should not call me and insult me in this way. My friend got on the phone and told her the next time she calls he will call the police. We never heard back from her again after that.



In June 1986 I moved to Clearwater, Florida for my own reasons where I lived and worked for 3 years. After I got situated there with a place to live and a job I felt ready and went to Flag for the first time. I was 26 years old. My registrar at Flag was a guy named Christian from whom I bought training and then signed up for intern auditing. I was at Flag every day for a couple of months. I ran errands for the staff, did training and wrote letters for the church. I lost my interest in going to Flag eventually because the bad situations that had cropped up in the past, some of which involved people that currently worked at Flag and were there when I was there too, never actually were addressed. I asked for a refund of my donations formally with a church refund routing form. They would not give it to me because I had waited over 30 days to ask for it. So, I just very politely walked out, quit communicating with them altogether and never went back.



I want to cover the 3 years I was in Clearwater in as concise a manner as possible.



Let me start by saying that one of the first people I saw at Flag when I got there was Kitti Georgius Kahn. She actually worked at Flag but had been temporarily assigned to fill in as the Flag Service Consultant in New York when I first met her. I saw Anna Balash, she was on her OT levels. I saw Sally Allerdice, the ethics officer from New York who now worked at Flag. There is one other person I wanted to mention and his name is Bruce Dobin (OT VIII, Class VI). He is not anyone I was aware I had ever had any kind of contact with, other than to have seen him around the church in New York once or twice. His brother Bart Dobin was the supervisor of the first course I did in New York at the Foundation church called the Communications Course.



After I stopped going to Flag, suddenly, I am told that I am no longer welcome in Boston Ronnie's (this was a Scientologist's owned diner in Clearwater on Cleveland Street) that I went to for breakfast sometimes where 2 of my neighbors (Christine and Thomas) worked that were not Scientologists. I was walking past there about a week after they told me to get out, and the owner approached me on the sidewalk and poked his finger in my chest and said "Hey! You don't like us Scientologists do you?"



I lived a few minutes' walk from Flag for 3 years, but I was never written to, visited or phoned once, by the church the whole time I was there, considering how they went out of their way previously to get in touch with me at all costs at all times for the wrong things when the closest church was 17 miles away.



I am not gay, but Kitti Georgius Kahn went around telling people in the church I was, out loud enough on purpose so that I would overhear "That guy's a queer!" "That's the guy, that's him, that one!" "I am afraid of him!" "He's on his way to a security check!" "He became homosexual!" "The case supervisor is very aware of him!" She was joined in her slurs by a Class IX case supervisor named Mark Campbell that I had seen at Flag but never had any communication with. I saw her on Pierce Street in back of the church bursting out laughing out loud to herself. My personal belongings were stolen from the registrar's office while I ran an errand for one of the registrars and no one in the office would say they saw them. Kitti Georgius Kahn later started reciting out loud in public things that I wrote in private notes I kept in a notebook that was among the stolen belongings.



An angry motorist, got out of his car and chased a church public guy down the street and punched him in the head and face in the front doors of the Fort Harrison right in front of me and then got back in his car and drove off. I was sitting across the street from Flag and a Scientologist came out of the Fort Harrison and exposed his genitals to me and then hurried back into the church. I was crossing the street and a Scientologist (a guy) walked right into me deliberately. And when I say walked right into me deliberately, I want to qualify that. I mean he walked right into me deliberately. I stopped myself, turned around and asked him if it was necessary that he did that. He said: "What did you do that made me do that to you?" I was at the Park Diner that used to be on South Fort Harrison Ave. in Clearwater and saw a neighbor of mine named Christine inside and we sat down and had lunch together. She was telling me that she no longer works at Boston Ronnie's Diner on Cleveland Street because the staff were fanatical about trying to get her to join the church. Suddenly, a man in a Scientology uniform walked up to our table, interrupted us and asked: "Did one of you just say something bad about Scientology?" He said he overheard us. Christine said he was seated with other Sea Org members a few booths behind us. He would not leave us alone until I told him to go back to his table and mind his business. A student from Flag showed up in a Scientologist's health food store and screamed at the girl behind the counter "You are going to pay for and get onto your next church service NOW!" on the top of his lungs. And when I say on the top of his lungs I mean on the top of his lungs from 2 to 3 feet away from the girl's face. The girl was visibly embarrassed and upset. The owner of the store came out and asked him to leave but the point is that these people were all already Flag trained Scientologists and these are just a portion of my observations.



I moved back home to New Jersey in 1989. My parents were getting older and I felt they needed me. Also, I started at this point telling friends and other people I knew not to support the Church of Scientology. I did not want any more money left on account under my name in any Church of Scientology anywhere either and I contacted the churches I donated money to, used up the balances and asked to be taken off of their mailing lists. Only two Churches out of the lot gave me a hard time (the Church of Scientology of New York FDN and the Flag Service Org). I called the NY FDN to inquire about my account balance and Raymond Baiardi got on the phone and said "Hi crazy!" and hung up. I called back and Raymond Baiardi said "Look. If this is about your declare or something why don't you just fuck off!" and hung up. I phoned Flag to inquire about my account and Kitti Georgius Kahn responded to my call and shouted into the phone that she didn't work there anymore and hung up.



In October 1993 my mother and I went to a Halloween parade in our town and then out to eat afterwards. At the place, we went to eat a NY FDN staff member named Jennifer McDonald Cox came in and was standing in line at the cash register. Suddenly she came over to our table. I had not seen her since 1978. She was the Nanny in the church Nursery and I saw her at staff musters only when I worked there, but I never had any real contact with her. She said she was still a Scientologist, and was training at the church in NY with her kids, and that she had not seen me in a while and was wondering what was going on with me and she had opened an art store on the highway not too far from there and was selling art goods. She told us to come and see the store. After she left, I explained to my mother how I knew her.



My mother and I went to look for her store about a week later and found it. It was in a location you might not normally look for or expect to find a business. All New York Scientologists worked there. Larry Broncato from the former Rower mission worked there. Susan Cox Mongiovi who was a student at the church in New York and was Jennifer McDonald Cox's sister in-law worked there. Angelo Mongiovi (Susan Cox's husband) would show up there. Larry Cox (Jennifer's husband) worked there. There was a lot of church traffic in and out of that location and it was listed under different names concurrently:



1. Profit Center

2. Art and Picture Warehouse

3. Discount Picture Warehouse



My close friend and his family have a family owned business walking distance from there for over 30 years.



I bought a picture of the New York City skyline from Jennifer McDonald Cox and when the clip on the back of the frame broke off I went to see her about getting it fixed. At the same time, I thought since she even surprised my mother with how well she remembered me after so many years, maybe she might know why I cannot get any information from the church in New York about money left on my account. She was friendly up until I asked her this. Then she got nasty. She said she did not want to talk about it, and that if I did she was going to ask me to leave and not come back. I kept quiet and left.



Jennifer McDonald Cox eventually became the Director of the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) in New York (the group that replaced the GO). She must have contacted someone at the church in New York about me, because in March of 1994 Raymond Baiardi called me. He asked me to come to the church and see him about my account on Sunday March 13 which is L. Ron Hubbard's birthday. I met Raymond Baiardi in his office around 3:30 p.m. on the second floor of the church. I asked about my account and he said he did not "remember this cycle of action" any more because his "recall is not that good". Two guys entered the room. The first guy said "I think it is time for you to leave". I said "I am in the middle of discussing something with Raymond, and I will leave as soon as we are through". The guy yelled "No, you are going to leave NOW!" I thought perhaps I should leave. I started to walk to the door with the guy that was yelling at me blocking it. He threw a manila folder he was holding in his hand to the floor and grabbed my jacket collar and leaped on to me so that I fell backwards and my head smashed into a desk behind me. I landed on the floor and he placed his knee on my throat making breathing or speaking almost impossible and pinned my arms to the floor. The second guy jumped on my legs nearly busting them to keep me held down. I saw other staff like Debbie Indurski peeking in the doorway at me smiling while I was on the floor. The church called the police reporting a maniac had forced his way into the church to assault someone but was being detained by church staff until help arrived. Raymond Baiardi patrolled the window in his office for a few minutes and then told the guys to let me up. I got up and walked past them, out the door, down the stairs, out the front door and the police were waiting and asked to speak to me. After we spoke they went inside the church to speak to some of the staff while I waited by their patrol car. Raymond Baiardi was nowhere to be seen but 7 or 8 staff members surrounded the police talking to them all at once. The police came out and told me to go to a local Emergency Room to make sure I was OK, because I was bleeding on the back of my head and then file a complaint.



After leaving the emergency room, I went to the Midtown North police precinct on West 54th Street in Manhattan, and spoke to 4 detectives for almost 2 hours before filing a criminal complaint against the church naming Raymond Baiardi as chief conspirator. I was contacted by the NYPD a few days later to go with them to the church and arrest Raymond Baiardi and/or the other 2 attackers if they were present. The detective told me I could meet him on a Sunday if that was more convenient due to the fact that I live in New Jersey. I told the detective I would rather not because of all the travel involved but that I would leave the complaint open for 1 year in case anything changed. The church NEVER filed a complaint on anyone as is expected of anyone that makes a call to 911 of the kind the church made.



In August 2000, I was curious about a Scientology book called "Clear Body-Clear Mind" I had seen on TV. Even though it is not legal for a church to advertise on TV. It was $17.10 at Barnes and Nobles in Springfield, NJ. Right around then my sister Lorraine came home from school one day and said a Scientology mission had opened about 1 block from her school on Morris Avenue, in Elizabeth, NJ. I went to see if I could get the book there. Bruce Dobin (OT VIII, Class VI), a former NY FDN staff member I had seen around the church a few times and once at Flag but never had any personal contact with, was the mission holder and introduced himself to me. I told him I wanted to buy this book and he said he didn't have one and offered to order it for me for $35. I said OK. He gave me a receipt and said he would let me know as soon as it came in and I left. I came home afterwards to find him on the phone with my mother whom he had called asking her all kinds of questions "Whose phone number is this?" "How old are you?" "How old is your son Lawrence?" "What is your son's real address?" "Who else lives there?" She said after she finished talking to him that he said he needed the information in order to ship me the book I had just ordered.



Bruce Dobin called me 2 days later to say my book had not come in yet, and he would ship it to me when it came in. He invited me to an open house party the following Monday night, that he and his wife Sharyn Mason Dobin were having at the mission. So, I said OK and went. There was an OT VIII guest speaker that spoke, then Bruce Dobin spoke, there was a Q&A period followed by refreshments and then requests for the guests to buy something. No one bought anything. All the people at the event were church members I recognized from New York. Only 1 person at the event was a genuine new public. Before I left, Bruce Dobin said he was going to Flag the coming Friday for two weeks and he will talk to me about my book when he gets back in case I didn't receive it yet. I called him about two weeks after that (3 weeks after I had ordered the book) and he said the book had not come in yet.



1 Week later Bruce called at about 10:30 p.m. I was on my front porch talking to my sister Lorraine. He called to say my book had not come in yet and that I was no longer welcome at the mission or to call there or engage in any way any of the staff there about my book or anything else because if I did the police would be called. He said data about me he got from the church prompted this decision but that he had been meaning to tell me this himself anyway for a long time. I called the next week to ask where my book was. I left a message on the answering machine as no one ever answered the phone when I called or even returned my messages. I called Bridge Publications in LA (the organization that prints all of the church's books) and complained it was taking over 5 weeks to get a copy of 1 book out of the mission of Elizabeth, NJ. I offered to send them a copy of the book purchase receipt as proof and was told that was not necessary. They apologized to me and sent me a copy of the book I ordered that arrived 3 days later from LA brand new.



The next week Bruce Dobin sent me a package with a letter attached to it. In the package was the book I had ordered from him. His letter stated that I was "no longer welcome at the mission" and that I was "bad news" and was "never to call again or show up at the mission for any reason". All of this is being said a second time, as he had already told me this in an earlier telephone conversation we had. He wrote the not welcome part twice in the letter, the second time it was written in big all capital letters underlined in the center of the page. He further wrote, that when my "free book arrives from Bridge" I am to "return it" to him at my own expense at the address of the mission because I am not "entitled to it" and because of the inconvenience I had caused him.



I donated both copies to the Linden, NJ Public Library and they threw them in the garbage because they no longer accept book donations. I was told this by the librarian when I mentioned to her that I did not see the books I had donated on the shelf.



Going back a bit, in 1983 I was having lunch in a diner in Elizabeth, NJ and a guy came in and sat in the seat next to me. I didn't know I had ever seen this person before anywhere. He physically nudged me and said to me "Hey buddy!" "Ever consider going clear?" "Ever consider joining the Sea Org?" "Did you ever get a letter from the international ethics and justice chief?" "Do you know who L. Ron Hubbard's original student was?" Those were his exact words. I said "Please, could we not talk about Scientology"? He got up, shook his head at me like I was a piece of garbage and left the diner. This diner is located exactly 1 block away from where Bruce Dobin opened a mission 17 years later. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then something in my head clicked. I realized that if Bruce Dobin was 20 years younger, and about 70 lbs. lighter, he would look just like the guy that came into the diner that day. It was him in fact. He knew in 1983 that I would not recognize him as someone I had already seen at the church. And he knew in 2000 that I would not recognize him as a diner patron that sat next to me up the street in 1983. Obviously, he likes to think he takes advantage of people for some reason.



The Elizabeth, NJ mission closed in 2005, even after moving to a new location next to an International House of Pancakes that was also owned by Scientologists. I remember seeing the Church of Scientology's Finance Police (Men in Black) in front of the mission one afternoon when I went past on my bike. I heard a story that they literally smashed Bruce Dobin's head into metal filing cabinets before taking his mission holder status away and then billing him for the fact that they had to show up to do that. My understanding is that the Finance Police charge $10,000.00 per day during their visits. Bruce Dobin also paid for all of the mission's expenses out of his own pocket right down to its utility bills the whole time it was open. After the mission closed the Scientologists that owned the International House of Pancakes sold it. While the mission was open, it and the International House of Pancakes owner's managed to adopt a small piece of land in Elizabeth, NJ and named it L. Ron Hubbard Park. It is about the size of a 10-car parking lot covered with grass in front of a low-income apartment complex.



In 2002, I began sharing my experiences in Scientology with others on the internet, including select law enforcement officials.



On Sunday February 9, 2003 I was home in my pajamas and the doorbell rang. I looked through the peep hole in the door and saw Bruce Dobin and a Scientologist named Dominic Sarlo standing on the porch. I went to the kitchen and called the police. One of them and then both of them started pounding on the door and kicking it. I held the phone up in the air so the officer on the other end could hear. When the police came I told the officer that Bruce Dobin is out of his mind and has been following me since 1983 in his car and that I did not even know who the other guy was yet, this is the just the first chance I got to catch them in the act. The officer wrote a report on both of them and then asked them to leave and not come back. Before the police arrived, the Scientologists were banging on windows, tapping on the window glass with keys, going in the mailboxes, ringing mine and my neighbor's doorbells, yelling for me to come out, shouting my name, for a full 10 minutes. I decided to file a complaint and took Bruce Dobin to court in April 2003. He showed up with Dominic Sarlo and a guy in a pin striped suit. After the letter that he sent me and the phone call that he made to me, what was he doing at my house? He could not answer other than to say that he had received data from the continental church that Lawrence had placed information about Scientology on the internet. I made him sign an agreement, that if he ever bothers me again this matter will go forward as a criminal prosecution. He agreed, signed it and I never saw him again. That order is still in force and active unless I ask for it to be dismissed which I have no intention of doing.



I am not a high ranking former member of the church that left, or a celebrity with attorneys fighting to represent me. I am just an average human being the Church of Scientology tried to get rid of for inquiring about auditing and training.



Is there any greater gift that one can offer another than their own immortality like the kind the church says it has to offer?



My experiences with Scientology are a tiny percentage of all reports currently being made about the church.



Lawrence Toomajan

June 2017