McCabe letter to Miscavige

If the criminal charges are unjustified, then your talented entourage of lawyers can defend them on the merits. If, however, the charges are legally and factually appropriate, it seems unlikely to us that either the constitution or applicable statutes would bar a verdict against a corporation proven guilty of abuse or criminal negligence. We will, of course, carefully study the issues and case law presented by the Williams & Connelly memorandum to see if it alters our current perception of these issues.

It also appears to us that from the international perspective that you espouse, the “Church” and its members already have a significant history of being publicly associated with the criminal activity of “Church” employees. We are aware of public reports of past .criminal convictions of high level U.S. Church members as well as criminal charges involving members employed by Scientology in Canada (1992), Spain (1994), France (1996) and Italy (1997). As you know, the Church of Scientology in Toronto was found guilty of corporate criminal activity. The “Church” has also reportedly been the subject of suits by former members and the subject of negative comments by governmental studies in Germany, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Greece. We, therefore, do not believe that the negative association between the “Church” as a larger entity and the alleged criminal conduct of its employees can be attributed to our charging decision or that dismissal of valid criminal charges is appropriate to protect the “Church’s” current reputation.

Your suggestion that your proposal will give us “much more” than we could ordinarily obtain implies that we should be more concerned with charitable contributions than assigning legal and moral responsibility for what happened to Lisa McPherson. Certainly, some of the conditions contained in your “compliance program” might be worthwhile initiatives. If, as you suggest, they will insure that the situation will not recur, I question why in the three years since Lisa’s death they have not already been instituted and instead are offered as a bargaining position only after the filing of criminal charges against the corporation.