1959-1995
Lisa died needlessly at the hands of Scientology.
| Lisa
McPherson
1959-1995 |
Lisa died needlessly at the hands of Scientology.
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On December 5, 1995, Lisa McPherson was dead on arrival at a hospital 45 minutes north of Clearwater Florida. According to the coroner's report, Lisa was underweight, severely dehydrated, and had bruises and bug bites (see the entire report here). Scientologists chose to pass three hospitals en route to New Port Richey Hospital, where Scientologist Dr. David Minkoff was on duty. They could have gone to Morton Plant Hospital, only six minutes away. Lisa's last address was listed by the police as 210 S. Ft. Harrison in Clearwater Florida, which is the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Scientology property. Lisa had been a Scientologist from the age of 18 to her death at age 36. According to Marc Headley's new book, Blown for Good, in 1995 Scientology leader David Miscavige publicly stated that he would supervise Lisa McPherson's processing in Scientology (p.177). In the summer of 1995 Lisa had some psychotic problems. In September 1995 she was declared "clear," (allegedly by Miscavige himself) which is a major accomplishment in Scientology processing. In November Lisa began displaying psychotic problems again. On November 18, 1995, Lisa was involved in a minor car accident. She was apparently not hurt, but she got out of her car and took all her clothes off and seemed mentally unstable. She was taken to a hospital where she was physically evaluated as being unharmed, but the hospital wanted her to be psychologically cared for. However, some Scientologists arrived and stated that Lisa did not believe in psychiatry, and she checked out after a short evaluation and left with the Scientologists against the attending doctor's advice. She went with them to Room 174 of the Ft. Harrison Hotel for "rest and relaxation" according to the church, but church logs from Lisa's stay there from November 18 to her death December 5 show differently. Lisa was put on the Introspection Rundown that Scientology uses to handle those who have had a psychotic break. Some logs are missing, and a high ranking ex-Scientologist has written an affidavit in which he claims that the church has in the past destroyed documents that might get the church in trouble. Marty Rathbun, a former high-ranking Scientologist, revealed that he was responsible for the missing records; "Rathbun concluded the notes had to go. 'I said, "Lose ’em" and walked out of the room,' he recalled, adding that the decision to destroy the records was his own." (St. Petersburg Times, June 22, 2009) Did Miscavige's supervision of Lisa's case contribute to her mental problems? Headley says as far as he knew Miscavige was not trained to be a case supervisor (p. 176). "David Miscavige had messed up big time. He knew it, and a lot of people that worked with him, for him and around him, knew it." (p.180) The family of Lisa McPherson sued Scientology and individuals involved for wrongful death, while Scientology claimed it did nothing wrong toward Lisa While settlement talks were completed after being forced by the court, (Civil Case settled 5/28/04) the case appears to still be active. Scientology had a web page (removed or moved) that smeared Lisa's aunt and attorney. On November 13, 1998, Scientology was indicted on 2 felony charges in Lisa's death. On December 6, 1999, prosecutor Bernie McCabe presented a response to Scientology's attempt to get the case dismissed (note: 250k). On June 12, 2000 the criminal charges were dropped against Scientology because (so the prosecutor claims) the medical examiner could not be counted on to confidently testify, even though the criminal charges were abuse of a disabled person and practicing medicine without a license. You can read much of the Clearwater police department's evidence and Scientology's logs of Lisa's stay, view some of the autopsy photos, and decide for yourself. Then ask why Scientology now makes members sign a waiver specifically against suing Scientology over the Introspection Rundown:
Scientologist OT 8 Dr. David I. Minkoff had his license suspended on August 3, 2001 for one year and was fined for prescribing medicine to Lisa without even seeing her at the request of Lisa's "caretakers." Scientology conducted a survey in the Clearwater area that shows 4 out of 5 residents have a negative opinion of Scientology. They tried to use this for a time as a reason for a change of venue, then withdrew the request. Why do Scientology web sites claim that Scientology and Clearwater have good relations?. |
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Copyright (c) Jeff Jacobsen. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". This site has no connection nor relationship with several spammers who email large diatribes about how Scientology has taken over the media, the government, or whatever. My site url is often included in their emails, which has resulted in me getting demands that people be removed from such mass mailings. I do NOT send out unsolicited emails to anyone except very occasionally I will send a press release to the media. I do not use other email addresses than the one shown on this site.
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