14 Sep 2000

Keith Henson <hkhenson@netcom3.netcom.com>

Two days of court.

Yesterday I had a hearing in my bankruptcy case. Scientology is trying to convert it from chapter 13 to chapter 7, which has various problems for both sides. Of course, if I lose my house in Palo Alto due to going into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, I would have to live elsewhere. My wife and I don't have enough income to qualify for another place in Silicon Valley. Hemet seems like it would be a good place to live, at least it would cut the commuting . . .

At the hearing we had Helena, Rosen, Seid, McShane, and two or three other OSA handlers. The hearing went fairly well, the judge asked that they consider some kind of settlement, and commented on the number of lawyers. It seems to be clear to him that this is case of scientology using the courts to punish someone for an act that was rooted in warning the public about the cult's medical malpractice activities.

The surprise was the introduction of a computer printout from the court system in Riverside. It is now almost 24 hrs since I got that, and Graham still has not managed to make contact with someone who knows the situation is there. News when I get it, but I clearly did not get any letter from them, because I obviously would have posted any such letter. Anyway, the stuff that came with it was *amazing*. The declarations should be up on the net soon if they are not already. The same declaration of Helena included the reply I had filed in the Hurtado case, something I wanted to file here, but it had *already been done for me*. Thanks Helena, though why you thought this would help is beyond me.

I went right from court to the airport, because of the hearing the next morning I had for a protective order in the Hurtado case (I posted the motion papers). Stayed with Graham, and was to the court a little before 9 in spite of I 10 being silted up. Helena was there with Ava and a single OSA handler (or higher observer) which neither Graham or I recognized. For our side it was Graham, dressed nicely but informally, me in my dark suit and a Xenu tie and Graham's attorney, Kim Sellers in a very nice brocade looking jacket over a lavender blouse and matching shoes. Ava (aka Petunia) was in a dark green suit. Helena, looking like the Wicked Witch of the West was there in a dress with largish circles of blue, orange, and yellow.

Judge Ray L. Hart is a substantial presence on the bench. From the sun bleached hair and good physical condition, he looks like a lifeguard had put on judicial robes. He was, as I understand it, a Municipal court judge who got combined into the Superior Court. He put our case on last, which gave me a chance to see how he dealt with other cases. The first was a case involving a lease at the airport that had issues of "fishing expedition" depositions in it, I missed the second, third was two people in pro se in some sort of dispute involving a house. They were completely at sea as far as the law and procedure was concerned. They were going to trial shortly (shudder). The last before they got to Hurtado v. Berry was a case where the city attorney was making a hopeless summary judgment motion in an injury on city property case.

I was impressed by the judge's command of the details of these cases, and no less of the fact he had read *all* the submitted papers in the motion before him in Hurtado. (I have to wonder if he went out on the net for the URLs.) Scientology lawyers tend to bulk up their filing even when they are not being paid by the inch. I don't mind because most of what they file hurts them if judges actually read it.

The judge started out asking if we had any addition to those in the paper. Kim said a few words, and I was commented on the Riverside case which I had learned about after the papers were filed.

Then Helena started out by saying that this case had nothing to do with scientology. The judge looked quizzical. She then stated that I had copied material from another case where they had corrected a citation. The only place this could be is in the reply where I mentioned Rosen, and I did correct that one by adding that the $50k sanction against Rosen and Co had been reversed on appeal, but not the finding that Rosen made "false oral and written representation to the court." (Rosen did plenty of that in the bankruptcy hearing.) Eventually the judge cut her off and told her she was repeating what was in here papers. He then referred here to a letter from Graham's attorney suggesting that the deposition and documents demands be limited to the very narrow legal malpractice issues in the case: duty of care; breach of that duty; and whether that brief caused damages and if that breach caused damage (if any).

He made it clear that I could not give any admissible testimony regarding Grahams professional performance in connection with other clients. He thought a referee would be useful and suggested Judge Wayne, (the wife of the former DA). Kobrin objected on the basis of the cost. Everyone was asked to confer and to try and resolve the issues. Out in the hallway, Kobrin and Petunia then said they wanted a referee and that Wayne was not acceptable and proposed Justice Eggleson. Graham said absolutely not (I suspect he may think the cult as purchased Eggleson in the Cipriano case). Back in the court room, the judge was supprised that not only the cult refused to limit its deposition as suggested but now insisted on a retired judge as referee in *all* forthcoming depositions.

They were upset that Graham's lawyer has taken 10 depositions and they have only taken four. The Judge made it clear that he would not permit discovery to proceed based on Kobrin trying to exceed the number of depositions taken by Graham's attorney. He ordered the appointment of a referee and made it clear that if Kobrin and Petunia were back in court again in connection with the Henson deposition, he might consider sanctioning them for their conduct and reminded them that he had made similar comments to Mr. Moxon before he vanished from this case and about Mr. Moxon's objectivity in this matter. Kobrin made it clear she was not familiar with state court procedure since she litigates in Federal courts elsewhere in the country.

Eventually, we should get the transcript of the hearing. I will post it and you can see for yourself how this went, but at the end of the day, the judge insisted on a referee to being in the deposition and the questions they could ask were sharply limited to "percipient witness" question. This should result in a very short deposition. I will know by evening if they could find a referee who was acceptable to both sides. Otherwise, I will have to make yet another trip down here.

Because we were last, there was no morning left to picket in. So we came back to Graham's place to complete this reports.

Keith Henson

PS, writing this one was interrupted by news from Riverside County. The DA out there insists that I will be arrested if I picket Sat. I am not going to let the County government be a pawn and deny me my first amendment rights to picket the killer cult. There should be video coverage of this one, not to mention other media.

PPS, if you are within range, this one might be worth making a special effort to get to.