Date: 26 Jan 2000 23:53:49 GMT
JimDBB jimdbb@aol.com

Mark at this hour (late afternoon) is at a Chicago Police station trying to retrieve his camera. He was arrested last night while standing on a public sidewalk out side of the Church of Scientology in chicago at 3011 No. Lincoln ave. He was charged with criminal tresspassing...an outrageous violation of his civil rights.

Two Chicago dentists, husband and wife, have been trying to get their money back from the Chicago Church of Scientology. They claim that they were swindled out of a lot of money. The Chicago Church of Scientology has been stalling them and giving them a run around. This couple has gone to the Org several times and each time getting more stories and run arounds. Mark Bunker, a television journalist in florida heard about this and decided to interview them.

This couple has filed a lawsuit against the Marcus Group. The Marcus Group is one of scientology's management front groups and this couple claims that they were lured into scientology via Marcus. The wife was conned into buying and taking the Purification rundown and recently discovered that she has liver damage from this and is now unable to get health insurance. Also, she is now unable to work. They have a son in a private school and the cult tried to use their son to recruit other students.

In the middle of this and out of the blue came some good news. One of the husbands patients, as it turns out, is one of Chicago's major malpractice attorneys. He heard about this and has told them that they have a 10 million dollar lawsuit and he may get involved.

The couple had an appointment last night at the Chicago Org to discuss the refund. This appt. was set last week. Mark Bunker was to come to their office in the morning to interview them. Out of the blue yesterday morning, a woman, pam Vilinsky, from New York shows up in their office with a check which she tries to get them to accept. Mark Bunker walks in and the woman takes off. Then they got a call from a chicago attorney who said that he had a check for them and he wanted them to come to his office.

The last time this couple went to the Chicago Org, the Org bouncer shut them out and they were locked out. As it happened there were several police officers accross the street who came over and subsequently offered to help them should they return.

Mark bunker decided to accompany them to their appointment to film any possible harassment. The three of them parked outside of the Chicago Org and were approaching the front door. Mark was standing in back of them near the curb on the public sidewalk. Suddenly, out of nowhere, two guys dressed in black rushed at Mark and grabbed him. They knocked his cell phone out of his hand, grabbed his camera and put him in handcuffs. The wife demanded to know who they were. They claimed that they were police and were arresting him for ciminal tresspass. the wife said," I don't believe that you are police, show me your badge." She said he pulled out a badge with a fuzzy picture on it and she was still highly suspicious. The two guys said that they were taking Mark to the station. The wife (she is feisty...we can all learn from her) said that she would not let him go until she saw an actual squad car. She was then threatened with arrest. So, apparently, a squad car was called and eventually there were 4 cars there. The cops started to get a bit nervous and one was heard to say, we don't want any more cars here.

Mark was taken to the station, his camera confiscated and he wasn't released until around midnight. It was bitter cold last night and the wife is now sick with a cold. After Mark was taken Away, scientologists tried to lure the couple into the Org. Sylvia Stanard had shown up from the DC Org.

Perhaps Mark at some point will fill in more details. His civil rights were certainly violated. It's clear that scientology hired two off duty cops to harass and arrest Mark. As someone pointed out, the cult probably wants to have it on record that Mark was arrested. In my opinion, Mark, himself, has a major lawsuit against the Chicago Org and against the Chicago Police.

It seems clear that the Chicago Org is PTS and is pulling in major trouble on themselves. Mark is a courageous and hardworking, dedicated guy. The couple involved in this are very courageous and feisty in standing up for themselves. They refuse to be abused and trampled on by the scientology cult.

There is much more to this story and maybe more of it will come out before long.

JImDBB