Rathbun mouths off
"Mark Bunker" <markbunker@lisatrust.net>
Wed, 24 May 2000 18:45:31 GMT

A particularly outrageous aspect of the Bob Minton trial was the behavior of Scientologist Marty Rathbun. On Monday, Rathbun and Rinder sat smugly, side by side in the courtroom, smirking to one another through the testimony.

Toward the end of Richard Howd's testimony I glanced back at Rathbun and saw him giving hand signals to the witness and actually mouthing words to him as Howd spoke. Rathbun saw me looking at him. I even pointed at him and mouthed my own words to him. "I caught you," I said.

Incredibly, Rathbun barely missed a beat and kept up the coaching because by now Bob's attorney was hitting Howd hard with the Fair Game policy.

I alerted Patricia and the others around me and we eventually notified one of Bob's counsel who saw Rathbun as well. In total, there were five people who saw Rathbun behaving this way.

We broke shortly thereafter and I notified the bailiff who alerted the court. When the trial started again after the break, the judge called the attorneys to his bench to confer about this.

Tellingly, the next day Rinder and Rathbun were in the courthouse for the trial but they did not appear in the courtroom. They watched the second day of the trial on a closed circuit TV.

Wog laws mean nothing to the Scientology brass.