HENSON REPORT - 19th April 2001 - Gonzo reporting from the Hemet front
20 Apr 2001
heffer@scientologylies.com

The morning started off with a big win.

Judge Wallerstein took up the motion we filed yesterday, and ruled against us again, taking only a few minutes. Afterwards, Jim asked him if the motion had been filed with the court, and, after a short interchange with his clerk, it was determined right there on the record that the motion and exhibit were filed. Suppressives everywhere were dancing a jig. Frank Oliver (not being needed) took off to the airport, and I believe he made a flight back to Florida this afternoon.

Later, at a break (for Robert Schwarz to reprint the jury instructions he had screwed up), I was outside watching Rosen, Abelson and McShane and a gaggle of other scientology lawyers and OSA agents. They were NOT happy campers.

Next my lawyer asked the Judge to reconsider mentioning Lisa McPherson, Ashlee Shaner and Stacy Moxon Meyer since all are mentioned in the postings which have been admitted. DDA Robert Schwarz spoke up, saying that my postings would be redacted to remove the reason I was picketing. It would be most interesting to see if they can get through the trial without any mention of why I was out there. It would be a win against me, because the DA's argument is that I was out there only to threaten the staff. It will be most interesting to see what the judge allows them to cut.

Before the break, Schwarz put in a major rant to the judge about my reporting on a.r.s and mentioning that this weekend would be a fine time to picket. He mentioned polluting the jury and doing the same thing I was accused of doing (picketing ???). Robert Schwarz also went into an OLD scientology reason not to picket, danger to the picketer. What Robert was asking for is prior restraint. He really should have known better. The judge was very sharp with him and told him *NO.* Schwarz tried to argue about it till the judge cut him off.

Jim and I had discussed the DA's proposal for dropping all 3 "victims" and adding Hoden. Jim spoke up (something the DA should have done) about arraigning me on the addition of Hoden. I had not been prepped on the fact that I could not object and so did. The Judge and Jim straightened me out, and so I pled "not guilty" after commenting that Hoden had already gotten one bite of the apple in a civil case in 1998. At this point we took a recess.

When we came back, we started in on jury selection. A Jehovah's Witness stood up and said she could not be fair to all religions. She was dismissed. Otherwise jury selection was long and tedious. The judge did most of the questioning. Eventually we got 12 and two alternates. I was impressed by the fact that more than half of the potential jurors were on the Internet. In spite of DDA Schwarz's best effort to seat the least knowledgeable, he didn't have much choice. The last one to be sworn in as an alternate was a lawyer.

On to opening statements:

One fragment of Robert's argument stuck. "Dissuade the victims from practicing their religion." This is a crime? In the context of a public discussion? He made the claim that I hate scientologists (I think--this was going too fast for me to make good notes). Of course, that is not the case. I have somewhat of a dislike for the church of scientology, but nothing against scientologists for that reason alone.

Schwarz mentioned that the case would involve CoS out at Gilman Hot Springs. There would be mention of GPS (the global positioning system), explosives; they would show from a patent that I knew how to launch missiles. At this point the judge stopped Schwarz and brought him around to the side bar. After, and somewhat shaken, Schwarz went on to mention that I was practicing psychological warfare, owned a cannon, had the ability to make incendiary devices and the animus to do so. He went on to say that their case would be based on Internet postings, reported chasing of buses, getting in front of the buses, and ended with proposing a contract with the jury that if he shows the elements of a crime they will convict.

Jim Harr gave an opening statement, which was in sharp contrast and about 1/3 as long. He brought up the first amendment and said the case was really about scientology's trying to stifle my right to protest.

So we got to the first witness, Frank Petty. Frank is *not* the person we have been thinking he was, and I owe an apology to him for thinking he was the guy I tagged as "thug2" or "heavy thug" last summer. The mislabel is *my* fault and was based on declarations from Petty and Richardson which I saw in the case file on me at the time Deputy Greer interviewed me. At that time "thug2" and Richardson were together walking with me every day, and I just assumed Frank was the other name. "Thug2" may have picked up on my error, because I think Edwin Richardson called him Frank from that point forward. Oh well, one of these days I will put Edwin on the stand and ask him who "thug2" is.

Even if I can get his name eventually it would be really an interesting task to try to figure out who "thug2" is. I strongly suspect this person was the one whom Shy David lost in slow freeway traffic north of San Diego.

Back to what Frank Petty (a former LAPD officer and employee of Talon protective agency) said. Schwarz asked him about a July 4 picket . . . (which I have not looked up but I think the date may be wrong). This was the one where Shy David took the GPS readings while picketing with Barbara and me.

"Did you see Mr. Henson with the GPS?

"No."

"Can you tell us the gist of what they were saying?"

"No."

At this point Schwarz tried to get the photo of the guard shack with the "target data" and some numbers on it introduced into evidence. Jim Harr objected that it had "no foundation"; the judge sustained; Robert Schwarz whined at sidebar it was essential to his case; the judge said that was his ruling; and the photo was not admitted.

(There is more and it is good. You will have to wait till after the trial because the judge is not permitting the release of transcripts until the trial is over.)

An *incredibly* discombobulated DDA gave up and dismissed the witness. Jim didn't cross-examine. Next on was recently added "victim" Ken Hoden. Ken had not been expecting the first witness to be polished off so quick (burp!) and they had to haunt the hall of the courthouse to find him. I had known, but had forgotten that Ken was an electrical engineer from Penn State. Sigh, what a waste! (EE is my profession.) After introducing Ken, Schwarz walked Ken through a long PR description of the Golden Era property using a huge (3-1/2 feet by 7 feet) map. The map was obviously not a product of the cash strapped DA's office.

Ken was led into a long description of how much disruption some 40 days of picketing caused them last summer. The transcript of this will be subjected to detailed analysis by the arscc effectiveness analysis section when we get it.

We ran into the 4:30 cutoff as Robert was about to enter into evidence two photos of the tunnels under the road.

Hoden goes back on the stand in the morning.

Keith Henson

Gonzo reporting from the Hemet front.