Part 6: Attack the Attacker
A Lawyer Learns What It's Like to Fight the "Church"
Joseph Yanny represented the movement until a falling out. Now he says lengthy
litigation and mysterious harassment indicate he's become "Public Enemy No. 1."
(Friday, 29 June 1990, page A49:1)
Los Angeles attorney Joseph Yanny was driving through rural Ohio in the pre-dawn
hours in 1988 when he was pulled over by police, who had received a tip that he
was carrying a cache of cocaine and guns in his rental car.
A telephone caller had supplied authorities in Ohio with Yanny's name, the car's
description and license number, and the route he would be traveling to his
sister's house after a rock concert by one of his clients, the Grateful Dead.
Yanny was frisked and the vehicle was searched. No drugs or firearms were found,
and he was released.
Police later concluded that the tipster had given a false name, leading them to
speculate that Yanny had been set up for harassment.
And Yanny, though he can't prove it, is certain he knows by whom: his former
client, the Church of Scientology.
"I am," he said with some pride, "probably Public Enemy No. 1 as far as they are
concerned."
Today, Yanny and Scientology are locked in bitter litigation. Their dispute
illustrates how battles with the Church of Scientology often degenerate into
nasty, costly wars of retribution and endurance.
* - * - *
Yanny worked for the church from 1983 to 1987, earning, by his estimate, $1.8
million in legal fees.
His chief job was to represent Scientology in a suit it brought against a former
top church executive accused of conspiring to steal the church's secret
teachings. In 1986, Yanny scored a major victory for the church during a
pretrial hearing.
But then Yanny and Scientology had a falling out. He says he severed ties
because he disagreed with the tactics the group uses against its critics.
Scientology says Yanny was dismissed because his performance was "inadequate."
They call him an "anti-church demagogue."
Scientology lawyers sued Yanny, accusing him of switching allegiances and of
violating the canons of his profession. They say he fed confidential church
information to former members locked in legal battles with Scientology. He
denies the accusation.
They further accused him of submitting "extremely inflated" bills and of working
while intoxicated, an allegation that was subsequently dropped.
Since the litigation began, Yanny says, he and his friends have been the target
of harassment.
He says that his Century City law firm was burglarized four times and that
Scientology-related documents turned up missing; that he has been spied upon by
a church "plant" working as a secretary in his office; and that private
investigators have camped outside his Hermosa Beach residence and shadowed him
when he left.
Jon J. Gaw, a Riverside-area private investigator who has handled a number of
Scientology-related probes in recent years, said in a deposition that he used as
many as "seven or eight" investigators to conduct surveillance of Yanny between
June, 1988 and March, 1989. Two of his operatives took up residence on a nearby
street, Gaw said, and tailed Yanny whenever he ventured outside.
Gaw said he later learned that private detectives for another agency hired by
Scientology lawyers had been spying on Yanny at the same time. That agency
employed a woman to live next door to him.
The woman, Michelle Washburn, said in a deposition that she was hired by Al Bei,
a former Los Angeles police officer who has worked as a private investigator on
Scientology-related cases.
She said Bei instructed her to take notes on Yanny's "comings and goings." She
also sat by her window photographing everyone who visited him. She said she
regularly gave Bei the film and her notes. Bei declined to comment.
In Bellaire, Ohio, police who searched Yanny's rental car for drugs and guns
later discovered that a team of out-of-state private investigators in four
vehicles had been tailing the attorney.
Police Capt. Robert Wallace said one of the private detectives he questioned
initially tried to mislead officers, claiming the detectives were there to
subpoena someone in a neighboring town.
Wallace said the private detective then said he had been hired to follow Yanny
by Williams & Connelly, a prominent Washington, D.C., law firm that represents
Scientology on tax issues. An attorney who handles Scientology matters at the
firm declined comment when questioned by The Times recently. In a published
report in late 1988, however, he said he had no knowledge of the episode.
* - * - *
Yanny, for his part, is pursuing a strategy that is reminiscent of the
take-no-prisoners tactics of the church.
He and his anti-Scientology allies have submitted sworn court declarations
designed to discredit the church.
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury agreed that Yanny had not
submitted inflated bills to the church and awarded him $154,000 in damages. The
judge who presided over the case is now weighing whether Yanny should be allowed
to assist individuals in litigation against his former client, the church.
Yanny said he initially agreed to be one of Scientology's lawyers because he
thought the controversial church was being denied its day in court.
"There came a point where I was rudely awakened that Scientology wanted their
day in court," Yanny said, "but they wanted to assure nobody else got them."
The rest of this series which should be required reading for
anyone who wants to do something about $cientology is here:
http://www.lermanet.com/latimes/la90.html
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