The Terrible Culture of Scientology: Part 3

this is the third and final part of the story of Larissa Smith daughter of Tim and Silvia de Waal and their struggles with Scientology and its influence on their lives last week we concluded with Larissa having tried to join the Sea Org finding it was not at all what it represented itself to be and finally getting away however she was still married and her husband was still stuck in the estate's project force or EPF the Sea Org form of boot camp what is Laurie Sidhu and how does she deal with this I went to stay with Cassie that's where I lived you know with Sean before we joined and of course she picked me up she let me stay that was my home pretty much um and I was just so depressed I miss Sean I wasn't allowed to talk to him because when you leave the Sea Org you are in lower conditions not in good standings have a freeloader debt which is what is that it's if you leave like when you're on staff or Sea Org member receiving courses or processing or training it's video because you're a staff but when you leave you get the invoice before you are able to even step foot on any Scientology land base so I've got a free loader debt and it was a whopping like $5,000 just for EPF courses and that's like supposed to be the pre program to get to the Sea Org but I have a freeloader did or I did [ __ ] anyways so I stayed with Cassie but I was so upset because I can't some people or like really hardcore in their beliefs so I'm like a DB now which is a degraded being Ron actually has a written policy they shoved it to me when all my doubt times you know where it's a reference he says something like if you leave the Sea Org or leave staff you are now considered a degraded being I was happy when I left getting in that car it felt like I was going free that's going clear like I felt literally ot it was so freeing you know I mean just to feel to be out of that same square block of people yelling screaming different orgs uniforms titles badges nasty on the freeway that was liberating so what about her husband what did she do next I was so depressed and Miss Sean so much Cassie was mid ot three she's not going to help me really as far as tailing me Sean will come out or if she even had the a never even told me who arranged her to come get me and why at 1:00 in the morning pretty coincidental maybe so I don't say goodbye to my husband I don't know but I wound up going back to Florida to stay with my dad in Sylvia to get through that time and to figure myself out I was like who am i a DB with no husband is trapped in the EPF and he's very unhappy and sick so I went back to Clearwater and two months later I get a call and Sean it's Sean he was FBD Fitness boarded out for his study bug so we're eighteen year olds or we might have turned 19 because of all the time but now we're actually married in the actual real world it doesn't just mean we can live together you know so that kind of shook us a little bit just the weight of that we're married forever like we can't be with anyone else so but we did live in Florida he worked for my parents for a bit we wanted to go back to LA which we did about six months maybe I'm assuming around there didn't last long we just decided we're going to break up not going to go through the actual you know legality of filing for divorce because we don't know anything about that we just broke up and so Larissa was on her own and found herself back at square zero only this time with a freeloader debt from Scientology for the EPF courses she had completed she would not be allowed to do any Scientology services until the bill was paid in full maurices aunt was a Scientologist in Clearwater and she helped her ISA get a job at a Scientology management consulting company called management experts Inc or m GE for short these consulting companies pay royalty fees to a division of Scientology called the world institute of scientology enterprises or wise and in return these companies promote Hubbard's policies and system of organization which is in use in all Scientology churches around the world wise companies sell a secularized version of this system which they call the l ron Hubbard management technology for consulting companies like m GE their main clientele are primarily dentists and chiropractors working at this company kept Scientology priorities front and center in Lewis's life because as larisa describes working in these companies is just like working in a Scientology Church so that brought me to get you know back into in that mindset if I have to pay this freeloader stat off because in order to be hired there I had to have that completely clean in good standings with the Church of Scientology it was pretty much ran exactly like an or was ran yeah so my aunt kind of put a good word in for me helped me by giving me you know a share credit card and paid my free letter debt off which was four thousand five thousand dollars I don't remember and that was paid off I was in the clear I was hired and started off doing reception and expediter work like running around doing favors for people getting coffees routing communications like emails or written you know orders to different people in different departments of the company same way it isn't no org that's expediter work so I was doing that at first eventually moved into Division four and my job was to schedule dentists and their office managers and whoever else you know was going to come from their crew or their team to attend seminars the company would hold and just to help them with their business boomer I think the was like going to power which is also like a highest Scientology condition of existence so I did that for a long time and I was paying my aunt back to pay the freeload ed off but things were going good but this company was brand like I said just like a Scientology work so there's you know ethics conditions every week you would have to turn in your production or how well you did for the overall week so for me it was how many clients or you know dentist's office managers I got scheduled to come to these big seminars they were supposed to do as part of their power program so if you're if you were down from last week whatever your target you know was to make you would have to apply from the ethics book by l ron hubbard and ethics conditions so if it's danger or liability or treason or if you're up stat meaning it's up you would do going to know that good conditions really came the power affluence normal or just normal which is basically you did a little better or maybe just to give an example like of a couple times I was down stat which wasn't really a big deal I mean I just didn't we didn't get a hold of the dentist's or they were too busy in their personal lives to you know make the commitment that they made with MGE to come down it was a lot of them are out of state so it consists of getting a plane ticket we would usually help booking their hotels but anyways sometimes they just didn't want to come in my stats would just be yeah so I would be put in a danger which in danger you'd have to basically look at what you might be doing wrong in your and you know what you're in charge of for your post or position your my job of scheduling so sitting here trying to think of what I did wrong and then basically they have you write your overts and withholds up I could have you know called doctor blah blah blah three or four more times and a little bit more persistent but as time went on more you know involved with the company kind of getting more pressure you know this is around the time when I was working for him GE the big the basics came out this rereleased all the basics it was a big push to make sure everybody was on the these basic books their courses buying them the sets there's Congress lectures re-released and then the whole like I don't know how many books like a dozen or more basic entry Scientology books rereleased and so we were having not only just applied these conditions for our job every single week whether they're good or bad you're getting pressured to go on course buying packages or and then even kind of like convincing everyone else to make sure everyone's in line and doing that and your family members and it's it's like not Scientology when you're working here but it is you know behind the curtain or whatever because you got people really involved with lies and this is a wise company so they did make me do of dobie write-ups and like I was saying the more I was there more time it wasn't okay just to write you know up overts and withholds on I should have called doctor blah blah blah few more times or should have I was late this one time you know it was more broader in my whole life you know and it actually I remember getting meter checked on my ows with Annie meter in a little back cubby office at the company so it was like a Newark there was no difference so randomly I guess the company this is just what I'm assuming happen that the company was overall in a down you know stat like there was all the departments were a little bit down because I was told by Sabri which is one of the executives that I needed to go and get pretty much like I don't know what she titled it or called it to me but that everyone in the company needed to get a meter check basically like an interrogation to make sure you know you know you don't have any crimes or anything juicy that the company shed knowing about that they don't so I'm just like okay not a weird but not a big deal I don't okay so I go into this interrogation process on the II mater with Sabri which is not my senior she's actually an executive of the company and she's asking me questions like do you have anything you've done wrong is there anything you need to tell me you have any hidden agendas simular I don't know exactly but do you have any crimes have you stolen from the company obviously I'm like no no no I haven't done any of these but then she asked me this one question which was do you have any intention or plan to leave the group like MGE and I didn't really I mean I had planned to maybe eventually get back to LA but there was no plan I wasn't saving up or wasn't anything but that thought flickered in my mind so I'm like I couldn't get past that question when I said no because I mean it's a broad question so finally I'm like well the only thing I can think of the only thought that read across my mind because she was going to let the question go you have to have a floating needle meaning you're not suppressing an eighth the hotter you know you're not lying so anyways she obviously red or solid I was reading something's on my mind so I said the only thing I'm thinking of is that I one day want to go back to LA there's no plan but I just I don't know that's and she's like okay she's prying a little bit more I'm assuming my needles not floating and so I'm just like yeah I just miss it a lot of friends out there and it's just the environment I want to be I mean I'm happy here I love my job I'm trying to do the best that I can I'm really part of this group but I what was the question why are we doing this again I just it's not even a real deal anyways after that she said thank you it's fine but they let me go because I had other intentions outside of the group like I wasn't fully fully a part of the team because I just happened to want to go maybe one day someday in the future and so that was just a big deal I was in the middle of paying my aunt back for my free liquor debt which is a lot of money for me I mean I was like 20 years old or something and it was a shock so it actually had one way it got me down lay quicker but it should have been like that I mean I didn't do anything wrong to the company I didn't because I had some maybe idea of hoping really to be back in LA I was fired I don't know yep all it takes for you to be fired in a Scientology run company is to think the wrong thoughts now that she didn't have any pesky job in her way she was free to get out of Dodge so I that I then started working to go back to LA Mike and I didn't take long I think it was 2 or 3 months maybe for max and I was back in LA you know and I moved into an apartment actually on l ron hubbard way in Los Angeles oh my gosh yes I did with a friend of mine named Laura Sam it's right there and all right Oh Thuy Jackie and then um as far as like who I hung out with and stuff like that it was the same crowd and it was kind of like a huge group of like scattered kids from a lot of backgrounds but there was some stable people that were there for many years and thankee I guess they call it clicks but I was pretty much back in the click of the holes young Scientologist crowd who were just partying every weekend going to same bars and doing the same thing but my roommate Larissa was working another wise company it wasn't right away that I got a job there but eventually that's what I wound up doing in LA ms I got a job where she was working it was some vitamin company wellness support network that's what they were there in Glendale so I got a job there and dim last long I was horrible I was partying with the same crew kids have our Scientologists rancher kids I mean there was like 100 kids that I were in the group that we would mingle around with and like in our tight friends are like 30 people but it extended so there were a few kids that were way more active than others like encore somewhere clear or said they were I don't know some were on staff somewhere on I got the mission and Lowe's Phyllis and stuff like that but majority of the ones weren't really active at all like the kids that I was like that I called my best friends around the time weren't but their lot of them were acts er members or ex staff or born in the sea or ranch or kids but not really pursuing it but still claiming you know that they are Scientologists so yeah the more active you were in it you were more gone you're busy you know so we didn't see them as much or they had the ethics presence they were the the they were going to cheat on us Rick okay ours for whatever who knows drinking or it wasn't good but I didn't hang out with those people that were really really active at that time yeah so I lost that job I was getting sick I was partying drinking dabbling in drugs it was not a good time right and I was trying to come clean to the friend that wouldn't be cool with like all the drinking and the trying drugs and stuff like that and but there was some people that were you know in that group claiming they're Scientologists and totally okay or whatever with this and doing the same thing so eventually I got caught up with that and the you know the girls my boss and I think she combed the company with her dad she's like that's enough you're done you're fired but um with my other friends you know I'm coming clean I've you know tried this drug just any times and they actually had me do conditions for them like a liability like or treason it was a betrayal after trust and I did that for like my best friend in the world who who lives in LA who's very much where was a Scientologist that I'm pretty sure she still is her name is Chelsea and her and her boyfriend at the time lived in a house and I was doing these conditions for them it was just weird how you do like I was cleaning out her closet and her her shoes and her and her boyfriend's stuff in it it's like yeah you don't do drugs and we knew that isn't a group that you don't do that and everything we learned her upbringing up drugs mess with your mind but that's common sense but to be doing kind of like a men's work personal amends like made Cinderella stuff for my best friend after I kind of confided her and her and got something off it was its shameful thing but it was the mindset how it when she that's how it was going to be handled in her universe was doing this a conditioned cycle and I did that and I kept my friends and during this time right I'm kind of like trying to get away from Scientology I mean I'm but I'm not I'm still it's part of the lingo it's part of my talk it's part of everyone I hang out with in their life we all were brought up in this but we're not active we're not like in the course rooms or we're not doing that this la scene was the epitome of the Scientology culture where you have a group of people who are in and out of Scientology hardly doing any services and yet as very sassette talking the talk and trying to walk the walk she spent a couple of years in that way in this partying and drinking lifestyle and was also dating men within the Scientology community which is how she met Romero not Eris his whole family was in the c-word and he had been raised by Seawork members at a place called the PAC ranch in Santa Clarita California because the Sea Org did not want c-word parents distracted with child rearing they assigned a few Sea Org members that could be spared to oversee raising the children of Sea Org members in Los Angeles at this location remote from the main sea org base in Los Angeles parents were sometimes allowed a few hours a week to see their children but for the most part they lead separate lives it was up to those who were in charge of the PAC ranch to raise and educate these children yet none of them had university teaching credentials or were in any way qualified to do what they were doing as a result most of these PAC ranchers turned out in pretty rough shape as Larissa describes deciding to go out with Romero may have been the worst decision of her life we had this really chaotic relationship hanging out with these Scientology kids drinking all the time at the Hollywood parties or whatever random places and he had a bit of a drinking problem and we broke up like a thousand times it was one of those on-and-off hot/cold relationships and I wind up getting pregnant and just it was a very bad spot we were broken up like we were like hating each other we want to go see the chaplain at CC um kind of deal but um it's hard for me to talk about that this part it really is but basically I got pregnant and then that was a big deal because we got together to like talk about it you know he wanted me to get an abortion he was like I don't want to be with you or your crazy [ __ ] whatever psycho and I was like that to him you're psycho whatever the bottom line is we finally had a good enough talk to agree to keep the baby and try to co-parent maybe we'll work it out together but we agreed we're not going to drink we're done with this game right here like this drinking all the time just acting like high school kids just BS stuff so um we went to a few doctor appointments and checked on the pregnancy you know I was drinking and I had done drugs in that same time frame so first step was to make sure the baby was healthy and of course baby was healthy and we're all on board we're getting vegetables I'm getting my body healthy to have a baby one night he decides to go party with his friends even though was against our agreement to not drink anymore especially because he reacts in a way gets really aggressive and it was hard to be around belligerent kind of drunk guy it wasn't that he was super super emotional drunk or lovey-dovey everyone loves him guy but it was one extreme or the other but you know I just I needed a night alone and I'm pregnant you know I'm like I don't know two or three months pregnant at this time hormones are kicking and I just need him to go away and he made an agreement he would only drink a beer or two and I'm staying with the same friend my best friend Chelsea at the time who lived in Los Feliz with her boyfriend Mike King and I was actually living in a with another friend who rented out a side apartment kind of deal for their house and he warms up getting drunk and he comes back to that apartment he knew I was staying at and just immediately starts banging on the doors to come in and crying not making any sense asking me why am i doing this to him and it got escalated I was asking him to leave he's drunk go to sleep please try to keep mighty arse in it's funny because my friend Chelsea even came downstairs prior to him coming home to Jemmy with the cata apply my TRS with handling romero when he's drunk like it was it was just so weird and I was I was trying to just feel like like basically keep your confronted with him if he's belligerent drunk and being an [ __ ] just say it's okay go to sleep everything's fine don't fight with him don't react and I was so terrified of him coming home because he's so hard to deal with and he has shown little violent he never had hit me before this or anything but little violent tempers are just kind of being rough and I didn't know how to deal with it so I asked her that night before I gave him permission to go drink I'm like what do I do if he comes home you know in this situation or in this one and anyways that's just a little thing to show where how we would navigate through our thoughts and solutions to these kind of problems or to do drilling with your friend on keeping your TRS which is fine but it's just also cut it like gives him permission in a way because we have to handle that whatever um he comes over and he's of course screaming punching things being crazy crying like from angered grief to yelling and punching walls and stumbling up the stairs they had a staircase that goes up to a loft apartment thing and so I try to do the TR thank you to my TRS and grant it's midnight and I'm tired and don't feel good um he winds up just after all this yelling and me finally losing my TRS I am crying now I'm telling just get the hell away from me go away now and yeah things I don't know how to I don't really know how much detail but he winds up just pushing me over and kicking me and the whole arguments he wanted me out of his life he wanted me to have an abortion which I was saying I'm not going to this week we had a name picked out for this baby like I am growing in affinity for this and I thought we were in this together and it was just a like he I know he just snapped and so right when I refused I'm like no I'm not going to get an abortion this is our baby like what we just saw its heart beating on the monitor like that just threw him off the edge I mean that's when he started shoving me or getting really close to me and I pushed him down and he was so drunk he stumbled and hit his head and then he started jumping on me and kicking me over and over again on my stomach he like got on top of me and punched me to make me try to make me have an abortion pretty much him killing it so I'm screaming bloody murder hoping the cops come or something hoping the neighbors will hear me and he had thrown my phone out of my arms before because I was trying to call the cops I mean what I knew of it is she described it she was hiding under a bed and this [ __ ] came at her with boots and was kicking her in the stomach screaming he was going to abort that baby I mean that's a twisted individual I don't care how much beer he had or whatever he was doing that night that's just sick yeah um but luckily Chelsea and Mike who stayed home it was a weekend night they stayed home that night in the next house the main house they heard me screaming and Chelsea had been with me earlier to drill me what to do in this situation so both her and her boyfriend ran up into the apartment and found or I was screaming and we were in a back bedroom of the loss because they ran up the stairs so they're like what the hell's going on and Romero jumped up at that point and he ran towards them and someone put him in a chokehold I don't remember I think it was Chelsea and he left and drunk and rage and I called the cops so this is what happened is I called the cops after that and if there's any kind of call to the cops on a domestic dispute the state will pursue that person and that's what happened that Detective really wanted to hear from Chelsea and my king because they were the ones who ran heard me screaming we're in the you know at the scene or whatever and saw him and me after so and they were totally fine they had talked to her at least two times when I was still in touch with them even after I left which is only maybe a week after this thing happened a week and a half max they were really in touch with me making sure I'm okay how am i doing how's my pregnancy and that whatever updates on Romero that they had he left the scene or whatever drove off and that rage drunk after the incident no one could find Romero so I knew where Mario's brother worked at one of the orgs so I got Romero's brother's phone call phone number he was in the sewer and I told him I said you find him or I'll find him I will come to LA and bash his head with a baseball bat so you better find him within a couple of days because if I find him first he's [ __ ] dead that was sort of one of my communications I was pissed remember how pissed I was uh he was yeah there were people holding him back I mean we were on a trip when we found out we were actually up north husband the counselor hence visiting the woods in Georgia and got the call and uh yeah he was ready to get on a plane and people had to talk him down it was tables and chairs were flying yeah the baby was fine there was some bleeding I went to the hospital that night and it was so I had we keep it on like rest kind of on bed rest for a while but within like two months or so baby was completely fine um yeah throughout the whole relationship with the guy Romero like I said it was really rocky and I was dramatic and you know when you start acting dumb outside of a bar or calling each other names and then guys are fighting guys it's it's just dumb and I was pretty dramatic so there's times where my friends would be like you need to knock it off Kirk you know provoking him to be crazy because of his drinking problem he's going to react crazy or vice versa he finally started to get I think [ __ ] and that's why I felt when this happened right in Chelsea ran and Mike I was like thank the Lord they finally see that I'm not lying this guy is crazy sometimes but and they did they were like I was in like complete shock I could barely talk to them I was crying hyperventilating shaking trembling and I it was like a terror moment like I thought he was around the corner at any moment I was going to be killed and it was like that for many weeks after I had nightmares like all the time but that night you know they told me time and time again through comforting me and telling me sorry they weren't there the time before when I you know I he could have done this then when they were basically saying that they this time Romero knows he messed up and we all know he can't get away with this one and we know you're right this time so after that I made several phone calls to Romero's brother and to the oso at West us I made calls to a few other people I was trying to track him down oh so big thing was war hands off it didn't happen at the organization you know he's a Scientologist but we're gonna handle this matter outside of Scientology as a marital dispute and I'm like f lucky you know I knew he wasn't of no service to me so I got rid of him right away Chelsea and Mike King had to be called by the district attorney you know prosecutor and investigator to build their case on him like I said they don't drop these cases and the police couldn't find him so they had placed warrants out for his arrest for the charges he was being charged with and it took a long time for him to be arrested so I knew that the ethics terminal wherever he was going knew him and might know where he was so that chick got a call too I chewed her ass and I said if you know where he's at you need to get him turned in so I just kept pounding the phones and and you know trying to get someone to call the police because we had heard of hidden gone to Mexico and they were thinking about extraditing him but I actually found out that he was in LA hiding somewhere but he was working at some company so I got the chick to write up a PTSD Claire on him a potential trouble source declare criminal type B and got him fired from his job and then he he further went into hiding and then he finally finally his brother got ahold of them and he turned himself in or he was turned into the Los Angeles police and incarcerated he was first given a public defender to represent him and that made sense to me I mean he didn't have money and his entire family were Sea Org members so I knew they didn't make more than $30 a week forty max I was relaying the information and she was helping me with with decision making because I really probably wasn't making the best decisions and we were working and working and working and building a case and Oso West us it kind of come back on the line because now you know we're building a case outside of Scientology even though they said it happened outside of Scientology and I said yeah this [ __ ] needs to be in jail or dead so I'm going forward with a court case sue me Claire Maddox folder I do not care I'm coming to LA G we're gonna have a court case and so in Scientology things aren't handled through the criminal justice system they're handled internally it's supposed to be that way like to keep it out of the court system you know there's always a solvent or a way to solve things peacefully in the church and I grew up like that believing that right but this is a point where I felt threatened like my life was in danger and I saw a person who was not sane not thinking right he wanted he there was mentions there in that moment evil intention right and I didn't know what to do I'm pregnant and I'm it was a horrible horrible feeling to feel like that rage on you and at you and I didn't care about the [ __ ] internal system of the church and I couldn't stop it if I wanted to this is where I'm trying to explain like I got the guilt trips from my friends from the people I tried to talk to that were CR members like for instance Romero's family but beyond the family of course they're going to feel for him but writing knowledge reports on the situation from the whatever they're called director of inspections and reports and places me and my dad had tried to write reports to and that weren't really being answered or handled they were basically telling me I could do what I needed to do but you know it would all have to then be transpired over into into you know there would be data and ethics for words it would be like known that he's a pts type B you know they helped me a little bit with that but it was more like let's let's not make this a big huge incident type of situation it was like let's just handle it in the courts if it needs to be handled in the courts they were absolutely this if he did do this it was really really really bad but at no time did they ever really help me find the guy write up anything they didn't ever tell me not to but it was like they were of no help they were like almost like a information taker for the church that was about it for the longest time I was being made to feel it was my responsibility that he was in the position he wasn't being you know charged with attempted murder of a fetus of a baby meaning our baby and assault with a deadly weapon you know from beating me up because I provoked it or I I'm lying or whatever it was there was all these things being put on me from my friends who grew up in the church Chelsea called me and told me that she had heard that I had done a drug past the time I guess that I had done all these conditions for her for doing drugs and me wanting to tell her about that and it could have been true I don't even remember at this point but it was way back then and because of that she said that she's not going to talk to the detective anymore because I lied about that I'm lying about this and she doesn't want to see Romero in a jail incarcerated but with real criminals with the real bad guys so that was the first blow to me it was like wow this is the guy like that put me through all of this [ __ ] you know and then I cleaned out your [ __ ] closet you know what I mean like whatever it was just she decided I don't know if it was her way of justifying not to talk to the detective because I know for a fact there was a lot of pressure PR stuff they didn't want this guy to be in a in the courts or whatever they they wanted it the whole case to be dropped but it was when you know how court systems go like there's postponing dates and dates and dates but I we had you know the detective would call me and update me on how things are going or if there was an update you know so I was kept aware of these things and when the first court date maybe not the first I was going to be involved with which was the preliminary hearing where I was to testify what exactly happened I came to LA with Larissa we were put we went to a hotel we met the Los Angeles police we were given the schedule of all the court dates and what was going to happen he had hired a new attorney like hired one and it was a criminal defense attorney who just happened to work for the church Scientology in the past represented them and the court case who comes on but a hired hit man from hitman lawyer for Scientology and some presenting romera [ __ ] background story that all of a sudden his seorak family strapped for cash came up to pay for this high-priced lawyer who'd gotten Scientology through some bumps and I'm thinking [ __ ] we're getting ready to go into court the first day and all of these kids some of these kids that had visited my house in Florida from LA they're all sitting on Romero site and the little [ __ ] turning around and smirking and making faces and acting like it's no big deal I saw all my friends like the closest ones at least you know I mean I knew they had to be there because they were supposed to be witnesses for the DA you know for me but they were also being called it some sorry impeachment with witnesses for the criminal side like Romero side to basically character assassinate me well he also had his own little glee club there in the audience getting a bunch of Scientology kids showed up some bags him there was like 60 or 60 80 hundred kids they're making Larissa feel bad because she had brought charges against a fellow Scientologist yeah like never mind what he did you did unthinkable we don't do that you know we don't bring charges against fellow Scientologists it's myself and the deputy district attorney or her aide and that side rows and rows of kids and the lawyer just chewing up softball questioning [ __ ] little questions to Romero but just chewing the [ __ ] out of Larissa I mean just talking to her like she was a street [ __ ] it was it was disgusting there was little eye contact little speaking we were kind of told not to do that both you know because of the court situation Romero's whole family was there Sonny Moore was there sitting on Romero side link I don't get it and I had to testify what happened kind of like what I'm doing now but it was seven months pregnant really fresh these are my best friends I'm thinking while I'm up there and here's Romero in an orange jumpsuit and I'm having to look at him and tell the whole court who he is and pointing him out it was traumatic I mean so I'm having to testify even harder than being sworn under oath in front of this room full of people and like an official I've always seen this in the movies as wise as happening like aren't we all Scientologists in here like what the [ __ ] it was just so we heard in his mom I would think you know like this is your baby you might think me a little sliver doubt with not his but it is you know it's been proven but there was no emotion like no maybe I was just it was just hard and in that room was were it was really real like wow this is betrayal and it wasn't just these friends it was by my church like I couldn't believe that I would go that far just it's just a cover-up something like I don't know how to explain it or just a large according to the actual court documents here the police responded to a battery call on November 7th 2009 and after a police investigation a criminal case was filed on December 18 2009 with the charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon a warrant was issued for Romero's arrest and he was taken into custody on or around January 5th 2010 the next day he first appeared in court and was assigned a public defender however by his next court appearance on January 19th 2010 he was represented by Donald wagger the private attorney who the de Walz believe was hired by the Church of Scientology even though the legal officer at OSA said he wasn't Donn Wagner is not a Scientologist but had done work for Scientology in the past on March 23rd and 24th Arisa testified while the court was full of people there to show support for Romero only to Louisa's former friends were witnesses for the defense Laurie cements and Candice Boysen Chelsea Hall testified on maurices side Larissa was not in the courtroom for that testimony but according to what she was later told Chelsea downplayed her testimony to make it sound like Larissa was the one who was trying to make a scene once all the testimony and evidence was heard the Court determined that the attempted murder charge would be dropped but the assault with a deadly weapon charge stayed and the case was going to move to trial Romero's bail was dropped significantly and it looks like he was released from custody at this point having spent two-and-a-half months in jail however the case was still scheduled to stand trial over the next few months Ramirez lawyer attempted to get the charges lessened or dismissed but was unsuccessful and a jury trial was finally set for September 23rd once it was clear that a trial was happening Romero then pled nolo contendere to the charge of assault with a deadly weapon and the court found him guilty nolo contendere is a plea by which a defendant in a criminal prosecution accepts conviction conviction as though a guilty plea had been entered but does not admit guilt he was sentenced to one five years probation to complete a year-long domestic violence class three serve 180 days in LA Jail he was given total credit for this by the time he served even though he was only in jail for about 90 days for a fine totaling 630 dollars five a court protective order was issued for Romero to stay at least a hundred yards away from where Issa and only contact her via email or phone for child support purposes Luisa got the news just before leaving to return to Clearwater and was finally able to move on with her life it took two and a half more years a positive paternity test and a court order for Romero to start paying child support but he finally did do so he has never expressed any desire to meet or see his daughter as for Arisa the less that Scientology has had to do with her the better her life has gotten she was perfectly healthy eight pounds 10 ounces huge and healthy and Silvia was my birth coach my mom came down from Texas she was living in Texas at the time so I had all my parents there to support me with Shila that's my daughter and as far as the church the only influence or whatever I had was through my aunt who was still in Clearwater but I quickly moved in with my mom after my daughter was born who lived in Texas because she wasn't working and she offered me to live with her I can go to school and get my degree and she watched Shila in the day like a nanny so I wouldn't have to work to pay my rent to hopefully go to school one day and watch my baby and favorite daycare so they're just good workout so my mom's been out of the church for years at this point so it was easier to get away and then once I'm in school it was just wow a whole new world you know like there was there's so much more out here you know what that the Scientology world just shrunk really quick like a whole body of loopholes and pockets of all kinds of cool stuff yeah I graduated I got my associates in General Studies degree and I graduated walk a stage and then I started taking more coursework to work towards The Bachelor but I just haven't found what I want to do that in yet I stayed with my mom in her house for about a year year and a half finished school and then I got set up in a program for single moms who are going to school similar situations to mine whether it's coming from an abusive situation or they also help like foster kids and stuff like that but they give you housing as long as you're going to school and that's what I did I was working towards a nursing degree outside of my associates and general studies and I stayed there for about almost two years and then I met my partner not my boyfriend cold so we dated and there's no man allowed at my house I mean it was the kind of a program or that was just you were there for one particular purpose to finish school and they're kind of helping women out and kind of they just want to make sure you're doing the right thing but you know I had already graduated there's tons of women that could use that kind of help and I took the risk and I went with Colt and we've been together over three years and we have a baby new baby and she's 18 months or actually 20 months now oh my gosh but that's what I'm doing now I'm still in Texas and being a mommy raising a family outside of those kind of you know indoctrination craziness so the whole time I've been in Texas which is when Shila was still a baby and she's six now so it had been a good five years that I had kind of checked out the church Scientology and there was still confusion and hurt and upset and out now completely by my si org stuff and I kind of like squash that and know if a friend wrote to me I'd remember and be like oh my god I was so crazy back then whatever and then the Romero thing it just smushed all that away and went to school so I kind of was turned off by it all and plus you know having to take out a big credit card debt with my aunt who I loved so much and now there's this thing in the middle and on top of that it's like something I don't want to look at ever again and I'm paying it back slowly for working for a company uh that was just like an org so I was turned off pretty much but my parents when I come visit them were kind of still in the church my dad especially he was just like when I was gung-ho gonna die a believer mr. Church guy and I always knew that so I was just the subject I just wouldn't be anyways so how the news came down was um my dad I believe called me and said Sylvia's getting declared and I'm like declared an SP and he's like yeah the church is declaring her enough beat I was like what it was just like I didn't understand I mean I knew Sylvia had doubts I knew she had friends that had been declare that she just didn't see why she had to stop talking to them like our dead like it's literally how it's supposed to be um but I knew that she was kind of floozie with it like trying to be along play the rules or whatever / marriage and friends I'm sure family other family so I figured okay I guess it could have happened I was waiting for maybe that could happen but when it actually happens to you it's like a different whoa this is real and then what comes along with it you don't expect it's it's crazy so I was convinced that might have a divorce her and here I'm going to lose another family and have what am I going to have another parents now or not parents but all these step parents in my life building up like massively more siblings for but no he didn't do that he he left you and it was a shock but a blessing I guess was amazing and so it was like the best news ever I could finally be real with him I could finally say that shit's weird or that makes sense you know or man it was just it was a scary time but it was a good time I guess relief in the long run I guess safety you know I asked for ISA and her parents for any final thoughts about all of their experiences and how their life is now that Scientology is no longer any part of it the priorities are screwed up as far as parents in in the church that their children are not the priority going up the bridge is the priority more than anything it's the priority and everything that comes along with that you know I I am gonna say a name Cheryl Festa is kakan you know she's got this ethics whatever it is protection and yet I remember her daughter Gina coming to our house and kicking her sneakers off her faint smell the girl hadn't bathed you know I've been to Cheryl's house and you could barely get the front door open and it smelled the woman doesn't clean I mean it was yet she's sheriff Festa you know and that kind of stuff is crazy to me you know I would joke about parents having to tie on their cape and save the world while their children suffer and we are guilty absolutely of that to a certain extent you know and and it was the boys my sons who because I was like the volunteer Queen anything that came up I wanted to volunteer for it and my boys I think they were both 15 years old said no we're not gonna help you this time we're not doing it and you need to quit you need to quit quit volunteering and it was funny they sat me down and and just not sense him to me you know quit volunteering I slowed down to certain extent but I listened to them I kept volunteering but to me that was the the parent the the priority thing the parents just are clueless as to the importance of their job as a parent you know they think oh the kids 18 I'm done [ __ ] you know if your kid has not fulfilled their dream of what whatever it was that they wanted to be as a kid your jobs not done you know it's just not and I'd like to for both of us to realize we have three kids that are fulfilling dreams you know they're not just working for us you know they're not joining the Sea Org because they really don't know what else to do with our life you know I mean they're actually out there we got rock star we got a kid at USF we got Larissa who's got two years of college under a dell and raising two beautiful daughters and going off on this photography hobby thing of hers which is wonderful they're happy you know members of society and that's important not these kids that that just lose sight of whatever dream they had because it was poo-pooed isn't unimportant what's important is to become an auditor become a Scientologist Geneseo art you know or make money that's the other thing a lot of kids are money driven not not vocation but money so that they can flow it to the bridge or help expand Scientology somehow that's all I got say about that your turn well first off I yeah I would never raise my kids in Scientology or under Scientology attendance again I just wouldn't because though our kids turned out pretty well I think there was enough of Sylvia and I left but we didn't fully and 100% agree with how the church told us to raise our kids that we have some pretty awesome kids but I saw example after example after example one after I left staff and when I was on staff of how kids were treated there like little mini workhorses get him putting out promo have him work in central files have him stamp things put those kids to work but it was all about building up the organization you know what say did they have when we grabbed him by the hand and said let's go protest something in front of the police station are they going to say no we heard about that letter we heard about tech you took us to protest we were eight years old what the hell was wrong with you what was wrong with us right I was handling kids that had been being assigned conditions like over and over and over something and that I did that my own kids that I finally stopped doing because they would have a weekly condition that they would have to do for their job and they would start crying and flipping out in front of me because it reminded them of how and what their parents did to them but basically in a nutshell it's not an area that's going to make a kid do better I really think they're a second-class citizen and it's disgusting and there's no way that my granddaughter's will ever a Dianetics or Scientology book if I have to say so it's it feels like liberating it's like a lot of dark things you have to work through that I have to but there's like hope no there's so much more to learn so much more that I haven't learned that I should have learned that I'm excited now to learn it's like the world's open and it's out of my life I don't have to worry about my daughter ever wanting to join this New York or the craziness it's just I don't have to have that and I never want that for anyone else so it's just been it's exciting it's still fresh like because I grew up in it you know and I'm finally a big kid I'm an adult now I have my own kids so that's how I look at it it's just I want it moving on from Scientology is not just a matter of getting rid of the books and lectures or not taking calls from the church anymore it can be likened to living in a foreign country where people act and talk differently and the whole way of life is not really the same as it is here moving to this country it would take months or even years to acclimate and flesh out the old habits and thought patterns of your original country that's what it's like getting out of the culture of Scientology some former members make the change quickly while others take a while and a few are never able to really adjust I hope this series has helped shed some light on what that struggle is like and why Scientology is considered a destructive cult that does so much more than just take some of your money or your time away from you the good news is that getting away is possible and from the point of view of most ex members getting out was the best thing that ever happened to them thank you for watching

Channel: Chris Shelton

Views: 25,444

Rating: 4.8866668 out of 5

Keywords: Scientology, Sea Organization, Larisa Smith, Ramiro Nateras, Office of Special Affairs, MGE Inc., Tim DeWall, Sylvia DeWall, L. Ron Hubbard

Id: tWg1jJBMvbM

Length: 61min 33sec (3693 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/shelton1492]

I left this comment on the Bunker but I think it's appropriate to put it here too:

Ok, this is the big wrap-up on our series and I wrote the intro so there's not a lot more to say except a few personal notes about this story. Larisa approached me months ago wanting to get her story out after her parents had come out on my channel. I was happy to hear what she had to say, but of course was shocked and appalled before she'd finished. It's a gruesome story. The Mojave Desert ranch child abusee, the usual Sea Org bullshit, but then physical assault in an effort to abort a baby, drunken rages and the psychological torment in the court room - these are all things no one should ever have to endure under any circumstances, whether Scientology is involved or not. I wish I could say that Scientology is the only group that creates and engages in this kind of reprehensible behavior, but unfortunately that is not the case and we all have to be aware of how these sorts of things happen.

I think that is what spurned me to look more broadly than just Larisa's story and try to find out not just what happened but why it happened. I am grateful to Tim and Sylvia for unhesitatingly being a part of this, contributing to the overall narrative so we get a much bigger picture of what happened over the years of Larisa's life. It took me a significantly longer time to put this all together because of that. Believe me, it increases the post-production/editing time by almost five-fold when you add a whole new narrative to someone's story. I definitely have a newfound appreciation for video news editors, deciding what to include and how to sequence everything so it all makes sense and tells the story the way it should be told.

Larisa's story is horrifying but it does have a happy ending and I really want to stress that. The DeWall family won. They beat Scientology in spades and they are all doing great right now, despite every roadblock and barrier that the Church and their Scientology "friends" threw at them. Scientology likes to popularize the false notion amongst their ranks that without Scientology, your life will dwindle into the dwindling spiral of out-ethics in the wog world and you will never make anything of yourself and you are doomed to an eternity of misery and suffering. No, that is what life in Scientology is like, and once you get out of it you are free in a way that is impossible to achieve as a Scientologist. The indoctrination runs deep and recovery is not easy but it is possible. I wanted to talk about the terrible culture of Scientology and the effect it has on people, but I also wanted to stress that a happy ending is possible for anyone involved in that hot mess. I really hope that comes across in this work. And most importantly, I would really appreciate you guys sharing this story on any outlets possible. I've never particularly asked for "likes and shares" before but if no other parts of my work deserve that, I think this one does. Thanks for your support everyone.