From: ptsc <ptsc AT nym DOT cryptofortress DOT com> Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Probate Court, November 13, 2002 Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 09:26:12 -0500 Message-ID: <a3c7tu48sju0g4mmumvr7leatf8bjfpds9@4ax.com> [Fwd from a "fly on the wall"] Note that this concerns Minton's legal action against Lisa McPherson's family attempting to remove Lisa McPherson's aunt, Dell Liebreich, as representative and appoint someone more friendly to Scientology. http://tinyurl.com/2p08 has the petition pursuant to which yesterday's hearing was held. --- Today, at 2:30PM a hearing to establish Minton's standing as an "interested" party in the estate of Lisa McPherson, was to be heard in Probate Court. Minton is attempting to establish said "standing" in order to have Lisa's aunt, Dell Leibrich removed as Executor of the Estate via a Petition for Ad Litem. Ken Dandar, attny for Lisa's family filed a motion to dismiss. Probate Judge Greer determined that Minton must first attempt to prove his standing. Today's hearing was set for that purpose. Minton's attny, A. Battaglia arrived at the CW court house in the company of SCN's local lead Attny, Wally Pope. Closely behind was SCN's head of Flag OSA, Ben Shaw and OSA Legal, Alan Cartrwright, followed by the OSA gophers. Also arriving at the same time were several of Battaglia's paralegals. One big happy family. Prior to the hearing and right until the moment the Judge entered the court room, Battaglia conferred with Ben Shaw. Notes were passed between the two and Alan Cartright brought books and papers over with more notations. Minton's attny, Battaglia, has learned quickly the SCN maneuver of ignoring the legal practice of actually arguing the motion that was scheduled for today. Judge Greer started the proceeding by announcing that he didn't know why there were switching gears and expressed how disconcerting this action was. Tom Dandar argued that Minton had no standing. Battaglia presented Minton's side via a Power Point presentation complete with hysterically funny clip art. Each time he referred to Dandar, a picture of a smiling Ken appeared on the screen. If he mentioned Dell Leibrich, her picture appeared. When he discussed his client, a smiling picture of Minton appeared. When his argument involved all three, all their pictures appeared complete with arrows, boxes and clip art cartoon hands holding fists full of cash. When he discussed Minton's inability to get an accounting he showed a picture of Minton with a giant cartoon question mark superimposed over his face (a la The Riddler). When Battaglia described the estate as a runaway train, the court room was treated to a large clip art cartoon steam engine train. The entire presentation was WAY too reminiscent of David Miscavige's famous 1993 event speech about his victory over the IRS. HE TOO used wierd little clip art characters in a power point style accompaniment. (Psychs were "wicked witches", etc) Battaglia's presentation went on for over an hour as he showed pages and pages of checks and letters between Dandar and Minton. He effectively showed that Minton's money was a donation, when what he was trying to establish was a LOAN. With all the work that went into that Power Point presentation, he was unable to convince the judge that when a man gives money to a lawyer, he can't all of a sudden go to the courts to complain how it's spent. He was not able to show the judge one document that showed that the loan was to Dell Leibrich. Instead, all the correspondence and docs were between Minton and Dandar. Battaglia started losing his grip as the Judge reminded him that he had no standing or any proof and finally resorted to claiming that the estate needed someone in charge who would be more amenable/agreeable to the settlement offers from SCN. Judge Greer will rule in the near future on this. So, what's wrong with this picture? Comes now Minton's attny, Battaglia, to court in the company of and being advised by, SCN. And we're supposed to believe he's NOT doing SCN's work? hah From: "Jesse Prince" <res1cpaw@verizon.net> Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Re: Probate Court, November 13, 2002 Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 14:56:28 -0500 Message-ID: <3dd3ffe7@news2.lightlink.com> I was at the Probate Court hearing yesterday. PTSC's report is an accurate account of what happened except he didn't tell the whole story. Right after A. Battaglia finished his presentation, the judge went into the next item which was a motion to dismiss against RTC, by Ken Dandar. RTC filed a motion similar to the one filed by A. Battaglia. Ken Dandar lost a case in Texas brought by RTC, which entitled RTC to a rather large judgment against him personally and the estate of Lisa McPherson. Scientology wants the court to remove Dell Leibrich as the Executor of Lisa's estate and appoint a new Executor for the estate. RTC's argument was similar to the one argued by Battaglia, in that both feel they have a legal right to protect a financial interest in the estate of Lisa McPherson. Ken Dandar argued in response, that like Minton, RTC had no legal standing to make the petition Ad Litem to the court. Ken further argued a law that I am unfamiliar with, the gist of it being, in a wrongful death case, the slayer can not bring an action against the estate of the slain person. The judge said he wanted RTC and Ken Dandar to file arguments with the court within 10 days and he was ready to set a hearing for December 2, 2002, just barely over a month before the wrongful death trial starts. So on and on it goes. Jesse Prince |
Life and Death of Lisa McPherson