Marc & Claire Headley:
Anti-Scientologists, Unreliable Sources
The courts have debunked the ludicrous “human trafficking” and “involuntary servitude” allegation against the Church that began and ended with Marc Headley. Headley has acknowledged under oath to being a paid tabloid source of false stories about the Church. He is a disgraced former staff member who had a mid-level audiovisual job and bolted from the Church after it was discovered he was secretly selling Church equipment on eBay and pocketing the funds. Embittered and humiliated that his scam was discovered, Headley and his wife left, vowing to seek revenge.
In 2009, Marc and Claire Headley filed two ill-founded lawsuits against the Church making incendiary allegations of human trafficking and seeking millions in damages. To flank their lawsuits and further harass the Church, the Headleys and their cohorts conspired to file complaints with federal officials in a failed effort to have the Church investigated on the same bogus allegations.
The trafficking allegations went nowhere. The Headley lawsuits were summarily dismissed on summary judgment by U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer, who further ordered the Headleys to pay the Church $42,000 in court costs. Judge Fischer also found that in contrast to the false allegations of how badly they were mistreated while working for the Church, in reality they had a good life while serving in the Church’s religious order, the Sea Organization.
The August 2010 demise of the Headleys’ civil suit torpedoed the federal investigation.
What should disturb viewers is IDTV’s willingness to overlook that a Federal Court dismissed the “human trafficking” allegations the Headleys and their fellow anti-Scientologists were spreading. The allegations were dead on arrival, but IDTV, to advance the anti-Scientology theme of their program, perpetuated the fraud by giving the Headleys a platform to further spread them.
These “human trafficking” allegations failed the test of truth when brought before a Federal Court. Far from working under “prison” conditions, Marc and Claire Headley had free access to come and go as they pleased. Indeed, when Judge Fischer’s decision was upheld by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in Headley v. Church of Scientology International, et al. 687 F.3d 1173 (2012), the opinion stated:
Rather, the record overwhelmingly shows that the Headleys joined and voluntarily worked for the Sea Org because they believed that it was the right thing to do, because they enjoyed it, and because they thought that by working they were honoring the commitment that they each made and to which they adhered. We think it telling that the Headleys protest very little about their actual day-to-day jobs with the Sea Org—for Marc, film creation and production; for Claire, management and supervision.
The Headleys’ claim of “brainwashing” was also rejected in this case and upheld by the Ninth Circuit which said: “…the District Court struck, as not based upon reliable principles or methods, the declaration of Dr. Robert Levine, an expert in the psychology of persuasion and mind control.”
Furthermore, when the Headleys’ allegations were found baseless, so were the supporting “corroborations” of fellow embittered anti-Scientologists led by Marty Rathbun (who supplied “history” in support of the Headleys’ cases—testimony rejected by the court). [See Judgments in Headley cases; Bills of Cost in Headley cases.]
Yet another inconvenient fact emerged during the case. Marc Headley admitted under oath that he was on the payroll of some of the media’s sleaziest tabloids spreading lies about Scientology. Specifically, Marc Headley admitted he had been paid at least $16,000 by the now-defunct News of the World and Bauer Media’s Life & Style. (See Headley deposition testimony; Receipts from media.)
News of the World imploded during the British phone-hacking scandal when, among other things, it was revealed it had hacked into the phone of a 13-year-old girl after she had been abducted and murdered. As for Bauer Media, an investigation by The Wrap found “there is a darker side to the privately held company, including publication of at least one magazine appealing to neo-Nazis, as well as significant involvement in the distribution of pornography—including Nazi-themed porn movies.” These are the kinds of publications Headley worked for.
It also begs the question: If the Headleys demanded to be paid by tabloids for spreading lies about the Church, were they being paid by anyone involved in this film?
Marc Headley’s lies and unethical behavior come as no surprise to the Church. While working as an audiovisual technician for the Church’s Golden Era Productions, he was caught embezzling Church funds by secretly selling on eBay at least $15,000 of equipment he had stolen. Headley confessed to that crime and was facing further investigation when he took off in the middle of the night. Just as Headley was expelled from the Church for stealing, no doubt any organization would discipline or fire an employee caught selling organization equipment and secretly depositing the proceeds into his personal account.
Now, Marc and Claire Headley are professional anti-Scientologists, making up stories like these human trafficking claims that are so unreliable they can’t even tell them the same way twice. Case in point is the ludicrous tale Marc started that the Church “auditioned” brides for high-profile members. Headley has told this story three different ways since introducing it in his book as something he had only heard about. Soon after, he was claiming in interviews to have participated in it. Then the story became that Headley was in charge of the whole operation. Which is it? The truth is that versions one, two and three were fabricated, and Headley’s failure to keep his story straight is clear evidence he’s a liar.
Headley’s judgment and morals are also questionable, in particular in the pride he takes in lurid, insensitive postings on anti-Scientology websites about his now failed litigation. One in particular that should be noted included a disgusting, insensitive reference to a Church attorney’s daughter who died in a tragic electrical accident:
I am getting deposed by Ken Moxon tomorrow, so will let you know how that goes. Sounds like lots of fun. I will tell Ken Moxon ‘hi’ for everyone in between talking to him about his daughter. Was thinking about bringing him some KFC, but figured that might appear to be bad taste on my part. Maybe El Pollo Loco? We’ll see what happens. I know I should be better prepared, you would think with all that OSA has been doing to get prepared for this, I would at least know what kind of chicken I would be bringing. Before I forget, I want to say hi to Davey, Tommy, Warren and Kirsten as well as any other RTC or OSA guys I forgot. Hope you got the lube I sent and if you do end up in Supermax, I can get you a deal on a subscription program!
The “lube” reference above was to another scatological posting by Headley about the ecclesiastical leader, in which he stated:
I just sent Costco size tubs of lube and first aid/sewing kits to both Dave Miscavige and Tommy Davis [CSI Spokesperson]. If that does not give them a heads up, nothing will.
And another:
I sure hope Tommy Davis and Dave Miscavige get in a lot of quality time with each other over the next few weeks. … “Don’t Explain. Penetrate. Don’t overwhelm. Penetrate.” This is one of Dave’s favorite things to quote from and now I think I know why. Now I am sure that Costco size tub of lube I sent them will get used up fast.
Headley’s self-published memoir was so filled with incendiary hate language that at least one individual admitted to law enforcement investigators that he was incited to threaten sending an explosive device to the residence of the Church’s leader, to a Church and to a school utilizing Mr. Hubbard’s education methods, forcing evacuations by law enforcement personnel.
It should come as no surprise that Headley is an active member of the “Anonymous” cyber terrorist hate group. Anonymous members have been convicted of many hate crimes against Churches of Scientology. Headley willingly and publicly associated with the hate group, “demonstrating” with them in front of the Church in 2008, wearing the chilling Anonymous mask and appearing with a crowd of Anonymous at a hate rally in Germany, this time without the mask.
It is deceptive that IDTV gives a platform for the Headleys to spread the same lies in their failed lawsuits.
IDTV had no excuse. All it would take is a simple Google search to learn that the Headleys have no credibility. Their grandiose lawsuits flopped in court. Headley can’t keep his stories straight. He admits to feeding gossip on the Church to the seediest of tabloids. They both exaggerate their roles when they were with the Church. And their final “contribution” consists of spreading a bunch of paid-for lies already rejected by the courts.
