CO: Findings and Recommendations of Committee of Evidence

CONDITIONS ORDER 288-1

4 OCT 19781

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
OF
COMMITTEE OF EVIDENCE
CALLED ON CONDITIONS ORDER #288

BACKGROUND

On the 25th of Sept, Cine set about making their daily JVC of a
short sequence for R as part of their training program.
The JVC that was done and sent up caused gross upset on R’s lines as
it communicated a slap stick comedy degrade of the very successful Cine
drilling that was in progress.
The shot itself was a mockery of a Gaffer drill and depicted
Gary Press removing and replacing the Molipso from a stand. Gary
played it with hammed up comedy and made it into a slap stick which
is known to be not wanted in Cine acting.
The shot was commentated by Jerry Armstrong who assumed
the beingness of a Barnham and Bailey circus ring master, making the
shot into a quality degrade.
During the filming of the shot at the studio, David
Rossouw remarked to the Director, Camera Chief and Producer that
the shot was corny, however these remarks were ignored and the
filming of the degrade was continued and sent up to command.
The following day an investigation done by a Commodores
Messenger revealed that the Producer and the Director saw nothing
wrong with the shot and didn’t correct the degrade despite the
disagreements with its quality and presentation from an
experienced Cine crew member on the set. Gary Press, recently
removed from the post of Chief Gaffer, was the actor and
responsible for the slap stick. Gerry Armstrong as the
commentator added to the degrade of the tech of the drills. The
Cinematographer, Terri Armstrong was aware that it was thought that
the shot was corny and not OK yet she (the one responsible for
getting high quality shots in the can with the camera) thought the shot
was “cute” and went ahead with the degrade. Carol Spurlock, the Cine
Crew Supervisor thought that the shot was good and announced this
to all the Cine crew at the Cine study muster.
The interested parties:

Stuart Moreau—— Producer
Mike Titmus——– Director
Gerry Armstrong—- Announcer of shot
Terri Armstrong—- Cinematographer
Gary Press——— Actor in the shot
Carol Spurlock—– Supervisor

were the following day routed to the RPF for the quality degrade, making
the shot into a slapstick, allowing it to occur, condoning the
degrade and causing Cine to go into disrepute.
The interested parties were allowed a Committee of Evidence by
R if they felt that the RPF assignment was incorrect. Every one of the
interested parties requested a Comm Ev.
On the 28th of Sept the Committee of Evidence met to review the
evidence and look into the assignment of the interested party’s
assignment to the RPF.
The committee reviewed the JVC tape that was sent up to
command and collected knowledge reports on the incident from the
following witnesses:

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Talent Chief – Bob Waldeman
Chief Electrician – Marc Ferreira
CMO Messenger – Marc Yager
DCO CMO External – DeDe Reisdorf
Cinematographer – David Miscavige
DCO CMO – Gayle Reisdorf
A/Cam for Lighting – David Rossouw
Chief Gaffer – Robbie Robinson

The following witnesses were called to the Committee to
give evidence on the charges:

Chief Gaffer – Robbie Robinson
A/Cam for Lights
Now Director – David Rossouw
Cinematographer – David Miscavige
Talent Chief – Bob Waldeman

Commodores Messenger, Shelley Barnette was making a detailed
report on the incident as she was a key witness, being on duty for the
investigation and the subsequent RPF assignments but in the interests of
time she attended the Committe meeting and gave all her evidence
verbally, to the Committee, in the presence of all interested parties.
The interested parties were shown all the evidence and knowledge
reports presented. They were then individually interviewed on
each of the charges and cross questioned on the circumstances of the
incident.
The interested party’s ethics files were looked at by the
Committee, those stats that were available were looked at and in the
efforts of justice, the work each interested party had done in the past
was looked at as deciding factors when drawing up the recommendations.
In interviewing each of the interested parties they wanted it
made known that at the time of the shooting of the shot they said that
their intentions were not to communicate a degrade slapstick or to mock
the drills but did realize after RPF assignment that this did appear to
communicate to command.
Here are the results of the Committee of Evidence:

INTERESTED PARTY – GARY PRESS

High Crime Charge 1
Interested party pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no evidence
of Gary inciting a mutiny. The Committee finds him not guilty.
Crimes Charge 1
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty. The tape sent up
R in which he was the actor was definitely a quality degrade.
Charge 2
Pleaded not guilty. However the Committee finds him guilty of
joking and degrading in that as above he admitted guilt of quality
degrade and as the shot itself was portrayed as a slap stick comedy
making a joke of the shot and the drills, despite the interested parties
statement that this was not his intention, this is what communicated
in the shot.
Charge 3
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee finds Gary guilty of this charge.
He was the one who originated the beingness which was introduced
into this shot which started out as a simple gaffer drill. He incited
the Announcer, Director, Producer, Cinematographer and the majority
of the Cine crew present into agreeing with his beingness which
in actual fact communicated insubordination to command.

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Charge 4
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty as by his own
admission, this incident did cause a flap in Cine as a result of his
actions.
Charge 5
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no specific incident of Gary
being guilty of this crime in relation to the incident of the 25th.
The Committee finds not guilty.
Charge 6
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty as the incident did
cause an overwork to command through Gary’s ignoring his duties.
Charge 7
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty of this charge. The
incident on the 25th did cause a severe disturbance to R and a
resulting disrepute to Cine.
Charge 8
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found him guilty in that the incident
which produced a quality degrade and communicated a mockery of the
drills was condoned by the interested party and did result in a
collapse of Cine and the loss of 5 of its staff.
Charge 9
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however finds the interested party
guilty of this charge as the Video tape did communicate a mockery of
the drills and also made a mockery of ED 276 Cine, quality degrade
which are both Scientology materials. Evidence of this is on the
Video tape itself and the resultant upsets caused to command.

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INTERESTED PARTY – CAROL SPURLOCK

High Crime #1
Interested party pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no evidence
that showed that Carol in any way incited a mutiny by her actions.
Crimes #1
Pleaded not guilty but admitted that to the degree that she
was in the studio at the time of the incident, did see it happen and
didn’t take any action to correct the matter that she was guilty
the Committee confirms this and finds her guilty of this charge.
CHARGE 2
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no evidence that she was guilty
of joking and degrading. The Committee finds her not guilty.
Charge 3
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no evidence of her being guilty
of this charge and so finds her not guilty.
Charge 4
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee finds her guilty as she could have
prevented the collapse. See details under charge #6.
Charge 5
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found her not guilty as no evidence
found which would incriminate her on this charge.
Charge 6
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds her guilty. Carol should have
spotted that the JVC was an overt product as she herself has been
a lead actor in the films and worked under R directorship so is quite
familiar with the standards of film production demanded. As the
crew supervisor she could and should have been looking at the quality
of Cine production as this reflects the application of the materials
learned by Cine crew. The resultant JVC tape that did go up
did cause an overwork on command lines.

 

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Charge 7
Pleaded guilty and found guilty by the Committee as per #6 above.
Charge 8
Pleaded guilty and found to be guilty by the Committee as per evidence
in Charge #6 above.
Charge 9
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee finds her not guilty as found no
evidence of her being guilty of this charge.

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INTERESTED PARTY – STUART MOREAU

NOTE: The interested party when first interviewed, pleaded guilty to
all the charges as he as the senior terminal in Cine (Producer)
felt that he would be guilty of all charges laid out in the Bill of
Particulars. However, when interviewed separately and asked for
specifics of why he was guilty, could not provide them on 2 charges
and changed the plea to not guilty.

High Crime 1
First pleaded guilty then after being asked for specifics, changed the
plea to not guilty. The Committee found him not guilty as after
examination of the evidence did not feel that Stuart incited a mutiny
by his actions.
Crime Charge 1
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty. The video did communicat
e a gross quality degrade and as Producer, he was responsible for the end
product of the Cine org.
Charge 2
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty as the Video did
communicate a joke and a degrade and while the interested party
states that he did not intend it to turn out that way, that is what
the Video did communicate and Stuart accepts the responsibility
for the end product.
Charge 3
The interested party pleaded guilty to this charge. The Committee does
find him guilty of this charge in that as the senior of Cine he is
responsible for the whole org and that the Video of the 25th did
communicate an insubordination and this could all have been prevented had
he worn his hat and prevented an overt product from being filmed and sent
up to command.
Charge 4
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty. The Cine org did
suffer a collapse as a result of the Video sent up and as the CO,
Stuart is responsible for the effects it caused.
Charge 5
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty. As the Producer
and CO of Cine he was responsible for the incident of the 25th which
did show a lack of discipline in the Cine Exec structure and in those
involved with the overt product and in failing to prevent it.
Charge 6
Pleaded guilty and the Committee finds him guilty. The incident did
cause an overload on command lines and as the CO he could have and
should have prevented this from occuring.
Charge 7
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty. The Video tape sent
up on the 25th did cause a severe disturbance to command and did cause
disrepute to Cine. As the CO, Stuart is fully responsible for this
and does recognize it.

 

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Charge 8
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty. There was a
collapse in Cine as a result of the JVC tape sent up to R and the fact
that the shot was considered by an experienced Cine terminal to be
corny was made known to Stuart at the time of the shooting but were
ignored by him.
Charge 9
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty as he did allow a mockery
of the drills and a quality degrade to be communicated to R on the
Video tape.

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INTERESTED PARTY – TERRI ARMSTRONG

High Crime #1
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no evidence of Terry inciting
a mutiny. The Committee finds her not guilty of this charge.
Crimes 1
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found her guilty. As the Cinematographer,
she is responsible for the high quality shots in the can and by
allowing a shot to go up which did communicate a quality degrade,
she is guilty.
Charge 2
Pleaded not guilty. However, as the Cinematographer, and the one respon-
sible for the shot which appears in front of the camera, she also is
held responsible in allowing a JVC to go up to R which communicated
joking and degrading of the Cine drills and so the Committee finds her
guilty of this charge. Interested party disagreed with this finding.
Charge 3
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found her not guilty of this charge
as found no evidence of her inciting to insubordination.
Charge 4
Pleaded not guilty and then later changed her plea to guilty. The
Committee finds her guilty as she as the then Cinematographer was
totally responsible for the quality of the shot going into the camera.
She allowed the product of the CameraDept and the JVC section to collapse
by sending up an overt product yet she as the Cinematographer could have
prevented the catastrophe by demanding that a high quality shot be
set up in front of the camera and refusing to shoot an overt product.
Charge 5
Pleaded not guilty. Then changed her plea to guilty later. The
Committee finds her guilty as she refused to uphold discipline in
allowing a degrade of a drill to occur in front of her camera.
Charge 6
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found her guilty of this charge due to the
fact that she allowed the quality degrade shot on the JVC to be taken,
condoned it and allowed it to be sent up to R which resulted in upset to
command, overworking command and forcing command to intervene to handle
the situation.
Charge 7
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found her guilty. There was a severe
disturbance caused by the 25th JVC and there was disrepute caused to
Cine as a result. Also see charges 4 & 6 above.
Charge 8
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found her guilty as per evidence in 4 & 6
above and in the fact that Terri was told that the shot looked corny by
A/Camera for Lights and herself condoned it saying she though it was
a cute shot.

 

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Charge 9
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds her guilty in that as the Cj
Cinematographer, she allowed a mockery of the drills and a quality
degrade per ED 276 Cine to take place in front of her camera and go
up to command whereas she could have prevented it.
NOTE: The Interested party wanted it made known that she felt that at the
time of the shooting of this shot she did not intend that the shot would
communicate a degrade or a mockery. She has since observed that that
is what is communicated and has taken responsibility for this. She wanted
it also made known that she had benefitted from the Cine drills, was
totally with them and did not intend to undermine them.

INTERESTED PARTY – GERRY ARMSTRONG

High Crime #1
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no evidence of Gerry inciting
to a mutiny. The Committee found him not guilty of this charge.
Crimes Charge 1
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found him guilty. Gerry was the
announcer in the shot and originated playing his part as a Barnham
and Bailey circus ring master announcer which intoduced and communicated
a quality degrade of the shot.
Charge 2
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however found him guilty of the
charge due to his originating and introducing the Barnum and Bailey
Beingness into the shot which brought about a joking and degrading
communication of the Cine drills. Even though the the interested
party stated that it was not his intention to communicate a joke/degrade
of the shot and that he himself had made good gains from the drills
themselves, the shot did communicate a Joke and Degrade and this
is what caused the extreme upset to command.
Charge 3
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found him not guilty of this
charge as found no evidence incriminating him on inciting to
insubordination. There was an element of insubordination in his
actions in the shot and this has been taken into account in the drafting
of the recommendations.
Charge 4
Pleaded guilty. The committee finds him guilty. By his contributing
actions, there was a collapse in Cine as a result of the JVC sent up
on the evening of the 25th Sept.
Charge 5
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found him not guilty of refusal to
uphold discipline. There was a lack of discipline in the actions of
the interested party in the part he played in the shooting of this
overt product JVC however and the Committee has taken this into account
in the drafting of its recommendations.
Charge 6
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found him guilty. The JVC shot in
which he played the Announcer did cause overwork to command. Also
see data in charges 1 and 2 above.
Charge 7
Pleaded guilty. The Committee found him guilty as there was indeed a
severe and disreputable disturbance created by the quality degrade
JVC shot in which the interested party participated and contributed to.
There was as a result disrepute caused to Cine.
Charge 8
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found him guilty. The circumstances did
cause a collapse in Cine and were condoned. See above charges.

 

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Charge 9
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however finds him guilty as he was
the announcer in the shot and did participate and contribute to a
shot that communicated a mockery of the drills and a mockery of
ED 276 Quality Degrades.

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INTERESTED PARTY – MIKE TITMUS

High Crime #1
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee found no evidence in Mike
“Inciting a mutiny”and so finds him not guilty of this charge.
Crimes Charge 1
Pleaded not guilty. However, the Committee finds him guilty as he
as the Director is directly responsible for the actions on the set
and by definition is over all the terminals on he set. The shot did
communicate a gross quality degrade. Interested party did not feel this
was correct.
Charge 2
Pleaded not guilty. However, as the actor in this shot was in fact
communicating joking and degrading and as he as the Director is directly
responsible for the quality of the shot and the direction or the shot,
the Committee finds him to be guilty of this charge.
Charge 3
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee finds him guilty of this charge as
he as the Director allowed to go up to R a Video that communicated
insubordination and that he did nothing to correct this despite being
informed by the A/Camera for Lights (now the Director) that the shot
was corny.
Charge 4
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however finds him guilty as
the Product of the Director is high quality shots in the can. The very
low quality of the JVC shot manifested a collapsed Director section.
Charge 5
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however finds him guilty of this
charge as he as the Director was told by an experienced Cine terminal
that the shot was “corney”. He agreed that the shot was corny but
did not correct it. He also allowed the original ‘Simple Shot of Drills
Being Done Well’, as the original theme of the JVC shot for the day to
be degraded into a joke and a degrade.
Charge 6
Pleaded guilty. The Committee finds him guilty. There was an overload
caused at command level due to the Director ignoring his duties of
insisting and getting a high quality shot in the can.
Charge 7
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however finds him to be guilty of this
charge as there was indeed a disreputable disturbance created by this bad
JVC tape sent up to command and the repute of Cine and the Director
was marred severly.
Charge 8
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however finds him to be guilty of this
charge as he as the Director was directly responsible for the quality
of the shot in the can. He was urged to improve it but did not do so.
The overt product did result in a collapse in Cine.
Charge 9
Pleaded not guilty. The Committee however finds him guilty of this charge
as he as the Director is responsible for the quality of the shot in
the can and this JVC was found to have made a mockery of the drills
and ED 276 Cine, Quality Degrades, even though the interested party
stated that this was not his intention, this is what was communicated

 

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to command in the shot and is majorly what caused the whole upset and the
collapse in Cine and the resultant RPF assignments.

The interested parties have been confronted with these findings.

RECOMMENDATIONS
NOTE: The Committee, in proposing these recommendations, took into
account the seriousness of the charges considering that not only did
they cause unnecessary and unfair upset and overload on R’s lines, they
were also committed during a period when Cine was already heavily on
R’s lines, out of production, in disrepute and in a low condition.
Mitigating factors in each individual case were also looked at in
proposing handlings.

GARY PRESS
The Committee found that Gary was deeply involved and largely responsible
for the J&D JVC. There were few mitigating circumstances to consider
in his favor and the committee feels that in view of this and the
fact that Gary was recently removed from post as the Chief Gaffer, has
dramatized case on post and is in need of correction that his
RPP assignment be confirmed.

GERRY ARMSTRONG
The Committee found that Gerry was also very much involved in the ren-
dition of the JVC shot and the establishment of the tone and beingness
which it communicated. Gerry has been in post difficulty over the last
month or two. As with Gary Press above, the Committee recommends that
Gerry’s assignment to the RPF be confirmed.

TERRI ARMSTRONG
Besides being the Cinematographer and a Div head in Cine at the time of
the JVC incident, Terri is also a Commodore’s messenger and should have
set an example far above that expected from other Cine staff. The
Committee has noted that while Terri was found to be hard working on
her post, she has been in difficulties as a Cameraman since she
started in Cine and has had numerous ethics and Qual handlings. The
Committee feels that besides being a correct ethics handling, it would
benefit her and the group for her to get herself cleaned up and enhanced
in the RPF. Therefore the Committee recommends that her RPF
assignment be confirmed.

MIKE TITMUS
The Committee recognizes the severity of the offences for which Mike
has been found guilty and agrees that the offences warrant an RPF
assignment however after careful consideration, the Committee has taken
into account the fact that Mike was on the post of Director for one week
and on a training program to get hatted up as a Director. His main
contribution to the situation was found to be not grabbing and wearing his
hat of Director, during the time of this JVC shot. The Committee
therefore recommends that the RPF assignment of Mike be held in
abeyance and that he be put on a one month probation during which time he
be assigned to Cine sets. The Committee recommends a condition of
confusion be assigned for the crimes of which he is guilty.

CAROL SPURLOCK
The Committee found that Carol’s involvement in the incident was not
severe. She does recognize her failed responsibility. The Committee
has found that Carol has never completed an EPF cycle nor done her
basics of staff statuses or Product 0. The Committee therefore
recommends that Carol’s RPF assignment be held in abeyance and she

 

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be put on a probation for a period of one month and that she be assigned
to the WHQ EPF where she is to do MEST work and complete her basics.
The Committee recommends a condition of confusion for the crimes she
is guilty of.

STUART MOREAU
Whereas the Committee found Stuart guilty on the majority of the charges,
it found that the interested party himself had recognized his total
responsibility in the matter as he was the CO and had taken full respon-
sibility for the crimes committed. The Committee took into account the
good work done by Stuart in the construction of the WHQ and the Silver
barn and the many construction cycles done by him at WHQ. The Committee
feels that the severity of the situation has been duplicated by the
interested party and in view of the good work he has done outside of
Cine, recommends that he be assigned to WHQ Construction on probation
and that the RPF assignment be held in abeyance for a period of one month,
pending his excellent production. Post stats and demonstration of
assumed responsibility. The Committee recommends a condition of
confusion in addition for the crimes committed.

Respectfully submitted:

Chairman: Norman Starkey
Secretary: Pat Murray
Member: Glenn Hackenberg
Member: Lesley Tyrer

The Findings and Recommendations are accepted and the Committee is
thanked.

The interested parties who are assigned conditions are to report to
HCO for deligation of amends.

Carol Spurlock is to do her EPF MEST work in the Galley.
Lynn Hurst
Convening Authority

LH:NS:PM:GH:LT:ph

Notes