RELIGIOUS TECHNOLOGY CENTER, a California non-profit corporation;
and BRIDGE PUBLICATIONS, INC., a California non-profit corporation,
Plaintiffs,
v.
F.A.C.T.NET, INC., a Colorado corporation; LAWRENCE WOLLERSHEIM, an individual; and ROBERT PENNY, an individual,
Defendants.
1. I, Graham E. Berry, Esq. am a member of the State Bar of California. Except to the extent indicated herein, I have personal knowledge of the facts set forth below, and if called upon to do so, could and would testify competently thereto.
2. My only significant involvement in discovery in this matter to date has been to resist Plaintiffs' attempts to take my deposition. In that connection, I have merely participated in the filing of a Motion for Protective Order in Denver and Objections to Subpoena which were filed in the United States Central Court, Central District, California.
4. Around the same time, Scientology attorneys Elliot Abelson, Esq. and William T. Drescher, Esq., and Scientology executives Michael Rinder, Lynn Famey and others visited Bob Lewis. They spent at least a full day laying out "the evidence" they had developed against him and the Lewis, D'Amato law firm through the use of private investigators and other forms of clandestine investigation and surveillance.
5. As a result, Scientology, Bob Lewis, the Lewis, D'Amato law firm, and A.I.G. entered into several secret settlement agreements - one of which was an oral agreement restricting the Lewis, D'Amato law firm from further opposing Scientology except for Scientology claims against existing Lewis, D'Amato clients, such as A.I.G.
6. Under the written secret settlement agreement, Bob Lewis took the position (contrary to my understanding of black letter law) that since A.I.G. had paid for Dr. Geertz's defense, all of Dr. Geertz's files and documents of any nature belonged to A.I.G. Lewis, D'Amato, Brisbois and Bisgaard, through Bob Lewis, then agreed to transfer the client's file to Bob Lewis. Bob Lewis then transferred those files to a secret storage facility designated by Scientology, paid for by Scientology, and to which only Scientology and Bob Lewis could have access. Bob Lewis was not to have access without Scientology's knowledge. All of the foregoing I know only because of what I have been told by Bob Lewis and Gordon Calhoun. and what I recently learned as a result of seeing the settlement agreement for the first time in late August 1996.
7. Dr. Geertz claims he was never advised that Bob Lewis was dealing with his files in this manner. When Dr. Geertz's new attorney, Ford Greene, Esq., requested the transfer of the files to his custody, Bob Lewis refused to transfer the files. Ultimately Dr. Geertz obtained a court order from Judge Hupp requiring that Bob Lewis turn over the files. The transfer was delayed until July when Dr. Geertz's files were transferred to Ford Greene, Esq. With the approval of Ford Greene and Dr. Geertz, the files were sent to an office of Dan Liepold's firm. My information on this is second hand from Ford Greene and Bob Lewis.
8. When the original transfer of files from Lewis, D'Amato to the secret storage facility apparently took place, I had just returned from vacation. I was deliberately kept out of anything to do with the secret settlement agreement or the storage of the documents. Indeed, I was told by Gordon Calhoun, Esq. that Scientology was desperate to conclude the settlement before I returned from vacation because I "would try and derail it" when I discovered it.
9. Subsequently I became aware that certain boxes of documents, that did not belong to Dr. Geertz, had been transferred to the secret storage facility and intermingled with Dr. Geertz's files. Accordingly, when Bob Lewis finally complied with Federal Court Judge Hupp's order that he immediately release the client's files to successor counsel, I was asked to go to the storage facility and ensure that it was only Dr. Geertz's files that were transferred to Ford Greene and Dan Liepold, and not the other boxes of documents that had erroneously been stored. In that connection, my sole purpose and task was to identify which boxes of documents were Dr. Geertz's, and which boxes of documents belonged to other clients. Nothing was removed therefrom. I did not ascertain what was actually in the boxes. I have never conspired to "launder" documents.
11. I was generally not involved in filing any pleadings of Steven Fishman. Steven Fishman generally mailed his pro se pleadings directly to the court for filing, or if a deadline required, he would Federal Express them to the Lewis, D'Amato office to be included with their own regular filings in the case. This was done from time to time as a courtesy to a pro se co-defendant. I have no recollection of which method was followed with respect to his declaration.
12. Mr. Wollersheim has testified that he obtained a copy of the Fishman declaration and exhibits during the Fishman case as part of the documents he was provided in the course of performing his duties as an expert consultant and expert witness, employed by the Lewis, D'Amato law firm. (Wollersheim depo. p. 45 - attached to Plaintiffs' Opposition as Ex. B) Even if I once knew, I do not recall who made that transfer. Such transfers of court filed documents to an expert consultant or expert witness are done in the normal course of litigation.
13. I categorically deny any document "laundering" conspiracy with anyone - Dan Liepold included.
FURTHER, DECLARANT SAYETH NAUGHT.