Church of Scientology drops Bexar suit against ex-member

By Craig Kapitan ("The Houston Chronicle," April 25, 2012)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/37180/

Houston, USA - A breach-of-contract suit in which the Church of Scientology used Bexar County courts to target a high-ranking former member quietly ended this week with a settlement.

The case was dropped Monday, according to court records.

Debbie Cook, who received $50,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement when she left the Florida-based organization in 2007, violated that agreement with a mass email on New Year's Eve that disparaged church practices, the lawsuit contended.

But the suit became almost a textbook example of how litigation can sometimes backfire after Cook was called to the witness stand for a pre-trial injunction hearing in February and, with a courtroom full of reporters, outlined under oath a history of alleged oddities and abuses by the church.

The allegations included seven weeks of captivity in “The Hole,” where Cook said she slept on the floor, was fed “slop,” was coerced into giving false confessions and was beaten, according to previous Express-News reports. She was also forced to stand in a garbage can for 12 hours as water was poured over her head and watched as another man was ordered to lick a bathroom floor clean, she said during four hours of testimony.

While she did sign a nondisclosure agreement, she was under “extreme duress” at the time, her attorney argued.

Church officials opted to prematurely end the hearing the next day, but the case was still scheduled to go to trial.

According to court filings, neither side will collect damages as a result of the litigation. Cook and husband Wayne Baumgarten agreed to a permanent injunction that bans them from “disclosing any non-public information, data or knowledge they have learned or will learn about the organization.” In addition, they are barred from testifying at further hearings unless subpoenaed to do so.

The injunction “speaks for itself,” San Antonio-based attorney George Spencer Jr., who represented the church, said in an email Wednesday.

Bulverde attorney Ray Jeffrey, who represented Cook, did not return a call seeking comment.

At the time of the injunction hearing, a church spokeswoman called Cook's testimony “false claims and wild tales” — a “bitter hate campaign” intended to distract from a cut-and-dried breach-of-contract case.