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According to both men, the screen door suddenly ew open and Miscavige came out,
wearing a terry-cloth bathrobe. According to Rathbun and Rinder, Miscavige hit Rinder
in the face and stomach, then grabbed him around the neck and slammed him into a
tree. Rinder fell into the ivy, where Miscavige continued kicking him several times. 5
Rathbun just stood there, stunned and puzzled about why he had been ordered to watch
this display. Afterward, he decided that he was there to back up Miscavige in case
Rinder had the nerve to resist. He was the “silent enforcer.”
Rathbun’s management of the defense in the McPherson case was one of his most
successful accomplishments for the church. The medical examiner in the case, Joan
Wood, had vehemently denied the church’s assertion that Lisa McPherson’s illness and
death were sudden. Her health had obviously deteriorated over a long period. She had
been without liquids for at least ve days, the medical examiner told a reporter, saying,
“This is the most severe case of dehydration I’ve ever seen.” She ruled that the cause of
death was undetermined, and the State of Florida led criminal charges against the
church. If the church were to be convicted of a felony, it could lead to the loss of its tax
exemption and then its probable extinction.
Miscavige and his team brought to bear Scientology’s two greatest assets, money and
celebrity. The church was building up a strong defense in its case by hiring some of the
most prestigious medical examiners and forensic scientists in the country—experts who
questioned Joan Wood’s conclusion that the likely cause of death was a blood clot
caused by dehydration. One of the local lawyers retained by the church arranged a
personal meeting between Miscavige and Wood’s attorney, Jerey Goodis. Miscavige
and Rathbun made a number of presentations to Goodis, trying to persuade him that his
client was in legal jeopardy because of her ruling in the McPherson case. Wood was
known as an unappable witness and a formidable opponent to defense attorneys; her
testimony would be crucial if the case went to trial. Rathbun says that Miscavige
repeatedly warned Goodis that the church was going to discredit his client and sue her
“into the Stone Age.” Four months before the McPherson case was set to go to trial, Joan
Wood changed her ruling to say that McPherson’s death was “accidental.” The State’s
case collapsed, charges against the church were dropped, and Wood avoided a lawsuit.
Wood retired and became a recluse. She told the St. Petersburg Times that she suered
panic attacks and insomnia. (She died of a stroke in 2011.)
The civil case against the church on the part of McPherson’s family continued,
however, along with the negative publicity. Tom De Vocht, who was head of the Flag
Land Base in Clearwater, says he arranged a meeting with Mary Repper, an inuential
political consultant who had led the campaigns of many of the state and local ocials
in the area, including the state attorney who had led the criminal charges against the
church. Repper had the reputation of being anti-Scientology, but she agreed to have
lunch with Rinder, Rathbun, and Miscavige at the Fort Harrison Hotel. It turned out that
she was a fan of the soap-opera star Michelle Staord, who was a Scientologist. Repper
was invited to Los Angeles to meet her at a Celebrity Centre gala. When she returned,
Repper began hosting a series of dinners and lunches for local ocials to meet other
Scientology celebrities. Tom Cruise dropped by Repper’s house on several occasions to