Kyle Brennan - Anybody's ChildMost people who read this are already going to know something about Kyle Brennan and his horrible death some five years ago at Scientology’s “mecca” in Clearwater, Florida.Kyle, a lovely, innocent and kindly boy, a gentle nerd who would not hurt a fly, died from a gunshot wound to the head on February 16, 2007.The circumstances surrounding Kyle’s death are highly suspicious.Kyle Brennan died at least in part due to the beliefs of scientology and scientologists as his medically prescribed medication was hidden from him with demands that he instead do highly dangerous and unscientific scientology “therapy” such as that done in its front group “Narconon”.
tikkMy quick take on the appeal brief. [Kyle Brennan Scientology Case - Appellant's Corrected Initial Brief 16 February 2012]The essence of Lirot's argument is that Judge Merryday wrongly usurped the jury's role in deciding matters of fact at the summary judgment stage; a judge may only decide matters of law in a motion for summary judgment, and Merryday exceeded his authority at this stage by deciding matters of witness credibility and rejecting the jury's role in plausibly inferring the defendants' liability from the evidence presented. Where the two sides present conflicting evidence, summary judgment is inappropriate because the Federal Rules requires judges to consider the evidence in a light most favorable to the non-moving party. In other words, Merryday conducted the full trial in his head, rather than letting the jury decide whether, for instance, Lance Marcor's testimony was credible.Merryday seems to want to have it both ways; in his opinion dismissing Scientology's sanctions motion, he found that the case was not so meritless as to warrant sanctions against Dandar, but that it nevertheless required too many inferences to find the defendants liable. But the inferences are either plausible or they aren't--and if they aren't, then why not sanction Dandar?
From http://justiceforkylebrennan.blogspot.com/ :Victoria knows more than anyone on earth about the hearings on this matter over the past five years. Did you know that no media have had Victoria on to tell us what she knows and the results of her exhaustive studies into court filings, police reports, depositions and the like? But how can those of us who want to help Victoria help her to do this? And what else might we of little financial or time resources do to make a difference? ... Kyle’s mother Victoria is going to need financial help in order to continue fighting for the truth. There are many legal expenses (even things like costs of transcripts, flights, hotel, meals). And no matter what happens with legal, the fight to get to the truth will go on. We need, for example, to set up Victoria with proper hardware and software in order to be recorded for radio or TV, to do scans, to make copies and to do anything else needed to fight the good fight. In times past there were not public enough requests for help financially as almost none was given. Well there are two ways to send her money if you are able and willing to do so, no matter how small:(a) If you are comfortable with PayPal, her email is : Vbreton2062@aol.com(b) If you would prefer to send a check, cash or money order, her snail mail address is:Victoria Brittonc/o Friends of Kyle Brennan3144 Ridgefield RdCharlottesville, VA 22911-7205
muldrake said: ↑ No, I was basing my impression on this blog post on Jonny Jacobsen's site, as well as the documents linked from it and this site, which also has a lot of documents from the site. Appeals cases are generally decided on the papers, but good oral argument gives a lawyer an opportunity to underscore the case's best points, which Lirot apparently did.
Lirot, "our" attorney, had a great line during the hearing. I mean court-room-drama movie-worthy. When Potter, the scilon attorney, was explaining how Kyle's father was not necessarily responsible to save Kyle's life, he said (not verbatim), "If someone is drowning in a pool, I am not required to save their life." In Lirot's response, he said, "You may be required to save someone's life, but you certainly can't remove their life preserver (in response to the fact that Kyle's dad took, and locked his meds in the trunk of his car.)
Posted this morning at Infinite Complacency:A lawyer for the mother of Kyle Brennan, a vulnerable 20-year-old who died while visiting his Scientologist father, will try today to persuade a Florida appeal court to reinstate their wrongful death lawsuit.http://infinitecomplacency.blogspot.com ... ppeal.htmlJonny Jacobsen
PER CURIAM:After full review and oral argument, we conclude that the Plaintiff-Appellant Estate of Kyle Thomas Brennan has demonstrated no reversible error inthe district court’s order, dated December 6, 2011, granting summary judgment tothe Defendants-Appellees, Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc.,Denise Gentile, Gerald Gentile, and Thomas Brennan.AFFIRMED.
Have updated last week's post at Infinite Complacency with the Scientology statement from the Tampa Bay Times (they don't seem to want to speak to me) and Luke Lirot's reaction.http://infinitecomplacency.blogspot...arguments-on-appeal.html?utm_source=BP_recentJonny Jacobsen