This time around, Dandar doesn't have a wealthy anti-Scientology backer like Robert Minton, who spent $2-million to fund the McPherson lawsuit.

Instead, he's taking the Brennan case on a contingency basis. He says other lawyers are raising their eyebrows at him.

"The Church of Scientology is a tenacious foe," said Clearwater lawyer Denis de Vlaming, who has represented church critics.

"I think Ken knows what he's in for — a smack-down, drag-out, winner-take-all cage match. For him to say he'll do that again after what he went through, it's probably like going through childbirth again immediately after leaving the delivery room."

The latest lawsuit stems from the death of Kyle Brennan, 20, who shot himself in the head two years ago in Clearwater while visiting his father, who is a Scientologist. Brennan's mother blames Scientology, while the church says it has no connection whatsoever to the suicide.

Ken Dandar = hero. Is there an address to send contributions for office supplies?

Just to let all you dear casual readers know (especially those with limited time to dick around), the article is about this:



Other discussion threads:

http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?t=30151

http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?t=30174
(currently being trolled by a scilon)

http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?t=22293

Good luck to Dandar and the dead boys family.

This is short and sweet. The cult filed a frivolous motion for sanctions against Dandar, apparently because he should be punished for suing them (there really wasn't any merit to it at all).

The long and short of it is their motion was denied in a one page ruling stating simply that it "lacks merit," and unfortunately, not taxing the cult with the attorney's fees and costs for their bullshit.

Dandar's reply to the cult's frivolous motion discusses the cult's practices of legal harassment.

The Court's ruling
Dandar's motion in response to the cult's ludicrous motion

Update:

Motion to dismiss is dismissed

TAMPA - A lawyer suing the Church of Scientology has filed a motion asking to withdraw from the wrongful death case – but he doesn't really mean it.

Kennan Dandar says the state judge who ordered him to withdraw doesn't have jurisdiction in federal court. He also says he doesn't want to abandon his client, who blames the church for her son's death.

The highly unusual motion is rooted in the longstanding animus between the church and Dandar.

The order to withdraw wasn't available, although court records suggest it may be related to Dandar's involvement in an earlier wrongful death lawsuit against the church.

In court filings in the current case, the church said Dandar "has a substantial rap sheet of litigation misconduct. It is clear that he is a rogue lawyer who operates unconstrained by facts, law or ethics."

Dandar responded to that accusation by writing that the church was engaging in character assassination as part of its "doctrine to attack anyone who makes claims against Scientology, particularly the plaintiff's lawyer."

The exchange took place in June and July in what turned out to be an unsuccessful motion by Scientology to have the federal court sanction Dandar for filing the lawsuit against the church on behalf of Victoria L. Britton in the death of her son, Kyle Thomas Brennan.

The lawsuit alleges Scientologists, including Brennan's father, took his antidepressant prescription from him and gave him access to a loaded gun.

The church says Brennan committed suicide with no provocation. A Clearwater police investigation concluded no one else was responsible for his suicide.

Dandar also represented the relatives of Scientologist Lisa McPherson in their wrongful death lawsuit against the church. McPherson died in 1995 after 17 days of care by Scientology staffers in Clearwater.

That lawsuit was settled out of court in 2004, but only after years of courtroom conflict.

In the McPherson case, Scientology was awarded $4,500 in legal costs for an improper legal maneuver by Dandar.

In another scuffle, a judge denied a Scientology request to remove Dandar from the McPherson case after a church critic who gave more than $2 million to fund the lawsuit told a judge he lied at Dandar's behest.

The judge concluded the critic lied about Dandar, and that Dandar had not lied or tried to get anyone else to lie to the court. However, the judge also said Dandar's account of how he spent the critic's money was not credible.

Now the Britton litigation has deteriorated into another war between the lawyers.

In a declaration filed with Dandar's unusual motion to withdraw, Britton says she searched for another attorney to take the case. But once they heard it was against Scientology, no one else would represent her.

"I am now very frustrated, desperate and worried that I will not have an attorney to pursue this litigation," Britton says in the declaration. "I do not want Kennan G. Dandar to withdraw from this case because I believe he is the most qualified. … I have no one else to turn to."

Dandar said he could not comment on his motion or on why a state judge ordered him to withdraw from the federal case.

However, Britton's declaration says the order was issued in June. There are several sealed entries on the docket for the McPherson case during that month.

Among the items listed as sealed are a motion to enforce the settlement agreement and a notice of a confidential emergency hearing. The docket also indicates there's a pending appeal in the McPherson case before the Florida Supreme Court.

Dandar says in his motion that he is awaiting a response from the state Supreme Court over the state judge's order.

The church is urging the federal court to grant the motion to withdraw, saying Dandar has known for more than a year that his involvement in the case was improper.

"If this case had merit, which it does not, (Brennan's) estate will find capable replacement counsel," lawyers for the church wrote. "American jurisprudence is rich with those have undertaken unpopular causes."

Despite the state court’s order and despite Scientology’s claim that Dandar’s involvement in this case is “totally inappropriate” (Doc. 75 at 1), Dandar suffers no discernible impediment to representing the plaintiff in this case; Dandar remains a member in good standing of The Florida Bar and the bar for the Middle District of Florida, Dandar is able and willing to represent the plaintiff, and the parties identify neither a conflict of interest nor any other legally cognizable barrier to Dandar’s continued representation in this matter, already unnecessarily delayed.*

The motion(Doc. 74) is DENIED. The plaintiff’s motion (Doc. 76) for a hearing is DENIED AS MOOT. The plaintiff’s motion (Doc. 76) for an extension “of all deadlines, pretrial, and trial” is DENIED, the case management deadlines set by the february 3, 2010, order (Doc. 66) are CONFIRMED, and the parties are directed to proceed with discovery in accord with the scheduling order and the Local Rules.

ORDERED in Tampa, Florida, on April 22, 2010.

There are some recent developments, none promising, but all which bear watching. It's all somewhat confusing, involving as many different courts as it does, so I'll first attempt to make sense of things up to this point, in the hopes of stemming inevitable questions.

Attorney Ken Dandar brought a wrongful death suit on behalf of the estate of Kyle Brennan in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against defendants CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY FLAG SERVICE ORGANIZATION, INC., DENISE MISCAVIGE GENTILE, GERALD GENTILE, and THOMAS BRENNAN.

Attorneys for defendants have sought to force Ken Dandar to withdraw from the case. While it is not entirely clear by what basis it is seeking Dandar's withdrawal, my educated guess is that it pertains to an existing but undisclosed agreement between Dandar and FLAG, and/or a product of mediation or an order, perhaps arising out of the Lisa McPherson case. Since the terms of any hypothetical agreement, mediation or order isn't discussed in any of the available papers, it's not presently possible to address the merits of Scientology's argument as to why/whether Dandar must withdraw.

What we do know is that FLAG went to Florida state court to make the argument that Dandar needs to withdraw from the federal case, and the state court agreed, ordering Dandar to withdraw.

In order to comply with the state court order (which was also appealed), Dandar moved to withdraw [PDF doc link] from the federal suit, which withdrawal the federal court denied. Dandar argued that his withdrawal was involuntary and his withdrawal would prejudice his client, the estate, given his experience in litigating against Scientology, and the understandable disinterest from other attorneys in litigating against Scientology. Dandar's withdrawal would most likely end the case, which is what FLAG has wanted all along.

As noted, the federal district court saw through it and denied Dandar's withdrawal motion, which kept him on the case. This brings us up to date.

---

According to recently filed documents in the federal case, Scientology sought and received an order of civil contempt against Dandar in state court (the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida). Dandar appealed, but the state appeals court apparently issued and then dismissed a stay of the contempt order, which means that Dandar is being fined $1,000 each day he fails to withdraw from the Brennan federal case, even while the contempt order is on appeal. Dandar is attempting to get a hearing date in state court to stay the contempt order until the appeal is resolved, but Dandar alleges that FLAG lawyers aren't cooperating (surprise) in agreeing to a hearing date.

This Tuesday, a hearing as to whether Dandar is guilty of criminal contempt will be heard before Judge Beach, which hearing stems from the aforementioned as-yet-unidentified basis/bases. Yes, Scientology is seeking to have Ken Dandar jailed for failing to withdraw from the Kyle Brennan wrongful death suit from which the federal court prohibited Dandar's withdrawal. Frighteningly, the state court appears ready to do this, if the trend thus far holds.

Ken Dandar's motion in federal court for an emergency injunction to "prohibit enforcement of a state order or conduct a hearing on the state court order" can be read here: [PDF doc link]

Scientology's opposition to Dandar's emergency injunction motion can be read here: [PDF doc link]

It's not clear to me what federal court will do with this. Dandar doesn't brief the precise issue, which I would bet is unique, extensively and my initial read on Scientology's brief is that it's somewhat disingenuous as to its representation of the law. I'll try to chime in later.

The federal court denied Dandar's motion for an injunction earlier today [PDF], but the decision, in my opinion, isn't really that bad, because it appears to warn the state court that a line does exist and that should it be crossed (that line being interference with this case, presumably by Dandar's forced/coerced withdrawal), it could bring "disrepute on the courts." One might suggest that this has already occurred with regard to what Dandar has had to endure on the state court side, but motion practice has yet to run its course there.