Scientology Honcho Plotted to Kidnap and Kill Cop

Via Gawker:

Las Vegas police officers have arrested a high-ranking Scientologist in a bizarre plot — allegedly inspired by right-wing “Sovereign Citizen” beliefs — to kidnap and kill a local law enforcement officer.

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Devon Campbell Newman, 67 [picture], became the public relations director of Scientology’s “Celebrity Center” in Las Vegas, Nevada, early in 2010 and has remained in that position to the present day — that’s according to her own LinkedIn profile as well as numerous online records of her activities as a Scientologist. This week, she became known for something else. As a result of a police investigation that began in April, on Tuesday Newman and a six-time felon and registered sex offender named David Allen Brutsche, 42, were arrested for planning what police are calling a bizarre plot to kidnap and kill a random local police officer in a macabre publicity stunt to promote their “sovereign citizen” views.

The arrest and its strange details quickly made news yesterday, but Newman’s position with Scientology wasn’t mentioned. Then, last night, we were tipped by Las Vegas television journalist Nathan Baca about Newman’s role in the church. He plans to have a full report later today. But for now, we have some preliminary information about Newman’s Scientology career, and the trouble she currently finds herself in.

Whole piece here.

[photo via CTpost.com]

“But, But… We’re Christians!”

Priceless:

Saskatchewan farmer Jim Taylor says he knew his marriage was in trouble, but he didn’t at first believe Mounties when they told him that his wife was planning to kill him.

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He was even more stunned when officers alleged that a man she was having an affair with was in on the scheme — and that the pair were also plotting to kill that man’s wife.

“They had to tell me about three times,” Taylor, 51, said Wednesday from his farm west of Melfort. “We’re a good Christian community so it’s really shocking to hear all this stuff.

A lawyer for the wife points out that she has no criminal record and — wait for it —

…described his client as a well-respected woman who goes to church.

That settles it then, right?

Jewish Fundies Attack Buses to Fight Girl Cooties

Fundies in Israel get violent trying to avoid girl cooties:

Two buses were stoned by a group of Haredim in Beit Shemesh on Wednesday after the police arrested a man and woman who had asked a female passenger to move to the back of the bus.

The incident began on a No. 497 bus from Beit Shemesh to Bnei Brak, which is run as a mehadrin line on which men and women sit separately. Under a ruling by the High Court of Justice in 2011, such seating is strictly voluntary.

Ultra-Orthodox protesters shatter bus windows after female passenger refuses to sit in back - National - Israel News | Haaretz

According to passengers on the bus, one of the female passengers asked a woman who was sitting at the front of the bus to move to the rear. While the seated woman did not object, the driver — who heard the conversation — summoned police, who detained the woman who had made the request and her husband, and the bus continued on its way.

When news of the incident spread, groups of ultra-Orthodox youth stoned two local buses. Moshe Schuman was a passenger on one of them, the No. 417 from Ramat Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem.

“The bus was full because of the vacation,” Schuman said. “When the driver stopped at a stop, four people in Haredi dress blocked the bus’ path and began to bang on the windows with a hammer. The passengers got upset, there were people there with babies. The driver tried to flee the scene but he couldn’t because they were blocking the bus’ path. Only after they’d smashed all the windows and ran away was the driver able to drive to a safe spot.”