Part 68: Religion in Hollywood – Scientology and the LAPD vs. Social Media Influencers

Published January 21, 2024

Photo of Tim Talman of the Los Angeles Police Department Hollywood Division waving at protestors from the roof of the building (From FilmThePoliceLA).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Well Rolling Stone went for it, so I might as well too! On January 10, the legendary publication put out a piece entitled: “How TikTok Accidentally Created a Scientology Heartthrob” by journalist EJ Dickson. It was subtitled “A group of protesters is trying to "end" Scientology — but a social media obsession with one person could derail the movement” because Lord knows you better have something catchy there, because the last thing I would want to see happen is a movement against this controversial institution derailed with the questions I have about what’s going on in Los Angeles lately. Not too poke at the cult group too much, but it’s that time!

The story profiled the efforts of fitness model Jessica Palmadessa and cop watcher William Gude, better known by his handle Film the Police LA. Now Gude to some is a controversial figure, and full disclosure I’ve interviewed Gude before on background to learn more about the relationship between USC, the LAPD and wait for it, the Church of Scientology. You could literally make a chart out of this, and I admire his passion for keeping an eye on the Los Angeles Police Department even as some may find his approach confrontational much like that of street vendor activist Edin Alex Enamorado. Gude even did me a solid helping seek tips on USC Senior Vice President Sam Garrison after the LA Fed Tapes leak.

After the article was published, and most recently their ongoing demonstration against the Church in Hollywood at their various facilities with a roving group of social media influencers has attracted the attention of LAPD. Through a combination of exchanges between Scientology members and the activists, along with now apparently one external party, LAPD Media Relations had to weigh in with a statement. NR24025jc/hg issued January 20 describes an arrest in the “Hollywood Area” that initially started two arrests before “Detectives reviewed a significant amount of video evidence” and “After much consideration one individual was arrested for battery” and the other released.

The arrested is Patrick Perry, 52 years of age, and he’s being charged with 243(a) PC Battery with release on $20,000 bail after being detained on January 19 at Hollywood and Highland. The other is well-known former Scientology social media influencer Aaron Smith-Levin. It’s unclear if Perry has made bail, and no details about him are available yet. Smith-Levin was clearly battered. In the video, Perry approaches Smith-Levin and clearly assaults him with his pit bull in tow after a prior incident between the activist “Squirrel Squad” that Smith-Levin can heard recalling as he passes him. Perry then assaults him with a blow to the head which knocks Smith-Levin is knocked to the ground.

Aaron Smith-Levin comes up excited after being struck in the head happy that it’s on camera. The LAPD comes and then Smith-Levin is arrested apparently on the allegation that he stalked Perry with a camera on the public sidewalk. Smith was then taken the Hollywood Station of the LAPD and was handcuffed to a bench allegedly for 4 hours while protestors assembled outside of the station. Video then shows Police Officer III Timothy Talman standing on the roof of the station observing the demonstration below. According to Smith, he was not even interviewed while being changed to a steel bench and after a long period of time Detective Patrick Aluotto came out to tell him they were “trying to unscrew this.”

According to Smith-Levin on his well-known YouTube Channel “Growing up in Scientology” this treatment was part-and-parcel of the LAPD’s exceedingly, awkwardly close relationship with the Church of Scientology, which has been a significant donor to the departments programs. In one picture, former LAPD Captain Cory Palka can be seen accepting a $20,000 dollar check from the organization earmarked for the “Hollywood Police Department Youth Development Programs,” with a date of December 2, 2016. Emails have also been released showing the Palka relationship with the Church, which according to critics purposefully seeks out close contact with law enforcement for the purpose of gaining favor.

Here's where it gets really fun, and it’s that Tim Talman before joining LAPD was an actor, in fact he’s the youngest son of Perry Mason’s attorney, Hamilton Burger, and they’ve even appeared in an anti-smoking ad together. The video is on YouTube still, entitled “William Talman Anti-Smoking Ad 1968” and of course Burger would always lose to Mason in the courtroom. According to the video, the elder Talman would die six weeks after filming, and Talman’s mother would also pass away in 2001. The younger Talman started on Broadway before ending up in Hollywood with a successful television career including appearances on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and 24. He’s also been in films such as National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets and even American Sniper.

Tim Talman would join the LAPD in 2012. Talman isn’t just a successful actor though, he’s apparently a devoted Scientologist and is noted in an article by the group about its Faith & Blue program’s event singing “America the Beautiful” with praise for his talents. The article cites the efforts “Founder” within the Church as Rev. Markel Hutchins and according to its website it “was inaugurated in 2020 by MovementForward, Inc., working with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) at the U.S. Department of Justice. The effort is sponsored by the Motorola Solutions Foundation. Hutchins tells the crowd, “I wanted to come and see the wonderful work that is being done by the Church of Scientology and all of these wonderful partners.”

Now Faith & Blue doesn’t work with Scientology-LAPD programming exclusively, and it notes past events with “LAPD Chief Michel Moore and other community leaders, held at St. Bernadette’s Catholic Church in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw neighborhood.” So Moore might be a Scientologist, and he might also be Catholic, but pretty clearly LAPD Hollywood Division and senior command staff are not shy about associating with the Church of Scientology. William Gude had also suggested that Steve Lurie, who was at Hollywood Division also had ties with the Church, and Lurie like Palka has USC connection, but as an instructor in the Bovard College’s online USC Master in Criminal Justice Degree program.

Lurie also teaches at Loyola Law School and has taught at Pepperdine in the past and like Palka when he was Commander in the Hollywood Area, Lurie too accepted the regular $20,000 gift from the Church signed off by none other than Michel Moore for toy giveaways. The attached memorandum notes that the Church’s Celebrity Centre has done this for 26 years as of 2019. A disclaimer is attached: “All possible conflicts of interest have been researched” and it assures that “the donor will not receive any preferential treatment, endorsement, or recommendation” and also forbids them from using “any LAPD patent.”

It's unclear who first fostered this partnership, or what Moore’s role may have been, but LAPD still has not answered my request for an answer on if he’s a member of the Church and whether he considers them a partner. Also unknown is the total amount beyond this regular gift that the Church has passed on to the LAPD. Cory Palka also enjoyed acting, appearing in 2 episodes of Bosch and earning the nickname “Captain Hollywood” for his close associations with the stars. My California Public Records Act request for additional records on Moore and Church is pending as of January 11.

I don’t think this is a totally new question, but it definitely deserves renewed focus. Actress Leah Remini who is suing the Church for stalking and harassment wrote on Substack on September 19, 2023 describing a meeting last June in which she alleges Moore was insistent that the Church is an “excellent partner to the LAPD” and suggests that he’s been essentially bought off by the church. Palka came on to my radar following the November 3, 2022 disclosure that he had been ensnared in an investigation into CBS executive Les Moonves and an attempt to suppress a complaint against Moonves made by actress Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb.

This came only days after we learned on October 27, 2022 that under deposition Rick Caruso had spoken with an LAPD captain soon after the investigation into sexual abuse by now deceased former USC gynecologist. Caruso, the failed former mayoral candidate who is now flexing his muscle into Democratic politics was also former President of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. The LAPD has experienced a rash of scandals lately, but the one that stands out is the still unsolved case regarding Commander Lillian Carranza who was targeted in the past in the department with both leaked sexualized audio and fabricated imagery.

LAPD despite an ostensibly earnest investigation never determined the source of either the recording or the image. Carranza who now serves as the Commander for the Operation-Central Bureau was targeted first in November 2013 with audio of a detective teaching a class speaking about her in sexual terms. Carranza would later sue the department in November 2017 after making years of complaints about the fabrication of underreported crime statistics in the Foothill area. The image leak for which she would later win a $4 million dollar verdict occurred in November 2018.

So dirty tricks are nothing new to LAPD, whether it’s Aaron Smith-Levin or Lillian Carranza elements within LAPD have acted to harass those who poke the department in the wrong way. Carranza along with a second detective Melchor Vergara would later claim that Deputy Chief Kris Pitcher would retaliate after they investigated illegal gun sales at the LAPD Academy. It’s unknown if Pitcher a long-time member of the LAPD like Moore has connections to the Church. According to Remini, in her meeting with Moore, he was aggressively dismissive of the idea that the Church would have any negative aspects.

Supposedly Moore and Remini got into a back-and-forth over the LAPD’s handling and response on the Shelly Miscavige case, the believed to be missing wife of Scientology Leader David Miscavige who may be at the groups compound in Riverside County according some being held against her will. Allegedly, the LAPD had learned of the Carranza reporting and failed to report her, and similarly LAPD has maintained that they followed up on Remini’s missing person’s report made to Cory Palka even denying anything was amiss in November 2022. WHERE IS SHELLY?

According to Remini speaking on YouTube about her meeting with Chief Moore, he left after 45 minutes following the dispute after critiquing her for Tweeting about him. Smith-Levin wouldn’t have such a brief encounter with the LAPD even if he’s now free and back on YouTube. Remini doesn’t dislike the LAPD, but I don’t think she’s wrong that there’s a long-running relationship between high-ranking members of the department and that it has allowed them to squash inquiries into the group allowing them a free hand in both Los Angeles and in the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to harass and suppress critics to keep them in check and ultimately when needed, silenced with investigations and press statements.

The idea of political corruption in the LAPD including to and in relation to Scientology is probably not groundbreaking, indeed to some it simply recalls the “conspiratorial” legacy of racism and policing in particular in Los Angeles as Mike Bonin recently waxed upon. I’d don’t think we’re all crazy, but we still certainly need more proof and information to confirm the idea that everything isn’t exactly as it seems. Now if you ask me, this is all about psychology, and power, some people commit crimes because they think they can get away with them, others like Mr. Perry, who is African-American assault people with video cameras in their hands.

Inferentially, you can make a case that the LAPD is corrupt, and to date, I haven’t noted that I’m no longer the only person suggesting in writing that Rick Caruso might have had something to do with the LA Fed Tapes. Richard Lee Abrams writing in the online publication CityWatchLA came separately to the same conclusion writing in “Los Angeles’ Cast of Cowards, Villains, and Dupes” published August 2, 2023 after bemoaning that Jason Reedy hadn’t been arrested for fighting Kevin de León over said Tapes at a holiday toy giveaway that the “The LAPD allows the suspect in making the illegal tape to conduct the investigation” referring to the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and that “The LAPD has shown no interest in the causal link between the illegal tape and subversion of the democratic process.”

It's worth noting on the legal inconsistencies of things lead by Chief Michel Moore including the LAPD’s investigation into now convicted Scientologist rapist Danny Masterson that Moore met privately in April with his attorney Vicki Podberesky to discuss the case during the trial. James Queally of the Los Angeles Times would report that Podberesky would wrongfully share “information about the actor’s victims with the Church of Scientology.” Podberesky also represented USC School of Social Work Dean Marilyn Flynn in the Mark Ridley-Thomas case, and I’ve always wondered why of all the attorney’s in Los Angeles that would be Flynn’s choice.

Perhaps she’s just a really good lawyer? Or are they in the same ecosystem? If there is a Nazi Bar in the LAPD Headquarters, it’s most certainly got a Church of Scientology lounge bought and paid for with good deeds. Chief Michel Moore hasn’t been accused of any direct wrongdoing in a way that’s proof positive out of some overeager subordinates in the Internal Affairs Division, but you really have to wonder why Karen Bass is giving him until the end of February other than she too famously spoke in 2010 at the Church’s headquarters in Hollywood saying "The Church of Scientology I know has made a difference. Because your creed is a universal creed."

As for the heart throb Palmadessa and Gude created on TikTok, it’s not who you think. It’s Sebastian, a street recruiter for the Church in Scientology with what EJ Dickson writes is being subject to a popular attempt focusing on “saving” him from its grasps. The flaring conflict between the Church though has been even more fascinating than the random angry dudes with pit bulls walking around in Hollywood. Scientology has resorted to calling in fake bomb threats and engaging in other harassment including allegedly throwing poster markers at the activists, as Gude describes, the reaction is because “They’re so used to people being afraid of speaking out against them, that now when we speak out against them, they go to extremes.” Who is the alleged leaker of the LA Fed Tapes Santos Leon? No one seems to know too much other than he was aggressive toward others and his spouse Karla Vasquez, and that he had a very “macho” sense about himself, but nothing about religion.

The tone of the note left behind by “Honest-Finding-1581” on Reddit on September is evocative, it’s an unnecessary step in addition to the posting of the recordings with a less interpretable note. The “LA County Federation of Labor Scam” it suggests exists is presented with a seemingly bemused, but also almost angry like voice, the name itself is referential to religion and particularly to Elizabeth casting out Mary Queen of Scots and the Catholics from England. It takes a strident tone and seeks to cast aspersion on people without any proof being presented that correlates between the Tapes and the Note. Somehow I’m guessing that Santos Leon wasn’t handcuffed to a bench for 4 hours like Aaron Smith-Levin by the LAPD for kicks.

Link: How TikTok Accidentally Created a Scientology Heartthrob

Link: Statement From The LAPD Regarding An Arrest In The Hollywood Area

Link: LAPD and the Church of Scientology Awarded by the Faith and Blue Initiative

Link: Attorneys in Danny Masterson rape case sanctioned for giving discovery to Scientology

Link: LAPD captain files sexual harassment lawsuit, alleging culture of sexism, cruel pranks in department

Link: Mayor Garcetti Submits Scientology $20K Donation

Link: Los Angeles’ Cast of Cowards, Villains, and Dupes

Please support my work with your subscription or for direct aid use Venmo

Zachary Ellison is an Independent Journalist and Whistleblower in the Los Angeles area. Zach was most recently employed by the University of Southern California, Office of the Provost from October 2015 to August 2022 as an Executive Secretary and Administrative Assistant supporting the Vice Provost for Academic Operations and the Vice Provost and Senior Advisor to the Provost among others. Zach holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Policy and Planning from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. While a student at USC, he worked for the USC Good Neighbors Campaign including on their newsletter distributed university-wide. Zach completed his B.A. in History at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon and was a writer, editor, and photographer for the Pasadena High School Chronicle. He was Barack Obama’s one-millionth online campaign contributor in 2008. Zach is a former AmeriCorps intern for Hawaii State Parks and worked for the City of Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation. He is a trained civil process server, and enjoys weekends in the great outdoors.