(villagevoice.com) ~ Tony : I just got off the phone with Steve Whitmore, Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca's spokesman, who tells me that an official inquiry has been opened in the matter of an LA sheriff's deputy named Benjamin Ring. The deputy appeared in a Scientology mailer that encourages church members to spend money on expensive services rather than invest in real estate or put it away in a 401K.
Images of the mailer first showed up about a week ago on the Internet, but the message on it, accompanied by an image of Deputy Ring in his full police gear, was so outlandish, we suspected a hoax. Only after we'd received a physical copy of the mailer and verified with the Church of Scientology Los Angeles that it had put out the document did we contact the LA Sheriff's Department for comment.
"Your concerns about the text are our concern. We're going to get to the bottom of it," Whitmore told me this afternoon as he let me know that an official inquiry -- which may lead to an internal affairs investigation -- was already underway.
Whitmore says that some executives at the Sheriff's Department had been aware of the mailer when it first went out and began in inquiry, but Whitmore knew nothing about it until the Voice sent over images of it by e-mail earlier today. (Whitmore says he was not called earlier about the matter, despite an Internet report that Whitmore had told a member of Anonymous that there was no problem with a deputy appearing in an advertisement in his uniform.[more @ link]
CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles: LA Sheriff's Deputy Under Investigation For Endorsing Scientology While In Uniform
ThanX Sponge @ WWP Backup video link if above is missing.
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