Mother Sues Scientologists Over Son's 2007 Death

TAMPA - A mother is blaming Scientologists for her disabled son's death, which police ruled a suicide.


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Victoria L. Britton has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Scientologists, including her son's father, of taking his antidepressant prescription from him and giving him access to a loaded gun.

A police investigation, however, concluded that Kyle Brennan, exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia, willingly stopped taking medication before he visited his father and that there was "no evidence they were purposely kept from" him.

Brennan, 20, was not a member of the Clearwater church, but his father, Thomas, was, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Britton, who lives in Virginia.

The lawsuit names the church, Thomas Brennan and Scientologists Gerard Gentile and his wife, Denise Miscavige Gentile, whose brother, David Miscavige, is the church's ecclesiastic leader.

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said, "There is no validity to the complaint regarding the Church of Scientology."

The Gentiles could not be reached for comment.

Kyle Brennan visited his father in Clearwater in February 2007 after driving around the country for more than two months, according to the state attorney's investigation report. Along the way, he stopped at an FBI office in Iowa where he told an agent people were following him and that he had large sums of money.

When he arrived in Clearwater, he stayed in his father's apartment complex, which was occupied by other Scientologists, according to the lawsuit.

Davis said the apartment complex is not owned by the church.

According to the lawsuit, Kyle Brennan had Lexapro, a drug prescribed to treat depression and social anxiety. The Gentiles told Thomas Brennan to take the Lexapro away from his son, and Thomas Brennan locked the drug in his truck.

The Gentiles and Thomas Brennan tried to talk Britton into putting her son into a Scientology Narconon treatment facility so that he wouldn't need Lexapro, the lawsuit states. Britton and her son, who were not Scientologists, refused the treatment, and Britton told the callers to make sure her son took his medication.

Thomas Brennan said he and his son mutually agreed that Kyle would stop taking Lexapro and start using better nutrition habits and vitamins, according to a Clearwater police investigation summary.

Davis said Narconon, which follows the principles of church founder L. Ron Hubbard, is not officially part of the church, although it is supported and endorsed by Scientologists.

The lawsuit states that "one or more of the defendants" put Thomas Brennan's loaded .357 Magnum pistol next to his son's bed.

Then, "in a mentally deteriorated state caused by the abrupt denial of his prescription to Lexapro, and with ready access to the loaded .357 Magnum, Kyle Brennan was found dead from a gunshot to his head from the .357 Magnum pistol with neither the pistol nor the bullets having any identifiable fingerprints," the lawsuit states.

Thomas Brennan found his son dead Feb. 16, 2007, reports state.

The investigation report said Thomas Brennan had an unsecured handgun and ammunition in his apartment, but that the law doesn't require firearms to be secured unless there is someone younger than 16 living there.

Britton is represented by Ken Dandar, who 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.

The lawsuit was settled in 2004.

Reporter Stephen Thompson contributed to this report. Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.