Justice For Kyle Brennan: A reflection on Kyle Brennan as a young Catholic martyr to Scientology's hatred of psychiatry

The priest at the funeral Mass of Kyle Brennan in Charlottesville, Virginia, proclaimed that he had died as a martyr.

Kyle was a 20-year-old Catholic college student who died under highly suspicious circumstances while visiting his father Tom Brennan in Clearwater. Florida, in February 2007. Brennan had returned to the practice of Scientology in 1998 when he and his wife Victoria had separated. He became a staff member of the Scientology “org” (or church) in West Tampa in 2005.

While there he fell under the influence of a Scientology celebrity in Clearwater, Denise Miscavige Gentile, the twin sister of ruthless Scientology leader David Miscavige. Denise became Brennan’s confidant, close friend, and “auditor” or Scientology psychotherapist.

Late on the night of Friday, February 16, Kyle was discovered dead in the apartment of his father’s apartment in downtown Clearwater near the Fort Harrison Hotel, the advanced training center for Scientologists from all over the world.

Kyle had been shot in the head, and his father’s .357 Magnum was lying near his body. There is no evidence that Kyle committed suicide since there was no suicide note, and Kyle’s fingerprints were found nowhere including the revolver and ammunition found at the scene.

The investigating detective failed to process a Gun Shot Residue test, and so there is no evidence that Kyle pulled the trigger on his father’s weapon.

Despite all this the detective declared Kyle’s death a suicide. So suspicious were the circumstances of Kyle’s death that his mother Victoria Britton filed a wrongful death suit, which is reaching the final stage of appeal before a panel of three federal judges in Jacksonville, Florida, on the morning of Friday, September 14.

Kyle and his family are Catholics. When he was 17 he and Victoria visited the Church of St. Michael in Bamberg, Germany. Victoria’s remarkable account reveals that Kyle had committed himself to fight against evil under the banner of St. Michael and his army of angels who carry on the fight against Satan and all the evils of the world. His commitment would eventually require that he risk and lose his life resisting the evils of the Church of Scientology and in particular its hate-driven war for the “Global Obliteration of Psychiatry.”

In January 2006 Kyle was diagnosed as a mild depressive by his psychiatrist in Charlottesville and put on an anti-depressant. When Brennan discovered in June that Kyle was being treated he deceived Kyle into staying with him in August solely for the purpose of fulfilling the demands of Scientology to interfere with Kyle’s treatment and browbeat him into stopping his psychotherapy and medication.

Brennan became vehement telling Kyle that his mother was killing him with psychotherapy and his anti-depressant and that his psychiatrist would betray him and publish his patient records on the internet.

Kyle resisted strenuously saying that only an idiot would believe in L. Ron Hubbard. Kyle overhead Brennan and his Scientologist girl friend saying that Kyle was “an Enemy of the Church of Scientology.” Brennan later threatened him with physical violence, and Kyle fled back home.

In November after Thanksgiving Kyle set out on a two-month journey to visit schools in Iowa and relatives in California. He decided to visit his father in Clearwater on his way home arriving on February 7, 2007.

Brennan and Denise Miscavige resumed their attacks on Kyle, who once more resisted them.

They attempted to persuade Victoria to put Kyle into Scientology’s Narconon Arrowhead drug rehabilitation facility in Oklahoma. Narconon Arrowhead is a house of death where 4 young people ranging from 24 – 28 have died through medical incompetence in the last three years.

The Narconon rehabilitation facility is based exclusively on Scientology teachings, and Brennan and Miscavige hoped to get him there so he would break all connection with his standard psychiatric care. Their attempt failed when Victoria resolutely rebuffed them.

They were forced to try other tactics and so resistant was Kyle that Brennan was driven to seizing Kyle’s medication and locking it in the trunk of his car the day before Kyle’s suspicious death.

Things got even more suspicious after Kyle’s death. When Brennan returned Kyle’s belongings to Victoria all documents had been deleted from his laptop as well as everything on his Ipod.

There should have been dozens of documents since Kyle was a prolific writer of short stories and a conscientious student who saved everything he wrote.

Kyle was a shrewd investor in gold coins with which he financed his journey. He had most of them amounting to several thousands of dollars when he arrived in Clearwater. When his belongings were returned all of them were missing.

The investigation of his death by the detective over the next two years was a travesty of police work, and it is clear from court documents that the detective, Brennan, and Denise Miscavige lied repeatedly about nearly every important aspect of Kyle’s case including falsifying the diagnosis of his psychiatrist turning him from a mild depressive into a paranoid schizophrenic.

Victoria Britton filed a wrongful death suit against Brennan, Denise Miscavige, her husband Jerry Gentile, and the organization that runs Scientology in Clearwater. A federal judge dismissed the case in December 2011 on very dubious legal grounds. Among other things he evidently did not study the depositions of the defendants. Had he done so the lies and obstruction of justice by the defendants would have been clear.

The final stage of the appeal will play out in the Federal Appeals Court in Jacksonville, Florida, on the morning of September 14 when a panel of three judges will hear final oral arguments in the appeal. They will make their decision known probably after Thanksgiving. [Update: The judges denied the appeal, but justice for Kyle is being sought on other fronts.]

Kyle became a young Catholic martyr resisting the attacks on him by Scientologists merely for being a mildly depressed college student. Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec and Archbishop Robert Rivas in St. Lucia have warned Catholic families about the dangers Scientology poses to Catholic young people.

Jesuit Fr. John Coleman has described Scientology as a “totalitarian cult.” Fr. Randy Sly at Catholic Online has reported extensively on Scientology and has been attacked by a Scientology spokesman for reporting the truth as a Catholic journalist.

We invite Catholics and other Christians to be in prayer on the morning of September 14 for Victoria and particularly the judges that they may do justice for Kyle Brennan. Catholics in the Jacksonville area are invited to come to the appeals court at 8:00 am on Friday morning to serve as court watchers to manifest to the judges that the death of this young martyr and justice for him is of profound concern not only to Catholics but to all decent people who hunger and thirst for justice.

Update: Victoria Britton will be breaking her silence and speaking out for the first time on a God Discussion radio show on Friday eveningk February 15, which is the eve of the sixth anniversary of Kyler death.

Our announcement is here. God Discussion's announcement Blind Justice? The Brennan Estate v. Church of Scientology (Friday, February 15) provides detailed information on how to listen in and participate in the chat room during the show.

Kyle at the Church of St. Michael in Bamberg: