In Which I Pick Apart A Fictional Narrative

In Which I Pick Apart a Fictional Narrative

This is the transcript of Taryn Teutsch’s podcast describing the fictional abuse she blames on Mike Rinder. The entire, dramatic description is entirely in opposition of both the EMT report and the Pinellas County Police Report. The transcription was done by Taryn and is posted on her blog by her. It is here in it’s entirety as posted.

My notations are in italics .

Abuse Recounting

What was it like watching my father, Mike Rinder, physically attacking my mother? Something I don’t wish on any daughter…

Hello and welcome to my podcast.

This is Taryn Teutsch and I am here with you as Justice for mom. Which is my campaign. In recent months and actually the last year there’s been many, many, very brave women that have come out to speak up against men who abuse them.

Both sexually and domestically and even emotionally. And it was around that point when I went wait a minute — the same thing happened to my mom. So what’s the difference between her and one of these other women that got abused and then their abusers get away with it, and it’s swept under the carpet and you, you know, and it’s just A-ok.

So, at that point, I kind of took a step back and, and that’s really when I kind of went on a roll and I was like “no, this is not right.” I have to have the guts to stand up and say what happened. And actually do something about it and get it to — and make a difference. And also, you know, the inspiration I got from many, many women around the world that have been brave enough to tell their story despite, you know, that’s not very nice to have to say what happened to you.

And so these women around the world, as I said, you know, I kinda took a look at it and I was like “wow”. OK, this is what I need to do — I need to make a difference. I need to help end domestic abuse and it’s gonna start with getting justice for my mom.

I was with my mom one time when my father abused her. Being there…while…my father, Mike Rinder, was physically attacking my mother…was…something that I don’t wish on any child. I absolutely, 100 percent did not expect it.

We had gone there with my Uncle, who came from Australia. We went to go and actually have a conversation with him, with Mike Rinder. And in the course of doing this, he could not…He couldn’t even listen to us or hear anything my mom had to say. He was just yelling “you Bitch. You bitch” and grabbed her arms and he had her arms in a vice-grip, I guess. And both her arms were crossed over and he’s holding them and he – he’s not a small guy. And my mom’s 5’3″ and she weighs, I don’t know, 110 pounds or something. Maybe 115. She’s pretty small.

So they decided to go and have a conversation with him as he is sitting in his car waiting for his girlfriend who is in the doctor’s office. This is a completely reasonable and normal place to have a discussion with your soon to be ex husband? Normally one would call and ask for a time and place for a meeting, or one may even drive to the other person’s home. In this case, they all piled into their vehicles and were able to just magically happen upon him sitting in his car in a doctor’s office parking lot. Clearwater, FL is an area of approximately 40 sq miles. Catherine Bernadini is quoted by the investigating officer as claiming that she, Taryn, Andrew Rinder and Susan Wilhere “coincidentally saw Mike” and that they were not intentionally looking for him.

Taryn says here that they went to have a conversation with him which implies intent to find him.

Also in the police report Bernadini tells the officer that they saw Mike driving into the parking lot. The Doctor states in the report that she was with Mike’s girlfriend, Christie when they heard yelling in the waiting room. If Mike was just arriving as claimed by Taryn and Bernadini, how is it that Christie was already in the office?

Taryn claims that Mike just began yelling “You bitch, you bitch”, apparently with no provocation.

The John Sweeney recording, which clearly begins with John and Mike discussing the signing of depositions, suddenly takes a turn as Bernardini is heard calling Mike a “Fucker” as she approaches the car. Chaos ensues as Bernardini, Taryn, Andrew and others all begin screaming at Mike, swearing at him and attempting to both keep him in the vehicle as well as from driving away with Andrew taking Mike’s keys.

At the 2:22 mark in the recording Andrew can be heard telling Mike “Don’t be a dick! Talk to me!” And the car horn sounds as they struggle for the keys.

(Interesting side note; at 2:38 Andrew says “you have no idea what I am gonna go through! You can’t do this to me!” )

At 3:53 Mike says “don’t do that, it’s not OK, Andrew.” Then there is silence except for Sweeney saying “hello?” twice until the phone gets disconnected at 4:18. Sweeney calls back.

And and she’s yelling “you’re hurting me. you’re hurting me.” and he’s like ” you Bitch. You bitch” Spittle coming out of his mouth. And…and I’m looking in his eyes — and…and this is — seems like a fraction of a second, this all went down. So by the time I’m going “Get off her!” And she’s saying “you’re hurting me.” By this time her shoulder was already cracked.

Approximately 4:43 someone says “Look what you did to your wife” and this get repeated several times while Mike asks Sweeney to call the Clearwater Police. So far the only screaming or swearing has been by the Bernadini crew, Mike has not raised his voice nor called Bernardini a “bitch”. There has been no screams of pain or any other sounds indicative of an attack or struggle other than the earlier fight over Mike’s car keys with his brother. One would think that being able to “hear my bones cracking” as Bernardini states would elicit some vocal acknowledgement of the pain. At no time is Taryn heard yelling for Mike to “get off her!”

At no time is Bernardini heard saying “you’re hurting me.” Nor is there any indication of shock, pain or trauma in her voice. She does not even mention that she is bleeding.

And, she will tell you, she heard her bones crack. and she — she was just in so — in so much pain she – she wasn’t sure if she was going to collapse.

This sounds very serious. Cracked bones with so much pain it was uncertain if she was going to collapse or not.

However nowhere in the recording is anyone addressing Bernardini, asking if she’s alright, needs to sit down or if she needs 911. Further, the EMT asked Bernadini to rate her pain on the medical pain scale from 1-10. He noted she rated her pain at 2. She was both conscious and ambulatory and no shoulder issue is mentioned to or noted by the examining EMT. She refuses transport to the hospital and signs the release form with no indication of arm pain.

So that’s what happened to her shoulder that — at that moment. And being there was just…it was scary! I-I-I really — I don’t know how — how to get it across to you, but standing there watching your father — or seeing him in front of your eyes, uh, psychotically trying to hurt somebody. Someone that you love. Is…is the scariest thing you will ever experience, let me tell you. So, that’s what it was like.

It wasn’t fun, and… You know I really also didn’t like the fact that as a child, as a daughter, you look up to your father and he’s like “Daddy!” you know. And there he is – this monster standing in front of you and it’s such a disappointment. I was so disappointed and like, shell-shocked, that, that was really who he was, and like, that’s what – this is what was coming out.

This statement is entirely disingenuous and for dramatic effect. She and her mother hunted Mike down in a pack using Private Detectives, screamed expletives at him and tried to keep him from removing himself from the situation. She makes it seem like her beloved father has suddenly turned rabid. In fact she describes her relationship with Mike on Scientology’s smear site whoismichaelrinder.com as;

“As a dad, I wouldn’t really call him a dad. Just by the fact that a dad is someone that you depend on, that is there with you, that lives your life with you, that goes through your special, you are good, you are bad and all of that and I wouldn’t say that he held that function or did any of those things for me and even more so for my brother.

Before that he wasn’t in my life at all.”

And it wasn’t toward a stranger, it wasn’t toward somebody that was trying to hurt him. It was toward my mom. And his wife of 30 years. And the, the mother of his two children. So, it was scary. And it was — it was unbelievable. So there we were, standing there, trying to communicate with him and he somehow or another and I don’t know — it was — it was such a flash. But, next thing you know, he’s got her – both her hands, which were crossed in a tight grip. And he’s pulling down on her hands and, and, pulling her shoulder out of it’s socket to the point of actually cracking it.

“It wasn’t towards somebody that was trying to hurt him”. This out of control woman shows up with 6 other people who surround him, scream at him, attempt to keep him confined to his car and continually scream profanity at him. This is the poor, innocent little cast aside wife of 30 years.

4:57 “Look what you just did to your wife!” While at the same time Mike, who has been on the phone this entire time with Sweeney, is calmly asking for the police to be called. Note that Mike has been on the phone this entire time. How could he have been holding the phone and grabbed Bernardini as she describes? So far Mike has still not raised his voice.

And, that’s not to mention…I don’t know what he had in his hands — maybe some keys to his car or something — but it, that also gouged her flesh. like, when I, when she took the bandages off — ’cause she was like “god, T, it still hurts. it still hurts.” The same day. Later on. And she took the bandages off and I’m like “Oh my God! Mom!” and it was — I mean, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I – I just – I couldn’t believe it.

Again, Mike was on the phone speaking to Sweeney asking him to call the police. Phone in one hand keys in the other yet still able to grab Bernardini? His brother is right there in the midst of everything yet he doesn’t step in to protect Bernardini? There is no audio of Andrew shouting at Mike to let Bernardini go, or to stop grabbing her.

I didn’t realize that it had actually taken, I don’t know, how much that is. Like, a, a centimeter worth of flesh out of her forearm. And it was quite a big gash. It was not small. Um, probably like, you know, 5 inches or so. So that had also happened while he was grabbing her.

At 5:11 Sweeney asks Mike to notify the group that they are being recorded which he does. The response by Jenny Devocht is to scream at Mike “that fine! That’s fine! Because your wife and your daughter came to see you and you disconnected from them!” No mention of an assault or injury on Bernadini. At 5:51 Mike has finally had enough of Jenny and the others screaming at him and understandably tells Jenny to “Fuck off”. He says this calmly and without screaming. 6 minutes into this attack and so far there has been no sign of Mike screaming at Bernadini, calling her names or even of him truly losing his temper.

The EMT Report filled out on scene states Bernardini’s injury as; “Minor skin tear, right forearm”.

But the rage in his eyes and you could tell he really, really had an axe to grind with her. And he, he hated her. He hatedher.

So he pulls down her arms. Pulls it out of the socket, cracks her shoulder.

Gives a whole – her, her a huge gauge on her arm, much less, bruises on the – on both arms and other abrasions kind of throughout her arms. Good – so we’re now 8 years later. And she still has not recovered. She’s had to have surgery. She’s had to have physical therapy. She’s had to see many, many doctors. Have, special treatments to try to get her shoulder to stop hurting her.

Again, none of these multiple injuries are noted either verbally by anyone shouting at Mike on the Sweeney recording, or in writing by the investigating officer or the EMTs on scene.

Much less ever be normal again. Like, she has been told “You will never have the full use of your arm again.” because of what Mike Rinder did that day. And it’s – you know the first year she spent months and months in recovery from the surgery. Which her doctor told her that the surgery she had was equivalent to getting a leg or an arm amputated.

“The first year she spent months and months in recovery from the surgery.” According to Doctor Bell, the surgeon who treated Bernadini for bursitis, tendinitis and an acromion hook, the surgery took place 14 months after the 2010 incident.

In terms of the severity of how much they had to do to correct it or the extent of the, of the surgery. So that’s not – that’s not a small thing. So, um, for many, many months, probably more like a year, I was very extensively helping her, I mean, helping her with everything.

Like, getting dressed, putting on her, you know, making her bed, putting away her sheets. Getting food. I mean, she couldn’t use her arm at all and thus the hand and that, that whole kind of side of her body. We had to get special shirts made that opened on the side so that she could get dressed.

Because she couldn’t move that arm. That’s how bad it was. and that was like months, and months and months of intensive recovery. Then, uh, going on from there, the last 8 years, um, it’s just been this same thing. Like I’m, I’m constantly helping her — I do many things she can’t do now because she doesn’t have the full use of both her arms. Or her right arm is incapacitated to that degree. I do all those things for her.

Which I love, that’s not the point. The point is, he harmed her so badly she will never recover and that’s not right.

My campaign of Justice for mom and sort of the back-story of the physical abuse that led up to, to now, this year, me with a vengeance working on my campaign. And that came about as I said earlier, by so many inspiring women coming out and actually wanting to make a difference in the fight against sexual, emotional and domestic abuse of women.

And so along the way, there’s been so many really caring, friendly, helpful women along the way. And men, the – tons of people basically have supported me on social media, the events I go to, you know, on Facebook and Twitter and everything and I really appreciate that.

Now, my goals for this campaign are really – first and foremost to get Mike Rinder fired. I want Disney and A&E to fire him because he should not be on TV, he should not be in front of a viewing audience. And, there’s plenty of documented evidence of his abuse. And the fact that he has I would say, like, like a streak of abuse. Whether it be physical or emotional, it’s rampant. And it’s not right. And I want him off TV and I want him fired.

If there really was plenty of documented evidence of his abuse then where is it? Why isn’t Scientology providing it instead of focusing solely on the incident of April 2010? The stories she and her mother have told have already been proven to be lies. If there were true evidence why has it not come out after all this time?

Taryn insists that she is campaigning for abused women yet the one, true and consistent item on all of her media is that she wants Mike fired from his job. That is not for Domestic Abuse survivors. It is Fair Game for Scientology.

So I have some future pod casts already planned. My next one that I would like to take up immediately, right off the bat, is actually about denial. Specifically, and very pertinent to my story and my campaign. My father, Mike Rinder, is in denial. And about pretty much everything that I’ve brought up. Or, the stories I’ve told, or my mom told, or my brother has told he has um, denied. And that’s what I want to cover on my next pod cast.

So to end here for today on my first podcast I’d like to thank everybody who subscribed to this podcast and all the thousands of people along the way who have supported me on social media. This is a very important issue, meaning, domestic violence, so, once again, thank you very much for listening. I’m not going to stop until I have justice for my mom.

 

 

The full John Sweeney recording can be heard here; Rinder Attack