In Which I pick Apart A Fictional Narrative, Part 2

Part 1 can be found here.

Taryn Teutsch has a new video on her blog and it reveals just how desperate Scientology is becoming in their efforts to make accusations of domestic violence against Mike Rinder stick.

Things are getting bad for Taryn and the strain is starting to show.

“It’s very disheartening to see the degradation of a human being as with my father, Mike Rinder. And I say that because for somebody to go so low as to attack their family, harass their children and then domestically attack their wife of that time.”

Cathy Rinder Bernardini accompanied by half a dozen other angry people hunted Mike Rinder down. As he sat talking on the phone they surrounded his vehicle, screamed and swore at him. He was further physically assaulted by their forcibly confining him to his car as well as attempting to steal his keys.

Teutsch’s sad cry that her father “attacked his wife of that time” falls flat when one considers that Rinder blew in 2007. Soon afterwards he attempted to communicate with Cathy who responded “Fuck you. I want a divorce”.

Three years later Mike, taking Cathy at her word, was moving on with his life. He had a new relationship and was not involved with his soon to be ex-wife. Taryn would like her reader to believe that Mike and Cathy had been close and in love when he turned rogue and viciously attacked his beloved out of the blue.

Taryn continues at 0:28, “you see my father, Mike Rinder, when he attacked my mother and has this domestic violence rage against her, he was holding onto her body–in whichever way that he did that, but his arms and whatever he was doing was holding it so she could not move her arms.” (Emphasis ours)

This comment is key for many reasons.

First Taryn is fumbling to hold her story together. She insists that since she was there she knows what happened that day. Over the years she has played up the father/daughter connection in order to highlight the incredible trauma she experienced. Taryn and Scientology want the raw emotion of a daughter seeing her father hurt her mother to be felt. Pity and sadness by an outraged audience is crucial to stirring up public hate against Rinder for his actions.

How could a father do such a terrible thing in front of his own child?

Teutsch has been explicit in her details over the years. Her presence in the parking lot that April day gave her a front row seat to the drama. Taryn described the hate in Rinder’s eyes, how he towered over Bernardini, grabbing, twisting, gouging skin with blood spurting on the walls. All details that went unmentioned to the police by her or any other member of the posse who confronted Mike Rinder.

Now all these details are gone.

Replaced by an almost apathetic disinterest.

“…he was holding onto her body–in whichever way that he did that, but his arms and whatever he was doing was holding it so she could not move her arms.”

Vague ramblings that reveal Taryn’s struggle to hold on to the fiction she and Scientology has created.

Every one of the shifting, evolving accusations made have been challenged on this blog. It is telling that when faced with irrefutable proof and common sense fueled logic Teutsch finds herself stymied.

For years Taryn wanted her readers to be fully aware of the devastating impact this event had on her. So defining was this incident she created an entire campaign to utterly destroy a man’s life.

Yet now she dismisses the horrendous details as unimportant, “…whatever he was doing…”

Has time muted the specifics of what happened on that April day in Clearwater, Florida? Have all the desperate doings that are still available on her blog become somehow moot? Taryn sounds almost blasé and frustrated by the whole thing.

My father, Mike Rinder did…something.

Taryn’s former certainty and insistence is cracking under the glare of public scrutiny and she’s losing her grip. How difficult this must be for her and her OSA handlers.

Never Ins ask yourselves; is the ruination of a man’s character to be based upon such weak and tremulous foundations?

0:46 “She could not get out of his grip and she’s a very small woman. And what happened is he’s putting all his force on her all his pressure and weight and that broke her shoulder.”

Taryn just admitted she wasn’t sure what Rinder was doing, now she’s back to a detailed description. Mike Rinder’s brother was present that day, why didn’t this man step in and stop Mike?

Emphasis is placed upon Bernardini’s small and helpless stature. Again this is to create an outraged emotional response.

“She’s 100 pounds, maybe 102”

Problematic here is that Taryn is describing her mother in current terms, not as she was over a decade ago. This is another concerted twisting of the truth designed to mislead the reader and manipulate emotions.

According to the Pinellas County, Florida paramedic report, at the time of the incident Bernardini was 140 pounds. She was hale and hearty enough to physically attempt to push her huge husband back into his vehicle. The investigating officer found that Cathy’s one injury was the result of her forcing the heavy car door closed onto Rinder. Something that Bernardini herself admitted to.

Ultimately Bitter Bernardini was not treated for a broken shoulder. According to the letter from her orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bell, Bernardini was treated for an acromion hook, tendinitis and bursitis in her shoulder. Cathy did not see Dr. Bell until 2011 and finally underwent arthroscopic decompression (not treatment for a broken bone) fourteen months after the incident occurred. During that fourteen months no medical professional noticed a broken or dislocated shoulder? According to Teutsch, Bernardini was in physical therapy prior to the surgery. How could the woman have attempted the exercises with a broken shoulder?

It also should be noted that on the paramedic report listed under “Medications” is the word “hormones”.

While the exact medications are not listed, something to consider is that hormone medications are often prescribed for post menopausal women. During this time a woman is more prone to osteoporosis, the disorder which causes bones to become brittle and porous. Hormones can slow the progression of this condition.

Regardless of the specifics, there is enough information between Dr. Bell’s letter and the paramedic report to circumstantially but reasonably surmise that Bernardini had ample preexisting conditions that had nothing to do with Mike Rinder.

Taryn once again claims that Rinder “gouged” Bernardini’s flesh, “I mean there was blood all over her shirt, her body it was dripping on the floor. That’s not because nothing happened. That’s because he damaged her and um gouged her flesh. And when somebody can do that with no feelings about it and with no remorse and no…you know…or just –that somebody can do that I feel really shows how degraded that person has become…”

Teutsch accompanies this statement with a photograph that frankly doesn’t show any gouges at all. There are some abrasions, the origination of which is unclear. Neither the paramedics nor the police saw them.

At 1:49 Teutsch says, “Instead of taking responsibility for the damage that he did he continues to lie, shame the victim (my mom) and pretend that it didn’t happen and lie about what happened and change his story. So he can’t even lie straight. You know um he lies about his lies.”

She goes on with “And I found it quite astonishing um to see this pattern that he has of changing his story. Um to give you a few examples the day after the attack happened he said that it was one thing and that ‘maybe this happened’ or uh gave some explanation for it. Then four days later he tells some other media outlet he has no idea how she was damaged and injured for life.”

The irony here is hard to miss.

Mike Rinder speaks out against Scientology. He has become a strong voice against the fraud, lies and human rights violations that his former cult perpetrates against its members. He does not spend the majority of his time addressing this one situation that Cathy Bernardini created. Like anyone Rinder has spoken to clear up the lies about him but beyond that he says little. Frankly, had Bernardini and Scientology not set out with hired private investigators to hunt Rinder down that day none of this would have happened in the first place. Bitter Bernardini would not have cut her arm on the car door and Taryn would not be wasting her life drifting in the exhausting sea of lies that are now threatening to drown her.

Scientology definitely pulled this one in on themselves.

Taryn’s foggy “examples” of her father’s many lies don’t exist. She’s obviously unable to cite clearly or credibly any time he lied about the day he was attacked. It would be more effective and believable if Teutsch were able to actually note individual instances rather than meandering ambiguous generalities.

Finally however Taryn does find something to pin on Rinder in her attempt to make him look bad. In the end though it not only reveals that someone is dancing on the edge of Suppression by listening to Leah Remini and Mike Rinder’s podcast but also that once again she’s intentionally misleading.

3 minutes 27 seconds into her over 6 minute video Taryn Teutsch lets slip that she is aware of the Scientology Fair Game podcast by saying, “11 January 2021 Mike Rinder changes his story again and did acknowledge that my mother’s shoulder was hurt and damaged but this time claims it was probably because she maybe lifted a boulder.”

In spite of getting the date wrong, episode 23 of the podcast aired on January 12, 2021, her out of context comment proves Scientology is listening.

During the podcast Rinder addressed comments that were made about this whole ugly Fair Game attack against him.

He did not say that Cathy Bernardini injured her shoulder by lifting a boulder. What he actually said was, “Here’s what happens Leah, and Stefani so you understand; if Cathy, five years after that incident in the parking lot that they make such a big deal about, injured herself doing heavy M.E.S.T. work at Gold and tore the ligaments in her shoulder while she was lifting boulders and went to a doctor, she would tell the doctor that she suffered this injury from her husband if that was something they thought they could get away with or think they can get away with.”

This was a speculative example not a statement of fact.

Taryn is extremely careful to dance around any mention of the RPF or worse, of The Hole in her video. Never Ins who are unaware of this Scientology punishment prison camp would be confused as to why Rinder would make such an outrageous claim.

Bitter Bernardini was an inmate of The Hole which is notorious for its abuse both physical and psychological. Those consigned to this religious retreat find themselves faced with hard physical labor and inhumane conditions. The last time Rinder saw his ex wife before he blew she was in The Hole.

Teutsch’s careful creeping around the reality of her mother’s incarceration is disingenuous. Bernardini’s time undergoing punishment in The Hole almost guarantees that the woman was subjected to some form of physical abuse that would certainly leave its mark.

Defending the illusion of Cathy’s vulnerable frailty Taryn proclaims, “I have not seen my mom lift something heavier than a coffee cup, no joke, in more than 20 years.”

Well, besides the whole “forcing the heavy car door closed on Mike Rinder” thing.

Finally, Taryn brings out her coup de grace.

“A report from a doctor that my mom went to see shortly after this incident occurred, this domestic violence attack by Mike Rinder. So I’m going to read just one summarizing quote from this doctor that says it all. So he says ‘In summary the examination of the patient’s injury is consistent with her description of the etiology’.”

Taryn has in the past posted letters from Dr. Bell and a physical therapist as well as the paramedic report on her blog. Why, one wonders, is this letter not likewise posted but rather only one sentence, out of context and without foundation is read? Could there be something in this letter that is incriminating not against Rinder but of Bernardini? After all Taryn has not found it necessary to post the police report either for obvious reasons.

Sadly for Taryn, OSA and David Miscavige once again lack of due diligence comes around to bite them in the form of the Law.

In both the States of Florida and California, Health Professionals, Physicians and Law Enforcement Officers are ALL MANDATED REPORTERS.

This means that every licensed professional who is by law a Mandated Reporter and has come in contact with Cathy Rinder Bernardini from April 23, 2010 until present yet did not report Rinder is guilty of breaking the law.

Unless there is a very credible reason why this did not happen.

Bernardini accused Rinder to the paramedics and apparently to her physicians. Dr. Bell mentions it in his letter as does physical therapist Richard Ortiz.

None of these people reported the incident.

In spite of all the lies, twisting of facts, out of context claims and rambling, nonsensical muttering it would appear that from the beginning the only people who believe Rinder committed an attack on Bitter Bernardini is Scientology.

No matter how hard Taryn has tried over the years the only response she’s gotten is scorn.

It’s obvious that she intends to continue no matter how pathetic she looks or how poorly this campaign is reflecting upon her oh so ethical religion.

That’s OK.

We’re here and we’re watching.

Keep ’em coming Taryn.