Arnie Lerma

Arnaldo Pagliarini Lerma (November 18, 1950 – March 16, 2018) was an American writer and activist, a former Scientologist, and a critic of the Church of Scientology who appeared in television, media and radio interviews. Lerma was the first person to post the court document known as the Fishman Affidavit, including the Xenu story, to the Internet via the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology.

Personal life

Lerma was born in Washington, D.C., in 1950. On July 14, 2015, Lerma married Ginger Sugerman, who was also a former Scientologist. Lerma joined staff at FCDC and later in New York and was a course supervisor. Lerma quit Scientology soon afterward. A lawsuit was filed against Lerma and his Internet service provider by the church's Religious Technology Center (RTC), claiming copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation.

The Washington Post, et al., were released from the suit when United States District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled in a memorandum on November 28, 1995

The 1995 memorandum opinion acknowledges what Scientology practices to this day: the "fair game" policy, a written directive by L. Ron Hubbard that encourages harassment of anyone who speaks out against the church. In conclusion, the court awarded to RTC damages in the statutory minimum of $2,500 ($500 for each of five instances of non-willful copyright violation) for posting online a substantial portion of a copyrighted work "without comment, criticism, or other significant changes that could constitute fair use". "Because the RTC violated the spirit if not the letter of the law, and misled the court as to which materials were maintained and reviewed, the court vacated the writ of seizure and ordered RTC to return all seized materials."

On March 28, 2019, in an attempt to reunite with her adult children who were still in the Church of Scientology but forbidden contact with her, Lerma's widow Ginger Sugerman attempted to 'deliver a blow to the enemies of Scientology' by deleting all the webpages of Lermanet.com in the hopes that the Church would allow her to reconnect with her children. The deletion failed to achieve her goal of reuniting her family.

In late 2019, the entire website reappeared under the domain lermanet.org (a domain formerly used for a defamation website against Arnie Lerma), and Lerma's blog reappeared as arnielerma.blog. A few months later lermanet.com was restored.

Death and legacy

Arnie Lerma had been suffering with severe back pain for decades, despite two surgeries, and had become addicted to opioids and was increasingly paranoid. On March 16, 2018, Arnie Lerma shot his wife Ginger Sugerman twice in the face at their home in Sylvania, Georgia, and after she fled he committed suicide by gunshot. Sugerman survived but went through six surgeries and depression. Ginger Sugerman died in 2022.

Writings

The Internet is the Liberty Tree of the 90s Copyrights and Why Scientology Hates Arnaldo Lerma Scientology Gag Agreements - A Conspiracy for Silence The art of deception, 1996