LAT: Scientologist-in-chief had his father followed and bugged

David Miscavige, the creepy grand poobah of the Church of Scientology, reportedly had private investigators spy on his father, place a GPS tracker on his car and monitor his computer activities, the LA Times' Kim Christensen reports. That's not the most potentially outrageous part. The Times story also says that when the investigators called in a report that the target, Ron Miscavige, was having a heart attack, they got a call back from David Miscavige saying not to intervene. "David told him that if it was Ron's time to die, to let him die and not intervene in any way," according to police records from the arrest of the private investigator in Wisconsin in 2013.

Ron Miscavige had left Scientology after a lengthy membership, and according to the Times story, the church paid two detectives $10,000 a week through an intermediary for surveillance that ran 18 months. Through his attorney, David Miscavige denied any knowledge of the investigators or the surveillance.

"Please be advised that Mr. Miscavige does not know Mr. Powell, has never heard of Mr. Powell, has never met Mr. Powell, has never spoken to Mr. Powell, never hired Mr. Powell and never directed any investigations by Mr. Powell," Michael Lee Hertzberg, Miscavige's attorney, said in an email to The Times.

Longtime Scientology watcher Tony Ortega hailed the Times story as a breakthrough.

Los Angeles Times reporter Kim Christensen landed a bombshell Wednesday night with his story about a police report which shows that Scientology leader David Miscavige paid private investigators $10,000 a week for 18 months to follow his father, Ron Miscavige Sr.

We broke the news in 2012 that Ron had escaped from Scientology’s International Base after being a musician at the compound for many years. He went to Virginia to live with his son, Ron Jr, before relocating to Wisconsin.

And his son David Miscavige, Scientology’s dictatorial leader, has made sure Ron has been under surveillance to keep an eye on what he might say about Scientology.

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There’s plenty of precedent for Miscavige paying huge sums to have people followed using the tax-exempt coffers of the Church of Scientology.