Jennifer Alpers has been a member of the religious order for over 30 years. She has been Director of Domestic Services at Golden Era Productions for the past decade and knew Ron Miscavige for 25 years.

 

I have known Ron since the late 1980s when he first arrived at Golden Era Productions and continued to know him until he left. In 1988 I left Golden Era Productions to work on the Freewinds in an executive capacity. For the eight years that I worked on the Freewinds, I dealt with Ron as one of the musicians who would perform aboard during our annual Anniversary Cruise. This was the busiest time of year with a ship packed out to maximum capacity and a lot of special guests and performers. I was involved in the setup and organization of the cruise. I would make sure that the ship guests, including Ron’s former wife Loretta, were taken care of while aboard. Even though it was not my job directly, I oversaw the setup of all domestic services for the Golden Era Productions musicians who were performing during the week. Nonetheless, Ron used to come directly to me to get whatever he wanted using the fact that he could go to his son to cause trouble if I didn’t service him, which would never happen. The leader of our Church doesn’t operate that way and is kind and fair. But Ron was a bully and would try to intimate it. Ron had a way of doing that even though he was already being offered good service and assistance from the ship’s crew.

Ron was a bully.

In 2007 my relationship with Ron was as the Director of Domestic Services here at Golden Era Productions. I am responsible for the kitchen facilities and feeding about 450 staff each day, the janitorial and housekeeping services including laundry and dry cleaning, as well as the motor pool facility.

In regard to my experience with Ron in our dining room facility, Ron was provided all of his meals in our newly renovated dining room. It was Ron’s son, Mr. David Miscavige, who made sure that the planning and design were done for the kitchen and dining room and everything taken care of so we have a state-of-the-art kitchen and an exquisite dining room facility. Ron was able to use and enjoy both facilities and knew that his own son was behind ensuring that all staff at Golden Era have the nicest environment possible in which to live and work. It truly is a resort, and I have been to some of the best across the entire Caribbean, from St. Barts to the Virgin Islands.

Ron was granted a lot of respect and special care and attention by his son on his birthday. A special meal was provided to Ron and his wife Becky at the most prestigious table in the dining room, set in Italian style with red and white checkered tablecloth, Italian decorations and lots of special food and wine as a gift from his son to him. Ron and Becky were wined and dined on his birthday with a photographer assigned to take photographs. A waitress was assigned to the table, and he was waited on hand and foot. This was a big deal and Ron loved it and looked forward to it. I used to talk to him during the meal and afterwards and was offered some of the goodies. Ron was totally excited by it and proud. He was given so much special care and attention by his son. Everybody here can tell you what a big deal it was and how nice it was made for Ron.

 

 

Ron lived in the most beautiful staff apartment facility that I have seen. Again, this facility was established and put here by Ron’s son.

Ron lived in the most beautiful staff apartment facility that I have seen. Again, this facility was established and put here by Ron’s son. And by this I mean he oversaw the design of the rooms and the buildings down to every single detail. The apartment complex for the staff includes a separate laundry and dry cleaning plant which washes all of the bed and table linens for the staff and does all of the dry cleaning on site. Ron never had to wash his own sheets or towels. He was provided with a laundromat in his apartment building and given all of the supplies to care for his room. Even so, he didn’t do his part to keep his room clean. In fact, Ron and Becky had the most filthy apartment. He took the white sealer off his tile grout lines which required maintenance personnel days to repair, not to mention the various other repairs that had to be done to the apartment after he left. Ron’s apartment was not kept up to the level that any normal person would keep their apartment. I know because I occasionally went in there and the place stank to high heaven and had so much junk in it, not to mention the damaged floor from him stripping off the white sealer.

Ron never had to wash his own sheets or towels… Even so, he didn’t do his part to keep his room clean. In fact, Ron and Becky had the most filthy apartment.

I also had the misfortune of having to turn over Ron’s earlier apartment in town where Ron and other staff lived prior to the establishment of apartments on our property. Ron’s apartment in town was disgusting. I know, because I was the unlucky one who had to clear it out and clean it to make it presentable to the landlord. I had a lot of other apartments to inspect for the turnover to the landlord and without question, Ron’s apartment was the worst. I am not exaggerating. The staff member in charge of staff accommodations can tell you the same story. Ron was a pig and kept his apartment in a disgraceful condition. He carried over his bad habits to the new place and despite my staff accommodations personnel attempting to show Ron and Becky how to keep their room clean, he would not.

As I was also responsible for janitorial services, Ron would come up to me directly, even though I was the director of three major sections with over 20 staff under me, to get whatever he wanted. He would come to me at any time and expect me to drop what I was doing to get him what he wanted. He was really obnoxious, I must say, and a pest.

The other area where I interfaced with Ron was in our motor pool vehicle shop. Ron was given a car by his son for his birthday. His son was so generous with him it was just amazing. Often a father gets a car for their child but not usually the other way around. I think that’s pretty kind of Ron’s son and shows how compassionate and caring he was for his father. I certainly haven’t been given anything like that from any of my family members.

Ron used to come into the motor pool facility when there was a single mechanic running the entire shop and caring for several buses and several fleets of cars. Ron used to expect the one guy in the shop to drop whatever he was doing to service Ron and his personal car. The mechanic just didn’t have the time to always service Ron so Ron would come to me to demand that I get my mechanic to service him instantly. My mechanic is not the type of person to just drop what he is doing, as he had organizational fleet vehicles he had to keep operational for the rest of the property to function. When I didn’t immediately jump and get Ron what he wanted, he picked up the phone and called our superior to get her to make us service him. This went on for years and was obnoxious. The mechanic saw through this and thought Ron was a jerk, because it was so obvious that Ron was just thinking of himself and not the organization.

About 4 to 5 years ago, once again Ron’s son made sure that Golden Era Productions got a new fleet of cars and vans for the property. A few staff were added to this area to care for the new fleet. Nonetheless, and despite over 60 cars and vans to care for, Ron made his way into the shop at random times, including during his working hours, to get things he wanted for his car. He continued to demand instant service and would not fill in the standard forms to get his personal vehicle serviced on the schedule provided for such.

The truth is that Ron was well taken care of and in fact granted respect and the services that he needed to live a good life here at Golden Era Productions.

The truth is that Ron was well taken care of and in fact granted respect and the services that he needed to live a good life here at Golden Era Productions.

Jennifer Alpers
Director of Domestic Services