Newsweek; U.S. Edition - July 21, 1997
Society: Religion A Death in Clearwater A controversial lawsuit asks who is to blame for the death of a young and troubled Scientologist
By Kenneth L. Woodward and Peter Katel
At dusk on nov. 18, 1995, 36-year-old Lisa McPherson was spotted walking
buck naked away from a minor traffic accident in downtown Clearwater, Fla. A
paramedic took her by ambulance to the nearest hospital. On the way, the
paramedic later reported, McPherson "said she wanted people to think she was
crazy because she wanted people to help her." At the hospital a doctor
concluded that his sometimes babbling, sometimes coherent patient had a
"psychiatric problem." But McPherson was a member of the Church of Scientology,
which is bitterly opposed to psychiatry. Less than an hour later--and against
the doctor's advice--McPherson signed herself out to a group of Scientologists.
That night she entered the church's eight-story "retreat center" in the old Ft.
Harrison Hotel to begin a 24-hour surveillance program aimed at restoring her
mental health. Seventeen days later McPherson died, and Clearwater police have
been investigating her death ever since.
Other people also want to know what happened inside the Scientology
compound. In the autopsy report, state medical examiner Dr. Joan Wood concluded
that McPherson died from a blood clot brought on by dehydration. Later, on the
syndicated television program "Inside Edition," Wood said, "This is the most
severe case of dehydration I have ever seen," estimating that McPherson may
have been "deprived of food and water" for five to 10 days. McPherson's aunt
and next of kin would like some answers, too: she has filed a civil suit
against the Church of Scientology charging wrongful death. The church, in turn,
has a suit against Wood charging bias and demanding all her records.
Scientologists have reason to be upset: rarely is a church accused of
complicity in the death of one of its own members. And in Clearwater--where the
church is a major presence--the media have dogged the case for months.
Last week a window was opened into the last days of McPherson--and into the
church itself. Over strong objections from the church's lawyers, circuit Judge
James Moody Jr.
released 33 pages of notes
taken by the Scientologists who had attended McPherson in the weeks before she
died. Just four days into her stay, the notes make clear, McPherson was
"ashen-faced" and feverish. Attendants tried to force her to eat and drink, the
notes say, but she strongly resisted. She was often violent, poking one
attendant in the eye and attacking another with a potted plant. "She then
started to hit things in the room and broke a lamp hanging from the ceiling,"
the notes go on. "She then went and got back on her bed and then jumped off,
land[ing] on the wet floor and then hit her head..." Three days before she
died, McPherson had great difficulty swallowing, vomited often and "had
scratches and abrasions all over her body..." When McPherson was taken out of
the retreat center, her attendants drove her to
a doctor, also a Scientologist, who had been following her case. The trip to
his hospital took 45 minutes; four other hospitals were closer. McPherson died
shortly after arriving.
All this led McPherson's aunt, Dell Liebreich of Dallas, to charge that her
niece was held "against her will"--and that Scientologists permitted her "to
remain in a coma" that ultimately led to her death. In fact, Liebreich contends
that her niece was desperately trying to leave the church. A divorcee,
McPherson had been a Scientologist for 18 years, worked for a publishing
company owned by Scientologists and roomed with another church member.
Liebreich's attorney says McPherson had spent all but $3,000 of her $130,000 in
earnings on Scientology courses in 1994, when her company relocated from Dallas
to Clearwater.
Church officials flatly deny responsibility for McPherson's death. They
point out that the pathologist who performed the actual autopsy, in Dr. Wood's
presence, doesn't endorse his former superior's contention that McPherson was
suffering from life-threatening dehydration. They also deny that McPherson was
trying to leave the fold. On the contrary, they say she was a troubled woman
who came to the church for help. "There were people there who were doing
everything they possibly could to help her," says Mike Rinder, head of special
affairs for the church. Was the cure worse than the sickness? That's for the
courts to decide.
With Mark Miller
Newsweek 7/21/97 Society/Religion: A Death in Clearwater
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