Medina couple recalls ordeal with religious group

The Chronicle Telegram
22 January 1990
p. A10

Within weeks of their involvement, the Gearys said they were unable to resist signing checks, arranging for loans and borrowing from the dental practice to pay Scientology for more seminars. The paper said the couple showed a reporter canceled checks to Scientology totaling more than $180,000.

MEDINA (AP) — A dentist and his wife say they spent $200,000 during five months of training seminars and programs run by members of the Church of Scientology.

The experience nearly wrecked his dental practice and required months of hospitalization and deprogramming for his wife, Bob Geary of Medina said.

Geary, in a story Sunday in the Akron Beacon Journal, claimed his wife was held captive for more than two weeks by Scientologists in California.

The Gearys said they recovered most of the money they paid the Scientologists but rejected a $44,000 settlement offer which they claim would have required them to remain silent about their ordeal.

August Murphy, a spokesman for Scientology's San Francisco mission, said Mrs. Geary was taken by Scientologists to a cabin in California in the fall of 1988 but was never held against her will.

He said the church made a settlement offer to the Gearys because it was church policy to return donations when members choose to leave.

Geary said his ordeal began at a seminar for professionals offered for free by Sterling Management Systems of Glendale, Calif., which was labeled by the Gearys and other former Scientologists as a church front organization.

Murphy said there "are Scientologists working for Sterling, but it is not part of the church at all."

Geary said after he attended a three-hour Sterling seminar in May 1988 in Cleveland, he was told be needed more seminars to improve his practice. He signed a $10,500 check to attend a week long seminar in Glendale, Calif.

The Gearys signed up for additional work at Scientology's San Francisco mission. They returned home for a month, but in mid-July, flew back to San Francisco for 10 days of intensive "auditing," a term the church uses for counseling but described by former members as brainwashing.

Within weeks of their involvement, the Gearys said they were unable to resist signing checks, arranging for loans and borrowing from the dental practice to pay Scientology for more seminars. The paper said the couple showed a reporter canceled checks to Scientology totaling more than $180,000.

The newspaper said the couple claimed that a Scientologist forged Bob Geary's name to a check for $20,000 when he didn't "move fast enough" to pay for additional seminars. Murphy denied the allegation.

Mrs. Geary said she later returned to San Francisco for further auditing. She alleged that Scientologists held her captive for more than two weeks in a cabin near Mount Shasta to correct behavior that could harm the organization.

Geary said Scientologists refused to tell him his wife's whereabouts and that she was not returned home until after he and his lawyer met with several Scientologist representatives.

After Mrs. Geary came home, the family sought help from the Cult Awareness Network [beware, the CAN was taken over by a scientologist in 1996], which identifies Scientology as a dangerous cult.