A Multnomah County judge entered a default judgment Tuesday against L. Ron Hubbard, the controversial founder of the Church of Scientology, as a long-running civil fraud trial against Hubbard and the church reached the halfway mark. Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer signed the default against the reclusive Hubbard at the conclusion of the plaintiff's case in the eighth week of trial. Hubbard, who has not been seen publicly since 1980, did not appear for the trial. Londer's ruling means Hubbard by ...

The Church of Scientology started making plans in 1980 to "insulate" church founder L. Ron Hubbard from legal attack and to protect his secret church-related income in advance of his disappearance from public view, a former Scientologist testified Friday. Laurel J. Sullivan, who used to work on Hubbard's personal staff, said she learned in February 1980 that Hubbard planned to go into hiding. She said she was assigned to a special mission "to insulate L. Ron Hubbard and his income lines ...

A Portland judge who presided over a fraud trial involving the Church of Scientology in 1979 was the target of a covert operation by the church aimed at learning his attitudes about drug usage and sexual promiscuity, a former Scientologist testified Thursday. Martin L. Samuels, former head of the church in Portland, also testified that he and other church officials lied in the 1979 trial and that one reluctant ex-Scientologist was paid either $5,000 or $7,000 to testify on behalf of ...

A former personal secretary to L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, told a Portland jury Thursday about a secret system Hubbard used in the 1970s for collecting personal income from church organizations. Laurel J. Sullivan, who said she worked closely with Hubbard until he disappeared from public view in 1980, also testified that Hubbard held managerial control over numerous Scientology organizations despite his publicly announced "retirement" from church management in 1966. Contrary to a 1972 church policy ...

The Internal Revenue Service won court permission Wednesday to copy five hours of clandestinely made videotapes involving a former Church of Scientology member that were played earlier this month in a Portland fraud trial against the church. The IRS request followed a claim by church officials in Los Angeles that the tapes revealed a government plot to take control of church assets and property. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles W. Stuckey said the tapes were sought by the IRS in connection with ...

A Portland judge who presided over a fraud trial involving the Church of Scientology in 1979 was the target of a covert operation by the church aimed at learning his attitudes about drug usage and sexual promiscuity, a former Scientologist testified Thursday. Martin L. Samuels, former head of the church in Portland, also testified that he and other church officials lied in the 1979 trial and that one reluctant ex-Scientologist was paid either $5,000 or $7,000 to testify on behalf of ...

Jurors in the Church of Scientology fraud trial Tuesday listened to the last of five hours of surreptitiously-taped conversations in which a former Scientologist talked about a plan to "transform" church leadership by filing suit to take managerial control. "I think both of us want the organization to be transformed into something decent," Gerald D. Armstrong told a Scientologist who was involved in the effort to discredit Armstrong as a court witness by making tapes of the conversations without Armstrong's knowledge. ...

Attorneys for the Church of Scientology finished their cross-examination of a former Scientologist Friday without attempting to use the last two of four surreptitiously recorded videotapes made for the purpose of discrediting him. The latter tapes, made in Los Angeles In November 1984 without the knowledge of Gerald D. Armstrong, a church critic who appeared on them, were delivered to Multnomah Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer Friday. Londer had learned of the existence of the tapes Thursday and ordered them produced ...

The existence of two more surreptitiously made videotapes involving conversations of a former member of the Church of Scientology was revealed in court Thursday, one day after church lawyers said they had no knowledge of any more such tapes. The new tapes bring to four the number of meetings in which the former Scientologist, who has attacked the church, was videotaped without his knowledge during meetings with church members who led him to believe they were trying to reform church practices. ...

The Church of Scientology struck back Wednesday against a former member who testified against the church by playing to a Portland jury videotapes, made surreptitiously, in which the man discussed placing phony documents in church files. Multnomah Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer allowed the 108 minutes of tapes, made in a Los Angeles park last November, to be played to the jury as evidence of bias on the part of Gerald D. Armstrong against the church. "I can create documents with ...

Lawyers in the long-running Scientology fraud trial in Portland traded accusations Monday during an unusual day in which no testimony was presented to the jurors. Jurors were confined to a small room down the hall while Multnomah County Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer waded through a series of legal issues, including complaints against each other from attorneys leading each side of the case. Garry P. McMurry, representing a Portland woman suing the Church of Scientology for fraud arising from her involvement ...

An attempt to discredit a witness testifying against the Church of Scientology in a fraud trial hit a snag Thursday when a Portland judge called surreptitiously made videotapes an "amateurish performance" and refused to let them be shown to the jury. "I think they are devastating, devastating against the church," Multnomah Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer said out of the presence of the jury after viewing 108 minutes of tape recorded in a Los Angeles park last November. The tapes involved ...

LOS ANGELES — A U.S. District Court judge Monday dismissed a $2 million libel suit by the Church of Scientology, of California against a Boston lawyer because of the failure of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to appear at a court-ordered deposition. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology had argued that they had no way of contacting Hubbard, who was last seen in public in 1980 while living near Hemet, 70 miles east of Los Angeles. Hubbard, 74, had been ordered ...

A former Scientologist who said he helped manage L. Ron Hubbard's bank accounts testified Monday that the Scientology founder collected income of $200,000 to $1 million per week during a six-month period in 1982. Howard D. Schoemer, who left the Church of Scientology in December 1982, told a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury that the money was routed to Hubbard through Author Services Inc., a corporation that "supposedly had nothing to do with the church." Schoemer said the income to Hubbard ...

A young woman who once won and then lost more than $2 million in damages against the Church of Scientology in Portland started a second legal attack Monday on grounds that Scientologists defrauded her during nine months in 1975 and 1976. Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, who began her involvement with the church when she was 17, is asking a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury to return $3,253 she paid for courses and books and to award punitive damages as high as $42 ...

Scientology courses are designed to make students dependent on their instructors so it is "easier to brainwash them," a disaffected Church of Scientology communications supervisor testified Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. One particular "drill" called "bull baiting" involved verbal and physical abuse and sometimes overt sexual contact, Diana Morgan testified. She appeared as a witness for Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, 21, in the trial of a $2 million-plus damage suit Mrs. Titchbourne brought against three Scientology organizations and adherents. She is ...