CLEARWATER – No angry swarms picketed the Church of Scientology last week. No candlelight vigils. No TV cameras. No extra police patrols. For the first time in six years, the anniversary of the death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson passed quietly. The McPherson maelstrom, which brought nightmarish publicity for the church, has ebbed dramatically, now that the high-profile criminal charges against the church were dropped and a raucous group of church critics recently left Clearwater. But one critical battle remains, one so ...

Tory Bezazian was a veteran Scientologist who loved going after church critics. Until she met the darkest detractor of all. Last year, Church of Scientology operatives received an alarming tip: During the upcoming 2000 MTV Movie Awards scheduled for June 8, a short South Park film parodying Battlefield Earth would feature the character Cartman wiping his ass with a copy of L. Ron Hubbard's sacred text, Dianetics. The tip was erroneous. Cartman would actually be wiping his ass with a Scientology ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A doctor was suspended for a year for improperly prescribing Valium to unlicensed Church of Scientology workers caring for a church member who had suffered a mental breakdown. Dr. David I. Minkoff, 53, of Clearwater, Fla., also a Scientologist, will lose his medical license for a year and will be required to practice under probation for two more years, the Board of Medicine ruled Friday. He was fined $10,000. Lisa McPherson died Dec. 5, 1995, 17 days ...

David I. Minkoff loses his license for one year for improperly prescribing drugs for the Scientologist. TALLAHASSEE — Florida's Board of Medicine has sternly sanctioned Clearwater physician David I. Minkoff, finding he improperly prescribed medicine for a patient he had never seen — Scientologist Lisa McPherson. Minkoff, also a Scientologist, prescribed Valium and the muscle relaxant chloral hydrate at the behest of unlicensed Church of Scientology staffers who were trying to nurse McPherson, 36, through a severe mental breakdown. When they ...

A 20-year former Scientologist who now calls it a cult has created a work of fiction that closely resembles the Clearwater group. It's a movie about cults based on fictional characters, says the director. But it's hard to miss the inspiration behind The Profit. The main character is a science-fiction writer who founds a religion. Get it? The leader starts the Church of Scientific Spiritualism. His name: L. Conrad Powers. The full-length feature film was written and directed by Peter Alexander, ...

A judge dismisses the allegation that Lisa McPherson was falsely imprisoned. ST. PETERSBURG — The Church of Scientology won a partial victory Thursday when a judge dismissed one of four counts in a 4-year-old wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of Lisa McPherson. In one of his final acts overseeing the case, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada dismissed the count alleging that McPherson was falsely imprisoned. Ken Dandar, the lawyer representing the McPherson estate, argued that McPherson was psychotic and ...

Keith Henson, American activist on the run in Canada, thinks the controversial Church of Scientology has made him fair game for dirty tricks Looking back, maybe the joke about the "Tom Cruise Missile" wasn't such a good idea. That online jest, made last year by Keith Henson, a peaceful if persistent critic of the controversial Church of Scientology, has led to his being found guilty of "intimidating a religion," and now on the run from the U.S., hiding out in plain ...

Scientology claims that it has reformed and says it should be treated like any other church. But the Jesse Prince case and others continue to set this church apart. You have to be courageous to publicly criticize the Church of Scientology. The organization recently proved – again – how far it will go to investigate, smear and intimidate critics. Jesse Prince is one of those people the Church of Scientology perceives as an enemy because he is a vocal critic. A ...

Prosecutors decide to drop a marijuana charge after jurors, concerned about church influence, deadlock. CLEARWATER — When the two-day misdemeanor trial of Scientology critic Jesse Prince ended Thursday, jurors had little doubt he had possessed marijuana as the state charged. What bothered some of them, according to two jurors, was the possibility that Prince had been set up by the Church of Scientology. They heard testimony about how Prince, once a high-ranking church member, was watched, videotaped and trailed for months ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jurors in a misdemeanor marijuana case against a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology were unable to reach a verdict after some on the panel suspected the church had set him up. A hung jury was declared Thursday in the cases against Jesse Prince, who was charged with growing a marijuana plant in his backyard. The jury deliberated for five hours and was split 4-2 in favor of acquittal, jurors said. Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews declared ...

CLEARWATER — For months, a high-profile attorney for a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology has tried to show the church is behind a minor drug charge against his client. Now, on the eve of Jesse Prince's trial on a misdemeanor charge of growing marijuana, defense lawyer Denis de Vlaming has hit what he considers pay dirt. Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews still must decide whether jurors get to hear how private detectives working for the church shadowed Prince for ...

The Church of Scientology investigated critic Jesse Prince, then passed information along to police. Last spring, a private investigator working for the Church of Scientology went to Largo police with a tip: A vocal critic of Scientology named Jesse Prince was involved with illegal drugs. Prince, 47, is a former church member and a key witness in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the church. Police investigated and arrested Prince, who is charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession. The case is set ...

A group beautifying a Clearwater alley reverses course and will let donors memorialize a church member who died. CLEARWATER – Lisa McPherson will be memorialized in a downtown alley next door to a Church of Scientology building. A group that sold hundreds of engraved bricks to beautify the city-owned alley has reversed an earlier decision, deciding to allow a McPherson memorial brick and two other bricks submitted by Scientology critics. McPherson was a 36-year-old Scientologist who died in 1995 in the ...

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thomas Penick, who has the unenviable task of refereeing sidewalk skirmishes between the Church of Scientology and anti-Scientology protesters in Clearwater, recently pointed to an arrangement that allows off-duty Clearwater cops to work for Scientology and noted, "They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology." Penick was right to call attention to the uncomfortably cozy relationship developing between city police and the church, which has its spiritual headquarters in ...

Off-duty Clearwater police provide security for the Church of Scientology, subject of many investigations. To some in law enforcement, the officers are crossing an ethical line. [Picture / Caption: "Off-duty Clearwater police officer Scott Wilson watches for oncoming cars on Watterson Avenue as Scientologists leav a bus."] CLEARWATER – Every day, off-duty Clearwater police officers provide security for the Church of Scientology, which was investigated by police for 18 years but now is putting thousands of dollars in officers' pockets. The ...

Astra Woodcraft, apostate and defector, is the latest enemy of the Church of Scientology. Woodcraft, 22, never really joined this controversial psycho-spiritual movement, at least not as a free-thinking adult. Astra was born into it. Founded in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, a prolific science fiction writer and freelance philosopher, Scientology describes itself as "the only major new religion established in the 20th century," as a bridge to increased awareness and spiritual freedom. Woodcraft, a third-generation Scientologist, paints a different ...

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has endorsed a literacy project affiliated with the Church of Scientology, which critics say is a step towards offering cult-like teachings to school children. When Menino posed for a photo at a December awards ceremony with the director of H.E.L.P. Boston - and gave a $1,000 city grant to the group - aides said they were aware that the group teaches a "study technology" developed by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the movement. But Menino, through a ...