Type: Tort, intentional infliction of emotion distress, alter ego. Bench decision: Amendment of judgment - $6,025,857 ($4,649,328 renewed judgment plus $1,376,529 accrued interest). Case/Number: Larry Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California / C332027. Court/Date: L.A. Superior Central / Oct. 29, 1997. Judge: John P. Shook. Attorneys: Plaintiff - Craig J. Stein (Gartenberg, Jaffe, Gelfand & Stein, LLP, L.A.); Daniel A. Leipold, Cathy Shipe, Robert F. Donohue (Hagenbaugh & Murphy, Orange); Lita Schlosser (Encino); Ford Greene (Hub Law Offices, San Anselmo). ...

Regarding "Reassessing U.S.-German Friendship" (Special Report, Dec. 9) by John Dornberg: Mr. Dornberg writes that claims of discrimination against Scientologists in Germany are "ludicrous." As human rights counsel for the Church of Scientology of Germany, I must inform you that Mr. Dornberg's statement is flatly incorrect. I have personally documented hundreds of cases of Scientologists who have been seriously discriminated against in Germany. In some cases they have been forced to leave their country and seek asylum abroad. Scientologists in Germany ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Late on a November afternoon two years ago, a 36-year-old Scientologist named Lisa McPherson was involved in a minor traffic accident. She was not injured, but she inexplicably stripped off her clothes and began to walk naked down the street. A paramedic rushed her into an ambulance and asked why she had taken off her clothes. Ms. McPherson replied: "I wanted help. I wanted help." She was taken to a nearby hospital for a psychiatric examination, but several ...

When you sit down to read, do you find yourself feeling blank or sort of spinny? Squashed, bent or just not there? Sure you do. And here's why: You've gone past a word you don't understand. In fact, the only reason a person gives up studying or becomes confused or unable to learn is because that person went past a word that was misunderstood. At least that's what the followers of the late Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard want you to ...

TAMPA, Fla., Nov. 7 — A Federal immigration court judge has granted asylum to a German member of the Church of Scientology who claimed that she would be subjected to religious persecution had she been required to return to her homeland, the woman's lawyer and a Scientology official said today. While few details of the case were available, it is believed to be the first time the United States has given asylum protection to a Scientologist. The Church of Scientology has ...

BERLIN — Speaking from a vast video screen, actor John Travolta told a mass rally of Scientologists here Monday that there is no excuse for government discrimination against religious bodies. Singing and chanting, adherents from Germany, the United States and across Europe joined the L.A.-based Church of Scientology's largest demonstration in Germany against what it said is official discrimination against religious minorities. "Scientology is our religion," Travolta said in the video message, taped in Los Angeles. "It has helped us a ...

EDUCATION: Organizer of a conference being held today is a Scientologist, and that worries' some in the school-reform group. ORANGE — Leaders of Orange County's "back to basics" education movement are split over attending a conference tonight because the chief organizer belongs to the Church of Scientology. Orange County Department of Education board member Ken Williams said he withdrew from the "Back to Basics Education Crusade" because of discomfort with its organizers, not because of disagreement over the crusade's goals. "I ...

Several months after she went to work at a Manhattan real estate firm, Karen Schwartz says her boss, developer Lawrence Feldman, ordered her to take an unusual series of night classes. Ms. Schwartz says he informed her they were simply "business courses." But when she arrived at the classroom, Ms. Schwartz couldn't have been more astonished. According to a complaint Ms. Schwartz has filed with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was subjected to something close to an indoctrination into ...

After more than seventeen years of litigation, Lawrence Wollersheim knows that talk isn't cheap–not when you're talking to lawyers and your life's work happens to involve badmouthing the Church of Scientology. But the price of silence is even higher. Too high, in Wollersheim's estimation, which is why he says he walked away from an alleged settlement offer by the church that would have netted him and a few colleagues $12 million in exchange for abandoning their crusade against Scientology. Wollersheim is ...