CLEARWATER - A Church of Scientology staff member who helped care for Lisa McPherson shortly before her death is a medical doctor whose practice in Arizona was restricted after two hospitals raised questions about her use of prescription drugs. The doctor, Janis K. Johnson-Fitzgerald, agreed to an order in October 1993 in which she surrendered her right to write prescriptions; promised not to see patients; agreed to random drug tests; and was to have her progress monitored by another doctor. At ...

There is a peculiar response coming from Washington regarding new questions about the Internal Revenue Service's decision to give the Church of Scientology the tax exemption granted to churches. Silence. In a city where every politician searches for publicity and demands for investigations are commonplace, no one has heard a peep from Congress. It has been more than a week since the New York Times raised serious concerns about the circumstances surrounding the IRS' decision to reverse course in 1993 and ...

Having spent the morning on the Net, surfing any number of hideous accounts by ex-scientologists, I climbed the stairs of the Civic Scientology office with some trepidation. I felt armed with my newly enhanced awareness of cult recruiting tactics and brainwashing techniques, and had the specific aim of grabbing any printed material I could see and getting out fast. I was greeted warmly by a young woman and told that someone would be 'with me shortly.' A few minutes later she ...

The truth is, there is no "humane" way to destroy the developing child in the womb. Other than the "partial-birth" abortion, the current methods are: ripping the body apart with a powerful suction machine (sometimes requiring that the child's body be sliced up by a sharp curette before suctioning, depending on the child's size); poisoning the child with a caustic salt solution, causing the child to writhe in pain for a number of hours prior to being violently expelled; or chemical ...

The truth in the McPherson case Re: Five doctors agree with examiner in Scientology death, March 9. A great deal of false information has been circulated by the media concerning the Lisa McPherson case, the most recent of which appeared in the Times with quotes from medical experts purportedly in support of the allegations made by the Pinellas/Pasco medical examiner, Dr. Joan Wood. But as with much else in this case, the truth was not made known, and a false picture ...

The Church of Scientology has denied that its leader and another official had an unscheduled meeting in October 1991 with Fred T. Goldberg Jr., then the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. A statement released by the church, which was sharply critical of an article on March 9 in The New York Times, said that its leader, David Miscavige, had not had an impromptu meeting with Mr. Goldberg and that all meetings between church representatives and I.R.S. officials had been attended ...

To the Editor: Contrary to Scientology's Puzzling Journey From Tax Rebel to Tax Exempt (front page, March 9), the Internal Revenue Service made its decision to issue exemption rulings to the Church of Scientology in 1993 on the merits following the most in-depth examination in the history of the I.R.S. The role of the I.R.S. committee that was formed to address issues involving the church was not to negotiate a deal but independently and objectively to review the church's qualification for ...

Can anyone stand up to the Church of Scientology? Such was the plaintive question asked by The St. Petersburg Times in an editorial last week, and with good reason. The great American religious saga of the 1990's may be the rise to power of a church that has successfully brought the Internal Revenue Service, the State Department and much of the American press to heel even as it did an end-run around the courts. As Douglas Frantz reported in The New ...

DUNEDIN - It has been brought up at gatherings for weeks - at Mardi Gras, at a chamber mixer, at the morning coffee klatch, at a Kiwanis Club breakfast. Then there have been phone calls to City Hall and the newspaper. People want to know: Is the three-story building in the heart of downtown being bought by Scientologists? Will the building one day be given to the church and come off the taxrolls? Will Dunedin wind up looking like downtown Clearwater, ...

Most taxpayers would not be rewarded if they tried to intimidate the Internal Revenue Service into giving them a break. They also would be kicked out the door if they barged into the office of the head of the IRS and demanded to be seen without an appointment. But most taxpayers are not the Church of Scientology, which succeeded in doing both. The decision by the IRS in 1993 to give the Church of Scientology the tax exemption granted to churches ...

For years, Scientology has gone to great lengths to defend itself from critics. Often its defense has involved private investigators working for its lawyers. While the use of private investigators is common in the legal profession, some instances involving the church have been unusual. Scientology officials said that the investigators operated within the law and that the tactics were necessary to counter attacks made over the years by Internal Revenue Service agents and the press. "When people stop spreading lies about ...

CLEARWATER — Five pathologists say it is clear from key lab results that Lisa McPherson was severely dehydrated when she died after a 17-day stay at a Church of Scientology retreat. The Times interviewed the doctors after the much-publicized disagreement between the church and Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood over how McPherson died. None of the doctors were previously familiar with the case. While many of their conclusions echo what Wood has said about McPherson's death, most of the doctors said ...

On Oct. 8, 1993, 10,000 cheering Scientologists thronged the Los Angeles Sports Arena to celebrate the most important milestone in the church's recent history: victory in its all-out war against the Internal Revenue Service. For 25 years, I.R.S. agents had branded Scientology a commercial enterprise and refused to give it the tax exemption granted to churches. The refusals had been upheld in every court. But that night the crowd learned of an astonishing turnaround. The I.R.S. had granted tax exemptions to ...

NANTES, FRANCE — A member of the Church of Scientology found and defused a powerful bomb Friday in a church in the western town of Angers, police said. Police said the device, concealed in a sports bag, was found in the entry hall shortly after the Scientology church opened for the day. The church member who found the bomb carried it to a nearby park and defused it. An invesigator described the device as "made to kill and very powerful." There ...

A web of intrigue surrounds the high-stakes legal brawl between FACTnet and the Church of Scientology. Strange things happen around Lawrence Wollersheim. His businesses collapse. His Boulder apartment gets raided by federal marshals, his computers seized. When college students offer to help him rebuild his computer bulletin-board system, they receive threatening phone calls–anonymous voices urging them to stay away from Larry. A California judge who presided over a lawsuit in which Wollersheim was the plaintiff told reporters he'd encountered a lot ...

Mar. 4—MicroHelp, a promising Marietta software company, was shut down last month amid allegations its Los Angeles owners have "looted assets," lavishing corporate funds on friends, stereos and the Church of Scientology. The company, which had more than 60 employees just a few months ago, closed in mid-February, about three months after being bought by Luckman Interactive of Los Angeles. Monday, Luckman officials said they were betrayed by MicroHelp's four major shareholders, the company's top management. "Basically, we paid them $4 ...

CLEARWATER - A woman who was taken into police custody for a psychiatric evaluation after running barefoot from a Church of Scientology building and jumping into Clearwater Harbor has been released from the hospital, a church spokesman said Sunday. A Clearwater police officer on patrol early Saturday saw the woman sprint from the former Fort Harrison Hotel building downtown, used as a residence by the church, followed by a security guard. The officer followed the woman and offered assistance, but she ...

CLEARWATER — A barefoot woman ran between two Church of Scientology buildings early Saturday before jumping into Clearwater Harbor, where police took her into protective custody for a psychiatric evaluation. As the incident unfolded over more than three city blocks downtown, a patrol officer tried twice to ask the woman if she needed help, police said. They said she and a Church of Scientology security guard behind her kept running and eventually she was found by police in shallow Clearwater Harbor. ...

CLEARWATER — In a ruling that has both sides of a court case claiming victory, a judge will allow the Church of Scientology to examine some records from the autopsy of one of its members. The records will be opened today to the church and the public. They concern Lisa McPherson, a 36-year-old Scientologist who entered the church's downtown Clearwater retreat a healthy woman and died 17 days later, on Dec. 5, 1995. The church has objected to findings by Pinellas-Pasco ...

BERLIN — “Historically inaccurate and totally distasteful." Strong words from Madeleine Albright, who had good reason to apply them. America's new secretary of State was referring to the widely publicized statement by Oliver Stone, Dustin Hoffman and other Hollywood celebrities equating Germany's current treatment of the Church of Scientology with the Holocaust. When she met with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl last week, Albright was committed to bringing up U.S. "concerns" about Germany's treatment of Scientologists. At the same time, she clearly ...