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Jul 28, 2002
Unmistakable presence — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Deborah O'Neil Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Scientology's largest facility in the world, still more than a year from completion, has altered the Clearwater skyline. CLEARWATER – From arched 31-foot windows to the 1,140-seat dining room, there is much that will be grand in the Church of Scientology's new downtown religious center. It will have 889 rooms, 447 windows, 42 bathrooms. A two-story lighted cross will perch atop the highest tower, 150 feet up. The building even has a hefty nickname, "Super Power." In recent weeks, the building's ...
Jul 7, 2002
How Scientology turned its biggest critic — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Deborah O'Neil Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) For years, Bob Minton was the principal opponent in one of the church's nastiest public battles. Now, in a stunning reversal, Minton's testimony is helping the church fight the Lisa McPherson wrongful death lawsuit. The handwritten list ran three pages long, an account of the trouble and expense Robert Minton had caused the Church of Scientology. * Fighting the Lisa McPherson wrongful death case: $14.4-million. * Dealing with lawsuits around the globe: more than $6-million. * Paying security to protect Clearwater ...
Jun 11, 2002
Scientology hearing plods along — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Deborah O'Neil Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Monday was supposed to be Day One of the long-delayed wrongful death trial against the Church of Scientology. Instead, it was Day 22 of a hearing to throw out the lawsuit that blames the church for the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. The hearing, which began May 2 and now boasts nearly 300 exhibits, is not nearly over. Judge Susan Schaeffer has set aside most of this week and next for the proceeding. The church is accusing attorney Ken Dandar, ...
Dec 20, 2001
Scientologists buy high-rise in Clearwater — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Christina Headrick Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) The church pays $5-million for the 13-story downtown property, which the church tried and failed to purchase years ago.
CLEARWATER – The Church of Scientology has purchased a vacant 13-story high-rise downtown that will house more than 600 new staff members in another step in Scientology's unprecedented expansion in the city.
The church last week closed the deal to buy the nearly 2-acre property for $5-million from a nonprofit corporation, BEF Inc., which does business as the Oaks of Clearwater.
Scientology ...
Dec 9, 2001
Church loads up for one last fight — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Deborah O'Neil Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 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 ...
Sep 15, 2001
'Mental health' hotline a blind lead — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) The televised blurb offered mental health assistance dealing with the attacks. Callers reached Scientologists. Television viewers who turned to Fox News on Friday for coverage of the terrorist attack also saw a message scrolling across the bottom of their screens – National Mental Health Assistance: 800-FOR-TRUTH. Unknown to the cable news channel, the phone number connects to a Church of Scientology center in Los Angeles, where Scientologists were manning the phones. Scientology officials said the number is a hotline offering referrals ...
Aug 24, 2001
Real problems with a fictional movie — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Steve Persall Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Peter D. Alexander believes he's doing a public service with his film The Profit . For the Church of Scientology, The Profit is just a nuisance. Moviegoers can see for themselves beginning tonight. Alexander's work of fiction, based on the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, begins an exclusive run at Clearwater Cinema Cafe at the corner of U.S. 19 and Sunset Point Road. Alexander declares his movie to be a warning against the influence of religious cults. It's the story ...
Aug 2, 2001
Man's film a veiled look at Scientology — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 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, ...
Jun 22, 2001
Church scores round in death suit — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 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 ...
Apr 26, 2001
Scientology critics to get bricks — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 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 ...
Mar 11, 2001
Church pays those it reviled — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Deborah O'Neil Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 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 ...
Jan 30, 2001
Scientology adds quietly to holdings — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Dec 2, 2000
Scientology critics plan protest this weekend — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Deborah O'Neil Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) The annual event is restricted by a court order prescribing where the pickets can be. Police expect little or no friction. CLEARWATER – Critics of the Church of Scientology will take to downtown streets this weekend and march in a protest that has become an annual ritual. They will picket against a backdrop of special community events celebrating the holidays and the 10th anniversary of the Pinellas Trail. As it was last year, the protest will be tempered by a court ...
Aug 25, 1998
Jesse Prince interviews – Tape 3 — FACTnet
Aug 24, 1998
Jesse Prince interviews – Tape 2 — FACTnet
Aug 16, 1998
Jesse Prince interviews – Tape 1 — FACTnet
Feb 8, 1998
Scientology got blame for French suicide — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)More: pqasb.pqarchiver.com
Dec 7, 1997
Church says "nothing mysterious" about deaths — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)More: pqasb.pqarchiver.com , link
Dec 7, 1997
For some Scientologists, pilgrimage has been fatal — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)More: pqasb.pqarchiver.com , link
Dec 1, 1997
Distrust in Clearwater -- A special report.; Death of a Scientologist Heightens Suspicions in a Florida Town — New York TimesMore: link
Type: Press
Author(s):
Douglas Frantz Source:
New York Times 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 ...
Mar 9, 1997
Scientology's puzzling journey from tax rebel to tax exempt // Taxes and tactics behind an I.R.S. reversal — New York TimesMore: link
Type: Press
Author(s):
Douglas Frantz Source:
New York Times 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 ...
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