Lee Arnold envisions a 17-story condominium and a luxury hotel overlooking Clearwater's waterfront. CLEARWATER — Real estate heavyweight Lee Arnold announced plans Thursday to build an upscale, 17-story condominium and a luxury "boutique" hotel in an $80-million project that could boost downtown redevelopment. The project, which would span 1.7-acres between Osceola and Fort Harrison avenues south of Drew Street, incorporates some ideas voters rejected in a referendum on redevelopment last summer. Arnold, chairman of Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Services, said ...

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 ...

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 ...

A church building would be converted into a Scientology mission with classes and a bookstore. LARGO – A prominent Scientologist is leading an effort to buy an 86-year-old church in downtown Largo, where she plans to open a Scientology mission, a development that has raised concerns among some city officials. The investment is a substantial one. The newly incorporated Church of Scientology Mission of Largo Inc. is paying $389,000 for the church at 160 Sixth St. SW and the house behind ...

By all appearances, Clearwater lives up to its name. Located just outside of Tampa Bay, the city boasts palm trees, white beaches, sun, surf, and six cruise tour companies with "dolphin sightings guaranteed." Liberally supplied with spacious hotels within driving distance of the Busch Gardens amusement park and the Salvador Dali museum, Clearwater is a tidy burg with street names like Gulf to Bay Boulevard and Sunset Point Road. Clearwater is also home to the most prestigious international instructional center for ...

Criminal charges against the Church of Scientology in the death of a church member who was under the organization's care were dropped yesterday because Florida prosecutors said they could no longer prove the accusations. Bernie McCabe, the state attorney for Pasco and Pinellas Counties, said in a document filed in state court in Clearwater that his office was dismissing the charges because the medical examiner had determined earlier this year that the death of the church member, Lisa McPherson, was accidental. ...

L. Ron Hubbard said he didn't want his science-fiction work to be a press release for the church he founded. Nevertheless, the connections between Battlefield Earth and Scientology are worth noting. Put him in front of a typewriter and L. Ron Hubbard's fingers flew. He did not "piddle around" with his prose like other writers, as his friend and fellow science fiction author, Robert A. Heinlein, observed in a 1982 letter. Known in the 1930s and 1940s as a writer of ...

More than 200 church members ask a Circuit Court judge to dismiss the Lisa McPherson criminal case, saying it is an undue burden on them. CLEARWATER — A group of more than 200 Scientologists says the criminal prosecution against the Church of Scientology has hurt them personally, and they are asking a judge to dismiss the case. In affidavits filed Wednesday in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, many church members said the criminal case stemming from the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson ...

There is a story about lawyers that involves a flower pot falling off a high ledge. A passer-by sues, claiming he was injured. The defense lawyer answers: First, it wasn't our pot. Second, if it was, it didn't fall. Third, if it fell, it didn't hit you. Fourth, if it hit you, you weren't hurt. This "flower pot strategy" is being employed by both sides in the current criminal case against a corporation of the Church of Scientology. Both sides' arguments ...

The Church of Scientology in Clearwater cannot rely on religious grounds to escape prosecution in the death of one of its members, Pinellas-Pasco prosecutors argued in a strongly worded document filed Monday. The document referred to the church's Clearwater entity as "a multifaceted non-profit corporation" that "engages in extensive revenue sharing activity" and generates "tremendous cash flow." The wording aims to undercut an argument by church lawyers that Scientology staffers were giving "spiritual assistance" to parishioner Lisa McPherson when she died ...

The Church of Scientology in Clearwater says it is immune from criminal prosecution in the death of Lisa McPherson and wants the felony charges against it dismissed. In lengthy motions filed this week, Scientology's lawyers argue that the charges filed against the church last November "are both unnecessary and impermissible." Church staffers gave "spiritual assistance" to McPherson, a fellow Scientologist, in the days before she died, thus their actions were protected under the First Amendment and the state's new Religious Freedom ...

Scientology leaders say they want peace. They say they want to stay out of court. But with both foes at home and foes abroad, that goal may be elusive. The spiritual home of the Church of Scientology is in Clearwater, but for many years now its leaders have had worldwide ambitions. But as disciples have carried L. Ron Hubbard's teachings away from America's shore, the reception has been almost universally chilly at best – and at times openly hostile. At one ...

Scientology leaders say they want peace. They say they want to stay out of court. But with both foes at home and foes abroad, that goal may be elusive. Leaders of the Clearwater-based Church of Scientology say they hope the years of heavy legal expenses are over. That may not be a realistic hope. While the number of cases Scientology is currently pursuing is down in the United States, a survey of the cases still under way shows a persistence and ...

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 13 — Florida prosecutors filed criminal charges today against the Church of Scientology in connection with the death of a church member while she was under the care of Scientologists three years ago. The church's Flag Service Organization, its chief operating arm in Clearwater, Fla., was charged with abuse or neglect of a disabled adult and with the unauthorized practice of medicine in the death of the church member, Lisa McPherson, 36. The felony charges were filed in ...

The church faces two felony charges in its treatment of Lisa McPherson. The Church of Scientology in Clearwater has been charged with criminal neglect and practicing medicine without a license in the 1995 death of Lisa McPherson, the mentally disturbed Scientologist who turned to outsiders for help before church officials intervened and placed her under their care. Unlicensed Scientology staffers "medicated her without her consent," isolated her and took other measures to treat her physical and mental condition at Scientology's Fort ...

CLEARWATER (AP) — A prosecutor charged the Church of Scientology on Friday with two felonies in the death of a member whose family claims she became severely dehydrated after being held against her will for 17 days. Lisa McPherson, 36, died in December 1995. She had been under the 24-hour care of church members at the Fort Harrison Hotel, Scientology's international retreat in downtown Clearwater. Her family has claimed she was held against her will after trying to leave the church. ...

David Miscavige, the seldom-seen leader of the church, comes forth in his first newspaper interview to talk of a more peaceful time for Scientology. LOS ANGELES — When David Miscavige recounts his rise to power in the Church of Scientology — a journey that began when he quit high school at age 16 — it is mostly a story of war. War against renegade Scientologists. War against Scientology’s critics. War against its one-time arch enemy, the IRS. But Scientology’s 38-year-old leader ...

WASHINGTON – After years of holding the U.S. government in contempt, the Church of Scientology is enlisting members of Congress, the U.S. State Department and even President Clinton to advance its agenda in foreign lands. Prodded by the Scientologists' paid lobbyists and its cadre of sympathetic entertainers, several lawmakers and the Clinton administration have criticized the German government for allegedly discriminating against Scientology practitioners. They even got their argument against Germany to the floor of the House of Representatives last November. ...

The Church of Scientology, stung by a five-part series in the Boston Herald that raised questions about its practices, has hired a private investigator to delve into the Herald reporter's private life. The Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, confirmed that the church's Los Angeles law firm hired the private investigative firm to look into the personal life of reporter Joseph Mallia, who wrote the series. "This investigation will have to look at what's riving this" coverage, ...

She is one of an estimated 3,300 Scientologists who have migrated to Clearwater in the 1990s, the most dramatic period of growth for the church during its 22 years in Clearwater. In addition, the church has said it is "deadly serious" about its plans for the year 2000, which include tripling the size of its Clearwater staff to more than 3,500; launching a local Scientology "university" that would accommodate more than 10,000 students a week; and having "Clearwater known as the ...

As if your article of pure innuendo (For some Scientologists, pilgrimage has been fatal) weren't enough, you've also continued to use discredited sources as "authoritative consultants" to forward your bigoted agenda. I won't detail how a similar article could be written about any religion. Indeed, I'd bet money that no newspaper in the United States has ever started isolating the death of the members of a religion. If you were to do it with the local Catholics, I am sure it ...

Lisa McPherson turned to the Church of Scientology in her 20s as she tried to shed the emotional baggage of a rocky youth. By age 36, with a high school education, she was earning a handsome salary as a sales representative in Clearwater. Today, as the church tries to rebut assertions that it caused her sudden death, it also credits Scientology for her successes in life. But McPherson's turnaround came at a financial price. From 1991 until she died in December ...

CLEARWATER — Was it an honest mistake, a slip of the tongue? Or was it the naked truth, carelessly uttered on camera A top official for the Church of Scientology told a German television crew recently that church member Lisa McPherson died in a room at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. On its face, the statement marks a major change in Scientology's version of events surrounding McPherson's unexplained death at age 36. It came in the presence of one of ...