Next Wednesday is L. Ron Hubbard's birthday. He founded Scientology, and so his followers are looking for ways to celebrate. They have asked Clearwater to extend its heartiest best wishes to Hubbard. This is tough to do, because the officials and people of Clearwater don't feel many good wishes for Hubbard. Hubbard and his henchmen arrived in town late in 1975 and began telling lies. They said they belonged to the United Churches of Florida. But when Mayor Gabe Cazares and ...

The Church of Scientology of Toronto will petition the Supreme Court of Ontario Monday asking that a search warrant executed last year be quashed, although the Ontario Provincial Police have already used it to raid the sect's headquarters and seize 14 million documents. Investigators armed with the warrant raided the sect's Toronto headquarters in March 1983 and seized 904 boxes of papers and documents believed to substantiate suspected sect fraud, conspiracy, breaking and entering and theft, according to the warrant ...

Editor: There was an editorial in the Saturday, Nov. 17 edition of the Sun entitled, "The right to be heard," which stated among other things that the Sun doesn't acknowledge the First Amendment rights of Scientology to be recognized as a religion even though several government bodies including the IRS have so ruled. The editorial then proceeded to assert that the Sun takes the Constitution very seriously. This presents a discrepancy which I don't think can be easily disregarded. Scientology is ...

It was just before midnight, May 28, 1984, when the orders were issued. Confidentially. "Mission information: ... recent reports from contacts made with Homer he is likely to go over to the enemy camp. He is thinking of turning against us completely. "Mission purpose: To prevent Homer from going over to the enemy camp and get him moving back onto The Bridge. "Vital Targets: ... Stay in close comm (communication) with MSN OPS (mission operations). Do not implement any decisions without ...

CLEARWATER—Possibly the highest-ranking, most influential Scientologist to defect from the Clearwater-based, international sect has sued Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for more than $225 million. Citing physical abuse, the intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and the violation of his civil rights, Howard D. "Homer" Schomer, the 49-year-old former treasury secretary of the sect's Author Services Inc. branch, is demanding a jury trial and damages of $226,528,200. Schomer's claims, if proved true, offer a dark view of the ...

CLEARWATER — A former Scientologist says he is about to form a group in north Pinellas County that will offer Scientology-related classes, but will not be affiliated with the controversial sect. David Findlay, who recently moved to North Pinellas, said he plans to begin offering the classes somewhere in Clearwater's Countryside area in the next two or three months. Like other splinter Scientology groups around the country, Findlay said he will largely draw on people who have left the Church of ...

"Corrupt, sinister and dangerous" were the words used to describe the Church of Scientology in a judgment given by Mr Justice Latey this summer. He also referred to it as "immoral and socially obnoxious". But who controls the Church now? A major Sunday Times Magazine investigation into the activities of the cult in America and Britain has uncovered a disturbing and extraordinary story — the takeover of the organisation by a small band of youthful fanatics following the disappearance of the ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A $20 million-plus lawsuit has been filed by two branches of the Church of Scientology accusing a Boston lawyer, his brother, his law partner and a former Scientologist of violating the civil rights of church members. The federal lawsuit claims attorneys Michael Flynn and Thomas Hoffman, Washington, D.C. restaurateur Kevin Flynn and former Scientologist Laurel Sullivan conspired to violate the church members civil rights by a campaign of lies that led to government investigations and adverse publicity. ...

CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology complied Tuesday with a court order directing the sect to allow Pinellas County Property Appraiser Ron Schultz to examine records relating to the controversial organization's tax status. Schultz, accompanied by a county accountant and an attorney, began examining the sect's financial records Tuesday morning on the top floor of the former Fort Harrison Hotel, which is the organization's world headquarters. "In effect, we are doing a financial audit," of the Church of Scientology's Flag Service ...

On Scientology Editor: People who deface church property are not new to this society, or to history. Swastikas on synagogues, property stolen from sanctuaries and a hundred other acts of violence depict only the depraved state of mind of their perpetrators. Recently, the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office vindicated a Church of Scientology security guard, who captured a man Suspected of throwing a rock through a church window, as charges were filed against the chief suspect for throwing a deadly missile ...

He may be the most highly visible "invisible" man on earth — Mr. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. Although not seen publicly since 1980, the reclusive founder of the controversial Clearwater-based Church of Scientology is constantly the subject of newspaper stories, court testimony and television [?] around the world. L. Ron Hubbard, a flamboyant millionaire philosopher, adventurer and explorer, mystic and messiah, has become the Howard Hughes of our time. For no one knows — at least no one is saying — where ...

The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office has dropped a charge of false imprisonment pressed in August against a security guard for the Church of Scientology, officials said. Roy Rodriguez was arrested Aug. 23 after he and two other sect guards chased 21-year-old John Williams of Clearwater on foot through downtown Clearwater, police said. The guard accused the man of throwing a rock through the window of the sect communications office at 500 Cleveland St., police said. Four sect guards were in the ...