CLEARWATER—City officials are considering building a new City Hall and a main library across from each other at the intersection of Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue. The proposal calls for the two buildings to face Cleveland Street, separated by a well-landscaped, decorative traffic circle. A drawing created by a consultant shows City Hall at the southwest corner, in place of an old hotel owned by the Church of Scientology. It puts the library at the northeast corner on the former Chick ...

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 — A day after thousands of Scientologists demanded religious freedom in Germany, the Church of Scientology was trying to convince a German court today that it is a religion. A favorable decision by Germany's highest administrative court would entitle the group to benefits such as tax-exempt status and the freedom to recruit followers. The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology won a legal battle in July when a court in the Baden-Wuerttemberg state capital, Stuttgart, ruled that Scientology was a religious ...

ON JULY 28, an appeal court in Lyon reduced the sentences of six members of the Scientology movement charged with responsibility for the suicide of one of their followers. The court also ruled that the "Church of Scientology" was entitled to call itself a religion. In so doing, the appeal court gave the movement created by the science-fiction writer Lafayette Ron Hubbard in 1954 a seal of approval it probably did not expect. The court justified its decision by invoking an ...

LYONS, France — A French appeals court reduced the sentence Monday for a Church of Scientology leader convicted of involuntary homicide in the suicide of a member. The case centered on the March 1988 suicide of Patrice Vic, 31, who jumped out a window. Prosecutors said Vic was under pressure from the church to take a $5,000 "purification treatment," including daily saunas and a diet low in sugar and high in vitamins. The lower court said in November that Jean-Jacques Mazier ...

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 ...

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 ...

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE Religious Technology Center, an affiliate of the Church of Scientology, are claiming a victory for copyright protection in cyberspace as the result of a ruling handed down earlier this month. The suit was brought by the RTC against a former member who posted the teachings of the church on the Internet. In her ruling Federal District Court judge Leonie Brinkema denied the argument by Arnaodo Lerma that his posting of large portions of the church's scripture were protected ...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., yesterday permitted The Washington Post to retain a copy of Church of Scientology texts and to use the texts in its news reporting, saying the paper's news-gathering rights far outweigh claims that the documents are protected by copyright and trade secrecy laws. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused to issue a preliminary injunction against The Post, saying its excerpts of the church's texts in an Aug. 19 Style section article were brief and ...

SAN JOSE - A Glendale critic of the Church of Scientology lost a round in federal court Tuesday as a judge declined to lift an order barring him from transmitting copyrighted religious texts onto the Internet. The order remains in effect against Dennis L. Erlich, a former church member. But U. S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte rejected arguments by church lawyers and lifted restraining orders against a North Hollywood computer bulletin board operator and a San Jose-based Internet access supplier, ...

It was a strange way to describe an aspect of a theology. But L. Ron Hubbard, the highly successful science-fiction writer who founded the Church of Scientology in the 1950s, had little tolerance for those who challenged his beliefs. And so it was, at one time, that Scientology scripture came to include an unusual litigation clause: "The only way to defend anything is to attack, and if you ever forget that, then you will lose every battle you are ever engaged ...

The Church of Scientology uses private detectives and bulldog litigators to pursue its numerous detractors. It also hires low-key establishment lawyers who work quietly within the system. So who is directing the $416 million libel suit against Time? On April 27, 1992, lawyers for the Church of Scientology International filed a $416 million libel action in federal court in New York against Time Warner, Inc., Time Inc. Magazine Company [Time Warner is a partner in American Lawyer Media, L.P.], and writer ...

After secret court hearings involving a former Scientologist began in Tampa, the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune filed motions in court to gain access. Times attorney Patricia Anderson said a larger question remains: Whether the U.S. District Court in Tampa should unseal a case file from a lawsuit that the plaintiff did not want closed. That issue has not been decided. Margery Wakefield is a former member of the Church of Scientology who sued in 1982, saying the organization fraudulently ...

MILAN, Italy (AP) — A Milan court has acquitted 67 Scientology followers of charges ranging from criminal association to tax evasion, but it convicted six others of deceiving confused people. While not ruling that the group is a church, as Scientologists contend, the court said Wednesday that it is a non-profit organization and thus need not report to the Italian tax office. The trial was brought after a five-year investigation into activities of Scientology centers in Italy after disenchanted followers filed ...

Alan Zimmet, an attorney hired by the city of Clearwater, said Scientology officials seem to admit in the new court ruling that they are not tax-exempt. The court ruling upheld a Clearwater city ordinance that requires churches to file financial disclosure forms. While the ruling was not really about taxes, it did say that donations to the Church of Scientology for auditing and training were not covered by the ordinance, because courts have said that those donations are not tax exempt. ...

The ruling says the law does not apply to donations the Scientologists receive for "auditing and training." Auditing is a Scientology counseling process. [Heber Jentzsch] said almost all donations the Church of Scientology receives are for auditing or training. "That's the whole of Scientology," he said. "That's really what we do." Asked if the organization received donations for any other purposes beside auditing and training, Jentzsch said, "I don't know."

From politicians to the leaders of business, the courts and the media, the church works to win allies to smooth the way for expansion. To create a favorable environment for Scientology's expansion, church executives are working to win allies among society's power brokers and opinion leaders. It is a theme expounded in church publications."We need to be able to approach the right people in order to get things done," wrote Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, in the ...

The church has adopted the terminology and trappings of traditional theologies. But the IRS is not convinced. Since its founding some 35 years ago by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology has worked hard to shore up its religious profile for the public, the courts and the Internal Revenue Service. In the old days, for example, those who purchased Hubbard's Scientology courses were called "students." Today, they are "parishioners." The group's "franchises" have become "missions." And Hubbard's teachings, ...

Testimonials of the famous are prominent in the church's push for acceptability. John Travolta and Kirstie Alley are the current headliners. The Church of Scientology uses celebrity spokesmen to endorse L. Ron Hubbard's teachings and give Scientology greater acceptability in mainstream America. As far back as 1955, Hubbard recognized the value of famous people to his fledgling, off-beat church when he inaugurated "Project Celebrity." According to Hubbard, Scientologists should target prominent individuals as their "quarry" and bring them back like trophies ...

NEW YORK — An upcoming critical biography of L. Ron Hubbard, author and founder of the Church of Scientology, may be published in its original form, a federal appeals court ruled. The 2nd us. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's ruling in February for New Era Publications International, exclusive licensee of Hubbard's works, which had filed a copyright infringement lawsuit. Hubbard died in 1986. The appeals court held Thursday the book's quotations from Hubbard's published works, which amount to ...

Lawsuit: State justices let stand an appellate ruling that a 'preposterous' $30 million in damages for a former church member be reduced to $2.5 million. SAN FRANCISCO — The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected challenges to a ruling that dramatically reduced a jury award of $30 million against the Church of Scientology for coercive practices that drove a former member to the edge of insanity and bankruptcy. The high court let stand a decision by the state Court of Appeal ...