"Why Scientology Isn't a Church" is just a provocative title, and the sermon may not even mention Scientology, a pastor says. CLEARWATER — The church marquee faces a busy six-lane highway and announces Sunday's sermon: "Why Scientology Isn't a Church." It's the title of the Rev. Raymond Guterman's message at Northwood Presbyterian Church in Countryside. And along with the marquee, the church also promoted the sermon this week in ads in the St. Petersburg Times. Such a public affront to Scientology ...

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 ...

With the Sandcastle and Osceola expansions, the church now has 565 rooms in and near downtown Clearwater. CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology boasts more hotel rooms and religious counseling spaces in Clearwater than ever before with the completion this summer of $9-million of construction downtown. The church now has 565 hotel rooms in and near downtown Clearwater. In a typical week, about 1,300 visiting Scientologists from around the world lodge there while receiving spiritual counseling and training. The newest expansions ...

David I. Minkoff loses his license for one year for improperly prescribing drugs for the Scientologist. TALLAHASSEE — Florida's Board of Medicine has sternly sanctioned Clearwater physician David I. Minkoff, finding he improperly prescribed medicine for a patient he had never seen — Scientologist Lisa McPherson. Minkoff, also a Scientologist, prescribed Valium and the muscle relaxant chloral hydrate at the behest of unlicensed Church of Scientology staffers who were trying to nurse McPherson, 36, through a severe mental breakdown. When they ...

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, ...

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 ...

That means plans for a new bus terminal downtown also have crumbled. CLEARWATER — A first-of-its-kind partnership to build a downtown parking garage on top of a new bus terminal was pronounced dead Monday. Negotiations involving the city, the Church of Scientology, Pinellas County and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority failed to produce a deal to make the project work. Several months of talks ended last week, after one last-ditch effort to save the project. "We really did try," said Assistant ...

Clearwater says the deal with Scientologists consolidates downtown properties. Clearwater — The Church of Scientology and the city have forged a deal to swap land downtown so both organizations can consolidate blocks of property. Commissioners will vote June 21 whether to approve the proposal, which would give the church two vacant parcels now used for parking while the city would get a smaller lot with a building on it. If the deal is approved, the church would own an entire block, ...

Scientology claims that it has reformed and says it should be treated like any other church. But the Jesse Prince case and others continue to set this church apart. You have to be courageous to publicly criticize the Church of Scientology. The organization recently proved – again – how far it will go to investigate, smear and intimidate critics. Jesse Prince is one of those people the Church of Scientology perceives as an enemy because he is a vocal critic. A ...

Prosecutors decide to drop a marijuana charge after jurors, concerned about church influence, deadlock. CLEARWATER — When the two-day misdemeanor trial of Scientology critic Jesse Prince ended Thursday, jurors had little doubt he had possessed marijuana as the state charged. What bothered some of them, according to two jurors, was the possibility that Prince had been set up by the Church of Scientology. They heard testimony about how Prince, once a high-ranking church member, was watched, videotaped and trailed for months ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jurors in a misdemeanor marijuana case against a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology were unable to reach a verdict after some on the panel suspected the church had set him up. A hung jury was declared Thursday in the cases against Jesse Prince, who was charged with growing a marijuana plant in his backyard. The jury deliberated for five hours and was split 4-2 in favor of acquittal, jurors said. Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews declared ...

The defense is bringing the church into the case, saying that the arrest was tied to the church's relentless surveillance of a critic, the defendant. LARGO — Five lawyers helped fill the courtroom Wednesday in a misdemeanor trial that included poster-board-size charts, a video recording, expert scientific testimony, five other witnesses and repeated references to the Church of Scientology. After five hours of courtroom proceedings, the marijuana possession case against strident Scientology critic Jesse Prince still was not over at the ...

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 ...

The Church of Scientology investigated critic Jesse Prince, then passed information along to police. Last spring, a private investigator working for the Church of Scientology went to Largo police with a tip: A vocal critic of Scientology named Jesse Prince was involved with illegal drugs. Prince, 47, is a former church member and a key witness in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the church. Police investigated and arrested Prince, who is charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession. The case is set ...

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 ...

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thomas Penick, who has the unenviable task of refereeing sidewalk skirmishes between the Church of Scientology and anti-Scientology protesters in Clearwater, recently pointed to an arrangement that allows off-duty Clearwater cops to work for Scientology and noted, "They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology." Penick was right to call attention to the uncomfortably cozy relationship developing between city police and the church, which has its spiritual headquarters in ...

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 ...

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 ...

Pinellas-Pasco Chief Medical Examiner Joan Wood was forced to resign after 18 years on the job. LARGO — It wasn't a happy day for employees of the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner's office on Friday. Their longtime chief was finally gone. Chief Medical Examiner Joan Wood, the embattled doctor who swore never to resign after 18 years at the helm, finally closed out her last autopsy, cleared out her office this week and headed for a new start. "We've all gone through a ...

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 ...

Church leaders say the German official is a "fascist demagogue'' who has stoked a hate campaign. She says they exaggerate. CLEARWATER — The battle between the Church of Scientology and the German government, a long-running dispute steeped in emotion and international politics, has come crashing into Clearwater with a visit by a controversial German official. Ursula Caberta, who heads a government office in Hamburg that works to curb Scientology in Germany, said Tuesday at a downtown news conference that Scientology is ...

Medical examiners are vital to the criminal justice system. They investigate suspicious deaths, help determine if crimes were committed and influence the outcome of trials. They should be competent medical professionals, managers and witnesses. In each of those areas, serious questions have been raised about Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood. Before Gov. Jeb Bush decides whether to reappoint Wood to another three-year term, he should consider the consequences. Wood was at the center of a controversial decision by State Attorney Bernie ...

The distinction was important. To McCabe, the issue was never about the Church of Scientology as a religious institution. It was about whether a corporation of the church had illegally abused a member named Lisa McPherson, and whether it practiced medicine on her without a license, in the days leading to her death in 1995. The Church of Scientology now has two distinctions at the hands of Bernie McCabe. The first is that he chose to prosecute the church (I mean, ...

CLEARWATER — Alarmed at the "massive impact" of two criminal charges, the Church of Scientology's worldwide leader quickly offered Pinellas County's top prosecutor a deal. Drop the charges, David Miscavige told State Attorney Bernie McCabe in November 1998, and the church would make a $500,000 donation to the county's EMS system. It also would pay the nearly $200,000 in expenses incurred in what then was a three-year investigation into Lisa McPherson's 1995 death while in the care of her fellow Scientologists. ...

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. ...