Clearwater city commissioners Thursday quietly put their final stamp of approval on a controversial ordinance regulating fundraising efforts by non-profit organizations. The commission's 4-1 vote made what once was an emergency ordinance a standard law and extended the city's battle with the Church of Scientology one more step. Only Commissioner James Berfield voted against the measure, without comment. The law began life as a temporary measure passed March 15, two weeks before U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich ruled against the ...

LOS ANGELES—Gerald Armstrong steadfastly maintained Thursday that for 11 years he worked only for L. Ron Hubbard, and he refused to acknowledge Church of Scientology lawyers' contentions he was actually a sect employee. Time and again during his Superior Court trial, Armstrong brushed off suggestions of his sect employment, insisting he worked for Scientology founder Hubbard—regardless of the chain of command. "I was a Scientologist, and I worked for Mr. Hubbard," the former Scientology archivist told Superior Court Judge Paul G. ...

Editor: On May 15, 1984, in the Armstrong trial, we heard more testimony concerning Gerald Armstrong's "state of mind." This is, of course, his defense to justify his taking another's property. It is similar to what we see in a criminal case—the "insanity defense"—that one is justified or not responsible for his acts because of his state of mind. This insanity defense brings to mind the attempted assassination by John Hinckley, a loner, a failure and one trying to make a ...

Editor: This is the first of what I hope will be a series of "equal space" reports covering the Scientology vs. Armstrong trial taking place in Los Angeles. I appreciate your paper providing our church this opportunity. In this case, the Church of Scientology of California and Mrs. Mary Sue Hubbard have filed suit against Gerald Armstrong to retrieve valuable materials that he took from the church. Per earlier admissions by Mr. Armstrong, he gave these materials to Michael Flynn for ...

LOS ANGELES—Church of Scientology lawyers began their cross-examination of Gerald Armstrong in Superior Court here Wednesday, trying to prove he continued collecting sect-related documents after a temporary restraining order prevented him from doing so. Sect lawyers also began eliciting testimony from Armstrong, a former Scientology archivist, that he joined the Clearwater-based church not because of his belief in founder L. Ron Hubbard, as Armstrong testified, but because he believed in the organization and its technology. It was Armstrong's fifth day of ...

LOS ANGELES—Bigamy and black magic were a part of the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, according to documents introduced Tuesday as exhibits in Superior Court. And according to a former high-ranking Scientologist, Hubbard wrote a series of "Admissions" in which he acknowledged to himself bis systematic manipulation of the U.S. Navy and the Veterans Administration to increase his disability pension. Basing his testimony on 11 years of firsthand knowledge and thousands of documents under court seal, Gerald Armstrong said ...

LOS ANGELES—According to a former high-ranking Scientologist, L. Ron Hubbard was never a war hero; never commanded a squadron of Navy ships; never saw combat and was not crippled and blinded, later healing himself with his theory of Dianetics. Instead, Gerald Armstrong testified Monday that documents sealed by the California Superior Court will prove Hubbard's career was one of "a recurring pattern of malingering, feigning illnesses and false reporting to his superiors." Armstrong said the documents will prove that widely held ...

LOS ANGELES — It's 1984, and Big Brother — under the guise of L. Ron Hubbard — is being slowly exposed. Now 34 years after Hubbard created the Church of Scientology, the documents he wrote, the laws he created, the orders he issued, and the people who lied and cheated to protect him are surfacing in a court of law. They all offer evidence of a chilling tale. Since the sect orchestrated its surreptitious "takeover" of Clearwater in 1975, newspapers and ...

LOS ANGELES—Court-sealed tapes reveal that Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard used a myriad of corporations to funnel millions of dollars from the sect into his personal bank account in Liechtenstein, a lawyer representing a man accused of taking thousands of documents and tapes from the church charged in Superior Court here Friday. Michael Flynn, who represents former Scientologist Gerald Armstrong, said the tape recordings of a Sept. 29, 1980, meeting between Hubbard's personal lawyer and legal officials of the ...

LOS ANGELES — Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard put more than $200-million in church funds into Swiss bank accounts while keeping secret control of the church, an attorney for a former church member said Friday. Attorney Michael Flynn said at the trial of Gerald Armstrong, a former member and archivist accused by Scientology officials of stealing documents from the church, that the documents will show Hubbard received more than $200-million from various Scientology corporations while claiming he was receiving ...

A disillusioned former member of the Church of Scientology, accused of taking documents belonging to the church and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, testified Thursday that he had been lured into the organization by the "promise of truth" but repeatedly encountered lies. Gerald Armstrong began what is expected to be several days of testimony in the non-jury trial of the church's civil suit to retrieve the documents, which is being tried before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Breckenridge Jr. ...

LOS ANGELES—The horror, the degradation, the humiliation and the pain all caught up with Gerald Armstrong Thursday when he broke down in tears while testifying in Superior Court here about his 11 years within the Church of Scientology. The former sect archivist and subject of a suit Charging him with taking personal papers of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Armstrong shook with sob while recalling his 17-month term in the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), a form of Scientology punishment where he ...

LOS ANGELES—An author hired to write a biography of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard testified Wednesday that he is not "an image maker" and he refused to write a "puff piece" on the reclusive 72-year-old. Omar Garrison described himself as "an honest reporter (and) biographer (to whom) anything about the subject is grist for the mill" during the trial of a former Scientology archivist accused of stealing 10,000 documents the Clearwater-based sect contends it owns. "The Church (of Scientology) has provided ...

LOS ANGELES—The lawyer representing a former Scientologist who took thousands of sect documents began chipping away at the prosecutions's case Tuesday by trying to show the documents were not personal or private. Rather, Michael Flynn claims the secret documents contain damning evidence of an elabortate scheme to defraud Scientology members through the misrepresention of the background of sect found L. Ron Hubbard. Flynn, who represents former Scientology archivist Gerald Armstrong in the non-jury Los Angeles County Superior Court case, used the ...

LOS ANGELES—The wife of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard testified in Superior Court here Monday that a 37-year-old California man stole thousands of sensitive documents which belong to her and the Clearwater-based sect. Mary Sue Hubbard also testified she has been "mentally raped" knowing that others have seen the papers. Mrs. Hubbard, wife of the reclusive Scientology founder and science-fiction author, said Gerald Armstrong, a former Scientologist and sect archivist, has no right to the documents. She also testified Armstrong's attorney, ...

The Church of Scientology, despite shrinking membership, still wields power in Sacramento — openly through its church and missions, and not-so-openly through other organizations. Some buildings — a church on 15th Street near Memorial Auditorium and branch missions in Carmichael and Davis — are obviously part of Scientology. Other holdings, including a shopping center called Fulton Square that the church bought through another business entity, are less conspicuous. The Flag Service Organization Inc., a Florida branch of Scientology, bought the $1.5 ...

CLEARWATER — The City Commission moved Thursday night to extend the life of an emergency ordinance aimed at the Church of Scientology. It is the same ordinance that a federal court order is preventing the city from enforcing while the ordinance's constitutionality is being challenged by the church. The ordinance, which regulates the way nonprofit groups raise money, was passed March 15. Because of its emergency status, it is scheduled to expire in June, 90 days after it was passed. The ...

CLEARWATER — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says a Scientology business that counseled other companies on adopting Scientology principles owes $6,500 in back taxes. The IRS last month filed a lien for that amount against the company, World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, also known as WISE. The company offices were at 34 N Fort Harrison Ave. until they moved to Los Angeles last summer. The state Department of Labor and Employment Security filed a lien against WISE in February, but for ...

A bicycling security guard with the Church of Scientology may have overstepped his bounds Wednesday morning when he confronted a pedestrian in downtown Clearwater who "looked suspicious," according to police. The guard, Curtis Lee Nelson, later told police he confronted the man "to see what he was all about." What it turned out to be about, according to police, was essentially a sidewalk shakedown on the part of a Scientologist, who got a short lecture from the investigating officer about civil ...

On Wednesday, Clearwater police released the transcript of a tape-recorded statement made on March 5 by a Scientologist, Daniel Cotrino, who claimed he was being held against his will by fellow members of the sect. The transcript reveals that on March 5 Cotrino was angry and scared. He told police that he had paid $7,000 for certain Scientology courses, which upon his arrival in Clearwater the sect refused to give him. What's more, according to Cotrino's taped words, the Scientologists poured ...

Clearwater City Manager Anthony Shoemaker has said thanks, but no thanks to a Church of Scientology request to declare May "Dianetics Month" in honor of sect founder L. Ron Hubbard. "I am most appreciative of your letter concerning Mr. L. Ron Hubbard and your request that the city honor Mr. Hubbard with Dianetics Month," Shoemaker wrote this week to Pamela Schwartz of the Los Angeles-based "L. Ron Hubbard Office of Public Relations." "I must, however, respectfully decline on behalf of the ...

Clearwater police Monday released a transcript of a tape-recorded statement made last month by Daniel Cotrino, a New York Scientologist who be had been held against his will at the sect's 210 S. Fort Harrison Ave. headquarters. The transcript indicates the 30-year-old Cotrino, a Scientologist for 11 years, was frightened and angry at the time he made the statement. It is also clear that Cotrino did make the statements he later accused police of fabricating. The transcript of the tape was ...