WASHINGTON — A Reader's Digest senior editor, author of an article critical of the Church of Scientology, asked a federal court Tuesday to quash a church-sought subpoena aimed at compelling his testimony in a lawsuit. "This Scientology action seeks to harass and vilify journalists who have published criticism of this criminal enterprise," said lawyers for Eugene Methvin, a senior editor at the Digest, and Jane Denis Smith, a former researcher at the magazine, in their petition to the U.S. District Court ...

Eighteen months ago, the U.S.-based Church of Scientology launched a global—and unsuccessful—campaign to prevent publication of a Reader's Digest report called "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult." The church engaged a detective agency to investigate the author, Digest Senior Editor Eugene H. Methvin. Digest offices in a half-dozen nations were picketed or bombarded with nuisance phone calls. In Denmark, South Africa and Australia, the church sued unsuccessfully to prevent publication. In the months since the article appeared, in May 1980, a ...

At the Fort Harrison Hotel in downtown Clearwater, Scientologists are learning to leave their bodies, control other people's thoughts and communicate with plant life. They learn this by reliving a galactic holocaust carried out by space creatures millions of years ago. So say top-secret Scientology documents spelling out the highest level of training available to church members. It is training that costs thousands of dollars and, according to church defectors who provided the documents, amounts to nothing but a swindle dreamed ...

A downtown Clearwater businessman who last year joined the Church of Scientology was committed to a Mental hospital Monday after a psychiatrist testified that Scientology apparently contributed to the man's insanity. Francis G. Diamond, 45, a successful antique dealer before his breakdown, told Circuit Judge William Walker that other Scientologists' "thetans," or spirits, had invaded his body during counseling sessions and now control him. "It's not something out of Star Trek-it happens," insisted Diamond, who brought a book by Scientology founder ...

CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology is a visible, viable Clearwater institution, church spokesman Milt Wolfe said Tuesday morning: "We're here. We're going to stay here." And in an attempt to make that fact more palatable, the church released a "financial report" during a Tuesday press conference, contending that the controversial organization spent exactly $10,028,000 in the Tampa Bay area in 1980. Reading from a prepared press release in a chapel inside the church's Fort Harrison Hotel headquarters, Wolfe said the ...

CLEARWATER — Even as proposed plans were being unveiled Tuesday afternoon for a new hotel-retail complex along Clearwater's bayfront, a Church of Scientology group was saying hotel development here has been too slow. They say they have plans of their own. The group, New Clearwater for the 80s, has compiled a voluminous "Clearwater Downtown Development Data Pack" that they say will bring developers and investors, "especially hotel developers, into downtown Clearwater." The packet consists of maps, copies of a City of ...

TAMPA — A former lawyer for Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard said in a sworn statement Tuesday that he never spoke directly with his client during five years of serving as his legal counsel. Sarasota attorney Clyde Wilson Jr. was asked whether he had ever communicated with the elusive Hubbard or his wife Mary Sue, both of whom are defendants in a $16-million damage suit filed by Tonja Burden, a disgruntled ex-member of the church. MISS BURDEN'S St. Petersburg ...

CLEARWATER — It appears that the Church of Scientology cannot legally open an educational parish on Highland Avenue, the chief planner for the City of Clearwater said Tuesday. "The evidence, that I have would indicate that that is a zoning violation," said Chief Planner Jon Richter. "I would expect our zoning enforcement officers to follow up on it." The Scientologists plan to use a remodeled house at 511 S Highland Ave. as a "Clearwater Parish" where local residents can take beginning ...

Scientologist Mitchell Hermann, who was jailed Wednesday for refusing to testify before federal grand jury, has appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Hermann, who was still in the Hillsborough County Jail as of Friday evening, also asked the appeals court to order him released on bail pending the outcome of his appeal. Deputy court clerk Kembra Smith said late Friday afternoon that the court had taken no action on Hermann's motion to set bail which she said ...

TAMPA — A federal grand jury in Tampa is once again investigating alleged plots by the Church of Scientology to discredit former Clearwater Mayor Gabriel Cazares. Three members of the Church of Scientology testified for an hour and a half at the secret grand jury session in the federal courthouse in Tampa Wednesday afternoon. Cazares himself testified before the grand jury for more than an hour on Tuesday. Asked about his testimony, Cazares said he told the grand jurors about the ...

CLEARWATER — Citing "social problems" in the public schools, the Church of Scientology has decided to open its own parochial school for children of its staff members. Church spokesman Milt Wolfe said Monday the school will open by this fall in the former Quality Inn in the 2000 block of U.S. 19S, just north of Tri-City Plaza at U.S. 19 and E Bay Drive. The church bought the former motel in 1979 and uses it for staff quarters. The school will ...