Church of Scientology public affairs director Richard Haworth has accused Clearwater Sun Managing Editor Samuel E. Fenton and staff writer George-Wayne Shelor of attempting to break into the church's Clearwater headquarters earlier this month, after attending a sect press conference. As a result of the alleged break-in attempt and other "bizarre actions" on Shelor's part, Haworth said the reporter is banned from church property and is allowed to communicate with him only in writing. Shelor has written a series of stories ...

There is an implicit journalistic canon that "the other side" must always be given an opportunity to respond to an attack. So the press has bent over backward to let leaders of the Church of Scientology rebut allegations of reprehensible practices by their organization. It seems the sect, leaders, have devised a strategy to take an unfair advantage of this access to the media. They are traveling about America holding press conferences and making startling accusations, with little or no documentation ...

An unnamed, $2 billion corporation has been making a bid to control Clearwater real estate by buying more than 300 parcels of property since 1973, according to Heber C. Jentzsch, international president of the Church of Scientology. And when the church began buying downtown property in 1975, he said, that phantom corporation began a campaign to discredit the church and to keep property values low until it could complete its own acquisition program. "We must have cut across the plans of ...

Editor: I read your recent editorial with interest and noted the deep support and warmth that you feel for Mr. Michael Flynn. My concern is that such support is not based on facts. The facts are that Mr. Flynn was part of a criminal conspiracy to forge a check on the account of L. Ron Hubbard. This has now been turned over to federal authorities as this is a criminal act. Mr. Flynn may be opposed to several religions and indeed ...

Heber Jentzsch, the international president of the Church of Scientology, seriously underestimates the sophistication of Clearwater residents if he thinks they will believe a word of his diatribe against Boston lawyer Michael Flynn. Jentzsch gave a press conference on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to "expose" Flynn for conspiring to bilk the sect of $2 million. Flynn, as just about every Clearwater resident knows, has been a perennial foe of the Scientologists. It was Flynn who conducted a series of ...

CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology brought a traveling press conference to the steps of Clearwater City Hall Wednesday, and its targets were old foes. Saying that Clearwater "has a chance to pull itself out of a really nasty mess," the church's international president Heber Jentzsch took shots at the city's charitable solicitation ordinance (a measure aimed at the Church of Scientology) and at Michael Flynn, the Boston lawyer who recommended its passage. Reading from a letter addressed to Mayor Kathy ...

CLEARWATER — Church of Scientology President Heber C. Jentzsch renewed charges involving a forged $2 million check and a "conspiracy" by sect foe Michael Flynn during a Wednesday press conference. Flynn, a Boston attorney, represents more than a dozen ex-Scientologists who have sued the sect. In May 1982 Flynn coordinated highly-publicized city hearings on Scientology. "Mr. Flynn was involved and is involved in acts that involve organized crime," Jentzsch told reporters and 50 supporters on the steps of Clearwater City Hall. ...

The Church of Scientology brought a transcontinental traveling press conference to the steps of Clearwater City Hall Wednesday to publicly denounce outspoken Scientology critic Michael Flynn. Sect officials claim Flynn, a Boston attorney and longtime adversary of Scientology, orchestrated an elaborate but abortive scheme two years ago to forge a $2 million check drawn on a bank account of sect founder L. Ron Hubbard. The accusations made by the Clearwater-based sect are based on the declaration of a man a Scientology ...

LOS ANGELES — Church of Scientology officials yesterday accused a top church adversary of conspiring with organized crime figures to steal $2 million from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard two years ago. Church officials contended Boston attorney Michael Flynn also intended to use the theft scheme in a Riverside County probate case to gain control of Hubbard's $200 million estate. That case was later dismissed. Flynn, reached yesterday at his Boston office, called the Scientologists claim adversary had $2 million check ...

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Church of Scientology officials are accusing a Boston lawyer of conspiring to pass a counterfeit $2 million check "to divert attention from himself." Michael Flynn, a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology who has filed 20 suits against the organization, also was accused of blaming the forgery on Scientologists in an attempt to destroy the controversial group. The allegations regarding the check on the account of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard surfaced Monday in documents filed in Los ...

Church of Scientology officials Monday accused a Boston lawyer who has been a prominent critic of the organization of conspiring to pass a counterfeit $2-million check on the account of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and later blaming the forgery on members of the church as part of an "overall plan" to destroy the group. The charges were made against attorney Michael Flynn in documents filed in Los Angeles federal court in connection, with a lawsuit filed by a Scientology member, ...

Charges by church defectors that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard diverted more than $100 million in church funds to foreign bank accounts was described Wednesday as "garbage" by the sect's president. "I call it hyperspace junk writing," said Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International. The former senior church officials, who have testified about the church's inner workings in Los Angeles court, told the New York Times that Hubbard directed them to establish shell corporations to channel much of ...

Editor: I am writing in response to the article on the Church of Scientology's E-Meter, by George-Wayne Shelor in your paper on June 13. There are several "quotes" from Ron DeWolf in the article expressing his view of the history of the confessional device that have been publicly repudiated by Mr. DeWolf himself in sworn statements. DeWolf testified under oath and later retracted those statements in a public repudiation of his testimony. Had Mr. Shelor bothered to check on DeWolf's ...

The Church of Scientology has lost thousands of adherents in recent years due to an internal revolt by members who embrace the teachings of founder L. Ron Hubbard but question many policies of the mother organization. Disillusioned Scientologists—still practicing the tenets of Dianetics and Scientology—have splintered from the Church of Scientology to form their own organizations such as the Clear Center, the Council for Spiritual Intregrity, Advanced Abilities Center and the Revitalization Center. Such assemblages offer Scientology and Dianetics-related courses to ...

Editor: Judge Breckenridge's decision in Los Angeles was based on psychiatric principles of a godless mankind and is just like the Australian decision of 1967; so biased and filled with animosity, that the High Court of Australia responded by granting full religious recognition to all the Churches of Scientology in Australia and 500 other religions by the year 1983. To have quoted reports disseminated by an agency headed by a former SS officer and have them endorsed by Mr. Armstrong, Mr. ...

Lawyers who for years have engaged the Church of Scientology in legal battles said Friday that a Los Angeles County Superior court decision handed down this week heralds "the beginning of the end of Scientology." "The walls are collapsing and the truth is finally coining out," Boston attorney Michael Flynn said of the "landmark ruling" of Judge Paul G. Breckenridge. The California judge late Thursday exonerated a former sect member charged with stealing thousands of Scientology documents. But a sect attorney ...

Recent reports about the Church of Scientology hiring de-? pose as businessmen to elicit views about the sect from Clearwater civic leaders are "much ado about nothing," sect President Heber Jentzsch said Wednesday. "The issues all will come out in court," the 48-year-old Jentzsch told reporters during an "open house" at the sect-owned Fort Harrison Hotel in downtown Clearwater. Jentzsch would not discuss specifics, but hinted the Scientology inquiry was tied into concerns about real estate speculation downtown and its potential ...

Byline: FOWLER, GLENN ISSN: 03624331 Publication Date: 01-28-1984 Page: 1.25 Edition: Late Edition (East Coast) Section: 1 Type: Newspaper Language: English One morning in the spring of 1982, two young men walked into the New York branch of the Middle East Bank and presented a check for $2 million. The check was signed by L. Ron Hubbard, the reclusive founder of the Church of Scientology, who has not been seen in public for many years. It was made out to one ...

Members of a Church of Scientology splinter group have filed a $42 million suit against the church, alleging fraud, slander and breach of contract. The suit was filed here last week on behalf of Bent Corydon, former director of the Riverside Scientology mission and member of the new Church of Sciologos. It seeks $40 million in punitive damages plus real damages of $1.83 million, said Corydon's attorney, Paul Morantz of Pacific Palisades. The suit is a cross-complaint to a $6.2 million ...

A Riverside Superior Court judge Monday threw out a suit by L. Ron Hubbard's estranged son that claimed that his father, the controversial founder of the Church of Scientology, is either dead or incompetent. Judge David Hennigan had been "convinced" by a declaration Hubbard had filed three weeks ago that the reclusive science-fiction writer was alive. The declaration was signed and fingerprinted by Hubbard and apparently authenticated by handwriting and fingerprint experts. Hubbard, 71, had written in the document that he ...

"I am not a missing person," Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard said in a signed statement that has led a judge to believe the reclusive author is healthy despite a son's claim to the contrary. Superior Court Judge David Hennigan said Friday that the declaration, which included fingerprints experts have said belong to the 72-year-old Hubbard, made him believe Hubbard still is alive. Hubbard has not made a public appearance in years. Hennigan said the seven-page document, filed with ...

Carson City, Nev. (AP) — More pleas for controls on cults were aired Monday as the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed a plan to allow for civil lawsuits against cults or any other groups which bilk people. No immediate action was taken on SB343, being pushed by Sen. Bill Hernstadt who had to "deprogram" a daughter who had joined the Church of Scientology. Scientology representatives were criticized by Sen. Thomas "Spike" Wilson, committee chairman, for failing to deliver promised documents outlining their ...

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday refused to release 21 boxes of personal letters and journals of reclusive Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to church officials, despite a handwritten letter purportedly from Hubbard claiming them as his property. The material is the subject of a lawsuit by the Scientologists against their former member and archivist, Gerald Armstrong, seeking permanent return of the documents. The church claims that Armstrong stole the material. He claims that Hubbard had permitted him ...

LOS ANGELES — A. Thomas Hunt, attorney for the Church of Scientology, said Tuesday that Monday's ruling on the religious nature of Scientology by a federal judge "means the absolute end" of cases filed against the church in that court. He described the ruling by U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall that Scientology is a religion as "in tune with the times," and said it reflected the growing international acceptance of Scientology. Hunt compared the ruling with similar judicial decisions favorable ...