The Church of Scientology started making plans in 1980 to "insulate" church founder L. Ron Hubbard from legal attack and to protect his secret church-related income in advance of his disappearance from public view, a former Scientologist testified Friday. Laurel J. Sullivan, who used to work on Hubbard's personal staff, said she learned in February 1980 that Hubbard planned to go into hiding. She said she was assigned to a special mission "to insulate L. Ron Hubbard and his income lines ...

A former personal secretary to L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, told a Portland jury Thursday about a secret system Hubbard used in the 1970s for collecting personal income from church organizations. Laurel J. Sullivan, who said she worked closely with Hubbard until he disappeared from public view in 1980, also testified that Hubbard held managerial control over numerous Scientology organizations despite his publicly announced "retirement" from church management in 1966. Contrary to a 1972 church policy ...

A former Scientologist who said he helped manage L. Ron Hubbard's bank accounts testified Monday that the Scientology founder collected income of $200,000 to $1 million per week during a six-month period in 1982. Howard D. Schoemer, who left the Church of Scientology in December 1982, told a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury that the money was routed to Hubbard through Author Services Inc., a corporation that "supposedly had nothing to do with the church." Schoemer said the income to Hubbard ...

CLEARWATER—Possibly the highest-ranking, most influential Scientologist to defect from the Clearwater-based, international sect has sued Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for more than $225 million. Citing physical abuse, the intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and the violation of his civil rights, Howard D. "Homer" Schomer, the 49-year-old former treasury secretary of the sect's Author Services Inc. branch, is demanding a jury trial and damages of $226,528,200. Schomer's claims, if proved true, offer a dark view of the ...

"Corrupt, sinister and dangerous" were the words used to describe the Church of Scientology in a judgment given by Mr Justice Latey this summer. He also referred to it as "immoral and socially obnoxious". But who controls the Church now? A major Sunday Times Magazine investigation into the activities of the cult in America and Britain has uncovered a disturbing and extraordinary story — the takeover of the organisation by a small band of youthful fanatics following the disappearance of the ...

With $175 and a small box of books under his arm, Martin Samuels brought Scientology to the Sacramento area in the 1960s. He soon built a $10 million empire. The church rated his missions in Davis and Sacramento the best in the world. Then, in 1982, it all collapsed. Samuels left the church with nothing more than a suitcase half full of clothes. Samuels charges in a lawsuit that the Church illegally took it all away from him. The suit, being ...

Church says it's stronger now, while some ex-leaders say end is inevitable First of two parts A hot wind blows through the masts of the $565,000 clipper ship "docked" on a rocky plateau in the middle of a Southern California desert. Down the hill, a car nears a gate guarded by young men in brown shirts. As if with the snap of unseen fingers, members of the elite Sea Org pour from buildings around the ship with cameras in hand, furiously ...

Defections by older members and publicity given a legal battle over control of hundreds of millions of dollars are believed to be cutting into the membership of the Church of Scientology. The church, which has a headquarters in Clearwater, is described by its leaders as a religion and by its critics as a highly profitable business with cult-like overtones. The church claims a worldwide membership of 6-million, although former officials say the number of adherents is probably fewer than 700,000. According ...

CLEARWATER — Six more witnesses denounced the Church of Scientology and its practices Friday during public hearings on the organization. For the third straight day, the critical testimony was a mixture of information concerning Scientology's Clearwater operations and church activities elsewhere. City commissioners, who are having the hearings, heard from: * Casey Kelly, 23, who joined Scientology to crusade against "war," "crime" and "insanity" but later became disenchanted with long hours and low pay as a church employee here. * Rosie ...

CLEARWATER — Lori Taverna was a young, impressionable mother of two children when a friend took her to a free lecture given by the Church of Scientology in June 1965. "It sounded very good," she testified Thursday. "It sounded like it was something I was looking for. "I thought it was great," she said. "I was joining a group that would handle drugs crime and war. And, my children would be growing up in this." Part of Taverna's education by the ...

A 17-year veteran of the Church of Scientology told Clearwater city commissioners Thursday she lived through "horror" while staying at the former Fort Harrison Hotel three years ago. Lori Taverna, who said she broke with the sect two months ago, was asked by Mayor Charles LeCher to describe a "normal day" while she worked as a Scientology trainer. "Most of it was horror, so I don't know," said Mrs. Taverna, 39. But in about three hours of testimony during the second ...

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 ...

The faithful inner core serve as thieves, decoys and spies. The shocking story behind one of the most dangerous “religious cults” operating today IN THE late 1940s, pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard declared, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Hubbard did start his own religion, calling it the “Church of Scientology,” and it has grown into an enterprise today grossing ...

''On Dec. 13, former Scientologist LaVenda Van Schaick filed a $200-million class-action lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in Federal Court in Boston, contending that the church falsely promises to improve the lives of its members. Since then, 10 other ex-Scientologists have filed affidavits in support of the suit, giving a glimpse of life within Scientology. The church has files motion to dismiss that case. It also sued Mrs. Van Schaick and others, contending that she is "motivated by malice." Last ...

AFFIDAVIT OF SILVANA GARRITANO I was introduced to Scientology in October, 1977, when I went to the New York Church to take a "Communications Course". The "registrar" (a euphemism for salesman) was Jerry Indursky. He told me that my problem was a lack of assertiveness, that I did not speak up for myself. Indursky promised me Scientology would remedy that problem and I would emerge from the Communications Course a happier, more successful person because I could stand up for myself. ...

AFFIDAVIT OF ANNE ROSENBLUM In December, 1972, after my first semester of college (in the state of Washington), I was introduced to Scientology when another Scientologist encouraged me to take a "Personality Test" at the Portland "Org". I was given a poor evaluation on the test. I later learned, however, that it is a customary practice of the "Church" to give one a poor evaluation on the test in order to induce the person into Scientology processing. The Scientologists also told ...

"The DEFENSE of anything is untenable. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that, then you will lose every battle you are engaged in, whether it is in terms of personal conversations, public debate, or a court of law." — L. Ron Hubbard For more than a decade, the worldwide Church of Scientology, one of the burgeoning new religions of the 1960s and '70s, has conducted sophisticated intelligence and propaganda operations on an international ...

On May 14, 1951, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard wrote to the U.S. attorney general to plead for help in fending off a Communist conspiracy, dedicated, he averred, to destroying him. "When, when, when," he wrote, "will we have a roundup?" Rambling through seven single-spaced typewritten pages, the letter was, to all appearances, the heartfelt cry of a troubled man. A successful science fiction writer in the 1940s, L. Ron Hubbard, as he signed himself, had gone on to bigger things. ...

One hundred ministers, priests and rabbis in the San Diego area Monday presented a petition to a San Diego newspaper, declaring that "spying or deceitfully obtaining membership in a religious organization is unethical" and violates religious freedom. The petition, launched by the Church of Scientology of San Diego, was prompted by a two-part series on Scientology last month in the San Diego Union by reporter Leigh Fenly. Two Scientologists filed a $10,000 invasion-of-privacy suit in San Diego Superior Court Aug. 9, ...

The controversial Church of Scientology's failure to gain tax-exempt status for $3-million worth of Pinellas County properties is only the latest chapter in a stormy history of legal battles over taxes. And the latest battle, which opened in the county courthouse last week, appears far from over. Scientology spokesmen vow to take their Pinellas tax case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. Pinellas officials, for their part, are just as determined to defend their denial of tax-exempt status for the ...