CLEARWATER — Church of Scientology guardian Douglass Sadwick avoided a second possible jail sentence for contempt Friday by agreeing to cooperate in a criminal investigation of activities of church members. Only moments before Sadwick was scheduled to face a contempt-of-court hearing, Sadwick's attorney, William Plowman, told Circuit Judge John S. Andrews that his client was willing to talk, despite his contention that the questions violate Sadwick's constitutional rights. Prosecutors had asked Andrews to find Sadwick in civil contempt for refusing to ...

EDMONTON (CP) — The Church of Scientology has been ruled in contempt of court for failing to present financial records to seven Albertans it is suing. Mr. Justice L. D. MacLean of the Court of Queen's Bench also ordered the church to proceed with its defamation action against the defendants after labelling the 1/2-year court delay "absolutely ridiculous." He said the Church of Scientology must appear ready for a two-week trial on Oct. 6 or its action, launched in 1976, will ...

For the second time, Circuit Judge John S. Andrews has ordered Church of Scientology guardian Douglas Sadwick to appear in court to face possible contempt charges. Friday's order stemmed from Sadwick's continued refusal to cooperate in a criminal investigation of members of the Church of Scientology. On Monday, Andrews sentenced Sadwick to 90 days an jail for contempt of court. Sadwick is appealing the decision. Now Sadwick faces another possible jail sentence for his refusal to answer a series of questions ...

CLEARWATER — Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney James T. Russell said Tuesday that members of the Church of Scientology have attempted to infiltrate his office at least five times since 1976. The alleged infiltration attempts failed because routine background checks on the job applicants revealed that hey were members of the Church of Scientology, Russell said. Asked if it was legal to turn down job applicants solely because they are Scientologists, Russell said, "I don't know, but I'd like to fight a lawsuit ...

CLEARWATER — Church of Scientology spokesman Milt Wolfe went to jail Thursday for refusing to cooperate in an investigation involving alleged racketeering, infiltration and harassment by church members. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge John S. Andrew, found Wolfe in contempt of court and sentenced him to 45 days for repeatedly refusing to answer a question put to him by investigators from State Attorney James T. Russell's office. ANDREWS ALSO refused to set bail for Wolfe, pending his appeal of the contempt citation, a ...

RIVERSIDE (AP)—Charges against five Scientologists accused of grand theft and conspiracy in an alleged multimillion-dollar loan fraud scheme were dismissed by a Riverside Municipal Court judge. Judge John H. Barnard made the ruling Monday at the conclusion of a two-day preliminary hearing in which the five, all former high-ranking members of Scientology's Riverside Mission, had been accused of either lying or counseling others to lie on loan applications to nine banks and loan companies. The money assertedly was to go to ...

Once again The Globe and Mail has published a most one-sided series on Scientology (The Scientology Papers - Jan. 22 et seq). I hope you will show your usual journalistic fairness in preparing another series by a different writer which explores such matters as: why Scientology has enjoyed such a phenomenal growth rate; what persons who have received Scientology services say of those services; why the Church of Scientology has apparently resorted to clandestine activities such as infiltration and wiretapping; and ...

DAVID BERESFORD investigates the activities of Scientology's secret intelligence unit whose director is based in Britain IT WAS a familiar beginning to an American public scandal: soon after 7 pm on the night of June 11, 1976, two burglars were caught in the US Court House in Washington DC. In the Watergate tradition frantic attempts were made to localise responsibility. But the cover-up finally cracked and disclosures followed which were to lead, not to the top of the Republican Party, but ...

Toronto ON — I must admit, John Marshall's series The Scientology Papers (Jan. 22, et seq) were not pleasant reading for myself or other members of the Church. I would have hoped that among all the revelations he wrote of, some attempt to analyze the reasons for and causes of the action taken by the Church of Scientology in the United States would have been made. Apparently, the story behind the scenes is not good copy. But the background story is ...

A 1977 order from the top level of the Church of Scientology sought to silence criticism of the cult by a New York-based organization dedicated to investigating UFOs and claims of psychic wonders.

Freelance writer Paulette Cooper is a finely honed, long-haired accumulation of nervous energy. She was dressed with a New Yorker flair that seemed out of context in the small windowless room in the grey dignity of the U. S. District Court building in Washington.

Toronto ON — L. Ron Hubbard, the former science fiction writer who publicly resigned in 1966 from leadership of the Church of Scientology, continued to give orders to its leaders into 1977, a Washington court has been told. Evidence obtained in 1977 in raids on U. S. offices of the cult by the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed there was a detailed program to cover up Mr. Hubbard's involvement in the leadership of Scientology. Called Operation Bulldozer Leak, it was part ...

New light has been shed on the Canadian operations of the controversial Church of Scientology by files made public by a U.S. District Court in Washington. The evidence refutes denials by Toronto cult leaders of information I reported more than five years ago in a series of articles based on internal cult documents and interviews with defectors. Other accounts since then of clandestine operations by the cult in Canada are also supported by the files, submitted in court after being seized ...

About 100 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation learned on July 6, 1977, that they would be participating two days later in an operation unprecedented in the United States. The notification, described two years later in a Washington court room, said the agents would be raiding offices of an organization that some governments, in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, officially classified as a religion — the Church of Scientology.

Confidential documents from various Ontario Government offices including an attorney-general's communication about police intelligence operations have been found in U.S. Church of Scientology files. The documents were part of the evidence submitted by federal attorneys in the Washington prosecution of U.S. leaders of the cult on charges of conspiring to steal government documents and obstruct justice by cover-ups and by kidnapping an informer. Of 12 indicted, including two in Britain and the informer, nine have been tried, convicted and sentenced by ...

BOSTON — A 29-year-old former member of the Church of Scientology filed a $200-million lawsuit Thursday against the church, charging that the group has cheated thousands of converts by subjecting them to "mind control." Lavenda Van Schaick of Somerville, Mass. contended in the suit filed in U.S. District Court here that the church misled her into divorcing her husband, paying about $13,000 for Scientologist instruction and working for the church without pay for nine years in Clearwater and Las Vegas, Nev. ...

The Church of Scientology says the time has come for The Government of Ontario to let its clergymen perform marriages. ln the past, the church’s applications to have its ministers licenced as marriage officers have been turned down by the office of the registrar general on the grounds that the religion was not in existence for 25 years — one of the signs required by the province that new groups are permanent and serious. In a 262-page submission to the registrar-general, ...

If the Church of Scientology aimed to "take control" of Clearwater, it has succeeded, former Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares declared Friday. "Clearwater is the first city to be occupied . . . by a master plan by a destructive cult," he said. "Until recently, the Scientologists had won the battle over the minds and hearts of Clearwater residents," said Cazares, who has long been an outspoken critic of the church, which has a headquarters in Clearwater. But Cazares said recent revelations ...

How a Portland jury got a crash course in one of the oddest "religions" ever created and awarded the plaintiff more than $2. million Note: This summer, a jury in Portland spent a month listening to testimony in a $4 million lawsuit over the practices of the Church of Scientology there. The plaintiff: Julie Christofferson, a young Portland woman who was a follower of Scientology in 1975 and 1976. The defendants: three local Scientology organizations and one of their leaders. ''Richard ...

Toronto ON — Narconon, a Toronto drug rehabilitation centre that uses the controversial techniques of the Church of Scientology, is seeking a provincial grant of $256,000. David Kerr, the Narconon board chairman, has asked for a meeting with Health Minister Dennis Timbrell to discuss how the money could be obtained through various Government departments. The centre, run by volunteers out of a three-story house on Spadina Avenue, has struggled for the past seven years without Government help to provide addicts with ...

Scientology courses are designed to make students dependent on their instructors so it is "easier to brainwash them," a disaffected Church of Scientology communications supervisor testified Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. One particular "drill" called "bull baiting" involved verbal and physical abuse and sometimes overt sexual contact, Diana Morgan testified. She appeared as a witness for Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, 21, in the trial of a $2 million-plus damage suit Mrs. Titchbourne brought against three Scientology organizations and adherents. She is ...