A Boston attorney representing the estranged son of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard said Wednesday that he will request a coroner's inquest into the death of the reclusive multimillionaire and plans to contest the will Hubbard signed the day before he died. Michael Flynn, who represents Hubbard's eldest son, Ronald DeWolf, said he sent a letter Wednesday to the San Luis Obispo County coroner demanding an inquest into Hubbard's death from a stroke last Friday at age 74. In the letter, ...

The San Luis Obispo County coroner attempted to independently confirm Tuesday that Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard has indeed died, while church critics voiced skepticism over the circumstances surrounding the death. Sheriff-Coroner George S. Whiting said his office was trying to verify Hubbard's death by checking fingerprints taken from what church officials said was Hubbard's body shortly before it was cremated Saturday. Whiting said he would take several days to match the prints with a copy known to be ...

SAN LUIS OBISPO (AP) — Coroner's investigators plan to verify the death of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard by matching fingerprints taken from a body at a mortuary here. But the delayed announcement of the reclusive science fiction writer's death combined with a series of court battles against the wealthy church he founded prompted at least one opponent to claim the death reports may be a hoax. Church officials announced Monday night that Hubbard, 74, died of a stroke ...

Los Angeles' chief federal judge, who has been accused of bias by Church of Scientology officials, Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the church against a former member. The ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel Real came after he again ordered a Scientology attorney removed from the courtroom for arguing too much. On Monday, Real sent another church lawyer, Donald C. Randolph of Los Angeles, to jail — also for arguing. Although Randolph was released from custody several hours later, ...

A lawyer for the Church of Scientology was jailed for several hours late Monday after he verbally sparred with Los Angeles' chief U.S. district judge, whom church officials have accused of taking away church-related cases from other judges in order to cover up alleged government misconduct. Attorney Donald C. Randolph was taken into custody by federal marshals after he was found in contempt by Judge Manuel Real for repeatedly raising arguments that Real had rejected and said he no longer wanted ...

BOSTON (AP) — A former Church of Scientology member has dropped her $200 million harassment claim against the organization, and group leaders say she settled for $150,000. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday in U.S. District Court when Judge W. Arthur Garrity announced that attorneys for La Venda Van Schaick, 35, asked for a dismissal, which he granted. Garrity then cleared the courtroom, which was filled with Scientologist members, after denying requests from attorney Harvey Silverglate and the group's president, ...

Several thousand members of the Church of Scientology are planning to converge on Portland, Ore., today and Monday to protest a jury's $39-million damage award to a former church member who claimed that she was defrauded out of $3,253 by the group. The Rev. Kathleen Gorgon, president of the Church of Scientology of California, said that several hundred members left Saturday from the church's Hollywood headquarters by car, bus, train and plane to join others from around the world in a ...

The Church of Scientology struck back Wednesday against a former member who testified against the church by playing to a Portland jury videotapes, made surreptitiously, in which the man discussed placing phony documents in church files. Multnomah Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer allowed the 108 minutes of tapes, made in a Los Angeles park last November, to be played to the jury as evidence of bias on the part of Gerald D. Armstrong against the church. "I can create documents with ...

An attempt to discredit a witness testifying against the Church of Scientology in a fraud trial hit a snag Thursday when a Portland judge called surreptitiously made videotapes an "amateurish performance" and refused to let them be shown to the jury. "I think they are devastating, devastating against the church," Multnomah Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer said out of the presence of the jury after viewing 108 minutes of tape recorded in a Los Angeles park last November. The tapes involved ...

A Los Angeles federal judge dismissed Monday a $2-million libel suit by the Church of Scientology of California against a Boston lawyer because of the failure of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to appear at a court-ordered deposition. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology had argued that they had no way of contacting Hubbard, who was last seen in public in 1980 while living in the Hemet area. Hubbard, 74, had been ordered to appear for a deposition in Los Angeles ...

LOS ANGELES — A U.S. District Court judge Monday dismissed a $2 million libel suit by the Church of Scientology, of California against a Boston lawyer because of the failure of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to appear at a court-ordered deposition. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology had argued that they had no way of contacting Hubbard, who was last seen in public in 1980 while living near Hemet, 70 miles east of Los Angeles. Hubbard, 74, had been ordered ...

It was just before midnight, May 28, 1984, when the orders were issued. Confidentially. "Mission information: ... recent reports from contacts made with Homer he is likely to go over to the enemy camp. He is thinking of turning against us completely. "Mission purpose: To prevent Homer from going over to the enemy camp and get him moving back onto The Bridge. "Vital Targets: ... Stay in close comm (communication) with MSN OPS (mission operations). Do not implement any decisions without ...

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 ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A $20 million-plus lawsuit has been filed by two branches of the Church of Scientology accusing a Boston lawyer, his brother, his law partner and a former Scientologist of violating the civil rights of church members. The federal lawsuit claims attorneys Michael Flynn and Thomas Hoffman, Washington, D.C. restaurateur Kevin Flynn and former Scientologist Laurel Sullivan conspired to violate the church members civil rights by a campaign of lies that led to government investigations and adverse publicity. ...

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 — The wife of the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, has filed a $5 million suit against Mr. Hubbard's son, charging "massive fraud" in his 1982 effort to have his father declared legally dead or mentally incompetent. The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court Monday by Mr. Hubbard's third wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, the stepmother of Mr. Hubbard's oldest son, Ronald DeWolf. The suit charges that Mr. DeWolf and his Massachussetts attorney, Michael ...

LOS ANGELES — Michael J. Flynn, a Boston lawyer, was piloting a light aircraft toward South Bend, Ind., in October 1979 when its engine quit mysteriously at 8,500 feet. After making an emergency landing, he said he found several quarts of water in the fuel tank. Since then, Mr. Flynn, who has led a legal battle against the Church of Scientology, a group that has long been the subject of Government investigations, says he has been followed by as many as ...

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 ...