Arnaldo Lerma, the Arlington man who took on the Church of Scientology by putting its texts on the Internet, won a partial victory yesterday when a federal judge in Alexandria ordered that the church return 58 computer disks that it seized from him. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema also verbally slapped Scientology lawyers, saying their handling of Lerma's files went far beyond what she had authorized as part of a suit alleging copyright and trade secrecy violations. "This case is ...

As the Church of Scientology battles a band of cyberspace dissidents - seizing computers and papers from the homes of vocal online critics in the past two weeks - local defectors charge they are being harassed for speaking out against the church. Robert Vaughn Young and Stacy Young, longtime staff members who left the Church of Scientology in 1989, complained to police that Scientologists have picketed their house in West Seattle at least five times in the past two weeks. They ...

Macomb resident contends he was duped while attending vocational school. PONTIAC — Former Scientologist Linda Hostetler isn't the first metro Detroiter to hold a financial and emotional grudge against the Church of Scientology of Michigan. Since the Detroit branch was founded in 1969, at least 14 lawsuits have been filed against the church, according to circuit court records. Of the 14 cases, which sought damages ranging from $10,000-$60,000, six have been filed since the church moved to Royal Oak in the ...

Two years ago, an Allstate agent stood up at Sears's annual meeting to ask what then seemed a bizarre question. "To what extent," he inquired, "are the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology present today in Allstate and in Sears?" Edward Brennan, chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and Wayne Hedien, then-chairman of Sears's Allstate Insurance Co. unit, both appeared bewildered. Mr. Brennan said he had no knowledge of any relationship at all. Mr. Hedien said he didn't even ...

Is the Church of Scientology a religion, or a multimillion-dollar corporate cult? Some former Scientologists have spoken of spending thousands of dollars or working long hours without food or sleep to pay off debts to the church. The church characterizes itself as misunderstood and persecuted, emphasizing testimonials and community outreach activities, while attempting to discredit critics. "Scientology is a racket," says Bloomfield Hills attorney Constance Cumbey, who has handled four Michigan lawsuits against the church. "That's not to say that everyone ...

WHY DID LISA Marie Presley and Michael Jackson get married? Love, if you believe her press release, the one pledging to "dedicate my life to being his wife." Or, according to speculation from Hollywood, Jackson is rehabbing his image and simultaneously consummating the ultimate entertainment empire merger. But another possibility is circulating among the conspiracy-minded former members of the Church of Scientology. It's an astounding theory — that the church itself helped arrange the Presley-Jackson union. But these defectors say that ...

Why did Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson get married? Love, if you believe her press release, the one pledging to "dedicate my life to being his wife." Or, goes the speculation from Hollywood, Jackson is rehabbing his image and simultaneously consummating the ultimate entertainment merger. But another possibility is circulating among conspiracy-minded former members of the Church of Scientology. It's an astounding theory - that the church itself helped arrange the Presley-Jackson union - but these defectors say nothing about ...

Why did Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson get married? Love, if you believe her press release, the one pledging to "dedicate my life to being his wife." Or, goes the speculation from Hollywood, Jackson is rehabbing his image and simultaneously consummating the ultimate entertainment empire merger. But another possibility is circulating among the conspiracy-minded former members of the Church of Scientology. It's an astounding theory – that the church itself helped arrange the Presley-Jackson union – but these defectors say ...

A heartbroken father begged the world's biggest cult yesterday: "Let my daughter go." And Eddie Forsyth wept when he learned that daughter Christine had been subjected to a nightmare ordeal at the hands of the Scientologists. A Mail investigation has discovered that the cult's "thought police" branded her a traitor for talking to an outsider. Blond Christine was hauled before a kangaroo court and convicted of "treason". Beans Experts believe she would have been sentenced to hard labour, ordered to wear ...

BRITAIN is home to more than 500 religious cults with an estimated 500,000 believers, many of whose children are subjected to ritual abuse, a conference was told yesterday. The conference at Hull University, organised in response to the Waco siege in Texas last year, was attended by 150 psychologists alarmed at the effects on children of bizarre teachings by the cults. Ritually abused children are subject to prostitution and pornography in the name of religion, it was claimed. The Cults and ...

GRAHAM E. BERRY, State Bar No. 128503 GORDON J. CALHOUN, State Bar No. 84509 LEWIS, D'AMATO, BRISBOIS & BISGAARD 221 N. Figueroa Street, Suite 1200 Los Angeles, California 90012 Telephone: (213) 250-1800 Attorneys for Defendants UWE GEERTZ, PH.D. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA No. CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx) DECLARATION OF VICKI AZNARAN RE: MOTION FOR COSTS Date: APRIL 4, 1994 Time: 10:00 a.m. Courtroom: 7 CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Plaintiff, VS. STEVEN FISHMAN and UWE GEERTZ, Defendants. —– ...

They never broke into church buildings or planted electronic bugs, but for the past 13 years, undercover Clearwater police detectives have investigated the Church of Scientology. They never developed a case against the church that was prosecuted. The work ranged from gathering Scientologists' names to seeking refunds for dissatisfied parishioners. Police once stormed Scientology headquarters after hearing anonymous allegations - unfounded, it turned out - that Scientology children were being strapped to gurneys and given electric shocks. The investigation boils down ...

THANK YOU, thank you, thank you for having the courage to print your Scientology story ["Catch a Rising Star," September]. I have lived in California for quite a while now and have seen the Scientology presence grow like a tumor. I have been harassed by the "nice young men" in suits and ties handing out Scientology literature. It doesn't surprise me, considering the number of people that are looking for something to believe in and will pay a lot of ...

There is a story that Steve Tisch, producer of the 1983 coming-of-age classic Risky Business, the film that would eventually vault Tom Cruise into the warm aerie of megastardom, likes to tell. After a tough day of shooting, Cruise approached Tisch, his partner Jon Avnet and the film's director, Paul Brickman. It seemed Cruise was concerned: He felt that his costar, Rebecca DeMornay, a newcomer who had snatched the part of sexy hooker Lana from Michelle Pfeiffer, was miscast. Things just ...

DECLARATION OF MARGERY WAKEFIELD I, Margery Wakefield, having personal knowledge of the following, hereby declare: 1. I was a member of the Church of Scientology of California from October of 1968 until February of 1980. I joined the Church in Los Angeles, California, where I was primarily based although I also took courses and/or worked at Church organizations in St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Georgia and Miami, Florida. 2. While in Scientology I progressed to the level of OT 3 (an ...

Scientology's leaders say the best defense is a good offense. DID THE CHURCH of Scientology kill a judge's dog during a trial? Did the judge, who is now dead, think church members did? Did that lead him to be prejudiced, and bias the jury against the church? These and other issues are part of an intense battle by the church's litigation machine to overturn what remains of a $30 million verdict won in 1986 by former church member Larry Wollersheim. Mr. ...

Seven self-professed "parishioners" of the Church of Scientology have filed religious discrimination lawsuits against the Cult Awareness Network and five members of the group, including a Glendale resident, in Glendale Superior Court. In the lawsuits, filed Friday and Monday, the plaintiffs allege that they have been denied access to the Cult Awareness Network's national convention, to be held in November, on grounds of their religious beliefs. The seven lawsuits — practically identical except for the plaintiffs' names — claim that the ...

A controversial drug and alcohol abuse center in north-central Oklahoma achieved a big victory Friday in its two-year battle for state approval. Less than a year after calling Narconon Chilocco New Life Center's treatment program unsafe and experimental, the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services voted unanimously Friday to exempt the facility from a state requirement to be certified. The decision came after Narconon showed it had gained approval from a private organization, the Commission for Accreditation of ...

The Church of Scientology uses private detectives and bulldog litigators to pursue its numerous detractors. It also hires low-key establishment lawyers who work quietly within the system. So who is directing the $416 million libel suit against Time? On April 27, 1992, lawyers for the Church of Scientology International filed a $416 million libel action in federal court in New York against Time Warner, Inc., Time Inc. Magazine Company [Time Warner is a partner in American Lawyer Media, L.P.], and writer ...

An organization of Scientologists allegedly responsible for illegal spying and dirty tricks was not a part of the church when those crimes were committed, a top church executive says. "I feel that by their actions they had removed themselves from the church," Michael Rinder of Los Angeles said yesterday. The Guardian's Office violated the teachings of Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and thereby became "something different and distinct," Rinder told Mr. Justice James Southey, of Ontario Court, general division. Rinder, 37, ...

Church of Scientology "plants" infiltrated Metro police and the Ontario Provincial Police and succeeded in obtaining copies of investigators' files, a trial has been told. A church member also obtained a file from the attorney-general's office by telephoning a central registry, pretending to be a government lawyer and sending a phony secretary to pick it up, witness Bryan Levman testified. "It was considered a big win. Everybody was very happy," Levman testified yesterday. He added that a Scientology plant later obtained ...

Scientology engaged in worldwide break-ins and espionage because its founder believed he was the focus of a global conspiracy, court heard yesterday. At least 12 police forces and government agencies in Canada were targeted for penetration by Scientology spies in the mid-1970s, Bryan Levman, a former top Scientology official, testified. Levman, testifying under immunity, said L. Ron Hubbard, a former science fiction writer who founded the organization, believed mental health professions were behind a conspiracy to destroy Scientology in concert with ...