The Founding Church of Scientology dedicated its new center last weekend in the renovated Fraser Mansion at 20th and R streets NW, near Dupont Circle. The mansion, built in 1890 for former representative George S. Fraser, will serve as a spiritual center for local members and as the East Coast center for ministerial training, spokeswoman Sylvia Stanard said. The church, with about 3,000 members in the area, will continue to operate its "celebrity center" on 16th Street NW for counseling purposes, ...

CLEARWATER — A Mexican woman has alleged that the Church of Scientology's security chief chased her and threatened to kill her for leaving the church. The case has been referred to the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office; no charge has been filed. A statement from a Scientology spokesman said the security guard has been suspended during a church investigation. The police investigation began Sept. 28 after Naxilly Sofia Perez-Morales, 22, called 911 about 7 p.m. from the Post Office on Cleveland Street. ...

The growing popularity of the Internet has spawned discussion groups that offer something for just about everyone, from lovers of Jean-Luc Picard (try alt.sexy.bald.captains) to haters of a certain children's television program (alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die) to obsessives consumed by politics, computer lore, comic books or the hidden messages embedded in a single rock song (alt.meter-maid.lovely.rita). Few newsgroups, though, have drawn the kind of following now evident on alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.), an international debating circle concerning the Church of Scientology. Always controversial, in recent months ...

IN THE ONLINE BRAWL OVER SCIENTOLOGY, INTERNET USERS DISCOVER THAT VIRTUAL REALITY BITES BACK.SHOWDOWN IN CYBERSPACE THE BATTLE OVER SCIENTOLOGY'S SECRETS IGNITES A HOLY WAR ON THE INTERNET. Lawrence Wollersheim's hands shake as he reads his notes, ticking off the damage done to his computers. Surrounding the 46-year-old Boulder resident is a cluster of reporters and, beyond that, a ring of glowering, dark-suited men (and one woman wearing a clerical collar), all packed into a hallway of the federal courthouse in ...

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 ...

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) – A former member and critic of the Church of Scientology should be getting his research on Scientology back from the church. A federal judge Tuesday ordered the church to return the files that another judge had ordered seized. Larry Wollersheim operates a computer bulletin board that distributes information critical of the Church of Scientology. The church claimed Wollersheim violated copyright and trademark laws and demanded the board's materials. But the new ruling says "the public interest is ...

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WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., yesterday permitted The Washington Post to retain a copy of Church of Scientology texts and to use the texts in its news reporting, saying the paper's news-gathering rights far outweigh claims that the documents are protected by copyright and trade secrecy laws. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused to issue a preliminary injunction against The Post, saying its excerpts of the church's texts in an Aug. 19 Style section article were brief and ...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Church of Scientology is going to unusual lengths to protect the secrecy of copyrighted church secrets. Two weeks ago, Arnie Lerma's home office was raided by U.S. Marshal's accompanied by lawyers and officials from the Church of Scientology. While the marshal's stood by, Lermas' computer was dismantled and carried away. He left the church 17 years ago after what he calls a dispute involving his romance with the daughter of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. He's been ...

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 ...

An arm of the Church of Scientology has sued The Washington Post and two of its reporters in an attempt to prevent publication of copyrighted information that belongs to the church. In an amendment to a suit filed against an Arlington man Aug. 11 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, the Religious Technology Center asks that the newspaper return certain documents and refrain from publishing information that the church claims is confidential scriptures protected by federal laws. The church originally sued ...

BOULDER — A computerized attack on the Church of Scientology was halted yesterday when U.S. marshals raided the homes of two church detractors. The marshals turned over the computers and documents to officials of the church. "Marshals just hauled out all kinds of public records," said detractor Lawrence Wollersheim of Boulder. " . . . attorney-client privilege documents, books legally purchased at any B Dalton bookstore. This was a Scientology cult raid to seize the confidential records of FACTNet." FACTNet is ...

The Religious Technology Center (RTC) yesterday sued The Washington Post and two of its reporters, charging they have engaged in "extensive intentional copyright infringement and trade secrets misappropriation, targeting confidential Scientology scriptures." RTC, which holds the intellectual property rights of Scientology, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema will hold a hearing Friday on a temporary restraining order and RTC's impoundment application to retrieve its documents from the newspaper. The new ...

AS USE OF the Internet grows, one thing that's becoming uncomfortably clearer is just how much of existing communications and copyright law depends on the physical limitations of records and publications kept on paper. A copyright infringement suit brought recently in Alexandria, concerning dissemination via the Internet of supposedly secret and copyrighted documents belonging to the Church of Scientology, brings some of these newly problematic issues into sharp relief. It's only one of a string of recent cases that show how ...

To reach what the Church of Scientology calls the seventh level of spirituality, the church's scriptures instruct followers to go to zoos and parks to communicate with plants and animals and go to train stations to put thoughts in the minds of strangers. Advice like that doesn't come cheap. Scientologists pay tens of thousands of dollars for such spiritual teachings. Now, to the church's dismay, they're free with an Internet account. The scriptures had been entered as an affidavit in a ...

It was 9:30 and Arnie Lerma was lounging in his living room in Arlington, drinking his Saturday morning coffee, hanging. Suddenly, a knock at the door — who could it be at this hour? — and boom, before he could force anything out of his mouth, they were pouring into his house: federal marshals, lawyers, computer technicians, cameramen. They stayed for three hours last Saturday. They inventoried and confiscated everything Lerma cherished: his computer, every disk in the place, his client ...

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 13 — The Church of Scientology is battling a band of on-line dissidents who have used the Internet to mail out globally its secret scriptures, for which some members must pay thousands of dollars. On Saturday, as a result of a copyright infringement lawsuit, United States marshals here seized the computer of a former church employee who had electronically posted a 136-page text that he said was available in court records. The former employee, Arnaldo P. Lerma, 44, ...

The Suit Alleges The Church Of Scientology Violated Several State Laws And Led The Couple On An Emotional Roller Coaster. TAVARES — Samuel Williams' and Janet Miller's odyssey with the Church of Scientology began in 1986 and ended in less than a year. But the Lake County couple's struggle to recover from the experience is nearing 10 years. Their civil suit, which is seeking to recover $542,000 the former husband and wife from Leesburg spent on what they say were bogus ...

A NEW pressure group calling for government action to raise public awareness of cults has come under fire from the Church of Scientology. Founders of Families Under Scientology Stress (Fuss) say that in the few weeks it has been formed it has been amazed at how many people have come forward from all parts of the country pledging support. A group spokesman said: "Most of our supporters have been through difficulties of having a family member in Scientology and it is ...

DIDN'T YOU KNOW THAT HATE IS OUT? I would think that as a magazine so into the "in thing" to do, you would keep your prejudices to yourself ["Intelligencer: Next: A Dianetics Theme Restaurant?," May 8]. The Hard Copy piece got it right: The negative labeling of religious groups like Scientology is bias. And having the Cult Awareness Network comment on any religion would have been akin to having the KKK discuss the benefits of black people. If you had any ...

City commissioners unanimously approved paying the Church of Scientology $635,000 to settle an 11-year-old lawsuit. The vote Thursday brings to an end the long [...]

In regard to the April 10 Letters to the Editor from Marcia Rudin and Herbert Rosedale that accompanied my letter in response to the criticisms of Scientology in a March 22 article: For Ms. Rudin to use the word "cult" shows a mentality of bigotry that should be foreign to Americans aware of the Constitution. Our war with bigotry is over, as is the conflict over religious recognition. The IRS's full recognition of the churches of Scientology has been done after ...