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 ...

SANTA CLARA — Former employees of Applied Materials have filed suit alleging that the Silicon Valley manufacturing firm forced them to undergo Church of Scientology seminars. Trial proceedings began Tuesday as lawyers for both sides argued motions before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Frank Cliff. In their suit, former employees Steven Hunziker, Virginia Sanders and Kate Schuchmann allege that Applied Materials hired an outside firm to teach workers communication and time-management skills. But the seminar firm, Applied Scholastics of Fremont, ...

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 Ontario prosecution sparked by police raids in California during the 1970s has led to the conviction of the Church of Scientology of Toronto and three of its members on breach-of-trust charges. A jury that deliberated for two days after a two-month trial also acquitted the Toronto organization of three charges and found two other members not guilty. Despite the verdicts, which will lead to a sentencing hearing Aug. 12 and 13, the legal battle over espionage activities by Scientologists for ...

The Toronto chapter of the Church of Scientology and three of its members were found guilty last night of breach of trust. Earlier yesterday, the church and five members were acquitted on charges of theft. Both charges stem from a series of alleged dirty tricks conducted by the church's covert intelligence-gathering body, the Guardian Office Worldwide, between 1974 and 1976. The verdicts were delivered last night by a 12-member jury which had deliberated for two days. The trial began April 23. ...

An Ontario Court jury last night found the Church of Scientology of Toronto and three of its members guilty of breach-of-trust charges stemming from infiltration of the Ontario government and three police forces in the 1970s. The jury found the organization guilty on two counts and not guilty on three others, and acquitted two individuals. Mr. Justice James Southey of the court's General Division, set aside Aug. 12 and 13 for sentencing. The criminal charges followed a raid on the Toronto ...

Your article April 14 regarding the Church of Scientology boarding school gave a slightly false picture. The Church has owned the property on Bouquet Canyon Road, which is at least six miles southeast of Green Valley, for almost two years. Church representatives approached the Green Valley Town Council about 10 times since August of 1991 to present the plans for the school as a matter of courtesy to the community. However . . . we are not located in Green ...

The credibility of witnesses and whether a corporation is responsible for illegal actions carried out by its employees were the subjects of summations by attorneys yesterday in the breach-of-trust trial of the Toronto chapter of the Church of Scientology. Lawyers Mel Green and Frank Addario, who are representing five church members charged with breach of trust, both attacked the credibility of crown witnesses. "These (crown) witnesses are unreliable and cannot be believed," Addario told the jury yesterday. "Their testimony is the ...

Referring to the Church of Scientology as "this little church," defence lawyer Clayton Ruby yesterday said its Toronto members were "regular parishioners" unaware of any crimes that were committed. In his closing address in the breach-of-trust trial of Scientology's Toronto branch, Ruby urged the 12-person jury to judge Scientology as they would their own church. Citing recent cases of sexual abuse involving priests in the Catholic church, Ruby said: "The (Catholic) church wasn't prosecuted, only individuals. Never has a jury been ...

Heavy machinery is used Tuesday to demolish the Gray Moss Inn in downtown Clearwater. The Church of Scientology Religious Trust will use the land to build a counseling and training center.

Defence lawyers have rested their cases in the trial of the Church of Scientology of Toronto and five members on criminal breach of trust charges. Prosecution lawyers also said yesterday they would not call more witnesses. The trial continues without the jury and under publication ban, as lawyers from both sides argue points concerning what they and the judge will say in their summations. The jury returns June 17 to Ontario Court, general division, to begin hearing final addresses by counsel. ...

A Scientologist sent to investigate the head office of the church branch allegedly responsible for dirty tricks and spying says he was sickened by what he saw. "I was disgusted. I was sickened to my bones," Norman Starkey, 48, of Los Angeles testified yesterday. Starkey was a defence witness at the jury trial of the Toronto branch of the Church of Scientology and five of its members on breach of trust charges. The charges are in connection with agents infiltrating the ...

A top Church of Scientology executive once married to founder L. Ron Hubbard's daughter says he had no idea about an espionage and dirty tricks campaign conducted by the church. At the trial of the Church of Scientology of Toronto and five of its members yesterday, Jonathan Horwich, 47, of Los Angeles testified he was "very upset" and "shocked" when first informed of the church's campaign. The Toronto defendants face criminal breach of trust charges in connection with agents infiltrating the ...

INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge in Arlington, Va., on Friday dismissed a $20-million libel lawsuit that the Church of Scientology had filed against an executive with Eli Lilly & Co., the maker of Prozac. The lawsuit accused Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., a vice president of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceuticals company, of maligning the church in comments published in USA Today. The newspaper was not named as a defendant. The church believes that Prozac, an antidepressant, is unsafe and can lead to suicidal ...

A scientologist who spent two years in a California prison for helping to steal government documents says her church knew nothing about the crimes. Jane Kender, 55, was deputy guardian of the Church of Scientology in Sussex, England, in 1968 when the British government put a ban on Scientologists coming into the country, she told court yesterday. She was testifying at the trial of the Church of Scientology and five of its members charged with criminal breach of trust in connection ...

Tom Cruise hits the accelerator and slides onto a deserted stretch of Sunset Boulevard behind the wheel of a car so hot, so space-age sleek, that you can't find one anywhere — not in a Porsche showroom, not in the Malibu Colony, not in the hippest Hollywood parking lot. [...] If anyone has a good theory about the source of Cruise's steely determination, it's Kidman. They're a yin-yang couple, with her playful, relaxed manner contrasting with her husband's earnest intensity. "I ...

A tale of intrigue, international espionage and blind dedication has been painted over the past month by a group of senior members with the Church of Scientology of Toronto during the 1970s. All those testifying had been expelled by the church. They were given immunity from prosecution for testifying at the trial of five members and the church on charges of criminal breach of trust. The charges concern "plants" infiltrating the RCMP, OPP, Metro police and the provincial attorney-general's office between ...

One of Scientology's former top spy-masters testified she'd been trained to believe criminal actions which protected the church weren't violations of Scientology's moral code. Marion Evoy, a former Canadian head of Scientology's Guardian Office, made the comment yesterday at the end of four days of testimony in the trial of the Church of Scientology of Toronto Inc. and five members on charges of criminal breach of trust. The charges arise out of a Scientology spy network that in the mid-1970s infiltrated ...

Scientologists targeted the RCMP for infiltration because their founder believed Mounties were part of a worldwide conspiracy against his church, an ex-member testified yesterday. The Toronto court heard Scientology leader L. Ron Hubbard believed the international conspiracy was run by a band of former Nazis who'd taken over Interpol — the European-based international police organization. The testimony yesterday from Marion Evoy, formerly Canada's top Scientology official, came at the opening of the fourth week of the trial of the Church of ...

A former top Scientologist testified yesterday she was put in a closet with a set of picks and told to unlock the door as part of her spy training. Marion Evoy told court she failed to get out. But the 42-year-old tutor testified to a string of successes with the Scientology spy network, which is alleged to have penetrated three police forces and three levels of government in the mid-1970s. The Church of Scientology of Toronto and five members pleaded not ...

LOS ANGELES — The Church of Scientology International sued Eli Lilly & Co. for $14.7 million, alleging the pharmaceutical maker pressured a public relations firm to drop the church as a client. The church and Eli Lilly have long been at odds over the drug maker's sale of Prozac. The scientologists say the antidepressant can be harmful, even fatal. The suit, filed Friday in federal court, names as defendants Lilly, the British advertising conglomerate WPP Group, its chief executive officer, Martin ...

A Scientology spy testified yesterday she smuggled out enough files from the OPP to make a stack about 15 feet high. The Church of Scientology of Toronto Inc. and five Scientologists face charges of criminal breach of trust in connection with a spy network that infiltrated the RCMP, Metro Police, the attorney general's department and the OPP. Kathy Smith told court that during her 2½ years as an OPP employee she smuggled out "hundreds and hundreds" of files. She was testifying ...

A former top Scientologist testified yesterday his intelligence office had copies of Ontario cabinet documents stored in a secret hideaway code-named "The Garden." Emile Gilbert, former executive director of the Church of Scientology of Toronto, told a jury yesterday "The Garden" contained 40 or 50 filing cabinets of intelligence files on Scientology's targets. "We had all kinds of files," Gilbert said, "some from Premier Bill Davis' cabinet meetings." Gilbert also said the agents had amassed so much material dealing with the ...

The jury in the Scientology trial yesterday heard the church's spy network extended far beyond the four government agencies they're charged with infiltrating. The Church of Scientology of Toronto and five Scientologists are standing trial on five counts of criminal breach of trust in connection with "agents" planted in the RCMP, the OPP, Metro Police and the Ontario attorney general's office during the mid-1970s. But yesterday, during his fifth day on the stand, a former top Scientologist admitted their "target list" ...

Church of Scientology intelligence officers in the 1970s were "complete zealots" prepared to use illegal means to attack critics, a former official has testified. "Within Scientology, we were completely indoctrinated and did believe that everything we did was 100 per cent right. Our minds were completely altered," Bryan Levman told an Ontario Court, general division, jury. Testifying in return for immunity from prosecution, Levman said he thought at the time it was justified in having "plants" infiltrate Metro police and other ...

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY sues Time Warner for libel. The church seeks $416 million in punitive damages for an April 1991 cover story in Time magazine, a unit of Time Warner Inc. The article called the church a "Mafia-like" cult and alleged criminal activities by its leaders. The suit alleges that a biased reporter was put on the story and that the article was false and defamatory. A spokesman for Time, based in New York, said the magazine stands by the article ...

In the summer of 1973, dedicated Scientologist Bryan Levman left the yacht of church founder L. Ron Hubbard with a new title and a mandate he believed allowed him to infiltrate police agencies and steal government files. For three years, Levman oversaw a series of covert intelligence operations as deputy guardian for Canada, aimed at attacking the "enemies" of Scientology, founded by Hubbard in the mid-1950s. Levman left the church in 1976 in some disillusionment — "it didn't deliver what it ...

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 ...