That means plans for a new bus terminal downtown also have crumbled. CLEARWATER — A first-of-its-kind partnership to build a downtown parking garage on top of a new bus terminal was pronounced dead Monday. Negotiations involving the city, the Church of Scientology, Pinellas County and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority failed to produce a deal to make the project work. Several months of talks ended last week, after one last-ditch effort to save the project. "We really did try," said Assistant ...

Clearwater says the deal with Scientologists consolidates downtown properties. Clearwater — The Church of Scientology and the city have forged a deal to swap land downtown so both organizations can consolidate blocks of property. Commissioners will vote June 21 whether to approve the proposal, which would give the church two vacant parcels now used for parking while the city would get a smaller lot with a building on it. If the deal is approved, the church would own an entire block, ...

Scientology claims that it has reformed and says it should be treated like any other church. But the Jesse Prince case and others continue to set this church apart. You have to be courageous to publicly criticize the Church of Scientology. The organization recently proved – again – how far it will go to investigate, smear and intimidate critics. Jesse Prince is one of those people the Church of Scientology perceives as an enemy because he is a vocal critic. A ...

Prosecutors decide to drop a marijuana charge after jurors, concerned about church influence, deadlock. CLEARWATER — When the two-day misdemeanor trial of Scientology critic Jesse Prince ended Thursday, jurors had little doubt he had possessed marijuana as the state charged. What bothered some of them, according to two jurors, was the possibility that Prince had been set up by the Church of Scientology. They heard testimony about how Prince, once a high-ranking church member, was watched, videotaped and trailed for months ...

The defense is bringing the church into the case, saying that the arrest was tied to the church's relentless surveillance of a critic, the defendant. LARGO — Five lawyers helped fill the courtroom Wednesday in a misdemeanor trial that included poster-board-size charts, a video recording, expert scientific testimony, five other witnesses and repeated references to the Church of Scientology. After five hours of courtroom proceedings, the marijuana possession case against strident Scientology critic Jesse Prince still was not over at the ...

The Church of Scientology investigated critic Jesse Prince, then passed information along to police. Last spring, a private investigator working for the Church of Scientology went to Largo police with a tip: A vocal critic of Scientology named Jesse Prince was involved with illegal drugs. Prince, 47, is a former church member and a key witness in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the church. Police investigated and arrested Prince, who is charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession. The case is set ...

A group beautifying a Clearwater alley reverses course and will let donors memorialize a church member who died. CLEARWATER – Lisa McPherson will be memorialized in a downtown alley next door to a Church of Scientology building. A group that sold hundreds of engraved bricks to beautify the city-owned alley has reversed an earlier decision, deciding to allow a McPherson memorial brick and two other bricks submitted by Scientology critics. McPherson was a 36-year-old Scientologist who died in 1995 in the ...

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thomas Penick, who has the unenviable task of refereeing sidewalk skirmishes between the Church of Scientology and anti-Scientology protesters in Clearwater, recently pointed to an arrangement that allows off-duty Clearwater cops to work for Scientology and noted, "They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology." Penick was right to call attention to the uncomfortably cozy relationship developing between city police and the church, which has its spiritual headquarters in ...

Off-duty Clearwater police provide security for the Church of Scientology, subject of many investigations. To some in law enforcement, the officers are crossing an ethical line. [Picture / Caption: "Off-duty Clearwater police officer Scott Wilson watches for oncoming cars on Watterson Avenue as Scientologists leav a bus."] CLEARWATER – Every day, off-duty Clearwater police officers provide security for the Church of Scientology, which was investigated by police for 18 years but now is putting thousands of dollars in officers' pockets. The ...

A church building would be converted into a Scientology mission with classes and a bookstore. LARGO – A prominent Scientologist is leading an effort to buy an 86-year-old church in downtown Largo, where she plans to open a Scientology mission, a development that has raised concerns among some city officials. The investment is a substantial one. The newly incorporated Church of Scientology Mission of Largo Inc. is paying $389,000 for the church at 160 Sixth St. SW and the house behind ...

The annual event is restricted by a court order prescribing where the pickets can be. Police expect little or no friction. CLEARWATER – Critics of the Church of Scientology will take to downtown streets this weekend and march in a protest that has become an annual ritual. They will picket against a backdrop of special community events celebrating the holidays and the 10th anniversary of the Pinellas Trail. As it was last year, the protest will be tempered by a court ...

Pinellas-Pasco Chief Medical Examiner Joan Wood was forced to resign after 18 years on the job. LARGO — It wasn't a happy day for employees of the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner's office on Friday. Their longtime chief was finally gone. Chief Medical Examiner Joan Wood, the embattled doctor who swore never to resign after 18 years at the helm, finally closed out her last autopsy, cleared out her office this week and headed for a new start. "We've all gone through a ...

Church leaders say the German official is a "fascist demagogue'' who has stoked a hate campaign. She says they exaggerate. CLEARWATER — The battle between the Church of Scientology and the German government, a long-running dispute steeped in emotion and international politics, has come crashing into Clearwater with a visit by a controversial German official. Ursula Caberta, who heads a government office in Hamburg that works to curb Scientology in Germany, said Tuesday at a downtown news conference that Scientology is ...

Medical examiners are vital to the criminal justice system. They investigate suspicious deaths, help determine if crimes were committed and influence the outcome of trials. They should be competent medical professionals, managers and witnesses. In each of those areas, serious questions have been raised about Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood. Before Gov. Jeb Bush decides whether to reappoint Wood to another three-year term, he should consider the consequences. Wood was at the center of a controversial decision by State Attorney Bernie ...

The distinction was important. To McCabe, the issue was never about the Church of Scientology as a religious institution. It was about whether a corporation of the church had illegally abused a member named Lisa McPherson, and whether it practiced medicine on her without a license, in the days leading to her death in 1995. The Church of Scientology now has two distinctions at the hands of Bernie McCabe. The first is that he chose to prosecute the church (I mean, ...

CLEARWATER — Alarmed at the "massive impact" of two criminal charges, the Church of Scientology's worldwide leader quickly offered Pinellas County's top prosecutor a deal. Drop the charges, David Miscavige told State Attorney Bernie McCabe in November 1998, and the church would make a $500,000 donation to the county's EMS system. It also would pay the nearly $200,000 in expenses incurred in what then was a three-year investigation into Lisa McPherson's 1995 death while in the care of her fellow Scientologists. ...

The blow to her credibility could make it difficult for Joan Wood to do her job, lawyers say. Although prosecutors said her "serious forensic error" ruined their case against the Church of Scientology, Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood said Monday she has no plans to resign. But veteran lawyers predicted the case – and particularly the 31-page memo from prosecutors that blasted Wood as "illogical" and "inconsistent" – will dog her every time she takes the witness stand. That could make ...

Blaming the medical examiner for damaging their case, prosecutors quietly end the inquiry into Lisa McPherson's death. CLEARWATER — State Attorney Bernie McCabe's weekend reading was a memo by his chief assistant urging him to drop the first criminal charges ever filed in the United States against the Church of Scientology. The 31-page document was filled with medical words that McCabe had never heard, but its essence was all too clear: The star prosecution witness, Medical Examiner Joan Wood, really didn't ...

[Lisa McPherson] now has been in the care of Scientologists at the Fort Harrison for 17 days. On the evening of Dec. 5, Scientologists caring for her worry she has become seriously ill. They decide to drive her to a hospital in New Port Richey - a 45-minute trip - so she can be seen by Dr. David I. Minkoff, a Scientologist who works in the emergency room there. At the hospital, McPherson is not breathing and has no heartbeat. She ...

L. Ron Hubbard said he didn't want his science-fiction work to be a press release for the church he founded. Nevertheless, the connections between Battlefield Earth and Scientology are worth noting. Put him in front of a typewriter and L. Ron Hubbard's fingers flew. He did not "piddle around" with his prose like other writers, as his friend and fellow science fiction author, Robert A. Heinlein, observed in a 1982 letter. Known in the 1930s and 1940s as a writer of ...

The judge ruling on Scientology's plea to remove its leader from a lawsuit says he'll carefully sift arguments. TAMPA – A judge said Wednesday he will take some time to decide whether Scientology leader David Miscavige should remain a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in Clearwater. Hillsborough Circuit Judge James S. Moody Jr. will consider a variety of legal issues, including whether Miscavige was properly served with the lawsuit at his Hollywood, Calif., office and ...

Scientology wants David Miscavige removed from a wrongful death lawsuit. CLEARWATER — Appealing to judges on both sides of Tampa Bay, the Church of Scientology on Tuesday continued its fight to keep its worldwide leader out of the legal fight over the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. The church goes to court this morning to ask a Hillsborough judge to remove David Miscavige as a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit. In a separate action, the church filed a lawsuit ...

The rulings say the Church of Scientology's actions in respect to Lisa McPherson are not protected by the Constitution. © St. Petersburg Times TAMPA – In a ruling that stunned the Church of Scientology and its lawyers, a Hillsborough County judge said Friday that religious rights are not a central issue in the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. Circuit Judge James S. Moody Jr. also said it is not clear whether McPherson consented to her treatment by Scientology staffers before ...

Promising a decision in a month, she questions the state's criminal charges against the church over a member's death. ST. PETERSBURG – After listening to legal arguments over two days, Pinellas-Pasco Chief Circuit Judge Susan F. Schaeffer said Thursday she will take a month to decide whether to dismiss the criminal case against the Church of Scientology. She also expressed support for key arguments raised by the church, which is defending itself against two charges in the 1995 death of Lisa ...

Pinellas prosecutors are standing by their allegation that Lisa McPherson suffered severe dehydration before she died in the care of Church of Scientology staffers in Clearwater. The hearing in downtown St. Petersburg included a rare public appearance by Scientology's Los Angeles-based leader David Miscavige, who huddled with the church's lawyers at breaks and passed them notes during the proceedings. Behind him: an estimated 200 local Scientologists, many of whom have written affidavits saying the prosecution of Scientology has burdened the practice ...

If the judge denies the church's request, the focus shifts to a five-week criminal trial scheduled in October. Seventeen months after it was criminally charged in the death of Lisa McPherson, the Church of Scientology will have its first big day in court on Wednesday and a chance, it hopes, for vindication. "The entire basis for the state's prosecution of this case has now collapsed," begins one of the many Scientology legal briefs arguing the case should be dismissed. The prosecution ...