BRIGHTON, Colo. – A software company founder is being tried for first-degree murder. Rex Fowler is accused of shooting and killing business partner Thomas Ciancio in December 2009. TheDenverChannel's Alan Gathright is in the courtroom and will be blogging throughout the trial. This is his blog on Day 2. 4:30 PM – The former president and CEO of Fowler Software choked back tears on the stand Thursday afternoon, recalling how she arranged the fateful meeting between Tom Ciancio and Rex Fowler ...

BRIGHTON, Colo. – The trial of a software company founder is underway in Brighton. Rex Fowler is accused of shooting and killing business partner Thomas Ciancio in December 2009. TheDenverChannel's Alan Gathright is in the courtroom and will be blogging throughout the trial. This is his blog on Day 1. 4:30 PM -Battle Over Scientology Evidence In a dramatic moment, defense attorney Sarah Quinn objected to prosecutors introducing in evidence a manila folder belonging to Fowler. The judge had the jury ...

BRIGHTON, Colo. – The murder trial starts Wednesday morning for an Adams County software firm founder accused in the 2009 execution-style shooting of his former business partner. William Rex Fowler is charged with first-degree murder. He's accused of shooting Thomas Ciancio, 42, three times in the head with a 9mm Glock handgun when Ciancio came to collect a $9,000 severance payment at Fowler Software Design in Adams County on Dec. 30, 2009. Fowler, 58, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he ...

THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) — An Adams County judge says a man, accused of shooting a former business partner, will stand trial. The first degree murder trial will begin May 19. Prosecutors claim Rex Fowler shot himself after shooting Thomas Ciancio on Dec. 30. The prosecution presented four witnesses during Friday's preliminary hearing. Fowler has been charged with first degree murder. He appeared in court wearing shackles around his wrists and ankles. An Adams County Sheriff's Deputy testified that Fowler seemed dazed ...

In a sleepy beach town in the Bible Belt, a 22-year-old journalist found himself in the middle of what was then considered by some a cult - and is now known as the Church of Scientology. That young journalist was adjunct professor Richard Leiby, one of the first to unearth religious leaders' clandestine activities during his time at The Clearwater Sun in Florida. During his stay at the now defunct Tampa Bay-area newspaper, Leiby was sent to the nation's capital to ...

BRIGHTON — A district judge's ruling last week may aid prosecutors in their claim that William Rex Fowler was not defending himself when he shot to death his former business partner at an Adams County software company. Adams County District Judge Francis Wasserman ordered that all medical records concerning Fowler's treatment at Denver Health Medical Center be released to prosecutors. Fowler, 58, is accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Thomas Ciancio. Investigators say Fowler shot Ciancio, 42, three ...

By JUAN McCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: The defense in the trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne rested its case yesterday, after its only witness finished his testimony. Final arguments in the case will be delivered on Monday. And Senior Justice Anita Allen is expected sum up the case and give instructions to the jury on Tuesday. Bridgewater and Lightbourne are accused of attempting to extort $25 million from American actor John Travolta after ...

By JUAN McCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: Proceedings in the attempted extortion trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne experienced another delay yesterday as Senior Justice Anita Allen heard legal submissions from attorneys in the matter. The Nassau Guardian understands that defense attorneys Murrio Ducille and Carlson Shurland have been presenting 'no case to answer' submissions to Justice Allen since Thursday. It is also understood that Ducille, who represents Bridgewater, completed his submissions last week. ...

By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: A firestorm erupted in the trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne yesterday, as Lightbourne's attorney Carlson Shurland cross-examined an attorney for American actor John Travolta. As Shurland shot a barrage of questions at Michael McDermott, things reached a fever pitch in the courtroom as the two men traded barbs and made commentary during the cross-examination in direct contravention of repeated warnings by Senior Justice Anita Allen. It ...

Lawyer for actor seen negotiating with two defendants in Bahamas trial Is it the smoking gun? The trial of two defendants accused of trying to extort $25 million from John Travolta in return for handing over a document relating to the death of the star's 16-year-old son, Jett, continued in the Bahamas Friday. Meanwhile, PEOPLE has watched videotape of conversations recorded by the Royal Bahamas Police between Travolta's attorney and the two defendants — paramedic Tarino Lightbourn and his lawyer, Pleasant ...

NASSAU, Bahamas – A jury was selected Monday for a trial that could see John Travolta take the stand against two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from the movie star following his son's death in the Bahamas. Travolta is on a list of 14 witnesses against the defendants — a former Bahamas senator and an ambulance driver — who allegedly threatened to release a document related to the treatment of his chronically ill son Jett. His testimony would ...

TMZ has confirmed John Travolta will testify next week at the extortion trial involving the death of his son, Jett. Travolta will travel to the Bahamas to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former politician Pleasant Bridgewater allegedly demanded $25 million in return for not going public with a document which authorized paramedics to take 16-year-old Jett to a hospital via ambulance after suffering a massive seizure. We're told Travolta and wife Kelly Preston are outraged by ...

Day 4 (June 2): The court trying six Scientologists and two Scientology associations heard from one of the defendants responsible for managing the Paris centre’s Purification Rundown. [...]

Day 4 (June 2): Alain Rosenberg, "managing director" of Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre, presented a vigorous defence — to the point where he had to be called to order by his own lawyer. [...]

Day 4 (June 2): an expert witness dismissed Scientology’s Purification Rundown as quackery as the Paris trial considered the high doses of vitamins used in the programme. [...]

The Church of Scientology is on trial in Paris for organised fraud. Six individuals and two organisations have been charged and if they are found guilty the Church may well have to wind up some or all of its activities in France. This trial had been talked about for months here as being a make-or-break affair for Scientology and it began last Monday. The two organisations being tried are the Spiritual Association of the Church of Scientology and the Scientology library, ...

Day 3 (May 27): a Paris court heard how a company director's massive spending on Scientology put his business at risk. [...]

(Day 3: May 27) Scientology’s techniques abuse the transference process familiar to all therapists, a psychiatrist told the Paris trial of the movement and six of its members. [...]

Day 3 (May 27): the second plaintiff in the Paris trial of Scientology told the court how her employer put her under ever-increasing pressure to take the movement’s courses. [...]

As a fiercely secular nation, France has always had an awkward relationship with religious groups. Officials often find themselves struggling to strike the delicate balance between maintaining church-state separation and honoring the right of citizens to express their faith. But in the current case against the U.S.-based Church of Scientology, authorities have abandoned their usual attempts at fine-tuning religion's standing in French society — instead, they want to ban Scientology from France altogether. In a long-awaited trial that opened this week, ...

The Church of Scientology has been accused of manipulating followers into handing over their savings, in a trial that could see the church banned from France. The church's main centre in France, the ASES-Celebrity Centre, its bookshop and six of its leaders were charged on Monday with organised fraud and illegally prescribing drugs. One former church member claimed she had been psychologically pressured into paying thousands of pounds for lessons, books, drugs and a device called an "electrometre", which the church ...

Movement accused of 'organised fraud' against two female members persuaded to part with €20,000 The Scientology movement went on trial in Paris yesterday for "organised fraud" in a case which could lead to the cult's organising bodies being outlawed in France. The French state prosecution service has failed to back the trial but denies that its decision was influenced by the lobbying of French politicians, including Nicolas Sarkozy before he became President, by leading Scientologists, including the actor Tom Cruise. After ...

Members of the Church of Scientology go on trial in Paris Monday on charges of fraud, along with the Church of Scientology itself, which means its operations in France are at risk. The trial is the culmination of two complaints lodged by people who said they were manipulated into spending thousands of euros by the Church. France considers Scientology a cult. Until now, prosecutors have only gone after individual Scientologists in court. But Monday, along with seven Scientologists, the Church itself ...

The Church of Scientology has gone on trial in the French capital, Paris, accused of organised fraud. The case centres on a complaint by a woman who says she was pressured into paying large sums of money after being offered a free personality test. The church, which is fighting the charges, denies that any mental manipulation took place. France regards Scientology as a sect, not a religion, and the organisation could be banned if it loses the case. It is the ...

Are the secrets of Scientology about to be exposed in a French court? More4 News goes to Paris to find out. It sounds like a science, but calls itself a church, while opponents have other names for it. Despite celebrity followers such as John Travolta, the Church of Scientology is viewed with suspicion in some countries. Now the organisation faces a legal battle in France, with a trial starting next week threatening its operations there.