| September 19, 1986 | $30-Million Court Fight Lost by Scientology | In a staggering blow to the Church of Scientology of California, a Superior Court judge Thursday upheld a jury's $30-million damage award to a former church member who said the organization wrecked him mentally and financially. | |
| October 9, 1979 | 9 Scientologists OK Conviction So They Can Appeal | Nine leaders of the Church of Scientology, in a rare legal maneuver, have agreed to be found guilty by a federal judge on reduced charges of conspiracy and theft as an outgrowth of their long battle with the federal government over allegedly stolen U.S. documents. | |
| October 10, 2004 | Astray in the Manger - A Very Merry Unauthorized Scientology Pageant | An off-Broadway sleeper, "Scientology Pageant" was called the "the gutsiest gimmick in New York theater for 2003" by the New York Times. After an extended run, the hourlong musical capped off its surprising success by winning an Obie Award. How this satiric celebration of Hubbard's life and writing - from his Navy days to his success as a science fiction writer to the founding of his church in 1953 - will be received in a city of such devout Hubbard followers as John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Tom Cruise (all of whom appear as characters in the piece) is anyone's guess. One thing is certain: "Scientology Pageant" will have a more fervid audience, pro and con, when it makes its West Coast premiere at the Powerhouse Theatre. | |
| October 1, 2005 | District Scrambles to Ensure Human Rights Event Is Religion-Free | Los Angeles city school officials were caught off guard this week by the Church of Scientology's role in an upcoming event at a South Los Angeles high school, which, while not illegal, is considered unusual. The event was organized by Youth for Human Rights International - a group with close ties to the Church of Scientology. | |
| September 18, 1997 | Hubbard Adherent's School Bid on Hold | A proposal for a charter school featuring the teaching methods of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard has been withdrawn by its primary sponsor for personal reasons, according to her supporters. | |
| April 2, 1985 | Hubbard's Absence Leads to Dismissal of Scientology Suit | A Los Angeles federal judge dismissed Monday a $2-million libel suit by the Church of Scientology of California against a Boston lawyer because of the failure of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to appear at a court-ordered deposition. A Scientology attorney claimed that Hubbard was not available to be deposed. Waving a Scientology advertisement, the judge asked, "Then why do you advertise that he can be reached?" | |
| June 29, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: A Lawyer Learns What It's Like to Fight the Church | Attorney Joseph Yanny says his Century City law firm was burglarized four times and that Scientology-related documents turned up missing; that he has been spied upon by a church "plant" working as a secretary in his office; and that private investigators have camped outside his Hermosa Beach residence and shadowed him when he left. | |
| June 24, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Burglaries and Lies Paved a Path to Prison | A web of criminal conspiracy to discredit the church's foes resulted in prison sentences for 11 top-ranking Scientologists. | |
| June 24, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Church Scriptures Get High-Tech Protection | Scientology is determined that the words of L. Ron Hubbard shall live forever. Using state-of-the art technology, the movement has spent more than $15 million to protect Hubbard's original writings, tape-recorded lectures and filmed treatises from natural and man-made calamities, including nuclear holocaust. | |
| June 27, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Converting the Business World | Scientology is using a network of private consulting firms to gain a foothold in the U.S. business community. The firms promise businessmen higher earnings but appear to be mainly interested in recruiting new members for the church. | |
| June 28, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Costly Strategy Continues to Turn Out Bestsellers | In some cases, sales of Hubbard's books apparently got an extra boost from Scientology followers and employees of the publishing firm. Showing up at major book outlets like B. Dalton and Waldenbooks, they purchased armloads of Hubbard's works, according to former employees. | |
| June 27, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Courting the Power Brokers | From politicians to the leaders of business, the courts and the media, Scientology works to win allies to smooth the way for expansion. To create a favorable environment for Scientology's expansion, church executives are working to win allies among society's power brokers and opinion leaders. | |
| June 24, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Creating the Mystique | Hubbard's image was crafted of truth, distorted by myth. To his followers, L. Ron Hubbard was bigger than life. But it was an image largely of his own making. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge put it bluntly while presiding over a Church of Scientology lawsuit in 1984. Scientology's founder, he said, was "virtually a pathological liar" about his past. | |
| June 29, 1996 | Los Angeles Times: Cult Fighters' Future in Doubt | Plagued by numerous lawsuits from religious groups and fighting a $1.1-million judgment against it, the Cult Awareness Network filed for bankruptcy. | |
| June 26, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Defectors Recount Lives of Hard Work, Punishment | Over the years, defecting Scientologists have come forward with similar accounts of how their lives and personalities were upended after they joined the church's huge staff. They say the organization promised spiritual liberation but delivered subjugation. | |
| June 24, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Defining the Theology | What is Scientology? Not even the vast majority of Scientologists can fully answer the question. No single book comprehensively sets forth Scientology's beliefs. Teachings are revealed to church members through a progression of sometimes secret courses that take years to complete and cost tens of thousands of dollars. | |
| June 27, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Foundation Funds Provide Assist to Celebrated Teacher Escalante | The Scientology movement's Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education has befriended one of America's most celebrated teachers, Jaime Escalante of Garfield High School. | |
| December 1, 1996 | Los Angeles Times: Lawyer Buys Rights to Anti-Cult Organization | For 20 years, the Cult Awareness Network ran the nation's best-known hotline for parents who grew distraught when unconventional religious groups they neither trusted nor understood suddenly won the allegiance of their children. Now its name, logo, post office box and telephone number have been sold to the highest bidder: a Los Angeles lawyer named Steven L. Hayes, who is a Scientologist. | |
| June 24, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Life With L. Ron Hubbard | L. Ron Hubbard enjoyed being pampered. He surrounded himself with teen-age followers, whom he indoctrinated, treated like servants and cherished as though they were his own children. He called them the "Commodore's messengers." | |
| June 29, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: On the Offensive Against an Array of Suspected Foes | The Church of Scientology does not turn the other cheek. Ministers mingle with private detectives. "Sacred scriptures" counsel the virtues of combativeness. Parishioners double as paralegals for litigious church attorneys. | |
| June 27, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Reaching into Society | Scientologists are disseminating Hubbard's writings in public and private school classrooms across the U.S., businesses and business groups, and detox programs, using front groups that seldom publicize their Scientology connections. | |
| October 31, 1992 | Los Angeles Times: Scientologists Win a Battle in Long War | Founded in 1978, the nonprofit Cult Awareness Network provides callers and media representatives with information about Scientology and other groups, and it suggests ways of evaluating any organization to determine if it is a destructive cult. Eight Scientologists won the right to attend a CAN conference. | |
| June 27, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Scientology and Science | Scientologists are trying to win recognition for Hubbard's detox/purification program in scientific and medical circles. Physicians affiliated with the regimen have touted it as a major breakthrough, and a number of patients who have undergone the treatment say their health improved. But some health authorities dismiss Hubbard's program as a medical fraud that preys upon public fear of toxins. | |
| June 27, 1990 | Los Angeles Times: Scientology and the Schools | The Scientology movement has launched a concerted campaign to gain a foothold in the nation's schools by distributing to children millions of copies of a booklet Hubbard wrote on basic moral values. | |
| March 31, 1994 | Los Angeles Times: Scientology Loses Bid to Void $2.5-Million Award | A judge threw out Scientology's lawsuit seeking to reverse Larry Wollersheim's $2.5-million emotional distress award. | |
