Gabe Cazares
Gabe Cazares was mayor of Clearwater at the time when Scientology determined to take over the city.
He was framed for a hit-and-run by Scientology operatives. He was sued by Scientology, and filed a countersuit in return.
Gabe Cazares in the News
Date | Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| October 3, 2006 | Cazares' Blend Of Fire and Kindness | Gabe Cazares never shied from a fight, regardless of how powerful the opponent. But he was as kind-hearted as he was feisty, and his community benefited because of his service. In the 1970s the former Clearwater mayor and Pinellas County commissioner - who died last week at 86 - took on the Church of Scientology and overcame the church's efforts to smear him with a phony hit-and-run accident. | |
| December 27, 1988 | Scientology: Still The Same | Revenues and taxes are only two of the many issues that make Floridians uneasy about the secretive organization with headquarters in Clearwater's massive Fort Harrison Hotel. Over the years the Scientologists have been charged with a variety of bizarre crimes. In Canada, for instance, federal authorities are bringing the sect to trial for stealing 2,000 government documents. In Spain, 11 Scientologists are out on bail, facing the possibility of charges that include coercion and fraud. | |
| December 22, 1988 | Scientology Church Faces New Claims Of Harassment | The year was 1976, one year after the Church of Scientology had secretly moved its spiritual headquarters to Clearwater, and Mayor Gabe Cazares was complaining too loudly for the church's comfort. So, as documents seized by the FBI would later show, the church's Clearwater office devised a scheme to "ruin Mayor Gabriel Cazares' political career by spreading scandal about his sex life." Church officials came up with ways to get Cazares' school records, birth records, anything - from checking with the Catholic Church to looking in graveyards for headstones with Cazares' name - that might discredit the mayor. | |
| October 25, 1988 | Paper Wants Scientology Documents Unsealed | The St. Petersburg Times has asked a federal judge to unseal four court files pertaining to the Church of Scientology. The files, which otherwise would be available to the public, were sealed in 1986 by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich at the Scientologists' request. The suits alleged that Scientologists invaded the plaintiffs' privacy and abused the courts by filing malicious actions. Tanja C. Burden of Las Vegas said Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, his wife, Mary Sue, and the Clearwater church enslaved her for more than four years. The sealing of the files put all record of the cases and any subsequent developments out of public view. |
Gabe Cazares in the News
| Date | Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| December 15, 1983 | Gabriel Cazares V. Cos Of Ca Et Al | Gabriel Cazares v. CoS of CA et al | |
| September 30, 1983 | Church Of Scientology Of California V. Cazares (Gabriel), Cazares (Margaret) | Church of Scientology of California v. Cazares (Gabriel), Cazares (Margaret) | |
| March 9, 1981 | Scientology's Cazares Suit Still Frivolous | Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upholds a ruling by District Judge Ben Krentzman that a civil rights lawsuit filed by Church of Scientology against Mayor Gabriel Cazares is "groundless and frivolous." | |
| February 28, 1976 | Clearwater Mayor Gabriel Cazares Countersues Scientology | Clearwater Mayor Gabriel Cazares responds to Scientology's million-dollar lawsuit against him by filing an $8,000,000 libel suit against them. | |
| January 29, 1976 | Scientology Sues Clearwater Mayor Cazares For Libel | Scientology sues Clearwater mayor Cazares for libel, slander and civil rights violations. He would fight Scientology in the courts and press for years to come and was undaunted in his efforts to clear his name and show the world the dark side of Scientology. |