Larry Wollersheim
Larry Wollersheim was a member of Scientology. While he was a member, Scientology held him captive and inflicted severe emotional distress. Wollersheim sued Scientology and won.
Larry Wollersheim in the News
| Date | Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | |
| November 17, 1985 | Church Says Interplanetary Tyrant Exists | Publication of secret documents that blame the world's troubles on an interplanetary tyrant named Xemu has held the Church of Scientology up to public ridicule. Church leaders vow to prevent further release of secret scriptures in ongoing courtroom battles with opponents the leaders say are attacking the Scientology religion. According to the tracts, Xemu, fighting galactic overpopulation, ordered humans and beings from other planets captured and placed in several large volcanoes. | |
| September 19, 1995 | Court Approves Return of Scientology Materials | A federal appeals court Monday stiff-armed the Church of Scientology's request to be allowed to keep boxes of information seized in raids of two Boulder County men's homes. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved its five-day-old emergency order holding up return of the materials to Lawrence Wollersheim of Boulder and Bob Penny of Niwot, clearing the way for return of the property. | |
| October 27, 1989 | Court Rejects Challenges to Award in Scientology Case Lawsuit | The state Supreme Court rejected challenges to a ruling that dramatically reduced a jury award of $30 million against the Church of Scientology for coercive practices that drove a former member to the edge of insanity and bankruptcy. | |
| April 7, 1986 | Courts Wrestle With Claims Of Church Fraud | A jury has listened to weeks of accusations that the Church of Scientology defrauded a man when it promised him emotional and financial security and higher intelligence through Scientology. The man, Larry Wollersheim, who was a member of the church for 11 years, is seeking $25 million. Mr. Wollersheim said he spent more than $100,000 on church programs, including personal counseling, in the belief that they would make him more healthy, stable, confident and productive. | |
| October 23, 1995 | Los Angeles Times: Are Searches in Civil Cases Also Violating Rights? | "We contend that the authority for the search was obtained without a full and proper disclosure to the court in that it was over-broad and, in effect, a fishing expedition," said Tom Kelley, an attorney representing ex-Scientologist Lawrence Wollersheim, whose Boulder, Colo., home was searched Aug. 22 by a group of marshals, Scientologists and their attorneys. | |
| 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. | |
| September 26, 1995 | Most, Not All, Items Seized By Church Of Scientology Returned | Scientology refuses to comply with court order: Most of the Church of Scientology documents confiscated last month from the homes of two Boulder County men by U.S. marshals were returned yesterday under orders from the federal courts in Denver and the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the courts ordered that "all" confiscated items be returned to Lawrence Wollersheim and Robert Penny, not "most" of the items. | |
| September 26, 1995 | Scientologists Deleted Data Before Returning Computers | The Church of Scientology defied a federal judge and deleted material from the computers and floppy disks of two critics from Boulder before returning them. "We are not ... returning our sacred, confidential, unpublished and copyrighted scriptures," Warren McShane, a church leader in Los Angeles, wrote in a letter that accompanied the return of the computers to the law officies of Faegre & Benson in Denver. The missing documents prompted attorneys for church critics Robert Penny and Lawrence Wollersheim to file a contempt motion in federal court. | |
| November 6, 1986 | Scientology Church Sued Over Alleged Assault Plot | The attorney who won a $30-million judgment against the Church of Scientology sued church members Wednesday, claiming that they concocted a scheme to assault him in the courthouse cafeteria and blame the confrontation on him. In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, attorney Charles B. O'Reilly alleges that church leaders coaxed a young woman into "assaulting and battering" him in order to file a false criminal complaint against him. | |
| April 21, 1987 | Supreme Court Turns Down Scientology Plea | The Supreme Court's decision clears the way for former Scientologist Larry Wollersheim to begin seizing church assets to satisfy a $30-million award he won last year. Wollersheim, who contended that the church harassed him and drove him to the brink of insanity, was awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages by the Los Angeles Superior Court jury. | |
| November 11, 1985 | U.S. Judge Refuses to Block Use of 'Sacred Scriptures' of Scientology | U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer has refused to block the use of "sacred scriptures" the Church of Scientology alleges were stolen from a Denmark church by former members two years ago. Pfaelzer, who had issued a temporary restraining order, said that although she believes that the documents were stolen, church attorneys failed to properly trace their trail from Denmark to the United States. Pfaelzer said she also is reluctant to interfere because the material is key evidence in a $25-million Los Angeles Superior Court fraud case filed against the church by former member Larry Wollersheim. | |
| September 27, 1986 | Verdict Is Upheld Against Scientology | A Los Angeles judge last week rejected a request that he either overturn a $30 million verdict against the Church of Scientology of California or grant a new trial in a suit by former member Larry Wollersheim, who said Scientologists destroyed his business and drove him to the brink of insanity when he left the church after 11 years. |