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Scientologists Want Book Banned To Gag Critics, Court Told

December 2, 1987: A copyright challenge to a biography of L. Ron Hubbard, controversial founder of the Church of Scientology, is part of the church's policy of using the courts to harass its critics, a Federal Court hearing was told Tuesday. "This particular use of the court is an abuse and it has nothing to with copyright at all," David Potts, lawyer for Toronto-based Key Porter, told Mr. Justice Bud Cullen. "It is an attempt to circumscribe the well-established principle you can't libel the dead or an attempt to suppress criticism in accordance with the edicts stated by Mr. Hubbard."

Scientology Pleads Not Guilty in 1995 Death

December 1, 1998: The Church of Scientology pleaded not guilty today to criminal charges in connection with the 1995 death of a member whose family maintained that she had been held against her will by the church for 17 days. The church's Flag Service Organization, its chief operating arm here, was charged in the case this month with abuse or neglect of a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license, both felonies. No individuals were charged.

Scientologists Ask City To Block Picketing

December 1, 1997: Saying it fears violence from a group of protesters, the Church of Scientology is asking city officials to close the sidewalks in front of its downtown headquarters this week. Police Chief Sid Klein rejected the request and has offered to seek a compromise, but the church is appealing Klein's decision to City Manager Mike Roberto. The protesters, meanwhile, say they are the ones who should be fearful. They cited the tactics of an estimated 200 Scientologists who surrounded and taunted them at a similar event in March.

Lawyer Buys Rights to Anti-Cult Organization

December 1, 1996: 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. Last week its name, logo, post office box and telephone number were sold to the highest bidder: a Los Angeles lawyer named Steven L. Hayes, who is a Scientologist. Hayes says he is working with a group of people "united in their distaste for CAN" who plan to reopen the group so it "disseminates the truth about all religions." "It kind of boggles the mind," said David Bardin, an attorney who has represented CAN in Washington. "People will still pick up the CAN name in a library book and call saying, 'My daughter has joined the Church of Scientology.' And your friendly CAN receptionist is someone who works for Scientology."

Scientology Busts Bunker Story

November 30, 2005: Scientology, the celeb-packed, sci-fi themed church, has a huge compound carved out in New Mexico deserts. %he $2.5 million bomb-proof bunker - which holds founder L. Ron Hubbard's writings on steel tablets in underground vaults. When an Albuquerque TV station did a report on the compound, Scientologists allegedly tried to squelch the story, the Washington Post said.

The Myth Of 'Good Drugs' and 'Bad Drugs'

November 30, 2002: Scientologist Luke Catton writes, "All drugs are essentially poisons; the degree they are taken determines the effect. Most drugs simply mask the pain and discomfort for which they are taken and don't actually 'cure' anything."

Germany vs. Scientology

November 30, 1997: To explain the furious hostility between Germany and the Church of Scientology, German officials might point to the story of a young man from Braunschweig named Jurgen Behrndt. In Behrndt's first year of membership, Scientology officials visited his parents with him seeking a DM 75,000 ($50,250) loan toward his activities. By the time he broke from the group in 1995, Behrndt had spent some DM 200,000 ($134,000), was unemployed and emotionally ravaged: "Many days I saw no reason to even get up."

Scientology Suit Against Post Dismissed

November 29, 1995: A lawsuit against The Washington Post by the Church of Scientology has been dismissed by a federal judge, who ordered the church to pay all attorney fees in the suit. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said the church had no grounds to prohibit The Post from printing brief excerpts from religious texts that the church has tried to conceal from the public. "The court finds the motivation of plaintiff in filing this lawsuit against The Post is reprehensible," Brinkema wrote, " ... it has become clear that a much broader motivation prevailed - the stifling of criticism and dissent of the religious practices of Scientology and the destruction of its opponents."

Lawsuit Is Dropped Over Insurance Money In Murder

November 29, 1988: Attorneys for Continental Assurance Co. and Constitution Life Insurance Co. charged that "Father" John W. Kramer Sr., a self-professed minister of Scientology, and Samuel G. Lombardo, a former Lancaster businessman, had arranged Artz's murder to collect the $1.75 million in insurance money. The lawsuit charged that Kramer had engaged in a pattern of insurance fraud in Pennsylvania and Florida over a period of 15 years.

Church Accused of Fraud and False Finances

November 28, 1996: Roger paid pounds 3,100 for more auditing and courses on credit cards and took out a building society loan for pounds 500. When Roger complained that the auditing was still not tackling his homosexuality, they suggested he undertake "life repair" - intensive auditing - for pounds 1,300. By 1993, the difficulties were getting on top of him, and the only way out seemed to be to join the Scientologists' elite corps, the Sea Org, where he undertook the "billion year contract" whereby he committed himself to Scientology for several reincarnations.

Andretti Orders Dianetics Logo Taken Off His Car

November 27, 1988: A book logo linked to the Church of Scientology has been removed from the car of racer Mario Andretti, who said he did not want to be associated with the book when he drives in the GTE World Challenge of Tampa. The veteran driver said he "had nothing to do with (the Dianetics sponsorship) in the first place. It's not something I believe in, so I don't want to make it appear like I'm endorsing it."

2 Scientology Aides Guilty Of Burglary

November 27, 1980: Two high-ranking members of the Church of Scientology were convicted of burglary charges in what Federal prosecutors have called a widespread scheme by the church to infiltrate Government offices and steal documents. The two church members, extradited earlier this year from England, were accused of ordering subordinates in Washington to infiltrate offices of the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department in an attempt to copy or steal documents. Last December nine other members of the church, including Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of the church's founder, were found guilty of obstruction of justice and sentenced to prison terms in connection with the same alleged scheme.

Scientology Office at UB Commons

November 26, 2005: A controversy has erupted at the University at Buffalo over the Church of Scientology's obtaining an office in The Commons, a privately operated space on the North Campus in Amherst near the Student Union. Critics contend the administration is abrogating its responsibility to protect students by permitting a group some consider a cult to have a staging ground to recruit students. Rich Dunning, a former Buffalo church staff member who left the Church of Scientology in May 2003, said students are one of the organization's prime targets.

Parents Claim French School Infiltrated By Scientologists

November 26, 1998: A private school in Vincennes, on the outskirts of Paris, has been closed after parents complained it had been infiltrated by scientologists. The school will remain closed until further notice, pending an investigation ordered by the public prosecutor's office, the TV said.

Scientologists' Offices Mortgaged, Court Told

November 26, 1992: The Church of Scientology was accused yesterday of having tried to make its Toronto incorporation judgment-proof in the wake of a jury's record $1.6-million libel award. Mr. Armstrong told Madam Justice Hilda McKinlay that the sect's Los Angeles-based international office was apparently responsible for more than $6-million in mortgages placed on the Yonge Street offices of the Church of Scientology of Toronto within weeks of the jury making the award on Oct. 3, 1991.

Scientology, IRS Square Off in Court

November 27, 1980: In the latest of a long series of legal battles, the Church of Scientology and the Internal Revenue Service have squared off in court here over constitutional and church-state issues. The trial in United States Tax Court is in its third week and is expected to last a month longer. The central issue is the revenue service's contention that the church did not qualify for a tax-exempt status from 1970 to 1972 and owed $1.4 million in back income taxes for the period.

Ontario Accused Of Threatening Religious Freedom

November 26, 1991: Ontario is threatening freedom of religion by taking the Church of Scientology to court, says a coalition of religious groups. The Church of Scientology lost a bid earlier this year in the Ontario Court, general division, to have criminal charges dismissed because they took more than six years to come to trial. In March, 1983, more than 100 OPP officers seized hundreds of thousands of documents from the church's downtown headquarters.

Scientologists Sued for $6 Million in Suicide of Man

November 26, 1987: A woman filed a $6-million lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday against the Church of Scientology for allegedly driving her son to commit suicide last year. Irene Marshall said in her suit that church officials tried to destroy the close relationship she had with her son, Pedro Rimando, 22, and that their efforts drove him to leap off the sixth floor of a church-owned building in Hollywood on Nov. 25, 1986. The church "imposed certain psychologically coercive techniques" on Rimando "to exploit for power, labor and money (his) pre-existing emotional vulnerabilities and inner conflicts," the suit said.

Scientology Foe Seeks Protection

November 25, 1999: An outspoken foe of the Church of Scientology is striking back after being hit with an injunction barring him from going near the church's property and members. Minton contends in court papers filed Wednesday that he is the one who needs the protection of an injunction against Scientologists. Minton's attorney, Denis de Vlaming, said an Oct. 31 incident in which his client was charged with misdemeanor battery was the culmination of numerous confrontations over the years.

Scientology Prompts Review Of Death Case

November 24, 1999: In an unusual step, Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood has agreed to reconsider her conclusions in the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. The medical examiner's findings are key elements in two court cases against Scientology. Three years after McPherson's death, the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office charged the church's Clearwater operation with two criminal counts: abuse of a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license. The church also faces a wrongful death lawsuit filed by McPherson's family.