Clearwater Sun: Michael Flynn: Idealistic, Involved

Source: Clearwater Sun
Date: May 2, 1982

By Bill Prescott, Sun staff writer

Just who is this Michael Flynn?

The dapper, 37-year-old Boston attorney laughed when asked the question.

"The Scientologists think I'm an implanted anti-thetan from somewhere out in the universe," he said, half-jokingly.

The sect has reason to think less than highly of the lawyer. For the past three years, he has spearheaded litigation against it in lawsuits he said number "between 27 and 30."

But most recently Flynn was hired by Clearwater to act as its consultant during its public hearings into operations of the Church of Scientology. In that capacity, he will introduce witnesses and testimony gathered during his battles with the church. The hearings are set to begin Wednesday.

A native of Shrewsbury, Mass., a small town west of Boston, he attended Holy Cross College and the prestigious Sussex University Law School in Boston where he edited the law review. He graduated from Sussex first in his class with one of the highest grade point averages achieved at the school.

Graduating in June 1970, Flynn was accepted as a law clerk for the Massachusetts Supreme Court. After being retained by the court an extra two months while he finished working on an opinion, Flynn was hired by a mainline Boston law firm Bingham, Dana and Gould.

He left the firm in May 1972, and got involved in two highly-publicized trials, one the "Motorgate" case in 1976. He defended the president of the largest Chevrolet dealership in the country on a warranty fraud scheme.

After that, Flynn developed a practice specializing in medical malpractice and was, he said, making a lot of money.

"Then, in the summer of 1979, Lavenda Van Schaick walked into my office," Flynn said.

The 29-year-old former Scientologist "told me this hair-raising story about auditing, fraud and conspiracy," he said. "I had never heard of the Church of Scientology.

"I thought she was crazy."

The baffled lawyer sent the woman away. But the next day a police officer, a friend of Mrs. Van Schaick's husband, contacted him. Flynn said the man told him she had a legitimate complaint and that he should talk further with her.

During another meeting with Mrs. Van Schaick, Flynn said, he agreed to write a letter to the church in Clearwater and ask the return of the $13,000 she claimed to have spent on Scientology counseling. Flynn said he assured her they would send it promptly.

However, he said, the church sent back letters refusing to return the money and "detailing her life (based on auditing information).

"And that's what got me going."

The lawyer said he wrote back threatening a class action suit and hired a private detective. The detective turned up information on federal indictments against Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue, and 10 other ranking church members, Flynn said.

In December 1979, Flynn filed a $200 million class action suit on behalf of Mrs. Van Schaick and thousands of other ex-members.

"Then the floodgates opened," he said.

Within the next six months, he said, 500 former sect members and their families, law enforcement agencies and news media people contacted his firm. The ex-members asked for help.

"It was just awesome," Flynn recalled.

Along with the notoriety came harassment, Flynn said. He said he can document attempts by the church to discredit and harass him. The lawyer pointed out also that he and his associates have been sued by the church nine times.

Then in the spring of 1981, he was contacted by Clearwater city officials.

"I showed them some evidence. They were shocked," he said.

Two months later, the City Commission paid him $4,950 to write a report. Flynn said the figure barely covered secretarial and copying expenses.

Accusations that he is an "ambulance chaser" taking advantage of Scientology particularly cause Flynn to bridle. Instead of making money, he said church related litigation has brought him little money and taken him away from his malpractice suits.

If not for Scientology, he said, "I'd be a very, very wealthy man."

Asked his motivation, Flynn paraphrased Voltaire's definition of a revolutionary:

"First they become interested, then they become involved, then they become idealistic, then they become committed and then they die for the cause.

"That has some application to me."

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