Press
Press in the News
Date |
Title |
Blurb |
Tags |
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May 1, 1982 |
Clearwater Sun: Judge OKs Hearings on Sect |
The Church of Scientology's request to prevent Clearwater from holding public hearings to investigate its operations was denied in federal court. U.S. District Judge William Castagna ruled that the "asserted religious nature" of Scientology "cannot and does not insulate it from" the public hearings the city intends to start Wednesday. |
Press |
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April 20, 1982 |
Scientology Founder's Wife Loses Final High Court Plea, Faces Prison |
The Supreme Court let stand the convictions of two former leaders of the Church of Scientology, rejecting their final efforts to contest the legality of the FBI's search of the church's Los Angeles offices in 1977. The court's action apparently clears the way for Mary Sue Hubbard - the one-time "controller" for the church group and wife of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who was not charged in the case - to begin serving a five-year prison term on a conspiracy charge. |
crimes, IRS, lawsuits, Mary Sue Hubbard, Press |
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April 4, 1982 |
Lee Recounts Sect Horrors |
A woman they called "Lee" recounted her 12 years in the Scientology and her emotional and physical struggle to break away from the sect. After four months in Clearwater, still finding no success with OT Level exorcisms, she was "physically and mentally in bad shape," but afraid to leave the church. |
What is Scientology?, dangers of Scientology, Press |
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April 2, 1982 |
Suit Against Church Whittled |
A District Judge has dismissed seven of 14 allegations of wrongdoing against the Church of Scientology by a Boston-area woman and said he will consider whether the First Amendment bars some of the remaining allegations in the $200 million class action suit. The claims were filed by a former member of the church, La Venda Van Schaick, who claimed she was induced into joining the church by false representations, defrauded, subjected to emotional distress, locked in a room, and harassed in many other ways. |
Boston, MA, false imprisonment, fraud, harassment, La Venda Van Schaick, lawsuits, Press |
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October 1, 1981 |
Readers Digest: Scientology: The Sickness Spreads |
Reader's Digest documents smear campaigns, harassment, and attempts to frame critics, and lists more suicides and criminal acts uncovered since their previous article. |
Press |
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April 21, 1981 |
Bizarre Brainwashing Cult Cons Top Stars Into Backing Its Drug Program |
Some of Hollywood's biggest stars have been duped into endorsing a controversial drug rehabilitation program called Narconon, which is actually operated by Scientology. More than 170 celebrities' names have been used as "Friends of Narconon." Although a few are Scientologists - such as Cathy Lee Crosby, Priscilla Presley and Karen Black - others were shocked to learn Narconon was an offshoot of the weird cult. |
celebrities, Celebrities, Narconon, Press |
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November 27, 1980 |
Scientology, IRS Square Off in Court |
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. |
IRS, Press |
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November 27, 1980 |
2 Scientology Aides Guilty Of Burglary |
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. |
crimes, Jane Kember, Press |
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October 28, 1980 |
Scientology Complains of Hardship |
The $100,000 attachment placed on a bank account of the Church of Scientology by a Brookline doctor is "causing hardship," the church complained yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court. Dr. Lawrence Stifler, who has offices in Boston, made the attachment in connection with his $1 million suit against the church and one of its members for injuries that allegedly resulted from being beaten by one of the church's fund raisers. |
Boston, lawsuits, Press |
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October 16, 1980 |
Student Council To Campaign Against 'Predatory' Cult Tactics |
An anti-cult campaign has been launched by the Students Administrative Council at the University of Toronto in an effort to stem what it calls growing recruitment by cultists on campus. The student council has put its stamp on a $300 pamphlet, which is highly critical of cults, and is distributing it to U of T students. The pamphlet warns students who are feeling totally overwhelmed by a decision, who feel the world is falling apart around them or who are alone and lonely that they are particularly vulnerable to cult influences. |
Press, Scientology and Society, Toronto |
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