For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave. Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor. One said he was locked in a room and guarded around the clock. Some who did leave said the church spied on them for years. Others said that, as a condition for leaving, the church cowed them into signing ...

CLEARWATER — Citing "social problems" in the public schools, the Church of Scientology has decided to open its own parochial school for children of its staff members. Church spokesman Milt Wolfe said Monday the school will open by this fall in the former Quality Inn in the 2000 block of U.S. 19S, just north of Tri-City Plaza at U.S. 19 and E Bay Drive. The church bought the former motel in 1979 and uses it for staff quarters. The school will ...

CLEARWATER — The Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce and Scientology critic Alex Cornell have taken separate shots at the Church of Scientology — with differing results. On Tuesday, the Tarpon Chamber board pared a resolution asking the church to kindly stay out of its city. On Wednesday, Cornell continued to urge motorists passing the church-owned Fort Harrison Hotel, 201 S Fort Harrison Ave., to show their displeasure with Scientology by honking their horns. The Chamber resolution was greeted with airy indifference ...

CLEARWATER — Tears of joy mingled with beads of sweat under a warm noontime gun Thursday when a young Scientologist embraced his father and mother on the steps of Clearwater City Hall. Crowded around them were officials of the Church of Scientology, church critics, news people and residents. No one interfered as the emotional seconds passed, and tears streamed quietly down the relieved faces of the family members. For Leon and Kathleen Haigler, a retired couple from Fairfax. Va., the embrace ...

CLEARWATER — Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney James T. Russell said Tuesday that members of the Church of Scientology have attempted to infiltrate his office at least five times since 1976. The alleged infiltration attempts failed because routine background checks on the job applicants revealed that hey were members of the Church of Scientology, Russell said. Asked if it was legal to turn down job applicants solely because they are Scientologists, Russell said, "I don't know, but I'd like to fight a lawsuit ...

CLEARWATER — Church of Scientology spokesman Milt Wolfe went to jail Thursday for refusing to cooperate in an investigation involving alleged racketeering, infiltration and harassment by church members. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge John S. Andrew, found Wolfe in contempt of court and sentenced him to 45 days for repeatedly refusing to answer a question put to him by investigators from State Attorney James T. Russell's office. ANDREWS ALSO refused to set bail for Wolfe, pending his appeal of the contempt citation, a ...

CLEARWATER — Facing possible contempt charges, Church of Scientology spokesman Milton Wolfe and a colleague submitted Friday to questioning by Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney James T. Russell's office. Wolfe and Ted Froyland, an officer of the church's Ministry of Legal Affairs, were jailed briefly Thursday afternoon for refusing to respond to subpoenas issued by Circuit Judge David Patterson. Russell said he wanted to question the two about a complaint they lodged against Clearwater City Commissioner Richard Tenney and in connection with a ...

CLEARWATER — Church of Scientology spokesman Milt Wolfe and another church official were jailed Thursday for failing to respond to subpoenas by Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney James T. Russel. Wolfe and Ted Froyland, an official of the church's Ministry of Legal Affairs, were taken into custody by detectives from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office at 3 p.m., according to sheriff's spokesman Merrill Stebbins. After spending less than two hours in custody, the two Scientologists were released on their own recognisance by Circuit ...

''On Dec. 13, former Scientologist LaVenda Van Schaick filed a $200-million class-action lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in Federal Court in Boston, contending that the church falsely promises to improve the lives of its members. Since then, 10 other ex-Scientologists have filed affidavits in support of the suit, giving a glimpse of life within Scientology. The church has files motion to dismiss that case. It also sued Mrs. Van Schaick and others, contending that she is "motivated by malice." Last ...

WASHINGTON — Nine Church of Scientology leaders were convicted Friday on charges stemming from a four-year church program to burglarize, bug and infiltrate various federal agencies with which Scientology has battled for two decades. On two occasions during the four-hour court proceeding, a fragile plea-bargaining agreement between the defendants and federal prosecutors almost collapsed. But finally all the legal obstacles presented by defense attorneys were overcome and U.S. Dist. Judge Charles R. Richey pronounced all nine defendants guilty of one count ...

WASHINGTON — A plan by the Church of Scientology to infiltrate federal agencies with "covert agents" and steal thousands of government documents over a period of nearly four years was outlined Thursday in an unusual document filed in federal court by prosecution and the defense. The 284-page "stipulation of evidence" against nine Scientology leaders was filed with U.S. Dist Judge Charles R. Richey, who is expected to render a verdict today. The defendants have said they expect to be found guilty ...

WASHINGTON — Nine leaders of the Church of Scientology, in a rare legal maneuver, have agreed to be found guilty by a federal judge on reduced charges of conspiracy and theft as an outgrowth of their long battle with the federal government over allegedly stolen U.S. documents. Under a procedure called a "stipulated record," the defendants agreed to be found guilty after the government presented its case in a written court record without challenge or a trial, which could have lasted ...

"If anyone is getting industrious trying to enturbulate (sic) or stop Scientology or its activities, I can make Captain Bligh look like a Sunday-school teacher. There is probably no limit on what I would do to safeguard Man's only road to freedom against persons who . . . seek to stop Scientology or hurt Scientologists." — L. Ron Hubbard, Aug. 15, 1967 It was not the first time that private investigator Eual R. Harrow had interviewed jurors following a verdict, but ...

Church of Scientology offices in Hollywood and Washington, D.C., were raided Friday by scores of FBI agents searching for more than 150 documents stolen from the U.S. Courthouse in Washington in a series of burglaries last year. The dawn raids at three locations in the two cities netted an unknown quantity of the allegedly stolen documents, informed sources said. Using power saws, crowbars and boltcutters to knock down doors and cut open cabinets, FBI agents executed search warrants based primarily on ...

[...] Another session was led by Bob Dobson-Smith, a hip-executive type who had given up architecture to sell Scientology. ("Okay?" ) Only seven persons showed up for his talk, and two of them left as soon as he began plotting charts all over the blackboard. (One of those who didn't attend had given his reason beforehand: "I dropped out of Scientology - 2000,000 years ago.") Dobson-Smith didn't really need anybody else anyway: there are already ten thousand Scientologists in Toronto, he ...