CLEARWATER—Possibly the highest-ranking, most influential Scientologist to defect from the Clearwater-based, international sect has sued Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for more than $225 million. Citing physical abuse, the intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and the violation of his civil rights, Howard D. "Homer" Schomer, the 49-year-old former treasury secretary of the sect's Author Services Inc. branch, is demanding a jury trial and damages of $226,528,200. Schomer's claims, if proved true, offer a dark view of the ...

"Corrupt, sinister and dangerous" were the words used to describe the Church of Scientology in a judgment given by Mr Justice Latey this summer. He also referred to it as "immoral and socially obnoxious". But who controls the Church now? A major Sunday Times Magazine investigation into the activities of the cult in America and Britain has uncovered a disturbing and extraordinary story — the takeover of the organisation by a small band of youthful fanatics following the disappearance of the ...

The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office has dropped a charge of false imprisonment pressed in August against a security guard for the Church of Scientology, officials said. Roy Rodriguez was arrested Aug. 23 after he and two other sect guards chased 21-year-old John Williams of Clearwater on foot through downtown Clearwater, police said. The guard accused the man of throwing a rock through the window of the sect communications office at 500 Cleveland St., police said. Four sect guards were in the ...

The young man — by all appearances a teen-ager — crouched on the dark, narrow stairway as he scrubbed the sixth-floor landing in the former Fort Harrison Hotel, the "Flag Land Base" headquarters of the Church of Scientology. "Are you in RPF?" queried a reporter. "Sir?" he asked quietly, peering up from his work. "Are you in RPF?" "Yes sir, I am." RPF is the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which, depending on who is speaking, is either a businessman's approach to ...

It's ironic that Scientology spokesman Richard Haworth has accused Clearwater Sun Staff Writer George-Wayne Shelor of "bizarre behavior." Haworth has announced he will no longer respond to questions from the reporter. He accused Shelor of a long list of offenses, including an attempt to break into the sect's headquarters on S. Fort Harrison Avenue. And, Haworth added, Shelor was abetted in the attempted break-in by Clearwater Sun Managing Editor Sam Fenton. Flabbergasted by the charge, Fenton said he and Shelor were ...

A Church of Scientology security guard, charged with false imprisonment late Thursday after police said he tackled and handcuffed a 21-year-old Clearwater man, was released on $5,000 bond Friday. Roy Rosa Rodriguez, 30, who listed his address as the sect's headquarters at 210 S. Fort Harrison Ave., was arrested after he tried unsuccessfully to spray a suspected vandal with "Paralyzer" mace and subsequently tackled him and handcuffed the man's hands behind his back, police said. A Church of Scientology official refused ...

A man who told police he was detained at the Church of Scientology headquarters in Clearwater and later recanted that account will not be charged with filing a false police report. The Pinellas-Pasco state attorney's office declined to charge Daniel Cotrino, 30, of Brooklyn, N.Y., after reviewing a taped statement Cotrino made to police. Clearwater police had taken Cotrino to police headquarters for questioning March 5 after a police sergeant reported that he saw him being held by two Scientologists outside ...

The Church of Scientology faces mounting legal pressure in courts worldwide to explain its actions, policies, beliefs and inner workings. In the United States, Canada and Europe, Scientology is under ever-increasing scrutiny by law enforcement agencies, courts and even governments. And a ruling handed down last week by it Los Angeles Superior Court judge may complicate the legal proceedings involving the Clearwater-based sect. Judge Paul G. Breckenridge stated in an intended ruling Thursday that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is the ...

A former Church of Scientology archivist described for a Los Angeles judge on Friday his "paranoid" leave-taking from the organization after his realization that church founder L. Ron Hubbard was not the heroic scientist he claimed to be. The church is suing to recover thousands of pages of Hubbard's personal papers that it claims Gerald Armstrong took illegally to use in lawsuits against the group. Armstrong testified for the second day in his own defense in the non-jury trial before Superior ...

On Wednesday, Clearwater police released the transcript of a tape-recorded statement made on March 5 by a Scientologist, Daniel Cotrino, who claimed he was being held against his will by fellow members of the sect. The transcript reveals that on March 5 Cotrino was angry and scared. He told police that he had paid $7,000 for certain Scientology courses, which upon his arrival in Clearwater the sect refused to give him. What's more, according to Cotrino's taped words, the Scientologists poured ...

Clearwater police Monday released a transcript of a tape-recorded statement made last month by Daniel Cotrino, a New York Scientologist who be had been held against his will at the sect's 210 S. Fort Harrison Ave. headquarters. The transcript indicates the 30-year-old Cotrino, a Scientologist for 11 years, was frightened and angry at the time he made the statement. It is also clear that Cotrino did make the statements he later accused police of fabricating. The transcript of the tape was ...

CLEARWATER — Calling a police account a lie, Scientologist Daniel Cotrino said at no time did any church members try to physically detain him at the sect's headquarters last week. Cotrino, 30, of Brooklyn, N.Y., told a completely different story from the account police released last week and accused three officers of lying in their report. "We have his statements on tape," said detective Ken Fairchild. "The report was written from those statements." ASKED why he believed police would lie about ...

For the second time since January, a Scientologist trying to leave the sect's international headquarters at the former Fort Harrison Hotel was physically detained until police intervened, according to police. Daniel Codrino, who traveled from New York to Clearwater to take $7,000 in Scientology courses, was told he would have to pay an additional $1,165 for another course, according to a Clearwater police report. Codrino refused to pay and when he tried to leave, two sect members tried to push him ...

A 69-year-old Texas man trying to leave the Church of Scientology in a taxicab was kept from doing so by sect members until Clearwater police intervened, according to police records. Sect member William B. Wilson of Midland, Texas, was trying to leave the sect's headquarters at 210 S. Fort Harrison Ave., at 4 p.m. Monday when a car and a pickup truck blocked the cab's path, reports state. Police said the driver of one of the cars — Henry C. Billings, ...

Clearwater city commissioners received a warning and some advice Saturday as witnesses gave final testimony against the Church of Scientology during public hearings on the sect's activities. Scientologists' four-day time slot to present their side in the controversy begins Monday. Church spokesman Hugh Wilhere said Saturday night it has not been decided whether the sect will take advantage of its rebuttal time. The warning came near the end of the hearings as consultant Michael Flynn, the Boston attorney hired by the ...

In a story of international intrigue, a former senior executive of the Church of Scientology testified Saturday about a worldwide sect network involving infiltrations, conspiracies and smuggling. Scott Mayer, 38, told Clearwater city commissioners "I have personal experiences of all of these," in the forth day of the city's Scientology hearings, where legal consultant Michael Flynn paraded seven of his most damaging witnesses. Commissioners heard also from a former Guardian Office worker who said she used the sect's "confessional files" during ...

The faithful inner core serve as thieves, decoys and spies. The shocking story behind one of the most dangerous “religious cults” operating today IN THE late 1940s, pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard declared, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Hubbard did start his own religion, calling it the “Church of Scientology,” and it has grown into an enterprise today grossing ...

The Church of Scientology first moved into Riverside County when it opened a mission in Riverside in 1972. Later, it was revealed that the Church had a secret operation at La Quinta, near Indio. Now, from court records, it has been learned the church has established its worldwide command center at Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet. Here is the second of a two parts on the Gilman operation. ''[I do not have the first part of this special Gilman coverage. Of ...