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Sep 9, 1999
Scientology's revenge — New Times Los Angeles
Mar 23, 1999
Anti-Cult Group Must Pay Award — Seattle Times
Type: Press
Author(s):
Janet Burkitt Source:
Seattle Times Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling upholding a more than $1 million award against a national anti-cult group would seem a straightforward victory for a onetime local man. Jason Scott was 18 in 1991 when he was taken from his mother's Bellevue home to an isolated beach house on the Washington coast for five days of religious "deprogramming." He sued the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), and the Supreme Court has now agreed that it must pay up. But in the case of Cult ...
Mar 22, 1999
Supreme court rules against anti-cult network — Seattle Times
Type: Press
Source:
Seattle Times WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Supreme Court today left intact a $1.08 million award against the Cult Awareness Network over the 1991 abduction and attempted deprogramming of a young Kirkland man. The justices, without comment, rejected an appeal that challenged the award as illegal and unconstitutional. Lawyers for the now-defunct, Chicago-based network said that holding the nonprofit group legally accountable for the act of one unpaid volunteer was "unprecedented and unsupportable." The appeal said the award threatens other advocacy groups "across ...
Jan 1, 1999
"When Scholars Know Sin" forum debate / Clarifying contentious issues / A rejoinder to Melton, Shupe, and Lewis / Stephen A. Kent and Theresa Krebs — Skeptic magazineMore: link
Jan 1, 1999
"When Scholars Know Sin" forum debate / Kent and Krebs' skepticism crosses the line / Anson Shupe responds — Skeptic magazineMore: link
Sep 1, 1998
When Scholars Know Sin — Skeptic magazineMore: skeptic.com
Aug 28, 1998
Court oks anti-cult jury award — Seattle Times
Type: Press
Author(s):
Bob Egelko Source:
Seattle Times SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has reaffirmed $1.09 million in damages against an anti-cult organization for its role in trying to "deprogram" a Washington state teenager, despite a warning from seven judges that free speech was under attack. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied reconsideration Wednesday of a panel's 2-1 decision in April upholding damages against the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). Without announcing the exact vote, the court said a request for a rehearing had failed to ...
Apr 10, 1998
Court Upholds Damages In Kirkland Teen's Anti-Cult Case — Seattle Times
Type: Press
Author(s):
Bob Egelko Source:
Seattle Times SAN FRANCISCO - A $1.09 million damage award against an anti-cult organization for its role in trying to "deprogram" a Washington teenager at his mother's request was upheld Wednesday by a federal appeals court. There was evidence to support a jury's finding that a volunteer was acting on behalf of the Cult Awareness Network when she referred the mother, Kathy Tonkin of Kirkland, to deprogrammer Rick Ross, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its 2-1 ruling. Tonkin had ...
Dec 28, 1997
60 Minutes: The Cult Awareness Network — CBS News
Type: TV
Source:
CBS News Transcript: Descriptions of video in italics. VO=Voiceover of Lesley Stahl. LESLEY STAHL (in studio): There was a time if you were worried about your son or daughter being in a cult, you could get help from a small, non-profit organization called the Cult Awareness Network, or CAN, for 20 years the nation’s best-known resource for information and advice about groups it considered dangerous. Among them was Scientology, a church not known for turning the other cheek. But church officials say Scientology ...
Dec 23, 1997
Scientology sponsored suit against opponent — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)More: pqasb.pqarchiver.com , groups.google.com
Jun 1, 1997
Did Scientology strike back? — The American Lawyer
Type: Press
Author(s):
Susan Hansen Source:
The American Lawyer When the end finally came for the old Cult Awareness Network, it happened fast. Cynthia Kisser, CAN's executive director, struggled to stay calm as she sat in federal bankruptcy court in Chicago late last October waiting for the auction to begin. Kisser, who had spent the past nine years leading CAN's efforts to inform the public about dangerous cults, had hoped that she wouldn't have to pay much for her group's assets that day. Nor did she want much, she claims ...
Mar 25, 1997
The Scientology problem — Wall Street JournalMore: holysmoke.org , link
Type: Press
Source:
Wall Street Journal As no doubt befits a society founded by Pilgrims, America has a long tradition of controversial movements maturing to success, whether Mormons or Christian Scientists or Jehovah's Witnesses. Today, the latest cult forcing itself to our attention is the Church of Scientology. Scientology was founded in the early 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer. He fashioned a creation myth around Xenu, who froze and transported thetan souls to volcanoes in Teegeeack, now earth. The creed holds that humans ...
Mar 6, 1997
Nightmare on the Net — Denver Westword News
Type: Press
Author(s):
Alan Prendergast Source:
Denver Westword News A web of intrigue surrounds the high-stakes legal brawl between FACTnet and the Church of Scientology. Strange things happen around Lawrence Wollersheim. His businesses collapse. His Boulder apartment gets raided by federal marshals, his computers seized. When college students offer to help him rebuild his computer bulletin-board system, they receive threatening phone calls–anonymous voices urging them to stay away from Larry. A California judge who presided over a lawsuit in which Wollersheim was the plaintiff told reporters he'd encountered a lot ...
Jan 17, 1997
Scientologist purchases rights to identity of bankrupted anti-cult organization — Psychiatric NewsMore: link
Dec 23, 1996
Bankrupt anti-cult group gets reprieve — Los Angeles Times (California)More: link
Dec 23, 1996
New Twist In Anti-Cult Saga: Foe Is Now Ally -- Bellevue Man Who Put Group Into Bankruptcy Fires Scientology Lawyer — Seattle Times
Dec 19, 1996
What's $2.995 Million Between Former Enemies? — Phoenix New Times
Type: Press
Author(s):
Tony Ortega Source:
Phoenix New Times In 1995, a jury awarded Jason Scott $5 million, ruling that his civil rights had been violated during an involuntary "deprogramming" by Rick Ross, a Phoenix resident and well-known cult expert. That judgment eventually forced Ross into bankruptcy court, put an anticult group out of business and made national news.
Last week, however, the case made a sudden and surprising about-face.
Scott and Ross reached a settlement that requires the deprogrammer to pay Scott not $3 million–his share of the judgment–but ...
Dec 1, 1996
Scientologist Buys Bankrupt Cult-Fighting Organization — Seattle Times
Type: Press
Author(s):
Laurie Goodstein Source:
Seattle Times BARRINGTON, Ill. - 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. From its offices in a Chicago suburb, the network (known as CAN) answered more than 350 telephone inquiries a week, counseled relatives at conferences attended by thousands and gave news interviews to everyone from small-town daily newspapers to "Nightline." As CAN's influence rose, so did ...
Jun 29, 1996
Cult fighters' future in doubt — Los Angeles Times (California)More: scientology-lies.com , link
Type: Press
Source:
Los Angeles Times (California) Lawsuits: Group with controversial ties to deprogrammers files for bankruptcy and may be forced to shut down in wake of $1-million judgment. Plagued by numerous lawsuits from religious groups and fighting a $1.1-million judgment against it, the Cult Awareness Network has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. "How we will operate or if we will continue to operate in the short term, I don't know," said Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the 12-year-old organization, known for ...
Nov 30, 1995
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlatans — Phoenix New Times
Type: Press
Author(s):
Tony Ortega Source:
Phoenix New Times Clients of deprogrammer Rick Ross call him a savior. Perhaps that's why people he's branded cult leaders want to crucify him. Rick Ross is describing how Arizona's cults use mind control to exploit their members. He warns about 70 people gathered at Arizona State University's Memorial Union that they are prime targets for groups that tend to prey on university students. The Moonies have a house on North Central. Scientology has a church in Mesa. There's Scottsdale's CBJ, whose members believe ...
Sep 30, 1995
Man wins $5 million in deprogramming suit // Mother had tried to wrest son away from Bellevue church — Seattle Times
Type: Press
Author(s):
Jennifer Bjorhus Source:
Seattle Times A 23-year-old Seattle-area man was awarded nearly $5 million yesterday for civil-rights violations that occurred when religious "deprogrammers" took him from his home and tried to persuade him to leave the United Pentecostal Church. Federal-court jurors delivered their verdict yesterday after deliberating eight hours, ending a trial that began when Jason Scott sued deprogrammer Rick Ross, Ross' associates and Cult Awareness Network (CAN), a Chicago-based group that monitors cults. Scott's mother, Kathy Tonkin, contacted CAN in 1991 when she became worried ...
Sep 30, 1995
Sect member awarded $5 million in kidnap case — Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Type: Press
Author(s):
Steven Goldsmith Source:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Section: News, Page: A1
A federal jury yesterday awarded nearly $5 million to a young Bellevue man who had been kidnapped at his mother's behest to get him to leave his church.
The verdict was seen as a stunning blow to cult critics and ``deprogrammers" who seek to go up against unconventional but often well-funded religious groups.
Jason Scott, now 23, smiled broadly after the six-member U.S. District Court jury gave him a near-total victory in his civil rights lawsuit against ...
Sep 22, 1995
Sect member testifies in 'cult' lawsuit — Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Type: Press
Author(s):
Steven Goldsmith Source:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer In a lawsuit to stop deprogrammers from trampling on religious sect members' rights, a Bellevue man yesterday told a federal jury that four men "ambushed" him to get him to quit his fundamentalist church. Jason Scott is suing the Cult Awareness Network and the four deprogrammers hired by Scott's mother for unspecified damages. The mother was trying to get Scott — then 18 — to leave the New Life Tabernacle Church, a member of the United Pentecostal Churches. The attempt failed, ...
Sep 21, 1995
'Deprogrammer' Taken To Court -- Bellevue Man Claims Kidnap, Coercion — Seattle Times
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