The Church of Scientology of Toronto will petition the Supreme Court of Ontario Monday asking that a search warrant executed last year be quashed, although the Ontario Provincial Police have already used it to raid the sect's headquarters and seize 14 million documents. Investigators armed with the warrant raided the sect's Toronto headquarters in March 1983 and seized 904 boxes of papers and documents believed to substantiate suspected sect fraud, conspiracy, breaking and entering and theft, according to the warrant ...

Editor: There was an editorial in the Saturday, Nov. 17 edition of the Sun entitled, "The right to be heard," which stated among other things that the Sun doesn't acknowledge the First Amendment rights of Scientology to be recognized as a religion even though several government bodies including the IRS have so ruled. The editorial then proceeded to assert that the Sun takes the Constitution very seriously. This presents a discrepancy which I don't think can be easily disregarded. Scientology is ...

It was just before midnight, May 28, 1984, when the orders were issued. Confidentially. "Mission information: ... recent reports from contacts made with Homer he is likely to go over to the enemy camp. He is thinking of turning against us completely. "Mission purpose: To prevent Homer from going over to the enemy camp and get him moving back onto The Bridge. "Vital Targets: ... Stay in close comm (communication) with MSN OPS (mission operations). Do not implement any decisions without ...

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 ...

CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology complied Tuesday with a court order directing the sect to allow Pinellas County Property Appraiser Ron Schultz to examine records relating to the controversial organization's tax status. Schultz, accompanied by a county accountant and an attorney, began examining the sect's financial records Tuesday morning on the top floor of the former Fort Harrison Hotel, which is the organization's world headquarters. "In effect, we are doing a financial audit," of the Church of Scientology's Flag Service ...

He may be the most highly visible "invisible" man on earth — Mr. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. Although not seen publicly since 1980, the reclusive founder of the controversial Clearwater-based Church of Scientology is constantly the subject of newspaper stories, court testimony and television [?] around the world. L. Ron Hubbard, a flamboyant millionaire philosopher, adventurer and explorer, mystic and messiah, has become the Howard Hughes of our time. For no one knows — at least no one is saying — where ...

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 ...

Church of Scientology public affairs director Richard Haworth has accused Clearwater Sun Managing Editor Samuel E. Fenton and staff writer George-Wayne Shelor of attempting to break into the church's Clearwater headquarters earlier this month, after attending a sect press conference. As a result of the alleged break-in attempt and other "bizarre actions" on Shelor's part, Haworth said the reporter is banned from church property and is allowed to communicate with him only in writing. Shelor has written a series of stories ...

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 ...

The Church of Scientology has begun reimbursement of money to a number of current and former members who claimed refunds were owed them for services not delivered when they took courses in Clearwater, a California attorney said Thursday. California attorney David Jordan, himself a former Scientologist, said about $160,000 has been repaid 14 of his clients in recent months, and another 19 persons with claims totaling about $240,000 should be paid within 30 days. Jordan also represents another 237 current and ...

The United States Treasury Department's Criminal Investigations Division has mounted an in-depth investigation into the activities of the Clearwater-based Church of Scientology, the Clearwater Sun has learned. In the past several weeks, Treasury agents have traveled across the United States interviewing a number of former Scientologists—including some who held positions of immense power and influence in the worldwide sect prior to their defection, sources said. Spokesmen for the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service in Tampa and Los Angeles, citing Department ...

A London High Court judge characterized the Clearwater-based Church of Scientology as "corrupt, immoral, sinister (and) dangerous" in delivering a damning indictment of the sect during a civil trial. Mr. Justice Sir John Latey's July 23 comments concluded a six-month court battle over custody of two children whose father is a Scientologist but whose mother has left the sect. In awarding care and control of the children to their mother, the British judge minced no words in his condemnation of Scientology, ...

The Church of Scientology brought a transcontinental traveling press conference to the steps of Clearwater City Hall Wednesday to publicly denounce outspoken Scientology critic Michael Flynn. Sect officials claim Flynn, a Boston attorney and longtime adversary of Scientology, orchestrated an elaborate but abortive scheme two years ago to forge a $2 million check drawn on a bank account of sect founder L. Ron Hubbard. The accusations made by the Clearwater-based sect are based on the declaration of a man a Scientology ...

Several former high-ranking Church of Scientology officials have provided state, federal and municipal law enforcement investigators with detailed information regarding the Clearwater-based sect's alleged criminal activities in the Tampa Bay area, the Clearwater Sun has learned. Although the same testimony provided to investigators in Clearwater has furthered large-scale criminal investigations in Canada and resulted in court rulings against the sect in California, no similar action has been implemented in the Clearwater area, a seven-month Sun inquiry has determined. And Gerald Armstrong, ...

Pinellas County plans to offer for sale next week $257,267.71 in tax sales certificates on 10 parcels of Scientology-owned property to cover unpaid real estate and tangible personal property taxes, Tax-Collector O. Sanford Jasper said Thursday. The certificates, which concern 10 parcels of sect property—including the former Fort Harrison Hotel—will be offered for sale July 10, barring a court-ordered injunction to stop the sale of some of the certificates, Jasper said. Jasper noted that the sect has been granted a hearing ...

The Church of Scientology has lost thousands of adherents in recent years due to an internal revolt by members who embrace the teachings of founder L. Ron Hubbard but question many policies of the mother organization. Disillusioned Scientologists—still practicing the tenets of Dianetics and Scientology—have splintered from the Church of Scientology to form their own organizations such as the Clear Center, the Council for Spiritual Intregrity, Advanced Abilities Center and the Revitalization Center. Such assemblages offer Scientology and Dianetics-related courses to ...