Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 108
of its ―Life Improvement Center‖ in the neighborhood. And some local business owners
complain that Scientologists have followed customers into their shops.
―I don‘t care if it‘s Church of Scientologists [sic] or census takers,‖ said Ybor civic leader
Vince Pardo. ―If you have too many people approaching people for questionnaires or money
or religious conversion it becomes harassment.‖
Scientology says that it wants to be sensitive to neighborhood concerns without limiting its
own rights. (Corey Shouten, St. Petersburg Times, Internet, 6/7/03)
Lawyer Pays only $4,500 of $2 Million Claim
A Pinellas County (FL) jury has ordered attorney Ken Dandar to pay $4,500 to Scientology,
which sued him for more than $2 million saying he turned a ―garden variety‖ wrongful death
suit against them into ―a frontal attack on an entire religion.‖ The amount Scientology
wanted was an estimate of what Dandar‘s clients paid to pursue the wrongful death suit.
Dandar brought the lawsuit on behalf of family and friends of Lisa McPherson, a
Scientologist who died in 1995 after 17 days of care at Scientology offices in Clearwater.
Scientology said that Dandar‘s attempt to add as defendants top Scientology officials led to
bad publicity that devastated Scientology and violated an agreement not to add defendants.
Dandar said the Scientology suit was an attempt to ruin him and suppress the wrongful
death suit. A trial date for the latter case is likely to be announced next month. (Robert
Farley, St. Petersburg Times, 8/20/03 AP, Internet, 8/21/03)
Girl Denied Right to Attend Course
A French judge in Nantes, following an appeal from the child‘s aunt and grandmother, has
banned 14-year-old Marion Chauchreau from going to Denmark to enroll at a Scientology
school in Copenhagen. The girl‘s mother is a longtime Scientologist, her brother teaches at
a Scientology school, and she herself grew up in Scientology.
Social service agencies, in light of the court order, are investigating Marion‘s social,
psychological, and psychiatric situation as a prelude to judging the potential for harm that
entering the Copenhagen school might entail. In 2001, France passed a law envisioning the
banning of groups whose leaders are convicted of crimes like the manipulation of minors.
(Copenhagen Post, Internet, 8/8/03)
Safe Harbor Called Scientology Front
Safe Harbor, a Scientology organization recently founded in Hamburg and aiming to
recruit doctors, nutritional scientists and environmental physicians, is a Scientology front ―to
infiltrate new social groups [according to the author of this report] and to spread the crazy
ideas of Ron Hubbard, the sect‘s founder.‖ Says Rüdiger Hintze, of the Working Group on
Scientology of the state‘s Department for Domestic Affairs: ―We can see here what cunning
methods Scientology now uses to tie people to the organization and to spread Hubbard‘s
ideology.‖
Melanie Hoff, who recently returned from London, where she studied nutritional therapy for
psychiatric problems — Scientology adamantly opposes mainline psychiatry and drug
therapy — tells how she was courted by Safe Harbor and then presented a professional
paper on the subject to a Safe Harbor meeting. But, ―I soon thought the people and what
they were saying were pretty strange, and so I did some research on the Internet.‖ She
realized that she had unwittingly become a pawn of the Scientologists. (Olaf Wunder,
Hamburger Morgenpost, Internet, 8/2/03)
of its ―Life Improvement Center‖ in the neighborhood. And some local business owners
complain that Scientologists have followed customers into their shops.
―I don‘t care if it‘s Church of Scientologists [sic] or census takers,‖ said Ybor civic leader
Vince Pardo. ―If you have too many people approaching people for questionnaires or money
or religious conversion it becomes harassment.‖
Scientology says that it wants to be sensitive to neighborhood concerns without limiting its
own rights. (Corey Shouten, St. Petersburg Times, Internet, 6/7/03)
Lawyer Pays only $4,500 of $2 Million Claim
A Pinellas County (FL) jury has ordered attorney Ken Dandar to pay $4,500 to Scientology,
which sued him for more than $2 million saying he turned a ―garden variety‖ wrongful death
suit against them into ―a frontal attack on an entire religion.‖ The amount Scientology
wanted was an estimate of what Dandar‘s clients paid to pursue the wrongful death suit.
Dandar brought the lawsuit on behalf of family and friends of Lisa McPherson, a
Scientologist who died in 1995 after 17 days of care at Scientology offices in Clearwater.
Scientology said that Dandar‘s attempt to add as defendants top Scientology officials led to
bad publicity that devastated Scientology and violated an agreement not to add defendants.
Dandar said the Scientology suit was an attempt to ruin him and suppress the wrongful
death suit. A trial date for the latter case is likely to be announced next month. (Robert
Farley, St. Petersburg Times, 8/20/03 AP, Internet, 8/21/03)
Girl Denied Right to Attend Course
A French judge in Nantes, following an appeal from the child‘s aunt and grandmother, has
banned 14-year-old Marion Chauchreau from going to Denmark to enroll at a Scientology
school in Copenhagen. The girl‘s mother is a longtime Scientologist, her brother teaches at
a Scientology school, and she herself grew up in Scientology.
Social service agencies, in light of the court order, are investigating Marion‘s social,
psychological, and psychiatric situation as a prelude to judging the potential for harm that
entering the Copenhagen school might entail. In 2001, France passed a law envisioning the
banning of groups whose leaders are convicted of crimes like the manipulation of minors.
(Copenhagen Post, Internet, 8/8/03)
Safe Harbor Called Scientology Front
Safe Harbor, a Scientology organization recently founded in Hamburg and aiming to
recruit doctors, nutritional scientists and environmental physicians, is a Scientology front ―to
infiltrate new social groups [according to the author of this report] and to spread the crazy
ideas of Ron Hubbard, the sect‘s founder.‖ Says Rüdiger Hintze, of the Working Group on
Scientology of the state‘s Department for Domestic Affairs: ―We can see here what cunning
methods Scientology now uses to tie people to the organization and to spread Hubbard‘s
ideology.‖
Melanie Hoff, who recently returned from London, where she studied nutritional therapy for
psychiatric problems — Scientology adamantly opposes mainline psychiatry and drug
therapy — tells how she was courted by Safe Harbor and then presented a professional
paper on the subject to a Safe Harbor meeting. But, ―I soon thought the people and what
they were saying were pretty strange, and so I did some research on the Internet.‖ She
realized that she had unwittingly become a pawn of the Scientologists. (Olaf Wunder,
Hamburger Morgenpost, Internet, 8/2/03)
