Scientology Church

A federal judge in Arlington, Va., on Friday dismissed a $20-million libel lawsuit that the Church of Scientology had filed against an executive with Eli Lilly & Co., the maker of Prozac. The lawsuit accused Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., a vice president of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceuticals company, of maligning the church in comments published in USA Today. The newspaper was not named as a defendant.

Church of Scientology critics are accusing Riverside County of kowtowing to the religion and infringing on free speech by passing an ordinance that limits protest outside the church's sprawling complex near Hemet. For the last year, a handful of demonstrators who believe Scientology is an abusive cult have picketed Golden Era Productions, the church's main center for the production and dissemination of videos and tapes. The campus is home to 500 church employees.

The Church of Scientology paid the Internal Revenue Service $12.5 million in a 1993 settlement that established its tax-exempt status, a church official said. Mark Rathbun, director of the church's Religious Technology Center, confirmed some previously undisclosed details of the 1993 settlement reported in The Wall Street Journal.

Scientology, the Los Angeles-based religion treated with suspicion and hostility by several Western European governments, is now under siege in France, where an official report has called for disbanding church operations here. A blue-ribbon government panel studying what French officials define as "sects" has concluded that the faith, founded by the late U.S. science fiction writer L.

Church of Scientology critics are accusing Riverside County of kowtowing to the religion and infringing on free speech by passing an ordinance that limits protest outside the church's sprawling complex near Hemet. For the last year, a handful of demonstrators who believe Scientology is an abusive cult have picketed Golden Era Productions, the church's main center for the production and dissemination of videos and tapes. The campus is home to 500 church employees.

The Church of Scientology is seeking permission from Los Angeles County to open a boarding school for 250 students on the site of a former juvenile detention camp near Green Valley. The proposal has worried some of the 1,200 residents in the rural community, who voiced concerns about it at a public meeting Monday night. About 40 people attended the meeting. "They're a cult," Kimberly Flores, a 19-year-old Green Valley housewife, said before the meeting.

The attorney who won a $30-million judgment against the Church of Scientology sued church members Wednesday, claiming that they concocted a scheme to assault him in the courthouse cafeteria and blame the confrontation on him. In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, attorney Charles B. O'Reilly alleges that church leaders coaxed a young woman into "assaulting and battering" him in order to file a false criminal complaint against him.

A French appeals court reduced the sentence Monday for a Church of Scientology leader convicted of involuntary homicide in the suicide of a member. The case centered on the March 1988 suicide of Patrice Vic, 31, who jumped out a window. Prosecutors said Vic was under pressure from the church to take a $5,000 "purification treatment," including daily saunas and a diet low in sugar and high in vitamins.

L. Ron Hubbard, the reclusive science fiction writer who founded the controversial Church of Scientology, has died of a stroke, church officials announced Monday night. Hubbard, according to Scientology lawyer Earle Cooley, died in his sleep last Friday on a ranch outside San Luis Obispo, where only a handful of his most trusted aides knew he was living. He was 74. Cooley told a crowd of reporters who had been summoned to Scientology's Los Angeles headquarters that Hubbard was cremated.

Scientology, the Los Angeles-based religion treated with suspicion and hostility by several Western European governments, is now under siege in France, where an official report has called for disbanding church operations here. A blue-ribbon government panel studying what French officials define as "sects" has concluded that the faith, founded by the late U.S. science fiction writer L.

The Church of Scientology paid the Internal Revenue Service $12.5 million in a 1993 settlement that established its tax-exempt status, a church official said. Mark Rathbun, director of the church's Religious Technology Center, confirmed some previously undisclosed details of the 1993 settlement reported in The Wall Street Journal.

A French appeals court reduced the sentence Monday for a Church of Scientology leader convicted of involuntary homicide in the suicide of a member. The case centered on the March 1988 suicide of Patrice Vic, 31, who jumped out a window. Prosecutors said Vic was under pressure from the church to take a $5,000 "purification treatment," including daily saunas and a diet low in sugar and high in vitamins.

For the past few days, Belinda Mason Wiatt's heart has been in Oklahoma City. And on Friday, the Tustin resident and about 10 other members of her church boarded a plane to Oklahoma, where they planned to help victims deal with the shock of the explosion. "We know that they're upset and we want to be there for them," she said. "Over and beyond that, we will wait to see what's needed of us."

A federal judge in Arlington, Va., on Friday dismissed a $20-million libel lawsuit that the Church of Scientology had filed against an executive with Eli Lilly & Co., the maker of Prozac. The lawsuit accused Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., a vice president of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceuticals company, of maligning the church in comments published in USA Today. The newspaper was not named as a defendant.

The Church of Scientology is seeking permission from Los Angeles County to open a boarding school for 250 students on the site of a former juvenile detention camp near Green Valley. The proposal has worried some of the 1,200 residents in the rural community, who voiced concerns about it at a public meeting Monday night. About 40 people attended the meeting. "They're a cult," Kimberly Flores, a 19-year-old Green Valley housewife, said before the meeting.

The attorney who won a $30-million judgment against the Church of Scientology sued church members Wednesday, claiming that they concocted a scheme to assault him in the courthouse cafeteria and blame the confrontation on him. In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, attorney Charles B. O'Reilly alleges that church leaders coaxed a young woman into "assaulting and battering" him in order to file a false criminal complaint against him.

For the past few days, Belinda Mason Wiatt's heart has been in Oklahoma City. And on Friday, the Tustin resident and about 10 other members of her church boarded a plane to Oklahoma, where they planned to help victims deal with the shock of the explosion. "We know that they're upset and we want to be there for them," she said. "Over and beyond that, we will wait to see what's needed of us."

L. Ron Hubbard, the reclusive science fiction writer who founded the controversial Church of Scientology, has died of a stroke, church officials announced Monday night. Hubbard, according to Scientology lawyer Earle Cooley, died in his sleep last Friday on a ranch outside San Luis Obispo, where only a handful of his most trusted aides knew he was living. He was 74. Cooley told a crowd of reporters who had been summoned to Scientology's Los Angeles headquarters that Hubbard was cremated.