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Reformatted for your reading pleasure-
- Wade
****
http://www.factnet.org
manage@factnet.org
May, 2002
Factnet News
Opinion/Editorial
05/09/02
Scientology cult pays $8,674,643 to ex-member to end 22-year
legal battle.
It was a crushing and humiliating legal defeat for the cult that
is infamous around the world for its outrageous litigation
tactics. Over the past 22 years Scientology spent an estimated
140 million in and out of the court in its efforts to crush a
former member, Lawrence Wollersheim, and his legal teams.
The Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California (CSC)
litigation wound its way though the LA Superior Court, the
California Appellate and Supreme courts as well as the US
Supreme court almost a half a dozen times. In the first landmark
Wollersheim decision, Scientology’s counseling practices were
found to be dangerous in the first jury decision of the LA
Superior Court. These dangerous counseling practices were also
found to be the cause of Lawrence Wollersheim being driven to
the brink of insanity.
Thereafter, Scientology filed numerous malicious and tangential
legal actions designed to inhibit Wollersheim right of due legal
process and to exhaust his financial resources so that he could
not carry on his case. The California court saw this new abuse
and fined Scientology separately $500,000 in what is known as a
SLAPP lawsuit (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.)
This SLAPP fine was the highest fine ever paid for such a suit
in California.
In another ill-conceived effort to avoid paying the judgment
Scientology stripped an estimated 500 million dollars from the
Church of Scientology of California and transferred its assets
to other corporations in the Scientology corporate umbrella. To
collect this judgment from the new Scientology corporations that
had received the money, Wollersheim and his legal team filed a
new collection lawsuit naming the Church of Scientology
International (CSI) and religious Technology Corporation (RTC)
as responsible for paying the Wollersheim judgment because of
their receipt of the CSC assets.
On 9th May 2002, just before minutes before CSI and RTC were to
appear in court Scientology hurriedly delivered an $8,674,643
cashiers check to the LA superior court clerk. This stopped
having any additional evidence presented in court that could
have exposed Scientology’s lack of corporate integrity, and
could have exposed Scientology’s controversial IRS charitable
tax exemption to review and potential repeal as well as stopped
the very real risk that Scientology’s top executives could soon
being put in jail for corporate and asset fraud.
During the original 5-month jury trial in the LA Superior court
in 1986 Scientology had almost 25,000 members picketing the
courthouse carrying signs saying “Not one thin dime for
Wollersheim” and “We will NEVER pay.” David Miscavige, the
cult’s current leader and former executive in CSI and RTC at the
time of the (CSC) transfers, as well as other top Scientology
cult leaders repeatedly vowed to members that nothing could ever
force them to pay the Wollersheim judgment and they would fight
the judgment forever no matter how much it costs or what the
sacrifice.
After today’s last minute payment it would appear that what
David Miscavige and Scientology’s other senior executives were
actually saying was that they would only stonewall on the
payment up to that point at which they were in danger of
exposing themselves personally for potential felonies. And that
they wanted, at all costs, to avoid Scientology’s controversial
IRS tax-exempt status grant being exposed in a court of law to
evidence that could cause its repeal.
Scientology leaders are now faced with having to concoct a story
for their current members explaining the painfully obvious
incongruity of their actions. They also have to now contend with
the floodgates being thrown wide open for thousands of new
lawsuits being filed by emboldened former members who lost
hundreds of thousands of dollars to Scientology and/or were also
harmed by Scientology’s outrageous counseling tactics.
In an exclusive for interview for FACTNet Lawrence Wollersheim
said the following about this long overdue and hard won victory:
“It is my opinion that there are hundreds of thousands of people
all over the US, Europe and South America who have been
destroyed by this cult and then intimidated into silence. But, I
now do not think that these people will remain silent any
longer.
I believe that they see this abusive cult has been beaten by the
power of the law and patience. I hope that they will begin
immediately calling their lawyers to use the full power of the
law get their lives back and seek restitution as well. I also
believe that after this court victory, former members who were
intimidated into silence about criminal acts they were coerced
to commit while in Scientology will come forward and speak with
the proper government officials.
It took me 22 years of using the slow but steady power of law to
enforce justice upon this dangerous cult. There were times when
I thought I could not go on any longer. But then I would
remember the many people who have lost their lives in
Scientology such as Lisa McPherson (a current Scientology
wrongful death case in Florida.). These people would have no
voice if someone did not win a Scientology case.
I remembered Medger Evers wife who fought for 32 years and
finally got the killers of her husband (the civil right worker)
to trial. I thought of the families for the four African
American teens in Atlanta who, after 39 years of persistence
using the force of the law, finally got the fourth Ku Klux Klan
member suspected in their deaths to trial.
When I saw the courage, persistence and dedication these
individuals displayed in using the law to effect justice I told
myself to stop being such a wimp and that I was only at the 12,
18, 20, and 22 year mark. These numbers were nothing compared to
the 32 years that Medger’s wife fought. What also sustained me
in fighting for justice, no matter the level of threat or
intimidation, was my faith in a higher, infinite and benevolent
power.
The most important thing I have learned in this ordeal is that
true justice is not the law. Nor is it the judges or courts.
True justice is that sense of fairness that we all have in our
hearts. It is that which gives us the power to ensure justice
for others and the strength to demand justice for ourselves
against all odds.
The most important thing I could say to others or to social
advocacy groups that are facing or considering cult -
litigation, or bringing lawsuits against wealthy corporations
like cigarette companies or fighting the governments that are
polluting our environment or committing financial or other
criminal acts is that they should use the legal system and be
patient. Do not be intimidated into silence. Do not let the
wealth or the size of your opponent dissuade you. At the end of
the day, the power of justice sought through law and patience
dwarfs any opposing force or party.
The rewards for enforcing justice are many. If you are a victim,
justice is the miracle healer that accelerates the process far
beyond just therapy. When a victim turns the tables on its
former oppressor using the legal system they no longer remain a
victim. The process transforms them psychologically and empowers
them emotionally. There are also new laws like the SLAPP laws
that protect the weaker or poorer parties from wealthy
adversaries that are trying to punish them for speaking out or
working for a better world. This is the good news.
Lastly, I want thank all of the lawyers and former members and
all the family friends and other people who, as a team, forced
this ruthless cult to comply with the law. It could not have
been done other than as a team.
I promise that everything that Scientology sought to hide from
public scrutiny in my case (by stopping the hearings with their
$8,760,000 payment to the court) will go to the proper
government authorities. Everything in my case that can be made
available to other new cases suing Scientology will be made
available as soon as possible.
It is quite a paradox that the cult that vowed it would never
pay me one thin dime has now paid over 86 million thin dimes not
even including the $500,000 they paid earlier.”
(Scientology has paid 10 of millions of dollars in past secret
settlements but because of gag order and confidentially
settlement terms none of the current or former members ever hear
about this.)
The FACTNet Staff & Lawrence Wollersheim
-------
Newspapers covering this story are:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63143-2002May9.html
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