Who is Keith Henson?

And why is Scientology after him?

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xenu.net for general information on Scientology

Or visit http://www.altreligionscientology.org/ for more links.

Trial Transcripts here.

On 26 Apr 2001, Keith Henson was convicted of "interfering with a religion", a misdemeanor under California law, for picketing outside Scientology's heavily-armed, razor-wire enclosed base outside Hemet, CA.

At trial, the judge threw out all Henson's witnesses, disallowed any testimony about his reasons for picketing the cult, and allowed the prosecution to present excerpts from Henson's Internet postings out of context; the Scientology witnesses also committed perjury which Henson was unable to rebut.

Henson is seeking political refugee status in Canada in order to force the US government to look into the criminal conspiracy between the Hemet District Attorney's office and the Scientology cult to deprive him of his civil rights.

Trial Transcripts	Help Keith Henson	Red Alert	Timeline	Why Help?	More Help	Writings of Keith Henson	The Biggest Myth

Recent News - What's Happening to Keith Henson NOW?

NEW: Henson's bankruptcy trial transcripts now available.

10 Sep 2003: Keith Henson is interviewed by POT-TV. Streaming media available here.

16 Jul 2003: Henson's bankruptcy case grinds on. Unsatisfied with ruining Henson himself financially, they now revenge themselves upon his wife Arel Lucas by attempting to connive her exempt half of the Henson home owned in joint tenancy. Arel Lucas replies pro se to their motion in this reply and describes the situation in this explanatory declaration. This kind of abuse of the courts is no surprise from Scientology or Scientology lawyer Samuel D. Rosen, a hulking ogre who threw his own wife down a flight of stairs in a courthouse, according to the allegations reference in his own lawsuit against Suffolk County alleging an injunction on him following this criminal conduct somehow violated his rights. I suppose this is what qualifies as "good character" for the purposes of practicing law in California.

20 May 2003: Usenet poster Essle posts a draft of an article by Keith Henson which is circulating. Importantly for this site, it notes Henson's silence as of late but his continued well-being. That aside, look for changes on this site in the near future.

9 Mar 2003: Henson posts a March roundup of the latest events in his cases.

7 Feb 2003: The bankruptcy court issues an order which is effectively against Henson, and converts his Chapter 13 bankruptcy to Chapter 7. This Usenet thread debates the significance of this ruling.

21 Nov 2002: The cult objects to Henson's appeal.

13 Nov 2002: Henson files a Notice of Appeal in his civil case, which is properly served on plaintiffs.

29 Sep 2002: Henson's bankruptcy trial starts. Arel Henson reports: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

4 Sep 2002: Scientology files a motion for $100,000.00 in damages in their civil case.

26 Aug 2002: Transcript of a hearing in Henson's civil trial over the same matters which resulted in the "picket sign terrorism" trial.

26 Aug 2002: Henson files an ex parte motion in his contempt hearing, which is partially granted.

23 Aug 2002: Henson's article "Sex, Drugs and Cults" is published by the Human Nature Review

16 Aug 2002: Henson's wife Arel Lucas posts this report and Keith Henson posts this report of a contempt hearing before Judge Whyte over this motion.

22 Jul 2002: Ida J. Camburn reports that largely due to Scientology's ranting about Henson's amicus brief, it has been accepted into evidence in the Lisa McPherson wrongful death case.

16 Jul 2002: Here's a general roundup of the last two weeks. Keith's amicus curiae filing in the Lisa McPherson wrongful death case generates a bizarre response from Scientology's lawyers. Hagglund and Henson file for summary judgment in their small claims suit against the Toronto police. Henson warns Hogan again about the frivolousness of Scientology's recent contempt motion in the original 1996 copyright lawsuit that set the events covered in this page off. Finally, Judge Weissbrodt in Henson's bankruptcy issues a scathing response to an outrageous Scientology filing which actually goes so far as to accuse the Judge of abetting a fugitive for making a ruling they don't like.

24 Jun 2001: The Electronic Frontier Foundation issues this media release in support of Henson's case, representing a major shift in the public view of this travesty of justice.

See the Timeline for more news.

The Biggest Myth About Keith Henson

The myth is that Keith Henson made "bomb threats." If you happen to be a journalist and happen to be talking to Schwarz, ask him point-blank to state what Keith said that constituted a threat of any kind. The legal definition of a bomb threat is an unequivocal, unconditional threat that leads to an immediate fear of harm. The only such "threat" would be the posting of GPS coordinates, and that was posted by David Rice. The post is clearly tongue-in-cheek humor and was itself not entered into evidence.
Henson's posts that were entered into evidence are here, though it should be noted that the exhibits presented to the jury were redacted to the point that the jury stated at a recess that they had great difficulty telling who wrote what; and may have based their considerations of Henson's actions on the words of other people.
The other "threat" was also a post made by another person, who was clearly joking, made further down the thread by a person not even responding directly to Henson. Here is the thread as archived by Google.

Help Keith - Donate Directly to Henson's Defense Fund!

or

To donate Directly:
Cash, Checks, Money Orders, or PayPal Accepted

Please send cash, checks, or money orders to:

Temple of At'L'An Refugee Committee
c/o Gregg Hagglund
2237 Munns Ave
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Canada
L6H 3M9
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Personal cheques will clear in 41 days.

The fastest method is to use PayPal.

The Temple of At'L'An PayPal account is:

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Thank you all in advance.

More info about helping Keith Henson

Need an engineer? Hire Keith, here's his resume.
Find out more, and read Keith's writings.
Keith Henson in Canada, courtesy of xenu.ca. Why Should I Help?
How Else Can I Help?
Picket for Arel, Keith Henson's wife.

Meet Elliot Abelson:
The Man Behind the Henson Prosecution

CA Attorney General Bill Lockyer:
Friend of Scientology?

Keith Henson is one of the most effective critics of Scientology. He has litigated pro se against their multimillion dollar litigation machine, and in some cases he has won, and some he has lost. He has picketed them perhaps more than any other single person. He has criticized them on the Internet, in media interviews, and even took the deposition of cult leader David Miscavige.
Now he is facing terrorism charges in California, charges which stemmed from his pickets at the secretive and heavily-armed compound called Gold Base (or Golden Era Studios) over the unusual deaths of a Scientologist, Stacy Moxon Meyer, and a non-Scientologist, Ashlee Shaner. Meyer, the daughter of Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon, adverse counsel in many lawsuits involving Henson, died in a bizarre and gruesome accident in an underground electrical vault. In a horrific irony, when Stacy Moxon Meyer was dying underground in the electrical vault, picketers aboveground were protesting the previous death of Ashlee Shaner in a ghastly decapitation which occurred because Scientology was moving construction equipment on the highway at night without lights and in the wrong lane. In the Shaner case, police recommended homicide charges, which were at the time not acted on by the same DA who feels that picketing and posting to Usenet is "terrorism."
Incidentally, the same people who claimed to have been "terrorized" by the picketers offered to take them to lunch on 25 June 2000, evidently to distract them from the death scene being cleaned up in the electrical vault close by, a point which did not seem significant until the death of Meyer was reported later as having occurred at that exact moment. (Henson was not present at this picket.)
As a result of these pickets and his posts to Usenet, Henson eventually was charged with terrorism.
Henson is far from the only person framed by this cult in either wholly fictional or grossly distorted crimes involving outright frame-ups, entrapment or other abuses of the legal system. Recently the St. Petersburg Times printed this scathing editorial on Scientology abuses of the legal system, concluding:

But again and again, stories surface that set Scientology apart. Not only does it have a penchant for secrecy, it will spend virtually unlimited time and money on pursuing, setting up and bringing down its critics.
That's not like any church we know.

Operation Clambake
Lisa McPherson:
Killed by Scientology?

FACTnet
Scientology Archive

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