A Times Editorial

Church behavior?

Scientology claims that it has reformed and says it should be treated like any other church. But the Jesse Prince case and others continue to set this church apart.

You have to be courageous to publicly criticize the Church of Scientology. The organization recently proved -- again -- how far it will go to investigate, smear and intimidate critics.

Jesse Prince is one of those people the Church of Scientology perceives as an enemy because he is a vocal critic. A former Scientologist, Prince is expected to testify in an upcoming civil trial over the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson, who died while in the care of church staffers in Clearwater.

It isn't uncommon for one side in a lawsuit to attempt to discredit the testimony of the other side's witnesses. But the Church of Scientology set out to destroy Jesse Prince.

The church's lawyers hired several private investigators who watched Prince for months. They even searched for and found a black private investigator from Lake Wales who could unobtrusively follow Prince, who is black, into minority neighborhoods. Prince's privacy was invaded by secret videotaping. The black private investigator, using a false name and identity, befriended an unsuspecting Prince and was invited into his home. That investigator later claimed he saw Prince smoke marijuana.

With that, the investigators appeared to have the evidence of "immoral or illegal" activities they had been instructed to find. But that wasn't enough for the Church of Scientology. A church investigator took the information to the Largo Police Department, implying that Prince was a drug dealer. The department assigned an undercover officer, who visited Prince's home with the black private eye. The officer found no evidence that Prince sold drugs, but saw a marijuana plant growing in a pot on Prince's pool deck. Prince was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of cultivating marijuana.

But even that wasn't enough for the Church of Scientology. An investigator working for the church called the Largo police detective and suggested other charges that could be filed against Prince. The Largo Police Department wasn't smart to get involved in what was essentially a campaign of harassment against Prince by Scientology, but at least it drew the line at heaping on unwarranted charges. The cultivation charge was dropped Friday after a jury that heard the case was unable to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared.

An attorney for the Church of Scientology defended the practice of using private investigators to protect the organization from people who "harass" it. Interesting. Scientology doesn't want to be criticized or harassed, but it doesn't hesitate to harass and intimidate others.

Again and again in recent years, Scientology has claimed that it has reformed, that it no longer engages in the kind of underhanded or illegal behavior and smear tactics that have earned it a sorry reputation around the globe. Again and again, Scientology has argued that it is a religion and should be treated like any other church.

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.

AP covers Scientology link in Prince case

""It has a lot to do with entrapment," Scurlock said. "I felt the Church of Scientology had a lot to do with setting him up"

Scientology critic's jury hung
DAVID SOMMER
The Tampa Tribune
May 25, 2001
http://www.tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGAZXHBH5NC.html

Jurors in a misdemeanor marijuana case were unable to reach a verdict
Thursday night on whether a prominent Church of Scientology critic had an
illegal plant growing in his back yard.

"Everyone thinks he was set up," a juror said of defendant Jesse Prince.
The man did not want to be identified.

Juror Tiffany Scurlock said the evidence showed Prince had marijuana
growing in his Largo home. But Scurlock said she had a hard time with the
church's involvement in the case. Private detectives working for the
church shadowed Prince for months before succeeding in having him charged
by Largo police with growing a marijuana plant on his deck.

"It has a lot to do with entrapment," Scurlock said. "I felt the Church of
Scientology had a lot to do with setting him up. I felt he was guilty ...
but there was a lot of setting up going on."

Mike Rinder, a member of Scientology's board of directors, said the church
wants Prince exposed as a drug user because Prince repeatedly has
testified against the church in court cases.

A former high-ranking church official turned church critic, Prince is
listed as an expert witness on church doctrine in a pending civil lawsuit
over the 1995 death of church member Lisa McPherson.

"Anybody who actually didn't have the drugs would have been acquitted,"
Rinder said. "Jesse Prince is a drug user, the state attorney knows he is
a drug user, he's going to be tried again and we are very happy about
that."

The jury, which deliberated five hours, was split 4-2 in favor of
acquittal, and at one point only one juror was holding out for a guilty
verdict, said the male juror who asked to remain anonymous.

The juror said no one on the panel believed the testimony of a private
detective hired by the church to befriend Prince and gain entry into his
home. It was that detective who turned informant and helped Largo police
arrest Prince.

Other jurors declined to comment.

Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews declared a mistrial and said a new
trial date will be set at a future hearing. But Assistant State Attorney
Lydia Wardell, who prosecuted the case, said it is too soon to say if her
office will try again to convict Prince.

David Sommer can be reached at (727) 799-7413.

Spying on people? Is this what Scientology is all about?
Re: Church critic trailed, arrested, story, May 11.
Your story on the tactics used by Scientology to discredit an expert witness in the Lisa McPherson civil suit was a real shocker. Isn't this illegal? I had always thought that the only people with a license to invade someone's privacy were the police -- and they have to get a court order to do it.
Given the large number of private investigators employed by the church to get the lowdown on this one man, Jesse Prince, my next question would be, is this what Scientology is all about -- having people followed? If so, it would explain their preoccupation with secrecy, jamming the Internet, seeking to muzzle critics and so on.
It is truly frightening that a secret police-type group like this can operate at will in the USA. Your story left me wondering what I or anyone can do about it. Maybe the awareness fostered by stories like this will lead to a check on their spying activities. Or, at least, a decrease in the gullibility of those who buy the religious cover.
Roger T. Watkins, ' Clearwater

Scientology critic won't face retrial
Prosecutors decide to drop a marijuana charge after jurors, concerned about
church influence, deadlock.
By DEBORAH O'NEIL
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 26, 2001

CLEARWATER -- When the two-day misdemeanor trial of Scientology critic Jesse
Prince ended Thursday, jurors had little doubt he had possessed marijuana as
the state charged.

What bothered some of them, according to two jurors, was the possibility that
Prince had been set up by the Church of Scientology.

They heard testimony about how Prince, once a high-ranking church member, was
watched, videotaped and trailed for months by private investigators hired by
Scientology lawyers.

Private investigator Barry Gaston said he was hired because he is black, like
Prince, and befriended Prince using a false name. Gaston said he was paid
$14,000 for his work.

Ultimately, the private investigators gave police information that led to
Prince's arrest.

In his closing arguments Prince's lawyer Denis deVlaming hammered home a
point that would stick in some jurors minds.

"A real church is a house of God," deVlaming said. "You tell me what house of
God hires somebody like Gaston to be able to infiltrate a life?"

The jurors deadlocked after five hours of deliberations and a mistrial was
declared. On Friday, the State Attorney's Office dropped the charge against
Prince, capping a bizarre case that, in the end, left the church explaining
its tactics.

"We've made the decision not to retry Mr. Prince," said prosecutor Lydia
Wardell on Friday. "It was just time that we decided we'd spent enough time
and energy and money on this particular charge."

Nothing about the state's case was questioned, she noted.

Wardell put Prince's own fiancee, Deneen Phillips, on the stand. She
testified under a court subpoena that Prince knew there was a marijuana plant
on their back porch and that they had smoked pot together.

Still, the jury did not convict.

"I knew I was going to have a very hard time based solely on the fact that
Scientology hired the firm that hired the investigators," Wardell said. "We
all know it came down to that."

Juror Tiffany Scurlock of Palm Harbor said she and other jurors felt Prince
was probably guilty of the charges, but, "I think a lot of it had to do with
entrapment. They (other jurors) felt like the Church of Scientology had a lot
to do with setting him up."

Mike Rinder, a top Scientology official, said the case became trial by
innuendo and deVlaming effectively deflected attention from the critical
issue: Prince's drug possession. If the jurors were concerned with
Scientology's role, Rinder said, "it's just a matter of prejudice."

The church, he said, investigated Prince because he is being paid to testify
against the church in a civil lawsuit and has told outrageous lies about the
church under oath. Also, Rinder said, investigators have watched Prince
because he has a history of making violent threats against church members.
Rinder argued that the church merely reported Prince's illegal activities to
law enforcement.

"When it comes to someone who is anti-Scientology it seems there's a double
standard," Rinder said. "We have to go around and document every bit of it
and put it all together. Then it turns into, "The church did it.' If the
allegation were being made about someone in the church, the police would be
doing the investigation themselves."

Rinder said he wasn't surprised the charges were dropped, given the expensive
defense.

Prince's defense cost an estimated $45,000, said Stacy Brooks, president of
the Lisa McPherson Trust, a Scientology watchdog organization in downtown
Clearwater where Prince works. The Trust, which is funded mostly with money
from millionaire Scientology critic Robert Minton, paid Prince's legal bills,
she said.

The case was the third time in a year a member of the Lisa McPherson trust
has been on trial for misdemeanor criminal charges in cases that involve the
Church of Scientology. DeVlaming represented all three, and none were
convicted. In all, the trust has spent close to $150,000 in legal fees,
Brooks said.

"The reason Jesse and Bob and I wanted this to go to trial is we wanted the
information to be made public that Scientology does this to people," said
Brooks.

For his part, Prince said: "The thing that's most important to me that
happened in this case is we stood up and fought it."