WT legal licking its lips??

by Pork Chop 9 Replies latest social current

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  Pork Chop

  URL: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/13/BAGIO640M811.DTL

  A former member and longtime critic of the Church of Scientology has been ordered by a Marin County judge to pay the church $500,000 for speaking out against the controversial religious movement.

  Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee issued that order in a breach-of- contract lawsuit against Scientology defector Gerald Armstrong.

  The Church of Scientology had sought $10 million from Armstrong, who joined the church in 1969, left the fold in 1981 and later became one of the movement's harshest critics.

  He was sued by the church in 1984 for allegedly stealing thousands of pages of private papers that shed new light on the movement's mysterious founder, the late L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard, a prolific science-fiction writer and freelance philosopher, founded the Church of Scientology in the 1950s and died in 1986.

  During his years in Scientology, Armstrong says he worked as an intelligence officer and communications officer and compiled documents for a church-sponsored biography of Hubbard. He says he has been in Scientology's sights since the church filed its 1984 lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court to get control of Hubbard's private papers.

  Judge Paul Breckenridge Jr., who presided over that case, issued a ruling in which he called Hubbard "virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history, background and achievements." In settling that case in 1986, Armstrong agreed to return the documents. He says that the church paid him $515,000 ($800,000 including his lawyer's fee) and that his attorney at the time persuaded him to sign an agreement promising to "maintain strict confidentiality and silence with respect to his experiences with the Church of Scientology."

  That agreement says Armstrong would pay $50,000 for every utterance about Scientology. The church maintains that Armstrong has violated the agreement at least 201 times and owes it just over $10 million.

  Duryee heard arguments Friday from Ford Greene, a San Anselmo anti-cult lawyer who represented Armstrong, and Scientology attorney Andrew Wilson of Sausalito.

  Duryee then ordered Armstrong to pay $500,000 to his former church. The judge discharged two previous contempt-of-court citations against Armstrong and sentenced him to five days in jail for a third contempt order issued during his long battle fighting Scientology lawyers.

  But Duryee said she would consider that five days already served because Armstrong, a former Marin County resident, traveled from Chilliwack, British Columbia, for his court appearance.

  Wilson called Duryee's ruling a victory for Scientology.

  Greene said he was disappointed that Duryee upheld "an extremely one- sided contract that seeks to gag" his client. "He made a deal with the devil. ''

  The lawyer noted that his client had declared bankruptcy to avoid paying past damages won by Scientology, and Armstrong still vows to never pay a penny to the church. "They (Scientology) know the only way to silence Armstrong is to shoot him,'' Greene said. "This suit is really directed at other people who might be inclined to speak out. It's a PR ploy to keep other people silent.''
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  Elsewhere

  I would never sign such a contract.
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  Gopher

  The control Scientology has over its members and their finances is nothing short of astonishing.

  Like Elsewhere implied, the problem is in the stupid "contract of silence" that Gerald Armstrong (the former Scientologist) signed.

  I doubt that the JW's even thought of buying the silence of their ex-members. They use shunning and slander instead of legal contracts.
• 

  AlanF

  : I doubt that the JW's even thought of buying the silence of their ex-members. They use shunning and slander instead of legal contracts.

  Not so. Many out of court settlements have been made where the Society paid money to the claimant, along with a gag order forbidding the claimant ever to discuss the case. The recent case of Vicki Boer is a case in point, where Watchtower lawyers offered $50,000 to settle the case, along with such a gag order. She refused the offer.

  AlanF
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  seedy3

  scientology actually makes many of it's members sign a contract that covers 1 billion generations, I know it sounds strange, but that is to cover any incarnation that you may come back in.

  Seedy3
• 

  orbison11

  greetings

  after reading of this i found his email addy, as i also live in chilliwack and our local paper had a story of this about 2 weeks ago. sooooo, i dropped him an email asking for more info or a site addy and this is it if any are interested in more on his legal battles, etc.

  http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/

  wendy
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  searcher

  There is something very wrong with a church that is using the law to stop its members/exmembers talking about it.
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  grows1

  When you get baptized under the new 1985 JW profession of faith, it reads and sounds like an implied contract with the WTBTS. Don't think that the legal dept. of the WTBTS isn't trying to figure out some way to use that profession of faithfullness to the org as some kind of bat to hit you over the head with.
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  waiting

  He says that the church paid him $515,000 ($800,000 including his lawyer's fee) and that his attorney at the time persuaded him to sign an agreement promising to "maintain strict confidentiality and silence with respect to his experiences with the Church of Scientology."

  That agreement says Armstrong would pay $50,000 for every utterance about Scientology. The church maintains that Armstrong has violated the agreement at least 201 times and owes it just over $10 million.

  That's the damnation of signing contracts. It's paper - and it can haunt the writer. The WT knows that too, eh?

  "They (Scientology) know the only way to silence Armstrong is to shoot him,'' Greene said. "This suit is really directed at other people who might be inclined to speak out. It's a PR ploy to keep other people silent.''

  Yep. That would seem to be the reason that the WT was sooooooo harsh with Vicki Boer - a lesson must be given to their followers. Vicki Boer did a courageous thing in refusing to take their money in return for her silence.
  

  I read on the net (thank Jehovah for the Internet!) where a young boy was accidently killed at a KH building site. The WT paid $30,000 to the parents.....and a "confidentiality clause" was put into place on the situation. One of the WT female attorneys *visited* the grieving parents.

  waiting

  edited because the script is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SMALL! However, I can't change it to be just a *little* bigger. sigh.
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  Amazing1914

  Fascinating ... I liked the quote about signing a deal with the Devil. But, in the case of the Watchtower, they weren't even as smart as the Devil to try and get JWs to sign a contract ... I can see the glorius change in new light now ...

  "Truly faithful Witnesses will not be afraid to commit themselves to Jehovah in writing ... after all, God gave his own word in written form - the Bible, therefore, how much more so should faithful Witnesses be willing to sign the agreement that Jehovah has directed his organization to publish to you ... Ahemmmm ... here's a pen, press hard, because the carbons are cheap."