Boulder (Colorado) Daily Camera, Wednesday, August 23, 1995 Front Page HEADLINE: Marshals raid homes of former Scientologists SUB HEADER: ACLU lawyer sees appalling lack of due process By DOUG COSPER Camera Staff Writer Delegations of Scientologists searched two Boulder County homes Tuesday under the protection of federal marshals, seizing thousands of dollars in computer equipment and data they claim were used to violate copyrights on "sacred scriptures." Directors of FACTNet, an Internet bulletin board dedicated largely to criticizing the church of Scientology, said after the simultaneous raids that the Scientologists also got a bonus: a list of thousands of their enemies. An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer at one raid in Boulder called the action "appalling." "With my own eyes, I witnessed a member of Scientology going through drawers and closets," said Denver attorney David Lane. "What kind of a country is this when your sworn enemy can go into your house and rummage through your drawers at the point of a fed eral marshal's gun?" The Church of Scientology, founded 40 years ago by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve human problems. It can cost thousands of dollars for initiates to progress through the church's teachings and counseling. Church spokeswoman Karin Pouw said the organization has 8 million members worldwide. Beginning about 9 a.m., parties of federal marshals and Scientology members entered the homes of Lawrence Wollersheim in Boulder and Bob Penny in Niwot. Both men are former Scientologists who turned against the church after being excommunicated. [story jumps from page 1A to page 2A with new HEADLINE: Homes of ex-Scientologists raided ] Denver copyright lawyer Todd Blakely, who was at the Wollersheim raid to represent the church, said the marshals were enforcing a federal seizure warrant for Scientology "religious text" protected by federal copyright and trade secret laws. Pouw, who flew with colleagues from Los Angeles for the actions, said the men had posted protected "religious secrets" on the Internet newsgroup "alt.religion.scientology" and threatened to continue. The church "scriptures" are guarded under lock and key at six locations across the globe, said Blakely, who is not a church member. Pouw said that because only members who had "reached a certain level in the church" had access to them, a church member must have stolen them. "It's our constitutional right to have religious secrets," Pouw said. "(Wollersheim) is on a hate campaign against Scientology, and he's chosen the wrong target." Wollersheim, who said he was a part-time computer consultant, said FACTNet is a nonprofit archive "dedicated to exposing information on dangerous cults and mind control." He called Scientology "the largest secret satanic cult in the world." Wollersheim, 46, who was a Scientologist from age 18 to 29, said he won a $30 million verdict against the church in a previous lawsuit. Pouw said Wollersheim has not collected any of the $2.5 million reduced award. Wollersheim also is helping Time magazin e defend against a $470 million libel suit the church filed following a 1991 news story about the church. The raids were not the first by the church against critics who would publish what the church calls protected material. Acting on a similar federal warrant, the church a few weeks ago seized former Scientologist minister Dennis Erlich's computer diskettes and files from his Glendale, Calif., home. On Aug. 12, a raid shut down Virginia critic Arnaldo Lerma, a 44year-old former member. "This raid is not about copyrighted documents, it's about the church beating up on its adversaries," Wollersheim said. U.S. Marshal Chief Deputy Larry Homenick said the federal marshals were enforcing a private civil seizure brought by the church and ordered by a federal court in Denver. "Our only role is to provide a law enforcement presence and execute the order of the court. We allow the plaintiff (the church) to seize the property: We don't have the expertise to identify the objects. We inventory it and hand it over to them pending further litigation," Homenick said. Along with the seized computer hardware and software, data storage devices and paper documents, the Scientologists took a mailing list of 8,500 "donors and former church members" who support FACTNet and "who are very afraid of Scientology," Wollersheim sa id. Attorney Lane said: "There are names of persons in these files who have escaped Scientology and changed their names, started new lives.: They're now in the hands of Scientologists." Pouw said the church would do nothing with the list. "Experts are going through the material looking for key words of copyrighted material. Everything not copyrighted will be returned," she said. Two federal judges denied Lane's request Tuesday for a hearing in which Wollersheim and Penny could have presented their cases against handing over the seized materials to the church, Lane said.: "This country is founded on principles of due process, and this is as far from due process as you can get," he said. But regardless of the outcome of the federal civil suits behind the raids, many of the church texts have been downloaded into hard drives across the country already, said Penny, the retired founder of the Boulder software company Small Systems Design Inc. "They're already everywhere; they'll be popping up on the net. Certainly not from us, but that no longer matters," he said.