from Rocky Mountain News, Wednesday, August 23, 1995 Dispute with church brings raids. By Karen Abbott Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer U.S. marshals seized documents and computer equipment Tuesday from two Boulder County men who say their mission is to expose dangerous truths about the Church of Scientology using the Internet. Church officials Monday sued Larry Wollersheim of Boulder and Robert Penny of Niwot in federal court in Denver, claiming the men are violating copyright laws by publishing Scientology materials on an electronic bulletin board and the Internet. Denver U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock signed an order authorizing the raids. "They took us off line," Wollersheim said. Wollersheim and church officials traded tirades against each other Monday. [sic: maybe the reporter meant Tuesday? -- Ron N.] Wollersheim-who won a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the church several years ago for emotional distress-charges that the church practices secret rituals in which officials claim they are aliens from outer space whose purpose is to take over the Earth. Church officials said in a statement that they had expelled Wollersheim and questioned his business past. Wollersheim's non-profit computer bulletin board is called FACTNet, which stands for Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network. Besides information about Scientology, it includes information on about 300 religious cults, he said. Wollersheim said marshals got him out of bed at 9 a.m. Tuesday, then spent about eight hours seizing documents and equipment from his Boulder apartment. He said Scientology officials were present and took away documents, including confidential material. A simultaneous raid, lasting about seven hours, netted similar materials at Penny's residence in Niwot, Wollersheim said. Both men are former Scientologists who say they wish to expose the church's practices, he said. In a statement, church spokeswoman Karin Pouw questioned why Wollersheim's bulletin board should have non-profit, tax-exempt status. Federal officials raided a Wollersheim associate in a copyright dispute in another state recently, the statement said. Wollersheim said he hopes to be represented in further proceedings by an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and a lawyer for his apartment insurance company. The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 by L. Ron Hubbard. It teaches that human beings can rise to higher levels of enlightenment through "auditing" sessions in which they purge themselves of negative energy.