The Rocky Mountain News          Saturday, August 26, 1995

SCIENTOLOGY CRITIC WINS ROUND IN BATTLE OVER COMPUTER FILES

By Karen Abbott
Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

  Lawyers for Scientology critic Larry Wollersheim won the right
Friday to look over the shoulders of church attorneys and officials
as they sift through Wollersheim's computers in search of church
secrets.
  Any of Wollersheim's material they believe church officials have
no business seeing must be turned over to the court to be argued
about later, Senior U.S. District Judge John Kane Jr. ordered.
  But Wollersheim said the ruling came too late to keep his most
sensitive documents out of the wrong hands.  "They're being copied",
he said.
  An impromptu press conference after the ruling turned into a
crossfire of angry accusations between Wollersheim and the church's
court team.
  "This is just a bunch of garbage", Chicago Scientology lawyer
Helena Kobrin snapped as Wollersheim outlined his view that
Scientology is dangerous.
  "She's not telling you the truth", Wollersheim said as Kobrin
discussed the church's position.
  The church claims Wollersheim violated copyright and trade
secrets laws by distributing on the Internet secret church 
scriptures that are kept in guarded, locked rooms in just six
places in the world and shown only to church members who have
reached high levels of Scientology knowledge and participation.
  Armed with a federal court order and accompanied by U.S.
marshals, church officials Monday raided Wollersheim's Boulder
apartment, seizing his computer equipment and documents.  A
simultaneous raid occurred at the Niwot home of Wollersheim  
associate Robert Penny.
  Since then church officials, attorneys and hired computer
experts have been examining the materials.
  Wollersheim is on a mission to warn the world about
Scientology, a faith he practiced for years but now considers
dangerous and has opposed in numerous lawsuits and on the 
Internet.

           (End of article)