Last revised Monday, March 4, 1996.
This Time-Line was originally compiled by Jeff Jacobsen <cultxpt@primenet.com> and converted to HTML by Ron Newman <rnewman@thecia.net>, who is now actively maintaining it. Special thanks also go to Maggie Council, Tilman Hausherr, Jim Lippard, Ron Newman, Martin Poulter, and others who have contributed to this list. The online master copy of this file lives at http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/harass/timeline-95.html .
DISCLAIMER: below are accusations of harassment by the Church of Scientology by alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) users who were critics of Scientology during the year 1995, or attacks on a.r.s. itself. We are simply compiling the accusations. All events not specifically identified by country occured in the United States.
It is sometimes unclear whether some church actions should be included, as they are only marginally related to a.r.s. Also, some items might only marginally be called harassment. No doubt there will be disagreements about what should and should not be included here.
We consider a threatening letter from an attorney for posting a fair use quote to be very harassing, so we have included all such email and letters. We could not verify times for some incidents so have included those at the bottom.
If you'd like to take action against this harassment, consider attending the worldwide "Stop the Harassment, Scientology" protest demonstration on Saturday, March 9, 1996.
Please email Ron Newman (rnewman@thecia.net), for corrections, deletions, or additions. Thank you.
A asterisk(*) denotes entries that are new, or have new hyperlinks, since the last revision of this document on February 18.
Jan. 1
Helena Kobrin (RTC attorney) sends email to Tom
Klemesrud demanding he stop Dennis Erlich from posting to the Internet through
Klemesrud's bulletin board system in southern California.
Jan. 3
Thomas Small (RTC attorney) emails
anonymous remailers requesting that they block access to a.r.s.
Jan. 10
Helena Kobrin attempts to rmgroup (a software command to
remove a newsgroup) a.r.s.
Jan. 14
Tom Klemesrud
and Linda Woolard meet. The alleged frameup of
Tom is attempted (or a date turned sour, from Linda's viewpoint).
Jan. 28
Russell Shaw posts his
idea for "handling" a.r.s.
Feb. 8
The Finnish anonymous remailer
anon.penet.fi is raided by Finnish police looking for the
identity of -AB-, who allegedly stole files from Scientology computers.
Scientology lawyer's and private eyes follow the
trail to Caltech, where
they try for the next several days to obtain the true identity of -AB-.
Feb. 13*
Dennis Erlich is raided. Church spends 7 hours going through
his home in Glendale, California, searching for alleged copyright violations. The Church sues Erlich, Tom Klemesrud
(operator of the BBS that Dennis uses to access the Net), and Netcom (a large
Internet service provider that exchanges Usenet news and e-mail with that BBS).
Feb. 14*
Deirdre begins to get the Treatment from CoS. Egregious posts begin
to appear about her on a.r.s., first from anon.penet.fi and then from "Vera Wallace".
According to Deirdre, "an OSA goon who looked like he'd slept a week in his suit
showed up in Deirdre's town" (in rural New England) "but didn't stick around for the posse."
Feb. 14
Nico Garcia gets a threatening e-mail letter from Kobrin regarding
copyright violations.
Feb. 16
an anonymous person posts a
declaration
from both Dennis Erlich's ex-wife (a Scientologist) and his daughter,
which contain derogatory information about Erlich.
Feb. 27
In British Columbia, Canada, Martin Hunt gets a threatening
e-mail letter from attorney Helena Kobrin.
Feb. 27
Grady Ward gets an e-mail from Kobrin threatening suit over
copyright violations.
March 1
Vera Wallace posts Dennis Erlich's home address and place of
employment.
March 7
Someone pretending to be Homer Smith calls the phone company
and gets information from Homer's phone bill.
March 11
Stu Sjouwerman sends Sloth email saying he's reported
Sloth's web page to
OSA (Scientology CIA).
March 13
Australian Tony McClelland is threatened with a lawsuit by a
Scientologist while picketing Scientology.
March 13
Scientologists call police and
accuse picketers in Mesa
Arizona of yelling at cars.
March 17
Daniel Davidson and his administrator get a threatening
e-mail letter from Kobrin. As a result, Davidson is summoned to a
disciplinary hearing where he has to plead
(successfully, it turns out) for the right
to keep his account at San Francisco State University.
March 22
Woody (noodle@netcom.com) first appears; makes hundreds of
off-topic and 1 sentence useless posts from then until now.
March 24
Eugene Ingram visits Jeff Jacobsen at work in Arizona,
and snaps photos of him.
March 25
Eugene Ingram and a clone visit Jacobsen's sister
in Arizona, asking about Jeff's income.
March 26
Ingram hangs around Jacobsen's neighborhood
in Arizona. Neighbors call the cops. Ingram asks a neighbor kid about Jacobsen.
March 31
Jet@aloha.com takes over
#clambake irc channel and bans a.r.s. critics. He posts "rules for #clambake" and claims to have only banned
45 people.
April 4
the phone company calls Jacobsen to say there were
4 attempts
by a Jacobsen imposter to gain access to Jacobsen's phone bill
information (thwarted by a pass code).
April 4
Kobrin calls Homer Smith 3 times about Scamizdat postings
through his remailer.
April 5
"TarlaStar" gets a phone call from "Judy" who falsely claims to
work for her ISP, asking TarlaStar to confirm certain personal information.
April 6
Andrew Milne "outs" TarlaStar, posting her real name.
April 6
Martin Hunt visited by a policeman in Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada, regarding his posts.
April 10
Robert Brooks files a complaint against Ron Newman's MIT account
web page.
April 11
Vera Wallace outs TarlaStar, but includes Tarla's full address
and phone number in Oklahoma, and Tarla's husband's name.
April 11*
Vera Wallace attempts (incorrectly) to out Sri Changiana
Saar.
April 14
Grady Ward is visited unannounced by Jeff Quiros and another
Scientologist at his home in Arcata, California.
April 15
Martin Hunt says Scientology got his unlisted phone number
illegally from the raid on Dennis Erlich.
April 16
Dennis Erlich posts that
his ex-wife seized his bank account to pay child support.
April 17
Gary Reibert is tailed and has other suspicious actions
happen to him.
April 19
Helena Kobrin writes to Andrew Burt,
system administrator of Denver University's public-access Nyx system,
complaining that the anonymous user "henry" has posted a bomb threat.
"henry" says that the message posted under his username is a forgery.
April 21
Helena writes a second e-mail letter
to Andrew Burt regarding "henry".
April 23 & 25*
Russell Shaw and Vera Wallace separately threaten Jacobsen
that if he pickets Scientology, they will picket Jacobsen's employer.
May 1
two private investigators are camped outside Jacobsen's home,
in Arizona, but leave when confronted by Jacobsen and later the police. They had
also gone through Jacobsen's garbage.
May 6
two private investigators
(one having also staked out Jacobsen's
home) write down license plate numbers, videotape and photograph a
picket of Scientology in Mesa, Arizona.
May 8
Eugene Ingram calls Grady Ward's publisher accusing Grady of
crimes.
May 10
Ingram (aka "Jack Hoff") visits Grady Ward's mom in
Tacoma, Washington, and allegedly steals (theft by artifice?) a photo from her.
June-August*
After Steve Marinick wrote an
article critical of
Scientology in the June issue of Arizona's
Java Monthly,
the local Scientology PR representative repeatedly called the publisher
of Java asking for Steve's address and phone number. (The publisher
refused.) The publisher also received harassing phone calls from someone
falsely claiming to be a distributor of the paper. In early August,
the Scientology PR rep showed up unannounced at the publisher's home.
June 9*
Chris Miller accuses Jacobsen of lying to federal law
enforcement.
June 11
(about) Chris Miller posts to soc.women
claiming he has a daughter working for MoFo (the law firm representing Erlich), seeking
material on "clients who are actually abusers of women and children."
June 29
Kobrin sends Damon Chetson threatening email.
July 3
Kobrin sends email to Marina Chong in Singapore.
July 5*
Richard Price, in the United Kingdom, receives an
unannounced visit from a
Scientology-hired private investigator several days after he posts
an emotional message to the Internet
about his sister's involvement in Scientology. Later that night, a
threatening letter from
Hodkin & Co., Scientology's UK law firm, is slipped under Price's door.
For more information, see the web page of Price's organization,
Families Under Scientology Stress
(FUSS).
July 6
Kobrin writes to
Martin Poulter and his administrator at the University of Bristol
in the United Kingdom.
July 7*
Poulter's account is temporarily closed
(for about a day) after Scientology complaints.
July 16
Robert Marcus posts an apparent death threat against Diane
Richardson.
July 19
Kobrin writes to "henry."
July 23
Kobrin writes threatening email to Maggie Council.
July 23*
Kobrin writes to Jim Lippard regarding Jesse
Garon's postings. (He replies, and she sends him another e-mail letter on July 27. The
hyperlink points to a file containing all these messages.)
July 23
Kobrin writes SteveA of Castle Systems in the
United Kingdom.
July 23*
Kobrin sends email to Keith Spurgeon.
July 24
Kobrin writes to "Jesse Garon".
July 27
Kobrin writes to "Jesse Garon"
a 2nd time.
July 27
Kobrin writes to
"Doctorb Science!" at Rutgers University.
July 27
Maggie Council gets a
2nd threatening email from Kobrin.
July 27*
Kobrin sends email to H. Keith Henson.
July 28
Kobrin writes to TarlaStar.
July 28*
Kobrin writes to Michael Reuss at Hewlett-Packard
in Loveland CO and to H-P's legal dept. in San Jose CA.
July 28*
Kobrin writes to Joel Hanes and to his sysadmin.
July 29
Andrew Testa gets email from Kobrin.
July 30
Kobrin sends 2nd email to Marina Chong in Singapore.
August 1
Kobrin writes Maggie Council's administrator at the
University of Southern Florida, seriously putting Maggie's account in jeopardy.
August 2
Andrew Testa gets an even more threatening email from Kobrin.
August 4
Arnie Lerma gets a fax from attorney Melvin Jager after he
posts the Fishman documents to a.r.s.
August 4
Kobrin writes to David Touretzky
demanding that he remove the
OT materials from his web site at Carnegie-Mellon University. Helena also
sends a fax to CMU's legal
counsel Walter DeForest.
August 5
Lerma is visited by 2 OSA women.
August 5
The WELL, an online service in California,
gets 2 phone calls from Scientologist Alan Cartright
complaining about Jerod Pore's
Scamizdat gopher.
August 6
A Chinese admin. receives email from Kobrin
threatening suit regarding copyright violations.
August 7
Someone claiming to be Grady Ward calls the phone company
and gains information from Ward's phone bill.
August 12*
Arnie Lerma's home in Virginia is raided by Scientology.
The church sues both Lerma and his Internet service provider, Digital Gateway Systems.
August 15
David Gerard posts that Kobrin has been writing to his
administrator complaining about his posts (such as the parody
"I am the
Very Model of a Modern Legal Criminal").
August 17
Kobrin posts a threat to a.r.s. as a whole regarding
copyright violations and demands all copies of OT be returned to her.
August 21*
Elliot J. Abelson, a Los Angeles lawyer representing the Church of Scientology,
sends snail mail letters to Shelley Thomson, editor
of the e-zine **Biased Journalism**, and
to Kim Baker, a former Scientologist in
Cape Town, South Africa, who was then serving as a director of
FACTnet.
August 22
Scientology raids the Colorado homes of FACTnet directors
Larry Wollersheim and Bob Penny, and sues both them and FACTnet.
Sept. 5
XS4ALL, an Internet service provider in the Netherlands,
is "raided" by Scientology.
Sept. 9
Ron Newman is accosted by Scientologists and forced to hand
over his picketing flyers on Beacon Street in Boston.
Sept. 9
Paul Grosswald has his foot stomped by an OTVIII at a
demonstration in New York City.
Sept. 9
at almost all pickets worldwide a Scientology flyer accusing
picketers of being "copyright terrorists" is distributed.
Sept. 19
Jerod Pore reports that he has again been threatened with a
lawsuit, first by phone, then snail mail, over his
Scamizdat gopher.
Sept. 21*
Helena Kobrin writes Cistron Internet Services in the
Netherlands and demands that Cistron either remove files from the
website of a user named "newkid",
or else send Helena "newkid"'s mailing address. Cistron refuses, citing
Cistron's legal responsibility to its users under Dutch law.
[Note: the "newkid" web site disappeared some time in 1996, so no
hyperlink is provided here any more.]
Sept. 25
Scientology defies a court order
to return all FACTNet's computer files.
Oct. 2
Heber Jentzsch declares he will go to jail rather than return
the OT files to FACTNet which were seized in the raid.
October 4
Eugene Ingram visits police in State College, Pennsylvania;
"henry" loses his job at Accu-Weather as a result.
Vera Wallace posts
"henry's" true name and a legal investigation of "henry" from a court
document "henry" claims is sealed.
October 9*
Malcolm Nothling, a litigant against the CoS
in South Africa, receives a telephone call detailing a planned bombing of
an unspecified Scientology Church. He telephones
Kim Baker, a
South African former Scientologist who was active on the Internet
and who was then serving as a director of
FACTnet. Nothling asks
Baker to post a message for him to the Internet.
October 10*
Baker posts the message on Nothling's
behalf, and resigns as a director of FACTnet.
(Note: In a message dated February 21, 1996, Kim Baker has requested that we include her statement that "The alleged planned bombing was in NO WAY connected to FACTnet, or any of the individuals named in the key word list" of names that Scientology lawyers searched for in the disks they seized from FACTnet).
October 17*
Representatives of OSA International and OSA-South Africa pay an unnanounced
and unwanted visit to Kim Baker in Cape Town.
October 20
after a 4 hour deposition,
Jacobsen is told "we will raid
you and sue you; you are on notice!" by Lynn Farny, CoS attorney
Kendrick Moxon's assistant.
October 24*
An Interpol investigation into the South African bombing threat
occurs, and Kim Baker is questioned. The South African official
in charge of the questioning is Lt. B. Posthumus,
stationed with the SA Police, Inspectorate of
Explosives. (Tel: 021 - 467-6630)
October 25*
Kim Baker signs a declaration
compiled by OSA, containing numerous false statements.
October 31*
Lt. Posthumus questions Kim Baker again about the alleged intended bombing.
November 5*
Kim Baker signs a second declaration compiled by OSA. (This has never
been posted to the Net, but both
Lawrence Wollersheim's
and Bob Penny's
responses have been.)
Nov. 7
Mark Dallara posts that CoS lawyers have called the University
of Memphis complaining about him.
Nov. 8
Scientology sues XS4ALL, Dataweb, Cistron, Stichting de
Digitale Stad, and Karin Spaink in the Netherlands for copyright
violations.
Nov. 8
Kobrin sends threatening email to Ron Newman claiming he is
violating church copyrights, but providing no details.
Nov. 13*
Kim Baker receives a call (international, since there
was a "beep" that she recognised from receiving
international calls in the past) from an
unidentified male caller, with an American
accent, threatening her with death unless
Baker refuted her October 25 declaration. Baker filed a
complaint with the local police in Cape Town, which is listed
as case number: CAS1123/11/95
Nov. 15
Kobrin again writes
David Touretzky demanding removal of the Fishman affidavit.
Nov. 17*
Representatives of OSA International and OSA-South Africa leave Cape Town.
Nov. 26
Tom Klemesrud is served with a restraining order prohibiting
him from posting anything about the
Miss Blood affair
on the Internet. This gag order is lifted on November 29.
Nov. 27
Linda sues Tom for $5000 in small claims court.
Dec. 1*
Kim Baker signs a third declaration,
this one written by herself rather than by OSA. This declaration refutes the statements she made
in her previous two (OSA-written) declarations of October 25 and
November 5.
Dec. 4*
Cory Brennan accuses Tilman Hausherr, a German citizen, of "supporting
those who promote the Nazi agenda." Challenged by Tilman and others, Cory retracts this
statement on January 16, 1996.
Dec. 7*
In the UK, Richard Price gets a call from a CoS private eye
regarding Atack and Lawley, and Martin Poulter. The same day, a
friend of Price (who prefers for now to remain anonymous) receives a
similar phone call.
Dec. 8
Rogue Agent loses his account at Northeastern University
in Boston after complaints from CoS people.
Dec. 16
In Germany, Tilman Hausherr gets a call from private eye Thomas Riche
regarding Atack and Lawley.
December 22
Vera Wallace sends Jeff Lee email that indicates someone has
been investigating Lee's background.
The Cancelpoodle (aka Cancelbunny) almost throughout the entire year cancels posts of a.r.s. critics only, usually claiming copyright violations.
Dennis Erlich loses his job and claims CoS had a hand in the loss.
Chris Miller calls Modemac a child pornographer.
Oussama Cherribi, member of the Dutch Parliament, is harassed by CoS.
Steve Fishman's internet account is mail bombed.
A Scientologist attempts to prevent Jeff Jacobsen's employer from being able to attend a seminar where the company promotes itself.
David Gerard has various problems with his university account in Australia due to CoS complaints about "Xenu Magazine", a student publication that he helped to produce.
Someone from Alan Cartright's office poses as a user of the online service The WELL, and claims copyright over files Jerod Pore has on his site.
Return to the Harassment of Netizens page or the Scientology vs. the Net main page.
Ron Newman, <rnewman@thecia.net>