Palo
Alto Times
August 29, 1978
Church of Scientology members plead innocent to charges
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Nine members of the Church of Scientology, including
the wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard, pleaded innocent today to charges
they infiltrated federal agencies and stole government documents.
U.S.
District Judge George Hart made it clear during the hour-long
arraignment that he would reject church attempts to turn their trial
into a forum for alleging 28 years of government harassment.
"The Church of Scientology is not on trial here and it's not going
to be on trial," Hart said. "There will be no reference
to religion throughout the trial
"We're talking about stealing," the judge said.
"That's a simple charge - like you went in a bank and took
money."
It
also was disclosed that grand juries in New York and Tampa, Fla., are
investigating possible criminal conduct by the church, which already is
accused in a 29-count indictment of placing members in typist jobs at
the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service to enable it to
steal stacks of secret documents.
Hart
denied motions by defense lawyers for a ruling sealing all documents in
the case to protect the privacy of the defendants. Prosecutors
argued the maneuver was intended for public relations purposes, noting
the church has called repeated news conferences to denounce the
government and now wants to prevent any adverse publicity from its
alleged actions.
The
church has admitted copying government documents, but said it did so to
defend itself against harassment by the IRS, which has opposed granting
it tax-exempt status, the Justice Department and other federal agencies.
The
case is built around thousands of documents FBI agents seized in raids
on the church's Los Angeles and Washington offices on July 8, 1977.
Two
of the 11 defendants - Jane Kember and Morris Budlong, whom prosecutors
believe are in Sussex, England, did not appear for arraignment.
Those
appearing before Hart included: Mary Sue Hubbard, Sussex, wife of the
church founder; Henning Heldt, Los Angeles; Duke Snider, Mitchell
Hermann and Cindy Raymond, all of Hollywood; Richard Weigand, Van Nuys;
and Gregory Willardson, Beverly Hills.
They
are charged with two counts of conspiracy, 10 counts of theft of
government property, 10 counts of burglary and one count of intercepting
oral communications.
Two
other suspects who entered innocent pleas - Gerald Bennett Wolf of
Areleta, Calif., and Sharon Thomas, Los Angeles - allegedly are
low-level church members who "infiltrated" the IRS and Justice
Department. They face related, but slightly different charges.
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