From braintree!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!netmbx.de!unlisys!usenet Wed Sep 27 15:56:57 1995
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From: tilman@berlin.snafu.de (Tilman Hausherr)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: STERLING: from CAN's newsletter
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 16:25:36 GMT
Organization: Xenu's Ranch
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I found this at http://www.xnet.com/~can/can.html. I love the part that
says "The evidence had been found by Priscilla Coates after Sterling
Management discarded it". I think CAN should have brought more details,
because it would show her efforts (i.e. dumpster diving) :-)


Scientology-linked Sterling Management loses case against CAN



Emery Wilson Corporation, a Scientology-linked organization doing
business as Sterling Management, lost a lawsuit last month which it had
brought in 1991 against the Cult Awareness Network and several
individuals.

The suit alleged that CAN and the other defendants harmed Sterling
Management's business operations through dissemination to the American
Dental Association and to many other individuals and organizations of
information about Sterling Management and its links to the Church of
Scientology.

Other defendants in the case included CAN Executive Director Cynthia
Kisser, and Priscilla Coates of the Los Angeles affiliate of CAN. Craig
Branch, Vice-President of the Christian counter- cult ministry Watchman
Fellowship, had also been named in the suit, but was dropped as a
defendant early in the case because the court in which the suit had been
filed, the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of
Los Angeles, did not have jurisdiction over Branch, a resident of
Alabama.

Judge Aviva K. Bobb granted CAN's Motion for Summary Judgment in the
case, finding that Sterling Management offered no evidence for its claim
that any of the defendants interfered in causing cancellation of a
contract between Sterling Management and the Better Business Bureau.
Sterling Management was not able to prove that the defendants were
responsible for disrupted relationships with Sterling's clients and
prospective clients.

The court had precluded Sterling Management from presenting evidence of
this alleged disruption because of sanctions it issued last year after
CAN proved to the court that Sterling Management had purposely tried to
destroy evidence in the case which proved Sterling Management was linked
organizationally to the Church of Scientology. The evidence had been
found by Priscilla Coates after Sterling Management discarded it and it
was subsequently authenticated by the court. Sterling Management had
claimed at that time that it filed the suit that it was a secular
organization with no connection to Scientology.

CAN had also been sanctioned in the case for discarding old records of
incoming phone calls to CAN from the public. Unlike the sanction Judge
Bobb issued against Sterling Management, the sanction she issued against
CAN did not conclude that the discarded records were evidence in the
case, but simply that they might have been evidence in the case, but
since they had been discarded, the court was not able to examine them so
that a determination could be made.

The Sterling Management case was one of approximately 50 cases brought
against CAN or its affiliates during 1991 and 1992. Only three cases
remain active. In all the other cases the Scientology defendants either
lost the cases or voluntarily withdrew them.

CAN's Motion for Summary Judgement was written by Cathy Shipe and argued
by Daniel A. Liepold, both with the law firm of Hagenbaugh & Murphy in
Orange, Calif. Sterling Management was represented by Lawrence E. Heller
of Turner, Gerstenfeld, Wilk, Tigreman & Heller, Los Angeles, Calif.


The CULT AWARENESS NETWORK is a national, tax-exempt non-profit
educational organization, dedicated to promoting public awareness of the
harmful effects of mind control. CAN confines its concerns to unethical
or illegal practices and does not judge doctrine or belief.

--- Tilman Hausherr        [KoX; awards: DB, SP decl. by Koos]
biz:  <tilman@sietec.de>           <URL:http://www.sietec.de/> (company page)
home: <tilman@berlin.snafu.de>     <URL:http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/>

    Resistance is futile. You will be enturbulated. Xenu always prevails.


ÿ