Paper wants Scientology documents unsealed - 1988-10-25
Paper wants Scientology documents unsealed October 25, 1988,
The St. Petersburg Times has asked a federal judge to unseal four court files pertaining to the Church of Scientology.
The files, which otherwise would be available to the public, were sealed in 1986 by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich at the Scientologists' request. At the time the church was settling four lawsuits against it by former Clearwater Mayor Gabriel Cazares, among others, for undisclosed sums of money.
The suits alleged that Scientologists invaded the plaintiffs' privacy and abused the courts by filing malicious actions. In another of the suits filed between 1980 and 1982, Tanja C. Burden of Las Vegas said Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, his wife, Mary Sue, and the Clearwater church enslaved her for more than four years.