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1998 - Signs of Distress

The summer of 1998 was a turning point for Minton, as for the first
time he showed signs of great distress. Ironically enough, Minton
caused a great part of his upcoming problems himself by severely
disrupting his own family stability.

While still having been married to his wife Therese, Minton had
started during the previous months a relationship with
ex-Scientologist Stacy Young who at that time was married to former
Scientologist Vaughn Young. Stacy, who later divorced Vaughn, would
finally become Minton's closest confident in all matters concerning
Scientology.

When the Scientologists became aware of the affair between Minton and
Stacy, they began to accuse both of adultery. On July 25th the
situation escalated when two OSA members, Gerard Renna and Kevin Hall,
picketed in front of Minton's home in Sandown. According to statements
of Minton the two Scientologists trespassed onto Minton's property and
yelled obscenities at him and Stacy. Minton then went inside the house
and fired two warning shots over their heads with his shotgun. Later
the police arrived and temporarily confiscated Minton's shotgun [Exh.
No. 37].

On the same day of the shooting, Michael Rinder, the head of "OSA
International", wrote a letter to Minton's still-wife Therese,
informing her about the affair between her husband and Stacy. When he
did not receive a response, Rinder wrote a second letter trying to
arrange a meeting with her. A third and final letter by Rinder was
sent to Mrs. Minton on August 26th. Robert Minton later posted the
first [Exh. No. 38], the second [Exh. No. 39] and the third letter
[Exh. No. 40] on the Internet. It is worthwhile noting that in his
second letter from July 30th Rinder wrote:

"… Neither I nor anyone in the Church of Scientology has ever had any
intention to interfere with your life and happiness. …"

In a later interview with the "Saint Petersburg Times" Rinder
confirmed sending these letters to Mrs. Minton, while he denied at the
samt time of having threatened Robert Minton with "IRS investigations"
into his finances, which Minton had accused him to have done [Exh. No.
41].

In spite of Rinder's promise not to interfere with Therese's private
life, Scientologists continued to picket in front of Minton's home in
Boston and to distribute flyers in the immediate neighbourhood during
the months of August and September. At that time Minton had separated
from his wife and was residing at his home at Sandown in New
Hampshire.

On September 10th, Minton and the Boston Scientologists clashed again.
During a picket in front to the Boston Scientology organization Minton
got into a physical confrontation with OSA member and PR spokesperson
Frank Ofman. Both sides had previously engaged in a screaming match
and had shouted obscenities at each other [Exh. No. 42]. The Boston
police later arrived on the scene and arrested Minton for assault and
battery. He was subsequently released on bail [Exh. No. 43].

Naturally this incident did neither stop the Scientologists of
continuing picketing Minton and his family nor of investigating
Minton's former business partners: On October 9th Minton reported on
the Internet that the private investigator Peter Franks had delivered
to Minton's former business partner Jeffrey Schmidt and the Nigerian
Minister of Finance two "dead agent packs" containing discrediting
material. This was done during an IMF conference in Washington [Exh.
No. 44].

The very eventful year ended with more demonstrations: On December 5th
and 6th critics of Scientology, among the Robert Minton, assembled in
Clearwater to picket the organization's "spiritual headquarters" and
to mourn the death of Lisa McPherson. On this occasion Minton stated
at a press conference that he would continue to financially support
the estate of Lisa McPherson in its civil litigation against the
Clearwater Scientology organization.

One week later, on December 14th, Minton stood trial at a Boston court
to face the assault and battery charges in connection with his arrest
in September. The judge finally dismissed the charge on the condition
that Minton would inform the Scientology organization in Boston on
hour in advance every time he planned to do a picket in front of their
building [Exh. No. 45].

The year 1999 began for Minton with settlement negotiations in the
F.A.C.T.Net case. When an agreement with RTC was finally reached in
March, Minton and his girlfriend Stacy Brooks (former Young) stepped
down from their corporate positions at F.A.C.T.Net.

As during the previous years Minton continued to publicly speak out
against Scientology and to demonstrate in front of Scientology's
buildings in Boston and Clearwater. While he furthermore propagated
his intention to reform the activities of the organization, his
attitude towards Scientology and his manner of picketing changed to
become more aggressive. Rather than addressing and informing the
general public during pickets, he engaged in provoking and shouting at
Scientology members and ridiculing certain of their beliefs.

Minton's financial support of critics who were involved in litigation
against the Scientology organization caused him also to become more
and more legally entangled with the organization, as his monetary
contributions became the subject of hearings and depositions in
various court cases (f. e. "Religious Technology Center vs. Grady
Ward," United States District Court for the Northern District of
California, No. C 96-20207 RMW; "Religious Technology Center vs. Keith
Henson," United States District Court for the Northern District of
California, No. C 96-20271 RMW).

In late October of 1999 Minton publicly announced plans to set up an
organization, directed at Scientology. He stated that the foundation
would operate in Clearwater and would provide so-called "exit
counseling" to Scientologists who wanted to leave the organization.
Minton's plans were mentioned in an "Associated Press" press article,
which also cited Minton saying that he had spent about $ 2.5 million
"fighting the church" during the previous three years [Exh. No 46]. At
the time of the article Minton had already in fact incorporated the
"Lisa McPherson Trust, Inc." (LMT) which had been registered on
October 18th [Exh. No. 15].

On October 30th Minton visited Clearwater to find office space for his
new-founded organization. Later in the evening he decided to picket
the local Scientology organization. While picketing on Fort Harrison
Avenue, Minton found himself closely followed by security staff member
Richard Howd who filmed every move of Minton with his camera. Annoyed
by Howd, Minton struck his picket sign at Howd. After he had been hit,
Howd fell to the ground and was taken to a near hospital. Minton was
later arrested by the police and then set free on a $ 250 bail fee
[Exh. No. 47].

In a follow-up interview with the local press, Minton complained that
he was still constantly followed by private investigators and that
Scientologist would send mailings with negative material about him not
only to all the residents of Sandown, but also to business associates
and to the schools that Minton's daughters were attending [Exh. No.
48].

Soon after this incident Richard Howd filed a lawsuit requesting a
temporary restraining order against Minton that would prohibit him in
coming near Scientology's buildings and its members. On November 15th,
during one of the first hearings in the case, Minton stated that in
spite of his newest legal conflict he had been successful in buying a
building for the LMT in downtown Clearwater, directly in the
neighbourhood of the Church of Scientology [Exh. No. 49].

1999 - Founding of the Trust

Three weeks later, during a press conference at the annual picket in
honor of the late Lisa McPherson, Minton announced that by
establishing the LMT he would create a safe zone for Scientologists
and others who wanted to find out the truth behind the official façade
of Scientology. He also said that the organization would be headed by
a board of directors and be manned with six full-time working staff.

When asked why he had set up the LMT as a for-profit corporation,
Minton responded that he wanted to avoid financial reporting
requirements of non-profit organizations, which Scientology would use
to harass potential donors of the trust.

In an immediate response Scientology officials denounced the LMT as "a
hate group set up for profit and for the personal benefit of Bob
Minton." OSA chief Michael Rinder declared Minton's plans as a scheme
to regain the money he had already spent to fight Scientology [Exh.
No. 50].

On December 10th Minton posted the mission statements of the LMT on
the Internet, which stated among other things that the LMT was there
"to demystify and make transparent the coercive processes and
practices of Scientology [Exh. No. 51]."

On January 6th, 2000 the LMT began officially operating. Soon after
the opening of the LMT, the District Attorney in Tampa filed battery
charges against Minton, based upon the confrontation with Richard Howd
in late October 1999. At this time judge Pennick who presided over the
Howd case issued a temporary restraining order against Minton and
Howd. Under the order Minton was required to stay at least 10 feet
away from 17 Scientology-owned buildings in Clearwater [Exh. No. 52].

With the arrival of Minton and the LMT in Clearwater, city officials
were soon drawn into Minton's conflict with the Scientologists too. At
a public meeting of the Clearwater city commission Minton accused the
city of Clearwater of "being too cozy with Scientology" and that the
commissioner for the city, Michael Roberto had tried to interfere with
Minton's purchase of the LMT's office building [Exh. No. 53].

The prior mentioned restraining order did not however prohibit new
confrontations between Minton, the LMT staff and the Scientologists.
Soon after its opening Minton and LMT staff members began to picket
the adjacent Scientology buildings while shouting at staff members and
encouraging them to start a revolt inside Scientology and to dismiss
the overall head of the organization, David Miscavige. The
Scientologists in return immediately complained to the police and the
city of Clearwater that the LMT staffers were violating the temporary
restraining order against Minton [Exh. No. 54].

On February 9th the court reacted to the recent incidents with an
extension of the existing restraining order [Exh. No. 55], while the
legal department of the Clearwater police implemented immediately the
new ruling in order to keep both sides separated from each other [Exh.
No. 56].

Two months later, on April 2nd an article appeared in the British
Sunday Times magazine that featured allegations of a well-known
Nigerian celebrity about financial fraud that had taken place at the
end of the 1980s. The former professional soccer player and
millionaire John Fashanu decried that "billions of pounds disappeared
from the Nigerian central bank in the late 1980s and the early 1990s."
The article mentioned Robert Minton and his former business partner
Jeffrey Schmidt as the ones who had allegedly funneled money out of
the country through a debt buy-back scheme [Exh. No. 57].

This news story was one of several articles that would appear during
2000 and which would contain accusations of financial fraud in
connection with the Minton's past Nigerian debt buy-back operation
during the late 1980s.

On April 13th Minton responded to the article of the "Times" with an
Internet posting in which he accused Rilwanu Lukman, the secretary
general of OPEC, being the "conduit" for the operations against him
and which were instigated by two private investigators working for
Scientology, David Lee and Peter Franks [Exh. No. 58].

In Mid-April the Church of Scientology filed a lawsuit against the
estate of Lisa McPherson and its attorney Kennan Dandar. The suit
alleged a breach of contract by the estate when it had included in its
latest amended complaint of December 1999 in the wrongful death suit
the ecclesiastical leader of Scientology David Miscavige as a
defendant, contrary to a prior agreement of both parties [Exh. No.
59]. At a later date Minton was added as a defendant in that suit.
On May 3rd a court hearing was held in the Lisa McPherson wrongful
death case. This hearing would later trigger a series of fateful legal
events for Minton. At the request of the Church of Scientology's
attorney Kendrick Moxon the court granted a deposition of Robert
Minton, which would take place on May 24th. At this point Minton had
been deposed in the case in early 1998, but due to its very limited
scope, judge Moody granted a second deposition that would deal with
Minton's payments to witnesses and his contributions for funding the
case [Exh. No. 60, Excerpt].

On May 22nd and 23rd Minton was again the subject of court
proceedings. At a court in Tampa the criminal trial was held, which
was based on the battery charge against Minton. After 40 minutes of
deliberation the jury found Minton not guilty. Members of the jury
mentioned later that they felt that Minton had been set up by the
Scientologists [Exh. No. 61].

The day after the verdict the deposition of Minton in the wrongful
death case began but was early terminated. Both parties agreed for a
continuation of at a later date. [Exh. No. 62, Excerpt]. The
continuation of the deposition was from then on the subject of
numerous hearings, motions and court orders before it would be finally
resumed in 2001.

In early June Minton traveled to Leipzig, Germany to receive the first
"Alternative Charlemagne Award." A so-called "European-American
Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom," which was
composed by anti-cult activists and critics of Scientology, had
previously created the award and had selected Minton as the first
award winner. The purpose of the award was to counter the criticism by
the U. S. government directed at Germany and France for their
treatment of the Scientology organization. Ursula Caberta, a member of
the committee and the head of a Scientology task force for the city of
Hamburg presented the award to Minton during a ceremony [Exh. No. 63].

Caberta had also invited Minton to speak at a press conference in
Hamburg. On this occasion he announced the filing of two libel suits
against Scientology organizations in Paris, France and Berlin,
Germany. The German organization had previously stated that "with the
help of the Nigerian dictatorship Minton had put millions of dollars
in his own pocket while Nigeria's population had been starving [Exh.
No. 64]."

In July Ursula Caberta returned Minton's visit by coming to Clearwater
and to speak as well at a press conference about the work of her
office in Hamburg. At her arrival at the Tampa airport she was greeted
by several Scientologists who shouted at her "Nazi, go home" and
accused her of being a human rights violator [Exh. No. 65].

While staying in Clearwater Caberta was served with a summons for a
civil case. The German Scientologist and U. S. resident Hubert Heller
who had filed the federal lawsuit, accused her of tortious
interference in his business. A sect filter that Caberta had
propagated to businesses in Germany allegedly prohibited his software
company from a business deal with a German corporation [Exh. No. 66].

At a subsequent deposition in the case Caberta disclosed that she had
received a private loan from Minton. When asked about the amount of
the loan, Caberta refused to answer. The Scientology church in Germany
then used the information about the loan and filed in September a
complaint for bribery against Caberta arguing that she had accepted
money from a vocal Scientology critic while holding a public office.

On the 30th of November a court hearing was held in Saint Petersburg,
Florida in view of how the temporary injunction against Minton and his
staff would be applied during the upcoming annual Lisa McPherson
memorial picket. It was concluded with an extension of the temporary
injunction on all the protesters that would come to Clearwater and
picket in front of Scientology's headquarters [Exh. No. 67].

Around the time of the picket the Nigerian weekly magazine "Tell"
published an article that featured an interview with Minton. In this
interview he explained his past business deals with the Nigerian
government and the reasons for believing that the public controversy
about it had been in fact manipulated by Scientology operatives [Exh.
No. 68].

Although the Lisa McPherson picket took a normal course according to
the police, it had nevertheless an aftermath in court. Both parties,
Scientologists and picketers accused each other of having violated the
injunction. Consequently several court hearings were subsequently held
in January [Exh. No. 69] and in February of 2001.