Testimony: Church[sic] of Scientology spurred critic's arrest
DAVID SOMMER
The Tampa Tribune
May 23, 2001
http://www.tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGAW08LL2NC.html

CLEARWATER - For months, a high-profile attorney for a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology has tried to show the church is behind a minor drug charge against his client.

Now, on the eve of Jesse Prince's trial on a misdemeanor charge of growing marijuana, defense lawyer Denis de Vlaming has hit what he considers pay dirt.

Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews still must decide whether jurors get to hear how private detectives working for the church shadowed Prince for months before succeeding in having him charged with growing a marijuana plant on his deck.

The prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Lydia Wardell, has said the involvement of the private detectives is irrelevant. Wardell needs only the testimony of a Largo police sergeant who, with the help of church detectives, twice visited Prince in his home before obtaining a search warrant for the plant.

During a series of hotly contested hearings, de Vlaming has locked horns with a private lawyer who denied working for the church. Lawyer Paul D.

Johnson, who acknowledged his uncle Paul B. Johnson has long acted as a church attorney, maintained he was only working for the private detectives, who sought to avoid being questioned by de Vlaming.

The judge allowed the questioning, and at closed-door depositions May 15 another lawyer explained the church's involvement to Andrews.

The private detectives work for her firm, Moxon & Kobrin, lawyer Helena Kobrin told the judge. Moxon & Kobrin is involved in a civil case involving allegations of wrongful death, she said.

Upon further questioning by Andrews, Kobrin acknowledged what de Vlaming has been alleging all along. Moxon & Kobrin, a Los Angeles law firm, represents the church.

The estate of church member Lisa McPherson has a wrongful death lawsuit pending against the church in Pinellas. Prince, a former church official now employed by a group that is critical of the church, is listed as an expert witness in the wrongful death case, Kobrin said.

"Our contention is that he is in no way shape or form qualified to be an expert witness," Kobrin said, according to a transcript of one of the May 15 depositions.

Largo police Sgt. Howard Crosby testified he quickly learned of the church's involvement after a private detective accused Prince of being a marijuana and cocaine dealer. "From Day One ... when they told me who these people were that were involved and what's going on, I just wanted to get rid of this case as quickly as possible," Crosby said.

After Prince's August 2000 arrest on the misdemeanor cultivation charge, the private detective suggested additional charges of sale or possession of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, because a school was near Prince's home, and child abuse, because two children lived in the home, Crosby said.

"And I said, 'A marijuana plant on the back porch? I'm not going to go there.' "

Jury selection is today in the drug case.

Okay, so Scientology paid people to tail Jesse and lie to him in an attempt to befriend him.

It looks to me (I am not a lawyer) like that runs afoul of Florida's witness laws: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?mode=View%20Statutes&SubMenu=1&App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=CH0914/CH0914.HTM

914.22 Tampering with a witness, victim, or informant.-- (1) A person who knowingly uses intimidation or physical force, or threatens another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, or offers pecuniary benefit or gain to another person, with intent to cause or induce any person to:

(a) Withhold testimony, or withhold a record, document, or other object, from an official investigation or official proceeding;

(b) Alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with intent to impair the integrity or availability of the object for use in an official investigation or official proceeding;

(c) Evade legal process summoning that person to appear as a witness, or to produce a record, document, or other object, in an official investigation or an official proceeding;

(d) Be absent from an official proceeding to which such person has been summoned by legal process;

(e) Hinder, delay, or prevent the communication to a law enforcement officer or judge of information relating to the commission or possible commission of an offense or a violation of a condition of probation, parole, or release pending a judicial proceeding; or (f) Testify untruthfully in an official investigation or an official proceeding, commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s.

775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

We got the "engages in misleading conduct," we got the "offers pecuniary benefit to another person," we got the admitted intent to cause him to "be absent from an official proceeding." Anyone in Florida who wants to bring this up to the Attorney General there, do be my guest.
Kristi
P.S. Jesse: Check out section 914.25 Protective services for certain victims and witnesses.

--
Kristi Wachter

the activist formerly known as "Jour" (before $cientology outed me) If I am not who you say I am, then you are not who you think you are. - James Baldwin

I think $cientology is hurting people and breaking the law, and I want them to stop it. See http://www.scientology-lies.com for more.