The AP picked up the Wollersheim story, and that means a LOT of news outlets will be printing it this weekend.

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Church of Scientology Settles Case

The Associated Press Saturday, May 11, 2002; 12:09 AM

LOS ANGELES ญญ The Church of Scientology has agreed to pay a former member more than $8.6 million to resolve a lawsuit filed nearly 22 years ago.

In his 1980 lawsuit, Lawrence Wollersheim accused the church of causing him to develop bipolar disorder and to contemplate suicide. A jury in 1986 awarded him $30 million, an amount reduced on appeal to $2.5 million and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1994.

Church officials on Thursday handed over a check for $8,674,843 to Los Angeles County Superior Court, saying they wanted to put the matter behind them.

"This lawsuit was over 20 years old and concerned events from 30 years ago," Neil Levin, president of the Church of Scientology of California, said in a statement.

Wollersheim, who lives in Nevada, joined the church in 1969.

"Everything hasn't had a chance to set in, except that this is a great victory for social justice," he said by phone Friday.

According to his lawsuit, at one point he was held on a ship for 18 hours a day, deprived of food and sleep. He said it was a mind control tactic that caused him to develop bipolar disorder.

"The counseling techniques are designed to either break you or make you a slave," said Wollersheim, 53. "I was on the edge of insanity."

The two sides disagreed over why it took so long to settle the case.

Wollersheim accused the church of using stalling tactics.

"From what I understand, Wollersheim didn't make any effort to collect the judgment," church attorney William Drescher told The Washington Post.

-- LYING IS A SCIENTOLOGY SACRAMENT ASK THEM ABOUT XENU Mike O'Connor <http://www.leptonicsystems.com/>

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