UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
TAMPA DIVISION

STIPULATION AND AGREEMENT

The parties to the above-captioned action, CITY OF CLEARWATER and SIDNEY R. KLEIN, Chief of Police, Clearwater Police Department, Plaintiffs, and CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY FLAG SERVICE ORGANIZATION, INC., Defendant, by and through their undersigned counsel, agree and stipulate as follows:

1. The Plaintiff, CITY OF CLEARWATER, is a municipal corporation in Pinellas County, Florida.

2. The Plaintiff, SIDNEY R. KLEIN, is the Chief of Police of the Clearwater Police Department (hereinafter "CPD"), an agency of the City of Clearwater. Chief Klein is the official custodian of all public records maintained by the Clearwater Police Department.

3. The Defendant, CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY FLAG SERVICE ORGANIZATION, INC. (hereinafter "the Church"), is a non-profit religious corporation, recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt church.

4. Since at least 1979, the CPD has conducted a criminal intelligence investigation of the Church and its members and amassed voluminous files of individual police reports, intelligence reports, and other documents gathered through January of 1994 and which records are the subject matter of this action (hereinafter "Scientology Records"). No criminal charges have been filed by CPD against the Church or its members as a result of the CPD criminal intelligence investigation.

5. The Scientology Records also include a multi-volume report written by CPD officer Ray Emmons (hereinafter the "Emmons" report) which accuses named officials and parishioners of the Church of having committed numerous state and federal crimes. It is the Church's position that these accusations are false and/or without basis.

6. In or around January, 1994, the CPD released some of the Scientology Records to a newspaper which had made a request for the documents pursuant to the Florida Public Records Act and all the Scientology Records were later shown to the Church. Subsequently, the Church protested this public release of the Scientology Records on the grounds that such release violated the privacy interests of the Church and those who associate with it.

7. Plaintiffs subsequently instituted the instant action seeking a declaration as to whether the disclosure of any records not subject to exemption under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, would be violative of the Defendant's privacy rights and whether the Plaintiffs have any immunity, power, privelege or right to forbid the disclosure of those documents.

8. The Church counterclaimed, seeking an injunction against further public release of the Scientology Records that contained sensitive and private information about Church and its members, on the grounds that release of such documents would violate the privacy rights of the Church and its members protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Florida Constitution; and that release of any documents alleging child abuse would violate Fla. Stat. 119.07. The Church also sought an order expunging the CPD files.

9. The parties have taken part in a court-ordered mediation conducted by James R. Freeman of Shear, Newman, Hahn and Rosenkranz in Tampa and have conducted settlement negotiations on their own. This stipulation and agreement ("Agreement") was reached as a result of the mediation and independent settlement negotiations.

10. The Plaintiffs agree to conduct a good faith review of the Scientology Records to determine which of those documents they can destroy as unnecessary. Such good faith review shall be accomplished within four (4) months of the date of this agreement.

11. At the conclusion of the review process set forth in paragraph 10 above, the Plaintiffs agree to continue to review the Scientology Records which the Plaintiffs determine are or have become unnecessary.

12. All records to be destroyed pursuant to this Agreement shall be destroyed in accordance with the requirements and procedures of Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, and the Plaintiff's destruction policy.

13. The parties agree that the CPD will not publicly comment on this Agreement.

14. Each party will voluntarily dismiss, without prejudice, their claims in this action.

15. Each party shall bear its own costs and attorneys fees in this action.

Signed and Agreed: