City looks to court for opinion on records

Clearwater Commission Digest

©St. Petersburg Times, published February 1, 1994

CLEARWATER - The city is asking a judge to decide if police investigative files on the Church of Scientology are public records. The City Commission on Monday unanimously voted to hire a lawyer to take the case to Pinellas County Circuit Court.

A lawyer for Scientology last month asked the city to keep the files closed, arguing that they violated the privacy rights of individuals identified in the files. The existence and content of the records were reported by the Times last month.

The files detail a 13-year investigation of Scientology, complete with police reports alleging fraud and other crimes.

The Times gained access to the files through the state's public records law. Scientology officials also obtained the files but then said they should be kept closed based on the constitutional rights of individuals. The organization threatened a civil rights lawsuit.

Alan Zimmet, the city's attorney on this matter, said he would file the court paperwork as soon as he could.

Scientology suit moves to federal court

Pinellas Digest

©St. Petersburg Times, published February 25, 1994

The city and Scientology's lawsuit over police investigation records is headed to federal court. Scientology lawyers on Wednesday filed papers to move the case out of county court.

Clearwater sued the Church of Scientology's Flag Service Organization earlier this month to determine whether the city can continue to release the investigative files, which were the subject of a Times series in January.

Scientology officials contend that some of the records violate the federal and state privacy rights of its members. The city has taken the position the investigative files are public records.

Why the change from the state court system to federal?

"We just felt this would be the easiest way to get a complete resolution to the problem," said Paul B. Johnson, a Tampa lawyer who represents Scientology.

Scientology asks judge to yank files from police

©St. Petersburg Times, published March 9, 1994

The Church of Scientology is asking a federal judge to get rid of records that the Police Department has maintained as part of a 13-year investigation into Scientology.

The organization says that police, by releasing the contents of those files to the Times, have violated the "personal, associational and religious privacy rights" of Scientologists.

Those arguments are part of Scientology's statement, filed in a counterclaim last week, in a legal fight over the police files. After the Times published stories about the investigation in January and Scientology asked the city to immediately deny further public access to the information in the files, the city went to court to try to keep the files open.

Scientology further claims that police gave the Times access to more information than the police had given the church in its earlier requests for public records.

Scientology's counterclaims and its legal strategy of moving the case to federal court mean that the city will have to spend more money to defend the lawsuit, lawyers say. Estimates now run up to $20,000; an earlier guess placed the cost below $5,000.