Source “PR Newswire”
Author Heber C. Jentzsch
Date November 19th, 19841
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19/PRN – The Church of Scientology and Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of writer L. Ron Hubbard, filed a legal complaint today in Los Angeles Superior Court asking to enjoin the U.S. Federal District Court of Los Angeles from releasing personal letters, documents and early writings of Hubbard that had been the subject of controversy for more than two years, the church said.
The documents were stolen from the church in 1981, a spokesman said. The materials
had been used as court exhibits in U.S. Federal District Court but were placed under seal during the course of the court hearing in which the church sought their return, the church said.
The church added that although the court had declined to return the documents
immediately to the church, the papers were now ordered to be released while the case was still going through the appeal process.
“This is extraordinary,” said church attorney John Peterson in making the motion today.
“It nullifies the entire purpose of appeal. The issue at stake here is that an individual’s
private papers and writings should not become public property because they are stolen.
Theft does not circumvent the basic right to privacy.”
Peterson said that the Superior Court was being sued because the issue would be going
before the court of appeals in about a month and the premature release of these documents is “a gross violation of due process.”
The documents had been illegally removed from the church by a former employee who
intends “to exploit these stolen papers for his own profit and notoriety,” Peterson said.
“The key issue is the right to privacy since there was never any question that the material was stolen,” he added.
Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, said: “Laws
were not created to encourage criminality and strip away constitutional rights. The right to privacy is sacred to Americans and was purchased at the cost of blood and great sacrifice by our forefathers. Damned if I will stand by and let a thief take it away.”
Contact – Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch of the Church of Scientology at 213-666-5570.
Notes
- Retrieved on September 22, 2014 from www.xenufrance.net/osa-so-called-press-releases-year-1984.pdf ↩︎