The Region - News from Jan. 27, 1986

A Los Angeles federal judge has refused to dismiss a Church of Scientology lawsuit against members of a splinter group accused of using stolen church documents for their own financial gain. U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer took the action after deciding that there was no valid reason for a defense attorney’s demand that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard be deposed in connection with the case. The Church of Scientology is suing a former member, Robin Scott, who is linked to the Advanced Ability Center in Santa Barbara. Attorney Gary Bright, representing the center, had argued that Hubbard should appear for a deposition. Scientology lawyers said they had no way of communicating with Hubbard. Heber C. Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, said that by establishing for the first time that Hubbard’s relationship to Scientology is simply as the spiritual founder of the church, rather than as an active officer, the ruling “destroys the national strategy to decimate Scientology by going after default judgments on the basis that Hubbard has to be deposed in every lawsuit in which the church is involved.”