‘Guru Ma’ Trial Ends in Biblical Flourish

Attorneys exchanged barbed Scriptural references Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court during final arguments in a suit brought by a Westlake Village man against a church that expelled him in 1980.

A lawyer for Gregory Mull, 64, read from the Gospel According to Mark in support of Mull’s claim that he was defrauded and harmed emotionally by the Church Universal and Triumphant.

“Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing,” Mull’s attorney, Lawrence Levy, said as he looked toward defendant Elizabeth Clare Prophet, 46, the spiritual leader of the Calabasas-based church, known to thousands of followers as “Guru Ma.” Prophet’s maiden name is Wulf. Levy contended that Prophet and two other church leaders named in the suit manipulated and exploited Mull, who was the church’s resident architect during 1979 and 1980.

Ken Klein, attorney for the church, cited Deuteronomy as he argued that Mull had wronged the church by failing to repay a $32,000 loan. Klein said the church did no more harm by chanting a prayer against Mull than Moses did when he cursed his own people, as recounted in Deuteronomy.

Asked to Leave

“Maybe somebody should have sued Moses for intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Klein said.

Mull was asked to leave Camelot, the church’s Calabasas estate, after he refused to repay money he claims was promised him for expenses. The church sued him for the money in 1981, and Mull countersued for $253 million.

The jury is expected to start deliberations today.

Levy told the panel that Mull was a building designer in San Francisco when the church recruited him in 1974. “What they wanted was to save money,” Levy said of Prophet and her associates. They first flattered Mull and later invited him to come design a “New Jerusalem” at Camelot, he said.

‘Thought Reform’

Levy said that Mull underwent “thought reform” while a student in 1975 at Summit University, a church-run college then situated in Santa Barbara, where students are taught that Prophet is a divinely appointed messenger who receives dictations from “ascended masters,” including Jesus, Buddha and an entity named El Morya. Summit is now at Camelot.

Levy argued that Prophet violated her priestly obligation to Mull by making public the contents of a “clearance” or confessional letter he was required to write at Summit. Mull revealed in the letter that he had had homosexual experiences.

Such letters were supposed to be burned but were sometimes copied and kept in church files, Levy said. Mull’s was later used to discredit him by Prophet and her followers, he said.

“How many of you would confess your sins to a priest if you knew that, after you did it, the priest was going to meet with the guys and sit down and BS about what was in your confession?” he asked the jury.

Permanent Damage Claimed

Levy argued that Mull, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, was permanently damaged by stress he suffered from his dealings with Prophet, for whom he had given up his business, his wife and his autonomy. “I’m for freedom of religion, but I’m not for freedom of manipulation,” he said.

In summarizing the church’s case, Klein said that Mull had never been a successful architect as he claimed. “It’s probably the first time in the history of jurisprudence that the victim started out broke and ended up with $32,000 from the alleged perpetrator,” Klein said. Mull earned less than $10,000 in the four years before he went to Camelot, Klein said, citing tax records.

Klein noted that Mull’s own physician could not tell what role, if any, stress played in Mull’s obviously impaired health.

He also argued that Prophet did not act outrageously, even if, as Mull said, she called him the “Beast of Blasphemy.” In a letter, Mull called her the “Great Whore” and the “False Prophet,” Klein said.

“I think they’re even,” he said.

Sold House Before Rift

Klein attacked Mull’s testimony that the church so exploited him that he had to forage for food in a garbage dumpster behind a market. He reminded the jury that Mull had sold a house shortly before the rift for $200,000.

“I’m sure there are people who eat garbage from the dumpsters behind Vons,” Klein said. “But I doubt there are any others who drive up in their new Toyotas and go home to their condominiums in Westlake and go on nationwide videotaping tours.” Mull toured the country speaking about Prophet’s church after he split with her.

Klein said that the practices of the church were like those of military academies and monastic societies.