From: dennis.l.erlich@support.com
Subject: Statement to court   
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 20:33:53 -0800


                      * Faithful Reader *

              +---------------------------------+

I presented this to Judge Whyte.  He's looking out for our 
rights.

More later.

Dennis


               +--------------------------------+

February 21, 1995, 10AM

The Honorable Ronald M. Whyte
U. S. District Court
Northern District of California
San Jose

Re. Case Number:  C 95 20091 RMW

Dear Judge Whyte:

Please excuse the lack of proper form in my reply to you regarding
this matter.  I have not had time to find adequate representation for
my appearance in court today.

For this reason I would beg the court's protection regarding my
rights, unknown to me at this time, in this court.  Please endeavor to
advise me regarding such rights as we proceed.  I know virtually
nothing of the law, but, with all due respect, I feel my civil rights
have been flagrantly violated in this suit thus far.  For this reason, I
am willing to waive none of my rights, even though I don't fully know
what they are.

I will be requesting that a jury decide both this suit and the counter-
suit I will be filing against the plaintiff.

I also feel that this case has been misplaced in your court.  Please
examine this matter in light of my belief and consider changing the
venue to somewhere more convenient to the main participant:
namely me.  As to the specific court I would request, with all due
respect, might I suggest that the Court of the Hon. Manual Real,
Southern District of California, would be more appropriate.

Background:

On June 22, 1984, The Honorable Paul G. Breckenridge, Jr. wrote in
his decision of Church of Scientology, et al v. Gerald Armstrong:  "In
addition to violating its own members' civil rights, the organization ...
has harassed and abused those persons not within the Church whom
it perceives as enemies ... (it) clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid
..."  (Nos. BO2590 and BO38975, Super Ct No C420153)

As a writer and former minister of scientology (1970-1982), I have
worked tirelessly, though somewhat futilely, for the past thirteen
years, to reform scientology and to expose the crimes I saw
committed during a 15 year career as a minister which took me into
the inner circle (the Sea Organization) of the "church" of scientology.
To these ends I began posting my experiences and views to an
Internet newsgroup, alt.religion.scientology, devoted to the cult, in
August of 1994.

At 7:30, on the morning of February 13, 1995, I was called on a
cellular phone by an off-duty police officer from Inglewood,
California (Sgt. Ed Eccles), who, at that moment, was at my front
door, repeatedly ringing the doorbell.  He shouted that he had a
warrant to enter my house and a writ of seizure signed by a federal
judge and that I better let him in.   I immediately called the Glendale
Police on 911.  I was told by the 911 operator to let the group of
people into my house, that they had a warrant.

Escorted by the Glendale Police Officer Steve Eggett (badge#
12126), six unidentified individuals entered my home and told me
that I would have to cooperate with a search and seizure directed by
your honor.  They presented me with a stack of legal documents
about  six inches thick to prove their right to do so.  I protested the
legality of the raid, and was told in no uncertain terms, that if I
resist, force would be used against me.  I was not permitted to have
an attorney present before they proceeded.  At least two of the
individuals, beside the Glendale officer were armed.  After about an
hour, officer Eccles left my house without saying goodbye to me or
making his absence known.

None of the remaining people would show me identification, despite
my asking repeatedly.

I was left for the rest of the six hour search and seizure, with an in-
house attorney for the scientology cult (Small), a private investigator
working for the cult (Robert Shovlin), 2 armed, off-duty officers
working for the scientology lawyer (Off. Mark Fronterotta and Sgt.
Ed Eccles) and another dozen or so scientologists ransacking my
property, including the plaintiff, Warren McShane.  The scientologists
went through my computer, all my papers, every closet, every
drawer.  They busted open a door to my garage and, I assume,
searched my car.  They also photographed every nook and cranny of
my house.

I believe that they deliberately mislead you in obtaining the writ.
They then misused your authority by executing it in such a way as
to invade every bit of my privacy they had not previously stolen
from me.

During the search, the files on my hard drive were deleted and the
entirety of the data on my disk was copied onto two 250 mb
Colorado back-up tapes the scientologists brought with them into my
house.  Also, after their raid, I was missing a key to my house, my
current bank statement and a tape with several of my copyrighted
songs recorded on it.  God only knows what else.  I haven't had time
to search.

After several hours the press arrived and began recording the scene.
At first the scientology agents said that the press was not allowed
in.  I invited them in anyway and the scientologists fell back and
seemed to try to finish up and get out of my house more quickly.
When they were ready to depart, neither they (the scientologists),
nor the other Glendale Policeman, Sgt. MiKillop, whom I had
summoned at the end of the raid to protect my rights, would permit
me to inventory or even look at the hundreds of disks and files they
had copied and were removing from my possession.  I begged the
officer not to allow the material and files  to be taken without my
examining the poorly inventoried items.

After they had departed, two of my computers would no longer boot
properly.   They had left me with no current back-up of the material
they illegally deleted.  I no longer have the material to use in my
own defense, or to restore my disk to full operation.

In the course of carrying out your Writ of Seizure, the plaintiff and
their paid agents deleted and copied from my computers the
evidence I need to adequately defend myself against the barratrous
assault on my freedom of speech and religion which they themselves
have launched.

I am somehow sure that this is not what you had intended.

Regarding Exhibit A:

To the best of my recollection, I quoted only a few sentences from
each of those policies.  I believe that fair use and my status as a
minister trained on these materials while within my ministry in
scientology, allows me to quote small segments to make a point, for
public service, or for use in my religious sermons on the Internet.
Those policies consist of small quotes (several paragraphs) from
scientology's (12 volume, 400+ page each) green policy and red
technical volumes.  Those volumes are available in many used
bookstores in California.

Regarding Exhibit B:

Those documents were posted anonymously to Internet by another.
When I made comments about them, I sometimes used portions of
the original message and sometimes included the entire message.  I
do not know who originally put these messages on the Internet.  I
studied similar documents when I was a minister in Scientology.
During my career as a scientology minister, materials were often
taken home by individuals for use in private.

As a minister, trained on these "scriptures", I am quite certain that I
have not violated any law by using them as I see fit in my current
ministry on the Internet.

In the course of my futile attempt to resolve this problem by letter
with the plaintiff, I even offered to delete any material I had posted
and apologize publicly, if they would provide me with their
copyrighted text for comparison.  They ignored my sincere request
for clarification.  And instead, about a month later, sent, without
first calling, two suited thugs to intimidate me at 10:30 as I walked
a young lady to her car on my darkened street.

Further, you honor, these materials were introduced in a case in Los
Angeles, Church of Scientology v Steven Fishman and Uwe Geertz
No. CV 91-6426.  Currently, the question of whether these
documents are in the public domain is before, I believe, the Ninth
Circuit Court in California.  The copyright status of these materials is
also in dispute in a court case which is currently being litigated in
Great Britain.

Because of the obvious bad faith displayed by the plaintiff in both
the manner in which the order was obtained and how it was carried
out, I request that your honor lift the temporary restraining order
against me, order the forfeiture of the bond and dismiss this case
immediately.

Respectfully Yours,

Rev. Dennis L. Erlich
in pro per

               +--------------------------------+

A victory!

Shelly and Alan Hacker were present and will give full account.  
Then I'll answer all questions.

Press:

Glendale News-Press - editorial today article tomrrow
LA Times - article tomorrow
Information Week
Info World - with pic
San Jose Mercury News - article tomorrow.

ttyl,

and thanks ....

           +---------------------------------------+
          Rev. Dennis L Erlich   * * the inFormer * *
                 <dennis.l.erlich@support.com>
                        that person (tm)
