Former resident faces extradition over Scientology clash

In 1995, Palo Alto computer engineer Keith Henson became convinced that the Church of Scientology is evil.

[BeEaze]

Scientology is a load of crap. Not being able to go to the hospital if your dying or sick is wrong. Those people need to go get their heads examine by a psychiatrist. OH, by the way they don't believe in that either. Tom Cruise need to shut his mouth about stuff he has no knowledge of.

[andy d]

Scientology isn't even considered a religion here in england so he could not be arrested here on that 'interfering with a religion' charge.in fact,it wasn't regarded as a religion in the US for a long time,but the 'church' but a lot of pressure on,as usual,to get what they want.in Germany,Scientology is classed as a business,and is closely monitored.
Keith Henson is yet another innocent victim of this mafia-like cult which claims to be a religion and denounces anybody who dares to criticise it,claiming that they are bigots.
Keith Henson is no bigot,just a man who used his freedom of speech-something that the cult called of Scientology hates.

[Chuck Beatty - Pittsburgh]

I would appreciate it if your reporter asked Gov Schwarzenegger's office to find out WHO were the people behind the request.
Who would bother to even insist that the Gov of California write that request to the Gov of Arizona.
Obviously Scientology is interested in this extreme retaliatory tactic for a man who obviously is NO threat to anyone.
Scientology's retaliatory disgraceful ingrained nature mirrors their founder, and THAT is why Scientology is a continuing mess in people's lives.
Hubbard their founder insisted on the retaliatory policies which are irreligious and out of step with step with other religions' behavior.
Hubbard is the source of Scientology's image problems, straight and simple.
Henson is only pursued, he'd have been forgotten, if it werent' for Hubbard. Hubbard's extreme views turned into Scientology policy is what causes Scientology all the public backlash towards Scientology.
Ex 27 year staffer, Scientology,
Chuck Beatty, Pittsburgh

[Maureen]

Sign this petition to help Keith Henson
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freekeithh...

One year without parole...

Leader of $cientology, David Miscavige's father - Ronald Miscavige - was arrested and got probation via community service through the Riverside court -

Community service at the cults own compound at the "Golden Era Studios."

http://www.lermanet.com/exit/images/

Some setup they have for themselves. People who talk exercise free speech don't get probation?

Anyone with a conscience would keep asking the media to call the Gov of California to let them know they are watching what Riverside County does.

The Gov and courts have two choices: Correct the corruption already taken place and at present, or keep going along to profit by this injustice.

[Raymond Hill]

Keith Henson was peacefully picketing to bring awareness in what he characterizes as "depraved indifference" following the deaths of two young women in and around the Scientology fortified compound.

Many other people have been victims of Scientology's 'fair game' doctrine by Scientology organizations, that would not be a first.

Look-up Paulette Cooper, who was accused of bomb threats. It was found later that the Church of Scientology fabricated these threats to itself as a plot to silence Paulette Cooper. In the end, the plot was uncovered by chance following the FBI raid on Scientology in 1977.

Who knows what a raid on Scientology organizations would reveal this time around.

[Mary McConnell]

Too bad you did not report more of what defense attorney Michael Kielsky had to say. Henson is a pawn in a game scientology has been running on any critic ( media included)who opposes him. Try researching a bit deeper than the surface next time.

Keith Henson was peacefully picketing and exercising his right to free speech and was not bothering anyone but the church hated his presence there because they do not allow members the right to inspect or evaluate what the church is teaching them. They considered Henson a threat to that control.

One of the things Henson picketed was the unusual electrocution death of Stacy Moxon, a young girl many believed to be trying to escape the church who just happened to be the daughter of a lead church attorney named Kendrick Moxon.

He was convicted of making threat to interfere with religion but they made him out to be a terrorist!
He was convicted in 2001 under a California law (Sec. 422.6) that makes it a criminal offense to make any threat to interfere with someone else's "free exercise" of religion. One internet Usenet post that was introduced at his trial included jokes about "sending a 'Tom Cruise' missile against a Scientology compound."

It is people and governments like Henson and France,for example, who take a stand for what is right because it is the right thing to do.Then we have your governor, who is willingly wasting your tax dollars to extradite a man convicted of a misdemeanor offense because Tom Cruise just couldn't take a joke.

[Jerry Ladd]

I interviewed the aggressive deputy district attorney that prosecuted the case, Robert K. Schwarz, for an Iowa newspaper. He was a nervous-nelly.(Later he complained to the judge that an Iowa newspaper called him for coment.)

I asked him: "Isn't the test for these cases, that the threat must perceived by a 'reasonable person'?"

One of the threatened testified that the attack could have come from powers in outer space.

Schwarz insisted that a riverside county deputy sheriff should not testify on Henson's behalf that there were not reasonable threats in his judgement.

The judge denied Henson other defense witnesses. Henson was stripped by the judge of any defense.

But, why this case went forward was that District Attorney Grover Trask was contacted and smoozed by Gerald Feffer, a powerful criminal tax attorney Scientology had on retainer from the criminal defense firm Williams and Connolly of Washinton D.C.

http://www.wc.com/attorney.cfm...

I fear there was a quid pro quo involved in this silly and unfair prosecution, and that injustice is continuing today.

The Riverside County District Attorney should be investigated for these, and many other irregularities in the Henson case.

[Dave Touretzky]

This article is good but flawed. Henson never threatened anyone. He didn't even originate the "Tom Cruise missile" joke; he merely made a followup comment in response to it. The list of legal irregularities in this case is extensive, and stunning. See Wikipedia or www.operatingthetan.com for more information.

[Paul Arteaux]

Thank you so much for having the fortitude to write and publish this article. Mr. Henson's plight is being virtually ignored by the mainstream media, who are far more interested in a certain BBC reporter who understandably lost his temper at Ann Archer's nasty, little martinet of a son.

Henson's case is a travesty of justice. Information on this case is available all over the net, look at all of it, but consider the sources and make up your own mind. If you're as outraged by this as I am, go to operatingthetan.com and follow the how to help links. Is he guilty of "interfering with a religion"? Don't even get me started on that "law" ...

P. Arteaux
San Francisco

[F Larch San Jose CA]

Kristina, Thank you very much for this article. It takes a certain amount of bravery these days for a journalist to challenge the CoS. There is also a defnse fund for Keith at:
http://www.keithhenson.org/

[JeraldR]

interfering with a religion?? By walking outside with a simple sign? The right to protest is one of our most basic and importent rights. As long as he didn't harm anyone he never should have been arrested much less convicted of any crime.
What about Mr. Henson's civil right to protest against what a lot of people feel is a cult?

scientology has a long history of setting people up for so called crimes. Google Paulane Cooper and see how they were caught by the courts fakeing death threats from her. They went as are as to try and have her commeted to a mental hospital before the police caught them lieing.
Did you know scientology is the only so called church to have its top members convicted of breaking into IRS and FBI offices in order to steal papers and bug the places?
You can learn a lot with a visit to xenu.net and xenutv.com .

We all need to call, email and write anyone we can to have this case reviewed. This man does not deserve this punishment. I hope every reader here not only helps but shows this story to others they know.

[JeraldR]

I'm sorry everyone, I spelled the name wrong.

Google Paulette Cooper and scientology.

While you are at it also google;

scientology and crimes
scientology and fair game
scientology and snow white

See the scientology hate site they try to link to other religions.

http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/

This hate site claims to be for all religions yet the only people they post about are critic's of scientology.

See the BBC special that was shown just last week here....

http://xenutv.wordpress.com/2007/05/15/panora...

then ask yourself how you can stop this group from putting yet another person in prison for speaking out against them. If we don't stop them now you or I could be next.

[a palo alto homeless guy]

The church of scientology should be charged with 'practicing psychology without a license' for their free personality tests.

On one hand they claim to be against psychiatry, on the other hand they speak of "Dianetics - The New Science of Mental Health".

It's nice that they claim to be against the abuses of mainstream psychiatry. I read a piece by one of their doctors (Fred Baughman) that blasted a Santa Clara County judge Leonard Edwards over a forced ritalin case that made the mother and the child flee to Canada. But Scientology should get its head together about defending people from psychiatry without substituting its own version of it.

[Jeanne]

I'm sorry, had to pipe up. As a Scientologist I have to say I don't give a **** about where Keith Henson lives, whether he goes to jail, or anything else. Couldn't care less. I actually don't think anyone else does either. There are so many more important things to worry about than one oddball who gets his rocks off by trying to intimidate people with picketing. Boring. There are so many more important issues to deal with. Personal freedoms have been so eroded over the past 6 years since 9/11, and we are walking into a planetary time bomb with global warming and an entire generation of kids being hopped up on Ritalin and brought back down by SSRIs.

[Claire]

Jeanne, I agree. So with so many more important issues to deal with, why did the church feel compelled to sue him for peaceful picketing back in 2000? Who instigated this bizarre extradition in the first place? Why is he still being threatened? We have to assume someone connected to Scientology wanted him brought to Riverside County because there simply isn't any other party who has an interest in him. It is terrifying that a huge wealthy business with a history of corruption has the power to crush its opposition so freely. If the justice system fails to protect Keith Henson (who got into this mess by exercising his civil rights) then it falls to the media and the public to do so.

[Mitchel Budd]

...and yet this is a clear example of a persons individuals freedom to "picket" being eroded over trumped up charges!
Worse, there is now an injunction around the area that prevents further picketing.
Whether an individual scientologist cares or not about it is irrelevant. The organisation itself cares, and cared enough to pull together a paper thin case in front of what can only be described as a kangaroo court.
If you cared about freedoms and free speech then you should be risking RPF rundowns and Sec Checks by lobbying from within your organisation against this case!
Furthermore Scientology attacks on Psychiatry are a joke. Scientology is subjective, has absolutely no scientific credibility and is not subjected to any kind of legal scrutiny or peer review.
Nor do you have to go through any credible formal qualification to be able to practise it!
A scientologist talking about the negative effects of Ritalin is as credible as a Pepsi salesman complaining that kids shouldn't be washing with water first thing in the morning, they should be using the fizzy brown stuff instead.
No wonder Scientology is so paranoid, it clearly has a lot to hide. It is just a shame that instead of answering its critics it resorts to ad hom attacks.
Instead of facing up to peer review and scrutiny of its "tech" it hides it behind religious trappings.
Any benefit that the tech might bring or to be found to provide is thus prevented from becoming mainstream by their own bunker mentality.
Open it up to independent review if you are so confident in it.
No doubt Keith Henson should have just served the sentence for the misdemeanor, and fought it through the legal process. But that doesn't make it right in the first place.

[randomx]

It is Scientology policy to track down
and destroy any critic of any part of Scientology or it`s front groups.
This work is left to The Office of Special
Affairs. The "work" they do is kept secret
from all outsiders even regular well meaning scientologists. They just don`t know.
To see what OSA really does google "Mike Mc Claughry".

He is ex OSA and spills the beans in several video interviews.

Keith Henson would probably not be in the hell he is in right now if he`d heard what
Mike has to say.

[joey]

It is clearly apparent that scientology is an evil cult, started by a dillusional, greedy, insane man. No wonder Hubbard hated shrinks .... in the 50's, he would probably have received 'shock treatment' himself given his mental unstability ........ but hello scientologists out there! that was the 50's........

It is scary that so many high profile people belong to this cult. Forget Osama,......get Tom!!....he's more of a terrorist threat!!!!

[Raymond Hill]

Jeanne wrote:

Couldn't care less.

Jeanne, when you say you don't care, I believe you!

Now, what if Keith had been a scientologist and thrown to jail because picketing against psychiatry?

Of course, that doesn't happen, as psychiatrists don't have 'scripture,' don't have a 'fair game' policy against people critical of their practices or ideas.

But would you have cared in such case?

[Robert Clark]

I must object to the blatant non-neutrality of this "news" story, which should be on the editorial page as an article in support of the Church of Scientology, if anywhere.

Slanted language like "obsession" has no place in a story of this sort, nor statements that this supposed obsession "saw him...allegedly threaten to bomb its headquarters in Riverside." No such allegation has been made even in court, and just putting "allegedly" in front of a defamatory statement like this does not sanitize it.

I'm disappointed to see such a shoddy performance.