SCIENTOLOGISTS ENCOUNTER GUNFIRE

Members of the Church of Scientology were greeted with gunfire after they allegedly trespassed onto property owned by retired investment banker Robert S. Minton. Minton is a millionaire who has, in recent months, funded anti-Scientology efforts after learning of the church’s effort to censor information about itself on the Internet.

In late July, Minton was at a weekend home on his 200-acre farm in southern New Hampshire with a former Scientologist, Stacy Young. He had been helping Young and her husband, Vaughn, also a former Scientologist. The Youngs are prominent critics of Scientology who have worked with other former Scientologists and as consultants in lawsuits against Scientology.

According to a story published in the St. Petersburg Times, Sandown, N.H., police chief Scott Currier said “the Scientologists and a private investigator they hired had been in town trying to dig up dirt on Minton.” Minton said that a member of the group came on his property to take pictures and then began yelling obscenities at him. He went to his office, took his shotgun, and “fired it into the air at least 200 feet from them.”

Police said that both sides had exceeded legal limits. The Scientologists by trespassing after they had been instructed to leave the premises and Minton by discharging a firearm. However, no criminal charges on either side were expected.

Following the incident, members of the church located Minton’s wife in England where she was visiting family and hand-delivered a letter to her which said that they had documented evidence of a sexual relationship between Minton and Young. Minton says no such relationship exists and his involvement with Young is merely to help her in her exodus from the church.

Scientologists have accused Minton of belonging to organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. One Scientology official said on a nationally broadcast news program that “he believes Minton is a criminal and compared him to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh,” the Times reported.

Minton has given more than $1.7 million to anti-Scientology causes. He said, “I’m totally qualified to be a Scientologist. I’ve got money and they are willing to change that.”

—MKG

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