Scientology not to blame for Clearwater suicide

The Tribune's editorial, "In court with Scientology" (Sept. 21) had the facts all wrong and represents a poorly disguised attempt to meddle in matters that properly belong in the courts.

The editorial concerns a wrongful death case based on the tragic suicide of a troubled young adult in Clearwater in February 2007.

The deceased young man never had anything to do with the Church of Scientology. He was raised in Charlottesville, Va., with his mother and stepfather, who, similarly, never had any connection to the Church of Scientology.

Your editorial suggests that the man died "while in the care of church members." As the record in the case clearly establishes, that statement has no basis in fact and goes beyond the outrageous false claims in the litigation.

The young man was never a Scientologist, never in the care of church members, never set foot inside a church property and tragically took his life when he was alone in a private residence.

The death was thoroughly investigated by the Clearwater Police Department, the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office and the FBI. All concluded the death was an unfortunate suicide, with no evidence of any wrongdoing by anyone.

Eleven months before his suicide, the young man was living with his mother and was treated by a psychiatrist in Virginia. He was diagnosed with social anxiety, for which the psychiatrist prescribed an anti-depressant. Pharmacy records show he did not take the medication as prescribed. About eight months later he fled his mother's home without warning and was reported as a "missing person."

In the months prior to his suicide, he wandered from Virginia to Iowa to California and Hawaii, making numerous calls and visits to law enforcement agencies along the way, voicing fears about his mother and stepfather pursuing him and other clearly paranoid claims. Less than two weeks before his suicide, the disturbed young man came to Clearwater to visit his father, who is a Scientologist, and the only "connection" to the church.

Contrary to the claim of the Tribune that the father deprived his son of his "prescribed psychotropic medication," the undisputed record, supported by sworn testimony from law enforcement agents and others, shows the young man had stopped taking the medication by his own choice, for his own reasons (which had nothing to do with Scientology) and without any discussion or consultation with his father, before he ever arrived in Clearwater.

In a display of incalculable insensitivity, anti-Scientology elements not only encouraged the mother to blame her distraught ex-husband and sue him for punitive damages, they also encouraged her to name the church as a defendant, despite the conclusive evidence from the police investigation that the death was an unfortunate suicide with no culpability by any other party.

It is unfortunate indeed to see the Tribune mimicking the "trial by media" strategy of another local newspaper.