Ford Greene

Information about Ford Greene

Aylsworth Crawford Greene III (born December 21, 1952) is an American attorney from San Anselmo specializing in litigation against cults.

Education

Ford Greene began studying law at the New College of California Law School in 1978. He was admitted to The State Bar of California in 1983.

Unification Church membership

He joined the Unification Church in 1974 after his sister Catherine had joined, and walked out in July 1975 after eight months.

Deprogramming activities

From 1976 to 1978, he deprogrammed about 130 [1] members of the Unification Church (or "Moonies"), including the Prince of Tahiti. He failed to deprogram his own sister, who is still in the organisation.

Litigating against cults

In Molko v. Holy Spirit Assn. [2], Greene represented two former members of the Unification Church, David Molko and Tracy Leal. Ruling on appeal, the California Supreme Court found that religious organizations may be sued for fraud if they use deception to recruit members - the members of the Unification Church who recruited Molko had lied when he asked if their community had a religious affiliation. The Supreme Court declined to review, and the case was settled.

In State of Colorado v. Whelan and Brandyberry, Greene successfully used a "choice of evils" defense in a criminal prosecution of a "deprogrammer" against charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment.

In Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California, he was part of a team (with Charles B. O’Reilly of Marina Del Rey, Daniel A. Leipold of Santa Ana, and Craig J. Stein of Los Angeles) that represented former Scientologist Lawrence A. Wollersheim and successfully sued for emotional distress. It resulted in a $2.5 million judgement that grew into a $8.7 million payout due to accumulated interest after over 20 years of litigation. [3]

In Bertolucci v. Ananda Church of Self Realization, he won a $1.625 million jury verdict for fraud, coercion and sexual exploitation.

Free speech activism

Greene has been in a controversy about a sign with liberal nessages next to his law office. After San Anselmo police pulled down his sign in 2003, Greene sued the city. After a new sign ordinance was passed limiting the size of signs to 6 square feet, Greene put up 16 small signs together to form a large one. A court declined to stop this, deciding that the town could only limit the size, not the number of signs. Greene later settled the dispute, by agreeing to use only half the space for messages. [4] [5]

Politics

Greene was an unsuccessful candidate for the San Anselmo Town Council in 2005; he came 300 votes short of being elected. [6]

Sources

1. ^ Cult Busters, Deutschlandfunk, June 19, 2007
2. ^ Molko v. Holy Spirit Assn.
3. ^ Ex-Scientologist Collects $8.7 Million In 22-Year-Old Case, Washington Post, May 10, 2002
4. ^ Sign of the Cult-Buster, SF Weekly, October 5, 2005
5. ^ Town, lawyer settle sign dispute, Marin Independent Journal, October 20, 2005
6. ^ Sparks fly as town picks new council member, Marin Independent Journal, October 19, 2006

Awards

Publications

Articles

External links

See also

 •  • [ e]
Cults
DefinitionsCult apologist Cults and governments Cult of personality Cult suicide Cult-watching group Destructive cult Political cult
ListsAuthors opposing cults In literature and popular culture Government documents Groups referred to as cults Researchers
OrganizationsCAIC CAN CESNUR CIC COMA FACTnet Family Action Information Resource FECRIS FREECOG ICSA MIVILUDES Reachout Trust Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center
OppositionAnti-cult movement Christian countercult movement Opposition to cults and new religious movements
TheoriesAPA Task Force (DIMPAC) Atrocity story Brainwashing Cult checklist Deprogramming Exit counseling Love bombing Mind control Post-cult trauma Snapping Sociological classfications
RelatedApostasy Bigotry Charismatic authority Freedom of Expression Freedom of religion Groupthink Intervention (counseling) Int'l Religious Freedom Act 1998 Large Group Awareness Training Minority religion Occult Personality alteration Project Megiddo Psychotherapy Religious conversion Religious intolerance Religious persecution True-believer syndrome Witch hunt Religious freedom by country Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 21 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
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1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1949 1950 1951 - 1952 - 1953 1954 1955

Year 1952 (MCMLII
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San Anselmo, California
Location in Marin County and the state of California
Coordinates:
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''For the episode, see .
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many
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Unification Church is a new religious movement started by Sun Myung Moon in Korea in the 1940s.

The beliefs of the church are explained in the book Divine Principle
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
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Deprogramming refers to actions to persuade or force a person to abandon allegiance to a religious or political group.

Deprogramming is normally commissioned by concerned relatives of the follower, often parents of adult children, and is taken against his/her will, which has
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Tahiti<nowiki />

Tahiti is famous for its black beaches

Geography
<nowiki/>
Location Pacific Ocean <nowiki />
Archipelago Society Islands<nowiki /> <nowiki /> <nowiki />

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Supreme Court of California is the state supreme court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco, and regularly holds sessions at its branch offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.
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Criminal law
Part of the common law series
Elements of crimes
Actus reus  · Causation  · Concurrence
Mens rea  · Intention (general)
Intention in English law  · Recklessness
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supreme court functions as a court of last resort whose rulings cannot be challenged. However, in some jurisdictions other phrases are used to describe the highest courts. There are also some jurisdictions where the supreme court is not the highest court.
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Flag of Colorado Seal
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Intentional torts
Assault  · Battery
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Trespass to land  · Conversion
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Lawrence Wollersheim is an ex-Scientologist. He brought a case against the Church of Scientology in 1980. In the course of this case, the story of Xenu came to public light.
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Emotional distress may refer to:
  • Law of torts:
  • Intentional infliction of emotional distress
  • Negligent infliction of emotional distress

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J. Tony Serra is an American civil rights attorney, activist and tax resister from San Francisco.

Education

A graduate of Stanford University and UC-Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, Serra was educated during the rise of the counterculture of the 1960s.
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Cultic Studies Review: An Internet Journal of Research, News & Opinion is the successor to the academic journal the Cultic Studies Journal. Though the Cultic Studies Review
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This list includes researchers that have conducted empirical studies on cults and/or new religious movements. Researchers are listed below according to their academic background, area of research, or profession.
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The term "anti-cult movement" (ACM) is used by academics - and others - to refer to a collectivity of groups and individuals that pursue an opposition to cults and new religious movements. Sociologists David G.
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The term cult apologist is used by some opponents of cults and new religious movements[1] to describe social scientists, religious scholars, and other persons who write about cults and new religious movements, whose writings they consider as uncritical or not
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6 (1). Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
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cult of personality or personality cult arises when a country's leader uses mass media to create a larger-than-life public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships but some can be found in some democracies as well.
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A cult-watching group (CWG) consists of an organized or grass-roots assemblage of people who observe and comment on the largely marginal, often unpopular new religious movements (NRMs) and associated phenomena which people often label "cults".
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Political cult is a term used to describe some groups on what is generally considered to be the political fringe. Although the majority of groups to which the term "cult" (currently often used as a pejorative term according to some comparative religion scholars[1]
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