Tampa Tribune, August 4, 1998. Clearwater - A millionaire investment banker's battle with the Church of Scientology took  another bizarre  turn when he fired a gun into the air as Scientologists picketed his New Hampshire estate.
Robert  S. Minton, a retired Boston Financier, says the  showdown came  just weeks after the Clearwater-based church offered him  a membership,  in response to his financial support of the  group's opponents.
Scientology leaders deny offering membership, but said they  made overturned  to help Minton because they say he has an  "emotional problem."  Minton's projects include bankrolling a lawsuit  filed on  behalf of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died in  Clearwater under mysterious circumstances...
Minton  said  he fired the shots just weeks after  a  five-  hour session with Scientologists in hopes of persuading the church  to change  how  it treats its members...  [After  negotiations with Scientologists] Minton said.. `There is no way I would give up my right  to  speak against the Church of Scientology or  any  other group  that  wants to restrain my free speech.. The  incident  at Minton's 200-acre estate is being reviewed by a local prosecutor. Police in Sandown say they are still investigating.

Tampa  - David Minkoff gets out of a lawsuit involving  a  highly publicized death strictly for money reasons, his lawyer says. A doctor named in a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and others has agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to a dead  woman's estate.
David Minkoff was an emergency room physician when  Scientologist Lisa  McPherson  was  brought to a New Port  Richey  hospital  in December  1995.  McPherson was dead by the time she was  seen  by Minkoff,  also  a Scientologist. An autopsy found she died  of a blood clot brought on by severe dehydration and bed rest.
McPherson's  estate  filed  a wrongful-death  lawsuit  last  year against  the  church and several others,  including  Minkoff.  It alleges McPherson was held against her will in total isolation at Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater...
"The  ultimate question is what caused her death," said Ken  Dan dar.  Dandar said he is considering dismissing all other  parties from  the lawsuit, with the exception of the church, in order  to move  the  case to trial as quickly as  possible.  (Gary  Sprott, Tampa Tribune)

Stockholm,  Sweden - (9/15/98) A Swedish court Monday  ordered  a man to stop spreading a copyrighted Church of Scientology  training manual on the Internet and ordered him to pay the church more than $150,000. U.S.  Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said Sweden's  law on  open public records violates international copyright law.  It is not clear how Zenon Pangoussis obtained a copy of the  manual, which is available only to some members of the church. The church won tax-free status as a religion in the United States in 1993.