Doctor on trial for firing employee unwilling to take Scientology courses

[January 21, 1999]

Susan E. Morgan, a rehabilitation assistant at the Sargent Rehabilitation Center, alleges that East Side dentist Roger Carlsten fired her in January 1992 because she refused to study "Hubbard Administrative Technology," courses by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Morgan's attorney, Renee Bushey, told the jury in her opening argument that this case "is about an employer's abuse of power, and an employer's use of religion" against his employee, according to the Providence Journal-Bulletin. Carlsten's lawyer, Sandra Lanni of Warwick, claimed that Morgan was fired because of poor job performance.

Morgan was the first witness in her employment discrimination civil trial against Carlsten, which opened before Superior Court Judge Alice K. Gibney and six jurors. Morgan testified that soon after she accepted the position of receptionist for Carlsten in 1990, she learned that her boss was a practicing Scientologist.

She testified that in the workplace Carlsten discussed Scientology's religious practices, including an "auditing" process utilizing a device known as "an e-meter" to register a person's inner "engrams," terms the stenographer asked Morgan to spell as jurors looked on with curiosity. She said Carlsten explained to her that "auditing would clear their [Scientologists'] engrams, in their belief that Thetans came to this world and populated the Earth," as quoted in the Providence Journal-Bulletin.

Morgan's attorney alleged that for 10 months, Carlsten pressed Morgan to take Scientology courses. "The more she learned about Scientology, the more she became frightened." As a result, Morgan became "frightened Dr. Carlsten was trying to get her involved in the Church of Scientology."

Morgan testified she became aware Carlsten was a Scientologist "from some of the things in the office," including a poster of "the Bridge to Total Freedom," Scientology's reference to its study process. When she asked Carlsten where he was on this bridge, he told her there is "a certain state" called "Clear" he was working to attain. "When I first started working there, he hadn't achieved this state," Morgan said, "but soon after, he did."

Carlsten's attorney, Lanni, argued that Scientology was being used by Morgan as a smoke screen. "Dr. Carlsten is a Scientologist, but that's not what this case is about. It's about whether he discriminated against an employee because of her religion." She described the Hubbard Administrative Technology course as one that "focuses on statistics" related to office function, according to The Providence Journal-Bulletin.

Lanni claimed that Carlsten fired Morgan because she objected to the purchase of a new computer, "she wasn't getting complete medical histories, she wasn't making enough effort about collections, and he had complaints about the way she greeted people."

"We do not dispute an employer's right to practice his religion," Bushey responded. The issue, she reiterated to the jury, is that the Hubbard Administrative Technology courses Carlsten pressured Morgan to take were religious in nature.

Source: The Providence Journal-Bulletin, January 20, 1999