Church, Foe On Same Side For Once

CLEARWATER - A leading critic of Scientology on Friday turned on the lawyer he had paid to champion his cause.

Multimillionaire Robert Minton remains a church critic, according to his new attorney, but he no longer trusts or supports Tampa lawyer Ken Dandar in a lawsuit against the church stemming from the 1995 death of Lisa McPherson.

Minton was never a party to the McPherson wrongful death lawsuit, and Dandar has never represented him, Minton testified in a related lawsuit Friday.

But Dandar accepted more than $2 million of Minton's money to keep the wrongful death lawsuit going, and then told Minton to lie under oath about the total amount, Minton testified.