| Courtesy of Old Rugged Cross Press |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court Monday rejected an appeal by an anti-cult group that has been held liable for abducting a Pentecostal Christian church member in a bid to ``deprogram'' him.
The high court without any comment or dissent let stand a ruling that upheld the award of $1 million in punitive damages and $875,000 in actual damages against the Cult Awareness Network in the case of Jason Scott.
Scott was awarded the damages in 1995 by a federal court in Seattle that found his civil rights had been violated during the attempt to ``deprogram'' him of his Pentecostal beliefs.
According to testimony at the trial, Scott was abducted by three men, bound, gagged and blindfolded, and held for five days.
Rick Ross, one of the defendants and a ``deprogrammer'' who was hired by Scott's mother, tried to get Scott to renounce his membership of the Life Tabernacle Church, a branch of the United Pentecostal Church International. Scott escaped after pretending to renounce his beliefs.
The anti-cult group was held responsible for the act of one of its unpaid volunteers, who referred Ross to Scott's mother.
A federal appeals court upheld the damage award last year.
In its Supreme Court appeal, lawyers for the anti-cult group said, ``A decision that silences the message of an advocacy organization has serious nationwide consequences.''
But attorneys for Scott urged the Supreme Court to deny the appeal, dismissing the anti-cult group's argument as ``factually and legally without merit.''