Federal judge suspends state judgment against lawyer in dispute with Scientology - St. Petersburg Times
TAMPA — Scientology’s most vocal local critic, Ken Dandar, faced disaster. A circuit judge had found him in contempt of court this week and assessed a judgment of $130,000 — to be paid to the Church of Scientology. Dandar might lose his car. He might even lose his law license.
All of that, he told a federal judge Friday, because Dandar isn’t bowing out of a federal case against the church.
But the judge may have given Dandar a reprieve. And U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday warned Scientology’s attorney that he wouldn’t allow what he called “shenanigans” to interfere any further with the progress of the case against the church now pending in his court.
“I don’t like being put in this position,” Merryday told the church’s attorney, Robert Potter. “When people start to squeeze, other people can squeeze back.”
Merryday got Potter and Dandar to agree to stop all proceedings in state court — including the church collecting the $130,000 judgment — until both sides can present Merryday with full briefings and oral arguments.