May 14, 1997
PLEASE FILE: ROSS, RICK
CULT AWARENESS NETWORK
NEWS BULLETIN
RICK ROSS - MODERN DAY INQUISITOR
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was recently reorganized.
One of its former members was Rick Ross, a jewel thief turned kidnapper, who has appeared in the media positioning himself as an “expert” on cults.
The management of the new CAN wants to make it known that:
A) Rick Ross has no association whatever with CAN.
B) Rick Ross has an extensive psychiatric history and use of psychiatric drugs, is a convicted criminal responsible for causing violence and has committed violent acts himself. Specifically:
1) He has undergone many years of psychiatric therapy starting at age 6.
After his second arrest and imprisonment, Mr. Ross was seen and evaluated by psychiatrist Dr. Domiciano E. Santos of Arizona State Hospital who found Ross to be:
“an arrogant, self-centered individual with some hostile tendencies” who “does not seem to profit from his past experiences and cannot realize that what he does is socially unacceptable and dangerous ... He does not seem to identify himself with society and its laws, and believes that punishments are an injustice.”
2) Ross is a criminal.
When he was in his 20’s, Ross, by his own admission, stole furniture and appliances at model homes; he also bought and used stolen credit cards which resulted in his first imprisonment.
He was later approached by a friend who offered to make him a partner in a diamond robbery involving 306 items valued at $100,000. That led to Ross’ second arrest for grand theft and conspiracy, a guilty plea, a conviction and a prison sentence.
3) Ross’ actions and hate-filled rhetoric helped instigate the Waco tragedy.
Throughout the Waco crisis, Ross “advised” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. He appeared on numerous television shows to claim that the Davidians would probably not come out willingly and that measures would have to be taken to force them out even though there was nothing to support this speculation.
According to eminent religious scholar Dr. Nancy T. Ammerman of Princeton University, Ross had a “direct ideological (and financial) interest in arousing suspicion and antagonism” against what he called ‘cults’. And noted that while Ross calls himself an expert he is certainly not recognized as such by the academic community and in fact, “deprogramming tactics have been increasingly found to fall outside the law.”
In an article for “The Nation”, Alexander Cockburn quoted Balenda Ganem, the mother of Davidian survivor David Thibodeau:
“I’d been in touch with Rick Ross, who was acting as an independent cult ‘deprogrammer’ and informant to the ATF and FBI. When I got to know him in Waco, I understood that he was instigating the most negative aspect of the situation because he wished violence toward David Koresh. He never said he wanted him to be helped out. He wanted him wiped out.”
4) Ross organized criminal kidnappings.
According to court testimony, Rick Ross masterminded the assault and abduction of Jason Scott, a Pentecostal Christian who was handcuffed, and taken to a remote house for 5 days under 24 hour surveillance to be deprogrammed. Scott escaped, and sued his captors.
On Sept. 29, 1995 the Washington state jury found that Ross “intentionally and recklessly acted in a way that is so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to be beyond all possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”
Ross was found liable for violations of Mr. Scott’s civil rights and fined $2,500,000 in punitive damages.
An effort to challenge this judgment was unsuccessful. The federal judge noted “the defendants seeming incapability of appreciating the maliciousness of their conduct towards Mr. Scott ...”
Any news organization who quotes Ross should make it clear to their public that he is a violence prone twice-convicted felon who was fined $2,500,000 in 1995 for kidnapping a Christian to attempt forcibly to change the man’s interpretation of the Bible.
The new CAN has an extensive and growing list of qualified experts, scholars, theologians, civil libertarians and attorneys, who are available for media comment. Following the March 1997 Heaven’s Gate incident experts referred by CAN appeared on every major network including CNN and were interviewed on programs such as Hard Copy and Meet the Press. They did countless radio interviews and were quoted in every major newspaper across the country.
We will assist you in any way we can and provide competent referrals. We welcome your inquiries.
DOCUMENTATION ON ANY OF THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE FROM THE REFORMED CULT AWARENESS NETWORK.
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