Richard Ofshe was ruled inadmissible as an expert witness in a previous case where he had appeared for the defendant who claimed he committed mail frauds as a result of being “brainwashed” by the Church of Scientology. The court ruling states that Dr Ofshe was not “a mental health professional, his testimony was not relevant to the issues, his theories regarding thought reform are not generally accepted within the scientific community …” (Burgess, 1994; Olio & Cornell, 1994; USA vs. Fishman, 1990).
