San Jose Mercury News Tuesday, April 7, 1992 Est Founder sues critics; suit names Mercury

                 San Jose Mercury News    Tuesday, April 7, 1992


            Est Founder sues critics; suit names Mercury News writer

                            Mercury News Staff Report

             Werner Erhard, controversial founder of the self-improvement
        program known as est, has filed a wide-ranging defamation lawsuit
        against  20  defendants, including a Mercury News  staff  writer,
        news  media,  commercial  publications and  private  groups  that
        have criticized Erhard or his teachings.

             Mercury   News  attorney  Edward  P.  Davis  Jr.  said   the
        allegations  against  staff writer John Hubner are  false.  "It's
        frivolous,"  the attorney added, "Why they're dragging John  into
        it is hard to say."

             The Mercury News is not named as a defendant.

             The suit, filed last month in Chicago's Cook County  Circuit
        Court,   includes  charges  of  slander,  invasion  of   privacy,
        conspiracy  and  other allegations. The defendants  include  CBS,
        Hustler  magazine,  the National Enquirer and  the  Chicago-based
        Cult  Awareness Network, which distributes information on  groups
        that it classifies as cults.

                  Hubner wrote a series of critical articles about Erhard
        that appeared in West magazine in November 1990. But the  lawsuit
        focuses on a March 3, 1991, broadcast of the CBS news program "60
        Minutes,"  which  used  part of a  taped  interview  that  Hubner
        conducted with Erhard while researching his articles.

             During  the "60 Minutes" report, one of  Erhard's  daughters
        told  CBS that her father had molested her. While Erhard did  not
        appear  on  the  program, CBS aired portions  of  Hubner's  taped
        interview, in which Erhard denied the incest allegations.

             Erhard's  attorney, Walter Maksym of Illinois, could not  be
        reached for comment.