Caruthers

Reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers and his three co-defendants in a murder-conspiracy case can be tried separately, a Carroll Circuit Court judge has ruled. In a one-sentence ruling, Judge Michael M. Galloway granted defense attorneys' motions that their clients be tried separately. "I'm delighted, but not surprised at all," said Gary Bernstein, lawyer for David S. Pearl, a defendant. "Judge Galloway clearly understood how complex and unwieldy and impossible a joint trial would be." Prosecutors received the judge's ruling yesterday.

CLARIFICATION An article in yesterday's editions did not completely describe the disposition of Amy C. Dardick's murder-conspiracy case. Dardick, who had lived with reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers, pleaded guilty in Carroll County Circuit Court to one count of conspiracy to commit murder and received probation before judgment, meaning that a guilty finding is stayed and that no conviction will be entered against her if she successfully completes the...

The reputed leader of a space cult in Carroll County, accused of plotting to kill a former business associate, was charged Friday with conspiring to murder two other people, according to court records Scott Caruthers, 57, is accused of targeting for death the ex-husbands of two women who formerly lived in his home in the 500 block of Scott Drive near Westminster. He has been held at the Carroll County Detention Center since Oct. 3 in lieu of $1 million bail, charged with trying to have a former business associate killed.

CLARIFICATION An article in yesterday's editions did not completely describe the disposition of Amy C. Dardick's murder-conspiracy case. Dardick, who had lived with reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers, pleaded guilty in Carroll County Circuit Court to one count of conspiracy to commit murder and received probation before judgment, meaning that a guilty finding is stayed and that no conviction will be entered against her if she successfully completes the...

For Scott A. Caruthers, the cast was assembled. The wealth he had always wanted was in place. And by 1997, all that was left to gain from those around him was a loyalty of such intensity it would wrench apart friendships, lifestyles, marriages and religious beliefs. Such devotion would also mean abandoning homes and neighborhoods, and Caruthers led the way. He and companion Dashielle Lashra moved from the lowlands of Anne Arundel County to a two-story colonial amid the hills of Carroll County, in an isolated subdivision near Westminster.

Long before leaving a string of broken families in his wake, long before co-founding a company that froze the investments of 12,000 stockholders and long before being accused of leading a cult in the suburbs of Carroll County, Scott A. Caruthers took aside a business associate to deliver the inside story on himself: He was a space alien who communicated to the mother ship through his cats. The year was 1992, the occasion was an after-dinner conversation at Caruthers' home, and the business associate was Bob Bonnell III, who was trying to market a Caruthers idea that would eventually cost backers more than $2.7 million.

A twisting criminal case involving insanity pleas, dozens of hours of seized audiotapes and questions about "deprogramming" could reach a conclusion as early as today, when reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers is scheduled to appear in a Carroll County courtroom to answer charges that he tried to have four people killed. The court docket lists today's scheduled court session as a plea hearing for Caruthers, who headed a Westminster-based organization whose members purportedly believed him to be a space alien.

The Carutherses, auto crash victimsMemorial services for James Wade Caruthers, an educator and historian, and his wife, Gwynette Thompson Caruthers, a teacher and child psychologist, will be held at 2 p.m. Friday in the Social Room of Salisbury State University.Dr. Caruthers and Mrs. Caruthers, who lived in Annapolis, died Sunday in an automobile crash on U.S. 50 at Mardela Springs. Both were 74.Survivors include a son, David Wade Caruthers of Monkton; two daughters, Ellen Caruthers Liebenberg of Livermore, Calif.

A lawyer for reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers argued yesterday that tape recordings that purportedly capture his client offering reasons for killing a man should not be played at Caruthers' trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. On the tapes, obtained when authorities searched Caruthers' Westminster home in October last year, Caruthers tells his wife that a friend and follower should be killed for questioning his decisions, a lawyer in the case said during a hearing yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court.

A Westminster woman who lived with reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers was released from jail yesterday after serving 19 months for plotting with Caruthers to have two people, including her ex-husband, murdered. Dulsa Naedek, 44, was ordered to undergo "deprogramming" by a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist as a condition of her release. Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway sentenced her to two concurrent 15-year terms, suspending all but the time Naedek had served since her October 2001 arrest.

A Westminster woman who lived with reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers was released from jail yesterday after serving 19 months for plotting with Caruthers to have two people, including her ex-husband, murdered. Dulsa Naedek, 44, was ordered to undergo "deprogramming" by a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist as a condition of her release. Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway sentenced her to two concurrent 15-year terms, suspending all but the time Naedek had served since her October 2001 arrest.

Locked up for a year and a half since being charged with trying to have four people killed, reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers had his day in court yesterday - ending it as a guilty, but free, man. Caruthers, a writer, artist and inventor who has been described as a space alien leader of a Westminster-based cult, was released from the Carroll County Detention Center yesterday, shortly after entering pleas to conspiracy and solicitation of murder....

A twisting criminal case involving insanity pleas, dozens of hours of seized audiotapes and questions about "deprogramming" could reach a conclusion as early as today, when reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers is scheduled to appear in a Carroll County courtroom to answer charges that he tried to have four people killed. The court docket lists today's scheduled court session as a plea hearing for Caruthers, who headed a Westminster-based organization whose members purportedly believed him to be a space alien.

A woman who lived with reputed cult leader Scott Caruthers admitted yesterday conspiring with him to try to have her ex-husband murdered. Dulsa Naedek also entered a guilty plea to a second murder conspiracy charge, this one involving a former business associate of Caruthers. Under a plea agreement, Naedek would serve 18 months of a 15-year prison term. She has been held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Carroll County Detention Center since her arrest October 2001, meaning that she likely will have served her time by her sentencing, scheduled for May 22. One point of contention at yesterday's hearing in Carroll County Circuit Court involved the prosecution's proposal that Naedek be required to be "deprogrammed" as a condition of her probation.