SACRAMENTO A former Silicon Valley computer consultant whose decade-long fight with the Church of Scientology led to his ruin is asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to free him from a Riverside County jail. Keith Henson's crusade against the church brought him a misdemeanor conviction for interfering with the rights of others to practice their religion.
The 64-year-old Californian is now two months into a six-month jail sentence for the crime. It is the latest development in a war that forced Henson into bankruptcy and prompted him to flee to Canada to ask for political asylum. Henson's troubles began in the mid-1990s, when he was living in Palo Alto and happened upon an Internet page criticizing the church for operating more like a cult.
Henson published documents on the Internet detailing Scientology's approach to medical treatment. The church sued him for copyright infringement and won $75,000 in damages after a four-day trial in 1998. But he moved to Southern California and began picketing Scientology organizations.
He was arrested outside a Scientology facility in Riverside County in July 2000 and charged with making terrorist threats and interfering with religious rights. He fled to Canada in 2001 and sought political asylum. When he was denied asylum in 2005, he returned to the United States and was arrested in February.
His wife and daughter drove two days from Arizona to Sacramento to present Schwarzenegger on Friday with a petition seeking a pardon or clemency. A Schwarzenegger spokesman wouldn't comment on the request. SACRAMENTO A former Silicon Valley computer consultant whose decade-long fight with the Church of Scientology led to his ruin is asking Gov.
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