Rick Ross (consultant)

Rick Ross (consultant)

Rick Alan Ross (born 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, as Ricky Alan Ross) works as a consultant, lecturer, and intervention specialist, with a focus on exit counseling and deprogramming of those belonging to cults. He runs a blog called Cult News and in 2003 founded the Rick A. Ross Institute, which maintains a database of court documents, essays, and press articles on groups and individuals that have attracted controversy. Ross has worked as an expert court witness and as an analyst for the media in cases relating to such groups.

Ross' interest in controversial religious groups dates to a 1982 incident at his grandmother's nursing home. During the 1980s he represented the Jewish community on a number of advisory committees. In 1986 he began working full-time as a consultant, (sometimes involuntary) deprogramming members of controversial groups and movements. By 2004 he said he had worked over 350 cases with 75% success rate. His work deprogramming a 14 year old Potter's House Christian Fellowship member was covered in a 1989 edition of the American TV series 48 hours.

In 1993 Ross faced charges over a 1991 forcible deprogramming where he held of United Pentecostal Church International member Jason Scott against his will for five days, but was cleared the following year by jury trial. Ross settled a civil suit with Scott in 1995, causing Ross to file for personal bankruptcy because of the $2,500,000 in punitive damages awarded against him. In September 1995, a nine-member jury unanimously held Ross and other defendants in the case liable for negligence and conspiracy to deprive Scott of his civil rights and religious liberties.