Shawn told me why he was backing off from his activities and it was obvious at one point that he was in the middle of a war without enough ammunition to fight for his place on that street corner where he posted his CULT WATCH sign.

Besides the fact that he was going broke because Scientology got him fired and then he couldn't find a decent job in the area because Scientology had blackballed him all over town, he was stressed out from all that Scientology had put him through. The facts are that:

He'd been charged falsely ( and later exonerated) with violating an injunction he was not even a party too.

He never knew who to trust completely because the cult presumably set him up by taking advantage his accepting $100 from a woman who was a party to the injunction;

That woman then offered him a pro bono lawyer and he accepted the help he needed because he couldn't afford to pay one against the hyperlitigious cult

Then he had to go through a rigorious time in court defending himself via deposition.

Fortunately, he did so well that the deposition forced the cult to drop it's claim but by that point, he was being approached by different fractions of the critic groups and never quite sure who was trustworthy or not because of all that happened. He also knew that in order to continue doing Cult Watch, that he'd need money, which was a scarcity. It was time for reorganization.
He managed in spite of this to do the BBC Panorama interview but was again harassed by CoS, as documented in th show. I couldn't blame him for taking a break.

Shawn was a good man with a talent for filmmaking and a deep heart for the victims of scientology. His videos are on the internet, his deposition is available there, too. Whatever went on since he took his break, I hope it didn't include more scientology harassment, but I'd be lying if I didn't say it's too possible. I hope his death is fully investigated and that the facts come out soon.

Thank you, RADAR OnLINE, for reporting this.