Rick Ross (consultant)
| Rick Alan Ross | |
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| Born | 1952 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Occupation | Deprogrammer, Cult specialist, Founder and executive director of the Cult Education Institute |
| Website | The Cult Education Institute |
Rick Alan Ross (born 1952) is an American deprogrammer, cult specialist, and founder and executive director of the nonprofit Cult Education Institute. He frequently appears in the news and other media discussing groups some consider cults. Ross has intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries.
Ross faced charges of unlawful imprisonment over a 1991 forcible deprogramming of United Pentecostal Church International member Jason Scott; a jury acquitted him at trial. In 1995, a civil lawsuit filed by Scott resulted in a multimillion-dollar judgement against Ross and his co-defendants. Later, Ross and Scott reached a settlement in which Ross agreed to pay Scott US$5,000 and provide 200 hours of professional services at no charge.
Ross was the only deprogrammer to work with members of the religious group Branch Davidian prior to the Waco siege; some scholars later criticized his involvement with the siege.
Rick Alan Ross was born in 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1956. His mother worked for the Jewish Community Center and his father was a plumber. He was raised and went to school in Arizona with the exception of one year that he was sent to the Camden Military Academy in South Carolina after skipping too much school during high school. He graduated from Phoenix Union High School in 1971.
After high school, Ross worked for two years at a finance company and at a bank, but then got into legal trouble in his early 20s during a time period that he was in between jobs. In 1974, he pleaded guilty to trespassing after being charged for the attempted burglary of a vacant model home with a friend, and was sentenced to probation. In 1975, he was charged with grand theft, again with a friend, for embezzling from a jewelry shop where the friend worked. He returned everything, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 4 more years of probation, which was terminated early. While he was on probation, he worked for a cousin's car salvage business. During an interview with the New York Daily News in 2004, Ross said, "I was young and foolish and made mistakes that I deeply regret. I did whatever the court required, completed my probation in 1979, and the guilty verdicts were vacated in 1983. I have gone on with my life and never again got in that kind of trouble."
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