After more failures, Valeska Paris asks court to summons Scientology leader David Miscavige

[Dave at the Flag Building]

The Australians suing Scientology for labor trafficking have had more failures attempting to serve the lawsuit on David Miscavige, and so now they’re asking the court itself to serve the Scientology leader in care of Florida’s Secretary of State.

The suit was first filed on April 28 by Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter, who were longtime members of Scientology’s “Sea Organization” and served on its floating cathedral, the Freewinds, which sails the Caribbean. The three allege that they were forced into the Sea Org as children, suffered neglect and harsh punishments as children and adults, and served as virtual prisoners aboard the ship. Valeska also alleged that she was sexually assaulted by other Sea Org workers, and then was punished for speaking up about it.

The lawsuit named six defendants — five Scientology subsidiaries, and leader David Miscavige. The five institutional defendants acknowledged service of the lawsuit without a fuss, but they have filed motions asking the court to derail the lawsuit and force it into Scientology’s own internal brand of “religious arbitration.” The plaintiffs are due to answer those motions on September 13. Also, the defendants have asked Judge Thomas Barber to schedule a hearing so that they can present oral arguments to bolster their motions to compel arbitration and their motions to dismiss.

In the meantime, the plaintiffs have struggled to serve Miscavige, who is in the habit of keeping away from process servers. (He was never served, for example, in the lawsuits filed against Scientology in 2019 by Valerie Haney and the Danny Masterson accusers.) In their amended complaint, Valeska and the Baxters detailed the efforts they have gone through trying to find Scientology’s leader and serve him papers.

The plaintiffs asked Judge Barber to give them until October 26 to find and serve Miscavige, but he gave them only until September 12.

On Wednesday, the plaintiffs filed a new set of documents, describing the new failures by process servers to get anywhere near Miscavige, and asking the court now to take over and issue a summons for Miscavige, to be handled by Florida’s secretary of state.

We thought you’d want to see some specifics from those documents about the problems that process servers are running into trying to find Scientology’s reclusive leader.

Here’s how process server Hector Ramos described his frustrating day on August 16, trying to serve Miscavige at various sites at the Flag Land Base, Scientology’s spiritual mecca in Clearwater, Florida.

8/16/2022 2:59 pm Attempted Service at 210 S. Ft. Harrison Ave, Clearwater, FL 33755 [Editor’s note: This is the Fort Harrison Hotel, Scientology’s holiest site.] Upon walking up to the front entrance I was immediately stopped by two security guards, both had tags on them with no names but just stating “Security Guard,” I advised them who I was and that I had legal documents for David Miscavige. They stated “he does not live here nor does he work at this location,” I told them I had a few questions that I wanted to ask and I was told they are not going to answer anymore questions. I proceeded asking them my questions but was told the same response for each question “I am not answering anymore questions.” I then advised them that I was instructed to leave the documents on the ground as they did not allow me to enter the property nor provide any information to serve Mr. Miscavige. During my attempt, they kept listening into their earpiece and another security guard came out from the building and observed the interaction the whole time.

8/16/2022 3:23 pm Attempted Service at 215 S. Ft. Harrison Ave, Clearwater, FL 33756 [This is the Flag Building, across the street from the Fort Harrison Hotel, which was opened in 2013. We suspect that Miscavige has an apartment in this building — ed.] Upon walking up to the front entrance I was immediately stopped by one security guard, he had a tag on with no name but just stating “Security Guard,” I advised him who I was and that I had legal documents for David Miscavige. He stated “he does not live here nor does he work at this location,” I told him I had a few questions that I wanted to ask and I was told they are not going to answer anymore questions. I proceeded asking him my questions but was told the same response for each question “I am not answering anymore questions.” I then advised him that I was instructed to leave the documents on the ground as they did not allow me to enter the property nor provide any information to serve Mr. Miscavige. During my attempt, he continuously kept listening into his earpiece and looking over his shoulder towards the top of the steps. I looked over and noted another security guard looking towards us.

8/16/2022 3:53 pm Attempted Service at 200 N. Osceola Ave, Clearwater, FL 33756 [This is the Sandcastle, where wealthy Scientologists receive upper-level auditing — ed.] Upon pulling my vehicle into the parking lot, I was immediately stopped by two security guards, both had tags on them with no names but just stating “Security Guard,” I advised them who I was and that I had legal documents for David Miscavige. They stated “he does not live here nor does he work at this location,” I told them I had a few questions that I wanted to ask and I was told they are not going to answer anymore questions. I proceeded asking them my questions but was told the same response for each question “I am not answering anymore questions” and after my third or fourth question they proceeded to remain silent. I then advised them that I was instructed to leave the documents on the ground as they did not allow me to enter the property nor provide any information to serve Mr. Miscavige.

8/16/2022 4:07 pm Attempted Service at 118 N. Ft. Harrison Ave, Clearwater, FL 33756 [These are the offices of the Flag Service Organization, where Miscavige also has offices — ed.] Upon walking up to the front entrance I was immediately stopped by one security guard, he had a tag on with no name but just stating “Security Guard,” I advised him who I was and that I had legal documents for David Miscavige. He stated “he does not live here nor does he work at this location,” I told him I had a few questions that I wanted to ask and I was told they are not going to answer anymore questions. I proceeded asking him my questions but was told the same response for each question “I am not answering anymore questions” and after my third or fourth question they proceeded to remain silent. I then advised him that I was instructed to leave the documents on the ground as they did not allow me to enter the property nor provide any information to serve Mr. Miscavige.

8/16/2022 4:34 pm Attempted Service at 551 N. Saturn Ave, Clearwater, FL 33755 [This is the Hacienda Gardens apartment complex, where for years Miscavige has had an apartment — ed.] Upon walking up to the front entrance I was immediately stopped by the security guard at the gate, he had a tag on with no name but just stating “Security Guard,” I advised him who I was and that I had legal documents for David Miscavige. He stated “he does not live here nor does he work at this location,” I told him I had a few questions that I wanted to ask and I was told they are not going to answer anymore questions. I proceeded asking him my questions but was told the same response for each question “I am not answering anymore questions” and after my third or fourth question he proceeded to remain silent and went back inside his station and remained looking at me from inside. I then advised him that I was instructed to leave the documents on the ground as they did not allow me to enter the property nor provide any information to serve Mr. Miscavige.

Three days later, process server Jorge Rivera reported that he’d had similar trouble in July trying to serve Miscavige at the Hollywood Guaranty Building on Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue in Los Angeles, which is where the Religious Technology Center has its official address. (Dave is the chairman of RTC, which is why Scientologists refer to him as “C.O.B.” for chairman of the board.)

Attempted at 6331 Hollywood Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90028-6321 On 7/14/2022 at 12:29 PM Results: No access to lobby. Spoke with a guard over the intercom and inquired about David Miscavige. He had me waiting for over 20 minutes so I walked to the other door but there was no answer over the intercom. Guard named “Juan” finally came back and said there is no such person, would not provide any other info

Attempted at 6331 Hollywood Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90028-6321 On 7/21/2022 at 3:30 PM Results: Per female guard Over intercom on Hollywood blvd. there is no one under that name. They kept me on hold again for over 10 min.

Attempted at 1710 Ivar Ave Ste 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90028-5575 On 7/21/2022 at 3:43 PM Results: No answer over the intercom waited several minutes but no response

So with those earnest attempts made, the plaintiffs, through their attorney Neil Glazer, are now asking the court to step in.

Plaintiffs Gawain Baxter, Laura Baxter, and Valeska Paris respectfully move the Court to instruct the Clerk to issue the attached summons directed to Defendant David Miscavige in care of the Florida Secretary State….Plaintiffs have been unable to contact Defendant Miscavige and do not know of any counsel representing him in this matter. Plaintiffs therefore ask that they be excepted from Local Rule 3.01(g). Respectfully submitted, Neil L. Glazer

Will this finally work and make David Miscavige an official defendant in a lawsuit that alleges the mistreatment of children, the use of slave labor on the Freewinds, and the punishment of a Sea Org woman for saying she’d been sexually assaulted by coworkers?

We’ll let you know what the court says.

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