Appeals court denies Jane Doe 1 petition, David Miscavige’s sneaky trick upheld

California’s Second Appellate District has put its seal of approval on Scientology leader David Miscavige’s cynical sandbagging maneuver that prevented a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge from declaring Scientology’s “religious arbitration” so unfair it was “unconscionable.”

If that description sounds like we’re a little disgusted, well, you’re right about that.

The appeals court’s decision to deny Jane Doe 1’s petition for a writ of mandamus sounds innocuous enough. Here it is in its entirety (except for a case law citation):

The court has read and considered the petition for writ of mandate filed April 25, 2024, the preliminary opposition filed May 1, 2024, and the reply filed May 13, 2024. The petition is denied. The peremptory challenge was timely filed and the respondent court was obligated to grant it.

Now, here again is what really happened.

Jane Doe 1, one of the three named victims in the Danny Masterson criminal case, filed a separate lawsuit under seal in December 2022 against the Church of Scientology, leader David Miscavige, and a Sea Org recruiter named Gavin Potter. She alleged that Potter had sexually assaulted her when she was a minor, but she was told she either had to marry Potter or go into the Sea Org’s prison program, the Rehabilitation Project Force. She agreed to marry Potter and they later had a child, but she alleged that any sexual activity in the marriage was nonconsensual. She’s suing Scientology for sexual assault, negligence, and fraud.

Scientology reacted as it usually does, digging through its files and finding a contract for services that Jane Doe had signed at the Flag Land Base in 2002 which contained an arbitration clause. By signing it, they argued, she was obliged not to sue but instead submit any grievances to Scientology’s own internal religious arbitration. She countered by explaining that she only signed the contract because she was at the base visiting her mother and spending time with her good friend Lisa Marie Presley, and not for the purpose of doing Scientology services.

Judge Robert Broadbelt, in a tentative ruling he posted at the court website the night before a scheduled April 16 hearing, not only found that Jane Doe’s explanation was credible, but he also found that the terms of the contract were so one-sided and unfair it met the legal definition of “unconscionable.” In several previous lawsuits, judges had sided with Scientology on that score, so it looked like a major sea-change was about to happen.

However, the morning of April 16, and before the scheduled 10 am hearing, Miscavige’s personal attorney Jeffrey Riffer went to the courthouse to see Judge Broadbelt. Riffer had made “special appearances” on Miscavige’s behalf earlier in the lawsuit, arguing that Miscavige had not been served the suit properly as the church leader evaded process servers and hid behind Scientology security guards.

But now, after accepting service, Miscavige had a surprise. Riffer announced to the judge that Miscavige was making his first official appearance in the case, and his first official act was to file a peremptory challenge to remove Judge Broadbelt, just hours before the judge could make his historic ruling final.

It was a stunningly cynical move. Miscavige had spent months dodging process servers and having his attorney make “special appearances” to argue that he wasn’t a part of the lawsuit. Now, he was showing up to do something that parties are normally encouraged to do in the first three weeks of a lawsuit: Object to the appointment of the judge, and ask for another before that judge has spent any real time on the case.

To Miscavige, his attorney argued, it was officially the first day of the lawsuit, even though Jane Doe had actually filed it more than a year earlier. We don’t know how Judge Broadbelt felt about the move, but we do know that the judge decided Miscavige was in his rights to pull it off, and he stepped aside.

The tentative ruling, with its important finding that Scientology arbitration is unconscionable, was wiped away as if it never happened.

Jane Doe didn’t take that sitting down. She filed the writ with the appeals court, an appeals court that had ruled in her favor in the past in a similar lawsuit against Danny Masterson and the church.

But this time, the 2nd Appellate Division let her down. Sure, Dave can sandbag all he wants and pretend he’s acting properly, they’re saying. And it’s once again more proof of what we’ve said so many times before: US courts are simply not set up to deal with an organization like Scientology that deals in nothing but bad faith.

Jane Doe has other irons in the fire. She filed a challenge of her own to replace the judge, Judge Michael Small, who had replaced Judge Broadbelt, and she also filed a “notice of related case,” asking for the court to move the case to the courtroom of Judge Upinder Kalra, who is handling the lawsuit against Masterson.

Of course, Scientology is calling those cynical moves, and accusing Jane Doe of “judge shopping.”

But then, bad actors often accuse others of doing what they themselves are guilty of.

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