Dave’s winning streak: Has Scientology made itself lawsuit-proof?

Last Friday evening, we got the news that another lawsuit filed by former Scientologists had been torpedoed by a judge.

In this case, it was the federal labor trafficking lawsuit filed by former Sea Org workers Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter, which made a major splash when it was filed in April 2022. And once again, the reason was that a court had found these former Scientology members could not sue the church in a court of law but instead, based on employment contracts they had signed, had to take their grievances to Scientology’s own internal “religious arbitration.”

Monday, the Tampa Bay Times reported on the ruling and quoted Scientology spokesman Ben Shaw saying, “We won.”

Note that he didn’t say, “this matter is going to arbitration where it belongs,” but “we won.”

Scientology obviously believes that when it forces a case into its own justice procedures, the case is over.

And looking back, we can see that former Scientologists have been having a very hard time suing Scientology, which at this point seems to have made itself all but lawsuit-proof with help from American judges.

Let’s check the record. And we’ll start in 2009, which seemed to be a huge turning point, when revelations about Scientology leader David Miscavige and the inner workings of the highest echelons of the organization (the ‘Truth Rundown’ series at the Tampa Bay Times) seemed to promise a new day.

2009 Marc & Claire Headley v. Church of Scientology International (Dismissed) Reciting the horrors of life in the Sea Org at Gold Base, the Headleys filed a federal labor trafficking lawsuit that was dismissed because of the “ministerial exception” afforded Scientology as a church. In an appellate ruling upholding that decision, the court recognized that the Headleys had been harmed, and suggested that suing under the trafficking statute was not the way to go. The Headleys were left with $43,000 in legal fees owed to Scientology that they were able to crowdsource after revealing that Scientology had offered to dismiss the fees if they would be willing to spy for the church.

2009 Laura DeCrescenzo v. Church of Scientology International (Settled) Laura was also suing over abuse as a Sea Org worker, and that she had been forced to have an abortion at only 17 years of age. Surviving an initial dismissal and then two subsequent motions for summary judgment, Laura’s case was finally, after 9 years, only a few days away from trial at Los Angeles Superior Court when Scientology leader David Miscavige threw in the towel and wrote a large check to make the case go away. (Terms were not released.) Along the way, Laura had to fight all the way to the US Supreme Court in order to get her personal files from the church, which contained stunning evidence of the abuse she endured. Laura’s case was the last real “win” against Scientology in court.

2013 Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Church of Scientology FSO (Forced into arbitration) The Garcias sued in Tampa federal court for fraud, alleging that they had been lied to in order to convince them to turn over hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Scientology successfully forced this case into arbitration, even after admitting to the court that it had never held an arbitration in its 60-plus year history. Luis described the arbitration proceeding as a joke: He and Rocio weren’t allowed to have an attorney, they couldn’t bring smartphones, and 90 percent of the evidence they brought was disallowed by the “International Justice Chief,” Mike Ellis. But Judge James Whittemore accepted the result of the arbitration and his ruling was upheld by the Eleventh Circuit.

2013 Monique Rathbun v. Church of Scientology (Withdrawn) Monique was never a member of the Church of Scientology, but her husband, Marty Rathbun, was one of its highest members and had become a target of harassment after he defected in 2004. Monique argued that she was being harmed by that harassment, and her lawsuit survived an anti-SLAPP motion. She appeared to be in a very good legal position and her attorneys believed they would be able to get David Miscavige into deposition despite an initial ruling that had spared him from giving one. But then, early in 2016, Monique suddenly fired her attorneys, withdrew her lawsuit, and Marty began making videos slamming Mike Rinder, Leah Remini, and other critics of Scientology. Those videos have appeared regularly on Scientology’s own attack websites and social media accounts, making it plain that Rathbun had become the church’s go-to attack dog after his wife killed her lawsuit.

2019 Valerie Haney v. Church of Scientology International (Forced into arbitration) Valerie famously escaped from a Scientology base in the trunk of a car, and then went to work for Leah Remini, experiencing a furious case of harassment and intimidation, she alleged in her lawsuit. But an exit agreement she signed with the church obliged her not to sue, ruled Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge, and he granted Scientology’s motion to force her case into arbitration. After fighting that ruling for three years, Valerie is now preparing to go through the arbitration, and recently gave an interview about it at Rolling Stone.

2019 The Danny Masterson accusers (‘Bixler’) v. Church of Scientology International (On hold until after criminal case) The women accusing Danny Masterson of raping them (which is the subject of his retrial, beginning April 17) sued Masterson and the Church for what the say is a persistent “Fair Game” campaign of harassment since they came forward to the LAPD in 2016. The lawsuit was initially forced into arbitration, but a California appeals court reasoned that because the harassment occurred after the women had left the church, then the arbitration contracts should not apply, and restored the lawsuit. It’s now on hold until after the criminal trial is completed.

2019 Jane Doe v. Church of Scientology FSO (Withdrawn) The same Philly legal team that filed the Valerie Haney and Masterson accuser lawsuits in 2019 also filed a case in Miami on behalf a woman going by the name of Jane Doe. She alleged that she had been sexually molested as a child while working for Scientology in Clearwater and Venezuela. After Clearwater’s police department declined to prosecute the matter criminally, however, the lawsuit was withdrawn.

2022 Baxters/Valeska Paris v. Church of Scientology International (Forced into arbitration) This case was in federal court, it featured multiple plaintiffs, a huge and powerful legal team behind them, and horrible allegations about the abuse of child workers and adult indentured servants in Scientology’s Sea Org and aboard its cruise ship, the Freewinds. But District Judge Thomas Barber, acknowledging how wrong it appeared, said his hands were tied, pointing to the Eleventh Circuit ruling in the Garcia case which had happened in the same courtroom, and ruled that he had no choice but to force the case into Scientology arbitration.

Eight lawsuits. Six either withdrawn or forced into arbitration. One settled (favorably for Laura DeCrescenzo). One case still active, but on hold.

We expect, like in Valerie’s case, the Baxters and Valeska Paris will vigorously oppose the decision by Judge Barber to force their lawsuit into arbitration. After Valerie goes through her arbitration, she will then go back to court and ask Judge Gail Killefer to throw out the results and restore her lawsuit. The Baxters and Valeska will do the same, if they too must go through an arbitration. And perhaps these cases will be able to avoid the fate of the Garcia lawsuit, which remained derailed even after the kangaroo court of a Scientology religious arbitration.

That leaves only the Masterson accusers’ lawsuit as currently active, after it managed to survive being forced, temporarily, into Scientology’s arbitration. And the Philly legal team that initially filed it has been replaced. Jane Doe 1 hired Brad Edwards, a Florida attorney who hounded Jeffrey Epstein on behalf of the predatory financier’s victims. And Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 have hired the David Boies firm. These are heavy hitters, and that bodes well for these plaintiffs.

And we know what’s coming next in that lawsuit, after the criminal case is over (and whether or not Danny Masterson is headed to prison): Scientology has already said that it intends to file an anti-SLAPP motion in an attempt to get the case thrown out of court.

Will Dave’s winning streak finally, then, run out?

---

Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

Here’s the link to today’s post at tonyortega.org

And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning.

Paid subscribers get access to two special podcast series every week…

Up the Bridge: A weekly journey through Scientology’s actual “technology”

Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news