David Minkoff objects to Scientology death lawsuit: You didn’t consult another quack!

[Whitney Mills, Dr. David Minkoff, and the Flag Building in Clearwater]

We’ve really been looking forward to seeing how the notorious Dr. David Minkoff, alternative medicine doctor and major Scientology donor, would respond to the Whitney Mills wrongful death lawsuit, and wow, he does not disappoint.

In September Minkoff and his LifeWorks Wellness Center in Clearwater, Florida were added as defendants to the lawsuit filed by Whitney’s mother Leila Mills regarding Whitney’s tragic May 13, 2022 suicide. The lawsuit already listed six Church of Scientology entities, and it described complaints of severe mental anguish by Whitney, an OT 8 Scientologist. According to the lawsuit, she was instructed by Scientology advisers to “drop the body” — in other words, end this lifetime and start another, as Scientologists believe that we are immortal “thetans” who go from one body to another over the eons.

Minkoff is accused of giving Whitney similarly catastrophic advice based on his own Scientology involvement. In one text from Minkoff, he told a distraught Whitney to use her Scientology training to overcome her mental crisis: “Drugs could numb you but you are OT. Put TR O in. It's a sensation. Its noise. It has no power over YOU. That's the truth. Eye of the tiger. You are loved. You have friends and LRH. Duplicate it. Dissolve it. That is your power. You can be tone 40 with your TR O. That's you as cause. I know you can. ML, dm.”

Minkoff is also accused of adding to Whitney’s mental distress by telling her she was afflicted with maladies she didn’t actually have, including “chronic” Lyme disease, parasites, and ovarian cancer.

Attorney Ramon Rasco solicited the opinions of three doctors to review Minkoff’s involvement: an infectious disease specialist, a neurologist, and a professor of psychiatry. All three provided devastating condemnations of Minkoff’s handling of Whitney Mills, and concluded that his actions contributed to her decision to commit suicide.

But now, Minkoff’s Orlando attorney Kyle R. Fontaine is asking the court to dismiss Minkoff from the lawsuit. Why? Because Rasco consulted the three physicians but didn’t consult an alternative medicine practitioner like his client.

Fontaine filed two motions with the court, one asking for dismissal based on the pre-lawsuit discovery phase between the two sides, and one based on the lawsuit itself. He calls Minkoff “a physician renowned for offering an array of complementary or alternative health care treatments,” but doesn’t mention that what Minkoff is peddling is pure hokum.

Fontaine complains that Rasco didn’t consult a similar practitioner.

Plaintiff has completely failed to have an expert who specializes in offering alternative health care review Dr. Minkoff's care. None of the experts retained by the plaintiff, a neurologist, an infectious disease physician, and a psychologist, are qualified in the same specialty as Dr. Minkoff.

He adds that alternative medicine is “clearly recognized in the State of Florida,” and Whitney Mills signed multiple consent forms, like when she received “Activated Oxygen Therapy,” which a consent form that Whitney signed admitted was “not widely accepted” and a “nonstandard practice.”

In his motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Fontaine carped about the length of the complaint and that it was "scandalous" because, for example, it brings up the Lisa McPherson matter.

In 1995, Scientologist Lisa McPherson had a severe mental breakdown and was taken out of a hospital by other Scientologists to the church’s Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater so she could be put into something called the “Introspection Rundown,” a bizarre Scientology silent treatment that, 17 days later, resulted in her death from dehydration. During that time, McPherson’s Scientologist handlers were consulting by telephone with Minkoff, who prescribed sedatives without actually examining McPherson herself.

After her death, Minkoff lost his medical license for a year as punishment for his role in the horrific incident. The relevance to the Mills case 27 years later is patently obvious. But Fontaine whines that it’s unfair to bring it up.

There is no valid purpose for these allegations. They can only be intended to discredit Dr. Minkoff in a public filing.

Fontaine also says Minkoff is being unfairly insulted in the lawsuit, particularly about his being a Scientologist.

Some of these allegations are simply insults or excessively emotional, some serve no purpose other than to attempt to make a case in the 'court of public opinion,' and some are derisive of the religious affiliation not only of Dr. Minkoff but also of the decedent. There is no place to mock litigants in a complaint or insult them for their belief system.

He asked the court, if it doesn’t dismiss the lawsuit outright, to at least strike five paragraphs in the amended complaint that refer to Scientology.

So we thought we’d post those five paragraphs here in full.

17. Mills was a high-ranking member of Scientology, having paid IASA and the other Scientology Defendants hundreds of thousands of dollars to attain her status. The Scientology Defendants brainwashed her into believing that mental health professionals, including psychologists and psychiatrists, and related medical treatments, such as antidepressants and other prescription drugs, were unnecessary and abhorrent. Upon learning of her problems, the Scientology Defendants took control of Mills’ medical care, thus foreclosing her from obtaining the exact treatment she needed, and sending her to an alternative medicine doctor who misdiagnosed her with cancer and Lyme disease and extorted her for a series of alternative treatments of little to no utility for a person suffering from severe depression and anxiety. Everything foisted upon Mills by these Defendants was outside the field of mental health treatment, and everything failed. She was at her wit’s end. Precluded from seeking the appropriate help, she felt she had no other choice. But for the fact that the Scientology Defendants, including their agents and employees, co-opted her care, her life, her monitoring and supervision, Mills would not have self-harmed. Not only did they not properly care for her, contrary to the duty they undertook, they actually suggested that she “drop the body.”

…

23. Dr. Minkoff, also a Scientologist, misinformed and misdiagnosed Mills with Lyme disease and a cancerous ovarian cyst, while largely ignoring her very real psychosis and mental health crisis. Instead of properly treating her, over the three months, Dr. Minkoff charged her over $20,000 for highly questionable, “alternative” treatments, not one of which was covered by insurance or was of any use whatsoever to Mills. Dr. Minkoff failed to perform a differential diagnosis on Mills. Had he done so, he would have learned that she did not have Lyme disease and did not have a cancerous, life-threatening cyst, but rather a benign one (as later revealed by her autopsy examination and report). Dr. Minkoff also failed to refer Mills to a mental health care professional or prescribe appropriate medication to Mills. Dr. Minkoff put his beliefs in Scientology above his Hippocratic oath and above his duties as a licensed physician in Florida.

…

49. Scientology is known to demonize the mental health field and view psychiatry as evil. Scientology attempts to position itself as a rival profession to psychiatry and teaches that there must be a complete rejection of prescription drugs that treat mental health issues, including depression.

…

76. Mills went in to get an interview by the Director of Processing who was responsible for creating a plan to treat her. The Director of Processing had Mills go to two clinics, LifeWorks (more fully described below) and Root Cause Medical Clinic (“Root Cause”) located in Clearwater. At Root Cause she was treated by Drs. Vikki and Rick Petersen. The Petersens are not medical doctors but instead, according to their website, hold doctorates in Physical Medicine through their degree in Chiropractic. The Petersens are also Scientologists.

…

94. Instead of appropriately dealing with Mills’ mental health crisis, Minkoff diagnosed and began treating Mills for Lyme disease, including potential neurological Lyme disease (or chronic Lyme disease, as Dr. Minkoff calls it). Lyme disease is a common diagnosis among Scientologists, as a catch-all to explain a host of symptoms that would otherwise be attributed to a mental health issue.

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