David Miscavige says Leah Remini hasn’t served him (but Dave’s not here and you don’t see him)
Jeffrey Riffer is back! Scientology leader David Miscavige’s personal attorney has once again made the scene, and he’s doing his best to keep Dave out of the lawsuits filed by Leah Remini and Jane Doe 1.
We know it’s hard for our international readers to understand, but Riffer is making a “special appearance” in court so his client, David Miscavige, can claim that he has not been served the lawsuits and is not a defendant in either of them.
Now, one would think that if Dave sends his personal attorney down to the courthouse to argue about something, that’s a pretty good indication that Miscavige is actually aware of the lawsuits and has been properly notified of them.
But that’s not how our court system works. Once again, Dave is arguing through an attorney that he’s not been legally made aware that he’s being sued, and so he’s not involved, but he will take this opportunity to throw a few jabs at Leah anyway.
“Plaintiff Leah Remini is a former Church of Scientology parishioner. She was expelled from Scientology for serious misconduct. Plaintiff has made a career of publicly attacking her former religion and Mr. Miscavige personally. This lawsuit is just her latest effort to harass Mr. Miscavige.”
Then we get some classic sneering by Riffer, who says that Remini doesn’t think the rules apply to her, and so she sent someone to serve Miscavige at Church of Scientology facilities where he neither lives nor works.
Can you believe the nerve of this woman?
“Nonetheless, Plaintiff filed a proof of service claiming to have served Mr. Miscavige at his ‘usual place of business.’ Plaintiff has not done so. Moreover, at no time were any papers left with a person in charge of Mr. Miscavige’s office or usual place of business, as claimed by Plaintiff’s process server. Mr. Miscavige was not served.”
Now, we all know that David Miscavige micro-manages every aspect of Scientology, and every Scientology facility is his domain. But Riffer ridicules Remini for sending process servers to places that have nothing to do with Religious Technology Center, the particular Scientology entity that Miscavige is the “chairman of the board” of.
And the result is Riffer is asking the court to grant a motion to quash the service and to keep Miscavige out of the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Riffer filed the same thing in Jane Doe 1’s forced-marriage lawsuit, which we told you involved the same reports by process servers who were looking for Miscavige and attempted to serve him by “substitute service.”
Are these two judges (in Remini’s lawsuit Judge Randolph Hammock, and in Jane Doe 1’s case Judge Robert Broadbelt) going to let Dave get away with this stuff, or will they, like the federal court in Tampa, decide that Dave’s antics are clearly a case of purposely evading service?
Riffer has asked for court dates in February to find out.
Protest at Scientology’s UK Headquarters
The day has arrived! Alex Barnes-Ross updated us last night that police inform him that his march is definitely going forward today, and they will make sure that his demonstration is safely conveyed to Saint Hill Manor.
We are going to try to check in with Alex for a live update at about 3 pm Eastern to see how things went. Keep an eye on our YouTube channel for the details.
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Why not just serve them to DM attorney and say, since you are representing him consider yourself served and get these papers to your client.... I know nothing about the rules regarding this but Riffer seems to know where DM is. Why can't the judge just make him serve DM?
The first thing I learned in the Sea Org was how to respond to process servers. Do not answer any question with anything other than “I don’t know”. If the person tries to hand you something do not accept. If they throw it at your feet, leave it there.
My very first job in the Sea Org was receptionist. I was 15 at most, maybe 14.
ETA: Miscavige has been pulling this trick since the late 80’s.