Jane Doe 1 denies validity of arbitration contract, opposes Scientology stay request

Jane Doe 1’s lawsuit against Scientology, unsealed in June, contains some horrendous allegations of sexual abuse of a minor and forced marriage, but once again, Scientology has pulled out its favorite legal strategy and is trying to derail the lawsuit in favor of “religious arbitration.”

We told you on September 22 that Scientology had not only asked the court to force the case into arbitration, but also to put the lawsuit on hold until next May when the matter can be decided.

Now, Jane Doe 1 has come firing back, saying it’s ridiculous to put the case on ice that long, and she goes into great length about why the contract she signed in 2002 should be considered invalid.

For one thing, she says, her signature might be on it, but no one from Scientology ever added their signatures.

But more than that, she goes into a lengthy story about how she had gone to Scientology’s Flag Land Base at that time with her very good friend Lisa Marie Presley, and she was asked to sign the paper merely to keep staying there with her friend, and not to get any “religious services.”

We’re going to include the entire argument about that from the lawsuit, to show you how infuriating it is that Scientology forces its members into these ridiculous situations. But we will also point out that in the Tampa trafficking case, for example, the plaintiffs there also went into detail about how they had been forced to sign such contracts without even reading them. And the judge there, Judge Thomas Barber, though he clearly sympathized with the plaintiffs, said his hands were tied and granted the church’s motion to force the case into arbitration.

So, as compelling as Jane Doe 1’s narrative is here for why the court should ignore the contract, we will keep in mind that Scientology has been able to convince courts otherwise.

In 2002, Jane Doe, along with her 7-year-old daughter, accompanied her good friend Lisa Marie Presley, also a Scientologist, to "FLAG," Scientology's spiritual and training center in Clearwater, Florida as well as to visit her mother. Jane Doe's mother had been told by Scientology that she was "unflat" and needed to undergo high level auditing, at her expense, that could only be administered at FLAG, and that she could not leave until the process was complete.

(Jane Doe also accompanied Ms. Presley to Disney World for a birthday celebration during their month-long stay in Florida.) Without this auditing and correction, Jane Doe's mother would be unable to advance to OT III — a Scientology level she pledged to reach to have spiritual freedom. Until she underwent this correction, her mother was unable to take part in any courses in Los Angeles where she lived, a requirement to maintain her good standing. If Jane Doe's mother abandoned the courses and returned to her family in Los Angeles, Scientology could "declare" her and expel her from the organization altogether.

Jane Doe's father informed her that her mother was very stressed and unhappy that the process was taking longer than expected and that she felt isolated and alone for the first time in her life. He asked that Jane Doe take her daughter, with whom her mother was close, to visit and cheer her up. Jane Doe's purpose at FLAG was purely social and to provide emotional support to her mother, and unrelated to any desire to obtain services.

FLAG has a high level of security, and visits to FLAG ordinarily require advance requests that must be approved, followed by a visitation fee paid by the visitor. Scientology visitors to FLAG must also first have their auditing files sent from their home base before being allowed on the base, and the visit to FLAG must be associated with some services to be obtained at the base. Because of Jane Doe's friend's celebrity status, the pre-visit requirements were initially waived for Jane Doe. However, after several weeks at FLAG, Scientology officials came under scrutiny regarding Jane Doe's presence.

Jane Doe was told she must immediately sign the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization Religious Services Enrollment Application, Agreement and General Release (the "Agreement"), to permit her presence at FLAG. Defendants represented to Jane Doe that the form's purpose was simply to allow Jane Doe to remain at FLAG in Clearwater and that she was stating that she would not ask for a refund if she was unhappy with services (in which she never intended to participate).

Defendants did not mention arbitration and Jane Doe was not given time to review the document. Jane Doe knew that any hesitation to sign or even fully read a Scientology document when presented — much less have counsel review the document with her — would be a violation of Scientology protocol. From her many years as a Scientologist, Jane Doe knew that such a violation would be met harshly and could result in her being assigned an unfavorable "label" within Scientology, such as "legal risk."

To remove oneself from an unfavorable (and life-altering) "label," she could be forced to take "courses" costing thousands of dollars or be subjected to hours-long interrogations and extensive investigations costing up to tens of thousands of dollars. FLAG officials also threatened potential punishment to Jane Doe if she did not sign the Agreement. Officials told Jane Doe she must sign the Agreement and stay to secure her mother's continued participation in the costly auditing sessions.

FLAG officials told Jane Doe she had to remain on base to bring her mother "up tone," or make her happy, during her months-long auditing, so she would not end the sessions and leave. Jane Doe was told that either she or FLAG would be blamed for the loss of a wealthy donor like her mother and that could result in punishment, including being given a "Non Enturbulation Order," one step from being declared a Suppressive Person and being expelled from Scientology. Jane Doe was told her presence violated FLAG protocol and had to have a solution for her unpermitted presence.

Scientology forced the Agreement upon her as that solution, Jane Doe was under immense pressure from FLAG officials and for her lifetime had been taught to follow, and not question, Scientology orders. Therefore, when FLAG officials pushed the Agreement across the table, she understood she had no other choice but to follow orders and sign the Agreement. Jane Doe signed the Agreement only to allow her to remain at FLAG and avoid punishment for herself and her mother but had no intention of obtaining services.

Jane Doe knew that transferring services to FLAG would place her in jeopardy with Scientology's Los Angeles location, her home base. Scientologists cannot receive Religious Services at FLAG until they first receive their "PC file," a "pre-clear" file consisting of notes from all previous auditing sessions. If Jane Doe had her PC file transferred from Los Angeles to FLAG and began receiving services at FLAG, Los Angeles feared her family's future contributions would follow.

Jane Doe understood her PC file would be requested but refused, and FLAG officials recognized this as the likely outcome. Indeed, upon FLAG's request of Jane Doe's PC files from Los Angeles, her handler, Julian Swartz, called her and — over her attempts to explain the situation — verbally berated Jane Doe for the request and refused to send the files as she knew he would. Without FLAG's possession of her PC file, Jane Doe could not and did not participate in Religious Services at FLAG.

No Scientology official ever signed or "accepted" the Agreement. Jane Doe never intended to receive Religious Services at FLAG, and the FLAG officials who forced her to sign the Agreement knew that crossing the necessary hurdles to allow her to receive Religious Services would be an impossibility. The Agreement was a fiction to create an otherwise unavailable solution, but one that would allow both her, her mother, and FLAG officials to avoid punishment. Even if it was not, the acts that Defendants now seek to have her arbitrate — child sexual abuse, rape and forced marriage — are not Religious Services subject to arbitration under the Agreement, nor are they activities that may be subjected to arbitration at all.

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Leah Remini bolsters her legal team in Scientology lawsuit

Since Leah Remini filed her harassment and stalking lawsuit against Scientology in August, she’s filed additional allegations in an amended complaint and a request for injunctive relief to prevent Scientology to continue smearing her and intimidating her family.

Scientology still hasn’t provided any kind of response to the lawsuit, but once again Leah is moving ahead with yet another set of filings, this time to beef up her legal team with a couple of out-of-town heavy hitters.

Joining Brad Edwards, Brittany Henderson, and Seth Lehrman, two out of town attorneys have filed motions with the court to join the case, including a former Washington DC attorney general, as well as a South Carolina lawyer who has led litigation against manufacturers of unsafe women’s health products.

[Brad Edwards, Brittany Henderson, and Seth Lehrman]

The former DC attorney general is Linda Singer, a partner at Motley Rice. And her colleague at the same firm, South Carolina based Carmen Scott, is the other lawyer asking to join the case.

Scott has focused on litigation against manufacturers of women’s health products, including the safety problems with Johnson & Johnson baby powder.

Singer was DC attorney general 2007-2008. Her areas of litigation have included suing opioid manufacturers and subprime mortgage lenders.

[Linda Singer and Carmen Scott]

Singer and Brad Edwards also something else in common: They both were involved in representing victims of predator financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In September, that really paid off for Singer and her firm, which stands to receive a quarter of a $105 million settlement with the Epstein estate in litigation brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein reportedly brought victims.

Also, both Singer and Scott are representing Jane Doe 1 in her lawsuit against Scientology, its leader David Miscavige, and Sea Org recruiter Gavin Potter.

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