LAPD responds to Leah Remini tweets about Shelly Miscavige, gets stuff wrong
Last week, we told you about a story by Gene Maddaus at Variety that laid out some stunning allegations about a former LAPD Hollywood Division commander named Captain Cory Palka, who is accused of using his influence to kill a sexual assault investigation of Les Moonves, CEO of CBS.
We pointed out that Palka was very familiar to us because he was also known, before his retirement in 2021, for his cozy relationship with the Church of Scientology. And we pointed out that Leah Remini in the past had complained that for years Palka had been the face of Scientology’s influence in the LAPD. She contacted us this week and told us that she was going to make sure that people made the connection between Palka, his past favors for Scientology, and his current scandal.
On Thursday, Leah put out a tweet thread about Palka and the LAPD’s corrupt relationship with Scientology, and she focused on the 2013 missing-person report she filed in regards to Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige who has not been seen at any Scientology events since 2005 and not in public since 2007.
Leah’s tweet thread went viral, racking up more than 155,000 likes so far, with other celebrities helping to raise its visibility.
The result? Late last night, the LAPD’s Public Information Office put out a response about how it handled Leah’s missing-person report. That report contained some inaccuracies.
We know, because it was the Underground Bunker that first broke the news of Leah’s missing-person report in 2013, and we spoke to the lieutenant who handled it at the time.
First, here’s the LAPD’s response to Leah’s tweets:
LAPD Responds to Comments Made by Leah Remini
Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Police Department is aware of public assertions recently made by Leah Remini regarding a missing person investigation involving Shelly Miscavige.
In 2014 [sic], Los Angeles Police Department detectives assigned to the Missing Persons Unit (MPU) went to Shelly Miscavige’s location and personally made contact with her and her attorney. Detectives found her to be alive and safe, and subsequently closed the missing persons investigation. The Missing Persons Unit handles adult missing cases throughout the City of Los Angeles and work out of LAPD’s Detective Bureau. This case was not investigated by Hollywood Division personnel and had no involvement by retired LAPD Commander Corey [sic] Palka.
Here’s what actually happened.
We broke the news at the Underground Bunker on July 8, 2013 that Leah Remini had defected from Scientology. A month later, on Monday, August 5, Leah filed a missing-person report about her friend Shelly Miscavige with the LAPD. Two days later, on Wednesday night August 7, we obtained a copy of the report. The next morning, on Thursday, August 8, we broke the news about the missing-person report.
Reporters from other news organizations began asking the LAPD for a response that day, and that afternoon the police department began telling them that the missing-person report had been designated as “unfounded.”
Those reporters, who were not aware that Leah Remini had actually filed her report several days earlier, on August 5, were given the impression that her report had been filed that morning when our story came out. Their stories subsequently mocked Remini for filing a frivolous “unfounded” report that had been open and closed on the same day.
At the time, the LAPD revealed none of the information they are referring to now, that they had actually spent some time going to meet Shelly “and her attorney” at her location.
In our own follow-up to the report, we asked to speak to the officer in charge of the investigation, and the LAPD connected us with Lieutenant Andre Dawson, who is now retired.
It was Dawson in 2013 who first told us that two of his detectives had gone to Shelly’s location (which he would not reveal) and spoke to her. He told us that all they could do was check to see that she was all right, and that she had declined to make any kind of public statement.
We asked Lt. Dawson if this meeting had occurred in the presence of other Scientology officials.
“That’s classified,” he said to us.
Meanwhile, even though the LAPD had given the impression to reporters that Leah’s report was a frivolous one that had been open and closed on the same day, and even though they had given us more detail when we asked for it, the LAPD never responded to Leah herself.
Three years later, in 2016, Leah had an attorney file a formal request for information about the investigation with the LAPD. But the department refused to comply, saying that it did not have to share any more information about it with her.
The department to this day has never given her a response about her missing-person report or explained what they did about it.
So where did the LAPD send two detectives to meet with Shelly in 2013? We believe that meeting actually occurred outside the jurisdiction of the LAPD, and in San Bernardino County.
For years, we have been reporting on the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige. We have multiple, independent sources that put her at a small secretive Scientology compound in the San Bernardino Mountains, where she has been kept since late August or early September, 2005.
The only time she has been seen in public since then was at the funeral of her father, Maurice “Barney” Barnett in the summer of 2007. That funeral took place on a boat that spread Barney’s ashes at sea, sailing out of LA’s harbor, and Shelly was there with her Scientology “handler,” a woman named Anne (Joasem) Rathbun. It was clear to our sources who attended the funeral that Shelly had only briefly been let out, and would be going immediately back to where she was being kept out of sight.
Each Christmas, we publish what we know about Shelly’s location (even including a map), and evidence about her last days at Gold Base before she was taken away to her current location, the headquarters compound of a Scientology subsidiary known as the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST).
In December 2016, we reported that a person who lives a few miles from the CST base spotted a person who appeared to be Shelly Miscavige at a hardware store and a grocery store in the nearby town of Crestline in December 2015 and April 2016.
As a result of that story, we were contacted by some non-Scientology members of Shelly’s family who were concerned that in those sightings Shelly appeared “frail.” We suggested that they contact the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, which actually has jurisdiction at the location of the CST compound. They told us that the Sheriff’s Department refused to do a welfare check, telling them that they did not have proof that Shelly was at that location.
So we wrote a letter to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, explaining the evidence that Shelly was, indeed, at that compound. Here’s what they sent us:
Hello Tony,
Concerning the welfare of someone within the jurisdiction of the Sheriff’s department, any call for service we receive will be appropriately addressed and handled accordingly.
We encourage anyone with information regarding a crime, or potential crime, to contact Sheriff’s Dispatch or their local Sheriffs station to report it so the matter can be investigated and resolved.
Thank you,
Adam Cervantes, Deputy Sheriff
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept.
Public Affairs Division
When Scientology is pressed about Shelly by news organizations, it puts out statements saying that she is working on a special project and does not want to make a public statement.
The special project that is done at the CST headquarters is the bizarre work to archive Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s words and speeches on media designed to last thousands of years and that is stored in underground vaults at that location and three others in California and New Mexico.
Years ago we received reports that Shelly was working on the archive project, as well as other Scientology initiatives that are performed at the CST compound. And we have said it repeatedly: She may be resigned to her fate and is not trying to “escape” the small mountain base.
In 2016, a reader at the Underground Bunker used a drone to take high-resolution images of the CST headquarters and then allowed us to premiere the footage. Former CST employee Dylan Gill pointed out the function of each of the buildings we could see, and even suggested where Shelly would likely be spending her days working, and even where she would living.
David Miscavige has become so confident that no law enforcement agency will inquire about Shelly’s whereabouts, in 2018 he profiled the archiving work done at the CST headquarters in a slick program for his new DirecTV television channel.
We couldn’t help wonder: Was one of the figures in a clean suit actually Shelly Miscavige?
We’re very glad that Leah Remini has once again put the issue of Shelly’s current location in the forefront.
The LAPD will continue to put out excuses about its handling of her report in 2013. But the truth is, Shelly is not in the LAPD’s jurisdiction, and the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department has made it plain that it is not interested in disturbing Scientology’s mountain retreat.
When will the federal government become interested in a “religious” leader banishing his wife to a small mountain prison for the last 17 years?
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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
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We would all be lucky to have a friend like Leah.
Leah's never giving up on Shelly.