There’s a new filing in Jane Doe 1’s lawsuit against David Miscavige, Scientology, and a Sea Org executive named Gavin Potter.
The new document was filed by attorney Graham Berry this week, and part of it sounds very familiar: Would you be surprised to learn that the lawsuit is running into problems serving Miscavige to let him know he’s a defendant?
Berry’s submission says that both Miscavige and Gavin Potter have not yet been served the suit, which was first filed in December but was only unsealed last month.
“Gavin Potter and David Miscavige have not been served due to difficulty in effectuating service,” Berry’s filing says.
When the lawsuit was unsealed, we learned that Jane Doe 1, one of the Danny Masterson victims, alleges that years earlier she had been subjected to sexual abuse as a minor by Sea Org recruiter Potter, and that she was then given the choice either to go into the Sea Org’s prison detail, the Rehabilitation Project Force, or to marry Potter. She chose the latter, but alleges that any sexual contact she had with him subsequently over the years 1991 to 1997 she considered non-consensual.
She left the Sea Org but not Scientology, and she was close friends with Lisa Marie Presley and more casually acquainted with Masterson. On May 31, a jury found that Masterson raped Jane Doe 1 in the early hours of April 25, 2003. The jury also convicted him on another count of forcible rape, and on September 7 he’ll be sentenced by Judge Charlaine Olmedo. He’s facing 30 years to life in prison and is currently being housed at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.
Four women (and one of their husbands) are currently suing Masterson and Scientology for the harassment they say they’ve experienced since coming forward to the LAPD in 2016 with the rape allegations. This civil suit has been on hold during the criminal trial, and it is known in court as Bixler v. Scientology.
In the new filing, Graham Berry indicates that they will be filing a motion that they will be asking to consolidate the new Jane Doe 1 lawsuit with the Bixler case.
And also, that they plan to ask for damages in order to equal what the assaults on Jane Doe 1 have cost her.
“As a result of the sexual assault Plaintiff suffered physical and emotional damages, which are ongoing today. Plaintiff is compiling a figure for all past medical expenses, as well as an estimate for all future medical expenses.”
They are not kidding around.
We first wrote about the new lawsuit on June 24 after the complaint was unsealed. On page 2 of the new lawsuit, there’s a footnote which says that the Jane Doe plaintiff in the new lawsuit is also a plaintiff in the Bixler case.
In the Bixler suit, there are just two Jane Does. One of them testified in the criminal case to growing up in Scientology and joining the Sea Org, and that’s Jane Doe 1. “I was 14 years old when I signed my first Sea Org contract,” she testified in the first Masterson trial.
Jane Doe 2 was already a teenager when her mother encouraged her to join Scientology, and she never worked for the organization.
(Neither Jane Doe 1 nor Jane Doe 2 appeared on Leah Remini’s program Scientology and the Aftermath.)
Scientology, of course, didn’t need to be told which Jane Doe was suing them.
The next hearing in the case is set for August 1. So far, none of the defendants — Church of Scientology International, Religious Technology Center, Bridge Publications, Miscavige, and Potter — has made a response to the new lawsuit.
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“The most ethical people on the planet” are taught “that which a person can confront he can handle” basically from the day they set foot in the door. Rather hypocritical that their leaders spend more time in hiding than confronting I think.
Hubbard set the standard in Scientology for how he responded to his misdeeds. He ran away and hid. And that’s how the cowardly Davey and his minions are handling their legal issues.
They are happy to to dish it out but they can’t take the heat when they are called to the carpet. They can’t hide forever.