Leah Remini files notice: Let Judge Kalra handle BOTH Scientology harass cases

[Judge Upinder Kalra and plaintiff Leah Remini]

Leah Remini got a lot of attention yesterday evening when she posted an image of her associate’s degree from New York University to share how much it meant to her to reach that goal at 53 years of age while she continues to work toward a bachelor’s degree.

Another move she made yesterday got less attention but is just as smart: Now that David Miscavige has peremptorily removed Judge Randolph Hammock from Leah’s lawsuit against him and the Church of Scientology, Leah filed notice with the court that it makes sense for Judge Upinder Kalra, who is handling the similar Bixler harassment lawsuit against Scientology, to handle both cases at the same time.

Leah’s suggestion comes right after Judge Kalra handed Scientology a stunning defeat in the Bixler lawsuit, denying the church’s special motions to strike as it attempted to gut the lawsuit that was filed by Danny Masterson’s victims in 2019.

Judge Kalra flat-out denied all four special motions to strike, saying that the Jane Doe victims had met the minimal standard of properly alleging that they had been stalked, surveilled, and harassed by Scientology’s agents since they came forward to the LAPD with rape allegations against Masterson in 2016.

Scientology, for example, had claimed that some of the people the Jane Does said had harassed them were not working for the church. But Judge Kalra responded that at this early part of the case, simply the appearance of a conspiracy was enough of an allegation to move the case forward.

It was a huge victory for the Jane Does, and now Leah Remini is pointing out that the cases are so similar, it makes a lot of sense for Judge Kalra to handle her case as well.

This action (Remini) is related to the Bixler matter in that the majority of the Defendants are the same and because each involves claims of intimidation, stalking and other tactics that arise out of the Defendants’ typical operating procedures. To the extent each party is successful, any recovery would be derived from the same sources of these Defendants. Furthermore, both cases involve substantially similar questions of law that, but for being related, may result in incongruent rulings. Recent anti-SLAPP motions and rulings have made evident the overlapping issues and possibility of inconsistent rulings. If the cases remain separate and heard by different judges, the cases will require substantial duplication of judicial resources. Moreover, the Remini case is currently unassigned given one of the Defendant’s Rule 170.6 strike of Judge Hammock.

Wow, what a way to make Miscavige pay for pulling Judge Hammock out of the case — give it to Judge Kalra, who just hammered Scientology in a very similar lawsuit.

Will the court go for it? We have no idea. But we think Leah and her team are pretty brilliant for suggesting it. (And she has the college degree to prove it.)

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Take that, Dave

The latest from Leah…

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Doesn’t Detroit already have an Ideal Org? Haven’t they been drained enough?

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