Predictable: Scientology tries to derail Jane Doe 1 lawsuit with ‘religious arbitration’

[Defendants Gavin Potter and David Miscavige, and attorney Graham Berry]

You probably knew this was coming. Scientology is going to its usual playbook with regards to Jane Doe 1’s new lawsuit against the church, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter.

In June, the suit was unsealed, revealing that she had filed it with attorney Graham Berry in December and was accusing Scientology of forcing her to marry Potter, a Sea Org recruiter, after he sexually assaulted her when she was still a minor.

Jane Doe 1’s lawsuit alleges that after Potter abused her, she was 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 was sentenced to 30 years to life in state prison.

Meanwhile, four of Masterson’s victims (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. That civil suit has been on hold during the criminal trial, and it is known in court as Bixler v. Scientology.

When the Bixler lawsuit was filed in 2019, Scientology attempted to derail it by forcing it into arbitration, saying that the women, who were Scientologists at the time, had signed contracts promising not to sue Scientology but to bring any grievance to the church’s own internal justice procedure.

An appeals court, however, overruled that decision, saying that the things the women were suing for in the Bixler suit — harassment, stalking, and even the poisoning of their pets — had occurred after they had left the church, and so the contracts no longer applied.

Now, Scientology is trying the same strategy to derail Jane Doe 1’s lawsuit, saying that they found a contract she signed in 2002 when she was 27, and that what she’s suing for — the abuse by Potter — occurred before she signed that contract and while she was still in in the church, not after she had left as in the other lawsuit.

The new motion also contains some language attempting to counter her allegations.

Plaintiff alleges that a purported Church agent—her fiancé and husband Gavin Potter—assaulted her while both were members of the Sea Org. The Church Defendants know these allegations are cynical falsehoods—Plaintiff’s own contemporaneous writings show that she fell in love with and enthusiastically married Mr. Potter on the eve of turning 18 years old—but those allegations unquestionably fall within the scope of the disputes she agreed to arbitrate.

Also, Scientology has asked the court to put the lawsuit on a stay until it can rule on the arbitration motion next year, at a hearing scheduled for May 30. A hearing to consider that motion for a stay is scheduled for October 27.

Previously, Scientology had told the court that the plaintiff had not served David Miscavige properly, and asked that he be removed from the case.

So, keeping score, Scientology has gone to its usual playbook: 1. Leave David Miscavige out of it. 2. You can’t sue us because you signed a contract agreeing to arbitration. 3. Your allegations are nonsense anyway.

Will another American court see it their way?

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