RIFFER MADNESS: Scientology’s David Miscavige says he’s not been served Jane Doe 1 lawsuit

[David Miscavige and his attorney, Jeffrey Riffer]

Here we go again.

On July 31, we told you about the efforts that attorney Graham Berry and some process servers were making to serve Jane Doe 1’s new lawsuit against Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige.

When the lawsuit was unsealed in June, 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 Gavin Potter, and that she was then given the choice either to go into the Sea Org’s prison detail 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.

There are four defendants that are named in the case besides Potter. They are the Church of Scientology International, Bridge Publications Inc., the Religious Technology Center, and Scientology leader David Miscavige.

Our readers are familiar with how difficult Scientology makes it for Miscavige to be served any lawsuit. He was never formally named a defendant, for example, in the related lawsuit filed by the Masterson victims, which is known in court as Bixler v. Scientology. However, Miscavige was declared a defendant in a federal Tampa labor trafficking lawsuit (Baxter v. Scientology) in February when that court ruled that the Scientology leader had been intentionally evading process servers — but then that lawsuit was forced into Scientology’s “religious arbitration,” making Miscavige’s service superfluous. (That ruling is on appeal.)

At one point in 2021 Miscavige’s personal attorney, Jeffrey Riffer, mocked the efforts of the Bixler plaintiffs, who were trying to find Miscavige at what is supposed to be his office at 6331 Hollywood Boulevard, by saying that “it was public knowledge that Mr. Miscavige was thousands of miles away in Clearwater, Florida.” But then in the Baxter case, Scientology’s attorneys mocked those plaintiffs for looking for Miscavige in Florida, saying that Dave has been a resident of California for 40 years!

Well, now comes Riffer again, who this week filed a motion to quash service in the new Jane Doe 1 lawsuit, saying that her attempts at “substitute service” of Miscavige at 6331 Hollywood Blvd (and 1710 Ivar Avenue, the side entrance to the same building) are insufficient.

“Mr. Miscavige was never served with the summons and operative complaint,” Riffer writes.

Riffer is someone we’ve remarked on for years. Most recently, we learned from Yashar Ali’s reporting that it was Riffer who accompanied Shelly Miscavige when the LAPD met with her after Leah Remini filed a missing-person report in 2013.

As Riffer documents go, this latest filing is brief and lacks some of the indignation and bluster of his other efforts. But it’s still a fun read.

“Plaintiff filed a Proof of Service in this case misrepresenting that she had successfully served Mr. Miscavige. This is untrue. Effecting services requires that Mr. Miscavige be served where he lives or where he works. Mr. Miscavige has never been served in this case, neither where he lives nor where he works. Plaintiff’s process servers falsely claim that they attempted service at five different addresses. Mr. Miscavige does not live or work at any of these addresses. Nor were any papers left with a person who lives at his home or is in charge of where he works.”

When Leah Remini wanted to send cards or gifts to Shelly Miscavige, she says she was always told to use Dave and Shelly’s “official” address, which was 6331 Hollywood Blvd, the Hollywood Guaranty Building, which houses the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition on the ground floor, and up on the 11th floor contained the offices of the Religious Technology Center that Dave was the chairman of (hence his moniker in the church, C.O.B., for chairman of the board).

On July 26, Berry’s process servers left papers with Scientology employees at both entrances to the building, at 6331 Hollywood Blvd and 1710 Ivar Avenue in an attempt at “substitute service.”

But Riffer says that “Plaintiff did not make reasonably-diligent efforts to serve Mr. Miscavige personally.”

The process servers ultimately tried to serve Miscavge at five different locations, but “Mr. Miscavige does not live or work at any of these locations” Riffer says. (Of course, he makes no comment about where Miscavige does live today. Perhaps he realizes now that his snarling 2021 jab that Miscavige was actually in Florida was not the smartest move.)

A couple of the places where process servers showed up were Scientology church locations, and Riffer complained that “There are hundreds of churches and missions of Scientology in the US, each a separately incorporated religious entity, separate from RTC. Mr. Miscavige neither works at those Churches of Scientology and is not involved in ministering Scientology services at those church locations.”

We have pointed this out many times before: It’s quite obvious that Miscavige rules over the entire Scientology movement with an iron fist, but when it’s legally convenient, his attorneys portray him as an ecclesiastical figure with no connection at all to the far-flung facilities of the church.

“Plaintiff’s purported attempts to serve Mr. Miscavige at these locations served only to harass other religious adherents, and to disrupt a holiday celebration,” Riffer gripes.

And then, yes, he goes there: “Attempting to serve Mr. Miscavige at a building merely because the building houses a Church of Scientology is no different than attempting to serve the Pope at a local diocese.”

Oh, please. They love to compare Dave to the Pope, don’t they?

Multiple times, Riffer points out that two years ago, in the related Bixler case, Sea Org lifer Lynn Farney had declared under oath that Miscavige does not live at 6331 Hollywood Blvd.

Riffer also says that the two employees who encountered the process server at 6331 Hollywood Blvd and 1710 Ivar Ave either had left and didn’t see the papers dropped behind them or weren’t told they were for Miscavige. Either way, he says, it was not sufficient for substitute service.

Riffer is asking the court to consider the motion to quash in a hearing on February 15.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 6.

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