Scientology asks for more time to talk Whitney Mills’ mom out of wrongful-death lawsuit

The Scientology defendants in the Whitney Mills wrongful-death lawsuit were supposed to make their first response to the suit today, but instead they’ve asked to move that deadline back a month. And while that’s not too unusual on its own, there are some interesting statements and suggestions about the case in the seven-page document they filed.

Whitney Mills, 40, was an OT 8 Scientologist (the highest level attainable, and a person who would expect to have superhuman abilities) who suffered from extreme depression, something an OT 8 shouldn’t experience. And because Scientology hates psychiatry with a passion, she never got proper mental health care. Instead, quack Scientologist physician David Minkoff (who had previously lost his medical license for a year for prescribing sedatives to Lisa McPherson without ever examining her personally) misdiagnosed Whitney, telling her she had cancer (untrue) and “chronic” Lyme disease, a pseudoscientific concept. He also urged her to “handle” her problems with Scientology “training routines,” text messages show. Meanwhile, a fellow OT 8 Scientologist “handled” Whitney by urging her to do a “drop the body assist” — in other words, to end this lifetime (suicide) because Scientologists believe they are immortal “thetans” and Whitney would merely pick up a new body. Whitney did in fact end her life in a violent way on May 12, 2022.

Leila Mills, Whitney’s mother, has sued six Scientology entities for their negligence in Whitney’s death: The Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization (FSO, which runs the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida); the Flag Ship Service Organization (FSSO, which operates Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds, where Scientologists have to go to achieve the OT 8 level); the Church of Scientology of Tampa; the Mission of Belleair; the Church of Scientology International; and the International Association of Scientologists Administrations (IASA, which administers the financing of the IAS, Scientology’s membership organization).

Those defendants were supposed to answer the lawsuit today, but yesterday they filed a seven-page motion asking for a 30-day delay based on two main ideas.

First, they say they are trying to get together with Mills’ attorney, Ramon Rasco, so they can give him new information that will convince him to drop the suit. And second, they are waiting to see what’s going to be in the medical malpractice lawsuit Mills is going to file against Minkoff in August, which will probably also result in an amended complaint in this lawsuit as well.

Now, before we go into more detail about those arguments, we have to first remark on the tone of this document. Our regular readers know that we relish any responses filed by Scientology’s attorneys because they are so often filled with sneering language and comically over-the-top bluster. Our theory is that these attorneys are writing primarily for the signer of their checks, Scientology leader David Miscavige, and not for judges, who don’t appreciate that kind of thing. We, however, find it entertaining as hell, especially a nasty stemwinder from someone like Jeffrey Riffer, David Miscavige’s personal attorney.

But Miscavige was not named as a defendant in this case. Is that why the attorneys here are sounding so hat-in-hand polite? They say they’ve looked into things and found some information they want to show the other side, but they’ve been unable to sit down with Rasco because he has a busy schedule. Imagine that.

Defendants’ investigation into Plaintiff’s claims brought some issues to light necessitating a meeting with Plaintiff’s counsel. Defendants intend to share with Plaintiff’s counsel the results of their investigation into the facts alleged in the Complaint that Plaintiff’s counsel may have been unaware of at the time the Complaint was filed in this action. As such, Defendants recently began working to schedule an in-person meeting with Plaintiff’s counsel in Miami to discuss Plaintiff’s claims. Despite the undersigned’s diligent efforts to schedule this meeting, it has yet to be set due to the busy schedule of Plaintiff’s counsel. Nevertheless, it is anticipated that this meeting will take place in the next thirty days and will likely impact Plaintiff’s pleadings and Defendants responses thereto.

Wow. So Scientology thinks it will be able to talk Leila Mills out of the lawsuit if they can just sit down with Ramon Rasco when he isn’t so busy.

It’s just a bit disorienting to see Scientology’s attorneys playing so nice here, and we kind of doubt that they’re going to talk the other side out of the lawsuit, but who knows.

As for Minkoff, the document indicates that on May 7, Mills sent the “doctor” a 61-page “Notice of Intent to Initiate Litigation for Medical Malpractice.” And by Florida law, she can’t file a lawsuit against him until 90 days has passed — and that period ends August 5.

At that point, Mills may amend her lawsuit to add malpractice claims against Minkoff, or she may file a separate lawsuit. Either way, the Scientology defendants say, they want to see those claims before answering the lawsuit.

And again, they are doing their best to sound supremely confident that they are going to talk Leila Mills out of her lawsuit once they can catch her Miami lawyer…

This Motion is not brought for the purposes of delay, but simply to provide Defendants with sufficient time to meet with Plaintiff’s counsel regarding the results of their investigation into Plaintiff’s allegations, assess defenses, and prepare an appropriate response, and to avoid economic waste involved in responding to a Complaint that is almost certain to be withdrawn, dismissed, or amended within a short period of time. Indeed, a fulsome response requires significant time, energy, and resources, particularly given the severity of the allegations made by Plaintiff. The need for an extension of time to respond to the Complaint is, therefore, not the result of any party’s dilatory conduct.

So now we know to look for a whole passel of claims against David Minkoff after August 5, which is especially interesting timing because season 15 of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York featuring Minkoff’s daughter, handbag designer and fellow Scientology donor Rebecca Minkoff, will be premiering at some point soon after. And won’t it be interesting to see if the confluence of events helps bring even more attention to what Scientology did to Whitney Mills?

We can hardly wait.

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Bonus items from our tipsters

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything at all about Criminon…

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