Scientology doc David Minkoff tries to argue out of lawsuit, Bunker will be watching

In November, we told you about David Minkoff’s surprising response to being sued in the death of Whitney Mills.

He argued that the wrong experts were consulted by Whitney’s mother, Leila Mills, who is suing the Church of Scientology and Minkoff over her daughter’s 2022 suicide. Those experts strongly condemned the way Minkoff had kept Whitney away from legitimate health care when she repeatedly came to him with complaints of severe mental distress. His misdiagnosing of her (he told her she had parasites and cancer, and that wasn’t true) while keeping her away from legitimate care had, the experts said, killed her.

Minkoff’s response, written by his attorney Kyle R. Fontaine, was that the lawsuit had not followed Florida law by consulting experts in Minkoff’s own specialty, which is an extremely delusional version of “alternative medicine.” And therefore, it doesn’t matter that an infectious disease specialist, a neurologist, and a professor of psychiatry consulted by Leila Mills and her attorney Ramon Rasco all condemned Minkoff’s handling of Whitney Mills.

Fontaine filed for a hearing to be held over that argument, that the lawsuit didn’t observe Florida law when it added Minkoff, and that hearing is scheduled to take place this morning at the Pinellas County Courthouse. Mark Bunker tells us he’s going to attend and report to us what goes down.

Leila Mills initially sued six Church of Scientology entities, describing complaints of severe mental anguish by her daughter Whitney, an OT 8 Scientologist. According to the lawsuit, Whitney was instructed by Scientology advisers to “drop the body” — in other words, end this lifetime and start another, as Scientologists believe that we are immortal “thetans” who go from one body to another over the eons.

Leila Mills then had to wait before adding Minkoff, as she observed Florida law which required her to go through a “pre-discovery” phase to see if a lawsuit could be avoided. After that period was observed, she added the notorious Scientology physician.

Minkoff is accused of giving Whitney catastrophic advice based on his own Scientology involvement. In one text from Minkoff, he told a distraught Whitney to use her Scientology training to overcome her mental crisis: “Drugs could numb you but you are OT. Put TR O in. It's a sensation. Its noise. It has no power over YOU. That's the truth. Eye of the tiger. You are loved. You have friends and LRH. Duplicate it. Dissolve it. That is your power. You can be tone 40 with your TR O. That's you as cause. I know you can. ML, dm.”

Minkoff is also accused of adding to Whitney’s mental distress by telling her she was afflicted with maladies she didn’t actually have, including “chronic” Lyme disease, parasites, and ovarian cancer.

Fontaine filed two motions with the court, one asking for dismissal based on the pre-lawsuit discovery phase between the two sides, and one based on the lawsuit itself. He calls Minkoff “a physician renowned for offering an array of complementary or alternative health care treatments,” but doesn’t mention that what Minkoff is peddling is pure hokum.

In the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Fontaine carped about the length of the complaint and that it was "scandalous" because, for example, it brought up the Lisa McPherson matter.

In 1995, Scientologist Lisa McPherson had a severe mental breakdown and was taken out of a hospital by other Scientologists to the church’s Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater so she could be put into something called the “Introspection Rundown,” a bizarre Scientology silent treatment that, 17 days later, resulted in her death from dehydration. During that time, McPherson’s Scientologist handlers were consulting by telephone with Minkoff, who prescribed sedatives without actually examining McPherson herself.

After her death, Minkoff lost his medical license for a year as punishment for his role in the horrific incident. The relevance to the Mills case 27 years later is patently obvious. But Fontaine whined that it was unfair to bring it up.

How much of this will come up in today’s hearing? We’re not sure. But we’re very glad that Mark Bunker will be attending, and we look forward to hearing from him later today.

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Another Russian raid of Scientology

Footage has emerged of Russia’s FSB raiding what appears to be a Scientology mission in the city of Kaliningrad, and taking someone into custody for distributing Scientology materials.

Kaliningrad is a Russian province between Poland and Lithuania, and it’s under Russian law, which banned Scientology in 2016.

As we’ve said in the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin is a gangster who doesn’t like competition, so he’s been heavy-handed with Scientology in a way we don’t think is very productive.

In fact, in the past Putin’s methods have motivated the US State department to champion the rights of Scientologists being prosecuted in Russia (and yes, that previous case was under President Trump during his first administration). Will that happen now? We don’t know.

We’d like to see Scientologists like David Miscavige investigated for Scientology’s extortionate practices and abusive policies, not jailed simply for selling books. That’s not the way.

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