Scientology gaslighting courts about arbitration? Valerie Haney has proof of it

Just this past Friday, we expressed to you our amusement when we noticed Scientology’s attorneys doing their usual gaslighting of a US court, in this case the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter are attempting to get their labor trafficking lawsuit against Scientology and David Miscavige reinstated.

Specifically, they’re petitioning the court for an “interlocutory” appeal of the decision by Tampa federal Judge Thomas Barber, who found that his hands were tied by the law and he had no choice but to derail their suit in favor of Scientology’s internal “religious arbitration.”

One reason that Valeska and the Baxters are asking the higher court to grant them the quick appeal now is that, they say, it would take a couple of years to actually go through Scientology’s brand of arbitration when they feel that it’s an unfair process.

Well, we told you that Scientology got out the smelling salts and acted offended and dismayed that anyone would suggest that its arbitration process is anything other than fair, efficient, and lightning fast.

Perhaps the Petitioners’ most galling argument is the unfounded assertion that their process is more efficient than arbitration. Petitioners assert (without support) that arbitration of their claims could take two years. Scientology arbitration is expeditious, free, and convenient, as arbitrators can travel anywhere….had Petitioners honored their Agreements, the arbitration could have concluded by now.

We told you we thought this was a howler: Just look at the cases of the Garcias and of Valerie Haney, which each took years of nonsense after courts also forced their lawsuits into arbitration.

Well, after we wrote that we thought it would be a good idea to follow up with Valerie, who sued Scientology in 2019 and had her lawsuit forced into arbitration in 2020.

The last time we talked to her, for a piece over at Rolling Stone, she had learned that Scientology has assembled a panel of arbitrators for her case, but they haven’t told her who is on it. (And this was after she had nominated such Scientologists as Elisabeth Moss, Tom Cruise, and Shelly Miscaivge, all of whom were suggestions rejected by the church.)

We told Valerie that in Valeska’s lawsuit, the church is telling the Eleventh Circuit that its arbitration process is quick and “convenient.”

“Unbelievable,” she replied.

She then caught us up on the latest in her case, and detailed just what a bunch of additional nonsense she’s going through.

If you remember, in February Judge Gail Killefer held a hearing in Valerie’s case and said that with an arbitrating panel assembled by Scientology, she didn’t want to hear from either side until they had done the proceeding, and she set a future hearing date of November 6, by which time she expects the arbitration to be done.

Also, she got a little aggressive with Valerie’s attorney, Graham Berry, when she learned that Scientology had been sending correspondence to Valerie at an old address. She told Berry to make sure Scientology had Valerie’s most current home address.

“That’s an order,” Judge Killefer said to Berry.

“So I sent a mailing address to Graham to give them,” Valerie told us for the Rolling Stone piece. She assured us again that she did so.

Well, you have to understand something about Scientology and its arbitration process. Scientology not only uses it to kill lawsuits by former members, it fully intends to humiliate those former members as much as possible.

Numerous times, Scientology has whined to the court that Valerie keeps having her attorney try to communicate for her. By Scientology’s reckoning Valerie should be going hat in hand to the church’s “International Justice Chief” Mike Ellis, and that she’s violating Scientology’s rules by, you know, having an attorney.

So, let’s keep this in mind: In February, the court ordered Graham Berry, Valerie’s attorney, to make sure Scientology had Valerie’s most current address. Valerie assures us that she gave Graham that address to give to Scientology.

But now, months later, Valerie has received a letter from Ellis, complaining that she never personally informed him of the new address, and he had to track her down using an online records search service, and sent three copies of his letter to three different Valerie Haneys where she might be living.

Can you imagine poor Mike Ellis having to exert himself this much?

[Mike Ellis, Scientology IJC]

Anyway, it’s all just theater, and more gaslighting, and more wasting of time because of course Valerie’s address was given to Scientology that very day of the court hearing in February. But because Valerie didn’t humiliate herself and go crawling personally to Ellis, he’s acting like she’s holding up the entire process.

He even warned her that if she didn’t personally send him communications asking for the arbitration, it wasn’t going to happen.

Oh, and also, he informed her that the arbitration, if it does happen, will take place in Los Angeles — even though they know she’s moved to the other side of the country.

Yes, Ellis wrote that in a letter to Valerie exactly one week before Scientology’s attorneys lied to the Eleventh Circuit that Scientology arbitration was “expeditious, free, and convenient, as arbitrators can travel anywhere.”

“They’re lying through their teeth,” Valerie says.

She says she was immediately reminded of another time when Scientology lied to her about how long something was going to take.

“They told my dad it would take only two weeks for me to route out when I was leaving Scientology, and I’d be back by Christmas. They actually let me go on February 14. Two weeks turned into three months. And now three months in this lawsuit has turned into three years,” she says, referring to Scientology’s claim that arbitration takes only three months, when it’s been more than three years since her case was forced into arbitration by a Los Angeles judge.

“Am I surprised and shocked? No. Because Scientology has been manipulating the legal system from day one. It’s what they do best.”

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