Scientology got its arbitrators, but also wants $107K in sanctions from Valerie Haney
Last week we told you the surprising news that Scientology revealed that two arbitrators are now in place in Valerie Haney’s case, but it is keeping quiet about who those two arbitrators are.
Also, the papers they filed indicated that Scientology is so hopping mad that their longtime nemesis — attorney Graham Berry — has stepped up his involvement with Valerie, the church has asked for sanctions, but we didn’t know yet how much money they were asking for.
Well, now Berry himself has answered the church in a couple of new documents of his own, and they reveal how much Scientology is asking Valerie to fork over in penalties…
$107,832.50
By Xenu’s E-meter, that’s some serious cheddar!
However, this isn’t the first time that Scientology has asked the court to penalize Valerie, and in fact two years ago the church asked for even more — $160,000 in sanctions — but that request was denied by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge.
At that point, Scientology was whining that Valerie had filed a motion for reconsideration, asking Judge Burdge to rethink his decision to force Valerie’s 2019 lawsuit into “religious arbitration.” He denied her motion, but also denied Scientology’s request for sanctions.
This time, Scientology is bellyaching because Graham Berry has increased his participation in the matter and filed a barnburner of a brief a couple of weeks ago pointing out that there was nothing in Scientology’s rules that Valerie couldn’t nominate Tom Cruise or Elisabeth Moss or Shelly Miscavige to be an arbitrator as long as Valerie was being forced into Scientology’s “internal justice” procedure. (Scientology claimed that all three of those nominees were “unavailable” and then complained to the new judge in the case, Judge Gail Killefer, that Valerie was being “obstructionist” by naming such obviously busy and famous Scientologists.)
With Berry’s help, Valerie then doubled down, nominating 15 well-known Scientology figures such as Jenna Elfman, Giovanni Ribisi, and Rebecca Minkoff.
Last week, Scientology revealed that one of those 15 people has actually agreed to serve as an arbitrator, but without naming them. And the church also revealed that last July it had already chosen its own arbitrator for the panel. (According to Scientology’s rules, those two arbitrators will choose a third, and all three must be Scientologists in good standing.)
So with the arbitrating panel nearly set, Scientology should be pleased, right? Well, no. Church attorneys William Forman and Matthew Hinks were spitting fire about Graham Berry getting involved and submitting exhibits they blasted as “improper, unreliable, or inadmissible.” Now we learn that they want Valerie to pay the price for Berry’s involvement with penalties of $107,000 to compensate the church for having to spend time responding to her latest filing.
Berry is not amused.
Putting aside the lack of merit, that is an astonishing fees and costs amount for such a motion and their Submission herein. If that is the amount of excessive fees and costs that Defendants would be charging their clients herein it is blatant fee gouging. Furthermore, Defendants dredge up an unfortunate saga from 25 years ago that also involved evidence of outrageous and even criminal conduct by certain attorneys for the church. One of them, Kendrick Moxon, a declarant in the sanction motions, was an unindicted co-conspirator in what the U.S. Department of Justice’s Sentencing Memo in U.S. v. Hubbard called the largest ever known criminal infiltration of the U.S. government.
You sure you want to go toe-to-toe with Graham Berry on accusations of outrageous behavior, Scientology? This guy has been in the game for more than 30 years!
Anyway, in this latest set of documents, Berry is withdrawing his request that Judge Killefer step in and select arbitrators since those arbitrators seem to have been selected.
But he complains that Scientology has not notified Valerie of who these two arbitrators are that have agreed to serve.
He also agrees with Scientology’s request to set a deadline for completing the arbitration, now that the arbitrating panel is nearly set, and suggests that the deadline be set at tomorrow morning’s hearing.
From our perspective observing Judge Killefer, we have a feeling that she will be so relieved to hear that arbitrators have been chosen, she will tell both sides simply to drop the squabbling and go get the arbitration done. (For that reason, we think there’s little chance she’ll end up awarding sanctions to Scientology, which has asked for a hearing in June on that request.)
So, when will Scientology tell Valerie the names of the Scientologists who have agreed to arbitrate her claims? Who are these church members who will sit in judgment of her allegations that she was kidnapped when she served in Sea Org, and that Scientology harassed and libeled her after she escaped from her indentured servitude by hiding out in the trunk of car in 2016? (These are the allegations in her original 2019 lawsuit, which got derailed.)
We’re looking forward to tomorrow morning’s hearing to see what else we might learn.
Mark Bunker: Clearwater peeps don’t like Scientology
At yesterday’s Clearwater City Council morning work session, Mark Bunker took a few minutes to point out that survey results show how much residents in that town cite Scientology as a reason that is keeping them from coming downtown to check out all the new improvements the town is making.
“This entire project, along with the approved apartments, hotel and retail that is coming soon, has the potential to turn around the downtown after 50 years of Scientology dominance,” Bunker tells us. “I feel confident we can start to right the ship at the same time the Sea Org is sinking, but the public is still concerned about Scientology’s impact and the mass of empty buildings the organization has allowed to sit empty.”
Chris Shelton and your Proprietor did a thing
Hope you like it.
Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
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Graham Berry isn't a thorn in the side of the CO$, he is a full blown Godzilla stomping on downtown Clearwater.
“I feel confident we can start to right the ship at the same time the Sea Org is sinking..." - Wise Beard Man
Ho ho ho 😆 So many stupendous quotable moments in today's piece!