There’s been an interesting shuffling of troop positions in the battle going on in a Tampa courtroom over a labor trafficking lawsuit filed against the Church of Scientology.
Just a few days ago, we told you that Scientology had filed its usual set of motions attempting to derail this new lawsuit by arguing that the plaintiffs, former Scientology employees, had signed contracts that obliged them not to sue but instead to take their grievances to Scientology’s internal “religious arbitration.” Scientology also filed motions trying to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds of jurisdiction and for failing to state a claim.
We’ve been waiting to see a response from the plaintiffs — Valeska Paris and two other Australian former Sea Org members, Gawain and Laura Baxter.
However, a new document filed yesterday reveals that after some back-and-forth between the two sides, the plaintiffs have decided to file a new amended complaint.
Now that they’ve seen how Scientology is going to attack the lawsuit, the plaintiffs have told the court they want a do-over.
As a result, Scientology has announced that all of its motions to the original complaint are moot, and so after the new complaint comes in, they’ll file a whole new set of motions to attack it.
In other words, the whole thing is starting all over again. The plaintiffs are expected to get their new complaint in by Tuesday.
Valeska and the Baxters filed the lawsuit on April 28, alleging that they had been brought up in Scientology and taken into its Sea Organization, with its billion-year contracts, as children. The original complaint details harrowing accounts of how they were neglected and abused as children in Scientology’s hardcore paramilitary organization, and then how these abuses continued when they were adults.
Valeska also alleges that she was sexually abused by fellow Sea Org workers and was punished when she dared to speak up about it.
The lawsuit alleges labor trafficking and conspiracy to commit labor trafficking and several related counts.
As we reported earlier, Scientology responded by saying that they had located multiple contracts signed by Valeska and the Baxters between 2003 and 2015 (when they were all adults) which contained the arbitration clause. Scientology didn’t even mention the allegations about the three as children, or Valeska’s sexual assault claims. This was merely a contractual situation, the church argued. Scientology also said that when the three had served on the Freewinds, Scientology’s floating cathedral, they were not in US waters, so they questioned the jurisdiction of the Tampa court.
According to a series of emails submitted in the court record, Neil Glazer, the lead attorney representing Valeska and the Baxters, asked for more time to take on the arbitration issue and the jurisdictional questions, but to leave other matters for later.
Scientology’s lead attorney, William Forman, responded that the defendants were willing to go along with a time extension, but only if the plaintiffs took on all of the motions they had filed. He pointed out, however, that if they wanted to save themselves some trouble on the jurisdictional issues, they could dismiss some of the defendants from the case, including the Church of Scientology International (CSI), Religious Technology Center (RTC), and IAS Administration (IASA).
That would leave just the two organizations that run the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida, (the Flag Service Organization, FSO), and the Flag Ship Service Organization (FSSO), which runs the Freewinds.
Well, isn’t that generous of Forman.
(Also, defendant David Miscavige, who has not been served, is not mentioned at all in this back-and-forth.)
But then, when Forman learned that Glazer’s side planned to file an amended complaint, he indicated that Scientology would simply wait and file a new set of motions then.
So, now we wait for the new version of the lawsuit, due Tuesday. We have a pretty good idea what arguments Scientology is going to use to try and derail this case like they have others. And now we’re interested to see how the plaintiffs rewrite their complaint to deal with those strategies.
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
Here’s the link for today’s post at tonyortega.org
And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning…
Now available: Bonus for our supporters
Episode 5 of the Underground Bunker podcast has been sent out to paid subscribers, and it’s a conversation with Sunny Pereira dishing secrets of Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre. Meanwhile, we’ve made episodes 1 through 4 available to everyone, with Bruce Hines on the crazy life in the Sea Org, Jeffrey Augustine on recent Scientology court cases, Claire Headley exposing Tom Cruise, and Marc Headley on what it must be like for David Miscavige living in Clearwater, Florida. Go here to get the episodes!
Wouldn't it be fun to watch if and this is a big flight of fancy "if" the Church of Scientology had to chose if they were a religion or a business to decide of the arbitration contracts could even begin to be valid, and if it chose "Religion" then they wouldn't be allowed to enter into "Contracts" because that is a "State" function. And if they chose "business" ("State") then the courts would strike down as invalid contracts the Arbitration Contracts it has its parishioners sign. Awe one can dream.
Corporations have been forced to pay for judgements regarding actions those corporations took in foreign countries that affected foreign citizens. That the Clampire tries to hide behind contracts and 'religion' <b>should</b> not affect any court case or judgement. The state should not acquiesce to any coverup of crimes that any corporation carries out. Holding those who commit trafficking responsible for their actions should be the name of the game.