Scientology’s arbitration contracts are ‘unconscionable,’ say trafficking victims

The three former Sea Org members suing Scientology for labor trafficking in Tampa — Australia residents Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter — have answered Scientology’s attempts to derail their suit with a powerful collection of legal briefs and declarations, and we have them for you to read.

The lawsuit was first filed on April 28 and alleges that Valeska and the Baxters were forced into the Sea Org as children, suffered neglect and harsh punishments as children and adults, and served as virtual prisoners aboard the ship. Valeska also alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by other Sea Org workers, and then had been punished for speaking up about it.

Scientology responded by filing motions to compel arbitration, a strategy that has largely been a successful one for the church in recent years. The church says that Valeska and the Baxters signed contracts between 2003 and 2015 that obliged them not to sue but to take their grievances to Scientology’s internal form of arbitration. The church’s filings ignored the allegations of neglect and abuse that the lawsuit made, and argued that a contract was a contract and these former Sea Org workers can’t sue. Also, Scientology is pointing out that a 2013 lawsuit filed by two former Scientologists, Luis and Rocio Garcia, was forced into arbitration in the same Tampa courtroom, and it was upheld on appeal by the federal Eleventh Circuit. The same fate should apply to the trafficking lawsuit, Scientology asserts.

Now, the plaintiffs have responded, saying that there was no valid arbitration agreement because the documents Scientology has presented are conflicting and were signed under duress; because they would unlawfully require the plaintiffs to give up their rights; because the plaintiffs would be forced into an “ecclesiastical” proceeding in a church they are no longer members of; and because the agreements are unconscionable.

And while the Garcias in their lawsuit did object on the grounds of unconscionability, they didn’t raise the other objections, so the Garcia ruling should not matter here.

As to no longer being Scientologists, the plaintiffs cite the recent Bixler decision, and acknowledge the California appeals court that found the Bixler plaintiffs had a right to leave Scientology were only looking at allegations of harm that occurred after they had left the church. But the plaintiffs assert that the ruling still should still apply here.

“The court’s reasoning applies with equal force here because Plaintiffs no longer believe in Scientology and seek to bring claims under federal statutory law that have nothing to do with their religious beliefs, ecclesiastical doctrine, or internal Scientology matters. Compelling them to participate in a Scientology proceeding now would violate their rights in the same way it did for the plaintiffs in Bixler.”

As for Scientology’s usual attempt to assert that its subsidiaries are all independent and should not be included in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs make the case that they are all subservient to David Miscavige.

Supporting the numerous responses (there are five separate Scientology institutional defendants, and they each filed motions to compel arbitration or motions to dismiss) are declarations from Valeska, the Baxters, and Mike Rinder.

These are powerful declarations about what it is like to be a Scientology slave, working around the clock for little or no pay, with your passport locked up, and with no obvious way to escape. In their motions to compel arbitration, Scientology had produced numerous agreements that the plaintiffs had signed while they were in the Sea Org, but in their declarations, Valeska and the Baxters want the court to understand what the circumstances were when they were asked to sign those documents. They were not given time to read them, or they were told not to look through them, or they didn’t understand them, and they were being abused or disciplined when they were asked to sign. It’s compelling stuff. Here are some excerpts from each.

Exhibit 1, Laura Baxter: Eventually, despite feeling that leaving the ship would be dangerous and nearly impossible, I knew that I could no longer take the life on the ship of forced hard labor and arbitrary punishment. I discussed it with Gawain, who was by that time my husband, and we came up with a plan. Sea Org members were not allowed to have children, and normally women who became pregnant were forced to have abortions. But Gawain had learned that this forced abortion policy was drawing negative attention to Scientology that the organization hoped to avoid. We decided that if I became pregnant in advance of David Miscavige’s next visit to the Freewinds, senior officers would want us to leave the ship rather than forcing me to have an abortion against my will. Despite being afraid of the very real possibilities that I would be forced to have an abortion against my will or kicked off the ship and left with no money to support me or my baby, I decided to get pregnant. As we expected, when I became pregnant, senior officers began pressuring us to terminate the pregnancy. We refused and were forced to undergo long interrogations and psychological punishment in the form of “security checks” and “ethics handlings.” During these interrogations, I was berated over and over for getting pregnant and was pressured to have an abortion. In addition to these interrogations, we were isolated from other staff on the ship and put under full-time surveillance by ship security.

Exhibit 2, Gawain Baxter: After weeks of punishments and isolation, officers informed us that we would have to leave the ship. After we were told that we would be leaving, we continued to be under full-time surveillance by ship security, who escorted us everywhere we went. We were given directions by security about what we had to complete before we could leave, including more interrogations. Eventually, they told us that we needed to go to a room to sign documents before we could leave the ship. We had to do this before we were allowed to pack our belongings and prepare for our departure and before security would return our passports, immigration documents, and identification and allow us to leave the ship. Not only did I feel we physically had no choice to do what we were told because of our security escort, I also feared that if we did not sign the documents we could be forced to stay on the ship. And I feared that they would separate us or subject us to more interrogations as punishment. In the room with the two of us was a security guard and Krister Nillsen, the officer working under the direction of Port Captain Ludwig Alpers, who gave a very rough explanation of the documents in front of us. I remember him explaining that we were agreeing to keep things confidential and that we were signing of our own accord. That was not true, but I knew that if I disagreed or argued with him, I would be sent back for more punishment, so I went along. He did not mention anything about arbitration. Even if he had used the word arbitration, I would not have known what that meant. I was not familiar with any laws or know that I potentially had legal claims for what had been done to me.

Exhibit 3, Valeska Paris: Around 2007, I was confined in the extreme heat of the engine room for about forty-eight hours. I suffered a panic attack, went numb, and was unable to move or call for help. When an engineer discovered me, he carried me to the control room where I was denied medical treatment. I was berated for overreacting and sent back to the engine room. About two weeks later, when I was again confined to the engine room as punishment and lost consciousness due to the heat and enclosed conditions, I did not seek medical care because I was afraid of being punished. I tried again to leave the ship. Upon learning that I wanted to leave, the senior officer in charge of discipline informed me that I was going to be declared a Suppressive for being “uncooperative,” and she removed me from my dorm and escorted me to a cabin monitored by a camera, where I was placed under around the clock surveillance. I was then forced to go back to work in the hot confines of the engine room and be interrogated daily for the next three months. At that point, I was so desperate to get off the ship that I contemplated suicide. Unfortunately, I was sent somewhere worse. I was sent to an RPF site in Australia to be “rehabilitated.” I was prohibited from bringing most of my belongings, and they made me pack a bag in the hallway in front of a camera to make sure I did not take more than they permitted. While packing, I was approached by a security officer and an FSSO official, who told me that I needed to come with them. I was also instructed to put on makeup. We went to a room where there was a video camera and a total of four people, including Security, an Ethics Officer, and FSSO representatives. They told me that I had to sign the documents in front of me. I was not given sufficient time to read through the documents, nor was I permitted to take the documents to review or have someone like an attorney help me understand them. And I was afraid that asking questions about the documents would lead to further punishment.

Exhibit 4, Mike Rinder: Sea Org members and scientology staff are required to sign various documents designed to protect the organization from liability. OSA has the job of ensuring every Sea Org member has signed these releases and copies are kept on file. This is considered an important function of OSA. Sea Org members and scientology staff are conditioned to sign documents presented to them without questioning or even reading them. It is understood that to question or refuse to sign will result in disciplinary action, including any or all of the following: being confined to the premises as a “security threat,” having a “guard” watch you 24 hours a day, being assigned to manual labor (“MEST work” in scientology jargon), interrogation on an E-Meter, “lower conditions” and separation from one’s spouse. There is a specific procedure for anyone seeking to leave the Sea Org, and it is particularly intensive for anyone who had access to the activities of David Miscavige. I oversaw these protocols as the head of OSA. Often the signing of these documents is recorded on video. These are carefully staged to make it appear the person has had an opportunity to change the document, is freely signing and is even happy to do so. But the threat of not being able to leave and being punished results in many of these people signing whatever is presented to them (even provably untrue statements of self-incrimination) and claiming to be happy doing so.

Here are the documents in full. First, the responses to the individual Scientology defendants.

Opposition to Flag Ship Service Organization (FSSO, which runs the Freewinds)
Opposition to Flag Service Organization (FSO, which runs the Flag Land Base)
Opposition to IASA, which runs International Association of Scientologists
Opposition to Church of Scientology International (CSI)
Opposition to Religious Technology Center (RTC, Scientology’s nominally controlling organization)

And the exhibits…

Declaration of Laura Baxter
Declaration of Gawain Baxter
Declaration of Valeska Paris
Declaration of Mike Rinder

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