Valerie Haney names Tom Cruise for arbitrator (and Shelly Miscavige if Tom is busy)

Aug 28, 2022

Scientology’s “International Justice Chief,” a Sea Org official named Mike Ellis, informed Valerie Haney last week that her choice of arbitrator, actress Elisabeth Moss, has declined to serve. So now, Valerie has mailed in her new nomination.

It’s Tom Cruise. And to “expedite” matters, she also listed Shelly Miscavige in case Cruise, like Moss, turns her down.

Valerie, a former Sea Org worker who escaped from Scientology’s secretive “Int Base” in 2016 by hiding in the trunk of a car, filed suit against the church in June 2019, alleging that she had been held against her will as an employee at the base, and also that she had endured years of intimidation, harassment, and libel once she decided to speak out about her experiences.

After her escape, Valerie went to work for actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini as her assistant, and she was featured as the surprise subject to kick off the third and final season of Remini’s A&E series, Scientology and the Aftermath.

Scientology successfully derailed Valerie’s lawsuit when it convinced Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge in 2020 that while Valerie was an employee and when she exited her job, she had signed contracts which obliged her not to sue Scientology in a civil court, but instead to take any grievance to Scientology’s own internal brand of arbitration.

She spent a couple of years trying to overturn Burdge’s order, but a new judge in the case, Judge Gail Killefer, found that Valerie needed to begin the arbitration process or risk having her lawsuit tossed altogether.

So on July 1, she submitted a letter to Scientology formally asking the arbitration process to begin. The first step in that process is to select a panel of three arbitrators, who must all be Scientologists in good standing. Valerie is allowed to propose an arbitrator, Scientology selects the second, and then those two arbitrators choose a third. All of this is overseen not by the court but by Scientology’s “IJC,” Ellis.

In that July 1 letter, Valerie, who has made it clear she objects to the entire process, selected as her proposed arbitrator Scientologist actress Elisabeth Moss.

Last week, Ellis finally responded, telling her in a letter that “the arbitrator you designated to hear and resolve your claims in Scientology religious arbitration declined the nomination to serve as an arbitrator.”

In other words, Ellis was claiming that Moss was actually informed of Valerie’s choice, but turned it down. And Ellis added that Valerie had 15 days to reply with another nomination.

In her new letter, written with her attorney Bobby Thompson, Valerie pointed out that she didn’t see anything in Scientology’s rules about a nominated member turning down the job.

We note that nowhere in any of the purported controlling documents in this matter indicate that a chosen member who is in good standing with Scientology could decline to serve as Miss Haney’s chosen religious arbitrator in this forced religious arbitration process. It is also noted that there is no reason stated as to why Miss Haney’s chosen arbitrator has declined to act as such.

That does seem like a fair point. If Scientology is going to be such a stickler about its “internal justice” rules, where does it say that someone like Moss can simply turn down the nomination?

In any event, the letter then announces Valerie’s new choice, as well as her backup selection.

I, Miss Valerie Haney, select Tom Cruise as my second choice of arbitrator. In the event that Mr. Cruise also ‘declines’ to act as arbitrator, I, Miss Valerie Haney, select Shelly Miscavige as my third option/choice to expedite this process.

Cruise, of course, is Scientology’s most prominent celebrity, and has remained a strong advocate of the church despite constant speculation by the tabloids to the contrary.

And while Tom is currently riding a wave of positive press as his movie Top Gun: Maverick became his first billion-dollar box office smash, Claire Headley, in a podcast here at the Underground Bunker, recently reminded listeners about Tom’s long history involved in Scientology’s nefarious practices.

Who better to sit in judgment of Valerie Haney’s claims that she’s been hacked and surveilled by Scientology, and that the church has also spread false rumors about her sex life in libelous websites?

Shelly Miscavige, meanwhile, is the wife of Scientology’s leader who vanished from the church’s “Int Base” near Hemet, California in 2005. She was spotted at her father’s funeral two years later in the presence of her Scientology “handler,” but otherwise she’s been kept out of sight ever since.

Each Christmas, we post a story detailing what we know about her disappearance, and spell out the reasons we believe she’s not only still alive, but being held where she’s been all this time, at a small Scientology mountain compound near Lake Arrowhead, California.

OK, Scientology, it’s your move. Can Tom or Shelly come out to play?

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

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