Valerie Haney: Scientology changed the rules after I nominated Elisabeth Moss, Tom Cruise

[How did Valerie nominating Tom violate Scientology’s rules?]

[See our report from the court hearing here. Judge Killefer has decided to give Valerie one more chance to submit a ‘reasonable’ nomination.]

Today, Valerie Haney and the Church of Scientology will once again be sparring in a Los Angeles courtroom over something the court is supposed to have no power over: Scientology’s “religious arbitration.”

Scientology will argue that Valerie is not taking its arbitration procedures seriously. Valerie’s attorney, according to a new filing, will counter that the problem is Scientology isn’t willing to follow its own rules.

Valerie’s 2019 lawsuit accuses Scientology of keeping her against her will for years as a Sea Org worker at Int Base, near Hemet, California. She said she had to escape her tenure there by literally hiding in the trunk of a car, a story that became the subject of the premiere episode of the third and final season of Leah Remini’s A&E series, Scientology and the Aftermath.

Valerie also alleges that after she left Scientology, she was subjected to surveillance, intimidation, and also libelous attacks on the Internet.

But her lawsuit was derailed when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge ruled that Valerie had signed contracts which obliged her not to sue but instead to submit her grievances to Scientology’s own brand of arbitration. After Valerie fought that decision for more than a year, the new judge in the case, Gail Killefer, told Valerie that she had to begin the arbitration process or risk having her lawsuit thrown out.

The first step in that process would involve Valerie nominating an arbitrator who had to be a member of Scientology in good standing. (Scientology would then choose a second arbitrator, and those two arbitrators would choose a third. All three would have to be church members.)

Objecting to the process, Valerie cheekily nominated Elisabeth Moss, Tom Cruise, and Shelly Miscavige in succession. After all, they were all Scientologists in good standing, right?

Earlier this week, we told you that Scientology attorney William Forman submitted a declaration ahead of today’s hearing, complaining that Valerie was being “obstructionist” with her nominations, and complaining that she wasn’t taking the process seriously. (And also bellyaching about documents in the case getting out to a certain website on the fringes of Internet.)

But Valerie’s attorney Bobby Thompson’s response just came in and it asks, well, what’s actually wrong with nominating someone like Elisabeth Moss as arbitrator? She’s a member of Scientology in good standing right?

Plaintiff, selected, as she was instructed to do, an arbitrator who by all accounts is a member of Scientology in good standing, which is the only thing that was required of her… Defendants seem to take issue with this selection citing that Elisabeth Moss, Plaintiff’s selected arbitrator, has appeared in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Mad Men.” This is the first time that Defendants are now attempting to place further unilateral limitations on who Plaintiff can select as her arbitrator further showing the farce that this religious arbitration truly is.

Thompson goes on to point out that they have repeatedly asked for copies of the rules of this arbitration, and Scientology has refused to send something. And the church seems to be making up rules as they go along: You can nominate a Scientologist in good standing, but they can’t be a famous actor? Where does it say that?

Scientology is asking for Judge Killefer to dismiss Valerie’s lawsuit because she’s not taking the arbitration process seriously. And Valerie is asking the judge to conclude that the arbitration process is a joke and to allow the lawsuit to be revived.

And here’s the good part: We’ll be there! Well, virtually. We’ve signed up to listen to the proceedings remotely, and if we can hear people properly we’ll do our best to cover it the way we did the Danny Masterson trial, by typing up what people are saying and then busting out a new piece at the Substack after the hearing is concluded. So keep an eye on your inbox for that story to come out later today.

Has Judge Killefer seen enough of Scientology’s antics to end this nonsense about arbitration? Or is Valerie’s lawsuit on the edge?

We’ll do our best to keep up with what’s being said in the courtroom.

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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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