A week ago, we told you that in their fraud lawsuit, Luis and Rocio Garcia had filed an affidavit by former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder to convince Tampa federal Judge James D. Whittemore that the church’s internal arbitration rules were a sham.
It turns out Scientology wasn’t very happy about that.
The church has filed a motion to strike Rinder’s affidavit, and they’re referring back to an earlier attempt by Scientology to have the attorneys for the Garcias disqualified. Although rare in most litigation, for Scientology it’s a standard part of its playbook — to try and get a plaintiff’s attorneys disqualified by making various allegations about breached confidentiality or other supposed ethical lapses.
That gambit didn’t pay off in this case — and we were in Tampa to watch the fireworks as Scientology’s disqualification motion went down in flames. But now, a year later, the church is taking another bite at that apple as it brings up testimony from that mini-trial in an attempt to get Rinder’s declaration thrown out.
We can’t help thinking it’s the content of Rinder’s statement that is most irritating the church.
In his response to Scientology’s motion, Garcia attorney Ted Babbitt simply points out that when Mike Rinder says he personally knows that enrollment contract church members sign included promises about arbitration Scientology never had any intention of fulfilling, he was speaking from personal experience, not passing on confidential information given to him by an attorney (the basis of Scientology’s grievance).
But we’ll let the lawyer types here in the Bunker tell us what they think about these legal salvoes. We sure can’t wait to see what Whittemore ultimately decides on this issue (the church’s motion to compel the Garcias to use Scientology arbitration and dismiss the lawsuit).
Scientology’s motion to strike…
Garcia v. Scientology: Motion to Strike Affidavit of Mike Rinder
Babbitt’s response…
Garcia v. Scientology: Plaintiff's Response to Motion to Strike Affidavit of Mike Rinder
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on October 23, 2014 at 07:00
E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
