Jeffrey Riffer
We told you recently about the NAFC’s interesting adventures trying to serve Miscavige, who was one of 82 defendants named in the lawsuit along with many people who work at Narconon centers and related entities. The NAFC’s lawsuit alleges that Miscavige and the other defendants were involved in a years-long conspiracy to misuse the logos and trademarks of the NAFC in order to make the Narconon centers seem more legitimate than they really are — and all in an attempt to sucker new people ultimately into Scientology itself.
As we expected, Miscavige is responding to the lawsuit by saying that he has nothing to do with the state of Oklahoma, where the lawsuit was filed. But for the first time, we see in a filing from Scientology or Narconon’s attorneys a somewhat vicious and smeary attack on the NAFC and its president, Karla Taylor. And it comes courtesy of one of Scientology’s most colorful litigators — Jeffrey K. Riffer.
You may remember Riffer from an epic letter he wrote to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter on behalf of Miscavige in an attempt to dissuade Carter from publishing Maureen Orth’s story about Scientology auditioning dates for Tom Cruise and setting him up for a three-month relationship with actress Nazanin Boniadi.
Just to give you a taste of Riffer’s flair for the dramatic, here’s part of how he responded to a question Orth had sent the church asking for comment on the notion that Miscavige had been a “third wheel” in Tom Cruise’s relationships with women.
Mr. Miscavige is the ecclesiastical leader of a worldwide religion; a man of impeccable character who is dedicated to his faith and to the service of its parishioners. He respects the institution of marriage and those who enter into it. Not only is this highly offensive and grossly inappropriate question lifted from Andrew Morton’s 2008 unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise, but if Ms. Orth had done any research, she would know that Mr. Miscavige’s vocation requires him to travel extensively throughout the world and he is rarely even in the same cities as the celebrities with whom she suggests he spends virtually all of his time. Ms. Orth’s implications are demonstrably false. If she had considered for a minute the respective travel and work demands placed on both Mr. Miscavige and Mr. Cruise, she would have dismissed outright this “third wheel notion” concocted in Mr. Morton’s book.
The tone of the thing is really something, isn’t it? Poor Mr. Riffer sounds positively miffed.
Well, there’s some of that same invective in the new filing that Riffer submitted for Miscavige as he takes aim directly at the NAFC and its president. Riffer reveals, for example, that Miscavige’s attorneys have been digging into Karla Taylor’s private life and have found that her husband went by a different name when he was younger, and that he was convicted of felonies. (We understand that these convictions occurred many years before the two met and have nothing to do with the NAFC itself.)
Miscavige’s motion, written by Riffer, portrays the NAFC lawsuit as little more than a shakedown attempt.
Plaintiffs have no case on the merits. They know it. That’s why they sued 82 defendants — hoping that enough defendants would pay “something” to be done with them, thereby obtaining a tidy return on the filing fee they had to pay to start this lawsuit. This Court should put an end to Plaintiffs’ misuse of the federal courts.
We talked to NAFC lawyer David Keesling, who says he’ll be submitting a vigorous response to the Miscavige motion by about November 13.
“What they’ve done is they’ve tried to distance themselves from all these allegations by saying they had no knowledge or no involvement. And they back that up with self-serving declarations,” Keesling says. “We in turn respond with actual facts to demonstrate what we’re saying.”
He characterized the Miscavige motion is more about intimidation than answering the facts of the lawsuit.
“We aren’t scared, and we won’t be intimidated. We fully intend to go forward. The allegations as set forth by Miscavige in this motion have nothing to do with this litigation at all. They’re intended only to intimidate and to convince people to drop their litigation. Our response will show they won’t have that intended effect,” he says.
As for the legal arguments in the motion, we look forward to the thoughts from the lawyers in our community…
NAFC v. Scientology: David Miscavige Motion to Dismiss.pdf
David Miscavige’s declaration is short and sweet — he has nothing to do with Oklahoma, he says.
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Scientology’s obsession with ‘stats’
Karen de la Carriere has another fun video explaining the basics of Scientology. In this case, why church members are scrambling every Thursday at 2 pm!
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 6, 2014 at 07:00
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