Scientology leader David Miscavige threatens to out Jane Does suing Danny Masterson

Over the last couple of days, we’ve been telling you that David Miscavige is challenging a lawsuit that names him as a defendant. It’s the lawsuit that four women have filed against Scientologist actor Danny Masterson over allegations of violent rape, and also allegations that Miscavige and Scientology retaliated against them (as well as one of the women’s husbands) when they came forward to law enforcement in 2016.

Well, now we finally have one of the motions to quash specifically from Miscavige, and as you’d expect, it’s as scorched-earth as what we saw from the Religious Technology Center in its motion to quash yesterday.

Like RTC, Miscavige is asking that his service of the lawsuit be quashed, and that the victims pay sanctions for not serving him properly. His reasons are slightly different than RTC’s, and just as aggressive.

Miscavige can’t help himself and has his attorney Jeffrey Riffer offer some criticisms of the lawsuit’s merits, which isn’t really at issue yet. But it’s the same line we’ve seen him take in other lawsuits that allege he runs Scientology as a dictator and would oversee any harassment campaign of its enemies, and that’s to deny that he’s anything other than a pious religious leader.

Mr. David Miscavige, the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion and the Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center (another defendant), brings this motion to quash service of the summons and complaint and to strike Plaintiffs’ proof of service as a fraud upon the court….None of the Plaintiffs allege that they ever met or communicated with Mr. Miscavige, but they nevertheless named Mr. Miscavige as a defendant to: (a) interfere with Mr. Miscavige’s religious obligations; (b) besmirch his reputation; (c) generate publicity for their allegations; and (d) try to extort a settlement due to such interference, smear on his name and publicity. The Complaint and plaintiffs’ actions prove this. The five plaintiffs pleaded no facts alleging that Mr. Miscavige engaged in any wrongdoing. Plaintiffs merely lumped Mr. Miscavige with tabloid allegations against other named “defendants,” not distinguishing between the various defendants (some entities and some individuals). But, merely by naming Mr. Miscavige as a defendant, Plaintiffs could tell the media that they sued the leader of the religion, which allegations were widely disseminated.

Riffer does love to lay the “ecclesiastical” stuff on thick.

And then, again completely irrelevant to whether Miscavige was served properly or not, he can’t help taking a swipe at Leah Remini…

Four days later (still without serving any defendant), Plaintiffs Chrissie Carnell Bixler and Marie Bobette Riales, and Plaintiffs’ attorney Marci Hamilton created more publicity for the lawsuit. They appeared on the August 26, 2019 finale episode of an anti-Scientology cable television program hosted and created by known anti-Scientologist, Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath.

Yeah, Dave, if you’re an “ecclesiastical” leader and get accused of shaming assault victims and keeping children from coming forward to law enforcement with abuse allegations, it tends to make the news. The whining here is really precious.

After more bitching and moaning about all the publicity the lawsuit has generated (which again, has nothing to do with whether he was served the lawsuit properly), he gets down to his specific complaints about the serving of the documents.

Like RTC, Miscavige is calling the service “fraudulent” because, Miscavige claims, the process server never actually entered the HGB Building (6331 Hollywood Blvd) to serve papers on Miscavige, and the church says it has security footage to prove this.

Also, Miscavige says the process server never actually mentioned the church leader by name. And they have dug up a case where the process server had been criticized by a judge.

Like with the RTC motion, this is all ticky-tack stuff that we assume the court can work out, and certainly doesn’t merit sanctions. But there’s something else in the document that really stood out to us, and it was in a footnote on page 5…

Plaintiffs’ use of “Jane Doe” by two of the Plaintiffs is improper. See Code of Civ. Procedure § 367 (“Every action must be prosecuted in the name of the real party in interest, except as otherwise provided by statute.”). There is no applicable statute.

Now, you may remember that when we first began reporting on the LAPD investigation of Masterson in March 2017, we referred to the three women who initially came forward as Victim A, Victim B, and Victim C.

Victim A later identified herself as Chrissie Carnell Bixler, and then a fourth woman, Bobette Riales, came forward and publicly identified herself. Victim B and Victim C never have. (And in the lawsuit they filed August 22, they are referred to as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, respectively.)

Although Miscavige doesn’t identify the two women in this motion, this is ominous stuff that he’s threatening to out them in a lawsuit regarding sexual assault.

So, to review, Miscavige is denying that he had anything to do with the harassment suffered by these women (and harassment of Chrissie Carnell Bixler’s husband, rocker Cedric Bixler-Zavala), he’s asking for sanctions because he doesn’t like the way they tried to serve him the lawsuit, he’s trying to keep himself out of the lawsuit by quashing the service, and he’s threatening to name the two unnamed victims.

Hey, it’s par for the course when it comes to suing Scientology. We also learned that Miscavige is challenging his service in the lawsuit filed by Leah Remini’s assistant, Valerie Haney, and in that case he’s also calling for sanctions. We’ll get you that document as soon as we can.

 
Here’s Miscavige’s motion to quash in the Masterson lawsuit…

Bixler et. al vs Scientolog… by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
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Pre-trial hearing in the Narconon fraud case

Our man Jeffrey Augustine was on the spot for a pretrial hearing in the Hanan Islam case yesterday. Here’s his report…

Pretrial for the People vs. Ronnie Steven “Rizza” Islam began late yesterday in Judge Perry’s courtroom. There was a problem with the elevators at the Downtown Los Angeles Criminal Courts and all departments were late. We were early, as usual, and watched as the parties made their way into the courtroom. A fellow who told a bailiff he was from Rizza’s mosque arrived and took a seat. Next, the two OSA legal representatives arrived as we had expected. This case is very much back on OSA’s radar because the Church of Scientology and Narconon will likely feature prominently in the trial.

Hanan Islam and her two daughters, Zakiyyah and Nimat Islam, arrived next followed by the Prosecutor and two of the defense attorneys. An ABC cameraman arrived with ABC Los Angeles reporter Lisa Bartley. Judge Perry refused to allow the camera in for the pretrial motion. The Judge left open the possibility of cameras in the courtroom for the trial. The OSA reps took note of this.

Flanked by three burly Nation of Islam bodyguards, Rizza Islam entered the courtroom last. The Nation of Islam clearly wanted to make a statement that it is supporting Rizza. Standing 6′ 6″, Rizza Islam is impossible to miss, and his bodyguards were just as tall. All of the gentlemen were impeccably dressed in finely tailored suits as is the trademark of the Nation.

Judge Perry gaveled court into session. Two of the defense attorneys were not present. The prosecution and the defense wanted to continue the matter and Judge Perry scheduled it for January 24, 2020. However, under California law all defendants are entitled to a speedy trial within 30 days. Judge Perry asked the defendants if they approved of the delay as he is required to do so by law. Rizza and Nimat were fine with the delay.

Hanan and Zakiyyah objected to the delay. Hanan said that the case has dragged on for four years and she insisted on her right to a speedy trial as did Zakiyyah. Moreover, Hanan once again stated her desire to fire her attorney Mr. Gibbons, who was not present. Judge Perry told Hanan she could hire her own attorney and that would take care of the matter immediately.

On the other hand, if she wanted another court-appointed attorney then a Marsden hearing is necessary. Under California law this is required to replace one’s court-appointed attorney. Hanan agreed to proceed with a Marsden hearing.

Judge Perry recommended that Hanan consider giving any new attorney more time to prepare for what is a complex white collar criminal case alleging a multi-million dollar Medi-Cal fraud. Hanan again insisted that she wanted a speedy trial. Judge Perry said he would be glad to accommodate her but again reiterated the risks given the sheer amount of documentation and witnesses the State is expected to produce at trial.

The Judge made arrangements for his clerk to contact Hanan once Mr. Gibbons was located and a date for the Marsden hearing could be scheduled. This hearing will take place as soon as possible, but it will likely be the first week of December. Judge Perry emphasize to the defendants that this case will be tried.

I wanted to add that Hanan and Rizza we were polite during the proceedings. They appear to have been counseled to conduct themselves with decorum and did so. While Hanan was insistent about the right to a speedy trial, she was never defiant.

The morning session ended after about an hour.

— Jeffrey Augustine

 
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Brian Sheen uncorks another penetrating video

Former Scientologist Brian Sheen has put together another frenetic whiteboard video to try and help people understand Scientology’s abuses and its disconnection policy. Have a look!

 
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Leaked document of the day

From the FBI documents release comes this item.

On Tuesday, we mourned the loss of Nan McLean, a brave Canadian woman who had been sued by Scientology for speaking out about its abuses. In 1981 she and her son John McLean countersued Scientology in Florida, and her lawsuit was being handled by federal district court Judge Ben Krentzman. In the FBI documents, we found a 1984 affidavit by Bill Franks, who briefly served as Scientology’s Executive Director International, one of its highest positions, before he broke with the organization and began speaking out. In that 1984 affidavit Franks claimed that Scientology was so concerned about Nan McLean’s lawsuit and another one being heard by Krentzman, they hired DC dirty tricks private eye Richard Bast to set up the judge on a boat with prostitutes.

Isn’t Scientology grand?

 
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Source Code

“When you start to double people’s scores and push people upstairs in terms of sports abilities, this becomes a foul and fiendish plot from our standpoint. If you were to take the football Cards, or the baseball Cards or any one team, and give it a heavy shove in the direction of better ball playing, you would at once, of course, find that the opponents had no other choice but to get a heavy shove in the direction of ball-playing. See, no other choice. We haven’t started this program yet in America. We’re looking around for some volunteers to go on payroll and go up and haunt one of these baseball clubs or football clubs. And just do nothing but process the boys and so on. A very interesting project. Because, of course, they will then take all pennants, awards and TV programs. And then we can then go around to their archenemies and say ‘See what happened.'” — L. Ron Hubbard, November 22, 1956

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“In the beginning thetans looked and thus a viewpoint was created. In other words, dimension. You’re not in the mest universe. It’s an agreed upon point of view and you make a duplicate copy of it. Any other mest in your universe that is not a perfect duplicate is an implant because it is something else. You have to have a universe to be implanted and if you are not duplicating A universe then you don’t have a universe, you’re just being. When you look, that’s when all the fun starts.”

 
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Random Howdy

“When I first read about the solo auditing I remember thinking, ‘This is genius! Hubbard has these dupes so bamboozled he’s got them ripping themselves off.’ The most expensive part of the Bridge and you’re conning yourself. How would that hold up in court on a fraud charge?”

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] As Leah Remini returns for a third round, here’s Scientology’s side of the story
[TWO years ago] VIDEO: Scientology gives its highest award to Nation of Islam minister, who thanks Allah
[THREE years ago] Leah Remini demands $1.5 million from Scientology for interfering with her A&E series
[FOUR years ago] Scientology drug rehab policy: Get the sexual assaulter out of state before police arrive
[FIVE years ago] The Scientologist who wouldn’t fly: The rise and fall of insurance mogul Richie Acunto
[SIX years ago] Mark Bunker Returns to Clearwater: Wise Beard Man Back in Scientology’s Mecca!
[SEVEN years ago] Thanksgiving? Pshaw! The Scientology Begin-A-Boom Bookathon Starts TODAY!
[EIGHT years ago] More Scientology Hip Hop, Yo: The Curious Career of Chill EB

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 22, 2019 at 07:00

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