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?
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Technology Cocktail
“No understanding of the mind is complete without a thorough grasp of secondaries and engrams and running them. I have seen a person trained up to a high level who suddenly flopped at V because he had no faintest notion of what he was auditing. The budding psycho-analyst gets the shock of his life when he sees there IS SOMETHING THERE. Before us, people thought the brain had short circuits in it (psychologists and psychiatrists) or that a beast called a Censor lived in a dungeon in it (Freud), or that evil spirits haunted one (Christianity). The whole answer to the mind is mental pictures and masses created by the thetan. There is no other source or cause of aberration. Unless a student knows this he will never make a good auditor and Scientologist.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1966
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Now available: Bonus for our supporters
Episode 10 of the Underground Bunker podcast has been sent out to paid subscribers, and Jefferson Hawkins helps us understand Scientology’s new marketing ploys. Meanwhile, we’ve made episodes 1 through 9 available to everyone, with such guests as Patty Moher, Geoff Levin, Pete Griffiths, Sunny Pereira, Bruce Hines, Jeffrey Augustine, and Claire Headley. Go here to get the episodes!
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“I’ll give you an idea. You’re coffee shopping with somebody and you say, ‘You realize that there’s a GPM devoted to homosexuality in the between-lives implants? There is one!’ And he says, ‘Oh, I don’t really think so.’ He says, ‘Well, get the idea now, just get the idea of “to be a homosexual.” Just get that idea for a moment, and you’ll see.’ Ha! That, of course, throws that GPM alive, see? Just discussing it isn’t going to do very much about it, see. You got to concentrate, somebody’s got to concentrate his attention on it! Him or somebody else, you know, has got to look right at it, you know, straight at it and bang!” — L. Ron Hubbard, August 28, 1963
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“With a checksheet on this and on that, Ship Admin and Specialist actions as well as standard Pol and Tech courses, a member of Flag gets to be one of the most educated fellows you ever did see. If the society taught all these things in college it would be quite a society. A member of Flag doesn’t really realize all he’s come to know I suppose until he compares it to what others know or don’t know. Some of the actions of the world or society or other ships look pretty dim.” — The Commodore, August 28, 1970
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“Great Success Story for OT 9 (CBR). Well, I certainly know why this level is called Phoenix. That is the perfect name! I am only a few sessions in, but let me see if I can describe it for you. We all have constructs we have assembled for one reason for another and by which we operate. Both sides of the bridge, from my observation, serve to dismantle constructs so that we my operate more by postulate and closer to a native state. Constructs are sneaky things in that until revealed by auditing or training they are difficult, if not impossible to find. What Phoenix does is find, reveal and implode constructs. Each session is not at all dissimilar to placing charges on key structural points of a huge building in your city, detonating them and then watching an old, outdated and imposing edifice crumble before your eyes… AND THEN literally emerging from the ashes. There are a few more constructs in my city to address, but without these first few obstructions in the way I am enjoying a view of the blue sky that was hidden behind them.”
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2000: The Arizona Daily Star reported that an Arizona Scientologist has been charged with investment fraud. “Benjamin Franklin Cook III was charged with 37 counts of racketeering, fraud and theft in connection with an investment scheme run by his company, Dennel Finance Ltd. The indictment alleges that Cook defrauded more than 300 investors of a total of $41 million. If convicted, Cook, of Carefree, could face a sentence of up to several hundred years in prison. Cook’s plan promised investors that their money would be placed in a European Bank trading program. They allege that he used the money to buy luxury items like cars, airplanes, a house and other real estate properties. Cook also donated $1.8 million to the Church of Scientology.”
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“Hezbollah, Hamas, Black Panthers, IRA, and Hells Angels have all done more charity work than the Church of Scientology ever has or will.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Trial scheduled for October 11.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Last hearing was on January 18, referred to grand jury. Additional charges also referred to grand jury after January 5 assault while in jail.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Readiness hearing scheduled for August 22 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for September 19.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Found guilty of criminal and civil contempt.
Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court, Scientology moving to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs filed amended complaint on August 2.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Selection of arbitrators underway. Next court hearing: February 2, 2023.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place, next status hearing October 25. Scientology petitioning US Supreme Court over appellate ruling.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for December 6.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.
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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON
We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. 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 a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Tom Cruise’s Scientology superpowers, No. 5: Leaving his body with full perception
[TWO years ago] Clearwater Councilman Mark Bunker’s radical suggestion: Embrace Scientology?
[THREE years ago] London, Scientology is coming for you!
[FOUR years ago] It’s primary day in Florida, and here’s how Scientology will be voting
[FIVE years ago] Tomorrow’s ‘Leah Remini’: When Scientology destroys a family, it burns it to the ground
[SIX years ago] How Scientology’s anti-psychiatry front turns a real controversy into fake outrage
[SEVEN years ago] WOW: California judge orders trial to determine if Scientology drugged incoming rehab patients
[EIGHT years ago] Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest Scientology video in the history of Scientology videos
[NINE years ago] Scientology Legal Roundup: Per Wickstrom’s Fine Whine, And More!
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,770 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,275 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,825 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,815 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,706 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,011 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,881 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,986 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,459 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,775 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,341 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,260 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,428 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,008 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,270 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,306 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,021 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,546 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 901 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,076 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,627 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,758 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,096 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,951 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,070 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,426 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,729 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,835 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,233 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,109 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,692 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,187 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,441 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,550 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 28, 2022 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2021 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast
