UNSEALED: Jane Doe 1 sues Scientology for sex assault at 16 by Sea Org groomer

On December 29, between the two trials of Danny Masterson, one of his victims, Jane Doe 1, filed a lawsuit against Scientology, its leader David Miscavige, and a Sea Org member named Gavin Potter.

The lawsuit was filed under seal and was only put on the court’s public docket on Wednesday, when the defendants learned for the first time that they were being sued.

Jane Doe 1 is being represented by attorney Graham Berry, who this week filed a 38-page second amended complaint that alleges that Scientology, under policies written by founder L. Ron Hubbard and enforced by current leader Miscavige, prevents Scientologists from reporting crimes to law enforcement, and this “prohibition against contacting authorities created a culture and atmosphere in which the sexual assault of minors within Church of Scientology International was tolerated, and even facilitated.”

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Potter was assigned by Miscavige the task of recruiting minor females into the Sea Org, and in particular a division known as Bridge Publications, which produced Scientology’s books. Such young female recruits were known as “Bridge Babes,” a phrase invented by Miscavige, according to the lawsuit.

Jane Doe 1 was born into Scientology in 1974 and her parents were involved in the Religious Technology Center, the nominally controlling organization in the Scientology movement and also a named defendant in the suit. Jane Doe 1 herself was recruited into the Sea Organization, which requires members to sign billion-year contracts, at 14 years of age. At 16, in 1991, she was assigned to be a receptionist at the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition on Hollywood Boulevard, but she rebelled against it. At that point Potter, who was about ten years her senior, was assigned to “arrive” her properly to her life in the Sea Org.

One of her tasks was to drive Potter home at night, and it was during those drives that he began to sexually abuse her, the lawsuit alleges. When she spoke up about it, she was faced with a choice: Be punished and go to the Sea Org’s prison program, the Rehabilitation Project Force, possibly for years, or marry Potter. She felt she had no choice but to accept the latter, and then she was coerced to have sex with Potter after it was arranged by Scientology officials at the Manor Hotel, also known as the Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

She continued to live with her parents, but when she did have sexual intercourse with Potter, she alleges that she felt coerced.

At 19, she became pregnant, and then faced the Sea Org’s policy against having children. She alleges that Potter asked her to have an abortion. Instead, she escaped the Sea Org, had her daughter, and then divorced Potter in 1997, when she was 23.

(Six years later, in 2003, she was attacked by Danny Masterson at his Hollywood Hills home, a forcible rape he was convicted of on May 31 at a trial where he was also convicted of another 2003 rape, of Jane Doe 2, who was also a Scientologist at the time. Masterson is facing 30 years to life in prison and will be sentenced on August 4.)

In the lawsuit she filed on December 29 under seal, Jane Doe 1 is suing Scientology for negligence because it “failed to take reasonable steps or to implement reasonable safeguards to avoid acts of childhood sexual assault.” She’s suing Potter for childhood sexual abuse, child molestation, and sexual battery. She’s also suing the defendants for negligent supervision, negligent employment, and intentional infliction of emotional abuse.

Potter is a figure who has been somewhat controversial for years. In 2014, Mike Rinder, at his blog, noted that Potter was being hailed as a Scientologist who could “close anyone on anything.”

 
But way back in 2000, Tory Christman was posting warnings about Potter in ways that sound pretty prescient now…

Gavin Potter is a Sea Org recruiter. IF you hear that your child is even talking with him, I highly suggest you GET YOUR KID AWAY FROM HIM Gavin tells young children (ages 13 usually and on up) that the end of the world is coming, and that their parents are going to starve to death…so they need to join the Sea Org and save the world.

The next hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled for August 1 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Besides Graham Berry, Jane Doe 1 is also being represented in this lawsuit by Brittany Henderson of the Edwards Pottinger law firm. That’s the firm of Bradley Edwards, who Jane Doe 1 hired to replace the original team from Philadelphia that had brought the 2019 harassment lawsuit against Masterson and Scientology. That suit, known as Bixler v. Scientology, is set to be revived on Wednesday after being put on hold during Masterson’s criminal trial. (Scientology has already said that it intends to file an anti-SLAPP motion in an attempt to get the case thrown out of court.)

In this new lawsuit filed by Jane Doe 1, Scientology is being portrayed as an organization that covers up child abuse as part of its systems of internal control.

The Church of Scientology International instruct its membership that the only answer to a crime being committed by its members, including rape, sexual abuse or child abuse, is Scientology and the teachings of Hubbard, not law enforcement. If senior officials in the Religious Technology Center, Church of Scientology International, Sea Org, or any other Scientology organization received credible evidence that child sexual abuse had occurred within the church, the officials covered up the incident rather than report the abuse to local authorities.

Upon information and belief, in most instances any alleged perpetrator of child abuse or sexual abuse was simply moved to a different Scientology base or location. Sometimes the alleged perpetrator was sent to RPF, other times, no action was taken. Victims, however, are blamed for “pulling in” the abuse upon themselves and are forced to either apologize to their abuser for causing the assault or undergo a program to learn how they caused the assault.

Upon information and belief and given the nature of the vast amount of information collected and recorded during auditing, it is highly likely that Defendants have countless pieces of evidence describing child sexual abuse, both by the perpetrators and the victims.

 
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Technology Cocktail

“An individual cannot conceive a static if he associates static with loss — if the loss is painful. So we have to cure him of the painfulness of loss, consideration of, before we can exteriorize him easily. We do this by going back to automaticity. The universe has been taking things away from him. It has become an automaticity, and we find that the universe has an automaticity known as time and time itself is a consecutive series of losses. So we have to cure the preclear of losses before we can get him to appreciate time, otherwise he would be so afraid of losing it that he’d stick himself on the track and we get the ‘stuck on the track’ phenomenon.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1958

 
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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 as Danny faces a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. NOW WITH TRIAL INDEX.

 
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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack [16] Mirriam Francis [17] Bruce Hines on MSH

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

[18] Trial special with Chris Shelton [19] Trial week one [20] Marc Headley on the spy in the hallway [21] Trial week two [22] Trial week three [23] Trial week four [24] Leah Remini on LAPD Corruption [25] Mike Rinder 2022 Thanksgiving Special [26] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part One [27] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part Two [28] Claire Headley on the trial [29] Tory Christman [30] Bruce Hines on spying [31] Karen de la Carriere [32] Ron Miscavige on Shelly Miscavige [33] Karen de la Carriere on the L’s [34] Mark Bunker on Miscavige hiding [35] Mark Plummer [36] Mark Ebner [37] Karen Pressley [38] Steve Cannane [39] Fredrick Brennan [40] Clarissa Adams [41] Louise Shekter [42] John Sweeney

 
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Source Code

“A few days ago I decided I would look young. Well, how do you look young? All you do is take flesh off certain planes of the face. This is what artists do in making faces old or young. So, I selectively ran incidents until the planes of the face were smaller. Oddly enough you run out tiredness also when you do this. You can actually select off certain pieces of flesh, and change your appearance. You have with this technique the power of changing your own physiological being. You go on up, theta line running, and you have another choice: You can change beings. You could! Of course you have been growing and nurturing this body, and you are somewhat attached to it. But it is just as much an object as this eraser, and your existence with this body is something like going around holding this eraser all the time, and saying, ‘I’m the eraser.’” — L. Ron Hubbard, June 24, 1952

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“TROUBLE: The fastest possible way for a senior to get into trouble is to fail to get in Ethics on a downstat junior. The US ‘solves’ all this with huge government pay offs and propitiation. And look at the upsurge of riots. Capitalism works only on the reward side. It takes two sides to make a game. If an I/C lets Ethics go out on his juniors he pulls the rug out from under himself — and slaughters the juniors also. A team is composed of teammates. Those who mess up the team aren’t teammates. The decline of the FSO and FAO WHY is really — the seniors let ethics go out on their juniors and sought to be ‘good fellows.’ This dumped the lot back onto me. The VFP of our 3 orgs is not juniors who think their seniors are good fellows. And it isn’t ‘good fellows’ either. Effective SO Members is one of our VFPs. We have some. We will have more.” — The Commodore, June 24, 1971

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Overheard in the FreeZone

“The independent field is a scattered, disjointed effort to preserve standard tech but many auditors and c/s’s are senior citizens and we have to ask ourselves urgently what will be available for the next generation!? A unification process is needed where one standard set of materials is authorised by what I call a WDC consisting of all the greatest independent minds currently doing Scn for a living. Decent groups exist in Russia, Israel, Switzerland, Ukraine, Taiwan, South Africa, the US and Germany. Somehow these should come together and simply supplant the church. Having already lost people like David Mayo and all the Class XIIs I identified with my very first survey, the urgency to form up a strong international group, is urgent. The only alternative is to take back the church, which can be done if the truth can be vested as reality with its remaining sheeple. And that will take some doing.”

 
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Past is Prologue

2000: Jeff Jacobsen reported that the Bank building in Clearwater was the site of a protest this week. “11 people picketed the Scientology Bank Building in downtown Clearwater today from 11am to 1pm. We had some TV coverage and got tons of horn honks and thumbs up from the heavy traffic. Both Jeff Jacobsen and Mark Bunker had Incident Reports filed by the Clearwater Police over the 10 foot rule in the temporary injunction filed after the Minton-Howd event last October. We had 4 newbie picketers and they all had a good time and plan to picket again. When the TV crews got there, both Pat Jones and Al Buttnor rushed out to talk to them and try to persuade them that there was no news here. Al Buttnor seemed especially upset today.”

 
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Random Howdy

“An ice cold martini sure sounds better than lukewarm vodka and lemonade.”

 
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Found guilty on two counts on May 31, remanded to custody.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Trial scheduled for August 15.
— Rizza Islam, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for June 26 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration. Plaintiffs asking permission for interlocutory appeal.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— 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 at least through June 28.
— 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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SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

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] Scientologist scammer, long on the run, ends up murdered in Mexico
[TWO years ago] His son may rule moneyed Scientology, but Ron Miscavige needs help to pay for his own funeral
[THREE years ago] Danny Masterson’s Scientology upbringing: An interview with his former stepdad, Joe Reaiche
[FOUR years ago] YouTube permanently shutters channel that exposed Scientology’s bigotry
[FIVE years ago] Coming soon, our collaboration with ‘Miss Lovely’ herself, Paulette Cooper!
[SIX years ago] Scientology watchers, one mile high: HowdyCon 2017’s big night is here
[SEVEN years ago] Forced-abortion lawsuit has a new judge as Scientology appeals ruling on religious grounds
[EIGHT years ago] A rundown on the truth being delivered at the Toronto Scientology conference
[NINE years ago] UP THE BRIDGE: We finally reach ‘OT 8’ — but was its first version really a hoax?
[TEN years ago] Laura D to Scientology: It’s Too Late for a Protective Order in Forced-Abortion Case
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology Plays Denver’s Police Chief Like a Violin
[TWELVE years ago] Milton Katselas Pleads With Scientology After Grant Cardone’s Attack: A Church Jihad?

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 24, 2023 at 00:00

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, 1995-2022 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2022), 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

 

Tony Ortega at Rolling Stone