Two can play that game: Leah Remini presses for another judge change

We’re still stunned by what happened yesterday in Los Angeles, where Scientology leader David Miscavige sent his personal attorney Jeffrey Riffer down to Superior Court before a scheduled hearing in Jane Doe’s forced-marriage lawsuit.

Riffer informed Judge Robert Broadbelt that he was being removed before the judge could make final a ruling he was planning that would have declared Scientology arbitration “unconscionable.” A new judge will now have to start over from scratch and deal with Scientology’s motion to derail Jane Doe’s lawsuit into arbitration, and we have no idea if they will come to the same conclusion that Judge Broadbelt did.

His amazing tentative ruling — that Jane Doe’s case was protected under the new law against forced arbitration in cases of sexual assault, and the unconscionable nature of Scientology’s particular brand of arbitration — is as if it never existed. Poof.

We are still hearing from people who are confused as to how Miscavige can keep doing this — he also removed the judge in Leah Remini’s lawsuit, and also months after the case had begun.

We explained in a video last night how Miscavige had pulled it off. Normally, you can file a peremptory challenge and remove a judge only at the beginning of a lawsuit. This is in part a consideration for the judge, who isn’t going to want to spend a lot of time reading filings and preparing rulings if he or she is just going to be sent packing.

But for Miscavige, who had spent months evading service like a slippery eel, he had waited until these two judges had invested all that time and had come up with rulings Scientology didn’t like, and then Miscavige made his first appearance in the case. To him, you see, it was still only the very beginning of the lawsuit, and so he had the right to remove these judges.

It certainly wasn’t fair to Leah Remini in her lawsuit, or Jane Doe in hers, but as we have said again and again, US courts are simply not set up to deal with an organization that deals in nothing but bad faith like Scientology.

As the attorney and well-known protester Darth Xander described it to us, using Miscavige’s initial appearances strategically to remove the judges was just “good lawyering for bad people.”

Amazing.

Well, Leah Remini isn’t sitting still for it. We also learned yesterday that Leah his filed another new motion in her lawsuit, because she still wants a judge change as well, and one that probably makes too much good sense to come true.

After Miscavige managed to get Judge Randolph Hammock removed in Leah’s case, Judge Holly Fujie was assigned to it, and she scheduled a hearing for May 29.

But Leah isn’t giving up on the idea that because her case and the Bixler lawsuit, filed by Danny Masterson’s victims, are so similar, they should both be handled by Judge Upinder Kalra, who is already handling the Bixler case, and who recently issued a devastating ruling denying Scientology’s attempt to gut that lawsuit.

Here’s the reasoning that Leah’s team has submitted to the court. They’re asking for a July 11 hearing to consider this change…

Both Ms. Remini and the Bixler plaintiffs allege that Defendants engage in a “Fair Game” policy of harassment, attacks, embarrassment, humiliation, and attempted destruction of Defendants’ “enemies.”

Both the Bixler and the Remini complaints allege that:

— Defendants declare anyone who publicly leaves or criticizes Scientology to be a Suppressive Person and directs agents to subject them to Fair Game tactics.
— A department of the Church of Scientology International known as the Office of Special Affairs (“OSA”) carries out Defendants’ Fair Game campaigns, directed by Defendant David Miscavige.
— Defendants’ Fair Game policies state that a Suppressive Person may “be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued, lied to or destroyed.”
— Defendants’ Fair Game tactics include hiring private investigators to surveil, follow, intimidate, video record, and photograph Suppressive Persons.

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— The goal of Defendants’ Fair Game tactics is to “ruin utterly” those they deem Suppressive Persons.
— Defendants declared each of the Plaintiffs (in both Bixler and Remini) Suppressive Persons after the Plaintiffs spoke publicly about the abuses of Scientology, and Defendants instituted Fair Game campaigns against each of the Plaintiffs to silence their public criticism of Scientology.
— Defendants employed Fair Game tactics against Plaintiffs (both in Bixler and Remini), including sending their agents to Plaintiffs’ homes to film, harass, and surveil them, perpetrating credit card fraud against them, perpetrating social media harassment campaigns against them, publicly calling Plaintiffs religious bigots and liars, and interfering with their businesses and professional livelihoods.

As the similarities between the two complaints illustrate, Defendants’ Fair Game tactics constitute a pattern and practice, applied consistently to silence and isolate its enemies and deter others who might associate with them, including the Bixler and Remini plaintiffs. Thus, discovery into Fair Game — including the Scientology doctrine surrounding it, the mechanisms by which it is carried out, and the people involved — will be necessary in both actions. Moreover, as Plaintiffs in both actions have named Scientology leader David Miscavige as a defendant and have alleged that he directs Defendants’ Fair Game campaigns, Plaintiffs in each case will present evidence of Miscavige’s control and decision-making over Fair
Game campaigns, requiring common depositions and discovery related to his role. This overlap of facts, witnesses, and discovery between the actions necessitates that the cases be related.

For these reasons, if the Remini and Bixler actions were to be heard by different judges, they would risk inconsistent rulings and would necessitate “substantial duplication of judicial resources.” C.R.C. 3.300(a)(4). Thus, the cases should be related.

So, just to be clear. David Miscavige twice was able to remove judges months into two different lawsuits and after rulings he didn’t like, because he was able to game the system by dropping into the lawsuits after wasting everyone’s time with his evasion of process servers. In other words, the courts have rewarded him for his bad behavior.

In Leah’s case, she’s asking for a judge change based entirely on how much good sense it makes to save the court from unnecessary duplication of effort.

And that’s why we have a feeling the court will decide she’s simply asking too much. Right? Isn’t that how this works? Aren’t American courts wonderful?

 
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Technology Cocktail

“When you get the very rare pc who, well advanced, actually blows an engram by inspection you will know it. Such a pc already audits very fast — hard to keep up admin – and is clear or near clear. The somatic, the lot simply goes. If you try to push the pc into running it, some sort of fire-fight may occur, a thing to be avoided. If judgement of all this seems difficult, there’s a safe rule: ‘Let the pc have his win’.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1969

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 [43] Tory Christman [44] Kate Bornstein [45] Christian Stolte [46] Mark Bunker [47] Jon Atack [48] Luke Y. Thompson [49] Mark Ebner [50] Bruce Hines [51] Spanky Taylor and Karen Pressley [51] Geoff and Robbie Levin [52] Sands Hall [53] Jonny Jacobsen [54] Sandy Holeman [55] Mark Bunker [56] Trish and Liz Conley [57] Trish Conley [58] Alex Barnes-Ross [59] Alex Barnes-Ross [60] Alex Barnes-Ross [61] Alex Barnes-Ross [62] Alex Barnes-Ross [63] Alex Barnes-Ross [64] Tory Christman [65] Tammy Synovec [66] Dennis Erlich [67] Alex Barnes-Ross [68] Valerie Ross [69] Kat in Austin [70] Mark Bunker [71] Phil Jones

 
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Source Code

“I only talk about animal psychologists because I want the beast to be known by his right name. That’s all he is and all he ever pretended to be. Any psychologist is an animal psychologist because the basic theory on which he operates is ‘man is an animal.’ So we call him animal psychologist. And I think that will effectively take care of that as the years roll along. Now, don’t ever use that word psychologist after this. See, just use animal psychologist, always. And you’ll get it around. You’ll find the Times, sooner or later, will be talking about the animal psychologist. And people will be phoning them up to take care of their horses. I wouldn’t let them though. And I don’t even like horses. I wouldn’t let them take care of my horse.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 17, 1962

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“ORG SECURITY: Mail and telex security and personal mail still must maintain security. Now and then an incompetent or false report wipes out security. The object is to make it difficult for an enemy to predict location and activity. We have had several severe upsets traceable to lack of security. You don’t name ports or detail plans in personal letters or org telexes. You carefully obscure them — Halifax becomes ‘our last port.’ ‘We intend to go to the Seychelles’ becomes ‘we’ll soon be in warmer climes.’ Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Register was rumored to carry us port to port. This is false. We are never listed as we’re a yacht. But there are at least six other commercial Apollos. Scn orgs have taken to advertising the SO. This is silly. The SO is not their product. We are the organization three feet behind the head of Scn orgs. We succeed if we are least noticed.” — The Commodore, April 17, 1970

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“The core of this procedure is in the conversion of enmest and entheta back into mest and theta (aligned and balanced); one creates an equilibrium of forces which was in an imbalance, enturbulated; it converts enmest and entheta back into its rightful condition, which leads to more power, knowledge and beingness for the one causing it. Theta applies the laws of mest for the purposes of conquering it.”

 
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Past is Prologue

1998: The Washington Post published an article, which included discussion of comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s involvement in Scientology. “Seinfeld, while he says he is not a member of the Church of Scientology, took pains during an interview to defend the controversial sect. He said he had taken Scientology courses years earlier and found them to be very ‘pragmatic’ and helpful. He said he was ‘interested in Eastern religions generally,’ apparently thinking Scientology to be one of them. ‘I think the stuff I learned there really did help me a lot,’ he said. When reminded then that Time magazine had just run a cover story about Scientology that included charges it was a ‘thriving cult of greed and power’ and a ‘ruthless global scam,’ Seinfeld scowled and dismissed the article as ‘poor journalism.'”

 
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Random Howdy

“It all depends on what the definition of a ‘win’ is. Somebody claiming they were cured of their asthma or allergies is ridiculous. Somebody saying that auditing made them happier is vague BS also. The only thing you ‘win’ in Scientology is the Booby Prize.”

 
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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. Sentenced to 30 years to life on Sep 7.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing May 17, 2024.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.

Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Some defamation claims were removed by Judge Hammock. Leah seeking to amend her complaint.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration. Plaintiffs allowed interlocutory appeal to Eleventh Circuit.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: motion to file new complaint, hearing on May 29.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Scientology moves for religious arbitration, hearing on April 16.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Ordered to mediation.

 
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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] Danny Masterson, the retrial: Jury selection begins this morning and we’re on scene
[TWO years ago] It’s a Scientology Easter bonnet parade: Founder L. Ron Hubbard in his best finery!
[THREE years ago] Scientology ‘Sea Org’ members are a cut above, and have to prove it day and night
[FOUR years ago] New amended complaint packs a wallop in Miami Scientology child sex assault lawsuit
[FIVE years ago] Spyentology: For Scientology, operating as an intelligence agency is a religious mandate
[SIX years ago] More proof that L. Ron Hubbard really did want Scientologists to consider him the Antichrist
[SEVEN years ago] Before Scientology’s Xenu was a genocidal galactic overlord, he was a … mountain?
[EIGHT years ago] Louis Theroux’s ‘My Scientology Movie’ at Tribeca today, & more in our social media review
[NINE years ago] Is France dropping its anti-Scientology fervor because Tom Cruise is just too délicieux?
[TEN years ago] Leah Remini ‘Fair Gamed’ by Scientology? Her sister gets a visit, and Tony Dovolani is tailed
[ELEVEN years ago] Love in the Time of Miscavige

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 17, 2024 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, 1995-2022 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