Scientology gaslighting courts about arbitration? Valerie Haney has proof of it

 
Just this past Friday, we expressed to you our amusement when we noticed Scientology’s attorneys doing their usual gaslighting of a US court, in this case the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter are attempting to get their labor trafficking lawsuit against Scientology and David Miscavige reinstated.

Specifically, they’re petitioning the court for an “interlocutory” appeal of the decision by Tampa federal Judge Thomas Barber, who found that his hands were tied by the law and he had no choice but to derail their suit in favor of Scientology’s internal “religious arbitration.”

One reason that Valeska and the Baxters are asking the higher court to grant them the quick appeal now is that, they say, it would take a couple of years to actually go through Scientology’s brand of arbitration when they feel that it’s an unfair process.

Well, we told you that Scientology got out the smelling salts and acted offended and dismayed that anyone would suggest that its arbitration process is anything other than fair, efficient, and lightning fast.

Perhaps the Petitioners’ most galling argument is the unfounded assertion that their process is more efficient than arbitration. Petitioners assert (without support) that arbitration of their claims could take two years. Scientology arbitration is expeditious, free, and convenient, as arbitrators can travel anywhere….had Petitioners honored their Agreements, the arbitration could have concluded by now.

We told you we thought this was a howler: Just look at the cases of the Garcias and of Valerie Haney, which each took years of nonsense after courts also forced their lawsuits into arbitration.

Well, after we wrote that we thought it would be a good idea to follow up with Valerie, who sued Scientology in 2019 and had her lawsuit forced into arbitration in 2020.

The last time we talked to her, for a piece over at Rolling Stone, she had learned that Scientology has assembled a panel of arbitrators for her case, but they haven’t told her who is on it. (And this was after she had nominated such Scientologists as Elisabeth Moss, Tom Cruise, and Shelly Miscaivge, all of whom were suggestions rejected by the church.)

We told Valerie that in Valeska’s lawsuit, the church is telling the Eleventh Circuit that its arbitration process is quick and “convenient.”

“Unbelievable,” she replied.

She then caught us up on the latest in her case, and detailed just what a bunch of additional nonsense she’s going through.

If you remember, in February Judge Gail Killefer held a hearing in Valerie’s case and said that with an arbitrating panel assembled by Scientology, she didn’t want to hear from either side until they had done the proceeding, and she set a future hearing date of November 6, by which time she expects the arbitration to be done.

Also, she got a little aggressive with Valerie’s attorney, Graham Berry, when she learned that Scientology had been sending correspondence to Valerie at an old address. She told Berry to make sure Scientology had Valerie’s most current home address.

“That’s an order,” Judge Killefer said to Berry.

“So I sent a mailing address to Graham to give them,” Valerie told us for the Rolling Stone piece. She assured us again that she did so.

Well, you have to understand something about Scientology and its arbitration process. Scientology not only uses it to kill lawsuits by former members, it fully intends to humiliate those former members as much as possible.

Numerous times, Scientology has whined to the court that Valerie keeps having her attorney try to communicate for her. By Scientology’s reckoning Valerie should be going hat in hand to the church’s “International Justice Chief” Mike Ellis, and that she’s violating Scientology’s rules by, you know, having an attorney.

So, let’s keep this in mind: In February, the court ordered Graham Berry, Valerie’s attorney, to make sure Scientology had Valerie’s most current address. Valerie assures us that she gave Graham that address to give to Scientology.

But now, months later, Valerie has received a letter from Ellis, complaining that she never personally informed him of the new address, and he had to track her down using an online records search service, and sent three copies of his letter to three different Valerie Haneys where she might be living.

Can you imagine poor Mike Ellis having to exert himself this much?

Anyway, it’s all just theater, and more gaslighting, and more wasting of time because of course Valerie’s address was given to Scientology that very day of the court hearing in February. But because Valerie didn’t humiliate herself and go crawling personally to Ellis, he’s acting like she’s holding up the entire process.

He even warned her that if she didn’t personally send him communications asking for the arbitration, it wasn’t going to happen.

Oh, and also, he informed her that the arbitration, if it does happen, will take place in Los Angeles — even though they know she’s moved to the other side of the country.

Yes, Ellis wrote that in a letter to Valerie exactly one week before Scientology’s attorneys lied to the Eleventh Circuit that Scientology arbitration was “expeditious, free, and convenient, as arbitrators can travel anywhere.”

“They’re lying through their teeth,” Valerie says.

She says she was immediately reminded of another time when Scientology lied to her about how long something was going to take.

“They told my dad it would take only two weeks for me to route out when I was leaving Scientology, and I’d be back by Christmas. They actually let me go on February 14. Two weeks turned into three months. And now three months in this lawsuit has turned into three years,” she says, referring to Scientology’s claim that arbitration takes only three months, when it’s been more than three years since her case was forced into arbitration by a Los Angeles judge.

“Am I surprised and shocked? No. Because Scientology has been manipulating the legal system from day one. It’s what they do best.”

 
——————–

Technology Cocktail

“The World Health Organization has issued [a] questionnaire to determine whether or not a person is insane. Scientology organizations as the leaders in the field of mental ability are doing the only successful work in correcting such disabilities. The first sweeping, low cost attack on mental disability is now under way in Scientology organizations with HAS Co-Auditing courses, now beginning on all continents.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1959

 
——————–

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.

 
——————–

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

Source Code

“God help you someday when you get somebody who has an engram fifteen-trillion-trillion years long. Try to find the beginning of that! Before you’ve gone halfway through, of course, your date is so wrong that it’s jamming the track anyway. And just time after time, you find the earlier part of it and you find the earlier part of it and you find an earlier part of it — and finally, you finally get it all worked out and you find out that this thing which first registered as one and one-half hours long was actually 15 trillion-trillion years in length. Somebody stuck in a mountain that long; couldn’t get out. That’s rough. That’s hard to do. It’s hard to do when everything else is correct. So you’ve got to have everything else correct and then it can be done. But it is not easy to do when all signs and portents are favorable. Got that?” — L. Ron Hubbard, July 10, 1963

 
——————–

Avast, Ye Mateys

“STOP PRESS: We just won the New Zealand inquiry! Sydney halting further action because of this. Org in Auckland normal Op in stats with our Dian course going full blast.” — The Commodore, July 10, 1969

——————–

Overheard in the FreeZone

“Most people can’t read but think they can, and they can’t read and properly understand what they are reading because they don’t know what all the words mean. Fancy words confuse a person and they don’t even know they are confused and then they walk around thinking they’ve read something and understand it but they haven’t, and they really just needed a dictionary. But it gets tricky because the dictionaries usually use fancy words to describe the word you are looking up, so you end up on an adventure. But it’s better then walking around not knowing what something says while thinking you know what it says. That’s being a lefty.”

 
——————–

Past is Prologue

1995: Martin Poulter, maintainer of the U.K. Scientology critic’s WWW page, has had his account suspended due to threats from the church. “The complaint is specifically about my posting copyrighted material to alt.religion.scientology. I believe that what I was doing was within my rights, but I will now have to stop doing so in order to protect my system operators. I have told the university that I will do anything necessary to save them from further harassment. This will include taking copyrighted material off my Web page as well as toning down my posts to a.r.s. I have taken care in my postings to make sure that Scientology do not have a leg to stand on legally, but the University does not want any involvement in legal action and I do not want to put the Web service at risk.”

 
——————–

Random Howdy

“Hubbard said that all science fiction was based on whole track incidents that the authors were subconsciously remembering.”

 
——————–

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. Sentencing on Aug 4.
— ‘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.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.

Civil litigation:
— 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: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through sentencing of Masterson on Aug 4.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Next hearing August 1.
— 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.

 
——————–

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?

 
——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology fundraising is getting both desperate and weirder than usual
[TWO years ago] Tabs keep telling us Tom Cruise is ditching Scientology, and always with zero evidence
[THREE years ago] Christmas in July: Videos of Scientology stars raising money for their pals at the LAPD
[FOUR years ago] When Scientology has you dividing up funerals because family never really matters
[FIVE years ago] Former Scientologists, academics, and Falun Gong get together for a Philly blowout
[SIX years ago] Hip-hip-hooray! We have the newest Scientology propaganda about creating an ‘Ideal World’
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology continues to push for ‘Battlefield Earth’ sales, and you can get this T-shirt!
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology’s day care from hell: The scandal the church managed to keep hidden — until now
[NINE years ago] Scientology begins hitting back at Ryan Hamilton and his lawsuits
[TEN years ago] Indie Scientologists Try to Spoil “Super Power” Release as it (Supposedly) Nears Debut
[ELEVEN years ago] Tom Cruise Gets Visitation Rights? Why Don’t We, Ask Ex-Scientologists Cut Off From Family Members

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on July 10, 2023 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