We have some updates for you from Laura DeCrescenzo’s forced-abortion case as it rapidly approaches its August 13 trial date.

A week ago, we told you that Scientology’s attorneys were scrambling to deal with a last-minute surprise from Laura’s legal team — she had filed a “notice to appear” requiring church leader [...]]]>

We have some updates for you from Laura DeCrescenzo’s forced-abortion case as it rapidly approaches its August 13 trial date.

A week ago, we told you that Scientology’s attorneys were scrambling to deal with a last-minute surprise from Laura’s legal team — she had filed a “notice to appear” requiring church leader David Miscavige to testify in the trial, which will consider her allegations of abuse as a child working for the church’s “Sea Organization.”

Scientology’s lawyers filed a motion to quash that subpoena, and asked Judge Mark Mooney to expedite his handling of it. The judge set a hearing date of Monday to make a decision about whether Miscavige would have to show up for the trial.

We have now learned that during that hearing on Friday, the attorney for the Religious Technology Center — the nominally controlling entity of Scientology as a whole — told the judge in open court that a mediation hearing on the case would be going on the next day.

We don’t know the result of that Saturday mediation hearing. However, we did learn that earlier today the Church of Scientology International dismissed its Ninth Circuit appeal on a federal lawsuit it had filed against Laura in one of its final gambits to try and delay her trial.

Also today, Laura’s attorneys withdrew the notice to appear that would have required Miscavige to testify in the trial. As a result, the Monday hearing to quash that subpoena won’t be held.

We called Laura’s attorney, John Blumberg, asking him what we should conclude from these changes, and he responded that he was unable to comment on the developments.

Even without Miscavige’s participation, the trial should be an ugly mess for Scientology, as attorney Scott Pilutik explained last week. “For Scientology, goal number one has always been to prevent any trial where the types of grisly abuses alleged by Laura are made public,” he told us.

So, here’s what we know. After a mediation hearing, both sides have now given up something going into the trial. Scientology’s Ninth Circuit appeal was a longshot attempt to overturn the dismissal of a longshot federal lawsuit it filed in December, hoping to convince the federal courts to kill Laura’s state court action. But even though the federal lawsuit seemed like a Hail Mary pass, if the appeal somehow succeeded, it would make her state lawsuit moot. So getting that dropped is one less headache for Laura.

And is she giving up a lot by letting Miscavige off the hook? A significant increase in media attention occurred in the last 24 hours over the prospect of Miscavige trying to get out of the case — imagine the press feeding frenzy if he’d actually been compelled to testify. So yes, this does seem like a pretty big chip to lose.

But either way, Scientology is still facing a major headache with the trial just a little more than three weeks away. Expect more fireworks as it nears.

 
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Peter Nyiri on life under David Miscavige

Jeffrey Augustine continues his conversation with recent Scientology defector Peter Nyiri. In this episode, says Jeff:

“Peter Niyri discusses the ways David Miscavige and the RTC Rep Network issues orders concerning the day-to-day operations of the Church of Scientology International. This directly contravenes what Miscavige’s attorneys told a Texas court when they claimed Miscavige had nothing to do with managing the daily affairs of CSI. There are no checks and balances in the Church of Scientology as it told the IRS in its 1992 1023 application for 501(c)3 tax exemption. Peter also describes the extremely poor quality — literally nonexistent at times — of medical care in the Sea Org. Peter then switches topics to the release of the Basics in 2007 when the focus in Scientology was selling Basics libraries. He and his fellow Sea Org members worked from 9:15 AM to 5:00 AM — an 18 workday. This was done seven days a week for six months.”

 
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A NEW FRONT OPENING IN THE WAR FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Well, we should have done this a long time ago. We’ve created a Facebook Group for the Underground Bunker and its community, where you can spend even more time discussing Scientology news like today’s court development. It should be a lot of fun, or maybe it will be a big headache, or maybe Facebook itself will collapse in a grand conflagration of regrets and recriminations. Who can tell!

Let’s give it a try and see how it develops.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 19, 2018 at 19:30

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

We told you that Bert Deixler, Scientology’s top-flight attorney, had filed a notice that the church planned to appeal a federal court ruling even after getting shot down in its latest attempt to throw up a roadblock before Laura DeCrescenzo finally gets her day in court this August on her 9-year [...]]]>

We told you that Bert Deixler, Scientology’s top-flight attorney, had filed a notice that the church planned to appeal a federal court ruling even after getting shot down in its latest attempt to throw up a roadblock before Laura DeCrescenzo finally gets her day in court this August on her 9-year forced-abortion lawsuit.

Now, we have the actual argument that Deixler is making to the Los Angeles Superior Court that it should put a stay on Laura’s case while the church pursues a long-shot appeal even after its Hail Mary federal lawsuit was stomped by a judge who killed it “with prejudice” to keep it from coming back.

As a sign of the church’s desperation, Deixler uses some pretty intimidating-sounding language in this motion for a stay to convince the state court in Los Angeles that it should hold things up since the church’s federal appeal could win the day and make everything go away…

“This Court should not proceed to trial in the matter when there is a real possibility that trial will be unnecessary or, worse, that trial would go forward in a case later enjoined by the federal courts, thus wasting both the parties’ and the Court’s resources,” Deixler writes.

Wow. Let’s remember how we got here so you can get some sense of how obnoxious that statement is.

Laura was just 12 years old when she signed the billion-year contract of the Sea Org and began working 90-hour weeks until she turned 13, when she was put on the 112-hour adult schedule. When she was 17, she’s testified, she was coerced into having an abortion because that’s been Scientology policy since at least the 1970s, that its Sea Org women end their pregnancies so they can keep up the grueling schedule. The policy was supposedly ended in 2010, but we’ve seen some evidence that it’s still continuing today. Laura escaped the Sea Org in 2004 after getting so desperate to leave she drank bleach and was kicked out. She stayed in the church itself for four more years, but then filed her lawsuit in 2009 once she realized that it was an option. That delay — she was supposed to have filed it by 2008 — has been in part why the case has dragged on so long, but it’s also because she had to defeat two separate motions for summary judgment filed by the church, and numerous times the case changed judges.

She finally has a trial set for August, but in December Scientology filed its long-shot lawsuit in federal court, trying to argue that a federal judge should step in and wipe out Laura’s state court lawsuit, even though Scientology has been litigating it there for years.

That federal judge, George Wu, saw through Scientology’s gambit, and he granted Laura’s motion to dismiss on May 3, with prejudice, preventing the church from refiling the case with some changed language. It was about as much a slam-dunk as Laura could hope for, and the way seemed clear for her state trial.

But now Deixler is arguing that Laura’s case should be put on hold so Scientology can pursue a long-shot appeal of its long-shot federal gambit.

We hope the state court can see through this dishonesty. A hearing in the matter has been set for June 8.

We asked attorney Scott Pilutik, who has followed this case for years, for his thoughts on this motion…

Scientology is asking the California court to hit the pause button on the looming trial date while its federal appeal is heard by the Ninth Circuit. They’re right that a successful appeal would moot the need for a trial, but they’re misrepresenting their appeal’s chances for success, which is a key factor in determining whether to allow the stay. An appeal based on a hail-Mary motion brought years after it could have conceivably been brought, and that was rejected “with prejudice,” isn’t likely to find a friendly ear.

I’m unsure of the particular interplay between federal and state court concerns here but I don’t believe Scientology even can appeal the federal court decision by right, given how they’re attempting to use it to stay a trial. To the extent this can be viewed as an interlocutory appeal, such appeals have to clear a higher bar because they’re naturally regarded as potential delay tactics. Except it’s not a true interlocutory appeal–Scientology is playing federal and state courts off each other.

Recall that this case started out, many years ago, in federal court until Scientology successfully got one of the federal causes of action dismissed on statute of limitations grounds, thus robbing federal court of jurisdiction, which is why we’re now in state court.

Scientology’s argument here appears to be that the California courts, in deciding that Laura’s claims weren’t time-barred (despite that the statute of limitations had run) due to Laura’s credible claim that Scientology’s misconduct caused her to delay filing, got it wrong in that they should have applied federal law instead of California law to that question. And, the argument goes, that federal analysis would have resulted in granting preclusive effect to that original federal dismissal, resulting in the dismissal of all of Laura’s claims.

Scientology’s argument raises too many questions it can’t answer straight-faced, such as why California would be required to analyze a state-claim statute of limitations question under federal law principles, and why Scientology waited years to bring the federal action it now claims implicates dire federal state comity issues.

 
Here’s the document filed by Deixler…

DeCrescenzo v. Scientology: Motion for stay during appeal by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Narconon Ojai is back in business!

 
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Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Hey, we’re only a month away from this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee Chalker is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 23, 2018 at 06:25

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

Well-regarded California attorney Bert Deixler has once again genuflected to his client, Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, filing a notice of appeal after the church got roundly defeated in a calculated move to slow down a lawsuit that scares the bejeesus out of Miscavige.

We’re talking about the forced-abortion lawsuit filed [...]]]>

Well-regarded California attorney Bert Deixler has once again genuflected to his client, Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, filing a notice of appeal after the church got roundly defeated in a calculated move to slow down a lawsuit that scares the bejeesus out of Miscavige.

We’re talking about the forced-abortion lawsuit filed nine years ago by former Scientology employee Laura DeCrescenzo who was but 12 years old when she indentured herself to the servitude known as the Sea Organization, which requires signing a billion-year contract and, in her case, working 90-hour weeks until she turned 13, when she was put on the 112-hour adult schedule.

When she was 17, she’s testified, she was coerced into having an abortion because that’s been Scientology policy since at least the 1970s, that its Sea Org women end their pregnancies so they can keep up the grueling schedule. The policy was supposedly ended in 2010, but we’ve seen some evidence that it’s still continuing today.

Bert Deixler, Scientology’s expensive legal hired gun, is trying everything he can to keep Laura from having her day in court, when her trial is finally scheduled to begin in August. In December, Deixler filed a long-shot lawsuit in federal court, trying to argue that a federal judge should step in and wipe out Laura’s state court lawsuit, even though Scientology has been litigating it there for years.

That federal judge, George Wu, saw through Scientology’s gambit, and he granted Laura’s motion to dismiss on May 3, with prejudice, preventing the church from refiling the case with some changed language. It was about as much a slam-dunk as Laura could hope for, and the way seemed clear for her state trial.

But now Deixler has filed a notice of appeal with the US Ninth Circuit, and we have no doubt it’s because Miscavige threw a temper tantrum and demanded that it be done, even with Judge Wu slamming their cynical ploy so hard.

 
The church will have to file a motion asking the appeals court to stay Laura’s state lawsuit while the appeal is heard. But our legal experts tell us this is unlikely to be granted.

Let us remind you once again that it was Deixler, bookstore owner, pillar of the community, who fought hard on behalf of the church when Laura won a court ruling ordering the church to turn over her private folders — her own files, mind you — and Deixler told both the California Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States that what was in Laura’s folders was so “religious” in nature it would violate Scientology’s religious freedom rights to force the church to turn them over.

Well, both courts ignored that argument and Laura did finally get her folders, and they contained vile material showing how a church manipulated a 12-year-old girl who merely wanted to communicate with her own mother.

This is the “religious” content that Deixler didn’t want the world to see.

And now, he’s going to argue that a federal judge screwed up when he knocked down Scientology’s latest ploy to throw a road block in front of Laura — when, if there was any real justice in this country, the church should be sanctioned for all of the ways it’s trying to keep Laura from her day in court.

And not only that. We have another beef. Deixler has shamed himself time and again, but he’s just a hired gun working for a bad actor. What really puzzles us is this…

When the hell is the Los Angeles fricking Times going to start paying attention to this monumental court case in its own effing backyard?

The Times is going through a big transition right now, with a new owner who is moving the newsroom out of the city center itself. The Times will be undergoing something of an identity crisis. What better way to show its readers that it’s serious about local news than to get rid of its near-total aversion to Scientology stories and start digging into Laura’s case? Or another case we wish we could have explored further if we weren’t just one dude in New York with a laptop* — a Scientology front group’s felonious behavior that ruined the careers of three local African-American educators, a story the Times entirely, completely ignored? Or how about this — a Calabasas attorney writing on behalf of his Los Angeles client, the Church of Scientology, trying to derail a Los Angeles-based television show, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, by arguing that a 14-year-old girl was the sexual agressor in her rape by a Scientology employee, a document that we posted here at the Bunker and which has never been mentioned by any other news organization, despite the document being made fully available through our Scribd account? Or hey, the Times “Calendar” section pretends that it is an important voice in LA entertainment — when is it going to pay attention to LA-based rocker Cedric Bixler Zavala’s allegations that Scientology has been harassing him and his wife, Danny Masterson accuser Chrissie Bixler, including the shocking evidence that their goddamn dog was killed by being kicked in the neck by Scientology thugs? Or one of LA’s biggest mysteries — how Scientology leader David Miscavige is getting away with banishing his wife to a small compound in the mountains northeast of the city? You think the Times might spare a reporter or two to look into that little controversy, which is one of the things we get asked about most?

What the hell gives?

We’ll put it to you, our loyal readers: How can we get the Times to start giving a crap about some of the biggest stories in its own damn patch of earth?

 
*ps: For some reason Scientology thinks this admission — that the Bunker is put out by a single person on a laptop computer — is somehow a slam on us. We’ll just remind the church that this modest website gets more traffic (ranked #23,057 in the US on Alexa) than the church’s official website (Scientology.org, which is at #31,688). And that’s even after two solid months of a 24/7 Scientology television station on DirecTV trying to get people to visit the damn thing. So there.

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

The London org gets a bit fresh with Jessica Chastain…

 
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Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Wow, we’re now less than two months out, and Chee Chalker is working hard to make sure things are going to run smoothly at this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 15, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

It was quite obvious to us that Scientology’s most recent shameless legal gambit — suing the woman in federal court who is already suing the church in a forced-abortion abuse case in state court — was simply an outrageous waste [...]]]>

It was quite obvious to us that Scientology’s most recent shameless legal gambit — suing the woman in federal court who is already suing the church in a forced-abortion abuse case in state court — was simply an outrageous waste of time as the trial in Laura DeCrescenzo’s nine-year legal odyssey finally draws nearer.

And now, a federal judge has agreed. Yesterday in Los Angeles, Judge George H. Wu granted Laura’s motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit Scientology filed in December, ending it outright.

Laura filed her lawsuit against the church way back in 2009, alleging that after she signed a billion-year contract to become a Sea Org worker at the age of 12 she was subjected to years of abuse, including being coerced into have an abortion at 17 while she was still technically a child herself. Characteristically, Scientology has pursued its usual “scorched-earth” legal tactics, trying numerous schemes to get her case thrown out of court. But Laura’s case has survived two motions for summary judgment, and successfully pried thousands of pages of her own personal records out of the church after Scientology went all the way to the US Supreme Court trying to stop her. After numerous judge changes and other holdups, she finally has a trial date in August 2018 at the Los Angeles Superior Court.

But then in December Scientology filed its desperate new lawsuit in federal court, promoting a long-shot theory that way back in 2009, the federal district court should have tossed out Laura’s case entirely. (Her case was briefly in federal court and one part of the case ended there before it returned to state court where it has been litigated ever since.)

Laura’s legal team pointed out what a cynical argument this was, that Scientology has been fighting her case hard for years, and it was pretty rich for the church to now say, suddenly, that the case should have been kicked out years earlier.

But Judge Wu could see through that argument, and has ended the federal lawsuit “with prejudice” — meaning that Scientology can’t simply reword it and file it again under some other harebrained scheme.

“Scientology has tried to prevent this case from going to trial. Superior Court judges denied Scientology’s two motions for summary judgment. The California appellate courts and the US Supreme Court denied its attempts to prevent production of their supposedly secret documents. And after a trial date was finally set, Scientology filed a federal court lawsuit hoping to get an order to prevent the trial. The federal judge obviously saw through the frivolous argument and we are looking forward to finally going to trial,” says Laura’s attorney, John Blumberg.

The way should now be cleared for Laura’s trial — which we will remind you is going to be “bifurcated.” There will be an initial bench trial (before the judge, and without a jury) about the timing issues on the case and whether Laura filed it in time when she started this process in 2009. If she wins that, it will go on to a jury trial on the merits of her case.

Based on the history of Scientology litigation, it’s extremely unlikely that the church will roll the dice and face a jury with the facts in Laura’s case. The records she obtained after the church lost its appeal to the Supreme Court are stomach-turning.

We would expect the church to settle rather than have that evidence play out before the press in a jury trial. But will they try first to win the initial part of the trial — which won’t be before a jury and will be highly technical — before throwing in the towel?

Well, it’s coming down to crunch time. Can Scientology come up with another Hail Mary to delay things?

 
UPDATE: The Bunker’s resident attorney Scott Pilutik dives into the legal side of this ruling for us…

When Scientology filed this nonsense in December I recall remarking how convoluted it was. Their argument boiled down as follows: because the federal court had dismissed the one federal claim (human trafficking) as time-barred and remanded the remaining state claims back to state court (as the federal court no longer had jurisdiction without the federal claim), the same federal court should now take the view that the state claims that it remanded should have been dismissed as time-barred as well… even though the California Court of Appeals has since ruled that Scientology could not assert the statute of limitations as a defense to Laura’s remaining state claims. Whew, exhale. (And that’s the simplified version, I’m sparing you the complicated one.)

The court only addresses that craziness head-on in footnote 8, and instead dismisses the argument on broader grounds, specifically that the federal court had no statutory power to enjoin the California court’s ruling which, again, was that Scientology could not assert a statute of limitations defense. The reasoning has to do with the delicate balance federal courts need to strike when state courts rule on issues that veer into the federal jurisdictional lane. Sometimes federal law (or a federal ruling) might have a preclusive effect over state law or proceedings, and sometimes the state court has the better argument that its law or findings should control. Here, there was no question that the California Court of Appeals ruling–that Scientology could not assert a statute of limitations defense to Laura’s remaining state claims–trumped whatever had happened at the federal court many years prior.

Though it had already decided the case, the court further ruled that it was “relevant… that [Scientology] waited more than six years to seek an injunction in this court,” and that it “would decline to enjoin the pending state court action even if it had the power to do so.” And it dismissed with prejudice, meaning Scientology can’t refile this by repackaging its garbage.

 
Here’s the ruling…

Scientology v. DeCrescenzo (Federal) Final Ruling by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
——————–

Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Wow, we’re now less than two months out, and Chee Chalker is working hard to make sure things are going to run smoothly at this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
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——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on May 4, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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