Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the lawsuit states that an unnamed woman, identified as “Jane Doe,” says she was harassed by the Church of Scientology after leaving the organization and appearing on the A&E series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.
The woman, who is represented by a team of eight victims’ rights lawyers with Laffey, Bucci & Kent LLP, Soloff & Zervanos PC of Philadelphia, Thompson Law Offices, and Child USA, is seeking unspecified damages for being held captive and for physical and emotional abuse.
According to the lawsuit, the woman was born into Scientology in 1979, and lived at the church's international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater from ages 6 to 12. However, she left in 2016 after following out of favor with Miscavige and was then forced into manual labor and placed in a solitary confinement facility called “the Hole.”
Despite phones allegedly not being able to dial 911, and on one occasion being physically restrained from leaving, the woman says in the lawsuit that she eventually escaped after hiding in the trunk of a car leaving the Gold Base compound in San Jacinto, California.
The woman later returned to the church shortly after in an attempt to repair family relationships, but left again in 2017.
Soon after she appeared on the Leah Remini show in 2018, the Church of Scientology published a “hate website against Jane Doe, Ms. Remini and almost anyone else who was featured on the show,” say the lawsuit, which also claims the site referred to the woman as a “documented liar who would say anything for money” and that she “couldn't hold down a job selling condoms."
The lawsuit also says the church stalked and surveilled the woman. “Beginning in 2017 through June of 2018, defendants and their agents have followed Jane Doe while she was driving. On more than one occasion, Jane Doe has been forced to change her route in an effort to curtail defendant’s surveillance efforts.”
The lawsuit also mentions that the woman worked 7 days a week with Miscavige and his wife Shelly, who has been missing since 2007. This relationship, according to the lawsuit, soured in 2005 when Miscavige’s wife was removed as his assistant at Gold Base.
“The Church of Scientology presents a façade to the outside world to disguise what in reality is nothing more than a cult built on mind control and destruction of the independence and self-control of those drawn into its sphere,” says the lawsuit. “Members are isolated from the outside world, their access to information is heavily monitored and controlled, and they are subject to physical, verbal, psychological, emotional and/or sexual abuse and/or assault."
The Church of Scientology released a statement regarding the lawsuit, stating that “The Church of Scientology International has not received the complaint, but from what we have seen in the press, this is another shameful publicity stunt by Leah Remini and one of her employees.”
Full disclosure, the Church of Scientology owns Creative Loafing's office building.
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This article appears in Jun 13-20, 2019.