Tag: scientology

Danny Masterson’s lawyers leaked discovery material to Church of Scientology

The ex-lawyers of “That ’70s Show” actor and convicted rapist Danny Masterson were sanctioned Wednesday for leaking confidential discovery material about his victims to the Church of Scientology — which has been accused of harassing the women for several years.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo ruled that defense attorneys Tom Mesereau and Sharon Appelbaum sent discovery from Masterson’s criminal case to Church of Scientology lawyer Vicki Podberesky in violation of a court order and a law protecting victims’ personal info, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Podberesky is representing the church in a civil suit filed by Masterson’s victims, former members of the church who say they were threatened by the organization’s officials not to report their attacks.

The discovery materials contained sensitive information about the sexual assault victims, including their addresses and correspondence with police.

Masterson, a practicing Scientologist, was convicted last month of raping two of the women at his Los Angeles home in the early 2000s.

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Scientology Strikes Back — and News Org Knuckles Under

Last week, I wrote about the media’s abject failure to tell the true story of Scientology and its relationship with Lisa Marie Presley, who lived most of her life in the notorious cult before breaking away. She died January 12 at age 54.

This week, I received an interesting email from Dodge Landesman — an anchor for KYMA, the  Yuma, AZ, NBC and CBS TV station — who also covered the Scientology angle in the Presley story. He told me that he has been fired. Like me, he wrote about Presley and her role as a possible witness against Scientology in a criminal trial for rape against another celebrity, Scientologist Danny Masterson. 

After the story aired, Landesman explained, Scientology contacted the reporter, as well as his bosses, who bounced it to the conglomerate that owns the station — and threatened to sue them.  The company pulled the story and fired Landesman. 

In place of the original article is this mysteriously vague notice:

Editor’s Note: In an exercise of editorial discretion, NPG of Yuma-El Centro Broadcasting, LLC has elected to unpublish this piece. After careful review, and given information that came to light after the piece was published, NPG of Yuma-El Centro Broadcasting, LLC has determined that it can no longer stand behind the piece because, among other things, it contained aspects of opinion by the author.

If Landesman had written something false — as proven by “information that came to light after the piece was published” — it’s odd that the editor didn’t publish a correction notice. 

KYMA News Director Ernesto Romero declined to discuss the matter, saying, “Our company does not comment on personnel matters and the editorial note included in the article speaks for itself.”  

Although the original report has been taken down, we can still view it here — with the tantalizing headline “Lisa Marie Presley was planning Scientology takedown before her death.” 

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Scientology leader David Miscavige is ‘nowhere to be found’: Prosecutors trying to serve federal trafficking suit against him have tried to reach him 27 times over four months but have failed to locate him

Prosecutors trying to serve David Miscavige with a federal child trafficking lawsuit say that the mysterious leader of Scientology is ‘nowhere to be found.’ 

Authorities have attempted to serve papers to Miscavige, 62, on 27 different occasions over the course of four months in the Clearwater-area in Florida and in Los Angeles, reports the Tampa Bay Times. 

When lawyers appeared at Scientology properties and asked security guards about Miscavige’s whereabouts, the guards said that they were clueless. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have even hired a private investigator in an attempt to track him down.

At one point, lawyers  even took the direct route and sent an Instagram message to the church’s official account to ask about Miscavige. 

The lawsuit being filed by former church members, husband and wife, Gawain and Laura Baxter and Valeska Paris. The trio say that they were forced into labor on Scientology boats as children after signing a one billion-year contract in exchange for little or no money. 

Paris left the church in 2009 and Gawain and Laura Baxter left in 2012. 

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Leah Remini testifies Church of Scientology faked rape claim against ex-member Paul Haggis

Actress Leah Remini testified Monday that the lawsuit accusing Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis of rape was fabricated by the Church of Scientology — telling Manhattan jurors “it is Paul who is the victim here.”

“The purpose of Scientology lawsuits is just to destroy your life,” Remini said, appearing via video link from Beverly Hills, with an Emmy Award statue visible in the background.

Lawyers for Haggis, 69, called the “King of Queens” star to the stand in his trial over the suit from former publicist Haleigh Breest, who alleges he raped her in his Soho apartment after a film premiere on Jan. 31, 2013. The “Crash” director has denied the accusation, claiming the encounter was consensual.

He claims the suit is part of a vendetta by Scientology for speaking out against the church when he broke with it in 2009 after three decades of membership.

Remini — arguably one of the most prominent ex-Scientologists — told the court about the repercussions of disavowing the church and acted as a character witness for Haggis.

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Russia Becomes First Country To Ban Scientology As A “Threat To National Security”

Russia’s Justice Ministry is waging a war on Scientology, this week banning the organization from operating on Russian soil. It’s not the first time Moscow has moved legally against the group, however, in an updated list released Friday two key Church of Scientology entities have now been blacklisted as “undesirable” – the most severe designation ever taken by the Russian government.

Calling the group a “threat to the security of the Russian Federation” a media statement described that that “On October 1, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises International, L. Ron Hubbard Library as well as the ENEMO were added to the list of organizations whose activity is deemed undesirable in Russia by the Prosecutor General’s Office.”

The two entities named are California-based holdings and are said to be vital to Scientology operations in foreign countries. Being added to the “undesirable” list means all local offices are closed down by the state and assets frozen.

Moscow has long argued it’s a “business masquerading as a religion” – similar to arguments made by detractors in the West, who have also long lobbied Washington to revoke Scientology’s tax exempt status.

In most countries across the globe, the group is officially considered a religion and thus enjoys tax exempt status, with the major exception of Russia. In the US, where it was born over a half-century ago when American science fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard wrote its foundational texts (numbering thousands upon thousands of pages), it’s attracted huge controversy.

The controversy and media spotlight has grown especially over the last decade in the US. After a number of high profile Scientologists, including celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta (though there are rumors the latter has moved away from it), became outspoken public advocates – which included defending some bizarre practices like forcing women to “stay silent” during child birth – but which resulted in backlash as more and more documentaries emerged delving into the strange belief system. 

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FBI Files on the Church of Scientology

Developed by L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology is a religion that offers a precise path leading to a complete and certain understanding of one’s true spiritual nature and one’s relationship to self, family, groups, Mankind, all life forms, the material universe, the spiritual universe and the Supreme Being. Scientology addresses the spirit—not the body or mind—and believes that Man is far more than a product of his environment, or his genes.

Below, you will find FBI files related to Scientology, as released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

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