Leah Remini slaps Church of Scientology with harassment, defamation lawsuit – Nationwide
Actor Leah Remini is suing the Church of Scientology and its chief David Miscavige for harassment, stalking, defamation and myriad different alleged unlawful actions.
Remini, a former Scientologist and vocal critic of the group, has accused the church of utilizing “mob-style operations and assaults” to harass her and different ex-members.
Miscavige is called particularly within the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday within the California Superior Court docket. The Non secular Know-how Heart, which Remini stated polices and enforces punishments doled out by the church, can be named within the submitting.
In a press launch, Remini stated she initiated the lawsuit to make the church stop its alleged “harassment, defamation, and different illegal conduct in opposition to anybody who Scientology has labeled as an ‘enemy.’”
The Church of Scientology and Miscavige haven’t commented publicly on the lawsuit.
Remini, 53, joined the Church of Scientology as a toddler in 1979. She left over three a long time later in 2013.
The Emmy-winning King of Queens actor is now searching for compensatory and punitive damages for the hurt she claims the Church of Scientology inflicted on her and her profession.
“For 17 years, Scientology and David Miscavige have subjected me to what I consider to be psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, considerably impacting my life and profession,” Remini stated within the press launch. “I consider I’m not the primary particular person focused by Scientology and its operations, however I intend to be the final.”
She went on to argue the church tried to “completely restrain and muzzle,” “obliterate” and “break” her by co-ordinated campaigns of harassment, defamation and abuse. She claimed her household, buddies, enterprise companions, and associates had been additionally focused by the church for interacting together with her.
Remini alleged she misplaced a number of enterprise contracts due to meddling and exterior threats from the church.
She additionally claimed the church employed a personal investigator to stalk her. Remini stated on a number of events individuals had been directed by the Church of Scientology to try to interrupt into her residence or surveil her.
Remini stated she needs to make use of her constitutional rights as an American to “converse the reality and report the details about Scientology.”
In a separate social media assertion, Remini stated the alleged harassment she skilled from the church shouldn’t be solitary. She stated she has been “one among 1000’s of targets of Scientology over the previous seven a long time.”
“Individuals who share what they’ve skilled in Scientology, and those that inform their tales and advocate for them, ought to be free to take action with out fearing retaliation from a cult with tax exemption and billions in belongings,” Remini wrote on Twitter.
Mike Rinder, a former senior government of the Church of Scientology, voiced his help for Remini and her lawsuit shortly after it was introduced on Tuesday.
“The Warrior Princess has struck one other blow for all victims of scientology,” he wrote. “This takes braveness as all they know to do is retaliate with extra hate and harassment. One factor I do know — they received’t achieve silencing @LeahRemini.”
Rinder left the church in 2007 and has since been outspoken concerning the alleged bodily and psychological abuse inflicted upon church members by the hands of Miscavige.
Since leaving the Church of Scientology, Remini has constantly criticized the non secular group and Miscavige for critical abuses of energy.
In 2016, she launched the documentary sequence Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, which she produced and co-created. The sequence received three Emmy awards.
In November 2022, Remini testified in court docket to say the Church of Scientology falsely planted rape allegations in opposition to movie director Paul Haggis, who left the church in 2009. Haggis was ordered to pay US$10 million to a girl who stated he sexually assaulted her almost a decade in the past.
Remini was additionally current in court docket throughout the April re-trial of That ’70s Present actor Danny Masterson, who’s a Scientologist. She claimed Masterson’s attorneys tried to have her thrown out of the courtroom over incorrect assumptions she could be referred to as as a witness to the trial. She stated the church and Miscavige had been attempting to “waste the court docket’s time with embarrassing, petty makes an attempt to get somebody who’s supporting survivors of sexual violence thrown out.”
Throughout Masterson’s trial, it was revealed two attorneys previously representing the actor leaked delicate trial info to the Church of Scientology concerning the ladies who accused Masterson of rape. Masterson was discovered responsible of two counts of rape.
© 2023 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
Leah Remini slaps Church of Scientology with harassment, defamation lawsuit – Nationwide Source link Leah Remini slaps Church of Scientology with harassment, defamation lawsuit – Nationwide
