Explainer: What are the allegations against David Miscavige? Inside the Scientology leader's human trafficking lawsuit
TAMPA, FLORIDA: After hiding his whereabouts for a year, David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology, has been formally served of a human trafficking lawsuit brought by former churchgoers. Named in the case in April 2022, David has been given 21 days to respond to the allegations.
Valeska Paris and a couple Gawain and Laura Baxter claim in the lawsuit logged in Florida that they were trafficked into Scientology as children and forced to work for little or no pay. While in Scientology, they had endured horrendous emotional, physical, and psychological abuse too.
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'Scientology is a system that is designed to perpetuate fear'
US Judge Julie S Sneed ruled that Miscavige, who had been concealing his whereabouts for a year, is officially served in the federal trafficking lawsuit. Sneed said that Miscavige was "actively concealing his whereabouts or evading service". Noting that opposing attornies had gone to significant lengths to serve Miscavige. Guards and Scientology members have said Miscavige is "nowhere to be found," Sneed said.
The court heard from the prosecution lawyers that Miscavige had evaded service 27 times between May and August at 10 church properties in Clearwater and Los Angeles. The lawyers were turned away, including by ordering security at Scientology properties to prevent the summons from being delivered. Even during a meeting on January 25, attorneys for the Baxters and Paris asked Miscavige’s attorneys if they would accept service for their client which they declined.
Valeska Paris who was brought up as a Scientology has also alleged in the lawsuit that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a minor while working on Scientology's "Sea Org" over more than a decade. The physical and sexual abuse as per her was commonplace in Cadet Org. Even once forced to do the laundry for one of her users, as per her claim.
“Scientology is a system that is designed to perpetuate fear, and I continue to struggle with the trauma. No person – child or adult – should have to go through the daily abuse and manipulation I faced,” said Paris as per this report.
Paris says she was a personal assistant to Miscavige and worked 16-hour days as a 15-year-old and was “sleep-deprived, poorly fed and constantly verbally abused by adult supervisors”. Moreover, a part of the legal claim accuses the Church of punishing her by locking her in an “extremely hot” engine room of the ship for allegedly monopolizing the attention of the actor Tom Cruise, though not named in the lawsuit, in 2004 in Freewinds a Scientology’s Caribbean cruise ship.
Paris would urinate in a bin out of fear of being punished
She claimed she was shouted at by church officials and then for three days she says she was only allowed to leave to eat for a few minutes at a time or return to her room to sleep for a few hours. She had to urinate in a bin out of fear of being punished for going to the bathroom unaccompanied, she alleges as per The Age.
The Lawsuit also accuses the three as part of Scientology’s “Sea Org” and “Cadet Org” entities were forced to do free or cheap labor which requires signing billion-year contracts. They allege that the pay was sometimes held or set at a maximum of $US50 ($72) a week. Much of the abuse they allege happened over Freewinds cruise ship that never enters US waters. The lawsuit heavily accuses Miscavige and the Church in general of a number of things, including verbal abuse and sleep deprivation.
Children were separated from their parents
The 86-page legal claim from US law firms Kohn, Swift & Graf, Preti Flaherty, and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, details allegations of how children as young as six years old were separated from their parents who relinquished custody to the “Cadet Org” and later “Sea Org”, with family visits limited to once a week. While public members of Scientology can live in their homes, members of “Orgs” work as indentured labor both on the sea and on land, the lawsuit alleges. They accumulate large debts which are then held over them if they ever try to leave.
Gawain Baxter would cough blood by working in unsafe conditions for 16-24 hours
Gawain Baxter, who had his passport confiscated, worked with blue asbestos and concrete dust and coughed blood while on Freewinds. He would be in these unsafe conditions for 16-24 hours a day. He became a Cadet Org member at six. By the age of 10, he was seeing his parents for only three hours a week and received very little education while laboring five to 10 hours unpaid per day. His work included food preparation, landscaping, and garbage removal, he alleges in a report. He says he was regularly verbally and physically abused by adults connected to Scientology.
“Growing up in Scientology, being separated from my family and subjected to severe verbal and physical abuse, has scarred me in ways that I am still working through and uncovering,” Gawain Baxter said. “All the while, Scientology continues to abuse and exploit its members, including young children, and does so with virtually unchecked power,” he once said in 2022.
'For years, David Miscavige has succeeded in evading accountability'
“For years, David Miscavige has succeeded in evading accountability,” John Dominguez, partner at Cohen Milstein, and Zahra Dean, attorney at Kohn Swift said. “Today’s ruling brings our clients – who are alleged to have endured unimaginable abuses in Scientology as children and into adulthood – one step closer to getting their day in court and obtaining justice against all responsible parties,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Lawsuit a harassment to extort a payday: Scientology
The Church of Scientology, however, finds the ruling as "erroneous," as per Karin Pouw, its spokeswoman. "Mr Miscavige never evaded service,” she said as per the outlet. “The case is nothing but blatant harassment and was brought and is being litigated for the purpose of harassment – hoping that harassment will extort a payday. The allegations in the complaint are absurd, ridiculous, scurrilous, and blatantly false.”
The Church of Scientology has previously, too, denied the accusations. "The allegations are both scurrilous and ridiculous and the lawsuit is both a sham and a scam," a spokesperson said at the time when the suit was filed.