Prosecutors attempting to serve David Miscavige with a federal baby trafficking lawsuit say that the mysterious chief of Scientology is ‘nowhere to be discovered.’
Authorities have tried to serve papers to Miscavige, 62, on 27 completely different events over the course of 4 months within the Clearwater-area in Florida and in Los Angeles, stories the Tampa Bay Occasions.
When legal professionals appeared at Scientology properties and requested safety guards about Miscavige’s whereabouts, the guards stated that they had been clueless. The plaintiffs within the lawsuit have even employed a non-public investigator in an try to trace him down.
At one level, legal professionals even took the direct route and despatched an Instagram message to the church’s official account to ask about Miscavige.
The lawsuit being filed by former church members, husband and spouse, Gawain and Laura Baxter and Valeska Paris. The trio say that they had been pressured into labor on Scientology boats as youngsters after signing a one billion-year contract in trade for little or no cash.
Paris left the church in 2009 and Gawain and Laura Baxter left in 2012.
Scientology chief David Miscavige is known as in a trafficking lawsuit introduced by former members in Florida
The reclusive Scientology chief’s final identified deal with was on the controversial church’s Worldwide constructing in Los Angeles. Just like different members of Scientology’s extremist wing, the Sea Org, Miscavige doesn’t have a recorded deal with.
In court docket filings associated to the current lawsuit, two former members of the church stated that Miscavige lives in a Scientology property in a gated group referred to as the Hacienda Gardens in Clearwater, Florida.
The Hacienda Gardens is a sprawling 120-unit condo complicated that hosts Scientology employees. It was bought by the group in 2001.
Whereas in a movement this month, one of many plaintiff’s attorneys, Neil Glazer, stated, ‘Miscavige can’t be permitted to proceed his gamesmanship.’ Miscavige is due in court docket on January 20 but it surely stays pending except he may be served.
Glazer additionally stated Miscavige is participating in an ‘intentional concealment of his location and evasion of service.’
Along with the trafficking allegations, Paris alleges that she was the sufferer of repeated sexual assaults in her youth and that when her mom left Scientology, Paris, then 17, was locked in an engine room for 48 hours as punishment.
In court docket filings associated to the current lawsuit, two former members of the church stated that Miscavige lives in a Scientology property in a gated group referred to as the Hacienda Gardens in Clearwater, proven right here
Whereas in a movement this month, one of many plaintiff’s attorneys, Neil Glazer, pictured right here, stated, ‘Miscavige can’t be permitted to proceed his gamesmanship’
In line with the Tampa Bay Occasions report, legal professionals tried to trace Miscavige by means of two site visitors tickets he obtained within the Nineties. Each of these checklist his Scientology’s Los Angeles’ heart as his dwelling.
For his or her half, Miscavige’s legal professionals say that he is merely the goal of a authorized technique resulting from his standing inside Scientology. They are saying that he doesn’t reside in Florida, therefore why legal professionals cannot serve him.
US Justice of the Peace Decide Julie Sneed served a summons to Miscavige on behalf of the plaintiffs. Ten copies of the summons had been despatched to numerous Scientology properties in Florida and California, all had been despatched again as undelivered as no person would signal for them.
The reclusive Scientology chief’s final identified deal with was on the controversial church’s Worldwide constructing in Los Angeles
A Church of Scientology Constructing on Sundown Boulevard in Los Angeles
Outspoken anti-Scientology member Mike Rinder, who as soon as reported on to Miscavige, has stated that the church’s chief is shielded in quite a few methods by Scientology towards summonses and subpoenas.
Within the lawsuit, Gawain Baxter stated his mother and father put him in a Sea Org nursery when he was two months outdated.
On the age of six, he was pressured to signal the one billion 12 months contract, and went to reside in a Cadet Org dormitory with round 100 different youngsters.
‘Youngsters over six years outdated are thought of to be and are regularly informed that they’re adults and that they need to act and count on to be handled as adults.
‘They’re now even known as youngsters; reasonably they have to be known as “Cadets”‘ the lawsuit says.
Former Scientology members Mike Rinder and Leah Remini attend the 2018 Inventive Arts Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 9, 2018 in Los Angeles
They claimed that the church organizers and Sea Org supervisors solely allowed them to see their mother and father as soon as every week, however that visits could possibly be canceled at a second’s discover in the event that they deemed the kid to be in hassle.
‘From the ages of six to 14, Gawain was not permitted to attend any accredited public or personal college. As a substitute, schoolwork consisted of two to a few hours per day of fundamental studying, writing, and math in a classroom of thirty different youngsters, below the supervision of Linda Hilton, Cadet Coordinator’s partner.
‘Starting when Gawain was ten years outdated, he was required to spend one to 2 hours each day in Scientology indoctrination programs as effectively.
‘The price of every course was recorded as a debt that Gawain was informed he would owe if he ever left Cadet Org or Sea Org,’ the lawsuit alleges.
On high of his ‘education’, he says he was required to carry out ‘5 to 10 hours a day’ of unpaid labor.
When he was 14, he says he was moved into a distinct part of this system the place he was pressured to carry out as much as 12 hours a day of unpaid labor, renovating properties and cleansing them.
‘Gawain was sleep-deprived, given insufficient time to eat, and verbally abused by his grownup supervisors,’ the trio’s lawyer stated.
A spokesman for the church denied the allegations, saying, ‘The allegations are each scurrilous and ridiculous and the lawsuit is each a sham and a rip-off. Valeska Paris already wasted the time of legislation enforcement when she made these fraudulent claims years in the past.
‘It’s public document they closed her file stating “There aren’t any corroborating witnesses or proof supplied to assist the allegations.”’
