Karen#1
Well-known member
TONY ORTEGA
Excerpt:
[Valeska Paris, the Fort Harrison, and Scientology attorney Charles M. Harris Jr.]
More detail has now emerged about what happened in the “religious arbitration” that labor-trafficking victims Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter were forced into by a Tampa federal court.
After 15 days of the arbitration that began on January 19 in Clearwater, Florida, the three Australian residents and former Sea Org employees simply stopped showing up when the arbitration was set to resume on Monday, February 9.
They are now seeking permission from Tampa federal judge Thomas Barber to submit a motion for reconsideration with numerous documents of evidence under seal, apparently complaining about how the arbitration is unfolding.
In their motion, they acknowledge that they signed confidentiality agreements with Scientology about the proceeding, and so they are trying to abide by that by providing little public information about what is going on. But we have learned these additional details because Scientology itself is opposing the motion and has spelled out what took place to a certain extent.
This is the lawsuit filed in Tampa, Florida in April 2022 that alleges years of abuse aboard Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds, as the Baxters and Valeska say they worked as virtual slaves as children and adults. Judge Thomas Barber ruled that contracts signed while they were Scientologists obliged them to seek arbitration rather than to sue in court. The plaintiffs have previously asked Judge Barber to reconsider his ruling, which he denied in 2024.
At that point, the plaintiffs had little choice but to go through with the arbitration, which required them to ask Scientology’s International Justice Chief, Mike Ellis, to make the arbitration happen. (And in Scientology’s communications, this is always pointed out — that the victims asked for the arbitration to happen, even though they had no other choice.)
Valeska and the Baxters initially proposed that the proceeding take place early last May, but Ellis pointed out that May 9 “is a major Scientology holiday as you well know.” (May 9, 1950 is the day that Dianetics was first published by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, one of the holiest days on the Scientology calendar.)
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tonyortega.substack.com
Excerpt:
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[/td]More detail has now emerged about what happened in the “religious arbitration” that labor-trafficking victims Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter were forced into by a Tampa federal court.
After 15 days of the arbitration that began on January 19 in Clearwater, Florida, the three Australian residents and former Sea Org employees simply stopped showing up when the arbitration was set to resume on Monday, February 9.
They are now seeking permission from Tampa federal judge Thomas Barber to submit a motion for reconsideration with numerous documents of evidence under seal, apparently complaining about how the arbitration is unfolding.
In their motion, they acknowledge that they signed confidentiality agreements with Scientology about the proceeding, and so they are trying to abide by that by providing little public information about what is going on. But we have learned these additional details because Scientology itself is opposing the motion and has spelled out what took place to a certain extent.
This is the lawsuit filed in Tampa, Florida in April 2022 that alleges years of abuse aboard Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds, as the Baxters and Valeska say they worked as virtual slaves as children and adults. Judge Thomas Barber ruled that contracts signed while they were Scientologists obliged them to seek arbitration rather than to sue in court. The plaintiffs have previously asked Judge Barber to reconsider his ruling, which he denied in 2024.
At that point, the plaintiffs had little choice but to go through with the arbitration, which required them to ask Scientology’s International Justice Chief, Mike Ellis, to make the arbitration happen. (And in Scientology’s communications, this is always pointed out — that the victims asked for the arbitration to happen, even though they had no other choice.)
Valeska and the Baxters initially proposed that the proceeding take place early last May, but Ellis pointed out that May 9 “is a major Scientology holiday as you well know.” (May 9, 1950 is the day that Dianetics was first published by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, one of the holiest days on the Scientology calendar.)
READ MORE
Scientology complains victims bailed after 15 days of arbitration in labor-trafficking case
More detail has now emerged about what happened in the “religious arbitration” that labor-trafficking victims Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter were forced into by a Tampa federal court.
tonyortega.substack.com
