Scientology getting some feedback in Clearwater

TheSneakster

TheSneakster

Well-known member
HelluvaHoax! said:
It's rather shortsighted to dismiss serious litigation vs. the cult with the "meh" wave of an insouciant hand.
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"Meh" is how I feel about it. Yet another lawsuit against C of $. Ho-Hum.

The following are my thoughts on the matter which yielded the "meh" response:

On the face of it, it sure seems like the plaintiffs were seriously wronged and entitled to Justice. But David "Darth Midget" Miscavige has proven over and over and over that the U.S. Courts are generally far more concerned with the fine print in the "letter of the law" than they are with actual Justice being served.

Now I actually read the statutes cited in the complaint. These are criminal statutes, yet this is a civil case. What that tells me is that the plaintiffs were unable to provide sufficient evidence to law enforcement for a state or federal attorney general to prosecute these alleged crimes.

So here we are with a civil complaint. The attorneys led with a shocking press release, which is what such firms usually do when they are hoping to pressure the defendants into a quick settlement to make the bad press go away. Naming David Miscavige personally as a defendant clearly was intended to serve as pressure for such a settlement.

Obviously, this law firm didn't consult with Mike Rinder (the only available expert on C of $ legal doctrine and strategy) or they would have known better. By naming D.M. personally, he gets to tie them up for a year or so with expensive motion practice to remove himself as a defendant.

So, after a year or so during which none of the alleged civil torts even get discussed in court, if the plaintiffs finally succeed in dragging D.M. into court, they receive a settlement with a gag order, get a well-deserved payout and then shut up about Scientology for ever more. At which point, about half the critic community vilifies them as sell-outs. No legal precedent is set and therefore the next plaintiffs have to climb the same legal mountains at great expense.

At the next IAS Event, D.M. uses the case as clear evidence that "The Psychs" are still after Scientology and collects 20 times what the lawsuit cost in IAS donations.

I couldn't care less about lawsuits as PR operations against D.M. and the C of $. They don't seem to work.
 
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Reyne Mayer

Reyne Mayer

Pansexual Revolutionary
TheSneakster said:
Now I actually read the statutes cited in the complaint. These are criminal statutes, yet this is a civil case. What that tells me is that the plaintiffs were unable to provide sufficient evidence to law enforcement for a state or federal attorney general to prosecute these alleged crimes.
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there have been recent cases in which civil complaints finally forced the criminal justice system to move -- though i'm not holding my breath, either.

the other outcome that might be hoped for, is that publicity around this causes one or more victims with stronger criminal complaints to come forward, or even spurs enforcement over child labor and human trafficking...also, more heat from the ports the ship uses could really crimp their style, they already no longer dare to go to some of the ones they used to....
 
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O

onceuponatime

Well-known member
TheSneakster said:
"Meh" is how I feel about it. Yet another lawsuit against C of $. Ho-Hum.

The following are my thoughts on the matter which yielded the "meh" response:

On the face of it, it sure seems like the plaintiffs were seriously wronged and entitled to Justice. But David "Darth Midget" Miscavige has proven over and over and over that the U.S. Courts are generally far more concerned with the fine print in the "letter of the law" than they are with actual Justice being served.

Now I actually read the statutes cited in the complaint. These are criminal statutes, yet this is a civil case. What that tells me is that the plaintiffs were unable to provide sufficient evidence to law enforcement for a state or federal attorney general to prosecute these alleged crimes.

So here we are with a civil complaint. The attorneys led with a shocking press release, which is what such firms usually do when they are hoping to pressure the defendants into a quick settlement to make the bad press go away. Naming David Miscavige personally as a defendant clearly was intended to serve as pressure for such a settlement.

Obviously, this law firm didn't consult with Mike Rinder (the only available expert on C of $ legal doctrine and strategy) or they would have known better. By naming D.M. personally, he gets to tie them up for a year or so with expensive motion practice to remove himself as a defendant.

So, after a year or so during which none of the alleged civil torts even get discussed in court, if the plaintiffs finally succeed in dragging D.M. into court, they receive a settlement with a gag order, get a well-deserved payout and then shut up about Scientology for ever more. At which point, about half the critic community vilifies them as sell-outs. No legal precedent is set and therefore the next plaintiffs have to climb the same legal mountains at great expense.

At the next IAS Event, D.M. uses the case as clear evidence that "The Psychs" are still after Scientology and collects 20 times what the lawsuit cost in IAS donations.

I couldn't care less about lawsuits as PR operations against D.M. and the C of $. They don't seem to work.
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I agree with you to a large degree. However as more and more bad press/lawsuits come up about scientology there's a greater and greater chance that someone, somewhere, will take scientology seriously and decide something has to be done about it.

I'm reminded of the VP race last election, i firmly believe it was the scientology ties that turned the race against Karen Bass. Public sentiment against scientology continues to grow, all it could take is scientology getting on the wrong person's radar.
 
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