Three Ex- Sea Org Members Sue Scientology, Neil Glazer Is Attorney

TAMPA, FLORIDA – Three Australian residents filed a lawsuit against Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige and five related Scientology-owned entities.

The lawsuit is filed in US Federal Court for the Central District of Florida. The plaintiffs allege violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). Their complaints stem from their membership in the church when they were children.

They are adults now.  

Their lawsuit seeks damages in large part for their mistreatment as teenagers when they were assigned to work on Freewinds, a Scientology- run cruise ship.

Neil Glazer is one of a team of attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

“As children, Glazer said, “they were forced to perform labor under unimaginable conditions.”

 

The lawsuit alleges that Scientology employs “psychologically devastating tactics” to achieve “coercive control.”

Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard founded Scientology in the 1950s. It has attracted celebrities including Elisabeth Moss, John Travolta, and Tom Cruise. Some former adherents accuse the church of being a dangerous, money-focused cult that will destroy the lives of critics. 

Former Scientology leader Mike Rinder said of the lawsuit, “The allegations are horrendous — but are not new, and similar things have been stated by many others. But this is the first time they have been laid out in a lawsuit.”

The Plaintiffs

Gawain Baxter

Sea Org members are expected to perform challenging and demanding tasks, and must sign employment contracts for one billion years. Gawain Baxter joined Sea Org at age six, he says.

 

Beginning at age 10, he attended Scientology training sessions. However, he was told he would have to repay the cost of training if he left Sea Org. He alleges he saw his parents for three hours a week and received scant education. He worked five to 10 hours unpaid per day.

His work included food preparation, landscaping, and garbage removal.

As a teenager, Gawain traveled from Scientology’s headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, to Curacao to join the crew of the Freewinds cruise ship that sails around the Caribbean.

According to Scientology, “The Freewinds is a religious retreat that marks for Scientologists the pinnacle of their journey to total spiritual freedom. Its position at sea is designed to provide an aesthetic, distraction-free environment off the crossroads of everyday life. As a center of spiritual enlightenment, it is a place where lives are transformed.”

When Gawain came aboard, his identification papers were held by the command. He provided manual labor, he alleges, with few breaks and not enough sleep. Tasks were sometimes dangerous. He was once ordered to squeeze into fuel tanks to clean them from the inside. He was not provided with a respirator to protect him from the fumes.

During renovations of the Freewinds, he worked more than 18 hours a day. Although exposed to blue asbestos and concrete dust, he did not receive protective equipment, he alleges. As a result, he began to cough up blood.

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Laura Baxter

Laura Baxter grew up in Germany. At the age of seven, her mother brought her into Scientology. At 15, she worked as a Scientology employee in Stuttgart.

She had frequent “audits” and “security checks.” An audit is when an auditor asks a series of questions and listens to the person’s responses. These may be secretly recorded. While audited, a Scientologist is attached to an e meter. This device measures the individual’s level of stress, anxiety, or other emotions and can be used to guide the auditing process.

Laura’s mother signed her guardianship to a senior Scientology officer. She was assigned to the Freewinds. Her documents were taken by the command.

In 2004, Scientologist and actor Tom Cruise celebrated his birthday aboard the Freewinds. Laura was accused of monopolizing his attention and confined to the engine room for three days. 

She says she was only allowed to leave the engine room to eat for a few minutes or return to her room to sleep for a few hours. She alleges she had to urinate in a bin out of fear of being punished for walking to the bathroom unaccompanied.

On the Freewinds, she was forced, she said, to confess to crimes against Scientology, had her pay withheld, was confined, and under surveillance.

Gawain and Laura met aboard the Freewinds. Members of Sea Org may marry, but they cannot have children. When Laura became pregnant, the couple was told to terminate her pregnancy. When they refused, they were isolated from the ship’s staff, put under surveillance, and required to undergo ethics handling and security checks.  Gawain was interrogated and criticized for not forcing Laura to terminate her pregnancy, he alleged.

After weeks of isolation, Gawain and Laura were allowed to leave the ship in 2012. Before they could leave, the Baxters were forced to sign documents that they did not have time to review while being videotaped.

“They were trapped on the ship, and the only way off was to submit to the demands of (Scientology) and sign the documents,” the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, the Baxters “are regularly intimidated by phone calls from Scientologists” to remind them they are monitored.

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Valeska Paris

The third plaintiff, Valeska Paris, is a well-known Scientology critic. A second-generation Scientologist, she was born into the church in Switzerland. Her parents, Ariane Jackson, and Jean Françoise Paris signed her up for courses when she was four.

During the training, which continued through adolescence, she alleges, adults asked graphic questions about sexual acts for hours at a time.

When she was six, Valeska’s parents enrolled her with the Cadet Org in England. Scientology’s Cadet Org., for those aged 11-14, is similar to military boot camp and requires a lifetime commitment.

When she was 14, Valeska traveled to Scientology’s “Flag Base” in Clearwater, Florida, as a member of Sea Org. She was tasked with ironing Scientology’s leader, David Miscavige’s clothes, making his coffee, and cleaning the bedrooms of other elite members.

A senior Scientologist punished her for reporting sexual assault, she said.

After Valeska’s parents split, her mother married Albert Jaquier, a Scientologist and businessman who Valeska claims lost his fortune to the church, spending $6 million on courses. Valeska says her stepfather committed suicide, leaving a diary that denounced Scientology for pushing him over the edge.

Her mother, Ariane, went public and exposed the church for its treatment of Albert.

Because of the scandal, Valeska claims Miscavige ordered her to be sent off to the Freewinds ship.

Valeska, who was 18, says she spent the next 12 years on the ship ‘against her will.’

In a statement to DailyMail.com, the Church of Scientology denied Jaquier’s death was a suicide and said his death had ‘no bearing’ on Valeska being transferred to Freewinds.

A death certificate provided by the church showed that Jaquier’s cause of death was determined to be ‘natural’ from his history of heart disease.

They also claim he was worth about $1.2m at his death.

‘Ms. Paris served as a crew member aboard the Freewinds religious retreat as a volunteer religious worker from September 1996 to December 2007. She was an adult and there of her own free will as part of her religious commitment to the Church of Scientology,’ a spokesperson for the church said.

“Scientology is a system designed to perpetuate fear, and I continue to struggle with the trauma… Though bringing this lawsuit is a great personal risk, I could not stand by while countless children continue to be trained for a lifetime of slavery and abuse,” said Paris.

Scientology, or one or more of its adherents, has evidently purchased the domain name Valeskaparis.com. On this website, they write, “Valeska Paris is a liar who makes her living peddling false stories to tabloid media and getting paid for it… Valeska Paris loved her time on the Freewinds, as evidenced by numerous photos.”

The Scientology website alleges, “The true story on Valeska is that she attempted to have an affair with a married man, in contravention with Church ethics. Ecclesiastic Justice assigned her to rehabilitation in Australia, where she got pregnant and was given a pregnancy stipend, and her membership in the religious order was canceled. From then on, she was bitter and has been making up stories ever since.”

Scientology critic, Tony Ortega, has been reporting on Valeska since 2011. He wrote, “Valeska left the Freewinds in 2007, and later left Scientology itself. In 2010 she first went public with her defection at the blog of former high-ranking Scientology executive Marty Rathbun. “

The lawsuit names as defendants:

Church of Scientology International Religious Technology Center, International Association of Scientologists Administrations

Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc.,

Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service Organization, Inc.

Neil L. Glazer of Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C., Ted Leopold of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Gregory Hansel of Preti Flaherty, and Warren A. Zimmerman represent the plaintiffs.