Actress Leah Remini claims the Church of Scientology subjected her to decades of psychological manipulation during her time with the organization then hounded and harrassed her once she left, according to a new court filing.
The former “King of Queens” star said she paid the group more than $5 million for “thousands” of hours of training sessions before her 2013 exit.
“Defendants have undertaken a campaign to silence, ruin and destroy my life, career, reputation, and livelihood as laid out by their directives,” the filing, first reported by Tony Ortega of The Underground Bunker, alleges.
The organization has countered Remini’s claims, calling her legal offensive “pure lunacy” aimed at reviving her acting career.
Remini said she first became involved with the group as a 13-year-old after her mother became a Scientologist.
As part of her training to progress in Scientology she says older male members of the organization subjected her to “bullbaiting” sessions where she was verbally abused, according to the filing.
Remini claims she was subject to manipulation by the group. Instagram
Remini stated she was once a prized representative of the group because of her success in her career, and she willingly sang its praises in order to attract fresh new recruits.
“I was awarded commendations by David Miscavige, Tom Cruise, and by the very people who later attacked me in Scientology-produced videos,” the filing asserts.
The 33-page declaration was submitted as part of Remini’s opposition to a legal push by the church to have a defamation suit she filed against them tossed.
Remini first became a Scientologist in her teens after her mother joined. FilmMagic
Scientology lawyers have accused Remini of trying to hobble their defense.
“This lawsuit is nothing but an attempt by (Remini) to stop (the) Church of Scientology International and Religious Technology Center from responding to her hateful attacks with truthful speech,” they contend in court papers.
Remini left the church in 2013 and became one of its most prominent critics, even producing the TV show “Scientology and the Aftermath” which aimed to expose the inner workings of the secretive organization, founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
After embarking on her journey to expose Scientology she claims the church retaliated against her in a number of ways.
Remini asserts the group also enlisted her father to make up accusations against her after she left.
In taped interviews, the late George Remini and his wife Dana accused the actress of being a liar and, according to her filing, “that I only wanted my name in the news, that I would not help to pay for his cancer treatments, that I turned my back on my half-sister when she was in the hospital, that I ransacked my dying grandmother’s apartment, and that I have no morals.”
Remini has rejected all of those accusations, asserting the church leveraged her estrangement from her father to cast her in a negative light.
Remini starred on “The Kind of Queens” for nearly a decade. Getty Images
The latest filing also asserts the organization falsely accused Remini and producers of her documentary series, which aired on A&E network, of inciting the murder of a Taiwanese member of the group.
In an August statement on her initial lawsuit, the group accused Remini of launching an anti-Scientology crusade for her own financial benefit.
“The Church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech,” the statement read. “If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia.”
Source Link: https://nypost.com/2023/12/04/news/leah-remini-spent-5m-on-scientology-alleges-abuse/
