Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige has vanished in the midst of a child trafficking lawsuit alleging forced labor, accused of evading process servers and frustrating those who want to move the case along in federal court.
A review of court records by the Tampa Bay Times shows that servers tried to locate Miscavige 27 times over the past four months in Los Angeles and Clearwater, Florida, to provide him with documents as required by law. They came up empty-handed, and now, a Jan. 20 court date is pending in Tampa to declare Miscavige served.
“Miscavige cannot be permitted to continue his gamesmanship,” said plaintiff attorney Neil Glazer in a Dec. 13 motion requesting the hearing.
Glazer is claiming that Miscavige has engaged in “intentional concealment of his location and evasion of service.”
The lawsuit filed by former Scientology members Gawain Baxter, his wife Laura, and Valeska Paris alleged that they were forced to work on church-owned ships as children and sign a 1 billion-year service contract with little or no pay.
The trio claimed they were abused, separated from society, and indoctrinated into the church with little hope of escape. Paris claimed she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and once locked in the ship’s engine room for 48 hours as punishment when her mother fled the church.
Miscavige, 62, has left no trace of a personal residence in databases normally used by lawyers.
The plaintiffs even went so far as to dig through Florida traffic tickets Miscavige received in 1991 and 1995, but the tickets listed the Los Angeles Scientology building as his home address, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Attorneys for Miscavige filed a court brief on Tuesday that says he should not be included in the lawsuit, which is “part of a litigation strategy to target the leader of the religion for harassment.”
They said Miscavige is not evading service. Rather, he lives in California and has not been present to accept service there.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie Sneed has also assisted in the matter, directing the Florida secretary of state to issue a summons. This went out to 10 different Scientology addresses in California and Clearwater, but none of the envelopes were accepted with a signed receipt, the Tampa Bay Times said.
Former church executive Mike Rinder said in court documents that numerous ways exist “to shield Miscavige from liability or being served with summonses and subpoenas.” Rinder, who left the church in 2007, has since turned into a vocal critic of Scientology and co-hosted an A&E documentary and a podcast with the King of Queens actress Leah Remini.
