Scientology Won't Get To Name Woman They Forced At 16 To Marry Her Rapist.
Allegedly.
Content note: Sexual assault
At this point, perhaps the most confounding thing about Scientology is that its leaders still actually think the rest of the world is going to go along with its nonsense.
The Church of Scientology had hoped to be allowed to publicly name a woman suing them for having (allegedly) forced her to marry her 26-year-old rapist at the age of 16, but a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled this week that she will be allowed to remain anonymous. Good!
Jane Doe, as she will continue to be known, brought the lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, Scientology leader David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter, her alleged abuser/ex-husband.
Via Courthouse News:
“Why do you want the public to know who this person is, when you already know who it is?” LA County Superior Court Judge Kevin Brazile asked during Thursday's hearing.
“There’s an insinuation that the Jane Doe is a victim,” said Potter's lawyer Daniel Reback, a partner at Krane & Smith. “She has named her ex-husband, my client. She’s accusing my client of slanderous allegations that she says happened 30 years ago. She names my client by name. She did not have to do that. He’s been subject to public ridicule. It’s simply unfair.”
Oh no, the poor dear. People might “ridicule” him for having married his 16-year-old rape victim. Can you imagine?
Given what we know about the way the Church of Scientology operates, it seems highly likely that what they hoped to gain from this was to go full “fair game” on her — the church’s (alleged) policy of destroying the lives of those who go against it. They want to be allowed to reveal her name explicitly for the purpose of harassment.
According to the lawsuit, Doe was recruited into the Sea Org at the age of 14. At 16, she was assigned to work as a receptionist at the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition in Los Angeles (a very creepy museum dedicated to the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard). She wasn’t too happy about it and ended up going back to live with her parents, at which point Potter was sent to tell her that the world was ending and to convince her to rejoin the Sea Org, which she did.
Part of her job, once she rejoined, was to drive Potter around at night, which is how he began sexually assaulting her. Doe reported the sexual assault to church officials as she was required to do, and instead of taking her to the police, they instead gave both her and Potter an ultimatum: Go to a Scientology prison camp (the Rehabilitation Project Force) for five years or get married. They went with the latter.
Doe became pregnant at the age of 19 and was pressured by Potter to have an abortion, as the Sea Org has a policy against members having children. Rather than doing that, she ran away, had her child, and ultimately divorced Potter when she was 23.
Of course, it seems like it should go without saying that even if a 16-year-old thinks she is madly in love with her 26-year-old boss, that she should not be allowed to marry him. (Or, for that matter, to sign a “billion-year contract” at the age of 14.)
The case is currently stayed, as the church hopes to compel “religious arbitration” — so that the church itself would be in control of the arbitration process.
ARE YOU KIDDING US WITH THIS.
Surely they would be very fair and impartial in this matter!
The church has also gone out of its way to discredit Doe’s allegation, even going so far as to submit a letter from her own mother — a devout Scientologist she hasn’t seen or spoken to in years — calling her a liar and claiming that she was madly in love with Potter and married him of her own volition. Her mother also claims that she was 17, almost 18 when she married him, which sure seems like the kind of thing that would be easy to prove if it were true.
According to Doe, the last time she spoke to her mother was in 2020, when her mother asked her to not come forward about another sexual assault, due to the bad publicity it could bring to the church. This Jane Doe, you see, is also Jane Doe #1 — one of the two women whom Scientologist and “That 70’s Show” star Danny Masterson was convicted of raping last year.
Her mother, who had initially tried to convince the church to do something about the rape after it had occurred, told her that she wanted to see Masterson brought to justice, but not at the expense of her religion. Nice woman!
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It is horrifying that this woman has had to go through all of this to begin with, and particularly galling that the Church of Scientology would even consider for a moment that anyone outside of their religion would believe a goddamned thing they say or compel anyone else to say. You cannot be that famous for lying and destroying people’s lives or sending them to prison camps and actually expect people to believe that you are not lying or trying to destroy people’s lives or sending them to prison camps. It’s on the record, it’s on that Leah Remini show, it’s in 87,000 documentaries and articles at this point — everyone knows and they aren’t fooling anyone anymore.
I read the article and made a comment. Probably enough time for the Scientology servers to hack the Wonkette web site, track me down and
All right now, I think I'm going to take a break.
Let's ignore all the black Christians, who have always been fantastic supporters and indeed *the base* of the Democratic Party, and let's just ignore all the Christian people and Jewish people who exist on this board but are strong enough to not respond when it gets a little silly around here.
I didn't realize this board was atheist-only, so I gotta skiddoo. For a while, I guess.
Just know that not all religious people in the world fit the flame-throwing stereotypes some people seem to have, and that's it.