Actress Leah Remini, a former Scientologist and a vocal critic of the organization, has filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its current leader, David Miscavige.
The Reset reported on Wednesday that Remini’s lawsuit accuses the Church and Miscavige of subjecting her to psychological torture, defamation, and intimidation over the past 17 years through a series of organized attempts to silence her that “significantly [impacted her] life and career.” The suit also alleges that Scientology targeted Remini’s inner circle.
“While Ms. Remini was a Scientologist, giving millions of dollars to Scientology [and] serving as a public face for Scientology... she frequently was held up as an example of a model Scientologist and praised repeatedly for her contributions,” the suit reads. “As soon as she left and spoke out against Scientology, she was labeled by the organization she supported financially as an untrustworthy apostate.”
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Remini joined the Church in 1979 as a child and left in 2013. According to her lawsuit, the Church’s campaign to “destroy” her began in 2006, seven years before her exit.
That year, while attending the wedding of Scientologist actor Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes, Remini says that she was admonished by fellow members of the Church after she asked where Shelly Miscavige, David’s wife, was. Shortly after the wedding, “Remini was presented with dozens of internal reports from Scientologists complaining about her behavior at the wedding,” the suit claims, leading Remini to conclude that she was being punished for asking where Shelly was.
Shelly was last seen publicly at her father’s funeral in 2007 and was eventually declared a missing person by the LAPD, which closed its investigation into Miscavige’s whereabouts earlier this year.
Remini says she was also subjected to a four-month “Truth Rundown,” a Scientology process that nearly drove the actress “to the point of psychotic breakdown.”
In 2016, Remini executive-produced the documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, and has also publicly testified on behalf of other former members of the Church.
After leaving the Church, Remini alleges that Scientology had her followed by private investigators, manipulated her late father into making bogus claims about her, and even launched a campaign falsely accusing the actress of inciting hate crimes.
“With this lawsuit, I hope to protect my rights as afforded by the Constitution of the United States to speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology,” Remini says in her suit. “I feel strongly that the banner of religious freedom does not give anyone license to intimidate, harass and abuse those who exercise their First Amendment rights.”
