A judge said Friday he is inclined to allow many of Leah Remini’s claims against the Church of Scientology to proceed, despite the church’s anti-SLAPP motion suit that seeks to dispose many of them on free-speech grounds.
Remini’s original suit was brought Aug. 2 in Los Angeles Superior Court and included allegations of civil harassment, stalking, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. Scientology leader David Miscavige is also a defendant in both the first suit and the updated complaint brought Aug. 29.
After leaving the church in 2013, though, the actress became a high-profile critic. She published a memoir in 2015, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology,” and later hosted three seasons of the docuseries, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” on A&E.
Judge Randolph M. Hammock issued a tentative ruling Friday denying the church’s request for dismissal of Remini’s primary causes of action, including defamation intentional infliction of emotional distress and harassment. But he said he is inclined to order some paragraphs of the amended version of the complaint alleging defamation stricken while also noting the multiple facets of that cause of action in the suit.
“The claims giving rise to the alleged defamation in the (amended complaint) are numerous, indeed, hard to keep track of,” the judge wrote while adding, for example, that an allegation in an article stating that Remini might have inspired praise of Hitler is, standing alone, not a “provably false assertion of fact.”
Remini’s allegations that the attacks on her continued or even increased after she sued the church support a finding of actual malice, the judge wrote.
The judge expressed some skepticism of Remini’s stalking claims, stating that she has not demonstrated a “credible threat” in the church postings, and he also said the actress’ declaratory relief claim, saying the relief she seeks is “already encompassed by the relief she seeks in her other eight causes of action.”
However, Hammock said most of Remini’s contract-related claims involving economic opportunities with iHeartMedia and other entities can proceed. Although church attorneys maintain it is protected speech to demand a broadcaster remove offensive content, the faith cannot “send agents to harass the podcast’s producers and staff to the point that they feared for their safety,” according to the judge.
The judge is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday before issuing a final ruling.
An anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) motion is rooted in a law intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
Church lawyers state in their court papers that they determined that the vast majority of the allegations in the 68-page revised suit implicates the church’s constitutionally protected speech or activity.
“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,” the church lawyers state in their court papers.
Remini wants to impose liability on the church for stating opinions about Remini’s “hateful conduct,” including that she continues to defend a man found liable for rape, the church attorneys further maintain.
“Indeed … plaintiff has not identified a single statement by the church that is neither an opinion nor true,” the Scientology lawyers state in their court papers.
When stripped of the allegations that depend on non-actionable statements, protected petitioning and that violate the statute of limitations, there is “virtually nothing left” of Remini’s suit, according to the church attorneys’ court papers.
“In the short period of time since Ms. Remini’s complaint was filed, Ms. Remini and others have been subject to continued, aggressive harassment,” according to the amended suit, which cites as an example a Scientology statement maintaining that the actress’ remarks had “generated threats of and actual violence against the church and its members” and suggesting that she consider moving to Russia.
In addition, since the lawsuit was filed, there has been evidence of potential fraud flagged on several of Remini’s credit cards and recently the business of Remini’s tutor was hacked, causing a $15,000 loss to his business account, according to the revised complaint. Before the lawsuit was brought, the tutor received Scientology promotions at his home, signaling the faith’s awareness when individuals are associated with the actress, the amended suit states.
In her updated complaint, the 53-year-old “The King of Queens” star repeats her allegation that Scientologists “have undertaken a campaign to ruin and destroy the life and livelihood of Leah Remini, a former Scientologist of nearly 40 years, a two-time Emmy-award winning producer, actress and New York Times best-selling author, after she was deemed a suppressive person and declared fair game by Scientology in 2013, when she publicly departed Scientology.”
For the past decade, Remini has been stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated and “been the victim of intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and coordinated social media accounts that exist solely to intimidate and spread misinformation,” the updated suit alleges.
The organization also has “incessantly harassed, threatened, intimidated and embarrassed Ms. Remini’s family members, friends, colleagues and business associates, causing her to lose personal relationships, business contracts and other business opportunities,” the amended suit again alleges.
Remini released the book “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” in 2015, and hosted the A&E documentary series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” from 2016-19.