At the request of the Church of Scientology, a judge has agreed to step aside from presiding over a lawsuit by a former member of the faith who appeared in an episode of “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” and later sued the church.
Valerie Haney, who alleges in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that she was harassed by the organization in response to her work on the series, will have to arbitrate her claims internally within the church, a judge has ruled.
On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Weinberger said he is removing himself from the case, which was re-assigned by a supervising court to Judge Kevin Brazile.
The case is currently in “religious arbitration” because of a January 2020 ruling by then-Judge Richard Burdge, who granted a motion by the church to compel arbitration and place a stay on Haney’s lawsuit, which in was filed in June 2019. Burdge retired in 2024.
Church lawyers maintained the procedures for convening arbitration were outlined in previous documents that Haney signed and which she re-affirmed in her departure agreement.
Brazile will retain jurisdiction of the case pending the outcome of the arbitration, the slow pace of which has both sides blaming the other. In their court papers, church attorneys said Weinberger should not manage the case because when the judge was an attorney, he represented a client with a case adverse to the church. The Scientology lawyers also noted that an attorney now appearing before him and representing a co-defendant in the Haney case was an opposing counsel in the prior case.
“The combination of these facts is sufficient to raise a reasonable question as to appearance of impartiality,” the church lawyers contend.
Brazile is a former supervising judge.
According to Haney’s suit, she was born into Scientology in 1979 and remained with the organization until she managed to escape in 2016 by hiding in the trunk of a car leaving a church compound in San Jacinto.
She returned to the church the following year to “rout out,” in hopes of maintaining some connection with her family, according to the complaint. She was told the process would take three weeks, but she claims she was held captive by the organization for three months and treated “like a prisoner.” According to the court papers, she was forced “to do everything with the accompaniment of a `handler,’ including using the bathroom, showering and sleeping.”
In a sworn declaration, Haney maintained she signed the arbitration agreement under duress.
“During the routing out process, I was made to sign the departure documents in a room with only Scientology’s general counsel and a man with a gun,” Haney said. “I do not know the contents of any of the documents I signed. I signed any document that was given to me because I just wanted it to be over and to get out of there.”
Haney eventually escaped Scientology in 2017 and began working for Remini, the suit states.
In response to the show, the Church of Scientology “copyrighted and published a hate website against Jane Doe, Ms. Remini and almost anyone else who was featured on the show,” according to the plaintiff’s court papers. “… Defendants used this page to disseminate false, defamatory and inflammatory information about Jane Doe.”
The complaint further alleges that the website “features untruthful and damaging blog posts, articles and videos dedicated to attacking Jane Doe’s personal and professional reputation, with complete and utter disregard for the truth.”
“In addition to the online smear campaign, defendants have stalked, surveilled and followed Jane Doe,” according to the document. “Beginning in 2017 through June of 2018, defendants and their agents have followed Jane Doe while she was driving. On more than one occasion, Jane Doe has been forced to change her route in an effort to curtail defendant’s surveillance efforts.”
Remini, 55, has filed her own lawsuit against the church, which is awaiting trial.