West Palm lawyer takes on Scientology in unprecedented arbitration
By Jane Musgrave - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/crime--law/west-palm-lawyer-takes-scientology-unprecedented-arbitration/ZQqCy93XNNeqoaRAT5WOZP/
Posted: 11:45 a.m. Thursday, October 05, 2017
When West Palm Beach attorney Ted Babbitt travels to Los Angeles this month to take on the Church of Scientology, he said that for the first time in his 52 years of practicing law he has no idea what to expect.
The veteran lawyer said he’s been told he won’t be allowed to call witnesses to shore up his claims that the church duped an Irvine, Calif. couple out of $465,000 to fund its massive operation in Clearwater on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Further, he said it’s unlikely he will be allowed to challenge witnesses the church summons to refute his allegations. He suspects he won’t even be allowed to speak.
The unusual lawsuit against the unusual and controversial church spun out of Babbitt’s control when a federal judge in Tampa ruled that it will be decided, not by a jury in a court of law, but by three Scientologists who understand the teachings of the church’s late founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
To Babbitt, the proceedings, which are scheduled to begin Oct. 23, are tantamount to a kangaroo court.
“There’s never been an arbitration (conducted by Scientologists) ever,” he said. “We don’t know what the rules are.”
Because his clients, Luis and Rocio Garcia, left the church, they are considered suppressive persons. Under the rules of the sect, members of the church risk being declared suppressive persons themselves and being banished if they associate with those who have earned the Scientology equivalent of the scarlet letter.
When West Palm Beach attorney Ted Babbitt travels to Los Angeles this month to take on the Church of Scientology, he said that for the first time in his 52 years of practicing law he has no idea what to expect.
The veteran lawyer said he’s been told he won’t be allowed to call witnesses to shore up his claims that the church duped an Irvine, Calif. couple out of $465,000 to fund its massive operation in Clearwater on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Further, he said it’s unlikely he will be allowed to challenge witnesses the church summons to refute his allegations. He suspects he won’t even be allowed to speak.
The unusual lawsuit against the unusual and controversial church spun out of Babbitt’s control when a federal judge in Tampa ruled that it will be decided, not by a jury in a court of law, but by three Scientologists who understand the teachings of the church’s late founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
To Babbitt, the proceedings, which are scheduled to begin Oct. 23, are tantamount to a kangaroo court.
“There’s never been an arbitration (conducted by Scientologists) ever,” he said. “We don’t know what the rules are.”
Because his clients, Luis and Rocio Garcia, left the church, they are considered suppressive persons. Under the rules of the sect, members of the church risk being declared suppressive persons themselves and being banished if they associate with those who have earned the Scientology equivalent of the scarlet letter.
Even sons and daughters say they have been forced to break ties with parents who have decided to leave the church, which has been alternately vilified and fiercely defended by its recalcitrant and steadfast celebrity followers.
On one side are actors Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Elisabeth Moss, who have defended the church against those who attack it as a corrupt cult.
On the other side, most prominently, is actress Leah Remini, who launched the hit A&E television network show, “Scientology and the Aftermath,” to expose what she claims are nefarious practices that forced her from the church. Luis Garcia and Babbitt have talked to Remini about their allegations, and their interview with her is to be included in an episode of the show airing on Oct. 24, a day after the arbitration hearing begins.
Although the arbitration will be governed by the church’s international justice chief, Scientology leaders readily acknowledge that the church has never held such an arbitration and that Hubbard himself decreed that “A truly Suppressive Person or group has no rights of any kind as Scientologists.” But they insist the church members will be fair.
“The arbitrators will be instructed based on basic Scientology justice principles that they are impartial and they are not going to have any predetermined idea of what to believe or not believe,” testified Mike Ellis, who has served as the church’s international justice chief since 1998. “They’re there to get facts, provide whatever evidence, collect whatever evidence is needed so that they can arrive at a fair conclusion.”
Similar hearings have been held when members who have been declared suppressive want to get back in the fold, testified Allan Cartwright, an Australian with a high school education who serves as the church’s legal director. Over a dozen years, 79 people asked to rejoin the church and 33 were allowed to return, he said.
While calling the concerns Babbitt raised “compelling,” U.S. District Judge James Whittemore said he had no choice but to order that the lawsuit be decided by a panel of church members.
In what is essentially a Catch 22 situation, Whittemore said that in order to accept Babbitt’s claims that the Garcias won’t get a fair hearing because the church has deemed them suppressive he would have to interpret church doctrine. But the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the nation’s courts from interfering with religious dogma.
READ MORE: https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/crime--law/west-palm-lawyer-takes-scientology-unprecedented-arbitration/ZQqCy93XNNeqoaRAT5WOZP/
Gary Breaux, a senior Jehovah's Witness official, speaks on the religion’s official internet video channel. Credit: JW Broadcasting 
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