Judge Throws Out Most of Actor’s Complaint Against Scientology

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge struck down the significant parts of actress Leah Remini’s complaint against the Pasadena-based Church of Scientology earlier this month.

According to Courthouse News, in his 37-page ruling, Superior Court Judge Randolph Hammock agreed to strike more than a dozen paragraphs of Remini’s complaint as untimely, finding that those claims took place before Aug. 2, 2022, and it was too late to sue over them. The judge also struck down parts of the defamation claims, finding that most of them were not false assertions of fact.

Remini, who appeared in “Cheers” and “King of Queens,” was a member of the Church of Scientology for more than 35 years, from the time she was 8 years old.

After she left the church in 2013, she became one of its staunchest critics and published a tell-all memoir, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology,” and a TV show, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”

In 2023, Remini accused the church of a vicious online campaign against her.

Remini claimed she had been stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated, and 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 church attempted to get the lawsuit dismissed and claimed the church and its members were simply fighting Remini’s “hate speech” with their own speech.

The judge also allowed Remini’s harassment claim to survive and ruled that the surveillance started in 2013, well before Remini was contemplating a lawsuit.

According to Courthouse News, Church of Scientology spokesperson Karin Pouw said the ruling was a “resounding victory for the Church and free speech,” adding in an email, “the Church is entitled to its attorney fees and will be seeking them.”

“None of these are actionable,” Hammock explained during a hearing in January. “They’re not very nice things to say about someone. They usually demonstrate malice when you call someone names. We know she’s not a Nazi. You guys call her a Nazi. That’s fine. That’s your right under the First Amendment. I understand. She attacks you. You attack her.”

Remini, in her complaint, accused Scientology of enlisting dozens of its members “to record videotaped messages (in Scientology production studios) to make disparaging and false claims against Ms. Remini — including false and defamatory statements that she was abusive to her mother and daughter.”

Unlike most of the other accusations, Hammock wrote, claiming that someone abused their mother and daughter is an assertion of fact.

Hammock allowed that part of the complaint to survive.

The Church purchased the historic Braley building in 2010, and was later honored for its preservation of Pasadena’s rich architectural history with the city’s Historic Preservation Award.