Scientology leader David Miscavige went missing to hide from a human trafficking lawsuit, federal judge rules
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Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige has been hiding from a federal human trafficking lawsuit filed against him and the religious organization, according to a judge who ruled this week that he has now been considered served in the case.
Florida Magistrate Judge Julie Sneed wrote in a ruling filed on Tuesday that Miscavige has been “actively concealing his whereabouts or evading service” in the suit.
Attorneys for the three plaintiffs in the case attempted to serve Miscavige a total of 27 times at five different locations in Florida and five different sites in California but were never able to track the Scientology head down, according to the court documents viewed by Insider.
“While Miscavige repeatedly asserts that Plaintiffs have attempted to effectuate service at the wrong address or addresses at which he was not present, Miscavige has never provided Plaintiffs or the court with the correct address,” Sneed wrote in the ruling.
The judge also said that the plaintiffs have been “diligently attempting to locate and effectuate personal service on Miscavige over the course of several months” since they filed their original complaint in April of last year.
“The court finds that Miscavige has been properly served” in the case, Sneed ruled. Miscavige was given 21 days to respond to the order.
The trafficking lawsuit against Miscavige and the Church of Scientology was filed by Valeska Paris and married couple Gawain and Laura Baxter, who allege that they were trafficked into Scientology as children and forced to work long hours by the organization, which they said considered them adults.
Content retrieved from: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/scientology-leader-david-miscavige-went-162830293.html.
