LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Church of Scientology attorneys will every have as much as 30 pages to jot down their coming anti-SLAAP movement as a part of the church’s protection of nearly all of claims in actress Leah Remini’s amended grievance, a choose dominated Wednesday whereas additionally giving the actress’ attorneys the identical variety of pages for his or her opposition.
Scientology attorneys will then have one other 20 pages to answer to Remini’s opposition, Los Angeles Superior Court docket Choose Randolph M. Hammock dominated. The state’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Towards Public Participation) regulation is meant to forestall individuals from utilizing courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those that are exercising their First Modification rights.
Remini’s unique swimsuit was introduced Aug. 2 and included allegations of civil harassment, stalking, intentional infliction of emotional misery and defamation. Scientology chief David Miscavige can be a defendant in each the primary swimsuit and the up to date grievance.
In her up to date grievance filed Aug. 29, the 53-year-old “The King of Queens” star seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and she 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.”
Church attorneys acknowledged of their courtroom papers that they consider nearly all of the allegations in Remini’s 68-page revised swimsuit implicate the church’s constitutionally protected speech or exercise and they requested Hammock to permit them a most of 30 pages of their temporary to show their level.
“Religious speech is of course protected, and speech about the Church of Scientology in particular has been recognized as speech on a matter of public interest,” the church attorneys argue.
In a two-page response to the church’s movement, Remini’s attorneys acknowledged that 30 pages is “excessive and poses an unnecessary burden on the court’s resources,” however stated they would defer to Hammock’s judgment.
The church attorneys state of their courtroom papers that through the previous decade, Remini has “made a lucrative career spewing hate and inspiring violence against the Church of Scientology, its parishioners and the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion.”
Remini has pursued her targets via her autobiography, a cable tv present, podcasts and appearances on broadcast tv and radio, in response to the Scientology attorneys’ courtroom papers, which additional state that attorneys will present “multiple examples of persons who committed acts of violence against the church while expressly claiming (Remini) as their inspiration.”
Remini launched the e book “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” in 2015, and hosted the A&E documentary sequence “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” from 2016-19.
Hammock rescheduled a case administration convention from Dec. 4 to Dec. 7.
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