Ex-Scientologist claims church made her have an abortion at 17A former member of the Church of Scientology can proceed to trial with a lawsuit alleging she was forced to work long hours before she was a teen and was coerced to have an abortion at age 17, a Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday .
Superior Court Judge John Doyle denied a motion by lawyers for the Church of Scientology International and its Religious Technology Center to dismiss Laura Ann DeCrescenzo’s case. The only cause of action he tossed dealt with whether the plaintiff was deprived of a constitutional right of liberty.
The case was filed in April 2009, and the allegations include forced abortion, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unfair business practices and wage-and-hour violations.
Robert Mangels, an attorney for the Religious Technology Center, said he will file papers asking a panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal to order Doyle to reverse his ruling and grant dismissal of the case.
Attorney Bert Deixler, on behalf of the Church of Scientology, declined to say afterward if he would join in the motion.
Deixler argued that the lawsuit wrongly involves the courts in the affairs of a religious organization.
“We do not have the civil courts investigate religious practices,” Deixler said.
Deixler said the DeCrescenzo case is “a question of faith, and not force” and that the plaintiff and her family made their own choices without intimidation.
But DeCrescenzo’s attorney, John Blumberg, said his client was effectively “brainwashed” by the church because she was not allowed to hear outside opinions about the religion’s practices.
“She was not a free-thinking adult at this point,” Blumberg said.
Although now-retired Judge Ronald Sohigian previously dismissed the case, a three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed his decision in June 2011 and sent the case back to the judge to determine whether the church was permitted to raise the statute of limitations as a defense.
According to a sworn declaration by DeCrescenzo, she began volunteering to do church work at age 6 or 7 in Orange County. She says that at age 7, she was part of a Scientology group organized to picket the very civil courthouse where trial of her lawsuit will take place.
She claims the demonstration showed the church’s ability to “go to every length to bring down people who filed lawsuits” against the institution,” whose followers include Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
“I believed that if I took any action against the Church of Scientology — whether filing a lawsuit or even speaking negatively about the Church of Scientology — that I would be subjected to severe retribution, including significant financial penalties and loss of my family,” DeCrescenzo stated.....
http://mynewsla.com/crime/2016/04/27/ex-scientologist-claims-church-made-her-have-an-abortion-at-17/
