EXCLUSIVE: Scientology Legal Responds -- And They're Not Happy

Unbelievably well-financed lawyers from Scientology have given their best shot at Peter Letterese, the former Scientologist who filed a quarter-billion-dollar lawsuit (yes, that's billion) against the august church and its poster boy Tom Cruise. (To see Cruise get wacky on Oprah!, click on his name.) Scientology lawyer Elliot J. Abelson issued a press release Oct 29 denouncing Letterese's recent filing -- in which he alleges a federal judge, state judge and a bankruptcy trustee took bribes. "In his (Letterese's) years of litigation against Scientology, he has never won anything." Abelson railed. However, attorney Graham Berry, who has been battling the Church for years, tells us that while the outcome of Letterese's law suits remain to be seen, it could be considered "a small victory." Although Mr. Letterese is no longer a member of the cult, it appears he's emulating grand poobah L. Ron Hubbard's dictum, which went: "The purpose of [the] [any] lawsuit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment...will generally be sufficient to cause professional decease, if possible, of course, ruin him utterly." A week after filing his amended complaint, Letterese filed seven separate new motions in Federal court which detail over two dozen acts of prejudice, Federal-statute-violations, clear bias, and serially improper and illegal acts by a federal Judge, a federal Bankruptcy Trustee, her counsel and Scientology's lawyers. He's requesting removal of all who acted improperly. See Abelson's handiwork below: LAW OFFICES OF ELLIOT J. ABELSON _________________________________________________________________________________________________ 8491 WEST SUNSET BOULEVARD $ SUITE 1100 $ LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90069-1911 TELEPHONE (323) 960-1935 $ FAX (323) 650-0398 October 29, 2008 STATEMENT FOR PUBLICATION The case filed by Peter Letterese is frivolous and obviously designed to generate publicity for himself. In this case, originally filed in August 2008, Letterese is suing more than 60 people and entities, including Google, Yahoo! and the American Arbitration Association. He has now amended his complaint and has added as defendants his bankruptcy trustee and two judges who have ruled against him in earlier litigation. In July 2008, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected similar claims and affirmed that the Church's use of the book in question is fair use. In May, 2007, Letterese's company was penalized $266,000 by a California Court stating that his company has "filed numerous, repetitive and frivolous motions" and "refused to comply with [court] orders, even though its counsel was warned several times that serious [penalties] would result from such failure." In his years of litigating against Scientology, he has never won anything. This lawsuit is as meritless as his other filings. Elliot J. Abelson

Fishbowl

EXCLUSIVE: Scientology Legal Responds -- And They're Not Happy

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