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The California Supreme Court gave the green light to a lawsuit regarding a woman who says the Church of Scientology held her captive, made her work long hours while underpaid and forced her to have an abortion at age 17.
The unique California wage and hour lawsuit was first filed by Laura D. in 2009. She claims that she lived with and worked for the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles from ages 12 through 25.
Laura became involved with the church because her mother as a member at the time. The church convinced her to send her daughter to California to work for the church, where Laura became a member of the “Sea Org,” a demanding 100-hour-a-week job that requires members to sign a billion-year contract and to never have children. She worked for pennies an hour, she says.
At the age of 13, Laura was placed on the adult schedule of 112 hours per week. She alleges she was abused and at the age of 17, she was forced to have an abortion.
Church Claims Ministry Protects It
A lawyer for the Church of Scientology argued back in April that civil courts should stay out of the realm of religious practices.
He referred to Laura as a “minister,” but the judge allowed the claims of the labor law violations to proceed, even if only for the period of time Laura was a minor child.
Laura’s lawyer John P. Blumberg claims the church convinced her mother to move to California under false pretenses, and that once Laura was there, she was engulfed into the Scientology system. Exposed to the indoctrination at such a young age meant that even her adult decisions were not truly of her own independent thinking, he claimed.
“They say she made all these decisions as a free-thinking adult,” Blumberg said. “It becomes question of fact whether these were free choices or they were the choices of a person who was isolated from society and brainwashed since the age of 12.”
California Wage and Hour Lawsuit Exposes Horrible Conditions
Laura’s California wage and hour lawsuit claims she was consistently deprived of sleep, required to literally stay awake for days on end.
She was in the Sea Org’s prison program for several of her last years until she drank bleach in an effort to convince those holding her captive that she was suicidal. The plan worked, but even though she left the Sea Org in 2004, she stayed a Scientology member for four more years, allegedly because of manipulation and threats from the church if she left and filed a lawsuit.
She claims when she tried several times to leave the church, they placed her under close watch. Someone even slept in her bed with her and stayed outside her door until she agreed to stay. The church argued she was under suicide watch, the lawsuit reads.
The Church of Scientology has counter-claimed that Laura owes the church $120,000 for the on-the-job training she received over the years.
The California wage and hour lawsuit includes claims of severe emotional distress due to the long hours, lack of privacy and alleged coerced abortion.
The Church of Scientology California Wage and Hour Lawsuit is Case No. S236174, filed in the California Supreme Court.
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