Baxter V Scientology: Laura Baxter Declaration
Baxter V Scientology: Laura Baxter Declaration
Baxter V Scientology: Laura Baxter Declaration
EXHIBIT 1
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during the week, enrolled me in Scientology courses for up to six hours per week
staff member, I was required to undergo invasive and abusive interrogations called
“auditing” and “security checks.” And once I became a staff member, I was subject
every night at the local Organization where I worked to manipulate, pressure, and
coerce me to sign a contract pledging to serve Scientology for life with the Sea Org. I
resisted their efforts, but the Sea Org recruiters would not take no for an answer,
continuing to show up nightly and spending an hour each time lecturing me and
cajoling me about how important and prestigious membership in Sea Org was. They
told me my hesitation was ethically problematic. Finally, they wore me down, and I
Kingdom and forced into labor on the Estates Project Force (EPF). Because I was
still a minor, my mother signed over legal guardianship of me to a Sea Org member
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and senior IASA officer. Thus, the Sea Org had ultimate legal authority over me, and
I could not travel anywhere without the permission of my Sea Org “guardian.”
when I joined Sea Org, and I had a hard time reading and understanding what
people were saying to me in English. I relied on the few other German speakers to
7. While I was working for the EPF, I had to spend eight to ten hours per
day performing arduous physical labor, and I (was not permitted adequate time to
work for IASA on the Freewinds. I had no choice but to do what I was told because I
was still a minor and Sea Org had complete legal authority over me.
undergo dozens of these interrogations, each of which lasted for up to twelve hours,
during which I was told I could not leave the room except to eat or use the
bathroom. On the Freewinds, I was forced to work long hours on the ship with no
time off.
10. When I was seventeen, I was told that I required “more training.” I was
a member of IASA staff. I was forced to work as many as eighteen hours per day.
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11. In early 2004, I was transferred back to the Freewinds. When I returned
identification.
12. When I arrived on the ship, I was given a list of administrative tasks I
needed to complete. Some of those tasks involved signing forms, but I was not given
a chance to read the forms and no one explained what they were other than that they
were necessary for me to start working. No one ever mentioned anything about
arbitration or giving up my legal rights. They just pointed to where I should sign, and
I signed as ordered.
13. At this time, I was still not able to read English very well. That fact was
known to Sea Org officers on the ship because they had provided me with German
German. Even if I had been given time to read the forms I was presented with, I
would not have been able to understand them because they were in English.
interrogations, or sent back to the long hours and arduous conditions in Copenhagen
if I asked any questions about the documents, so I just did as I was told.
15. Given the date, I believe one of the documents I was ordered to sign in
March 2004 was the document attached as Exhibit B to the Declaration of Kenneth
16. On the ship, I was forced to work between 11-15 hours per day as a file
against higher ranking officials, I was severely punished. For example, not long after
I arrived on the ship, a celebrity actor celebrated his birthday aboard the Freewinds
actor’s attention. After this allegation, I was taken into a small room where IASA
officers screamed abusively at me. They then confined me to the extremely hot,
cramped, and dirty engine room for three days. They allowed me to leave for only
minutes at a time for meals and to return to my room for some hours of sleep. This
17. For the next two months, I was subject to long interrogations and
forced to confess to my alleged crimes under the direction of IASA officers. During
that time, I was not paid, I was confined to an office during the day and my room at
night, and I was kept under 24-hour surveillance. I was permitted to leave my room
only for interrogations or when I was accompanied by another Sea Org member. On
one occasion, I had no choice but to urinate into a trash can. I was forbidden from
communicating with anyone on the ship except for the specific Sea Org members
18. For four more months between about July and December 2004, I was
confined to my room and permitted to leave only to study Scientology ethics policies
for up to 14 hours per day, with breaks only for meals and to use the bathroom.
During this time, in September 2004, I was told I was being demoted from IASA and
I needed to sign something due to my “change of post.” I was not told anything else
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about the document, and I was not given a chance to read it. They simply pointed to
where I should sign, and I signed without question because I hoped it would lead to
19. Based on the date, I now believe that the document I signed was the
Defendants’ motion.
punishment and placed in a crew steward position, where I was forced to work
twelve to eighteen hours a day. After months of punishment, I was fearful that
punished that harshly for something subjective and untrue like monopolizing the
occasions during my time on the ship by being put to work in the engine room.
22. For all of my labor on the ship, I was supposed to be paid fifty dollars
per week, but I was rarely given full pay, at times going weeks without
compensation. This was justified on the basis that I was guilty of unnamed or
required level of revenues. Because I barely retained enough money to afford basic
necessities on the ship, I was not able to save much money. I knew that if I left the
ship I would have very little money to pay for food or shelter.
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that Scientology helped people, but I saw that people were being harmed by it,
including me. I wanted to leave the ship. But I knew from experience that even
communicating the intent to leave Sea Org was a “high crime” punishable by the
most severe repercussions, and I had seen what had happened to people who tried to
leave. I feared that if I told anyone I wanted to leave that I would be severely
punished and my living and working conditions on the ship would just be made even
less tolerable.
24. Eventually, despite feeling that leaving the ship would be dangerous
and nearly impossible, I knew that I could no longer take the life on the ship of
forced hard labor and arbitrary punishment. I discussed it with Gawain, who was by
that time my husband, and we came up with a plan. Sea Org members were not
allowed to have children, and normally women who became pregnant were forced to
have abortions. But Gawain had learned that this forced abortion policy was drawing
Freewinds, senior officers would want us to leave the ship rather than forcing me to
25. Despite being afraid of the very real possibilities that I would be forced
to have an abortion against my will or kicked off the ship and left with no money to
and were forced to undergo long interrogations and psychological punishment in the
form of “security checks” and “ethics handlings.” During these interrogations, I was
berated over and over for getting pregnant and was pressured to have an abortion. In
addition to these interrogations, we were isolated from other staff on the ship and put
26. After weeks of punishments and isolation, we held firm, and the officers
on the ship informed us that we would be leaving the ship. After we were told that
about what we had to complete before we could leave, including more interrogations
certain time to sign documents that were necessary before we could leave the ship.
We were directed to complete that step before we were allowed to pack our
belongings and prepare for our departure and before security would return our
passports, immigration documents, and identification and allow us to leave the ship.
28. Not only did I feel we physically had no choice to do what we were told
because of our security escort, I also feared that if we did not do exactly what we
were told in the sequence we were told to do it that our departure could be delayed
or we could be forced to stay on the ship. I also feared that they would separate us as
punishment.
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29. In the room with the two of us was a security guard and Krister
Neilsen, the officer working under the direction of Port Captain Ludwig Alpers.
Krister gave a very rough explanation of the documents in front of us. He did not
mention anything about arbitration. And even if he had used the word arbitration, I
would not have known what that meant. I was not even familiar enough with secular
laws to know that I potentially had legal claims for what had been done to me.
30. Gawain asked if we had to sign the documents, and Krister said we did.
That confirmed for me that we had no choice but to sign them to get off the ship.
31. We were given a few minutes to read the stack of documents, but it was
not enough time for me to get through the whole thing with the limited education I
had. We were not given enough time to thoroughly read the documents, and we
were not permitted to take them out of the room to review or find anyone who could
prevented from leaving the ship and forced to undergo more hours of interrogations,
and we would not have had access to our passports and identity documents. I viewed
the time before David Miscavige’s arrival as our one window to escape the ship and
feared that even asking questions about the documents would close that window.
33. If there had been a way to leave the ship without signing the
34. I now believe that the documents I signed included the agreement in
35. Other than the circumstances described above, I do not remember being
asked to sign any documents related to my departure, and I know I did not
36. Once we signed the documents, we were largely confined to our rooms,
forbidden from being in the presence of the ship’s crew, and allowed to leave our
grandmother’s house and helped Gawain find a job. We began to receive constant
harassing phone calls from Scientologists asking about our status and suggesting that
Scientology, we would face retaliation and be cut off from our Scientologist family
members, who we depended on for Gawain’s job and housing. And the phone calls
pressuring us to “come in” and take Scientology courses were nonstop. So we finally
agreed to “take” a remote Scientology course. We purchased the course materials but
never actually studied them. When we signed up for the remote course, we were
given paperwork to fill out before we could enroll. I was not given a chance to read
the paperwork, but I signed it because I felt there was no other way to get the
harassing calls to stop and to keep receiving the support of my family for work and
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housing. No one told me that it could have anything to do with my legal rights or my
39. At this time, I did not believe in Scientology, I did not want to take
associated with Scientology if we had other means to get by or get the harassment to
stop.
Scientology. After all that I have been through in trying to leave Scientology, being
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.