Karen de la Carriere and Jeff Augustine recently met with
Vance Woodward (center) We're still waiting for a big decision from the
Texas Third Court of Appeals regarding
Monique Rathbun's harassment lawsuit against the Church of Scientology. You may remember that Scientology appealed
Comal County Judge Dib Waldrip's denial of Scientology's "anti-
SLAPP" motion that would have pretty much crippled Monique's lawsuit.
Monique's lawyer
Leslie Hyman seemed to get the better of Scientology's legal team in the oral arguments for this appeal, but we've been told not to assume anything until the three-justice panel makes its ruling. And while we wait, we learned that Scientology's appeals lawyer
Thomas Leatherbury has filed a new document, asking the appeals court to take notice of an unrelated case in
Los Angeles.
Vance Woodward sued Scientology there, and his lawsuit was dismissed after the church filed a successful anti-SLAPP motion. Quick background: Vance was in Scientology for more than 20 years, gave a lot of money to the
San Francisco org, then left, wrote a book about his experiences, and then helped us as we blogged
Dianetics from cover to cover. The judge who dismissed his lawsuit, however, said that Vance had made his action too much about how Scientology operates as a church in a lawsuit that was supposed to be about getting a refund. Vance has filed a motion to reconsider.