Scientology lawyer labeled 14-year-old rape victim 'sexual aggressor' to halt Remini documentary: report

A Church of Scientology attorney sent a letter to A&E lawyers to remove a teaser for its series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, charging that Amy Scobee, the subject of the first episode, lied about being raped and “acted as the sexual aggressor,” the Underground Bunkerreports.

Scobee was just 14 years-old when a 35-year-old Scientology supervisor allegedly raped her and fellow staff members kept mum. In his letter to A&E, Church attorney Gary S. Soter charged that Scobee was 16 during the incident, and therefor within the age of consent. But Scobee insists the Church lawyer is lying.

“One night Darryl said he needed me to work late to help him get some paperwork done. I told him I had to catch the bus at a certain time, otherwise I’d have no way of getting home. He said he would gladly drive me,” Scobee wrote in her self-published book. “That evening when no one was left in the church, Darryl had me perform oral sex on him in the Academy and when driving me home, he pulled off to the side of the road and had sex with me in his car. I was only 14 at the time.”

In addition to insisting Scobee lied about her age during the incident, Soter also argued she was the aggressor. “According to his contemporaneous report, she acted as the sexual aggressor, rubbing up against him and reaching into his pants,” Sotor wrote in his letter.

In a statement, Remini—whose own struggles with the Church of Scientology have been widely reported—said, “Gary Soter should be ashamed of himself.”

"What’s in this letter is so appalling, I don’t even have the words to continue,” she added, calling it “more proof that the Church of Scientology is unwavering in its policy of attacking people who expose it.”

Scobee, whose book Abuse at the Top chronicles her experience with Church of Scientology leaders including the incident that occurred when she was 14, said the letter is understandable given what she knows about the Church.

“It’s typical of a sleazy lawyer defending a criminal cult,” she responded.