?Last October we told you the dramatic story of young Daniel Montalvo, a 19-year-old who had been brought up in Scientology but had made a dramatic break for freedom — only to be thrown in jail by the LA Sheriff’s Office on behalf of revenge-minded Scientologists.
Since that time, we’ve kept in touch with Daniel and the actor Jason Beghe, whose Malibu ranch has been Montalvo’s protective sanctuary as Scientology continued to send private eyes and process servers at him.
Today, Daniel turns 20 years old. Yesterday, he filed two stunning lawsuits against Scientology with the help of attorney S. Christopher “Kit” Winter.
Winter helped Montalvo avoid the grand reaching that tends to characterize lawsuits against Scientology, and instead kept his complaints laser-focused on damning charges about how children are used by the church in troubling ways.
Specifically, Montalvo’s lawsuits paint a picture of a child who was essentially abandoned by his two Scientologist parents to the organization, was signed to a billion-year contract at only 6 years of age, and through his teens was forced to work up to 100 hours a week with only the barest schooling, and for wretched pay (about $35 a week).