Statement from Sara C. Colón, Partner at Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan LLP, Counsel for Elisha Priscylla Leigh, Melanie Lee, Kylie Douglas, Aubrey Fisher-Greene, Kailea Gray, Kevin Davis, Haley Elizabeth Phipps, Marilyn and David Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES, June 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Dancing for the Devil: the 7M TikTok Cult, is a documentary currently streaming on Netflix, which examines the experiences of several former members of an alleged cult called Shekinah. The documentary references a lawsuit filed by those former members, including our clients, Elisha Priscylla Leigh, Kylie Douglas, Aubrey Fisher-Greene, Kailea Gray, and Kevin Davis among others. The lawsuit is currently pending in Los Angeles Superior Court and is set to go to trial on July 7, 2025. Our clients filed their lawsuit after Shekinah's leader, Robert Shinn, filed his own lawsuit complaining about statements they had made on social media. Robert Shinn's company, 7M, has recently issued a statement in response to the documentary accusing our clients of lying and making threats of further legal action. Our clients remain undeterred in their pursuit of justice.

In fact, some of our clients have already successfully defeated many of the claims brought by Mr. Shinn and his associates because those claims violated our clients' First Amendment rights. As a result, the court has ordered Mr. Shinn and other plaintiffs to pay more than $75,000 in attorneys' fees to those clients.

Our clients have also filed their own claims against Mr. Shinn and his associates. Their countersuit includes claims of sexual battery, sex trafficking, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, labor code violations, forced labor, and unjust enrichment, among others. Although Mr. Shinn attacked that countersuit in court seeking to have it dismissed on grounds of first amendment protection of religious organizations, the statute of limitations grounds and others, the central claims of the countersuit all survived. The case is now in the discovery phase.

The countersuit alleges that for nearly twenty-three years, Mr. Shinn and other Cross-Defendants subjected our clients to brainwashing, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, manipulation, and exploitation. The full countersuit can be found here: Third Amended Cross-Complaint.

Our clients have expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support from the public since the release of the documentary. They hope that their lawsuit will hold Robert Shinn and his associates in Shekinah legally accountable for all their alleged wrongdoing. Our clients look forward to presenting their case to a jury and are confident the truth will prevail.

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SOURCE Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan LLP