The legal war between Leah Remini and the Church of Scientology has taken a sharp turn toward the Los Angeles Police Department. On Friday, April 17, 2026, reports surfaced that the Church is aggressively pushing the LAPD to “fork over” internal records and testimony regarding the 2013 investigation into the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige.
The move is a strategic escalation in Remini’s ongoing 2023 harassment and defamation lawsuit against the organization. The Church’s legal team is now targeting what they claim was an “unauthorized leak” of information back in 2013, when Remini first filed a missing persons report for Shelly. This Leah Remini Scientology Shelly Miscavige leak controversy centers on how certain details of the LAPD’s “wellness check”—which concluded the case was “unfounded”—made their way to the press.
Church lawyers are reportedly seeking to depose current and former LAPD officers to determine if Remini or her associates had “improper influence” over the department. They argue that:
• Preferential Treatment: The Church claims Remini used her celebrity status to trigger an investigation that should never have been opened.
• Confidentiality Breaches: They are demanding to know who leaked the fact that a missing persons report had even been filed before the investigation was closed.
• Discrediting Remini: By framing the 2013 investigation as a “coordinated smear campaign,” the Church hopes to undermine Remini’s current claims of systemic harassment and “Fair Game” tactics.
Despite the LAPD closing the case in 2013, stating they had made “face-to-face” contact with her, Shelly Miscavige has not been seen in public since August 2007. Remini has long maintained that the LAPD’s check was insufficient and that Shelly is being held against her will at a secure compound near Lake Arrowhead.
In her latest court filings, Remini’s team blasted the Church’s attempt to drag the LAPD into the discovery process, calling it a “distraction” and an “intimidation tactic” designed to drain her financial resources before the case reaches trial.
As of April 18, 2026, the lawsuit—which includes allegations of stalking, surveillance, and intentional infliction of emotional distress—is moving toward a late-year trial date. A judge recently denied the Church’s motion to strike large portions of Remini’s complaint, keeping the focus on whether the organization’s response to her departure from the faith constituted illegal harassment.
With the LAPD now caught in the crossfire, this “leak” investigation could force the department to reveal exactly what happened during that 2013 meeting with Shelly—a secret they have guarded for over a decade.
