Scientology church looms over actor Danny Masterson rape case

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-17/whos-on-trial-danny-
masterson-or-the-church-of-scientology

The two sides agree on one thing: The Church of Scientology is not on
trial.

Yet, when prosecutors and actor Danny Masterson’s defense team met in a
downtown Los Angeles courtroom recently for a final meeting before
Masterson’s rape trial, much of the legal wrangling was over the role the
controversial religion would play in the proceedings.

Masterson’s lawyers wanted Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine
Olmedo to bar any mention of Scientology throughout the trial, which is
expected to begin Tuesday. Deputy Dist. Atty. Reinhold Mueller argued that
he should have free rein to invoke Scientology.

Masterson, a Scientologist, is charged with raping three women between
2001 and 2003. The women allege he plied them with alcohol and sexually
assaulted them at his Hollywood Hills home.

The women were also members of Scientology and allege that church
officials tried to stop them from reporting Masterson to police.

One accuser testified that when she reported the rape to Scientology
officials, she was told “not to use the ‘R-word.’” Another testified that
a lawyer for Scientology came to her home and warned that she would be
expelled from the church if she went to authorities about Masterson.

Scientology’s secrets spill into open in Danny Masterson rape case
Women who have accused Danny Masterson of rape testified that Scientology
officials tried to stop them from reporting the alleged attacks to police.

May 27, 2021

“We’re going to work out how you can not lose your daughter,” the attorney
told the woman’s father, according to her testimony.

“The trial is not about Scientology. The trial is about Danny Masterson.
But that being said, the facts of what happened, why certain things
happened, who was involved ... it’s so interwoven that certain parts of
the trial will necessarily have to involve Scientology,” said Brian Kent,
who represents Masterson’s accusers in a civil lawsuit they brought
against the church and Masterson.

Masterson, who gained some level of celebrity for his role in the popular
sitcom “That ’70s Show,” faces decades in prison if he is convicted of
raping the women.

At a preliminary hearing last year, each of the women testified,
recounting the alleged attacks in graphic detail. One said Masterson
threatened her with a gun as he raped her while she faded in and out of
consciousness.

Appeals court says accusers’ case against Church of Scientology can
proceed
A California appeals court says Danny Masteron’s accusers’ case against
the Church of Scientology can move ahead.

Jan. 21, 2022

“You’re not gonna f—ing tell anybody,” she recalled him saying.

Another accuser said she had awoken to Masterson, her boyfriend at the
time, penetrating her. When she tried to stop him by pulling his hair, he
hit her in the face, she testified.

The Times does not name victims of alleged sexual assault unless they
choose to identify themselves.

Scientology practices were scrutinized during the preliminary hearing.
Masterson’s accusers testified about a range of topics, including the
religion’s “international justice chief,” described as the church’s
ultimate authority, and “wog-law,” a term the church uses dismissively to
refer to the secular world’s police and courts.

Can former Scientologists take the church to court? Or are religious
tribunals the only recourse?
Danny Masterson’s case has refocused attention on religious arbitration,
in which disputes are settled outside of courts, with little or no public
scrutiny.

Nov. 28, 2021

But that was not in front of a jury.

With impressionable jurors set to determine Masterson’s fate, his attorney
Phillip Cohen argued at the hearing earlier this month that the actor’s
proximity to the much-maligned religion will be used to paint him as
guilty by association.

“It is disingenuous to say the government is not placing Scientology on
trial,” Cohen told Olmedo. He added that being forced to battle over
Scientology doctrine will make the trial an unfair “war on two fronts” and
suggested the judge allow only nonspecific references to “the church.”

Prosecutors countered that Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard in the
1950s, is fundamental to everything the women went through and should be
mentioned by name at trial.

“It’s about their entire life being wrapped up in this church,” Mueller
said at the Oct. 3 hearing. “If they don’t follow certain policies ...
they lose that entire life.

“It’s not just as simple as not talking about Scientology,” he added,
saying jurors would be confused if the prosecution referred to Scientology
merely as a church.

Prosecutors also sought the judge’s permission to have a former
Scientologist testify as an expert witness about the structure of the
organization and how it operates.

Olmedo struck a middle ground in her ruling.

Saying the church’s “tentacles” undeniably reach into many facets of the
trial, she excluded the prosecution’s proposed expert, but found that the
religion is relevant. She rejected Cohen’s argument that it should not be
named because of negative views jurors may have.

“Evidence presented in criminal cases often involve subject matters that
many of the public view with disdain, including gangs, guns and violence,”
Olmedo said. “The fact that any individual has a negative view of any
particular subject matter does not, per se, render that person unfit to
serve as a juror.”

The accusers can explain how Scientology led them to delay reporting their
sexual assaults to police, Olmedo said. She added that they could tell
jurors about their belief that church policy prohibits reporting crimes
committed by other Scientologists to law enforcement.

The Church of Scientology declined to comment on the pending criminal
matter, but said the religion has no policy against reporting crimes
committed by Scientologists to law enforcement.

“Church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the
land,” spokeswoman Karin Pouw said.

The court is performing a balancing act, letting in references to
Scientology where it is necessary to give context, while not allowing the
case to devolve into a trial within a trial, said Lou Shapiro, a defense
attorney and former public defender in Los Angeles County.

“Judges are reluctant to let trials go down rabbit holes,” Shapiro said.

Olmedo compared the case to the 2011 rape prosecution of Warren Jeffs, the
self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. The tenets of the Mormonism offshoot were admitted at
trial to provide context for why a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl
submitted to rapes at the hands of Jeffs, Olmedo said.

According to a list of potential witnesses filed in court, prosecutors
plan to call Brie Shaffer, an actress and high-ranking Scientologist who
has defended Masterson on social media in the past. They also may call
Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s daughter, a Scientologist who
reportedly left the church in 2014.

Mike Rinder, a former high-ranking member who left the church in 2007,
said Scientologists involved in other criminal cases have been relocated
by church officials outside a court’s jurisdiction to keep them from
testifying.

“There are certain people who apparently are very integral to the events
... and I wonder if they are going to appear at the trial,” Rinder said.

The three women alleging Masterson raped them are also plaintiffs in a
lawsuit filed against the Church of Scientology in 2019. They say they
were harassed and stalked by Scientology after reporting Masterson to
police. The lawsuit will move forward after the criminal trial.

The women allege that representatives of Scientology followed them, came
to their homes and went through their trash in an attempt to intimidate
them.

One says in the suit that her dog may have been poisoned to death by
representatives of the church.

Masterson’s lawyers fought to keep the allegations of stalking and
harassment from the civil case out of the criminal trial.

“The only thing the jury could use this evidence to really consider would
be emotional bias to convict Mr. Masterson based on the conduct of this
alleged, uncharged co-defendant of the Church,” Karen Goldstein, another
attorney for Masterson, said at the Oct. 3 hearing.

Goldstein noted that prosecutors had turned over to the defense a photo of
the “admittedly ... very cute little dog.”

Olmedo ruled there was to be no mention of the dog. The women, she
decided, can speak in general terms about the alleged harassment or
stalking, but they cannot go into detail of specific incidents.

Times staff writers James Queally and Matthew Ormseth contributed to this
report.


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