For the second time in lower than a 12 months, actor Danny Masterson sat in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday as prosecutors tried to make the case that he’s a serial rapist whose accusers’ voices had been quashed for years by the highly effective Church of Scientology.
Masterson, 47, is charged with a number of counts of rape stemming from allegations that he sexually assaulted three girls at his Hollywood Hills house between 2001 and 2003, close to the zenith of his fame for enjoying the mercurial Steven Hyde on the favored sitcom “That ’70s Present.” Prosecutors allege that he drugged two of the ladies earlier than sodomizing them.
The Los Angeles Police Division started investigating Masterson in 2016, however not less than one of many girls’s claims was delivered to the company’s consideration as early as 2003, authorities have stated. Former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey filed three counts of sexual assault in opposition to the actor in 2020. That prosecution led to a mistrial in November, after jurors instructed Superior Court docket Choose Charlaine Olmedo that they had been deadlocked.
Whereas church officers and Masterson’s attorneys have tried to downplay the relevance of the actor’s religion to the trial, all three accusers had been energetic members of Scientology on the time of the alleged assaults and stated the insular group labored to guard Masterson.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Reinhold Mueller displayed photographs of the church’s large Sundown Boulevard property and its movie star middle in Hollywood throughout his opening assertion Monday, whereas detailing Scientology doctrines that bar members from reporting each other to regulation enforcement.
“In the event you’re a member of the Church of Scientology and you’ve got a difficulty like this that’s give you one other member of the church who’s in good standing of the church, you aren’t permitted to go to regulation enforcement and report,” Mueller stated. “You can not do it. There are penalties for that.”
The church has denied that it has doctrines limiting when members can contact police. Former members have stated the church typically abhors exterior interference from any authorities group, together with regulation enforcement.
After a 2021 preliminary listening to in Masterson’s case, the choose concluded that Scientology has “an expressly written doctrine” that “not solely discourages, however prohibits” its members from reporting each other to regulation enforcement.
Scientology has disputed these assertions.
“Church coverage explicitly calls for Scientologists abide by all legal guidelines of the land, together with the reporting of crimes. That is blatantly clear within the paperwork we perceive had been put earlier than the court docket — and plenty of others,” Karin Pouw, the church’s high spokeswoman, stated to The Instances in a 2021 assertion.
She additionally famous that the church will not be a celebration within the felony case.
Throughout his opening argument, Mueller consistently revisited the concept that Masterson’s accusers had been torn between their religion and the abuse they allege.
A number of girls sought permission from church officers to report Masterson, in response to Mueller, however had been consistently rebuffed. One lady, recognized as Christina B., had been in a six-year romantic relationship with Masterson, she alleges, earlier than he sodomized her whereas she was unconscious in 2001. Christina B. stated a church ethics officer instructed her that the incident wasn’t rape as a result of the 2 had been courting, Mueller stated.
Throughout earlier hearings, the ladies stated that they had relations practising Scientology and feared that reporting Masterson to police would result in excommunication from not solely their religion, but additionally their households. Jen B., a second-generation Scientologist who alleged that Masterson drugged and violently raped her in 2003, stated her “life could be over” if she reported him on the time.
“My mother and father must disconnect from me. … I couldn’t speak to any of my buddies ever once more. … I wouldn’t have anyplace to work or stay,” she testified at a 2021 preliminary listening to.
The Instances typically doesn’t title victims of sexual assault except they select to totally establish themselves. To guard their privateness, the three girls accusing Masterson had been recognized in court docket by both their first title and final preliminary or their first preliminary and final title.
Masterson additionally was born into the religion, in response to Mueller. The actor’s protection staff is anticipated to supply its opening remarks Monday afternoon.
Masterson has contended that the allegations in opposition to him had been dredged up, partially, to spice up a tv sequence launched by actress Leah Remini, a former Scientologist who has turn into one of many religion’s most outspoken critics.
Remini, who didn’t attend the preliminary trial final 12 months, was in court docket Monday. Protection legal professional Shawn Holley tried to have Remini thrown out on the grounds she would possibly function a witness within the trial. Olmedo denied Holley’s request.
Holley stated in court docket that she might name Remini — who additionally gained fame for her position in a sitcom, “The King of Queens” — as a witness to debate conversations with Masterson’s accusers.
“The ladies who Danny raped deserve justice for what they’ve been put by way of, not solely by Danny however by Scientology which has tried to destroy them for reporting their rapes,” Remini stated on Twitter.
Whereas the church has bemoaned being linked to the trial, that has not stopped its members from taking part in an element within the case and its media protection. A Scientology group that portrays itself as preventing discrimination in opposition to the church started attacking Remini on Twitter as quickly as information of her presence in court docket surfaced.
The prosecution’s proof and witness record is anticipated to be largely much like what was offered final 12 months. On Monday, Mueller described a brand new allegation in opposition to Masterson, levied by a lady who was engaged on a movie in Toronto in 2000 when she met the actor at a wrap occasion.
Mueller stated the girl, Kathy J., claimed that Masterson served her a drink earlier than she grew to become weak. When she requested for his assist to succeed in a toilet, he led her to a bed room in a lodge suite and raped her, in response to Mueller.
The girl reported the rape to her husband months later and didn’t inform police in Toronto till Masterson was charged in Los Angeles, Mueller stated.
Prosecutors reviewed 5 assault allegations in opposition to Masterson and introduced expenses from three claims. Through the preliminary trial, the accusers stated Masterson usually flew into explosive rages. One lady claimed he brandished a gun and choked her unconscious whereas raping her. His ex-girlfriend, Christina B., stated he beat her a number of instances throughout their relationship and compelled himself on her whereas she was asleep.
Regardless of the testimony, prosecutors appeared removed from a conviction final 12 months. Earlier than jurors instructed Olmedo they had been deadlocked, a ballot of the panel discovered that fewer than half the jurors had been prepared to convict Masterson of any depend.
