LEAH REMINI WILL AIR EPISODE WITH DANNY MASTERSON’S ACCUSERS ON FEBRUARY 18

UPDATE: The episode has been delayed, again. See our newer story for more details.

The Underground Bunker has learned that an episode of A&E’s Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath featuring Scientologist actor Danny Masterson’s accusers will air on February 18, more than a year after it was pulled over concerns by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.

In March 2017, it was revealed that the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating the That ’70s Show actor for multiple violent rapes. The three initial accusers, all former Scientologists, had come forward to the LAPD the fall before, and by April 2017 the case was sent by the LAPD to the LA District Attorney’s office to consider filing charges. Remini then taped the episode for her show’s second season with the initial three accusers (a fourth accuser, who was never a Scientologist, came forward to the LAPD after the episode was completed).

Leah’s second season began airing in August 2017, but in November 2017 we revealed that the DA’s office had asked her not to broadcast the Masterson episode while they were still considering whether to charge the actor. Now, more than a year since then, A&E has decided that DA Jackie Lacey has had enough time to make up her mind about charges, and will air the episode.

And what is taking Lacey so long to decide? One of Masterson’s accusers tells us that a member of the DA’s office admitted to her several months ago that Scientology’s involvement in the matter was the reason for the delay. “When I asked him what was taking so long, he said, ‘Scientology. Without going into it, that’s the only way to summarize it.'”

Scientology, for example, discouraged at least two of the women from reporting their allegations to the police. It put one of them through bizarre therapy costing about $15,000 so she could discover what nefarious acts she had committed in past lives to deserve being victimized in this one. And it coordinated an effort to sabotage the case of the one woman who did report her rape to the police initially, in 2004, a case that the LAPD mysteriously later misplaced.

It seems impossible to separate the accusations against Danny Masterson (involving incidents that occurred between 2001 and 2004) from the actions of the Church of Scientology, which knew about at least some of the allegations and actively tried to keep authorities from knowing that there were multiple victims.

Only in 2016, in fact, did the women themselves begin to become aware that they were not alone. That fall, after the initial three women learned about each other, they went to law enforcement. More then two years later, they’re still waiting for an answer from Lacey.

And yet, while the case sits on Lacey’s desk, the accusers have been told that her office is solidly behind charges being filed. We reported previously that the managers in the office, as part of a special review committee, approved charging Masterson under a sex crimes penal code that carries a life sentence in prison. Also known as California’s “one-strike law,” state penal code 667.61 has been described as “among the state’s stiffest criminal sentencing provisions,” not only because it carries penalties of 15-to-Life and 25-to-Life for sex crimes, but also because the 1994 code, amended under “Jessica’s Law” in 2006, has no statute of limitations.

That review committee decision was made nearly a year ago. Still, Lacey waits.

As a result of that delay, however, the accusers have reported being subjected to persistent and bewildering harassment. We’ve reported on some of that activity, but there are many more allegations of surveillance and intimidation that we haven’t been able to write about, and that we do know the LAPD is taking seriously.

In at least one case, a detective expressed concern for his own safety during the investigation.

We expect that some of that material — the years of harassment, the initial efforts to keep the women from going to police, and the close relationship between the Church of Scientology and the LAPD — may be included in the episode, which we understand is being re-edited and updated for its Monday, February 18 airdate.

“I don’t know how many times a victim can be victimized by Scientology and Scientologists,” Leah Remini told us for a story in November that was ignored by other media. “These brave women first told their stories to their ‘church’ looking for justice and they got none. Instead what they received was Scientology justice, which consisted of the victims being made responsible for their own rapes. That is what Scientology teaches — that you are somehow responsible for your ‘condition.’ No matter your age, if you were raped, molested, or beaten, Scientology beliefs say you did something to ‘pull it in,’ going so far as to ask children if they — in a past life — had raped, molested or beaten someone. This is Scientology.

“We held off from airing our show because we did not want to hurt an ongoing investigation and yet, we are now told that Jackie Lacey has everything she needs to move forward with charges and has failed to act. And all the while, our victims have been harassed and followed by private investigators, followed and harassed by Scientologists, their phones and computers hacked… while the DA and the LAPD do nothing,” she says.

“I am so disgusted with law enforcement when it comes to Scientology, I really believed in the truth, in justice and this experience has left me so heartbroken for these courageous women who have yet to have anyone be their champion. What is it going to take?”

 
THE CASE

Victim A: Chrissie Carnell chose to reveal her identity after it was leaked by Masterson’s publicist to the press. She is married to At The Drive-In rocker Cedric Bixler-Zavala. In a letter she wrote to then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck complaining about the way his detectives were handling the case, she described the background of her case, that she had been in a relationship with Danny Masterson, but he allegedly anally raped and injured her while she was unconscious in an incident that occurred in December 2001. She hadn’t previously reported the rape to police because Scientology officials told her not to go to the police and then had punished her for being victimized. “They threatened me that if I ever told anyone or reported him to the police that I would be declared a ‘suppressive person’ and lose everything and everyone,” she said in her message to Chief Beck. “Then they put me on a massive ethics program as punishment. My rapist was not punished at all. They didn’t even call him to talk about it. I ended up breaking up with him two months later.” According to the LAPD report of her incident, she said that she was attacked and injured while she was unconscious: “Victim and suspect lived together for 6 years, but were not married. Vict went to bed and when she woke up and was bleeding from her anus. Vict confronted the suspect, he laug[h]ed at her and told her he had sex with her in her anus.” In 2016, when Carnell discovered for the first time that there were other accusers, she posted some tweets aimed at Masterson. Her husband Cedric then received a threatening letter from Masterson’s well known Hollywood attorney, Marty Singer.

Victim B: In the February 18 episode, Victim B’s identity will be revealed. She alleges that she was drugged and raped violently by Masterson at his home after a party in April 2003. According to the original police report of the incident, she alleged that Masterson choked her when she objected to being sexually assaulted by him. “SUSP (acquaintance) sexually assaulted the victim while she was passed out. The victim woke up while the suspect was having sex with her and struggled with him. The suspect choked the victim until she passed out,” the document reads. Victim B was “handled” by the Church of Scientology by forcing her to go through months of counseling — known as auditing — at the Advanced Org of Los Angeles (AOLA) to search for acts of wrongdoing in her past lives that would explain why she had been victimized in her current life. The auditing cost about $15,000. She was then put through intense interrogations, and then a bizarre scene was set up by the church, which insisted on putting Masterson and his accuser in the same room. Victim B was accompanied by three church officials, and then Masterson was brought in and told to listen carefully to her version of events because, he was told, he wasn’t properly “confronting” what he was accused of. Twice, Masterson interrupted Victim B’s account to make jokes, and the officials reacted angrily, cutting the meeting short. After that disastrous meeting, Victim B went to the LAPD on June 6, 2004, against the advice of the church. The LAPD told Victim B that they had been “bombarded” by an attorney representing Masterson, and the church had sent numerous affidavits by witnesses to contradict Victim B and support Masterson. Unless another victim came forward, Victim B was told, the investigation was being closed. (The church by then knew about Carnell’s allegations, but didn’t tell the LAPD.) After the case was closed, in August 2004 a church attorney brought Victim B a hand-written letter of apology from the actor, and asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Masterson so she would never make her allegations public. Under pressure from the church, which threatened to “declare” her (excommunicate her) unless she complied, she signed the agreement and was paid in the low six figures.

Victim C: In an interview, Victim C told us that she was raped by Masterson at his home in 2003. She had gotten to know him through the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, and after flirting with her he invited her to come over. She reports feeling strangely intoxicated after only a single glass of wine, and then found herself fending off Masterson in his shower. “I was saying ‘No, I don’t want to do this.’ He entered me, and I flipped out because I had been saying I didn’t want to do this,” she told us. Her next memory is being in his bed. “He flipped me over and just started pounding me. I was trying not to vomit. I said no like 50 times. But it was just sort of happening. I was saying no a lot, but it didn’t matter to him. I kept trying not to puke on his bed while he was doing it. It was pretty brutal. I said no 50 fucking times, but he wasn’t listening. And it was really horrible the way he was doing it.” Victim C did not report the incident to the church or the police, but she did tell a close friend, a veteran Hollywood actress, who told us that she was willing to testify that Victim C told her the details of the event immediately after it happened.

Victim D: Bobette Riales also chose to make her identity public, declaring it on Twitter in December 2017. An actress and model, she dated Masterson in 2003. Never a Scientologist, she didn’t comment further on her allegations, and we may not be able to detail them unless charges are filed. (When Bobette made her identity known, it had already been reported that a fourth accuser was talking to police. So when she went public, some news organizations mistakenly assumed she was a fifth accuser. While the police have looked into other possible victims, only four women have come forward and are participating in the investigation.)

 
TONIGHT’S EPISODE

There is also a new “special” episode of Aftermath airing tonight. It features Marc and Claire Headley, Amy Scobee, and Jefferson Hawkins telling Leah and Mike fascinating tales from their lives as Sea Org executives confined to Scientology’s secretive international management compound, known as both Int Base and Gold Base, located near Hemet, California.

 
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Start making your plans!

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Joy Villa’s former manager: ‘Scientology destroyed everything’
[TWO years ago] On the ‘Leah Remini’ Reddit special this week: A powerful Texas duo
[THREE years ago] Explain your vote, judge tells Maryland county that denied Scientology rehab
[FOUR years ago] Scientology takes out full-page ad in the New York Times to attack Alex Gibney
[FIVE years ago] Cheese from Scientology’s mecca, raspberries from Éire, and a Puerto Rican dessert!
[SIX years ago] Buzzfeed Takes a Close Look at Scientology’s “Ideal Org” Financing
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: Get Your Harem On!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 15, 2019 at 07:00

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