At a courtroom in Los Angeles yesterday, the two sides preparing for Danny Masterson’s rape trial that is scheduled to begin next week spent the day fighting over what evidence will be allowed in.
Numerous potential witnesses were discussed who will provide testimony for each of the three counts of forcible rape. The three victims are referred to in the case as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, and Jane Doe 3, although Jane Doe 3 has identified herself publicly as Chrissie Carnell-Bixler, saying that she felt forced to go public with her name after it was given to the press by Masterson’s publicist when news of the investigation first broke in 2017.
When the DA’s office charged Masterson with raping the three women in incidents that had taken place between 2001 and 2003, the charging papers revealed that the DA had also considered, but didn’t charge, on allegations by two other women.
One of those women alleged that she had been sexually abused by Masterson in 1996, when he would have been only about 20 years old.
Yesterday, one of the many issues that both sides argued over was that the prosecutor, Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller, plans to bring that 1996 victim into the courtroom.
She was referred to by Mueller as an “1108” witness, also known as a “prior bad acts” witness. (We are holding back this witness’s name because of the nature of her allegations.)
According to the prosecution, this witness, who was never a Scientologist, will testify that in 1996 she felt drugged when she was with Masterson, and twice woke up to find him penetrating her.
Masterson’s criminal defense attorney Philip Cohen objected, claiming that the witness did not characterize the incident as rape but merely “really shitty behavior.”
Judge Olmedo did not immediately rule on the matter, and will save her rulings after a second day of arguments today that will set the parameters of the trial, which is scheduled to begin in a week.
Another thing we learned from yesterday’s hearing is that the prosecution has a long list of witnesses it plans to call. Cohen complained that the list contained 12 law enforcement officials, 18 civilians, and two experts.
Earlier we told you that one of those experts is former Sea Org official Claire Headley. We also learned the identity of the second expert: Mindy Mechanic, a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Cal State Fullerton, and an expert on mental health consequences of violence. She will testify about the delay in reporting from Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3.
Masterson was in attendance at the hearing, even though he wasn’t required to be. And along with him was a new member of his legal team, Karen L. Goldstein. She objected to Mechanic’s inclusion, saying that it would prejudice the jury to have an expert when the words of Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 are sufficient.
Goldstein also objected to Claire Headley, pointing out that she had sued Scientology and had appeared on Leah Remini’s show, and she said that Claire was “clearly not an unbiased person.”
The prosecution responded that Claire would be testifying specifically to help understand Scientology language and documents, not about her own experiences.
The defense also objected to the prosecution’s plan to bring in evidence about more than 20 instances of harassment of the victims since they came forward to the LAPD in 2016.
The prosecution responded that although they actually have evidence of many more instances than that, for the trial they plan only to go through a couple of them, such as the death of two dogs owned by Jane Doe 3.
The defense also wants to keep out Masterson’s DJ name at the time of the incidents, “DJ Donkey Punch,” and the prosecution indicated that it didn’t plan to bring it up unless the defense did at some point.
The defense also wants to keep out any mention of a man Jane Doe 2 accused of raping her before Masterson did. If you remember from our interview of Jane Doe 2 in 2017 (we called her “Victim C” then), she said she didn’t report her alleged rape by Masterson to either the police or the church because of how the church had handled the previous incident. The prosecution does want to go into this matter during the trial.
Earlier in the day, as we reported, the defense had asked for a delay in the trial because of mayoral candidate Rick Caruso’s campaign ads criticizing Scientology.
Cohen told Judge Olmedo that Caruso’s ads, and statements by his opponent Karen Bass that she was against Scientology’s practices, was creating an environment that would make it difficult for Masterson to get a fair trial. He said that polls had indicated that Scientology was “the most nefarious, notorious religion.” And every time it was mentioned, it would distract the jury from what he characterized as really just a simple case of “he said, she said.”
Judge Olmedo responded by asking if using the word “Scientology” was more inflammatory than evidence regarding gangs, white supremacy, or serial killers, which was all evidence that came into her cases without being excluded from court.
She said she would rule on the matter after today’s session.
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NEW AT SUBSTACK: Judge Olmedo denies Masterson’s request for a delay, and more. Here’s the link.
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Technology Cocktail
“Making a meter read falsely low with cream or falsely high with talcum powder or wiping hands continually will not handle the pc’s CASE. That is what the auditor is there to do, not make his session look good! The funniest one I have ever heard was a Solo auditor who had high TA trouble. So he used to fill up a bathtub with scalding water, fill the bathroom full of clouds of steam and then sit in the bath, holding onto his electrodes ‘Solo auditing.’ It gave him a lower TA but it sure didn’t give him any case result. We maybe ought to have a contest as to who can come up with the most comical actual instances of falsifying meter reads.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1972
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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?
— The Underground Bunker Podcast
[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack
— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see
[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf
— SPECIAL: Your Proprietor’s updates
— The Underground Bunker Podcast on YouTube
[1] Marc Headley
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“I don’t know whether parts of the body will rebuild or not. Auditors have hazarded that and they’re working on it. They’re trying to figure it out, trying to get the third tooth to grow where a tooth’s been pulled, trying to get this to happen and that to happen and trying to get a finger to grow, something like that. People’s limbs have lengthened two, three, four inches; their spines have lengthened, their height’s grown. And I’ve seen places on the body fill in where chunks had been pulled out. But I haven’t seen a whole limb grow, or I haven’t seen half a limb grow, I mean, and complete itself and be a full limb again. I don’t know. Possibly something to do with structural pattern or the bud or something has to be implanted along the line or something. One of these days we’ll find out what that is and then we’ll all have two heads.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 4, 1953
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“FESTIVAL: The GREAT PEANUT RACE is the next major event of the Festival! The three lowest hour auditors in the last five days will engage in a death defying race pushing each a peanut around the entire circle of the Prom Deck amid the cheers of the multitude. The Contestants should be equipt with knee pads and gloves. Three peanuts must be provided of suitable size with spares in case of a track crack up.” — The Commodore, October 4, 1971
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“Some folks said that LRH never conceived of the Internet. Well, he was still alive when computer networks were already in existence, and governments had sent digital transmissions across the country long before that. So why would LRH announce future communications technologies when those concepts had already been in the scope of design since the 60s? So Berners-Lee came up with something practical along that line around the late 80s. Where do some people think LRH came up with the term ‘Terminal’ from? Does he need to get more specific?”
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1995: Chief legal terrorist for Scientology, Helena Kobrin, posted a warning concerning ‘Fair Use.’ I have not included the text of Dennis’ post that she refers to because it doesn’t seem to exist. Helena isn’t getting enough sleep: “Dennis Erlich and others have posted notices of their intention to post all of the Scientology OT materials a little bit at a time under the guise of ‘fair use.’ It does not take great genius to realize that fair use means that the use is ‘fair.’ To be ‘fair,’ a use must meet certain explicit criteria, and the fair use defense is not an invitation to a free-for-all. No court is going to accept that publication of all of a work through a series of smaller postings under an announced plan to destroy the owner’s rights through such a scheme is ‘fair use.'”
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“J&D is hard. Anybody can write something serious and emotional and get all the upvotes. We comedians are the true artistes.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Trial scheduled for October 11.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Arraigned on August 29.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff scheduled to be sentenced on Oct 28.
— Rizza Islam, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for October 24 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for September 19.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Found guilty of criminal and civil contempt.
Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court, Scientology moving to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs filed amended complaint on August 2.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Selection of arbitrators underway. Next court hearing: February 2, 2023.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place, next status hearing October 25. Scientology petitioning US Supreme Court over appellate ruling.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for December 6.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.
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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON
We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. 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 a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Is this a list of all of Scientology’s active subsidiary corporations that a tipster fed us?
[TWO years ago] Scientology once again confirms our estimates for its tiny size
[THREE years ago] For $100, Scientologist sorcerer will share secret of living to 150 (and we have the secret!)
[FOUR years ago] Scientology has its whales — and now the Underground Bunker does too!
[FIVE years ago] Is Scientology’s notorious prison detail — the ‘RPF’ — a thing of the past?
[SIX years ago] Pam Bondi thrills at Scientology’s mecca, Hungarian TV bends over, & other updates
[SEVEN years ago] Meet the young Hollywood types who introduced Cathriona White to Scientology
[EIGHT years ago] Jon Atack: How to talk to a Scientologist to plant the seeds of doubt
[NINE years ago] WORLD PREMIERE: The Shrinking Cult of Scientology, A Video By Tiziano Lugli
[TEN years ago] Mark Bunker Speaks, and Atlanta Burns
[ELEVEN years ago] Philip Boyd, Saving Grace Actor, Rips “The Business That Is Scientology”
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,807 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,312 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,862 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,852 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,743 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,048 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,918 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,023 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,496 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,812 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,378 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,297 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,465 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,045 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,307 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,343 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,058 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,623 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 938 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,113 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,664 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,795 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,133 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,988 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,107 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,463 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,766 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,872 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,270 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,146 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,729 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,224 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,478 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,587 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 4, 2022 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2021 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast
