[UPDATE: See our reports from the courtroom below, after the victim descriptions.]
We’re on the scene this morning in Los Angeles, bringing you coverage at Los Angeles Superior Court as Danny Masterson faces a preliminary hearing on charges that he raped three different women.
A “prelim” is an important step that asks a prosecutor to convince a judge that enough evidence exists to justify scheduling a criminal trial later in the year, at which Masterson would be facing 45 years to life in prison if he’s convicted.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 8:30 am on the ninth floor of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles, and our understanding is that we will not be allowed to take any electronic devices into the courtroom of Judge Charlaine Olmedo, who ruled earlier that there would be no camera coverage today.
Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller, in a previous appearance, estimated that his presentation would take four days to complete. We are anticipating that Masterson’s defense attorney Tom Mesereau will try to throw a wrench into that schedule or even torpedo the hearing altogether, but if he’s unsuccessful we expect that today Mueller will put one of the three women on the witness stand who are alleging that they were raped by Masterson in incidents between 2001 and 2003. Masterson himself is expected to be in attendance.
It should be emotional and contentious.
Whatever happens, we’ll do our best to rush from the courtroom and get you our impressions based on the copious notes we’ll be taking.
In the meantime, let us set the table by reminding you, and bringing up to speed newcomers, on the background of this case that has brought us to this dramatic moment.
In March 2017, we first broke the news here at the Underground Bunker that the LAPD was investigating Danny Masterson and the Church of Scientology. From the beginning, we have been giving you detailed accounts about the allegations being made by each of the women who have come forward and who will now be testifying in this preliminary hearing. Time and time again, the other media pretend that virtually nothing is known about the allegations by each of these women except for the barest description of them provided by DA Jackie Lacey last year, when that is simply not the case. Once again, we’ll provide a scorecard for you.
Jane Doe #1 (Also Jane Doe #1 in the civil suit, and “Victim B” in our initial reporting.)
[Lacey’s press release: “In April 2003, Masterson allegedly raped a 28-year-old woman…”]
Jane Doe #1 was a friend of Masterson’s but they were not dating when she attended a party at his house in April 2003. Late that night, according to an initial police report, she began to feel suspiciously drowsy after a single drink the actor brought her, and he tossed her in his backyard jacuzzi, then carried her up to his upstairs room. In and out of consciousness, she came to and realized that he was allegedly raping her. When she tried to push him away, she alleges that he choked her and brandished a firearm. When she complained to the church, it put her through months of bizarre counseling (known as “auditing” in Scientology) asking her to examine her past lives to find what evil things she had done in earlier centuries that would cause her to be a victim in this lifetime. The counseling cost her about $15,000 and was designed to keep her from going to the police, but she defied her “handlers” and went to the LAPD in June 2004. Scientology responded by submitting affidavits from church members calling her a liar, and the police closed the case, telling Jane Doe 1 that they couldn’t continue it without other victims coming forward. When her case was re-opened in 2016 after Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 came forward, the police department found that the reports from the 2004 investigation had mysteriously disappeared. After the original LAPD investigation was closed in 2004, a church attorney brought Jane Doe 1 a hand-written letter of apology from Masterson and asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement so she would never make her allegations public. Under pressure from the church, which threatened to “declare” her unless she complied, she signed the agreement and was paid in the low six figures. Key evidence bolstering Jane Doe 1’s case is documentation by her own mother which included correspondence with the church at the time, including her complaints to Scientology leader David Miscavige, proof that he was aware of the allegations and how the church was handling them. Also, in recent court hearings we have learned that although the LAPD mysteriously lost its version of Jane Doe 1’s 2004 file, the DA’s office still had its copy, and shared it with the Masterson defense.
Jane Doe #2 (Also Jane Doe #2 in the civil suit, and “Victim C” in our initial reporting.)
[Lacey’s press release: “…and sometime between October and December of that year he is accused of raping a 23-year-old woman who he had invited to his Hollywood Hills home.”]
Like Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 was someone who had known Masterson but was not dating him when she accepted his invitation and went to his house in late 2003. She told us what happened in an interview, including this disturbing quote: “He flipped me over and just started pounding me. I was trying not to vomit. 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. And it was really horrible the way he was doing it.” Key evidence in Jane Doe 2’s case is that a veteran actress (we’re not naming her) told us that Jane Doe 2 recounted these details to her at the time, in 2003, and that the details of her allegations have never changed.
[From DA Jackie Lacey’s June 17 press release: “The defendant is accused of raping a 23-year-old woman between January and December 2001, according to the complaint.”]
Jane Doe #3 dated Masterson for six years but then broke up with him after, she says, he raped her anally while she was unconscious in 2001. She reported the incident to the church at the time, which encouraged her not to take her allegations to law enforcement. In 2016 she learned for the first time that there were other women who had allegations against Masterson, and so she decided, with two of them, to approach the LAPD. She’s been outspoken about Masterson and appeared on the final episode of Leah Remini’s A&E series “Scientology and the Aftermath” which is now on Netflix. In August 2019, Jane Doe 3, along with three other victims, filed a civil lawsuit against Masterson and the Church of Scientology over the harassment they say they’ve been through for coming forward. She was also joined as a plaintiff by her husband, and the two of them talked to us about the surveillance they’ve been subjected to, which they say has included the death of two of their dogs.
UPDATES from today’s hearing will appear beginning here…
We’re out of the courtroom on a short break.
Jane Doe 1 has begun her testimony, and Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller has been guiding her with questions so she can explain how she ended up at Danny Masterson’s house on the night of April 24, 2003.
Danny’s sister Alanna Masterson is in the courtroom, and I believe so is his brother Christopher and his mother Carol, but it’s hard to be sure with everyone wearing masks.
Danny himself is at the defense table, along with his attorneys Tom Mesereau and Sharon Appelbaum.
Mueller has been carefully bringing out who the other people present were that night, including Danny’s close friend Luke Watson, his assistant Brie Shaffer, and publicist Jenni Weinman.
It’s about 1:30 in the morning, Danny has given JD1 a drink, and he’s announced that he’s going to throw her in the pool.
He then threw her in the jacuzzi. That’s where we ended before the break. Going back in now.
UPDATE 2: Lunch Break
We’re out on lunch and I have a lot to report since the last break. Jane Doe 1 concluded her emotional testimony and Tom Mesereau began his cross-examination. OK, here goes…
Jane Doe 1 picked up after the break by describing Danny Masterson, at about 2 in the morning April 25, 2003, tossing her into his jacuzzi. He had pulled her by her wrists through the house and out the back, and told her she knew the 15-second rule
15-second rule? She explained that Danny would give you 15 seconds to remove things from your pockets before he tossed you in the pool or jacuzzi. She said that she pulled off her leather boots and was unzipping her pants — she didn’t want them to get wet, but she wasn’t sure if she had succeeded or not.
At this point she starts to explain that some fuzziness had come over her. Some 20 to 30 minutes after sipping from the red cocktail Danny had given her, she was losing control of her motor skills and her brain was “blurry.”
She said that she had tried to grab her chair when he started to pull her, but suddenly she didn’t have her normal strength, for example.
Once he tossed her in the jacuzzi, she remembers three other people in the pool. Two women she didn’t know, and Jimmy Debello.
Jane Doe 1 said she was upset. She had to be somewhere in the morning, she had no change of clothes, and she was soaking wet. Luke Watson brought her a towel and helped her get out of the jacuzzi. She was getting more and more overtaken by whatever was affecting her. “I couldn’t stand up. Something’s wrong,” she told Watson.
“I felt that I didn’t have the ability to stand.” She also experience shallow breathing, and her vision was affected. “Luke, I can’t see,” she said. He told her to open her eyes.
Jane Doe 1 was crying at this point on the stand, trying to make us understand how scary this was. She couldn’t see because she couldn’t open her eyes. She felt nauseous and couldn’t breathe properly.
She was having a hard time sitting up, and Luke was holding her. “I felt like I was going to throw up,” she said.
Then, she heard a sound behind her. The sound men’s shorts make, a swishing sound. And then Danny Masterson’s voice.
“She just needs to throw up,” he said.
She remembered Danny saying that he was going to take her upstairs and stick his fingers down her throat. At that point, she says, Danny and Luke argued over it. Luke wanted to take her, and was trying to keep Danny from doing it.
Danny picked her up, and then she really felt like she was spinning. “Put me down! I’m going to throw up,” she remembers saying.
She said Danny then said something to Luke that implied that Watson knew it wasn’t safe for Danny to be alone with her at that point. Jane Doe 1 remembers Danny saying to Luke, “She’s my homie. I would never — ”
Danny then carried her upstairs, and she didn’t want to go. “I wanted to stay outdoors,” she said. Danny took her to a bathroom at the top of the stairs. And at that point, Mueller pointed out that there was a bathroom downstairs that he could have taken her to without having to make the effort to carry her up steps.
Once Danny got her to the upstairs bathroom, she testified, he put her on the floor and then shoved his fingers down her throat. She threw up all over herself, and in her hair.
“Oh, you’re disgusting. You threw up everywhere!” Danny complained. She then laid down on the cold tile and felt better. She just wanted to stay there.
At this point, she thinks she lost consciousness, fell asleep, and then the rest of that night she remembers coming to for short periods, and so her memories are of those brief periods of consciousness.
The next thing she remembered was hearing a shower and hearing Danny say “You have to go in the shower, you’re disgusting.” He pulled her into the shower, and now she realized that she had no top on. She didn’t remember her clothes being pulled off. She might have still had panties, but she isn’t sure.
He was holding her up in the shower, and when she looked down, he was soaping her breasts.
“I couldn’t believe his hands were on my breasts,” she said. Then he held her against the tile and told her to take a bar of soap from him. But then she dropped it. He pushed her down to pick it up, which she struggled with, but when she finally got hold of the soap, he pulled her back up by her hair.
“Pick up the fucking soap!” he had yelled at her.
She also remembers being pulled out of the shower, and a towel. Then she remembers him picking her up by her arms and hoisting her onto his bed in his darkened bedroom.
“When I came to he was on top of me and he was inside of me,” Jane Doe 1 testified. She was on her back and Danny had penetrated her.
She said she remembers grabbing at his hair and also grabbing a pillow and smashing it into his face, but she said he smashed it back down on her face, held it there, and she lost consciousness again.
This was difficult for Jane Doe 1 to say, but then Mueller, knowing that he had to get things down more explicitly, asked her to confirm that she was referring to Masterson’s penis being in her vagina. Jane Doe bravely answered “yes” to each of his questions.
“I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see, and I was unconscious,” she said, explaining what happened when he shoved the pillow in her face, crying as she testified.
She came to again, and she tried reaching toward a nightstand next to the bed. She remembers him putting his hand around her throat and squeezing with one hand, while holding her wrists with the other, all while he was still inside her.
Mueller asked if she remembered what Danny was saying, and she remembers him telling her, “This feels good, you like this. And you’re not going to tell Paige, you’re not going to tell Lisa. You’re not going to tell fucking anybody.”
This, we learned, was a reference to something that had happened months earlier, in September 2002, and we would come back to it later in the testimony.
Another unconscious period, and then Jane Doe 1 came to again. This time, she heard a voice at the door. Danny was still penetrating her. But he stopped at the sound of the voice. “Don’t move. Don’t say a fucking word,” she remembers him saying. Danny got up and she heard the door open, but she heard nothing. She passed out again.
Eventually, she remembers rolling off of the bed onto the floor. And then she began crawling. She hit a door and reached up to open it, then went inside. She didn’t realize it was a closet. But she found a pile of clothes and got into a fetal position in it.
At some point, she heard Masterson calling out her name. Then she woke, and it was early daylight. She was very cold.
Mueller at that point put up a photo of Danny’s bedroom, and she showed which doorway led to the bathroom, and which was the closet door she had crawled into. At some point, she crawled out of the closet, and Danny was on the bed. “What the fuck are you doing?” he asked her. He picked her up and put her on the bed, but she said he didn’t touch her after that.
She doesn’t remember getting dressed. Eventually she went downstairs and ran into Luke Watson. “Luke, what happened?” she asked him. And his answer was strange: “Nope. Nope. Nope. You’re going straight to the president’s office.”
The judge asked Jane Doe 1 to explain this, and she said that the “president” referred to the president of the Celebrity Centre, who at that time was Susan Watson, Luke’s mother.
Luke helped her get a cab so she could get to his house, where she still had an overnight bag and her car from the previous evening. Brie Shaffer also lived there, and had left a “Things that shouldn’t be” report about what had happened, from Brie’s perspective (they were supposed to be helping her get to the airport for an early flight.)
Jane Doe 1 drove to her parents’ house. She knew they’d be worried about her because she hadn’t called (her phone was dead) and she was supposed to be there hours ago. It was her father’s birthday, and after a noon barbecue they would be taking a flight, as a group, that night to Florida for a week in Clearwater as a vacation.
At this point, Mueller spent some time asking Jane Doe 1 questions to help the judge understand what it was like to be a second generation Scientologist in this position. How strict the hierarchy is and how iron-clad the policies. And then he asked her the consequences if she didn’t follow those policies.
At this point Jane Doe 1 became very emotional and it caught us by surprise. Those consequences, she explained, included being expelled or excommunicated by the church and expelled from your family as you’re labeled a suppressive person.
Mesereau now objects, but the judge fends him off, saying that she had explained, at the beginning of the hearing, that she would allow some limited testimony on these Scientology matters to help understand Jane Doe 1’s state of mind at the time.
Mueller went on. If you were not to follow those policies and you were labeled an SP, what does that mean? “My parents would have to disown me. My friends, everyone I know would view me as an enemy,” she answered.
At this time, she simply didn’t have any friends who weren’t Scientologists, and her parents employed anywhere from between 50 to 200 Scientologists in their work. And Jane Doe 1 had a young daughter who went to a Scientology school. “It would affect my daughter,” she said.
The family, on the night of April 25, flew to Florida for their vacation. She said that at the time she was feeling intense pain. Mueller, necessarily, required her to be more specific for the record.
“It felt like I had been stabbed in my vagina,” she said. There was intense pain and discharge, and also in her anus. “I found it difficult to sit,” she said.
Then, and this was a little confusing we have to admit, Mueller asked Jane Doe 1 about threats that had been made to her, and suddenly she was testifying to another memory in the bedroom. (We’re not sure why this didn’t come up chronologically at an earlier point.)
Jane Doe 1 testified that at one point Masterson had reached into a drawer on his nightstand, and had taken out a black pistol and had brandished it, saying “Don’t fucking move. Don’t you fucking move.” She showed how he held it at kind of a funny angle, like a gangster might, and didn’t actually point the barrel at her face. But the implication was clear. He then put the gun back in the drawer.
Now she’s testifying about Florida again and we’re back to chronological order.
On her trip, after 24 hours, besides the pain she was feeling, bruises started to show up. On her wrists, hips, thighs, and neck. She then told a young cousin of hers, Rachel, that something very terrible had happened to her.
But she still hesitated to call it rape or to contemplate doing something about it.
“I had never known anyone in Scientology who reported a rape,” she said.
But when she got back to Los Angeles, she then did go to her “Master-at-Arms,” a Sea Org member named Julian Swartz.
He closed the door, and she started telling him about her bruises, and that she had been at Masterson’s house…
“If you’re going to say the word ‘rape,’ don’t say it. We don’t say that word here,” she remembers Swartz telling her. He brought her policy books and explained the Suppressive Person policy.
He had her “demonstrate” it, she said, and I was waiting for Mueller or the judge to ask for an explanation of what that meant, but neither did.
Jane Doe 1 was asked who else she had told about the incident besides her cousin Rachel and Julian Swartz. She said she had told Shawn Fabbos, a close friend who was also her mother’s assistant.
Mueller asked her if she was under orders from Scientology not to report her rape to the LAPD, and she said yes, both verbal and written.
The judge then asked for a clarification: You’re saying that it’s a suppressive act to report a rape? If it’s church member on church member, yes, Jane Doe 1 replied.
In April 2004, Jane Doe 1 wrote a letter to the IJC — the International Justice Chief, Mike Ellis — asking permission from the church to report the incident as a rape without being declared suppressive as a result. The letter was produced and entered into evidence.
She got a reply from Ellis, also in April 2004, and that letter was also entered into evidence. Jane Doe 1 was asked to explain what it said.
“It meant that I could not go to the police, and that Danny was in good standing with them,” she replied.
Mesereau objected, saying she was mischaracterizing the letter, and he was overruled. You can see the letter for yourself: We published it back in December!
We will point out that the import of this letter is not obvious, and Mike Rinder helped us understand the clear message it would have for a Scientologist. We wonder if Mesereau is going to try to make even more of an issue of this later. Anyway, the judge overruled his objection.
So why, Mueller asked Jane Doe 1, did you go ahead and report the rape to the LAPD in June 2004, if the IJC had made it plain that she’d be declared?
“I found out what happened to me had happened to a girl named Lilly,” Jane Doe 1 answered, and Mesereau made one of his loudest objections.
But the judge allowed it, saying what’s important is what was in Jane Doe 1’s mind at this time.
So Jane Doe 1 then went to the police station to report the rape, all alone.
Was there some response from the church? Mueller asked, and Jane Doe 1 began to say that Julian Swartz called her. But then the judge called for a sidebar with the attorneys. We don’t know what they worked out.
So Mueller then turned to the prior incident that was briefly mentioned earlier, the one that happened in September 2002.
Jane Doe 1 explained that she had gone to Danny’s house with friends (she had been there 20 to 30 times over the years, she was part of a circle of Scientology friends), and had ended up in bed with him. “It was sex that I would never have wanted to have sober,” she said, implying that she was drunk when it happened.
She described that at one point, she found herself on her stomach, and he had penetrated her anally. “I was incredibly upset by it. I was upset and ashamed.”
She had shared what happened with her friends Brie, Paige, and Lisa. (And we will say that based on our own reporting we believe she is referring to Lisa Marie Presley at this point.)
It had caused a blowup among her friends, but she had eventually worked out “a peace” with Danny in the weeks leading up to the April 2003 incident.
And that concluded the direct testimony. Judge Olmedo asked Mesereau if he wanted to wait until after lunch before starting his cross-examination, but he said no, he would go ahead.
We braced ourselves for a rough going, but Mesereau was hardly confrontational at all.
He started out by asking if her mother and her father had quit Scientology after the alleged rape. (Her father died some years ago.) She said that her mother was currently a member, but she seemed to resist Mesereau’s characterization that her parents had remained church members throughout the period after the alleged rape. This seemed a pretty minor point.
He asked her if she’d reviewed documents about the case, and for the most part she said she hadn’t. She did review some police reports, and Mesereau asked her to describe them.
This seemed to backfire on him, though because the police reports she was talking about weren’t from 2004, they were recent ones she had filed over her trash being stolen, her car broken into, and ID theft. Oops.
He then bored into the 2004 police report, and said there was no mention of a firearm on them, but she pointed out that she didn’t write the reports, which seemed like a good point.
He then brought up the Sept 2002 incident, and that she had characterized it as consensual in a police report, but now was saying it wasn’t consensual. Again, though, she didn’t write the report.
He pointed out that one of the people she named as a witness at Danny’s house in April 2003 was not on the police report in June 2004. We expect that will come up again later, so we’ll hold back the name of that witness for now.
Mesereau: That first sex encounter, in 2002, you say you were drunk. What were you drinking? Grapefruit vodka. How many? Mueller: Objection, not relevant. Judge: Sustained.
Did you tell the police that you were drinking that night? I don’t recall.
You said in the report that you work in real estate. Objection, irrelevant. Sustained.
And a few other questions like that. We figure Mesereau is probably taking things easier than he would at trial, but gosh, he really hasn’t seemed to lay a finger on her at this point. Perhaps he’ll shift strategies after the lunch break.
We’ll see you then!
Post-lunch session
So Mesereau’s cross-examination of Jane Doe 1 continued after the lunch break, and now he starts to bore into her about settlements and money. He is going to be trying to make it look like she is simply a gold digger.
In 2003, when Jane Doe 1 sent a letter to the IJC asking for permission to report the rape and sue Danny, did she hire an attorney to write a civil complaint? No. She didn’t have one written up to show people? No. Have you ever seen a civil complaint written? No.
Was there a settlement? Yes.
And here we’ll remind you of something we’ve been reporting for four years now, that after the DA declined to charge her case in 2004, Scientology put heavy pressure on Jane Doe 1 to accept a settlement and sign an NDA with Masterson. He paid her in the low six figures, and she had to go along with it or be declared. We’ve been saying this for four years now. And yes, she testified today, she did hire an attorney briefly to help her get through that.
But now Mesereau reveals that the attorney she hired wrote up a sample civil complaint in order to show the Masterson side, and apparently without Jane Doe 1’s knowledge or consent.
Well, maybe he did. But Mesereau went around and around on it, but Jane Doe 1 was unflappable. She didn’t ask a complaint to be written up in 2004 and didn’t file one.
Mesereau then brought up the 2019 lawsuit, to imply that she was just asking for money again. She denied it, saying she was suing to get him to stop stalking and harassing her.
He then went into a general description about how lawsuits are about money, and explain to her what damages are. But then she said something really poignant and kind of sad. In 2004, what she was asking for was an apology, that Danny help out on a rape hotline, and that he donate to the Way to Happiness.
That’s a big reminder that Jane Doe 1 in 2003/2004 was still a Scientologist and still thought like one. And again and again this afternoon, that was a key point to remember.
Mesereau asked, so if that’s all you wanted, why did you ask for permission to sue Danny when you wrote to the IJC in April 2004?
He probably shouldn’t have asked that. Her answer: “I knew of other victims, and I wanted to depose him to get those names.” The LAPD had told her he was a celebrity, she was just one girl, and without other victims they couldn’t charge him.
So again, Mesereau is trying to make her out to be a conniving moneygrubber, and what emerges is pretty much the opposite: She was trying to bring a monster to justice.
As of 2004, how long had you been in Scientology? Since I was born. Had you received an education in the church? Yes. In ethics? Yes. Were you told not to lie? Yes. Have you followed that precept? Objection, sustained.
You wanted Danny Masterson charged for a crime? Yes. For the money? No.
And she accepted the civil settlement in 2004? If I didn’t, I would be declared and I would owe millions.
Getting back to the prior sexual encounter in September 2002. You’re now contending it was non-consensual. Yes. But in the June 2004 police report, you said it was consensual. Yes. But now you’re trying to get money in the 2019 lawsuit. Objection.
Mesereau also points out that no gun is mentioned in the 2004 reports, but now she’s saying he brandished a firearm. Why didn’t you tell police about a gun in 2004?
Again, however, she didn’t write the police report in 2004, and she didn’t see it until 2017. Did you notice there was no mention of a gun when you saw it?
“It was one of many things I noticed,” she said. And yes, she wrote to the police about after she finally saw the report in 2017.
Mesereau then asked about how often she saw Masterson, and whether they went out to clubs together in those years. She said they would run into each other at events and clubs, but they didn’t go to those places together.
And she had been to his house 20 to 30 times before the night of the rape, but often it was because she went there with Brie Shaffer, who she considered her best friend, and Danny often wasn’t even there at the time.
The night of the alleged rape, you said he carried you up the stairs. Did you tell someone else he helped you walk up the stairs “I have flashes of both,” she said. So you’re not sure? “I think it was both.”
Mesereau then spent some wasted time trying to catch her in a lie about where she woke up the morning after the rape. In the bed or in the closet? But her testimony had actually been pretty clear, that she woke up in the closet, crawled out, then he pulled her into the bed, she fell back asleep and then woke up in the bed later. So the answer was both, she woke up both in the closet and the bed. (Wish we had this 20 minutes back.)
Then it got worse. Were you raped with vaginal sex? Both. You were raped vaginally and some other way? Yes. Have you consistently in interviews maintained that you were raped vaginally and anally? Yes. So any police report that doesn’t contain anal rape, would that be wrong? Yes.
Again, and this will become clearer a little later on, we have Mesereau trying to trip her up on a 2004 police report, when she has issues with the police and how they wrote up that report.
Another thing Mesereau came back to again and again was her assertion about who she first told about the rape. In her testimony in the morning, she said that when she got to Florida she first shared with her 17-year-old cousin Rachel (who had asked about her bruises) that Danny Masterson had done something very, very wrong to her. But she didn’t use the word rape.
Later, when she got back to Los Angeles, she told a few more people about it and began to use the word rape. So who did she first tell she had been raped? She is saying Rachel now because that’s essentially what she was doing without using the word. It’s complex, it totally reflects the reality of sexual assault victims and what they go through, and Mesereau was trying to exploit it for impeaching the witness. Our impression was that Judge Olmedo wasn’t impressed.
About the fourth time he had gone through this, Mesereau once again asked her what she had told her young cousin Rachel in Florida.
Getting emotional, Jane Doe 1 said Rachel had asked her about the bruises, but she didn’t want to use the word “sex” or “rape.” Jane Doe 1 really broke down at this point and Judge Olmedo asked for a break.
It was really hard for us to see how this was helping Mesereau. He wants to catch her in a lie, but all he’s doing is helping her show how hard it is to talk about such a thing, because it was such a monstrous rape.
And then it just got even more awful.
Did you ever tell Brie Shaffer that you became pregnant by Danny Masterson? No. That you were pregnant but you were miscarrying? No. Did you ever tell Brie that you were drunk in Danny’s bedroom? Yes. You did? Yes.
In the 2002 incident, what did you drink? A grapefruit and vodka triple, and then half of a second drink.
Did you ever talk to Danny after the alleged rape? It was hard to hear her, but we think Jane Doe 1 said there was a brief phone call, but then months later “I was forced into a room with him in April 2004 by the church.” And we have written about that incident before, which was facilitated by Alfreddie Johnson, and it’s the incident when Danny cracked a couple of jokes and Scientology ended the session.
Mesereau then asked her what a Knowledge Report was. Did you ever fill out a KR about the rape? Was it truthful?
She points out that a KR written by her was done to the specifications of Julian Swartz. It was a church document written under church policies. Did Danny write a KR? No. He wrote either a “False Report Report” or a “Things that should not be” report.
He shows her the KR she wrote in 2003, and that it says she woke up in bed. But didn’t you say you woke up in the closet? Oh brother, not this again.
Did you write in the KR that you remembered almost nothing about the night before? It came back slowly. As the day went on she recalled more.
Are you aware that Danny Masterson went to work at 9 am that morning? No. No one’s ever told you that? No.
He asked her about a follow-up police interview later in June 2004.
Did you watch Masterson make your drink the night in 2003? No. Did you think there was a sedative in your drink? No. Did you ever tell someone there was a sedative in the drink? I wouldn’t use the word ‘sedative.’ And you never had a hospital test after to find out if you were drugged? No.
Did you tell Brie Shaffer in New York that you had sex with Danny and it wasn’t forced? Incorrect. Did you say rape? She did. She used the word.
Did you tell Jenni Weinman that Danny was the best sex you ever had? No. Did you tell Paige Dorian that it was the best sex you ever had? No. Did you ever tell Paige Dorian, the positions I was in, I finished three times? No.
Did you ever tell a police officer that after the 2002 incident you were a few days late and might be pregnant by Danny? Yes, I had missed a period and took a pregnancy test. You told Masterson? Yes. Did you miscarry? Either a miscarry or my period started a week later. Were you happy about it?
At this point, Jane Doe 1 exclaimed What? Mueller loudly barked Objection! And Judge Olmedo quickly said sustained.
After the miscarriage or period, you went back to Danny Masterson’s house late at night (in April 2003)? Yes.
When this came up, we remember how carefully Mueller had laid the foundation for how that night developed, that there were a series of changing plans, and that Jane Doe 1 had ended up at Masterson’s house almost by accident after trying to figure out how to get Luke Watson home and to get his keys. We figure the judge probably remembers that too.
After a short break, Mesereau continued, asking her about when she learned that the DA was not going to charge in the 2004 case.
Did you criticize the LAPD about that? In a 2017 letter, she said (which you can read here).
Then came Mesereau’s big bombshell. “You did call my investigator and use a fake name, did you not?”
Objection. Sustained. And Judge Olmedo gave a lengthy admonition about what is proper for a preliminary hearing. Mesereau: We’re talking about a credibility issue. Ethics. Reputation.
Judge Olmedo: I let you go into the lawsuits, into the prior statements, but if she recorded someone 14 years later? Not relevant for the prelim.
Wow. What a moment. We will probably hear more about this if there’s a trial.
So Mesereau has to move on, and he goes into a subject that will take up a lot of time. The mysterious O/W Write-up. First, he has Jane Doe 1 explain what an OWW is, and she explains about how Scientology wants you to confess to things in your own words. And are they handwritten or typed? I did them handwritten. Never typed? No.
The issue here, and it takes a long time to come out, is that a typed up copy of Jane Doe 1’s O/Ws had mysteriously showed up, which contained a lot of secret material from her folders. She acknowledged that much of the material had come from things she had told Scientology, but others didn’t sound like her at all, and she had never typed up an OWW. Mesereau tried to impeach her based on things that were in the document, but the judge reminded him that she denied putting it together. Finally, at one point Jane Doe 1 blurted out that a Scientology private investigator had supplied the document to Mesereau’s office.
We expect to hear more about that when Mueller gets a chance on re-direct. (Seriously, this took up way too much time when it was hard to know if this document was even genuine. Mesereau’s attempts to impeach her based on what was in it felt like a waste of time.)
The most striking point about it was when the judge pointed out that according to Scientology, you were supposed to implicate yourself in an OWW, and so she would judge it based on that. (Very smart, and wow, she is paying such close attention.)
Another really interesting moment: Did you ever describe yourself as promiscuous? Ever, to Scientology? Yes. But your standard of promiscuous and mine are probably not the same.
Again, this was a moment when the context of Scientology is absolutely key.
And then, something that seemed pretty important. Mesereau asked, did you ever meet with LAPD Det. Vargas with the purpose of correcting your narrative?
Now see, that question, on its own, sounds bad. That a rape victim is asking to correct their “narrative.” But that’s not what she asked to do. She asked to correct the LAPD’s version of what had happened. Why?
For the first time, in the spring of 2017, she had her first chance to see the 2004 police report, and she was stunned at how many errors there were. It had been written by a desk sergeant who didn’t even classify it as a rape but filed it as an “injury report.” (Incredible!) He had mixed up the 2002 and 2003 incidents, and there were many omissions.
So now, we learn what Mesereau has been trying to impeach her with, a flawed LAPD report written in 2004, not Jane Doe 1s changing narrative of what happened. Amazing.
OK, one more big thing and we were done for the day. Mesereau asked Jane Doe 1 if she was told by the LAPD not to call the other victims.
This not only prompted Mueller to object, but Judge Olmedo called for an end of the day and gave a long admonition to Mesereau. She pointed out that it would be relevant if the victims were talking to each other between 2001 and 2017 before they went to the LAPD together, suggesting possible collusion, but after they had come forward? Seemed like a smart point by the judge.
Judge Olmedo called for court to begin again at 9 am tomorrow, with Mesereau continuing to cross-examine Jane Doe 1. She hoped to finish up Jane Doe 1 by lunchtime. But it’s looking like it might be tough to get this preliminary hearing finished by Friday.
People then filed out, and we had a nice chat with Graham Berry, who is there representing the victims. He wanted us to give our regards to the Bunker readership.
We chatted for a little while, discussing Mesereau’s performance. And then, as the defense team was walking out, Danny Masterson leaned in close to Graham and your proprietor and said rather cockily, “See you all tomorrow!”
We were stunned. Well, that was some ending to some day. And we get to do it all tomorrow morning! We’ll see you then.
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“Some time, by the way, when you haven’t anything else to do, read Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.’ That’s quite a thing. I undertook that some years ago because I was having trouble sleeping. But I decided I would read it from one end of that many-volumed volumes to the other — read the whole thing. And it was quite an interesting exercise. I hope I never get so ambitious as to start reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica from one end to the other. But, I will say, I am running out of reading matter now that Ian Fleming has picked himself up another body. May have to do it.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 18, 1965
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“UPPER OT GRADES: By this time there must be about fifteen OT grades above Clear already developed. These exist in research form and have not been released. AOLA is begging for a new one, having delivered 500 OT VIIs. The danger is that an AO or org starts delivering to the same people and disconnects. Jbg broke itself doing this once. Affluent on selling illegal Power Processing, it suddenly used up all its CF. It had not fed in anyone at the bottom — no Testing or HAS or Dn or Lower Grades. It used up its CF hot prospects on Power and that was that. Jbg’s decline dates back to this period. It’s a way of disconnecting from the Public. AOs should be hammering SHs to get people through Solo R6EW and onto Clear and getting Clears onto lower OT grades.” — The Commodore, May 18, 1971
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“The fundaments of the free zone and one of the most important claims by Capt. Bill Robertson are the Free Zone Decrees. One being the following: 1. No interference is permitted in the zone known as Sector Nine until further notice. 2. This decree is to be enforced by the Galactic Patrol. 3. There shall be no use of atomic, chemical, or biological weapons in the zone 4. Travel to and from the zone is regulated and shall be subject to verification of intent and escort by the Patrol. 5. The technical and ethical experiment in progress by Sector Commander Elron Elray is not to be interfered with in any way whatsoever as it is extremely vital to the future of the Galaxy and its inhabitants. 6. The-Ethics Order by Commander Elray on the being Xenu, currently Joseph Strasburg, alias ‘Herr J.’ or ‘Mister J.’ of Germany/Switzerland banking circles, declaring him Suppressive, is to be enforced…By order of the Grand Council, Galactic Central, Mship relay by order of Sector Commander Elron Elray.”
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1995: The Phil Donahue Show aired a live broadcast on the church on Monday. Heber Jentzsch ineptly fended off fairly soft questions from Phil. I think most posters to a.r.s rated it as unsatisfying due to the condition that Heber placed on the show: That no critics of Scientology be present on stage. The only thing I learned was that Heber has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Utah. The most absurd moments came when a woman claimed the Purif cleaned out her arteriosclerosis after doctors gave her two years to live.”
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“All the e-meter is capable of is measuring galvanic skin response. It has as much scientific, technical value as X-Ray glasses and Sea Monkeys.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Preliminary hearing set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for June 18.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
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’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] A shocking glimpse inside Scientology’s floating cathedral: ‘All I hear is desperation’
[TWO years ago] Graham Berry does it again: More Scientology financial fraud spelled out in legal demand
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s founder in 1948: Dianetics was ‘unfrigidizing’ women into ‘nymphos’
[FOUR years ago] To whet your appetite for season 2, A&E airing 2-hour ‘Leah Remini’ special on Memorial Day
[FIVE years ago] Scientology responds to Garcia accusations; sexy Virginia congressional candidate visits an org
[SIX years ago] Just two blocks from Scientology’s LA headquarters, Paulette Cooper shone
[SEVEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: Scientology fundraising fliers try desperately to hide the truth
[EIGHT years ago] Jon Atack on the Hypnotic History of Scientology Auditing
[NINE years ago] Scientology: Kiwi Reporter Puts Lisa Marie Presley On the Spot; Playboy Blows Tom Cruise
[TEN years ago] Scientology in Israel: All Holy Hell Breaking Loose?
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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 2,305 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,809 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,329 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,349 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,240 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,547 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,415 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,189 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,519 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,993 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,309 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,875 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,794 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,962 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,543 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,804 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,842 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,555 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,080 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 435 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,610 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,161 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,310 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,630 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,485 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,604 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,960 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,263 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,369 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,771 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,643 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,226 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,721 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,975 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,084 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 18, 2021 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, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), 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
