Scientology Showdown Dominates Danny Masterson Rape Trial; Alleged Assault “Felt Almost Incestuous”, Tearful Witness Tells Court – Update
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2ND UPDATE, 4:15 PM: Danny Masterson’s alleged rape of a then-fellow Scientologist “felt almost incestuous,” a downtown L.A. courtroom was told this afternoon during the trial of the former That 70s Show and The Ranch actor.
Also, yet again, the defense today requested a mistrial based on how Scientology has been referenced so far. That request was quickly denied by Judge Charlene Olmedo.
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After a long day of contentious opening statements, at the very end of today’s hearing lawyers for the defense and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office faced off in front of Judge Olmedo about the role of the Church of Scientology in the case. With the organization obviously at the core of the prosecution’s case, defense attorney Phillip Cohen said he had “no understanding of the nexus or purpose” of policies of the church being brought up in the trial.
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“The jury has been told Masterson and his religion look down significantly” on those who are not members of Scientology, Cohen argued, also adding that such a policy is not the official stance of the church. Olmedo previously had admonished the prosecution — earlier this month and today — about her “concerns” over “pushing the boundaries” of how much Scientology could be brought up, saying, “Anyone’s beliefs are going to be rooted in something.”
The L.A. Superior Court judge said that today there are some instances of context that can be admitted into the trial but admitted that she was “disappointed” with how things have gone on the first day before the jury.
Certain to be a factor throughout the remaining weeks of the trial, the introduction of the sometimes-controversial Church of Scientology are ingrained into the proceedings, and its role could be part of any Masterson appeal, if necessary.
“I’m not sure what you are asking the court to do now,” Judge Olmedo exclaimed, noting that the defense had asked for a mistrial in previous weeks. Denying the latest request for a mistrial, the judge wasn’t too pleased with Assistant DA Reinhold Mueller’s explanation that he repeatedly referenced Scientology today to lay “foundation” for the relationships and context the alleged victims — all of whom were members of the church at one point — lived with.
“That’s troubling,” Cohen replied.
Ultimately, Judge Olmedo told the DA’s office to walk a more circumspect line with emphasis on “relevance.”
The first witness in Masterson’s trial on multiple rape charges, a sometimes voice-cracking “Jen B,” continued her stint on the stand Tuesday with a precise description of the events of September 2002 and a sexual encounter with the actor following a drunken night out in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood.
The alleged sexual assault was discussed over and over in the last hour of the trial today, with ADA Mueller returning to the specifics to elicit more information from the somewhat reticent and tearful witness.
“It almost felt incestuous,” the now-former Scientologist Jen B said of the encounter as Masterson looked on from nearby in the courtroom. “We were such a tight group of friends. He was my best friend’s boss … more like a brother, sometimes like a mean brother.”
One of three alleged victims in the case, which could see Masterson sentenced up to 45 years to life in state prison if found guilty, Jen B had two sexual encounters with the actor. She originally considered the first encounter consensual but now says both encounters were non-consensual.
“I was on my stomach and I felt this really sharp pain in my rear side … my anus area.” Jen B told the court of suddenly being naked in Masterson’s bedroom that night in 2002 with the defendant “standing behind me.” In testimony that was much more graphic that the opening-statement remarks from ADA Mueller earlier Tuesday, Jen B admitted there were portions of the night that she does not remember or things Masterson might or might not have said to her.
Masterson told Jen B he ordered her “doubles, the last one was a triple” when the duo were out drinking with friends that night. Tossing some shade on the prosecution’s implied stance that something might have been added to drinks Masterson gave the alleged victims, Jen B stated today that her intoxication was consistent with how much she had consumed.
Further testimony and cross-examination of the witness and more in the trial will continue tomorrow in the criminal courtroom. The trial is anticipated to run until late November.
UPDATED, 3:07 PM: If the opening statement of the prosecution in the Danny Masterson rape trial centered strongly on the Church of Scientology, the defense definitely wanted to pull focus this afternoon in their own remarks.
“This case is about three women who are going to tell you about three nights almost 20 years ago,” attorney Phillip Cohen told the jury and on-lookers in L.A. Superior Court Judge Charlene Olmedo’s courtroom. “This other stuff is truly the elephant in the room,” the defense lawyer added, trying to sweep away the details and descriptions of the David Miscavige-run organization that dominated the morning session of the criminal case.
After the defense’s often curt opening statement, the first witness to take the stand in the DTLA courtroom was alleged victim “Jen B.” Under questioning from Assistant D.A. Reinhold Mueller, the former Scientologist told the jury about first meeting fellow Scientologist Masterson at a softball game and other Church events. Eased by a soft spoken Mueller into the events of her first alleged assault in the early 2000s, Jen B talked about her once close friendship with Brie Shaffer, Masterson’s then personal assistant. Also noting the “cordial” interactions she had with Masterson and their increasing overlapping circle of friends, including “Lisa Presley,” as accuser Jen B called the then Scientologist and daughter of Elvis, the witness laid out a very close-knit community linked by the Church.
At this juncture the judge read out a statement that Jen B’s description of the practices of Scientology were “not being offered as the truth of the matter” and were her opinion. “It was frowned upon to fraternize with the enemy,” the witness said of people outside the organization. “You can be reported” for associating with those outside Scientology, unless you are bringing them into the group, Jen B added
As Jen B testified, Masterson stared at her intently, occasionally sipping a beverage. After the jury exited for the afternoon recess, a very annoyed Judge Olmedo sternly told the prosecution that she would not tolerate this becoming a trial about Scientology, per her rulings of earlier in the matter.
Jen B will continue to testify after the afternoon break Tuesday.
Apologizing to the assembled jurors for his bellicose behavior before the lunch break, Cohen opened the afternoon session by turning down the volume in the high profile case to put the emphasis on “cross-contamination.”
Leaning in heavily to the initials of Masterson’s alleged victims and breathing barely a word about Scientology, Cohen told the jury that JB was talking to NT, talking to CB “all before talking to the LAPD.” Amidst various objections, many sustained and some not, from Assistant D.A. Muller, Cohen cited the “expertise” of LAPD Detective Esther Reyes telling Jen B not to speak with others or “your credibility will be shot.”
Unlike Mueller’s approximately 90-minute opening statement earlier Tuesday, the defense’s presentation was repeatedly sidelined due to sidebars and discussions with the seemingly frustrated judge – a potential pothole that risks losing the attention of the jury. Like Mueller’s opening statement, Cohen’s presentation utilized the video monitor on the wall of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center ninth floor courtroom.
Still, with all the bells and tech whistles, the core of Cohen’s argument and Masterson’s defense will be “consistency.”
Whipping through a self-described and sometimes vivid “sizzle reel” of the alleged victims’ stories, civil lawsuits, and, in a rare Scientology appearance, the NDA that Jen B signed, Cohen sought to use Mueller’s own words against him. “I wasn’t out of it, I understand what was going on,” a 2017 quote from Jen B on the video monitor said, contradicting the Assistant D.A.’s assurance that the woman was confused and in and out of consciousness during the alleged attack from Masterson. The defense also took a swipe at how the 2002 incident went from being a consensual encounter to a non-consensual experience. Additionally, Cohen disputed that Jen B was covered in bruises from one of the claimed Masterson attacks, and the lack of photographic evidence presented to the LAPD.
Making it very apparent that Det. Reyes and other cops will be called as witnesses, Cohen’s remarks look to be converging into the not uncommon defense tactic in such cases to create tension between police and the District Attorney’s office.
Characterizing alleged victim NT as hoping for a romantic relationship with Masterson after their 2003 encounter, Cohen pined her rape claims as the result of being rebuffed. “NT will tell you she felt used by Mr. Masterson,” the lawyer said, before another sustained objection from the prosecution. “She had no fear of ever being hurt, ever being hit,” he declared of NT. “I think that was just really bad sex,” Cohen went on to frame her supposed reaction to the encounter that was previously described as violent in depositions and in ADA Mueller’s opening statement.
Using casual language of “butt” sex and more as a poised Masterson sat mere feet away, Cohen theorized that Christina B only now saw some of her encounters with her ex-boyfriend actor as sexual assaults after a turbulent 2011 conversation with her husband years later. Five years after that Christina B called a rape hotline in Austin, TX, followed by conversations with the LAPD and the media in 2017. Christina B sat down with the LA County D.A’s office in the latter part of 2017
“There’s no rape kit evidence … no voicemail evidence,” Cohen told the jurors of all the alleged victims.
Once again dismissing mentions of Scientology and more, this time with a graphic of an elephant on the video monitor, Cohen rhetorically concluded his opening statement where he started it. “Three nights with three women 20 years and whether or not the government can prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that Danny Masterson raped them is what the whole trial is about, he said to the courtroom, wrapping it up at about 2:30 PM PT.
With a witness list that includes Lisa Marie Presley and Tinseltown lawyer Marty Singer, among others, the trial is expected to run five days a week until November 19, according to the Judge’s set schedule.
PREVIOUSLY, 12:13 PM: With a jury finally selected and seated, Danny Masterson’s trial on multiple rape charges began today with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office putting the Church of Scientology front and center.
From the beginning, Assistant DA Reinhold Mueller proclaimed the trial as “three different sexual assault cases, in fact three different cases of forcible rape.”
With mere minutes to go before the lunch break and after the prosecution had completed its opening statement, defense lawyer Phillip Cohen gave an indication of the hard tone this trial could take on. The attorney leapt up to give a “couple of highlights” of their argument, how the alleged victims disregarded the advice of the LAPD and communicated with one another and how there was a shakedown at play because Masterson made “oodles and oodles of money” on That 70s Show. There very quickly were a number of objections from Mueller and others at the prosecution table as Cohen became more and more aggressive, and a frustrated Judge Charlene Olmedo called the parties to the bench and could be heard telling them essentially to dial it down.
“This case will also be about certain policies that each of these alleged victims understood they needed to follow,” Mueller said earlier in the day about the David Miscavige-led Church of Scientology, of which Masterson — who was in the courtroom today — and the trio of accusers at the heart of the trial are or were members. “They acted in certain ways, they engaged in certain behavior and made certain choices … based on certain policies.”
Mueller went on to describe of the role of Scientology in Masterson’s life and case.
As the prosecutor spoke late Tuesday morning, the alleged victims’ faces were displayed on a video monitor on the far south wall of Olmedo’s courtroom in downtown Los Angeles. In fact, the large TV monitor was utilized frequently by Mueller as he ambled through the early stages of his opening statement.
Starting with a description of the alleged September 2002 rape by Masterson of an intoxicated “Jen B” in his Hollywood Hills home — the accusers’ real names are not being used in court — Mueller noted the complexity of the case and the external forces at play. Focusing on the sudden loss of friendships and more that second-generation Scientologist Jen B suffered after telling others about what supposedly happened with Masterson, Mueller conceded the alleged victim did not go to the police at the time and that she felt that the incident — which might have resulted in a “pregnancy and a miscarriage” — was consensual.
“What she didn’t believe was consensual was that he flipped her over and penetrated her anus,” Mueller stated, additionally describing how Jen B came to see the whole incident as non-consensual over time.
As has been detailed in court documents since Masterson was arrested by the LAPD in 2020, part of Jen B’s change of mind was another alleged assault in April 2003. After consuming half of a tumbler of a “fruity” drink that Masterson made for her, Jen B said she started to feel “woozy.” Originally there just to pick up some keys, Jen B was pulled over to a Jacuzzi and told that she had 15 seconds to disrobe before he tossed her in the water.
In the corresponding sequence of events, Masterson announced he was taking an increasingly nauseated Jen B upstairs to help her vomit. Soon afterward, according to the Assistant DA, Masterson moved the woman, who was in and out of consciousness, into the shower and, even as she tried to fight him off, carried her into the master bedroom. It is then that the second sexual incident with Masterson allegedly occurred – which saw Masterson on top of her, penetrating her and smothering her with a pillow while telling her, “You like this, don’t you?” Instructing Jen B to not tell any of the people she told of the first incident about this second assault, Masterson supposedly also yelled at the passing-out Jen B to “don’t f*cking move, don’t f*cking move,” when there was a knock on the door.
Mueller said that Jen B remained in the master bedroom, at one point hiding in a closet, until the morning of the next day, April 26, 2003. Missing her father’s birthday BBQ because she was at Masterson’s house, Jen B did not tell any of her family later that day about the incident because she was “incredibly upset and embarrassed about what happened.” Later on a family trip to Florida, bruises started to show up on her body and she did confide in a teenage member of her family about elements of what occurred at Masterson’s home.
It was at this point in his suddenly more aggressive opening statement that ADA Muller truly flicked the switch on Scientology.
“If you are going to tell me this is rape, it is not rape,” Jen B’s immediate Scientology supervisor Julian Schwartz told her when she went to him with the matter, according to Mueller. “In fact, you are not even allowed to say the word rape. You are not allowed to go to police or anyone.”
Schwartz allegedly made it clear to Jen B that if she did make any of what happened public, it would be considered “a high crime” in Scientology and she could be declared a “suppressive person.” In a subsequent response in April 2004, Scientology’s International Justice Chief also told Jen B she would be a SP if she went to the cops, which she again was asking permission to do.
Still, on June 6, 2006, Jen B went to the Hollywood LAPD station to tell her story. Very soon afterward, a meeting at Jen B’s parents’ home saw the young woman pressured to sign a nondisclosure agreement and drop the matter or essentially be excommunicated from the church. Jen B inked the document for the Scientology lawyer allegedly in her parents’ living room, and a series of payments followed as the police case withered.
In a tie and non-matching blazer and pants, Masterson watched in the near-silent courtroom as Mueller then detailed his relationship with “Christina B,” their dating and the increasingly violent sex he supposedly forced on her. “He spat on her face, he called her white trash, as he frequently did,” Mueller said of Masterson’s treatment of the one-time model after she tried to force him off her after one alleged attack.
As the jury, alternates and members of Masterson’s family and friends looked on in the packed and partially masked Department 105 courtroom, the prosecution carefully planted the seeds of evidence of Masterson seemingly drugging his victims, having “anal sex while you were unconscious” and the swift moves Scientology took to protect the highly valued actor. In the case of Christina B, her Scientology advisers said that someone “can’t rape your 2B,” aka partner, and the assault occurred because of something she has done previously in her life. Interrupted by the defense at this point, the ADA told the jury that Christina B was instructed by Scientology advisers that she was supposed to provide sex to Masterson whenever he wanted it because he was such a big contributor and supporter to the church.
Around 11:30 a.m. PT, the defense objected again to Mueller’s mentions of Scientology in his opening statement, and all the lawyers were called up to confer with the judge. When Mueller restarted his opening statement, he noted that Christina B and Masterson’s relationship ended in March 2002, and they did have two subsequent incidents of consensual sex. Still Christina B didn’t go to the police until 2016.
“All she really wanted was the church to intervene … to get some help for Mr. Masterson,” Mueller said.
Clearly aiming to wrap up his presentation before the lunch break, Mueller outlined the first meeting between a “commanding” Masterson and “NT” in the early 2000s and how she told him “no sex.” She “begins to feel very buzzed” and “blurry,” Mueller said of NT after a glass of wine or two at Masterson’s Hollywood Hills house. “Feeling scared,” NT was “ordered” by Masterson to go upstairs, and “they end up in his bathroom shower.” She “recalls being in his shower, there was kissing,” and Masterson allegedly penetrated her before taking the two of them into his bedroom, as he did with Jen B. Graphically describing the forced sex NT endured, Muller quoted from a deposition that she felt “like a little rag doll.”
Taking pains to educate the jury on the “difficulties” rape victims can have “processing” what has happened to them, Mueller noted that they will learn of the fear the victims had of the Church of Scientology.
Masterson is looking at a possible maximum sentence of 45 years to life in state prison if found guilty. The actor, who subsequently was fired from Netflix’s comedy The Ranch at the end of 2017 as claims became known, always has denied he had nonconsensual sex with anyone.
Today’s opening statements come after almost a week of jury selection on the ninth floor of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. In a convergence of claimed crimes, Harvey Weinstein’s L.A. rape trial is taking place at the other end of the hall in the downtown building. That case is not expected to seat a jury until next week at the earliest.
With the Church of Scientology looming large over the Masterson trial, as was made evident in questioning of potential jurors Monday, the anticipated two-month-long case is expected to see witnesses such as all four of the Jane Does, a number of former Scientologists including Lisa Marie Presley as well as Hollywood heavyweight attorney Marty Singer. The latter represented Masterson for many years and was intimately involved in ultimately unsuccessful efforts by the actor and his associates to quell the accusations several years ago.
Still, despite Judge Olmedo’s words that this is not a trial about Scientology, the church is very much in the spotlight here with one of its most high profile members accused by ex-members of sexual assault.
That spotlight is also partially due to Scientology itself.
The Miscavige-led group was unsuccessful this month in persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to get embroiled in its desire to stop several former members of the church and alleged Masterson victims from taking them to trial on claims of surveillance, harassment and the killing of pets. The now-revived suit from four women who have claimed they were targeted by Scientology after going to the LAPD a few years back with their initial claims against the actor has been paused pending Masterson’s criminal case. Still, with the behind-closed-doors “religious arbitration” effort and petition denied by SCOTUS, and former Scientologists among the victims in Masterson’s trial, the methods and potential complicity of the celebrity-rich church will be hard pressed not to be right near the center of attention in the courtroom, now and down the line.
Earlier Tuesday, before the D.A.’s office began its opening statement, Judge Olmedo briefed the 19 jurors and alternates on what was going to happen and what was expected of them during the trial and deliberations. Explaining that opening statements are designed to lay out “what the attorneys expect the evidence to show,” the judge also noted that the defense did not have to present an opening statement if it did not want to. She also made a point of noting that jurors are not allowed to discuss the trial, the evidence or any matter connected to the case with anyone including “spiritual advisers or therapists.”
This being L.A. and a celebrity trial, the judge made a distinct point of informing the jurors and alternates that while they can talk to anyone they want after the trial is complete and verdict delivered, they have to wait 90 days under California law before accepting compensation for books, broadcast or any other platform on the case.
Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.
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