Danny Masterson: Convicted and Sentenced. What's Next for Scientology?
Despite the Church of Scientology's efforts to silence his victims, the Scientologist actor has been convicted and sentenced. Will the Church be held accountable for obstructing justice?
Last week, on Thursday, September 7, I attended the sentencing of actor and Scientologist Danny Masterson. After being convicted in May on two counts of forcible rape, he was sentenced last Thursday to thirty years to life in prison. Masterson was charged with three counts of forcible rape involving three different women, and he was convicted on two of the charges; the jury was hung on the charge involving Jane Doe 3. Prior to the sentencing itself, Masterson’s three victims each got a chance to read their victim impact statements; not only did each of their statements indicate the severity of the trauma that they experienced due to Masterson’s actions, but they also all named the Church of Scientology as a force which has been harassing and intimidating them for years in an attempt to keep them from speaking out.
Jane Doe 3 had her statement read by Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson; her statement indicated that after “reporting Mr. Masterson to law enforcement, me and my family started being Fair Gamed by Scientology just as they had threatened they would back in 2002.” “Fair game” refers to Scientology policies written by L. Ron Hubbard which justify the destruction of those who are considered enemies of Scientology.
Jane Doe 2 similarly mentioned in her statement that “since the week I came forward to police I have been terrorized, harassed, and had my privacy invaded daily by the Cult of Scientology for almost 7 years now.”
Jane Doe 1’s statement was particularly powerful due to the unique nature of her mother’s relation to the case. Jane Doe 1 discussed the fact that her mother, who was a Scientologist at the time of her daughter’s assault and is still believed to be a Scientologist to this day, wrote a letter to Scientology leader David Miscavige in order to call for accountability for Danny Masterson. Jane Doe 1’s letter states that her mother “had warned me ahead of time she wanted to see Danny Masterson brought to justice for raping me but not at the expense of her religion, their religion, Scientology.”
This created a particularly uncomfortable dilemma for Jane Doe 1, as she went on to explain that she “had to choose between cooperating fully with law enforcement and the courts or shielding Scientology and keeping my mother in my life.” The dilemma faced by Jane Doe 1 is indicative of the way that Scientology policies which restrict members’ communication can be weaponized to control and silence those who possess information that the Church of Scientology does not want to become public. In her victim impact statement, three people who Jane Doe 1 named as being responsible for putting pressure on her to stay silent are Masterson’s attorney Marty Singer, Scientology ethics officer Julian Swartz, and Scientology executive Kirsten Caetano (whose last name is now “Pederson”). Jane Doe 1 described the pressure that Marty Singer put on her in 2004 to sign a document which included a non-disclosure agreement, and she mentioned that Marty Singer has reminded her since she has started cooperating with authorities that she was violating her NDA.
Marty Singer and the NDA given to Jane Doe 1 were previously discussed by Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller in a hearing held in September 2022, less than a month before the start of Masterson’s first trial, during which he mentioned that Singer had testified to a grand jury for which Masterson was the subject—Mueller revealed that Singer had been questioned about the September 2004 “mediation” that took place between Jane Doe 1 and Danny Masterson which led to Jane Doe 1 signing the NDA. In the same September 2022 hearing, Mueller quoted some of Singer’s grand jury testimony in which Singer admitted that the Church of Scientology sometimes pays its members’ legal fees (Singer himself is not a Scientologist, but he has represented Scientologists throughout his career).
Masterson’s first trial ultimately concluded with the jury hung on all three counts, and a mistrial was declared. When Masterson was tried again a few months later, discussion of a grand jury came up once again. On April 18, day two of jury selection, reporter Tony Ortega overheard the attorneys for both sides speaking with Judge Olmedo in a sidebar, and he overheard mention of a grand jury into Scientology. Once the sidebar ended and the court session was back on the record, Judge Olmedo indicated that defense attorney Shawn Holley was interested in receiving a copy of a subpoena that was related to the “proceeding” discussed during the sidebar; after confirming with Deputy DA Mueller that the proceeding was ongoing, Judge Olmedo said that because “of the ongoing nature of that proceeding, it would be inappropriate to provide that subpoena.”
The information discussed in the sidebar was not intended to be public, and Ortega was admonished by Judge Olmedo for reporting about it. While the exact substance of the proceeding is unclear, it sounded as though there is an ongoing grand jury that is looking into Scientology, and the nature of the grand jury appeared to be relevant enough to the Danny Masterson case that the attorneys had a conversation with Judge Olmedo about whether or not material from this grand jury could be introduced in Masterson’s criminal trial. This limited information legitimizes the theory that the Church of Scientology is being investigated for their role in obstructing justice in the Danny Masterson case.
One additional individual whose name appeared on the prosecution’s witness list during Masterson’s first trial is Lisa Marie Presley (she did not end up testifying). Presley was formerly a close friend of Jane Doe 1. On November 8, 2022, before the jury was brought into the courtroom, the prosecution revealed that Lisa Marie Presley had been ordered by the Church of Scientology to dissuade Jane Doe 1 from going to the police. As Deputy DA Mueller explained, Presley initially wanted to invoke her fifth amendment right and not testify, as this would require her to admit that she played a role in obstructing justice. The prosecution was able to grant her immunity from an obstruction of justice charge, and after they did so, she became willing to testify. On Friday, November 4, she sat for a taped interview, which was obtained by the prosecuting attorneys and shared with the defense.
Judge Olmedo did not allow the prosecution to bring Presley in to testify to the fact that she was ordered by Scientology to obstruct justice; she was only allowed to testify to the consistency of Jane Doe 1’s statements at the time of her assault. After Judge Olmedo limited the content to which Presley would have been permitted to testify, the prosecution ended up not calling her to testify at all.
With regard to Presley’s participation in following Church orders, Judge Olmedo mentioned that the information may be more relevant to the civil lawsuit filed by Masterson’s victims, in which Masterson and the Church of Scientology are both named as defendants (the lawsuit focuses on the harassment that Masterson’s victims have faced since they began cooperating with the LAPD; the lawsuit has been on hold leading up to the conclusion of the criminal trial).
During Masterson’s second criminal trial, Judge Olmedo allowed more Scientology-related testimony to be heard in court; it was during this trial, after all, that Claire Headley, a former Scientology executive, was permitted to testify as an expert witness on the subject of Scientology—Headley explained that Scientology policy would forbid a Scientologist from reporting another Scientologist to law enforcement, and that doing so would result in expulsion from the organization and the severance of relationships with friends and family who are Scientologists. She also described an internal code implemented in 1997 which prevented sensitive subjects like rape from being explicitly mentioned in internal Scientology reports.
It certainly would have been interesting to see if Lisa Marie Presley would have been permitted to testify during the second trial to the role that she played in obstructing justice on Scientology’s behalf, but between Danny Masterson’s first and second trial, Lisa Marie Presley tragically died at the age of fifty-four. I do not know if Lisa Marie Presley was under oath during the interview that she gave in November, nor do I know exactly what information she shared, but the information that Mueller shared about her in court leaves the impression that the recording could be useful in additional investigations and/or prosecutions.
Immediately after the sentencing, many reporters and production crews stood outside with microphones and cameras, eager to hear from the attorneys. After prosecuting attorneys Reinhold Mueller and Ariel Anson exited the building, Mueller approached the cameras and microphones, spoke for a few minutes about the case, and then began taking questions. I raised my hand and Mueller looked my way, so I brought up the grand jury to which Marty Singer testified, and I asked, “Now that the sentencing is complete, can we expect anything additional to come of that [the grand jury]? A potential obstruction of justice charge brought against the Church?”
Mueller responded with, “So, best way that I can answer that is that I can’t answer that. I can’t confirm or deny anything about that; if there’s any pending investigation that may be going forward, it’s not something I can comment on right now.”
I knew it was a long shot, and in hindsight, it was naïve of me to expect to gain any more information than I did, but if nothing else, I’m glad to have introduced the premise of an obstruction of justice indictment in the presence of reporters and prosecutors.
Since the sentencing, this case has received some additional press, particularly in relation to Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and the support that they each have shown, in the form of letters to Judge Olmedo, for their criminally-convicted friend and former castmate. They have since released an apology video, which has done little to exonerate them as far as the general public’s response has been concerned—Jane Doe 1 herself mentioned to journalist Yashar Ali that the “video was incredibly insulting and hurtful.” Despite bringing some less-than-ideal press to their own names, it appears that Kutcher and Kunis may have inadvertently brought more attention to Masterson’s case itself. This week, an additional woman has publicly shared a story on TikTok about her friend having been drugged by Masterson around 2005. Could the attention being brought to this case be a sign that the public at large is becoming more aware of the abuses of Scientology?
The Church of Scientology has operated as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization since 1993, after a long history of conflict between the Church and the Internal Revenue Service. Not only has the Church’s 1993 recognition excused the organization from an obligation to pay taxes, but it has also shielded the organization from investigations and accountability overseen by the U.S. government, enabling the Church to discreetly engage in many controversial practices without penalty.
While the sentencing ought to be seen as a victory, it also ought to be seen as one step toward justice against the Church of Scientology for their role in harassing victims to obstruct justice while protecting a predator. Masterson’s criminal trial and sentencing have concluded, which now enables the civil lawsuit that Masterson’s victims have filed against Masterson and the Church of Scientology to move forward. Time will tell whether justice will prevail in the Church of Scientology’s current ongoing and future legal proceedings. The world will be watching!