Danny Masterson rape retrial begins with Leah Remini in courtroom audience – National | 24CA News
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Actor Danny Masterson is again on trial, going through costs for the alleged rape of three ladies at his Hollywood-area dwelling between 2001 and 2003.
The retrial started on Monday with opening statements from Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller. He claimed the Church of Scientology, to which Masterson belongs, helped cowl up allegations that the That ’70s Show actor drugged and raped three ladies.
Masterson, 47, has pleaded not responsible to all three costs of rape towards him. He is going through as much as 45 years in jail, if convicted.
Actor and former Scientologist Leah Remini mentioned she was current in courtroom for the opening statements. She claimed Masterson’s legal professionals tried to have her thrown out of the courtroom over incorrect assumptions she could be known as as a witness to the trial.
“I attended to show my support for the women who were not only brutally raped by Danny but then subjected to years of harassment by Scientology,” Remini, 52, wrote.
Remini has been a loud voice of opposition towards the Church of Scientology since her departure in 2013. She claimed the Church and its chief David Miscavige are attempting to “waste the court’s time with embarrassing, petty attempts to get someone who is supporting survivors of sexual violence thrown out.”
Mueller and his crew have tried to color Masterson as a serial rapist who has been protected by high-ranking officers within the Church of Scientology. They claimed he, on separate events, put medicine into the drinks of a longtime girlfriend and two different ladies he knew by way of the Church earlier than he raped them.
Direct dialogue of drugging was lacking from final yr’s unique trial — that resulted in a mistrial when a jury deadlocked on all three counts — with Mueller as a substitute having to indicate it by way of the testimony of the ladies, who mentioned they have been woozy, disoriented and at instances unconscious on the nights they described the actor raping them.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo is permitting the direct assertion on the second trial.
Masterson’s lawyer, Philip Cohen, has denied his shopper ever drugged anybody. He went as far as to assert one of many accusers watched Masterson make her a drink that he had allegedly drugged her with.
Lawyers for either side acknowledged that there isn’t a forensic proof of any substances Masterson could have given the ladies as a result of the police investigation that led to the 2 trials didn’t start till about 15 years after the occasions.
Cohen instructed jurors that one of many ladies, a younger actor who spent a night alone with Masterson at his home in 2003, made no point out of drugging on the time. He asserted the sufferer solely claimed Masterson drugged her years later when the investigation started — a results of accusers “cross-pollinating” data, in accordance with Cohen.
Cohen defined to the jury that there are not any drug-related costs on this case.
Mueller alternatively claimed the three victims, all of whom have been members of the Church of Scientology, had their tales suppressed by the Church, who insisted what they’d skilled was not rape.
During final yr’s trial, the Church of Scientology mentioned it didn’t have a coverage “prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of Scientologists, or of anyone, to law enforcement.” The ladies testified within the first trial that they feared changing into a “suppressive person” in the event that they went towards the Church and pursued costs towards Masterson. (Suppressive individuals are excommunicated from their family and friends within the Church of Scientology and forbidden from having contact with present members.)
The Church of Scientology just isn’t a defendant within the trial. Still, Remini has maintained they’re taking part in an energetic position. Last week, throughout jury choice, she claimed legal professionals for the Church have been current within the courtroom.
“Their fees are paid for with tax-exempt funds,” she wrote on Thursday. “Just today, Dillon Malar, an associate of longtime Scientology attorney Vicki Podberesky, walked into court and handed Danny Masterson’s defense team a folder! Right in front of the judge!”
She continued, writing: “Scientology is not only involved in Danny’s trial, but it is also directing his defense. Given Scientology’s involvement in covering up these rapes, it should be a co-defendant. I hope these jurors know what has been going on. It will continue unless justice is served.”
Since leaving the Church of Scientology in 2013, Remini made bombshell allegations towards the group. She launched her memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology in 2015, a prerequisite to her Emmy-winning docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.
Masterson was launched on bail in 2020.
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If you or somebody you realize is experiencing abuse or is concerned in an abusive state of affairs, please go to the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for assist. They are additionally reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.
— With information from The Associated Press
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