A woman who accused that ’70s show actor Danny Masterson of raping her in April 2003 said she fears retribution from the Church of Scientology for her testimony against him.
The woman, who prefers to be known as Jane Doe No. 1, told the jury she feared the church would go after her three children. She said she sued Masterson and the church in 2019 as a way to “sue the peace.”
“It’s the only way for them to stop,” she said. “You have to sue for peace. That is politics.”
Masterson, a lifelong Scientologist, is on trial in Los Angeles for three alleged forced rapes dating from 2001 to 2003. Jane Doe #1, who was a Scientologist at the time of the alleged rape, has testified that she fears she will be denied Church service due to report on Masterson. to the police.
Friday said she omitted some information in her initial police report in 2004 because she wanted to protect the church and its officials, including leader David Miscavige and Susan Watson, president of the church’s International Fame Center.
“I thought I probably wouldn’t get into as much trouble going to the police,” she said. “Maybe they will listen and do what is right, and I will not anger them at the final level and their leader. I thought I could report the crime and save my family and my life.”
Philip Cohen, Masterson’s attorney, completed his questioning Friday morning. He continued to consider inconsistencies between initial police reports and statements to law enforcement authorities after the investigation was reopened in 2016.
He focused in particular on her claim that Masterson brandished a gun during the alleged rape, a detail not included in the initial reports. At one point, he made her stand up and show the jury how Masterson was holding the gun. She said Masterson grabbed it from a table and lifted it as she lay on it.
During an interruption in testimony, Judge Charlene Olmedo Cohen harshly criticized the tone of his questions, saying he was “unbelievably condescending.”
“I’m not sure this is the character you want to introduce to the jury,” Olmedo said.
Cohen sought to limit any mention of Scientology and asked no questions about it during the two days of interrogation. Cohen also objected when the lead prosecutor, Reinhold Muller, asked Jane Doe #1 if her decision to leave the church had prompted her to change her view about whether her initial sexual encounter with Masterson, in September 2002, was consensual.
Jane Doe No. 1 testified at a preliminary hearing last year, saying, “It no longer tells me how I should see what happened to me by the Church of Scientology.”
During the intermission, Olmedo advised Cohen to file an objection, and reiterated her pretrial ruling, which permitted the discussion of Scientology for certain purposes.
“I don’t drive Scientology out of it,” she said, referring to Cohen as “malicious opponents” on the issue.
He also criticized Olmedo Cohen for suggesting that Jane Doe #1 had waived doctor and patient confidentiality by referring to a conversation with her therapist.
Olmedo has become angry on both sides as she tries to impose her judgment on the admissibility of Scientology’s evidence. On Tuesday, she rebuked Mueller for “flooding” the case with unrelated testimony regarding the church’s beliefs and practices.
[ad_2]
