Ex-Scientologist's 'brouhaha' with priest leads to jury restrictions in Danny Masterson's retrial
Ex-Scientologist's 'brouhaha' with priest leads to jury restrictions in Danny Masterson's retrial
Attorneys also are being allowed to question witnesses about members of the public gallery amid claims that a Church of Scientology lawyer was staring down a witness.
A former Church of Scientology member’s hallway confrontation with one of Danny Masterson’s supporters during his rape retrial has prompted the judge to sequester jurors during the lunch recess and provide them an alternative exit.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo said she’ll tell the jury Thursday morning that the changes this week have “nothing to do with the parties” after Masterson’s lawyer Shawn Holley said she’s concerned jurors will erroneously believe “that it’s the Church of Scientology that’s behind something nefarious that led them to be protected.”
“The only person who created any kind of disruption was Mr. Aaron Smith-Levin, who I believe would identify himself as someone who is anti-Scientology,” Holley said.
A former Scientologist, Smith-Levin operates a YouTube channel titled “Growing Up in Scientology” and has attended each day of Masterson’s trial with media credentials from the court’s communications office.
He’s one of several gallery members who’ve been identified for jurors in testimony: Holley asked former Scientologist and prosecution expert witness Claire Headley on Wednesday about his involvement in the Aftermath Foundation, which is dedicated to helping people transition from Scientology into mainstream life. Also a former Sea Org member, Smith-Levin is the foundation’s vice president; Headley is its treasurer.
A second-generation Scientologist, 47-year-old Masterson is accused of raping three women in separate incidents in 2001 and 2003. At the time of the alleged crimes, he was starring as Steven Hyde on the popular television series That ‘70s Show. He’s out of jail on $3.3 million bond, attending trial every day with his wife, Bijou Phillips, and a group of supporters that includes his mother and siblings.
The Church Scientology plays a prominent role in the case because each of the three alleged victims is a former member who says the Church dissuaded them from reporting Masterson to police and continues to harass them because they did so.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Masterson’s three rape charges in June 2020, for which he faces 45 years to life in prison if convicted. Last November, jurors in his first trial deadlocked 10-2, 8-4 and 7-5 in favor of acquitting him on each count.
Prosecutors have increased their focus on Scientology in the retrial through the testimony of Headley, whom Judge Olmedo designated as an expert witness because of her extensive experience within Scientology.
Founded in 1953, the Church of Scientology is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt religious organization but has long been dogged by claims from former members that it is a cult. A Church spokeswoman denies the claims and says Los Angeles prosecutors are unfairly targeting Masterson because of his religion.
Accuser testifies about Scientology lawyer’s ‘dead glare’
The unusual mentioning of public gallery members during trial testimony began Monday after Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told Judge Olmedo that Vicki Podberesky, a longtime lawyer for Scientology, made eye contact from the gallery with Masterson’s alleged victim Jen B. during her testimony on Friday.
Mueller said Podberesky at one point “flipped her hair and kind of rolled her eyes up in the air.”
Olmedo then allowed Mueller to question Jen B. on Monday about how Podberesky’s presence affected her testimony.
“Was there somebody here in court that you recognized during your testimony that made you uncomfortable?” Mueller asked.
“There was,” Jen B. answered. She went on to testify that Podberesky, co-founder of the law firm Andrues/Podberesky in Los Angeles, represents the Church, its leader David Miscaviage and “every witness that needed to come to court to testify.”
“At some point during your testimony, did you happen to observe whether Ms. Podberesky had made any kind of gesture or any kind of facial gesture to you that made you uncomfortable?” Mueller asked.
Jen B. answered, “I did,” then testified that Podberesky “put her head down and stared at me with something — a really dead glare.”
Jen B. said Podberesky’s gesture and demeanor caused her to get “lost where we were at” in her testimony.
“I know the Church has come to our house with the attorney before to say, ‘You’re not going to talk to law enforcement. You’re not going to do anything more. This ends here,’” Jen B. testified.
But while the questions about Podberesky were unusual, the restrictions placed on jurors because of Smith-Levin’s hallway confrontation have been the gallery’s most consequential effect on Masterson’s trial.
The incident occurred Monday after court recessed for lunch and Smith-Levin spoke to a man in the hallway who appeared to be a Christian priest and had been sitting with Masterson’s family.
“My impression was that the man who was wearing the cross was very respectful — didn’t do anything,” Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told Olmedo on Monday. “But the other individual made some kind of comments and was yelling in the hallway, and there may have bene jurors around.” Olmedo later identified the person as Smith-Levin.
Masterson’s lawyer Kate Mangels, a partner at Holley’s firm Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley LLP, said she heard someone yell about “being a front” for a “fucking cult.”
“And I believe the jurors heard that,” Mangels told the judge.
Five of the 20 Los Angeles County residents seated as jurors or alternate jurors in Masterson’s trial said they saw at least a portion of the confrontation, which Holley and Judge Olmedo described Wednesday as a “brouhaha.”
Judge questions jurors about hallway ‘brouhaha’
The judge questioned the five individually on Monday after they raised their hands when she asked all jurors if they’d heard anything.
One said she saw “a heated conversation” and thought he heard something about “you’re against Scientology.” Another said he heard a man loudly say “Scientology,” and another said he only heard sheriff’s deputies talking about the scuffle. The next juror said he heard a man say, “You’re here with someone that hates Scientology,” and the final said she heard a man say, '“She’s a hate writer for Scientology and propagandist, and you're with her” then saw sheriff’s deputies approach him.
The last juror heard the most, Olmedo said on Wednesday, but the woman works as a court reporter, so “she’s the one I’m least concerned about.”
“She’s used to seeing all sorts of stuff,” Olmedo said.
Olmedo questioned Smith-Levin about the incident on Monday, then ordered him not to discuss the case in front of jurors.
“Yes, your honor,” he said.
The judge told the gallery, “For everyone in the courtroom, please be advised that hallways are small spaces. The security lobbies are small spaces. So the best way to exercise caution is to just not be talking about this case anywhere on this floor.”
Holley asked Olmedo on Wednesday to inform the 20 jurors that the confrontation was not prompted by one of Masterson’s supporters or anyone associated with the Church of Scientology, but the judge said doing so would alert the 15 jurors who didn’t report seeing anything.
“I’m reluctant to give an admonition, particularly to what occurred because then that goes back to jurors that I didn’t hear anything,” Olmedo said.
Instead, the judge said she’ll make clear to the jury that the changes — which included court-provided lunch — aren’t because of anyone involved in the case. She did, however, admonish a prominent member of the gallery Wednesday morning by telling actress Leah Remini, an outspoken former Scientologist, not to try to visibly influence the witnesses she’s in court to support.
Remini wasn’t in the courtroom when Headley took the stand on Wednesday, but her friendship with Headley was mentioned in testimony, as was her involvement in the Aftermath post-Scientology help group.
That’s how Smith-Levin came to be mentioned, too: Holley asked Headley, “Is there someone in the courtroom who’s also a member of the Aftermath organization? I’m referring to the gentleman in the back.”
Smith-Levin, sitting in the back row reserved for credentialed media, smiled and raised his hand.
“Yes,” Headley said, confirming that Smith-Levin is on Aftermath’s Board of Directors with Remini and Mike Rinder, another prominent former Scientologist.
Headley confirmed that Rinder introduced her to Los Angeles County prosecutors as a possible expert witness in Masterson’s case. She also identified in the gallery journalist Tony Ortega, who operates the Scientology news website
after Holley asked if she’d appeared on Ortega’s podcast.Holley asked if Headley’s discussion with Ortega “had everything to do with the allegations in this case.”
“It was about the case, yes,” Headley said.
Former ‘Sea Org’ Scientologist testifies as expert witness
Holley’s questions followed Headley’s testimony in direct-examination that she wasn’t interested in the outcome of the case and was a neutral witness only there to share her factual knowledge of Scientology.
Before Headley took the stand, Holley asked Judge Olmedo not to designate her an expert witness because she “doesn’t have any particular expertise or qualifications that rise to the level of expert.”
“Certainly not anything that we are used to in a court of law,” Holley said.
But Olmedo stood by a written ruling she issued before trial and said Headley’s expertise on Scientology is similar to an ex-gang members expertise of a gang.
“The membership in a particular organization can often lend itself to be an expert,” Olmedo said.
The judge also noted Scientology’s supposed shunning of higher education. If higher education were the only path to becoming an expert witness, “Scientologists could never become an expert,” she said.
Olmedo’s decision opened the door for Headley’s first witness stand appearance as a court-designated expert witness on Scientology. She was born into the Church and left in 2005 when she was 30 years old.
She described Scientology as “an applied philosophy that members apply to all aspects of their life,” from work to relationships. She said she began studying Scientology principles when she was five years old, then was trained as a counselor in Scientology interrogation techniques at age 14.
At age 16, she became a member of the elite Sea Organization, “where members sign a billion-year contract” and are “senior to all civilian Scientologists.” Sea Org members work in top Scientology management positions, and Headley eventually worked as an executive at the Church’s Religious Technology Center, which is “the policing organization within Scientology that enforces the law within Scientology at all levels of Scientology.”
Keeping with Scientology principles, Headley didn’t attend high school or college, but she spent “by a conservative estimate, over 10,000” hours studying Scientology courses and was required to study 12.5 hours a week.
“There are many different training courses in Scientology,” Headley said. There also are strict rules about adhering to Scientology principles, which she said always outweigh legislatively enacted laws in the mainstream public.
“Is there an internal justice system in Scientology?” asked Deputy D.A. Anson.
“There is an internal justice system, yes,” Headley answered.
‘It is policy that you do not call police’
That got into the crux of why prosecutors called Headley as a witness: Her explanation of Scientology’s justice system corroborates testimony from Masterson’s alleged victims — two have testified so far — about the scrutiny, discouragement and bizarre regress they faced within the Church when they first reported being raped by Masterson.
“It is policy that you do not call police. You would need to request specific authorization from the international justice chief to do so,” Headley said.
If a Scientologist has a problem with another Scientologist, “they are to write a knowledge report to the ethics officer,” and reports are written under supervision.
“Sensitive” information is stripped from the reports and replaced with coded language, she said.
Headley also testified about the significance of Scientology’s Celebrity Centre in Hollywood because it’s part of the late Church founder L. Ron Hubbard’s strategy to use celebrities who have public influence to get a general acceptance of Scientology in the world at large."
Members said to be in “good standing” are “performing and adhering to the laws of Scientology” and thus have “ethics protection.” Reports about members in good standing are “filed with a yawn,” Headley said, meaning no further action will be taken.
All reports are to be written without human emotion or reaction, and the word ‘victim’ “is a negative term in Scientology.”
“That means you are low on the emotional tone scale,” Headley said. According to Hubbard, “Anyone below 2.0 is succumbing.”
“That is what Scientology endeavors to improve,” Headley said. “Anyone who is in a lower tone level is likely to lie and can’t be trusted.”
The Church believes, “You’re responsible for your own condition,” she continued. “If something bad happens to you, it’s because you have committed bad transgressions.”
If a Scientologist were to report another member to police without permission, “by the laws of Scientology, it would be a high crime,” Headley said.
The Scientologist would be labeled “a suppressive person,” which means “you’re no longer in good standing as a Scientologist and lose all family connections,” Headley testified.
‘I was holding a management position’
Headley said a suppressive Scientologist can be expelled from the Church if they don’t complete a step-by-step process that involves “publicly announcing you are no longer going to be committing crimes against Scientology.”
“During that whole process, the only person you’re allowed to speak to within Scientology is the international justice chief” she said.
Headley also said she was not paid for her testimony outside a free round-trip flight to and from Los Angeles.
She said she chose to testify against Masterson, “to educate people on the polices and principles of Scientology as I experienced them.”
In cross-examination, Holley worked to emphasize that much of Headley’s time in Scientology was when she was a child.
Headley retorted that she was “working 80 plus hours a week” as Sea Org member.
“So maybe you might think of a 16-year-old as a child, but I was holding a management position,” she said.
Holley also questioned Headley about her interactions with Chrissie Carnell-Bixler, Masterson’s former girlfriend and a charged victim in the case. Carnell-Bixler discussed her alleged rape by Masterson on the finale of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath TV series in 2017. Headley was in the audience for the show, but she testified Wednesday she doesn’t recall hearing Carnell-Bixler speak.
Holley and her co-counsel Philip Cohen are expected to call Headley’s former father-in-law, Hugh Martin Witt, as a witness.
To get ahead of his testimony, Deputy D.A. Anson asked Headley about her relationship with him.
Headley testified that Witt was her stepfather from eight years old to age 16, when she said he “turned over parental rights” so she could join the Sea Org.
Headley said she hasn’t had a relationship within since leaving the Church in April 2005.
Headley did not testify about why she left Scientology under an agreement between Holley and Anson, but she did confirm that she and her husband, Marc Headley, another former Sea Org member, unsuccessfully sued the Church of Scientology and had to pay attorney fees.
Testimony continues Thursday with a new witness, then the trial is dark until Tuesday.
Previous coverage:
April 25: Actor Danny Masterson’s rape retrial opens as prosecutor implicates Church of Scientology
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The priest did not sit in the defendant's section. And even before this one-sided noisy conversation occurred in the hallway, the priest had caused a brief interruption in the courtroom, answering the judge that he had no affiliation with Scientology, but was only concerned that religious rights be upheld.
During the lunch break, he then told the ex-Scientologist that he had been invited by Scientology and was attending the trial together with a Scientology blogger.