Law&Crime Sidebar - Famous Witnesses Confirmed to Testify in 'That '70s Show' Actor's Rape Trial

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Starting point is 00:00:35 will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Your attorneys may appear in court on your behalf without being present. Yes, sir. The witness list has been released in Danny Masterson's Los Angeles rape trial and it's been confirmed some pretty big names are planning to testify. Journalist Tony Ortega comes on to discuss what he's learning after being in the courtroom. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Starting point is 00:01:12 As we've reported here on Sidebar, actor Danny Masterson Sex Crimes Trial has officially begun this week out in Los Angeles. The That 70s show actor is facing three charges of forcible rape with respect to three women who were former members of the Church of Scientology. this happened between 2001 and 2003, and if he's convicted, he could face a lengthy prison sentence up to 45 years behind bars. It is a really interesting case to follow, because Masterson is a longtime member of the Church of Scientology, and we've already spoken about what we might learn about the inner workings of the church, but right now, I want to talk about who's going to be called to the witness stand, because it has been confirmed that a big name is about to test in this trial. And also all of the names have been listed because the witness list has been

Starting point is 00:02:02 revealed. So I want to bring in right now journalist Tony Ortega, who has been following this case, he's been a frequent contributor on the Danny Masterson story here on Sidebar. He is the founder of the underground bunker where he writes about Scientology-related issues and stories. You can find him at Tonyortega.com. And Tony, as always this week, has been reporting from outside of that Los Angeles courthouse. Tony, good to see you again. Thank you very much, Jesse. Great to be back. So I want to talk about the witness list. Let's first, we'll go through some of them, but let's first start with the big bombshell, right? It has officially been confirmed that Lisa Marie Presley is going to testify.

Starting point is 00:02:42 Can you, is that my accurate? And what do you think she's going to testify to? Right. A week ago, we broke the news. I came on sidebar. We were way ahead of everybody and said that Lisa Marie Presley was on the prosecution witness list. and now the court itself has released that list, and sure enough, Lisa Marie Presley is on it, just as we said it would be. She's on the prosecution list. Now, you know how it works, Jesse. Both sides submit lists, and those people probably will testify, but there's a chance that

Starting point is 00:03:15 some of them won't. So we can't say with absolute certainty that Lisa Marie Presley will testify, but I think she will. And I think it's significant that she's a prosecution witness. She was a Scientologist. I've written at length about the journey she went on to leave Scientology back in 2014, and now here she is testifying on behalf of three women who are former Scientologist against Danny Masterson, who was a current Scientologist. So, you know, very interesting dynamic of who these people are. I still don't know exactly what Lisa Marie Presley is going to testify to. I have some idea, but she wasn't there the night that Jane Doe 1's incident happened. So I'm not exactly sure. how they're going to use her. But I think it's just really interesting that she's going to, she has agreed to be a part of this case. But if she, she's friends with Jane Doe 1, right? Because my understanding is, again, the allegation from Jane Doe 1 is, is that after Masterserson allegedly

Starting point is 00:04:07 sexually assaulted her this again back in 2003, he allegedly said, quote, you're not going to tell effing Lisa. You're not going to tell. You're not going to F and tell anybody. So it makes me wonder, did Jane Doe one have a relationship with Lisa Marie Presley and tell her something about Masters. Yeah, that's one of the interesting. interesting things we're learning about the case is that there was this social set largely around Lisa Marie Presley and people like Luke Watson that are mentioned in the case. He was living, I think, at her house as a lodger at the time. And, you know, these are all very close people, friends who were all very close friends,

Starting point is 00:04:43 Danny Masterson, Luke Watson, Lisa Marie Presley, and Jane Doe 1. There's a whole set of those folks. And I think we're going to hear a lot about that group in the coming day, in the coming testimony. All right, so tell me who else is on the witness list that we should be looking out for. Well, one that I was really interested to see, you know, not too long ago, I think Jesse, you and I talked about the fact that it was revealed that Marty Singer had been pulled into a grand jury and that because of that, there was some documents that he had to turn over. And I told you at that time, I didn't know if he himself was going to be pulled in.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Well, what do you know? He's on the witness list. So Marty Singer, I mean, this is really interesting. This is one of Hollywood's big fixers. This is a guy whose whole job is to keep Hollywood stars out of trouble. And not only is Danny Masserson, one of his clients, in big trouble, but Marty Singer himself is going to be pulled in to testify. I just think that's really, really interesting. Attorney-client privilege. I don't know how much he's going to be able to testify to.

Starting point is 00:05:41 I know. I know. And that's what I'm going to be interested to see what is it that he can testify to? What can they ask him that's not privileged? I don't, I'm not, I think it all has to go back to this 2004. agreement that Jane Doe 1 claims she was forced into by Marty Singer, by the Church of Scientology's attorney, and by a Church of Scientology ethics officer. And she has testified that she felt pressured that if she didn't sign that agreement with Danny

Starting point is 00:06:09 and sign a non-disclosure agreement, that she would be declared suppressive by the Church of Scientology and lose connection with everybody she knew. I think that's what they're going to ask Marty to testify about. So it may be more about his dealings with her rather than trying to ask him things about his client, which, of course, you can't do. Is there, you mentioned Scientology, are there members of the church that are now on the witness list that we can confirm that are going to give us some insight into the inner workings of the organization? Again, you tell me, is this the witness list for both the prosecution and the defense? Virtually all the witnesses are for the prosecution. The only witnesses for the defense are a couple of memory experts and a toxicology expert.

Starting point is 00:06:55 And then Danny Masterson's assistant, or probably former assistant now, but, you know, assistant at the time, she's on both lists, which I found interesting. Her name is Bree Schaefer. She's a Scientologist. She's married to Scientologist actor Michael Pena. And she's a very interesting role of figure in this whole thing. So, yeah, she's a Scientologist, but, you know, Judge Omedo made it clear. She's going to allow some testimony in about Scientology's policies to help explain why these

Starting point is 00:07:25 women didn't come forward sooner, but she is not going to allow an examination of Scientology's beliefs and practices, something like that. But are there other big names that we should be looking out for in terms of from the church or maybe even other celebrities that we should be looking out for, too? There are some actors and actresses. I don't think they're, you know, particularly well-known. But the whole list, you know, I'm not sure how much I should say, Jesse. These poor people, they're going to be so on the spot.

Starting point is 00:07:54 But we understand that. We understand that. To the best that you can explain. You may not give names, but I guess the idea is what, how about this? The witness list itself, does it tell you which direction both sides are going? Because you just revealed something to me. By saying the defense is calling memory experts, I now think about immediately Harvey Weinstein, who did the same kind of thing, calling those kinds of.

Starting point is 00:08:15 of experts to testify about how well do these accusers actually remember the details and is their story kind of changed by, you know, the media and the public perception, what they're told, is that effect memory? So that tells me something about where the defense is going. Do you have a clearer sense based on the witness list of where the prosecution is going? Well, I have a clearer sense based on the preliminary hearing last year because that's basically what the defense was doing was saying, look, whatever happened between, say, Jane Doe 3, that was the alleged victim who actually was in a relationship with Danny for several years, whatever she's saying now is different than what she was saying then, and what happens is

Starting point is 00:08:55 her memory kind of grows with time. Now, the prosecution denies that and says that all three victims have been very consistent, but you know, this is how it's going to work. The defense is going to try to convince the jury that things have sort of grown or morphed in people's memories, because memory is a tricky thing over time, and that also the defense is going to try to make the case that not only did these women change their stories over time, but they were colluding. They were trying to figure out a way to make their stories mesh more. The prosecution says no. The prosecution's argument is, no, the cases are similar because Danny had an MO, right? And he did the similar thing to the same women. It's not that they invented and, you know, made sure that their

Starting point is 00:09:36 stories matched. So that's going to be the fight that's going on. The prosecution defending these women's allegations over time and these memory experts coming in and saying you can't rely on what somebody is saying 18 years after something happened. Yeah, and I think that's important. You mentioned also for, is there anybody going to corroborate maybe Danny Masterson's side other than, of course, as you mentioned, a toxicology usper and a memory expert? Other than that, do you think that he's going to call anybody to, you know, we saw a little bit of it on the Harvey Weinstein trial, except it was reversed when they decided to call certain

Starting point is 00:10:10 witnesses, they backfired against them. Do you think you were going to see that here? Do you think he's going to call friends or family or anybody like that? The only person he has on his list besides those experts is his former assistant, Brie Schaefer. And I assume that's the kind of thing she's going to be doing is what you just said is, you know, what did he say around the time? You know, does this back up his version? But that's it. I think, you know, and I think it's not unusual in cases like this that the defense's main strategy is just to cross-examine all of the prosecution's witnesses and that's that's their case tony ortega always great having you on sir thank you so much you bet thanks jesse and thanks everybody for joining us here on sidebar please

Starting point is 00:10:50 subscribe on apple podcast spotify youtube wherever you get your podcast i'm jesse weber speak to you next time you can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on wondery plus join wondery plus in the wondery app apple podcasts or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - Famous Witnesses Confirmed to Testify in 'That '70s Show' Actor's Rape Trial

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