Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘The King of Queens’ Star Backs Danny Masterson’s Rape Accusers, Blasts Scientology

Episode Date: November 3, 2022

Actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini fired off a series of tweets on Tuesday night backing the accusers of actor Danny Masterson, who's on trial for rape in Los Angeles. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy discusses Remini's tweets with journalist Tony Ortega, who is covering Masterson's trial.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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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. I would never tell when I was in a non-scientologist my real problems. It would be kind of bad for the church to ever appear human. Whoa. To a non-scientologist. it would be setting a bad example. Like, it would actually be considered like a transgression. That was Leah Remini, the actress on Joe Rogan's podcast, talking about the Church of Scientology. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and welcome back to Sidebar here on Law and Crime.

Leah Remini has put out a long, long tweet thread. It has 36 points. She's never been shy about her criticism of the Church of Scientology. She left the church back in 2013, and she's. she has basically said that it is evil, the entire church. She even had a television show on A&E for three seasons that talked about the Church of Scientology. And now in the middle of Danny Masterson's sexual assault trial in Los Angeles, Remini has taken to Twitter and Instagram with a 36-point tweet thread about the trial and the Church of Scientology and why she believes that the trial needs to be getting more attention. And she believes that the Church of Scientology and the attorney, Philip Cynology, and the attorney, Philip Cynology.

Cohen for Danny Masters Center trying to basically scrub Scientology from the trial itself. So joining us to talk about this is someone who's covered the Church of Scientology for many years and knows Leah Remini. Tony Ortega, Tony of the Underground Bunker, welcome back to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. And Jeanette, thanks for having me. Tony, you broke the news, you told me, of Leah leaving the church back in 2013. Tell us a little bit about that first. Right. July 8, 2013, I broke the news that she had left Scientology.

and in that first story, I mentioned the background about how she had been at Tom Cruise's wedding and it dared to ask about the leader's missing wife. All the stuff that later showed up in her book was really in that first story. And so I know her pretty well. I made a couple of appearances on her series. But I will tell you, I was a little surprised she came out with those tweets right now because I know the defense has made the allegation that this whole thing was cooked up by her, which is not true, these women reported to the police on their own. And so I think she's been relatively

quiet about this case because she doesn't want to influence it all. But she was obviously frustrated that there hasn't been more attention. And so she came out with this really strong tweet storm yesterday. And I can tell you, everything she said in there was accurate. She was describing what's been said in this trial, what it's like in Scientology for victims. These are things she knows really, really well. And she basically says that the Church of Scientology is a multi- billion-dollar cult that will cover up the sex crimes of its members. What do you think about her making that claim? Well, I think it's something she said before, and it's something that she showed on her series, and it's something that's coming out in the testimony in this trial. So that we're seeing

that these women are alleging that this organization controlled everything that they were doing and saying and preventing them from going to the police. And we're giving Danny Mason protection because he was what's known as an upstat celebrity, somebody that brings them good publicity. And you said that this was actually brought up on Wednesday morning by the defense in Masterson's trial, this tweet thread. Right. So this morning started out before the jury came into the courtroom. Judge O'Mado said that the defense, once again, wanted to make a point about something. And defense attorney Karen Goldstein then described the tweets and was saying how prejudicial this was and this was going to prevent a fair trial. But then Judge O'Mado and Deputy D.A. Ryan Holmuller responded that they hadn't seen it.

They're not following Leah Remini. They've asked the jurors not to pay attention to social media. And although Judge O'Meto said that although some jurors had mentioned seeing her show, she didn't really think any of them were following Leah on social media. So she said, you can put that on the record, but that's all she was going to do. And Karen Goldstein said, thank you, Your Honor. Well, let's look at the tweet number one from the tweet storm. It says, did you know that if you are a Scientologist, you are, from contacting law enforcement when another Scientologist has committed a crime against you.

If you do, you will be declared a suppressive person and lose your family, friends, and livelihood overnight. Your thoughts on that particular claim, Tony. Yeah, that's been testified to several times in this trial. And what's interesting is this also came up with a preliminary hearing. These women are saying that it's in the Scientology rules. You can't turn in another Scientologist. and when they were put on the spot about this last year by Daddy Madison's defense attorney Tom Mezzaro at that time, they actually got out the ethics book that Scientology uses, and it says it right there in black and white, Anjanet, you are not to turn in another Scientologist to civil authorities, which obviously includes the police. So what's interesting is that if you look at the other media that's coming out this last couple of weeks,

the Church of Scientology has said again and again to reporters, we don't have that rule. We don't have that rule. But I mean, I can literally pull out the book and show it to you. And all of these Scientologists under oath, under penalty of perjury, have said, this is what they were taught. So Scientology can say that all they want, but it's literally in their ethics book that you cannot turn in a fellow Scientologist to civil authorities. What I don't understand is maybe I don't want to take the train too far off the tracks here. But it sounds like if this is all true, if it's true, that there's some type of concern. conspiracy going on here. And I don't understand why the Church of Scientology and its practices aren't

being investigated by the DA or the police in L.A. Well, Angenet, you just hit right on it. And that is, we've known about these practices for decades. The government has known about these practices for decades, that if you run afoul of Scientology's rules, you will be called, you will be called a suppressive person, which is basically their form of excommunication. But even worse than that, all are the Scientologist will be forced to cut off contact with you. This is what splits families apart, what splits parents from children, brothers from sisters. This is what Scientology's been doing and it's documented in court records going back 50 years. So, you know, it comes out, Leah Remedy tweets about it and I'm asked, is that true?

And I'm saying this has been so well documented for so long. It's a fact. And I even have a list at my website of people and how long it's been since they've seen their mother or their brother or their father or their sister because Scientology has made them, made those families split up. Let's go to point number three where Leah Remini tweets first, let me explain how Scientologists are controlled. Scientology's policies written by founder El Ron Hubbard can never be altered and must be interpreted literally allowing this criminal org to control members and insulate itself from

bad PR. So this is all about PR according to Leah Remini. Well, it's about control. El Ron Hubbard was the founder of Scientology. He ran it from 1950 until his death in 1986. They literally call him source, meaning everything comes from him. And he was a former science fiction writer. He had written millions of words of policies governing everything that a Scientologist does. And they can consider his words so sacrosanct that now that he's died, they can't change anything. And so they keep doing the same things over and over and over. And like Leah points out, that's unalterable. So if somebody comes to tell you what a family being split up in the 70s or family being split up in the 80s, they're still doing it today because they're following the same rules that they can't change. And I actually read a story with Danny Masterson's, I believe his stepfather in the L.A. Times where he talked about basically being shunned by his family after he said some things about the church.

Right, Joe Rache. And I've interviewed him myself and I actually said this early on in the trial. that one of the most Scientological things on display in the courtroom every day is that Danny's younger siblings, Atlanta Masterson and Jordan Masterson, or both actors, are sitting in the family section every day. And they are just like a symbol of what Scientology is about. Their father, their biological father, Joe Rache, who was Danny's stepfather, ran a foul of Scientology for various reasons 17 years ago. He was kicked out, and those children of his have completely cut.

him out of their lives as Scientology instructs them. So there they are, sitting there in the courtroom, a symbol for how Scientology splits families apart. Leah Remini calls these women credible who've accused Danny Masterson of rape. She said that they reported their rapes to Scientology and to the top ethics officials in Scientology and a few trusted friends. So she's saying these claims are corroborated. And that's, now we move to tweet point number 32, where Remini says, Scientology has obstructed justice in covering up Danny's crimes and his case is not the only time they've done this. Scientology has covered up at least hundreds of similar crimes involving sexual violence. Tony, this goes to my question again. If they're part of a cover up a conspiracy,

where's the criminal investigation? I mean, that's always the biggest question. You know, Mike Grindr has got a new book out about his time in Scientology and the things he saw and that he went to the FBI and the FBI has actually started investigations. Some involved charges, some didn't. It's always a question, when is the federal government going to take these things seriously and investigate what Scientology is doing? And I think Scientology is very good at intimidating people. And yes, that includes law enforcement. As Mike Rinder once explained to me, a manager of the Department of Justice has got to make the decision about an investigation of Scientology. Are they ready for that to be the rest of their career? Because that's what it's going to be. Years and years of vicious fights

in courts. And I think the government sometimes just doesn't have the stomach for it. Well, if if sexual assaults are being covered up with their knowledge and there's evidence to support that, as we've seen with the Catholic Church, you can't commit crimes in the name of religion. So these are all claims and allegations at this point. We will see what comes of this. Tony Ortega, thanks so much for being with us today, as always. Thank you so much, Anjanet. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Logan Harris. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager, Alyssa Fisher is our booking producer, and Kiora. Bronson handles our social media. You can listen to and watch Sidebar wherever you get your podcast. That's Apple, Spotify, and Google, and of course you can watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Chenette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this Law and Crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.