Law&Crime Sidebar - Week Two: Top 3 Key Moments of 'That '70s Show' Actor's Rape Trial

Episode Date: October 28, 2022

It’s a full recap of week two in Danny Masterson’s rape trial out in Los Angeles.  Journalist Tony Ortega comes on to discuss what he learned from court.DISCLAIMER: *There is a dog barking behind Tony Ortega outside of court*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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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. It's a recap of week two in Danny Masterson's rape trial out in Los Angeles. Journalist Tony Ortega comes on to discuss what he learned from court. Welcome to Sybar, presented by law and crime i'm jesse webber actor danny masterson's sex crimes trial has finished up its second week out in los angeles the that 70 show star is facing three charges of forcible rape with respect to three women and at the time these women were members of the church of scientology masterson is currently a member a longstanding member and this all allegedly happened between

2001 and 2003 and i should note that if he's convicted he faces a lengthy prison sentence because he could face up to 45 years to life in prison. That's what we're talking about here. So we want to talk about week two in some of the top moments. You know who I'm bringing in. I'm bringing in journalist Tony Ortega, who's not only been following this case and has been a frequent contributor on the Danny Masterson story here on sidebar, but he is actually in Los Angeles. He's outside the courthouse. He has been inside that courtroom as proceedings have been underway. Now, Tony is the founder of the underground bunker where he writes about Scientology-related issues. You can find him at Tony Ortega.substack.com.

Tony, good to see you once again. Jesse, thanks for having me on. Let's go through it. So week two was very interesting. I think we should start with the testimony of Jane Doe 3. Obviously, one of the accusers, very important. What can tell us about her testimony? Right.

So if Jane Doe 1 was the sort of center of week 1, then Jane Doe 3, who followed her, was really the kind of highlight of this week. And I can tell you that I've seen these women before at the preliminary hearing. And I thought that actually Tom Mesrow did a better job with Jane Doe 3 a year ago than Philip Cohen did. I thought Jane Doe. And let's just be clear. That was Danny Masterson's attorney. Right.

So Danny had hired Tom Mezro for the preliminary hearing last year, fired him, and now he has Philip Cohen. And I have to say, Jane Doe 3's testimony was really strong this week. And the cross-examination just seemed to have a hard time. getting anything going against her. What she did was besides describing these two terrible events, the actual rape allegation and also another event, just really horrible details that, you know, those of us who know the case were familiar with,

I was impressed how much other materials she brought in simply about what it was like to be his girlfriend. See, that's what makes Jane Doe three different, Jesse, is that she was actually in a six-year relationship with Masters of the U.S. The other two women were not. And, of course, that makes things a little more complicated. But I thought that gave her the opportunity to describe this unloving relationship with a man who just demanded sex when he wanted it and didn't, you know, didn't care if she was prepared or not. Really portrayed a very, very sad situation.

A couple of things. First of all, I want to let everybody know that, yes, Tony's outside right now. So you hear the barking dog. You hear a soccer team playing. It is what it is, folks. This is what we have to deal with. But anyway, maybe this dog actually wants to come on side. Oh, I don't know what to do about the dog.

I'm sorry. Don't worry about it. So Jane Doe number three, my understanding, if I was reading this correctly, did she have some sort of panic attack on the stand? Yeah, during cross-examination, when she was asked about the stalking and harassment, she's alleging also in the civil lawsuit against Church of Scientology, and she just mentioned that she had her husband and her children, she believes, have been targeted by this campaign of harassment.

She just started crying and trembling. She said she couldn't breathe. I mean, she just got into a full-blown panic attack. And the judge had to stop proceedings, have the jury leave. It took a while for her to gather herself, seemed very genuine. She has made it clear several times during her testimony that the thing she's really terrified of and why she maybe hasn't always said all the details in every interview she's given is she's terrified of what Scientology is going to do to her. So that came through loud and clear.

And like I said, it did hold up things for a little while. while, but then they got going again. Because we all know that Scientology is not supposed to be the focus of this case, but it can come in in a limited context. What did she say about the church? She called it a criminal enterprise. And see, Jesse, this was during cross. I mean, she took a couple of opportunities to really make this point. She called Scientology a criminal enterprise that was terrorizing them. She has said multiple times that it's continuing up to the, in fact, on direct testimony, when Deputy D.A. Mueller asked her when this harassment had been going on and up to what point. She literally said today, implying that something had happened today,

that day with either private investigators or hacking. I've written about this. I interviewed her husband years ago about, you know, they claimed that two of their dogs were killed and they believed that church of Scientology was behind it. So, again, she got to introduce that a couple times this week, including during cross-examination. And just sticking with Jane Doe 3 for a second, my understanding is, is that her husband may now testify to? Her husband testified this morning. I am using his name because he's never asked me for anonymity, and he's a famous person. He is the Mars Volta rocker, Cedric Bixler, Zabala.

And he came in today to talk about what it was like to learn from his wife that she claimed, you know, 10 years earlier, she'd been assaulted by Masterson. And that she has said in testimony that because, of her involvement in Scientology, she wanted to protect Mastercy to a certain extent. And, you know, it's their testimony that Cedric was the first one to tell her, you were raped. And that that convinced her to go to law enforcement at that point. Wait, you mean she didn't initially understand it to be that? You know, her testimony is that she knew something, you know, it shouldn't have happened,

but it happened. And she went to the church initially. I think she did say rape when she went to the church. And the church said, don't use that word. We don't use that word here. So she hadn't been using that word, but then, you know, Cedric told her after she described it, you were raped and she then went to law enforcement. It's incredible testimony. I mean, again, Tony, you're there. It's, it's incredible. You get a view to see this. I do want to move over from Jane Doe 3's testimony. I want to go back to actually to Jane Doe 1's testimony because my understanding also is that a member of law enforcement testified. And I think that was a big moment from this week as well, right? It's been very interesting because one of the things the defense has tried to do in her testimony is to say that the things she's testifying to now were not in a 2004 report when she first went to the LAPD.

And I mean, that's the impression that defense attorney Cohen really gave last week. Well, this week, the desk sergeant who actually took that report came in to testify with a copy of his report. and Deputy D.A. Mueller carefully went over it with him, and I think it was stunning how much it backs up what she is saying today. Now, I think the reason it was so stunning was, again, because Cohen had basically given everyone the sense that it wasn't corroborating, but it very much was. That was direct testimony.

Then on cross today, Cohen then went over with the policeman some things that are different from what she's saying today, a few things. And so that's something that the DA then handled by basically questioning the policeman's reporting. And that was the interesting moment today was that the DA was in a position to question whether a police officer had done a thorough enough job on a report. Cohen said something about that. He said that to the judge that this was really concerning to him. And the judge said, look, sloppy report writing is something we hear from both sides all the time. So she didn't think that there was something that really concerned her about.

that. So that's interesting. I mean, this officer, I feel like, really corroborated a lot of what Jane Doe one said, but there were things that were not in his report. And the question then is, why not? And that question was kind of left hanging in the air. I believe we're now going to be, the next witness will be another LAPD detective who also followed up on the case. So I'll give you about, I mean, and that's always interesting that the jury's going to have to now weigh, at least with this, whether or not it was sloppy reporting or she was being in accurate, the accuser. I'll give you about 30 seconds here, Tony, real quick. After week two, these first two weeks, how strong is the case against Danny Masterson? Well, you know, I hate to

try to guess what the jury is thinking, but, you know, we now have two women with very similar descriptions of what was done to them by Danny Masterson, really brutal. And the cross-examination has, it just seems to me, has not been super effective. So, I mean, at this time, at this point, I would say that things are not going great for Danny Masterson. But, you know, we have more time to go. So we'll see. All right. Tony Ortega, you can follow them at Tonyortega.com. We're probably going to have you back next week as well, Tony. Thank you so much. Great reporting as always. Thank you, Jesse. And thanks so much, everybody, for joining us here on Sidebar. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber.

I'll speak to 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.