NEW SCIENTOLOGY SCANDAL EXPLODES

Danny Masterson Accused of Sexual Assault 22 IN TOUCH MARCH 20, 2017

Three women claim the That ’70s Show star raped them — and that his controversial church covered it up

The account of the assault is graphic. “The victim woke up while the suspect was having sex with her and struggled with him,” reads an official police report that names That ’70s Show star Danny Masterson as the suspect in an attack on a woman who had come to his house for a party. “The suspect choked the victim until she passed out.”

Three women have charged that Masterson sexually assaulted them in cases that allege Scientologists helped cover it all up. “The Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide Division, Sexual Assault Section, is conducting an investigation. Three women have come forward and disclosed that they were sexually assaulted by Masterson during the early 2000s,” the LAPD said in a statement about the cases. (Journalist Tony Ortega broke the news on his website, the Underground Bunker, on March 3.) Masterson, 40, who’s now married to actress Bijou Phillips, denies the claims, and has not been charged. Ortega tells In Touch that all three victims were also Scientologists like Masterson, who was raised in the controversial religion, and the shocking allegations include charges of a cover-up within the organization. “When you are a Scientologist, it is beaten into your head that you can’t go to the police to report another Scientologist. You have to go to the church for any kind of dispute,” Ortega tells In Touch exclusively, adding that in a Feb. 22 letter to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, “Victim A writes that she went to the church, and not only did they not punish Danny, they punished her. And that is why she didn’t come forward, didn’t go to the police until years later.”

The case was only opened after the first victim shared her story with former Scientologist Leah Remini. Weeks before the actress’ A&E series Scientology and the Aftermath debuted in November, “Victim A reached out to Leah,” Ortega says of the woman, who was Masterson’s girlfriend in 2001, and says that he raped her while she was sleeping. “Leah told this woman, ‘ You need to do something about this.’ So Victim A went to the police.” At that time, Victim B’s case, which stemmed from a 2003 incident and had previously been closed by police, was reopened. “And then Victim C came forward,” says Ortega, adding that her alleged assault took place in late 2003. “These allegations involve unconscious or semi-conscious women and forcible anal sex. There seems to be a clear pattern to these three incidents.”

Masterson strongly denies their stories. “We are aware of [Victim A’s] 16-year-old allegations. The alleged incident occurred in the middle of their six-year relationship, after which she continued to be his longtime girlfriend,” Masterson’s rep Jenni Weinman says in a statement. “We are aware also that approximately 14 years ago, a woman referred to in the blog [as Victim B] made allegations of sexual assault and the LAPD interviewed numerous witnesses and determined the claim had no merit.”

But it should be noted that Weinman herself is named as one of those witnesses. “She’s named in Victim B’s police report — Jenni is the person who brought Victim B to the party that night,” says Ortega. “I’m not questioning what she’s saying, but there’s no way she should be able to put out that statement without her disclosing she is a witness.” The other witnesses were also Scientologists, and the LAPD closed their investigation into Victim B’s assault when those witnesses refuted her claims. One revealed to Ortega that an ethics officer told him the victim was “being handled.”

Victim A’s case was also handled internally. “The church says they have internal justice measures, and it is just a joke,” Ortega tells In Touch. “Meanwhile they do everything they can to keep it out [away from] the police and prosecutors.” In her letter to police, which was obtained by Ortega, Victim A claims that church officials “threatened me that if I ever told anyone or reported him to the police that I would be declared a ‘suppressive person’ and lose everything and everyone. Then they put me on a massive ethics program as punishment. My rapist was not punished at all. They didn’t even call him to talk about it. I ended up breaking up with him two months later.”

According to Victim A, the LAPD has also mishandled her case so far. She even believes the cops’ Hollywood division may be compromised because of its alleged ties to Scientology. And Leah told Ortega of her meeting with the detective assigned to the case, in which she was disappointed to see a photo of actor Michael Peña — a Scientologist — hanging on the wall. “Do you know what that says to a young Scientologist who comes here to seek justice?” she told Ortega. “My experience with the LAPD has not been good. I asked her to do the right thing by these girls, and I told her that the world is watching.”

They are. “I think the FBI, the attorney general of the State of California or some other outside agency should come in. This kind of a case reinforces for those people there is something really wrong there that needs to be looked at by government agencies,” Ortega says of Scientology’s alleged involvement. And Victim A made a heartbreaking plea for justice in her letter: “You have a serial rapist on your hands with God knows how many victims and how many future victims, and the Church of Scientology has known about it, threatened us, silenced us and covered it all up. I am begging the LAPD for a fair and honest investigation. I am begging you all to do the right thing.” ◼