Bixler v. Scientology lawsuit gets new judge, still on hold before retrial of Danny Masterson

[Judge Michael C. Small]

Ahead of this week’s hearing in the lawsuit filed by Danny Masterson’s accusers, both sides had agreed that the stay on the case would remain in place until after Masterson’s retrial takes place.

So we expected that the hearing would be a routine one. But now we’re learning that something interesting did take place: The lawsuit has been assigned to a new judge.

If you remember, the civil lawsuit was filed against Scientology and Masterson in August 2019 and preceded actual criminal charges against the That ‘70s Show actor, which were filed by DA’s office in June 2020.

In the criminal case, Masterson is facing three counts of forcible rape that are based on the allegations of three women who were Scientologists at the time of the incidents, which took place between 2001 and 2003. The trial, which started in October, ended on November 30 with a hung jury and mistrial.

At a January 10 hearing, the DA’s office indicated that it did intend to retry Masterson, and Judge Charlaine Olmedo scheduled jury selection to begin in the retrial on March 29.

In the meantime, the civil lawsuit is not about the rape allegations but accusations that the three women Masterson is accused of sexually assaulting have endured years of harassment, which they believe is part of a coordinated campaign of surveillance and intimidation by Masterson and the church. A fourth woman is also suing, as well as the husband of one of the plaintiffs.

The case is known as Bixler v. Scientology, and it’s had a complex history. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven Kleifield agreed with Scientology that contracts signed by the former Scientologists (four of the five plaintiffs) obliged them not to sue but instead to submit their grievances to Scientology’s own brand of “religious arbitration.”

But a California appeals court overturned that decision, reasoning that the harm the victims are alleging — the stalking, hacking, and even the poisoning of their pets — all occurred after they had left the church as members. Therefore, the appellate court ruled, the contracts they signed no longer apply.

Scientology petitioned the California Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn that appellate ruling, but to no avail.

So we’ve been very interested to see how Judge Kleifield would handle the case after being repudiated by the higher court. Now, we won’t get the chance.

When the stay is over, presumably after the retrial, Judge Michael C. Small will have the lawsuit in his courtroom. We found little written about Judge Small, who was appointed to the bench in 2015 by then-Governor Jerry Brown. Before that, he was senior counsel at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, and had been teaching constitutional law at the UCLA law school. Most recently, Judge Small has mostly been handling probate matters, as far as we can tell.

We just learned about this change. If you find some interesting things about Judge Small’s history, drop us a line.

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