DA led Jane Doe 3 through devastating testimony yesterday, today cross begins
Jane Doe 3 once again provided devastating testimony about what it was like to be in a relationship with That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson at his retrial in Los Angeles yesterday, describing in detail incidents of abuse and sexual assault. And what a difference it was not only that she led off the witness testimony this time, but also that Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller’s questions led her into so much Scientology content.
Judge Charlaine Olmedo is allowing Mueller much freer rein this time when it comes to the Scientology content, and our readers really seem to be noticing it.
At one point, defense attorney Shawn Holley objected to Jane Doe 3’s description of Scientology policies, and Judge Olmedo responded by quoting from her March 28 ruling at length. (We reported on that ruling here.) Judge Olmedo made it plain: The jury is going to hear a lot more about Scientology this time around.
Also, we noticed that Mueller seems to be doing a better job anticipating where attacks from the defense are going to come from. Did you catch, for example, that Mueller asked Jane Doe 3 if she had mentioned the November 2001 sexual assault to both Miranda and Chris Scoggins, the ethics officer and chaplain at the Celebrity Centre? Jane Doe 3 said she had.
The defense last time made much of the fact that Jane Doe 3’s eventual reporting to the police was about the December 2001 unconscious sodomy, not the November 2001 attack which is the charged incident in this trial. So it seems significant that Jane Doe 3 has now testified that she told both of those Scientology officials about the November 2001 incident. Would the defense dare to bring down those two Scientology officials to testify otherwise? That seems like a pretty bold challenge by the prosecution.
Today, we expect that Mueller will finish up the direct examination of Jane Doe 3 by taking her through another trouble source for the prosecution: Jane Doe 3’s post-incident contacts with Masterson. We know the previous jury had an issue with this: Why would a rape victim continue to have contact with her attacker, and even have sex with him? The prosecution’s expert witness last time, Dr. Mindy Mechanic, explained that this was completely consistent with research about women who are attacked by men they know or men they have been in a relationship with. But the jury last time largely ignored her testimony.
So we’ll be interested to see how Mueller addresses those issues in this morning’s session. Then, Shawn Holley will begin her cross-examination of Jane Doe 3, who has already given some indication that she’s ready for a fight. Yesterday, when Holley made an objection to something Jane Doe 3 had said, calling it speculation, Jane Doe 3 came back aggressively with statement that there was no speculation involved, and said that Holley’s objection had angered her.
Jane Doe 3, it appears, is up for the challenge.
Once again, our reports will be coming at you from the courthouse, so keep an eye on your inboxes!
Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
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I appreciate your early morning posts here, Tony. They set me up for the day to come, like a really good “previously on...”
I think the one good effect of a hung jury from the first trial is that rather than demoralizing the JDs, if JD3 is any indication of how this is going to go, it just angered them, it gave them the courage to describe in detail the horror they had been subjected to rather than sweep it under the rug.
I don’t want to even say this after the devastating turn the last trial took, but I am encouraged by this one that justice may be served.