Danny Masterson appeals court accepts Cliff Gardner’s trimmed-down brief

[Danny Masterson and his appellate attorney Cliff Gardner]

We traded emails with the California Court of Appeal, 2nd Appellate District and received confirmation from the court that it has accepted Danny Masterson’s trimmed down appeal brief.

Previously, we posted the oversized version of the brief that Masterson’s attorney Cliff Gardner released on his website, and that ran over 59,000 words.

The court instructed him to get it under 35,500 words by January 22, and Gardner did in fact make that deadline.

He also filed an application asking the court to take judicial notice, which the court accepted. What is that about? Well, one of the principal arguments of Masterson’s appeal brief is that the jury should have heard more about how the Jane Does, if Masterson was convicted, would then be able to sue him civilly.

In other words, Gardner argues that the jury should have heard that the Jane Does had a financial incentive to say that they had been attacked.

Our observation was that that’s simply the way the law works in California — you have up to a year to sue someone who is convicted of a felony for victimizing you. And also, we saw these women testify and go through cross-examination three separate times. It appeared pretty plain to us that they weren’t putting themselves through that harrowing experience for a financial goal.

But Gardner obviously seems to think that Judge Charlaine Olmedo erred by not allowing the defense team to focus on this in the trial, and so he’s asked the court to take a look at the Bixler civil lawsuit (which the Jane Does filed against Scientology and Masterson), and that a year to the day after Masterson’s conviction the Jane Does did indeed ask the court to add sexual battery allegations to the lawsuit. (The Bixler court has not had a chance to rule on whether those allegations can be added, however.)

Meanwhile, Masterson remains in prison serving his 30-years-to-life sentence, and he’s been in custody since the day of his conviction, on May 31, 2023.

We really have no idea whether these arguments will make a difference with the appellate court. We’d like to hear from the lawyer types in our commenting community about their thoughts on all this.

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Narconon Africa whistle blowers get removed by Scientology

[Scientology’s new drug rehab in South Africa]

On Wednesday we marveled at the excellent reporting by the Daily Maverick, a South African paper, which spoke to numerous employees at Scientology’s new “Continental Narconon” drug rehab in that country.

The employees, some even using their names on the record, complained that they were not being paid, even though about $350,000 had been taken in from “students” at the facility, which is housed in a former game reserve and was opened a year ago.

Yesterday, Daily Maverick reporter Lerato Mutsila published a follow-up piece revealing that the complaining employees have now been suspended and kicked off the property.

But if Scientology thought this would keep a lid on things, it only added fuel to the fire: The employees apparently recorded their interactions with Narconon officials and turned the recordings over to Mutsila.

[Medical liaison officer Normalady] Nekhabambe and [social worker Nhlanhla] Pangisa provided Daily Maverick with recordings of the encounter. In the heated exchange, the directors admitted to the allegations of unlawful labour practices, conceding that it was wrong and claiming they had come to remedy the situation.

In the audio, [Narconon director Sandile] Hlayisi is heard explaining that the rehab operates on the basis that “things” are only paid when clients arrive at the facility. He said that the rehab was not at full capacity.

The confrontation began when the company directors told the employees that they were being let go and were being offered severance packages that did not cover what they were owed. (In South Africa, the word “retrenchment” is used for this kind of firing.)

Pangisa said that Narconon…did not take kindly to the two employees’ rejection of the retrenchment package. Mere minutes after she and Nekhabambe laid out to the directors the terms under which they would accept the retrenchment package, the pair returned with a fresh batch of documents – suspension letters.

Now suddenly the directors had grievances against the employees for their past conduct, which the employees characterized as trumped-up. They were then ejected from the property, which was a pretty serious safety issue since the property is rather isolated.

Narconon has still not given the Daily Maverick an official statement about the controversy, but we are certainly enjoying Mutsila’s tenacious reporting and expect it will go on for some time.

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Wait a minute, the Feb 1 briefing at the Ventura org about exploiting the catastrophic Los Angeles fires for publicity comes with free tacos? This is a game-changer.

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Chris Shelton is going Straight Up and Vertical

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