As we expected, the parties in the Bixler v. Scientology lawsuit — the one filed by Danny Masterson’s victims about the harassment they say they’ve gone through since coming forward to the LAPD in 2016 — agreed yesterday to keep a stay in place until after Masterson is sentenced on August 4.
In a hearing that took place yesterday in the courtroom of Judge Upinder Kalra, the attorneys for both sides called in remotely.
An observer in the courtroom tells us that the first interesting moment came when Andrew Brettler, Masterson’s attorney, suggested that there was a “60 percent chance” that the sentencing would not happen on August 4.
John Kucera, an attorney for Jane Doe 2 and 3, said he didn’t know where Brettler was getting that idea, and Judge Kalra said that Judge Charlaine Olmedo is usually very prepared, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the date was moved back. So he set the next hearing in the lawsuit for August 29 to account for a possible delay in the sentencing.
Another interesting thing that came up was that Brad Edwards, attorney for Jane Doe 1, brought up the discovery leak in the criminal case.
If you remember, there was an evidentiary hearing held by Judge Olmedo earlier this month to determine how the prosecution’s redacted discovery — sensitive evidence including emails, texts, and photographs — had ended up in the hands of Vicki Podberesky, an attorney for Scientology, which was not a party to the criminal trial. Judge Olmedo found that the material had been leaked by Masterson’s previous criminal defense team of Tom Mesereau and Sharon Appelbaum, and sanctioned them $950 each.
Edwards said that Judge Olmedo had left it to Judge Kalra to determine how to remedy the breach, which had resulted in the church gaining private information about the Jane Does. For one thing, Edwards said, he wanted access to the discovery materials. Judge Kalra said that Edwards could file a motion for that after the stay is lifted.
But then Bill Forman, Scientology’s attorney, got out the smelling salts (as he does) and reiterated what Podberesky was telling the LAPD, that the detectives in the case were spreading lies about Scientology and they are now under Internal Affairs investigations.
This guy!
Edwards didn’t want to wait on the discovery request, so he said he’d make it now. Judge Kalra said his courtroom is going to be dark all of July, but they can start talking about it now to save time. After they meet and confer, an Informal Discovery Conference would be held before he would consider a motion.
Anyway, it was interesting to hear how the leak to Podberesky is definitely going to be an issue in this case, and Scientology will be fighting back, claiming that what Podberesky was complaining about to LAPD Chief Moore was legitimate. Wow.
Another court update for you from Los Angeles: The state attorney general’s office was asked about the decision to drop its prosecution of Rizza Islam on the eve of his trial.
“Based on the information available and the totality of the circumstances in the matter, our office has decided not to proceed with charges against Ronnie Islam at this time. Important to note that three other defendants in the case have been successfully prosecuted and will be sentenced in July.”
Rizza, for his part, is celebrating by selling T-shirts that refer to him as "Rizza CASE DISMISSED Islam."
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How in the wide world of sports does Rizza (Ronnie??) Islam get to walk away from prosecution? The evidence previously shown should have resulted in an easy conviction. I'd scratch my head bald if I had to figure out that one. WTF?
"that the detectives in the case were spreading lies about Scientology" Perhaps they were spreading 'acceptable truths'? Or maybe they just saw what the Cleb Center actually did to the Does. I see the all too usual 'attack and never defend' mindset there. Bill Forman seems to be channeling Dave Miscavige. Meanwhile, what about the JDs and that Mesereau given info?? How do you claw back something like that?
I guess the attorney for the criminal organisation known as the « church « of $cientology is happy to leave the impression that the Co$ will fight the court over every detail including the information which a criminal court has already ruled was obtained improperly. I’m sure a jury will delight in hearing how difficult this information was to extract.