Judge Olmedo: Opening statements in Danny Masterson trial may come Tuesday

[Judge Charlaine Olmedo and defendant Danny Masterson]

Thursday was another day of moving large numbers of potential jurors through the courtroom in the Danny Masterson trial, but Judge Charlaine Olmedo seems confident that she’s on a rapid schedule to seat a jury, perhaps as soon as late Monday afternoon.

She’s brought in three groups of 75 people, had them fill out questionnaires, and on Thursday afternoon began the vetting process with the second group. The third group comes back Monday morning for its initial vetting, and then all three groups will come together Monday afternoon for voir dire, the opportunity for the attorneys to ask them questions. Somehow, Judge Olmedo plans to whittle down from about 200 remaining people to only about 18 or 19 (12 jurors plus alternates) that afternoon.

She said yesterday that she thinks opening statements could begin on Tuesday, and the first witness may begin testifying on Wednesday.

We expect that interest from the media will skyrocket at that point. Yesterday, again, there were only a very few of us reporters in the courtroom. Thankfully, this time the pool reporter duties were handled by another journalist.

She was sitting on our right at the back of the courtroom, and on our left was Danny Masterson’s brother, actor Jordan Masterson.

Also in the gallery was a tall man in a sharp suit who appeared to be a young lawyer. He has turned up each day early enough to snag the single seat for the public. Curious about him, our colleague today asked him if he was with a firm involved in the civil lawsuit that is running parallel to this one. He said no. She then asked him if he was there working for Scientology, and he refused to answer.

You don’t say.

At the afternoon break, with things all but wrapped up in the courtroom, we went outside the courthouse to record our video that went out to subscribers. Yes, we know there was some wind noise, some traffic noise, and we’re holding the camera and it’s a bit shaky. But we’re literally coming right out of the courtroom and sitting on a chair in a grass field, and we figure that lends it some authenticity. This is as close as we can get to having you at the courthouse with us.

Today the court is dark and we’ll be enjoying a little free time. But we have something really great planned for the weekend, so don’t go anywhere. Here’s yesterday afternoon’s video…

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Scientology ad featuring David Miscavige airing in Los Angeles

Scientology has recycled some footage of church leader David Miscavige that was shot for the 2018 premiere of its TV channel as part of its panicky campaign to deal with both LA mayoral candidates denouncing Scientology as a key part of the campaign.

We’ve been hearing from readers in LA who are stunned to see Miscavige on their television sets. What they’re seeing is a slick ad thrown together quickly with a lot of odds and ends that have been sitting around for a while.

The result is an ad intended to counter the sudden storm of bad publicity hitting the church, with Danny Masterson’s trial underway in Los Angeles, Mike Rinder doing publicity rounds for his book, and Rick Caruso and Karen Bass trying to outdo each other as denouncers of Scientology in Los Angeles.

That’s a lot of entheta to deal with at one time.

Let us know if you’ve seen the ad.

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Once again, Judge Barber tells Scientology to sit down

We told you recently that Scientology had ignored Judge Thomas Barber’s order that he didn’t want any more documents from the church as he mulls over their motions to compel arbitration in the trafficking lawsuit filed by three former Sea Org workers.

But Scientology heavily papered the court anyway, crying foul over some declarations that were filed by the plaintiffs and by Mike Rinder.

The lawsuit was filed by Valeska Paris and Gawain and Laura Baxter, and alleges that they were treated horrifically by Scientology. The church countered the lawsuit by filing motions to compel arbitration, saying that contracts the plaintiffs signed in Scientology obliged them not to sue in court and to ask for “religious arbitration.”

They responded with the declarations, which claim that the contracts were signed under duress, adding a declaration by a trafficking expert and one by Mike Rinder.

This seemed to seriously trigger Scientology (or leader David Miscavige), and despite Judge Barber’s admonition that he didn’t want any more briefing on the arbitration question, Scientology’s attorneys filed motions to strike the declarations.

Well, once again, Judge Barber has told Scientology to settle down and sit tight.

The motions to strike are denied…If warranted, the Court may further address any objections to the affidavits in the process of ruling on the pending motions, or it may simply disregard any improper testimony or evidence when issuing its rulings. Signed by Judge Thomas P. Barber

Yeah, in other words, Judge Barber can evaluate the usefulness of the declarations on his own and doesn’t need some hyperventilating documents from Miscavige. Sheesh.

And again, we’ll point out that Judge Barber may be leaning Scientology’s way, because there’s a heavy precedent in his court, a previous case that Scientology was able to derail with the same kind of arbitration motions.

Still, it’s fun to see Miscavige’s screechy ranting get kicked out of court.

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Judge denies two women from testifying as ‘Jane Doe’ in Haggis trial

Yesterday Judge Sabrina Kraus ruled that two women who wanted to contribute testimony in Haleigh Breest’s trial against director Paul Haggis cannot use pseudonyms and must testify under their own names.

Breest filed the suit against Haggis in 2017, saying he had raped her after a 2013 movie viewing. Haggis maintains that it was a consensual encounter.

After news broke about the lawsuit, three additional women came forward, saying the had also been abused by Haggis. Those women have been unnamed, and now that trial is beginning next week in New York two of them asked the court to be able to testify anonymously.

According to Judge Kraus, one of them has worked in the entertainment industry in California for 20 years, and she says Haggis "made an unwanted advance during a meeting in his office" in 2008.

The second woman is an obstetrician in Canada, but she had previously worked as a documentary film maker. She alleges that after a 2006 cocktail party at the Banff Film Festival Haggis took her to a hotel room and "attempted to coerce her into consenting to sexual acts."

Haggis opposed the use of pseudonyms, and in her ruling Judge Kraus pointed out that there is a presumption against using pseudonyms in a civil trial, as opposed to a criminal matter. She ruled that if the women want to testify, they must do it under their own names.

Jury selection in the trial begins on Monday.

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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

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

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