Religious groups resubmit amicus on behalf of Scientology celeb Danny Masterson's appeal
Back in December, Scientology leader David Miscavige stunned us by having the church submit an “amicus” brief on behalf of convicted serial rapist Danny Masterson, trying to sway the justices weighing Masterson’s appeal and get the That ‘70s Show actor released from prison.
At the same time, fourteen other religious groups, in an obvious coordinated effort, also submitted an amicus, also objecting to Masterson’s religious rights supposedly being violated in his criminal trial which resulted in a conviction and a sentence of 30 years to life in prison.
The Second Appellate District very quickly decided not to accept either of those amicus briefs (and without explaining why), and we wondered how Miscavige felt about being denied when our expert, TX Lawyer, estimated that the Scientology leader had spent up to half a million dollars for that attempt to sway the court.
On May 15, the court announced that it had scheduled the oral arguments hearing in Masterson’s appeal for June 25.
Then, on June 1, Miscavige had Scientology’s amicus re-submitted, this time cut down a little in word length, but essentially saying what it had in December. In what we thought was a bit of a surprise, the court this time accepted the amicus, and we posted it here in its entirety.
Now, apparently bolstered by the court accepting Scientology’s amicus, the 14 additional religious groups have also resubmitted their amicus.
We can’t see it yet until the court decides what to do with it, but we imagine that it’s much like the first version, just as Scientology’s was largely the same in both versions.
TX Lawyer wondered if the two amicus briefs had been rejected in December because the court (smartly) assumed they were a coordinated effort by Scientology, and when you considered them that way, as a combined single effort, they came in over a 25,000-word limit.
If that’s true, the court then may have accepted Dave’s Scientology amicus this second time because it was a little trimmed down. And when Dave saw that the court accepted it, now the amicus from the 14 other religious groups has also been sent in.
“Chutzpah,” TX Lawyer calls it.
Well, you can’t keep a ruthless global religious leader down, apparently.
We assume that the 14 religious groups who are submitting this new amicus are the same 14 as last time:
American Islamic Congress; Episcopal Christian Church – La Misericordia de Dios; Hindu American Foundation; Institute for Religious Tolerance, Peace and Justice; International Society for Krishna Consciousness; L.A. Interfaith Clergy Coalition; North Central California Presbytery; Professional Chaplains Inc.; Queens Federation of Churches; Sacramento Valley Family Church; Sikh Dharma (Religion) Western Hemisphere; The Alliance for Enlightened Judaism; United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance; West Sacramento Sikh Gurdwara.
These friends of Dave, unlike Scientology itself, said more than once in their initial amicus that they had no opinion about the guilt or innocence of Danny Masterson.
Instead, they said, “they are deeply concerned about the use of religious stereotypes and religious evidence to convict an individual. Each can attest that, while they maintain certain beliefs as a group, the individuals that comprise their groups all have their own variations, understandings, and choices they make. In other words, association or membership in a religion does not dictate individual choice or mindset.”
Like Scientology, the 14 groups complained that former Scientologist Claire Headley was allowed to testify as an expert at the trial. (This is really what burns David Miscavige and has him so hopping mad.)
Unlike Scientology, the 14 groups (in an amicus written by a Mormon lawyer), are more explicit about asking that Danny Masterson’s conviction be vacated and that he be let out of prison.
Will the court also accept this re-submission, as it did from Scientology, and with less than three weeks before the all-important oral arguments hearing?
We’ll let you know.
But again, the major point we want to emphasize, and that none of the major news organizations covering the Danny Masterson case is mentioning at all, is that the Church of Scientology and its religious shills are trying to insert themselves in this criminal case, and they are trying to free a convicted serial rapist while pretending that it has something to do with “religious rights.”
It’s an incredible story, and we’re mystified why no one else is paying attention to it.
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These groups seem to be very weak entities to be used as examples to listen to in this case. No actual religion heads speaking up in Masterson’s defense, just a bunch of periphery or ultra low rung groups that don’t and cannot speak for their entire religion. The Queens Federation of Churches (http://queenschurches.org/) for example, their website is the most basic, “older than rocks on the beach, it’s a website because we need a website not because anyone uses it” website. Their copyright notice at the bottom is a year and a half out of date, so they haven’t updated their site in at least that long.
I’m not saying someone has to have a huge presence online to be able to be counted as a religious group or a peripheral one as is likely the case with all these groups, but I’ll bet almost all of these groups have next to zero presence online and barely any footprint in the real world. Them being mentioned by a larger group like Scientology is getting them attention by association which is likely the only reason they put their name to this. No one would be talking about The Queens Federation of Churches this week unless Scientology dragged them along for the ride.
It would be like being a McDonald’s franchise owner who gets into legal trouble, and to try to help, McDonald’s goes around and gets statements from Burger King, Wendy’s and Taco Bell franchise owners, not the CEO’s at the top, not the executives who run things at a nation size level, but just a random franchise owner from a thousand miles away, as if that has any bearing on what has happened at all.
I’ll be amicable, and I’ll be brief, this will almost certainly go the way of the other recent Amicus Brief, it will be accepted to appease the people submitting it, and then it will be ignored.
Edit: I said I’d be brief, oh well. The Puerto Rico blurb says this guy in the photo is doing his Survival Rundown for the second time. Why? If Scientology works, why would you ever have to do any part of it again that you already completed? It should be stored up there in your supercomputer brain, no? The mere fact that they even offer to have people do these things again screams that Scientology doesn’t work. If it did, you’d never have to do anything twice. Once you passed something, you should have it up there with perfect recall, the programming set in place like code on a hard drive. If you install a program on a computer, unless something has gone very wrong with the install or the computer after the fact, you won’t have to reinstall the software. It’s just there.
The question really becomes, if Scientology is so awesome, why are so many people having to redo these courses over and over again? The real answer is that Scientology are doubling dipping to get at least some form of revenue coming in at these Orgs. No doubt they’re all questioning each other relentlessly trying to find which course or courses someone didn’t feel 100% confident in when they did it, and as soon as they find out someone had even a 1% crack in that confidence in it, they’ll start haranguing that person to do the course again. All side-eyeing each other to watch out for moments and opportunities for when they can get someone to dump more of their money into the failing Org.
They’re getting so desperate that they taking actions that do nothing but overtly SCREAM OUT LOUD that they’re in dire straits when it comes to membership. We’ve seen more news about existing people retaking courses than we have new people joining.
Ok I’m done waffling, time to go kick Monday in the balls.
Scientology's reputation is only official Scientology's fault.
a-0) Remove Miscavige. Retire him quietly.
a) reform/cease disconnection for real (implement only "handle" on PTS handlings, except in RARE cases)
b) amnesty all past SP declares
c) lower prices
d) pay staffs greater allowances
e) disband OSA, save all that money wasted on lawyers and PIs
f) downsize staff (and pay helping staff move back to regular life)
g) pay off humanely (have outsider genuine religion allies be the ones, and pay outsiders, to be on committees and decide) all persons Scientology's messed up their lives
h) use way to happiness "virtues" from Precept 20 to reform ALL of Hubbard's backfiring regulations top to bottom, which just means do basically like splinter Scientology, who just drop all the "High Crimes" "SP" regulations to blame each other and blame the public.
Until Scientology does the major points above, then Scientology deserves it's negative reputation.