Scientology leak hearing: Who’s falling on their sword today?
A week ago this morning, we were still waiting for the Danny Masterson retrial jury to finish its deliberations, and Judge Charlaine Olmedo’s courtroom had attracted an interesting collection of Masterson’s defense attorneys, past and present.
That included his current team of Philip Cohen and Shawn Holley, and on Webex Cohen’s co-counsel from the first trial, Karen Goldstein. But what really caught our attention was that Masterson’s previous legal team, Tom Mesereau and Sharon Appelbaum, were there, and they had attorneys of their own with them.
The occasion was an evidentiary hearing to determine how the prosecution’s highly sensitive and redacted evidence in the case, which it had been required to turn over to the defense, had then found its way into the hands of Scientology’s attorney Vicki Podberesky.
Well, that matter was put off a week, until this morning. And so we’ll be in court today and we expect once again to see Mesereau and Appelbaum there with legal counsel.
The biggest difference in the past week, of course, is that just a few hours after the hearing was put off, the retrial jury came in with two guilty verdicts (they hung on the third count), and Masterson was remanded to custody while he awaits sentencing by Judge Olmedo. He’s facing 30 years to life for raping Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, and with such a long possible sentence and the violent nature of the crimes, Judge Olmedo brushed off Cohen’s suggestion of electronic monitoring or home arrest. Masterson is being held at Men’s Central Jail, and the next court date is a hearing on August 4 to consider defense motions. The sentencing itself has not yet been set.
This morning, we’re still very interested to see what ensues when Judge Olmedo and Deputy DAs Reinhold Mueller and Ariel Anson try to get to the bottom of who leaked their evidence to Scientology.
Mueller first told the court on May 10 that they realized the leak had occurred because Podberesky was complaining to LAPD Chief Michael Moore and to the DA’s office that the Masterson prosecution team was eliciting false testimony about Scientology harassing Masterson’s victims, and she wanted the LAPD to investigate the detectives on the case. In an email she sent to the DA’s office (essentially trying to get Mueller and Anson in trouble with their bosses), she included a link that led to online folders containing the redacted discovery material. A blunder on her part? Perhaps. But Judge Olmedo has not ordered Podberesky to attend this morning.
She’s focused apparently on who leaked the material to Scientology, not who received it for the church.
Shawn Holley, in an earlier exchange with the judge, appeared to point the finger at the previous legal team, and so we were not entirely surprised to see Mesereau and Appelbaum show up with legal representation.
What could they be facing? As we showed last week, the court order demanding their presence mentions “possible imposition of monetary sanctions.”
In other words, the court is taking this very seriously. When Holley had attempted to downplay the leak at one point, Judge Olmedo countered with a speech about how discovery rules in a serious felony case were different than in civil lawsuits. And Mueller had said it was “extremely troubling” that his evidence had been shared with Scientology.
He also indicated that the story Podberesky was telling the LAPD and the DA’s office was a false one: There was no indication, he said, that any of the allegations made by the victims about being harassed or stalked had turned out to be false.
Whew. There’s a lot going on with this, and we don’t know how much of it will be addressed this morning. We’ll get you our reports from the courtroom as soon as we can, so watch you inbox.
Also, we wanted to thank our readers for being patient with us. We took a few days off and were on our bicycle with only a smartphone, so we didn’t have all of the functionality here at the Bunker that you’re used to. It’s good be be back and headed to the courtroom.
The biggest news that hit while we were out pedaling around Southern California, of course, was word from Christie Collbran about Mike Rinder’s cancer diagnosis. We put together a quick tribute on the road, but we also want to point out, if you have a few dollars to spare, please consider donating at his website to help Mike get on his treatments right away.
Want to help?
You can support the Underground Bunker with a Paypal contribution to bunkerfund@tonyortega.org, an account administered by the Bunker’s attorney, Scott Pilutik. And by request, this is our Venmo link, and for Zelle, please use (tonyo94 AT gmail).
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
Here’s the link for today’s post at tonyortega.org
And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning.
Paid subscribers get access to two special podcast series every week…
Up the Bridge: A weekly journey through Scientology’s actual “technology”
Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news
This hearing today regarding the trial leak further reinforces how much Scientology uses its gestapo like secret service(OSA) to attack and destroy anyone perceived as an enemy of the organization. So David Miscavige has now positioned himself with other current dictators doing the same type of repressive activities to its detractors and citizens.(Kim Jun Ung, Vladimir Putin and Xi JinPing)
The website I visited listed 52 countries that were not free. (https://planetrulers.com/current-dictators/) Scientology is not a country but it would like to run the world so the people of of earth can GO CLEAR. Masterson’s court case is now a shining example on the record of what it would be like to live under Hubbards rules and policies. Many bunkerites already understand that well.
And last night during prime time on MSNBC I got to watch the latest Scientology commercial. I recognized one of the people giving a testimonial who lives in Chicago. Someone I was friendly. I was appalled.
I was never a big fan of The Walking Dead. Now seeing a commercial promoting that state of being is scary.
Who shared the docs that the $cieno attorneys had? And who was stupid enough to place that one document in a public place? Those major footbullets can only come from one place, David Miscavige. 'His' attorneys were in the Masterson Court and in one instance, Tony caught the $cieno attorney giving a minute by minute account of the trial to someone. I wonder who that 'someone' was? No, I don't wonder, it was for Miscavige, but probably done thru a cut out or 2.
Ok Judge Olmedo, find the leaker and out them and fine them properly. Will that leak have any impact on the civil trial? I suspect the plaintiffs have another bit of evidence to whack the Clampire with.
Once again, Dave Miscavige steps on his male member. Is that another $cieno sacrament? He does it so often that it is a wonder he can walk at all.