The Witness Lists: Court releases names in Danny Masterson trial

[Danny Masterson and Lisa Marie Presley]

The court this morning made the witness lists in the Danny Masterson rape trial available to reporters, and we are releasing the names.

However, we are redacting some information in order to protect the identity of alleged sexual assault victims and their family members. We know that other news organizations won’t do that, but we know these witnesses personally, and they have told us how much it distresses them to see themselves even partially identified in the press when they have tried to maintain their anonymity.

OK, here goes. The lists, with some redaction and a little annotation.

THE PROSECUTION LIST

LAPD

Det. Javier Vargas

Det. Esther Myape (formerly Reyes)

Det. Jerry Kowalsky

Det. Juan Gonzalez

Det. Myers

Officer Alexander Shlegel

Det. Danetta Menifee

Officer Ysabel Villegas

Officer Brigitta Shapiro

Officer Moye

Officer Edward Bolanos

DA's Office

Investigator Holly Williams

Investigator Lou Santella

CIVILIANS

Jane Doe 1 (Known as Jane Doe 1 in both criminal and civil cases.)

Jane Doe 2 (Known as Jane Doe 2 in both criminal and civil cases)

Jane Doe 3 (Chrissie Carnell-Bixler in the civil suit. Chrissie says she made her name public because when we first broke the story of the LAPD investigation in 2017, Masterson’s publicist gave her name to numerous news websites and she was inundated with calls from media and felt forced to be public.)

Jane Doe 4 (A woman who alleges that she was attacked by Masterson in 1996 when he was about 20. Her allegations are not part of the charges in this trial.)

Husband of Jane Doe 1

Brie Shaffer (Masterson’s assistant. Married to Scientologist actor Michael Peña.)

Jennifer Weinman (Masterson’s publicist.)

Jennifer Brill

Cedric Bixler-Zavala (Husband to Chrissie Carnell-Bixler)

Mother of Jane Doe 1

Rachel Dejneka

Damian Perkins (Former Scientologist.)

Shaun Fabos (Son of Steve Fabos, major Scientology donor.)

Lisa Marie Presley (Left Scientology in 2014. Jane Doe 1 testified that Masterson warned her not to discuss the attack with Lisa.)

Martin Singer (Entertainment lawyer, was questioned by a grand jury about a 2004 agreement that Jane Doe 1 says she was forced into.)

Jordan Ladd (Actress, daughter of Cheryl Ladd.)

Rachel Smith

Mariah O'Brien (Formerly married to Giovanni Ribisi.)

Binki Shapiro (Singer-songwriter. Mariah O’Brien and Binki Shapiro were the two witnesses that Deputy DA Mueller referred to that invited Jane Doe 2 over and when the subject of Masterson came out, Jane Doe 2 blurted out that Masterson had raped her.)

Carmen Llywelyn (Former Scientologist, formerly married to Scientologist Jason Lee, who left Scientology in 2016.)

Jane Doe 2’s mother

Erick Geisler (Named in papers released by Marty Rathbun that showed he was recruited to spy on his friend Marc Headley, who had left the church. More recently accused of trying to intimidate a witness in this case.)

EXPERTS

Mindy B. Mechanic, Ph.D.

DEFENSE WITNESSES

Dr. Daniel Buffington, forensic toxicologist

Dr. Mitch Eisen, memory expert

Dr. Scott Fraser, neurophysiologist and memory expert

Brie Shaffer (Masterson’s assistant. Married to Scientologist actor Michael Peña.)

As Philip Cohen indicated, the defense list is very short. And we note that Brie Shaffer, Masterson’s assistant, is on both lists.

There are some names were are surprised are not on either list. We will ask around to see what that portends.

---

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…