We’re still stunned at what happened yesterday morning at the Danny Masterson retrial in Los Angeles, and we’re still working to find out what the implications are going to be.
We know you haven’t heard a word about this in the mainstream media, perhaps in part because there were only three people sitting on press row yesterday and there’s been very little coverage of the day to day doings of the trial except for in places like this one.
But we wanted to go back to that moment in the morning with what was said by Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller and how he revealed that attorneys for the Church of Scientology somehow have copies of the redacted police reports, emails, texts and photos that the DA’s office had turned over to the defense in a serious criminal case…
Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller: So the People became aware of an issue, mostly last night, but there was an email that was sent from Vicki Podberesky on May 2nd of 2023 to our Assistant District Attorney, James Garrison, as well as the — our bureau director, Larry Droeger. And the subject is listed as “False reports of stalking and harassment by the Church of Scientology.”
In this email, Ms. Podberesky indicates, she writes that “during the Masterson retrial, DDA Mueller asked a series of questions to one of the complaining women, [Jane Doe 3], that was intended to elicit an answer that he knew to be false that the complaining witnesses have filed dozens of police reports alleging that the church has stalked and harassed them.”
That, last week Ms. Podberesky had met with [LAPD] Chief Michael Moore and filed on behalf of her client, the Church of Scientology, a series of complaints with the LAPD, specifically addressing the fact that Det. Vargas, the investigating officer, has “left open numerous unsubstantiated and false reports by the Masterson complaining witnesses in which they allege the church has harassed them.”
It indicates that “not one of the reports filed has been found to be true, that DDA Mueller is in possession of the results of these investigations and is fully aware that there is absolutely no merit to the allegations.”
Judge Charlaine Olmedo: All right. I’m going to stop you there. I don’t need you to read into the record the letter. The question is what do you want, what action are you requesting from the court?
Mueller: So along with this email, there were, there was hyperlinks to certain attachments and there was a share file, 12 files. We looked at those last night. It was the first time we were able to get in to see them. When you go into the attachments — and these are files to Chief Michael Moore.
I don’t want to say all of our discovery but, essentially, a very large quantity of the People’s discovery in this criminal case was attached to those files. It’s our redacted discovery.
It’s emails between law enforcement and our victims in the course of the investigation. It’s text messages that we had redacted and turned over to the defense between law enforcement and the complaining victims. It’s our police reports. It’s emails. It’s photos. We weren’t able to get through all of the attachments because there was just so much last night. But it’s extremely troubling that all of our redacted discovery that we had turned over to the defense is now in the hands of, apparently, the lawyers for the church.
Judge Olmedo: Stop. Are you sharing discovery with Scientology?
Defense attorney Philip Cohen: No.
Judge Olmedo: Then how would they ostensibly get that?
Cohen: I have no idea.
Judge Olmedo: All right. At this point, the Court will issue an order to show cause that we will do at the end of the trial to figure out how discovery in a criminal case would get into hands of non-parties.
…
Mueller: One last point. The investigating officers had spoken to Ms. Anson and I yesterday, that being Vargas and Myape [Reyes]. They both advised us they apparently had complaints filed coming from the lawyers for the Church addressed to Chief Moore for an investigation to be opened on them.
And this was all from, I think, the reports are all dated April 24th of 2023, while this trial was ongoing. Detective Myape had expressed some concern with regard to testifying.
Judge Olmedo: Are you referring this to law enforcement for further investigation?
Mueller: Yes.
…
Mueller: Based on this email, I did inquire of Det. Vargas whether he was aware of any reports of harassment that he had determined to be false, and there are no such reports that exist.
…
Um, wow. We are still shocked to see this on-the-record disclosure from the DA’s office. We want to point out a couple of things in addition to what was said in court:
Mueller indicates that Vicki Podberesky sent her email to Chief Moore on May 2 in her role representing the Church of Scientology.
We know for a fact that several days later, she complained to ABC Channel 7 for airing a segment about trial which referred to her as a Scientology attorney. She didn’t represent the church, she told ABC-7, which was clearly a lie.
But Podberesky may be on the hot seat herself: Did she know that her email contained a link to the discovery material, which not only revealed that Scientology has its hands on that material, but also burning the Masterson defense team, which appears to be the source of it?
Also, after discussing the order to show cause, Judge Olmedo later discussed holding an evidentiary hearing after the trial is concluded — and the end of trial is rapidly approaching.
We can hardly wait for court to start this morning. As usual, keep your eyes on your inboxes for our reports!
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 to 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
So it’s definitely redacted discovery and the leak is internal. The way I read this, it appears as though scientology is attempting to intimidate witnesses in the criminal trial, up to and including the police witnesses. I do hope they can do a forensic tracking of the provenance of that leaked discovery. Tracks were probably covered, but there may be some evidence of where it came from in the hyperlinks. I hope this leads to at minimum a public censure but preferably a disbarment of any attorney involved in this.
This leak and the lawyers lies are consistent with well over 60 years of fairgame, devious tactics and spreading lies perpetrated by the Church Of Scientology. They don’t change and that is their undoing.