A lawyer for That ’70s Show star Danny Masterson accused law enforcement of leaking information to the press about the three rape charges the actor is facing.
‘This is a high profile case and we think that information has been leaked to the press,’ said attorney Tom Mesereau on Wednesday, who inferred that the leaks could have come from the police or the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.
Assistant LA DA Reinhold Mueller blasted the claim, telling LA Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo, ‘The People wholeheartedly object to suggestions of leaking. There is no evidence to support that.’
Masterson, 45, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he raped three women in separate incidents at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003.
Danny Masterson – who is a prominent Scientologist – didn’t show up Wednesday for a preliminary hearing at the criminal court in downtown LA. He’s pictured in court in September
But Masterson’s attorney Tom Mesereau (right) was in court Wednesday and accused the police or the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office of leaking information to the press
The actor – who is a prominent Scientologist – didn’t show up Wednesday for a preliminary hearing at the criminal court in downtown LA.
But Mesereau was in court where his claim of leaks to the press was part of his motion to ban reporters from Wednesday’s and futurWe hearings in the case.
Mesereau – who defended Michael Jackson when he was charged with child molestation – argued that allowing the press to cover the case ‘raises the possibility of jeopardizing a fair and open jury pool (a group of local citizens from which a jury is picked).
Assistant LA DA Reinhold Mueller (pictured) blasted the claim, telling LA Superior Court judge, ‘The People wholeheartedly object to suggestions of leaking’
‘We are trying to prevent potential jurors from reading slanted or negative reports about Masterson. The jury pool could be tainted.’
Judge Olmedo denied Mesereau’s motion, telling him, ‘The size of the jury pool in Los Angeles is extremely large, one of the largest in the nation…..big enough not to be tainted (by publicity).
She added that since Hollywood is in LA county, ‘We are not unused to a high profile defendants.
‘I believe that the media does have the right to be in the courtroom.’
While Mesereau lost his bid to kick reporters out of the courtroom, the veteran attorney did win another battle to allow Masterson to keep his passport.
Assistant DA Mueller asked the judge to order Masterson to surrender his passport, saying, ‘Given the high profile of the case and potential exposure, if Mr. Masterson were to travel out of the country, there would be concern about his return.’
But Judge Olmedo denied Mueller’s request, telling the court that the $3.3 million bail the star has been free on since his arrest last June, ‘is sufficient to ensure Mr. Masterson’s appearance in the future.’
The judge scheduled another hearing for April 20.
Chrissie Bixler dated Masterson for several years and claims he would forcefully have sex with her and became violent when she refused. She says her dog mysteriously died after she reported him (pictured together in 2000)
Bobette Riales and Masterson dated from 2002-2004, in which time Masterson allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted her. She claims she was stalked by the church after she came forward with allegation (pictured together in 2003)
In normal, non-pandemic circumstances, a person facing such serious charges would be required to be at his arraignment and preliminary hearing.
But Masterson was able to skip court Wednesday under a special Covid 19 waiver that allows defendants not to appear in person.
At one of several earlier hearings, Mesereau claimed the charges against Masterson were ‘politically motivated’ by then LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who was using this celebrity case to help her win re-election last November. But Lacey lost to challenger George Gascon.
Mesereau tried to get the rape charges dismissed, claiming that the alleged crimes are beyond the statute of limitations, a ‘lack of due diligence’ in the police investigations, some witnesses are dead and others have faded memories.
But another judge – ruling that the rape charges are not covered by the statute of limitations – denied the motion to dismiss the charges.
Masterson – who has been married to actress and model Bijou Phillips since 2011 – stands charged with raping a 23-year-old woman between January and December 2001, raping a 28-year-old woman in April 2003, and raping another 23 year-old woman between October and December 2003.
He was also accused of sexual assault in two other cases but the DA’s office said they declined to file charges on those, one for insufficient evidence and the other based on the statute of limitations.
In 2019, four women – including the three alleged victims in the criminal case – filed a civil lawsuit against Masterson, claiming he drugged, raped and sexually assaulted them in the early 2000s.
The lawsuit also named the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige as defendants, claiming the women were stalked in a ‘conspiracy to cover up that Daniel Masterson sexually assaulted four young women’.
Two of the women named in the suit were Masterson’s ex-girlfriends – Chrissie Bixler and Bobette Riales – while the other two are listed as Jane Does.
Bixler is being lent support by actress Leah Remini, a former Scientologist who left the religion and is now one of its harshest critics, campaigning vehemently against it with a reality TV show called Scientology and the Aftermath. Remini was at Masterson’s criminal court hearing last October.
Leah Remini and Danny Masterson in 2009. She has long spoken out against Scientology and is supporting Masterson’s alleged victims
Masterson – who played wise-cracking Steven Hyde on That ’70s Show from 1998 to 2006 – called the lawsuit against him and the Church of Scientology a ‘shameful money grab’
In the civil lawsuit, the alleged victims’ lawyer said, ‘When those women came forward to report Masterson’s crimes the Defendants (The Church of Scientology) conspired to and systematically stalked, harassed, invaded their and their family’s privacy, and intentionally caused them emotional distress to silence and intimidate them.’
Masterson – who played wise-cracking Steven Hyde on That ’70s Show from 1998 to 2006 – called the lawsuit against him and the Church of Scientology a ‘shameful money grab’.
In statement to DailyMail.com, the Church of Scientology branded the lawsuit ‘baseless’ and the claims ‘ludicrous and a sham.’
‘It’s a dishonest and hallucinatory publicity stunt. Leah Remini is taking advantage of these people as pawns in her moneymaking scam,’ the church aid.
In December, a judge ruled that because three of the four women suing Masterson are or were Scientologists, they would have to settle their lawsuit through Church of Scientology arbitration.
The judge still has to decide if the fourth woman can pursue her case through the law courts.
