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Scientology tried to 'derail' star's rape trial by harassing prosecutor, suit says; church calls claim 'false'

Nearly six months after actor Danny Masterson was convicted of sexually assaulting two fellow members of the Church of Scientology, lawyers for his victims filed a document that contained a stunning new allegation against the faith.

Submitted in a downtown Los Angeles court as part of a years-old civil lawsuit against Scientology, the document referenced a purported effort by the church to “derail” the criminal proceedings against Masterson.

“Defendants and their agents engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed at one of the prosecutors assigned to Defendant Masterson’s trial,” the declaration from civil attorney Simon Leen read. “That prosecutor’s home and car windows were broken, the prosecutor’s home electronics were tampered with, and Defendants’ agents surveilled the prosecutor.”

foggy ,

I saw a thing recently where there were dozens of police officers at some scientology gathering where the municipality had explicitly stated that there were to be 0 tax dollars spent on the event.

We need to fucking obliterate protections religions have. They are only used as loopholes for nefarious gains today.

Tax every church. Watch them burn.

LonelyWendigo ,

You can just hire cops to be private security, no tax dollars necessary. The neat part is that even if they aren’t acting in an official capacity, they can still use police resources (like squad cars), wear police uniforms, and they’re still police (with all the same privileges, lack of liability, and license to murder).

foggy ,

The filmer was active in their municipality and was calling sergeants out by name.

Riven ,
@Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Good, they’re public servants. Their identities should be clear for all to.see.

meat_popsicle ,

Lemme guess: Clearwater, FL?

corsicanguppy ,

I like the NPOV there.

jkrtn ,

They also use police funds by claiming it as overtime.

iAmTheTot ,
@iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

stunning new allegation

Anyone who knows anything about the history of religion is not stunned by this news.

A_Random_Idiot ,

Scientology is basically a terrorist state, a Terrorist state that has launched successful attacks against the US government and somehow cowed it into submission.

nkat2112 ,
@nkat2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

“Defendants and their agents engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed at one of the prosecutors assigned to Defendant Masterson’s trial,” the declaration from civil attorney Simon Leen read. “That prosecutor’s home and car windows were broken, the prosecutor’s home electronics were tampered with, and Defendants’ agents surveilled the prosecutor.”

This is incredibly horrible. I feel so bad for the victims, the prosecutor (!), and all their family. I’ll be paying attention to developments and I hope justice is served against the cultists.

Gullible ,

The US has Scientology, Japan has the moonies, South Korea has just straight up cults. Are there any other examples of religions with asymmetrically vast and subtle clandestine power over a country?

NoIWontPickAName ,

We have qanon too.

Canada has that queen

Bonehead ,

She is a minor cult leader with a tiny following who targets idiots with not a lot of money to begin with and convinces them to not pay their hydro and phone bills so they can give it to her instead. She is literally just a Canadian SovCit with delusions of grandeur. She's no where near the level of Scientology or LDS.

corsicanguppy ,

So for us quaint Canadians she’s pretty scandalous. I’m surprised we haven’t blockaded the place with zambonies by now, or something with moose.

dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

Christianity.

goldenlocks ,

88 percent of congress

Son_of_dad ,

The assassination of Shinzo Abe must have been the most successful assassination ever. In North America the assassin would have been called crazy, insane, non sensical, etc. And their reasoning for the assassination ignored. In Japan they did a full investigation and essentially said the killer was right to be angry, and they blamed it on the moonies, which will hopefully help to bring the end of that cult

MossyFeathers ,

I find that case insane. Like, the fact that they actually stopped, listened, and spent time thinking about whether his motive had merit is mind-boggling when compared to just about every other major country. I don’t think it’s just north america that would have disregarded him for being “insane”, I think most of the world would have done so.

I know they’re not perfect and have their own issues, but Japan just seems like they’re on a totally different level from everyone else.

yesman ,

Since Scientology has so much money, why does their headquarters look like a cheap Florida motel next to the interstate that just got a fresh paint job after the police had a shootout with a barricaded meth head?

ChicoSuave ,

Because no one with class or taste will work with them.

Blankmann ,

From that angle, sure. But on Wikipedia it shows how massive it is.
Purposely not linking to the official “church” website, but it has a picture of it from the air, and lit up at night… It’s pretty impressive.

Adderbox76 ,

The more important question to me is why the hell the church of alien mumbo-jumbo has a cross on top of it…

hydroptic ,

Scientologists say it’s not actually a cross because it’s 8-pointed (there’s 8 “dynamics” in Dianetics. Long story, and it’s all bullshit anyhow.)

Anybody can see it’s intentionally made to look like the christian cross. The real reason is probably that it’s a cross because Hubbard figured it’d make people easier to scam – a cross looks nice and “safe”. There’s also some pretty funny woo-woo about how Christianity is just an “implant” put in us by good old Xenu, and I think the cross shape supposedly somehow triggers our “thetans” (scientology’s equivalent to souls.) And yes I know weird amounts of details about scientology, I’ve always found it fascinating because it’s such a bonkers belief system

Adderbox76 ,

Cool. Thanks! TIL.

scytale ,

Because it’s being spent to derail the criminal proceedings through a campaign of harassment and intimidation duh.

badbrainstorm ,
@badbrainstorm@lemmy.today avatar

By your description I’m assuming you’re talking about the old hospital in LA by the 101? If so, that’s just where they house a bunch of the poor brainwashed minions.

Their headquarters (Gold Base) is right beside Hubbards old mansion in San Jacinto on like 500 acres. Not so cheap looking

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/9eb58b1b-64fd-4f2e-a2d2-a8bc93337db2.png

RaoulDook ,

IDK but it gets really creepy if you look at how much of Clearwater, FL they own. Their main building down there is right by city hall and the police dept, so it makes you wonder if they own those too.

I also wonder if they go around fuckin’ with people in FL who they see as their enemies. Because it could be legal to shoot them if they were attacking you or threatening to do so.

S_204 ,

They oddly tried to hire me at one point in the past, couldn’t agree on money so I walked away but if you look at their real estate portfolio, especially their restoration of heritage buildings… it’s honestly very impressive. They have some beautiful buildings they’ve restored at enormous expense.

They’re pretty creepy though, very controlling over their adherence to processes and way too slow to pay their bills.

ZeroCool ,

Church calls claim “false.”

Cult insists they did not do thing they have well documented history of doing. Yeah, sure thing and I’m Xenu.

prowess2956 ,

Hey man, there are a bunch of people who have been looking for you.

stanleytweedle ,

Why even bother with the last part of the headline? Would anyone assume Scientology was just like ‘BUSTED!! Haha- yeah we do that shit.’

kn33 ,

I wonder if it’s to reduce the risk of a lawsuit by including the rebuttal?

FakeGreekGirl ,

Probably. Scientology is famously litigious.

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