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

LOS ANGELES — 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.”

The December 2023 declaration didn’t name the prosecutor or offer any additional detail, and Leen declined to comment. The claim, which was deep within a 372-page document, has not been previously reported. The church has vigorously denied that Scientology had anything to do with the incidents involving the prosecutor.

But it was not the first time the church was quietly — and publicly — accused of attempting to interfere in Masterson’s years-long legal saga.

In a speech last fall, L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller delivered remarks that contained allegations nearly identical to those from the lawsuit, according to a video reviewed by The Times.

In the speech, given after he received an award for his work on the Masterson case, Mueller told hundreds of colleagues, including former District Attorney Jackie Lacey, about a pattern of disturbing incidents he allegedly experienced in late 2022, ahead of the sitcom star’s first trial.

Mueller said he was “run off the road” and that his home was vandalized, according to the video. He also said that cellular and internet service had been inexplicably knocked out at his residence.

LAPD detectives on the case were also “stalked,” Mueller said in the video, and had their “photographs taken while they were off-duty.”

Mueller didn’t directly blame Scientology in his speech, but two law enforcement sources told The Times that he accused the church of being behind the incidents in discussions with the L.A. County district attorney’s office’s Bureau of Investigation, which reviews threats against prosecutors.

Los Angeles police officers responded to an attempted break-in at Mueller’s home in February 2022, according to a document reviewed by The Times. Responding officers noted damage to a window and described the incident as an “attempted burglary,” according to the document, which describes the suspect as “unknown.”

After the break-in, the district attorney’s office conducted a “threat assessment” of Mueller’s home and had security stationed there for at least one night, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Mueller declined a request for an interview and a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

No criminal charges have arisen from Mueller’s claims, and it does not appear the prosecutor has provided evidence for his allegations that the incidents were carried out at the direction of the church.

Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for the church, said, “allegations that the Church harassed or intimidated witnesses, prosecutors, or law enforcement officers are categorically false. There is zero evidence to support these scandalous allegations — indeed, all available evidence demonstrates the Church had nothing to do with the alleged acts.”

Pouw said “anti-Scientology bias” was on display throughout the trial. She has accused a judge of making an “unconstitutional” interpretation of church doctrine and also alleged Mueller is “biased” against the church.

Mueller, however, was not the only person involved in the Masterson case to accuse the church of harassment and intimidation. LAPD detectives who investigated the actor also said they “had been surveilled, watched” or experienced “some type of harassment” which “they attributed to agents or individuals from the Church of Scientology,” according to former LAPD Chief Michel Moore.

An LAPD investigation turned up no proof that the church harassed the detectives, Moore said in an interview late last year.

One of the women behind the December legal filing that contained the harassment allegations involving a prosecutor was Chrissie Carnell Bixler, who claimed in the suit that the church or its agents tampered with her home security systems and vandalized her car and described an incident in which someone attempted to “run [her] off the road” after she accused Masterson of rape.

Another plaintiff in the case, whose name is not public, alleged that unidentified men were following her in downtown L.A. during the trial. The church has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in that lawsuit, and Masterson dismissed it as an attempt to smear Scientology when it was first filed in 2017.

Masterson was convicted of two counts of rape in May of 2023 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The count involving Bixler resulted in a hung jury. Masterson has filed an appeal on the other counts. The civil lawsuit remains pending.

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Allegations that Scientology was attempting to influence the Masterson case first spilled into court last May, when Mueller told the trial judge that the church had obtained “a very large quantity” of discovery materials. The files, according to a transcript of the hearing, included emails and text messages between investigators and Masterson’s accusers.

Mueller said in court that he learned the materials were in the church’s possession after an attorney for Scientology mistakenly attached them to an email to the district attorney’s office. The message was intended to be a complaint against Mueller and his co-counsel, but it also included a message to the LAPD chief written on church letterhead that included links to about “570 pages” of the “people’s discovery,” the prosecutor said in court.

Weeks earlier, Moore had met with the Scientology representatives in his office at LAPD headquarters.

According to the former chief, who retired at the end of February, the church had accused LAPD detectives and prosecutors on the Masterson case of misconduct. Moore said he agreed to hear them out.

The meeting last April was not listed on a copy of the chief’s official schedule obtained by The Times. Moore and an LAPD spokesperson said it was attended by Scientology’s “head of security” and Vicki Podberesky, the attorney who accidentally emailed the protected files to Mueller.

The church and Moore have given contradictory accounts of the reason for the meeting.

According to Moore’s recollection, Podberesky and her group reminded the chief that the church was not part of the trial, but said they had come to share allegations that detectives and prosecutors on the case had “falsified witness testimony, overstated or coached witness testimony [and] withheld evidence.”

Podberesky also claimed to have “boxes and files and electronic documents that would demonstrate clearly such misconduct,” according to Moore.

Pouw, the church spokeswoman, insisted the meeting had nothing to do with the Masterson case.

“The Church requested to meet with Chief Moore to present complaints about bias and misconduct by LAPD officers with respect to the Church, including accepting and maintaining open investigations of blatantly false reports about the Church,” she said in a statement. “The LAPD accepted the complaints and opened an investigation for the reported misconduct, which includes the disposition of open cases as to the Church. It was explicitly stated that the meeting was not in connection with the Masterson trial, and the prosecutor was never discussed.”

In both a November 2023 interview with The Times and in response to questions about Pouw’s statement, Moore remained steadfast that the meeting was in relation to the Masterson trial. Through an LAPD spokeswoman, he reiterated that church officials brought “boxes of alleged evidence of misconduct by our detectives and the prosecution.”

The judge in the Masterson case, Charlaine Olmedo, ruled last year that the church’s complaints about Mueller and his co-counsel were “demonstrably false.”

Moore said the department conducted its own internal investigation, which was not completed at the time of his interview. He does not believe law enforcement committed any misconduct in the case.

Moore’s decision to take the meeting set off alarm bells, both within the LAPD and the district attorney’s office. Masterson had been the target of an LAPD investigation, and even if Moore took no action, there were concerns the meeting could create an appearance of impropriety.

One high-ranking LAPD official and two sources within the district attorney’s office said it was highly unorthodox for him to personally receive an internal affairs complaint.

“The timing seemed extremely inappropriate to me,” said the LAPD official, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution from the department. “In the middle of a trial, you’re going to take a meeting because they’re high up attorneys with the Church of Scientology?”

In court, Mueller said the church’s visit to LAPD headquarters impacted the case — noting that one of the lead detectives, Esther Myape, expressed reservations about testifying after news of the meeting surfaced. Olmedo described the timing of the church’s allegations against the detectives as “calculating,” noting the meeting with Moore took place days before Myape was scheduled to testify.

In his declaration in the civil lawsuit on behalf of Masterson’s victims, Leen also accused the church of “filing baseless accusations against the detectives and the prosecutors in the Masterson case” that were timed to “interfere with the retrial of Masterson.”

Attempts to contact Myape were unsuccessful. Det. Javier Vargas, the other lead investigator in the Masterson case, declined to be interviewed.

Moore said that several LAPD detectives on the Masterson case reported “some type of harassment,” which they attributed to “agents or individuals from the Church of Scientology.” An internal LAPD investigation, however, found no evidence of church involvement, Moore said.

Pouw said neither Moore nor any other LAPD official contacted the church about the supposed harassment. She denied any contention that the meeting with the chief was an attempt to intimidate the investigating officers, and suggested the detectives were attempting to deflect from their own alleged misdeeds.

Moore acknowledged frustration in the ranks about his meeting with Scientology officials, but maintained the situation warranted his involvement.

“The person who represents themselves as the counsel for that institution was making very aggressive and very serious charges of prosecutorial misconduct,” Moore said.