Leah Remini is as soon as once more taking the Church of Scientology to activity, posting a prolonged Twitter thread that accuses the group of “protecting up” member Danny Masterson’s alleged crimes.
The King of Queens actor, a former Scientologist, urged her followers to maintain an in depth eye on the trial wherein Masterson is dealing with costs for the alleged sexual assaults of three girls in separate incidents between 2001 and 2003.
Remini created and co-hosted a success present in regards to the Scientology, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, which ran for 3 seasons on A&E Community. The present advised the unheard tales of people that managed to go away the spiritual group — many who mentioned they suffered dire and ongoing penalties within the church and past.
Remini’s latest thread revisited lots of the themes explored on the present.
“Do you know that if you’re a Scientologist, you might be forbidden from contacting regulation enforcement when one other Scientologist has dedicated a criminal offense in opposition to you?” Remini’s first tweet learn. “For those who do, you’ll be declared a suppressive particular person and lose your loved ones, mates, and livelihood in a single day.”
Her second tweet immediately addressed the Masterson trial, saying it’s “not getting sufficient consideration on social media.”
She went on to assert that Scientologists are “managed” and that the group’s insurance policies, which had been written by founder L. Ron Hubbard, “can by no means be altered and should be interpreted actually, permitting this prison (group) to regulate members and insulate itself from dangerous PR.”
She then dove right into a multi-part explainer of what occurs when somebody within the group accuses one other member of a criminal offense, noting that “most” of the ladies who’ve accused Masterson had been at one level Scientologists and first reported their alleged rapes to high ethics officers within the church.
She mentioned that these ethics officers instantly flip round and report what they’ve been advised to Scientology’s chief, David Miscavige.
She mentioned as soon as the reviews get to Miscavige, these accusers are basically deserted by the group.
“Most individuals could be too frightened to maneuver ahead if the price of reporting the rape meant their complete life, from their household to their livelihood, would disappear in a single day,” she continued, calling Scientology a “totalitarian cult.”
“This coverage permits Scientologists to do horrific issues to guard Scientology and makes Scientologists unreliable witnesses.”
Remini mentioned she’s hoping folks take note of Masterson’s trial, as she believes his lawyer Philip Cohen “is doing all the things he can to strip the involvement of Scientology from this trial.”
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“Scientology has obstructed justice in protecting up Danny’s crimes,” she wrote, calling those that got here ahead to accuse Masterson “brave” as a result of repercussions they might face.
Remini claimed that Scientologists who go to regulation enforcement to report crimes about one other Scientologist are declared a “suppressive particular person” and that the group then provides its members “permission to do no matter they need to do to destroy your life.”
This contains the lack of household, mates, and job if you happen to work throughout the group, she mentioned.
“You’ll lose all the things and everybody.”
She mentioned these penalties are dire sufficient to maintain folks from reporting crimes corresponding to rape.
She additionally inspired folks to observe the trial and put up about it on social media, particularly “if you happen to’re annoyed that Scientology has by no means been actually held accountable for its crimes.”
“It’s not nearly a Hollywood movie star,” she concluded. “It’s about what a multi-billion greenback cult does to cowl up horrifying intercourse crimes.”
In Might of this yr, the three girls accusing Masterson every took the stand in a preliminary listening to to share the small print of their allegations.
After the three-day listening to, which included graphic and emotional testimony, Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Decide Charlaine F. Olmedo decided that the actor would head to trial.
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The trial started mid-October. The primary lady to take the witness stand broke down in tears whereas testifying that Masterson pushed her face right into a pillow in 2003, smothering her to the purpose the place she couldn’t breathe. She additionally mentioned he choked her and she or he thought on the time “that he was going to kill me. That I used to be going to die.”
She mentioned she was out and in of consciousness that evening after she drank about half a glass of a fruity vodka drink that was given to her by Masterson. She additionally testified that Masterson pulled out a gun when he heard commotion outdoors the door.
Masterson, 46, who on the time was a star of the Fox TV sitcom That ’70s present, has pleaded not responsible to the counts of rape.
All three of Masterson’s accusers had been members of the Church of Scientology on the time they declare the rapes occurred, however have since left. Masterson stays a member. Decide Olmedo mentioned earlier than the trial that she wouldn’t permit Scientology to grow to be a de facto defendant however would permit restricted dialogue of it.
Scientology did come up. The girl testified that a few of her mutual mates filed so-called “information reviews” signalling their unhappiness along with her after she advised them in regards to the preliminary incident with Masterson, and she or he was summoned by an ethics officer who compelled her to make peace with him and take accountability.
“You’ll be able to by no means be a sufferer,” the girl mentioned. “It doesn’t matter what occurs, you’re all the time accountable.”
Requested if she nonetheless feared retaliation from anybody for coming ahead about Masterson, she replied “about half this courtroom.”
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She testified that she signed a non-disclosure settlement with Masterson in 2004, and accepted $400,000 over the course of a yr, as a result of the church was going to tar her as a “suppressive particular person” in any other case. She mentioned she had violated the settlement “about 50 instances” since signing it.
Final week, one other accuser took the stand, saying she was in a relationship with Masterson for roughly six years, starting in 1997. She mentioned that in 2001 she woke as much as discover Masterson having intercourse along with her.
“I advised him I didn’t need to have intercourse, and he wouldn’t cease,” she mentioned, as reported by E! Information. He pinned her arms, she continued, making her really feel “trapped … I used to be screaming at him to get off of me.”
She additionally testified that he was “very sexually aggressive” and that he would usually name her “fats.” She mentioned she would have intercourse with him regardless of not eager to, as a result of in any other case he would grow to be mad at her and refuse to speak to her till she apologized to him.
She mentioned when she reported the alleged assault to a church ethics officer in 2003, she was advised to not use the phrase “rape.”
“She defined to me that you would be able to’t rape somebody you might be in a relationship with,” the witness mentioned. She mentioned the officer advised her she “had achieved one thing to trigger it … We’re all chargeable for the situation we’re in.”
Additional testimony is anticipated this week. If convicted, Masterson faces 45 years to life behind bars.
— With recordsdata from The Related Press
