Leah Remini Accuses Church of Scientology of Paying Off LAPD to Hide Danny Masterson’s Alleged Rapes

Four women have accused Danny Masterson, former star of That 70’s Show and current star of The Ranch, of raping them. The LAPD apparently has a lot of evidence that points to his guilt. Despite this, they have not arrested or charged Masterson. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Leah Remini says she believes that the LAPD is on the take and intentionally turning a blind eye to the church and its members, including Masterson.

Before I get started on this whole story, I want to point out the church’s response to this article.

When reached for comment for this story, Karin Pouw, spokesperson for the Church of Scientology, issued a multi-page statement to The Daily Beast that read, in part: “Giving Remini a forum is the same as providing a forum to the KKK to spread their racial and religious hatred.”

This is just an aside, but this is perhaps the best argument against hate speech laws I have ever seen. Because the direct beneficiaries are going to be people like the Church of Scientology, as you’ll see when we dig into this issue a bit.

See, it turns out that the Church of Scientology is a big, big donor to the LAPD’s Police Activities League, a youth outreach program. They give them big, giant checks. Both in dollar amount and literally, they present the LAPD with those oversized novelty checks like Publisher’s Clearing House.

Which brings us to Danny Masterson.

Remini says she knew of another woman who claims to have been raped by Masterson. This unnamed woman alleges she was raped by Masterson at a house party in 2003, and that she was escorted to the residence by none other than the actor’s publicist, Jenni Weinman. She filed a police report in 2004 that read, in part: “SUSP (acquaintance) sexually assaulted the victim while she was passed out. The victim woke up while the suspect was having sex with her and struggled with him. The suspect choked the victim until she passed out.” But according to Ortega “that investigation was closed when witnesses—who were Scientologists—contradicted the victim’s testimony.” (A Scientologist who rats out another Scientologist can be branded a “suppressive person,” and thus subjected to harsh interrogations or expulsion.)

Two more women filed reports of being raped by Masterson last year, which caused the police to re-open this investigation. But despite evidence including “audiotapes, emails sent to and from Scientology officers at the time the alleged rapes happened, forensic computer evidence and a threatening handwritten letter Masterson sent to one of the alleged victims,” nothing has been done.

I’m not saying that the big oversized checks the Church of Scientology gives to the LAPD right in front of the whole world and the LAPD not investigating any reports of criminality against the church or its members are related. I really want to stress that point. It’s probably just a coincidence, like when lobbyists and corporate interests make big donations to politicians and those politicians independently decide that the best thing for the country is to give the rich people all the money everything they ask for. It’s basically crazy to think that the large, famously litigious organization Church of Scientology would expect favors from the LAPD for their monetary contributions.

It’s also probably a coincidence that Netflix immediately pulled Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K.’s shows and announced they wouldn’t be working with them in the future, yet their statement to The Daily Beast on Masterson was “We are aware of the allegations and the subsequent investigation, and will respond if developments occur.” This doesn’t seem out of the ordinary at all; any company that would immediately respond to allegations of misconduct by firing its largest and most profitable stars should be expected to take a wait-and-see attitude about a B-list celebrity who had a supporting role on a minor hit sitcom 20 years ago.