@LisaBartleyABC7: One of the reasons we did not do much reporting on the letters of support for #DannyMasterson including those from @aplusk and @MilaKunisv is that it takes away from the victims... the survivors......…
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Lisa Bartley @LisaBartleyABC7
One of the reasons we did not do much reporting on the letters of support for #DannyMasterson including those from @aplusk and @MilaKunisv is that it takes away from the victims... the survivors... the women he raped at a time I felt we should focus on their stories.
Three of the women #DannyMasterson raped gave incredibly powerful victim impact statements at his sentencing Thursday. I'm going to share more of what they told Judge Olmedo here.
Let's start with Jane Doe One. JD1 told the judge that her own mother cut her out of her life (this is known as disconnection in Scientology.) JD1 says her mom told her she wanted to see Danny brought to justice for the rapes, but not at the expense of her religion #Scientology.
JD1's mother wrote a letter to #Scientology leader #DavidMiscavige in 2004 demanding justice for her daughter, which you can read here
David Miscavige Knew Danny Masterson Was Raping Women The mother of one of the women who Danny Masterson raped sent a letter to David Miscavige seeking justice for her daughter. Instead of protecting her, Miscavige tried to destroy her.
JD1 told the court she sometimes rereads that letter, sometimes on Mother's Day, just to remember how it felt to have a mom.
JD1 says before she reported her rape for the first time in 2004, she was forced to meet with her rapist with the understanding that he would apologize and never rape anyone else. Instead, she says he laughed and treated it as a big joke. "He's shown not one ounce of remorse."
As for Masterson's friends who say they never saw him rape anyone... "Yeah, that's generally not how sexual assault or rape works."
She did not use his name, but JD1 referenced @aplusk in her victim impact statement. He told Esquire earlier this year that he wanted Masterson "to be found innocent of the charges..."
@aplusk "I read that, and my own daughters could read that, too." She told the court she wondered if Danny's co-star knew that Masterson had her then 9-year-old daughter's name put on the NDA she signed in 2004 as one of the people who could never disclose anything about the rape.
@aplusk JD1 told the court that while her 9-year-old daughter's real name is in the NDA, "Danny used an alias, David Duncan, a true coward and heartless monster."
@aplusk We are sure to hear more about that NDA in the upcoming civil trial and the role of Masterson's then attorney Marty Singer. We know from the trials that Singer testified about the NDA at a grand jury in January 2020 months before Masterson was charged that June.
@aplusk Here's a bit of Singer's grand jury testimony that was revealed in court documents last fall.
@aplusk JD1 said she was required to notify Singer and Masterson if police "ever came sniffing around..." JD1 told the court, "I'm here today to say I did not govern myself accordingly. I went to law enforcement. I did not notify you. I have no regrets."
@aplusk JD1 described dark years after the rape. "I lost the ability to contact almost every person I had known or loved in my entire life because I was deemed an enemy to the group having been declared by Scientology for reporting the rape to the LAPD."
JD1 told the court that Masterson's actions destroyed many aspects of their lives. "And we who do survive to fight back are left shattered in a billion pieces."
She has an extreme fear of the dark, waking up in fight or flight mode. "I sometimes hide in the closet." Her husband "has to repeat, 'it's me, it's me.'" He knows "better than to even come into the bathroom when I shower."
"I have screamed out the windows of our bedroom in the middle of the night in tears, 'I'm not okay, I'm not okay,' sobbing uncontrollably. I don't even know what the neighborhoods think."
Judge Olmedo referenced the NDA as she sentenced Masterson to prison, noting that he paid JD1 $400k to keep quiet about the rape. "Close to half a million dollars is an awful lot to pay for the silence about an incident that you claimed never happened."
Judge Olmedo: "Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person's voice and choice. Your actions 20 years ago were criminal, and that is why you are here."