Los Angeles: It was an unsettling moment for the second accuser in the rape trial of ‘The 70s Show’ and ‘The Ranch’ star Danny Masterson as murky details of her sexual abuse and the events that followed came up during the trial.
She broke down on the stand on Tuesday (Pacific Standard Time) while describing the retaliation she has faced from the Church of Scientology, reports Variety.
The woman, a former girlfriend of Masterson who has been identified in court as Christina B., appeared to have suffered a panic attack as she discussed the consequences of being declared a “suppressive person”.
“I can’t breathe,” she said at one point. She testified that she reported Masterson to the church after he allegedly raped her while she was unconscious in December 2001. She said a church official told her that it was not possible to rape one’s girlfriend.
According to Variety, she said that she was also told that it was her job, or her “hat” in Scientology terminology, “to give him sex whenever he wanted.”
She said that a church ethics officer, Miranda Scoggins, told her that that “no crime was committed,” and that she had “pulled in” the negative experiences she was having. At that time, Christina B. was a practicing Scientologist and she said she believed what she was told.
She said she that was put on an “ethics programme,” and was also instructed to read material on “suppressive persons.” The prospect that she might be declared a suppressive person for reporting Masterson, “almost put me in a state of terror,” she said, quoted by Variety.
Christina B. ultimately went to the LAPD in December 2016. She has since filed a lawsuit against Scientology and Masterson, alleging that she has been subjected to “fair game” tactics in retaliation, including being stalked, followed, threatened and run off the road. She also alleges that she was targeted on social media, subjected to credit card fraud and phone and email hacking, and that her dog was killed.
Variety further states that in her testimony, she began to cry when she said that the church has treated her like a suppressive person for the last six years. She said she feared she would not have survived similar treatment back in 2001.
“What my husband and my babies have been through the last six years, I would not have survived it then,” she said, “I understood it would be bad, but I didn’t understand.”
She then appeared to have difficulty breathing. “I’m trying to calm my panic,” she said.
The court took a break while she was consoled by a victim advocate from the D.A.’s office.
–IANS