The lawsuit against Scientology

In a lawsuit filed in 2020, The Church of Scientology was accused of trying to silence Masterson’s victims for speaking to authorities, via harassment and stalking. According to court documents obtained by The Blast, the women claimed the defendants engaged in “conspiracy to cover up that Daniel Masterson sexually assaulted four young women.”

The lawsuit claimed: “When those women came forward to report Masterson’s crimes, the Defendants conspired to and systematically stalked, harassed, invaded their and their family’s privacy, and intentionally caused them emotional distress and silence and intimidate them.”

In the lawsuit, Masterson’s ex-girlfriend Chrissie Carnell Bixler said she started dating Masterson in 1996 and eventually moved in with him. She claims she joined him in the Church of Scientology “per his orders.”

She alleged that during their relationship, Masterson “regularly forced [her] to have sex with him and became violent when [she] refused.” She also claimed that when she reported the star’s alleged behavior to a Scientology employee, she was told that “her job as Masterson’s girlfriend was to ‘give him sex whenever he wants it’ and that if she complied, ‘these things wouldn’t happen.’” Bixler’s decision to go to the LAPD in 2016 made her a “suppressive person” in the eyes of the church.

“The Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide Division, Sexual Assault Section, is conducting an investigation involving the actor Danny Masterson. Three women have come forward and disclosed that they were sexually assaulted by Masterson during the early 2000s,” the police statement read at the time.

In the lawsuit, the women go on to explain that the Church has rules against reporting crimes. “Whether discovered during auditing or otherwise, Defendants forbid members from contacting police to report a crime committed by any member,” they claim. “The Institutional Defendants instruct their members and agents that reporting such instances to law enforcement is considered a ‘high crime’ and subjects the member to punishment.”

Ex-Scientologist Geoff Levin told The New York Post at the time that “Danny was part of the young Hollywood clique. He ran with Jason Lee [who has since left the church], Giovanni Ribisi, Laura Prepon [also not active in Scientology] and [Grounded for Life] sitcom actress Lynsey Bartilson.” According to Ortega: “One of the rules of Scientology is that celebrities get to break all the rules. They are not held to the same standards.”