Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (2016) s03e12 Episode Script

It is so heartbreaking to hear something like this.
I wasn't allowed to talk about it with anyone.
They told you not to tell you not to talk about it.
Oh, yeah.
I had to black out anything with a black market that would incriminate Scientology.
He said, oh, I had sex with you last night.
And I said, was I unconscious? I Ron Hubbard duped every single person that's in this room and more.
It still haunts me.
I'm still finding out what we've done to these kids.
I'm like, what are you talking about? This guy's dead.
It is absolutely outrageous.
She's a victim of Scientology.
She's a victim of a system that she got thrown into.
You were hurt.
You deserve to be heard.
You deserve law enforcement to hear your story.
Scientologists never get that.
Picture's up, guys.
Nice and quiet on the stage.
Camera, speed, mark.
Thank you for tuning in.
When we first started out the "Aftermath" series, we wanted to give a platform to those who wanted to tell you what's happened to them.
Their pain.
And it's because of you, that we were able to do that for three seasons.
And you gave victims a voice and a platform to be heard, and you cared.
And we thank you.
Recently, four brave women filed a lawsuit against David.
Miscavige, the Church of Scientology and celebrity Scientologist, Danny Masterson.
Two of those women you will hear from tonight.
Two of them would like to remain anonymous.
They are named as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.
They allege that they have been stalked and harassed since filing their initial police reports.
All right, so here are some allegations in the document.
Jane Doe 1 filed with the court, quote, Masterson made her a drink and she began to feel very sick.
She can only conclude that she had been drugged.
Later she awoke to Masterson raping her.
She attempted to fight him off.
She recalls crawling into the bedroom closet and passing out.
She next recalls waking up the next morning naked and hiding in the closet.
She claims that when she reported the assault to a church official, she was required to begin an ethics program, that required her to read many policies, including those policies at state it is a high crime to report anything criminal or negative about another Scientologist.
Despite more than a year, the church and their agents trying to convince Jane Doe 1 that she was not raped, she reported the sexual assault to the LAPD.
Here are a few allegations from the document.
This is Jane Doe 2, filed with the court.
At a party at Masterson's home, Masterson served her a drink.
She felt the effects of the alcohol he provided at a far faster rate than she had ever experienced.
Masterson then sexually assaulted Jane Doe 2 in the shower and in his bedroom.
Jane Doe 2 understood from her Scientology coursework that she would not be permitted to report the assault to civil authorities outside of Scientology.
In 2017, Jane Doe 2 disclosed the assault to the Los Angeles.
Police Department, and at that point she claims a campaign of harassment ensued.
Neither the church nor Masterson have yet filed an official response with the court, but a lawyer for the church spoke for the media and said, from everything we have read in the press, this baseless lawsuit will go nowhere, because the claims are ludicrous and a sham.
It is a dishonest and hallucinatory publicity stunt.
Leah Remini is taking advantage of these people as pawns and her money-making scam.
And this is what Danny Masteron's attorney has to say about our reporting on their story.
"The idea that law enforcement agencies in the second largest" city in the United States would sit idly by for more than three years if they believe that a serial rapist were on the loose is preposterous.
The fact that the investigation may or may not remain open is irrelevant.
Not once in three years since these women resurfaced and supposedly filed complaints with the Los Angeles Police.
Department, has any member of law enforcement contacted Mr.
Masterson "about the allegations".
Also, we reached out to the Church of Scientology for an interview, and they declined.
Thank you.
Seeing you guys makes me want to cry every time.
Well, this is our finale episode.
So thank you all for joining us.
This is the first time that we've done it with an audience, filled with our brave contributors from three seasons.
I look out and I just see courageous and brave faces.
We have Amy Scobee, who inspired our series.
Your mom, Bonny Elliott.
I remember when you called me and said, my mother just wants to say thank you.
She's reading your book.
Would you mind calling her? And she bravely spoke to me when we didn't have a show.
And I said that, like, we should capture this on film.
Because your mother wants to tell the world, do not let Scientology destroy your life and your family.
And your mother.
Used all the energy that she had to do a tape for us.
And that is how the Aftermath began, inspired by you and your mother.
We just have the best of the best.
So so there, Scientology.
Don't you ever break up another family.
You bastards.
I know I can't say bastards, but they deserve it.
Why don't you introduce other people while I'm collecting myself.
I see Mary Kahn over there, and Aaron, and of course Amy, and Len Zinberg.
It's wonderful to have you here to sort of share in this experience.
We also have with us today three experts.
We know the Scientology answer for everything.
What we don't know, often, is the real world answer for things.
So we are very fortunate to have Professor Marci Hamilton, who is probably the leading expert on First Amendment law and the laws of religion and free speech in the United States.
We have a 29-year former FBI Agent, Jim Ellis, who is joining us to give a law enforcement perspective.
And we have a psychologist, Dr.
Natalie Feinblatt, who is very experienced about cults.
Thank you all.
Thank you for being here.
For three seasons, we've attempted to expose the wrongdoings of Scientology.
And I think what's important about tonight, which I hope that we highlight, is how Scientology gets away with it The ideologies, the brainwashing that goes on.
And you usually start your indoctrination of studying.
Scientology at the age of 6.
We are taught to protect Scientology's reputation at all costs.
Which means when something bad happens, it's It's to be kept secret.
You are raised to believe that anything that happened to you is because you did it in another lifetime to another, or something similar, or you've done something this lifetime to have received that punishment.
And we are taught the outside world is evil.
And so, as a young child, you think of the outside world as a very dangerous place.
And your only recourse is to go to Scientology.
It creates an environment that is It is literally a bubble, a bubble universe that exists around Scientology, that within that bubble, everybody is in agreement.
And that agreement doesn't match with what society believes is normal or what society believes is the things that shouldn't and shouldn't be done, or the reports that should be made, or how a rape victim should be treated, or how a rapist should be treated.
It is an enclosed world.
And that world is dictated by the policies of I.
Ron Hubbard.
And those policies make paramount Always paramount the well-being of Scientology, not the well-being of any individual.
If a Scientologist commits a criminal act, if they engage in rape, if they Even if they steal someone else's car, those things are seen to be liabilities to the organization.
So we deal with everything internally.
And there's another part to that, too.
You know, every Scientologist truly believes if you put them in the hands of the psych-infested law enforcement and the You're killing them.
And the and the judicial system, they are being doomed to an eternity of black hellhole, that only by putting them into the hands of Scientology is there any hope that that person will be saved.
So you have this sort of dual thing of, on one hand, it's always protect the organization first, it's the The need to keep the image of Scientology good and pure, and on the other hand, it's an inculcated belief that to turn someone over to law enforcement is a horrific crime.
Right.
And actually And these words are used Crimes, high crimes.
If Something happens that would ordinarily be reported to law enforcement, it gets reported to OSA.
How would you explain what that department is? Like the internal police force of Scientology.
And I see Jackson sitting out there, who was the head of security of Golden Era Productions.
And he was the guy that everybody would have to call if there was some incident like that, if something happened that normally you would call 9-1-1, nope, you have to call security, and then they decide what happens.
In fact, at Gold, you couldn't even dial 9-1-1.
Right.
Because at Gold, where a lot of you were posted, there If you pick up the phone, it'll go to another switchboard.
Yeah, security was the backbone of being a net-based staff member.
So that's the culture of Scientology.
And the stories you will hear tonight are mostly from former Scientologists who say they were victims of heinous crimes.
But due to Scientology policy, they feel that justice has not been served, including the story you may have seen in the headlines recently about four women who say they were brutally raped by a famous Scientologist.
We've been working on that story for two years, and you'll see it for the first time tonight.
But first I want you to meet Serge Gill.
Serge is a former Scientologist who recently came forward alleging that he was sexually abused as a child while working in the Sea Org.
The Sea Org is basically what, a paramilitary It's the hardcore of Scientology.
Sea Org members are to deliver Scientology to us parishioners, and And protect Scientology Correct.
From the outside forces of evil.
Right.
And most Scientologists are brought in by their families.
And most Scientology parishioners give up their children to the Sea Org, thinking it's an Noble A noble thing.
Right.
This is Serge's story.
So my name is Serge Gill.
I was born in Scientology, back in Mexico in 1978.
When I finished seventh grade, my parents said that we were going to go to Clearwater.
It was instilled upon me that the most important thing that I could possibly do is to train as an auditor, that that was going to be a way for me to save the world and, like, help everybody.
As an auditor, you can only follow what I.
Ron Hubbard wrote as a script.
He makes you do confessionals in order for you to divulge anything in your life that you could have done that's a harmful act.
And through that process, he comes up with an interrogation set of questions that are highly pointed and highly criminal-seeking in nature.
They ask you if you've ever committed homicide, if you have ever raped anyone, if you've ever had sex with a member of your own family, if you have ever sodomized anyone.
This is where a child like myself was asking people to confess crimes that they had committed and to tell them to me.
I did two years of training.
At 14, I signed a Sea Org contract and I went into the Sea Org.
And my parents were no longer legally responsible for me, because now I was basically a possession of the Church of Scientology.
The RPF program is a program that Scientology put together for anyone that was found to be violating the ethical standards of the Sea Org.
It was a horrible space.
We were locked up in those two buildings of the hacienda for over two years in my case.
Every single day, you were doing hard labor for eight hours.
And then you had to go in the auditing sessions for like five hours.
That was every single day of your life.
We were adults and minors mixed in together.
And we were all paired up, even with adults, to be our therapists, and we be their therapist.
We weren't ever really viewed as children because our spiritual age was what was considered our real age.
So they disassociate you with the idea that, you know, your body and your age has a meaning.
I was given a guy that had been assigned to the program because he was a pedophile.
He had been molesting girls.
And he was supposed to be my therapist, and I was supposed to be his therapist in order to rehabilitate ourselves.
A lot of the sessions were, you know, four or five hours of him telling me that he had raped me in another life.
And I had to find out all the details of how he supposedly raped me in that other life How did you rape me, where did you put me, how did you tie me down.
I never really understood that it was abuse at the time.
I didn't have an adult to say, this is inappropriate.
And all the adults that were there were saying, this is OK, because this is I.
Ron Hubbard.
No one would question the complete and horrendous inappropriateness of the practices.
Nobody ever said, hey, why is this being done like this? My therapist was also my roommate.
So we were sleeping in the same room.
He started coming into my bed and touching me in, you know, my ass area and genital area, and me being curious to also touch him.
And we started sort of like making out.
And to me at the time, like, it felt like this was, like, something good.
No child should ever have to deal with that.
We just heard the disturbing story of Serge Gill and his experiences in Scientology.
Engaged in confessionals or interrogations with others, including adults, which often delved into sexual circumstances and events.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
So in Scientology, children are considered big spirits in little bodies.
And there's no difference between a child and an adult in Scientology.
So if you're in the Sea Org, you are doing these confessionals, you're giving these confessionals to adults, and being exposed to explicit sexual content.
And this is standard practice in Scientology.
And when I say, standard practice, this is not my opinion.
It is the way Scientology is laid out to do.
That's right.
Like, the fact that we were teenagers made us so malleable.
Like, we were so easy to train to do this.
I was on the other side of that machine, questioning the other person, adult An an adult.
The adult.
And also convincing him that it was a good idea for him to answer a question of rape or a question of sodomizing someone, or any other type of crime.
Because they were supposed to come clean with me.
So I had an earpiece in my ear.
And I would be asking the questions, and then they would be sending me signals Ask him you know, if a person was really refusing to answer the question, they would escalate the type of questioning to It's a murder routine.
Tell them if they put a banana up their ass.
And I was asking this.
I'm not even exaggerating.
This was the question to ask the person in front of you.
Yeah, did you have sex with an animal, like, whatever.
These are the questions that a child is asking adults and an adult is asking a child.
Scientology is going to look at this and they're going to say, you guys are misrepresenting this whole subject.
All auditing and everything isn't about sex.
And that actually is true.
Not every question is about sex.
But there are enough.
And these other things that get focused on because these are the things that people are embarrassed about, or don't want to tell, or are afraid to talk about.
If I could say something about that, because what you guys are really describing, in terms of when people think of sexual abuse typically, especially child sexual abuse, what we think of is what we call overt sexual abuse.
That's where someone is touching you, right? Like, there's physical contact.
What doesn't get as much attention is covert sexual abuse.
That doesn't involve anybody touching anybody.
But it's when a child is exposed to pornography, or people having sex, or sexually explicit conversations that are completely age-inappropriate for a child.
That can be because I deal with a lot of clients in my practice who, quote, unquote, "only" experienced covert sexual abuse.
That can be just as damaging and traumatic as overt sexual abuse.
So so you're saying, as a professional, if you heard these stories from a child in Scientology, would you call the authorities? - Yes, absolutely.
- Exactly.
- I.
- Would be mandated to do that.
People feel that their stories are not valid.
I'm very glad you brought that up.
Thank you very much.
Yes, because I mean, what we're talking about is, like, institutionalized covert sexual abuse And guess what of children.
It's all in their books.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
Just so everybody knows.
It's all in their books.
And they're charging $500-plus an hour for a child to do this.
So it's a monetization thing.
Because at the end of the day, it's a business.
Yes.
But also Serge, even more vile, was that they forced you to counsel your own molester.
Yeah.
My own molester that had been sent there because he was a molester.
That's the other thing that's absolutely mortifying about Scientology institution.
How could you be monetizing information when someone confessed that they are a pedophile? They come up with a program to sell you to fix that thing or to address it, which is what I.
Ron Hubbard was a master of.
It was marketing and branding, right? There's no school, there's no institution that would ever allow this or that would ever consider that cataloging a minor's sexual behavior is in any way, shape, or form helpful for that minor 14-year-old girls talking about the first time they masturbated.
And it wasn't like they could just say that oh, I just masturbated.
It was like, well, how did you masturbate? How many fingers did you use? Were you using lotion? Were you know, what were you thinking about? When you're training to be a Scientology auditor, there is a trained pattern.
And it is, what did you do, when was it, where was it, how did you do it, who was there, who missed it, who do you think knew about it, and how many times? And it is a pattern that you have to learn.
It's all written down.
And this is for every Scientology kid.
This is for every Scientology adult.
When we were raised as Scientologists, the word pedophile didn't exist in our vocabulary.
Everything that is crime in the outside world is reinterpreted into different language in Scientology.
And you never even contemplate these things.
You only look at it through this lens of Scientology.
And when you're a kid, that's all you know.
Right.
Leah, I want to ask our FBI expert here, why isn't the FBI all over this? The problem is and you guys have laid it out so well You know, Serge didn't realize he was a victim.
You know, law enforcement can only deal with facts and evidence.
That's it.
Scientology has created such an insulated community that And I don't think law enforcement can really fathom what goes on in there.
That's the biggest problem.
Yeah, that's that's a great answer, Jim.
And it actually brings something that I want to stress to everybody that is watching this show.
If you are aware of this sort of abuse, if you are aware of someone else who's been abused, if you've been abused, please go to law enforcement.
Go and make a report, even if you think it's too late, they are not going to believe you, whatever.
The accumulation of information is something that is valuable.
Because Scientology does show up and say, well, we've got 20 people that says this never happened.
But if there are 50 people that said that it did, then that's a different equation.
So please listen to the FBI, do what the FBI guy says.
Go report it and provide all the information that you can.
Because there are a lot of people out there who have been too afraid of stepping forward and doing that in the past.
And Serge is a perfect example of someone who has got the balls to stand up and say, no, this is wrong.
I even participated in it, and I feel the same way.
I participated in these things.
It takes some courage to stand up and say, you know what, I realize it was wrong, but I'm going to do something about it now.
Just out of curiosity, how many people in this room have either been molested or heard about somebody in their church who was? Ho wow.
Yeah.
And the problem is that the children that went through this are still confused now, as adults, as to what was done to them.
Because they were just being put in a room, asked questions, left to go.
And a lot of the victims can actually not verbalize what the hell was being done.
Because they're like, I I don't know, they just treated me bad, but there's no words.
But they've told, Serge, that they did something wrong.
You were children.
You did nothing wrong.
You weren't a counselor, you were a child.
You were not a therapist, you were a child who was hurt.
And you deserved to be protected.
I say this, but it's been five years for me.
But I'm still finding out what we've done to these kids You know, kids, but you're adults now.
But as a mother, it's hard to hear.
It's hard to hear.
These kids never get mercy.
You were hurt.
You deserve to be heard.
You deserve law enforcement to hear your story.
They just never get that.
Scientologists never get that.
Well you know, Scientology was part of the system that really has liked the fact that statute of limitations laws kept everybody out.
And it has silenced Scientologists everywhere.
That's going to change this year.
There are with New York opening a window, and New Jersey, and California, I think we're going to start to hear from people that have been silenced.
And it's because To a large degree, because of what you all are doing.
You have to talk about it first.
You have to empower all these wonderful people.
Yes.
And then the stage is set.
They've got the guts to go to court.
And I and I think we'll learn a lot more soon.
Thank you.
We've been talking to Serge Gill, a former Scientology child auditor.
Joey Chait says he too was trained to be an auditor when he was a child.
- Joey.
- Hi.
Hi.
You have not aged.
Neither have you.
Good answer.
You look the same as we did when we were at Celebrity.
Center in the '90s.
OK.
Joey, you were an auditor at age 13.
Yes.
OK, and you were also in Sea Org.
Your parents were Yes.
Big donors to Scientology.
I know your parents very well.
I was born and raised in it, too, yeah.
Yeah.
And so they gave you over to the Sea Org, thinking this was, again The right thing to do.
Yes.
But one of these stories still haunts you to this day.
It does.
I was 13 or 14, and I was auditing an adult.
He was about 30 years old, I think.
And in one of our sessions, he began to tell me about a very particular time where he had committed the sin of molesting his 5 or 6-year-old niece.
And as an auditor, you go into your training routine.
You go into the questions you're supposed to ask him.
So me, as a 13 or 14-year-old kid, asking a 30-year-old man, what fingers did you use? Did she? Where did this happen, when did this happen, and very, very specific questions that I was trained to ask him.
And it it still haunts me.
The images that came into my mind and the way that he was describing it was something that I will never forget.
And you were never taught to report this person as a pedophile.
No, because Hubbard never wrote it.
And if Hubbard never wrote it, then you can't do it.
Because when you're a trained Scientologist, especially at a young age, you don't have to think.
The thinking has already been done for you.
And I.
Ron Hubbard wrote very specific policies on what exactly you're supposed to do.
So I was just following his instructions.
But but Joey, as a 13-year-old, at the end of whatever that was that you were doing with that guy, this 30-year-old guy, and he says, I'm molesting a 5-year-old girl, you forgave him.
I had to forgive him.
You gave him the blessing.
I had to I had to give him the proclamation and power to forgive, which is exactly what I.
Ron Hubbard says to do at the end of your confessional auditing.
And he's still probably a Scientologist today.
I know for a fact that he still is.
Wow.
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
And unfortunately this still goes on.
Because the core of Scientology is the auditing itself.
All sessions are exactly the same.
So if a child, unfortunately, is getting auditing, this is what's happening to them.
And there's no way around it, because Scientology will never change the words of I.
Ron Hubbard.
Professor Hamilton, what what do you think needs to happen to stop this? So, no institution will correct itself on this kind of behavior.
It will change because the law will force them to change.
And not because prosecutors will, sadly, because they haven't been stepping up, but because when the civil lawsuits are filed.
And the two things victims get out of these lawsuits are, first, they can get damages.
But for many of them, even more important than that, they can change the organization.
You can refuse to settle unless the organization quits doing this to children.
And that's happened in thousands of cases against the Catholic church, the ultra-orthodox, Jehovah's.
Witnesses all over the country.
So the only time we're going to see this is when the law can step in.
And until the law steps in, I just think it's just going to continue to happen.
It is absolutely outrageous.
And I think that's absolutely the way in for law enforcement is following on the heels of successful civil suits.
Because that starts that's a crack in the veneer, that starts everything crumbling.
And from that, there may be the current evidence, there may be the information that's needed.
And there may be just enough victims who are coming forward so that you can actually build a plausible prosecution to go after the people who were responsible.
But the civil suit seems to be the way in.
And law enforcement can can Fill the breach once it's made.
Everything in Scientology is documented.
There's policy about everybody having their own folders in Scientology.
Every Scientologist Those will come out.
Those will come out in the civil lawsuits.
And they can't refuse to provide the documents.
They'd have to go to jail for refusing to provide it.
Thank you.
And and Marci, don't you think also there is one other part to this, which is Congress can enact laws.
That is a way of changing how things like this are dealt with in society.
No? Well, Congress can, but you know, there's not been a member of Congress yet that has held hearings or even said the words, clergy sex abuse.
The federal government has been dead silent.
There is a policy in the Department of Justice not to pursue religious organizations.
That's not true in the states anymore, though.
There are state attorneys general that are stepping up.
I and I think Scientology is going to be on the wrong side of that.
We can only hope.
I agree.
Serge, you are now an advocate for hopefully changing these policies.
What do you want to see happen now? I want for every single Scientologist to look in the mirror and ask themselves what the practices of I.
Ron Hubbard do, and if that is in any way, shape, or form appropriate to do to children.
And they need to close down all their centers that they You know, market and target children.
Because no child should be under their care of any auditor under any circumstances before the age of 18.
And no more recruiting for the Sea Org.
And I.
Ron Hubbard gets exposed for the criminal that he is.
Because he duped every single person that's in this room and more, and the people that are there right now.
All of them are consuming very toxic rhetoric that's making them believe certain things that are not true.
And it's all because of those books.
Right.
Thank you for being with us tonight.
We'll be right back.
Victoria Locke had a troubled childhood.
At age 4, she was adopted by her grandparents after the passing of her father and becoming estranged from her mother.
Victoria says, by the time she was 11, unbeknownst to her grandparents, a relative over 20 years her senior was raping her on a regular basis.
Victoria, thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
I was about 10 or 11.
I was experiencing a lot of depression.
I was very troubled.
I was self-mutilating and hurting myself at that point.
And my grandmother thought it would be best if she brought me to a psychologist because it was out of her scope.
She didn't know what She wanted to get you help.
Right.
And then your brother stepped in.
Then my brother heard that she wanted to take me to a psychologist.
He had been in Scientology for a while by then.
And of course he jumped at that.
Of course, because this is like the worst thing that a Scientologist can do is to get you real help.
Right.
Right.
So he decided to take me to his auditor.
To Scientology.
To Scientology.
And I had no idea what it was.
So that's how I got in.
I was about 11.
Fast-forward, I was having trouble at school.
My grades were slipping.
So my relative decided to tutor me.
And he was over for a couple of nights every week.
And then it turned into about three or four nights every week helping me with my homework.
So it started from fondling, to molestation, until it was rape.
And that went on, unbeknownst to my grandparents.
So that went on for about six months.
And I decided one day that I couldn't I didn't know what else to do.
So I told my brother.
And I remember the exact conversation.
I was in the car with him.
And he was very matter of fact.
There was no emotion.
It was just, OK, thank you for telling me.
You know, very Scientology.
Right, exactly.
Perfect, yeah.
And I remember being put off by that, like, aren't you upset that someone's hurting your little sister, or is this OK? So he advised me to tell my auditor.
And I asked her as well, I said, should I tell the police? I'm concerned.
I don't feel safe.
And she said, no, we'll handle it.
Let's handle this.
So I had my own session with her.
And then my auditor was also my brother's auditor.
We had the same.
They both decided, for some reason, to bring my relative into Scientology to get auditing.
He had nothing to do with Scientology before this.
So the child molester, Scientology summoned him to be To come into Scientology For some reason.
It could help you break with your criminal behavior.
So you, your brother, and now your molester is now all being counseled by one Scientology One individual.
OK.
And by the way, that's purposeful, right, so they can keep it very kind of Contained.
Contained.
So if you have different auditors in Scientology, if that person If that person leaves, or speaks out to others And I wasn't allowed to talk about it with anyone else.
They told you not to talk about it.
- Oh yeah.
- Right.
With anyone family or anyone else in the church that I was friends with or confided in.
So it's my auditor, my brother, my relative, and myself.
And we were just talking it out.
And then I remember I needed to take responsibility for seducing him, for breaking his marriage up, for angering his wife, for taking him away from his family four nights a week.
Because it's my fault somehow that he had to spend the night at my house.
So I had to apologize to him.
And I had to hug him in front of my auditor and my brother.
And and that was it.
It was it was it.
It was handled.
It was solved.
It was handled and solved.
It was handled, yeah.
That's a big word in Scientology, handled.
Handled, yeah.
It was handled.
Right.
Victoria, it is so heartbreaking to hear something like this.
But unfortunately, it's Every word of what you say rings so true because I've seen so many other examples of it.
This is how things are dealt with in Scientology.
And that's what's so scary.
It just is.
Every single time, the same thing happens.
Like Marcy, Jim, if this was a teacher, or this was a psychologist, or this was almost anybody in society, they would be required to report this, right? No, that's absolute they would be mandated reporters.
Yeah, I am a mandated reporter.
And if I didn't report something like this, I could lose my license.
But but the exception is Is this is a confession.
The auditing is they call it a confessional for a reason.
The confession is exempted from reporting.
It's all intentional.
Yes, absolutely.
It's all intentional.
And right now we're trying to get the bill passed in California that would get rid of that confessional exemption.
You'll be shocked to find out that religious groups don't want to overturn that exemption.
Really? I'm sure they have some lobbyists working hard.
Yes, Jeff.
Yeah, one of the things that I.
Ron Hubbard did was to make Scientology extraordinarily self-serving.
And part of the one of his teachings And Mike, you know this Is that the worst thing you could do to a person is to send them to a prison A non-Scientology prison.
Because that would destroy them.
And they would put them on psychiatric drugs, confine them, electroshock.
So he made prison sound dangerous, and Scientology could handle people.
So therefore, while sexual criminals, in Scientology, belong in prison, Scientology makes it sound like that's the worst thing.
So therefore we should just talk it out, and you, the victim, should apologize for pulling it in.
Right.
Well, every single one of us in this room, and Scientologists who are watching at home, ex-Scientologists, all of us have had the same mentality forced on us, that we had done something for that action to happen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Coming up, the women accusing a famous Scientologist of sexual assault.
It's a story we've been wanting to bring to you for two years.
That's next.
What you need to understand is how.
Scientology views celebrity.
In the Scientology world, celebrity is God-like.
I.
Ron Hubbard believed that celebrities getting involved in Scientology would encourage others to look into Scientology and get involved themselves.
The policy of I.
Ron Hubbard called The Responsibility of Leaders requires that Scientologists support the power from which they derive their position.
Scientology sees the celebrity as someone who is single-handedly saving the planet by promoting Scientology.
So they're going to protect the power always.
You may have heard of Danny Masterson, actor.
But what people might not know is that Danny Masterson is a devout Scientologist, born and raised.
A total of four women have come forward and alleged that Danny Masterson raped them.
Danny Masterson was first publicly accused of sexual assault this past March.
At Least four women have accused Masterson of raping them in the early 2000s.
Masterson denies the allegations.
One of the cases against Masterson still being investigated, according to the LAPD.
Two years ago, we sat down with Chrissie Bixler to hear how the Church of Scientology responded to their claims about being raped by celebrity.
Scientologist Danny Masterson.
We held off telling her story and others because we were asked to so that the justice system could take its course.
But the wheels of justice move very slowly, especially for victims of Scientology.
And we wanted to give these women the chance to be heard.
This is Chrissie's story.
I'm Chrissie Bixler, and I became a Scientologist in 1996, and I left in 2016.
How long into your relationship did this incident took place? It was in the sixth year.
It happened in December of 2001.
Danny and I went to a restaurant.
We had dinner.
And I had a glass of wine, maybe two.
The last thing I remember is getting up to leave the restaurant to go home.
Complete blackout.
The next day, when I woke up, the back of my head hurt, and I thought I'd fallen, but I didn't understand.
It almost felt like I was poisoned.
You know, I don't Like, your joints hurt.
I don't know where I was, what happened.
Danny's where at this time? He was downstairs in our office, sitting at his desk.
So I go downstairs.
I was like, what happened? I have no memory.
And he just kind of chuckled.
And I said, I'm in a lot of pain.
I'm bleeding.
I was ripped.
It was injured.
I said, what happened? And he started laughing.
And he said, oh, I had sex with you last night.
And I said, was I unconscious? And he said, yeah.
We just heard the horrific story of Chrissie Bixler, who says she was sexually assaulted by a well-known.
Scientologist, Danny Masterson.
Chrissie says her entire world revolved around Danny and Scientology.
And when the incident occurred, she did what any good Scientologist would do, reported it to her church.
- I.
- Went to the church and asked to speak with the ethics officer at Celebrity Center.
I told her what happened.
The first thing she told me was, stop using the word rape.
It's not rape if you're in a consensual relationship.
And you've been together for how long? Six years.
Yeah, stop saying rape.
OK, I'll stop saying rape.
And then she said, you've done something to pull this in.
So, meaning it was your fault that it happened.
You had done nothing wrong to receive this from the universe, specifically Danny.
She then told me that I must have done something to deserve it.
And if I were to tell anyone, or if I went to the police, I could be declared a suppressive person.
I got very scared.
Because You got scared.
She's she's talking about suppressive acts and high crimes, and I know what that means.
Mm-hmm.
What does that mean to you? It means you are You're kicked out, you're expelled, no one speaks to you.
So you believed that your life was over if you committed a suppressive act or high crime by reporting him to the police.
So that wasn't even an option.
No.
You had no life without Danny, without the church.
Right.
I remember saying to him, if you go in now and you show me that you're willing to take responsibility for your part in this, I can forgive you.
And he said he didn't think he had to.
So I said, well, this is I'm done.
I don't care what that means for me, I'm done.
So that was it.
Yeah.
- Moved out? - I moved out.
OK.
- A.
- Lot of my friends stopped being my friend.
They liked his friendship more.
He's a celebrity.
He had more to offer them.
I had to start over.
You know, Mike, for a lot of victims who are out there now, you know, they think about what the repercussions will be to speaking out, and what are the effects, right? I mean, some people don't have any kind of support system.
So Right.
I mean, it's no wonder people don't want to come forward.
I know, and you you pile on top of that the idea that they have been convinced that they were to blame for whatever happened to them.
And particularly in the case of a celebrity, you have the entire organization basically ganging up and saying you did something to hurt this powerful, important person in Scientology by making this accusation.
And you'd better not keep doing it.
And the reason that you're doing it is because you have done bad things.
Sure.
And now we're going to find out what they are.
Right.
Chrissie moved on with her life and got married, which eventually led to a candid conversation with her new husband about her experiences with Danny Masterson.
About two to three years into our marriage, I told him what Danny had done to me that night.
As soon as I said it, I just immediately started defending Danny and justifying why he did it.
And he just looked at me, just stunned.
Like you're that's rape.
That's not OK.
And what's going on that you are defending him now? It was the first time someone had agreed with me that it was wrong and that it was rape.
Because that's what I had originally thought, and then it was immediately shut down by the church.
When she explained it to me, I could just see that she was so indoctrinated, so tangled in the philosophy.
I think just Scientology found a very special way to spin it to her to say it was your fault.
Because she was not a celebrity but had dated the celebrity, it was far more important to cover his ass.
It was the first time I really saw what I was doing and how just messed up I was.
We'll meet Chrissie when we come back.
We just heard the disturbing story of Chrissie Bixler, who says she was sexually assaulted by Danny Masterson.
Chrissie says she shared her story with the Scientology ethics officer and the chaplain, but they did not call the police, they didn't ask for a full investigation, they didn't even hold her attacker accountable.
Chrissie joins us now.
Hi, Chrissie.
Hi, Mike.
Hi, honey.
We've been talking for a while.
So this is a big moment for us.
And I know how difficult it is for you to be here.
We're just happy that we're able to talk to you now, because you are very important to us, as all our contributors are.
So I just want you to know how much we appreciate you guys being here.
I appreciate you so much for letting us be able to tell our story.
Well, and listen, I know your story, right? And not only because I know you, but I also know your story because we're all very familiar with Scientology practices of making the victim responsible for what happened.
Then you put on top of that a Scientology celebrity and you really have a shit storm.
Which is really a horrible thing when you trust someone.
Well, you trusted Scientology.
And then trusted Yeah.
Yes.
And you know, I see now the damage that that did to me.
Of course.
Chrissie, this is a crazy question.
In the context of anybody else, it wouldn't be crazy.
So you go in and you report you've been raped.
Does anybody say to you, are you OK physically? Are you hurt? Do you need to be treated for anything? No, in fact, they said that they were assigning me a very lengthy ethics program to find out what I did to pull it in.
What I did To cause Danny I deserved that.
Right.
And this is a Scientology employee? This is the Scientology ethics officer.
OK, so an ethics officer is a person who How would you explain an ethics officer? Simply, it's the guy or the person that enforces Scientology policy on people that are being wayward.
Yeah.
I'm pretty certain I read ethics protection.
OK, so this policy called Ethics Protection is basically implying if we are promoting Scientology, promoting ourselves as successful because of Scientology, then Scientology sees us as kind of producing.
Scientologists, right? But especially as a celebrity, they have protection.
Oh, they can get away with murder.
Well, there's an actual policy that says that.
So that scared me nice and good.
And all along it was because I was out exchange with him.
So they were saying that you owed Danny because you were living off of him? And so My job as his girlfriend was to give myself to him whenever he wanted.
I cannot say, no.
I lay there and take it.
Right.
Because celebrity in Scientology is everything.
And so you're there because you are serving a power? And that was your job was to serve your power.
My master.
Exactly.
And also he was your whole life? Yeah.
Because he brought you into Scientology, right? Yeah.
When we met, I was the successful one.
He was an out of work actor.
I was a working model.
And then he booked his first TV show.
And once I started getting into Scientology, my parents were suppressive people.
So I disconnected from them and my whole family, and lost 20 years with them.
And I had no family, had no friends.
And ultimately within the first year when he booked a job, he had me quit modeling.
So I was completely trapped.
Of course.
Yeah, there becomes an orbit around Scientology celebrities a world that is a cocoon in which they're at the center of it, but around them are Scientologists.
Worse than that, that circle of people becomes a protection.
And the instant anybody within that circle steps out of line, everybody else piles on them and starts saying they're liars, they're making up stories, they're just trying to get attention, whatever.
We've heard this many, many, many times.
And it comes up repeatedly when we're dealing with the subject of people who have been around Scientology celebrities.
We have a question for the doctor.
When someone's been sexually assaulted, but everyone around them is saying that this is your fault, what emotional toll does that take on a person? It essentially makes you start to question your own sanity.
You know, because there's this divide between your authentic self.
Like you said, you knew in your core what happened.
But when literally there's just an echo chamber around you of denial or gaslighting, like maybe something happened but not that, or whatever, it makes you start to even question if you're perceiving reality correctly.
It makes you feel insane to a degree, you know? And it divorces you from your own trust in your core self and your own intuition.
It divorces you from it when you're stuck in that dysfunctional system for so long.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Agent Ellis, here a story like this, I mean, what should have happened in Chrissie's case? I mean, it almost goes without saying.
I mean here's a woman who wanted to go to the police, is basically told by everybody around her not to do it, and then told, you know, it's kind of your fault.
It's just ridiculous.
You know, again, she's a victim.
She's a victim of Scientology.
She's a victim of a system that she got thrown into.
And she lost the power of choice for a certain amount of time.
But you know, she got it back.
And that's the important thing.
But you know, you did nothing wrong.
Thank you.
When people like you tell victims of Scientology that you were a victim and you've done nothing wrong, their first reaction is to go to tears, because they have not been told that by anybody other than us.
So I hope you heard that.
Yeah, no, I did.
That, and I believe you.
Yeah.
Because thank you.
We're going to take a break.
We'll be right back.
We're talking to Chrissie Bixler, who says she was sexually assaulted by a well-known.
Scientologist, Danny Masterson.
Since first sitting down with Chrissie two years ago, three more women have come forward with similar claims.
One of them is here tonight.
Please welcome, Bobette Riales.
Hi, guys.
Thank you for being here.
Thanks.
Bobette, I imagine that these stories sound familiar to you.
Very.
I was one of his girlfriends.
This wasn't just a one night stand or meet at a bar type thing.
I knew a lot of things were wrong with our relationship in itself.
Different things happening.
Never once did it occur to me that he was doing this to other girls, which I now know he was.
Now, why did you decide to go public and report? I had been seeing what Chrissie had been going through.
I'd seen it on social media.
I'd seen the vile victim shaming.
And seeing how it was affecting her, I couldn't be quiet and stand by and allow someone that I know exactly how she's feeling.
Because when she actually shared her story a little bit to me to a point where it immediately, I'm like, there's no way in hell you would know that.
That's my story.
That's my life.
And there's no way.
And so I spoke.
And it was the right thing to do.
Mike, when something like this happens, OK, former member speaking about a celebrity, now she has some back up, there's other victims, what's happening at OSA at this point? The first thing that happens is an analysis is done of what their buttons are.
The things that will have impact on them and cause them to shut up.
And if it's their children, then it's go after their children.
If it's their job, it's go after their job.
And then a program gets written to execute the steps that are necessary to carry those things out that have been conceived as this is what will shut down this attacker.
The product of the Office of Special Affairs.
Investigation Division is a dismissed attacker.
That being said, you kind of deal with this guilt a little bit.
Like if I would have been louder, if I wouldn't have been so scared to make him out, or so scared of what would have happened, or should I have made a bigger fuss, should I have told more people what was going on, ask more questions, and I didn't, and maybe I could have protected them.
And I didn't.
So that's hard.
Well, you guys are here now.
And the case is still an active investigation going on.
It is still at the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.
And if this was any other organization, this would not be tolerated.
I believe charges would have already been brought and this would have been a done deal.
But I think because it's the Church of Scientology, this is taking an unnecessary amount of time.
But we hope and we pray that justice will be served.
And we thank you both for being so brave, for continuing to go to the police, for continuing to report each and everything that happens to you, for continuing to speak despite it all.
Thank you.
We're not stopping.
I know you're not stopping.
And just report, report, report.
Yes.
Report.
Thank you.
Scientology likes to run around saying it's just like any other religion and that it should be respected like any other religion.
And yet it's the only business on the planet that has never done anything wrong since its deception.
Like, it has never admitted to any wrongdoing.
Exactly when the FBI did conduct an investigation in 2009, they weren't told all see organization members are taught to lie to the authorities.
Right.
There is another element for See Org members, which not a lot of people really know about, which is something called Sure Stories.
So the sure story is basically the bullshit you're told to tell law enforcement about something that happened A crime, a rape, a beating, Scientology A death.
A death.
And so you're basically told by your seniors in Scientology what you're going to say to the FBI, what you're going to say to police, what you're going to say to Child Protective Services if they show up.
How many of you have Sure Stories? So you're all part of the See Org? You all have Sure Stories.
And so I wanted to introduce Valeska Paris.
She traveled all the way from Australia just to be here tonight.
But you have some experience with Sure Stories.
Yes.
You were brought on to the Scientology ship at what age? I was auditing a guy on a ship, an engineer.
And he obviously had mental problems.
So I wrote to the highest people on the ship, including the captain, that I could no longer counsel him because he needed professional help, which obviously he would have needed a psychiatrist or psychologist.
But that's completely taboo in Scientology.
So nothing was done about it.
And he ended up committing suicide.
And when he committed suicide, we were either in Aruba or Bonaire.
So the highest executives on the ship decided to sail the ship to Curacao with his dead body lying on the shallow floor.
Just so that Scientology could avoid questions? Because we had better PR.
The best PR for Scientology is in Curacao.
I see.
So we got to Curacao and the port captain contacted whoever ashore.
And his body was removed not through like the normal way.
It was removed through where we do stores parties, where all the food comes in in a black bag so that nobody could see it.
Wow.
And I as his counselor had to go through his counseling folder and blackout anything with a black market that would incriminate Scientology, which I did do.
I didn't know it was wrong.
I thought I was helping.
Right.
And then I was upset about it, because I had counseled him.
And I felt guilty cause he killed himself.
And I told like the highest person on the ship.
And she's like, you shouldn't be upset about it.
He's a suppressive person.
And she was saying, like, I wish he had gone to the hotel and killed himself in a hotel, because then we wouldn't have the bad PR.
Right.
And his family, who were never in Scientology, in Mexico, were told he had a heart attack.
And nobody else on the ship knew, except for the people like me who went and blacked out evidence.
Right.
So, yes.
Thank you.
Thank you, Valeska.
And I know, Valeska, that's only one story of probably many.
Let me hear from you, Becky.
What stories do you have? Well, just one.
OK.
We'll just stick with one.
Becky, we've had you on before.
You were a senior executive in Scientology? Right.
OK.
I was in marketing for all 25 years on the international base.
But at one point, I thought I was having an appendicitis attack.
And I was at that point typesetting.
And we had a magazine to do for "International Scientology".
News", 16 languages.
We'd been up for four days.
But marketing was in such deep shit that we'd been on rice and beans for six months.
So I think I'm having an appendicitis attack.
They get the medical officer down there, take me up to the office.
She finally decides that absolutely I have to go to a hospital.
But they're going to drive me to the hospital.
And the reason they're driving me to the hospital, as I'm writhing in pain in the backseat, I'm not to talk about the fact that we've been on rice and beans for six months.
So they're prepping you, scientologists? They're giving me their sure story to tell to the medical people at the hospital.
What they find out though, is that my guts basically had twisted over into a knot.
And at the hospital, they're like, what kind of stress is she under? I'm not under any stress.
I just do my job.
But I was told to lie the whole time.
Of course, and you had no problem doing that because it protects Scientology? Right.
But Spanky, did you have something that you wanted to add? It was just, it was ridiculous the short stories.
And it's endless.
It's endless, right? My son was born under three pounds.
Of course, they thought he was a crack baby.
I'd been on the RPF pregnant.
The prison labor camp as punishment - when you were pregnant? - Yes.
Yes.
And so I gave birth to a child Sleeping on floors, right Spanky? On wet mattresses on the roof of the AO.
At any rate, he was born less than three pounds.
And I was going to do anything I could to protect the church and not say, well, you know I've been in this prison camp, and you know, no neonatal care at all.
And so but he'll be fine.
And you know, it was awful.
But always to cover the organization and make sure they didn't look bad under whatever circumstances.
Chris? So I was overseeing, as part of my function in the See.
Organization, for eight years I oversaw the delivery of Scientology services in the whole Western United States.
One day a man was reported dead who had been on the purification rundown, which is the sauna detoxification program.
I, of course, was alarmed.
I ordered an investigation immediately.
I was all over this from my job.
This is what I thought I was supposed to be doing.
Within about 15 minutes of those orders being sent, somebody from the Office of Special Affairs came down and said I want all telex traffic written.
Anything you have on this right now, give it all to me immediately and at once.
You have no idea how much trouble you've caused me.
And I'm like, what are you talking about? This guy's dead.
We need to do something about this.
And she said, nope, there's not going to be any investigation, there's not going to be any communication about this in any way.
I actually was shocked, didn't think this was right, but it was made very clear to me that my opinion on the matter didn't matter.
And we never, ever were allowed to speak about that death ever again.
And that's usual, right? What happens, Mike, with situations like this? It's just all the folders are collected and kept in a special place so that law enforcement can't come in and raid the files and find out? Well, everything is collected up.
And everybody knows about it is collected up.
And they are all put on clamp down.
Wow.
And this is, to me, it's one of the big issues.
One of the biggest issues is that not only are the people in this See Org are under duress, and they're audited, and they're interrogated, and all of this duress that's happening in this See Org.
But even outside of that, even if you're not in the See Org, even if all you have is a mental illness, if you're depressed, if you're cutting yourself and you're depressed, and you say I need help, you can't get help.
And that's built into the system.
The help is in the system, but they won't help you.
And who knows what's going to happen.
You know, we only hear about it when it's a tragedy.
And nobody cares.
Well, we care.
I know.
But nobody outside of it cares.
Only the people inside of it care.
I understand that.
It's just it's so sad that it's built into us to think that the thing that can help us the therapy, the doctors that can help us, that can prescribe us something, or listen to our problems, or say you were a victim, or that's trauma, we're just I don't know, I just wish somebody hears that and gets help.
That's all I wish.
I hope people hear these stories and they reach out and they get help.
I hope that's happening.
I pray that happens every single day.
Well, I'll tell you, thank you.
And I'm sorry for your pain.
Everybody doing this, we're doing this for the generation that's coming up.
And we're hoping to save some of these kids of some of this pain.
Every one of us are adults now, but we cry like the child that was hurt.
You know, and the pain that people have to endure is unbearable.
I just did want to add something before we leave.
Everybody in this room has contributed, and people not in this room help each other.
I can say, I'm looking around the room, and I go, yep, you've helped somebody.
You've helped somebody.
You've helped somebody.
I know our audience is always concerned about that.
Where do they have to go? They have Amy Scobie's of the world.
They have Aaron Smith-Levin's of the world.
Other Scientologist's, they have resources.
And that's what we hoped and have always hoped that we would accomplish by doing this program.
We see the change that there has been in how people perceive what Scientology is, and that victims of Scientology are not a bunch of weirdo crackpots, but are real people who came into Scientology either because they were children to begin with or they wanted to help.
Scientologist's are generally good people that want to help other people.
And that's how they get trapped.
And to have the public at large understand at least better now what really goes on and the type of people that are getting hurt, and that the hurt and the pain is real, is the most gratifying thing of all about doing this show.
I also will tell you, and I know I speak for Leah, this isn't the end.
This is by no stretch the end.
Because there are still people being The abuses have not been stopped.
And we're not stopping until they have been.
I promise you.
So thank you all.
Thank you all.
Thank you for three years of help.
And we love you guys.
So on to the next.
Our fight is not over.
And I hope you are just as enraged as I am.
What Leah has brought to this battle to put an end to the abuses of Scientology is unlike what has been done before.
No body has brought to the attention of the world the pain, the real pain that people have suffered in Scientology, and made it understandable and relatable, and changed the picture of how the world perceives Scientology, and what should be done about it.
Over three years, we've spoken to hundreds of victims of Scientology.
We've tried to collect them up as much as we could to be stories that were suitable for television.
But there is so much that couldn't be covered.
There was so much more that needs to be done.
Our fight has to go beyond the restraints of network television.
I never knew that my fight would be so big, so colossal.
I did believe that doing three seasons would be enough.
But we see that we have to go further.
So we will do that.
Rest assured, Scientology, that this is not the end.
It's just the beginning.