Four women have filed a suit against Danny Masterson, the Church of Scientology and its controversial leader, David Miscavige, alleging they were stalked and intimidated by agents of the organization after reporting rape allegations against actor Danny Masterson.
Chrissie Carnell Bixler, Marie Bobette Riales and two women who have chosen to remain anonymous, claim they and their families were harassed by members of the Church in retaliation for going to the police about the sexual assaults they allegedly suffered at the hands of Masterson. The suit accuses the actor and the organization of engaging in stalking, physical invasion of privacy, and a conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other allegations.
The four women, three of whom are former Scientologists and two of whom used to date the actor, all allege that Masterson drugged and raped them in the early-2000s. The actor was fired from the Netflix show The Ranch and dropped by his agents at UTA after the LAPD confirmed it was investigating the multiple rape allegations in 2017. Masterson has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
“This is beyond ridiculous,” Masterson said in a statement through his attorney. “I’m not going to fight my ex-girlfriend in the media like she’s been baiting me to do for more than two years. I will beat her in court— and look forward to it because the public will finally be able to learn the truth and see how I’ve been railroaded by this woman. And once her lawsuit is thrown out, I intend to sue her, and the others who jumped on the bandwagon, for the damage they caused me and my family.”
One of the plaintiffs, Chrissie Bixler, who previously dated Masterson, alleges she was chased in her car in October 2017 by two people who were filming her, per Variety. Her dog died suddenly of “traumatic injuries to her trachea and esophagus" shortly thereafter. She has also said she faced harassment online, including as a result of Scientology agents persuading people to post fake Craiglist ads as her soliciting anal sex. Riales alleges that she was followed after going to the police about Masterson. She has claimed that her house was watched, her son's bedroom window was broken into, her trash stolen, and her food-truck business vandalized by agents of the Church.
In a statement to HuffPost, a litigation counsel for the Church of Scientology dismissed the legitimacy of the claims. “From everything we have read in the press, this baseless lawsuit will go nowhere because the claims are ludicrous and a sham," they said. "It’s a dishonest and hallucinatory publicity stunt. Leah Remini is taking advantage of these people as pawns in her moneymaking scam.”
