Two lawyers who used to represent “That 70s Show” actor Danny Masterson have been hit with fines after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled they leaked confidential information about the actor’s rape victims to the Church of Scientology’s lawyer.
Thomas Mesereau and his co-counsel, Sharon Applebaum, were sanctioned Wednesday, a week after Masterson was convicted of raping two women he met through the church, to which he still belongs.
Los Angeles County Judge Charlaine Olmedo, who presided over both of Masterson’s criminal trials, hit Mesereau and Applebaum with fines for sharing discovery materials from the criminal case with Vicki Podberesky, an attorney who was defending the church in a separate civil suit filed by Masterson’s accusers, according to court documents. The court says that the lawyers were aware of the court’s “repeated directives and orders to refrain from providing criminal discovery to litigants and attorney’s in the civil case.”
Neither Mesereau nor Applebaum represented Masterson at either of his criminal trials — the first of which ended in November in a mistrial and the second ended in May with the actor being convicted of raping two of the three women he was charged with sexually assaulting decades ago.
Mesereau and Applebaum represented Masterson when the actor was first arrested and accused in 2020 of raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. As such, Mesereau and Applebaum had “sole possession of the criminal discovery” from at least Sept. 2020 through November 2021 after which time they continued to represent him along with additional counsel through May 2022, according to court documents.
Later, Mesereau and Applebaum were replaced by attorneys Philip Cohen, Shawn Holley and Karen Goldstein, who have denied sharing information with Podberesky. The court said it did not find any violations to its orders by the Cohen, Holley and Goldstein, according to the court documents.
Among other things, Olmedo ruled Mesereau and Applebaum gave Podberesky and church officials the addresses of the women Masterson was later convicted of raping along with confidential police reports.
The women claimed in their testimony in the criminal case that the Church of Scientology harassed them after they went to the police with rape allegations about Masterson.
Podberesky then used the information to lodge a complaint against the lead prosecutors in Masterson’s rape trial that they were soliciting false testimony to convict the actor.
Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said during Wednesday’s hearing that most of the discovery Podberesky obtained was produced by investigators between March and December 2021, when Mesereau was Masterson’s lead counsel.
Mesereau, who is famous for successfully defending Michael Jackson and other celebrities, and Applebaum, did not issue any statements after Olmedo on Wednesday slapped them with $950 in fines. NBC News has reached out to both by email for comment.
Podberesky said “no one on the Masterson defense team or myself did anything wrong.”
“There was never an order prohibiting the sharing of discovery, a protective order, nor any clear statement by the court to that affect that I am aware of,” Podberesky said in an email to NBC News. “None of the citations to the record set forth in the court’s order support the conclusion that there was a prohibition on the sharing of information between civil and criminal counsel.”
In a follow-up question, NBC News asked Podberesky if she was still representing the Church of Scientology in the civil case. She did not immediately respond.
While Olmedo insisted repeatedly that the Church of Scientology was not on trial, Masterson’s accusers have complained that church officials repeatedly harassed them, going as far as poisoning their dogs.
Church spokeswoman Karin Pouw has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and insisted that church doctrine requires members to “abide by all the laws of the land.” NBC News has reached out to the church for comment.
Masterson, 47, will be sentenced on Aug. 4. He faces 30 years to life in prison.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
