One of the two women raped by That ’70s Show star Danny Masterson detailed her traumatic experience in the moments, months, and years after her rape in a victim impact statement to court, noting the loss of her mother, the moment she was ditched for Scientology, the harrowing meeting she had with her abuser after her assault, and the ongoing battles she still has today.
The impact statement by the victim, known only as Jane Doe #1, was obtained and posted in full by journalist Yashar Ali, who wrote of the document that “it’s so harrowing and detailed, and I think everyone needs to read it to understand what Danny Masterson and Scientology put these women through.” Ali added Jane Doe #1 was also known as “Jen B.”
“I have known Jen for six years and have spent hundreds of hours on the phone with her,” Ali said. “From the first time we spoke, I believed her—the evidence she had made her case even more believable.”
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The statement is in addition to her comments on Monday reacting to Masterson’s 30-years-to-life prison sentence, where she claimed it “seemed like justice to me” and that it “was what the law required.”
But last week, at Masterson’s sentencing, Jane Doe #1 was one of three victims to read an impact statement. She revealed how she was raped on her father’s 55th birthday—April 24, 2003—along with the last time she heard from her Scientologist mother and her last words.
“She had warned me ahead of time she wanted to see Danny Masterson brought to justice for raping me but not at the expense of her religion, their religion, Scientology,” she said.
Jen B said she had known Masterson for years when he raped her. Their Scientologist families knew one another and had attended parties and barbecues at each other’s homes. She said on the day of the rape, she worked half a day, dropped her daughter off at her parents’ house and headed to her friend Brie Shaffer’s house. Shaffer was Masterson’s assistant and also a Scientologist.
“I got to Brie’s house around 5:00 PM. And sometime after midnight, so April 25th officially, I would end up being raped by her boss. After being drugged and raped and then waking up, I got dressed,” she recounted.
“I still don’t recall what I wore out the door, [defense attorney] Mr Cohen. But I do know one thing you didn’t ask me… I never could find my underwear. I know this because when I got home, I didn’t have any on. And I remember being upset and embarrassed about the idea that my underwear were somewhere at Danny’s house.”
She details how for a year afterwards, she went along with Scientology’s demands. She was forced to meet with Masterson and a scientology executive where he would apparently apologize and promise never to do it again.
“I still remember him laughing and saying he was afraid I might knock over the lamp on his nightstand and he loved that lamp,” she said.
It wasn’t until she heard another story of a girl called Lily that she realized: “I knew Danny wouldn’t stop, couldn’t stop.” She reported her rape to LAPD in June of 2004. She then details her attempt to rebuild her life outside of Scientology along with numerous attempts “to silence us all, to intimidate us and even obstruct.”
“The first couple of years post the attack and rape were really dark. I lost pretty much everything that I knew. I lost my religion. I lost the ability to be in contact with almost every person I had known or loved my entire life because i was deemed an enemy to the group having been declared by scientology for reporting the rape to the LAPD.”
Her husband, she said, knows that she “sometimes hides in the closet. He has to repeat, ‘it’s me, it’s me.’ He can see my eyes when it finally registers and calms down.”
She was unable to finish her list of “more to share” but thanked outspoken ex-Scientologist Leah Remini “for lending me her full support, giving me safe passage to and from the halls.”
She finished: “In closing, on sentencing I just wanted to say one thing. I lost my family. Our lives were destroyed. He took lives. But there is something that I think is really telling, and I agree with him as to the sentence he should face.”
Masterson was found guilty by a Los Angeles jury on two of three rape charges last week.
