The three women were members of the Church of Scientology, as is Masterson. All three women said they were initially hesitant to speak to law enforcement because they said church teachings discouraged reporting to police. The women eventually left the church.

Cults are bad, people. Religion is bad because it’s a normalized / accepted cult. Eff this guy.

I noticed that Topher Grace didn’t get mentioned for writing a letter to the judge. I’ve never thought he’s a great actor (he was pretty good in Traffic), but I like him a bit more now.

  • Perfide@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    I mean, their letter wasn’t written after he was accused though, it was written after he was convicted of it. They weren’t merely expressing shock or disbelief, they were trying to provide a character witness to try to reduce his sentence on his RAPE CONVICTION.

    • zkikiz@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I absolutely hate this situation and I was going to write a whole thing about how we wouldn’t do the same thing if an upstanding husband and father was convicted of murder, except oh yes people literally actually do do the same thing. You’ll literally have letters written like “he made a mistake but he has kids at home please go easy on him” as if actual murder isn’t a pretty big disqualifier.

      I guess we humans have a blind spot to the most common sins versus the mythical perfect criminal who spits on babies and hails satan…

      • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The difference is that most people aren’t in charge of charities meant to help sexual assualt victims.

      • BeeMe@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I still believe in forgiveness when people admit their wrongs and explain their thought process without bullshit. We all make mistakes, sometimes really stupid ones.

        • zkikiz@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure if anyone involved actually admitted their wrongs, it sounds like Ashton is sorry people felt bad not that he did it

    • Storksforlegs@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Yes, writing a letter to get sentence reduction might be reasonable if it were a non-violent crime. Shoplifting, tax fraud or drugs or something, I dont know. But not rape for effs sake.