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.
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