Danny Masterson’s stepdad says his kids LIED to help their brother and perjured themselves in leniency request letters to the judge before his rape sentencing and says Scientology ‘brainwashed them’
- In letters asking for leniency, Jordan, 36, and Alanna Masterson, 35, painted their father as deadbeat and convicted rapist Danny as a parental surrogate
- In an interview this week, Joe Reaiche, 65, said he is considering suing his kids over the letters, and further accused the Clearwater Church of ‘brainwashing’
- The assertions echoed those given by Reaiche to DailyMail.com in 2015, in which the ex rugby star claimed his kids disowned him at the Church’s behest in 2005
Danny Masterson ‘s stepfather has claimed his kids lied to help their half-brother over the course of his high-profile rape trial – and potentially perjured themselves in the process.
In letters asking for leniency for their older brother, Jordan and Alanna Masterson painted their father, Joe Reaiche, as deadbeat and convicted rapist Danny as a parental surrogate.
In an interview this week, Reaiche – a former pro rugby league player-turned Scientologist who met Masterson’s mom in the 80s – said he is considering suing his kids over the letters, and further accused the Clearwater Church of ‘brainwashing’.
Delivered to The Daily Beast, the assertions were eerily reminiscent to statements provided by Reaiche to DailyMail.com nearly a decade ago – in which he claimed all of his Scientologist kids disowned him after he was excommunicated in 2005.
In letters to LA Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo, 36-year-old Jordan and Walking Dead star Alanna, 35, both wrote their father left them ‘for all intents and purposes’ when they were under age 10, forcing Masterson, then 16, to step up.
The accounts came on top of several other recently unveiled letters sent to the jurist, by several of the star’s former cast members such as Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.
Danny Masterson ‘s stepfather Joe Reaiche claimed his kids lied to help their half-brother over the course of his high-profile rape trial – and potentially perjured themselves in the process
In letters asking for leniency for their older brother, Jordan (third from left) and Alanna (far left) – seen here with their older half brothers Christopher, of Malcom in the Middle fame, and newly sentenced Danny – painted their dad as deadbeat and Masterson as a parental surrogate
‘My father left for all intents and purposes when I was six years old,’ Jordan, a star on the sitcom Last Man Standing – wrote in one of the letters pleading for clemency following Masterson’s conviction for raping two women in the early 2000s. ‘My little sister was four.’
Kutcher, Kunis, Debra Jo Rupp, and Kurtwood Smith were among other who went up to bat for the former funnyman – though their accounts failed to sway Olmedo, who on Thursday hit Masterson with a 30-year-to-life sentence.
Jordan continued of his and his siblings’ life with mom Carol post-1995: ‘We were raised by a single mother who worked her entire life to provide her children with a life that we could be proud of.
‘She preached hard work and integrity, respect for self and others, kindness and patience.
‘No one embodies those qualities more than my brother Danny.’
The narrative, unveiled by reporter Tony Ortega following Masterson’s sentencing Friday, proceeded to paint a picture of a placid household during the period between the divorce and Joe’s banishment from Scientology in 2005 – during which the rising actor supposedly did the duties their father had forsaken.
‘When my father left, my brother stepped into a sort of pseudo father figure role for my little sister and me, even though he was only sixteen himself at the time.
‘Providing not only money when times were lean (which there were plenty), but wisdom and guidance,’ he wrote.
‘He set an example for us about what it was to be loving, professional and respectful. Speaking as a young man without a father, having my big brother as a lodestar was a godsend.
Taking me to baseball practice, picking me up from school, introducing me to films and music and art… While a young boy’s father can’t be replaced, I would say, in my experience, a great older brother comes really close.
‘I wouldn’t be the person I am today without my brother.’
Masterson – seen here arriving to his last hearing in May – was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison Thursday for raping two women in LA between 2001 and 2003
Billing herself as Masterson’s ‘only sister and youngest sibling,’ Alana’s correspondence provided a starkly similar impression – one that dad Joe vehemently challenged on Friday.
‘My brother is facing a lengthy sentence, therefor I wanted to give you some insight into the man that shaped me into the person I am today,’ it began.
‘Danny is my best friend and helped raise me when my father left us.
‘My mom was alone providing for all of us and Danny stepped in to shoulder that burden. He helped all of us financially, but also with the daily happenings of his younger siblings.’
Citing activities like his attending of her ‘many’ ballet recitals and bringing her to sleepovers during their upbringing in LA, she also claimed the actor helped her when she was attending school at the New York Film Academy in the early 2000s – during which time she lived in his New York apartment.
Billing herself as Masterson’s ‘only sister and youngest sibling,’ Alana’s correspondence provided a starkly similar impression – one which painted her older half brother (seen here with her in the early 90s) as her father figure, and one that dad Joe vehemently challenged Friday
She also brought up Masterson’s relationship with his nine-year-old daughter with model Bijou Phillips, Fianna, who Alanna called ‘best friends.’
‘He’s the best father and husband I know,’ Alanna insisted. ‘He’s our family’s true North Star… I hope you take into consideration all of this information in regards to your sentencing.’
In the bombshell interview Friday, Joe branded both of his kids’ accounts – which came alongside other fawning yarns from fellow That 70s Show alums such as Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and more – as decidedly false.
‘My son and daughter have very short memories about their dad,’ Reaiche, now living in Florida, told The Beast – before pointing out several inconsistencies he claimed proved his point.
‘Carol filed for divorce in 1995 in Los Angeles. Jordan was born in 1986. He was 9, not 6. There’s the first incorrect thing.’
Much more glaring, though, the father said, was the contention by Jordan and Alanna that suggested he had abandoned his children – a sentiment he said was erroneously implanted in their heads by the Church of Scientology.
‘They make it sound like I walked out and abandoned them, and that Danny was the hero,’ Joe recounted of the period between the divorce and his being branded a ‘suppressive person’ by the Church in 2005.
Contrary to his kids’ claims, he said during that ten year stretch – during which Masterson hit it big by landing his role in the seminal sitcom – he was a constant presence in all four of his kids’ lives, half-son Christopher, of Malcom in the Middle fame, included.
‘They were actually making money, and I was giving them money. Carol was their manager,’ he said of the four siblings, who were all raised as Scientologists.
Jordan Masterson, Alanna Masterson, Masterson’s model wife Bijou Phillips and the convicted actor are seen attending the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre’s 21st ‘Christmas Stories’ at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in 2013
‘I paid for their summer school at that expensive Scientology school in Oregon, Delphi. That was $5,000 each.’ the Lebanese-Australian ex athlete said.
‘I slept on couches so the kids would be fine,’ he said, adding he spent somewhere around $300,000 on the two in the years between his split and excommunication.
He also cited how he was still in touch with Jordan, then a 19-year-old adult, just before he was banished by Scientology – after which point he claimed all of his kids cut him off for good.
He claimed that in 2004 – nine years after the siblings said he left them – he actually helped his son through the notoriously difficult ‘auditing’ undertaking from the church, during which candidates are probed with the purposed of ridding the individual of negative influences from past events or behaviors.
‘Jordan seems to forget that in 2004, he was getting auditing at the Celebrity Centre and it was going badly,’ he told the paper hours after his half-son’s sentencing.
‘Carol asked me to do an ethics cycle on my son. So I did my thing, I straightened him out, and he did fantastic. So I was in his life in 2004, when he was 18. Danny even complimented me on it.’
‘My son and daughter have very short memories about their dad,’ Reaiche, now living in Florida, told The Beast – before pointing out several supposed inconsistencies provided by the pair, seen here with their more famous siblings at a Scientology event in Hollywood in 2006
He went on to claim: ‘I went to Christmas dinner with them at the house in Glendale that year, in 2004.
‘Chris’ girlfriend, Laura Prepon, was there. I had dinner with them,’ he added of his other half-son, who also wrote to the court in a plea for mercy but his letter cut off in a reproduction of the court papers.
The next year, Scientology expelled Reaiche – following a ‘committee of evidence’ over several less than glowing statements about the Church.
When Reaiche tried to call his kids, he claimed Friday, he was repeatedly rebuffed. At the time, he was branded a ‘suppressive person’ by the religion, and says he has not heard from any of his kids or stepkids since.
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