An Open Letter from BetterPlanet: Standing with Karen Mastey

At BetterPlanet, we believe that character is built over a lifetime—not destroyed by a headline.

Today, we stand with our friend, colleague, and Art Director, Karen Mastey.

Many people first learned Karen's name through sensational headlines and social media posts surrounding her arrest in the aftermath of the devastating Pacific Palisades Fire. The story spread rapidly. Opinions formed overnight. Strangers who had never met Karen declared her guilty before the legal process had even begun.

But that is not how justice is supposed to work.

The legal system exists for a reason. It requires evidence, investigation, and due process—not assumptions, viral posts, or public outrage. Ultimately, the criminal case against Karen was dropped. The headlines traveled around the world. The resolution did not.

Unfortunately, that imbalance has become common in today's media environment. An arrest can become front-page news while the eventual outcome receives only a fraction of the attention. By then, public opinion has often hardened, and reputations have already been damaged.

Those of us who know Karen know a very different person than the one portrayed in internet comment sections.

Karen was born and raised in Pacific Palisades. Her family's home on Whitfield Avenue stood there for more than fifty years. She attended Palisades Methodist Preschool, Palisades Elementary, Palisades Village School, Paul Revere Junior High, and Palisades High School. She celebrated Fourth of July parades down Sunset Boulevard, spent countless afternoons at the Recreation Center, worked in local businesses, and built memories that define an entire lifetime.

The Palisades was not simply where Karen lived.

It was home.

Like thousands of other families, Karen watched the community she loved suffer catastrophic destruction during the January 2025 wildfires. The streets she grew up on, the businesses where she worked, the schools she attended, and the homes filled with decades of memories were forever changed.

To understand Karen, you have to understand that loss.

She is an artist.

A photographer.

A graduate of both UC San Diego and ArtCenter College of Design.

A business owner.

A breast cancer survivor.

A woman who has devoted years to personal growth and recovery.

Someone whose life reflects creativity, resilience, compassion, and community.

Those are not just words on a résumé. They are qualities we have witnessed firsthand through her work with BetterPlanet and through the relationships she has built over decades.

That is why we believe people deserve something that has become increasingly rare online: the benefit of due process.

Supporting due process does not mean excusing wrongdoing. It means recognizing that accusations are not convictions and that every person deserves to have facts—not speculation—determine the outcome.

Social media has extraordinary power. It can unite communities during disasters. It can raise millions for those in need. But it can also become a place where outrage spreads faster than truth, where incomplete information becomes accepted as fact, and where people are judged long before all the evidence is known.

We should all ask ourselves an important question:

If this happened to someone we loved—a parent, sibling, spouse, friend, or coworker—would we want them judged by anonymous comments on the internet, or would we want them judged fairly?

Karen's story reminds us why that question matters.

This is not only about one individual. It is about preserving the principles of fairness, dignity, and compassion that hold communities together, especially during moments of tragedy.

We also ask for something simple that should never be controversial: civility.

Disagreement is part of a healthy society. Harassment is not.

Rumors are not.

Threats are not.

Celebrating another person's suffering is not.

The devastation of Pacific Palisades affected thousands of families. Every one of them deserves empathy. Every one of them deserves healing. That healing is not advanced by online cruelty directed at someone whose case did not result in a conviction.

At BetterPlanet, we choose a different path.

We choose evidence over assumptions.

We choose compassion over outrage.

We choose to know people by the content of their lives—not by a headline.

Most importantly, we choose to stand beside people we know.

We know Karen.

We know her integrity.

We know her heart.

We know her commitment to community.

And we are proud to continue calling her our Art Director.

As Karen herself has said, she intends to rise from the ashes alongside the community that shaped her.

So will we.

— BetterPlanet