Danny Masterson Video Verdict On Twitter – “That 70s Show” Actor Found Guilty On Rape.
After a jury found him guilty on two of three counts of rape in his second trial, in which the Church of Scientology played a significant part, “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs on Wednesday. He faces a prison sentence of 30 years to life.
Masterson’s wife, actor and model Bijou Phillips, who had sat stony-faced throughout both trials, gasped when the conviction was pronounced and sobbed as he was brought into custody.
After debating for seven days over two weeks, the jury of five men and seven women came to their decision. On the third count, which claimed Masterson had sexually assaulted a previous girlfriend, they were unable to reach a decision. The verdict had received an 8-4 vote in favor.
Danny Masterson Video Verdict On Twitter
Masterson, 47, will remain behind bars until his sentence is rendered. The judge instructed Masterson and his attorneys to return to court on August 4 for a hearing even though no sentence date has yet been scheduled.
“I am experiencing a complex array of emotions — relief, exhaustion, strength, and sadness — knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behavior,” said one of the women, who Masterson knew as a fellow churchgoer and was found guilty of raping at his home in 2003.
In the statement, a second woman, a former girlfriend whose count caused the jury to reach a deadlock, said: “While I’m encouraged that Danny Masterson will face some criminal punishment, I am devastated that he has dodged criminal accountability for his heinous conduct against me.”
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Masterson’s representative declined to comment, although it is almost expected that his attorneys will file an appeal.
Prosecutors retried Masterson in December after a mistrial due to a hung jury. They claimed that between 2001 and 2003, he brutally raped three women in his Hollywood Hills home. They informed the jury that he had spiked the women’s drinks in order to rape them. All three women were members of the church at the time, and they claimed he utilized his status there to evade punishment for many years.
The three women bravely came forward and revealed their stories, and for that, we are grateful, said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón in a statement following the verdict on Wednesday. “Their resilience and bravery have inspired us all.”
No witnesses were cited by Masterson’s attorneys, and he declined to testify. The defense asserted that the acts were consensual and worked to undermine the women’s accounts by calling attention to changes and contradictions that they claimed indicated collaboration between the parties.
In his closing argument, defense counsel Philip Cohen reminded the jury of their instructions and said, “You should consider not believing anything the witness says if you find that a witness in this case intentionally lied about something.
In the first trial, the Church of Scientology had a major impact; but, in the second trial, it may have been even more influential. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo permitted expert testimony on church policy from a former member of the leadership of Scientology who has since become a well-known adversary.
The accusers said on the witness stand that they were intimidated by certain Scientologists in the courtroom due to the high levels of tension between current and former Scientologists.
Leah Remini, an actor and former member of the church who has emerged as its most prominent critic, occasionally attended the trial and held one of the accusers close to her during closing statements.
The two guilty convictions in the retrial, according to Remini, are “a relief,” she wrote on Twitter. Heroes are the ladies who escaped Danny Masterson’s harassment. They have endured violent attacks and harassment from Danny’s well-funded legal team as well as Scientology for years, she wrote in her post. However, they persisted in their quest for justice.
Two of the accusers have sued the church in civil court over the alleged harassment, which it denies doing.
L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1953, and it has a sizable number of Hollywood-based adherents. The judge set restrictions on how much the prosecution may discuss the church and mostly allowed it to be used as an excuse for why the women delayed so long to contact the police.
The women stated that when they reported Masterson to church authorities, they were informed that they had not been sexually assaulted, required to participate in ethics training, and counseled against reporting a member of such high standing to law enforcement.
Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller’s closing statement to the jury stated, “They were raped, they were punished for it, and they were retaliated against.” They were taught by science that there is no justice for them. You have the chance to convince them that justice exists.
The church vigorously refuted claims that it had a rule prohibiting adherents from approaching secular authorities.
The judge who presided over the criminal case will convene a hearing the following week to decide how a lawyer for the Church of Scientology obtained access to evidence that the prosecution shared with the defense. Links that the attorney unintentionally included in an email to Mueller served as the basis for the evidence.
People who claim they have been sexually abused are not routinely named by The Associated Press.
In this case, the testimony was explicit and intense.
According to the two women whose evidence resulted in Masterson’s conviction, he served them drinks in 2003, causing them to get drunk or pass out before he viciously raped them. From church social circles, he knew both of them.
The third witness, Masterson’s then-girlfriend of five years, said that she awoke to discover him raping her and had to yank his hair to stop him. Her testimony caused the jury to reach a deadlock.
The topic of drug use was extremely important in the retrial. Olmedo initially only permitted accusers and prosecutors to mention their confusion and to hint that they had taken drugs. The second time, they were permitted to directly debate it, and the prosecution tried in vain to make it a significant element.
In her closing argument, deputy district attorney Ariel Anson claimed that the defendant “drugs his victims to gain control.” He does this to prevent his victims from giving their permission.
There are no drug-related charges against Masterson, and there is no toxicology data to support the claim. Due to the inclusion of the matter, his attorney requested a mistrial. The motion was rejected, but the matter is probably going to a major factor in any potential appeal.
These accusations stem from a time when Masterson was most well-known. He played the role of Steven Hyde on Fox’s “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006, the program that launched the careers of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace.
On the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” Masterson reconnected with Kutcher, but the project was canceled when an LAPD investigation became public in December 2017.
