Danny Masterson has been found guilty in the retrial of his rape case.
A jury found Masterson guilty of two counts of forcible rape against two women, while deadlocking on a third count. Regarding the latter, the jurors hung on an 8-4 vote in favor of conviction after more than a week of deliberation. The actor faces a potential sentence of 30 years to life in prison.
Masterson was arrested in 2020 and accused of drugging and raping three women at his LA home between 2001 and 2003 while he starred on That ’70s Show. Jurors previously hung on all three counts during his initial trial in late 2022, when a mistrial was declared.
“Like all predators, the defendant carefully sought out his prey,” said Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson during the closing arguments. “The church taught his victims that rape isn’t rape, that you cause this and above all you aren’t allowed to go to law enforcement. What better hunting ground? In Scientology, the defendant is a celebrity and he’s untouchable.”
All three victims were members of the church at the time they met Masterson, himself a lifelong member, and said that Scientology officials discouraged them from reporting the rapes to police.
The Church of Scientology also got directly pulled into the proceeding when it was revealed that an attorney connected to the church got ahold of discovery material, sparking an LAPD investigation and allegations of impropriety from prosecutors.
Masterson has denied all wrongdoing and did not testify at either trial. The accusations led to his discharge from the Netflix series The Ranch, as well as his exclusion from the That ’70s Show sequel series That ’90s Show.
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