Why Danny Masterson Is Facing Life Sentence
Danny Masterson, a popular American actor could be handed a life sentence for allegedly raping two women years ago. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo of the Los Angeles Superior Court will administer the sentence.
The actor, 47 years old, was found guilty on May 31 by a jury composed of seven women and five men. The conviction relates to two counts of sexual assault that occurred in Masterson’s Hollywood-area residence in 2003, during the height of his fame through the Fox network sitcom “That ’70s Show.”
A third count, an accusation of raping a longtime girlfriend, did not result in a unanimous verdict. This guilty verdict followed a second trial after a prior jury failed to reach a decision on three counts of forcible rape in December, leading to a mistrial declaration.
Prosecutors argued that Masterson used his status within the Church of Scientology, of which all three women were also members at the time, to evade consequences for the assaults over several decades. The victims revealed that they hesitated to report Masterson to law enforcement, partly attributing their reluctance to the church.
According to their testimony, when they informed Scientology officials, they were told that they had not been raped. Instead, they were subjected to ethics programs and discouraged from reporting a high-ranking church member to law enforcement. Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller argued at the trial, “They were raped, they were punished for it, and they were retaliated against. Scientology told them there’s no justice for them.”
The Church of Scientology countered these claims in a statement after the verdict, asserting that the “testimony and descriptions of Scientology beliefs” during the trial were “uniformly false.” They also stated that the church has no policies discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct to law enforcement.
During the trial, Masterson did not take the stand, and his defense team called no witnesses. The defense’s argument centered on the assertion that the sexual acts were consensual, and they sought to cast doubt on the credibility of the women by highlighting changes and inconsistencies in their accounts over time, suggesting coordination between them. The women who testified against Masterson stated that in 2003, he provided them with drinks that left them feeling drowsy or unconscious before he sexually assaulted them.
Masterson shared the screen with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace in “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006. He later reunited with Kutcher for the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written out of the show when an LAPD investigation came to light in the following year. Masterson’s conviction and impending sentencing signify a significant success for Los Angeles prosecutors in the era of the #MeToo movement, following the conviction of Harvey Weinstein last year and the ongoing reckoning with sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry.
