Danny Masterson Convicted of Rape in Retrial
Nearly three years after Danny Masterson was first arrested on three counts of forcible rape — and six months since the first trial ended in a mistrial — the That ’70s Show star was convicted on two of the three charges Wednesday, according to Variety.
The jury first started deliberations on May 17, before reaching a verdict two weeks later on May 31, a similarly lengthy deciding process to the first trial, which took nearly two weeks of deliberation before the jury declared it was deadlocked. Masterson faces up to 30 years in prison on the two convictions, with the jury voting guilty on the first two charges but deadlocked on the third, voting 8-4 in favor of conviction but unable to reach a unanimous decision.
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The decision follows a month of emotional testimony from the three women whose allegations are linked to the charges, recalling violent allegations that Masterson drugged them before raping them, and that the Church of Scientology protected Masterson while discouraging the women from coming forward with their allegations.
“We want to express our gratitude to the three women who came forward and bravely shared their experiences. Their courage and strength have been an inspiration to us all,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “While we are disappointed that the jury did not convict on all counts, we respect their decision. The verdicts handed down by the jury in this case were undoubtedly a difficult one to reach and we thank the jurors for their service.”
A notable change compared to the first trial is that during the retrial, prosecutors told jurors directly that Masterson drugged the three women who accused him of rape; in the initial trial, the prosecution and witnesses described symptoms that could line up with date rape drugs but stopped short of directly labeling the symptoms as a result of being drugged. Prosecutors had no evidence of the drugging claims but brought in a toxicology expert witness to describe symptoms.
“The defendant drugs his victims to gain control. He does this to take away his victims’ ability to consent,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the court during closing statements, as the Associated Press reported. “You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice. The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”
The Church of Scientology was a major topic throughout the trial. Masterson is a prominent Scientologist, and all of the women who accused him are former members of the organization. The women told the court that the organization had told them that they couldn’t have been raped and going to the authorities could lead to severe repercussions from the church. Representatives for the organization have denied the claims, calling them fabrications.
“The Church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone—Scientologists or not—to law enforcement,” a representative for the organization said in a statement following the verdict. “Quite the opposite, Church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land. All allegations to the contrary are totally false. There is not a scintilla of evidence supporting the scandalous allegations that the Church harassed the accusers. Every single instance of supposed harassment by the Church is false, and has been debunked.”
Masterson’s defense team had focused on inconsistencies in the Jane Doe accusers’ stories and told the court that their claims were tainted because they’d spoken with one another to straighten their story. Masterson’s attorney Phillip Cohen again told the court during his closing statement that the stories weren’t credible enough to convict Masterson, and that the drugging claims came from prosecution because of a lack of evidence.
“She did a very nice job of ignoring many of them,” Cohen said of Anson and any potential issues with the victims’ allegations, per the AP. “What she views as little inconsistencies are at the heart of trying to determine, ‘Is somebody, reliable, credible, believable enough for a criminal conviction?’”
If the jury’s votes during the first trial were any indication, a conviction was never a surefire outcome for the retrial. While jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict on any of the charges then, the majority of jurors had voted to acquit Masterson on all three counts.
Masterson also faces a civil suit from the accusers, which was paused while the criminal trial unfolded.
Through her attorneys, the second of the three Jane Doe accusers said in a statement that she is “experiencing a complex array of emotions — relief, exhaustion, strength, sadness — knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behavior,” she said. “I am disappointed that he was not convicted on all counts, but take great solace in the fact that he, the Church of Scientology, and others, will have to fully account for their abhorrent actions in civil court.”
The third Jane Doe accuser — who previously publicly identified herself as Chrissie Carnell Bixler — expressed her disappointment that the jury didn’t convict him on the charges tied to her allegations, but similarly said she hopes to find justice in the civil trial.
“I thank the jury for its service, and 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,” she said. “Despite my disappointment in this outcome, I remain determined to secure justice, including in civil court, where I, along with my co-plaintiffs, will shine a light on how Scientology and other conspirators enabled and sought to cover up Masterson’s monstrous behavior.”
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