One year ago today (May 25, 2023) ... the jury finished its deliberations for the day in the retrial of actor Danny Masterson

One year ago today (May 25, 2023) … the jury finished deliberating in the retrial of That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson. He is accused of raping three women in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003.

The panel in downtown Los Angeles, which has been discussing the case for about five and a half days and is due back in court on Friday morning, heard parts of the testimony of one of the alleged victims, a longtime ex-girlfriend of Masterson, again on Thursday afternoon.

The jury of seven women and five men asked last week to rewatch portions of a videotaped interview and view transcripts of that interview between the same woman and two Los Angeles Police Department detectives in January 2017.

The case was sent to the jury on May 17, after attorneys made closing arguments for just over a day.

The jury is the second to hear the case against Masterson, 47, who was charged in 2020 with three counts of rape by force or fear involving three women on separate occasions.

At last year’s trial, jurors leaned toward acquittal on all three counts—voting 10-2 on one count, 8-4 on another, and 7-5 on the third—but could not reach a unanimous verdict, leading to a mistrial on November 30.

In January, prosecutors confirmed they planned to retry the actor, and Supreme Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo rejected the defense’s attempt to drop the charges.

In his dissent during closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told the jury, “The defendant drugged and raped each of these victims. … It is time to hold Mr. Masterson accountable for his actions.”

In his closing argument, defense attorney Philip Kent Cohen asked the jury to acquit his client because he questioned the credibility of the alleged victims.

In his closing remarks to the jury at the retrial, Mueller said the three alleged victims, like Masterson, were members of the Church of Scientology and told jurors that the church had retaliated against them.

“After you were drugged, this is what happened: you were raped by this man here,” the prosecutor said, pointing across the courtroom to Masterson. “…You have an opportunity to show that justice exists. It exists.”

But Cohen questioned why the panel had heard “so much about Scientology” and asked jurors whether there might be problems related to the government’s charges against Masterson.

Masterson’s attorney said he was not alleging there was a “vast conspiracy” against his client, but he told jurors that the alleged victims had spoken to each other despite admonitions from a Los Angeles Police Department detective and that their statements had been falsified over the years.

He said there was no forensic evidence to support prosecutors’ claims that Masterson laced the alleged victims’ drinks with drugs.

The Church of Scientology issued a statement last week criticizing the prosecutor’s portrayal of the church’s actions.

“The Church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging its members from reporting criminal conduct by anyone, whether Scientologist or not, to law enforcement,” the statement said. “On the contrary, Church policy specifically requires that Scientologists obey all laws of the land. Any claims to the contrary are completely false.”

In the absence of the jury, the judge last Wednesday rejected Cohen’s requests for a mistrial, another opportunity to hear the jury or special instructions to the jury because prosecutors had repeatedly suggested that the women were allegedly drugged.

Masterson has been free on bail since his arrest by the LAPD’s Robbery and Homicide Unit in June 2020.

In December 2017, Netflix announced that Masterson had been fired from the Emmy-winning comedy The Ranch due to allegations of sexual harassment.

The actor said at the time he was “very disappointed,” adding: “It seems like the moment you’re accused, you’re presumed guilty.” He “denied the outrageous allegations” and said he looked forward to “clearing his name once and for all.”

In a civil lawsuit filed in August 2019 against Masterson and the Church of Scientology, the three women involved in the criminal case and one woman who was not a member of the church claim they were stalked and harassed after reporting allegations of sexual assault against the actor to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Church of Scientology issued a statement regarding the lawsuit, saying: “The Church rejects the harassment allegations as obvious, cynical and self-serving fabrications and recognizes that its allegations will be substantiated.”

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