Danny Masterson , star of “That ’70s Show”, was convicted Wednesday in Los Angeles on two counts.
The Associated Press reports that the seven-woman and five-man jury were deadlocked after more than a week of deliberations on the third charge.
The verdict came six months after Masterson’s firsttrial ended in a mistrial. Jurors were leaning toward acquitting, the 47-year old actor.
Masterson is accused of raping 3 women, identified in court as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, and Jane Doe 3, at his Hollywood Hills residence between 2001 and 2003. If convicted of all three charges, he could face up to 45-years in prison.
All three accused are former members of the Church of Scientology to which Masterson is still a member.
As in his first case, Masterson did not take the witness stand. Masterson’s attorneys refused to call any witnesses.
Masterson has denied the accusations made by the women since his arrest in June 2020 by the Robbery-Homicide Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The sitcom star also denied assaulting another woman, Jane Doe #4, who claimed to the court in his first trial that he had raped them both.
Judge Charlaine Oledo initially refused the prosecution’s demand to have Jane Doe # 4 on the stand during the first trial. She changed her mind when prosecutors argued Masterson’s lawyer had opened the door, suggesting that Masterson’s three other accusers conspired against him. Masterson wasn’t criminally charged for raping the woman.
District Attorney Reinhold Müller brought Jane Doe #5 to the witness stand at Masterson’s retrial, along with a woman who said the actor had raped them in 2000, after a party for the cast in Toronto. Deadline. The fifth woman didn’t testify at the first trial. The additional witnesses, unlike Masterson and his three Jane Does with whom he has been charged of rape, are not scientologists.
The two trials of Masterson have brought unwanted attention to the Church of Scientology, which Jane Does accuse of trying cover-up the accusations against the actor.
Olmedo reiterated that Scientology is not a defendant at the retrial. The judge allowed to again testify that church officials had pressured them to not speak to police about rape accusations.
Karin Pouw, a Scientology spokesperson, has repeatedly denied these allegations, and insisted that church doctrine requires its members to “abide all laws of the Land.”
