Jurors are expected to begin deliberations at the rape retrial of “That ‘70s Show” actor Danny Masterson
ByANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer
Danny Masterson and his wife Bijou Phillips arrive for closing arguments in his second rape trial, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Los Angeles. Masterson is charged with raping three women at his Los Angeles home between 2001 and 2003. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- Jurors in Danny Masterson’s rape retrial are expected to begin deliberations Wednesday morning after lawyers wrap up closing arguments in the case against the former “That ’70s Show” star.
Late last year, a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case against Masterson involving rape allegations by three women, and Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo declared a mistrial.
Prosecutors said during all-day closing arguments Tuesday that Masterson drugged the women in order to assault them, then relied on his status as a prominent member in the Church of Scientology to avoid consequences for years.
“You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice," Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the jury of seven men and five women. "The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”
Masterson, 47, has pleaded not guilty to raping three women at his home between 2001 and 2003. His attorney, Philip Cohen, told jurors during his closing Tuesday that the women's years-old stories as so full of inconsistencies that there is more than enough reasonable doubt for jurors to acquit Masterson.
Cohen emphasized the lack of any physical evidence of drugging, with the investigation that led to Masterson's arrest coming some 15 years after the alleged rapes.
“Miss Anson presented a case as if she was arguing a drugging case," Cohen said. "Maybe it’s because there is no evidence of force or violence.”
Anson's colleague, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller, will finish the prosecution’s rebuttal that he began late Tuesday, and the jury will get the case.
Scientology played an outsized role during the trial. Masterson is a member, and all three women are former members. Prosecutors said the institution protected him and helped convince the women that they were not raped and could not go to authorities to report a fellow Scientologist in good standing. The church denied having any such policy.
“Why have we heard so much about Scientology?” Cohen said in his closing. “Could it be because there are problems with the government’s case?”
Masterson could get more than 40 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.
