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Actor Danny Masterson. | Photo courtesy of Red Carpet Report on Mingle TV/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
A prosecutor told jurors Tuesday he is confident the evidence will show “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson is guilty of raping three fellow Scientology members at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003, while a defense attorney countered that the women ignored a request from police not to speak to each other or potential witnesses about their allegations.
Masterson, a 46-year-old longtime adherent of the Church of Scientology, is charged with three counts of rape by force or fear involving the three women.
In his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told the downtown Los Angeles jury that two of the three women informed church ethics officers about what had happened and were discouraged from initially reporting their rape allegations.
One of the alleged victims was told, “If you’re going to tell me it’s rape, it’s not rape,” according to the prosecutor, who noted that those who disobey the church’s edicts can be classified as a “suppressive person” and shunned by their family and friends who are involved with the church.
The woman wound up going to police in June 2004, but no criminal charges were filed at the time, Mueller said. She was contacted again by law enforcement in 2016 after the other two alleged victims came forward, according to the deputy district attorney.
Another of the alleged victims — a former longtime girlfriend of Masterson — was instructed by a church ethics officer that she was never to use the word “rape” again, the prosecutor said.
“All she really wanted was for the church to intervene … and get some help for Mr. Masterson … some kind of acknowledgement that what was done was wrong,” Mueller told the jury.
A third alleged victim acknowledged kissing Masterson in his jacuzzi, but said she told him multiple times that she didn’t want to have sex with him, the prosecutor said.
Masterson’s attorney, Philip Kent Cohen, said each of the women ignored requests from a detective from the Los Angeles Police Department not to talk with each other or potential witnesses about their allegations. He said they were warned that they would “contaminate” the case and destroy their credibility if they did so.
“You’re going to hear (that) after being ordered, instructed, admonished by the LAPD, these women all speak to each other” as well as witnesses, the defense attorney said.
Masterson — who was making “oodles and oodles of money” at the time on “That ’70s Show” — agreed along with one of the women to sign a non- disclosure agreement in which she was paid money after her lawyer sent Masterson’s attorney a draft of a lawsuit, according to Cohen.
Masterson’s former longtime girlfriend confided in her husband in 2011 that the actor told her he performed anal sex on her while she was asleep, but didn’t mention anything about the 2001 rape with which Masterson is now charged, according to Cohen.
Another woman said she thought what occurred with Masterson was “really bad sex,” which the defense attorney noted was “not one of the charges in this case.”
“There’s nothing wrong with delayed reporting,” Masterson’s attorney said. “What is critical is what they say when they do … You are going to hear it is wholly inconsistent with what they’re going to tell you in court.”
The defense attorney told jurors that the case is about “three nights with three women” and whether the prosecution can prove forcible rape — not about Scientology, church policy or whether Masterson was a “bad guy” or a “bad boyfriend.”
Outside the jury’s presence, Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo said the trial is not going to be inundated with talk about Scientology.
Testimony is set to continue Wednesday morning from one of the women, identified in court by the initials “J.B.,” about two of her alleged encounters with Masterson, including one in which the prosecutor said the woman alleges that the actor raped her after she became “very disoriented” after being given a “fruity red drink” with vodka by Masterson.
Masterson has been free on bail following his arrest by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.
In December 2017, Netflix announced that Masterson had been fired from the Emmy-winning scripted comedy “The Ranch” amid sexual assault allegations.
The actor said then that he was “very disappointed” and “it seems as if you are presumed guilty the moment you are accused.” He also “denied the outrageous allegations” and said he looked forward to “clearing my name once and for all.”
A civil suit filed in August 2019 against Masterson and the Church of Scientology by the three women involved in the criminal case and one woman who was not a member of the church alleges they were stalked and harassed after filing sexual assault allegations against the actor with Los Angeles police.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to file sexual assault charges against Masterson in two other alleged incidents, citing insufficient evidence on one and the statute of limitations on the other.
