Prosecutors won’t retry Masterson on rape charge; sentencing set for Sept. 7

By Terri Vermeulen Keith

Prosecutors announced Tuesday they will not retry “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson on a rape charge on which jurors were unable to reach a verdict during his recent trial, and a judge formally dismissed the count.

The 47-year-old Masterson is now scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 7 on two other rape charges on which he was convicted for sexually assaulting two women in his Hollywood Hills home roughly 20 years ago. He is facing a potential sentence of 30 years to life in prison, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Masterson was convicted May 31 on the pair of rape charges, and he was immediately taken into custody. The downtown Los Angeles jury, however, deadlocked on a third rape charge involving a former longtime girlfriend of the actor. During their deliberations, jurors asked to rehear portions of her testimony and portions of a videotaped interview and to look at transcripts from that interview between the same woman and two Los Angeles Police Department detectives in January 2017.

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

During the first trial last year, jurors leaned in favor of acquittal on all three counts — voting 10-2 on one count, 8-4 on another and 7-5 on the third — but they were unable to reach a unanimous decision, leading to a mistrial being declared on Nov. 30.

Prosecutors confirmed in January that they wanted to retry the actor, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo rejected a defense effort to have the charges dismissed.

Another hearing in Masterson’s case will be held Aug. 4 so attorneys can discuss plans for victim-impact statements during the actor’s sentencing hearing. Prosecutors said Tuesday that the victims in the case want to speak during the sentencing hearing — including Masterson’s former girlfriend, even though jurors deadlocked on the rape charge involving her.

Olmedo said she wanted to do some legal research on whether that alleged victim should be allowed to speak at the hearing.

In his closing argument of the retrial, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told the jury, “This defendant drugged and raped each one of these victims. … It is time to hold Mr. Masterson accountable for what he has done.”

Defense attorney Philip Kent Cohen urged jurors during his closing argument to acquit his client, questioning the credibility of the women.

In his rebuttal argument, Mueller said the three women were — like Masterson — members of the Church of Scientology, and told jurors that the church retaliated against them.

“What happened after they were drugged — they were raped by this man over here,” the prosecutor said, pointing across the courtroom at Masterson. “You have an opportunity to show there is justice. It does exist.”

But Cohen questioned why the panel had heard “so much about Scientology,” asking jurors if there could be problems with the government’s case against Masterson.

Masterson’s lawyer said he was not alleging that there was some “grand conspiracy” against his client, but told jurors the alleged victims had spoken with each other despite an LAPD detective’s admonition and that their accounts have been tweaked throughout the years.

He said there was no forensic evidence to support the prosecution’s contention that the alleged victims’ drinks had been drugged by Masterson.

Outside the jury’s presence, the judge rejected Cohen’s requests for either a mistrial, another chance to argue before the jury or a special jury instruction as a result of the prosecution’s repeated references to the women allegedly being drugged.

The Church of Scientology issued a statement criticizing the prosecution’s characterizations of the church’s actions.

“The church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone, Scientologists or not, to law enforcement,” according to the statement. “Quite the opposite, church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land. All allegations to the contrary are totally false.”

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 reporting sexual assault allegations against the actor to Los Angeles police.

Regarding the lawsuit, the Church of Scientology issued a statement saying, “The church denies the allegations of harassment as obvious, cynical and self-serving fictions, and the church knows it will be vindicated.”

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 he was “very disappointed,” and added that “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.”

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