Jury deliberates case in rape retrial of actor Danny Masterson

Jurors were handed the case Wednesday in the retrial of “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson, who is charged with raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003.

Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo sent the seven-woman, five-man panel to begin its deliberations just before 10 a.m. after slightly more than one day of closing arguments by attorneys.

In his rebuttal argument, 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 had urged jurors during his closing argument Tuesday to acquit his client, questioning the credibility of the alleged victims.

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 the three women on separate alleged occasions.

During last year’s trial, jurors leaned in favor of acquittal on all three counts against Masterson — 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 the mistrial last Nov. 30.

Prosecutors confirmed in January that they wanted to retry the actor, and the judge rejected  a defense effort to have the charges dismissed.

In his final remarks to the jury in the retrial, Mueller said the three alleged victims were — like Masterson — members of the Church of Scientology and they reported the alleged assaults to the church and were “punished for it” and “retaliated against by their church.”

“You have an opportunity to show there is justice. It does exist,” the deputy district attorney said.

Defense attorney Philip Kent 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 have spoken with each other despite a Los Angeles Police Department 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 Wednesday, 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.

Masterson has been free on bail since his June 2020 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 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.”

A civil suit filed in August 2019 against Masterson — a longtime adherent of the Church of Scientology — and the church 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.”