Jurors in Danny Masterson’s rape retrial delivered guilty verdicts Wednesday in the case against the former “That ’70s Show” star.
Masterson was convicted in a Los Angeles courtroom on two counts of forcible rape. The 47-year-old actor was charged with raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003, but jurors said they were deadlocked on the third rape charge against him.
A jury of seven women and five men deliberated for seven days over the course of two weeks.
Details about a sentencing date were not immediately available. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
Masterson had been free on bail. His wife, actor and model Bijou Phillips, wept as he was led away in handcuffs. Other family and friends sat stone-faced.
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 in their closing argument that Masterson drugged the women in order to assault them. Prosecutors also claimed that Masterson used his prominence 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. “The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”
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.”
After closing arguments, Masterson’s attorney Philip Cohen made a motion for a mistrial, one of several that he made during the three-week trial, because of the prosecution’s mention of drugging, which is not part of the charges. Olmedo rejected the motion, saying that the prosecution was acting within the bounds of her pre-trial decision by allowing them to assert that the women were drugged.
During the defense’s closing argument, Cohen told jurors that the women’s accounts are 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.”
Masterson did not testify. His lawyers called no witnesses.
NBCLA’s Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report.
